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| The Depravity of Mankind before the Flood after Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem Mauritshuis |
We are morally polluted
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| Nguyen Thanh, Art exhibition shines pollution effects on human |
Another aspect of original sin is pollution. Pollution, in distinction from guilt, is a moral concept; it has to do with our moral condition rather than with our status before the law. We can define original pollution (the pollution involved in original sin) as the corruption of our nature that is the result of sin and produces sin. As a necessary implication of our involvement in Adam's guilt, all human beings are born in a state of corruption. We should distinguish between two aspects of original pollution: pervasive depravity and spiritual inability.
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| The Little Saint From Copsa Mica Art Print by Ion vincent D'Anu |
Pervasive Depravity
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| Noah's Ark Cycle: 3. The Flood by Kaspar Memberger (1555–1618) |
What I prefer to call pervasive depravity has been traditionally known in Reformed theology as "total depravity" -- a term that has often been misunderstood. Negatively, the concept does not mean: (1) that every human being is as thoroughly depraved as he or she can possibly become; (2) that unregenerate people do not have a conscience by means of which they can distinguish between good and evil; (3) that unregenerate people will invariably indulge in every conceivable form of sin; or (4) that unregenerate people are unable to perform certain actions that are good and helpful in the sight of others. Since to many people "total depravity" suggests these misunderstandings, I prefer "pervasive depravity."
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| William Blake's color printing of God Judging Adam original composed in 1795. In the Biblical story, God's judgement results from the fall of man. |
Pervasive depravity affects every aspect of human nature
Pervasive depravity, then, means that (1) the corruption of original sin extends to every aspect of human nature: to one's reason and will as well as to one's appetites and impulses; and (2) there is not present in man by nature love to God as the motivating principle of his life.
You must be born again
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| Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1484–86). |
What is the scriptural proof for the doctrine of pervasive depravity? Actually, this doctrine underlies all of the New Testament teaching. Jesus' insistence unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3) implies that human beings are unable, in their natural, unregenerate state, even to see the kingdom of God, let alone enter it. The entire New Testament message is addressed to sinners who do not love God by nature, who do not love one another, and who need to be radically changed by the Holy Spirit before they will be able to do what is pleasing in God's sight.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it
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| Sacred Heart, painted in c. 1770 by José de Páez |
I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh
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| Flesh and the Devil (1926) is a romantic drama silent film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and stars Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lars Hanson, and Barbara Kent, directed by Clarence Brown, and based on the novel The Undying Past by Hermann Sudermann. |
A number of passages in the Pauline epistles teach the doctrine of pervasive depravity. One is Romans 7:18, "For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it" (RSV). We should note here that although Paul does not always use the word flesh in a bad sense, it is characteristic of his writing that he often uses it to denote the willing instrument of sin. In this passage and the one next quoted, therefore, flesh does not refer to man's physical body, but rather designates his total nature when it is under the domination or enslavement of sin. This concept of flesh, in other words, is precisely the biblical way of describing what I have called pervasive depravity.
The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God
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| Joseph and Potiphar's Wife, by Guido Reni 1630 |
The other passage that speaks of the flesh is Romans 8:7a, "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God" (RSV). Note that this text confirms the second point made under the definition of pervasive depravity, namely, that man by nature does not love God but is hostile toward him.
Do not live thinking in a futile manner
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| Danaides by John William Waterhouse |
Another vivid description of pervasive depravity is found in Ephesians 4:17-19:
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as the indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
Don't deny God by your actions
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| The Denial of Saint Peter by Caravaggio (1610) |
To the same effect are Paul's words in Titus 1:15-16:
To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing anything good.
We all once lived in the passions of our flesh
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| Saint Jerome in the Wilderness by Pinturicchio. The saint spent four years in the Syrian desert as a hermit, mortifying his flesh and elevating his spirit through study. |
And you [the believers in Ephesus, or possibly, throughout Asia Minor] he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Eph 2:1-3, RSV).
We are objects of God's wrath
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| The Great Day of His Wrath, by John Martin (1789–1854). |
"Children of wrath," as was observed earlier, means the objects of God's wrath. In other words, Paul is saying, even believers are by nature, apart from God's renewing grace, so evil and depraved that they are rightly the objects of the wrath of God.
The human being is by nature unregenerate man
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| The Christian painting Saint Vincent Ferrer preaching to the Infidels by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse (1820) hanging in St. Peter's Cathedral, Vannes, the place of burial for Saint Vincent Ferrer |
It is important to remember that the passages just quoted describe not the believer who through the working of God's Holy Spirit is now in Christ but the human being as he is by nature, unregenerate man. The doctrine of pervasive depravity, in other words, is not a description of the regenerate person or of the Christian believer, but of the natural man.
Every person is born in a state of spiritual inability
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| "Mater Divinae Providentiae," by Scipione Pulzone (note: Jesus Christ, who is depicted in this painting, is excluded from being born in a state of spiritual inability) |
The second aspect of original pollution is spiritual inability, traditionally called "total inability." That every person is born in a state of spiritual inability is another result of Adam's sin. This inability does not mean that the unregenerate person by nature is unable to do good in any sense of the word. Because of God's common grace, as we shall see later, the development of sin in history and society is restrained. The unregenerate person can still do certain kinds of good and can exercise certain kinds of virtue. Yet even such good deeds are neither prompted by love to God, nor done in voluntary obedience to the will of God.
The human will is spiritually impotent
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| Healing of the Blind Man (1871) by Carl Bloch |
When we speak about man's spiritual inability, we mean two things: (1) the unregenerate person cannot do, say or think that which totally meets with God's approval, and therefore totally fulfills God's law; and (2) the unregenerate person is unable apart from the special working of the Holy Spirit to change the basic direction of his or her life from sinful self-love to love for God. "Spiritual inability" is really only another way of describing the doctrine of "pervasive depravity," this time with an emphasis on the spiritual impotence of the will. Needles to say, these two concepts overlap in meaning.
Man is unable by nature to turn to God in repentance and faith
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| Close up of a 17th-century depiction of one of the 28 articles of the Augsburg Confession by Wenceslas Hollar, with repentance depicted as being a combination of contrition and faith |
What is the scriptural proof for the doctrine of spiritual inability? This doctrine, too, underlies all of New Testament teaching. The New Testament's insistence on man's need for rebirth, spiritual renewal, and sanctification underscores man's inability by nature to turn to God in repentance and faith and to live a life that totally pleases God. But let us again look at some specific passages.
Humans are unable to turn to Christ in their own strength
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| Nicodemus (left) talking to Jesus, by Henry Ossawa Tanner |
We turn first to the Gospels, specifically the Gospel of John. Here Jesus said to Nicodemus, "I tell you the truth, unless a man is born againt, he cannot see the kingdom of God ... Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (3:3, 5). Nicodemus needed to be told that a person can neither see nor enter the kingdom of God that Jesus founded unless a radical change should have taken place in him, a change here called a new birth. In John 6:44 Jesus said to some Jews who were arguing with him, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him," thus expressing in vivid terms the inability of human beings to turn to Christ in their own strength. In the allegory of the vine and the branches Jesus further described the inability of man to bear spiritual fruit apart from him:
Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (15:4-5)
Even if man wishes to do what is good and right,
he is unable to do it
he is unable to do it
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| 02/14 of Simeon Solomon's “Art Pictures from the Old Testament” : Abraham's sacrifice |
We find more evidence for the doctrine of spiritual inability in Paul's writings. In Romans 7:18-19 Paul highlights in graphic terms the impotence of men and women by nature, telling us that even if such persons wish to do what is good and right, they are still not able to do it:
For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. (RSV)
Romans 8:7-8 sets forth man's spiritual inability in bold relief: "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh [that is, under the enslavement of the flesh] cannot please God" (RSV).
We are by nature spiritually dead
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| The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, before and after restoration. |
Other Pauline passages stress the same thought. Just as Jesus said that apart from spiritual rebirth man cannot even see the kingdom of God, Paul says that the natural man can neither understand nor accept what God's Spirit teaches: "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor 2:14). In a passage in which he speaks about the ministry of the apostles and other Christian workers, Paul further describes the inability of man apart from God's strength to fulfill his calling as a Christian worker: "We dare to say such things because of the confidence we have in God through Christ. Not that we are in any way confident of doing anything by our own resources --- our ability comes from God" (2 Cor. 3:4-5, Phillips). No more striking way of expressing our spiritual impotence could be found than to say that we are by nature spiritually dead; this is precisely what Paul says about the former state of believers in Ephesians 2:4-5: "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions."
Like a deadly poison, sin has penetrated and infected the very center of man's being
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| Depiction of the sin of Adam and Eve by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Paul Rubens. |
As we have seen, Scripture has a lot to say about original sin. Yet, even as believers, we often fail to emphasize this teaching. We need to recognize the necessity of a thorough understanding of the doctrine of original sin. As Philip Hughes says,
Original sin, however mysterious its nature may be, tells us that the reality of sin is something far deeper than the mere outward commission of sinful deeds ... It tells us that there is an inner root of sinfulness which corrupts man's true nature and from which his sinful deeds spring. Like a deadly poison, sin has penetrated to and infected the very center of man's being; hence his need for the total experience of rebirth by which, through the grace of God in Christ Jesus, the restoration of his true manhood is effected.
Source: Hoekema, Anthony. Created In God’s Image. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986, pages 149-154.
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