ANTHROPOLOGY
The Study of Man
4 What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him?
And the son of man, that Thou
dost care for him?
5 Yet Thou
hast made him a little lower than God,
And dost crown him with glory and majesty!
6 Thou
dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands;
Thou hast put all things under his feet,
7 All
sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
8 The
birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. (Psalm 8:4-8).
What
is man? The Psalmist asks this as a
rhetorical question. It expects no
actual answer. What is man? Is he worthy of God’s consideration? No.
The only reason that God considers man is because of God’s own mercy and
grace.
We
can imagine that David wrote this Psalm one evening as he looked out into the
silver starlight over
Go
out and look at an anthill. Those ants
are so much smaller and so much more insignificant than you are. The gap between God and man is infinitely
greater than that which is between you and those ants. And yet, God has not only bothered with man,
but He has crowned him with glory and honor and has appointed him over the
creation and has put all things in subjection under his feet.
Mankind
today is going through an identity crisis.
He is seeking to find out who and what he is. He is looking for meaning to his life. He is searching for some basis of
self-worth. He has not been able to find
the answer to this quest in modern science.
Modern science told he that he is merely a chance happening, a random
collection of genetic mistakes. This
left him without any basis for self worth.
Postmodernism
came along and rejected the conclusions of modernism, but has nothing with
which to replace it. Man has been left
to try to re-invent himself, knowing that such re-invention is too shallow a
foundation upon which to find his needed self worth.
The
only real answer to man’s identity crisis is found in the Word of God. By looking into the Scriptures, I can learn
who I am and what I am. It is here that
I can find that I have worth. God has
declared that I have infinite worth, since He paid an infinite price for me
when He sent His Son to die in my place.
It
is a common phenomena that the way we think about
ourselves is not based upon how we see ourselves, but upon how we think that
others think of us. The Christian is to
have a different perspective. He is to
see himself based upon how God thinks of him.
God has said that you are valuable.
He has placed infinite value upon you.
You were made in His image and after His likeness. You can know who you are and what you are.
Man
has been given an exalted in creation.
That position will one day be exalted even higher. The writer to the Hebrews says that man is
only a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:7). That is quite high. That is higher than anything else in
creation. But this lower status is not
permanent. It is only for a “little
while.” There is coming a day when man
will be equal to the angels. Jesus said
that those who attain to the resurrection of the dead will be like the angels
(Luke 20:34-36).
THE
ORIGIN OF MAN
26 Then
God said, "Let Us make man in Our image,
according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over
the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 And God
created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and
female He created them. (Genesis 1:26-27).
The
creation of man was the crowning of God’s creation. It serves as the climax of the creation
account. That account describes the
origins of light, of dry land, of birds and fish and animals. Each of those creative acts were introduced with similar language:
Let there be light...
Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters...
Let the earth sprout vegetation...
Let the earth bring forth living creatures...
Now
we find something different. It is a new
formula. It breaks the mold of the
previous descriptions of God’s workings and brings our attention to a new
endeavor.
Let Us make man in Our image,
according to Our likeness...
There
is a special care and concern taken in the creation of man. It is seen in the use of the plural: Let
US make man. Some have seen this as
an early indication of the Trinity.
Others see it as a use of the plural of majesty. In either case, it reflects a special care
and concern in God’s deliberations as God prepares to create that which is
special.
1. In the Image and Likeness of God.
There is, on the one hand, a sense in which man is
like the rest of creation. He is a
creature along with all the rest of the creatures. He was created along with the rest of
creation.
|
God ------------------------------ Man Animals Birds and Fish Vegetation Heavens and Earth |
There is a barrier between God and the rest of His
creation. God is set apart from His
creation in the sense that He is “other” than His creation. He is unique.
He alone had no beginning. He
alone is infinite. At the same time,
there is another sense in which man is joined to God and set apart from the
rest of creation.
|
God Man ----------------------------------- Animals Birds and Fish Vegetation Heavens and Earth |
|
Wayne Grudem points out that
“when the Creator of the universe wanted to create something ‘in His image,’
something more like himself than all the rest of creation, He made
us. This realization will give us a
profound sense of dignity and significance as we reflect on the excellence of
all the rest of God’s creation: the starry universe, the abundant earth, the
world of plants and animals, and the angelic kingdoms are remarkable, even
magnificent. But we are more like our
Creator than any of those things” (1994:449). |
Man has been created in the image of God. That fact sets him apart from the rest of
creation. He is not just an advanced
animal. He is distinct in sharing the
image and the likeness of his Creator.
2. Ramifications of Man’s Image and Likeness.
When we speak of man being in the “image and likeness”
of God, this presents a problem. God is
invisible. He has no outward image or likeness. How then can man be said to be made in the
image and likeness of God? Theologians
have suggested a number of ways.
a. Dominion.
This is suggested in the context of Genesis 1. Following the mention of man being made in
the image and likeness of God, the writer goes on to speak in the very next
verse of the dominion that man is to have over the rest of creation.
And
God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
(Genesis 1:28).
Man is in God’s place, the place of rulership, with
respect to the rest of life on this planet.
He is the divine representative on planet earth. He has been given the position of federal
headship over the earth. It is because
of this that man’s fall was able to impact all of the rest of creation. When man fell into sin, the rest of creation
followed suit because it was under man’s dominion.
b. Self consciousness.
Man is aware of his own existence and is able to think
and to meditate upon who and what he is.
c. Moral reason.
Man feels that he ought to do what is right. He has been given a conscience that urges him
to do what is right and to refrain from doing that which is wrong. That does not mean the conscience always
gives the correct answer to what is right or wrong. The Bible tells us that the conscience can be
seared (1 Timothy 4:2). It can be so hardened that it becomes
insensitive to that to which it was once sensitive.
d. Intellect and Creativity.
Man has a much greater mental and intellectual
capacity than is found in animals.
Though animals often have keener eyesight, greater strength, faster
reflexes, and a hardier stamina, it is at the point of his intellect and
creativity that man is seen to be superior.
e. Free volition.
Man has volitional capabilities and is able to make
decisions. That does not mean he is able
to exercise that volition apart from his nature, but he does make decisions
within the realm allowed by the bounds of his nature.
Such a statement does not discount or diminish the
sovereignty of God. Man’s free will
operates within the framework of God’s plan and purposes. Man’s will flows through the channels laid by
the sovereignty of God. The king's
heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever
He wishes. (Proverbs 21:1).
f. Spiritual capacity.
It has been said that man is the only religious
animal. This is one of the things that sets man apart from the rest of creation. No animal has ever been seen building an
altar or praying to God. It is true that
this spiritual capacity to communicate with God has often been distorted by
sin. Men have turned away from the one
true God to worship idols of wood and stone.
Yet even in this, man demonstrates his spiritual capacity, for there is
within the unbeliever a God-shaped vacuum that he tries to fill with various
religious systems and idolatries. Man is
a worshiping creature. He always
worships something.
Man continues to be in the image of God today,
although that image has been tarnished and diminished by sin.
|
At Creation |
Man made in the
image and likeness of God |
|
At the Fall |
God’s image in
man distorted, but not lost |
|
At Regeneration |
Man enters into
a progressive recovering of more and more of God’s image |
|
At Christ’s Return |
Redeemed man
will be completely restored to God’s image. |
It is due to our understanding of man being in the
image of God that we have a basis for seeing others with worth and
dignity. Because we are in the image of
God, we can say that...
• Racism
is wrong because we are all descended from the same parents who were made in
the image of God.
• Abortion
and euthanasia involve taking the life of that which is in the image of God.
• Civil
rights are based on the idea that all men are created in the same image. Genesis 9:6 is specific to link the reason
that murder is wrong is because murder involves the slaying of one who is made
in the image of God.
The evolutionist has no basis for seeing racism as
wrong since a particular race or people might be seen as having a higher
position up the evolutionary scale. He
has no basis for seeing value in the unborn or in the aged because he holds
instead to the survival of the fittest and they do not qualify. He has no basis for supporting civil rights
for all people because not all people are equal.
3. The Man’s Body and Soul:
Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis
2:7).
|
The Hebrew actually speaks of God breathing into
his nostrils the “breath of lives.”
But we should not read too much into this plural usage. It is a Hebrew colloquialism to speak of
life in the plural. |
Man’s body was
formed of dust from the ground. This is
a play on words. Ha-Adam was
formed of dust from Ha-Adamah. Man’s very name is taken from the source from
which his body is created. Yet the
creation of man’s physical frame was not the sum of his existence. He is more than a biological entity. There is something special about His
substance, for the Lord Himself is seen inbreathing life into him.
There is a sense
in which we were all once like Adam before he received this breath of
life. We were all once spiritually
lifeless. We were spiritually dead in
our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).
We could do nothing to make ourselves alive. It took a creative act of God to bring
spiritual life into us.
The fact that the
body was created by God underscores the fact that the body is intrinsically
good. This stands in contrast to Greek
thought that said the spirit is good while the body is bad.
Yet the creation
of man’s physical frame was not the sum of his existence. He is more than a biological entity. The Lord then breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life; and man became a living being, literally, “He became a
SOUL.”
The soul speaks of
that inner part of a man. It is your
life force. It is who you are apart from
your physical body.
James tells us
that the body without the spirit is dead (James 2:26). Likewise the Preacher speaks of how a man
dies and then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit
will return to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Speaking from the vantage of one who looks at
life “under the sun,” he elsewhere says that the fate of the sons of men and
the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all
have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is
vanity. 20 All go to the same place. All came from the dust and
all return to the dust (Ecclesiastes
3:19-20). Thus for physical life to be
present, it seems evident that there must be both soul and spirit.
In view of all
that the Bible says concerning the spiritual life, one is tempted to maintain
that the spirit is somehow created and/or enlivened by the process of
regeneration. However both James 2:26
and Ecclesiastes 12:7 describe the human spirit as being a functioning part of
mankind in general and not merely on behalf of the regenerate man. When Moses wished to speak of all of the
human life that died in the flood, he described it as all in whose nostrils
was the breath of the spirit of life (Genesis 7:22).
4. Man’s
Rulership: And God blessed them; and
God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and
subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and
over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:28).
We have already
noted that man was given dominion and rulership over the world. This was a delegated position as he was
called to rule the earth on behalf of God by virtue of the fact that he was
made in the image and likeness of God.
That likeness was
distorted by man’s fall into sin. When
man sinned, he gave up his right to rule over creation. The created was cursed on his behalf. Animals became wild and would threaten
him. Thorns and thistles rose up against
him. The plant kingdom would no longer
serve him and he must labor over crops in order to eat their produce. To this day, the creation groans and travails
over the effects of the curse.
For we know that the whole
creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Romans
8:22).
But there is hope.
The same Christ who died for us to
redeem us from sin will also one day redeem the world from the effects of the
curse.
19 For the anxious longing
of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the
creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who
subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from
its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
(Romans 8:19-21).
Just as man was
enslaved to sin, so also the entire creation today suffers under the effects of
sin. In the same way that we have been
delivered from the bondage of sin, so also the creation looks forward to a
coming deliverance.
5. Man’s
Sexuality: And God created man in His
own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them
(Genesis 1:27).
Genesis 1
describes the creation of both the male and the female. The term “man” in this passage is therefore
to be treated as gender neutral. Man was
both male and female. The details of the forming of separate genders is set forth in
the second chapter of Genesis.
Then the LORD God said, “It is
not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
(Genesis 2:18).
The woman is
designed to be a “helper suitable.” Of
special interest to us is this term “helper.”
'Izer is the noun form of the Hebrew
verb 'Azar, “to help.” The noun is used most often in the Old
Testament, not to describe the role of the woman, but rather to describe God Himself
in His helping us (Exodus 18:4; Deuteronomy 33:7; 33:26; 33:29).
This helps us to
understand that woman was not created to be a mere underling (we would never
think of defining God that way), but rather as one who standing beside and
works together with him. It was not
until later, as a result of the fall, that sin brought
about a change which has been reflected all throughout history.
It should be
remembered that there was not a separate word in the Hebrew (or in the Koine
Greek) for husband and wife. Normally
when you see the word "husband" in the Hebrew, it is either ISH
("man") or BA'AL ("lord" is the same term used of
the false god of the Canaanites). By the
same token, when you see the word "wife" in the Old Testament, it is
nearly always the Hebrew word ISHA (female of ISH) and can be
translated simply as "woman."
The context makes it clear that ALL women are not designed to be helpers standing with ALL men, but rather that this is
descriptive of a special husband and wife relationship. The foundation for this relationship is
described in this chapter.
For this cause a man shall leave
his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become
one flesh (Genesis 2:24).
There are three
verbs used in this verse. They describe
the action involved in the making of a marriage.
• Leave.
There is to
be the breaking off from the old family as the two people come together to
begin their new family.
• Cleave.
The couple
is now to be glued together. There is a
releasing from the first relationship so that there can be holding to this new
relationship. This is the ordinance of
marriage.
Every once
in a while, I come across someone who has the idea that marriage is what takes
place in sex. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Marriage involves a
commitment. It involves the joining of
two people so that they become a single entity.
• Become one flesh.
The joining
together of a husband and wife is physically manifested in their sexual
union. This was designed to bring them
into a physical intimacy that is to mirror their emotional and spiritual
intimacy. Both marriage and sex were
instituted by God before sin entered the world.
The perfect environment of the Garden of Eden included sex and marriage.
Reproduction
is not mentioned in this chapter.
Genesis 1 relates the command to multiply and fill the earth, but no
such injunction is repeated here. This
implication is that the sexual union is to be more than a mere means of
procreation. It was designed to
consummate and to bond a marriage.
Marriage involves
a separation from the previous son/daughter relationships and a binding
together of the two marriage partners in a new relationship. This is a COMMITMENT. It involves a joining of two people so that
they become a single entity. This is
physically illustrated in the sexual union, but it does not end there. It extends to every area of life. You are no longer two separate people. You are now a single entity.
This is not an
easy process. When two people who have
totally diverse backgrounds get together and try to become one, there is going
to be friction. It will be like two
porcupines who try to snuggle up together to keep warm. There will invariably be sticking
points. This takes place because you
each have been brought up with a different set of customs, a different set of
values, and a different set of ideas.
I’ve heard couples
comment, “Those things won’t matter because we are so much in love.” Then, three weeks into the marriage, that
loving wife tells you to take out the garbage and you answer, “I’m not supposed
to take out the garbage. After all, my
father never took out the garbage.”
Do you see the problem? It is that you were each raised under a
different set of house rules. Many of
those house rules were unspoken. They
were simply understood. But that new
marriage partner is unfamiliar to the new mate’s house rules. It takes some time for a new couple to adjust
and to redevelop their own house rules.
That is why in-laws can be such a problem. When a young couple go
to visit the parents, the child of those parents knows and understands all of
the unspoken house rules. But the
partner of that child is in unfamiliar territory. It is like trying to graft a lemon onto an
apple tree. There is friction and that
friction can turn into trouble.
The joining of two people into one is meant to be
permanent. It is “till death do you
part.” I believe marriage in the church
today would be transformed if each couple going into marriage accepted the
presupposition that there is no way out.
If there is no way out, then you will have to solve any relational
problems that arise. The moment you
consider divorce as a fire escape, it will not be long before you are moving in
that direction.
MAN’S
FALL INTO SIN
When
you look at man today, he is abnormal.
He is abnormal because he is not the way he was created to be. On the one hand, there is a
nobility about him. He sometimes
reflects the greatness of the image and likeness of God. On the other hand, there is a cruel part of
man. This part of man did not belong to
man from the beginning. There is a part
of man that is evil and which fills him with guilt and shame.
The
Biblical account of man’s transition from righteousness to sin is found in
Genesis 3. Genesis 2 closes with the man
and the woman in the garden. At the
beginning of chapter 3, we are introduced to a new character. It is the serpent.
1. The Temptation.
Now
the serpent was more crafty than any east of the field
which the Lord God had made. And he said
to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the
garden’?”
And
the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we
may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst
of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you
die.’”
And
the serpent said to the woman, “You surely shall not die! 5 For God knows that in the
day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5).
Rabbinic legend has it that the serpent originally
walked erect and that it was not until God’s curse on this animal in Genesis
3:14 that it was reduced to moving upon its belly. There is nothing in the Bible to specifically
state such a position and therefore such an interpretation is reduced to mere
speculation. The significant actor here
is not the snake, but the true power behind the snake—that old serpent, the
devil.
Satan often works through intermediate agencies. He uses fallen angels. We refer to them as demons. He also uses human agents, either through
possession or merely through indirect manipulation. In this case, it seems logical to assume that
he utilized an animal. Such an example
of the manipulation of animals was seen in Matthew 8:28-32 when Jesus can
demons out of two men and permitted them to enter into a herd of pigs.
In this case, Satan was careful to appear in a form
that would not arouse terror or revulsion in the woman. He came in the guise of a beast of the
field. There is a lesson here. It is that Satan does not go around with a
red suit and a pitchfork. He is a counterfeiter
and a deceiver. He dresses in the
clothes of the clergy and he speaks religious words, making his lies attractive.
His tactics, as demonstrated in this passage, involved
suggesting was seemed to be a harmless gratification of a natural desire. He does not present himself as an enemy of
God, but only as a neutral bystander who is somehow surprised by what he
presents as God’s unreasonable demand.
He works to place God on trial in the mind of the woman. She will be asked to pass judgment upon the
actions of God.
People do the same thing today when they ask, “How
could a loving God pass judgment upon people?”
When they ask such a question, they are following in the footsteps of
Satan as he denies God’s promise of judgment.
The idea that there is no future judgment comes from Satan himself.
2. The Sin.
When
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the
eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit
and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6).
The Lord had given some very specific instructions
regarding their behavior in the Garden.
There was a great deal of liberty regarding their actions with only a
single prohibition given.
And
the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “from any tree of the garden you may
eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.”
(Genesis 2:16-17).
This condition gave man the freedom to choose for God
or against God. He could obey and live
or he could disobey and die. There are
several things which we ought to note from this temptation.
a. First of all, notice that the temptation came from an
outside source.
There was nothing within them to tempt
themselves. Allow me to let you in on a
secret. I don’t need an outside source
to tempt me to sin. And neither do
you. I have something within me that
like sin - that finds sin fun. It isn’t
that the “devil made me do it.” It is
that I WANTED to do it.
We call this a sin nature. It is an orientation to sin. But Adam and Eve were not created in this
way. They had no orientation to
sin. They had the ability to choose not
to sin. And so, their choice to sin was
all the more despicable.
b. The temptation began by questioning and misdirection: And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God
said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
|
The
serpent plays the role of a neutral bystander who is shocked by the
limitation God has placed upon His creatures.
He is placing God on trial. The
same argument is used when the unbeliever asks, “How could a loving God pass
judgment upon His people?” |
The serpent did not begin the conversation with an
immediate denial of what God had said.
Instead, he merely posed the question of what God had said. He did this by means of a deliberate misquote
of the words of God. He asked, “Is it
true that God will not let you eat from ANY of the trees of the garden?” The question is designed to make the woman
focus upon that particular tree that was forbidden.
Satan’s tactics have not changed. He continues to draw your attention to that
which is forbidden. In so doing, he
draws your attention away from that which God has given you.
c. The temptation proceeded with a misunderstanding of the
danger: And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the
trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst
of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you
die.’” (3:3-4).
In repeating the prohibition, the woman says that they
are not permitted either to eat or even to touch the forbidden fruit. Yet when the prohibition is initially given
in Generis 2:16-17, there is no mention of a prohibition against touching the
fruit. It is only eating the fruit that
is forbidden.
This may reflect a misunderstanding on the part of the
woman. She may have thought there was
something physically poisonous about the fruit.
This created a conflict in her mind when she looked at the tree and it
looked good.
d. The woman looked at the tree and it looked good -- she saw
that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and
that the tree was desirable to make one wise (3:6).
If you let your life be driven by what looks good, you
will doom your life to an existence of sin and misery. We are never called to follow that which
looks good. We are called to follow that
which IS good.
There are three areas of impact that are mentioned in
light of this temptation. These three
areas correspond to three types of temptation outline in 1 John 2:16. For all that is in the world, the lust of
the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from
the Father, but is from the world. (1 John 2:16).
|
The tree was... |
Good... |
Delight... |
Desirable... |
|
for food |
to the eyes |
to make one
wise |
|
|
The lust of the
flesh |
The lust of the
eyes |
The boastful
pride of life |
Temptation is like that. It does not just manifest itself in one
form. Its attractions are often
multifaceted.
It is almost as though it were an afterthought that
the text adds that she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. We are not given any further details as to
his involvement in the temptation, though it is striking that her husband was with
her and that this may have also been true throughout the temptations. Some have speculated that Adam’s sin was
deliberate while Eve’s was the result of her temptation. The words of Paul are used to give evidence
to such an idea.
And
it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into
transgression. (1 Timothy 2:14).
Paul’s words are evidently citing the temptation and
fall. When he points out that it was not
Adam who was deceived, he is citing the woman as the object of the original
temptation. It is an unwarranted
assumption to conclude that Adam’s involvement in the transgression was beyond
that of a passive participant in following the example of his wife.
THE
RESULTS OF SIN
A
surface reading of the passage seems to indicate that the Serpent initially
told the truth. Their eyes WERE opened. They DID come to and experiential
understanding of good and evil. And most
importantly, they didn’t die! Or did
they?
If
we may read between the lines, then let me suggest that a death DID take place
on that day. It was a spiritual
death. Their ability to freely
communicate with God was disrupted. This
is seen in their reaction to the presence of God.
And
they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the
day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8).
Have
you ever walked into a room and turned on the lights and seen a big
cockroach? What does it do? It scurries out of the light. It hates the light. It tries to hide from the light. Adam and Eve tried to do the same thing.
And
this is judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the
darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil.
For
everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest
his deeds should be exposed. (John 3:19-20).
It’s
easy to be dirty in the dark. It doesn’t
show. But put a bright light on dirt and
everyone can see it. So it is with sin. Sin doesn’t look so bad when you get away
from the presence of the Lord. But when
HE comes, sin looks awful. That is why
pagans don’t like to be around Christians.
It makes them feel strangely uncomfortable.
Furthermore,
there was also the beginnings of a physical death that
would eventually come upon the human race as a result of Adam’s sin. They did not die immediately, but their
eventual death and decay was no less certain.
Finally,
the human race would stand in danger of eternal death. Hell was not created for man. It was prepared for the devil and his angels
(Matthew 25:41). But when man became a
follower of Satan in his rebellion against God, hell became man’s ultimate
destination.
We
therefore can conclude that a number of things happened to Adam and Eve upon
the eating of the forbidden fruit. Three
deaths took place.
1. Spiritual Death.
In describing the pre‑regeneration experiences
of the Ephesians, Paul says, You were dead in your
trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).
He goes on to say that there came a time when God, being rich in
mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even
when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4‑5). Colossians 2:13 speaks similarly of when
you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven
us all our transgressions.
This is why a new birth is necessary. Sin brings about a spiritual death and the
solution is a spiritual rebirth.
2. Physical Death.
The bodies of Adam and Eve began a process that would
one day culminate in physical death.
They did not die immediately, but their eventual physical death was now
a certainty. This same curse of death
was passed on to all of creation.
It is appointed for men to die once and after this
comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). This is evidently a reference to physical
death.
3. Eternal Death.
Adam and Eve and all of their descendants became
subject to the final judgment and to the resulting eternal death. Matthew 25:41 speaks of this eternal death as
having been created for the devil and his angels. As mankind has become a follower of Satan in
his rebellion against God, so Satan’s destiny has become man’s destiny.
On four separate occasions the book of Revelation
speaks of the "Second Death."
This is defined in 21:8 as that time when all sinners are placed into
the
4. The Federal Effects of Sin:
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and
death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned (Romans
5:12).
Having followed his wife into sin, Adam now became a
sinful being, different than the way in which he had been created. Following God’s natural laws, Adam’s
offspring would be “after his kind,” having a sinful nature and spiritually
dead from birth.
When Adam sinned, there was a sense in which all men
are said to have sinned. He was acting
as the official representative of the human race. Adam’s sin was credited to all of his
descendants. It did not matter that you
had not yet been born. It did not matter
that you had not yet been given to opportunity to sin. Adam sinned in your place.
When Congress declared war on
Notice that sin did not come by "one
woman." The woman was not the head
of the human race. Man was responsible,
even though it was the woman who first sinned.
Why? Because
man was the woman's head. The
fact that he stood back and took a passive role in her temptation does not
change his headship. What does Paul mean
when he says that “all sinned”?
He does not mean that all sinned individually. He means that all sinned in Adam.
For
until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no
law. (Romans 5:13).
Paul has already demonstrated that sin and death
always go together (Romans 3:23).
Wherever you see one, you will also see the other. Satan always tries to divide them. “You shall not surely die.” And the world has always believed this
lie. You cannot sin with impunity. If you sin, you will soon smell the odor of
death.
Here he brings up another point. It is that sin existed without law even
though, by strict definition, there is no sin without law. The syllogism goes like this:
|
Major Premise |
Sin is imputed
to the one who breaks God's Law. |
|
Minor Premise |
There was a
time when sin was in the world but when the Law had not been given. |
|
Conclusion |
Sin was imputed
some other way besides the breaking of God's Law - IE, through the sin of
Adam. |
It is impossible to sin when there are no commands to
sin against. It is impossible to break
the speed limit when there is no speed limit.
Yet prior to the law, “sin was in the world.” How do we know that sin was in the
world? Because death
reigned. Those long genealogies
in Genesis over which we normally skip contain a continuing refrain with
each name mentioned: “And he died.”
|
Adam sinned and death entered. The result was that "all sinned." |
Death
reigned → |
The Law was given to Moses at |
|
Verses 13-14 prove the doctrine of imputation of
sin presented in verse 12. |
Sin is not imputed where there is no law (Romans 5:13c).
You cannot disobey God's law unless He has given a law. Anyone living after Adam but before Moses
could not break any of God's laws because God had not given any laws. On the other hand, people continued to die
during the period between Adam and Moses.
However, the penalty of death was not inflicted upon
men because of their transgression of the Law.
Therefore, the reason that death reigned from Adam to Moses was because
of Adam's sin.
Nevertheless
death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the
likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. (Romans
5:14).
If sin always is accompanied by death, then how could
death reign in the period from Adam to Moses if sin had not been legally
imputed? It is because Adam’s sin WAS
imputed.
We often ask, “What about the man in
In this way. Adam was a type of Christ (“a type of Him who was
to come” - 5:14). Adam was a type of
Christ in this respect — that he served as a federal head of many. He sinned.
His actions were imputed to others.
Christ also served as the federal head of many. He performed a single act - dying upon the
cross. Like Adam, the actions of Christ
actions were imputed to others. Just as
all are said to have sinned in Adam, in the eyes of the law, all who were
identified with Christ were crucified with Him.
UNREGENERATE
MAN
Since
the fall, unregenerate man has been characterized by a quality of
sinfulness. The Westminster Confession
defines sin as “any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of
God.” This definition is taken from the
pages of John’s first epistle.
Everyone
who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. (1 John
3:4).
All
unrighteousness is sin... (1 John 5:17a).
In
addressing those who had rejected Him, Jesus spoke of the nature of the one who
follows in the footsteps of Satan.
You
are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He
was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own
nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. (John 8:44).
The
word “nature” is supplied by the translators, yet the idea is present as it
tells us that the devil speaks from what he is.
He is a liar and a liar tells lies.
That is what makes him a liar. In
much the same way, we can say that sinners sin because they are sinners. It is who they are. It is a part of their nature to sin.
1. Sin is a continuing choice.
Though this sin has been both imputed and inherited,
it is also the result of man’s continuing choice. Man continues to be in a state of ongoing
rebellion against God.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness (Romans 1:18).
Paul’s language is set in the most general terms. He takes us to a vantage point from which we
can look at unregenerate man as a whole.
It is not that unregenerate man has no knowledge of what is true. God has revealed truth to him. It is that he makes a decision to suppress
that truth and to replace it with a lie of his own making.
This brings up an interesting point. It is that no one can stop believing. There is something within you that demands
you believe in something. You cannot
help yourself. You are a believing
creature. If you do not believe in God,
then you will necessarily turn to believe in something else.
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as
God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their
foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and
exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of
corruptible man and of birds and four‑footed animals and crawling
creatures. (Romans 1:21-23).
When unregenerate man worships, he does not do it to
get to the true God, but to move away from Him.
Marx said that religion is the opium of the people, but the truth is
that religion is an attempt to escape from God by constructing a
substitute. Unregenerate man wants to
worship a god of his own making.
2. Sin has an absolute character.
There is no neutral condition between good and evil,
although there are degrees of both. You
cannot remain neutral either to God or to sin.
You are always on one side or the other.
He
who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not
gather with Me scatters. (Matthew 12:30).
You are never in neutral. You are either moving toward the Lord or you
are moving away from Him. You are either
on His side or you are against Him.
The myth of philosophic neutrality says that man is
able to look at God objectively and is able to make a decision about God merely
by weighing the evidence for or against his existence. The truth is that no one is neutral when it
comes to God. You are either for Him or
you are against Him. Jesus said this in
very straightforward terms.
He
who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not
gather with Me scatters. (Matthew 12:30).
The corollary to this principle is that its opposite
is also true. Jesus went on to say on
another instance, “He who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). The point is that it is impossible to be
neutral to the Lord. You are either on
His side or you are against Him. You are
either unregenerate or you are regenerate.
You are either born again or you are still in your sins.
3. Sin is not limited to overt acts.
The Pharisees seem to have adopted the idea that sin
only involved overt and outward actions.
You
have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'; 28 but I
say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed
adultery with her already in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28).
The law of God forbids men and women to engage in
sexual relations outside the bonds of marriage.
Jesus teaches us that this law does far more than to merely forbid
outward actions. It also teaches an
inward attitude.
The Pharisees taught that you should not commit
adultery, but it was assumed that anything short of adultery was
permissible. Such a stance ignores the
commandment which says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Exodus
20:17). The law against coveting speaks
against the corresponding inner attitudes pertaining to all of the other
commandments.
The standard given by Jesus goes far beyond that which
was held by the scribes and the Pharisees.
They were concerned with outward appearances. They said, “Look, but don’t touch.” Jesus said, “Don’t even look.” He is saying that God is not only concerned
with what you do but also with what you THINK.
This is not a new teaching.
If I regard wickedness in my heart,
The Lord will not hear (Psalm 66:18).
Does this mean if you see a pretty girl and find her
attractive, that you have sinned? Does
it mean that if you find yourself suddenly tempted with an impure thought that
you are in sin? I do not think so. Rather, it is when you take that impure
thought and begin to entertain it that you move from natural desires to sin.
4. The Transmission of Sin.
Man was created in the image and likeness of God
(Genesis 1:26-27). We have defined that
in the context of Genesis to speak of his rulership over the creation, though
these are likely many other points of similarity. When Adam fell into sin, that image was
tarnished and infected with the disease of sin.
Adam’s descendants were not born in the image of God, but in Adam’s
fallen image.
When
Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in
his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. (Genesis 5:3).
Adam’s sinful state was passed on to all of his
descendants so that all men find themselves in a sinful state. Man continues to be in the image of God (1
Corinthians 11:7; James 3:9), but that is today a tarnished image in that God
is without sin while man is a sinner.
5. The Universality of Sin.
The Scriptures uniformly teach that all of mankind is
in a state of sin. All have sinned and
all continue to sin.
2 The LORD
has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men,
To see if there are any who understand,
Who seek after God.
3 They
have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good,
not even one. (Psalm 14:2-3).
Who can say, "I have cleansed my heart,
I am pure from my sin "? (Proverbs 20:9).
Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who
continually does good and who never sins. (Ecclesiastes 7:20).
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
(Romans 3:23).
The parallel passages in 1 John 1:8 and 10 are
particularly compelling as they speak both to our present condition as well as
our past condition.
|
1 John 1:8 |
1 John 1:10 |
|
If we say that
we have no sin... |
If we say that
we have not sinned... |
|
...we are
deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. |
...we make Him
a liar, and His word is not in us. |
Each of these passages bears testimony of man’s fallen
condition. We have all sinned and fallen
short of that which is commanded us by our Creator. We are sinners BOTH because we sin and also
because it is our nature to sin.
And
you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which
you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons
of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of
our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Ephesians 2:1-3).
Notice the part of this description that describes the
state of the unbeliever as being “by nature” a child of wrath. The story is told of a man living in
6. The Extent of Sin.
It has become customary to speak in theological circles
of “total depravity.” What does this
term imply?
|
It does NOT mean... |
It DOES mean... |
|
• That every
man is as bad as he can be. • That the
sinner has no knowledge of God. • That the
sinner has no conscience that can discriminate between good and evil. • That man is
no longer in the image of God. |
• That every
part of man has been affected and infected by sin. • That the
sinner has no spiritual good within himself that makes him deserving of God’s
mercy. |
Total depravity means that you are a total sinner, but
it does not mean that you sin totally.
When we speak of total depravity, we should also speak of man’s total
inability. By this, we mean that man in
his own strength is unable to fulfill the demands of God’s law. Indeed, he is unable even to appropriate the
things of the Lord.
But a natural man does not accept
the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot
understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart,
the unbeliever does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. He looks at the things of the Spirit of God
and wants no part of them because he deems them to be foolishness. It is only when the Spirit has come and done
a regenerating work within him that he will begin to accept the things of the
Spirit of God.
Paul describes the unregenerate man when he speaks to
the Ephesians about their former lifestyle prior to coming to Christ.
And
you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which
you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons
of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of
our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Ephesians 2:1-3).
Notice the elements of this description. It speaks to your former condition, your
former manner of life, and your former family connection.
• Spiritually
dead: You were dead in your
trespasses and sins (2:1).
• Walking
in sin: You formerly walked according
to the course of this world (2:2).
• By
nature children of wrath: We... were by nature children of wrath (2:3).
A pig acts like a pig because he is a pig by
nature. It is a part of his makeup and
nature to act in such a way. You can
dress him up and give him sheep lessons, but the pig nature will eventually
emerge.
7. Benefits of Understanding Total Depravity.
There are good and sufficient reasons why the doctrine
of total depravity is presented in the Bible and why we ought to be aware of
this teaching.
• It
will stop you from unjustly judging others.
We are warned against judging until we have first judged ourselves
(Matthew 7:5). That does not mean you
cannot discern the sin in someone else and it does not disallow church
discipline to take place, but it means that we enter into such activities with
a sense of our own failings.
|
A wrong view of the disease will always bring with it a wrong view of
the remedy. |
• It
will clear up any false teachings regarding your own works for salvation. We ARE saved by works; but it is not our own
works of righteousness, but those done by Jesus Christ and imputed to us
through faith.
• It
will help you to understand yourself.
God, in His grace, only lets you see the tip of the iceberg of the sin
in your own heart. As you grow in
Christ, He sometimes allows you to see just a little more. Such self revelations are designed to drive
you to the cross.
THE
REGENERATE MAN
The
Scriptures portray two kinds of men.
There are those who are saved and those who are unsaved. There are those who are spiritually alive and
those who are spiritually dead. All of
mankind was plunged into spiritual death through the fall of Adam. If man is to have life, it must be through
the process of regeneration.
|
What
is Regeneration? It is that process
whereby God, operating through His Holy Spirit, makes the believer alive and
renewed unto Himself. |
1. From Death to Life.
And
you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which
you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons
of disobedience.
Among
them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the
rest. (Ephesians 2:1-3).
This passage begins with our past condition. It was one of death. There was a time when we were all spiritually
dead. The sphere of our death was in our
trespasses and sins. No matter what our
nationality, our religious or cultural background, we all share in this common
heritage. We were all dead in our
sins. We were helpless. A dead person cannot help himself. A dead person can do nothing for himself. There is no question of a dead person being
able to help himself. All the preaching
in the world will not save him or move him to action. He is dead.
When was the last time you saw a revival meeting in a
graveyard? A corpse cannot respond to
injunctions to change his life. He
cannot do anything. He is dead. If you are going to do anything at all with a
dead person, you must raise him from the dead.
He needs a new life. He needs a
resurrection. The turning point of this
hopeless situation comes in verse 4 with the words, “But God...”
But
God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even
when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by
grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-6).
This section is introduced with the conjunction,
“BUT.” We were dead, BUT God made us
alive. We were disobedient in following
after the world and the devil, BUT God raised us out of the world and out of
the domain of the devil. We were
depraved, BUT God seated us with Christ and gave us a new nature. We were doomed, BUT God showed us the
surpassing riches of His grace.
The contrast shows how we were apart from Christ
versus what God did to being us to life in Christ. You have seen those “before” and “after”
advertisements that are shown on television.
This is a similar showing. It
portrays a “before” and “after” we came to Christ:
|
The Way We Were |
What God Did |
||
|
Y O U |
Were dead in
your trespasses and sins |
B U T G O D |
Made us alive
together with Christ |
|
Walked... according to
the course of this world according to
the prince / the spirit |
Raised us up
with Him |
||
|
Formerly lived
in the lust of our flesh |
Seated us with
Him |
||
With
this simple conjunction (de), we are transported from death to life - from the
darkness of the grave to the light of everlasting life.
a. He
made us alive: Even when we were dead
in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5a).
We
have been reborn into God’s family. Just
as a baby is unable to give birth to itself, so we had nothing to do with
causing our own birth. It was given to
us, not by our own will, but in accordance with the will of God.
12 But as many as received
Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who
believe in His name, 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13).
We
have been born into a new life. We have
a new relationship with God and a new position in Christ. There is a wonderful newness in the life of
the Christian.
b. He
raised us up with Him: And raised us
up with Him... (Ephesians 2:6).
We
have already been resurrected in the mind of God. Just as Jesus rose from the dead, we are also
considered and reckoned to have risen from the dead. We have been identified with Christ and that
means we share all that belongs to Him.
We are reckoned to have been raised up with Him.
c. He
seated us with Him: And raised us up
with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
(Ephesians 2:6).
What
does it mean to be seated? It means that
the work is finished. That
the victory is complete. When a
priest went into the temple, the one thing that he never did was to sit
down. He was always standing in the
presence of God. Even when the animal
sacrifice had been offered, he still stood.
Because the next day there would have to be another sacrifice
offered. And another. And another. It was never-ending. But Jesus was the final sacrifice. When He died upon the cross, He said, “It is
finished!”
When
Jesus ascended into heaven, He sat down at the right hand of the Father. He sits at the side of God. It is a position of honor and authority. We hold the same position. We are reckoned to be seated in heaven with
Jesus. We are co-heirs with Christ.
The
utter magnitude of God’s gift to us beings us to an
obvious question. Why? Why has God acted like this? Why has God so richly gifted us? The answer is seen in verse 7:
So that in the
ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:7).
The
purpose of your salvation is everlasting.
It is so that throughout eternity you might be a trophy of God’s grace
and His kindness in Christ. You will be
the display of what God has done to deliver a human life from the bondage of
sin.
In
the second year of the War Between the States, an informer in the prison camp
at
Hearing
that Humphrey was under the sentence of death, a young man named Hiram Smith
came forward, explaining that he was unmarried and without a family. He asked permission to take the place of
Humphrey, stating that perhaps it would be better for a single man to die than
a man with a family.
I am
told that if you go to the cemetery of the
“This monument is dedicated to
the memory of Hiram Smith. The hero who
sleeps beneath the sod here was shot in
That
is what Christ has done for us. He has
become our substitute. And as a result,
we have become an eternal monument to the riches of His mercy and to the
overabundance of His grace.
2. The
Death of the Old Man.
3 Or do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His
death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through
baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through
the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans
6:3-4).
|
The major significance in baptism is IDENTIFICATION. When you are baptized, you are being
identified with the movement or church or religion or system of beliefs held
by those into whom you are being baptized. |
The
same identification truth is seen in this passage. When we were baptized into Christianity, we
were being identified with Jesus Christ and specifically with His death on the
cross. Because He died on the cross, you
are declared to have died with Him. You
were condemned to death because of your sins and the sentence of death was
carried out against Christ.
You
might be inclined to think it might have been better if the sentence of death
had merely been forgotten. But God does
not forget. He is righteous. His righteous nature demands that the
sentence of death be carried out. It was
carried out in Christ. He died in your
place. When you believed in Him, you
were identified with that death.
3. The
Birth of the New
22 Since
you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of
the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 23 for you
have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is,
through the living and abiding word of God. (1 Peter 1:22-23).
I
have a friend, Bill Iverson, who used to pose the following riddle: “Born once,
die twice. Born twice, die once.” The answer to the riddle is that the believer
has been born twice. His first birth was
a physical birth. His second birth is a
spiritual birth. The first birth brings
a life that will eventually perish. The
second birth brings a life that will never die.
Just
as the first birth gives certain characteristics and attributes to the newborn
baby, so also the new birth brings certain characteristics and attributes.
a. The
new man is your identity.
Many
Christians have been taught that the new man is merely a force or a “new
nature” that has come into them and which helps to guide them to do good. But this is too
shallow a view compared to the richness of what the Bible teaches. The new man is not something that has come
into you. It is what you have become.
Therefore if any man is in
Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things
have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The
believer is not just one who is indwelt by a new creature. He has actually become a new creature. We became a creature by the fact that we had
a Creator. We become a new creature in
the same way. There is One who performed a new creation and made new creatures of
us.
When
you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you were born again into
the family of God. You might not have
felt any physical change. Perhaps you
experienced no great emotional release.
Maybe you did not feel any different.
But you became a new person.
b. The new
man is growing.
When
you were born physically, you were a complete person. You probably had all of the usual number of
arms and legs, fingers and toes, eyes and ears.
However, this did not mean you were fully grown.
The
same is true of the new man. You have
been born again. You have become a child
of God. You are a new person, complete
in your new identity. But you still need
to grow.
Therefore we do not lose heart,
but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by
day. (2 Corinthians 4:16).
Scientists
tell us that from the day you were born, your physical body began to die. It continues this process until it finally
goes to the grave. Your eyesight will
dim, your hearing will fade, and your strength will wither. But you need not lose heart. The person that you have become is being
renewed day by day.
...but speaking the truth in
love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ
(Ephesians 4:15).
We
are becoming like Jesus Christ. When we
first believed, we became like Him in the same way that a baby is like the old
man he will one day become. Our goal is
to grow within the realm of those communicable attributes.
c. This
brings a new responsibility.
Privilege
always brings with it responsibility. If
you have been declared by God to be righteous, then you are also to live in a
righteous way. If you are deemed holy by
God, then you are to be holy. If you are
a son of God, then your manner of life should be such as befits a son of God.
22 ...that, in reference to
your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being
corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and
that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put
on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness
and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:22-24).
You
are no longer the old creature. He has
passed away. He is dead and buried. You are a new creation and that calls for a
new way of living.
The
problem is that many Christians continue to wear the rags of their former
manner of life. They continue to indulge
in the sinful habits of their old life.
Those things need to be laid aside.
They no longer have a legitimate part of your life. They do not fit you any longer. You should not be wearing them. They are like wearing someone else’s
clothes. You have a whole new set of
clothes. This new set of clothes matches
your new mind and your new self.
This
is not talking about physical clothes.
It does not mean you have to run around wearing a t-shirt that says,
“Holy Spirit” printed on it. This is not
physical clothing. It speaks of your
manner of life. You need to clothe
yourself in a manner of life that is in keeping with the new man that you have
now become.
This
brings us to a crucial question. What
about the presence of continuing sin in my life? If I have become a new creature, then why do
I continue to sin? The answer is found
in the problem of the flesh.
4. The
Problem of the Flesh.
But I say, walk by the Spirit,
and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the
flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that
you may not do the things that you please. (Galatians 5:16-17).
There
is an opposition between that which is “of the flesh” as opposed to the
Spirit. They are by nature in opposition
in the same way that the two poles of a magnet are opposed to one another. The practical result of this in the
Christian’s life is that you may not do the things that you please.
For we know that the Law is
spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not
practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with
the Law, confessing that it is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin
which indwells me. 18 For I know that nothing good
dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the
doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I wish, I
do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. (Romans 7:14-19).
Paul
says the problem of the believer is that he is still “of flesh.” It is this flesh—this presence of sin within
the believer—that remains in bondage to sin.
When the old man died, his corpse remained. Paul is not talking about your physical body,
for that would be Greek dualism that says the soul is good and the body is
bad. Instead, Paul is speaking of the
presence of sin that continues to make itself known within you. This sin is like a foreign invader—a
cancer. Because of this invader, you
find yourself doing the very things you know are inconsistent with your new
life. The result is a battle.
20 But if
I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but
sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me,
the one who wishes to do good. (Romans 7:20-21).
Paul
uses his own experience as a Christian to describe the ongoing struggle that is
experienced by the Christian as he seeks to follow Christ. He finds that he now has a new desire in his
new relationship with Christ, but that there is still a continuing struggle
with sin.
22 For I joyfully concur
with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different
law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and
making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. (Romans 7:22-23).
You
are involved in a battle. The
battleground is within you. The enemy is
that continuing presence of sin. Many
Christians have become virtual prisoners of war. But there is still hope, both for the present
and for the future.
For by these He has granted to us
His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world by lust. (2 Peter 1:4).
This
is not to say that the Christian is a schizophrenic. We are not two separate people. We are a new person. We have a new identity and that identity is
rooted in Christ. The Christian is one
who has been made a partaker of the divine nature. This new nature provides both the motivation
and the strength for a new way of living.
9 Do not lie to one
another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and
have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to
the image of the One who created him. (Colossians 3:9-10).
Paul
says the reason you are not to lie to one another is because you have a new
identity. You have laid aside the old
identity and have put on the new identity.
Furthermore, this new identity is constantly being renewed into the original
image of the Creator.
5. Provisions
for the
We
are not left without the necessary provisions and supplies for our battle. The Lord has provided four sources of
strength.
• The Word of God.
Psalm
119:11 says, Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that
I may not sin against Thee.” When
Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, He utilized the word of God
to defeat those temptations.
• The interceding Christ.
Hebrews
7:25 says that Jesus lives to make intercession for us. Hebrews 8:34 speaks of Christ who is at
the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
• The indwelling Spirit.
John
16:13 says that one of the ministries of the Spirit is to guide us into all
truth. He is our Guide and our
Helper. Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk in
the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Romans teaches us
that the Spirit also helps our weaknesses with regard to prayer.
• The encouraging Church.
Hebrews
10:25 warns us against forsaking our own assembling together, as is the
habit of some. By contrast, that
verse goes on to charge us with the ministry of encouraging one another.
6. Victory
in the
We
are not left in doubt as to the outcome of this spiritual battle. The message of the Scriptures is that Jesus
wins.
• The victory of the cross: And when you were dead in your
transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together
with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having
canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which
was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the
cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He
made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him
(Colossians 2:13-15).
When
Jesus died upon the cross, it looked for all the world
as though the powers of Satan had won.
The Son of God nailed spread-eagle on wooden crossbeams. The enemies of Christ
rejoicing and mocking Him. Thieves on either side of him joining in the taunting. Even the governor's taunting inscription
nailed to the cross, as if to say, “Here is what I think of the concept of a
Jewish king!”
Do
you remember the inscription? It read,
“Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
The Jewish leaders didn't like that and they petitioned Pilate to have
it changed, but he would not. And so, it
remained. It was the custom of that day
to post the crimes for which a criminal was being executed on the cross where
he hung. This would serve as a warning
to other would-be criminals. What was
the crime of Jesus? His crime was in
being the KING.
This
passage tells us there was another inscription posted on the cross that
day. It was an inscription unseen by
human eyes. It was the inscription "consisting
of decrees against us and which was hostile to us." It was the inscription of our sins. Don't miss this! Your sins were nailed to His cross. This indicates that He died for you.
Christ died — that's history.
Christ died for you — that's salvation.
A
student was taking a test in college and he wrote on his exam, “Only God could
pass this test.” When he got it back,
the professor had written on it, “God gets an A and you get an F.”
Christ
took the test and nailed it to His cross.
He passed the test for you. And
then He said, “NO MORE TESTS!”
• The present victory of faith.
1
John 5:4 tells us that whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this
is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
• A
continuing assurance of victory.
Philippians
1:6 says that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day
of Christ Jesus.
• The ultimate victory.
1 Corinthians 15:54 says that when this perishable
will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on
immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is
swallowed up in victory.
THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF
MAN
There are three differing
views that are held by scholars as to the essential nature of man.
1. Trichotomy.
This
view states that man is composed of a body, soul, and spirit. It sees a triune makeup in the being of
man. The soul is seen as the life force
of man while the spirit is that part of man that communes with God.
|
Soul |
Spirit |
|
The realm of man’s
relationship with other men |
The realm of man’s
relationship with God |
2. Dichotomy.
This view sees man as primarily existing in two parts:
the material body and the immaterial part that is unseen and unmeasured. This is not a denial of the soul versus the
spirit, but sees these two as aspects of the immaterial part of man.
3. Monism.
This is the secular view that states man is a
collective whole with no separate soul or spirit and nothing beyond his
physical body. By contrast to this view,
the Scriptures speak of an immaterial part of man that exists apart from his
body.
THE
ORIGIN OF THE SOUL AND SPIRIT
The
Bible tells us that Adam became a living soul at the time God breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life. This
explains the origin of Adam’s soul, but it leaves the question of from where do
our souls come? There are two common answers
to this question:
1. Creationism.
This view states that all souls are created by God and
thus produced from nothing and without pre-existing materials.
One branch of Creationism states that God created the
souls of all men in the beginning. Those
who hold to this view would therefore maintain the pre-existence of all souls
since the creation of Adam.
2. Traducianism.
This view is taken from the Latin and speaks of the
propagation (Latin: traducem) of the
soul. This view sees those verses that
speak of God giving and forming the spirit of man as being descriptive of God
as the Creator through Adam and not necessarily creating each individual
soul. For example, the Scriptures teach that
God sends the rain upon the just and the unjust, but most would agree that God
does this through secondary causes and would not deny the reality of clouds and
weather patterns and evaporation and water vapor and the part they play in the
bringing of rain.
Indeed, the Scriptures describe not only God’s
creating and forming of our souls, but also the creating and forming of our
bodies.
13 For
Thou didst form my inward parts;
Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb.
14 I will
give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Thy works, And
my soul knows it very well. (Psalm 139:13-14).
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you;
I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."
(Jeremiah 1:5).
Return to Stevenson Bible Study Page