Alan Dale Gross
Active Member
II. HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY AND MAN'S SPIRITUAL INABILITY.
Another Question concerning man's Responsibility is,
How can man be Responsible for not fully obeying the Law of God
and for not receiving the Gospel when it is heard when he is unable by Nature to do either of these?
The Answer to this Question is that:
Man can be Responsible for what he is unable to do
only on the supposition that Man is to Blame for his Inability.
And it is a fact that:
Man is to Blame for his Spiritual Inability.
"It is not that he individually, by his own Personal Act, originated the inability, for he was born with it.
But every man sinned in Adam, and thus originated his Spiritual Inability.
That every man sinned in Adam is the true teaching of Rom. 5:12-
"Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the World, and death through sin;
and so death passed unto all men, for that ALL SINNED."
"Sinned" in the Greek is aorist tense, which expresses pointed past action. The passage makes it refer to the participation of all men in the sin of Adam.
"But how did we participate in the sin of Adam when we were not born when he sinned?
We think we cannot do better than give the following words of A. H. Strong in reply:
"God Imputes the sin of Adam immediately to all his Posterity, in virtue of that Organic Unity of Mankind
by which the Whole Race at the Time of Adam's Transgression Existed, not Individually, but Seminally, in him as Mankind's Head.
The Total Life of Humanity was then in Adam; the Race as yet had its being only in him.
Its Essence was not yet Individualized; its Forces were not yet Distributed;
the Powers which now Exist in separate men were then Unified and Localized in Adam; Adam's will was yet the will of the Species.
"In Adam's Free Act, the will of the Race revolted from God
and the Nature of the Race Corrupted itself.
"The Nature which we now possess is the same Nature that corrupted itself in Adam-
not the same in kind merely, but the same as flowing to us continuously from him.
"Adam's sin is Imputed to us immediately, therefore, not as something foreign to us,
but because it is ours-we and all other men having existed as one moral person, or one moral whole, in him,
and as the result of that transgression, possessing a Nature Destitute of Love to God and prone to evil" (Systematic Theology, p. 328).
III. HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY DEPENDENT ON KNOWLEDGE.
It needs to be emphasized that man is Responsible only so far as he knows, or has within his reach the knowledge of, what is right.
"The heathen is Responsible to recognize God because, and only because,
"that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them.
"For the Invisible things of Him since the Creation of the World are clearly seen,
being perceived through the things that are made, even His Everlasting Power and Divinity;
that they may be without excuse" (Rom. 1:19,20).
"As to acts of outward conduct, the heathen is responsible only for the violation of such principles of righteousness as his own conscience recognizes.
"As many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law,"
i. e., those to whom the written law of God has not been made known shall perish, but they shall not perish through the condemnation of the written law.
"How then will they be judged? The verses which follow the above quotation show that they will be judged by their own standard of righteousness;
they will be charged with no transgressions except those against their own conscience. See Rom. 2:12-15.
"From the above it is evident that the heathen will not be charged with the sin of unbelief or rejection of the Gospel; yet they shall perish.
"This shows that it is sin in general that condemns primarily.
"Rejection of the Gospel does not bring condemnation to man; it only manifests it and increases the penalty that shall be inflicted because of it."
III. HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY DEPENDENT ON KNOWLEDGE.
Another Question concerning man's Responsibility is,
How can man be Responsible for not fully obeying the Law of God
and for not receiving the Gospel when it is heard when he is unable by Nature to do either of these?
The Answer to this Question is that:
Man can be Responsible for what he is unable to do
only on the supposition that Man is to Blame for his Inability.
And it is a fact that:
Man is to Blame for his Spiritual Inability.
"It is not that he individually, by his own Personal Act, originated the inability, for he was born with it.
But every man sinned in Adam, and thus originated his Spiritual Inability.
That every man sinned in Adam is the true teaching of Rom. 5:12-
"Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the World, and death through sin;
and so death passed unto all men, for that ALL SINNED."
"Sinned" in the Greek is aorist tense, which expresses pointed past action. The passage makes it refer to the participation of all men in the sin of Adam.
"But how did we participate in the sin of Adam when we were not born when he sinned?
We think we cannot do better than give the following words of A. H. Strong in reply:
"God Imputes the sin of Adam immediately to all his Posterity, in virtue of that Organic Unity of Mankind
by which the Whole Race at the Time of Adam's Transgression Existed, not Individually, but Seminally, in him as Mankind's Head.
The Total Life of Humanity was then in Adam; the Race as yet had its being only in him.
Its Essence was not yet Individualized; its Forces were not yet Distributed;
the Powers which now Exist in separate men were then Unified and Localized in Adam; Adam's will was yet the will of the Species.
"In Adam's Free Act, the will of the Race revolted from God
and the Nature of the Race Corrupted itself.
"The Nature which we now possess is the same Nature that corrupted itself in Adam-
not the same in kind merely, but the same as flowing to us continuously from him.
"Adam's sin is Imputed to us immediately, therefore, not as something foreign to us,
but because it is ours-we and all other men having existed as one moral person, or one moral whole, in him,
and as the result of that transgression, possessing a Nature Destitute of Love to God and prone to evil" (Systematic Theology, p. 328).
III. HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY DEPENDENT ON KNOWLEDGE.
It needs to be emphasized that man is Responsible only so far as he knows, or has within his reach the knowledge of, what is right.
"The heathen is Responsible to recognize God because, and only because,
"that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them.
"For the Invisible things of Him since the Creation of the World are clearly seen,
being perceived through the things that are made, even His Everlasting Power and Divinity;
that they may be without excuse" (Rom. 1:19,20).
"As to acts of outward conduct, the heathen is responsible only for the violation of such principles of righteousness as his own conscience recognizes.
"As many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law,"
i. e., those to whom the written law of God has not been made known shall perish, but they shall not perish through the condemnation of the written law.
"How then will they be judged? The verses which follow the above quotation show that they will be judged by their own standard of righteousness;
they will be charged with no transgressions except those against their own conscience. See Rom. 2:12-15.
"From the above it is evident that the heathen will not be charged with the sin of unbelief or rejection of the Gospel; yet they shall perish.
"This shows that it is sin in general that condemns primarily.
"Rejection of the Gospel does not bring condemnation to man; it only manifests it and increases the penalty that shall be inflicted because of it."
III. HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY DEPENDENT ON KNOWLEDGE.