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 This
page may prove me no classic theologian, but I believe the
ordinary reader can get my points. It is high time we asked
ourselves a few basic questions about the man God made, and how
God deals with him.
Did
God make Adam so that he was incapable of doing rightly?
If so, is not God responsible for his sin? In fact, is not man’s
capacity to willingly serve God the very basis for divine
justice in condemning man when he sins? The consequences of Adam’s
sin, passed upon succeeding generations by environment, is not
here under consideration. We ask, is it inherent in the God-made
nature of man that he will sin? The concept is contrary to
revelations of divine truth.
Does
God “impute” the sin of one man to another? Ezekiel answers:
“The soul that sinneth, it shall die: the son shall not bear
the iniquity of the father… Etc.,” (18:19-f.). Then where do
we get this “...disobedience of Adam is imputed to the whole
human race...“? (Way of Salvation, K. C. Moser) Is it the inherent
nature of men to die spiritually because Adam sinned?
Rom. 5:12 refers to a death that is “passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned” even though some sins were not “after
the similitude of Man’s. .“ there being no codified law from
Adam to Moses. THAT I have sinned, is not the basic question
here. Rather, does God count me a sinner because of my own
sin, or because someone else sinned? The same justice of God
that condemns sin will, in principle, hold a man guiltless until
he sins. If not, why not? Ezekiel concludes his arguments on the
fairness of God by saying, ‘Therefore I will judge you, O
house of Israel, every one according to
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his ways, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (18:30)
In the New Testament we are assured of the righteous judgement
of God “who will render to every man according to his deeds,”
(Rom. 2:5-11; 2 Cor. 5:l0).
From
childhood I have been taught that man’s righteousness, no
matter how wonderful, is inadequate. He does sin,
and must depend upon the Lamb of God, offered for sins, as
Savior. No ordinary man has lived so as to merit “justification”—
freedom from guilt. He is washed, sanctified, and justified “in
the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” In
40 years of preaching I have never been conscious of teaching
salvation in any way other than through trust in Jesus Christ. I’ll
continue to do so.
But
where do the scriptures teach that what man does in
submissive obedience to the Lord, is “filthy rags”? Not Isa.
64:5-f., which begins “thou meetest (sparest, f.n.) him
that... worketh righteousness.” Note Phil. 3:9, which
contrasts the self-sufficient concept of righteousness (“Do.
.All” of Gal. 3:10— freedom from guilt via perfect life)
with the righteousness attainable through trust in the crucified
Christ for forgiveness. God does not disparage whatever
righteousness man can do. He commends this kind of life (1 Jn.
3:7).
Brethren
are now being taught concepts of “grace” which find their
basis in false doctrines of inherited depravity — denying the
free agency of man and the fairness of God.
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