Total Inability Part 1
Tom Shrader begins a series on God's Plan for Salvation by examining the first point of Calvinism: total depravity or total inability. Drawing from Romans 5, Ephesians 2, and Genesis 3, he teaches that as a result of Adam's sin, all mankind is spiritually dead and unable to comprehend or believe spiritual truths. Man is not mostly dead but completely dead in sin, having no desire for good and being adverse to anything spiritual.
“Man is not mostly dead as it relates to salvation, man is dead in his sins and trespasses.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: God's Plan for Salvation (2006)
Recorded: 2006
Duration: 50 min
Themes: salvation, sin, grace, death, depravity, inability, faith, redemption, new believer, questioning salvation, struggling with sin, doubting faith, seminary student, pastor, feeling spiritually dead, young adult
Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-5, Ephesians 1:11, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, Genesis 2:16, Genesis 3:6, Romans 5:12, Romans 6:23, Romans 3:10-12, Romans 3:23, Ephesians 2:1-3, 2 Chronicles 6:36, Ecclesiastes 7:20
Theological Themes: total depravity, spiritual death, calvinism, doctrines of grace, total inability, original sin, fallen nature, divine sovereignty
Full Transcript
Today is session two of what will be a seven session series titled God's Plan for Salvation. Many of you have study guides. If you don't yet have a study guide, you can get one right after the service out in the lobby along with all sorts of other information that relates to this topic, books, and just helpful resources.
God's Plan for Salvation—what we're talking about really is not whether you're saved or not, but how God saved you. And again, not man's plan, but God's plan for salvation. This series historically generates a good deal of discussion and soul searching and thoughtful dialogue, hopefully. Our desire here is that we would, at the end of the day, have in our minds, each one of us, and so us as a body, a clear view of how God saves people—God's plan for salvation.
Ground Rules for Our Study
We said that because there is a session here in terms of what we're working through—seven sessions in this series—and there is some discussion, and this does provoke thought, we want to lay down some ground rules. There were four of them, and we'll cover them every week. Here's the first one: the Bible's our final authority in this matter.
I can tell you, and this is contrary to my nature, I am going to move slowly, methodically, deliberately through this material. Understanding that I carry the burden to communicate as clearly as possible, and you have the burden to listen, to pay attention, to take advantage of the resource. That's why that study guide is so helpful. I'm going to read a lot of information to you, and almost all of it's in that study guide. But we want to be repetitive. Again, I've learned from my own experience that I need to hear this over and over and over for it to begin to sink in.
The second thing is that we'll proceed logically. When we first did this series, every Monday night following the Sunday, we would have a discussion group, a Q&A. I realized that we didn't need to be doing that. Here's what was happening: we were, after session one, asking all these questions that were going to get answered along the way. And we were off on a thousand rabbit trails. So what we'll do is, at the end of this series, we'll schedule a night where you can come in—and I don't think I'll be there, but there'll be some guys who teach this exact material who'll be there and help you work through that. But avoid those rabbit trails the best you can. I know they're natural.
Handling Questions Appropriately
Here's the third thing: there will be "what if" questions, and they're legitimate questions. And if you have legitimate questions that deserve a legitimate answer, we'll try to answer them. And again, if we can't, we'll take care of it at the end.
Let me give you a great example. We talked last week about the doctrines of grace. We talked specifically about this thing called Calvinism. And someone said to me this week—this is a great example. We were having lunch, and we were talking about this, and here was the question: Why would God, a loving God, kind God, why would God create someone that He knew He was not going to choose, therefore they would spend eternity in hell? That was the question they had.
So I, as you would expect, didn't answer it. What I said was this: let's say you're an Arminian. You have the same issue. Unless you're a universalist, you still have to ask, why would God create somebody that He knew wasn't going to choose Him? See what I'm saying? That's a wonderful question, but it doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about. I can see how it flows out of that, but it doesn't determine it.
If the question is, why would God, in fact, do that, then I want to assume that you believe God indeed does that—see what I'm saying? Those are great questions. I have no problem, those are wonderful questions, but that question isn't unique to our position. Unless you're a universalist, or unless you believe God is not all-knowing, you have the same problem. So I can say to you, if you would say to me, "I'm an Arminian, I believe man chooses," I would say to you, why would a loving God create somebody who He knew wasn't going to choose Him? See, the question doesn't go away. It's important as we work through there to understand those kinds of questions.
Taking Our Burden Seriously
The last thing we said is, for some of you, I know this conflicts with your background, instinct, what you have thought, believed. It may be, "Why have I never heard these things?" those kinds of things. So I've got the fact that for many people, this is a difficult series, so I want us to take our burden seriously—me take the communication burden, you take the listening burden. And for us to progress logically, this is very important.
I'm going to say this to you probably eighteen times today: you've got to get today. You've got to get this. And when you get this, all of a sudden, everything else begins to fall into place.
Understanding Calvinism
The title of the series is God's Plan for Salvation. The subtitle is Understanding the Five Points of Calvinism. And you could even question the wisdom of me using the term Calvinism, because it's a term that arrives with so much baggage with it, right? But here's what I've discovered: we are identified by the community in general—we don't identify ourselves this way, don't run away from it—but we're identified by the community in general as a Calvinistic church. And people want to talk about Calvinism, but they don't have any idea what it means. So since people are talking about that, why don't we just define it and take control of it and make sure we're all saying the same thing? So that's my thought process in this.
When we talked about Calvinism, here's the definition that we use. It's Webster's definition: a group of Christian doctrines of John Calvin and his followers. And now here's the two doctrines in particular: that of predestination and that of salvation of the elect.
solely by God's grace. I'll come back to that definition in a minute, but I want you to understand again, it's not just Calvin or Luther or that group of people who talk about election and predestination. Everybody has to deal with it. In fact, that's how we even delved and got to this whole point of Calvinism was a guy by the name of Jacob Arminius trying to sort through this.
Look with me in your Bible, look at Ephesians chapter one. As I say, every one of the theologies that have any credibility to them or churches or belief have to talk about election or predestination. Look at Ephesians chapter one, verse three: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world that we'd be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will."
Verse 11: "In Him also we've obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things together after the counsel of His will." See, this is why everybody has to eventually deal with this idea of predestination and election because it's there. Now, you may come up with your own or each faith may come up with their own version of that. I got that, but this is what I'm saying to you.
Again, this is not a definition that's unique to Calvin. If we go to the right a little bit through Philippians and Colossians into first and ultimately second Thessalonians, second Thessalonians chapter two, verse 13, we see another verse that forces the discussion here. Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse 13: "But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation." God did this work in our life. So every faith with any credibility has to deal with this topic. And we'll look at in a minute how Arminius dealt with that.
The Foundation of Calvinist Doctrine
Again, Calvinism is defined by Webster as those doctrines of John Calvin and his followers, and he focuses on two: predestination and salvation of the elect by God's grace. Now, again, we would subscribe to these doctrines, not because Calvin taught them. We would subscribe to these doctrines because they find their foundation in Scripture. Calvin, Luther, Augustine, Aquinas, Edwards—really the giants of theology pretty much all landed on the same side here.
Now, that alone is not enough reason for us to embrace it, but it's compelling. It surely grabs your attention, doesn't it? When the greatest minds in history of theology all line up on the same side, it gets our attention. It doesn't mean it's right—they could all be wrong. But they didn't invent this, that's the whole point. This flows from the Scripture itself. It's not the teaching of a man or of a denomination or of a group that we embrace, it's the teaching of Scripture.
Not My Theory, But Scripture's Teaching
I got an email from someone. Here's what they wrote: "Pastor Schrader, hi, I do not attend your church, but came this past Sunday with a friend just to visit. Was highly impressed with your worship. We were in the 10:30 service in the conference center and loved communion. Your message was interesting. Though I may not completely agree with your theory of salvation, you delivered it with dignity and respect. You probably won't be hearing any more of your messages because I attend my own church, but I'll be praying for you while you deliver them. May God's guiding hand be upon your messages. As I know you experience bitterness and confusion from some of your audience, I see that you love God and that excites me."
That's a wonderful email, except for one little phrase. So I wrote back: "Thanks for your great note and words of encouragement. I appreciate your understanding of how people might respond to this series. I am sorry you'll not be able to join us for the remainder of the study. I think I know what you mean when you say, though I may not completely agree with your theory of salvation, but I want you to understand this is not my theory. This is what the Bible teaches. My theories aren't worth much. Again, thanks for the note, hope to see you again soon."
But that needs to be emphasized. Though we quote Calvin and Luther and all this, these are not our theories. This is not our wish, our hope. This does not find its origin in the thoughts of man. These flow from the Scripture, and that's what we'll really emphasize and work on these next six weeks that we're together.
The Historical Context: Arminius and the Remonstrance
Let me remind you how we got to the very point we are in our discussion. In 1610, there was a document that was published called the Remonstrance Document. Jacob Arminius had surfaced with some degree of popularity in the Netherlands, and he was teaching a whole series of doctrinal truths. And they were then taken and literally listed in five.
Here were they: Number one, God's election—see what I'm saying? Everybody has to have a view on this. God's election, Arminius said, is based on the foresight of man's faith. God looks down the corridor of time, sees who He's going to choose—that's how God elects. That's Arminius.
And then he said that Christ intended in His death to save all people, that Jesus' intention when He went to the cross was that all would be saved. Then he said that fallen man was incapable of any good without the intervention of the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit was working in everybody, wooing us, drawing us. And that we could reject God-saving grace. And then he said whether once we're a Christian we will for sure be saved, that we need to study more. Those were the five points that Arminius had.
Here's what happened. In 1618, the church leadership convened the Synod of Dort to examine this teaching and to compare it—let me say it again, not with Luther or anything—
But to compare it with Scripture, they found that in fact the teaching of Arminius—and let's go ahead and say which is the teaching of most churches in the good old USA today—that the teaching of Arminius is incompatible with Scripture. There wasn't enough just to declare that, but they had to respond to it. So they published then what we now identify as the five points of Calvinism.
Let me highlight them for you: Total depravity (we'll come back and explain it, unpack it), unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. So it's the acronym TULIP.
Refining the Terms
Now over the years, lots of people worked very hard to try to make those terms perhaps a little more precise. So take something like limited atonement—it would be a little more clear if we said particular redemption. The intention here is not to limit the atonement in and of itself in terms of value, but to say that Christ died with the intent for a specific group of people. And over the years we've talked about the perseverance of the saints, well it would be better stated if it was the preservation of the saints. Then we talk about total depravity, and that gets sidetracked because we understand man's not as bad as he could be in every action, and it would be better if we had something like radical depravity or radical inability.
The problem with all of that is TULIP works, RUPEP doesn't. So we're going to take these five terms, and we're going to define them. We wish they were a little more accurate, and then we'll make them accurate. We're going to have to work through this.
Today, and next time—we're not here next week, so a week from today or two weeks from today—these two weeks we'll look at this idea of total inability or total depravity. We're talking about the condition of natural man, all of us, as we come into this world. So the terms that are important for you to grab are terms like natural man, fallen man, man in his natural condition as we enter this world apart from God.
The Crucial Connection Between Sin and Salvation
In their book, The Five Points of Calvinism—and again, there are books all over relating to this topic—but the book by Steele and Thomas called The Five Points of Calvinism, in there they write this: "The view one takes concerning salvation will be determined to a large extent by the view one takes concerning sin and its effect on human nature." Here's what he's saying: this issue is really important. The condition of man is really important as it relates to ultimately our view of salvation.
Do something. Let's go here, let's do this, because I know you're making a lot of notes. Take your pen and put your pen down and look up here. I'm almost telling you to put your head on your desk and take a nap, but I'm not quite there. Put your pen down and look up here and you've got to get this. I don't care about any of this other stuff. This is the point for today: you've got to get this.
This is really important. We're talking about the condition of man, man's ability to respond to God. Got to get it, because obviously if man has the ability to respond and the desire to respond, we're going to get one whole set of different answers as if we say no, man can't respond, doesn't have the ability to respond, and doesn't have the desire to respond. You see how these are connected?
That's what Steele and Thomas are saying. If I look at the condition of man and I say man's bad off but he's not dead, I'm going to have a very different view of salvation than I am if I understand man is dead. This is really an important point. You've got to get this.
I guarantee you that much of the confusion that's out in this world and maybe in your head regarding this matter is solved in these two weeks if I understand the condition of man. Man when he comes into this room and into this world, what's the state of man?
A Personal Illustration
I'm getting really a great firsthand illustration of this now with Haley and Tyler and raising Braden. Braden's about nine months old or so, and I've watched him change. He's cute. I think he is cute. If he wasn't, I think I'd know. We have a lot of discussions around our house: if you had an ugly baby, would you know it? I don't know. I can sure see ugly in other kids—not when I'm out at the mall or something. But I think he's very cute. He's got red hair, which is just engaging, and blue eyes and a nice smile. He's been really easy. And in the last few weeks, he's realized that he's got a little attitude.
This is a big time of year for us at our house, because there is no time of year like college football time of year. This is the best. It just makes me sick that this thing's almost half over. It just kills me. Why does baseball season go on and on and on and college football's so short?
Well, on college football day, everything in our house begins the same. I get up early and go out and put my Iowa flag up. I don't know why. It's stupid. I'm not saying it makes sense. It's stupid. And then if it's a morning kickoff, like yesterday was a 9 o'clock kickoff, Susan makes breakfast for whoever can get over there and the kids and whatever happens. Or if it's a later game, it's lunch. And then next week, we're the national game, so it's at 5 o'clock. We're going to get killed on national TV, but that'll be fun, but it'll be dinner next week. Stupid. Dumb.
Sarah and Haley have been really good about it—they'll wear their Iowa shirts, and they're really into it. I've got a bottle opener that when this medal hits it, it plays the Iowa fight song, so I hit the fight song and hold up my bottle. It's all stupid. Every bit of it's stupid. And the boys, Timmy and Tyler, have been really good about it. I mean, they hang in there, and they've really been supportive of it. Tyler especially—I don't think he's that fond of Iowa. He likes Nebraska better than Iowa.
My grandson Braden is one year old. He's a beautiful little boy. He's going to be intelligent, I think. He's already got a tragic defect to begin with, but he's a Bronco fan.
About three or four weeks ago, Haley is working with Braden, and she's teaching him this. "Braden, do we like the Broncos?" "No, no, no, no, no." The next day, Sarah and I—Sarah's here this morning—Sarah and I were walking through the mall, and I said to her, "I think your sister's making a fundamental mistake here in parenting, teaching him no, no, no, no, no, because he's going to learn this on his own."
The next night, Haley calls and said, "I asked Braden something today, and Braden said to me, no, no, no, no, no. I'm a lousy mom." I said, "Well, I don't think you are a lousy mom. I think he was going to learn that on his own," which is the point. The minute that kid has eye-hand coordination, he's going to grab whatever it is, and he's going to grab it and say "mine." The minute he can speak and figure it all out, he's going to go "no, no, no, no, no."
Haley and Tyler, who are wonderful parents, Sarah and Timmy, who I think will be incredible parents, will spend their lives not teaching the child to lie, but teaching the child to tell the truth. The kid will instinctively say, "The check is in the mail." Just happens. "Tell them I'm not here." It's just the way we are. That's the whole point.
Our Sinful Nature
We understand we come into the world, and we sin. We can have this whole discussion about are we sinners because we sin, or do we sin because we're sinners, and it would be the latter. That's our nature, therefore we sin.
But what's the condition of man? There are four basic views, I think. One of them is that man is neutral. That man comes into the world neutral, and the world writes on us and scribbles on us and affects us—what your mom does or your dad does or your circumstances. The Latin term there is tabula rasa.
I took Latin for six years. In fact, this is a great story because it kind of proves the sinfulness of man. I was about to give up on Latin my fifth year, and I'd had enough of it and didn't know anything. You had to study, so that was a problem. I was getting ready to quit, and they said, "We're going to do something different this year." I said, "What is that?" They said, "We're going on the honor system." I said, "Really? Tell me about the honor system, will you? I see potential here."
"Well, we will take all of our tests either in this class or home. If you take the test home, we trust you not to look at your books. If we take it in this class, we'll leave the room and you just take the test." I said, "Wait a minute, let me make sure I understand this. When you leave the room, are you going to look back? Because that would not be very honorable on your part." "No, it's totally up to you." I said, "Well, I'll take that. I can take this class now."
I succeeded for the last two years, and proved I was sinful, and I was not a Christian. That's what I keep saying. I wasn't a Christian, and the girls just are all over me. That doesn't justify it, but that's the Latin term, tabula rasa, blank slate.
Four Views of Man's Condition
Here's the second view. It's the common view, I think, that you're basically good. It's the dominant view of the world, that man's basically good. Now, here you go. As we think, as a society, that man is basically good, man will always be a victim and never a villain. So when we see something happen, we immediately have to try to explain it away. We're always understanding man, not as a villain, as a sinner, but as a victim.
A few weeks ago, I wake up at three, a little after three in the morning, turn on the radio, and they're conducting a press conference from City Hall, from the police department. So I know something's going on, and they've caught the baseline murderer, rapist, or whatever the term is, or the guy that they think did the alleged. I want to really emphasize that. I have not got the foggiest idea if this guy's guilty. It bothers me just a bit that everybody assumes this guy's guilty. I assume they have evidence, or they wouldn't arrest him, but I have no clue whether this guy's guilty or not. Not the foggiest idea.
I changed that position just a little bit. October 17th, I go in for jury duty, and I have to go this time. When they go around, they'll say, "Who are you, what do you do?" I will say, "Well, I'm Tom Schrader, and I believe the Bible's the infallible word of God upon which all of life should be based, and we judge everybody according to that. I think that God has spoken in this word, and it's divinely ordained, and I judge and rule my life this way, and obviously he's guilty, or we wouldn't be here." So jury duty changes my perspective, but no, I don't say that, but I don't ever get selected either.
I have no idea if this guy is guilty or not. My assumption is they have evidence, but I don't know if he's guilty. I'm not playing games with you. What I did know when I heard that is I needed to watch the news the next day, because I knew I would hear the neighbors and the friends. All of them said, "I'm stunned, I'm shocked." One of the neighbors said, "I know they've got the wrong guy. He cuts his grass." I guess you can't be a killer if you cut your grass. His wife said, "Listen, he's a good man."
Again, I'm not making a judgment of the guy, but we hear that all the time. Or when they get somebody, they catch them, and they're convicted, and they're just saying, "I never saw that." Why? Well, because we think man is basically good.
The Biblical View
Here's the third view, that man is somewhat torn here. Inclinations toward good and toward evil. There's a battle in him. So the view that man's a blank slate, or man's basically good, or man's torn—those are three options.
I think the biblical view is this: that man is unable to do anything good, has no desire to do anything good, that man is spiritually dead. Here's the sentence I wrote: as a result of Adam's sin, all mankind is spiritually dead and unable to either comprehend or believe spiritual truths. Man is blind and deaf to the
message of salvation. Man is spiritually dead. That's what the Bible teaches. Man cannot comprehend or even respond to spiritual truth. Man will never believe. He cannot, and he has no desire to believe.
John MacArthur writes these two sentences: man apart from God is a spiritual zombie. The walking dead, who don't know they're dead. They go through the motions of life, but they don't possess life.
It gets very difficult sometimes to discern. We could bring up here someone who didn't take communion, who'd say I'm not a Christian, and they could be in the middle of training for a triathlon. They're physically fit, and their pulse rate is 57, and their blood pressure is 120 over 69, and they're in incredible shape, and 7% body fat. This is not autobiographical, by the way. We look at them, and they're just as live as could be, and then we say, but they're dead. What we're talking about is their spirit, not their physical condition.
The Crucial Point: Dead or Mostly Dead?
We're at the crucial point. This is the crucial point right here. We're going to figure out the condition of man. We're going to figure out if man is dead, or if man is mostly dead.
Those of you who've been through this series know that there's only one point that you remember. Let's take a look at this scene from The Princess Bride where Miracle Max examines Westley:
"Look who knows so much. Well, it just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Now, mostly dead is slightly alive. Now, all dead - well, with all dead, there's usually only one thing that you can do. What's that? Go through his clothes and look for loose change."
It's amazing in that movie Billy Crystal has a four-minute piece and stole the show with that four-minute piece. Here's what Miracle Max said: "It just so happens that your friend here is just mostly dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive."
Man Is Not Mostly Dead
That's the point we're making. Is man dead in his sins and trespasses or is he mostly dead? And if he's mostly dead, he's slightly alive.
You will hear all sorts of explanations about man is hopeless, he's in the middle of the ocean, there's nothing he can do, but it's like this: it's like God throws this ring or this lifesaver around him and he grabs it and puts it over him. No, because he would have to be alive to do that, slightly alive to do that. Or that he sunk all the way to the bottom of the ocean, he has only one breath in there, and if he lets this out he'll die, but somehow God drops this line down, this man takes it, puts it in his mouth.
All of those illustrations are inadequate because they all assume that man has some ability or desire. Man is not mostly dead as it relates to salvation. Man is dead in his sins and trespasses. There's nothing in man that desires to respond to any spiritual truth, including the gospel, and there's nothing in man that has the ability, even if he had the desire, which he doesn't, but even if he had the desire, he doesn't have the ability to do anything. He's dead in his sins and trespasses.
Understanding Original Sin
Now a term that many of you with some church background might be familiar with is called original sin. Original sin is not a specific act. When we talk about original sin we're talking about the effect of Adam's sin on you and me and all mankind, the punishment and all that goes with it.
Out of the definition of original sin you'll see this wonderful subtle difference. Let me give you this first definition. This is from the Baltimore Catechism. My background is of the Catholic Church, and cut me slack, I know this is not totally accurate, but the Baltimore Catechism in a sense was our Bible. The Catechism was where we would learn these truths in the vehicle God used to teach us these truths in the Catholic Church, at least that would be their teaching.
Here's how they define original sin: "Our inherited condition from the sin of Adam and Eve by which we are born without grace and inclined to love ourselves more than God."
The Problem with Partial Explanations
Our inherited condition from the sin of Adam and Eve by which we are born without grace and inclined to love ourselves more than God. There's a problem there, isn't there? In other words, we struggle here. Our inclination is to love ourselves, but sometimes we love God, and we see here that what we have is a man who is mostly dead, slightly alive.
In the Westminster Confession of Faith, I think you get a biblical view of original sin. It says this: man by His fall into a state of sin hath wholly—meaning entirely, completely—man hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. So as a natural man being altogether averse or opposed from good and is dead to sin is not able by his own strength to convert himself or prepare himself thereunto.
In other words, man isn't mostly dead, man is dead. Man has no ability within himself to change, no desire to change. Man is not enticed by good from the outside.
Man's Total Aversion to Good
Man is sick and there is no cure in and of himself that either he can generate or he's attracted to. Even if man was there and you brought this serum that would save his life up to his lips, biblically, he couldn't because he's dead. But even if he was slightly alive he would spit it out. He's adverse, he hates good.
How do we get that way? Here's what we're going to do the balance of this day. We're going to look at Genesis chapter 3 and we're going to look at Ephesians chapter 2, stopping Romans along the way, and Romans chapter 5 and Romans chapter 6.
The Explanation for Man's Condition
Ray Stedman writes of Genesis 3, He said, Genesis 3 is the explanation of the world's condition and more importantly it is the explanation for the condition of man's heart. So if you were to do this exercise, if you were to read Genesis 1 and 2, skip Genesis 3, read Genesis 4, you would have to ask yourself, what in the world happened?
Here's Genesis 2: man's in the garden, he's naked, he's happy, there's peace, there's harmony. I get to Genesis 4 and there's strife and war and pain and murder. What happened? Genesis 3 is the answer. It's the answer to that question.
Why would God create a world where there was pain and terrorists, where kids got sick, where there was suffering? Why would God create this? And the answer is, and this is really important, He didn't. He created a place called paradise and then you chose, through your representative Adam, you chose your way over His way.
God's Warning and Man's Choice
Genesis chapter 2, verse 16, here's a warning that God gives: "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Now death means separation and what is implied here is physical death and spiritual death and eternal death. Separation from God. That's the warning.
Well what happens, you know the story. The culmination of the first scene is in Genesis chapter 3, verse 6. "The woman saw that the tree was good for food and she ate it. It was a delight to her eyes and she saw that it was desirable to make her wise. She took its fruit, she ate, she gave it to her husband and he ate."
Direct disobedience to God. God said, don't eat. It's not, by the way, a matter of nourishment or food. This is about who's in control.
The Heart of Every Sin
This is God saying, here are the rules and this is Adam saying, I'm going to do it this way. That's what you and I do every time we sin. Every time we sin, here's what we're saying: God, I know you've got your rules, but I'm going to do it my way.
And I'll go ahead, here's how arrogant and cocky we are, I'll go ahead and pay the consequences. You do whatever it is you want to do, God. You got your thing, you got your rules, whatever. Great idea, but I'm going to try it my way. My will, not your will, be done.
That's what Adam says. And the punishment is, he's driven from the garden. But the ramifications of it, the effects of it, aren't limited to Adam.
How Sin Entered the World
Romans chapter 5, verse 12. Now in chapter 3, verse 23, Paul has told us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That every person who's alive is a sinner. In Romans chapter 5, Paul helps us understand this. He said, here's how sin gets into the world.
"Therefore, just as through one man, meaning Adam, sin entered the world, and death through sin, thus, death spread to all men, because all have sinned." Through the action of Adam, we become sinners by nature. We come into the world in a sinful condition.
We don't come into the world in neutral. We don't come into the world torn between good and evil. We come into the world immersed in sin, hard, separated from God, as a result of Adam.
The Evidence of Our Fallen State
And that's true spiritually, and what the Scripture says is, here's how we can tell everybody's infected by it. Look around, everybody dies physically. Look at chapter 6, the very next chapter, because at this point, Paul acknowledges it again and then gives us the solution.
Romans chapter 6, verse 23: "For the wage of sin is death. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus." So, you're one of those people that say, you know what, here's the deal, God. All I want is what I deserve. I just want what I've earned.
I'm a self-starter. I'm self-contained. This fits right in with our whole culture. It fits absolutely right in with us, you know, this self-reliant free market capitalism, which I would be a proponent of, but it certainly fits with this. I'll do my thing, all I want is what I deserve.
What We've Actually Earned
And God says, no problem. The wage, what you've earned, what you've merited from your life, what you've merited is death. Not just physical death, but spiritual death. You're separated from God. And there is not one thing you can do about it.
The Condition of Man According to Scripture
The wage of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. The free gift of God is grace—unmerited favor. Look with me at Romans chapter 3 verse 10. There it is again, the condition of man. This is the condition of man from God's view.
"There is none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. They have all turned aside. There is none who does good, no, not one."
The Heart Behind Our Actions
Now everything in me wants to argue with that because I would say, "No, we have—here you go. We were in his office and there was a gal that got sick and she didn't have insurance and we did car sales and bake sales and we raised money. We raised enough money for her to get her surgery and you're telling me that's not good?" I'm telling you that from my perspective, that's a great thing to do. I'm glad you did that. We're better off culturally and as a society because you did that.
But God's not looking at the action; He's looking at the heart of the actor. So when you go down there and you do this wonderful thing and you feed the hungry on Thanksgiving day and then they interview you and you say, "I love doing this because it makes me feel so good," you're saying even in this act of providing food to the hungry, it's really about you and how you feel, not about them and food.
See what God does through His Word is open us up and say, "Listen, don't be distracted by the actions."
Christianity Is About What We Believe
That's why it's so important for you and me to understand that Christianity at its core is not an ethic or a behavior. If you start talking about, "He's a Christian," and then you tell me he's a good husband or he's an honest businessman or he's a good neighbor or she's whatever—if it's that action, I want you to know that there are people from all sorts of religions who would fall into that category and say yes, and probably some who couldn't care less about God, who are good dads and good husbands and good guys.
Christianity at its core is not about our action, though the actions are important. Christianity at its core is about what we believe. So the Scripture looks and says, "There's not a man who does not sin"—2 Chronicles chapter 6 verse 36, Ecclesiastes 7:20. "There's not a just man on earth who does good."
Again, all of us may be at different degrees of this sin in terms of how it manifests itself, but we're all guilty, we're all sinners, we're all lost, we're all dead, we're all unable to do good and have no desire to do good.
Dead in Trespasses and Sin
One more passage and we'll let you go. Here in Romans, turn to the right: 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians chapter 2. We began the day looking at Ephesians chapter 1 where Paul talks about the fact that we were chosen before the foundations of the earth and He's predestined us as adoptions—adopted sons.
In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 through 3, Paul's writing to this church, this group of believers, and he's reminding them where they've been. He said, "And you were made alive"—you had to be made alive because you were dead in your trespasses and sin. It's a man-overriding problem. You may be here today and say, "My problem isn't—my problem that I have here is drugs," or "My problem is greed," or "My problem is I worry too much." Whatever it is, the fundamental problem is you're dead in your sin. Those are symptoms of your condition.
"You were made alive who were dead in the trespasses in which you once walked according to the course of the world"—you thought like the world. "According to the prince of the power of air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust"—that has a sexual tone to it now, but the word just simply means any sort of strong inclination toward evil—"once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature"—this is who we were, by nature in this world—"we're children of wrath."
Children of Wrath, Not Children of God
So when you have somebody who's standing up and we're singing kumbaya and saying we're all children of God, the Scripture says that's just not true. I mean there's this general sense in which you can say God created everybody, but we're not all children of God. He said here was your problem: you weren't children of God, you were children of wrath, you were sons of disobedience. When Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees, He said, "You are of your father"—what? "The devil."
So there's two groups of people in the world: those who are indeed children of God and those who are children of wrath. And as Paul writes to this church at Ephesus, to these believers, he said this is who you used to be—you aren't that anymore. Not because you did something so great, because you couldn't, but because God did something in you.
In fact, if you look right after he explains their previous condition, he goes into verse 4 and he said, "But God, but God being rich in mercies, because of God's great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead, God saves us." That's the whole point. And we get to verse 8, and we're saved by grace through faith, entirely a work of God.
The Fundamental Question
Not only is natural man incapable of doing good, he has no desire to do good. So here's the close: what's the condition of fallen man? Is he dead, or is he mostly dead?
If you are at Costco tomorrow, or at the office tomorrow, the gym tomorrow, and you run into somebody and they say, "You know what, I didn't get to church yesterday, I couldn't get there. What did Tom talk about?" All you got to do is get this and we're there: that man is dead. That man has no desire for good, he's adverse to good, he hates good. He's incapable of doing good. He's incapable of even responding to good.
So what's a dead man need? Life.
What a Dead Man Needs
I was 12, so it was 44 years ago, and I was in Sheraton, Iowa, and my grandfather had died. We were at a house—it was a house, pardon the pun here, that had been converted into a business, and it was a funeral home: Beardsley Funeral Home in Sheraton.
Iowa. I remember going in before people were going to get there. My mom was there, my aunt was there, and I remember going into this house. There was that little board with the letters that said William Siskey, and in we went, and there he was. It was the first time I'd seen a dead person.
Obviously it had its effect, because here we are 44 years later, and I'm still remembering him. I'm looking at him, trying to take it all in, and we walk out, and we're standing on the porch. I'm standing with my mom and her sister, and my aunt said to my mom, "Didn't dad look good?" I thought, well, I better go back in there, because I missed something.
I went back in, and there he was, all laid out, head in a suit, tie, the whole thing. As I looked at him, it occurred to me that while he looked pretty good, he had one significant problem that I could see. He was dead. What he needed was life.
The Futility of External Solutions
I could have paraded all of our answers by him. I could have brought in a keg, or a bottle of Jack Daniels, or filled that thing with $100 bills, or keeping kind of in that generation, I could have brought in Jane Russell. I could have done whatever it is we think is going to make us happy, or bring us life, and I could have paraded them by him, and it wouldn't have made any difference, because he was dead.
He couldn't respond. Even if they were his, he couldn't have taken advantage of them. It raises a wonderful question: How can a dead man - because Jesus says in John 3, you must be born again - how can a dead man be born again? How can a dead man even have an appetite to be born again?
How can someone who has fallen have the ability to come to Christ, or believe? How can fallen man do one thing, anything, that is spiritually profitable at all? Well, that's part two, two weeks from today, we'll take a look at that.
Let's pray together. Father, thank You for Your Son, Jesus. Thank You not just that He came, and He lived, and He died - that is so significant and important - but that You took us, who in our natural condition were adverse to this truth, opposed to this truth, that You took it and put in our heart a desire for You.
God, that You did the miracle. You brought life from death. God, we were once just like this church at Ephesus. We were dead in our sins and trespasses, but we were made alive by Your Son, Jesus Christ, by Your Spirit. Father, thank You for choosing us, for Jesus dying, for Your Spirit applying that to our heart.
For those that are here today that understand that truth, God, we rejoice and we praise, we thank You. For those that are struggling, we pray that You would give a sense of determination, perseverance, that You'd open our eyes to see the truth. We pray that in Jesus' name, amen.