Total
Depravity
Loraine Boettner
Contents:
1. STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE
2. THE EXTENT AND EFFECTS OF ORIGINAL
SIN
3. THE DEFECTS IN MAN'S COMMON
VIRTUES
4. THE FALL OF MAN
5. THE REPRESENTATIVE PRINCIPLE
6. THE GOODNESS AND SEVERITY OF GOD
7. SCRIPTURE PROOF
Notes
1. STATEMENT OF THE
DOCTRINE
IN the Westminster Confession the doctrine of Total Inability is stated
as follows: 'Man, by his fall Into a state of sin, hath wholly lost
all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as
a natural man, being altogether averse from good, and dead in sin, is
not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare
himself thereunto.l
Paul, Augustine, and Calvin have as their starting point the fact that
all mankind sinned in Adam and that all men are 'without excuse,' Rom.
2:1. Time and again Paul tells us that we are dead in trespasses and
sins, estranged from God, and helpless. In writing to the Ephesian
Christians he reminded them that before they received the Gospel they
were 'separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel,
and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and
without God in the world,' 2:12. There we notice the five-fold
emphasis
as he piles phrase on top of phrase to stress this truth.
2. THE EXTENT AND EFFECTS OF ORIGINAL
SIN
This doctrine of Total Inability, which declares that men are dead in
sin, does not mean that all men are equally bad, nor that any man is as
bad as he could be, nor that any one is entirely destitute of virtue,
nor that human nature is evil in itself, nor that man's spirit is
inactive, and much less does it mean that the body Is dead. What it
does mean is that since the fail man rests under the curse of sin, that
he is actuated by wrong principles, and that he is wholly unable to
love God or to do anything meriting salvation. His corruption is
extensive but not necessarily intensive.
It is in this sense that man since the fall 'is utterly indisposed,
disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all
evil.' He possesses a fixed bias of the will against God, and
instinctively and willingly turns to evil. He is an alien by birth, and
a sinner by choice. The inability under which he labors is not an
inability to exercise volitions, but an inability to be willing to
exercise holy volitions. And it is this phase of it which led Luther to
declare that 'Free-will is an empty term, whose reality is lost. And a
lost liberty, according to my grammar, is no liberty at all.2
In
matters pertaining to his salvation, the unregenerate man is not at
liberty to choose between good and evil, but only to choose between
greater and lesser evil, which is not properly free will. The fact that
fallen man still has ability to do certain acts morally good in
themselves does not prove that he can do acts meriting salvation, for
his motives may be wholly wrong.
Man is a free agent but he cannot originate the love of God in his
heart. His will is free in the sense that it is not controlled by any
force outside of himself. As the bird with a broken wing is 'free' to
fly but not able, so the natural man is free to come to God but not
able. How can he repent of his sin when he loves it? How can he come to
God when he hates Him? This is the inability of the will under which
man labors. Jesus said, 'And this is the judgment, that light is come
into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for
their works were evil,' John 3:19; and again, 'Ye will not come to me,
that ye may have life,' John 5:40. Man's ruin lies mainly in his own
perverse will. He cannot come because he will not. Help enough is
provided if he were only willing to accept it. Paul tells us, 'The
carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can it be. So they that are in the flesh cannot
please God,' Rom. 8:7.
To assume that because man has ability to love he therefore has ability
to love God, is about as wise as to assume that since water has the
ability to flow, it therefore has the ability to flow up hill; or to
reason that because a man has power to cast himself from the top of a
precipice to the bottom, he therefore has equal power to transport
himself from the bottom to the top.
Fallen man sees nothing desirable in 'the One who is altogether lovely,
the fairest among ten thousand.' He may admire Jesus as a man, but he
wants nothing to do with Him as God, and he resists the outward holy
influences of the Spirit with all his power. Sin, and not
righteousness, has become his natural element so that he has no desire
for salvation.
Man's fallen nature gives rise to a most obdurate blindness, stupidity,
and opposition concerning the things of God. His will is under the
control of a darkened understanding. which puts sweet for bitter, and
bitter for sweet, good for evil, and evil for good. So far as his
relations with God are concerned, he wills only that which is evil,
although he wills it freely. Spontaneity and enslavement actually exist
together.
In other words, fallen man is so morally blind that he uniformly
prefers and chooses evil instead of good, as do the fallen angels or
demons. When the Christian is completely sanctified he reaches a state
in which he uniformly prefers and chooses good, as do the holy angels.
Both of these states are consistent with freedom and responsibility of
moral agents.
Yet while fallen man acts thus uniformly he is never compelled to sin,
but does it freely and delights in it. His dispositions and desires are
so inclined, and he acts knowingly and willingly from the spontaneous
motion of the heart. This natural bias or appetite for that which is
evil is characteristic of man's fallen and corrupt nature, so that, as
Job says, he 'drinketh iniquity like water,' 15:16.
We read that 'The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit,
for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, for they are
spiritually discerned,' I Cor. 2:14. We are at a loss to understand
how
any one can take a plain common sense view of this passage of Scripture
and yet contend for the doctrine of human ability. Man in his natural
state cannot even see the kingdom of God; much less can he get into it.
An uncultured person may see a beautiful work of art as an object of
vision, but he has no appreciation of its excellence. He may see the
figures of a complex mathematical equation, but they have no meaning
for him. Horses and cattle may see the same beautiful sunset or other
phenomenon in nature that men see, but they are blind to all of the
artistic beauty. So it is when the Gospel of the cross is presented to
the unregenerate man. He may have an intellectual knowledge of the
facts and doctrines of the Bible, but he lacks all spiritual
discernment of their excellence, and finds no delight in them. The same
Christ is to one man without form or comeliness that he should desire
Him; to another He is the Prince of life and the Savior of the world,
God manifest in the flesh, whom it is impossible not to adore, love and
obey.
This total inability, however, arises not merely from a perverted moral
nature, but also from ignorance. Paul wrote that the Gentiles 'walk in
the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding,
alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in
them, because of the hardening of their heart,' Eph. 4:17, 18. And
again, 'The word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but
unto us who are saved it is the power of God,' I Cor. 1:18. When he
wrote of 'Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, And which
entered not into the heart of man, Whatsoever things God hath prepared
for them that love Him,' he had reference, not to the glories of the
heavenly state as is commonly supposed, but to the spiritual realities
in this life which cannot be seen by the unregenerate mind, as is made
plain by the words of the following verse: 'But unto us God revealed
them through the Spirit,' I Cor. 2:9, 10. On one occasion Jesus said,
'No one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the
Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal
Him,' Matt. 11:27. Here we are plainly told that man in his
unregenerate, unenlightened nature does not know God in any sense
worthy the name, and that the Son is sovereign in choosing who shall
come into this saving knowledge of God.
Fallen man then lacks the power of spiritual discernment. His reason or
understanding is blinded, and the taste and feelings are perverted. And
since this state of mind is innate, as a condition of man's nature, it
is beyond the power of the will to change it. Rather it controls both
the affections and volitions. The effect of regeneration is clearly
taught in the divine commission which Paul received at his conversion
when he was told that he was to be sent to the Gentiles 'to open their
eyes, that they might turn from darkness to light and from the power of
Satan unto God,' Acts 26:18.
Jesus taught the same truth under a different figure when He said to
the Pharisees, 'Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye
cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of
your father it is your will to do,' John 8:43, 44. They could not
understand, nor even hear His words in any intelligible way. To them
His words were only foolishness, madness; and they accused Him of being
demon possessed (vss. 48, 52). Only His disciples could know the truth
(vss. 31, 32); the Pharisees were children of the Devil (vss. 42, 44),
and bondservants of sin (vs. 34), although they thought themselves free
(vs. 33).
At another time Jesus taught that a good tree could not bring forth
evil fruit, nor an evil tree good fruit. And since in this similitude
the good and evil trees represent good and evil men, what does it mean
but that one class of men is governed by one set of basic principles,
while the other class is governed by another set of basic principles?
The fruits of these two trees are acts, words, thoughts, which if good
proceed from a good nature, and if evil proceed from an evil nature. It
is impossible, then, for one and the same root to bring forth fruit of
different kinds. Hence we deny the existence in man of a power which
may act either way, on the logical ground that both virtue and vice
cannot come out of the same moral condition of the agent. And we affirm
that human actions which relate to God proceed either out of a moral
condition which necessarily produces good actions or out of a moral
condition which necessarily produces evil actions.
'In the Epistle to the Ephesians Paul declares that prior to the
quickening of the Spirit of God each individual soul lies dead in
trespasses and sins. Now it will surely be admitted that to be dead,
and to be dead in sin, is clear and positive evidence that there is
neither aptitude nor power remaining for the performance of any
spiritual action. If a man were dead, in a natural and physical sense,
it would at once be readily granted that there is no further
possibility of that man being able to perform any physical actions. A
corpse cannot act in any way whatever, and that man would be reckoned
to have taken leave of his senses who asserted that it could. If a man
is dead spiritually, therefore, it is surely equally as evident that he
is unable to perform any spiritual actions, and thus the doctrine of
man's moral inability rests upon strong Scriptural evidence.3
'On the principle that no clean thing can come out of what is unclean
(Job 14:4), all that are horn of woman are declared 'abominable and
corrupt,' to whose nature iniquity alone is attractive.
Accordingly, to become sinful, men do not wait until the age of
accountable action arrives. Rather, they are apostates from the womb,
and as soon as they are born go astray, speaking lies (Ps. 58:3); they
are even shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin (Ps. 51:5). The
propensity of their heart is evil from their youth (Gen. 8:21), and it
is out of the heart that all the issues of life proceed (Prov. 4:23;
20:11). Acts of sin are therefore but the expression of the natural
heart, which is deceitful above all things and exceedingly corrupt
(Jer. 17:9).5
Ezekiel presents this same truth in graphic language and gives us the
picture of the helpless infant which was cast out in its blood and left
to die, but which the Lord graciously found and cared for (Ch. 16).
This doctrine of original sin supposes that fallen men have the same
kind and degree of liberty in sinning under the influence of a corrupt
nature as have the Devil and the demons, or that the saints in glory
and the holy angels have in acting rightly under the influence of a
holy nature. That is, men and angels act according to their natures. As
the saints and angels are confirmed in holiness, -- that is, possessed
of a nature which is wholly inclined to righteousness and adverse to
sin, -- so the nature of fallen men and of demons is such that they
cannot perform a single act with right motives toward God. Hence the
necessity that God shall sovereignly change the person's character in
regeneration.
The Old Testament ceremonies of circumcision of the new-born child, and
of purification of the mother, were designed to teach that man comes
into the world sinful, that since the fall human nature is corrupt in
its very origin.
Paul stated this truth in another and, if possible, even stronger way
in II Cor. 4:3, 4: 'And if our Gospel is veiled it is veiled to them
that perish; in whom the god of this world (by which he means the
Devil) hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the
Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn
upon them.' In a word, then, fallen men without the operations of the
Spirit of God are under the rule of Satan. They are led captive by him
at his will, II Tim. 2:26. So long as this 'strong man fully armed' is
not molested by the 'stronger than he,' he keeps his kingdom in peace
and his captives willingly do his bidding. But the 'stronger than he'
has overcome him, has taken his armor from him, and has liberated a
part of his captives (Luke 11:21, 22). God now exercises the right of
releasing whom He will; and all born-again Christians are ransomed
sinners from that kingdom.
The Scriptures declare that fallen man is a captive, a willing slave to
sin, and entirely unable to deliver himself from its bondage and
corruption. He is incapable of understanding, and much less of doing,
the things of God. There is what we might term 'the freedom of
slavery,' -- a state in which the subject is free only to do the will
of
his master, which in this case is sin. It was this to which Jesus
referred when He said, 'Every one that committeth sin is the
bondservant of sin,' John 8:34.
And such being the depth of man's corruption, it is wholly beyond his
own power to cleanse himself. His only hope of an amendment of life
lies accordingly in a change of heart, which change is brought about by
the sovereign recreative power of the Holy Spirit who works when and
where and how He pleases. As well might one attempt to pump a leaking
ship while the leak is still unmended, as to reform the unregenerate
without this inward change. Or as well might the Ethiopian change his
skin, or the leopard his spots, as he who is accustomed to do evil
correct his ways. This transfer from spiritual death to spiritual life
we call 'regeneration.' It is referred to in Scripture by various
terms: 'regeneration,' a 'making alive,' a 'calling out of darkness
into light,' a 'quickening,' a 'renewing,' a taking away of the
heart
of stone and giving the heart of flesh, etc., which work is exclusively
that of the Holy Spirit. As a result of this change a man comes to see
the truth and gladly accepts it. His very instincts and intimate
impulses are transferred to the side of law, obedience to which becomes
but the spontaneous expression of his nature. Regeneration is said to
be wrought by that same supernatural power which God wrought in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead (Eph. 1:18-20). Man does not possess
the power of self-regeneration, and until this inward change takes
place, he cannot be convinced of the truth of the Gospel by any amount
of external testimony. 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded if one rise from the dead.'
3. THE DEFECTS IN MAN'S COMMON VIRTUES
The unregenerate man can, through common grace, love his family and he
may be a good citizen. He may give a million dollars to build a
hospital, but he cannot give even a cup of cold water to a disciple in
the name of Jesus. If a drunkard, he may abstain from drink for
utilitarian purposes, but he cannot do it out of love for God. All of
his common virtues or good works have a fatal defect in that his
motives which prompt them are not to glorify God, -- a defect so vital
that it throws any element of goodness as to man wholly into the shade.
It matters not how good the works may be in themselves, for so long as
the doer of them is out of harmony with God, none of his works are
spiritually acceptable. Furthermore, the good works of the unregenerate
have no stable foundation, for his nature is still unchanged; and as
naturally and as certainly as the washed sow returns to her wallowing
in the mire, so he sooner or later returns to his evil ways.
In the realm of morals it is a rule that the morality of the man must
precede the morality of the action. One may speak with the tongues of
men and of angels; yet if he is lacking that inward principle of love
toward God, he is become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. He
may give all his goods to feed the poor, and may give his body to be
burned; yet if he lacks that inward principle, it profits him nothing.
As human beings we know that an act of service rendered to us (by
whatever utilitarian motives prompted) by someone who is at heart our
enemy, does not merit our love and approbation. The Scripture statement
that 'Without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto God,'
finds its explanation in this, that faith is the foundation of all the
other virtues, and nothing is acceptable to God which does not flow
from right feelings.
A moral act is to be judged by the standard of love to God, which love
is, as it were, the soul of all other virtue, and which is bestowed
upon us only through grace. Augustine did not deny the existence of
natural virtues, such as moderation, honesty, generosity, which
constitute a certain merit among men; but he drew a broad line of
distinction between these and the specific Christian graces (faith,
love and gratitude to God, etc.), which alone are good in the strict
sense of the word, and which alone have value before God.
This distinction is very plainly illustrated in an example given by W
D. Smith. Says he:
In a gang of pirates we may find many
things that
are good in themselves. Though they are in wicked rebellion against the
laws of the government, they have their own laws and regulations, which
they obey strictly. We find among them courage and fidelity, with many
other things that will recommend them as pirates They may do many
things, too, which the laws of the government require, but they are not
done because the government has so required, but in obedience to their
own regulations. For instance, the government requires honesty and they
may be strictly honest, one with another, in their transactions, and
the division of all their spoil. Yet, as respects the government, and
the general principle, their whole life is one of the most wicked
dishonesty. Now, it is plain, that while they continue in their
rebellion they can do nothing to recommend them to the government as
citizens. Their first step must be to give up their rebellion,
acknowledge their allegiance to the government, and sue for mercy. So
all men, in their natural state, are rebels against God; and though
they may do many things which the law of God requires, and which will
recommend them as men, yet nothing is done with reference to God and
His law. Instead, the regulations of society, respect for public
opinion, self-interest, their own character in the sight of the world,
or some other worldly or wicked motive, reigns supremely; and God, to
whom they owe their heart and lives, is forgotten; or, if thought of at
all, His claims are wickedly rejected, His counsels spurned, and the
heart, in obstinate rebellion, refuses obedience. Now it is plain that
while the heart continues in this state the man is a rebel against God,
and can do nothing to recommend him to His favor. The first step is to
give up his rebellion, repent of his sins, turn to God, and sue for
pardon and reconciliation through the Savior. This he is unwilling to
do, until he is made willing. He loves his sins, and will continue to
love them, until his heart is changed.
Smith continues,
The good actions of unregenerate men,
are not
positively sinful in themselves, but sinful from defect. They lack the
principle which alone can make them righteous in the sight of God. In
the case of the pirates it is easy to see that all their actions are
sin against the government. While they continue pirates, their sailing,
mending, or rigging the vessel, and even their eating and drinking, are
all sins in the eyes of the government, as they are only so many
expedients to enable them to continue their piratical career, and are
parts of their life of rebellion. So with sinners. While the heart is
wrong, it vitiates everything in the sight of God, even their most
ordinary occupations; for the plain, unequivocal language of God is,
'Even the lamp of the wicked, is sin,' Prov. 21:4.5
It is this inability which the Scriptures teach when they declare that
'They that are in the flesh cannot please God,' Rom. 8:8; 'Whatsoever
is not of faith is sin,' Rom. 14:23; and 'Without faith it is
impossible to be well-pleasing to Him,' Heb. 11:6. Hence even the
virtues of the unregenerate man are but as plucked and fading flowers.
It was because of this that Jesus said to His disciples, 'Except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.' And
because those virtues are of this nature, they are only temporary. The
one who possesses them is like the seed which falls on the stony soil,
which perhaps springs up with promise of fruitage, but soon withers in
the sun because it has no root in itself.
It follows also from what has been said that salvation is ABSOLUTELY
AND SOLELY OF GRACE, that God is free, in consistency with the
infinite perfections of His nature, to save none, few, many, or all,
according to the sovereign good pleasure of His will. It also follows
that salvation is not based on any merits in the creature, and that it
depends on God, and not on men, who are, and who are not, to be made
partakers of eternal life. God acts as a sovereign in saving some and
passing by others who are left to the just recompense of their sins.
Sinners are compared to dead men, or even to dry bones in their entire
helplessness. In this they are all alike. The choice of some to eternal
life is as sovereign as if Christ were to pass through a graveyard and
bid one here and another there to come forth, the reason for restoring
one to life and leaving another in his grave could be found only in His
good pleasure, and not in the dead themselves. Hence the statement that
we are foreordained according to the good pleasure of His will, and not
after the good inclinations of our own; and in order that we might be
holy, not because we were holy (Eph. 1:4, 5). 'Since all men alike
deserved only God's wrath and curse, the gift of His only begotten Son
to die in the stead of malefactors, as the only possible method of
expiating their guilt, is the most stupendous exhibition of undeserved
favor and personal love that the universe has ever witnessed.6
4. THE FALL OF MAN
The fall of the human race into a state of sin and misery is the basis
and foundation of the system of redemption which is set forth in the
Scriptures, as it is the basis and foundation of the system which we
teach. Only Calvinists seem to take the doctrine of the fall very
seriously. Yet the Bible from beginning to end declares that man is
ruined -- totally ruined -- that he is in a state of guilt and
depravity
from which he is utterly unable to deliver himself, and that God might
in justice have left him to perish. In the Old Testament the narrative
concerning the fall is found in the third chapter of Genesis; and in
the New Testament direct references are made to it in Romans 5:12-21; I
Cor. 15:22; II Cor. 11:3; I Tim. 2:13, 14, etc., although the New
Testament emphasizes not the historic fact that man fell, but the
ethical fact that he is fallen. The New Testament writers interpreted
it literally and based their theology upon it. To Paul Adam was as real
as Christ, the fall as real as the atonement. It may be maintained that
the apostles were in error, but that this was their position cannot be
denied.
Dr. A. A. Hodge has given us a very good statement of the doctrine of
the fall which we shall take the privilege of quoting: --
As a fair probation could not, in the nature of the
case, be given to every new member in person as it comes into existence
an undeveloped infant, God, as guardian of the race and for its best
interests, gave all its members a trial in the person of Adam under the
most favorable circumstances making him for that end the representative
and personal substitute of each one of his natural descendants. He
formed with him a covenant of works and of life; i.e., He gave to him
for himself, and in behalf of all whom he represented, a promise of
eternal life, conditioned upon perfect obedience, -- that is, upon
works. The obedience demanded was a specific test for a temporary
period, which period of trial must necessarily be closed either by the
reward consequent upon obedience, or the death consequent upon
disobedience. The 'reward' promised was eternal life, which was a grace
including far more than was originally bestowed upon Adam at his
creation, the grant of which would have elevated the race into a
condition of indefeasible holiness and happiness for ever. The
'penalty' threatened and executed was death: 'The day thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.' The nature of the death threatened can
be determined only from a consideration of all that was involved in the
curse actually inflicted. This we know to have included the instant
withdrawal of the divine favor and spiritual intercommunion upon which
man's life depended. Hence the alienation and curse of God; the sense
of guilt and corruption of nature; consequent actual transgressions,
the miseries of life, the dissolution of the body, the pains of hell.7
The consequences of Adam's sin are all comprehended under the term
death, in its widest sense. Paul gives us the summary statement that
'The wages of sin is death.' The full import of the death which was
threatened to Adam can only be seen by considering all the evil
consequences which have since befallen man. It was primarily spiritual
death, or eternal separation from God, which was threatened; and
physical death, or the death of the body, is but one of the first
fruits and relatively unimportant consequences of that greater penalty.
Adam did not die physically for 930 years after the fall, but he did
die spiritually the very moment he fell into sin. He died just as
really as the fish dies when taken from the water, or as the plant dies
when taken from the soil.
In general we cherish a very wrong idea as to how
Adam fell. . . . Adam was not tempted by Satan in a direct way. . . .
Eve was tempted by Satan, and Eve fell, being deceived. But we have
inspired evidence to prove that Adam was not deceived (I Tim. 2:14). He
was caught by no wiles of Satan, but that which he did, he did wilfully
and deliberately. And in the full consciousness of what he was doing,
and with a perfect realization of the solemn consequences which were
involved, he deliberately chose to follow his wife in her act of sinful
disobedience. It was this deliberate wilfulness of man's sin which
constituted its heinous character. Had he been attacked by Satan, and
forced to yield through some overwhelming power being brought against
him, we might have tried to find some excuse for his fall. But when,
with eyes wide open, and with mind perfectly conscious and fully aware
of the awful nature of his act, he used his free will to respond to the
claims of the creature in defiance of the Creator, no excuse can be
found for his fall. His act, in reality, was wilful, defiant rebellion,
and by it he openly transferred his allegiance from God to Satan.8
And has there not been a fall -- a fearful fall? The more we see of
human nature as it is manifested in the world about us, the easier it
is to believe in this great doctrine of original sin. Consider the
world as a whole, filled as it is with murders, robberies, drunkenness,
wars, broken homes, and crimes of all kinds. The thousand ingenious
forms which crime and vice have assumed in the hands of regular
practitioners are all tokens telling a fearful tale. A large portion of
the human race today, as in all past ages, is left to live and die in
the darkness of heathenism, hopelessly astray from God. Modernism and
denial of every kind is rampant even in the Church. Even the religious
press, so called, is strongly tinged with unbelief. Observe the general
disinclination to pray, or to study the Bible, or to speak of spiritual
things. Is not man now, as his progenitor Adam, fleeing from the
presence of God, not wanting communion with Him, and with enmity in his
heart for his Creator? Surely man's nature is radically wrong. The
daily newspaper accounts of events, even in such an enlightened land as
America, show that man is sinful, lost from God, and actuated by unholy
principles. And the only adequate explanation of all this is that the
penalty of death, which was threatened on man before the fall, now
rests on the human race.
We live in a lost world, a world which if left to itself would fester
in its corruption from eternity to eternity, a world reeking with
iniquity and blasphemy. The effects of the fall are such that man's
will in itself tends only downward to acts of sin and folly. As a
matter of fact God does not permit the race to become as corrupt as it
naturally would if left to itself. He exercises restraining influences,
inciting men to love one another, to be honest, philanthropic, and
considerate of each other's welfare. Unless God exercised these
influences, wicked men would become worse and worse, overlapping
conventions and social barriers, until the very zenith of lawlessness
would soon be reached, and the earth would become so utterly corrupt
that the elect could not live on it.
5. THE REPRESENTATIVE PRINCIPLE
It is easy for us to understand how a person may act through a
representative. The people of a state act in and through their
representatives in the Legislature. If a country has a good president
or king, all of the people share the good results; if a bad president
or king, all suffer the consequences. In a very real sense parents
stand representative for, and to a large extent decide the destinies
of, their children. If the parents are wise, virtuous, thrifty, the
children reap the blessings; but if they are indolent and immoral the
children suffer. In a thousand ways the well-being of individuals is
conditioned by the acts of others, so inwrought is this representative
principle into our human life. Hence in the Scripture doctrine that
Adam stood as the official head and representative of his people we
have only the application of a principle which we see at work all about
us.
Dr. Charles Hodge has very ably treated this subject in the following
section: --
This representative
principle pervades the whole Scriptures. The imputation of Adam's sin
to his posterity is not an isolated fact. It is only an illustration of
a general principle which characterizes the dispensations of God from
the beginning of the world. God declared Himself to Moses as one who
visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the
children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation, Ex.
34:6, 7. . . . The curse pronounced on Canaan fell on his posterity.
Esau's selling his birthright, shut out his descendants from the
covenant of promise. The children of Moab and Ammon were excluded from
the congregation of the Lord forever, because their ancestors opposed
the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. In the case of Dathan and
Abiram, as in that of Achan, 'their wives, and their sons, and their
little children' perished for the sins of their parents. God said to
Eli, that the iniquity of his house should not be purged with sacrifice
and offering for ever. To David it was said, 'The sword shall never
depart from thy house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken
the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.' To the disobedient
Gehazi it was said: 'The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and
unto thy seed forever.' The sin of Jeroboam and of the men of his
generation determined the destiny of the ten tribes for all time. The
imprecation of the Jews, when they demanded the crucifixion of Christ,
'His blood be on us and on our children,' still weighs down the
scattered people of Israel. . . . This principle runs through the whole
Scriptures. When God entered into covenant with Abraham, it was not for
himself only but also for his posterity. They were bound by all the
stipulations of the covenant. They shared its promises and its
threatenings, and in hundreds of cases the penalty of disobedience came
upon those who bad no personal part in the transgressions. Children
suffered equally with adults in the judgments, whether famine,
pestilence, or war, which came upon the people for their sins.
And the Jews to this day are suffering the penalty
of the sins of their fathers for their rejection of Him of whom Moses
and the prophets spoke. The whole plan of redemption rests on this same
principle. Christ is the representative of His people, and on this
ground their sins are imputed to Him and His righteousness to them. . .
. No man who believes the Bible can shut his eyes to the fact that it
everywhere recognizes the representative character of parents, and that
the dispensations of God have from the beginning been founded on the
principle that the children bear the iniquities of their fathers. This
is one of the reasons which infidels assign for rejecting the divine
origin of the Scriptures. But infidelity furnishes no relief. History
is as full of this doctrine as the Bible is. The punishment of the
felon involves his family in his disgrace and misery. The spend-thrift
and drunkard entail poverty and wretchedness upon all connected with
them. There is no nation now existing on the face of the earth, whose
condition for weal or woe is not largely determined by the character
and conduct of their ancestors . . . The idea of the transfer of guilt
or of vicarious punishment lies at the foundation of all the expiatory
offerings under the Old Testament, and of the great atonement under the
new dispensation. To bear sin, is in Scriptural language to bear the
penalty of sin. The victim bore the sin of the offerer. Hands were
imposed upon the head of the animal about to be slaughtered, to express
the transfer of guilt. That animal must be free from all defect or
blemish to make it the more apparent that its blood was shed not for
its own deficiencies but for the sin of another. All this was
symbolical and typical. . . . And this is what the Scriptures teach
concerning the Atonement of Christ. He bore our sins; He was made a
curse for us; He suffered the penalty of the law in our stead. All this
proceeds on the ground that the sins of one man can be justly, on some
adequate ground, imputed to another.9
The Scriptures tell us that, 'By one man's disobedience the many were
made sinners,' Rom. 5:19. 'Through one man sin entered into the world,
and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all
sinned,' Rom. 5:12. 'Through one trespass the judgment came unto all
men to condemnation' Rom. 5:18. It is as if God had said: If sin is to
enter, let it enter by one man, so that righteousness also may enter by
one man.
Adam was made not only the father but also the representative of the
whole human race. And if we fully understood the closeness of the
relation between him and them we would fully realize the justice of the
transmission of his sin to them. Adam's sin is imputed to his
descendants in the same way that Christ's righteousness is imputed to
those who believe in Him. Adam's descendants are, of course, no more
personally guilty of his sin than Christ's redeemed are personally
meritorious of His righteousness.
Suffering and death are declared to be the consequence of sin; and the
reason that all die is that 'all sinned.' Now we know that many suffer
and die in infancy, before they have committed any sin themselves. It
follows that either God is unjust in punishing the innocent, or that
those infants are in some way guilty creatures. And if guilty, how have
they sinned? It is impossible to explain it on any other supposition
than that they sinned in Adam (I Cor. 15:22; Rom. 5:12, 18); and they
could not have sinned in him in any other way than by representation.
But while we are not personally guilty of Adam's sin, we are,
nevertheless, liable to punishment for it. 'The guilt of Adam's public
sin,' says Dr. A. A. Hodge,
is by a judicial act of God immediately charged to
the account of each and every one of his descendants from the moment he
begins to exist, and antecedently to any act of his own. Hence all men
come into existence deprived of all those influences of the Holy Spirit
upon which their moral and spiritual life depends. . . . and with an
antecedent prevailing tendency in their natures to sin; which tendency
in them is itself of the nature of sin, and worthy of punishment. Human
nature since the fall retains its constitutional faculties of reason,
conscience and free agency, and hence man continues to be a responsible
moral agent. Yet he is spiritually dead, and totally averse to and
incapable of the discharge of any of these duties which spring out of
his relation to God, and entirely unable to change his own evil
dispositions or innate moral tendencies, or to dispose himself to such
a change, or to co-operate with the Holy Spirit in effecting such a
change.10
And to the same general effect, Dr. R. L. Dabney, the outstanding
theologian of the southern Presbyterian Church, says:
The explanation presented by the doctrine of
imputation is demanded by all except Pelagians and Socinians, Man's is
a spiritually dead and a condemned race. See Eph. 2:1-5, et passim. He
is obviously under a curse for something, from the beginning of his
life. Witness the native depravity of infants, and their inheritance of
woe and death. Now, either man was tried and fell in Adam, or he has
been condemned without trial. He is either under the curse (as it rests
on him at the beginning of his existence) for Adam's guilt, or for no
guilt at all. Judge which is most honorable to God, a doctrine which,
although a profound mystery, represents Him as giving man an equitable
and most favored probation in his federal head; or that which makes God
condemn him untried, and even before he exists.11
6. THE GOODNESS AND
SEVERITY OF GOD
A survey of the fall and its extent is humiliating work. It proves to
man that all his claims of goodness are unfounded, and it shows him
that his only hope is in the sovereign grace of Almighty God. The
'graciously restored ability' of which the Arminian talks is not
consistent with the facts. The Scriptures, history, and Christian
experience by no means warrant such a favorable view of the natural
moral condition of man as the Arminian system teaches. On the contrary
each of these gives us a very gloomy picture of a fearful corruption
and universal inclination to evil, which can only be overcome by the
intervention of divine grace. The Calvinistic system teaches a far
deeper fall into sin and a far more glorious manifestation of redeeming
grace. From these depths the Christian is led to despair of himself, to
throw himself unconditionally into the arms of God, and to lay hold on
unmerited grace, which alone can save him.
We should see God's mercy and also His severity in the spiritual and
physical realms. Life is full of hard facts which, unpleasant though
they may be, must simply be faced and admitted. Throughout the
Scriptures, and especially in the words of Christ Himself, the final
torments of the wicked are described in such ways as to show us that
they are indescribably awful. In the gospel of Matthew alone see 5:29,
30; 7:19; 10:28; 11:21-24; 13:30, 41, 42, 49, 50; 18:8, 9, 34; 21:41;
22:14; 24:51; 25:12, 30, 41; and 26:24. Surely a doctrine which
received such emphasis from the lips of Christ Himself cannot be passed
over in silence, distasteful though it may be. In the next world the
wicked, with all restraint removed, will go headlong into sin,
blaspheming and cursing God, growing worse and worse as they sink
deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit. Endless punishment is the
penalty of ENDLESS sinning. Furthermore, it is as much the glory of God
that He punishes the wicked as that He rewards the righteous. Much of
the easy-going indifference toward Christianity in our day is due to
the failure of Christian ministers to emphasize these doctrines which
Christ taught so repeatedly.
In the physical realm we see God's severity in wars, famines, floods,
disasters, diseases, sufferings, deaths, and crimes of all kind which
come upon the just and the unjust alike. All of these exist in a world
which is under the complete control of a God who is infinite in His
perfections.
'Behold then the goodness and severity of God,' Rom. 11:22. Naturalism
does justice to neither of these. Arminianism magnifies the first but
neglects the second. Calvinism is the only system which does justice to
both. It alone adequately sets forth the facts in regard to the eternal
and infinite love of God which caused Him to provide redemption for His
people, even at the great cost of sending His only-begotten Son to die
on the cross; and also in regard to the awful abyss which exists
between sinful man and the holy God. It is true that 'God is love,'
but
along with this must be placed the other statement that 'our God is a
consuming fire,' Heb. 12:29. Any system which omits or
under-emphasizes
either of these truths will be a mutilated system, no matter how
plausible it may sound to men.
This doctrine of the Total Inability of man is terribly stern, severe,
forbidding. But it is to be remembered that we are not at liberty to
develop a new system suited to our liking. We must take the facts as we
find them. Such exhibitions of the true state of mankind are, of
course, offensive to unregenerate men generally; and many have tried to
find out a system of doctrines more palatable to the popular mind. The
state of fallen man is such that he readily listens to any theory which
makes him even partly independent of God; he wishes to be the master of
his fate and the captain of his soul. The lost, ruined, and helpless
state of the sinner needs to be constantly set before him; for until he
is brought to feel it, he will never seek help where alone it is to be
found. Poor man! truly carnal and sold under sin, not only without
power but without inclination to move toward God; and what is more
awful still, an actual rebel, a presumptuous, blasphemous rival of the
Great Jehovah.
This doctrine of Total Inability, or Original Sin, has been treated at
some length in order to set forth the fundamental basis upon which the
doctrine of Predestination rests. This side of the picture is dark,
very dark indeed; but its supplement is the glory of God in redemption.
Each of these truths must be seen in its true light before the other
can be adequately appreciated.
7. SCRIPTURE PROOF
I Cor. 2:14: The natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he
cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.
Gen. 2:17: But of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.
Rom. 5:12: Therefore, as through one man sin
entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto
all men, for that all sinned.
II Cor. 1:9: Yea, we ourselves had the sentence
of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but
in God who raiseth the dead.
Eph. 2:1-3: And you did He make alive, when ye
were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein ye once walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of
disobedience; among whom ye also all once lived in the lusts of your
flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Eph. 2:12: Ye were at that time separate from
Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Jer. 13:23: Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed
to do evil.
Ps. 51:5: Behold, I was brought forth in
iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me.
John 3:3: Jesus answered and said unto him,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one is born anew, he cannot see
the kingdom of God.
Rom. 3:10-12: As it is written, There is none
righteous, no not one; There is none that understandeth, There is none
that seeketh after God; They have all turned aside, they are together
become unprofitable; There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as
one.
Job 14:4: Who can bring a clean thing out of an
unclean? not one.
I Cor. 1:18: For the word of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power
of God.
Acts 13:41: Behold, ye despisers, and wonder
and perish; For I work a work in your days, A work which ye shall in no
wise believe, if one declare it unto you.
Prov. 30:12: There is a generation that are
pure in their own eyes, And yet are not washed from their filthiness.
John 5:21: For as the Father raiseth the dead
and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom He will.
John 6:53: Except ye eat the flesh of the Son
of man and drink His blood, ye have not life in yourselves.
John 8:19: They said therefore unto Him, Where
is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye know neither me, nor my Father; if ye
knew me, ye would know my Father also.
Matt. 11:25: I thank thee, O Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and
understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes.
II Cor. 5:17: if any man is in Christ, he is a
new creature. John 14:16: (And I will pray the Father, and He shall
give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever,) even the
Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him
not, neither knoweth Him; ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and
shall be in you.
John 3:19: And this is the judgment, that light
is come unto the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the
light; for their works were evil.
Notes
1. Ch. IX, sec. III.
2. Bondage of the Will, p. 125.
3. Warburton, Calvinism, p. 48.
4. Warfield, Biblical Doctrines, p. 440.
5. What is Calvinism. pp. 125-127.
6. A. A. Hodge, pamphlet, 'Presbyterian Doctrine', p. 23.
7. A. A. Hodge, pamphlet, 'Presbyterian Doctrine', pp. 19.
20.
8. Warburton, Calvinism, p. 34.
9. Systematic Theology, II, pp. 198, 199. 201.
10. Presbyterian Doctrine, p. 21.
11. Theology, p. 330.
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