7. Man as He Is

"God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." Adam rebelled. The natural man became unnatural. The animal side triumphed over the human elements of his nature. Sin was born on earth. The crown fell from his head. The glory of the Lord left him. He felt his guilt and trembled; he saw his nakedness and blushed. The bright candle of the Lord became a dimly smoking taper. He was brought to judgment. He was tried, condemned to death, stripped of his inherited rights, but spared immediate execution. A prisoner of death, but allowed to roam freely until the King authorized his capture and destruction.

The stream of humanity, thus contaminated at its source, can never in this world rise by itself to its original purity and excellence. We all inherit a frail constitution—physically, intellectually, but especially morally weak and deficient. We have all inherited our father's constitution and fate: for Adam, we are told, after he fell "begat a son in his own image," and that son was just as bad as any other son ever born into the world: for he murdered his own dear brother because he was a better man than himself. "Thus, by one man sin entered into the world, and death by that one sin, and so death, the wages of sin, has fallen upon all the offspring of Adam," because in him they have all sinned, or been made mortal—and consequently are born under condemnation to that death which fell upon our common ancestor because of his transgression.

In Adam, all have sinned; therefore "in Adam all die." Your nature, dear reader, not your person, was in Adam when he reached out his hand to break the command of Jehovah. You did not personally sin in that act; but your nature then, in the person of your father, sinned against the Author of your existence. In the just judgment, therefore, of your heavenly Father, your nature sinned in Adam, and with him it is right that all human beings should be born mortal, and that death should rule over the whole race as it has done in countless cases even "over those who have not sinned in the likeness of Adam's transgression;" i.e., by violating a positive law. Now it must be admitted that what God can righteously and mercifully inflict upon part of humanity, He may justly and mercifully inflict upon all; and therefore those who live twenty or eighty years on this earth, for the sin of their nature in Adam, might have been taken in the first year just as reasonably as those who have died in infancy. Death is expressly called by an Apostle, "the wages of sin." Now this punishment of sin is currently inflicted upon at least one fourth of the human race who have never broken any law or sinned personally by any act of their lives. According to the most accurate mortality statistics, from one third to one fourth of all human offspring die in infancy, under two years old, without any awareness of good or evil. They are thus, innocent as far as actual and personal transgression goes, counted as sinners by the one who inflicts upon them the specific and appropriate wages of sin. This alarming and most remarkable fact in human history proves that Adam was not only the common father but the actual representative of all his children.

There is, therefore, a sin of our nature as well as personal transgression. Some mistakenly call the sin of our nature our "original sin," as if the sin of Adam was the personal offense of his children. True, indeed, it is—our nature was corrupted by Adam's fall before it was passed on to us; and hence that inherited weakness to do good, and that tendency to do evil, so universally seen in all human beings. Let no one speak against the transmission of a moral disease until he satisfactorily explains the fact—that the distinctive vices of parents appear in their children as much as the color of their skin, their hair, or the shape of their faces. A disease in a man's moral constitution is as clearly transmissible as any physical defect, if there is any truth in history, biography, or human observation.

Still, man, with all his inherited weakness, is not under an irresistible necessity to sin. Greatly prone to evil, easily led into wrongdoing, he may or may not give in to passion and temptation. Hence the differences we often see in the corruption and depravity of man. All inherit a fallen, therefore a sinful nature; though not all are equally depraved. Thus we find the degrees of sinfulness and depravity vary greatly among individuals. And although without knowledge of God and His revealed will, without the intervention of a mediator, and without faith in him, "it is impossible to please God;" still, there are those who, while lacking knowledge and belief, are more noble and virtuous than others. Luke acknowledges this when he says, "The Jews in Berea were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Therefore, many of them believed." Acts 17:11. But until man, in his present unnatural state, believes the gospel message of his sins and submits to Jesus Christ as the only Mediator and Savior of sinners, it is impossible for him to do anything absolutely pleasing or acceptable to God.

Condemned to natural death, and greatly fallen and depraved in our entire moral constitution though we certainly are, because of Adam's sin; still, because of the intervention of the second Adam, none are punished with eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord except those who actually and voluntarily sin against a dispensation of mercy under which they live: for this is "the condemnation of the world, that light has come into the world, and men choose darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil."