This is a stand alone blog for my brothers and sisters at college who have become concerned about my understanding of original sin. Recently, I argued that we (all people) are not “created sick”, on the grounds that every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood (Genesis 8:21), and that we all sin against God from our youth (Jeremiah 3:25; 22:21; 32:30). However, reflecting on the questions and challenges of my classmates (particularly on our bearing of God’s image since the fall) has caused me to re-read some of the relevant parts of the bible and the secondary literature, and re-think through our default position before God.
Since arguing that we’re not created sick, I’ve become persuaded that we’re not created with the same innocence that Adam and Eve had prior to the fall. Genesis 8:21 says that “every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood”, but this does not mean that the human heart is not inclined to evil until childhood. If we genuinely believe that David was inspired by the Holy Spirit when he wrote Psalm 51, we have to wrestle with what he meant by the words “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me”. In the context of the Psalm, David is not blaming anyone else (e.g. his mother) for the fact that he has always been sinful, he is confessing the depth of his total depravity.
This has led me to believe that we inherit a sinful nature from Adam, without Adam’s sin being imputed to us, as argued by Blocher (Original Sin, p128) and Campbell (Union with Christ, p345). Our hearts are naturally inclined to sin, and we have inherited this inclination/predisposition from Adam. To use the well known analogy, we are conceived and born on the pirate ship that declared war against God in Genesis 3. But this raises the question, does God judge us for being born on the pirate ship (i.e. for inheriting a sinful nature), or for being pirates (i.e. for sinning against God)?
If Blocher and Campbell are right in that Adam’s sin is not imputed to us, then we are not guilty for having a sinful nature, but we are guilty when we allow our sinful nature to find expression in sin against God. It's not our inclination or desire to sin that incurs the judgement of death, but after desire has conceived it gives birth to sin, and sin when full-grown gives birth to death (James 1:15). This is reflected in the change to the doctrinal statement of AFES from “The universal sinfulness and guilt of human nature since the fall” (The Blueprint, p7) to “The universal sinfulness and guilt of humanity since the fall” (http://www.afes.org.au/about/doctrinal-basis). Our sin is what makes us guilty, not our human nature, for Jesus assumed a human nature (Hebrews 2:17) but was not guilty before God (John 8:46). Jesus was born on the pirate ship, but he never became a pirate.
To quote the doctrinal statement of The Geneva Push, “being reformed means: we believe that Adam and Eve sinned against God and that everyone since is a sinner by nature and choice” (http://thegenevapush.com/about/what_we_believe). Jesus was holy by choice despite his human nature, but we are sinful by nature and choice. However, if we are unable to avoid sin then we don't sin by choice (if something's impossible to avoid doing then we have no choice but to do it), and God punishes us for things that we’re unable to avoid.
I’m convinced that Romans 2:6-10 holds out a possibility of salvation by works, but it’s a possibility that has only been realised in the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus was made like his brothers in every way (Hebrews 2:17) and tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). His life without sin demonstrates that sin is committed by choice rather than humanity having no choice but to sin, God doesn't punish us for things that we’re unable to avoid. God does not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear, but when we are tempted he provides a way out so that we can endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13). We are not tempted beyond what we can bear, but we are tempted beyond what we do bear before we sin.
And so I maintain the distinction between “can’t” and “don’t” when it comes to obeying God. It’s not that we can’t obey God, but that we don’t. Rather than undermining the doctrine of total depravity, I think this distinction actually highlights the totality of our depravity. We are sinful by nature and choice. Our will is significantly more depraved if it's able to choose what is right and yet chooses evil, rather than if we choose evil because something is forcing our hand. Hence this understanding deepens our appreciation of the wickedness of sin, and thus deepens our appreciation of the magnitude of God’s grace to us.
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