2. Man's Totally
Helpless Condition
As we read the works of various Arminian
writers, it seems that their first and perhaps most serious error is that they
do not give sufficient importance to the sinful rebellion and spiritual
separation of the human race from God that occurred in the fall of Adam. Some
neglect it altogether, while for others it seems to be a far away event that
has little influence in the lives of people today. But unless we insist on the
reality of that spiritual separation from God, and the totally disastrous
effect that it had on the entire human race, we shall never be able properly to
appreciate our real condition or our desperate need of a Redeemer.
Perhaps it will help us to realize more
clearly what fallen man's condition really is if we compare it with that of the
fallen angels. Angels were created before man, and each angel was placed on
test as an individual, personal, moral being. This apparently was a pure test
of obedience, as was that of Adam. Some of the angels stood their test, for
reasons only fully known to God, and, as a result, were then confirmed in a
state of perfect angelic holiness, and are now the elect angels in heaven (I
Tim. 5:21). But others fell and are now the demons that we read of in the
Scriptures, the devil apparently being the one of highest rank among those who
fell.
In Jude we read of "angels that kept
not their own principality but left their proper habitation, he [God] hath kept
in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day"
(v.6). And in II Peter we read that "God spared not angels when they
sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to
be reserved unto judgment" (2:4). The devil and the demons are totally
alienated from God, totally given over to sin, and without any hope of
redemption. Their fate is described by Christ as that of being cast into
"the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels:"
(Matt. 25:41).
There is no redemption for fallen angels.
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, "For verily not to angels
doth he give help, but he giveth help to the seed of Abraham" (2:16).
Their fate is fixed and certain. For men and for angels endless punishment is
the penalty for endless sinning against God. Some would try to make God appear
unjust as though He inflicts endless punishment for sins committed only in this
life. But lost men and lost angels or demons are endlessly in rebellion against
God, and they endlessly receive punishment for that rebellion.
But when God created man a moral creature,
He proceeded on a different plan than He did with the angelic order. Instead of
creating all men at one time and placing them on test individually, He created
one man, with a physical body, from whom the entire human race would descend,
and who, because of his union with all of those who would come after him, could
be appointed as the legal or federal head and representative of the entire
human race. If he stood the test, he and all of his descendants, his children,
would be confirmed in holiness and established in a state of perpetual
creaturely bliss as were the holy angels. But if he fell, as did the other
angels, he and all his posterity would be subject to eternal punishment. It was
as if God said, "This time, if sin is to enter, let it enter by one man,
so that redemption also can be provided by one man." Therefore Adam in his
representative capacity was placed on a test of pure human obedience. The
penalty of disobedience was clearly set before him: "And Jehovah God
commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat;
but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:16-17).
Hence, the clearly declared penalty for sin was death - exactly the same
penalty that had been inflicted on the angels who fell. As with angels, it was
purely a test of whether or not man would be an obedient and appreciative
subject in the kingdom of heaven. It was a perfectly fair, simple test, clearly
set forth, very much in Adam's favor, for which he would have no excuse if he
disobeyed.
But, tragedy of tragedies, Adam fell. And
the entire human race fell representatively in him. The consequences of his sin
are all comprehended under the term death, in its widest sense. It was
primarily spiritual death, or separation from God, that had been threatened.
Adam did not die physically until 930 years after he fell. But he was
spiritually estranged from God and died spiritually the very instant that he
sinned. And from that instant his life became an unceasing march to the grave.
Man in this life has not gone as far in the ways of sin as have the devil and
the demons, for he still receives many blessings through common grace, such as
health, wealth, family and friends, the beauties of nature, and he still is
surrounded with many restraining influences. But he is on his way. And if not
checked, man would eventually become as totally evil as are the demons.
In his fallen state he fears God, tries to
flee from Him, and literally hates Him, as do the demons. If left to himself he
would remain forever in that condition, because as it is written, "There
is none righteous, no, not one; There is none that understandeth, There is none
that seeketh after God" (Rom. 3:10-11). Nothing, absolutely nothing, but a
mighty supernatural act on the part of God can rescue him from that condition.
Hence if he is to be rescued, God must take the initiative, must pay the
penalty for him, must cleanse him from his guilt, and so reinstate him in
holiness and riighteousness.
And that is precisely what God does. He
sovereignly picks a man up out of the kingdom of Satan, and places him in the
kingdom of heaven. Those are the elect that are referred to some 25 times in
the Scriptures: Matt. 24:22: "For the elect's sake, whom he chose, he
shortened those days" (at the destruction of Jerusalem). I Thess. 1:4:
"Knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election." Rom. 11:7:
"The election obtained it, and the rest were hardened." Rom. 8:33:
"Who shall lay anything to charge of God's elect"; and many more.
The Bible tells us that God has rescued a
multitude of the human race from the penalty of their sins. In order to perform
that work, Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, took upon Himself human
nature through the miracle of the virgin birth, and was born into the human
race as any normal child is born. God thus became incarnate, became one of us.
Jesus then lived a perfectly sinless life among men as the representative of
His people, placed Himself before His own law, and suffered in His own Person
the penalty that God had prescribed for sin. In His sinless life He kept
perfectly the law of God that Adam had broken, and so earned perfect
righteousness for His people and thereby earned for them the right to enter
heaven. What He suffered, as a Person of infinite value and dignity, was a just
equivalent of what His people would have suffered in an eternity in hell. In
this manner He freed His people from the law of sin and death. And as the
fruits of that redemptive work are applied to those who have been given to the
Son by the Father, they are said to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, that is,
to be made alive spiritually, to be born again.
Paul expresses this broad truth when in the
Epistle to the Romans he says:
"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 ... But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift.
For if by the trespass of the one many died, much more did the grace of God,
and the gift of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many ... so then as
through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation, even so
through the one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to
justification to life. For as through the one's disobedience the many were made
sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous"
(Rom. 5:12-19).
Unless one sees that contrast between the first
and the second Adam, he will never understand the Christian system.
And writing to the saints that were at
Ephesus, Paul said, "And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through
your trespasses and sins."
And he goes on to say that we: "...were
by nature children of wrath, even as the rest, but God, being rich in mercy for
his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved),
and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places,
in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: for by grace have ye been
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, that no man should glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them."
(Eph. 2:1-10)
In Christian theology there are three
separate and distinct acts of imputation. In the first place Adam's sin is
imputed to all of us, his children, that is, judicially set to our account so
that we are held responsible for it and suffer the consequences of it. This is
commonly known as the doctrine of Original Sin. In the second place, and in
precisely the same manner, our sin is imputed to Christ so that He suffers the
consequences of it. And in the third place, Christ's righteousness is imputed
to us and secures for us entrance into heaven. We are, of course, no more
personally guilty of Adam's sin than Christ is personally guilty of our sin, or
than we are personally meritorious because of His righteousness. In each case
it is a judicial transaction. We receive salvation from Christ in precisely the
same way that we receive condemnation and ruin from Adam. In each case the
result follows because of the close official union which exists between the
persons involved. To reject any one of these three steps is to reject an
essential part of the Christian system.
Thus we see the strict parallel between Adam
and Christ in the matter of salvation. In the above passages Paul piles one
phrase upon another stressing the fact that we were not merely sick, or
spiritually disinclined, but spiritually dead. Christ Himself said,
"Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John
3:3). And again He said, "Why do ye not understand my speech: even because
ye cannot hear my words" (John 8:43). The unregenerate man cannot see the
kingdom of God, nor hear in any spiritually discerning way the words spoken
concerning it, much less can he get into it. Had we been left to ourselves we,
like the fallen angels, would never have turned to God.
A spiritually dead person can no more give
himself spiritual life that a physically dead person can give himself physical
live. That requires a supernatural act on the part of God. We get into the
family of God in precisely the same way that we get into our human family, by
being born into it. By that supernatural act God Himself, through His Holy
Spirit, sovereignly takes us out of the kingdom of Satan and places us in His
spiritual kingdom by a spiritual rebirth.
And having once been born into the kingdom
of God, we can never become unborn. Since it took a supernatural act to bring
us into a state of spiritual life, it would take another such act to take us
out of that state. Hence the absolute certainty that those who have been
regenerated and who therefore have become truly Christian will never lose their
salvation, but will providentially be kept by the power of God through all the
trials and difficulties of this life and will be brought into the heavenly
kingdom. "He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath
eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into
life" (John 5:24). "If any man is in Christ, he is a new
creature" (II Cor. 5:17). "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them
unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the
Father's hand" (John 10:27-29). This is known as the doctrine of eternal
security or the perseverance of the saints.
This gift of eternal live is not conferred
upon all men, but only upon those whom God chooses. This does not mean that any
who want to be saved are excluded, for the invitation is "He that will [KJV,
whosoever will], let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17). The
fact is that a spiritually dead person cannot will to come. "No man can
come unto me except the Father that sent me draw [literally, drags] him"
(John 6:44). Only those who are quickened (made spiritually alive) by the Holy
Spirit ever have that will or that desire. These in Scripture are called the
elect. But in contrast with these, there is another group that we may call the
non-elect. And concerning them Professor Floyd Hamilton has very appropriately
written:
"All that God does is to let them alone
and allow them to go their own way without interference. It is their nature to
be evil, and God simply has foreordained to leave that nature unchanged. The
picture often painted by opponents of Calvinism, of a cruel God refusing to
save all who want to be saved, is a gross caricature. God saves all who want to
be saved, but no one whose nature has not been changed wants to be saved."