Cap 7 - STUDIES

THE FRUITS OF MAN’S FALL

That man is a spiritually fallen creature is a fact which is obvious from Scripture, experience and observation, yet it is a fact that is denied by a very large portion of the world. Nor need we be surprised at this, for the combined facts of man’s fallen condition and his pride make this the most natural thing to be expected. A. W. Pink has well said:

The violent antagonism of men against this truth is precisely what might be expected. Instead of causing us doubt it should be a strong confirmation. Indeed it would be surprising if a doctrine so humbling and distasteful were not resisted. Nor need we be dismayed by its widespread repudiation by preachers and professing Christians. —Gleanings from the Scriptures: Man’s Total Depravity, p. 135. Moody Press, Chicago, 1969.The fact of man’s totally depraved nature is declared in many places in the Word, and we choose only one as a starting point in our consideration of the fruits that have come about through man’s fall into sin: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Ps. 53:1-3). Here is a six-fold denial of there being any spiritual good in man, and this portion does not stand alone in teaching this, for this is repeated almost verbatim in two other places, one of these, (Rom. 3:19-28), even strengthening this declaration. Not only so, but many, many other passages teach the same thing in other words.

This portion is a description of the "fool," or the one who is spiritually an atheist; yet as a consideration of the context reveals, it is not referring to one who verbally denies the existence of God so much as it refers to those, who by their lives, practically deny the existence of God. Thus, this refers to a practical atheism rather than a verbal atheism. A. W. Pink has very pointedly said that:

An atheist is not only one who denies the existence of God, but also one who fails to render to God the honor and subjection which are His due. Thus there is a practical atheism as well as a theoretical atheism. The former obtains wherever there is no genuine respect for God’s authority and no concern for His glory…How little recognized and realized is the fact that all outward impieties are the manifestations of an inward atheism! Yet this is indeed the case. As bodily sores evidence impurity of the blood, so actions demonstrate the corruption of human nature…Practical atheism consists of utter contempt of God, conducting ourselves as though there were none infinitely above us who has an absolute right to govern us, to whom we must give a full account of all that we have done and left undone, and who will then pronounce sentence of eternal judgment upon us. —Gleanings From The Scriptures: Man’s Total Depravity, pp. 109, 110. Moody Press, Chicago, 1969.This attitude toward God is a result of man’s fallen nature, and there is but one thing which can change it—the fallen nature itself must be changed into a new nature. Let us not be mistaken: the teaching of man’s total depravity is not a doctrine that some preacher thought up, neither is it the churches’ pronouncement; this is God’s view of man, and it is an infallible pronouncement that is to be accepted unquestioningly. To do otherwise is to put ones self in the category of an outright rebel against God Himself.

But we do not wish to look at man’s total depravity now so much as at the fruits of it, though the fruits themselves will give us a very full view of the depravity. We observe first of all that there was a fallen and depraved nature that resulted from the fall. This has already been considered in our study on Original Sin, and so we pass by this with only the following statement by E. G. Robinson: who says:

The consequences of the fall of man are sometimes divided into those which resulted immediately to our first parents, and those which have resulted to their descendents; but whatever befell the progenitors of the race, their descendents have inherited. By the fall, there was lost an original righteousness which, but for its loss, would have been the birthright of every one of the race, and in its stead there were incurred certain positive evils which, to every one, have been a heritage of woe. —Christian Theology, p. 128. Press of R. R. Andrews, Rochester, W. Y., 1894.We observe that there was—

I. SUBJECTION TO DEATH.

Before man partook of the forbidden fruit, he was very sternly warned that death would be the result of the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). E. G. Robinson remarks of this as follows:

What were the consequences of the Fall? Turning to the Scriptures, we find that the special consequence of disobedience, of which, according to Genesis 2:17, particular forewarning had been given, and which, in Romans 5:12, 14, and 1 Corinthians 15:22, is said to have been incurred, is death. Adam and death are so intimately and constantly associated in the New Testament as to teach, beyond a doubt, that death has been the chief consequence of his fall. But the word death has at least two meanings in the Scriptures; the first, that of separation of the soul from the body; the second, the soul’s separation from God. In which sense of the word has death, as the great penalty for sin, been a consequence of the fall? Preeminently, though not exclusively, we think, in the latter. —Christian Theology, p. 129. Press of E. R. Andrews, Rochester, N. Y., 1894.A. W. Pink sees in the threat made against the eating of the forbidden fruit, a three-fold meaning of the word "death," for he says: When God told Adam, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," He signified, first, to die spiritually, that is, to be alienated from the source of divine life. Second, in due course, to die physically: the body shall go to corruption and return to dust. Third, to die eternally, to suffer "the second death" (Rev. 20:14), to be cast into the fire, there to suffer forever. —Gleanings from The Scriptures: Man’s Total Depravity, p. 48. Moody Press, Chicago, 1969.However, we do not believe that all three of these were involved in the threat, for while unquestionably all three of these are consequences of the fall of man, yet only one of them was the immediate consequence of Adam’s transgression. The threat was "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" yet Adam did not physically die that day, nor did he suffer the second death "in that day". He died spiritually, and he came under the curse of broken law immediately, but his eventual physical death was rather a consequence of the other meaning of the words and there is a suggestion that both Adam and Eve were redeemed by the Lord, and so never entered into that state of the "second death." This is typified in the coats of skin: which the Lord made for them.

That physical death is not primarily a part of the curse of the broken law is obvious when we realize that untold millions of saved people have calmly met physical death without fear or distress of mind of any sort. They were able to do this because salvation removed the condition of being spiritually dead and under the curse of God, and so they were enabled to meet God face to face at death without fear. Physical death for saved people, so far from being a fearful thing, is referred to only as a "sleep," (see John 11:11; Acts 7:60; 1 Thess: 4:14; 5:9-10, et al). Dr. Robinson observes:

Christ saves no one, and promised to save no one, from physical death, though he came to destroy death, the consequence of sin, by destroying sin itself. The salvation he bestows on every believer is commensurate with the ruin of the fall, but not to the extent of relieving any one from temporal death. Had temporal or literal death been the specific penalty for sin, then the literal death of Christ should have destroyed the penalty, otherwise the salvation he procures is not the restoration of something lost, but the bestowment of something wholly additional to man’s original gifts. —Christian Theology, p. 131. Press of E. R. Andrews, Rochester, R. Y., 1894.What makes death so fearful is the ignorance of what lies beyond it, or rather, the knowledge that beyond it lies the wrath of an offended God, whom the unreconciled sinner is unfitted to meet without being immediately and eternally condemned to torment. In itself, physical death is a matter of little import, for it is but a portal through which one passes from one realm of life to another. W. N. Clarke remarks of physical death that— The event which thus ends the earthly life effects the removal of the living person to a life beyond. The spirit leaves the material body, but lives on, and enters new scenes of action. If one looks back, death is the end of a career; if forward, it is the beginning of a career; but in reality death is neither end nor beginning, but an event in a career, an experience of life. —Outline of Christian Theology, p. 449. T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1905.The first and chief consequence of man’s fall therefore was that he became subject to death: i.e., he immediately became a spiritually dead person and consequently subject to the wrath of a holy God. This is the thought that is in Ezekiel 18:4, 20: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Here, the death that is spoken of is not a decease of the body, but a wrath that falls upon the sinful soul, and this is but what should be, for the soul is the seat of sin, and is the controlling factor in an individual, for while the body has sinful propensities all its own, yet in one whose soul has been saved, the body can be subjected to the spiritual nature and its sinful bents controlled to a great extent. But the unsaved individual is "soulish," i.e., he is under the complete dominion of this spiritually dead soul and consequently is under the wrath that was threatened for the transgression of that first law. See 1 Corinthians 2:14; James 3:15; and Jude 19 where "natural" and "sensual" is literally "soulish".

As we have already said, physical death was not the primary thing in Genesis 2:17; nevertheless, it is a consequence of man’s fallen condition, for physical death is expressly foretold in Genesis 3:19: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Thus it is declared to be the proof of a universal participation in the sin of Adam, for Romans 5:12 declares: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

Many have endeavored to remove death from its connection with sin by saying that this could not be so since infants who have never done either good or evil are yet subject to death. But the literal acceptance of Romans 5:12 clearly shows why all men without exception are subject to death: they were all in Adam when he sinned, and they all participated in that sin with him. All mankind were in Adam in a twofold way when he sinned: (1) They were in him seminally for he was the head of the race, and all mankind have descended from him. It is not enough to say that one man cannot act for others without their consent, for the Scriptures often represent men as acting for their unborn posterity, as well as for their immediate families. Then, (2) All men were in Adam representatively, for he was not only the natural head of the race, but also the federal head as well. Samuel Baird says of this:

By the phrase, covenant head, we do not mean that Adam was by covenant made head of the race; but that, being its head, by virtue of the nature with which God had endowed him, he stood as such in the covenant...Adam was thus constituted, and the covenant was engraved on his heart and nature, as he was a propagative being, the father of the race…In all God’s dealings with Adam he is looked upon and addressed, not as an individual merely, but as representing in his person all men. So it was in his endowment with God’s image, and with the name, "Adam," —a name not only proper to his person, but in the Bible constantly recognized and used as the generic name of the race. So that, in fact, when we say that God made a covenant with Adam, it is equivalent, by the very force of the terms, to saying, that the covenant was made with the human race. —The Elohim Revealed, pp. 305-307. Lindsay and Blakiston, Philadelphia, 1860.Some have objected to being held accountable for the fall of man in Adam, and have been unwilling to be represented by Adam in this matter; but surely this objection proceeds upon ignorance and pride. Ignorance, in that it does not realize that each and every one of Adam’s descendents were truly in him in his sin, and acted in and with him in transgressing God’s commandment; and pride, in that it assumes that we would have done differently had we been offered the same opportunity as Adam; but Adam was a perfect man with no natural bent to evil, he lived in a perfect environment, with nothing lacking that could be desired by any one unless he desired to usurp the very throne of God Himself, and with a perfect knowledge of the will of God so far as it related to him personally; yet he was stirred up to desire that which was unlawful, and he sinned in endeavoring to take it. Now no one since Adam has been so well fitted to successfully endure a probation, and certainly no one would have done better than Adam did. Baird again well says: To object, therefore, to the positive transaction between God and Adam, is, to complain that God did not give us a myriad chances of falling, instead of one; since the only effect of that transaction was, to secure confirmation and eternal life to man, upon condition of Adam’s temporary obedience; instead of the race being held to a perpetual probation, in Adam and in themselves. To complain of being held responsible for Adam’s sin, is, to object to being held to obedience at all; since, in any case, Adam’s sin was our sin; the forces which are in us, —the nature which we inherit from him, is the very nature which, in him, rebelled; —the same, not in kind, merely, —but as flowing continuously from him to us. —The Elohim Revealed, pp. 301-302. Lindsay and Blakiston, Philadelphia, 1860.Adam, as the representative of the whole human race, sinned and brought all into subjection to death—this is granted; yet none could have done better than he, and most would have done infinitely worse, and so it is better to get the probation over with, and get on with the Lord’s blessed redemptive program, than to string out the matter through myriads of pointless probations, each of which must, in the nature of the case, end essentially the same way.

This subjection to death which resulted from man’s fall is a bad thing only if the divinely given remedy is rejected; otherwise, fallen man gains much more by the redemption of Christ than he ever lost by the fall. Another fruit of the fall was

II. ENSLAVEMENT TO SIN.

Sin has a natural enslaving nature to it, and it enslaves in such a gradual way that few realize its true nature until it becomes so firmly entrenched and so tyrannical that there is no human hope of escape. Note its progressive workings as declared in James 1:14-15: "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Temptation in itself is not sin if it is resisted, but as soon as any one yields to the enticement of sin, he becomes guilty of lust, which, in its turn, brings forth the actual deed of sin, and this, in turn, when it achieves its end brings forth death.

This enslaving nature of sin is suggested in the fact that it is said to "reign" over men who yield to it, and this is all that is necessary for one to become enslaved by sin. Indeed, the very nature of man is such that he receives from his father Adam a nature which is already in bondage to sin, but as each person achieves years of reason and responsibility, he ratifies Adam’s transgression by his own, and forges stronger chains of bondage for himself. "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Rom. 6:12-13). Some render verse 12, "Do not let sin sit over you as king," which brings out even more forcefully the fact of the enslavement of sin.

It is the claim of some professed Christians that they have achieved such a plane of sanctification as to no longer be bound by nor subject to, sin, and there are those who deny the reality of sin, yet the very fact that death has reigned universally over men since Adam’s fall, is an evidence of the universal bondage of sin. The day that any person achieves a state of absolute sinlessness, he will have passed beyond the possibility of dying. "For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgressions who is the figure of him that was to come" (Rom. 5:13-14). The apostle’s purpose in making this statement was to refute the claims of some who said that inasmuch as the written law was not given for so many centuries after Adam, therefore those who lived before the giving of the law were not charged with sin. Paul admits that sin is not imputed or charged to the account of those who have no law, but then he says, "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses," by which he shows that sin was imputed else these would not have died, and therefore that all these had law in some form.

This same thing holds true today, and proves the universal bondage of men to sin, for if sin were not imputed to the heathen in the dark corners of the world, they would not die, yet they die as surely as the most enlightened sinner in the most enlightened nation in the world.

There are many passages of Scripture which speak of man’s bondage to sin from his very birth—yea, even from his conception; thus, David says: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:5). "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies" (Ps. 58:3). "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage" (2 Pet. 2:19). "Because the creature (creation, R.V.) itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21). In this latter verse, there is the suggestion that the children of God were formerly in this bondage of corruption, but are now freed from it to the same condition which the whole creation now looks expectantly, (v. 22). "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air: the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:1-3).

Many others could be cited which are to the same effect, that man is by nature a fallen and sinful creature, in bondage to his own corruption, but what is even worse than the bondage itself is the fact that man is unable to break his bonds and to free himself from his bondage to sin. Nor does he naturally have any desire to do so.

The operations of divine grace preserve in believers a constant and ordinarily prevailing will to do good, notwithstanding the power and efficacy of indwelling sin to the contrary. But the will in unbelievers is completely under the power of sin—their will of sinning is never taken away. Education, religion and convictions of conscience may restrain unbelievers, but they have no spiritual inclination of will to do that which is pleasing to God. —A. W Pink, Gleanings From The Scriptures: Man’s Total Depravity, p. 253. Moody Press, Chicago, 1969.It is at this point that almost all the religious world is in error, for it is commonly taught that man is capable of doing some good, and so that he is able to eventually free himself, or at most that he only needs a little help to extricate himself from his bondage.

But as we have already noted, Psalm 53:1-3 is a six-fold (or perhaps even a seven-fold) declaration of the total absence of any spiritual good, and of the complete permeation of all sons of Adam with the nature of sin; thus, both from the negative and positive sides, man is wholly incapable of freeing himself from the ever growing bondage of sin. It is a dishonest man indeed who will deny that he is guilty of some sin; the Lord Jesus said: "verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin" (John 8:34). Here the word "servant" (Grk. doulos) might better be rendered "slave," for the word refers to one born in slavery, as opposed to one who might be taken captive in war (Liddell and Scott, Abridged Greek Lexicon, Economy Book House, New York, 1901.). And Paul declared: "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Rom. 6:16). Baird says:

Such was the case with Adam. Not only did he transgress the command of his Maker, —not only did he violate the rule of righteousness, —but, in so doing, he turned away from God, in a revolt which embraced his entire nature, pervaded his whole being, and possessed every power. In entering upon trial, he enjoyed a perfect moral freedom. He had power and liberty to choose holiness or sin, to embrace evil or good. By his apostasy, he submitted himself to an absolute tyranny of corruption, a most degrading servitude to sin. So that now, no longer able to choose the good or work righteousness, he was free only to evil, and led captive in chains of enmity to God, to work wickedness with greediness. —The Elohim Revealed, p. 396. Lindsay and Blakiston, Philadelphia, 1860.Such servitude as binds man in his sins is not one that he can work or buy off, for "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. (For the redemption of their soul is precious [or ‘costly’, R.V.] and it ceaseth for ever): that he should still live forever, and not see corruption" (Ps. 49:7-9). In the course of teaching His disciples of their need to be forgiving toward their fellow men, Jesus incidentally illustrated the impossibility of man ever being able to pay off his sin-debt before God, and accomplish his own freedom from enslavement to sin, (Matthew 18:23-35). The point that we wish to note is the incalculable debt that the first servant owed: it was ten thousand talents—a sum roughly equal to fifteen million dollars in our present currency, but with the buying power of that day when a day’s wages was only a penny (Matthew 20:2), the amount is staggering. Yet, this unfaithful servant had the conceited pride to think that he could pray off the whole debt if he were but given enough time (v. 26). He failed to realize that the interest on this sum alone would be more than he could have earned in ten lifetimes, for the daily interest at seven percent would be over $2,800. Again, he overlooked the fact that as a servant to his master, whatever he earned, already belonged by right to his master, for he was his property. The parable goes on to show that men have a different standard by which they judge others, than that by which they want to be judged themselves.

This parable shows the impossibility of any sinner ever paying off his sin-debt and freeing himself from the bondage of sin for the simple reasons: (1) That he cannot atone for past sins because all good works and service that he could render to God in the future are already required of him as what he owes God. (2) He accumulates new sins infinitely faster than he rids himself of old sins. (3) Every good (?) deed that he does looses any value it might have had when he does it from a selfish motive, which is always the case if he does it with the hopes of being justified thereby. Only those things which are done out of pure love to God find any acceptance with God. (4) All of the works in the world can never change the sinful nature of man, which is the source of all his sinful acts. Man’s sin is primarily a matter of nature, not of actions: the actions are but the fruits of sin as a nature. In the parable, the master recognized that the first servant was basically of an utterly selfish nature which was irremediable.

Sin, before it can be remedied, must be recognized for what it is—a great evil—and worse, a progressive evil; it never gets better except when grace intervenes to overthrow and root it out of the soul. Like enslavement to liquor, which is one of its manifestations, sin never manifests its tyrannical nature until it is so firmly entrenched that it cannot be overcome and cast out by human strength. Paul likens the covenant of works in an allegory to the son that was begotten of Abraham of the Egyptian bond woman when he says: "Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all" (Gal. 4:24-26).

Ishmael was born of a slave, and therefore he could never be anything more than a slave, and so is every one who is under the covenant of works; because of the weakness of the flesh, the endeavor to keep the law only brings one into deeper bondage because of the natural sinfulness of man. Because man is enslaved to sin, he cannot consistently, continually, completely keep the law of God.

III. SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS.

This spiritual blindness is declared in Psalm 53:2-3: "God looked down from heaven upon: the children of men (lit. ‘children of Adam’), to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Thus this declares, not only that man has no spiritual understanding, but that this is a willing ignorance. This is not to say that men do not have a worldly wisdom; this they do have, but it is a wisdom in wickedness: "For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sotish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge" (Jer. 4:22). "...the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light" (Luke 16:8).

The world looks upon its advances in the intellectual and scientific realms, and it considers these to be wisdom; thus, it judges itself the wisest generation yet to be, but it fails to realize that true wisdom does not lie in these things, but in a reverential fear of the Lord: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding" (Prov. 9:10). Too often the world makes its very intellectual and scientific advances an excuse for its impiety and a means of further rebellion against God. "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (Rom. 1:21-22). "...hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (1 Cor. 1:20-21).

From these Scriptures it is made abundantly clear that the world can never find out God, nor be saved by its own wisdom; salvation is only to be had by an experience that the world considers foolish, for "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise" (1 Cor. 1:27): so that all glory in the salvation of man will come to Him, where it is due. But why cannot man understand these things by the ability of the natural mind? Simply because he is blind spiritually, and these things are only understood spiritually. "But the natural man receiveth 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 Cor. 2:14).

This spiritual blindness is declared in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4: "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." The very fact of man’s fallen and lost condition makes him incapable of understanding the spiritual truths of the gospel, for Satan has free reign in blinding the minds so that spiritual truths appear illogical, irrational and completely foolish to the unrenewed man. This spiritual blindness is removed by the renewing that takes place in the mind in salvation, as it is written: "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of our mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:22-24). "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Col. 3:9-10).

This blindness, however, is subject to intensification as the individual hears and rejects the truth, for disbelief of the truth gives the devil an advantage whereby he may further darken the mind, and steel it against the truth. Indeed, sin itself has a subjective blinding effect upon the individual, as it is written: "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 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: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness" (Eph. 4:17-19). The "blindness of their heart" is their condition by nature because of the fall, and as a result of this, their daily walk is "in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened." An aggravation of this sad condition is when they "give themselves over unto lasciviousness" to do unrestrained evil.

The believer is often amazed and appalled that the unsaved cannot see the danger that they are in, and that they will not receive the witness of saved people, but this is not so hard to understand if we once accept the Scripture declarations of what has befallen mankind as a result of Adam’s sin. As A. W. Pink has well said:

The mind is that faculty of the soul by which objects and things are first known and apprehended. In distinguishing the understanding from the mind, the latter is that which weighs, discriminates and determines, judging between the concepts formed in the former, being the guide of the soul, the selector and rejector of those notions the mind has received. Both are deranged by sin, for we are told that "their minds were blinded" (2 Cor. 3:14) and their "understanding darkened" (Eph. 4:18). The fall has completely shuttered the windows of man’s soul, yet he is not aware of it; in fact, he emphatically denies it. —Gleanings From The Scriptures: Man’s Total Depravity, p. 137. Moody Press, Chicago, 1969.In a very real sense, the lost individual is mentally deranged,, and cannot think aright about spiritual things, for sin has both blinded and darkened his intellectual processes; thus it is written: "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled" (Titus 1:15). And again: "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12). And once more: "But the natural man receiveth 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 Cor. 2:14). In this latter passage, the word "natural" shows that this is the condition of every individual as he comes into the world, and until he is changed by grace; he doesn’t have to commit some great and heinous sin in order to fall into this condition; he is in this condition by his birth into a fallen humanity. Because the natural man’s faculties are deranged by the fall, he is blind to spiritual truth, which can only be "spiritually discerned" (judged or examined). Many preachers are in this very condition.

Doubtless here is the explanation of the great spiritual ignorance that is presently in the world: the pulpits across the land have been filled, for the most part, by ministers who are themselves as spiritually blind as those to whom they try to minister. Of these, Jesus said: "let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch" (Matthew 15:14). One man must himself be able to see before he can lead another, and this applies with equal or even greater force in spiritual matters.

But this spiritual blindness is not restricted solely to the mind of man, for it also involves a blindness of the heart: "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" (Eph. 4:18). Indeed, it would seem from this that the intellectual blindness is a direct result of the blindness of the heart; and it is true that what one loves has much to do with how one thinks about that thing, and all other things that are related to it. Man’s love of sin is the cause of his denial of God and his rebellion against Him; once man’s heart is repaired of the ravages of sin he will love God, as he was created to do from the beginning. The present condition of man’s heart is declared in Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" so that it must be radically changed ere it is capable of loving and serving God. God’s answer to man’s need is thus declared: "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh" (Ezek. 11:19).

Hereby, God removes the blindness of the heart which has a direct bearing upon the blindness of the intellect, so that in salvation God removes the spiritual blindness of man, and gives him the ability to see and understand spiritual truth.

IV. ENSLAVEMENT TO THE DEVIL.

Satan himself fell into sin through an unhallowed ambition to "be like the most High" (Isa. 14:14), and this has been one of his favorite baits to ensnare men and bring them into bondage to himself. Note the similarity to his own unholy ambitions when he tempted Eve by saying "ye shall be as gods" (Gen. 3:5). To this present day, Satan still dangles forbidden things before the eyes of men in order to get them enslaved to himself, but in accordance with his nature, he always misrepresents these things to man, for "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there was no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). This is what makes it folly of the worst sort to debate or argue any matter with the devil, for he is the master deceiver and liar, and will beguile any who will listen to him in order that he might bring them into bondage to him.

And the tragic thing is, that the bait that he uses to ensnare people is always some worthless trinket or bauble of this world. It is said that monkeys are sometimes caught in the jungle by placing food in a narrow-mouthed jar, then the jar is firmly fastened down. The monkeys, seeing the food in the jar will reach inside and grasp the food, but are unable to withdraw their hand with the fist clasped about the food. Their greed makes them refuse to release the food, and so they are easily captured while they hold on greedily to the food. This is an apt illustration of how Satan brings men into bondage to him, for he beguiles them with some trinket or bauble of this world, which they greedily grasp and will not let go, and so are ensnared by greater sin.

However, lest we give a wrong idea, let us hasten to say that such temptation as we have above spoken of is not the first entrance of sin into the soul of man, for man is by nature a fallen creature with a soul that is vitiated by sin. This fallen nature is what makes man so readily a dupe to the devil’s beguilements, and so his enslavement to Satan is simply an outgrowth and result of his fallen nature. The belief of the original lie by the first pair brought a state of enslavement upon all mankind because all of mankind was in the first pair, and sinned in and with them, but all of the descendants of Adam and Eve ratify the original transgression at their first opportunity, and continue to do so at each subsequent opportunity. If this were not so, we would immediately part company with Adam and his sin, and no longer follow his example.

The fact that man’s sinful nature is the direct consequence of Adam’s transgression does not in the slightest degree make it any less his own sin or render him any less blameworthy. This is clear not only from the justice of the principle of representation (Adam’s acting as our federal head), but also from the fact that each of us approves of Adam’s transgression by emulating his example, joining ourselves with him in rebellion against God. That we go on to break the covenant of works and disobey the divine law demonstrates that we are righteously condemned with Adam. Because each descendant of Adam voluntarily prolongs and perpetuates in himself the evil inclination originated by his first parents, he is doubly guilty. If not, why do we not repudiate Adam and refuse to sin—stand out in opposition to him, and be holy? If we resent our being corrupted through Adam, why not break the involvement of sin? —A. W. Pink, Gleanings From The Scriptures: Man’s Total Depravity, pp. 244-245. Moody Press, Chicago, 1969That we do not repudiate sin, but delight to go on in it is an evidence that we are possessed of the same fallen nature that Adam had after his transgression, and that we too are consequently in the same bondage to Satan that Adam was. This is man’s natural condition, and only a radical change wrought upon man by a power outside of, and above man, can free man from this enslavement to Satan. The proof-text of man being in this condition is Ephesians 2:1-3: "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." The universality of this condition is declared in 1 John 5:19: "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one" (R.V). It will be noted here that believers are contrasted with the rest of the world, and are specifically excluded from being in the same condition as the world is. The explanation for this difference is set forth in Colossians 1:13: "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."

Through the power of God, and on account of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, men are freed from enslavement to Satan, and from being a part of his kingdom, and they are translated into the kingdom of God’s Son; this is a work which the natural man cannot do himself, as is manifest from 2 Timothy 2:26: "And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." Try though he may, the natural man cannot free himself by his own effort to do so but like the man in quicksand, only sinks himself more by his struggles, for so long as he trusts in his own strength and rejects Jesus Christ, he falls more fully into the power of the evil one.

Here the human will counts for nothing; man may boast all that he pleases that his will is "free" to will as it may, but the truth is that the natural man is "taken captive at the devil’s will," and man can only be freed by "a stronger than" the strong man armed. "But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his good, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house" (Matthew 12:28-29). The teaching here is clear then of the natural man’s utter inability to free himself from his enslavement to the devil; it likewise reveals that there is but one power adequate for the breaking of the devil’s power over man and that power is the sovereign will of Almighty God. The teaching here is parallel to that in John 1:12-13: "But as many as receive him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

There are three "wills" that exert a force upon mankind, and but one of them can be sovereign: there is man’s will, which may take two forms—the fleshly will of the natural man, and the spiritual will of the spiritual man, yet neither of these forms of man’s will is such but that it can be overridden; even the believer daily has circumstances and events which are beyond the control of his will. The fact that God turned Job over to Satan shows that the saved man’s will is not sovereign even over the evil one. Second, there is the will of Satan, which is all but sovereign over the natural man, and only the restraint of God himself hinders the devil from being an absolute tyrant over the natural man. But Satan’s will is not omnipotent, for it can exercise itself only within those decreed limits that the Lord has voluntarily surrendered to him for His own glory. Finally, there is the will of God, which is sovereign and absolute. "The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all" (Ps. 103:19). "But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased" (Ps. 115:3). "...who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Eph. 1:11). Thus, God’s will alone is sufficient to free man from his spiritual enslavement to the devil.

What a hopeless and pitiful case then is man’s; did we say hopeless? yes, but only when viewed from the human side, and this is indeed the purpose in this teaching, that man might be made to look away from himself, and to cease to trust in the arm of the flesh. His one and only hope is in looking unto Him who has promised that "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). And to what purpose has the Lord saved a portion of the fallen race of men? Not because of any natural goodness or merit, as Ephesians 2:1-10 shows, but simply that He might make of us "showcases" of His grace through all eternity: "That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:7). Too many want to glorify themselves and their own works, but all such boasting is excluded by grace, and only room for praising the marvelous grace and mercy of God remain. Are you a showcase of God’s grace? Are you then glorifying Him as you ought?

 

By Davis W. Huckabee, Pastor,
Heritage Baptist Church,
Salem, Ohio, 44460
Source: www.obreiroaprovado.com

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