A Celebration of God’s Judgment of Man’s Evil Nature
Man is totally depraved (Gen 6:5; Jer 17:9; Is 64:6; Rom 1:18–32; 3:10–12, 23; 5:12; 6:23; 8:7). His nature is evil (Eph 2:3). How did man get this way? He inherited his vicious nature from his first father, Adam.
Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3). God promised consequences for Adam’s unbelief and disobedience, and God delivered the consequences. God’s punishment of Adam did not stop with Adam, however.
Adam is the organic head of the whole of the human race (Rom 5:12–21). Everyone ever conceived, except Jesus Christ, has Adam as their legal and federal head. God’s judgment was not just upon an individual. God punished the whole race in Adam.
Adam was subject to corruption. His blessed and most beneficial position was forfeited by him, at the fall into sin (Gen 3). The corruption of his mind, will, heart, and emotions was not a product of his disposition from the Garden (environment); rather, these were the result of his ruined nature.
Adam’s pure nature, in the presence of God, became polluted with sin. Man’s nature was now a factory for sins. Adam’s every thought was now captive to sin. Every act of Adam’s will was now perverted. Adam became a wicked man.
Adam and Eve, after the fall, had children. Cain and Abel were as corrupt as their parents…by nature. Adam’s sin was imputed to them. They were born guilty sinners, being heirs of original sin. This was the judgment of God on the seed of Adam.
The reason Jesus Christ was not subject to Adam’s pollution was because Christ is the second Adam (Rom 5:12–21). He is the head of a chosen race of saints, a holy nation of people, belonging to God (Is 9:6; 1 Cor 3:23; 6:20; 7:23; 1 Pet 2:9). The seed in Christ’s conception was of the Holy Spirit (Mt 1:20). Christ is the Son of God (Mt 16:16; Mk 1:1), from eternity, who took on flesh (Jn 1:14), being born of a woman, the Virgin Mary (Is 7:14; 9:6; Lk 2:5–7, 11; Gal 4:4).
This holy thing was done, so a polluted people could be redeemed and be made holy. Jesus Christ is the antitype of Adam. He is the legal and federal head of God’s holy race of people (Is 49:3, 6; Col 1:18; 1 Pet 2:9).
The judgment of God against Adam and his offspring — a propagated evil nature — serves to show us (by way of foil) Christ and His spiritual offspring, a propagated grace nature. Whereas sin and death reign in the flesh of sinful man, so grace and life reign in the spirit of Christ’s redeemed people (Rom 5:20–21).
As their representative head, what has been done to Christ makes His people heirs, by spiritual adoption (Rom 8:15, 17, 23; Eph 1:4–5). The merits of Christ’s work manifests His beloved church as the beneficiary (Mt 16:18). We are now heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17; Heb 6:17; Jas 2:5), being recipients of the unfathomable riches of God’s grace (Jn 1:12–13; Eph 1:7; 2:7; 3:8). Christians celebrate the judgment of God against our inherited original sin (Adam) and our practiced sins. Celebrate? Yes, in love, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8), in our place of punishment (1 Pet 2:24), securing a vicarious atonement (Lev 16), which has reconciled us to God (Rom 5:11; 2 Cor 5:18–20). We celebrate Christ, the way of God’s salvation, being our one and only Savior (Jn 14:6; Titus 2:13–14; 3:4–6).
The unrighteous also celebrate the judgment of God — the propagated evil nature — passed down from generation to generation. Adam’s original sin and his guilt before God, passed to his progeny, is acknowledged every Halloween. The inherited corruption of the children is put on public display. Sweet deception rules that dark night every year.
The children, in disguise, like their father, the devil, in the garden, seek revenge against the previous generations who cursed them. The older generations acknowledge sin nature passed on, assuring the next generation that sin is sweet, and deceit is to be rewarded.
The celebration of sinful man’s evil nature, an action of the reprobate mind, is a dark ritual on the cusp of winter’s cold death. This is a reminder that sin, leading to death, reigns in the darkened heart of Adam’s seed, the slaves of sin (Rom 6:6, 23).
The judgment of God — imputing Adam’s corruption — that is, his sin nature to all people, as a punishment, should make people question why they celebrate their evil, deceitful nature. Most do not give it a second thought. It is almost as if they are unaware of what they are doing, as if God has sent a deluding influence upon them to do that which is quite natural to them. They celebrate their evil, deceitful nature because they are evil and deceitful. Herein is the doctrine of original corruption and the propagation of man’s sin nature…a judgment of God.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
December 21, 2021
