Does this sound familiar? “Man is good; his heart is uncorrupted. The evil lies in the circumstances, in the environment, in the society in which man is born and reared. Take these circumstances away, reform society—introduce, for example, the equal distribution of goods to all men—and man will naturally be good. There will be no more reason for him to do evil.”[1] Well, why doesn’t it work? Or why hasn’t it worked yet? There must be something else wrong. There is some other source of all our problems beyond what economics and/or therapy can heal.
The continuing problem is, in Scripture, called sin. “Sin therefore does not belong to the nature of things.” Rather sin is the deprivation of the good that God made and the choice to rebel against God’s sovereign will. Bavinck continued saying, sin “is a manifestation which is moral in character, operating in the ethical sphere, and consists of departure from the ethical norm which God by His will established for rational man.”[2] Sin then “can really consist of nothing but the corruption of the good.”[3] Sin is the absence of the goodness in God’s creation.
Sin is not something we can hide from nor is it something we can eradicate totally from our lives. “We all know from experience that a sinful action is not external to us, like a dirty garment which can be taken off and laid aside; rather, it is intimately connected with our inner nature and leaves ineradicable traces upon it.”[4] This is why Scripture so often describes sin as “flesh.” Sin is that weakness which we can’t escape. No matter what we do, we can echo Paul who said, “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Rom. 7:21-23).
The heart of humans represents the will–the emotional inclinations which shape the intellect. The heart is prior to the intellect and actual decisions. The antediluvians had continually corrupt hearts (Gen. 6:5). God says, in a general or complete way, that all humans have hearts which are given to corruption (Gen. 8:21). Jeremiah affirms the heart is “sick” and beyond understanding (Jer. 17:9). Jesus says evil comes, not just from the mind, but from the heart (Matt. 15:19).
Beyond the heart, humans must also struggle with their intellect. Just as the heart is sick, the mind is darkened. Israel, for example, was said to “not know” their God or “understand” spiritual reality (Is. 1:3). Jeremiah recorded humanities’ struggle with pursuing things opposed to God (Jer. 4:22). The lost world was described as “darkness” (Jn. 1:5). Those who pursue sin, are “futile,” “foolish,” and “darkened” in their understanding (Rom. 1:21-22; Eph. 4:18, 5:8). Paul contrasted the wisdom of God with the wisdom of the unregenerate world (1 Cor. 1:18-23; 2:14). Consequently, the unbelieving will find nothing pure (Titus 1:15).
Humans will choose fleshly desires and rebellion over God in their natural state. Paul said, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8-9). Those accustomed to evil can change themselves as easily as the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard its spots (Jer. 13:22). Those who practice sin are slaves to sin (Jn. 8:34; Rom. 6:17).
We can only look to God for redemption. “You must be born again” (Jn. 3:3, 5). Paul reminded Titus that we must be saved by washing of the new birth and renewal of the Holy Spirit. He said: “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-5).
Since sin is the absence or depravation of good, the remedy to our problems must be found in the overflowing goodness of God. Psalm 16:11 says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” God is the fulness of joy. God is love. God is life. God is light. Thankfully, “the true Light” has come into the world. The Son arrived to make us to be sons (Jn. 1:12-13). John shows us how our sin problem is healed. “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (Jn. 1:16). As we are united to Christ we are hidden in his glory. Athanasius described this transition saying, “since it was unfitting that they should perish which had once been partakers of God’s image. 7. What then was God to do? or what was to be done save the renewing of that which was in God’s image, so that by it men might once more be able to know Him? But how could this have come to pass save by the presence of the very Image of God, our Lord Jesus Christ? For by men’s means it was impossible, since they are but made after an image; nor by angels either, for not even they are (God’s) images. Whence the Word of God came in His own person, that, as He was the Image of the Father, He might be able to create afresh the man after the image.[5]
[1] Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 207.
[2] Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 210.
[3] Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 211.
[4] Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 216.
[5] Athanasius of Alexandria, “On the Incarnation of the Word,” in St. Athanasius: Select Works and Letters, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. Archibald T. Robertson, vol. 4 of A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1892), 43.
[1] Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 207.
[2] Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 210.
[3] Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 211.
[4] Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 216.
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