Deutero Q

THE HUMAN CONDITION (PART 2)

A Puritan minister by the name of Richard Alleine once made this insightful observation about human sinfulness: "Some talk that the devil hath a cloven foot; but whatever the devil's foot be, to be sure his sons have a cloven heart." Spiritually speaking, is it correct to say that people have cloven (or devilish) hearts? Are people basically good or bad? In my last blog entry, I emphasized that human beings are sinners by nature. The Bible is very clear on that matter.(See Ephesians 2:3, if you have any doubts in this regard!)

It is clear from the Bible that Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden disrupted their relationship with God and had far-reaching consequences for humanity, you and me included. The Bible says God commanded that Adam "not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17). In Genesis 3:6 we read that Eve ate the forbidden fruit and then gave some to Adam to eat. From that point on, their relationship with God changed dramatically. Following their descent into sin, Adam and Eve covered their nakedness and hid from God; shame and fear now characterized their relationship with their Maker.

Not only was there a change in Adam and Eve's relationship with God as a result of their sin, there was also a change in God's attitude toward them. Sin had--and has--serious consequences. In Genesis 3 we find God reacting to the sin of our first parents by punishing and expelling them from the garden. Notably, the consequences of their sin reached far beyond themselves. After their sin, the ground was cursed (Gen. 3:17) and death appeared (Gen. 3:19). The apostle Paul connected Adam's sin to humanity when he wrote in Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned...."

Pelagianism, the teaching named for fourth-century Christian named Pelagius (the theological opponent of Augustine), denies a connection between the sin of Adam and the rest of humanity; human beings choose to sin, Pelagians say, but not as a result of any inherited or original sin.

Christians in the tradition of Augustine maintain that human nature as a whole sinned in Adam; what happened in the garden of Eden affected the entire human family. Even as I type this, I recall the words of a colleague in ministry who stridently denounced the doctrine of original sin, believing it to be a doctrine of man rather than a biblical teaching. Like Pelagius before him, my friend in ministry is just plain wrong in his understanding of the human condition! The Augustinian view regarding sin is clearly more in keeping with the biblical witness. In short, human beings choose to sin because sin is part of our very nature.