Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors Part 14

If they doubted how Christ's goodness could help to make men righteous, they might remember that in some way Adam's transgression had helped to make men sinners. Yet, after all, the main fact which he states is in the twelfth verse, chapter five-"that by one man sin _entered into_ the world, and death by sin." This amounts to saying that sin _began_ with Adam. Then he adds, in the same verse, "that death has pa.s.sed upon all men, _because all have sinned_." He therefore distinctly declares that every man is punished for his own sin, and not for the sin of Adam.

In the other pa.s.sage (1 Cor. 15:22), Paul says, "As in Adam all die, even so, in Christ, shall all be made alive." He does not say here, either that "all sinned in Adam," or that "all fell in Adam," or that "all died in Adam." It is the present tense, "all die in Adam."

What he means by this, he explains himself afterwards. He tells us that as "souls" descended from Adam, we are liable to death; as spirits quickened by Christ, we are filled with spiritual and immortal life.

In the forty-fourth verse he gives the explanation. The body "is _sown_ a natural body" (s?a ???????)-literally a soul-body, a body vitalized by the soul. "It is raised a spiritual body"-literally spirit-body (s?a p?e?at????), a body vitalized by the spirit. "There is a soul-body, and there in a spirit-body." "And so it is written, The first man, Adam, was made a living soul" (which is a quotation from Genesis 2:7-"and man became a living soul"), "but the last Adam," says Paul (meaning Christ), "became a life-making spirit." But, continues Paul, the soul-man (psychical man) comes first; the spiritual-man afterwards, according to a regular order.

"The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second is the Lord from heaven." And then he adds,-and this is the key to the whole pa.s.sage,-"_As we have borne the __ image of the earthy_, we shall also bear the image of _the heavenly_." The doctrine, then, is plainly this: that we have two natures-a soul-nature, which we derive from Adam, and share with all mankind, which nature is liable to weakness, sin, and death; and a spirit-nature, which we derive from G.o.d, which Christ comes to quicken and vitalize, and the life of which const.i.tutes our true immortality.

The apostle Paul, therefore, does not by any means teach Calvinism. The Catechism says that "our first parents being the root of all mankind, the guilt of their sin was imputed to all their posterity." But Paul says, "So death pa.s.sed upon all men, because all have sinned." The Catechism says that "this same death in sin, and corrupted nature, being conveyed to their posterity, makes us utterly indisposed and opposite to all good,"

and that "from this original corruption do proceed all actual transgressions."

But if this is so, there has been no such thing in the world as guilt since Adam fell. If all actual transgressions proceed from original corruption, and original corruption comes from the first transgression of Adam, it logically follows that there has been but one sin committed in the world since it was made, namely, the sin of Adam. All other sins have been pure misfortunes; his alone was guilt. His transgression alone came from a free choice; all others have come from an involuntary necessity of nature.

Nothing can be more certain from reason and Scripture than this-that transgressions which come from a corrupt nature are just so far done in us, and not done by us. This the apostle distinctly affirms when he says (7:17), "Now, then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." No man is responsible for disease, when he has not brought that disease on himself, but inherited it from his ancestors. The disease may make him very odious, very disagreeable, but cannot make him blamable.

Therefore, when Calvin says that hereditary depravity "renders us obnoxious to the divine wrath," he utters an absurdity. This confusion of ideas runs through all Orthodox statements on the subject, and the only cure is, that we should learn how to make this distinction between natural evil and moral evil, or the evil which proceeds from a corrupt nature and the evil which comes from a free will.

If we were to sum up the doctrine of the apostle Paul on this subject, it would be thus:-

1. The first man, Adam, consisted, as we all consist, of nature and will.

His nature consisted of innocent tendencies and appet.i.tes. None were excessive; all were well balanced. His nature inclined him no more to evil than to good, but each faculty was in proper poise. The first sin, therefore, could not have been a gross one; it was a simple transgression; but its effect was to introduce what the apostle calls _death_; that is, a diseased or corrupt nature. The process is this: With the first conscious and free transgression there arises a sense of guilt. This sense of guilt leads the soul away from G.o.d. Adam and Eve hide in the garden. Every act of sin tends to create a habit, and so destroys the moral equipoise. There hence arises a tendency _towards_ evil, and _from_ good; and this is called death, because it takes us away from G.o.d, who is the source of life.

2. A tendency towards evil is thus introduced into the world by the transgression of the first man. His descendants are now born with a nature which is not in equipoise, but which leans more towards evil than towards good. Their will remains free as before; but they cannot perform the same amount of good as before. These corrupt tendencies tempt to greater sin than the pure tendencies did, and, whenever yielded to, bring a greater amount of moral evil into the race.

3. Things, therefore, are thus growing worse continually; for every new act of sin makes it easier to sin again. And this tendency to death, or estrangement from G.o.d, must go on increasing, unless some antagonist principle can be communicated to the race. This is actually done by Jesus Christ. The principle of life which Christ introduces consists in reconciliation to G.o.d. Sin separates us from G.o.d, and therefore tends to death. Christ reconciles us to G.o.d, and so gives life. The way in which Christ reconciles us to G.o.d is by manifesting G.o.d's pardoning and saving love to the sinful soul. In his own life, but especially by his death, he communicates this pardoning love, and so produces the atonement. This is the central, Pauline view of the relation of Adam and Christ to the race.

Adam introduces death into the world: Christ introduces life. He does not speak at all of _imputation_, or transfer of guilt; but he speaks of an _actual communication_ of death and life. Adam and Christ both stand in actual, and not merely ideal, connection with the whole race of man. Adam is a living soul; Christ, a life-giving spirit. By inheritance, we receive a depraved life of the soul from Adam; by communion, we receive an eternal or spiritual life from Christ. And, in regard to both of these acts, the notion of blame or merit is entirely excluded. We are not to blame for our inherited depravity derived from Adam. We deserve no credit for the salvation which comes to us from Christ. The compensation for the misfortune of inherited evil is the free gift of divine goodness in Jesus.

We have thus considered the truth and the error contained in the Orthodox doctrine of the fall. The truth of it is in its a.s.sertion of a depravity of nature, to which we are liable in consequence of ancestral sins: the error is in imputing guilt to us in consequence of them.

-- 7. Orthodox View of Total Depravity and Inability.

In speaking of the fall of man, we necessarily antic.i.p.ated somewhat the doctrine of total depravity. Still, we must say something further on this doctrine, because it is so important in the Church system: it is, indeed, at its foundation. Those who accept, in its strictness, the doctrine of total depravity cannot avoid any point of the severest Calvinism.

Schleiermacher has shown, in his "Essay on Election," that this latter doctrine necessarily follows the doctrine of total depravity; for, if man is wholly depraved, he has no power to do anything for his own conversion; therefore G.o.d must do it. And if some are converted, and not others, it must be because G.o.d chooses to convert some, and does not choose to convert others.

Let us look, then, at what Orthodoxy says of the _extent_ of human depravity. In all the princ.i.p.al creeds, this is stated to be unlimited.

Man's sin is total and entire. There is nothing good in him. The Westminster Confession and the Confession of the New England Congregational churches describe him as "dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body." Other creeds use similar language.

In considering this theory, we are struck at first by the circ.u.mstance, that the Bible gives it very little support. The Bible continually speaks of man as a sinner; but there are very few texts which can, without straining, be made to _seem_ to teach that he is totally depraved. Let us examine a few of them.

-- 8. Proof Texts.

1. A text often cited is Genesis 6:5,-the reason given for destroying the human race, in the time of Noah, by the deluge: "And G.o.d saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." But this seems to be a description of the state of the world at that particular time, not of its character in all ages. It is not a description of man's natural condition, but of an extremely degenerate condition. If the state of the world here described was its natural state, it would rather be a reason for not having created the race at first; or, if it was a reason for destroying it, it would, at best, seem to be as strong a one against creating it again. If a man plants a tree in his garden, whose nature he knows is to produce a certain kind of fruit, it would seem hardly a good reason for cutting it down, that it produced that kind of fruit: certainly it would not be a good reason for cutting it down, and planting another of precisely the same kind in its place. The reason why the race of men was destroyed was, that it had _degenerated_. But there were some good even then; for in the ninth verse we are told that "Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generation, and walked with G.o.d."

2. There is another pa.s.sage, in the fourteenth Psalm which is quoted by Paul in Rom. 3: "There is none righteous; no, not one: there is none that understandeth, none that seeketh after G.o.d. They have all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable: there is none that doeth good; no, not one. There is no fear of G.o.d before their eyes."

This pa.s.sage is relied on to prove total depravity. But we may reply, that-

This also is a degenerate condition, not a natural one. It was a condition into which men had fallen, not one in which they were born. "They have all _gone_ out of the way; they are together _become_ unprofitable." It does not, therefore, apply to men _universally_, but to men in those particular times.

It was not true of _all_, even at that particular time. It was not true of David himself, that he did not seek after G.o.d, or have the fear of G.o.d before his eyes; or else other pa.s.sages in the same book are not true, in which he says the contrary. "O G.o.d! early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee; my flesh longeth for thee." He also frequently speaks of and to those who fear the Lord, and says, "I am a companion to all those that fear thee."

The "all" is not to be taken strictly. It means people generally at that time. Just so it is said, "There went out to him Jerusalem and _all_ Judea, and _all_ the region round about Jordan;" which does not imply that _no one_ staid at home.

"But," it may be said, "does not Paul teach that this is to be taken universally, when he quotes it, and adds, 'Now we know that what the law saith, it saith to those under the law, that every mouth be stopped, and all the world guilty before G.o.d' "? We think he means to say, that, as this is said to Jews, it proves that _Jews_, as well as Gentiles, are very guilty. He is addressing the Jews, who boasted of their knowledge of the law. Chap. 2: "Behold, thou art called a Jew," &c.

3. Jer. 17:9. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."

If we suppose that we are to take this as an unlimited expression, and not merely a strong declaration of the wickedness of the Jews, it still does not prove total depravity of the nature, but merely that of the affections, or "the heart." Man's nature has other things besides desire: it has conscience, reason, and will; and it does not follow that these are also depraved.

4. Rom. 8:7. "The carnal mind is enmity against G.o.d."

This does not intend that the mind of man, in its _natural_ state, is enmity, but in its _carnal_ state; that is, when subject to fleshly desires. Nearly the same phrase is used in the verse before, and is translated, "To be carnally minded is death."

5. There is one famous pa.s.sage, however, which seems to say that G.o.d is angry with us on account of our nature. This is a pa.s.sage very much quoted, and we hear it so often that it seems as if the Bible was full of such texts. It is in Eph. 2:3. "We were by nature _children of wrath_, even as others." This is quoted to prove that G.o.d is angry with men for their natures, and hates them for being born evil-just as we may hate a snake, a scorpion, or spider, for its nature. But, as it happens, the very next verses show that this is impossible, unless G.o.d can be hating one of his creatures and loving it at the very same moment.

For, in the next verse Paul says that G.o.d loved us with a great love _when we were dead in trespa.s.ses and sins_, and children _of wrath_. It is therefore evident that "_children of wrath_" must mean something else. It may mean that men outside of Christianity-Jews and Gentiles-were afraid of G.o.d; living under a constant sense of his displeasure; that G.o.d seemed to them a terrible being, always disposed to punish them with severity. This was the fact. Jews and Gentiles were afraid of their G.o.ds, before Christ came, and so were "children of wrath." Or it may mean that men are exposed to the consequences of sin; for, in Scripture language,-

"G.o.d's wrathful said to be, when he doth do That _without wrath_ which wrath doth force us to."

Moreover, "nature," in Scripture usage, does not necessarily mean, "as human beings." It often intends external position, origin, and race. So (in Gal. 2:15) we read, "Jews by nature;" and so (in Rom. 2:27) "uncirc.u.mcision, which is by nature."

The same word is used twice in James 3:7, and is translated _kind_. "Every _kind_ of beasts, birds, serpents, things in the sea, is tamed of man-_kind_:" literally, "the whole animal _race_ is tamed by the human _race_."

If f?s?? here meant "const.i.tutional depravity," the same word in Rom. 2:14 must mean _const.i.tutional goodness_, where we are told that some "do _by nature_ the things contained in the law." So, too, we read of the olive tree, wild by nature, in Rom. 11:24.

"By nature," here, plainly means the original condition, not the original const.i.tution. Just so we say that wild animals are in a state of nature, and call savages the children of nature.

These five texts are the strongest in the Bible to support the doctrine of total depravity, and, as such, are constantly quoted. They have very little weight, and not one of them is from the words of Jesus.

On the other hand, there are many pa.s.sages which seem to declare that there is something good in man in his unconverted or natural state, and that even in that state he may turn towards the light, and struggle against evil.

John 3:20, 21. "Every one that doeth truth cometh to the light."

Matt. 26:41. "... The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak."

Rom. 2:24. "Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, and show the work of that law which is written in the heart."

Acts 10:35. "In every nation, he that feareth G.o.d, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him."

But the pa.s.sage most strikingly and thoroughly opposed to the doctrine of total depravity, is the description, in the seventh chapter of Romans, of the conflict between the law in the members and the law of the mind. Paul, speaking evidently from his own experience in his unconverted state, describes the condition of one morally depraved, who is trying to do right, but is prevented by evil habits which have become a part of himself. He describes this as moral death, but _not_ guilt. He says, "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." He describes himself as morally impotent-_wishing_ to do right, but unable to do it. He says _he delights in the law of G.o.d after the inner man_. The inmost is right, but outside of that are evil habits, in the body, which drag down the soul and enslave it. Paul therefore distinctly says that a man in such a condition is not himself a sinner, because he does not commit the sin.