BIBLE VIEW OF THE CARNAL MIND

     I. THE OLD TESTAMENT. The orthodox definition of original sin is as follows:  "Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam, as the Pelagians do vainly talk, but it is the  corruption of the nature of every man that is naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam,  whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil  and that continually." See any Methodist Discipline.

     As near as we can tell, this is how it came about. When Adam sinned there came into, or  was produced in his being, in the place of the purity which once occupied his heart -- but which  was now driven out or destroyed, or debased -- a sinful nature, a bent to evil, which was opposed  to God, rebellious against His will, envious, jealous, impatient; which defied His sovereignty, and  refused to obey. This wicked nature was the spawn of heaven's rebellion, reproduced through  some mysterious process in man's spiritual vitality as surely as the virus of small-pox is injected  into our veins by vaccination.

     Let us turn to the Bible and there trace this sinful principle through the ages, and find out  God's opinion concerning it. We read, "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a  son in his own likeness, after his image" (Gen. 5:3). The first man was made in the image of God  (Gen. 1:27), which was "righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24); but by transgression this  image was effaced (Rom. 5:12-19). Since Adam no longer possessed the image of God, he was  unable to transmit it to his children, for it is a fixed law that nothing can be transmitted to the child  which is not, potentially, in the parent. On the contrary, like produces like, and since he now  possessed the image of his conqueror, the devil (see Rom. 6:16), he must of necessity transmit this  sinful image. If fig trees bear fruit at all they must of necessity bear figs, and thistles must produce  thistles.

     Again, we read, "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" (Gen. 6:5). The King  James translators have inserted in the margin the following note: "The Hebrew word signifieth not  only the imagination but also the purposes and desires." This fact shows that in the original the  passage has reference to something deeper down or farther back than voluntary transgressions, and  that it deals with the source of sinful supply -- sinful purpose and desire, or a corrupt fountain.

     Again the Word says, "And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all  flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth" (Gen. 6:12). Here depravity is said to be connected  with all flesh, showing that, before the flood at least, depravity was universal. We are told that  after the flood 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" (Gen. 8:21). Thus God makes the  "evil" of man's heart and its universality -- a reason for His leniency.

     He could scarcely refer to actual transgressions, for "because of these things cometh the  wrath of God upon the children of disobedience" (Eph. 5:6), but He does refer to the fact that the  hearts of all men are naturally corrupt, and that since they have this corruption by inheritance they  are not responsible for its presence, and notwithstanding that they are corrupt, yet because they are  not responsible for the presence of this corruption and because of His great compassion, He  placed the bow of promise in their heavens and extends to them His grace.

     In the following passages, Job clearly refers to original sin: "If I wash myself with snow  water, and make my hands never so clean: yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own  clothes shall abhor me." "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." "Behold I am  vile: what shall I answer thee [God]? I will lay mine hand upon my month." "I have heard of thee  by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in  dust and ashes" (Job 9:30,31; 14:4; 40:4; 42:5,6).

     Although Job's three friends were at fault in the stand they took against him, yet they had a  conception of the depravity of the human heart which was, in the main, correct. Eliphaz said,  "Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, he  put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly: how much less in them that dwell  in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? Doth not  their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom." Again the same man  says, "What is man that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be  righteous? Behold he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How  much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?" (Job 4:17-21;  15:14-16). Bildad uses much the same language in Job 25:4-6.

     The psalmist David declares, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother  conceive me" (Psa. 51:5). After this confession he offers that wonderful prayer for cleansing,  "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Some  would presume to lay claim to the merits of redemption as though those merits were theirs by  inherent right; but this is a mistake, for these merits are given only because of the grace of God  freely manifested in that redemption. According to David the infant is born an offspring, in some  sense, or perhaps as a result of sin, and who will venture to dispute his word? Since this is the  case, what lawful claim can the infant lay to the mercy or favor of God? The only hope for his  redemption lies in the atonement of Jesus Christ, and without this atonement he would inevitably  perish, along with his sinful parents. Since an atonement has been made and since this atonement  reaches to the whole human family, if a child, "born in sin," should die before it reaches the years  of accountability, its case is covered, it is cleansed from all inherited evil and is taken, purified, to  heaven. There are no infants in hell, but they would be there were it not for the blood of Jesus  Christ.

     Again David says, "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as  they be born, speaking lies" (Psa. 58:3). Note the fact that in the first clause the psalmist makes the  condition of the wicked passive -- "they are estranged" -- referring to the sinful nature received  from their parents; while in the next clause he follows them into the world where passive evil  produces active evil and they "go astray."

     Jeremiah says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can  know it?" (Jer. 17:9). This passage refers, not to deceitful or wicked works, but to the deceitful,  wicked condition of the heart. This is certainly a deplorable state of affairs, but this is the human  heart without the cleansing of the blood of Calvary.