Sin, the Fall & Human Nature¶
We've crafted an unofficial, source-cited, non-commercial index of Dr. R.C. Sproul's publicly available teachings, weighted by how many independent sources corroborate each point. The content is authored by Dr. R.C. Sproul and published by Ligonier Ministries (a few items are third-party YouTube re-uploads); see the Methodology & Rights page for more info. Quotations are brief, linked to their source, and reproduced for study under Ligonier's Copyright Policy (ligonier.org/copyright-policy). This site is humbly offered for personal use only, out of love and respect, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Ligonier Ministries or St. Andrew's Chapel.
249 positions — 28 corroborated across multiple sources.
Well-attested positions¶
Independently stated in two or more of his messages.
Original sin refers not to Adam's first sin, but to the consequences of that sin, specifically God's judgment upon humanity through corruption.
Original sin does not refer to the first sin of Adam and Eve, but refers to the consequences for the human race of that first sin. It refers to God’s judgment upon the whole human race by which He visits upon us the effects of Adam’s sin by the thoroughgoing corruption of all of his descendents.
Corroborated across 6 sources: The Pelagian Controversy (Ligonier article) · TULIP and Reformed Theology: Total Depravity (Ligonier article) · R.C. Sproul @ 23:02 · R.C. Sproul @ 2:47 · Christ in Our Place (Ligonier) · The Doctrine of Imputation (Ligonier)
If sin is merely a result of bad decisions, the universal presence of sin suggests an inherent moral defect in the human race.
If sin is simply a result of bad decisions that some people make, we would assume that at least 50 percent of the people born in this world would choose the right path rather than the sinful one that is so damaging to our humanity. The fact that 100 percent of the human race falls into sin indicates that there must be an inherent moral defect in the race.
Corroborated across 4 sources: Death Does Not Have the Last Word (Ligonier article) · The Pelagian Controversy (Ligonier article) · R.C. Sproul @ 12:03 · Is God justified in punishing us for Adam’s sin? (Ligonier Q&A)
The fundamental sin of humanity is the refusal to honor God with the worship that His nature deserves, instead choosing to worship false gods.
The most basic, primordial sin of fallen humanity that’s common to every one of us is the refusal to honor God as God, the refusal to honor Him with the worship His very being and nature deserves and requires. And that magnificent truth of His beauty, of His holiness, of His transcendent majesty, we swap, we trade for a lie.
Corroborated across 4 sources: R.C. Sproul @ 3:51 · R.C. Sproul @ 43:05 · R.C. Sproul @ 8:38 · R.C. Sproul @ 0:25
The fundamental sin of humanity is idolatry, which involves suppressing the truth about God and exchanging it for something created.
Context: Attributing Calvin's statement to support a point about human sin.
And yet the primary sin of the human race is to take that knowledge of God and to push it down, to do what the Apostle says in Romans, to suppress the truth and hold it in unrighteousness and then exchange that truth for a lie and serve the creature rather than the creator.
Corroborated across 3 sources: Calvin’s Defining Passion in the Protestant Reformation (Ligonier article) · R.C. Sproul @ 17:50 · Death in Adam, Life in Christ (Ligonier)
Every sin, regardless of its perceived severity, is considered an act of cosmic treason against God and is worthy of death.
Any sin against God, no matter how slight it may seem in this world compared to more wicked things, nevertheless is worthy of death, because every sin, even a peccadillo committed against God, is an act of cosmic treason.
Corroborated across 3 sources: Cosmic Treason (Ligonier article) · R.C. Sproul @ 0:00 · A Simple Way to Pray (Ligonier)
The Protestant Reformers understood total depravity to mean that sin affects the entire person, not that man is as bad as he conceivably could be.
When the Protestant Reformers talked about total depravity, they meant that sin—its power, its influence, its inclination—affects the whole person.
Corroborated across 3 sources: How Sinful Is Man? (Ligonier article) · R.C. Sproul @ 0:55 · Does the doctrine of total depravity teach that we have lost the image of God? (Ligonier Q&A)
Before the fall, man possessed the ability to sin, the ability not to sin, and the possibility of dying or not dying.
Context: Describing Augustine's view.
Before the fall, Augustine said that man was posse peccare and posse non peccare , that is, man had the ability to sin and the ability not to sin. Not sinning was a possibility that Adam had in the Garden. In addition to this, Augustine distinguished between our original estate, which involved both the posse mori and the posse non mori .
Corroborated across 3 sources: Radical Corruption (Ligonier article) · The Meaning of Man’s Will (Ligonier article) · The Doctrine of Imputation (Ligonier)
The term 'total depravity' is misleading because it suggests that humans are utterly depraved, when in fact, God restrains us from being as sinful as we possibly could be.
The problem with the term total depravity is that it suggests we are as bad as we possibly could be—that is, that we are utterly depraved. But think of all the sins that you have committed in your lifetime. You know that, as bad as they were, they could have been worse.
Corroborated across 3 sources: R.C. Sproul @ 3:41 · R.C. Sproul @ 16:29 · Israel's Rejection & God's Justice (Part 2) (Ligonier)
Humanism fails to take seriously the fall of man, which resulted in humanity being morally and spiritually dead, requiring only God's electing grace for salvation.
Because it will not take seriously the dimensions of the fall of man that have brought us to the place where we are morally and spiritually dead, and that only the electing grace of God can save us in our spiritual death.
Corroborated across 2 sources: R.C. Sproul @ 45:33 · R.C. Sproul @ 45:43
Scripture teaches that all humans are born in a sinful state, and the curse of the fall affects every human life.
Virtually every church in the history of Christendom has had to develop some concept of what we call original sin because the Scriptures teach us so clearly that we are born in a sinful state and that the curse of the fall attends every human life.
Corroborated across 2 sources: Is It Just That in Adam All Die? (Ligonier article) · Why would a loving and holy God allow a child to suffer through a serious illness such as cancer? (Ligonier Q&A)
The Roman Catholic Church distinguishes between mortal and venial sin, where mortal sins are so serious they can destroy the grace of justification.
▷ A view Sproul explains or critiques — not his own position.
The Roman Catholic church makes a distinction between mortal and venial sin. The point of that distinction is that there are some sins so gross, heinous, and serious that the actual commission of those sins is mortal in the sense that it kills the grace of justification that resides in the soul of the believer.
Corroborated across 2 sources: Are There Degrees of Sin? (Ligonier article) · R.C. Sproul @ 4:51
He argues that humans are responsible for their own sin and cannot pass the blame to a controlling demon.
Satan may be our accomplice in our ongoing sin, but we cannot pass the blame and responsibility for our sin to a controlling demon. We do not have to he possessed by a Devil to get drunk.
Corroborated across 2 sources: Are We Too Concerned with Demons? (Ligonier article) · Satan the Proud and Powerful (Ligonier article)
Pelagius taught that Adam's fall only affected Adam, meaning sin only affects future generations by imitation, not by a transferred fallen condition.
▷ A view Sproul explains or critiques — not his own position.
Pelagius disagreed with this and Pelagius said that Adam's fall affected only Adam that there is no consequence to future generations, and the seed of Adam sin only by imitation not because of some transferred or transmitted fallen human condition.
Corroborated across 2 sources: The Battle for Grace Alone (Ligonier article) · R.C. Sproul @ 0:13
God has made Himself known through nature and conscience, and sin is defined by humanity's suppression or refusal to acknowledge or honor this knowledge.
God has made Himself known in nature and conscience, and yet sinful humanity suppresses or represses that knowledge and refuses to acknowledge God or to honor Him as God.
Corroborated across 2 sources: Calvin’s Defining Passion in the Protestant Reformation (Ligonier article) · Peter's Second Speech (Ligonier)
A person sinning does not automatically make them a hypocrite, as hypocrisy is a specific sin of false claims.
In fact, for a Christian to sin does not make that person a hypocrite. Why not? Well, the only organization I know that requires you to be a sinner to join is the Christian church.
Corroborated across 2 sources: Is the Church Full of Hypocrites? (Ligonier article) · Woes to Hypocrites (Ligonier)
Human sin is not necessarily a failure of desire, but rather a result of a conflicting desire to sin being stronger than the desire to obey God.
But there are times when my desire to sin is greater than my desire to obey; when that happens, I sin. When my desire to obey is greater than my desire to sin, then at that moment, I refrain from sinning.
Corroborated across 2 sources: Could Jesus Have Sinned? (Ligonier article) · The Meaning of Man’s Will (Ligonier article)
The sin of humanity is characterized by a desire to build a kingdom and make a name for themselves, rather than giving glory to God.
Man wanted to build a city for himself, to build his own kingdom. Man wanted to make a name for himself, not for God.
Corroborated across 2 sources: The Glory of Man and the Glory of God (Ligonier article) · Our Story (Ligonier article)
Humanity's fundamental sin is exchanging the truth of God for a lie, which involves worshipping creatures rather than the Creator.
Paul goes on to talk about the dreadful exchange we make as fallen creatures, in which we trade the glory of almighty God, the sweetness of His excellence, and exchange that truth for a lie we prefer. In this exchange, we began to serve and worship the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
Corroborated across 2 sources: The Holy Love of God (Ligonier article) · God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness (Ligonier)
Before sin, humanity was completely unknown to the experience of shame or embarrassment.
This tells us that before sin came into the world, there was no shame. There was no embarrassment. The experience of humiliation was completely unknown and foreign to the human race.
Corroborated across 2 sources: Humiliation to Exaltation (Ligonier article) · Humiliation to Exaltation (Ligonier article)
The definition of evil relies entirely on a prior understanding of the good.
In both cases, the very definition of evil depends upon a prior understanding of the good. In this regard, as Augustine argued, evil is parasitic -- that is, it depends upon the good for its very definition.
Corroborated across 2 sources: The Mystery of Iniquity (Ligonier article) · Why Does God Allow Evil? (Ligonier article)
Even when human actions are evil, God can use them to achieve His ultimate, good purpose.
The astounding reality here is that the proximate purpose served the remote purpose. This did not absolve the brothers of culpability. Their intent and actions were evil. Yet God deemed it good to let the brothers have their way with Joseph—to a limited extent—that He might achieve His ultimate purpose.
Corroborated across 2 sources: The Purposes of God (Ligonier article) · The Twelve Apostles (Part 3) (Ligonier)
Total depravity does not mean that a person is as wicked as they could possibly be, but rather that the fall affects the entire person.
And so the idea of total of total depravity doesn't mean that every human being is as wicked as they could possibly be, but rather it means that the fall is so serious that it affects the whole person.
Corroborated across 2 sources: TULIP and Reformed Theology: Total Depravity (Ligonier article) · R.C. Sproul @ 14:18
The fall affects the whole person, including the body, mind, and will, leading to bondage and infection by sin.
Our fallenness that captures and grips our human nature affects our bodies; that's why we become ill and we die. It affects our minds and our thinking. We still have the capacity to think, but the Bible speaks about the way in which the mind has become darkened and weakened. The will of man is no longer in its pristine state of moral power that the will, according to the New Testament, is now in bondage.
Corroborated across 2 sources: TULIP and Reformed Theology: Total Depravity (Ligonier article) · R.C. Sproul @ 14:43
The Bible teaches that people should not assume that suffering is directly proportional to the degree of sin, as exemplified by the Galileans and those killed by the falling tower.
Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
Corroborated across 2 sources: When Towers Fall (Ligonier article) · The Locus of Astonishment (Ligonier)
David's sin was characterized by violating God's commandments and committing injustice against Uriah.
Why have you then despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You have taken his wife to be your wife, and you have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.
Corroborated across 2 sources: R.C. Sproul @ 10:00 · R.C. Sproul @ 1:41
The struggle between the flesh and the spirit is not merely a struggle between the body and the soul, but rather a conflict between the power of sin in natural fallen humanity and the influence of God the Holy Spirit.
But rather, what the New Testament is talking about when it talks about this fierce struggle that goes on in the Christian life between the flesh and the spirit is the struggle between the power of sin in our natural fallen humanity against the influence of God the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Corroborated across 2 sources: R.C. Sproul @ 14:01 · R.C. Sproul @ 1:08
Moral relativism is a modern attempt to justify sin by denying objective moral standards.
Now, the myth of moral relativism is modern man’s attempt to create an ethical license for sin. To call evil good and good evil.
Corroborated across 2 sources: R.C. Sproul @ 0:29 · R.C. Sproul @ 25:58
Human beings are sinners because they possess a fallen sin nature, and this nature is the source from which sins flow.
We sin because we are sinners, which is to say that every human being has a sin nature, a nature that has fallen. And out of this sin nature flows sins.
Corroborated across 2 sources: R.C. Sproul @ 21:08 · R.C. Sproul @ 0:00
Further positions¶
Drawn from a single high-trust (official transcript) source.
When committing sin, humans often attempt to rationalize it to themselves, making it seem like the sin was the right thing to do at the time.
When we commit sin, we do several things, one of which is to try to justify our sin to ourselves, to rationalize it, to make it seem that our sin was the right thing to do at the time.
Source: A Sin Concealed (Ligonier article)
The human pattern of sin involves not only concealing the sin initially but also allowing one lie to lead to subsequent lies.
Not only did they try to conceal it in the first instance, but one lie led to another lie and another lie and another lie. This is the human pattern. It’s the way we sin.
Source: A Sin Concealed (Ligonier article)
The speaker argues that even the slightest sin is an act of cosmic treason.
Even the slightest sin is an act of cosmic treason.
Source: Are There Degrees of Sin? (Ligonier article)
The practice of linking specific demons to specific sins or behaviors is unbiblical and constitutes nonsense.
For example, we hear that particular demons cause particular sins. There is, they say, a demon of alcohol, a demon of depression, a demon of tobacco, and so on.
Source: Are We Too Concerned with Demons? (Ligonier article)
The fall of man was serious, but the fallen person retains enough moral ability to cooperate with or reject God's grace.
The fall of man is real and serious, but not so serious as Augustine supposed, because a certain level of moral ability remains in the fallen creature to the extent that the fallen person has the moral power to cooperate with God’s grace or to reject it.
Source: The Battle for Grace Alone (Ligonier article)
The primary obstacle preventing humanity from having the vision of God is sin and impurity.
The thing that keeps us from having the vision of God now is our impurity, our sin.
Source: Blessed Are the Pure in Heart, for They Shall See God (Ligonier article)
Confusing law and gospel causes the loss of clarity in both, and if there is no law from a sovereign God, there can be no real conviction of sin.
Obviously, when law and gospel are confused, the clarity of the law is lost and with it the clarity of the gospel. If there is no law that comes from a sovereign God, then there can be no real conviction of sin.
Source: Book Review: Christless Christianity (Ligonier article)
Although moral darkness may obscure the truth, it cannot destroy it, just as a solar eclipse obscures but does not destroy light.
Just as a solar eclipse obscures but does not destroy the light, our moral darkness hides but does not eliminate the light. We see the truth of the apostle Paul’s teaching that we suppress the truth in unrighteousness—but we cannot destroy the truth (Rom. 1:18–32).
Source: A Call for Endurance (Ligonier article)
Scripture describes sin in three primary ways: as a moral debt, as an internal hostility toward God, and as a transgression against God's law.
Cosmic treason is one way to characterize the notion of sin, but when we look at the ways in which the Scriptures describe sin, we see three that stand out in importance. First, sin is a debt; second, it is an expression of enmity; third, it is depicted as a crime.
Source: Cosmic Treason (Ligonier article)
True understanding of sin's seriousness only comes when one measures their actions absolutely against God's character and law, rather than relatively against other humans.
But when God’s character is made clear to us and we are able to measure our actions not in relative terms with respect to other humans but in absolute terms with respect to God, His character, and His law, then we begin to be awakened to the egregious character of our rebellion.
Source: Cosmic Treason (Ligonier article)
The New Testament unequivocally condemns all forms of extramarital and unnatural sexual intercourse.
Context: Quoting Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
The New Testament is characterized by an unconditional repudiation of all extramarital and unnatural intercourse
Source: Cultural Revolution (Ligonier article)
Sexual immorality, including homosexual activity, is viewed as a severe manifestation of human moral corruption resulting from a debased mind.
In this the Apostle Paul sees that sexual immorality, particularly with respect to its expression in homosexual activity, represents the extreme degree to which human moral corruption sinks.
Source: Cultural Revolution (Ligonier article)
If humanity lacks ultimate value, then nothing about human suffering or existence warrants sacrifice or concern.
A creature with no ultimate value, one who is ultimately insignificant, is not worth any sacrifice. Tell it to the idiot, as he alone can live with empty sound and fury.
Source: Dignity, Faith, & Work (Ligonier article)
According to the biblical principle cited, anything that does not originate from faith is considered sin.
Here the biblical principle of Romans 14:23 comes into play: “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”
Source: Ethics and the Conscience (Ligonier article)
The Bible teaches that death resulted directly from sin.
Death came into the world as a direct result of sin.
Source: Fear and Uncertainty (Ligonier article)
Idolatry is fundamentally an intellectual sin involving the reconstruction of doctrine to strip God of uncomfortable attributes.
But there is also a more sophisticated, intellectual sort of idolatry—the reconstruction of our doctrine of God in such a way as to strip Him of those attributes with which we are uncomfortable.
Source: For the Glory of God (Ligonier article)
God is too holy to look at sin and, consequently, Jesus was cursed when he bore the full measure of humanity's sin.
God is too holy to look at sin. He could not bear to look at that concentrated monumental condensation of evil, so he averted his eyes from his Son. The light of his countenance was turned off. All blessedness was removed from his Son, whom he loved, and in its place was the full measure of the divine curse.
Source: Forsaken: Jesus Became A Curse (Ligonier article)
The imperfection of the mind is not due to a lack of intellectual capacity, but rather because the heart is clouded.
Our thinking is clouded because our hearts are clouded. Take away the cloud from our hearts and our minds are illumined by the clear light of God.
Source: The Heresy of Perfectionism (Ligonier article)
The true extent of human sinfulness is measured against the standard and norm of God’s perfection and holiness.
That is the true extent of our sinfulness when judged by the standard and the norm of God’s perfection and holiness.
Source: How Sinful Is Man? (Ligonier article)
Christian adults should be naive in their practice of evil, even though they are called to be fully mature in their understanding.
We as Christian adults should be naive in our practice of evil even as we are called to be fully mature in our understanding.
Source: Love and Maturity: What the Corinthians Got Wrong (Ligonier article)
Sin has seriously disturbed and corrupted the faculty of thinking, leading to a natural antipathy toward loving God.
The faculty of thinking, with which we reason, has been seriously disturbed and corrupted by the fall. In our natural, unregenerate state, there is some-thing dramatically wrong with our minds.
Source: Loving God with Our Minds (Ligonier article)
Fallen man lacks the moral ability to come to Christ and cannot choose Christ while remaining unregenerate.
As long as he remains in the flesh, unregenerate, he will never choose Christ. He cannot choose Christ precisely because he cannot act against his own will. He has no desire for Christ.
Source: John 3:16 and Man’s Ability to Choose God (Ligonier article)
Myths are not inherently bad or harmful; they are a peculiar art form used to convey an important message, but passing them off as real history constitutes fraud.
Myths are not necessarily bad or harmful. Every society creates myths. They are a peculiar art form invented usually to convey a message that is deemed important by the people. When a myth is passed off as real history, that is fraud.
Source: Marley and His Message to Scrooge (Ligonier article)
While myths are not inherently bad, passing them off as real history constitutes fraud.
When a myth is passed off as real history, that is fraud. But when it serves a different purpose it can be healthy and virtuous.
Source: Marley and His Message to Scrooge (Ligonier article)
The simplistic answer that Adam fell by his own free will is insufficient because it raises unresolved theological questions about the source of sin.
The simplistic answer, commonly heard, is that Adam fell by his own free will. Such an answer is satisfying until we probe the question more deeply.
Source: The Meaning of God’s Will (Ligonier article)
Humans are inherently sinful and incapable of achieving righteousness on their own.
There is none righteous—not one. Who believes that apart from Jesus not a single human being, without exception, is righteous. Not a single unregenerate person can be found who understands God.
Source: None Righteous (Ligonier article)
Pelagius argued that Adam's sin affected only Adam, meaning there was no change in the constituent nature of the human race.
▷ A view Sproul explains or critiques — not his own position.
It was the position of Pelagius that Adam’s sin affected Adam and only Adam. That is to say, as a result of Adam’s transgression there was no change wrought in the constituent nature of the human race.
Source: The Pelagian Controversy (Ligonier article)
After the fall, humans retain the ability to choose what they want, but their choices are significantly influenced by the bondage of sin.
After the fall, Augustine said the will, or the faculty, of choosing remained intact; that is, human beings are still free in the sense that they can choose what they want to choose. However, their choices are deeply influenced by the bondage of sin that holds them in a corrupt state.
Source: The Pelagian Controversy (Ligonier article)
The restoration of moral liberty requires God's supernatural work of grace in the soul, which is linked to the issue of moral inability caused by original sin.
The only way that moral liberty could be restored would be through God’s supernatural work of grace in the soul. This renewal of liberty is what the Bible calls a “royal” liberty (James 2:8). Therefore, the crux of the matter had to do with the issue of moral inability as the heart of original sin.
Source: The Pelagian Controversy (Ligonier article)
When the church fails to discipline its members for serious sins, the community becomes infected with the immorality of secular culture.
When the church fails to discipline its members for gross and heinous sins, particularly sins of a public nature, that community becomes infected with the immorality of the secular culture.
Source: The Perils Facing the Evangelical Church (Ligonier article)
Modern culture has shifted the standard of human truth from intellectual thought to subjective feelings.
In former days when we wanted to know a person's views on a particular topic, we would pose the question like this: “What do you think about that?” Now the question is usually stated differently: “What do you feel about that?”
Source: Pessimistic Existentialism (Ligonier article)
When human beings lack fixed, objective standards of right and wrong, it leads to problematic outcomes, such as the commodification of children.
Here we see the logical results of what happens when human beings have no fixed, objective standard of right and wrong.
Source: Principles and Situations (Ligonier article)
Voting based on personal financial gain or taxing others is unethical and constitutes sin.
Anytime you vote a tax on somebody else that is not a tax on yourself, you're stealing from your brother. And though the whole world does it and though it's common practice in the United States of America, a Christian shouldn't be caught dead voting to fill his own pocketbook at the expense of someone else.
Source: Principles for Voting (Ligonier article)
All choices, whether sexual or nonsexual, have consequences, and humans are responsible for those consequences.
It is an axiom of ethics and of law that we are responsible for the consequences of our choices.
Source: What Does “Pro-Choice” Mean? (Ligonier article)
Evil is parasitic because it requires the prior standard of the good for its very definition.
Nothing can be said to be evil without the prior standard of the good.
Source: The Problem of Pain (Ligonier article)
The corruption resulting from the fall affects the root or core of humanity, impacting every part of our character and being.
Radical corruption means that the fall from our original state has affected us not simply at the periphery of our existence. It is not something that merely taints an otherwise good personality; rather, it is that the corruption goes to the radix, to the root or core of our humanity, and it affects every part of our character and being.
Source: Radical Corruption (Ligonier article)
The consequences of the fall are not limited to the first sin committed by Adam and Eve, but rather apply to all future generations of mankind.
When we speak of the fall and of original sin, we are not speaking of the first sin committed by Adam and Eve, we are speaking of the radical consequences of that sin, which followed to all future generations of mankind.
Source: Radical Corruption (Ligonier article)
After the fall, humanity loses the ability to keep from sinning and the ability to keep from dying.
since the fall, man no longer has the posse non peccare or the posse non mori . All human beings now have lost the natural ability to keep from sinning and thus to keep from dying.
Source: Radical Corruption (Ligonier article)
The view that reprobation is decreed in light of the fall safeguards the biblical principle that God is neither the cause nor the author of sin.
God’s decree of reprobation, given in light of the fall, is a decree to justice, not injustice. In this view, the biblical a priori that God is neither the cause nor the author of sin is safeguarded.
Source: The Reformed View of Predestination (Ligonier article)
It is not surprising when Christian leaders fall into serious sin because the capacity for evil is nearly limitless in the heart.
We ought not to be too shocked when we see Christian leaders falling into serious sin. We have the power of a new life, but that doesn’t automatically erase our pre-conversion tendencies
Source: Regeneration: The Most Significant Beginning (Ligonier article)
Giving license to sin is not an act of freedom, but rather a form of enslavement.
To give license to sin is not to free people, but to enslave them.
Source: The Revolution That Enslaves (Ligonier article)
Conflict and quarrels originate from the fallenness of our hearts, specifically from covetousness.
James says that these quarrels, fights, disputes, and contentions come from within, from the fallenness of our hearts. The motivation for these conflicts is envy, or covetousness, which is a transgression we rarely hear about in our own day.
Source: The Secret to a Happy Life (Ligonier article)
The defeat of Israel was a direct result of the disobedience and sin of one man, Achan, which caused God's anger against the entire nation.
And one man in the army disobeyed. Achan succumbed to the temptation to line his own pockets with the spoils from the victory at Jericho. And because of one man's sin, God held the whole nation of Israel accountable.
Source: Seeing Is Not Always Believing (Ligonier article)
Socrates warned that the triumph of sophism would lead to the end of civilization because it undermines truth and moral norms.
Socrates came into this environment and said that if sophism triumphs in our culture, it will be the end of civilization because this kind of skepticism, this kind of superficial persuasion, rips life out of the context of truth.
Source: Socrates or Sophism? (Ligonier article)
The core sin of humanity is the attempt to seize authority for oneself, which is an attack on God's authority.
The primal sin of Adam and Eve could be described as the grasping for autonomy. They sought to take for themselves the authority that belonged only to God.
Source: The Divine Foundation of Authority (Ligonier article)
God's inability to sin stems from the fact that God has no inner desire to sin.
God’s inability to sin is based not on an inner powerlessness of God to do what he wants, but rather on the fact that God has no inner desire to sin.
Source: The Meaning of Man’s Will (Ligonier article)
After the fall, man has lost the moral liberty he once enjoyed, though he retains free will.
Since the fall, man has continued to have a free will, but has lost the moral liberty he once enjoyed.
Source: The Meaning of Man’s Will (Ligonier article)
The speaker finds the attempt to explain sin as a good desire being misused or abused to achieve an evil end insufficient.
At its most vital point, the explanation does not account for how this good desire could have become distorted, overruling the prior obligation to obey God. At some point before the act of transgression took place, Adam must have had to desire disobedience to God more than obedience to God; therein the Fall had already taken place because the very desire to act against God in disobedience is itself sinful.
Source: The Meaning of Man’s Will (Ligonier article)
The core issue of sin is fundamentally moral, asserting that man chose to sin out of his own heart, rather than being forced by God or anyone else.
Biblically, the issue has been, and always will be, a moral one. Man was commanded by the Creator not to sin, but man chose to sin, not because God or anyone else forced him to. Man chose out of his own heart.
Source: The Meaning of Man’s Will (Ligonier article)
While the cause of sin is a deep mystery that cannot be fully explained, humanity must recognize and confess its reality and personal responsibility for it.
Consequently, to probe the answer to the how of man’s sin is to enter the realm of deepest mystery. Perhaps all we can do in the final analysis is to recognize the reality of our sin and our responsibility for it.
Source: The Meaning of Man’s Will (Ligonier article)
The Bible states that people love darkness because their actions are evil.
John 3:19 says, “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”
Source: The Midnight Trial (Ligonier article)
When humanity attempts to make itself the final moral authority, it must distort the conscience to justify its actions.
To do that, we must distort the conscience, and, in essence, make man the final authority in life. All one has to do is to adjust his conscience to suit his ethic.
Source: The Question of Conscience (Ligonier article)
The fall corrupted human nature, weakening the mind and ability to think.
Our minds, likewise, are fallen, and our very ability to think has been severely weakened by the fall.
Source: Thinking Like Jesus (Ligonier article)
Despite being fallen, humans retain the ability to think and reason in an orderly and logical manner.
However, the fact that we are fallen does not mean that we no longer have the ability to think. We are all prone to error, but we also can learn to reason in an orderly, logical, and cogent fashion.
Source: Thinking Like Jesus (Ligonier article)
The human will, even in a fallen state, is not independently able to choose between good and evil, but is in bondage to sin.
It ignores the biblical revelation that though we have the power of choosing, our choices are in bondage to sin.
Source: What Does It Mean That God Is Sovereign? (Ligonier article)
While sin may harm people, its ultimate offense is against God because He is the only perfect being.
But David understands that sin ultimately is an offense against God, because God is the only perfect being in the universe.
Source: What Does Repentance Look Like? (Ligonier article)
People often sin out of ignorance because they have neglected to soberly and diligently study God's things, which are readily accessible.
Sometimes we sin in ignorance. We sin in ignorance because we have neglected a sober, diligent study of the things of God, things that God has made perfectly clear and readily accessible to us.
Source: What Is the Unpardonable Sin? (Ligonier article)
The unforgivable sin is committed by a person who, after receiving the Holy Spirit's revelation that Jesus is the Christ, accuses Jesus of being satanic.
If the Holy Spirit has opened your eyes and caused you to see that Jesus is the Christ, and then, after knowing by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is the Son of God, you accuse Jesus of being satanic, you have now committed the unforgivable sin.
Source: What Is the Unpardonable Sin? (Ligonier article)
The curse of a fallen world affects all aspects of human life, including labor, business, and relationships.
In this present darkness, the curse extends to the end of the earth— to our lives, to our labors, to our businesses, to our relationships.
Source: When All Things Are Made New (Ligonier article)
Augustinianism asserts that man is so fallen that he is totally dependent upon God's grace, even for his initial response to the gospel.
Augustinianism says that man is so seriously fallen that he is totally dependent upon the grace of God, even for his initial response to the gospel, even for the very cooperating and assenting to the gospel of Christ in the first place.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 13:36
Understanding the biblical account of creation and the fall of man is crucial for grasping the Christian understanding of sin, death, and the necessity of redemption.
it gives us the biblical and theological explanation for the fall of man, for the reality of sin, for the reality of death in this world, for the very need for redemption in the first place, I mean, it's crucial to the Christian faith and theology that we understand properly the biblical idea of creation and fall.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 9:33
God cannot be the author of sin, which means He cannot force Pharaoh to sin and then punish him for that sin.
But if He does that, then what? How could God, if He's just and righteous, force Pharaoh to sin and then punish him for that sin? That would make God the author of sin, which is an absolute no-no, biblically.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 28:17
Reuben's sin of sleeping with his father's concubine caused him to lose his expected inheritance and blessing.
But in the middle of this description of the character of Reuben, he says after "excelling in honor, excelling in power," he says, "turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel for you went up onto your father's bed, onto my couch and you defiled it."
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 3:23
Lying is a shortcoming and a sin that every human being is capable of committing.
Beloved, there are lots of things that George Washington couldn't do, but one of those things that he couldn't do was not tell a lie. George Washington is a fallen, was, a fallen human being. And, one thing that every fallen human being is eminently capable of doing is telling a lie.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 3:29
The Bible teaches that all men are liars, and lying is a sin that everyone has committed.
The Scriptures tell us, in fact, that all men are liars. It's not the same thing as saying that all men lie every time they open their mouths. But lying is one of those shortcomings, one of those sins that every one of us has committed during our lifetime.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:07
The text distinguishes between physical calamities (like hurricanes or floods) and moral evil or sin, noting that the former are not equivalent to the latter.
We don't attribute sin to hurricanes; we don't attribute sin to tornadoes or to floods, do we?
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 12:20
While Satan tempts, his most damaging work in a Christian's life is the accusation of sin.
But perhaps his most devastating work in the life of the Christian is the work of accusation. Satan is the slanderer. He's the one who comes and calls attention to our sins.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 18:22
While humans are free from external coercion, they are not free from their own sinful inclinations and desires, making them slaves to their impulses.
We’re free from coercion, but we don’t have what Augustin called royal liberty. We’re not free from ourselves. We’re not free from our own sinful inclinations and our sinful appetites and our sinful desires. We’re slaves to our sinful impulses.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:00
Because humans make decisions within a 'prison of sin,' divine intervention is necessary for them to be set free.
But the Bible teaches us that we are fallen creatures who still choose and make decisions, but we make them in the context of our prison of sin. And the only way we can get out of that prison is if God sets us free.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 3:27
David's fall into sin was as dramatic as his great exploits, involving him having an adulterous relationship with Bathsheba.
That David’s fall into sin is as dramatic as his great exploits were in the other direction. And we read of that case in his history where, while he was, uh, king, he went out onto his balcony of his palace, and he looked across the way, and he saw this beautiful woman bathing on her rooftop, assuming that she was bathing in private. And David saw this woman in her nakedness and was overcome with sensuous lust, and he just had to have this woman, and so he sent his messengers and summoned her to the royal palace and entered into an adulterous relationship with this woman, Bathsheba.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:05
The tendency of humanity is to justify sin and rationalize evil actions.
We are the people. We are the men. We are the woman who are guilty of this same kind of behavior. Of nurturing sin and staying with that sin, and saying within ourselves, and saying all ways in which we can justify it, and make our evil sound like it’s actually good.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 11:02
Repeated sin causes the conscience to become hardened, much like calluses forming on working hands.
We allow callouses to form on our conscience, so that the conscience becomes seared.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 11:02
The fallen nature of man means that what is born of the flesh is merely flesh, and the flesh is incapable of profiting anything, including eternal salvation.
And elsewhere He tells us that the flesh profits - what? Nothing. But if we believe that God entices us to Christ, and all we have to do in the flesh prior to our regeneration is cooperate, or assent to that, if we can in fact cooperate and assent to prevenient grace, to the end that we enter into the Kingdom of God and are redeemed forever. And we're doing that while we're still in the flesh, then I ask you, what would the flesh profit? Not just something - everything! Your eternal salvation!
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 25:50
True Christians can experience serious falls in sin, but these falls are never total or final.
And that's why we say that true Christians can have radical and serious falls but never total and final falls from grace.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 12:05
The human tongue has the power to severely damage another person's self-perception and self-worth.
The human tongue can devastate another person.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 10:03
Despite sinfulness, human beings retain tremendous value and dignity that must be protected.
And remember when we speak of sinners and of human corruption, we’re talking about the fall of a creature who was created good, and our being created in the image of God is not annihilated or erased even by our sinfulness. There’s still tremendous value to human beings.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:00
Paul's statements indicate that man's previous state was characterized by sin and following the course of the world, not God's way.
But again, he says that this was our previous state, that we "were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked." How did we walk? We walked according to the course of this world. We walked the way the world walks, which is not in the way that God would have us to walk.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 5:00
The speaker asserts that acts of vandalism, which provide no benefit, are evidence of a fallen nature.
What Augustine was lamenting was the exercise of his fallen nature, of his flesh for the sheer joy of doing it.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 9:34
The consequences of sin and lawlessness are severe, leading to the land mourning and the people wasting away.
Killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break all restraint. Godlessness, lawlessness, bloodshed upon bloodshed, therefore, the land mourns, and everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea will be taken away.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 5:19
Semi-Pelagianism taught that man is fallen to such a degree that he cannot redeem himself without the assistance of grace.
Semi-Pelagianism taught this, that man is fallen to such a degree that he can't redeem himself without the assistance of grace.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 37:07
Man's vocation and task became exceedingly difficult after the fall due to the entrance of sin into the world.
Just as woman’s vocation is now made difficult by the advent of sin in the world, so is man’s task and his vocation made exceedingly difficult by the entrance of sin into the world.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:46
Sin places humanity in a state of moral indebtedness because they failed to keep the obligations that God had rightfully placed upon them.
when God responds to the act of transgression, which is an offense against His nature, it's an act of lawlessness against God as the supreme judge of the universe, it places man in a status of moral indebtedness because man failed to keep the obligations that God rightfully opposed upon him.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:08
Death is not a natural occurrence but a supernatural penalty imposed by God upon humanity because of sin.
death is a penalty that God has given to the human race because of sin.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 20:01
Because humanity is sinful, death is a necessary consequence, even for Christians.
And it is because we are sinners that we must die, and even though we have been promised life after death…and death for the Christian is not the same as death for the unbeliever because for us it's a transition, a moving to something greater than we have here.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 25:52
Embracing the doctrine of total depravity makes the other four points of the five-point system easier to accept because they become corollaries of the first point.
I say it for this reason that there's one sense in which if a person really embraces what is called the doctrine of total depravity, the other four points in this five-point system more or less fall in line; they become duck soup and corollaries, more or less of this first point.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 6:16
The doctrine of original sin does not refer to the first sin of Adam and Eve, but rather defines the consequences of that first sin for the human race.
Some people just assume that the term original sin must refer to the first sin--the original, the original that we've all copied in many different ways in our own lives that is the first sin of Adam and Eve. But that's not what is referred to historically in the church by the doctrine of original sin. Rather, the doctrine of original sin defines the consequences to the human race of that first sin.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 9:53
The human race fell as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve, resulting in a nature influenced by the power of evil.
And virtually every church historically that has had a creed or a confession has agreed that something very serious happened to the human race as a result of the first sin that the first sin produced original sin. That is, as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve the entire human race fell, and so that our nature as human beings since the fall is a nature that has been influenced by the power of evil.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 10:27
The Reformed view asserts that sin penetrates to the core of human existence, originating from the heart.
The Reformed view says that the fall extends, penetrates to the core. The word that is used for core actually is a translation from the Latin word core, which means what? Heart. That is the idea is that our sin is something that comes from our hearts.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 20:46
When someone sins against us, we should interpret that sin in the best possible light rather than assuming malicious intent.
What Paul is getting at here is that we are to give other people what is called the judgment of charity. Not that we're supposed to be naïve, we know that people really sin, but what we tend to do is that we think that when somebody sins against us, we look at that sin as if it's been motivated by the worst of all possible motivations, like that person stayed up at night thinking of ways that they could injure us, when that is rarely the case.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 19:39
Uzzah's sin was not related to the dirt, but rather the assumption that his own hands were cleaner than the earth.
But we say, "So wait a minute. Why did he do it? His motive was pure. He was trying to preserve the throne of God from being desecrated by the mud" -- that the presumptuous sin of Uzzah was this ladies and gentlemen: He assumed that his hands were less polluted than the dirt.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 14:07
All sin was viewed in creation as a capital offense, not merely a spiritual death later in life.
All sin was viewed in creation as a capital offense and not that this punishment would be death sometime after you've had your threescore and ten, but what are the terms of creation? "The day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 20:51
The curse resulting from the fall of man affects the entire creation, causing the whole universe to groan.
You can’t get beyond the boundaries of the curse, because in the fall of man, the whole creation groans together in travail. Why is nature groaning? Because the whole universe is under a curse because of sin.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:00
Sproul asserts that the belief that sin is merely a matter of ignorance or wrong knowledge is incorrect.
Even Socrates believed that sin was simply a matter of ignorance, of wrong knowledge.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:00
When Christ bore the sins of humanity, he became a receptacle for all corporate wickedness.
for that moment in history, at that instant that Jesus was hanging on the cross, He was the most obscene thing in all of creation because there concentrated was the corporate wickedness of us all.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:00
The man of sin (the lawless one) will be revealed only after a period of falling away, and his coming will involve deception and unrighteousness.
Let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 8:54
The man of sin or lawlessness is defined by two characteristics: opposing Christ and claiming to be worshiped as God.
He first of all opposes Christ. He is against Christ. He is antichrist. And second of all, he exalts himself above all that is God and claims the right to be worshiped and so on.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 14:18
The natural state of fallen humanity is characterized by estrangement, enmity, and hostility toward God.
the Biblical view of the natural state of fallen humanity is one of estrangement, of enmity, of hostility that beats within the heart of fallen man towards God.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 9:44
From a Christian perspective, man in his fallen state is not neutral regarding God's things, but possesses a bias toward wickedness.
from a biblical perspective, from a Christian view, man in his fallenness, is not seen as being in a state of neutrality with respect to the things of God. He does have a prejudice; he does have a bias. He does have an inclination, and his inclination is toward wickedness and away from the things of God.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 8:21
In his fallen state, man lacks the moral ability to achieve perfection because he is born in sin.
And what Edwards is saying is that in his fallen state, he no longer has the ability in and of himself morally to be perfect because he is born in sin, in original sin.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 27:09
The Bible teaches that fallen men are in bondage to sin and have lost some dimension of moral liberty.
The Bible speaks of fallen men as being in bondage to sin. And those who are in bondage have lost some dimension of moral liberty.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 28:29
Sin originates from a corruption within the person's desires and inclinations.
There is something wrong inside of us, in where our desires, our inclinations reside.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 29:24
The modern age is characterized by a crisis regarding the nature of truth itself.
And what this has done, ladies and gentlemen, has provoked a crisis of unprecedented magnitude regarding probably the most fundamental of all human intellectual questions—the question of the nature of truth itself.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 5:17
The idea that the universe originated by chance is flawed because chance lacks the power to cause anything.
I said, 'Are you telling me that the power supply for everything that is, the Big Bang of the entire universe, that it was ultimately caused by chance?' And he said, 'Yes.' I said, 'That's amazing!' I said, 'Don't you realize that chance can't do anything?'
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 31:25
Every Christian possesses sin and moral failings, which they often try to hide from others.
every one of us has filthy garments. There is some filth in your life. There’s filth in my life, and we don’t want to go around and parade that garbage in front of everybody else in the world.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 13:53
God views what humanity considers normal or commonplace as unholy and evil.
What we call normal, God normally calls evil when judged against the character of His holiness.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:00
God never stated that humanity is permitted a limited number of mistakes or sins.
Where did God ever say, “You can all have one mistake. One free sin. One free act of treason against My authority. One free insult to My integrity.” He never said that, did He?
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:00
Abortion is profoundly wrong, sinful, and a monstrous evil that incurs real guilt.
As I said, I am profoundly convinced that abortion is not only wrong, it’s not only a sin, it's not only evil, it's a monstrous evil.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 21:47
The most dangerous aspect of sin is the tendency to treat it as commonplace and casual, which minimizes its true gravity.
But one of the most serious dimensions of sin is its commonplaceness and the casualness with which we experience it and overlook it.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 3:34
The fundamental sin of man is desiring the benefits that only God can provide, but failing to desire God Himself.
But the fundamental sin of man, biblically, is that man wants the benefits that only God can give, but he does not want God Himself.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 1:56
The most egregious sin is blaspheming God by accusing Him of being unjust.
I can't think of too many sins, if there are any, more egregious than to blaspheme God by accusing God of being unjust.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 16:48
The mystery of original sin is that God holds humanity guilty and accountable for what their perfect representative did in the Garden of Eden.
the mystery of original sin as Paul develops it in Romans five in the New Testament is that God holds us guilty and accountable for what our perfect representative did in our behalf in the Garden of Eden.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 21:32
Repentance must address not only sinful actions but also the underlying corrupt nature of the individual.
we need to repent, not only for bearing corrupt fruit, but for being corrupt trees.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 22:47
When measured against the standard of divine perfection, humanity cannot claim to be basically good.
But if we analyze ourselves against the standard of divine perfection, then it would be silly for us call ourselves basically good in comparison to God, and according to His law.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:48
Humanism is fundamentally flawed because it claims human dignity and value without providing any metaphysical basis for those claims.
And yet, if you ask that same humanist, "From whence cometh human dignity?" he has no possible answer, because the same time that the humanist is telling you how important and valuable and dignified human beings are, the humanist tells us that man emerged from the slime as a cosmic accident, and he is moving relentlessly to non-being.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 19:50
The Christian worldview teaches that humanity is totally depraved, making man the worst creature and the source of the world's ruin.
The Christian worldview teaches that man is totally depraved. That mankind is the most wicked creature on this planet, apart from the visitations of Satan himself here. That of all the creatures that inhabit this world, man is the worst.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 23:13
The nineteenth-century view that man is free from accountability to God is presented as a negative development.
The good news of nineteenth-century philosophy was that man is no longer accountable to God.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 0:24
God's justice dictates that every sin is inherently a capital offense, meaning that if He strictly followed it, humanity would have been executed long ago.
Hans Küng reminds us that in creation, in creation, every sin is a capital offence. God said at the beginning, "The soul that sins shall die." And if God were to treat the human race strictly according to His justice, every one of us would've been executed a long time ago.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 14:16
The Westminster Confession states that man has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation.
Man by his fall into a state of sin hath wholly" --that's w-h-o-l-l-y-- "hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 1:56
The doctrine of total depravity asserts that man's moral power to do certain things, specifically converting himself or willing spiritual good, has been completely lost.
And that certain thing that is in view here is that man has lost the ability to convert himself or to will on his own steam any spiritual good.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 3:15
Semi-Pelagianism taught that while man is born with a corrupt nature, a vestigial remnant of original righteousness remains, allowing the will to cooperate with or reject divine grace.
but that corrupt nature leaves what I'm going to call a kind of island of righteousness by which there still remains a vestigial remnant of the original righteousness that though this person needs the help of divine grace in order to be saved, in order to be made holy, nevertheless there remains a power within the will of the creature that can cooperate with the grace or God or reject the grace of God.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 4:56
Due to total depravity, humanity is morally unable to choose God or Christ, being slaves to their own desires.
And what original sin teaches in the doctrine of moral inability found under the rubric of total depravity means that we are slaves to our own desires, and by nature we have no desire for Christ or for the things of God.
Source: R.C. Sproul @ 20:34
After the first transgression, humanity became fugitives, characterized by a profound sense of shame and embarrassment.
As soon as they first sinned, the Bible tells us that their eyes were opened and they realized they were naked, and they were embarrassed about it.
Source: Abraham Justified Before Circumcision (Ligonier)
God's Word is true regardless of human agreement, and doubting it is a moral failure stemming from sin.
God does not need your agreement for His Word to be true. I can disbelieve everything God has ever said, and all that does is make me a fool and a sinner that cannot contradict the trustworthiness of God Himself.
Source: The Angel & Zacharias (Part 3) (Ligonier)
Paul distinguishes between man-pleasing, which is a sin that compromises the gospel, and the Christian duty to please one's neighbor.
Paul is clearly talking about two completely different types of pleasing others. In Galatians, he is talking about a sin by which the church has been laid waste countless times in history, where the gospel of God has been compromised or distorted for the sake of man-pleasing. We know that the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing.
Source: Bearing Others' Burdens (Ligonier)
Sin is a specific type of evil, but the concept of evil encompasses many things besides moral failure in human behavior.
The difference between evil and sin is the difference between genus and species. All sin is evil, but not all evil is sin.
Source: Behave Like a Christian (Part 2) (Ligonier)
Theologically, sin is defined as a lack or negation, specifically the failure to obey a command or prohibition of God.
Sin is defined as the failure to obey a command or prohibition of God Himself. Historically, the concept of evil has been defined by the great minds of the church, such as Thomas Aquinas and Saint Augustine, as a negation or a privation.
Source: Behave Like a Christian (Part 2) (Ligonier)
Christians are not supposed to retaliate or get even when they are victims of sin, as this is a manifestation of moral evil.
Paul says, “No, that is not the way the Christian life is to be.” We are not supposed to return evil for evil.
Source: Behave Like a Christian (Part 2) (Ligonier)
Revenge itself is not inherently evil, but assuming something that does not belong to us is what is evil.
Revenge is not a bad thing. Revenge is a good thing. If revenge were a bad thing, then not only would it be evil for us to seek revenge, but it would be equally or even more evil for God to seek revenge. But revenge, in and of itself, is not evil. What is evil is when we assume for ourselves something that does not belong to us.
Source: Behave Like a Christian (Part 2) (Ligonier)
The greatest danger to humanity is falling into the hands of the living God while still living in sin.
There’s no worse catastrophe that could ever befall you than to fall into the hands of the living God while you’re still in your sin.
Source: The Benedictus (Part 3) (Ligonier)
Betrayal is a deeply sickening act that is one of the ways humans sin against God and each other.
There are all kinds of ways in which we sin against God and each other, but when the word betrayal comes up, there is something sickening about it, and we respond to it in our gut.
Source: Betrayed (Ligonier)
Sin has damaged humanity so deeply that our moral state is one of inability, meaning we lack the moral capacity to incline ourselves toward God.
our humanity has been so damaged by the fall that our moral state by nature is one that Augustine described as a state of moral inability . The idea of moral inability is that we have been plunged so deeply into sin that we do not have the moral capacity in and of ourselves to incline ourselves in any way to the things of God.
Source: Christ in Our Place (Ligonier)
The 'body of sin' refers to a mass or whole corpus of sin, not merely the physical body.
Paul does not equate sin with physicality. We have a tendency never to have gotten rid of our Greek roots, and we tend to think of sins simply in terms of physical appetites and physical acts of disobedience, gluttony, sex, drunkenness, and things along those lines that immediately involve our body.
Source: Dead to Sin, Alive to God (Part 2) (Ligonier)
Adam brought sin into the world, and consequently, death came upon the entire human race.
One man brought sin: Adam. With that sin came death, and death came on the whole human race because all have sinned, but not up to the similitude of Adam’s sin.
Source: Death in Adam, Life in Christ (Ligonier)
Reason requires positing a universal fall into ruin if the Bible does not explicitly teach it.
He essentially said: “If the Bible never taught a universal plunge into ruin of the human race at the beginning in Adam, if there was no such word of the fall in the Scripture, reason would require that we posit such an event. How else could we explain the universality of sin in the human race?”
Source: Death in Adam, Life in Christ (Ligonier)
The reason humanity is universally sinful is because we are born in a fallen state, not merely due to external corrupting influences.
No, the reason it is 100 percent is because we are born in a fallen state. In Adam come sin, death, and destruction into the whole world.
Source: Death in Adam, Life in Christ (Ligonier)
While Paul's statement that nothing is unclean of itself does not mean everything is inherently evil, specific actions like adultery and murder are inherently evil.
When Paul says “there is nothing unclean of itself,” he is not saying that nothing in the world is inherently evil. Adultery is inherently evil. Murder is inherently evil.
Source: Do Not Cause Another To Stumble (Ligonier)
The controversies surrounding original sin arise when defining its specific contents and depths.
However, when we begin to define the contents of original sin, the depths of original sin, that is when the controversies emerge.
Source: The Doctrine of Imputation (Ligonier)
A baby born with original sin does not bear the weight of actual sin because actual sin requires a conscious awareness and violation of the law.
A baby in the crib, though it bears the weight of original sin, does not bear the weight of the guilt of actual sin, because actual sin requires a conscious awareness of right and wrong and an actual violation of law.
Source: The Doctrine of Imputation (Ligonier)
Actual sin requires a conscious understanding of right and wrong and a physical violation of law.
actual sin requires a conscious awareness of right and wrong and an actual violation of law.
Source: The Doctrine of Imputation (Ligonier)
God is inherently holy and cannot tolerate sin, which creates a state of estrangement from humanity.
He is a holy God, so holy that He cannot bear to look at iniquity. There is a basic revulsion in the very character of God for those of us who are engaged in cosmic treason every day of our lives.
Source: Faith Triumphs in Trouble (Part 2) (Ligonier)
Jesus was born without original sin, arriving in the human dimension in the likeness of sinful flesh.
Jesus is born without original sin. Jesus is born as Adam was before the fall. Jesus is not in prison and bondage to a corrupt nature at the moment of His arrival into this world.
Source: Free from Indwelling Sin (Ligonier)
The speaker asserts that modern Christians have not begun to grasp the true weight of sin or the depth of their spiritual fall.
We have not begun to understand how far short we have fallen of the glory of God. We live in the most narcissistic age in Christian history, in which the chief virtue of religion is to guarantee your self-esteem and to make sure that you are not brought low by a sinister and neurotic sense of guilt.
Source: Freed from the Law (Ligonier)
God gives human beings over to their vile passions, lust of the flesh, and reprobate minds.
Three times in Romans 1 we read about God’s giving human beings over to their vile passions, to the lust of the flesh, and to their reprobate minds.
Source: God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness (Ligonier)
When God judicially abandons humanity, people become slaves to their sinful impulses.
That is what happens in judicial abandonment. That is what happens when God gives us over to our sinful impulses so that we become slaves to the very things we want to do.
Source: God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness (Ligonier)
Homosexual behavior is fundamentally sinful because it is contrary to the created nature of humanity.
Not against culture, not against societal convention, Paul is saying that these actions are contra naturum , against the created nature itself.
Source: God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness (Ligonier)
God takes sin seriously because He knows how destructive it is to human life and relationships.
The reason God takes sin so seriously is not because He’s a bully or a killjoy and doesn’t want His creatures to have any fun. Rather, God knows how destructive sin is to the world, to relationships, friends, family, and marriages.
Source: God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness (Ligonier)
The list of sins provided by Paul is merely a representative sample of humanity's total corruption.
Notice all these negative terms: “undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.” Do you know the scary part about this list? It is only partial. It is merely representative of our corruption.
Source: God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness (Ligonier)
Even fallen humans possess a conscience that allows them to distinguish between good and evil.
we still know that God has planted a conscience in the mind of every creature made in His image that can discern the difference between good and evil.
Source: God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness (Ligonier)
The terms 'ungodliness' and 'unrighteousness' are not two separate sins, but two synonyms pointing to one basic, universal sin.
Paul is using a grammatical structure here that we find sporadically throughout the Bible, a structure called a hendiadys , which literally means “two for one,” where two distinct things are mentioned in the same breath but are synonyms pointing to one basic thing.
Source: God’s Wrath (Ligonier)
The specific sin that provokes God's wrath against humanity is the suppression of truth.
Paul says that His wrath is directed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, “who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” There it is. The single sin that provokes God’s wrath against the whole human race is the sin of suppressing truth.
Source: God’s Wrath (Ligonier)
The practice of simony, which involves the sale of ecclesiastical offices, was a major problem in the sixteenth-century church and a source of corruption that provoked the Reformation.
Simony was one of the great problems in the sixteenth-century church, which involved the sale of ecclesiastical offices to those with money and power. One of the great points of corruption that provoked the Reformation was the widespread practice of simony within the church, particularly among the Medici popes.
Source: The Gospel to Samaria (Ligonier)
Satan can work against nature (contra naturam) but cannot work against sin (contra peccatum).
While Satan can work contra naturam , they say, he cannot work contra peccatum , and that is what Jesus was saying in our text.
Source: A House Divided (Ligonier)
All people, regardless of background, are inherently under sin.
Jew and Greek, which means everyone, are under sin.
Source: The Indictment of the Jews and Gentiles (Ligonier)
Because humanity is fallen, it is in a state of complete inability to grasp or hold onto the truths of God.
If we as fallen creatures do not want to have God in our thinking, if we want to dismiss Him from our thinking and develop a worldview that suits our performance and ignores the Word of God, how could it be anything else but that we fall into a complete inability to grasp or lay hold of the truths of God?
Source: The Indictment of the Jews and Gentiles (Ligonier)
Human beings are inherently corrupt, with sin originating from the core of their being and manifesting through their speech.
The Word of God here says, in effect: “If I open your mouth and look down your throat, I see death. I see corruption, corruption that comes from the core of your being and then goes up your throat and out your mouth.”
Source: The Indictment of the Jews and Gentiles (Ligonier)
The twentieth century was the most violent century in recorded history because humanity has failed to know the way of peace.
Far and away the most violent century in recorded history was the twentieth century because the way of peace we have not known.
Source: The Indictment of the Jews and Gentiles (Ligonier)
While humans are naturally slaves to sin, liberation by the Holy Spirit leads to a new freedom, which is then expressed as being a slave to Christ.
Here is the paradox and the irony: When the New Testament describes our condition by nature, by birth as fallen people, we are described as slaves to sin. We are by nature in bondage to sin, bondservants of the flesh, and the only remedy for that according to the New Testament is to be liberated by the work of the Holy Spirit, for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So, everyone who is born of the Spirit is set free from slavery. When Christ sets you free from slavery to the flesh, He calls you to the royal liberty of being a slave to Him.
Source: Introduction (Ligonier)
The term 'sarx' refers to our fallen, corrupt nature, not merely our physical bodies.
Elsewhere in the New Testament, the term sarx , which is translated “flesh,” is loaded with theological content because it is used to describe our fallen, corrupt nature.
Source: Introduction (Ligonier)
God hardens a person's heart not by mere permission, but by a divine decision, which involves giving people over to their own sin.
He does so not by mere permission, but by a divine decision that we read of again and again, particularly in the book of the prophet Jeremiah, where God deals with impenitent sinners by giving them over to their own sin.
Source: Israel's Rejection & God's Justice (Part 2) (Ligonier)
God does not create people who are already wicked; rather, people are created good and then fall.
Paul is not teaching that God creates people already wicked. That flies in the face of everything the Scriptures teach us, especially the record of the fall. God creates people good, then they fall.
Source: Israel's Rejection & God's Justice (Part 2) (Ligonier)
The supralapsarian position is problematic because it violates the biblical principle that God is not the author or creator of sin.
The problem with the supralapsarian position is that you have the violation of the biblical a priori that God is not the author or creator of sin.
Source: Israel's Rejection & God's Justice (Part 3) (Ligonier)
The ultimate purpose of the fall was not for God to have wicked people to exercise His sovereign decrees and reprobation.
in a certain sense, if the fall happened, we know that God knew it was going to happen and we know He could have prevented it, but He chose not to prevent it, and not so that He could have a wicked batch of clay to exercise His sovereign decrees and reprobation.
Source: Israel's Rejection & God's Justice (Part 3) (Ligonier)
Fallen and lost mankind generally feels no need for Jesus, which is a tragic misunderstanding of the human predicament.
for the most part, fallen and lost mankind feels no need for Jesus. This is one of the most tragic misunderstandings of the human predicament to be found.
Source: Jairus' Daughter (Ligonier)
Jesus's prodigious knowledge at age twelve was possible because he was free from the influence of original sin.
Jesus didn’t have to rely on His divine nature to astound anybody. He could do it with His hands tied behind His back in His perfect humanity.
Source: Jesus in the Temple (Ligonier)
The greatest obscenity the world has ever beheld is Christ taking upon Himself the corporate sins of His people when He hangs on the tree.
But I really like the word obscene because there’s no better word to use to describe what sin is. When we look to the New Testament and we see that Christ receives the curse of God when He hangs on the tree, when He takes upon Himself the corporate sins of His people, that is the greatest obscenity the world has ever beheld.
Source: The Jews Are as Guilty as the Gentiles (Ligonier)
Fallen human beings often fail to understand the true sinfulness of their own actions, tending to spin indiscretions to make them appear virtuous.
We can spin our indiscretions and sins to make them appear virtuous, which is exactly the problem we face as fallen human beings.
Source: Judge Not… (Ligonier)
The human heart is inherently deceitful and wicked, leading people to commit heinous and destructive sins.
We can’t read the Bible without being clearly made aware that the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things. We do gross and heinous evil, and the machinations of our sins can be so wicked and destructive that they bring harm to multitudes of people.
Source: Judge Not… (Ligonier)
Abortion is not a minor sin but a monstrous crime deserving of eternal damnation.
Abortion is not just a small sin. It’s not a peccadillo. It’s not a minor transgression. It’s a monstrous crime, a crime worthy of eternal damnation.
Source: Judge Not… (Ligonier)
The imagery of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 compares the servant to a lamb, but this passage does not explicitly call him 'the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'
There in the imagery of Isaiah 53, you have the Suffering Servant being compared to a lamb. But He is still not called “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Source: The Lamb of God (Ligonier)
The individual struggles with sin, which dwells within them and causes them to do what they hate.
But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
Source: Law Cannot Save from Sin (Part 1) (Ligonier)
The speaker asserts that when bad actions are performed, it is not the person doing them, but sin dwelling within them.
Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
Source: Law Cannot Save from Sin (Part 2) (Ligonier)
The biblical view holds that while humans have the ability to choose what they want, this ability is fundamentally conditioned by the corruption of the heart, leading to sinful choices.
Calvin was saying that yes, we have free will in the sense that we have the ability to choose what we want, but that ability to choose what we want is not only mildly influenced but radically conditioned by the human corruption of our hearts, out of which flow the choices that we make.
Source: Law Cannot Save from Sin (Part 2) (Ligonier)
The essence of our fallen condition is that we determine our own sinful choices.
The essence of our fallen condition is that we determine our own sinful choices.
Source: Law Cannot Save from Sin (Part 2) (Ligonier)
The fallen man possesses a natural ability to please God, but lacks the moral ability to do so.
Context: Quoting Edwards' distinction regarding the will.
He said that fallen man has the natural ability to please God, but not the moral ability. That is a critical distinction.
Source: Law Cannot Save from Sin (Part 2) (Ligonier)
Sin is an inherent corruption that causes a struggle and bondage, even after regeneration.
Paul is essentially saying this: “Even though I, Paul, am the one who struggles in this manner, doing that which I do not want to do and failing to do what I should be doing, when I disobey and fail regarding the things of God, it is because of the sin that dwells within me.”
Source: Law Cannot Save from Sin (Part 3) (Ligonier)
Only an unregenerate person, still in the grip of original sin, cannot delight in the law of God according to the inward person.
No unregenerate person—no person still in the grip of original sin—delights in the law of God in the inward person.
Source: Law Cannot Save from Sin (Part 3) (Ligonier)
The man's possession was caused by a multitude of demonic spirits, not necessarily six thousand.
So, if you take this literally, the demonic being is saying, “Our name is Legion because there are six thousand of us in this man.” I doubt there were six thousand demons crammed into this one poor man. Rather, here we have another instance of hyperbole. The demon was saying: “We are so many that we are like a legion. There is a whole host of us.”
Source: Legion (Ligonier)
The sin related to borrowing money is not the act of incurring the debt, but rather the failure to repay or fulfill the obligation.
The point of the text, in the structure in which it was written, is this: If you borrow money, and you owe it, there is no sin in that. The sin comes when? When you do not pay it back, when you do not fulfill your obligation.
Source: Love Your Neighbor (Ligonier)
Paul's argument is that humanity is inexcusable because they continue to practice sins they know are worthy of death and encourage others to do them.
Yet in the universal rebellion of humanity, even though people know the sins they practice are worthy of death, they not only continue to practice them but encourage others to do them as well.
Source: Man Is without Excuse (Ligonier)
God considers every single sin committed in thought, word, and deed, and each one is exposed to perfect judgment.
God considers every single sin we commit in thought, word, and deed. Each one is exposed to His perfect judgment according to the truth.
Source: Man Is without Excuse (Ligonier)
Evil thoughts and sins originate from within the heart of man.
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.
Source: Defilement from Within (Part 2) (Ligonier)
Relying on human traditions and giving them more weight than Scripture is a dangerous theological error.
It is a temptation to believers in every age and in every Christian community to put our love lines to our own traditions and give them more exalted authority than the teaching of Scripture itself.
Source: Defilement from Within (Part 2) (Ligonier)
Jesus used the barren fig tree as an object lesson to expose the sin of hypocrisy, which was his primary critique of the Pharisees.
In this text, Jesus found an object that displayed the sin of hypocrisy. It had all the outward appearance of fruit, but it was empty. It was barren.
Source: The Fig Tree and the Temple (Ligonier)
The man in the text was unclean due to four specific factors: having demons, living in tombs, being in Gentile surroundings, and living among pigs.
So, there are four ways in which he was unclean: he was inhabited by demons, he lived in a cemetery, he lived among the gentiles, and he lived among the pigs.
Source: The Gadarene Demoniac (Ligonier)
The principle of bribery and corruption is dangerous because it can destroy the civic righteousness of a nation.
Context: Quoting Alexis de Tocqueville
He said that the principle of bribery and corruption can destroy the civic righteousness of a nation.
Source: God and Caesar (Ligonier)
The most serious sin is the failure to keep the Great Commandment, which is to love God and neighbor.
It seems to me that if this is the Great Commandment, then the great transgression would be the failure to keep it.
Source: The Great Commandment (Ligonier)
The motif of nakedness in Scripture is linked to the initial fall in Eden, where the awareness of shame and guilt began, and it is used by God to expose sin and judgment.
The motif begins back in the garden of Eden, where we are told that in creation, the man and woman were naked but without shame until sin came into their lives. The very first psychological self-awareness of guilt and shame was an uncomfortable awareness of nudity.
Source: Jesus' Arrest (Ligonier)
Sexual immorality encompasses more than just adultery, including situations like a sexual affair that falls short of adultery.
When a man has a sexual affair that comes short of adultery, he is still guilty of sexual immorality, and it doesn’t depend on what the meaning of “is” is.
Source: Marriage and Divorce (Ligonier)
The tax collector system was a corrupt and lucrative business that required individuals to sacrifice their Jewish identity and social standing.
All a Jewish person had to give up was his Jewish identity, social status, and membership in the synagogue, because if you were a Jewish tax collector in Israel, you were seen as a quisling, a traitor.
Source: New Wine Skins (Ligonier)
The early church faced the 'lapsi problem,' which involved those who betrayed their profession of faith and were traitors to the faith in the first century.
There were those who caved in. There were those who lapsed. There were those who betrayed their profession of faith. There were those who betrayed their friends, parents, brothers, and sisters to save their own lives. In a word, there were traitors to the faith in the first century, just as Jesus warned.
Source: The Olivet Discourse (Part 2) (Ligonier)
The primary function of government is to protect, sustain, and maintain human life, and failure to do so makes the government pagan or demonic.
The primary reason that government exists is to protect, sustain, and maintain human life. When a government willfully fails to do that, it has not only become pagan; it has become demonic.
Source: Mary's Visit to Elizabeth (Ligonier)
The modern caricature of the pastor is often depicted as weak, lacking manliness, and characterized by hypocrisy.
The chief caricature of the pastor in our land is that of a wimp, where there is no manliness and no strength, but only weakness and hypocrisy.
Source: Message from John the Baptist (Part 1) (Ligonier)
The national debt is a severe burden that will diminish purchasing power and savings through currency debasement.
If they do that, it’s going to cause more grief for you, because your currency will be continually debased, generation after generation. Your purchasing power, savings, and investments will diminish with every new dollar that’s printed.
Source: Message from John the Baptist (Part 2) (Ligonier)
The primary sin of humanity is distorting God's revelation and exchanging it for idols, which incurs God's wrath.
The primary sin of fallen humanity, as Paul tells us in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans, is that we universally take the plain, manifest revelation of God Himself and distort it, twist it, exchange it for a lie, and turn our attention to idols.
Source: No Other Name (Ligonier)
A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by thieves, stripped, robbed, and left for dead.
Jesus said that a single man was making the journey from Jerusalem to Jericho, and on the way, he fell among thieves. They attacked the man, stripped him of his clothing, took all his possessions, beat him, mugged him, and left him on the side of the road half-dead.
Source: The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Ligonier)
Most people are never content with what they have, which is why greed is considered a deadly sin.
Most of us are never content with what we have. We want more. No wonder greed is historically considered to be one of the seven deadly sins, and in one account the number one deadly sin.
Source: The Parable of the Rich Fool (Ligonier)
God can bring goodness out of human sin, even when the sin was motivated by selfish intent.
It is supremely difficult to conceive of the greatness and majesty of God’s sovereignty to the extent that God can even bring His goodness to pass through my wretched sin.
Source: Peter's Sermon - Part 2 (Ligonier)
While we are warned not to assume that every calamity is directly caused by a specific sin, we should not conclude that calamity is never a result of sin.
Even though we are warned in the book of Job and in John 9 never to assume that a calamitous event is directly related to a person’s sin, we should not conclude that calamity is never a result of sin.
Source: The Pool of Bethesda (Ligonier)
God does not send people to hell because of sin, but because the people themselves are an abomination to Him.
God does not send sin to hell at the judgment day. He sends people there because they are an abomination to Him.
Source: Pressing into the Kingdom (Ligonier)
The Bible uses the metaphor of darkness to describe sin, because by nature, people prefer darkness over light.
The Bible uses that metaphor to describe sin. By nature, we love darkness rather than the light, because our deeds are evil.
Source: Put on Christ (Ligonier)
The text Paul references warns against the lifestyle of the Bacchanalia, which involved unbridled sin and debauchery.
The Bacchanalia is what Paul has in view in this text. Augustine’s eyes fell upon the text, and it said, “Not in this debauchery, Augustine, not in this kind of lifestyle, not in this kind of hedonism, not in this kind of unrestrained licentiousness, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
Source: Put on Christ (Ligonier)
All generations are inherently evil because they are composed of corrupt human beings.
The Scriptures tell us that all generations are evil because all generations are made up of corrupt human beings.
Source: Seeking a Sign (Ligonier)
High self-esteem can be as damaging as unnecessary criticism because it can lead people to overestimate their abilities despite poor performance.
yet we can do equal damage by giving people a higher opinion of themselves than they should have.
Source: Serve God with Spiritual Gifts (Ligonier)
Sproul emphasizes that sin is not merely what enters a person's mouth, but what comes out.
Jesus said: “It’s not what goes in a man’s mouth that defiles a man. It’s what comes out.”
Source: A Simple Way to Pray (Ligonier)
The Reformers argued that an evil desire that leads to evil action is itself sin, not merely a precursor to sin.
The Reformers answered this by saying that an evil desire that gives birth to evil action is already sin.
Source: Sin's Advantage in the Law (Ligonier)
Before rebirth, humanity is enslaved by sin and lacks the moral power to incline themselves to God's things.
By nature, prior to our rebirth by the work of the Holy Ghost, we are in prison through our sinful impulses.
Source: From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God (Ligonier)
Paul asserts that sin no longer has dominion over believers, stating that this is a settled historical fact.
He says in verse 14: “For sin shall not have dominion over you.” That is a promise. It is in the indicative, not the imperative. Earlier Paul said this in the imperative: “Don’t let sin have dominion over you.” But now Paul speaks in the indicative, and he is saying, “This is your state of affairs now: Sin will not have dominion over you.”
Source: From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God (Ligonier)
By nature, humanity is in a state of exposure to death and destruction, similar to the people bitten by deadly snakes.
Apart from Christ, apart from the cross, we are as exposed to death and destruction as those Old Testament people who were bitten by deadly snakes.
Source: The Son of Man Must Be Lifted Up (Ligonier)
The basis for God's toleration of suffering and violence is the reality of human sin, not a lack of goodness on God's part.
What is missing from that oversimplified equation in the economy of grief and pain in this world is that the basis of God’s toleration of violence and suffering in this world, indeed, His actual ordaining of it, is the reality of human sin.
Source: From Suffering to Glory (Part 1) (Ligonier)
The whole creation will participate in the liberation from sin's consequences, mirroring how the created world suffered with human sin.
Just as the created world has suffered with our pain because of our sin, so the whole creation will participate in the liberation from the consequences of sin at the time of the manifestation of the children of God.
Source: From Suffering to Glory (Part 1) (Ligonier)
Coveting is a dangerous sin that can lead to ill will, envy, and destructive actions like slander.
What happens in coveting is that I become jealous of someone else’s possessions, stature in the community, or job. Because I am jealous, I begin to harbor ill will and envy in my heart against that person, and it can lead to vandalism, slander, and all kinds of terrible destruction.
Source: The Team of Barnabas and Saul (Ligonier)
The Sabeans and Chaldeans were inherently corrupt and had been coveting Job's possessions for years, rather than being innocent.
For one, it wasn’t like the Sabeans were righteous, innocent cowboys that loved nothing but goodness and truth. They had been coveting Job’s oxen and donkeys for years. They were cattle rustlers from the beginning.
Source: The Twelve Apostles (Part 3) (Ligonier)
Judas was corrupt and sinful from the beginning, even before meeting Jesus.
Judas was a devil from the beginning. Judas was an unregenerate, corrupt, treacherous, lying, thieving crook before he ever met Jesus.
Source: The Twelve Apostles (Part 3) (Ligonier)
Human depravity and sin darken the mind, making understanding Christ's true identity impossible without the Holy Spirit's intervention.
However, the heart of fallen man is so depraved and the mind so darkened by sin that, unless God the Holy Spirit opens our minds to the true understanding of Jesus Christ, we will never understand who He is.
Source: The Unforgivable Sin (Ligonier)
The process of canon formation involved a historical sifting process and human judgments, though he believes this process was not flawed.
We cannot avoid the reality that though God’s invisible hand of providence was certainly at work in the process, there was a historical sifting process and human judgments were made that could have been mistaken. But I don’t think this was the case.
Original sin is not an inherent necessity for being human, as evidenced by the fact that Adam was truly human before the fall and humanity will remain human in a glorified state.
The problem with that is this: Adam was truly human before the fall, and we will still be human in our glorified state in heaven when we are without sin. So, original sin is not an inherent necessity for humanness.
The primary problem with humanity is not intellectual ignorance of God's existence, but a moral opposition to the God they know exists.
Your problem is not that you don’t know that God exists; your problem is that you hate the God that you know exists. Your problem is, in the final analysis, not an intellectual one; it’s a moral one.
The element of 'descent into hell' in the Creed appears to be a later addition, causing controversy.
The earliest reference we can find to that “descent into hell” element of the Creed is around the middle of the third century. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t in the original—we don’t know when the original was written—but it seems to be a later addition and has caused no small amount of controversy ever since.
Source: What does the Apostles' Creed mean when it says that Jesus descended into hell? (Ligonier Q&A)
The problem of sin is that humans are debtors who cannot pay the debt owed to God, making it a hopeless task.
The problem we face, as we learn in the New Testament, is that we’re debtors who can’t file for Chapter 11. There’s no way we can pay the debt. It’s a hopeless task.
Source: What is the difference between sin, transgression, and iniquity? (Ligonier Q&A)
Suffering entered the world as a consequence of the fall of man and the subsequent sin.
The Scriptures tell us that suffering came into the world as a consequence of the fall of man and of creation; that is to say, it is because of sin that God has visited judgment upon this planet.
One must be careful not to assume that an individual person's specific disease or affliction is a direct result of a particular sin.
One warning that I have to raise at this point is that we dare not jump to the conclusion that an individual person’s particular disease or affliction is a direct result of some particular sin.