derived from an evil source is itself evil. A child born of fallen parents derives from them a fallen, corrupt nature. (8.) This intei-pretation is demanded by the context. Our Lord is assigning the reason for the necessity of regeneration or spiritual birth. That reason is, tlie derivation of a corrupt nature by our natural birth. It is because Ave are born in sin that the renewing of the Holy Ghost is universally and absolutely necessary to our salvation.
Another passage equally decisive is Eph. ii. 3 : " We also" (i. e?., we Jews as well as the Gentiles) " were by nature the chil- dren of wrath, even as others." Children of wraths according to a familiar Hebrew idiom, means the objects of wrath. We, says the Apostle, as well as other men, are the objects of the divine wrath. That is, under condemnation, justly exposed to his displeas- ure. This exposure to the wrath of God, as He teaches, is not due exclusively to our sinful conduct, it is the condition in which we were born. We are hy nature the children of wrath. The word nature in such forms of speech always stands opposed to what is acquired, or superinduced, or to what is due to ah extra influence or inward development. Paul says that he and Peter were by nature Jews, i. e., they were Jews by birth, not by proselytism. He says the Gentiles do by nature the things of the law ; i. e., in virtue of their internal constitution, not by external instruction. The gods of the heathen, he says, are by nature no gods. They are such only in the opinions of men. In classic literature as in ordinary language, to say that men are by nature proud, or cruel, or just, always means that the predicate is due to them in virtue of their natural constitution or condition, and not simjjly on account of their conduct or acquired character. The dative ^uo-ct in this passage does not mean on aecou7it of, because <^wort<; means simply nature, whether good or bad. Paul does not say directly that it is " on account of our (corrupt) nature we are the children of wrath," which interpretation requires the idea expressed by the word corrupt to be introduced into the text. He simply asserts that we are the children of wrath hy nature ; that is, as we were born. We are born in a state of sin and condemnation. And this is the Church doctrine of original sin. Our natural condition is not merely a condition of physical weakness, or of proneness to sin, or of subjection to evil dispositions, which, if cherished, become sinful ; but we are born in a state of sin. Rueckert, a rationalistic commen- tator, says in I'eference to this passage : ^ "It is perfectly evident, from Rom. v. 12-20, that Paul was far from being opposed to the
1 Der Brief Pauli an die Epheser. Leipzig, 1S34, p. 88.
241 PART II. Cii. VIII. — SIN.
view expressed in Ps. li. 7, that men are born sinners ; and as we interpret for no system, so we will not attempt to deny that the thought, ' We were born children of wrath,' i. e., such as we were from our birth we were exposed to the divine wrath, is the true sense of these words."
The Bible Represents Men as Spiritually Bead.
Another way in which the Scriptures clearly teach the doctrine . of oricijinal sin is to be found in the passages in which they describe the natural state of man since the fall. Men, all men, men of every nation, of every age, and of every condition, are represented as spir- itually dead. The natural man, man as he is by natnre, is destitute of the life of God, i. e., of spiritual life. His understanding is darkness, so that he does not know or receive the things of God. He is not susceptible of impression from the realities of the spii'it- ual world. He is as insensible to them as a dead man to the things of this world. He is alienated from God, and utterly unable to deliver himself from this state of corruption and misery. Those, and those only, are represented as delivered from this state in which men are born, who are renewed by the Holy Ghost; who are quick- ened, or made alive by the power of God, and who are therefore called spiritual as governed and actuated by a higher principle than any which belongs to our fallen nature. " The natural man," says the Apostle (that is, man as he is by nature), " receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them ; because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. ii. 14.) " You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins ; " and not only you Gentiles, but " even us," when dead in sins, hath God " quickened together with Christ.'* (Eph. ii. 1, 5.) The state of all men, Jews and Gentiles, prior to regeneration, is declared to be a state of spiritual death. In Eph. iv. 17, 18, this natural state of man is described by saying of the heathen that they " walk in the vanity of their mind (z. e., in sin), having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." Man's natural state is one of darkness, of which the proximate effect is ignorance and obduracy, and consequent alienation from God. It is true this is said of the heathen, but the Apostle constantly teaches that what is true of the heathen is no less true of the Jews ; for there is no difference, since all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. With these few passages the whole tenour of the word of God agrees.