Natural man rejects God's indictment of him !
The natural man does not agree with God's Word on his total depravity and his naturally hard evil heart by nature. One of the Key Doctrines of the Gospel of the Grace of God is what is called the T in TULIP, Total Depravity, which informs us of the natural mans plight , even his inability to do any good thing towards God, and hence, one of the reasons for God's Sovereign Grace, Paul describes the plight of the natural man in Rom 3:10-18
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
And Jeremiah describes the natural heart of mankind Jer 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked: who can know it?
Also this is quite serious, because the word desperately is the hebrew word 'anash which means:
i.
to be
incurable
ii.
to be sick
iii.
desperate,
incurable, desperately wicked, woeful, very sick (pass participle) (metaph.)
B.
(Niphal) to be sick
That it is incurable means that it is not subject to change
And Jer 17:9 is stating no more about the condition of the human heart by nature than was stated here centuries before Gen 6:5
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
The natural man does not believe this statement about the heart of man !
And this condition of our heart by nature is irreparable, its incorrigible, and mans heart in this condition cannot perform repentance towards God Rom 2:5
5 But after
thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Impenitent heart literally means "I.admitting no change of mind" its incapable of Repentance Toward God as exhorted here Acts 20:21
21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
The natural heart of man is not able to respond favorably to this God's Command Acts 17:30
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now
commandeth all men every where to repent:
The natural heart of man we all have by nature cannot repent or change. Man by nature when it comes to a Godward reform is without any good dispositions towards Him Rom 3:12, and not able to make any God Honoring amendment of life towards God, we are hopelessly evil [by nature], and this truth is extremely distasteful to the natural man and the pride of his heart,but its a necessary Truth in the Gospel of God !938