Lord's Day 7

B.B. Warfield, considered one of the last great theologians of Princeton Seminary, wrote the following in his statement of faith: 

I believe that God created man after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, and entered into a covenant of life with him upon the sole condition of the obedience that was his due; so that it was by willfully sinning against God that man fell into the sin and misery in which I have been born. 

I believe, that, being fallen in Adam, my first father, I am by nature a child of wrath, under the condemnation of God and corrupted in body and soul, prone to evil and liable to eternal death; from which dreadful state I cannot be delivered save through the unmerited grace of God my Savior. 

Because of Adam’s sin, we all have been plunged into an estate of sin and misery. That does not, however, relieve us of our own responsibility. God’s righteous requirement still stands for each of us. While it is true that the sin of our first parents “led to the condemnation of all men” (Rom 5:18), it is equally true that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). 

Through the original sin of Adam, sin is no longer something we do; it is descriptive of our very nature. We aren’t sinful because we sin; rather, we sin because we are sinful. Henry Van Dyke, in his prayer of confession, wrote “we are quick to do evil and slow to do good.” How true is this? We are fallen and in need of a savior. No one will tell you this outside of the church, but the cries of our fallen race can be heard all about us. If our faith is realistic, we must hear these cries and look to our savior. 

The apostle Paul states this perfectly. “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand… Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom. 7:21,24)