Following our last conversation on how it all began for humanity; we can move on to understand our true human nature. Are we to be held guilty of what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden? Having been given a proper assessment of our true nature, how does God respond, and what remedy does He provide? Further, if we are genuinely convinced about God's assessment of our true nature, what is to be our response to God's remedy?
Total culpability
Total culpability means that we inherited Adam’s sin and guilt.
1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ, all will be alive.” Romans 5:12, “Therefore just as sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and death (spiritual death and physical death) through sin (what Adam did in the garden) in this way death came to all people (us) because all sinned.
Note that Paul’s sentence appears to be broken off before he finishes his thought. What did Paul mean in saying that “all sinned”? We could easily assume that he was speaking of each of our individual sins, but that is not what he had in mind. Rather, Paul was speaking of the fact that Adam was the legal representative of all his descendants (God, in His perfect wisdom, chose Adam and Eve to represent humankind - It would not have made a difference whether God had chosen any other person). In that sense, what he did, we did. Therefore, the consequences of his sin, in terms of guilt and original sin, fell on all of us.^1
So, God is fair to hold us guilty because of the sin of Adam because even if it was me or you who was there, we could have done what Adam did (rebelling against the Lord God). And if we object to this in the case of Adam, how do we accept it in the case of Christ, who takes upon Himself all the sin of mankind? We are rightly the objects of God’s wrath and His judgment, and we deserve death, separation from God, and spiritual alienation from him now and forever.
Our real evil, wickedness, deserves eternal condemnation because we (men) are evil, and yet God is holy, and He hates sin.
Total depravity
We do not only inherit Adam’s guilt and sinful nature but also their corrupt nature. All people after Adam and Eve are born with a sinful nature. David spoke of this fact in Psalms 51:5: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Genesis 6:5 “...every inclination of human thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Because of this, man bears bad fruits (sinning) (Matthew 7:17-20). Mark Dever said, “...this is our state. We have crossed over the bounds that God has rightly set for our lives. We have contradicted him in both the letter and spirit of his instructions to us. We are not only in conflict with ourselves; we are actually in conflict with God. We break God’s law again and again. And we do this because we are dead in our sins and transgressions (Ephesians 2:1)”.^2
Every part of his being (man), including his mind, emotions, desires, affections, conscience, and body, has been affected by sin.
Paul writes to the Romans in Romans 1:18-32. The greatest SIN man has committed is that he has not glorified God (v.21)
God’s response to this great SIN is that:
a) God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual immorality for the degrading of their bodies with one another. Thus, people are sexually immoral (v.24).
b) God gave them over to shameful lusts: women and men exchanging natural sexual relations with unnatural ones like sodomy and lesbianism (v.26).
c) God gave them over to depraved minds so that they (men) do what is not supposed to be done, always doing what is wrong. They are full of every kind of evil and greed. Man is totally depraved (corrupt); he is dead in sin and deserving to die forever in every way, throughout the totality of his being.
So, apart from God’s grace, we can never please God.
Total inability
Total inability means that due to man’s corruption, he is incapable of changing his character in a way that is different from his corruption, apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
Jeremiah 13:23’ “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”
Matthew 7:18: “…a bad tree (corrupt man - you and me) cannot bear good fruits (holiness & glorifying God)”, and this is because we are dead in our sins. We are not able to please and seek God.
Think with me
- Is a corrupt, wicked, sinful, rebellious, depraved, immoral man good? Not at all!
- Because God's Word is true, then Man is bad apart from the saving grace of God.
When we understand our natural state
It helps us to understand why the world is the way it is and why we see people sinning. We realize how we need the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God that brings salvation but not moralism. We need to rely on Christ alone so that He may save us daily. (1 Thessalonian 1:10 “…Jesus, who rescues/saves us from the coming wrath"). Note the present continuous tense in the text.
Our hearts are triggered and moved with compassion on men who are lost, dead in sins, and under the wrath of God. Like the Lord Jesus, “When He saw the crowds …had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). We need to see the urgency of the gospel in the world because its what people need (the greatest need): they are harassed by sin because they are under God’s wrath, they are helpless, powerless to save themselves!
We now see the reason why Jesus had to die for us on the cross. He was presented as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of blood for God to demonstrate His righteousness (Romans 3:25) that we may become the righteousness of God because Jesus became sin for us (our sinfulness) though he knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). It reminds us that we need the Bible and that when we read something in it that we find awkward, the problem may not be with our interpretation but with our hearts, which try to suppress the truth (Romans 1:18. “…. who suppress the truth by their wickedness”). It reminds us to give all the glory to God for our salvation.
References
- Excerpt Taken From the Gospel For Real Life; Devotional by Jerry Bridges-Navigators.
- The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever.
- IServe Africa Ministry Training Course: doctrinal series-doctrine of man.
