27. All Men Are Born Sinners
All Men Are Born Sinners 5. Sin is a nature, and demands displacement
Since every one ever born into the world was born dead, all men have therefore been born ruined, and through no fault of their own. Adam wrought the ruin on the whole race, for “By one man’s (Adam’s) disobedience, the many were constituted sinners” (Romans 5:19); that is, born sinners by constitution. The notion that most people have is that no one becomes a sinner until he begins to sin. The truth is the opposite; we begin to sin because we are sinners by nature. Man does wrong because he is wrong, and he is wrong because he was born that way. We do not become sinners because we begin to sin, but we begin to sin because we are born sinners. Only if a way can be found by which the nature which is sin can be displaced by a nature that cannot sin, can man ever hope to cease being a sinner.
6. Sin is a character, and demands obliteration
Sin is not simply a catalog of evil deeds. Deeds must have a doer, and all deeds are the fruits, the products, of the nature, and the active output of the character of the doer. Out of the heart, the nature, are the issues of life. So sin is a nature expressing itself through a corresponding character, with sins as the deeds of that nature, and the inescapable outflow of that character. This is why “there is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one” (Romans 3:12, marg.). The whole moral personality of every member of the race is by nature a total moral wreck, because every moral capacity of the whole being is wholly empty of God, being completely filled with self. Even what are called the noble impulses of generous and high-born though unsaved souls, are yielded to only because they were born that way, never for the glory of God, for “God is not in all their thoughts” (Psalms 10:4). Such impulses are certainly not yielded to because they are eager to obey His will. The temple of God is a total moral ruin. The ruins may even seem beautiful to some, but the temple is still a ruin, fit only to be set aside for another temple of such spotless and incorruptible character that God can dwell in it forever. And such a temple can never be produced by corrupt and sinful man. A character from which can come only evil can never be trained to do good. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil” (Jeremiah 13:23). A character that cannot be changed, even by God Himself, must therefore be wiped out.
7. Sin is slavery, and demands an emancipator That every man is a helpless slave to the nature Adam gave him, is the common experience of humanity. Some there always have been who, in the self-conceit of their independence of God, have imagined they could find or fight their way out of this bondage. But when they have gone to their human limit, it has always been only to cry out in hopeless despair, Who shall deliver me from this death that I cannot escape? (Romans 7:24). Who has not said: “When I would do good, evil is present with me”? Every man in sin is conscious daily that he knows better than he does. And he realizes, too, that no matter how doggedly he may resolve to do the good he knows, he does not do it. He is a slave in chains, and no man has ever found a way to escape by his own effort. The only hope is through a liberator. The sum of all this is the proof of what God says in His Word: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). All humanity, by sin, is dead, and the dead are helpless. One can kick, maul and drag a dead dog around at pleasure, for there can be no resistance. Just so no sinner can escape putting his own will on the throne of his life and obeying it, and fighting God’s will because of love for his own. Sin, self and Satan can drag such an one about at pleasure, for the dead cannot resist the workings of the corruption of death. If ever there is to be an escape, an emancipator must arise.
Let the subject now be pursued further, and the nature of sin indicated by various single words in Scripture.
Hamartia is missing a mark that is aimed at. Parabasis is stepping outside the straight pathway laid out for the walk of life, or a going across the lines set. Paranomia is violating a law that has been prescribed. Anomia is lawlessness, or the spirit that is ready to break any law as soon as it is given, simply because it imposes restraint. Parakoeis disobedience to a command that has been heard and understood. Paraptoma is a falling when one should have stood upright. Agnoema means a sin of ignorance of that which should have been known. Hettima is the sin of omitting that which should have been done. Asebeiais the spirit of irreverence toward God. And plemmeleiais discord in the harmonies of the universe. In addition to these mournful but revealing words, there are others that describe the effects of sin on the sinner himself, making him like unto the sin that possesses him. These words include the deceitful effect of sin on the character of the sinner, and go on to the destruction sin works on him, until the final results are eternal banishment from God. There can be but a brief comment on each.