(17) Why Is Everyone So Messed Up? (BC 15)

Immanuel Fellowship Church

Our modern age is confused about sin. We want to both affirm the inherent goodness of people and vilify our opponents. We want to believe that our race is climbing an evolutionary moral ladder. But human evil challenges that theory. The terrible atrocities of others shock and anger us. But even we do things that we hate (Rom. 7:15). How can people be both good and evil?Scripture's answer starts with the sin of the first people. "God created man … in his image and likeness—good, just, and holy" (art. 15). But man "subjected himself willingly to sin and consequently to death and the curse." After their fall Adam and Eve retained only traces of the "his excellent gifts which he had received from God." They had become sad mixture of good of evil.But what does Adam's actions and subsequent corruption have to do with us? The Belgic Confession offers this orthodox answer: "By the disobedience of Adam original sin has spread throughout the whole human race." True self-knowledge requires recognizing and responding to this doctrine.