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Is
Man Good, Bad or Neutral? Anthropology
Research Paper Submitted
by Dave Lowe A
common perception in today's society is that mankind is basically good but
negatively influenced by the evils of society. This view is largely based on the
influences of liberal theology, which states not only that man is basically
good, but that through education and evolution, he is becoming even better. This
is in stark contrast to the Biblical view of the nature of humanity. This paper
will examine the Biblical view of the nature of humanity as described in
Ephesians 4:17-24. In particular, this paper will examine 4 different phrases in
the passage that will serve to refute the liberal assertion that man is
basically good and getting better with time. Ephesians
4:17-24 states: 17
This I say
therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as
the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in
their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance
that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having
become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of
every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn Christ in this
way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth
is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside
the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new
self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and
holiness of the truth. Paul
starts out with a command: "that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk".
Since the Ephesian church was comprised mainly of Gentile converts, it's clear
that Paul is referring to unregenerate Gentiles. Hence, what follows is a
description of the unregenerate man. This description will serve to help us
understand the nature of man in his fallen state. Specifically, 4 phrases in
this passage reveal the biblical view of the nature of humanity. FUTILITY
OF THEIR MIND First,
Paul describes the Gentiles as walking in the "futility of their
mind". The term "futility" has been variously translated as
"vanity" or "emptiness". Vines defines it as
"emptiness as to results". The idea however, is not that Gentile minds
are empty but as Vaughn puts it, "they are filled with things that lead to
nothing." The
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament defines the Greek word "mataiotes"
as "emptiness, futility, purposelessness, transitoriness." The Bible
Knowledge Commentary makes
use of this definition by stating, The
word for "futility" (mataioteµti; cf. Rom. 1:21) suggests being void of useful aim or goal. (This noun is
used only here and in Rom. 8:20 [of Creation] and 2 Peter 2:18 [of words]. The
verb mataiooµ is
used in Rom. 1:21, "their thinking became futile.") Unbelieving
Gentiles failed to attain the true purpose of the mind, namely, to receive
God’s revelation which would guide them in their conduct.
Hodge,
in his Commentaries on Ephesians, makes a convincing argument that this
futility or emptiness to which Paul is referring doesn't just affect the mind,
but the whole being. Hodge supports his view with two arguments. First is the
idea behind the word walk. To walk,
in Scripture language, includes all the manifestations of life, inward and
outward, seen and unseen. It does not express merely the outward, visible
deportment. Men are said to walk with God, which refers to the secret fellowship
of the soul with its Maker, more than to the outward life. So here the walk,
which the apostle enjoins us to avoid, is not only the visible deportment
characteristic of the Gentiles, but also the inward life of which the outward
deportment is the manifestation.
Hodge's
second argument is based on the Hebrew view of the unity of the soul. According
to Hodge, Jewish thought made no distinction between the intellectual and
emotional faculties of the person. The
nou’s, mind, therefore, in the passage before us, does
not refer to the intellect to the exclusion of the feelings, nor to the feelings
to the exclusion of the intellect. It includes both; the reason, the
understanding, the conscience, the affections are all comprehended by the term.
Sometimes one and sometimes another of these modes of spiritual activity is,
specially referred to, but in the present case the whole soul is intended. The
word mataiovths vanity, according to the Scriptural usage
just referred to, includes moral as well as intellectual worthlessness, or
fatuity. It is of all that is comprehended under the word nou’s, the
understanding and the heart, that this vanity is predicated. Everything included
in the following verses respecting the blindness and depravity of the heathen
is; therefore comprehended in the word vanity. Hence,
Hodge concludes that the unregenerate person is wholly or totally depraved. In
other words, his emotional and intellectual faculties have become
"worthless" or "empty". BEING
DARKENED IN THEIR UNDERSTANDING The
second phrase that Paul uses to describe man in his fallen state is
"being darkened in their understanding." Many have understood this
phrase to refer to man's lack of a moral compass. Vaughn takes this view when he
says that to be darkened in understanding "is to be without the faculty of
discernment, to be unable to distinguish right and wrong." This is J.
Vernon McGee's idea as well when he says, "the lost man has lost his
perception of moral values." However, given the next statement where Paul
says that the unregenerate man is "excluded from the life of God", it's
likely that Paul is referring here to a general lack of spiritual awareness.
This is John Gill's point in his Commentary on Ephesians 4:18: Not
that the natural faculty of the understanding is lost in men, nor the
understanding in things natural and civil, and which is quick enough, especially
in things that are evil; but in things spiritual it is very dark and ignorant,
as about the nature and perfections of God, his holiness and righteousness;
about sin and the consequences of it; about Christ, his person, office, and
work, and salvation by him; about the Spirit, and his work of grace upon the
soul; and about the Scripture, and the doctrines contained in it. Hence
because man's intellect has been darkened or corrupted, he is not able to
discern spiritual or moral truth. The result according to Paul is that he is
"excluded from the life of God." The
word "excluded" is the Greek work "apallotrioo" and
literally means "to alienate, estrange". For this reason, some
translations describe man as being "alienated from the life of God".
Hodge describes "the life of God" as "the life of which God is
the author. It is spiritual life. That is, the life of which the indwelling
Spirit is the principle or source." Jameison
Brown, his Commentary on Ephesians 4, believes that there is an implicit
reference here to man's former position of fellowship with God: [The
words] "alienated" and "darkened," imply that before the
fall they (in the person of their first father) had been partakers of life and
light: and that they had revolted from the primitive revelation (compare
Ephesians 2:12). Though
not explicitly stated in this passage, this implied view is the view of orthodox
Christianity, that man was originally created in an innocent state where he
experienced continuing fellowship and communion with God. Through the act of
sin, however, man became corrupted and separated from the spiritual life that
comes from God. Because
of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their hear
The
two phrases that follow help us to understand the cause of man's condition.
However, the order and importance of these causes has been debated. Some
scholars believe that the alienation and darkening are a direct result of
ignorance. This ignorance is in turn caused by the hardening of man's heart.
This view is demonstrated in Matthew Henry's Commentary: Their
[man's] willful ignorance was the cause of their estrangement from this life of
God, which begins in light and knowledge. Gross and affected ignorance is
destructive to religion and godliness. And what was the cause of their being
thus ignorant? It was because of the blindness or the hardness of
their heart. It was not because God did not make himself known to them by
his works, but because they would not admit the instructive rays of the divine
light. They were ignorant because they would be so. Their ignorance proceeded
from their obstinacy and the hardness of their hearts, their resisting the light
and rejecting all the means of illumination and knowledge. However,
another view concerning these clauses has the ultimate cause being man's
ignorance. This is the view of Hodge and other Calvinists. …the
clauses may be taken as they stand, o]ntes being connected with the first
clause. ‘The heathen walk in vanity, being (i.e. because they are) darkened as
to the understanding, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that
is in them, through the hardness of their heart.’ Darkness of mind is the
cause of ignorance; ignorance and consequent obduracy of heart are the cause of
alienation from God. This is both the logical and theological order of sequence.
The soul in its natural state cannot discern the things of God—therefore it
does not know them, therefore the heart is hard and therefore it is destitute of
holiness. This is what the apostle teaches in 1 Corinthians 2:14, 16. The blind
cannot see; therefore they are ignorant of the beauty of creation, therefore
they are destitute of delight in its glories. You cannot heal them by light. The
eye must first be opened. Then comes vision, and then joy and love. This view of
the passage is in accordance with the analogy of Scripture; which constantly
represents regeneration as necessary to spiritual discernment, and spiritual
discernment as necessary to holy affections. Therefore the apostle says of the
heathen that their understanding is darkened, a film is over their eyes, and
they are alienated from God because of the ignorance consequent on their mental
blindness. Still,
a third view is that the ignorance and hardening of the heart are equally
responsible for the alienation from God and the darkening of man's
understanding. The exegesis notes from The Interpreter's Bible
demonstrates this view. Our
versions [two bible versions are quoted] both convey the impression that the
second phrase is subordinate to the first--the ignorance is caused by the
hardness of heart; in Greek both phrases are introduced by the same preposition
(dia) and are co-ordinate. Whatever
view one subscribes to may ultimately determine one's theological disposition.
The stronger Calvinist will probably agree with Hodge, adopting a view that says
that man is totally depraved and cannot understand any spiritual truth until God
takes off the blinders. Those who do not hold to Calvinism or hold to a moderate
form of Calvinism will more likely adopt one of the other two positions.
However, no matter what position one holds, it's clear from this passage that
man's alienation from God and his darkened understanding of spiritual and moral
truth is in some way caused by his ignorance and his hardened heart, not the
negative societal influence asserted by liberal theology. Having
become callous
What
follows in the passage is really a description of how man's internal condition
becomes outwardly manifested. Ray Summers, in his book EPHESIANS: Pattern for
Christian Living, gives this summary: The
relative pronoun in this verse is qualitative and is always descriptive of
character. These Gentiles, empty in their thinking, darkened in their
understanding, alienated from the life of God because of ignorance of the true
way of life, have in their insensitive spirits given themselves over completely
to a life of lasciviousness and uncleanliness, all of which is practiced in the
area of greed. So greedy are they for physical pleasures that they have given
themselves over completely to the expression of the physical appetites, and they
look upon that as being the highest good which life has to offer. The
word "callous" carries the meaning "to cease to feel pain
for". The Preacher's Homiletic Commentary describes it as "a
conscience seared with a hot iron". Gill expands on this idea: Their
consciences being cauterized or seared as with a red hot iron, which is the
consequence of judicial hardness; so that they have lost all sense of sin, and
do not feel the load of its guilt upon them, and are without any concern about
it; but on the contrary commit it with pleasure, boast of it and glory in it,
plead for it and defend it publicly, and openly declare it, and stand in no fear
of a future judgment, which they ridicule and despise. Hence, the unregenerate
person not only develops an insensitivity to sin but he also becomes greedy,
developing an insatiable desire for more. There is no doubt that this passage is
clearly teaching a nature of man that is rooted in sin. To come to a liberal
view of man, one must deny the clear teaching of this passage. LAY
ASIDE THE OLD SELF
The
third phrase in this passage that helps to describe a Biblical view of the
nature of man is found in verse 22, where Paul admonishes the Ephesians to "lay
aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of
deceit." The
old self refers to the unregenerate self. The key word is the Greek word "
phtheiro", which means "to corrupt, to destroy". According to
Robertson, the construction of the sentence suggests "a process of
corruption (worse and worse)." The Interpreter's Bible explains that
the meaning of the phrase should be thought of literally as "is
perishing: the present participle suggests a progressive decay, the
consequence of a governing principle of decay." Clearly
then, the nature of man is not getting better as liberal theology asserts, but
rather it is getting worse. PUT
ON THE NEW SELF
The
fourth phrase that gives us insight into the Biblical view of the nature of man
is found in verse 24, where Paul commands the Ephesians to "put on the
new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and
holiness of truth." This
"new self" is obviously being contrasted with the "old
self". These two natures are not only different, but they are opposite. The
conclusion here is obvious. If the new self is said to be created "in the
likeness of God" and "in righteousness and holiness of truth",
then in contrast, the old man must not carry this likeness or the righteousness
and holiness of truth. Malcolm Tolbert gives this explanation of the new self: The
new nature is totally different. It has been "created after the likeness of
God" (v. 24). This phrase is reminiscent of the Old Testament story of
creation. Humanity had been created in the image, or after the likeness, of God.
But as a result of sin, human nature has become evil and corrupted. In
redemption, God creates the new person after his likeness. So
then, man was originally created in God's image, but sin caused that image to
become distorted and perverted. This is the old man who is rooted in sin. The
new man, however, has been created in the likeness of God "in righteousness
and holiness of truth".
The liberal view of
mankind is that he is born basically good. Sin is a result of negative
influences caused by an evil society. Through education and evolution, man is
actually getting better. Someday man can overcome all of these negative
influences and create a more perfect society. Ephesians
4:17-24 gives a picture of mankind that is in stark contrast to the liberal
view. This passage first demonstrates that man is basically bad, walking in the
vanity of emptiness of his mind. This emptiness affects his whole being, not
just the mind. In
addition, man is darkened in his understanding and separated from the spiritual
life that comes from God. This darkening represents an inability to discern
spiritual and moral truth, and is caused by a combination of his ignorance
toward God and his hardened heart. Thirdly,
the unregenerate man is described as the old self and is said to be in a process
of perishing. In other words, man's nature is getting worse, not better. Lastly,
the regenerate man is described as having been created in the likeness of God,
"in righteousness and holiness of truth". This can only mean that the
old man does not have this righteousness and holiness of truth. Instead, man's
nature, though originally created in the likeness and image of God, has been
marred and distorted by sin. In other words, man's nature has been corrupted.
God's remedy for this situation is not an improved old self, but the creation of
a "new self". Clearly, the liberal view of man does not coincide with
the Scriptural evidence. ENDNOTES
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