Chapter 3 – Nature (part 1)
3. Its Nature.
The doctrine we are now considering is a most solemn and forbidding one. Certainly it is one which could never have been invented by man, for it is far too humbling and distasteful. It is one which is most offensive to human pride, and at complete variance with the modern idea of the progress of the human race. Nevertheless, if we accept the Scriptures as a Divine revelation then we have no choice in the matter but to uncomplainingly receive this Truth. The ruined and helpless state of the sinner is fully testified to by the Bible: therein fallen man is represented as so utterly carnal and sold under sin as to be not only “without strength” (Romans 5:6), but as lacking the least inclination to move toward God. Very dark indeed is this side of the Truth, but its supplement is the glory of God in rich grace, for it furnishes a real but necessary background to the blessed contents of the Gospel.
In the Scriptures it is plainly taught that man is a fallen being, that he is lost (Luke 19:10), that he cannot recover himself from his ruin; that despite the fact of an all-sufficient Savior presented to sinners, none of them can avail themselves of Him until they be Divinely regenerated (John 3:3, 5). Thus it is quite evident that if any sinner be saved, he owes his salvation entirely to the free grace and effectual power of God, and not in anyway unto any good in or from or by himself. “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto Your name give glory, for Your mercy” (Psalm 115:1) is the unqualified acknowledgment of all the redeemed. Scripture speaks in no uncertain language on this point. If one man differs from another on this all-important matter of being saved, then it is God who has made him to differ (1 Corinthians 4:7) and not himself.
Nor is the sinner’s salvation to be in anyway attributed to either pliability of heart or to his diligence in the use of means. “So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy” and “He has mercy on whom He will have mercy” (Romans 9:16, 18). If the reader will consult the context of John 6:44 he will find that our Lord was there accounting for the enmity of the murmuring Jews, saying, “No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him.” By those words Christ intimated that, considering what fallen human nature is, the conduct of His enemies is not to be wondered at, that they acted no different than will all other men when left to themselves. His own disciples would never have obeyed and followed Him had not a gracious Divine influence been exercised upon them, which was not granted unto their fellow creatures.
But as soon as this flesh-withering truth be pressed upon the unregenerate, they at once raise an outcry and voice their objections against it. If the spiritual condition of fallen man be one of complete helplessness, then with what sincerity can the Gospel bid him turn from his sins and flee to Christ for refuge? If the natural man be unable to repent and believe the Gospel, then how can he be justly punished for his impenitence and unbelief? On what ground can man be blamed for not doing what is morally impossible? Notwithstanding these difficulties, the point of doctrine which we shall insist upon is that none are able to comply with the terms of the Gospel until they are made the subjects of the special and effectual grace of God, that is, until they are Divinely quickened, made willing in the day of His power, so that they actually do comply with its terms.
Nevertheless, we shall also endeavor to show that sinners are not unjustly condemned for their depravity, but that their inability is a criminal one. Great care needs to be taken in stating this doctrine accurately, or otherwise men will be encouraged to put it to an evil use, making it a comfortable resting-place for their corrupt hearts. By a misrepresentation of it more than one preacher has “sewn pillows to all armholes” thereby “strengthening the hands of the wicked that he should not return from his wicked way” (Ezekiel 13:18, 22). The truth of man’s spiritual impotency has been so distorted that many sinners have been made to feel they are to be pitied, and to imagine they are sincere in desiring a new heart-which has not yet been granted them. While excusing their helplessness many suppose this to be quite consistent with a genuine longing to be renewed. It is the bounden duty of the minister to make his hearers realize they are under no inability save the excuseless corruption of their own hearts.
It will therefore be apparent that there is a real need for us to inquire closely into the precise nature of man’s spiritual inability, as to why it is he cannot come unto Christ unless he be Divinely drawn. But before commencing this task we will notice some of the efforts made by others therein, those who have erred thereon, repudiating or perverting the truth. Theologians have divided these errorists into two main classes: Pelagians and Semi-pelagians–Pelagius being the principal opponent of the godly Augustine in the fifth century. Romanists, the more extreme “Holiness” sects, and the Salvation Army are Pelagians in their teaching respecting the effects of the Fall and the nature of human depravity.
A. A. Hodge in his “Outlines of Theology” has succinctly summarized the Pelagian dogmas on the subject of man’s ability to fulfill the Law of God.
(1) Moral character can be predicated only of volitions.
(2) Ability is always the measure of responsibility.
(3) Hence every man has always plenary power to do all that it is his duty to do.
(4) Hence the human will alone, to the exclusion of the interference of any internal influence from God, must decide human character and destiny. The only Divine influence needed by man or consistent with his character as a self-determined agent is an external, providential, and educational one.
So, too, Semi-pelagians.
(1) Man’s nature has been so far weakened by the Fall that it cannot act aright in spiritual matters without Divine assistance.
(2) This weakened moral state which infants inherit from their parents is the cause of sin, but not itself sin in the sense of deserving the wrath of God.
(3) Man must strive to do his whole duty, when God meets him with cooperative grace, and renders his efforts successful.
(4) Man is not responsible for the sins he commits until after he has enjoyed and abused the influences of grace.
Arminians are Semi-pelagians, many of them going the whole length of the Romish error in affirming the freedom unto good of fallen man’s will. But their principal contention may fairly be stated thus: Man has certainly suffered considerably from the Fall, so much so that sinners are unable to do much, if anything, toward their salvation, merely of themselves. Nevertheless, say the Arminians, sinners are able, by the help of common grace (supposed to be extended by the Spirit to all who hear the Gospel) to do those things which are regarded as fulfilling the preliminary conditions of salvation (such as acknowledging their sins and calling upon God for help to forsake them and turn unto Christ). And it is further affirmed that if sinners will thus pray, use the means of grace, and put forth what power they do have, then assuredly God will meet them half way and renew their hearts and pardon their iniquities.
Against this Arminian parody it is to be objected. First, that so far from the Scriptures representing man as being partially disabled by the Fall, it declares him to be completely ruined: not merely weakened, but “without strength” (Romans 5:6). Second, to affirm that the natural man has any aspiration after God, is to deny he is totally depraved or that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5, cf. 8:21), for “there is none that seeks after God” (Romans 3:11). Third, if it were true that God could not justly condemn sinners for their inability to comply with the terms of the Gospel, and that in order to give every man a “fair chance” to be saved He extends to all the common help of His Spirit, that would not be “grace,” but a debt which He owed to His creatures. Finally, if such a God-insulting principle were granted, then the conclusion would inevitably follow that those who took advantage of this “common grace” could lawfully boast that they made themselves to differ from those who did not.
But enough of these wretched shifts and subterfuges of the carnal mind. Let us now turn to God’s own Word and see what it teaches us concerning the nature of man’s spiritual impotency. First, it represents it as being a penal one, a judicial infliction from the righteous Judge of all the earth. Unless this be clearly grasped at the outset we are left without any adequate explanation of this dark mystery. God did not create man as he now is. God made man holy and upright, and by his own apostasy he became corrupt and wicked. The Creator originally endowed man with certain powers, placed him on probation, and prescribed to him a rule of conduct. Had our first parents preserved their integrity, had they remained in loving and loyal subjection to their Maker and Ruler, all had been well: not only for themselves, but also for their posterity. But they were not willing to remain in the place of subjection: they took the reins into their own hands, rebelling against their Governor, and dreadful was the outcome.
How greatly was the sin of man aggravated. It was committed against knowledge and, through the beneficence of the One against whom it was directed, under great advantages. It was committed against Divine warning, and against an explicit declaration of the consequence of his transgression. In Adam’s fearful offense there was unbelief, presumption, base ingratitude, fearful rebellion against his most righteous and gracious Maker. Let the dreadfulness of this first human sin be carefully weighed before we are tempted to murmur against the dire consequences which attended it. Those dire consequences may all be summed up in that one fearful word “death,” for “the wages of sin is death”-the full import of which can best be ascertained by considering all the evil effects which have since befallen man. A just, holy, and sin-hating God caused the punishment to fit the crime.
Now let it be carefully understood that when God placed Adam upon probation it pleased Him to place the whole human race on probation, for Adam’s posterity were not only in him seminally as their natural head, but they were also in him legally and morally as their legal and moral head. In other words, by Divine constitution and covenant Adam stood and acted as the federal representative of the whole human race. Consequently, when he sinned, we sinned; when he fell, we fell. God justly imputed Adam’s transgression to all his descendants, whose agent he was: “By the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation” (Romans 5:18). By his sin Adam became not only guilty but corrupt, and that defilement of nature is transmitted to all his children. “Adam’s sin corrupted man’s nature and leavened the whole lump of mankind. We putrefied in Adam as our root. The root was poisoned, and so the branches were envenomed” (Thomas Boston).
Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned (Romans 5:12). Let us repeat, that Adam was not only the father, but the federal representative of his posterity; consequently justice required that they should be dealt with as sharing in his guilt, and therefore that the same punishment should be inflicted upon them, which is exactly what this vitally-important passage in Romans 5:12-21 affirms. “By one man (acting on behalf of the many), sin entered (as a foreign element, as a hostile factor) into the world (the whole system over which Adam had been placed as the vice-regent of God: blasting the fair face of nature, bringing a curse upon the earth, ruining all humanity), and death by sin (as its appointed wages), and so death passed upon (as the sentence of the righteous judge) all men” (because all men were seminally and federally in Adam).
It needs to be carefully borne in mind that in connection with the penal infliction which came upon man at the Fall, he lost no moral or spiritual faculty, but rather the power to use them aright. In Scripture “death” (as the wages of sin) signifies not annihilation, but separation. As physical death is the separation of the soul from the body, so spiritual death is the separation of the soul from its Maker: as Ephesians 4:18 expresses it, “alienated from the life of God.” Thus, when the Father said, of the prodigal, “this My son was dead” (Luke 15), He meant, this My son was absent from Me-away in the “far country.” Hence, when, as the Substitute of His people, Christ was receiving in their stead the wages which was due them, He cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” This is why the Lake of Fire is called “the Second Death,” because those cast therein are “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
Above we have said that all of Adam’s posterity shared in the guilt of the great transgression committed by their federal head, and that therefore the same punishment is inflicted upon them as upon him. That punishment consisted (so far as its present character is concerned) in his coming under the curse and wrath of God, the corrupting of his nature, and the mortalizing of his body. Clear proof of this is found in that inspired statement, “And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image” (Genesis 5:3), which is in direct antithesis from his being created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). That Adam’s first son was morally depraved, his conduct clearly evidenced; and that his second son was so also, the sacrifice which he brought to God fully acknowledged.
As the result of the Fall, man is born into this world so totally depraved in his moral nature as to be entirely unable to do anything spiritually good, or even in the slightest degree dispose himself thereto. Even under the exciting and persuasive influences of Divine grace the will of man is completely unfit to act aright in cooperation with grace, until after the will itself is, by the power of God, radically and permanently renewed. The tree itself must be made good, before there is the least prospect of any good fruit being borne by it. Even after a man is regenerated, the renewed will ever continues dependent upon Divine grace to energize, direct and enable it unto the performance of anything acceptable to God, as the language of Christ clearly shows: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
But let it be clearly understood that though man has by the Fall lost all power to do anything pleasing to God, yet his Maker has not lost His authority over him nor forfeited His right to require that which is due Himself. As creatures we were bound to serve God and do whatever He commanded, and the fact that we have, by our own folly and sin, thrown away the strength given to us, cannot and does not cancel our obligations. Has the creditor no right to demand payment for what is owed him because the debtor has squandered his substance, and is unable to pay him? If God can require of us no more than we are now able to render Him, then the more we enslave ourselves by evil habits and still further incapacitate ourselves, the less our liabilities-and so the deeper we plunge into sin, the less wicked we would become, which is a manifest absurdity.
Even though it be by Adam’s fall that we have become depraved and spiritually helpless creatures, yet the terrible fact that we are enemies to the infinitely-glorious God, our Maker, renders us infinitely to blame and without the vestige of a legitimate excuse. Surely it is perfectly obvious that nothing can make it right for a creature to voluntarily rise up at enmity against One who is the sum of all excellence, infinitely worthy of our love, homage, and obedience. Thus, for man-whatever be the origin of his depravity-to be a rebel against the Governor of this world is infinitely evil and culpable. It is utterly vain for us to seek to shelter behind Adam’s offense while every sin we commit is voluntary and not compulsory-the free, spontaneous inclinations of our hearts. This being the case every month will be stopped, and all the world stand guilty before God (Romans 3:19).
To this it may be objected that Paul himself argued that he was not personally and properly to blame for the corruptions of his heart, saying, “It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:17, 20). But there is no justification for so wickedly perverting the Apostle’s language in that passage. If the scope of his words there be attended to, such a misuse of them is at once ruled out of court. He was engaged in showing that Divine grace and not indwelling sin was the governing principle within him-as he had affirmed in, “sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace” (6:14). So far from insinuating that he did not feel himself to be to blame, wholly to blame, for his remaining corruptions, he (in this very chapter) declares, “I am carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14), and at the close cries as a broken-hearted penitent, “O wretched man that I am” (v. 24). It is perfectly obvious that he could not have mourned for his remaining corruptions as being sinful if he had not felt himself to blame for them.
We now come to the second point-Man’s spiritual impotency is a moral one, by which we mean that he is now unable to meet the requirements of the Moral Law. We employ this term “moral,” first of all, in contrast from “natural,” for the spiritual helplessness of fallen man is unnatural, inasmuch as it pertained not to the nature of man as created by God. Man (in Adam) was endowed with full ability to do whatever was required of him, but that ability he lost by the Fall. We employ this term “moral,” in the second place, because it accurately defines the character of fallen man’s malady. His inability is purely moral, because while he still possesses all moral as well as intellectual faculties requisite for right action, yet the moral state of his faculties is such as to render right action impossible. “Its essence is in the inability of the soul to know, love, or choose spiritual good; and its ground exists in that moral corruption of soul whereby it is blind, insensible, and totally averse to all that is spiritually good” (A. Hodge).
The affirmation that fallen man is morally impotent presents a serious difficulty unto many: they suppose that to assert his inability to will or do anything spiritually good is utterly incompatible with human responsibility, or the sinner’s guilt. These difficulties will be considered by us at length (D.V.) later. But it was necessary for us to allude unto these difficulties at the present stage because their efforts to show the reconcilability of fallen man’s inability with his responsibility has led not a few defenders of the former truth to make predications which were unwarrantable and untrue. They felt that there is, there must be, some sense or respect in which even fallen man may be said to be able to will and do what is required of him, and they have labored to show in what sense this ability exists, while at the same time man is, in another sense, unable.
Many Calvinists supposed that in order to avoid the awful error of Antinomian fatalism it was necessary to ascribe some kind of ability unto fallen man, and therefore they resorted unto the distinction between natural and moral inability: affirming that though man is now morally unable to do what God requires, yet he has a natural ability to do it, and therefore is responsible for the not doing of it. In the past we have ourselves made use of this distinction, and we still believe it to be a real and important one, though we are now satisfied that it is expressed faultily. There is a radical difference between a person being in possession of natural or moral faculties, and his possessing or not possessing the power to use those faculties aright, and in the accurate stating of the same lies the difference between a preservation of the doctrine of man’s depravity and moral impotence, and the repudiation or at least the whittling down thereof.
It is at this point that many have burdened their writings with a metaphysical discussion of the human will, a discussion so abstruse that comparatively few of their readers possessed the necessary education or mentality to intelligently follow it. We do not propose to now canvass such questions as, Is the will of fallen man “free”? and if so, in what sense? To introduce such an inquiry here would divert attention too much from the more important query, Can man by any efforts of his own recover himself from the effects of the Fall? Suffice it, then, to insist that the sinner’s unwillingness to come to Christ is far more than a mere negation or a not putting forth of such a volition: it is a positive thing, an active aversion from Him, a terrible and inveterate enmity against Him.
The term “ability” or “power” is not an easy one to define, for it is a relative one, having reference to something to be done or resisted: thus when we meet with the word, the mind at once asks, power to do what? ability to resist what? The particular kind of ability necessary is determined by the particular kind of actions to be performed: if it be the lifting of a heavy weight, it is physical ability which is needed; if to work out a sum in arithmetic, mental power; if to choose between good and evil, moral power. Man has sufficient physical and intellectual ability to keep many of the precepts of the Moral Law, yet no possible expenditure of such power could produce moral obedience. It may be that Gabriel has less natural and intellectual power than Satan. Suppose it is so, then what? Why, simply that no amount of ability can go beyond its own kind: love to God can never proceed from the powers possessed by Satan.
Let us now consider what the Scriptures teach concerning the bodily, mental, and moral abilities of fallen man. First, they teach that his bodily faculties are in a ruined state, that his physical powers are enfeebled, and this as a result of sin. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Romans 5:12): that this includes physical death, none of our readers is likely to deny. Now death necessarily implies a failure of the powers of the body: so, too, sickness, feebleness, the wasting of the physical energies and tissues are included: and all of this originates in sin as their moral cause, and are the penal results of it. Every aching joint, every quivering nerve, every pang of pain we experience, is a reminder of and a mark of God’s displeasure upon the original misuse of our bodily powers in the garden of Eden.
Second, man’s intellectual powers have suffered by the Fall. “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18). A very definite display of this ignorance was made by our first parents after their apostasy. Their sin consisted in allowing their affections to wander after a forbidden object, seeking their happiness not in the delightful communion of God, but in the suggestion presented to them by the Tempter. Like their descendants ever since, they loved and served the creature more than the Creator. Their conduct in hiding from God showed an alienation of affections. Had their delight been in the Lord as their chief good, then desire for concealment could not have possessed their minds. That foolish attempt to hide themselves from the searching eye of God betrayed their ignorance as well as their conscious guilt. Had not “their foolish heart been darkened” such an attempt had not been made, but “professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22).
This mental darkness, this ignorance of mind is to man, unaided by supernatural grace, insuperable. Fallen man never would, never could, dispel this darkness, overcome this ignorance. He labors under an imbecility of mind to such a degree as to render it impossible for him to attain unto the true knowledge of God and to understand the things of the Spirit. He has an understanding by which he may know natural things: he can reason, investigate truth, and learn much of God’s wisdom as it is displayed in the works of creation. He is capable of knowing the moral truths of God’s Word as mere abstract propositions, but a true, spiritual, saving apprehension of them is utterly beyond his unaided powers. There is a positive defect and inability in his mind. “The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
By the “natural man” is unquestionably meant the unrenewed man, the man in whom the miracle of regeneration and illumination has not been effected. The context makes this clear: “now we (Christians) have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God” (v. 12). And for what end had the Spirit been given unto them? Why, that they might be delivered from their chains of ignorance, that their inability of mind might be removed, so that “we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” “Which things (of the Spirit) also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (v. 13). Here is a contrast between man’s wisdom and its teachings and the Spirit’s wisdom and His teachings. That the “natural man” of verse 14 is unregenerate is further seen from contrasting him from the “spiritual” man in verse 15.
A Divine explanation is here given as to why the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God: it is a most cogent and solemn one-“for they are foolishness unto him.” That is, he rejects them because they are absurd to his apprehension: it is contrary to the very nature of the human mind to receive as truth that which it deems to be preposterous. And why do the things of the Spirit of God appear unto the natural man as foolishness? Are they not in themselves the consummation of wisdom? Wisdom is not folly; no, yet it may appear such and be so treated, even by minds which in other matters are of quick and accurate perception. The wisdom of the higher mathematician is foolishness to the illiterate. Why so? because he cannot understand it: he has not the power of mind to comprehend the mighty thoughts of a Newton.
But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them: they are beyond his power to comprehend. Why so? Do not many of the unregenerate possess vigorous and clear-thinking minds? can they not reason accurately when they have perceived clearly? Have not some of the unconverted given the most illustrious displays of the powers of the human intellect? Why, then, cannot they know the things of the Spirit? This, too, is answered by 1 Corinthians 2:14: because those things require a peculiar power of discernment, which the unrenewed have not-“they are spiritually discerned,” and the natural man is not spiritual. Until he is taught of God-until the eyes of his understanding be enlightened (Ephesians 1:18)-he will never see any beauty in the Christ of God or any wisdom in the Spirit of God.
If further proof be needed of the mental inability of the natural man it is furnished in those passages which speak of the Spirit’s illumination. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, unto the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). Hence “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” is said to be the gift of the Father (Ephesians 1:17). Previously to that gift, “you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8). “But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you” (1 John 2:27). From these passages it is evident: (1) That the mind of man is in a state of spiritual darkness. (2) That it continues, and will continue so, until the Spirit of God gives it light or knowledge. (3) That this giving of light or knowledge is by Divine power, a miracle of grace, as truly a miracle as when, at the beginning, the Lord said “let there be light.”
Against what has been pointed out above it has been objected, Man possesses the organ of vision and therefore he has the ability to see. Although he has not the light-remove the obstructing shutters and the prisoner in his dungeon sees. But let us not be deceived by such sophistry. It is not true that a man having a sound eye has the ability to see. It is often contrary to facts, both naturally and spiritually. Without light he cannot see, he has not the ability to do so. Yes, those with sound eyes and light, too, cannot see all things, even things which are perceptible to others: myopia or shortsightedness prevents. A man may be able to see with the mind’s eye a simple proposition, who cannot see the force of a profound argument.
Third, the moral powers of man’s soul are paralyzed by the Fall. Darkness on the understanding, ignorance in the mind, corruption of the affections, must of necessity radically affect motives and choice. To insist that either the mind or the will has a power to act contrary to motive is a manifest absurdity, for in that case it would not be a moral act at all: the very essence of morality is a capacity to be influenced by considerations of right and wrong. Were a rational mind to act without any motive-a contradiction in terms-it certainly would not be a moral act. Motives are simply the mind’s view of things, influencing to action; and since the understanding has been blinded by sin and the affections so corrupted, then it is obvious that until he be renewed man will reject the good and choose the evil.
As we have already pointed out, man is unwilling to choose the good because he is disinclined thereto, and he chooses evil because his heart is biased thereunto: men love darkness rather than light. Surely no proof of such assertions is needed: all history too sadly testifies to their verity. It is a waste of breath to ask for evidence that man is inclined unto evil as the sparks fly upward. Common observation and our own personal consciousness alike bear witness to this lamentable fact. Equally plain is it that it is the derangement of the mind by sin which affects the moral power of perceiving right and wrong, enfeebling or destroying the force of moral motives.
An unregenerate and a regenerate man may contemplate the same subject matter, view the same objects, but how differently their moral perceptions! Therefore, their motives and actions will be quite different: the things seen by their minds being different, diverse effects are necessarily produced upon them. The one sees a “Root out of a dry ground” (Isaiah 53:2) in which there is “no form nor loveliness;” whereas the other sees One who is “altogether lovely.” In consequence, He is despised and rejected by the former, whereas He is loved and embraced by the latter. While such are the views (perceptions) of the two individuals, respectively, such must be their choice and conduct. It is impossible to be otherwise. Their moral perceptions must be changed before it is possible for their volitions to be altered.
