Sin

 Are we sinners because we sin, or do we sin because we're sinners?

We sin because by nature we are totally deprived from God.  Our natural state is to sin.  I can’t remember the reference, but there is a verse that says something like “just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, thus death came to all men because all have sinned.”  All have sinned. 

The reason we sin is because on our own, our rebellion against God is total. Apart from the grace of God there is no delight in the holiness of God, and there is no glad submission to the sovereign authority of God.  Of course totally depraved men can be very religious. They can pray and give alms and fast, as Jesus said (Matthew 6:1-18).  (I’ll go easy the issue of those who aren’t saved doing “good” because that can lead into election, predestination, and other things that we’ve already tackled.)  But their very religion is rebellion against the rights of their Creator, if it does not come from a childlike heart of trust in the free grace of God. Religion is one of the chief ways that man conceals his unwillingness to forsake self-reliance and bank all his hopes on the unmerited mercy of God (Luke 18:9-14; Colossians 2:20-23).

The totality of our rebellion against God is seen in Romans 3:9-10 and 18. "I have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: None is righteous, no not one; no one seeks for God....There is no fear of God before their eyes."  No one seeks God.  It doesn’t say, “After the first sin humans commit, they are then under the power of sin.”  No, from conception on our hearts are corrupt and sinful.

I would even contest that in mans total rebellion from God, everything man does is sin (apart from God).  I think of Romans 14:23 when Paul says, "Whatever is not from faith is sin." Therefore, if all men are in total rebellion, everything they do is the product of rebellion and cannot bring honor to God, but only part of their sinful rebellion. If a king teaches his subjects how to fight well and then those subjects rebel against their king and use the very skill he taught them to resist him, then even those skills become evil.  Follow?

Because of that, man does many things which he can only do because he is created in the image of God and which in the service of God could be praised. But in the service of man's self-justifying rebellion, these very things are sinful.

In Romans 7:18 Paul says, "I know that no good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh." This is a radical confession of the truth that in our rebellion nothing we think or feel is good. It is all part of our rebellion. That also makes grace all that much sweeter and the Ultimate gift given to us all that much more central.  It creates complete and utter reliance on the atoning work of Christ.

Our rebellion is totally deserving of eternal punishment. On our own, there is nothing we can do to reach God and nothing we can do that is “good.”  Ephesians 2:3 goes on to say that in our deadness and separation, we were "children of wrath." That is, we were under God's wrath because of the corruption of our hearts that made us as good as dead before God.

The reality of hell is God's clear indictment of the infiniteness of our guilt. If our corruption were not deserving of an eternal punishment God would be unjust to threaten us with a punishment so severe as eternal torment. But the Scriptures teach that God is just in condemning unbelievers to eternal hell (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9; Matthew 5:29f; 10:28; 13:49f; 18:8f; 25:46; Revelation 14:9-11; 20:10). Therefore, to the extent that hell is a total sentence of condemnation, to that extent must we think of ourselves as totally blameworthy apart from the saving grace of God.

I’d be very interested in hearing your response to this.  I know we have some conflicting views on this subject.  I just hope and pray that both of us will be able to be humble enough to realize any possible error in thinking.  It’s hard to sharpen iron if it doesn’t want to be sharpened, right?  Let’s be sharpenable.

Lemme know what you think.  Can a non-believer do good with pure intentions?

Because of Him,

Joe Hylander