"The ultimate tragedy of man's self-understanding is that he believes himself to be free, has all the feelings of a free agent, but does not realize that he is a slave to sin and serves the will of Satan." - Michael Horton

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/374221050274293475/]

Man by Michael Horton

Secular humanism has no way of explaining either the greatness or the tragedy of human existence. However, the biblical story of creation and the fall provides the basis for affirming both human dignity and depravity. We are born into the world “in Adam,” that is, as glorious traitors.

Glorious in Every Way

God created us for His glory. We exist for Him, not He for us. And yet, unlike the rest of creation, we were created in God’s image for a special relationship with Him, naturally “endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after his own image; having the law of God written in [our] hearts, and power to fulfill it” (Westminster Confession of Faith 4.2). According to Scripture, human beings are neither semi-divine nor demonic, but creatures who have been given a royal dignity as God’s viceroys.

Adam and Eve were both created in God’s image, but God made Adam the federal head of the human race. Would Adam acknowledge gratefully his dependence on God and His revelation? Or would he seek to usurp God’s throne, determining for himself what he would believe and how he would live?

Notice the high view of human nature that the above quotation from the Westminster Confession reflects. We were created with the power to fulfill God’s law “yet under a possibility of transgressing,” the confession adds, “being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject unto change. Along with this law written in their hearts, they received a command, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; which while they kept, they were happy in their communion with God, and had dominion over the creatures.”

Adam and Eve were not neutral; they were oriented toward God and His righteous law. Besides this freedom of choice, Adam and Eve enjoyed a natural knowledge of God. By nature they loved God with their whole mind, soul, heart, and strength. God did not create man with any defect or weakness. The glory of God was reflected in the whole person: the body and its passions as well as the soul and the intellect.

“The sin of your nature, your original sin, is sufficient to sink you into torments, of which there will be no end. Therefore unless you receive the Spirit of Christ, you are reprobates, and you cannot be saved.” — George Whitefield

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hymnrevival/37044264794/in/photostream/]

https://www.ligonier.org/blog/whitefields-sin-exposing-spotlight/

Fallen in Every Way

In Romans 1, Paul argues that the “wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (v. 18). You can’t separate reason from ethics. Ever since the fall, we have been twisting, distorting, and suppressing the truth that comes to us through general and special revelation. Unbelief is not the result of a lack of evidence. Everyone knows God’s existence and invisible attributes through His works in creation, “so they are without excuse” (vv. 19–20). It is not that God fails to reveal Himself, but that humanity does “not honor him as God or give thanks to him” (v. 21). To be grateful is to acknowledge dependence, but that is precisely what our fallen hearts do not want to do. We do not want to reflect God’s glory; we want to possess the glory that is God’s alone. We do not want to be an image, but the original. We suppress the truth so that we can become our own creators and lords, as Paul indicates in his description of the lengths humanity will go to in order to deny accountability to God (vv. 22–32).

Total depravity does not mean that we are as bad as we can possibly be. After all, even Gentiles sometimes follow the dictates of their conscience (Rom. 2:14–16). Rather, it means that just as God’s image encompasses our whole self, the bondage of sin does as well. All aspects of our human constituent nature have been affected by the fall. We cannot reason, will, or work our way out of our moral bondage (3:9–20). But at least our wills are free, right? Paul replies, “There is no one righteous, no, not one.” What about our minds? No, Paul writes, “no one understands.” Our hearts? Paul adds, “no one seeks for God” (Rom. 3:10–11). While we know by nature enough to condemn us, we can only be saved by the special revelation that God gives us in the gospel (3:21–31). The story of creation and the fall presents an apologetic basis for explaining both the dignity and depravity of man, and thus why all people are in need of Christ, who is the true image of God (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15).

INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/man/

When the Protestant Reformers talked about total depravity, they meant that sin—its power, its influence, its inclination—affects the whole person. Our bodies are fallen, our hearts are fallen, and our minds are fallen—there’s no part of us that escapes the ravages of our sinful human nature. Sin affects our behavior, our thought life, and even our conversation. The whole person is fallen. That is the true extent of our sinfulness when judged by the standard and the norm of God’s perfection and holiness. – R.C. Sproul, The Truth of the Cross

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://reformedspirit.blogspot.com/2016/09/when-protestant-reformers-talked-about.html]

When you refuse to teach on the radical depravity of men, it is an impossibility that you bring glory to God, His Christ, and His cross, because the cross of Jesus Christ and the glory thereof is most magnified when it's placed in front of the backdrop of our depravity! - Paul Washer

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/703917]

https://bornagainchristians2012.blogspot.com/2019/03/paul-washer-on-depravity-of-men-quote.html

Michael Scott Horton (born May 11, 1964) is the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California since 1998, Editor-in-Chief of Modern Reformation (MR) magazine, and President and host of the nationally syndicated radio broadcast, The White Horse Inn. Both Modern Reformation magazine and The White Horse Inn radio broadcast are now entities under the umbrella of White Horse Media, whose offices are located on the campus of Westminster Seminary California.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. – Jeremiah 17:9 – 10 (KJV)

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/572097958910447134/]