Monthly Archives: March 2021

The Heart of the Problem

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“The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind…” – Jeremiah 17:9-10

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh;” – Romans 7:18

“The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth.” – Psalm 58:3

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” – Psalm 51:5

Every child comes into the world with an alarming capacity for evil. Does that shock you? Did you think I was going to end the sentence differently? Scripture teaches us that the heart of the human problem is the problem of the heart. That’s true of us even before we are born.

The theological term for this is “total depravity.” It means that the depravity of man, including all the babies born into our world, is total. Does this mean that people are as depraved as is possible for them to be? Does total depravity mean utter depravity?

No, for even the very worst amongst us can still be looked upon as having the capacity to be even worse than they are. How’s that? Well, remember, Adolf Hitler? As bad as he was, he did not kill his mother or all his school teachers! As strange as it may seem, we can conceive of Hitler being even worse than he actually was, of committing more crimes, and killing more people.

What total depravity means then is that every area of man has been affected by the Fall: man’s entire body, soul and spirit has suffered a radical corruption. This does not mean that man is without a conscience or any sense of right or wrong, nor that every sinner is devoid of all the qualities that are both pleasing to men and useful to society, when those qualities are judged only by human standards. In addition, this does not mean that every sinner is prone to every form of sin.

To quote Dr. John MacArthur “it means that children do not come into the world seeking God and righteousness. They do not come into the world with a neutral innocence. They come seeking the fulfillment of sinful and selfish desires. Although the outworking of the sin nature does not necessarily attain full expression in every person’s behavior, it is nontheless called total depravity because there is no aspect of the human personality, character, mind, emotions, or will that is free from the corruption of sin.”

As parents, our natural reaction is to recoil at such an idea about the little ones who are newly born to us. We tend to see them as totally innocent. Yet the Bible reveals that these little ones are born simply naïve and inexperienced, and all the potential for sin is already present in their hearts.

In reality, we do know this, for how many parents have actually had to teach their children to be naughty? No, the kids do that all by themselves!

Where do kids get this depravity? It’s not a learned behavior, but rather an inbred disposition. Kids get it from their parents, who get it from their parents, and so on, all the way back to Adam. Adam, “begot a son in his own likeness, after his image.” Gen 5:3. Adam’s children all bore the stamp of sin and were infected with evil desires, including, like Adam, an aversion to the things of God, who hid himself from the presence of the Lord (Gen 3:8).

If you having trouble with all this, just remember that your children are just miniature versions of yourself! When children are simply permitted to follow the dictates of their own hearts, the result is disaster. Left to themselves, kids don’t follow the ways of godliness. “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him.” (Prov. 22:15).

That’s why Paul summarized the entire parenting task in a one-verse admonition to fathers: “Do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” (Eph. 6:4)

As parents, we need to be evangelists in our homes. We are not to leave this task to others, including the children’s ministry or youth department at a Church. God holds us as parents (and especially fathers) responsible to teach the children the message of the Bible. This includes giving the children an understanding of the law of God, the Holiness of God, His just wrath against sin, the gospel of Divine Sovereign grace, and the need of a perfect Savior. Then we need to point them to Jesus Christ as the only One who can save them.

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men” Rom 5:12, “for as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners…” Rom. 5:19. All of us as descendants of Adam have inherited the guilt and stain of sin. No one is exempt, or born innocent, except for Jesus Christ, who was supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit, free from the moral taint of Adam’s sin.

Perhaps “radical corruption” is a better term to describe our fallen condition than the historic term “total depravity.” “Radical” not in the sense of being “extreme,” but radical in the sense of its original meaning, stemming from the Latin word for “root” or “core.” Our problem with sin is that it is rooted in the core of our being, permeating our hearts. It is because sin is at our core and not merely at the exterior of our lives that Romans 3:10-12 declares: “There is none righteous, no not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”

Man, by nature, does not want to know God. “There is no one who seeks after God,” as the above Scripture says. As Dr. Michael Horton noted, “We cannot find God for the same reason that a thief can’t find a police officer.”

Spiritually speaking we were all born D.O.A. (dead on arrival), with no desire for God. Paul, addressing the Christians at Ephesus wrote, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God…” (Eph. 2:1-4). Only by the direct, gracious intervention of God will anyone ever come to a saving knowledge of Christ.

C. H. Spurgeon put it this way: “Through the fall, and through our own sin, the nature of man has become so debased, and depraved, and corrupt, that it is impossible for him to come to Christ without the assistance of God the Holy Spirit. Now, in trying to exhibit how the nature of man thus renders him unable to come to Christ, you must allow me just to take this figure. You see a sheep; how willingly it feeds upon the herbage! You never knew a sheep sigh after carrion; it could not live on lion’s food. Now bring me a wolf; and you ask me whether a wolf cannot eat grass, whether it cannot be just as docile and as domesticated as the sheep. I answer, no; because its nature is contrary thereunto. You say, “Well, it has ears and legs; can it not hear the shepherd’s voice, and follow him whithersoever he leadeth it?” I answer, certainly; there is no physical cause why it cannot do so, but its nature forbids, and therefore I say it cannot do so. Can it not be tamed? cannot its ferocity be removed? Probably it may so far be subdued that it may become apparently tame; but there will always be a marked distinction between it and the sheep, because there is a distinction in nature. Now, the reason why man cannot come to Christ, is not because he cannot come, so far as his body or his mere power of mind is concerned, but because his nature is so corrupt that he has neither the will nor the power to come to Christ unless drawn by the Spirit.” Sermon, Human Inability, March 7, 1858

“For as through the one man’s disobedience (Adam’s) the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One (the Lord Jesus Christ) the many will be made righteous.” Rom. 5:19

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” 1 Cor. 15:22.

Sinners are completely helpless to redeem themselves or to contribute anything meritorious toward their own salvation. Because of the Fall of man, the sinner is not morally neutral, but by nature is actually hostile towards God. He is, in fact, the sworn enemy of God. Though physically alive, he is spiritually dead. Unless he is born again, he cannot enter or even see the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5).

Man’s will is not free but in bondage to his evil nature; therefore, he will not, indeed he cannot choose good over evil in the spiritual realm. He cannot because he will not. Therefore it takes much more than the Spirit’s assistance and wooing to bring a sinner to Christ – it takes a radical regeneration by which the Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature – a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone.

REGENERATION PRECEDES FAITH – Faith is actually the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it – (Regeneration > Faith > Justification). Repentance and faith are only possible because of the work of God in regeneration, therefore both are called the gift of God.

Again, quoting the same sermon of Spurgeon: “”Oh!” saith the Arminian, “men may be saved if they will.” We reply, “My dear sir, we all believe that; but it is just the ‘if they will’ that is the difficulty. We assert that no man will come to Christ unless he be drawn; nay, we do not assert it, but Christ himself declares, ‘Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life;’ and as long as that ‘ye will not come’ stands on record in Holy Scripture, we shall not be brought to believe in any doctrine of the freedom of the human will.’ It is strange how people, when talking about free-will, talk of things which they do not at all understand. ‘Now,’ says one, ‘I believe men can be saved if they will.’ My dear sir, that is not the question at all. The question is, are men ever found naturally willing to submit to the humbling terms of the gospel of Christ? We declare, upon Scriptural authority, that the human will is so desperately set on mischief, so depraved, and so inclined to everything that is evil, and so disinclined to everything that is good, that without the powerful, supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will ever be constrained towards Christ. You reply, that men sometimes are willing, without the help of the Holy Spirit. I answer, ‘Did you ever meet with any person who was? Scores and hundreds, nay, thousands of Christians have I conversed with, of different opinions, young and old, but it has never been my lot to meet with one who could affirm that he came to Christ of himself, without being drawn. The universal confession of all true believers is this: ‘I know that unless Jesus Christ had sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, I would to this very hour have been wandering far from him, at a distance from him, and loving that distance well.’ With common consent, all believers affirm the truth, that men will not come to Christ till the Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them.” Human Inability, March 7, 1858

Gen 2:15-17; Ps 51:5, Jer 17:9; Jn 3:1-8; 6:44; 8:34, 47; 10:26; Rom 3:10-18, 8:7, 8; 1 Cor 2:14; Eph 2:1-9; Ph 1:29; 2 Tim 2:25; Heb. 12:2; 1 Jn 5:1

Mary In New Testament Perspective

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Article “The Misplaced Marian Emphasis of Roman Catholicism” by Keith Mathison – original source: https://www.keithmathison.org/post/the-misplaced-marian-emphasis-of-roman-catholicism

One of the most noticeable features of Roman Catholicism is its doctrinal and practical emphasis on Mary, the mother of Jesus. Every significant Roman Catholic dogmatic theology text includes a lengthy section, if not an entire volume, devoted to Mariology. Dozens upon dozens of lengthy books on Mary are published every year, and this doesn’t include all of the candles, statues, pendants, portraits, nightlights, lampshades, rosary stands, throw blankets, jigsaw puzzles, and more with Mary’s image.

Over the centuries, Mary’s role in Roman Catholic doctrine and practice has only increased. In the nineteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church declared as dogma the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (not to be confused with the doctrine of the miraculous conception of Christ), and in the twentieth century, the Roman Church added the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. Vatican II used the title “Mediatrix” to refer to Mary. As Mediatrix, Mary is seen as the one who mediates the redemptive work of her Son Jesus Christ. Roman Catholic practice includes prayers to Mary, hymns to Mary, and exaltation of Mary as queen of the universe. These are essentially acts of worship, effectively making of Mary a quasi-divine goddess of sorts.

Obviously, Mary had a unique role in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. The incarnation began in her womb. As the Definition of Chalcedon expresses it, the Lord Jesus Christ was “begotten before the ages from the Father as regards his divinity, and in the last days the same for us and for our salvation from Mary, the virgin God-bearer as regards his humanity.” She truly was blessed to be chosen for this unique task. And her humble and faithful response to God’s call upon her is a model example of faith.

That said, does the dramatic emphasis on Mary in Roman Catholic doctrine and practice correspond in any way to the emphasis we find in the doctrine and practice of Christ’s apostles?

No, it doesn’t.

Anyone familiar with Roman Catholic doctrine and practice might suspect that the New Testament is filled with teaching about Mary and filled with examples of devotion to Mary. However, as is often the case with Rome, the correspondence between its teaching and practice and the teaching and practice of the Apostles is non-existent. The emphasis among the Apostles is upon Jesus Christ. As Paul says, “we preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 1:23). And a bit later: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). No one is surprised at the apostolic emphasis upon Jesus Christ. But do they also emphasize Mary in the way that the Roman church does?

Let’s look at one way we might consider emphasis – the number of times a person is explicitly mentioned by name (I know this has only limited use, but this is a blog post, not a journal article, and this does shed some light on the question).

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned explicitly by name a total of 19 times in the entire New Testament. The majority of those references are naturally found in the birth narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke because birth narratives are where mention of a mother would be expected. In Matthew, she is mentioned by name 5 times. In Luke, she is mentioned by name 12 times. That’s 17 out of the total of 19. In Mark, she is mentioned by name once. Outside of the Gospels, Mary is mentioned by name only once in Acts 1:14.

Mary isn’t mentioned by name a single time in the epistles of Paul, Peter, John, James, and Jude. She is referred to as “woman” once by Paul in Gal. 4:4 when he writes, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.” Even this one reference, however, is saying something about Jesus rather than about Mary. It’s indicating His true humanity. Scholars are continually publishing books on the Pauline theology of this doctrine or that doctrine. It’s not even possible to write an article on the Pauline doctrine of Mary, however, much less a book, because Paul doesn’t say anything about her.

Outside of the early chapters of Matthew and Luke, Mary is mentioned by name only twice in the entire New Testament and not even once in the epistles where the various newly planted churches are being given foundational apostolic teaching regarding doctrine and practice.

For the sake of comparison consider the number of times some other biblical figures are mentioned explicitly by name in the New Testament and in the Epistles:

Moses – 79 times in the NT (23 of those in the Epistles)

Abraham – 71 times in the NT (33 of those in the Epistles)

David – 54 times in the NT (6 of those in the Epistles)

Isaac – 18 times in the NT (8 of those in the Epistles)

Noah – 8 times in the NT (3 of those in the Epistles)

Adam – 7 times in the NT (6 of those in the epistles)

Eve – 2 times in the epistles

Eve is mentioned by name only twice in the epistles, and that is still more than the number of times Mary is mentioned by name (zero times). [As a side note, it is fascinating that around the third century or so, as Christians started looking for people and events in the Old Testament that prefigured people and events in the New Testament, they focused on Christ as the second Adam. Somehow, they concluded that if Jesus is the second Adam then Mary must be the second Eve. An entire Mariology then began to develop from this curious parallel they drew. The analogy is faulty, however. Eve was Adam’s wife, not his mother. If anything in the New Testament is an analogy to Eve, it is the bride of Christ, not the mother of Christ.]

In any case, Mary is never mentioned by name in any of the epistles. Does this mean that Mary is unimportant? No, but her level of importance is where the apostles placed it when they wrote the birth narratives in the Gospels. She had the awe-inspiring and unique blessing of being the mother of God-incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ. But once the apostles move beyond the birth narratives, she fades into the background. The focus is now on the one she bore in her womb. The focus is now on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostles are Christ-centered in their doctrine and practice, and there isn’t even a hint of the kind of Mary-centered doctrine and devotion that is now found in the Roman Catholic Church. Paul doesn’t talk about her in his writings. Peter doesn’t talk about her in his writings. James doesn’t talk about her in his writings. They continually talk about Jesus. They preach Christ and Him crucified.

Roman Catholic Marian doctrine and practice is to the teaching of the Bible what the romantic subplot between Tauriel and Kili in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films is to the book written by Tolkien.

The extreme misplaced emphasis on Mary in Roman Catholic doctrine and practice is simply one more of the many ways that the Roman Catholic Church publicly displays how radically different it is from the Church that Jesus Christ founded.