This is critical...What we inherited from Adam was a seperation from God. All people are born under the federal headship of Adam and inherit this seperation from God. Only God is good. Apart from God we cannot produce anything good. We cannot please God in any way. The natural mind is hostile to God. That's why God must move first.
It is our own sin that we are judged by. Romans 14:23 says, "Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."
Because of Adam, we inherited our sinful nature. Depravity/spiritual blindness is not a nature but a condition that results from our "sinful nature". Spiritual blindness is judicially inflicted (John 12:40, Matthew 13:13). Spiritual blindness is the result of sin. We are all sinners (as a result of our nature), and as a result we all knew spiritual blindness (Romans 3:10-18, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Romans 8:5-8).
Adam and Eve were not bound to a sinful nature when they made the choice to sin. The conditions were not the same as they are today for us.
It's important to understand that God is constrained by Hids nature. He moved away and seperated Himself from Adam and Eve because He had to do that. I'll talk more on this later.
There are a lot of misconception concerning Adam and Eve these days. Adam and Eve were both clearly capable of doing evil, we know that because they did sin, hence resulting in the fall. But what many people don't understand is that what made that point in time so unique for man in general was that they, both Adam and Eve, were capable of doing good.
As a result of the fall "Man's heart is desperately wicked, only producing evil continually." -- "There is none righteous, no not one..."--"filthy rags."
So, right out of the gate we see that the absence of God results in only evil. God did not make man evil, it's the separation from all that is good that will always result in evil. It's a principle that is established in scripture right from the beginning.
It's no coincidence that everything that God ever created, was created as good (not evil). Satan was not created evil, but perfect, although sin was eventually found in him. Adam and Eve were not created as fallen, although they did eventually fall. Even infants or young children, while sinful in the most technical sense, are called innocent by God due to their ignorance, as God says, "not knowing their right from their left". Meaning that they cannot yet comprehend what God has already sewn into their hearts. Until then, until they can comprehend 'good and evil', they are called innocent by God due to their ignorance. The parallels are there between children and Adam and Eve. Both are innocent due to their ignorance of good and evil. This 'innocent' which God calls children is a judicial innocence and not an innocence due to any merit or action on their behalf.
AIC :thumbs: Calvin attributed God's hardening of man's heart as a negative cause also. I'm only posting this because I agree with it and would like people to look beyond Adam and see to see the principle in scripture. So, even though the context is different, the same principle applies.
"God is very often said to blind and harden the reprobate . . .. There are two methods in which God may so act. [1] When his light is taken away, nothing remains but blindness and darkness: when his Spirit is taken away, our hearts become hard as stones: when his guidance is withdrawn, we immediately turn from the right path: and hence he is properly said to incline, harden, and blind those whom he deprives of the faculty of seeing, obeying, and rightly executing.
The second method . . . is when executing his judgments by Satan as the minister of his anger, God both directs men's counsels, and excites their wills, and regulates their efforts as he pleases. Institutes. (II.4.3)
Now, God is constrained by His nature. This is very important to understand.
God is perfect in all His ways. He does not live by a separate standard and do it perfectly, He is the standard. God is perfect in all His ways. The essence of God's nature is this perfection. He is perfectly Holy as is His Law (The Law is a reflection of God's character and He cannot go against His own nature - Habakkuk 1:13.), perfect righteous, perfect justice, etc.. God cannot compromise Himself, not even one time, without ceasing to be God. So it would be correct to say that God is constrained by His nature.
Look at the lengths that He had to go to provide a way for us while at the same time not compromising Himself.
Did you know that every sin ever committed will be punished by God's perfect justice, which is driven by His perfect Holiness and righteousness? Every sin will have either faced God's judgment on the cross already by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (for believers), or the individual himself will face His perfect judgment at a later time. No sin ever goes unpunished. This is what perfect holiness, and perfect righteousness, driving a perfect justice must do.
God is also bound to the truth, which is Himself, which is His Word. Here's some examples.
God cannot tempt man nor can He be tempted-- James 1:13-14
God cannot lie -- Titus 1:2
God is without injustice, He is righteous and just in all His ways -- (Deuteronomy 32:4)
Thus says the LORD, "What injustice did your fathers find in Me, That they went far from Me And walked after emptiness and became empty? (Jeremiah 2:5)
Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins? (Lamentations 3:39)
It's important to see God as He really is, as scripture reveals Him.
Only God is good (Luke 18:19). He is the only source of good. Man cannot be good apart from God. Not even a little bit. God calls mans righteousness apart from Him "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). Our flesh can only produce filthy rags. The flesh profits nothing. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above (James 1:17). Without faith, we cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6). Our nature apart from God (Ephesians 2:1-3)... is children of wrath.
We are all quilty before God. The wonder of grace is that He chose to save any of us at all. But there is no question, as scripture makes it abundantly clear, unless God moves in a persons life, the end for that person is sure, the natural mind is hostile towards God, hates Him, and is incapable of being obedient to Him nor does he desire to do so. God must move first for a person to repent, come to faith and be saved, and when He does, He always finishes what He starts.
Dave
