From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part five of a series. Read part four.

Once again, the Bible's answer will surprise even many Christians.

Then He also said to the multitudes, "Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the West, immediately you say, 'a shower is coming'; and so it is. And when you see the South wind blow, you say, 'there will be hot weather'; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that you do not discern this time?

Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite. (Luke 12:54-59)

As we continue our study of Jesus' evangelistic parable spoken to the multitude, let us pause to consider a vital point about the proclamation of the Gospel: The Gospel of Jesus Christ is "good news". That is the meaning of the word in the original Greek of the New Testament, euangelion, which is translated "gospel" in our English Bibles. From that Greek word we derive the English words "evangel" and "evangelism".

To Understand the Good News We Must First Understand the Bad News

But what have we seen thus far in our study? Only two kinds of "bad news". First, Jesus declared that even highly intelligent people cannot discern the truth of the Gospel on their own. Second, Jesus told the multitude that, for the unrepentant sinner, the Last Judgment is an adversarial proceeding. Jesus himself is the both the adversary who comes with every unrepentant sinner to the judgment throne and the magistrate who will pronounce the sentence of eternal death.

As we now continue our study, we shall see yet a third aspect of the "bad news" about all of humanity: Jesus made it clear that a "guilty" verdict has already been rendered against each individual who is born into this world, from the moment of conception.

Here we are seeing the pattern that must govern every evangelistic effort: There can be no Gospel "good news" unless and until a lost sinner understands the "bad news" about his present hopeless condition and horrific eternal destiny apart from God's redeeming intervention.

How and why is this so? To answer that question, let me remind you again of Jesus' words to Nicodemus in John 3:18-21 -

He who believes in Him [he who believes in the Son of God] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

Jesus is speaking of the Last Judgment. He is speaking of the verdict that has already been rendered against every person conceived in this world. Apart from God's redeeming work through Christ, every one of us is on our way to face the Magistrate of the Universe with guilt written all over us. Our sins are the evidence. And not only that, but our sin. Not only our sins, but our sin.

Original Sin: A Vital Doctrine We Must Understand

What do I mean by that? Let me ask you a crucial question: How many sins must you commit to be condemned at the judgment bar of God? The answer is, none. How can I say that? Only on the authority of Scripture. We have the answer in Romans chapter 5 beginning at verse 15:

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.

For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man's [Adam's] offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Notice that the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul speaks of "the offense". He speaks of "one man's offense." He says that it is by that one offense by one man, the first sin of Adam, that the human race was plunged into death. It was in Adam that we were all plunged into condemnation. We are born with his sin nature, passed on to us. That in itself is enough to condemn us to eternal death.

This is the Biblical doctrine of original sin. It is not a new doctrine when we come to the epistles of Paul in the New Testament. We find it stated in the Old Testament as well. We find a classic statement of man's condition from conception in Psalm 51, where David writes. "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me."

Some commentators, attempting to deny the Bible doctrine of original sin, try to twist this passage to say that David was stating that he was conceived illegitimately - that the sin of which he speaks was not his state at conception, but his mother's unlawful act. But David was the youngest of his father's eight sons (1 Samuel 17:12-14). His mother is never named in Scripture, but in Psalm 86:16 David speaks of his mother as a godly woman. Furthermore, as we examine the original language we find that in Psalm 51:5 David speaks not of an act of sin as he does in previous verses (the Hebrew word hatati) but of the state of being a sinner in God's eyes (the Hebrew word be-avon).

What Psalm 51:5 actually states is that David, at his conception, was the latest in the long line of those conceived in the state of being a sinner, going all the way back to Adam's first offspring. Yes, David's mother was a sinner by deed, as each of us are, although the passage does not even hint at any implication of sinfulness regarding the manner of David's conception. The passage is underscoring what Paul says in Romans 5, that "by one man's offense" we all became sinners in the eyes of the holy God; our sinful acts while living are the products of the sinful nature we inherited at conception. David inherited his sinful nature from his parents. His parents inherited that nature from their parents - and so on throughout their ancestry all the way back to Adam. Every human being, the virgin-born Christ excluded, is "conceived in sin".

Psalm 58:1-3 states the same truth:

Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones? Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men? No, in heart you work wickedness; you weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

The Basis of Our Condemnation

How many sins must you commit in order to be condemned? The answer is: None. How many sins did it take for God to render a judgment resulting in condemnation for the entire human race? Only one. And that was not even a sin of your own. It was the sin of your forefather Adam. Once again, Romans 5:18: "through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation..."

The offense, singular - Adam's offense - that is what condemns us. The sin nature that we inherited from him - that is what condemns us. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are by nature sinners.

And so all the evidence that is needed to condemn a sinner before the judgment bar of God is this: You are an unrepentant, unregenerated child of Adam. You have the nature of your father Adam. You do the works of your father Adam. You sin after the manner of your father Adam. All that remains is for you to be sentenced based on that evidence. That is the evidence of which Jesus is speaking in the passage in Matthew that we considered in the first segment of this study. What you do, in the eyes of God, is the evidence of spiritual death or spiritual life.

The Good News

We have now seen three kinds of "bad news" in Christ's evangelical parable. But at the end, Jesus holds out the good news of redemption. He does so, as we shall see, with yet a further warning to the unconverted. Unless there is a change, Jesus says, the magistrate will sentence you to pay the penalty for your sin "to the very last mite." How can that change come about? How can the stamp of the "guilty" verdict under which each of us is conceived be changed to "not guilty"? There is only one way, Jesus said: You must agree with your adversary before you come to the Judgment.

Next: Jesus' Call to Sinners: "Settle Out of Court"

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