| From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase |
Part two of a series. Read part one.
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He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14)
In the first article of this series we began to explore the riches of this concise statement of the Gospel. We briefly mentioned three word pictures of redemption that are to be found in Scripture. Each precisely describes an aspect of the condition of every human being who is not a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ. Every person who is born into this world is born in sin. Redemption is release and liberation from the bondage of sin.
But before we can really fully appreciate these Biblical word pictures about redemption, we need to understand the seriousness of our sin problem. The Bible tells us that our sin problem involves a bondage like no other - in fact, four kinds of bondage - and we must be released from all four in order to be saved.
Original Sin
First of all, our sin is original. That means that it has its roots in the first sin of the first parents of all of mankind. Genesis chapter 3 tells us that God created Adam and Eve in perfection and gave them a commandment to obey, but of their own free will they chose to disobey Him. And Romans chapter five, verses 12 to 21, and First Corinthians chapter fifteen, verses 22 through 45, tell us that because all mankind are Adams descendants, when Adam fell into sin all mankind fell with him, and we bear Adam's guilt. So our sin, first of all, is original sin. It comes down to us from Adam. So we must be redeemed from the bondage of original sin.
Habitual Sin
Secondly, the Bible tells us that our sin is habitual. Because of our inherited sin nature, we are in a state of depravity. We suffer from the loss of Adam's original righteousness that he had before he fell into sin. And therefore we are sinners by habit and practice. We read of this in Romans chapter three, in Romans chapter six, in Galatians chapter five, in Ephesians chapter four, and many other places.
The result of original sin is that all of us commit acts of sin. First Kings 8:46 tells us that there is no one who does not commit sin. Romans 3:22 and 23 says that "there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." In other words, as Adam's descendants we commit sin in our thoughts, and our words, and our actions, and we neglect the good things that we ought to do, and we do that because we are sinners by nature. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. So, we need to be redeemed from the habitual nature of sin.
Universal Sin
Thirdly, the Bible tells us that sin is universal. We have already touched on that. Since all mankind are Adam's descendants, sin is universal. Scripture tells us in Romans chapter five, verse twelve that Adam's sin and its effects have passed on to all men, and that in the eyes of God we have all sinned in Adam, not to mention the sins we have committed ourselves.
Romans chapter three, beginning at verse ten, amplifies the universality of our sin problem through a series of quotations from the Old Testament:
As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." "Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of asps is under their lips"; "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
This is exactly the position of every human being outside of Christ - guilty before God. The sin problem, the curse of sin, is universal. We must be redeemed from the universal nature of sin.
Systemic Sin
Fourthly, the Bible tells us that our sin is systemic. It is pervasive. It permeates our natures. No part of us is unaffected. Every part of man is affected by original sin. These passages, among many others, describing the systemic nature of sin:
First Corinthians 2:14 and Second Corinthians 4:4 both tell us that man's intellect is blinded by sin, apart from Christ.
Romans 1:22 tells us that all men apart from Christ have become "futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened."
Ephesians 4:19 tells us that because of this blindness, mankind is "past feeling" - callous - concerning the things of God.
First Timothy 4:2 tells us that every unbeliever's conscience is "seared with a hot iron." The image is that of an area of the body having been so damaged that it cannot even feel pain anymore.
The Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit goes into great detail about the nature and the effects of sin in Romans chapter one, beginning at verse eighteen, all the way through chapter three, verse twenty. Paul shows us that man bears the effects of sin in every part of his being. This is the doctrine of mankind's total depravity. We must be redeemed from the systemic nature of sin. We are totally depraved. Our sin problem, which is thorough and complete, must be thoroughly and completely dealt with.
The True Picture of the Human Condition
A further word about the Biblical doctrine of our total depravity is relevant at this point. Roman Catholicism and theological liberalism both deny what the Bible has to say about the consequences of original sin. This denial produces a system of false doctrine which claims that man is not totally depraved, and therefore man is capable of helping to save himself from the wrath of God.
But that view totally contradicts the clear teaching of God's Word. Let me give just three further examples.
The Lord 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. (Genesis 6:5)
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. (Jeremiah 17:9)
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1)
This is the true picture of the human condition. Our sin problem is as desperate as it can possibly be, and we cannot save ourselves. We cannot contribute anything to our salvation. As Paul says in Titus chapter three, verses four and five, our salvation is "through the kindness and the love of God our Savior" and it is "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy [that] He saved us."
And so the word redemption, and the Biblical pictures of redemption, are the absolutely perfect description of what God has done for us. God in Christ has done for us what we could not possibly do for ourselves.
Next: Three Pictures of Redemption
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