2/28/12- Our Corrupt Nature

7- 2/28- WSC- 18, WLC- 26

WSC Q 18- What is sinful about our fallen condition?
A. Our fallen condition is made up of two things: 1. Original sin which is the guilt of our first sin; the lack of original righteousness; and the corruption of our whole being; 2. and all specific acts of breaking God’s law that come from original sin. 

The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7-8)

Thoughts: We inherit corruption, but we also add our own sin to it.  We cannot be too quick to blame our first parents when we ourselves mess up, and fall short of our own ideals.  We are quick to say, “hypocrite” when we all have a plank in our own eyes.  Sin is a universal experience that transcends cultures, languages, geography.  Before World War 1 there was a tremendous optimism that deep down we were innocent and good.  Coming along with that was the idea of “the Noble Savage” that if we could find some prehistoric group of people we would observe their goodness.  Paul Gauguin was an artist of this persuasion.  He went to Tahiti looking for a noble savage uncorrupted by Christianity and money.  But instead of finding a noble savage he found  utter sin and misery: lying, stealing, vengeance.  Gauguin sunk into despair.  Christian faith is not a corrupter of human nature but a restrainer of human nature.  But it also is a way out of our corruption.

Prayer: Lord, I am humbled when I think of my own sin.  Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within me.  Take not your Holy Spirit from me, but instead have mercy on me.

Below: Gauguin’s “Where Came We? Who are We? Where Go We?”

1986 Q. 18. What is sinful about man’s fallen condition?

A. The sinfulness of that fallen condition is twofold. First, in what is commonly called original sin, there

is the guilt of Adam’s first sin with its lack of original righteousness and the corruption of his whole

nature. Second are all the specific acts of disobedience that come from original sin.

1647 Q. 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.