QUESTIONS
1.What two things are meant by the expression “original sin”?
Two things are meant by the expression “original sin”: the first sin of Adam, and the sinful nature possessed by every person since Adam, due to Adam’s first transgression.
2.What is the sinful nature called?
Depravity
3.In what four ways are all individuals “depraved” when they are born?
1. He is completely void of original righteousness. “Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).
2. He does not possess any holy affection toward God. “They changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever” (Romans 1:25). “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God” (Romans 3:10,11). “For men shall be lovers of their own selves,...lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:2–4).
3. There is nothing from without a man, that can defile him; but the things which come out of him, these are they that defile the man. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:15,21–23).
4. He has a continual bias toward evil. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagining of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).
4.Some individuals claim that people are basically good. How does that fit with the concept of depravity?
The result of man’s depravity, or sin nature, is his willful rebellion against God. Such an attitude cannot but bring forth evil results. The awful results of sin are obvious. It is not possible for men to continue sinning and receive anything but a harvest of sorrows of the worst kind. Paul states in Galatians 6:8, “For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.” Hosea said concerning Israel, “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7). He also declared, “You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity; you have eaten the fruit of lies” (Hosea 10:13).
5.What is the greatest defense against sin?
A great man once said, “Our greatest defense against sin is to be shocked at it”; and when this attitude ceases, sin has accomplished its direst results. Paul, in that terrible list of gross iniquities in Romans 1:24–32, climaxed the whole dread situation when he said, “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (v. 32). When sin loses its sinfulness, and men take pleasure in the grossest of sinful practices, there is little hope left...but for the grace of God
6.Based on that, how do you think the U.S. is faring?
In the United States, probably the richest Christian nation in the world, every institution of correction, every prison of punishment, every sanitarium and asylum is bulging with the results of sin. Every policeman in the country is a silent tribute to the reality of sin.
Memory Verse
“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one.”
ROMANS 3:10–12
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