St. Augustine on Original Sin

Perhaps we should view Original Sin from the perspective of that great theologian, Augustine of Hippo, who has given us a minefield of theological truths that theologians are still unpacking today,including the doctrine of Original Sin (Since no one systematized any doctrine on Original Sin before him). Augustine writes his biography in the form of a prayer to God that others were invited to read in his autobiography The Confessions. My urge to anyone reading this who hasn't picked up that ancient writing of Augustine's is to find a comfy chair and read. The Confessions is the greates book i have ever read save that of the Bible. Augustines poetic passion for rhetoric is second to none and has the power to wield men's hearts towards a deep relationship with God We find these quotes in the confessions regarding Augustine's own personal view on Original Sin and his Bondage to Sin:

"The reins that held me were loosened; instead of being restrained by parental discipline, i was let loose to follow every random inclination. But, my God, wherever my inclinations took me, a dark cloud came between me and the clear skies of your truth; and out of my abundance came forth my wickedness" (Confessions 2.3.8)

"I did not know that evil is deficiency of good to the point where there is no good at all" (Confessions 3.7.12)

"The good that you love is from him, but it is god and pleasing only so far as it is conisdered in relation to him. But if you abandon him, the love you direct towards anything that is from him will be unrighteous, and the object of your love will righteously be bitter to the taste." (Confessions 4.12.18)

"For it still seemed to me that it is not we ourselves who sin, but some other nature within us...I loved to exculpate myself and lay the blame on that something that was with me but not me. But it was all me. In my impiety i was divided against myself, and my sin was all the more incurable in that i did not consider myself a sinner." (Confessions 5.10.18)

"What then is the origin of my willing bad deeds and not willing good ones--why i should justly pay the penalty for my deeds" (Confessions 7.3.5)

"I sought to know what wickedness was, and found it was no substance, but a perverse distortion of the will away from the highest substance and towards the lowest things; the will casts forth its innermost part and swells outwards" (Confessions 7.16.22)

"The enemy kept his hold on my powers of willing, and had made of it a chain for me, and bound me with it. My will was perverted, and became a lust; i obeyed my lust as a slave, and it became a habit; i failed to resist my habit, and it became a need...my two wills, the old, carnal will, and the new, spiritual will, were at war with one another, and in their discord rent my soul in pieces." (Confessions 8.5.10)

"Therefore it was no longer i that did this, but the sin that dwelt in me-that sin itself being part of the punishment for a sin more willingly commited, since i was a son of Adam." (Confessions 8.10.22)

Disobedience-The Beginning of All Ruin

"...but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die...Have you eaten of the tree of which i commanded you not to eat?...The man said, 'The woman you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." (Genesis 2:17 and 3:11-12)

Biblically the ruin of mankind stems from one man's disobedience. For God created Man and Woman and called them "good." He gave them but one command of what not to partake, the tree's fruit. We speak of the Word of God either as the second person of the Trinity, Jesus ("In the beginning was the Word" J0hn 1:1), or the words with which we find in Scripture which are the very words of God himself, either through Prophets, Kings, or Apostles. For Scripture is that blessed revelation that God has bestowed upon mankind so that we might know of the love God has for everyone. Is not God's word to Adam to not eat from the tree Scripture? It is the word of God, from God's own tongue, spoken with a purpose and as a command. Why was it spoken? For our best. Calvin states:

"Adam was denied the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to test his obedience and prove that he was willingly under God's command." Calvin, Institutes 1.2.4

Have we not heard the robot analogy in regards to free will? Whenever i am in a discussion over the limited nature of our free will, I inevitably will have someone state that "God would not create robots, he wouldn't feel loved if you came to him out of obligation and not out of the goodness of your heart!" Hence God's command is that we might know and love Him out of the goodness of our heart, not like a blind robot following a dictator. According to Calvin, God then placed the tree in the garden so as to know and test their obedience to His word. But as my pastor very poignantly pointed out to me, there are many commands and words that God issued Adam and Eve in the garden to partake and obey that could have been disobeyed! This is not the only option that Adam and Eve had the option to disobey. It was however the only prohibitive command from God in the garden.

Therefore, Adam could have disobeyed any of God's commands, either by acts of omission or comission. He indeed disobeyed the living word of God in his act of comission, eating the fruit. In this act of disobedience, the very truth of God's word was disobeyed. Adam turned himself into a god. He put his own selfish desires before the living truth of what God had told them was best for them. His disobedience allowed the creep of sin to entangle all mankind. For what is sin but an act of unfaithfulness in the holy word of God. Where "disobedience was the beginning of the fall...unfaithfulness, then, was the root of the Fall." (Calvin, Insitutes 1.2.4)

The Fitting start for Original Sin

Theologically, Original Sin is the taint that all humans have from the sin Adam and Eve committed in the garden by disobeying God's command not to eat from the tree of knowledge. Augustine states frequently that it is somehow passed on hereditarily whereas Calvin states it is simply a "fall from our original condition." The doctrine of Original Sin can seem disgusting and hopeless for many. However most people who find it to be a major turnoff from organized religion see it as a doctrine, seperate and raised above others. When one discusses the fall and original sin, we must always begin with "original nobility," or original righteousness.

We find original sin to be such a blemish on the overall doctrinal configuration of Christianity when we believe that God has created us with a fallen nature, or that by some means our original sin is passed on from something we didn't do and therefore is unjust. I have heard many arguments that original sin was attributed to Adam, so why do we still bear a mark for something that he did? For if one person commits murder, all are not considered murderers. Why then do we find that the beginning of our lineage in Adam has caused us all to sin?

We find the answers to all of these questions not in the doctrine of original sin, but in the theological perspective of our created purpose. We must begin before the fall in order to understand the disordering of creation through the sin of Adam. We were created to be first and foremost in relationship with God, obeying His good commands so that we might fulfill our purpose of continually giving Him glory and honor above all else. Our created purpose is to love and cherish God above all else. For if we begin from the doctrine that we are all sinners, we do not know the ultimate sin that we have all committed. Indeed some most definitely say that i have not sinned! But we find the origin of Sin in Adam's decision to follow his own judgement and turn his back on God. For we were created to be in perfect relationship with God, conversing and following his commands so that we might be living in his image. But we find that one simple turn from God's command brought ruin to all mankind.

For original sin is simply a delineation from original righteousness, or fulfilling our original purpose. Now all of mankind, from Adam onwards, has himself on his mind before God and willingly chooses own glory over God's glory. For all of us it's not even a choice. When we are young do we not choose that which we find best suiting for us? Do we choose God's glory over our own when we are a three year old stealing a toy from another toddler? There is now, through Adam's decision to eat the forbidden fruit, an innate desire for our own glory over that of God's. For this is what theologians point to throughout thousands of years of writings, this is indeed what God points to throughout the entire Bible, that indeed we no longer have a natural inclination towards God's glory, but we have a natural inclination towards propogating our own best interest. For when i was created i did not put my relationship with God first, the reason for which i was created. For we were created to know God and to be in communication with him. How far has humanity fallen from our original nobility before the fall.

We find again that so many find the doctrine of original sin to be disgusting. But if we begin from our original purpose, to know and glory in God, and find that through Adam's turn towards self-glory, the fall, we find that original sin is something we are all tainted with. For i have to force my mind day in and day out to be centered on God and his love in Jesus Christ for us. It's not something that is natural. It is a decision that God continues to let me make daily in Christ's gracious wake. For i was created to love God, and i find it so hard so often to love Him. I am tainted with the stain of original sin and fight daily for the purpose which God created me to fulfill, to love him and "hallow" his name as glorious above all else. May original sin not deter us from the faith, but may it kindle a zeal for God's glory above all else in our lives. May it strengthen us to find the prupose for which we were created and may we burn with a passion that our own glory must be crucified, for we must "take up our own cross" in order to follow in Jesus' footsteps and know God for who He is, the Lover of mankind.

Trinity Mission Trip to Salmon, Idaho

10 of us from Trinity Presbyterian Church here in Boise travelled this last week to the rural town of Salmon, Idaho to assist an older Presbyterian Church (originally built in the late 1800's during the gold rush) by painting their basement and assisting elderly church members with moving mostly heavy objects that they were unable to move themselves. Eight students (both Junior and Senior High) and two leaders enabled the transformation in the basement, which they are hoping to turn into a youth room, by painting for two whole days, applying two coats and much needed paint fights.

We had a wonderful time in the community serving where the needed us. We also were able to have a bit of fun, swimming in the community pool playing marco polo, trying to ford the mighty salmon river...didn't work, bowling in a decked out early 80's bowling alley throwing 6 pound bowling balls almost the entire length of the lane, driving to Williams Lake 15 miles west of Salmon on the edge of the Frank Church Wilderness and watching students soak each other with the hose. Every morning we took part in a morning devotional and every night we sang worship to our Lord and discussed three different passages from the Gospels. The student's were enabled both spiritually and physically by our Creator and all were enthused about wanting to travel on a mission trip again; i think Britt's face below says it all! To God be the glory. Now i'm resting and preventing myself from becoming ill.

Prayer for those students who came would be wonderful. Pray that they might hold onto how God moved in their lives and that they might be proud of the work God enabled them to do in the community of Salmon.

Habakkuk's Conclusion

“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.”
Habakkuk 3:17-19a

These words from the prophet Habakkuk are a fitting summary of all three chapters. They are the last three verses of Habakkuk and are by no means erected without all the prior verses in mind. What is verse 17, “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,” but the extrapolation of all the warnings and judgment with which Habakkuk has placed on God’s people. More than half of Habakkuk are words of judgment and coming pestilence for the wicked deeds of the people. So, Habakkuk here in verse 17 covers the consequence of the peoples hard hearted waywardness; he shows that God’s judgment will be swift and will bring pestilence and famine to the land. No one is safe from the judgment of God, for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

But…and even though these afflictions of an earthly nature bombard the people, Habakkuk sets our soul upright in the midst of peril. For food and livelihood (figs, fruit, vines, olives, flock, herd) are merely outward prosperity in all of our lives. Habakkuk reminds us that our only need is the inward joy we find in God our savior:

“We may hence gather a most useful doctrine,--that whenever signs of God’s wrath meet us in outward things, this remedy remains to us—to consider what God is to us inwardly; for the inward joy, which faith brings to us, can overcome all fears, terrors, sorrows and anxieties” (Calvin’s Commentary)

Our Joy, in other words, should not depend on outward prosperity, a stable income, a healthy car, a large home, network sitcoms, but on the inward joy we find in God alone. For we have no strength but in God alone. For there will always be desolation and judgment enacted in the world, for we live in a fallen time full of selfish desires in every human, Christian and non-Christian, that draw pain upon one another. For we are fallen creatures and create much of our own desolation and peril out of selfish ambition. But two things are certain in every moment of life:

1) Distress, peril and/or judgment is certain to be in our future
2) God alone gives us the strength and joy to find Him in times of distress

A stable relationship with God our father through faith in Jesus Christ is the means by which true joy enacts itself in our life. Without God, distress and peril overrun us and we seek to find happiness in worldly pleasure and worldly pursuits. For how often does a depressed woman try to suppress the pain by shopping for new clothes, or how often does a man fail at the task before him and try to make himself feeling better by buying a new toy, too often. Outward prosperity means nothing when it has fallen from the tree. Everything finds it’s perfect place and purpose in God’s hands. Therefore we must first seek our Lord, knowing that pain will come undoubtedly, for He is the reason for life and He is the one who gives us pure joy in midst of the pain and sorrow so that He may be glorified and that we might have eternal life as He has called us to. Amen.

Habakkuk's Woe to Babylon

Habakkuk continues in Chapter two declaring the coming ruin of Babylon for the deploring acts they have committed, namely creating idols for worship and seeking their own selfish ambitions at the cost of their integrity. He picks up the thread from chapter one where he declares his complaints to God. This section in chapter two is more of a specific warning against turning to our own ways and not seeking the Lord’s guidance. He says:

“Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own…

woe to him who gets evil gain for his house…

woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity…

woe to him who makes his neighbors drink…

woe to him who says to a wooden thing, awake; to a silent stone arise…” Habakkuk 2:6-19

Are not the Chaldeans, those in Babylon, who Habakkuk is addressing turning their guidance towards their own fallen reason and away from that inscrutable wisdom of God that He calls us to seek. Did not Habakkuk earlier in chapter two state that it is our duty to retreat from the wisdom of the world, which is folly in God’s eyes as Proverbs so frequently expresses, and seek the wisdom of God from the recess of the “watchtower?” All of these woe’s find the people seeking their own gain apart from God. They even seek a new God in a wooden and stone idol. How does God not demolish them with his just rod and sword. God, the creator of all humanity and everything in the earth, finds Himself spit out by the people, for they would rather have a lesser god in an idol than the God that created them. More than that, the wood and stone which God created is now being abused and misused against the purpose for which He created it. Is this not the folly of mankind? Were we not created to know God, our father and savior, more deeply than any of us do? We were created to be in constant relationship with Him, to seek our wisdom and guidance in a patient posture from the workings of His hands. We were. Yet we use the life God has given us to seek things other than our Lord and Savior which our mind was created to meditate on. Here is an image that explains this well: a river raft was created for floating and rafting a river. It would not work well, or at all, if I were to strap rope to it and tie it to a harness on my waist and jump off a roof and hope it would bring me safely to the ground. It was not created to be a parachute. In the same way we were not created to seek our selfish desires, we were not created to turn our backs on our maker. We were created to glorify God and to seek sanctification in our relationship with Him. May we be reminded why we were created and take pleasure in fulfilling our created nature, coming to know our God and father better than we could have ever hoped. He has given us the ability in Christ to break free from our bondage to sin and evil and turn towards good and love. May we remember that wood and stone idols do nothing but ruin ourselves. Amen.

Paul Quotes Habakkuk: Faith Alone

As we continue through Habakkuk we find more and more New Testament quotes and themes riddled throughout the prophet’s recollection. Is it not a coincidence that our faith finds its roots in the New Testament in light of the testimony of God in the Old Testament? Of course not. For God has chosen to reveal himself to us by means of personal interaction with His people in the Old Testament, revealing to them the Law, providing prophets to speak words of truth from God, installing Kings for His people and revealing Himself in countless other spectacles. The entire Old Testament points to the fulfillment we as Christians stand upon in the New Testament, “justification by faith alone” in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. The Old and New are inextricably linked to one another for all time. You can’t have one without the other. With this said:

Our Christian faith finds it’s roots first and foremost in the New Testament, for it is here we learn the truth of Christ and justification by faith. Romans, possibly the greatest letter ever written, has for it’s thesis:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘the righteous shall live by faith.’” Romans 1:16-17

All of Romans, that wonderful letter that confines the foundations and doctrines of being justified by God alone, apart from any of our own works and abilities, testifies to the truth that God has implanted in his prophet Habakkuk. For in Habakkuk we find the thesis for Romans quoted:

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith” Habakkuk 2:4

Is this not why Paul continues in Romans 3 to say that “we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28) and goes on to use the father of our faith, Abraham, as an example of faith, “for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4:13). Paul knows the truth of Habakkuk, and the truth of our God, that we are justified by faith alone, apart from any works of our own or merit we could possibly acquire. God spoke the same word of truth to Habakkuk some 700 years earlier. Hence we find in congruence between Paul and Habakkuk that God’s design has always been justification by faith alone. Those that claim that we find salvation in anything other that God himself and his grace is an anathema to the church. And how often do we find the notion that those in the Old Testament were saved by their works, how they followed the law, since they didn’t have Christ the savior yet. Was not Abraham himself justified by faith, “that is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to his offspring” (Romans 4:16a).

For it is by faith alone that we can see God face to face, it is by faith alone that we have turned from the folly of our sinful nature and now look towards the love of God in Christ renewing us to be images of Him, it is by faith alone that we can come to church week after week still a sinner, it is by faith alone that our hope rests and thank God it is! If what Paul says in Romans 4:16 that “the promise may rest on grace” alone is true, then as countless others have affirmed (Calvin, Luther, Augustine, Barth) we do nothing in faith, but accept the grace to which God has extended to us. Grace is something wholly outside of ourselves, something only a perfect righteous God could extend and produce for us. We can only accept the gift of grace with an open hand called faith. And if that is true, then faith itself is a byproduct of God’s grace, it too is a gift. May we thank our maker for inviting us into the dance of fellowship through faith alone. For it depends wholly upon God alone for this gift of faith that we have. And he will sustain it! Amen.