Sin - what is it?

SIN - TOTAL DEPRAVITY & TOTAL INABILITY

It is so important to understand what the Bible teaches about sin.  If we do not understand the disease, we cannot know how to treat it! 

What is sin? “Sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4).  Sin is not only the actions, speech and thoughts that we have that are against God’s law.  Note what Jesus teaches as to where all these sinful things come from: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, …” (Matthew 15:19).  The “heart” is our inner self out of which all comes.  There is something wrong with our heart.  Jeremiah says of the heart that it “is heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick ”   (17:9).  Paul writes of the Gentiles that they have no understanding and are ignorant “due to the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart” (Ephesians 4:18).  So sin is a condition, a character, an attitude, man’s nature.  Jesus likens the heart to a treasure box (Matthew 12:35).  How a person lives depends on the character of his heart.  Men and women not only do acts of sin, they are sinners by nature (see Ephesians 2:3).

TOTAL DEPRAVITY 

Depravity = moral corruption.  When we say this depravity is “total” we do not mean that man is as sinful as he can be, but that sin has spread to every faculty of his being and has seriously affected him.  As a result everything that men do by nature is sinful and not good in God’s sight.  Paul makes a universal conclusion about all men and all they do that “no one does no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:11).  No thought, no emotion, no word spoken, no action, is acceptable to God.  Even our very best acts are polluted by sin (Isaiah 64:6, see Philippians 3:4-8).  As a drop of poison makes the whole drink poisonous, so sin makes all corrupt and repulsive to God. 

TOTAL INABILITY 

Not only are all actions sinful, but as a result by nature we are totally unable to do anything spiritually good which is acceptable to God.  Note the following Biblical evidence:

(1)   Clear statements. 

What things are impossible, according to the following passages?

·         John 3:3,5 – seeing or entering the kingdom of God (unless born of water/Spirit)

·         John 6:44, 65 – coming to Jesus (unless the Father draws)

·         Romans 8:7 – submission to God’s law (to the mind that is set on the flesh)

·         Romans 8:8 – pleasing God (to those who are in the flesh)

·         1 Corinthians 2:14 – accepting the things of the Spirit of God (to the unspiritual = without Spirit)

·         Hebrews 11:6 – pleasing God (without faith)

(2)   Word pictures. 

What word describes total inability in the following passages?

·         John 8:34, Romans 6:16-17, Titus 3:3 slave

·         Ephesians 2:1,5, Colossians 2:13, 1 Timothy 5:6 dead

·         John 9:40, 12:40, 2 Corinthians 4:4 blind

Slaves have no power to free themselves – the master, or someone more powerful, must give the freedom. 

Those who are dead have no power to make themselves alive – only someone who has power over death can. 

The blind, like Bartimaeus depend upon another to open their eyes.

Historic confessions have dealt with this matter this way: “The actual sins that men commit are the fruit of the corrupt nature transmitted to them by our first parents.  By reason of this corruption, all men become wholly inclined to all evil; sin disables them.  They are utterly indisposed to, and, indeed, rendered opposite to, all that is good” (Ch.7, Sect.4, and see Ch.9, Sect.3).

OTHER VIEWS: There are other views that cannot be defended from Scripture, that insists that sinful man still has a free will.  This view teaches that any man has the ability, any time he chooses, to do the good that God commands, especially to repent of sin and believe in Christ.  They do believe that as a result of Adam’s sin the whole race also fell, and inherited a corrupt nature (= original sin); but also through the death of Christ a grace, which is called “prevenient” (because it precedes), has been given to ALL men to make everyone able to choose Christ.  This is the most common view today and people will react with horror if you suggest there is no such thing as free will.  They do not know that at the time of the Reformation Martin Luther wrote, what he called his most important book, The Bondage of the Will, which he regarded to be at the heart of the Reformation controversy.

What does the Bible teach about the will of men now?  Is there such a thing as “prevenient grace”?  It is an assumption based on the belief that if God commands something we must be able to do it.  The ‘will’ is the faculty of choice; it does not act independently.  Do you think a leopard may change its spots at will? Impossible! (Jeremiah 13:23).  How is it possible that a sinner will choose Christ if his heart is unclean, if he does not understand the things of God, if he hates the light (John 3:19-20)?  Everyone chooses according to his nature.

Three passages that teach the will of man is not free to choose Christ “(…children of God)   who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the   flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13),

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8), “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy”. Romans 9:16 clearly teach that the will of man is not the cause of salvation.

Original sin

The sin of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, who were the representatives of all mankind, all men fell with him - Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (Rom 5:12-14)

From this passage, you notice that sin began with the sinning of Adam, as instigated by the devil and the consequence of this is that all people are born with a sinful nature (original sin) and are sinners by practice. For this reason, then there has to be another representative – the Lord Jesus Christ who is the ultimate solution. This is because He is appointed by God to be the Saviour of sinners by His perfectly righteous life and by His effective death on the cross. This is what

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. (Rom 5:17-19)

The sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, who were the representatives of all mankind, all men fell with him - Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (Rom 5:12-14)

From this passage, you notice that sin began with the sinning of Adam, as instigated by the devil and the consequence of this is that all people are born with a sinful nature (original sin) and are sinners by practice. For this reason, then there has to be another representative – the Lord Jesus Christ who is the ultimate solution. This is because He is appointed by God to be the Saviour of sinners by His perfectly righteous life and by His effective death on the cross.

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. (Rom 5:17-19)

IMPORTANCE OF HAVING THE TRUE TEACHING 

(1) Our understanding of salvation depends upon it.  Are we saved because we choose Christ, or because God first chooses us?  The Bible is so clear that we are totally dependent upon God.  What must God first do if anyone is to come to Christ? God has to  give him to   Christ (John 6:44).  What must first take place if anyone is to produce spiritual fruit? Born of water and the Spirit, (John 3:5).  Like Lazarus, stone dead in the tomb, we must first be made alive, before we can do anything spiritual.  Salvation is of the Lord and to Him all praise is due!

(2) Our method of evangelism is controlled by it.  Man-made methods such as special music, altar calls and testimonies of well-known people have produced many false converts. Because of total depravity and inability salvation begins with God’s work of the new birth. God uses the preaching of the gospel to urge men to believe and repent.  We must tell sinners the truth as clearly and forcefully as we can, trusting that God will open the heart to give heed (Acts 16:14).

(3) Our personal holiness is stimulated by it. It will lead us into the practice of both godly humility, because we are totally unworthy, and a joyful praise because God has graciously done what we could never do.  In our Christian lives sin becomes enemy number one that we take seriously in order to put it to death (Romans 8:13). While a Christian can sin, yet he is not under the bondage or slavery to sin because he has been freed from its permanent effects like eternal death. Consider this,

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1Jn 1:8-10)

The way to deal with sin is to confess them to Christ. To acknowledge and self-accuse before God and be sure that the Lord is merciful, for God has said that he who conceals his sins will not prosper, but he who confesses and renounces will obtain mercy (Prov. 28:13).