For many of us, we witness horrible acts of people against other people and we think to ourselves: "How could people do such a thing?" Sometimes it is a matter of people rubbing us the wrong way or being inconsiderate. Sometimes these acts may seem petty when we take into account that there are people a lot worse in the world. For instance, at the time of this writing, as I was watching our local news station located in Toledo, OH, I was absolutley horrified to learn that during the previous night a twenty-seven year old man was brutally beaten beyond recognition at a bar. If that was not enough, it was discovered that he was then made to ingest transmission fluid. When the victim's sister was interviewed she lamented: "I just don't understand how anyone could be so evil." This instance of evil in our world is not an anomaly. We are all evil. And the essence of our sinfulness is just as heinous as before a holy God as the preceding account was to this sister.
In this segment of our series on the gospel I want to explore the meaning of sin and how it has affected man's nature with the hope that we will come to understand the gravity of what it means to sin against God.
FOR THERE IS NO DISTINCTION: FOR ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD
For there is no distinction: for all have sinned
A definition of sin
In the Old Testament three Hebrew words are used to describe sin: iniquity, transgression, and sin. Iniquity refers to a wrongdoing that brings judicial guilt. Transgression takes sin a step further beyond the action by focusing on the one who is sinned against. Here, sin is revolt, and it is the most serious of the three terms because the sinner is rising up in rebellion against the authority of God Himself. The last term "sin" is the most general of the three and speaks of any wrongdoing at any level. In the New Testament the most common reference to sin is the Greek word hamartia, “to miss the mark.” At this point it is necessary to understand how sin has infected and affected the human heart.
The affect of sin on man
In general, sin has brought spiritual death to every person resulting in the core or nature of the person being radically and thoroughly inclined toward sinning.
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5 ESV)Most people think that they are basically good and that they only sin sometimes. But Scripture’s testimony against us is not simply that we have sinned at times, all we have ever done is sin “continually.”
And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.” (Genesis 8:21 ESV)Here, youth means more than the teenage years. This can mean an infant. Man’s heart, your heart, in an unconverted state is a cesspool of wickedness from birth because man’s fallen nature is wicked.
We have all become like one who is unclean,All our seemingly righteous deeds are in reality unrighteous and they condemn us before a holy God, because the very deeds we commit flow from our corrupt nature. And when the source of our deeds spring forth from a nature immersed in sin and trained in sin, the deeds themselves are a manifestation of the wickedness found in a nature that is intrinsically evil. Our deeds are as corrupt as our fallen nature, and as such, they are repulsive in the presence of an infinitely good and holy God.
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah 64:6 ESV)
The inability of man
Inherited guilt and corruption leave every person completely unable to save himself or to please God. There are at least six ways this pervasive inability affects everyone. Until God intervenes with his sovereign, gracious, saving power, mankind is totally unable to:
• Repent or trust Christ
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44 ESV; cf. John 3:3; 6:65)
- See or enter the kingdom of God
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 ESV)• Obey God and thereby glorify him
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:6-8 ESV)• Attain spiritual understanding
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV)• Live lives pleasing to God
For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23 ESV)
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 ESV)• Receive eternal or spiritual life
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV)Therefore, the testimony of Scripture is that our only inclination in our fallen state is to use whatever will we have to abide and relish in our sin. Let us look at our spiriutal state prior to conversion from Ephesians 2:1-3 and then address the issue of the "freeness" of our will in that unconverted state.
Ephesians 2:1-3
Notice first that the Apostle Paul declares "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins..." (Eph. 2:1). Spiritually, we are dead and we do not have any capacity in our "free will" to apprehend salvation apart from a supernatural intervention of God's Holy Spirit freely and sovereignly converting us. Dead means dead--no life--not some life. In their book The Doctrines of Grace: Rediscovering the Evangelical Gospel, J. M. Boice and Philip Graham Ryken note: "Like a spiritual corpse, he is unable to make a single move toward God, think a right thought about God, or even respond to God--unless God first brings this spiritually dead corpse to life" (p. 74).
Secondly, the sinner is actively engaged in evil. Paul describes our sinful actions during our dead state as a lifestyle of actively sinning: "...in which you once walked..." (Eph. 2:2). Boice and Ryken liken the state of the uncoverted sinner to that of a zombie, saying: "Though the sinner is indeed dead to God, he nevertheless is very much alive to wickedness" (p. 74).
Thirdly, the sinner is in bondage to sin. Sinning is a contuinual lifestyle choice. And this makes sense if we understand that sin goes beyond merely making us guilty before a just God, it has made us slaves to obey its power over us. Paul states that in our unconverted state we are enslved to world, the flesh, and the devil. We are enslaved to the world because we are "following the course of this world" (Eph. 2:2). In our unconverted state our thinking is centered on self and rebellion against God. We are enslaved to the flesh because our desires that emmenate those "...among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind..." (Eph. 2:3). To put it bluntly, we will have what we want, whatever the cost. And we are enslaved to the devil because although we may not realize it, as unconverted people we are "...following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience..." (Eph. 2:3).
Fourthly, the sinner is an object of God's wrath. People do not like to talk about the wrath of God or hell or the justice of God. But when we understand the gravity of our sin against Him, we know what we deserve. After Paul describes the affects of sin on us, he adds finally: "...and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Eph. 2:3 ESV). This is where it gets serious and this is where a discussion of our sinfulness should lead us to--back to the character of God. Boice and Ryken state: "Most people can hardly take [wrath] seriously...because they do not take sin seriously. But if sin is as bad as the Bible declares it to be, nothing is more reasonable than that the wrath of a holy God should rise against [us]" (p. 75). If God's character is such that He is holy and just and righteous, then it is good for all of His holy hatred, His fierce anger, to be directed toward us.
At this point many Christians today would disagree that the state of spiritual death and subsequent slavery to sin has had an equally radical affect on their will, assuming that because they make free will choices in the natural realm that they have that same freedom of will regarding spiritual matters. We would like to think that at least if we are aided by God, even in our state of spiritual death we are able to apprehend God and respond to the Gospel. But Scripture teaches otherwise. Jesus said: "everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin" (John 8:34 ESV). The Apostle Peter wrote: "For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved" (2 Peter 2:19 ESV). Even after being confronted with the Scripute's witness to the affects of sin and spiritual death thus far, still many people today believe that somehow they are not utterly hopeless and unable to respond to the gospel in their unconverted state. They do not believe that sinners have really been "taken captive" by Satan "to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:26).
A lesson from Church history
It is assumed that man has the power in his unconverted state to choose or reject God. It is true that we are given countless commands and free offers for all to repent and turn to God with the promise of life. But we falsely assume that because the offer is free we are free in ourselves to respond rightly to such offers of grace. And throughout Church history this is the same battle that has been championed by the theological giants of the past.
Augustine and Pelagius
Basically, Pelagius reasoned that since there was an obligation to repent and beleive, we must have the ability to do so. Therefore, he held that the will is not enslaved in bondage to sin, but rather, it is neutral so that in any given situation it can choose good or evil. He even went so far as to say:
(1) Adam's sin affected no one but himself; (2) Those born since Adam have been born into the same condition Adam was in before his fall, that is, into a position of neutrality so fare as sin is concerned; and (3) Today human beings are able to live free from sin, if they want to. (Boice and Ryken, The Doctrines of Grace, p. 81)This view denies the desperate state that man has fallen into and therefore, denies the need for God's grace, instead placing the decisive factor in salvation upon the person's will instead of the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit to bring a dead person to life.
Augustine viewed sin as more than evil acts, but rather an inherited depravity so that the unconverted person is not able to not sin. He affirmed with Scripture that salvation is moergistic--of grace from beginning to end. It is not syergistic--such that God provides grace to which the sinner adds his efforts. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV). Pelagius was condemned as a heretic by the church at the Synod of Carthage in A.D. 418.
Luther and Erasmus
During the Reformation the battle erupted again, first between Martin Luther and Erasmus, and later between the followers of Jacob Arminius and the followers of John Calvin. Wanting to challenge Luther, Erasmus took the position of the freedom of the will in similar fashion to that of Pelagius. In Luther's response entitled, The Bondage of the Will, we read the following account:
[A] man without the Spirit of God does not do evil against his will, under pressure, as though he were taken by the scruff of the neck and dragged into it, like a thief...being dragged off against his will to punishment; but he does it spontaneously and voluntarily. And this volition is something which he cannot in his own strength eliminate, restrain or alter. He goes on willing and desiring to do evil; and if external pressure forces him to act otherwise, nevertheless his will within remains averse to so doing and chages under such constraint and opposition.Luther did not discount that we make choices. Rather, in reference to the individual's choosing of God Luther denied the freedom of the will as being neutral and unaffected by sin.
Johnathan Edwards
During the First Great Awakening, Johnathan Edwards wrote The Freedom of the Will, in which he defined the will. Edwards is in agreement with Luther that man in bound to act according to his nature, but he defines how the will operates. First, Edwards defined the will as not mere choices, but "that by which the mind chooses anything." Second, he explained that the mind chooses what it does because of motives; it judges that one course of action is better than another and so chooses. He went further to explain that what the mind deems best is always choosing for self over-against God. Though nothing is stopping the mind from choosing God, yet it will not regard submission to God as desirable. Third, he explained that because man's inability to choose God is moral and not simply natural (neutral), man's guilt is increased. His sin is evil because the right thing to do is to repent and turn to God, yet he wil not because he does not want to. And he does not want to because he hates God (Romans 1:30).
Man's dependence on a work of God's grace
As we have seen from Church history, the fall has affected man such that his is now wholly inclined toward sin and rebellion against God. He does what he wills and his will is set against God. Apart from a supernatural work of the Spirit resurrecting the spiriutally dead to life, the unconverted person does not seek God nor does he want to. That is why Scripture says:
"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV)And the Apostle Paul affirms this truth again, saying:
"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life..." (2 Corinthians 2:14-16 ESV)The prophet Ezekiel also makes man's hoplessness apart from the grace of God clear:
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.”
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. (Ezekiel 37:1-10 ESV)A few things are worthy to notice about the hoplessness of man in his unconverted state and his need for God in His grace to regenerate him to life. First, unconverted men are spiritually dead. Notice the bones in valley were "very dry."
Second, because unconverted men are spiritually dead, they are completely dependent upon the supernatural regenerating work of the Spirit of God--they cannot "decide" themselves to spiritual life. Notice the Lord's question to the prophet and his response to the Lord: “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” The prophet's response, "O Lord GOD, you know" when asked if these dead bone can live is the prophet's affirmation that salvation is completely the work of God sovereignly bringing life to dead men. The Lord confirms for us that salvation is His sovereign work in His response to the prophet: "Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live." Although man is responsible to repent and believe the gospel, he is hopelessly unable to do so apart from God sovereignly intervening to bring life which results then in the free response of man in true repentance and faith. We must never forget man is dead, and it is the Lord who says, "I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live."
Man's just condemnation, Romans 1 - 3
As we turn to Romans 1-3, we see clearly that man is not a victim of sin. Rather, man in his fallen state has set his heart in an unrelenting rebellion against God.
[18 ] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [19 ] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20 ] For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. [21 ] For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. [22 ] Claiming to be wise, they became fools, [23 ] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
[24 ] Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, [25 ] because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
[26 ] For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; [27 ] and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
[28 ] And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. [29 ] They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, [30 ] slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, [31 ] foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. [32 ] Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:18-32 ESV)Man is not a victim of sin. He is a rebel with heart that is raging against God. He cannot come to God because he will not come to God. And he will not come to God because does not desire to. He labors viciously to push out any bit of truth that enters his mind. He is a hater of God. Left to himself in this fallen state, man would rather choose to go on in his rebellion and be condemned before the just throne of God than to bow his knee in submission.
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;Because of God's common grace (that is, His kindly providence whereby sin's energies within us are partly restrained), total depravity does not mean that every person apart form Christ is as bad as possible. For instance, have you ever thought: "Why am I not as bad as Hitler?" Have you ever thought: "Why am I not worse than Hitler?" The radical nature of our depravity does mean, however, that none by nature can fulfill man's primary purpose of glorifying God in relationship with Him.
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:9-18 ESV)
We are a people who is twisted at our core and darkened in our understanding, running resolutely in a path away from God that will ultimately result in our eternal destruction. We sin because we have a sinful nature. And the gravity of our sin is heightened when we become aware of the infinite worth of the one against whom our offenses have been directed. If we sin against nature, we are not in too much trouble. If we sin against another person, we are in danger. But the sobering reality is that we have sinned against an infinitely good and worthy God, the Lord of glory, thereby increasing our guilt and condemnation.
And fall short of the glory of God
Glory in the Old Testament
Kabod: Something weighty which gives importance, e.g., “wealth” (Gen. 13:2) or “honor” (Gen. 45:13). When speaking in relation to God, it is that which makes God impressive; His intrinsic majesty.
Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. (Genesis 13:2 ESV)
“You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” (Genesis 45:13 ESV)Shekihah: Lit. "The one who dwells," e.g., (Ex. 19:16-18). Fig. speaking of "inapproachable light that surrounds and is representative of deity."
On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. (Exodus 19:16-18 ESV)LXX: When the OT was translated into Greek the Greek term "doxa" was used to translate both of these words. Despite our affronts to God's glory, Scripture commands us over and over again to worship God and to give Him the honor that is due His name:
Oh sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth!
Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth! (Psalm 96:1-9 ESV)
Glory in the New Testament
Therefore, when we arrive at the NT we notice that "doxa" is used to combine the meanings of both of the Hebrew terms "kabod" and "shekinah." This sense of the inexpressible "wealth" and "honor" and "majesty" of God is tied to His "dwelling presence." The weightiness of His presence is so great, and as such He transcends everything that He has brought into existence, e.g., (1 Tim. 6:15-16).
…which he [Christ] will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:15-16 ESV)"The glory of God" Romans 3:23
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." To fall short of the glory of God in some sense is to fail to attain to the glory that God originally intended for man. But here it goes further. We must interpret Romans 3:23 in the context of the book of Romans. In Romans 1 it says:
"For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles...they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." (Rom. 1:21-23, 25 ESV)To fall short of the glroy of God is to not honor God and give Him that which is due Him, and rightly due Him because of such glory and worth. Falling short of God's glroy is to "not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him." It means that we would direct our affections toward the gods we have created, and in so doing "exchange the truth about God for a lie," rather than behold the glory and supreme worth of the immortal God and worship Him alone.
Think back to how we began with the story of the man who was beaten and made to ingest transmission fluid. Recall the emotions you felt at hearing of such a heinous act. Sin is seen to be vile when it is committed against other people. But the heinousness of our personal sin is amplified when we realize the infinite worth of the one whom we have sinned against. We have sinned against the Lord and have offended His glory. When we read of the prophet Isaiah’s vision of the Lord we see a crystallized picture of His glory that I pray will cause us to be cut to the heart regarding the wretchedness of our deeds against Him. Notice the prophet's own account of the glory of God:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
Place yourself there with Isaiah and witness God in all His glory. He saw a vision of heaven, the grand stage where all of God's glory dwells. The length of the train on a king's robe is indicative of his honor. And yet, this King's train fills the whole temple. He is surrounded by seraphim; literally, "burning ones." And yet, despite the great glory with which they have been created, they cover themselves so as to not offend the greater glory of the one to whom their praise is summoned. They are a mighty choir numbering myriads upon myriads so that they are too great a number to count. There is no way to acclaim the worth of this King except to cry out: "holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory." And their priase to the one one who sits on the throne is such that it violently resounds, shaking even the doorposts and the thresholds of the heavenly temple. Adding to this awesome event, smoke fills the temple, shrouding glory with mystery.And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:1-5 ESV)“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
O, but then there is the King, seated on His throne and reigning with authority over heaven and earth. And that authority is heightened when we see that the throne is in an exalted position, high and lifted up. What we are seeing, then, is a view of God in all of His sovereignty, decreeing His will from His throne and and executing His righteous judgments. And when the prophet Isaiah saw this heavenly vision he is aware of the vile reality of his sinfulness in the presence of such an infinitely worthy being. We too, when we come to understand how great are our offenses against an infinitely worthy being will respond in the same manner as the prophet: "Woe, to me; it will be the good and right thing if He condemns me right now. I have seen the Lord of glory and I know who I am--wicked."
None of us have ever given God the glory that He rightly deserves. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And for us to sin against such an infinitely good and majestic being is to be in a most terrible estate. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
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