by Garrett Glende

Last week we looked at our essential natures as humans in terms of our body and spirit, but we never surveyed the state of our being. Last week’s article sought to answer the question, “What are we made of?” where this week we will offer a brief response to the question, “What are we like?” Most of who we are as humans can be defined by our nature to sin. It is what all men share in common with one another. The fact that all men have been made in God’s image yet have tarnished this image with sin forms the basis for a proper anthropology. We must truly understand what sin is and how it affects our lives so that our worship of God would be in spirit and truth.

Grudem defines sin as “any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.” God has set standards that we must abide by because his character dictates such. It is not that God chooses a random list of rules that we are bound to, but rather that his own nature defines what is right and wrong. God is fully good, therefore anything that is contradictory to his nature is opposing that which is good. The problem for us is that God is a holy, righteous God and we cannot even come close to attaining the standards that He has set. We fall short not only in the bad things that we do, but in the good things that we fail to do. Moreover, sin has so infected us that it is not just an outward action, but it is a reflection of the state of our hearts. This sin that is in us comes from the human representative, Adam. Because of the first sin that he committed in the garden, all men have inherited a sinful nature, known as the doctrine of original sin. Through this one man’s act, sin entered into the world and spread to all men, and consequently death (Romans 5). Death is the necessary punishment for the transgressions that each of us have put forth against God, who is completely holy and just to condemn sinners.

Humans are so corrupted with sin that we are completely unable of doing any good apart from the sovereign grace of God. This doctrine that was brought to light during the reformation is known as total depravity. Many have deemed the term (which supplies the “T” in the TULIP acronym) misguided because not all men fully act out their depravity and some have proposed that a more suitable name for the doctrine would be “total inability.” Either way, the Bible is clear that all have sinned (Romans 3:23), that the unregenerate man is dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1), and is in bondage to their sin (Romans 6:17, John 8:32). Being dead in sin means that we are completely unable to make any move towards God for our salvation. Our hearts of stone possess no ability to understand in a saving way any sort of spiritual truth. Thank God for grace!

In light of a clear understanding of who we once we as slaves to sin, our outlook on the Christian life should be radically changed. All believers have been awakened to see the ugliness of their hearts and their total inability to do anything about it. We now can praise God that He alone has raised us from the deadness of our sin and given us life in His Son. There was nothing that we ever contributed to our salvation – all that we have been given has been by grace. This attitude of dependence on God must carry over into the Christian life as we grow in sanctification. We cannot thank God for saving us and then decide to live the rest of our lives independently, believing that we can battle sin on our own. We must still put our hope in Christ to forgive us of our sin and rely on the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to overcome temptation. The degree to which we depend on God does not change from the moment of salvation to our last breaths on earth. This dependence requires humility of spirit, heartfelt prayer, and daily repentance. We must continue to regard ourselves as sinners in need of grace daily, going to God to thank Him for the gospel, and always seeking to put off sin and turn towards righteousness. There is no room for pride when confronted with the doctrine of sin. There is no such thing as self-sufficiency for a Christian who understands rightly their sinful nature. Praise be to God that He has rescued us and freed us to live for His glory!