If the comic above is too small to enjoy, you can read the dialogue in the comments section of this post.

Why are we continuing to talk about sin in the Faith category of this blog?  Because starting back on July 17, 2007, we devoted this category to a careful study of the three central, foundational doctrines of the Bible:  Creation, Sin, Redemption.

Having worked through the Christian understanding of Creation, we’re now exploring what the Bible has to say about Sin.

And it’s important to get these three foundational doctrines right.  These are the pillars of a true theology — that is, a true understanding of God and his work.  If you get the foundational truths wrong, or if you end up with a missing or compromised pillar, you know what happens.  The whole structure collapses.

So, with that in mind, let’s ask the question:  How does the Bible describe the natural condition (morally & spiritually) of every human being after the fall?  If we are deficient or “light” in our view of sin, we’ll have a very defective view of everything else in the Christian faith and life. 

J.C. Ryle put it this way: “There are very few errors or false doctrines of which the beginning may not be traced up to unsound views about the corruption of human nature.  Wrong views of a disease will always bring with them wrong views of a remedy.  Wrong views of the corruption of human nature will always carry with them wrong views of the grand antidote and cure of that corruption.”

So, this is an important question:  Was our fall into sin total or partial?  How you answer that question matters. 

The Bible clearly teaches — as will be pointed out below — that humanity’s fall into sin was a total fall, not a partial one.  In theological terms, this is sometimes referred to as the doctrine of “total depravity,” meaning that there is a total inability on the part of man to gain or even contribute to his own salvation.

Now, be careful to hear what “total depravity” does not mean.  It does not mean that every person is as evil as he or she could be.  Nor does it mean that he or she is unable to do any good thing whatsoever.

It means that when humanity fell into sin in the Garden of Eden, we fell in our totality!  Mind, thoughts, heart, emotions, will, understanding, imagination, desires, words, motives, dreams, affections, etc., etc., etc. 

Sin now extends to the whole personality of the human being.  Every human faculty has been affected by the fall into sin.

This unflattering truth can be found face–up on page after page of the Bible.  Naturally speaking — that is, before salvation — man is spiritually dead (Romans 5.21; Ephesians 2.1), spiritually bound (2 Timothy 2.26), spiritually bind and deaf (Mark 4.11,12), spiritually uninstructable (1 Corinthians 2.14), and just naturally sinful, both by birth (Psalm 51.5) and practice (Genesis 6.5).

Of course, the Bible references could be multiplied hundreds of times.  But a small sampling will do for a blog post. 

And here’s the kicker:  Can the dead raise themselves?  Can the bound free themselves?  Can the slaves redeem themselves?  Can the blind give themselves sight or the deaf give themselves hearing?  Can the uninstructable teach themselves?  Can the naturally sinful change themselves?

The Word of God is plain and simple on this point.  Our sinfulness (or depravity) is total.  Our inability to even desire salvation (much less earn it or contribute to it) is total.  Total inability.

The picture is one of death.  And indeed that’s what it is — spiritual death.  Picture Lazarus in his tomb.  He’s bound hand and foot and the corruption of death has taken hold of him.  Spiritually, that’s who we are.  There’s not a glimmer of spiritual life within us.

But the good news is that Christ doesn’t come from within us.  He and his life–giving power come from outside of us, just as he did with his friend Lazarus.

And that’s what we need.  If we are to know spiritual life… if we are to live in spiritual freedom… if we are to see and hear spiritual truths… if we are to receive spiritual instruction… if we are to be delivered at last from the slavery of sin… then Christ Himself must come and personally redeem us from our disinterested state of spiritual death. 

Hallelujah.  Come, Lord Jesus. 

The last time we were in our Faith category — see the post from August 11 — we looked at the doctrine of sin, as understood by Mark Twain.  And we saw that Twain had a pretty flippant attitude toward the whole concept.

This, unfortunately, has become commonplace in our day.  Think about it.  When was the last time you heard a conversation where the word “sin” came up and it wasn’t said with a grin, as part of an inside joke of some kind? 

Of course, conversations about dessert menus don’t count.  We all know that sin shows up regularly on dessert menus.  Sinfully Chocolate, Sinfully Cinnamon, Sin City Cake, etc.  But this just makes the point, doesn’t it?  When our culture does measure sin, we do so by calories.

To put it mildly, our culture just doesn’t have the robust, vigorous view of righteousness and sin, virtue and vice that the Bible would seek to cultivate within us.  In fact, we’ve taken the Bible’s rich and compelling view of virtues and vices, and we’ve narrowed them all down to a mere two… tolerance and intolerance, respectively.

We are a muddled and confused people when it comes to thinking about the nature of sin.  And when we’re forced to inquire about human evil and its root cause (like we did after the 9–11 attacks, for example), we too often try to find our answers in the departments of psychology and sociology.

Now, don’t misunderstand me.  Those two departments have a lot to teach us!  After all, all truth is God’s truth.  But, the disciplines of psychology and sociology all by themselves will not help us to fully understand sin.  In fact, when misapplied, these disciplines are often used to praise and cultivate sin.  When does self–esteem become pride?  When does self–expression become lust?  As I said, these departments are simply inadequate to the question before us.

And a big reason why this kind of confusion is so rampant in our day is because the church has so often been unwilling to boldly proclaim what God teaches us about sin in the Bible. 

How often has the church watered down God’s language, to the point that it’s no longer worth listening to because we’ve made it so feeble? 

How often have we tried to make God into a nice, middle–class, respectable American Republican (or Democrat, depending on the church in question)?  This is to do the unthinkable: this is to make God boring.  A Holy, Righteous, and Sovereign King would get people’s attention.  You might not like him, but you couldn’t ignore him.  But a squishy republicrat?  Givemeabreak.

And how often have false churches actively promoted what God calls evil and condemned what God calls good? 

In all three scenarios our instincts have been worse than foolish, because strong and healthy teaching about our sin and guilt is actually very clarifying for us.  And it’s also very assuring.

Did you catch that?  Strong and healthy teaching about our sin and guilt is very assuring.

“How is that?”, one might ask.

Because — unlike all of the other attempts to get to the root of human trouble — the diagnosis of sin and guilt allows for hope.  That beautiful word — hope. 

And that hope is possible because something can be done about our sin and guilt.  In fact, something has been done about our sin and guilt. 

So, let’s not mumble or whisper when we speak of human sinfulness.  Rather, let’s look at it clearly and boldly and faithfully.  For hope’s sake, let’s recover and renew our knowledge of sin.

Mark Twain was a quite a celebrated man in his lifetime. He was often the guest of honor at receptions and “society” meetings, and he was a much–sought–after speaker for after dinner engagements. And time after time, Twain would be introduced by the chairmen of these events in the most glowing terms.

On November 15, 1900, Twain found himself being introduced in that very familiar and very complimentary manner again.  The man introducing the “virtuous” Mr. Twain this time was Judge Rastus S. Ransom.  After the introduction, Twain began his speech this way…

“Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen… It seems a most difficult thing for any man to say anything about me that is not complimentary.  I don’t know what the charm is about me which makes it impossible for a person to say a harsh thing about me and say it heartily, as if he was glad to say it.

“I am constructed like everybody else, and enjoy a compliment as well as any other fool*, but I do like to have the other side presented. And there is another side. I have a wicked side. Estimable friends who know all about it would tell you and take a certain delight in telling you things I have done, and things further that I have not repented. The real life that I live, and the real life that I suppose all of you live, is a life of interior sin.”

[…later on in the same speech…] “Judge Ransom seems to have all the virtues that he ascribes to me. But oh my! If you could throw an x–ray through him! We are a pair! I have made a life–study of trying to appear to be what he seems to think I am. Everybody believes that I am a monument of all the virtues, but it is nothing of the sort. I am living two lives — and it keeps me pretty busy. I have more personal vanity than modesty.”

Now, it seems as if Twain is honestly confessing his sinful, fallen nature, in a very striking and sincere (even profound) manner. But before you get the wrong idea about where Twain was headed with all of this, let me go back and finish that part of the paragraph I left out earlier… “The real life that I live, and the real life that I suppose all of you live, is a life of interior sin. That is what makes life valuable and pleasant! To lead a life of undiscovered sin! That is true joy!”

Twain concludes this speech (entitled “My Real Self”) with this line:  “I thank everybody for their compliments, but I don’t think I am praised any more than I am entitled to be.”

In the end, Mark Twain had a very flippant attitude toward the concept of sin.

But according to his Word, the Maker of heaven and earth does not.

For a while now our studies in the Faith category of our blog have been about the three most basic doctrines and most central themes of the Bible:  Creation, the Fall, and Redemption.

Most recently we’ve been looking at the effects of the Fall upon God’s good creation. Now we’ll begin to consider the effects of the Fall upon humanity in particular. Is it true that the “real life” we live is a life of “interior sin”? 

And if it is, is that really the definition of true joy… as Twain suggests?  Or is it a shame and misery from which God would have us redeemed?

*later on in the speech, Twain said: “I like compliments. I like to go home and tell them all over again to the members of my family. They don’t believe them, but I like to tell them in the home circle, all the same. I like to dream of them if I can.”

In our faith studies, we’ve been considering different aspects of the fall into sin.  One biblical way of thinking about sin is summed up in the word bondage. In the Bible (see Romans 8, for example) sin brings bondage. 

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
—Romans 8.20,21

But what does this bondage mean?  To whom are we in bondage?

In the Bible, from Genesis 3 onward, to sin is to serve Satan.  And to serve Satan is to be enslaved to Satan.  Here’s the deal:  Outside of service to the Lord God, there is only bondage.  When we refuse to find our freedom in obeying God, we enter into bondage/slavery to Satan… with the rest of the world.

And that’s the primary way the word “world” is used in the Bible.  To be “worldly” is to be in the power of sin.  It is to be distorted and perverted along with the rest of the sin–infested creation. 

Whenever human sinfulness bends and distorts God’s good creation, it is there that we find “the world.” As we’ve said a few different ways in this series, “worldliness” is the spoiledness, the rottenness, the caricature, the distortion of God’s good creation. 

John 18:  My kingdom [Christ says] is not of this world.
Romans 12:  Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world.
James 1:  Religion is this: to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
2nd Peter:  people only escape the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ
James 4:  Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?

To be in the “world” is to be in the power of the parasite of sin (see the June 23 blog post) that is distorting and perverting and spoiling God’s good creation.

But follow me on this — because this is where many of us need to sharpen our thinking so that we might think more Christianly and Biblically…

Christians have a dangerous tendency to think and speak of “worldliness” as a compartment for the “secular” things in life, over against the “sacred” things in life.

So… officework, newspapers, sports, business, yardwork, shopping, politics, playing cards, reading a novel, watching a movie, dancing, and so forth… these things are all “worldly.” While going to church, praying, doing theology, witnessing, and fellowshipping with other believers is NOT “worldly.”

But this is exactly wrong.

We can (and often do!) engage in all of those “Christian” things in a worldly manner.  And through Christ we can engage in all of those “secular” things in a holy manner.

The question that divides the two is this:  Are you in the power of the parasite (sin)?  Are in you in bondage to Satan?  Are you ensnared by these perversions and distortions of God’s good creation?

Or, through Jesus Christ, have you been freed to enjoy and serve God appropriately in all of his wide, good creation?

You‘re probably somewhat familiar with the idea behind the yin and the yang symbol.  Part of the idea is that good and evil necessarily coexist.  They always have coexisted, still do coexist, and always will coexist. 

The Bible teaches something radically different.

Ponder these words from a Christian theologian:  “Nothing about sin is its own; all its power, persistence, and plausibility are stolen goods.  Sin is not really an entity but a spoiler of entities, not an organism but a leech on organisms.”

That‘s right.  The message of the Bible is that sin is not necessarily inherent in this world.  Nor is sin necessarily inherent in the human condition.  Prior to the rebellion we read about in Genesis 3 there was no corruption, no stain, and no sin in all of creation. 

The goodness of creation preceded (and is therefore distinct from) the fall into sin and all of its effects.  Evil can in no way be blamed on creation.  Evil can only be blamed on the fall.

Think about what this mean… No matter how closely sin and “the stuff of creation” may be intertwined in human experience, sin is never to be identified with the stuff of creation.  Sin always remains distinct from the stuff of creation.

Let’s consider some examples:  Prostitution (and other sexual aberrations) do not eliminate the goodness of sexuality.  Political abusiveness cannot wipe out the God–ordained character of government and the state.  Blasphemous art cannot obliterate the creational legitimacy of beauty and art itself.

Do you see what sin is doing in each of those examples?  Sin is something like a parasite.  Sin cannot exist by itself; it has to feed off of something good in God’s creation.  Sin is an uninvited guest that has to keep tapping its host for sustenance. 

In C.S. Lewis’ wonderful book The Screwtape Letters, the demon Screwtape admits that “Pleasure is God’s invention, not ours.  He made the pleasures — all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one.  All we can do is encourage the humans to take the pleasures which God has produced at times, in ways or in degrees which he has forbidden.”

In another place Lewis wrote this:  “Goodness is, so to speak, itself.” What he means by this is that goodness is original, independent, and constructive while sin is derivative, dependent, and destructive.  “Goodness is, so to speak, itself:  badness is only spoiled goodness.  And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled.”

That’s the scenario… sin is a parasite on the goodness of creation.  It is not itself a part of creation.  Evil is a completely other entity that introduces itself to creation and feeds off of it.  It doesn’t naturally fit or belong there!

This is an incredibly important point if you want to properly understand the Bible and Christian thought.  Every other religion / philosophy / worldview will in some way fall into the trap of identifying some aspect of creation as THE VILLAIN.  (And sometimes even as THE SAVIOR.)

The Bible is utterly unique in rejecting that view.  Only the Bible keeps creation and sin distinct.

Only the Bible shows us that sin is really just the ugly distortion and perversion of something God created to be good.  Sin is a caricature of the good.

Human beings after the fall — though they are now travesties of humanity, as God originally created humanity — are still human beings, which God originally pronounced as “Very Good!” Now we are just spoiled human beings.

A humanistic school that utterly rejects God is still a school.  Knowledge and education are still good.  But it’s a “spoiled good” now.

A hurtful relationship (say, with your mother or father) is still a relationship, and relationships are good.  But this one, sadly, is a spoiled good.

A crooked business is still a business.  Atheistic culture is still culture.  Ungodly thinking is still thinking.

In every case, what something “still is” points to the remaining goodness of creation.  But it’s now been spoiled by the fall.  It’s been twisted and warped by the parasite of sin.

We need Someone to attach the parasite to Himself and take it all away from us.