Post #6 Original sin brings an inward bent away from God.

 

Introduction:

    In this series of posts we have taken time to look at the doctrine of original sin. We have proposed that this doctrine helps explain what occurred in the fall of Adam and his wife in the garden of Eden, and why such a fall impacted all of us and the physical creation. 

    To review, we first offered the following definition of original sin. We defined the doctrine of original sin as follows: original sin is that willful act of Adam that transferred to the human race imputed guilt, inherited corruption, and an inward bent away from God.

      Overall, I put forth four points or truths that follow from this definition, offering Scriptural evidence. We devoted the last posting to the first two propositions, and will spend this message focusing our attention on the latter two. 

(1). Original sin initiated with Adam. 

(2). Original sin imputed guilt. 

(3). Original sin led to inherited corruption 

(4). Inward bent away from God. 

    In today's post we will explain the fourth proposition. 

Original sin brings an inward bent away from God. Rom 3:10-18

    Years ago I worked in a sawmill. We once in a while would have boards that, once passing through the milling process and left to dry in the warehouse, would warp and twist. Since nothing goes to waste in a sawmill, the miller would have us take those crooked and warped boards and put them through a "rip-saw" that would saw them straight and knock off the crooked edges. Sometimes the twisted boards would need to go through a "planer" that would scrape away the wavey surface of the boards. What we would then do is restack the boards in the warehouse in the hope we could offer them at a reduced price for those wanting wood.  

    Do you know, when the boards would sit in the warehouse, although taken through the milling process a second time, they would begin to warp and twist again! Why? The grains in the wood made them warped and crooked. Now why am I telling you about boards? This word-picture highlights the bending away from God inside every human being. 

    The internal bent away from God is likened to crooked boards I worked with in the sawmill. No matter how hard we tried to straighten them, their grains would cause them to warp and bend.

Does the doctrine of original sin contradict human responsibility and choice?

Perhaps the biggest objections I've read or heard about the doctrine of original sin is that it conflicts with our ability to make real choices and our responsibility owed to God when we sin. On the face of it, to assert original sin sounds like human responsibility and free-choice is but an illusion, since we are after-all "fated" to sin or "pre-disposed" to such activities. Furthermore, why does God judge us if we are guilty of a sin (Adam's sin) which we did not commit? Moreover, does original sin teach that human beings do not have any ability whatsoever to do any good? Such objections are legitimate. What we need to do is see if there is not only a response to them, but a Biblical one that can clarify the questions raised by the objections.

To begin, to say we are internally bent away from God, by nature, does not mean humans are as bad as he or she could be. This crookedness, this “depravity”, focuses not so much on the acts of sin we do, but explains why we do the sins we do. People can naturally, due to bearing God’s image, still do noble and good things. 

Yet, in spiritual matters, sinful man prefers himself more than God, and even the good works he or she does are couched in self-interest, or what benefits the moment, rather than love for God. Unless someone is born-again, with a new nature, they cannot nor will not love God naturally. 1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Thanks to Adam, this condition has infected us through and through, making it total, and ultimately fatal.

As for human responsibility to God, we must recall the distinctions I already pointed out in previous posts. Yes, we are responsible for our individual, actual sins. I am no more responsible for someone else's sin than they are for mine. Galatians 6:7-8 illustrates this point about actual sin, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."

Our human will, in its function, chooses what is most desired by the mind and nature of the person. God Himself exercises the prerogatives of His will along the lines of His Holy character and infinite nature (Habakkuk 1:13). God chooses what He most desires - the display of His excellencies or glory. As it pertains to human beings, we are "morally, self-determining agents" (a more accurate description of what is otherwise known as "free-will). Such "moral, self-determination" means that given two or more options, whichever option I deem most desirable, most good, and in accords with what I am by nature, that constitutes a genuine choice (see Romans 6:12-16). 

Original sin describes why we choose against God morally, spiritually, and actually, by nature. Unless the Spirit intervenes and awakens us from the darkness of sin, we will freely and willingly comply with our greatest desire - to sin (Ephesians 2:1-2; Genesis 6:5; John 16:8-12). We can make free choices, yet we won't make the choice to trust in Christ because the fallen human condition, internally, defaults in regarding God and the Gospel as foolishness (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Such a description of the human will does not conflict with God's Sovereignty nor is it cancelled out by it. God has given us a legitimate will and true ability to exercise moral self-governance. We can still do good things in many respects. Yet, when it comes to matters of salvation, we need the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures to awaken us, change our hearts, and move upon us to see Christ as far better than sin and for more desirable than our sin (John 1:12-13; Acts 16:14; 1 Peter 1:23; James 1:21).     

Why we who are by nature "bent away from God" needed Christ, who perfect in nature, to come and bear our sin and guilt.

No one disputes the cause-and-effect relationship of actual sins and personal guilt. However, what's at stake here is the matter of what relationship is there between what Adam did and what I do today as it pertains to my pattern of sin and God's pronouncement of judgment.     

For sure, Christ bore our actual sins in His body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). Yet Scripture also indicates He bore our "sin", singular. In other words, Christ took upon Himself the collective guilt of Adam's sin imputed to all who would ever call upon Christ as their Savior. Jesus became a "curse" for us, bearing the curse pronounced upon the original couple in Genesis 3:8-14 (see Galatians 3:10-13). Christ legally became "sin", i.e., the very embodiment, emblem, poster-boy, if you will, of the first Adam, having come to have imputed upon Him the guilt of a hell-bound race (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ came as the second Adam, being a "type" or "fulfilled illustration" of the first Adam, who brought sin, its guilt, and corruption upon us all (Romans 5:12-14). 

The moral and spiritual bending away from God every human being has inherited from Adam.

    Paul details this "internal bent away from God" in Romans 3:10-20.    

A. Bent to run from God. Romans 3:10-12

    Romans 3:10-18 “as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; 11 There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside (avoid, bend away), together they have become useless (to become depraved, damaged sticks, moral crookedness) ; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” 

Genesis 3:10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

B. Bent to rebel against God. Romans 3:13-14.

Romans 3:13 “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”. Hosea 6:7 “But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me.” 

Philippians 2:15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world. 

    The reader may notice the word "crooked" in Philippians 2:15. The word “crooked” here is scoliosis, like a curved spine, or in the Latin, “pravus”, whence “depravity”. This is where we get the theological term "depravity", again not meaning we are as bad as we could be, incapable of any good. Instead, we are crooked and warped, like the boards I mentioned earlier. We may be able to perform good things, even noble deeds, yet as it pertains to any spiritual contributions towards salvation, "there is no one good, no not one". 

C. Bent to ruin before God. Romans 3:15-18

Romans 3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood, 16 Destruction and misery are in their paths, 17 And the path of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Ecc 7:20 Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. Ecc 7:29 Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”

Closing thought for today.

    We have explored the inward bent we all have away from God as inherited from Adam, and which resides in us from conception onward. We looked at the nature of this inward bent, and why salvation in Jesus Christ is the only way we can be "re-bent" toward God in the new birth in saving faith. 

    For sure, the remnants of original sin cling to our flesh (if we are Christians). We may very well have Christ's imputed righteousness and a clean heart as it pertains to our moral and spiritual nature in our soul/spirit. Yet the lingering effects of original sin cling to our flesh like rust to a car. If I put a new motor in an old car, the car will drive like a new one. Yet the rust on its frame will still eat away at its performance, even though its engine is new. Likewise for the Christian, they have a new way of thinking, feeling, and choosing following the new birth experience. Their heart is new. Yet the flesh, the body, is encumbered by resident sin (see Romans 7:14-25). 

    Again, this is why the Christian has that waging war between flesh and spirit, the body of sin and a soul/heart/spirit reborn in His image (Romans 7:14-25; Romans 8:1-5; 2 Peter 1:4-12). In our next post I plan to close out this series of posts.