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Anthropology and Hamartiology: Doctrines of Man and Sin · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform Thinking. I am.
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I'm so glad you have decided to join us today.
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If you look around at the state of things today, or you know,
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even if you just look in the mirror, you probably find
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yourself wondering why the world is so obviously broken.
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You want to ask yourself why we struggle so much with
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wrongdoing, why doing the right thing often feels like walking
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uphill, and how we were originally designed by our
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creator before all of this friction entered the picture.
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Today we are taking a thorough look at those questions.
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We are doing a deep dive into some truly clarifying material,
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specifically excerpts from the Moody Handbook of Theology by
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Paul Enz. We will be focusing our
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attention on two major theological categories,
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anthropology, which is the doctrine of man, and Ham
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archaeology, which is the doctrine of sin.
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Before we jump in, we should lay our cards on the table regarding
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our shared perspective as Protestant Christians who hold
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to the theology outlined in the Westminster Confession.
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Our mission today is to look closely at these massive
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theological doctrines, examining the various viewpoints presented
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in the text while keeping a strict eye on biblical fidelity.
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We want to understand what the Scriptures teach about who we
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are and what went wrong. OK, let's unpack this by
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starting with the very beginning of humanity, looking at what the
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text calls the doctrine of man. Right and to set the stage
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properly, we should probably define our terms clearly.
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The word anthropology comes from 2 Greek words.
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You have anthropos meaning man and logos meaning word or
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discourse. So anthropology is a discourse
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about man. Now, in our modern context, if
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you go to a university and take an anthropology class, you will
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be studying man in his cultural environment, looking at
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artifacts and societal structures.
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But that is not what we're doing here.
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We are studying the doctrine of man entirely from a biblical
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standpoint. We're looking at the origin, the
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nature and the fall of humanity through the lens of divine
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revelation. And right away the source
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material tackles the various models concerning the origin of
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man. This is a topic where Christians
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and non Christians have proposed a well, a wide variety of views.
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The text starts by evaluating non Christian models,
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specifically atheistic or humanistic evolution, before
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moving into the way some Christians have tried to
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reconcile the biblical account with modern scientific claims.
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Yeah, I think we should start by outlining that atheistic
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evolutionary model, because that is probably the most prevalent
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view in secular society today. This theory, famously
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popularized by Charles Darwin and then refined by many others
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over the last century and 1/2, is an outright attempt to
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explain the origin of matter and life completely apart from God.
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In this view, the origin of humans, animals, and plant life
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is explained entirely without any supernatural process.
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According to naturalistic evolution, all that is required
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to get the universe as we know it is atoms in motion.
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The claim is that a combination of atoms, motion, time, and
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chance has somehow fashioned everything we currently have.
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It is like a massive cosmic lottery, but without a lottery
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Commission overseeing it. The text details the specific
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tenants spelled out in Darwin's original framework.
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First, there is the idea of variation, meaning some
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offspring possessed traits making them superior to their
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parents in terms of survival. Second, you have a constant
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brutal struggle for existence that eliminates the weaker, less
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fit varieties. Third, natural selection is
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constantly at work, ensuring only the fittest survive the
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harsh environment. 4th through heredity, these new and better
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qualities produced by variation are passed on and gradually
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accumulated over time. And finally, the theory claims
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that entirely new species come into existence by this method,
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assuming the passage of sufficient time.
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It is a completely closed system, relying purely on
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natural mechanisms. That is a great summary, and the
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moral implications of that atheistic model are massive and
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we cannot overlook them. If there is no creator God who
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brought the world into existence, then man has
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absolutely no accountability to any higher power concerning any
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moral structure. If atheistic evolution is true,
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there are no moral absolutes to which man must adhere.
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We are just a collection of atoms, and our behaviors are
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just the result of biological programming and survival
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instincts. There is no objective right or
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wrong, only survival. The logical conclusion is that
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mankind is not a special creation endowed with dignity,
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but just a highly evolved animal.
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Now, because of the overwhelming popularity of that scientific
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model, some Christians have tried to adopt A mediating view
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known as theistic evolution. This is the teaching that
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plants, animals, and humans did indeed gradually evolve from
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lower forms, but that God supervised the entire process.
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Theistic evolution is generally accept the findings of modern
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science and attempt to harmonize the evolutionary hypothesis with
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the biblical text. They suggest God used evolution
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as his chosen mechanism for creation.
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That seems like an attempt to have the best of both worlds,
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right? Pleasing the scientific
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community while keeping God in the picture.
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But as our source material points out, this view is highly
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problematic. Ironically, it is rejected by
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both strict evolutionists and biblicists alike.
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Humanistic evolutionists criticized theistic
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evolutionists and refused to take them seriously in
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scientific matters because they insert a supernatural element
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into a system that is supposed to be entirely natural.
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But from a biblical standpoint, the critiques are even more
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severe. The text outlines a few major
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theological roadblocks. First, if the human race evolved
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from lower life forms over millions of years, then Adam was
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not a single historical person. If Adam was not a real
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historical person, the incredible analogy of the
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apostle Paul makes in Romans 5 between Christ and Adam
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completely breaks down. Paul argues that sin entered the
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world through one man and justification came through one
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man, Christ. If the first man is a myth or
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metaphor for a population of evolving hominids, the
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theological weight of Christ's specific historical act of
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redemption loses its foundation. Furthermore, the theistic
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evolutionist is forced to take a poetic or allegorical approach
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when interpreting Genesis 1 and 2, which has no grammatical
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warrant in the Hebrew text. It also blatantly contradicts
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Genesis 2.7 which explicitly states that man was created from
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the dust of the ground, not derived from a non human
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ancestor. Precisely, It is a classic case
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of trying to fit a square peg of modern scientific consensus into
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the round hole of the biblical text, and the theological
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casualties are just too high. That brings us to the
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creationist models, where we see Christians trying different
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approaches to understand that Genesis account while holding
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more firmly to divine action. One of these is Progressive
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creationism, which is also sometimes called the Day age
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theory. In this model, the proponents
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reject a literal 6 day creation. Instead, they argue that the
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days mentioned in Genesis are not 24 hour periods, but rather
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vast geological ages. They base this heavily on verses
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like Psalm 90.4 and second Peter 3.8, which mentioned that to the
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Lord, a day is like 1000 years. Progressive creationism is a
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very serious attempt to reconcile the Bible with the
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claims of science regarding the antiquity of the earth.
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These theorists acknowledge the direct creation of man and
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general species by God, keeping Genesis 1 and 2 in view.
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However, they allow for what is called intrakind development or
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microevolution within species while firmly rejecting interkind
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development or macroevolution. So they are trying to hold on to
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the special creation of man while giving science the long
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geological ages it demands for the Earth's history.
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I can understand the appeal of that for someone trying to
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reconcile carbon dating with their Bible reading, but the
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source text points out several severe grammatical and
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theological problems with it. First we have to look at Exodus
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20.10 through 11. This passage draws a direct
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analogy between a person working 6 days and resting on the 7th
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and God creating for six days and resting on the 7th.
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This analogy demands literal 24 hour days for the Sabbath
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command to make any logical sense.
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You cannot instruct an ancient Israelite to work for six
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geological ages and then rest for a 7th geological age.
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The pattern of the human work week is explicitly based on the
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pattern of the Divine Creation week. 2nd, and perhaps more
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devastating theologically, this theory requires that death
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existed long before the fall of man.
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If those days were vast ages where plant and animal life
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lived, adapted, and died, you have a fossil record full of
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death, disease, and suffering preceding human sin.
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Genesis, however, strongly indicates that there was no
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death in the world until Adam rebelled.
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Death is the penalty for sin, not a creative mechanism God
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used to bring about a very good world.
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That is a crucial point. If death is part of the original
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design, then death is not an enemy to be defeated by Christ.
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It is just a natural feature of the cosmos.
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Another model the text addresses is the gap theory, which was
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very popular in the early 20th century.
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This view places a massive lengthy period of time between
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Genesis 1.1 and Genesis 1.2, once again as an accommodation
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to science. Gaffe theorists argue that there
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was an original perfect creation in verse one.
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Then they posit that Lucifer rebelled and fell, causing the
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earth to become chaotic and ruined.
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They point to the phrase formless and void in verse 2,
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arguing it describes this chaotic ruined earth that God
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judged. So they insert millions of years
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between the 1st 2 verses of the Bible.
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This gap allows them to hold to the scientific evaluation
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concerning the age of the Earth, fitting all the dinosaurs and
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geological strata into that gap, while still interpreting the
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rest of creation days from first three onward as literal 24 hour
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periods of recreation. I have heard people talk about
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that gap, but the text gives us a thorough grammatical
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dismantling of it. The Hebrew grammar of Genesis 1
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simply does not allow for a gap. Verse one is an independent
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clause stating the summary of what God did.
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Verse 2 is composed of three circumstantial clauses joined by
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the Hebrew conjunction law which explained the initial condition
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of the earth when God began to create, and it connects directly
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to the action in verse three. There is absolutely no break or
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chronological gap between verses one and two in the Hebrew
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structure. It is describing A sequential
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process. Furthermore, the text points out
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that the phrase formless and void, which is tohu wabohu in
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Hebrew, does not inherently mean evil or the result of a divine
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judgment. We see the same usage in Job
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26.7 and Isaiah 45 point Wheaton, and it does not carry a
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negative connotation of judgement there.
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It simply means unformed and unfilled, like a lump of clay
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waiting for the Potter to shape it.
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Yap theorists also tried to draw a sharp distinction between the
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Hebrew verb Bara in Genesis 1.1, suggesting it strictly means
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creation out of nothing, and the verb ASA used later in the
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chapter, suggesting it only means a refashioning of existing
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material. They use this distinction to
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argue that verse one is the original creation and the rest
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of the chapter is just God refashioning the ruined earth.
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But a careful study of the Old Testament reveals that these two
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verbs are used interchangeably throughout the text.
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ASA does not exclusively mean to refashion.
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For example, in Genesis 1.26 God says let us make using ASA man
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in our image, and in the very next verse it says God created
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using Bara, man in his own image.
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The verbs are describing the same action.
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The conclusion drawn by the source text is that the gap
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theory is not built on actual biblical exegesis.
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It is an artificial attempt to reconcile the Bible with the
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views of modern science by hiding millions of years in a
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grammatical space that does not exist.
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This leads us to the final model presented, which is the literal
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24 hour day's view, also known as Fiat creation.
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This view states that God brought everything into
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existence directly and instantaneously by His spoken
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word. Literal creationists hold to a
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recent earth, generally estimating it to be around
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10,000 years old based on biblical genealogies.
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They explain geological formations, that the
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catastrophic global event of the Noaic flood, rather than slow
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processes over millions of years, and of course all forms
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of macroevolution, are completely rejected by Fiat
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creationists. OK, let's unpack this viewer.
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Because it is the one the text ultimately defends as the most
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biblically faithful, The amount of internal biblical evidence
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supporting A straightforward literal reading is substantial.
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You do not have to perform any grammatical gymnastics to arrive
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at this view. It is the plain reading of the
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text. The burden of proof really falls
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on those trying to stretch the text to accommodate outside
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scientific philosophies. The Fiat creation view takes the
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position that when God speaks, reality immediately conforms to
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his command without the need for vast expanses of time.
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What's? Fascinating here is the sheer
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amount of biblical indicators that validate the literal 6 day
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creation model. First we have the Hebrew word
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Yom, which translates today. Whenever Yom is used with a
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numeral in the Old Testament, like day one, second day, and so
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on, it always designates A literal 24 hour day.
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There are no exceptions to this rule in Biblical Hebrew.
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Second, the recurring phrase evening and morning found at the
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end of each creation day throughout Genesis 1 highlights
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a normal 24 hour cycle governed by the Earth's rotation.
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To suggest any form of a day age concept involves denying the
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normal plain meaning of these defining terms. 3rd, as we
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discussed earlier, Exodus 20 insists on a 24 hour creation by
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drawing a direct analogy to the human workweek Beyond the
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timeline. The biblical account insists on
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the direct special creation of mankind.
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Genesis 1.27 gives the general summary statement of man's
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creation, while Genesis 2.7 provides the specific detail
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that God formed man out of the dust of the ground.
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Christ himself affirmed this truth in Matthew 19 when
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discussing marriage, pointing back to the beginning when the
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Creator made them male and female.
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Furthermore, God created the male and female genders
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directly. They did not slowly develop
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sexual reproduction from lower forms of life.
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God gave them their specific gender by creating them male and
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female from the start. This completely rules out any
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lower life forms or evolutionary processes.
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If man evolved, he is nothing more than a higher form of
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animal without any moral sensibility or accountability.
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But Scripture presents man as a unique moral creature,
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accountable to God, possessing an eternal soul, and made in the
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image of God. That description simply cannot
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be applied to a creature that is the product of blind
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evolutionary forces. Moving from the origin of
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humanity to our actual composition, we need to look at
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the material and immaterial parts of man.
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Let us start with the material part, the physical body.
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The text points out a brilliant play on words in the original
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Hebrew of Genesis 2.7. It says the Lord God formed man,
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which is the Hebrew word Adam from the dust of the ground,
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which is the Hebrew word Adama. The very name Adam was designed
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to keep man constantly mindful of his origin, that he is
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literally a creature of the earth.
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We are dirt that God breathed life into.
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This ancient biblical claim is even confirmed by modern
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chemical analysis. The components of the human body
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are the exact same elements found in the Earth's crust, like
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calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, and so forth.
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We share the same chemical makeup as the dirt under our
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feet, and we see the stark reality of this origin at
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physical death, when the body decomposes and reunites the dust
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from which it came, a truth echoed in Genesis 3, Psalm One,
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O 4, and Ecclesiastes 12. Yeah, the source material
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outlines 3 historical views concerning the purpose and value
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of this physical body. It is fascinating to see how
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human philosophy has struggled to categorize the physical form.
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The first view sees the body as a prison House of the soul.
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This idea comes straight from ancient Greek philosophy which
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placed a massive dichotomy between the physical and the
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spiritual realms. In this Greek mindset, the soul
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was non material and therefore inherently good, pure and
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eternal, while the body was material and therefore
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intrinsically evil, corrupt, and temporary.
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The goal of human existence, according to this view, was for
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the pure soul to escape the corrupt prison of a physical
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body. This view severely depreciated
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the physical body, often leading to extreme asceticism where
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people would punish their bodies to elevate their souls.
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However, placing this kind of harsh dichotomy between the
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material and non material is completely unbiblical.
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The Bible never refers to the human body as intrinsically
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evil. Matter is not evil.
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God created the physical world and called it very good.
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We see books like the Song of Solomon focusing entirely on the
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value of the human body and the blessing of physical intimacy in
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marriage. Divine revelation treats man as
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a holistic unity where the material and immaterial are
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designed to function together and can only be separated by the
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unnatural event of physical death.
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The second historical view the text mentions is the exact
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opposite of the Greek prison house idea, and that is
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hedonism. Hedonists claim the physical
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body is the only part of man that actually matters.
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They deny the existence of the eternal soul entirely and
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suggest a person should seek only to please a physical body
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by doing whatever brings immediate pleasure.
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It is the ancient version of the modern treat Yourself culture
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taken to its absolute philosophical extreme.
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If this life is all there is and you are just a physical
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Organism, then maximizing physical pleasure and minimizing
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physical pain is the only logical goal.
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The teachings of Jesus Christ completely invalidate this view,
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as He frequently spoke of the enormous, eternal value of the
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soul as distinct from the body. He warned people not to fear
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those who can kill the physical body but cannot kill the soul,
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pointing to a reality far beyond our physical nerve endings.
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And the third view, which is the biblical view, is that the body
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of the partner of the soul. The body is the designated means
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of glorifying God in the physical realm.
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It functions as the very temple of the Holy Spirit according to
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First Corinthians 6.19. The body should not be a master
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that we cater to an endless self indulgence, nor is it an evil
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enemy that we need to punish through asceticism.
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It is a partner to be submitted to God so that Christ may be
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glorified in it. We are called to present our
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bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, knowing that
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believers will face a judgement for the deeds done in the body.
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The biblical promise of a future physical resurrection further
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cements the value God places on the material body.
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He does not discard it. He redeems and glorifies it.
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Here's where it gets really interesting because we move from
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the physical dirt to the divine likeness.
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When God created man, He created him in his own image as stated
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in Genesis 1.26 and 27. The natural question is what is
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the image of God in man? Since God is spirit and does not
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have a physical body, the image of God cannot be physical.
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We do not look like God in our physical features.
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The image must be non material. The text breaks down this non
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material image into three major elements.
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The 1st is personality. Man has self consciousness and
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self determination. We have the ability to reflect
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on our own existence, to contemplate the future and to
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make deliberate choices which lifts us far above the realm of
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animals. Animals operate on instinct.
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Humans operate on deliberation and choice.
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This is a crucial factor because it is what renders man capable
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of redemption. You cannot redeem a creature
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that cannot make a conscious choice to rebel or obey.
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This personality aspect also includes all of man's intellect,
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which gives us the ability to exercise dominion over the
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world, to invent, to create art, and to develop the earth as God
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commanded in the creation mandate.
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Yes, and the second element of the non material image is that
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man is a spiritual being. Since God is a spirit, the human
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soul is a spirit. The essential attributes of the
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spirit include reason, conscience, and will.
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Being a spirit makes man a rational, moral, and free agent.
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By making man after his own image, God endowed humanity with
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those attributes that belong to His own nature.
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This distinguishes us from all other creatures on earth and
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raises us immeasurably above them.
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We belong to the same order of being as God Himself, which
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makes us capable of communion with our Maker.
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We can speak to Him and we can understand His revealed word.
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This is the foundation of our religious nature.
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If we were not like God in the spiritual sense, we could not
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know Him at all. We would just be like the beasts
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that perish, unaware of anything beyond the physical horizon.
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The third element is our moral nature.
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Man was created in what theologians call original
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righteousness, sometimes referred to as knowledge,
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righteousness, and holiness. Adam and Eve were not created
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morally neutral. They were created with a
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positive inclination toward God and goodness.
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Tragically, this original righteousness and holiness were
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lost through the fall of man. The image of God was not
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completely erased, but it was severely marred and fractured.
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But the good news of the gospel is that this moral nature is
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restored in Christ. Paul points out in Ephesians
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4.24 that the new self of the believer is created in
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righteousness and holiness in the likeness of God.
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Colossians 3 point middle not also declares that the new self
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is continually being renewed to a true knowledge according to
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the image of the one who created him.
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Redemption is essentially God restoring his broken image in
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humanity. That brings up a fascinating
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debate among theologians regarding the actual origin of
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the soul or this non material part of man.
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How do we get this spiritual component?
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The text lists three main theories.
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The first is the theory of pre existence.
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This view advocates that the human soul existed previously
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before being placed in a physical body.
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It has its roots firmly in non Christian philosophy, being
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taught in Hinduism and held by ancient Greek philosophers like
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Plato. This theory suggests that humans
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were previously angelic spirits or pre Incarnate entities, and
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they were sent to in dwell human bodies as a punishment and
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discipline for prior sins committed in a spiritual realm.
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This view is easily dismissed by biblical scholars because there
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is no clear biblical statement to support it.
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No human being has any conscious recollection of such a prior
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existence, and it problematically relocates the
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origin of human sin to an angelic sphere rather than
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connecting it to Adam's historical sin in Genesis 3.
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Right. And the second view is the
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creation theory. This teaches that God creates
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every single human soul directly and immediately as an individual
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creation at the moment of conception or birth, while the
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physical body alone is propagated by the human parents
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through natural reproduction. This is the view historically
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held by the Roman Catholic Church and many Reformed
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Christians, including the great theologian Charles Hodge.
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They favor this view because it easily maintains the purity of
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Christ during the Incarnation. If God creates the soul
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directly, he could create a pure soul for Jesus, ensuring he
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would not inherit A sinful nature from Mary's soul.
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It also maintains a sharp distinction between a mortal
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body propagated by humans and an immortal soul created by God.
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However, while the creation theory has prominent defenders,
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our source text notes some massive theological problems
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with it. If God creates every individual
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soul directly out of nothing, and God is perfectly holy and
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can only create perfection, then every soul must be created
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perfect. If every soul starts perfect,
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this necessitates an individual separate fall for every single
22:06
person. To explain why all men sin.
22:08
It fails to adequately explain the universal hereditary nature
22:12
of human depravity. Why does every single pure soul
22:16
that God creates immediately choose to sin what's placed in a
22:18
body? The creation theory struggles to
22:21
answer that without making the physical body the source of sin,
22:24
which leans back toward that Greek prison house.
22:26
Heresy. Wait, so if the creation theory
22:28
struggles with original sin, how does the alternative you solve
22:31
it? This leads us to the third view,
22:33
the tradition theory, defended ably by conservative theologians
22:37
like William GT Shed. This view affirms that both the
22:40
body and the soul are generated by the parents.
22:43
The argument is that humanity is a species, and propagating a
22:46
species implies propagating the entire individual, not just
22:49
propagating physical parts while waiting for God to insert a
22:52
newly created soul from the outside.
22:54
So you were saying parents don't just pass down physical DNA like
22:57
eye color or height, but they actually pass down spiritual DNA
23:00
too? That is precisely the argument
23:02
of the tradition theory, and it perfectly explains the total
23:05
depravity of man If parents pass on both the material and non
23:09
material nature to their offspring.
23:11
It fully explains the propagation of the sin nature
23:14
and the inherent tendency of every human being to sin from
23:16
birth. We inherit a fallen soul just as
23:19
we inherit a mortal body. It also explains hereditary
23:23
similarities in intellect, personality, and emotional
23:26
temperaments between children and parents, which should not be
23:29
so prevalent if every soul were a brand new, direct and unique
23:32
creation from God. Scripture seems to strongly
23:36
affirm the tradition position of passages like Psalm 51 where
23:39
David says he was sinful from the time his mother conceived
23:41
him, Romans 5 regarding the spread of sin to all men, and
23:45
Hebrews 7 which speaks of Levi being in the loins of his
23:47
ancestor Abaddam. The main difficulty with
23:50
traditionism is trying to comprehend how a non material
23:53
substance like a soul can be passed down or generated by
23:56
physical beings. It defies our understanding of
23:58
biology. Additionally, it requires
24:01
careful Christological formulation to explain how
24:03
Christ partook of human nature from Mary without partaking of
24:07
her inherited sin nature, usually resolved by pointing to
24:10
the miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit, blocking the
24:13
transmission of the sin nature. It is a robust debate within the
24:17
church, and one that requires us to weigh the biblical evidence
24:20
very carefully, though the text leans toward traditionism
24:23
because of its strong handling of original sin.
24:26
Beyond the origin of the non material part of man, there is
24:28
also a discussion about its composition.
24:31
Is man A2 part being or a three-part being?
24:34
This is the debate between dichotomy and trichotomy.
24:37
The dichotomous view which was historically held by the Western
24:40
church and figures like Augustine teaches that man
24:43
consists of two parts, body and soul.
24:46
In this view the soul and the spirit are just different words
24:49
for the exact same non material substance that they might
24:52
describe different functions or relationships.
24:55
Supporters of this viewpoint to Genesis 2.7 which only mentions
24:59
God forming the body and breathing in the breath of life,
25:02
resulting in a living soul. It does not mention 1/3 distinct
25:05
part. They also note that the Bible
25:07
frequently uses the word soul and spirit interchangeably, such
25:11
as in Mary's Magnificat where she says My soul exalts the Lord
25:14
and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
25:16
It is Hebrew parallelism saying the same thing two different
25:19
ways. The Bible also often mentions
25:21
just the body and soul as constituting the entire person,
25:24
like Jesus warning about the one who can destroy both soul and
25:27
body in hell. On the other side is the
25:29
trichotomous view, which was popular in the Eastern Church
25:32
and among Alexandrian fathers. This view teaches that man is a
25:35
three-part being, body, soul, and spirit.
25:40
They argue that the soul and spirit are entirely different in
25:42
both substance and function. They view the body as world
25:46
conscious, interacting with the physical realm through the five
25:49
senses. They view the soul as
25:51
self-conscious, encompassing the lower powers like imagination,
25:55
memory and basic emotions, things that animals might also
25:58
possessed to some degree. And they view the spirit as God
26:02
conscious, holding the higher powers like reason, conscience,
26:06
and the capacity for spiritual worship which is unique to
26:08
humans. They look to 1st Thessalonians
26:11
5.23 where Paul explicitly prays for the sanctification of
26:14
spirit, soul and body, seemingly listing them as 3 distinct
26:18
parts. They also point to Hebrews 4
26:20
point full which speaks of the word of God piercing as far as
26:23
the division of soul and spirit, arguing you cannot divine
26:25
something if it is the same substance.
26:27
To resolve some of the tension between dichotomy and
26:30
trichotomy, the text presents a multifaceted view.
26:33
It suggests that while soul and spirit are the most common terms
26:36
used to describe the non material nature of man, the
26:39
debate might be too narrow. The Bible actually uses several
26:42
other terms to describe our non physical makeup.
26:45
Therefore, man's non material nature is best understood as a
26:48
complex, multifaceted unity. The text highlights 4 specific
26:53
biblical terms that add color to this discussion.
26:56
First is the heart, which the Bible uses to describe both the
26:59
intellectual and volitional parts of a person.
27:02
It is the seat of our deepest desires and choices.
27:04
We see this in Matthew 15 where Jesus says out of the heart come
27:07
evil thoughts and Romans 10 which says with the heart of
27:10
person believes. 2nd is the conscience which God placed
27:13
within man as an internal moral witness.
27:16
The fall heavily affected the conscience.
27:18
It can be seared, defiled and unreliable and an unbeliever,
27:21
yet it still functions to convict them of basic right and
27:23
wrong. According to Romans 2.
27:25
In a believer, the conscience can sometimes be weak or overly
27:28
scrupulous, requiring training by the Word of God. 3rd is the
27:31
mind. The Scriptures have much to say
27:34
about the human mind. The unbeliever's mind is
27:36
described in Romans and Ephesians as depraved, blinded
27:39
by Satan, darkened and understanding, and futile in
27:42
speculation. It is incapable of grasping the
27:45
things of the Spirit of God. But in the believer, the mind is
27:49
renewed to the process of sanctification, enabling a
27:52
person to love God with all their mind is commanded.
27:55
Finally, there is the will. The will is the faculty of
27:59
choice. The unbeliever has a will that
28:01
desires only to follow the dictates of the flesh and the
28:03
mind. Bound by their fallen nature,
28:06
they make real choices, but they always choose according to their
28:08
greatest desire, which is rebellion against God.
28:12
In contrast, the believer is given the ability through the
28:15
new birth to desire to do God's will.
28:17
At conversion the believer receives a new nature that
28:20
enables them to love God with all their multifaceted non
28:22
material being, heart, conscience, mind and will.
28:27
We are complex creatures and God saves the whole person.
28:29
We have spent a good amount of time looking at the original
28:32
design and intricate composition of man.
28:35
Now we must turn to the devastating pivot point of human
28:37
history, the fall of man. So we have this beautifully
28:41
designed, complex creature, a body formed from the dust, a
28:45
soul reflecting the image of God.
28:47
It is a masterpiece of divine engineering.
28:50
But obviously, looking at the news or our own struggles today,
28:53
the masterpiece got shattered. How does the text describe that
28:57
break in point? The text is very clear that
28:59
Genesis 3 does not attempt to explain the philosophical origin
29:02
of sin in the universe. It does not tell us how Lucifer
29:05
originally fell. But it does accurately describe
29:07
the entrance of sin into the realm of humanity.
29:10
And it is crucial to recognize that Genesis 3 describes A
29:13
literal historical event. Adam and Eve were historical
29:16
people who committed a literal sin against God in actual time
29:19
and space. The historicity of this event is
29:21
absolutely essential for Christian theology.
29:23
As we mentioned earlier with theistic evolution, if Adam was
29:26
not a real creature who brought sin into the human race at a
29:29
specific point history, then the analogy Paul makes in Romans 5
29:33
collapses. There would be no point to Jesus
29:35
Christ redeeming humanity at another point in history if the
29:39
original fall was just an ancient myth to explain human
29:41
frailty. Christ himself confirmed the
29:44
historical reality of Genesis 3 and his teachings in Matthew 19.
29:47
The setting for this catastrophe was a garden where God placed
29:50
Adam and Eve and gave them a test regarding their obedience.
29:54
They had incredible freedom. They could eat from any tree in
29:57
the garden with one single exception, the tree of knowledge
30:01
of good and evil. It was a remarkably simple test
30:04
designed to determine whether they would believe God and obey
30:07
His word based purely on His authority.
30:10
Disobedience carried a highly consequential penalty, physical
30:14
and spiritual death. God's purpose was to give them a
30:17
knowledge of sin through the avenue of obedience.
30:19
By refusing to eat. They would know about evil by
30:22
rejecting it. Tragically, they attained the
30:25
knowledge of good and evil in the wrong manner through
30:27
experiencing disobedience, and it plunged the human race Into
30:31
Darkness. The avenue of this temptation
30:33
was the serpent, for the text makes it clear that the
30:36
temptation was orchestrated by Satan himself.
30:39
Other scriptures like Revelation 12 and Romans 16 clearly
30:42
identify the devil as a serpent of old who is judged in Genesis
30:45
3. Because the serpent was
30:46
described as crafty, Satan's strategy and conducting this
30:49
test was incredibly subtle and highly effective.
30:52
He did not appear as a terrifying monster, He appeared
30:55
as a questioning creature. His attack unfolded in three
30:59
distinct phases, which is a pattern we still see today.
31:03
In the first phase, Satan raised doubt concerning God's word by
31:06
asking Eve, indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree
31:10
of the garden? He created a deep suspicion
31:13
about the goodness of God. He planted the idea that God was
31:16
holding out on them, restricting their freedom unnecessarily and
31:19
raising questions about whether God was dealing wisely and
31:22
fairly with them. We can see Eve succumbing to
31:24
this initial temptation because her response exaggerated God's
31:27
command. She added that they were not
31:29
even allowed to touch the fruit, which God had never said.
31:32
She was already feeling the restriction as an unreasonable
31:34
burden. Yes, and in the second phase
31:36
Satan moved from subtle doubt to a categorical flat out lie.
31:40
Once he had Eve questioning God's goodness, he directly
31:43
contradicted God's warning by stating you surely will not die.
31:47
This is the first recorded lie in human history and outright
31:50
denial of divine judgement. In the third phase, Satan
31:53
offered a partial truth to seal the deal.
31:56
He told them that if they ate the fruit, their eyes would be
31:58
opened and they would be like God, knowing good and evil.
32:01
That part was technically true. They would indeed know good and
32:04
evil. However, it was a malicious,
32:06
deadly, partial truth because Satan intentionally omitted the
32:09
horrific reality of the pain, suffering, shame, and death that
32:12
would accompany that knowledge. This temptation attacked them
32:16
through three specific avenues, The lust of the flesh since the
32:19
tree was good for food, the loss of the eyes as it was a delight
32:22
to the eyes, and the boastful pride of life because it was
32:25
desirable to make one wise. This perfectly mirrors the
32:28
categories of worldly temptation laid out in First John 2.16.
32:32
Satan's playbook has not changed.
32:34
The results of that single act of disobedience were utterly
32:37
catastrophic. It wasn't just a slap on the
32:40
wrist. The text details a series of
32:42
severe judgements handed down by God that altered the fabric of
32:45
reality. First, there was a judgement on
32:48
the serpent itself. It had been a noble creature,
32:51
but its physical form was permanently altered, cursed to
32:53
crawl on its belly and eat the dust of the earth as a perpetual
32:56
symbol of degradation. 2nd, and far more significantly, was the
33:01
judgement on Satan. Genesis 3.15 is often called the
33:05
First Gospel promise. God declared there would be
33:08
enmity between Satan's seed, meaning unbelievers and demons,
33:12
and the woman's seed, pointing specifically down the timeline
33:14
to Christ. God promised that the woman's
33:17
seed would bruise Satan on the head, indicating that Christ
33:20
would deliver a fatal, crushing deathblow to Satan's authority
33:23
at the cross. Satan would only bruise Christ
33:25
on the heel, suggesting a minor temporary victory in the
33:28
physical suffering and death of Christ, which paradoxically
33:31
became the very mechanism of Satan's absolute defeat.
33:33
Third was the judgement on the woman.
33:35
She would experience intense pain in childbirth, turning what
33:38
should have been a purely joyful event into a dangerous and
33:41
agonizing ordeal. Furthermore, relational strife
33:45
would enter her marriage. The text notes her desire would
33:48
be toward her husband, which many scholars understand as a
33:51
desire to rule over or control him, resulting in a fractured
33:54
power dynamic where the husband would forcefully rule over her.
33:58
The harmony of the original design was shattered. 4th was
34:01
the judgement on the man. The ground itself was cursed
34:04
because of him. The earth would no longer
34:07
spontaneously produce its fruit for his enjoyment.
34:10
Adam would have to extract food through agonizing sweat inducing
34:13
toil. Thorns and thistles would fight
34:16
his efforts, and at the end of the day he would face physical
34:18
death, returning to the dust from which he was made.
34:21
Fifth, the judgement fell upon the entire human race.
34:24
Romans 5.12 makes it clear that the result of Adam's sin was
34:28
passed on to all humanity, subjecting the entire human race
34:31
to the penalty of death and separation from God.
34:35
Finally, the judgement fell on all of creation.
34:37
Animal and plant life were deeply affected.
34:39
Animals became wild and ferocious.
34:42
The food chain involved violence, the ground produced
34:45
weeds, and according to Romans 8, all of creation currently
34:48
groans under the heavy effect of the fall, anxiously longing for
34:52
the final restoration. That brings us to hamartiology,
34:55
the specific doctrine of sin. We have seen how sin entered the
34:59
world through that catastrophic event, but we need to define
35:02
what sin actually is. Biblically, it is a word thrown
35:06
around a lot, but the text provides several precise Greek
35:09
terms that give us a comprehensive picture of its
35:11
nature. The first word is parabasis,
35:14
which means overstepping or transgression.
35:17
God provided His law to heighten man's understanding of His
35:20
perfect standard. When God draws A moral boundary
35:23
line and says you shall not bear false witness, a lie is exposed
35:27
as an active overstepping of that divine boundary.
35:29
It is stepping out of bounds. The second word is hamartia,
35:33
which means to miss the mark or to depart from the way of
35:35
righteousness. This indicates that all people
35:37
have missed the target of God's perfect moral standard and
35:40
continually fall short of His glory.
35:42
It is vital to understand that this includes both sins of
35:45
Commission doing what is actively forbidden, and sins of
35:48
omission, failing to do what is right and required.
35:50
The third word is anomia, which means lawlessness or outright
35:54
rebellion. It describes A-frame of mind
35:56
that operates without law or restraint, A sheer defiance of
35:59
authority beyond just specific actions.
36:02
Sin is also a corrupting principle dwelling within man.
36:06
The apostle Paul vividly describes as agonizing internal
36:08
struggle with the sin principle in Romans 7, where he finds
36:11
himself doing the very evil he wishes not to do.
36:14
It is a corrupted condition, a characteristic quality that
36:17
deceives men, hardens their hearts, and leads them to
36:19
destruction. Sin manifests as wrongful acts
36:22
directed both toward God, which Romans one calls ungodliness,
36:25
and toward our fellow man, which is called unrighteousness.
36:28
We offend God's holiness and we harm our neighbors.
36:30
That internal principle of sin leads us directly to the concept
36:33
of original sin. This is a massive doctrine.
36:36
Think of it like a drop of black ink in a glass of pure water.
36:40
It colors and effects every single molecule.
36:43
The text defines original sin as the sinful state and condition
36:47
in which men are born. It carries this designation for
36:50
three specific reasons. It is derived from the original
36:53
root of the human race, Adam. It is present in the life of
36:57
every individual from the very moment of birth, and it is the
37:00
inward root cause of all the actual practical sins that
37:03
defile a person's life as they grow.
37:05
Simply put, it is a total corruption of our whole nature.
37:09
This results in the doctrine of total depravity.
37:12
Now, we need to be very clear about what total depravity does
37:14
and does not mean, because the term sounds extreme.
37:17
It does not mean that every person is as thoroughly depraved
37:20
in their actions as they could possibly be.
37:22
It does not mean everyone will indulge in every conceivable
37:24
form of evil or that an unbeliever cannot appreciate
37:27
beauty, love their children or perform acts of human goodness
37:30
and charity. What total depravity does mean
37:33
is that the crushing of sin extends to all men without
37:35
exception, and it extends to all parts of all men.
37:38
It affects the intellect, blinding the mind to spiritual
37:41
truth, affects the conscience searing it, It affects the will,
37:45
enslaving it to sinful desires, and it affects the heart, making
37:49
it deceitful above all things. Because of this pervasive
37:52
systemic corruption, there is absolutely nothing within the
37:55
natural man that can generate merit in God's sight.
37:58
We possess an innate sin nature, which is the capacity to do
38:01
things that can in no way commend us to a holy God.
38:04
Even our most righteous deeds are tainted by selfish motives
38:07
or a lack of supreme love for God.
38:09
So what does this all mean legally?
38:12
This is where the rubber meets the road.
38:14
How exactly is the sin of Adam charged to your account and my
38:17
account? We weren't in the garden.
38:19
We didn't eat the fruit. This is the doctrine of
38:21
imputation. The word imputation comes from
38:23
the Latin word impetor, which means to reckon, to attribute,
38:27
or to charge to 1's account. It is an accounting term.
38:31
Romans 5.12 is the battleground text for this issue, teaching
38:34
that sin entered the world through one man and death
38:37
through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
38:40
How you interpret the phrase because all sin and completely
38:42
determines your theological view of imputation.
38:45
Historically, looking at the church, people have generally
38:47
fallen into one of four major camps on this.
38:50
The first is the Pelagian view, named after a British monk named
38:53
Pelagius who taught in Rome around 4-O9AD.
38:56
Pelagius taught that God creates every soul directly, and that
38:59
every soul is therefore completely innocent and
39:01
unstained by sin at earth. He vehemently despised the
39:05
tradition theory we discussed earlier.
39:07
In his view, no human being had any direct relation to the sin
39:10
of Adam. Adam sin only to humanity by
39:12
setting a really bad example. Therefore, Pelagius did not
39:15
believe Romans 5.12 meant that Adam's guilt was legally imputed
39:19
to the human race. He taught that people are only
39:22
charged with the actual acts of sin they personally commit as
39:25
individuals. He even went so far as to say
39:28
that man does not die because of sin, but simply because of the
39:30
law of nature, claiming Adam would have died even if he had
39:33
never sinned. The Council of Carthage rightly
39:36
condemned Collegius and his doctrines as severe heresy in
39:39
418 AD because his teachings ran completely contrary to the
39:42
Chorus Scripture. Scripture clearly affirms that
39:46
death is the penal consequence for sin, and that man has a
39:48
natural inherent tendency towards sin from birth.
39:51
If Pelagius were right, and we are all born as blank slates,
39:55
you would logically expect to find at least some perfect
39:57
people in the world throughout history who simply chose not to
39:59
follow Adam's bad example. The fact that every single human
40:03
being sins proves Pelagius wrong.
40:05
However, modern Unitarians and many liberal theologians still
40:09
hold to a variation of this Pelagian scheme, believing in
40:12
the inherent goodness of humanity.
40:14
The second historical view the text examines is the Armenian
40:17
view, named after the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius.
40:21
This view is very common today, representing the standard
40:24
theology of Methodists, Wesleyans, Pentecostals, and
40:27
various holiness groups. It is somewhat similar to Semi
40:30
Pelagianism. Armini is taught that mankind is
40:33
not considered legally guilty because of Adam's sin.
40:36
According to this view, people are only counted guilty and have
40:39
sin imputed to them when they voluntarily, purposefully and
40:42
consciously choose to sin of their own free will.
40:45
Now, Armenians do recognize that Adamson had a negative effect,
40:48
acknowledging that man lost original righteousness and
40:51
inherited corrupted nature. However, they deny total
40:54
depravity. To solve the problem of this
40:56
inherited corruption, they teach the concept of prevention grace.
41:00
They suggest that God bestows a special universal influence of
41:03
the Holy Spirit on every individual from the first dawn
41:06
of consciousness. This divine enablement is
41:08
supposedly sufficient to counteract the inherited
41:11
depravity and restore the free will, making obedience possible
41:14
provided the human will cooperates.
41:16
So in the Armenian view, Romans 5.12 does not mean that all
41:20
humanity suffers the guilt of Adam's sin directly.
41:23
Instead, sin is only imputed to the individual when they
41:26
personally agree with Adam's act by committing their own
41:29
conscious sin. This raises an important
41:31
question for us as Protestants who adhere to the Westminster
41:33
Confession. How does Reformed theology
41:36
understand imputation? We reject both operation and
41:39
Armenian models because they failed to do justice to the
41:42
clear covenantal language of Romans 5.
41:46
The text outlines 2 Reformed perspectives.
41:48
The first is the federal view originally propounded by
41:51
Johannes Kochace and later talked by standard Reformed
41:54
theologians like Charles Hodge and Louis Berkoff.
41:57
This view sees Adam as the federal head or the legal
42:00
representative of the entire human race.
42:03
Think of it like a country's president or monarch declaring
42:05
war. Even if you as an individual
42:08
citizen didn't personally sign the declaration or want the
42:10
conflict, you are legally represented by that head of
42:13
state and your entire nation is now at war.
42:16
You suffer the consequences of their official action.
42:18
God entered into a covenant of works with Adam.
42:21
In this covenant, God promised eternal life to Adam and thereby
42:24
to the entire human race He represented if Adam obeyed.
42:28
Conversely, disobedience would bring suffering and death to
42:30
everyone. Because Adam was our designated
42:32
legal representative, his catastrophic failure plunged the
42:36
entire human race into legal ruin.
42:38
Through the one sin of Adam, both a corrupt nature and legal
42:42
guilt are imputed to all humanity, because all humanity
42:45
was represented by Him in the Garden, as Charles Hodge defined
42:48
it. By virtue of the union between
42:50
Adam and his posterity, Adam's sin is imputed to us as the
42:54
judicial ground of our penalty, even though we did not
42:56
personally commit the ACT. I appreciate that analogy of the
42:59
head of state. It makes the legal mechanism
43:01
clear. The other Reform perspective is
43:03
the Augustinian view, named after Augustin and held by
43:06
reformers like Calvin and Luther as well as later theologians
43:09
like Shed. This fear takes the statement
43:12
All sinned in Romans 5.1 very literally.
43:15
It suggests that all humanity was an actual participant in
43:19
Adam's sin through what is called Seminole presence.
43:22
The biblical backing for this concept comes from Hebrew 7,
43:25
which states that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek through
43:28
Abraham, even though Levi was not yet born, because Levi was
43:31
Seminole present in Abraham's loins.
43:34
In a similar biological and spiritual way, this view argues
43:37
that the entire human race was Seminole present in Adam when he
43:40
rebelled, and therefore all humanity literally participated
43:43
in that first sin. We were there in him.
43:45
Consequently, the sin of Adam and the resulting death are
43:47
charged to all humanity because all humanity is actually guilty
43:51
of committing the sin in Adam. Whether a Reformed theologian
43:54
leans toward the federal view of legal representation or the
43:57
Augustinian view of Seminole presence, both views firmly
44:00
uphold total depravity and the reality that we inherit both a
44:03
corrupt nature and legal guilt directly from Adam.
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Understanding the gravity of these Reformed views is
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essential. It highlights our utterly
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desperate condition, our legal condemnation, and our complete
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inability to save ourselves. It underscores our absolute
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desperate need for divine grace outside of ourselves.
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Right And because we live in this fallen state, possessing A
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corrupted nature and living in a cursed world, the Christian
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experience involves a constant daily battle.
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We are saved, but we're they're not yet glorified.
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The text outlines the Christians conflict by identifying 3
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distinct relentless enemies drawing for the categories in
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first John 2.16. The first enemy is the world or
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the Greek word cosmos. This does not mean the physical
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planet like the mountains and oceans.
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It's notes an invisible spiritual system that is
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fundamentally hostile to God, lost in sin, and completely at
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odds with anything divine. Believers are strictly warned
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not to love the world or the things in it.
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The world system lures the Christian to sin through three
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main avenues. The lust of the flesh which
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appeals to our physical appetites, the lust of the eyes
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which appeals to our greed and desire for what we see, and the
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boastful pride of life which appeals to our arrogance and
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desire for status. This entire system lies under
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the deceptive control of Satan and manifests itself in
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foolishness, immorality, greed, and open hostility toward God.
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The Christians defense against the world is to reckon
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themselves crucified to it, as Paul says in Galatians 6,
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recognizing that its passing pleasures are a trap.
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The second enemy is the flesh, for the Greek word sarks.
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This is the enemy inside the gates.
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As we mentioned earlier when discussing the body, the flesh
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is not just our physical skin or our organs.
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It is a non material fallen capacity within us that desires
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to serve and please self while leaving God completely out of
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our lives. It is the willing, eager
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instrument of sin. I think we all know that
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feeling. It is that moment you resolved
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to be incredibly patient with your family and 5 minutes later
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you are losing your temper over something trivial.
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That internal rebellion is so real.
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While the flesh completely governs the life of the non
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Christian, dictating all their choices, it remains A fierce,
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persistent adversary for the believer.
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Romans 7 vividly describes Paul's agonizing internal battle
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with this fleshly capacity, where the good he wants to do,
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he does not do. The third enemy is the devil.
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Satan is not a metaphor for bad things happening.
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He's a real, personal, highly intelligent spiritual being who
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actively opposes Christians and seeks to render them ineffective
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and miserable. Peter describes him as a roaring
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lion crawling around, intent on devouring believers.
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We are called to resist him firmly by putting on the full
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armor of God for spiritual battle, standing firm in the
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truth of the gospel. To fight these three formidable
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enemies, God has not left us defenseless or asked us to rely
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on our own sheer willpower. The text details three amazing
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divine provisions God has given to keep the Christian from the
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path of sin and to ensure their perseverance.
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The first provision is the Word of God.
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God has given us a completely God breathed Bible that is
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entirely profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
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correction, and for training in righteousness so that the man of
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God may be adequate equipped for every good work.
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According to Second Timothy 316 to 17.
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It is this word, hidden in the heart, that keeps the believer
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from a life of sin, as Psalm 119 declares.
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The Scriptures actively cleanse the believer's mind, sanctify us
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in truth as Jesus prayed in John 17, and provide the objective
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standard we need to discern the lies of the world and the
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deceitfulness of our own flesh. The second provision is the
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active, ongoing intercession of Christ.
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According to First John 2. If anyone sins, we have an
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advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
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Christ acts as our defense attorney when we stumble and
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commit sin, pointing to His own shed blood as the full
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satisfaction for our debt. Because Christ continually
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lives, His intercession for us is always effective.
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We see a beautiful extended picture of this high priestly
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ministry in John 17, where Christ prays specifically for
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our security, asking the Father to keep us in His name.
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He prays for our joy to be made full.
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He prays for our protection from the evil. 1 And He actively
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prays that we will be with Him in glory to see His Majesty.
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Our security rests not in our grip on Christ, but in his firm
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grip on us through his unceasing prayer.
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Yes, the third and final provision is the indwelling
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presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's ministry in
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the life of a believer is absolutely crucial for living a
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life separated from sin. The text lists the multifaceted,
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powerful work of the Spirit. He permanently indwells every
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single believer for the moment of salvation.
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According to Romans 8, if anyone does not have the Spirit of
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Christ, he does not belong to Him.
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He anoints us to understand the truth, seals us securely for the
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day of future redemption, empowers us for bold witness,
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and fills us to produce the fruit of the Spirit.
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The Holy Spirit enables the believer to live constantly by
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His power, fulfilling the command in Galatians 5 to walk
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by the Spirit so that we will not carry out the corrupt
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desires of the flesh. These divine provisions, the
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objective Word, the interceding Son, and the indwelling Spirit,
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are more than sufficient to grant the Christian victory and
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assurance in the midst of a hostile, fallen world.
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We have covered a massive amount of theological ground today.
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We started by looking at God's original perfect design for
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mankind, evaluating the various creation models and confirming
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the literal direct creation of humanity from the dust of the
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earth. We examined our complex
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composition, recognizing both our material bodies and our non
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material souls bearing the glorious image of God.
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We walked through the devastating historicity of the
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fall in the Garden, analyzing Satan's deceptive tactics and
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the catastrophic universe altering judgments that
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followed. From there we trace the
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widespread devastation of original sin, unpacking the
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theological views of how Adam's guilt and corruption are imputed
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to the entire human race. And finally, we looked at the
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daily reality of the Christians battle against the world, the
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flesh and the devil, learning to rely wholly on the Word, the
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intercession of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
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When you consider all of this, it truly brings clarity to the
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human condition. Understanding our constitutional
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makeup and more substantially, understanding our federal
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representation in Adam explains why the world feels so broken.
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It explains the headlines. It explains why we have an
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innate bent toward rebellion and why moral effort alone always
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falls short. But even more beautifully,
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understanding the absolute depth of our depravity and our legally
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inherited guilt clarifies why God's grace is so entirely
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unearned, so astounding, and so desperately needed.
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It shifts our perspective from trying to earn our standing
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before God through moral performance to resting entirely
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what has been accomplished for us by our Savior.
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I want to leave you with a final thought to Mull over as you go
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about your week. If our legal condemnation was so
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thoroughly secured by the disobedience of our first
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representative, Adam, without our direct action or personal
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consent, how much more secure is our justification, which was
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legally secured by the perfect obedience and blood of our
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second representative, Christ? Regardless of our daily
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stumbling, if you trust in Him, your standing is based on His
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perfection, not your performance.
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I want to thank you for joining us on this deep dive into the
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source material. Until next time, keep thinking
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biblically.