The Unholiness of Man –Biblical Basis for Inherited Sin January 10, 2006

This is a most legitimate topic in one’s study of this matter and concept of “holiness”. A thorough and Biblical view of this matter of inherited sin is most vital if we are going to have a thorough and Biblical view of “holiness”. Notice that my topic is not particularly dea-ling with the matter of “sins”, but with a principle, a disposition, if you please, a pollution. And this principle is stated in our topic as being “inherited”, i.e. “heredi-tary”, or “capable of being passed on from one to ano-ther”. I fully believe that our understanding and con-viction concerning this very negative topic will have definite bearing on shaping our understanding and conviction concerning the very positive concept of “holiness”.

During this paper, I wish to begin by examining the necessity of understanding, when it comes to the matter of inherited sin. Furthermore, I want to seek out Bibli-cal basis and proof for even believing in this matter of “inherited sin”. Thirdly, I will attempt to note some Biblical description and analysis of this hereditary problem.

As I have already stated, it is most important that we have a Biblical, and therefore adequate, understanding of this “thing” that we call “inherited sin”.

One might question such importance. After all, why not merely “preach holiness” in all of its positive and glorious light? Is “inherited sin” really important to our appreciation of sound doctrine? Can we not leave “inherited depravity” to the “optional bin”, with the freedom to choose what to believe, and whether or not we even choose to recognize its existence? After all, it’s all about “holiness” isn’t it? Are we not commanded to “follow holiness” in our quest to “see the Lord”? Why take the time to study such a negative topic?

A failure to recognize, or even correctly understand, this matter of “inherited sin” carries most definite con-sequences, not only in our personal relationships with God, but socially, culturally, and morally in our very world.

For one thing, if we fail to adequately recognize this in-herited depravity, we most certainly lose a proper ap-preciation of “personal responsibility for personal wrong”. Let me elaborate.

When’s the last time anyone, quoted in the newspaper, or appearing on the “evening news” attributed some at-rocious act to a principal of evil lurking within the heart of the one committing the act? Who, in our day, would dare suggest that man is inheritently evil, that the core problem is a problem within his spiritual na-ture, that his heart is the producer of whatever repre-hensible behavior is under consideration? This, by and large, just does not happen!

Our society is notorious, it seems, at attempting to ex-plain bad behavior in any way but the correct one! We seem to offer any and every excuse to blame for the actions of people.

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the grown boy who had been caught throwing rocks through windows. When this boy and his deeds were confronted and exa-mined, the conclusion was that, as a little lad this boy had had a teacher who, in his estimation, was mean and unreasonable. Furthermore, this mean teacher just happened to wear eye glasses. And since she was mean and wore eye glasses, this boy had built up an awful af-finity against glass. Therefore, he vented this disposit-ion by throwing rocks and breaking glass! This sounds so utterly ridi-culous, yet how similarly foolish is our culture as it tries to come up with “reasons” for man’s negative behavior! Society has to explain in some way “why he did such and such”. Society has to come up with an “answer” so that we can aim for a “solution.”

You can understand that if we fail to recognize a sinful core behind man’s sinful behavior, then “the sky’s the limit” on what reasons and answers we may come up with. Without proper conviction as to the inherited evil throughout the human race, then no one can be properly blamed, no matter what he does. The reasons may be merely financial, biological, social, educa-tional….the list can go on and on. And while my topic this morning does not deal directly with the remedy for this inherited evil, it is apparent that if we do not understand the “disease” within man’s nature, we will never arrive at the proper “cure”. The only way to “make any sense” about man’s sinning, is to recognize the core reason and motivation behind that sinning.

We only need to look around us and see the “jungle” that exists and gets progressively worse because man feels no personal responsibility for who he is and what he does. Such results from the failure to believe (and preach) the reality of inherited sin.

Furthermore, if we fail to understand the doctrine of “inherited sin”, we lose an understanding of the beauty and power of grace. “Grace” is commonly understood by us to mean “favor” from God, but not only “favor”, but “undeserved favor”. The very thought of grace pre-supposes that man has a need, a problem of some kind. Grace further implies that man does not deserve help for this problem, nor can he do anything within himself to remedy this problem. As to our salvation, the Bible clearly states that “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God”: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph.2 8-9).

Surely the appeal of grace to our hearts is the fact that we are so utterly dependent upon it, and God so freely dispenses it, apart from our merit or ability to earn it. In thinking of this matter of grace, it is easy to see how a denial of man’s inherited depravity totally cancels out the need for such grace, as well as muting the power of what grace provides.

If man is not inherently evil, then he does not really have a need. If man’s heart is not sinful, then the mat-ter of “deserve vs. not deserve” doesn’t even enter into the equation.

If man is merely a product of his financial, educational, social, or cultural factors, then any negatives in his life can just as well be addressed and cured by these same factors. In other words, if man’s life needs improve-ment, then that same man can bring his own improve-ment. Such reasoning is extremely humanistic, and such reasoning necessarily results when a core of inherited sin is left out of the picture of man’s existence.

Really, it’s apparent with what I’ve already said, that denial of sin in man’s core nature is hand in hand with the very spirit of humanism and a very denial of God. Perhaps this is the real reason why there are those who wish to discard any thinking or belief in a core spiritual problem in man. To do this places man totally outside the realm of responsibility for his actions, and further places him outside the realm of any accountability to a Sovereign Authority.

Thus, man with this denial of in-ward sin, is the master of his own living and his own destiny. Right and wrong are merely relative concepts to each individual, and he can decide what “needs fix-ing”, and take care of this “fixing” himself. Man then becomes little more than an “intelligent animal” which faces various stimuli and chooses his responses on his own.

A third reason that it is so vitally important to be Bib-lically convicted as to the doctrine of “inherited sin”, is that failure to do so brings a loss of appreciation for the reality and power of “holiness”. I hope that I do not tread upon someone else’s paper here, but again a grasp of the matter of sin is so necessary if we are to grasp the matter of holiness. What we believe about sin ultimately decides what we believe about holiness.

If man fails to recognize his inherent sinfulness, several things result (as having to do with this matter of holi-ness):

(1) First of all, “holiness” ceases to be a need for man. There is no need to “follow holiness” if man is not sinful. (If man is not depraved, then he is, in a human-istic sense, holy, or at least righteous, already.) There is no valid call to something better if man needs nothing better. The call to, and need of, holiness within man only makes sense if man, without holiness, is hopelessly depraved, i.e. unholy. Furthermore, man feels no perso-nal conviction of his need of holiness if he fails to recog-nize his own sinfulness.

(2) Secondly, holiness is seen as not the glorious call and provision that we know it to be. The utter sinfulness of man causes the provision and power of holiness to shine all the brighter! Romans 5:20 reminds us that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:” A classic case which illustrates this is the prophet Isaiah’s reali-zation of his own uncleanness after viewing God’s holi-ness. This sense of personal need in turn caused Isaiah to yearn after this holiness. Thus there is seen here a direct link between the majestic appeal of God’s holi-ness and man’s personal consciousness that he lacks this holiness, or that he is unholy.

Jesus promised that the coming Comforter would re-prove the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Obviously, all three of these emphases are needed. To leave out any one of them would leave a missing link in man’s “spiritual reasoning” (for lack of a better term). In conjunction with this paper, think of what would happen if the Spirit only convinced man of righteous-ness and judgment, but failed to bring the matter of sin to man’s consciousness.

Righteousness would have no real appeal, and judge-ment would carry no real warning without man reali-zing personal guilt and depravity when it comes to sin.

Again, failure to recognize personal depravity tarnishes the call and provision of holiness. (Let me say again that perhaps this is a real reason that many choose to deny personal sin. To do so alleviates the sense of per-sonal guilt, need, or accountability. For whatever rea-sons that people choose this route, God says that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” [I John 1:8].)

(3) A third result is that the Atonement of Christ is made to be less and provide less than what it actually is and does. Why did Christ come to this earth and die on a Cross? What does His atonement really provide any-way? If one is an out and out agnostic, the death on a cross of a Man named Jesus means nothing. Thus there is no appeal to an inner spiritual need because the death means nothing and the inner need doesn’t really exist anyway.

However, even if you do believe that Jesus was the Christ, and that His death on the Cross provides atone-ment for mankind, but you fail to believe properly con-cerning personal depravity, you will limit this Atone-ment. If you deny personal depravity, or deny the pos-sibility of cleansing from personal depravity, then Christ’s death serves little more than a coverup or can-cellation of actual guilt for actual sins committed.

The best then that His Atonement can do for us is to cancel out any judgement for our sins committed and place us in favor with God. There are some real pro-blems with this approach. I’m not an Old Testament scholar, but it seems to me that the Old Testament Atonement did an adequate job of getting this “can-ellation of judgement” accomplished. I realize that Christ was the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacri-fices, but could not God have allowed them to continue as long as they were repeated year after year?

This leads me to the next problem: again it seems to me that the Old Testament sacrifices did a good job of canceling man’s guilt until the next yearly Day of Atonement when sacrifice for sin was made again. Therefore, if Christ’s sacrifice of Blood does nothing more than cover for man’s guilt, there seems to be a real loss of the glory and amazement which is made over it. I’m convinced that the Atonement of Christ is more than a cover-up or cancellation of man’s guilt.

Hebrews 7:8-10 speaks of another covenant that God is making with His people since the Old Covenant (or Old Testament). He declares that with this new covenant He “will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts:…” An inner change is noted here with man’s very mind and heart tremendously affected. The Atonement of Christ deals with the inner man.

When the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph and in-structed him to name Mary’s soon-to-be-born baby, “Jesus”, he promised that this Jesus would “save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). I believe that this “saving” includes forgiveness and cancellation of the guilt of sins committed, the cleansing of depravity in-herited, and furthermore, the future saving of our very universe from the curse of sin by giving man a new body and new existence in a city which knows nothing of this curse. 

It is vitally important to have a correct acceptance and understanding of this matter of inner depravity.

Let me move on to my next consideration with this matter of “inherited depravity”, or “inherited unholi-ness”. Is there evidence in Scripture for believing in the concept of inner depravity? I believe that there is and that that evidence continues to manifest itself openly and repeatedly in every generation since the times of Biblical history.

First of all, let us be reminded that Jesus Himself re-vealed the “inner man” as the real source of outer be-havior. Listen as He says in Matthew 7:17: “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit: but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.” He brings more emphasis to this fact in Matthew 12:34 & 35 when He declares: “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bring-eth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” Throughout Scrip-ture, Old and New Testaments, not only does God ad-dress man’s outer behavior, but his inner state of righ-teousness/unrighteousness, as well. Therefore, what-ever is said in Scripture about this “heart” of man, we all agree that the moral/spiritual state of this heart is a most deciding factor in man’s everyday living.

The heart is of primary importance. (Perhaps this is the reason that Jesus dealt so emphatically with man’s in-ner desires, motives, etc.)

This having been said, let’s note a number of Scrip-tures which reveal a real need, deficiency, problem in man’s “heart”. By doing so, we will discover that man is most “unholy” in his natural and progressive state.

1) Genesis 6:5: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

2) Genesis 8:21: “The Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake: for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth;”

3) Psalm 5:9: “For there is no faithfulness in their mouth: their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulcher; they flatter with their tongue.”

4) Psalm 51:5: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity: and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

5) Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”

6) Proverbs 20:9: “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?”

7) Ecclesiastes 9:3: “The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go the dead.”

8) Isaiah 1:5-6: “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the food even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores; they have not been clos-ed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.”

10) Jeremiah 16:12: “Behold ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto Me.

11) Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

12) (Again) Matthew 7:17: “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit: but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”

13) Matthew 23: 25, 27-28: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess…. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within

full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

14) Romans 7:20, 23: “Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me….I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

15) Romans 8:7: “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither in-deed can be.”

16) I John 1:8: “If we say that we have no sin, we de-ceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (Notice in verse 10, John addresses the possibility of denying “sins”: “If we say that we have not sinned,…”)

17) I John 2:16: “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (Notice that these 3 areas: “lust of the flesh”, “lust of the eyes”, and the “pride of life” sound more like dispositions, princi-ples, than actual acts of behavior, although certainly they express themselves in actual behavior. i.e. man’s problem, when it comes to “worldliness” is actually an inner problem which finds ways of expression and im-plementation in his practical living.)

We have noted several verses from the Bible, to be sure, but let the repeated emphasis of Old and New Testa-ment Scripture assure us that man, outside of Christ, has an inner problem! Man has an inner depravity, an inner moral/spiritual lack! Man is not simply the pro-duct of his environment, culture, financial state, or even his personal choices—man is a direct product of the state of his inner heart, his inner mind.

Furthermore, one would have to be utterly blind to Scripture to deny the reality of an inner presence of something which is unclean, and morally incom-patible with God and holiness. Surely God was so correct when He inspired John to write: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (!)”

I wish, not only to look at verses of Scripture them-selves, in bearing out evidence of man’s inner depra-vity, but I want to note simply the progression of history (Biblical and secular) as evidence of a pro-gression of evil within man.

Surely no one would disagree with the fact that God created man and woman as holy beings, totally innocent of any wrongdoing, and totally void of any inner sinful depravity. God is not the Author of sin, nor would He have created a world or human race cursed with the pollution of sin. Obviously, neither man, nor his world, remained in this condition.

Through blatant disobedience in the Garden of Eden, Adam plunged his race and God’s universe into a corruption of wickedness and death which still plague them to this day.

It would have been bad enough for Adam and Eve to have come under the depravity and curse of sin and to be banished forever from Eden’s paradise. But if the plague would have stopped with them, at least there could have been a recovery back to man’s “pre-fall” holiness before God.

However, the Bible shows that this, tragically, was not the case. Even the youngest of Sunday School kids know the story of Cain (the firstborn son of Adam and Eve), and his rage and murder of his brother Abel. How could such a thing like this hap-pen? The very first child born into this world be-comes this world’s first cold-blooded murderer! Now would anyone dare to think that Adam and Eve willed this to happen? Did Adam and Eve teach and train Cain to go insane with jealousy and then to murder his own flesh and blood brother? Was this in the plans of these first parents for their first son? The answer to these ridiculous questions is obvious!

Nothing in father Adam and mother Eve’s wildest dreams would have wanted or planned on this crime The only logical explanation is that, for the first time in this world’s history, a real, alarming moral pro-blem is showing itself beyond Adam and Eve. Some-thing, other than the “pre-fall” holiness of God in man, is influencing man’s behavior beyond the boundaries of the very first human beings who had fallen some time before. That problem was a pro-blem of depravity, a sinful principle which led Cain, first to jealous anger, and finally to murder.

Furthermore, this incident alone indicates the poten-tial for this depravity to “show up” because of some-thing which had happened earlier, i.e. the disobe-dience of father Adam. That is, Cain had inherited a depravity in his heart/nature which so tragically affected his behavior, even to the point of the mur-der of his brother.

Again, if this were only one sinful act in a single moment of time, it would have been wicked enough, but at least the human race could learn from this deed and improve over time. Of course, this was not the case.

Some 1600 years after Adam and Eve’s fall in Eden the commentary on the human race is no better; if anything it’s worse. The description of mankind then alive is aptly given by what is written in Gene-sis 6:5-7: “And God 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.

And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them.”

Again, one of the most familiar stories in the entire Bible is that of the Great Flood. The humanistic questions that come to mind are “Why can’t man learn from his mistakes?” “Why can’t man better himself?” What new program (probably “govern-ment funded”) can we come up with to see that this doesn’t happen again?” And on and on go the surface attempts to explain man’s constant prone-ness to degeneracy in Biblical history.

Again, the explanation is quite simple, yet very emphatic: There is progressing, in the first centuries of man’s history, through the coming generations of men and women a wickedness, a depraved tendency, and downward direction, which became so critical that man’s Creator responded in the wrath of a world wide, devastating Flood.

Once again, it doesn’t take long for the depravity of sin to show again in man’s behavior. You’d think that after the Flood destroyed every living rebel on earth, that man could have a new start without the disease that propelled man toward the Flood in the first place. But again this is only wishful thinking.

After only some 100 years, man is up to his old tricks. He gets it into his head that he would like to build a tower as a monument and security for his own greatness and preservation. Listen to his senti-ments in Genesis 11:4: “…let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

Already, self-centered arrogance is rearing its ugly head, along with no indiation of trust in God for preservation. Probably involved in their sin was also the determination to remain in one location instead of “replenishing the earth” which had been God’s plan in the very beginning.

At any rate, God once more steps in a very crisis manner by confusing the tongues of the people so that they could no longer communicate with each other, and thus work together on this forbidden pro-ject. It’s apparent in this story that man has not changed since the Fall. There is still present an arro-gant, independent slant in his heart which seeks to ignore his Creator God and chart his own course.

There is still a disposition which looks out for “number one”, even at the expense of pleasing God. Such is the continuing testimony of the progressive depravity of sin in the earliest years of man’s exis-tence.

One could go on throughout the rest of Old and New Testament history and the story is the same. Man, except for the rescue of redemption and fellowship with God, heads in the wrong direction and leaves a testimony of idolatry, war, and moral decadence, even to the point of an uncivilized absence of any sense of decency. One need only to read Romans chapter 1 to get a sense of the heathen climate in the world as Old Testament history opens into the New.

Furthermore, there is much evidence of the inherent depravity of man in secular history outside the bounds of recorded Scripture. Read of the moral climates of the ancient civilizations and their rulers. Be appalled at the selfish hungers for power which stopped at nothing, even murder of kin, to preserve that power.

Read of the licentious philosophies which looked upon marital faith-fulness as almost a joke, and pra-cticed some of the same moral sins prevalent in our world today. Yet, we can come closer to home than the ancient empires and civilizations of a long time ago. Our more recent history has known its Hitlers and Husseins, its wars, its moral anarchies, all in the name of selfish rebellion against God’s Law, and selfish exaltation of man.

Man, even today in the 21st century seems hopelessly bent on destroying himself and throwing away every aim and objective ever bestowed toward man by a holy Creator. Something is inherently wrong with man. When an expectant mother can express a legal choice as to whether to give birth, or kill the unborn child, something is dreadfully wrong. When a mot-her, whose story appeared in the Gadsden paper a few weeks ago, can take her infant baby and murder it by placing it in a microwave oven, something is dreadfully wrong. When homosexuality loses its shame and becomes a loud political voice in our nation, something is terribly wrong.

By and large, children are not taught to grow up to be liars, murderers, or adulterers. There may be some exceptions to this statement, but for the most part, parents want their kids to grow into respecta-ble adults of moral integrity. Saddam Hussein’s mother never planned that his life end on a gallows. How do we make sense of this never-ending carna-ge? We make sense by realizing that there is a pro-blem, and that problem is a tendency within the heart/nature of man to such downward direction.

And this direction, to a more or less obvious degree, is inevitable outside the cleansing of his heart/ na-ture as provided by the Atonement of Christ.

As long as the human race continues in this world as we know it now, the progression of inherent evil in man will continue, and no amount of money, educa-tion, social reforms, or political elections will stop it. Evidence abounds, both in Scripture and outside of it, that depravity continues to be passed on through-out all generations, all cultures, all epochs of time. Hear the words of Paul in

Romans 5:12-14, 19: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s trans-gression, who is the figure of him that was to come…

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.”

I trust that there is no doubt in our minds as to the validity of conviction to the reality of inherited de-pravity, i.e. the “unholiness”, of all men outside of the Redemption of Christ.

I would like, finally seek to examine or analyze this depravity, using Scripture for guidance, as well as practical life. How does this inherited depravity be-have? What exactly characterizes this depravity? I believe that the more fully we realize these chara-cteris-tics, the more convicted we will be as to the need of a remedy, and the more thankful we will be that such a remedy exists.

The first thing that could be said about this sinful depravity is that its root disposition is one of “self rule” against “God rule”. I remember hearing Dr. Dennis Kinlaw several years ago at a “School of the Prophets” at God’s Bible School, and he explained “sin” in a way in which I had never heard nor consi-dered before. He spoke of the disposition of sin as an “inward curvature toward self”. How true this is! When you consider sin in this light, it portrays itself as the very opposite of holiness, or “Godlikeness”.

Jesus said that the entire Law hinges upon supreme love to God, and Godlike love toward our neighbors. This love is an outward flow away from self, while the principle of sin is just the opposite—it caters inward toward self. I believe that every practical expression of sin, i.e. “sinning”, can be traced back to this root core: “selfrule” against “God-rule”. I be-lieve that everything which can be said further in describing or analyzing sin (as it applies to man) has its root essence in this matter or “self-rule” against “God-rule”.

This matter of self-rule/self-exaltation was that which was expressed in the very beginning in the father of sin, Satan, as revealed in these words from the book of Isaiah 14:12-14: “How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weak-en the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

There is little wonder that Jesus so emphasized the matter of “self” as totally incompatible with Chris-tian discipleship, even to the point of expressing that the way to “save ourselves” was to “lose ourselves”! Inner depravity and “self-centered rule” are insepa-rable, and everything else said about sin merely finds its center in this fact.

This inherited depravity, furthermore, is a principle, a disposition, a presence, as revealed in some Scrip-tures which I have earlier refe-renced. Jesus was very picturesque in using a “tree” to illustrate the production of fruit (or practical behavior) in Mat-thew 7:17, and declares that good fruit comes from a good tree, while evil fruit comes from a corrupt tree. Again notice the language in Romans 7 describ-ing this problem: “sin that dwelleth in me” (v. 20); “the law of in which is in my members” (v. 23). Paul refers to this inner problem as a “carnal mind” in Romans 8:7.

This depravity is not an “act”; it is not a “behavior”; it is not a “habit”. (These are ways in which this in-ner sin may express itself.) This problem is an inner problem of pollution, motivation, desire, a twisted bend of the will, etc. It does not need “forgiveness”, for it is not something “committed”. It is something which requires cleansing, elimination, transforma-tion.

Another characteristic of this inner depravity is that it is at complete odds with God. Paul declares that the “carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). The word for “enmity” used here is quite a strong one which means “hostility”. It is fur-ther derived from a word which means “hateful”.

Surely the message is clear that God shares no affi-nity with the disposition of sin. Such should not be a surprise as we remember what I said earlier about depravity’s root core of “self-rule” against “God-rule”. No where in Scripture, Old or New Testa-ments, does God in any way paint a pretty picture of a heart which is wicked.

Jesus used terms like “extortion and excess”, “dead men’s bones”, “all uncleanness”, “hypocrisy and iniquity” in describing the state of the hearts of many of the scribes and Pharisees in His day (Mat-thew 23:25, 27-28). Further “ugliness” of this inner depravity is seen in the fruit which it is most capable of producing.

Jeremiah wrote that such a heart is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus listed “evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride,” and “foolish-ness” as coming “from within”, from wic-ked hearts of men

(Mark 7:21-23). These are hardly behaviors that one would think God to be in league with or pleased with! Instead, these are things which are most anta-gonistic to God and His holy Law. It should be noted that it is depravity which produces these behaviors, not environment, financial conditions, or lack of social privileges.

It should also be noted that inner depravity is capa-ble of producing all manner of the most atrocious behavior imaginable. O, that we could help people to see that man’s ultimate problem is a “heart pro-blem”, a “spiritual problem” which can only be re-medied by addressing this heart with a spiritual solution! Such is our mission as the Church.

A further characteristic of this “inherited depra-vity” is that it can be very persuasive and binding in nature. Romans 7:14-24 gives, what I believe, to be some of the saddest commentary on this binding power of inbred sin in all of Scripture: “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But Is see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wret-ched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

The best thing that can be said about this type of man is that he wants to do good, but he can’t! There is something within him which drives him in another direction. His willpower is held captive, his actions betray his captivity, and he cries out in desperation and doubt as to whether he can be delivered! Like-wise, in Romans 6 Paul uses language which speaks of “serving sin”, “freed from sin”, “sin reigning in your mortal body”, “sin not having dominion over you”, “servants of sin”—language which gives the impression of sin “ruling”, “exerting power”, “exerting ownership”, etc.

Again, remember Jesus’ object lesson of the tree and fruit. Just as the life in the particular type of tree pushes its influence to the point of producing a par-ticular type of fruit, so inner depravity exerts its death-influence to the point of producing sinful, wicked behavior and habits which shame the life, with a persuasion and bondage which the sinner cannot escape. One songwriter expressed it like this: “Sin will take you farther, than you want to go.”

As a final note of description of this inward depra-vity, let me remind us that its plague is universal. Absolutely no one escapes its curse. The oldest, most refined adult, outside of Christ, possesses this inner pollution within his/her nature. The youngest, most innocent infant alive today has within his/her nature this bent toward sin, waiting only for enough matu-rity in the individual for him/her to make a decision of rebellion against God’s Law.

We have already noted the consistent presence of this depravity within man throughout all of history, and today’s generations are no exception. Paul re-cognized this universal law of sin in Romans 3:9-12 when he wrote: “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seek-eth after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofit-able; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

Again, I John 1:8 tells us that we “deceive ourselves” if we claim to have escaped this matter of sin. In the Old Testament the prophet Isaiah likewise establis-hes the universal matter of sin’s plague when he writes: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6); and (Isaiah 64:6) “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;…”

Psalm 51:5 is a classic verse which we quote many times in bearing out the inherited nature of this in-ner depravity. It reads: “Behold, I was shapen in ini-quity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” The Amplified Bible renders this verse this way: “Be-hold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity: my mother was sinful who conceived me [and I to am sinful].”

Adam Clarke adds this commentary to the concept of “shapen in iniquity”: “As my parts were develop-ed in the womb, the sinful principle diffused itself through the whole, so that body and mind grew up in a state of corruption and moral imperfection” (Clarke on Psalm 51:5). There is nothing so inno-cent as a newborn infant, and yet David recognized that the presence of iniquity was in him even before he was physically born! Surely the inherited nature of depravity is a fact with which all must reckon if we are to align ourselves with truth, and “not de-ceive ourselves” (I John 1:8). Man is not inherently good nor naturally holy; man is inherently depraved and sinful.

Thus, is a partially, at least, analyzation of this ter-rible plague of inherited depravity as it makes its way throughout all generations of man.

Let us be fully convicted as to the reality of inherited depravity. Let us be fully convicted as to the des-tructive nature of this inherited depravity. If we are thus convicted, it then becomes no wonder as to the drastic means needed to address it, i.e. no less than heart clean-sing through the Atonement of Christ’s own Blood!

In closing, let me say that I hope that we will leave this ministerial with more than a strong defense for a doctrinal position or doctrinal heritage. I hope that we will be excited afresh and anew with the challenge of presenting the beauty, the necessity, and the glorious remedy of this matter of “holiness” to every depraved heart that comes to our doorstep.

I honestly wonder, sometimes, how many people in our culture are really aware of a Redemption and Atonement which so adequately addresses the pro-blem, not only of guilt and condemnation for com-mitted sins, but of inner, self-centered depravity.

How many realize that they really can be enabled to love God supremely and their fellow-man unselfish-ly? How many know that Christ’s Blood can cleanse their natures so that those gifts of Creation such as love, self-respect, justice, anger, etc. can be cleansed and “untwisted” so as to function in ways that ref-lect this love to God and their fellowmen? Such is the beauty of “holiness”. Such is our message to a lost, depraved world!