Now to him who words
, the wages are not
counted as grace but
as debt. But to him
who does not work but
believes on Him
who justifies the
ungodly, his faith
is accounted for
righteousness, just as
David also describes
the blessedness
of the man to whom God
imputes
righteousness apart
from works:
“Blessed are those
whose lawless
deeds are forgiven,
and whole sins
are covered; blessed
is the man to whom
the LORD shall not
impute sin.”
Romans 4:4–8; cf.
Psalm 32:1–2
In our
discussion of Original Sin, a theological doctrine given by the Early Church
Fathers to account for sin and man’s inability to not sin we must address the
dividing doctrine of Free Will. Free Will according to men such as Pelagius and
Jacobus Arminius removes from man the doctrine of Original Sin which was passed
down to Adam’s progeny. Yet it is this sin of Adam that affected both earth and
the heavens that is why the universe groans for it is in turmoil (Romans
8:20–22). The sin of Adam had consequences far beyond what we can imagine for
sin only existed with Satan, Lucifer, the angel that defied God and before man
sin the only matter to be dealt with was Satan, and his legions of fallen
angels. Satan fall did not affect the universe as did man’s for man willfully
sinned against God in a manner that demanded justice for the world was made for
man, not for angels, that is, not in the same way. Angels have a work to do in
the realm of the universe and this work was to do the will of God, and yes,
Satan willfully sinned, his pride, his ability to choose right from wrong was
present when he sinned, but the world was for and is for man. God could have
destroyed Satan and not have affected His glory for all other faithful angels
would see that God was just in punishing Satan. Yet, for man it was different,
for man was to live by faith in a physical real world that he was to rule and
care for as his work in his eternal life. This Adam threw away and sinned
against God and his eternal life. Now, all that was for man was to be affected
and in each and every successive year from that point the earth began to groan
under the pain of Adam’s sin affecting men who came after Adam, and God
eventually dealt with man’s sin by global flood, destroying man, but saving
Noah due to the faith of Noah in God, and obeying the command of God to build
an ark, to believe in God that God would destroy the earth as then known and
now, after the flood the earth having been reshaped, the atmosphere no longer
separated by a water canopy, the earth was affected in a negative way: the
earth groans to be what God had intended for it to be and will groan until God
restores the earth by making it anew.
The sin of
Adam was due to his ability in his free will to choose and this he did without
having an effect from sin, so he did it willingly knowing the will of God and
willingly disobeyed God’s command. Pride, and a desire to do what his wife,
Eve, asked of him and no longer believed that God could restore even for him a
woman who would be faithful, he was afraid of losing what he had. This then
made cause for heredity corruption and a lose of those ornaments that God gave
to the first pair, first to Adam and passed on to Eve, the ornament of wisdom,
virtue, truth, justice, and holiness and all was now substituted by dire pests,
blindness, impotence, vanity, impurity, and unrighteousness, plunged his
posterity into the same wretchedness. Satan knew all this but wanted by his
pride and desire to have what God had, the universe and worship of man, hid all
this from the first pair and deceptively deceived Eve, but Adam, Adam sinned
outright and having walked with God, and talked with God, knowing that God
created him and all that was, cast upon his posterity Original Sin a sin man
could not of himself remove. But, not all believe this as a British Monk taught
something far different and his teaching has been divisive in the Christian
community even affecting Jacobus Arminius who has influenced those Churches who
claim Christianity but teach that man could save himself and that there is no
Original Sin that was caused by Adam and Adam’s posterity. So, I will give one
such saying from Pelagius and then in the next blogs will discuss this even
more.
“In the manner of good–for nothing and
haughty servants, we cry out against the face of God and say, ‘It is hard, it
is difficult, we cannot do it, we are but men, we are encompassed by frail
flesh!’ [“The argument of the Gnostics] What blind madness! What unholy
foolhardiness! We accuse God of a twofold lack of knowledge, so that he appears
not to know what he has done, and not to know what he has commanded; as if,
forgetful of the human frailty of which he is himself the author, he has
imposed on man commands which he cannot bear. And, at the same time, oh
horror!, we ascribe iniquity to the righteous and cruelty to the holy, while
complaining, first, that he has commanded something impossible, secondly, that
man is to be damned by him for doing things which he was unable to avoid, so
that God –– and this is something which even to suspect is sacrilege – seems to
have sought not so much our salvation as our punishment!” Pelagius (The
Letters of Pelagius and his Followers by B.R. Rees, p. 53, published by The
Boydell Press). Retrieved from the Internet: http://www.libraryoftheology.com/writings/freewill/Early_Church_on_Free_Will.pdf:
March 29, 2013
Pelagius (fl. c. 390-418)
was an ascetic
who opposed the idea of predestination and asserted a strong version of
the doctrine of free will. He was accused by Augustine of Hippo and others of denying the
need for divine aid in performing good works.
For him (according to them), the only grace necessary was the declaration of
the law; humans were not wounded by Adam's sin and were perfectly able to
fulfill the law apart from any divine aid. He denied the more specific doctrine
of original sin
as developed by Augustine. Pelagius was declared a heretic by the Council of Carthage
I will
close this blog with this to jar your thinking: “Behold, I was brought forth
in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the
inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom” (Psalm
51:5–6.
Create in me a clean heart,
O God,
And renew a steadfast
Spirit within
me.
Do no cast me away from
Your
presence,
And do not take Your
Holy Spirit
from me.
Psalm
51:10–11
God Desires Your Faith: He Gave It To You As A Free Gift
Richard L. Crumb
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