Born This Way?

The world seems to be gaga for Gaga. She has sold over 15 million albums and more than 50 million singles worldwide. Billboard Magazine named her the Artist of the Year in 2010. In 2011 she released a single entitled Born This Way, her tribute to GLBT normalcy. Upon release, Born This Way sold more than 1 million copies in its first week in the United States, debuting atop the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the charts in more than 10 other countries. This is not a discussion about homosexuality or its biological justification, though that is the focus of her song. This is a discussion about the premise of her assertion as expressed in her lyrics…

"There's nothing wrong with loving who you are"
She said, "'Cause he made you perfect, babe"

"So hold your head up girl and you'll go far,
Listen to me when I say"

[Chorus:]
I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause God makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way

Don't hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way

What Gaga is saying is that God created us “good”. Our natural condition is something that was given to us by God and that it should not only be embraced, but celebrated. This may be the perspective of the modern culture, but it is not the perspective of the Bible.

Man was indeed, in his original state, created perfect, in the image of God. God declared him “very good”. He was commanded to have dominion over the earth and to be fruitful and multiply. He had perfect communion with God. God’s covenant with humanity was a covenant of obedience. There was only one command from God. Do not eat from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As long as Adam obeyed God’s command, he would continue to have fellowship with Him. The price of disobedience was death. In fact God said that “the day you eat of it you will die” (Gen 2:17).

Genesis 3 describes in detail man’s fall. In his act of disobedience he spurned the good gifts that God had given him, a garden paradise, all the fruits of the garden, a wife, and most importantly, fellowship with God. He doubted the truthfulness of God and exchanged it for the serpent’s deceit. He repudiated his obligation to his creator, choosing autonomy instead. He showed contempt for God’s authority by insisting on his own way. It was not the fruit per se, but rather Adam’s disobedience, by breaking God’s covenant.

Immediately their eyes were opened and the realized they were naked. What they experienced was shame. Rather than making them wise and like God, they recognized their own wretchedness. They realized their corruption and discovered a guilty conscience. Their first response was to try and cover their guilt by sewing fig leaves together, as if this self made covering could cover their shame. If anything, they now knew that they would face the just wrath of God for their disobedience.

The next thing they did was to try and hide. Having once had perfect fellowship, love, and harmony with their Creator, they now find themselves repulsed by his presence. They could not bear to look upon the face of their Creator. God was the source of their life, and now they found themselves alienated from Him. His futile effort to hide himself from an omniscient and omnipresent God is evidence of how far he fell.

God called to Adam asking him, “Where are you?” This was not an indication of any ignorance on God’s part. This was a clear statement from God that a separation has taken place. Man who once had perfect fellowship with God was now hiding from His presence. God provided him an opportunity to acknowledge his guilt. Instead he responded in pride and ingratitude casting the blame on others, first by throwing his wife under the bus by blaming her for giving him the fruit. Then he blamed God for giving the woman to him. Adam had no one to blame but himself. He had the commandment direct from God and took the fruit knowing fully what he was doing. His disobedience brought the full judgment of God.

Remember that in Genesis 2:17 God declared that the very day they ate of the fruit that they would die. On that day, man died. This was not a physical death, though that would come later. It was a spiritual death.  AW Pink writes of this,

“’And death by sin’ which is not to be limited to mere physical dissolution, but must be understood of the penal consequences of Adam’s offence. All through this passage death is opposed unto ‘life’ and life includes very much more than physical existence or even immortality of soul. When God told Adam ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,’ He signified, first, die spiritually, that is be alienated from the source of Divine life. Second, in due course, die physically: ‘thy body shall go to corruption and return to the dust.’ Thirdly, die eternally, suffer the ‘second death’ (Rev 20:14), be cast into the lake of fire, there to suffer forever.”

The righteousness and holiness of the image of God, in which they were created, had departed. Their eyes were opened and with it came the realization of what they had done. They lost their innocence. Their guilty conscience, rather than compel them towards their Creator for forgiveness and restoration, drove them into hiding In shame. They were more concerned about their sin being discovered rather than regret at having sinned. They showed no sorrow, nor remorse, but in defiance tried to justify themselves by blaming each other and God Himself.

As a result, God cast him out of the garden and away from God’s presence. The death that God spoke of was that of separation from God. Isaiah 59:2 states, “but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,” It produced a breach of affection between men as evidenced by Adam casting blame on his wife. It brought physical death. “For you are dust and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19). The Fall of man affected not only Adam himself, but his posterity as well.

Again, AW Pink states:

“God did not treat with mankind as with a field of corn, where each stalk stands on its own individual root, but rather he dealt with our race as with a tree- all the branches of which have one common root. While the root of the tree remains healthy and unharmed, the whole of it flourishes. But if an axe strikes at and severs the root, then the whole of the tree suffers and falls- not only the trunk, but the branches, and even its smallest twigs wither and die. Thus it was in connection with the Eden tragedy. When Adam’s communion with his Maker was broken, all his posterity were alienated from His favour. This is no theory of human speculation, but a fact of Divine revelation: ‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.’ (Rom. 5:12)”

One of the clearest teachings of the Bible is that the effects of Adam’s rebellion have been imputed to his posterity (all mankind). Genesis 5:3 reads, “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” Note that Adam’s son was fathered in the image and likeness of Adam, not as he was originally created by God, but as he was after he fell. Other passages reiterate the same truth.

Psalm 51:5- “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

Psalm 58:3- “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.”

Job 14:4- “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.”

Job 15:14-16- “What is man that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!’

Genesis 8:21- ‘the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth”

Romans 5:12-21- “¹Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I Corinthians 15:22- “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

Loraine Boettner speaks of generational iniquity as a Biblical concept in his book The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination:

“God declared Himself to Moses as one who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children unto the third and fourth generation, Exodus 34:6,7…The curse pronounced on Canaan fell on his posterity. Esau’s selling of his birthright, shut out his descendants from the covenant of promise. The children of Moab and Ammon were excluded from the congregation of the Lord forever, because their ancestors opposed the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.”

In fact, anybody who is a parent knows the clear evidence of the sinful condition of man. Nobody has to teach a child to sin. It is the role of the parent to discipline their child to teach them to behave properly. Comedian Bill Cosby observed this in his performance of Bill Cosby: Himself when he spoke if children having “brain damage”

The child is disobedient from day one, not knowing why they do what they do. Proverbs 22:15 tells us that “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child”

Knowing then that Adam’s fallen nature has been passed down to his posterity which consists of ALL humanity, what then is that fallen nature? The Bible answers it in Ephesians 2:1-3-

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

The scripture speaks of humanity as being dead in trespasses and sins and by nature children of wrath. We still have choices, but those choices are to live in the passions of our flesh, carrying our the desires of the body and the mind. Our “free choice” is to follow our natural inclinations of fulfilling the desires of the flesh.

This is referred to in theological circles as “Total Depravity”. The Westminster Confession of Faith defines Total Depravity as follows:

“Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.”

Loraine Boettner describes it further:

“This doctrine of Total Inability, which declares that men are dead in sin, does not mean that all men are equally bad, nor that any man is as bad as he could be, nor that man’s spirit is inactive, and much less does it mean that the body is dead. What it does mean is that since the fall man rests under the curse of sin, that he is actuated by wrong principles, and that he is wholly unable to love God or do anything meriting salvation. His corruption is extensive, but not necessarily intensive.”

In other words, Total Depravity does not mean Utter Depravity. Man is not as wicked as he can possibly be, but that the fall of man affected his entire being, body, soul, mind, intellect, and will. There is no part of man that was untouched by the fall. He is alienated from God and is unable to save himself nor is he able to make Godly choices. His will is free to sin as that is the desire of his heart. He is unable to choose rightly in so far as God is concerned because the inclination of his heart is at enmity to the things of God. He is “dead” in his trespasses and sins. He is in reality, a walking spiritual corpse, with no volition of his own towards God.

Again, this is the clear teaching of scripture. The Bible describes in detail what a spiritual corpse looks like.

John 3:19-20- “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”

Romans 8:7- “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.”

I Corinthians 2:14- “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritual discerned.”

Ephesians 4:18-19- “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.  They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

I Corinthians 1:18- “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Matthew 11:27- “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

II Corinthians 4:3-4- “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Acts 13:41- “Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.”

Romans 3:10-18- “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Notice the description of those who are spiritually dead. There is no one who seeks after God. Their minds are darkened. They have been blinded. They are perishing and don’t even know it. It is not a question of permission. They not only have God’s permission to repent and believe the gospel, but they have his command. The problem is one of ability. Because of their fallen nature they do not seek after God. They are unable to understand the gospel it let alone believe it. To them, it is foolishness.

Who then can be saved? That was the question asked by the apostles (Matthew 19:24-26). Christ’s response was simple yet profound. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” The answer is a sovereign work of God in us. We call this being “born again”. Jesus described it in John 3:3-8.

“Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’  Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’”

It is a radical transformation that God works in us. God promises in Ezekiel 36:26 that “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Paul experienced it on the road to Damascus. Though an enemy of Christ, Jesus appeared to him, changed him, and turned him from a persecutor of the church to his apostle to the gentiles.

Just as by one man’s disobedience sin entered into the world, through the obedience of Christ many are made righteous. The punishment for our sinfulness was borne by him and his righteousness was imputed to us. (Isaiah 53, Romans 5) It is through the finished work of Christ that we can be reconciled to God. We who were once dead are made alive in Christ Jesus by God’s grace and appropriated by faith (Ephesians 2). Our reconciliation with God is the gift of God.  He has breathed new life in us, calling us to himself. We have nothing to boast in. There is nothing that we can bring to him or offer him. He has saved us by grace. It is by faith in Jesus and resting on His work for us that we can once again have fellowship with Him. His regeneration of our spirits inspires us to confess our sins and to proclaim our faith and trust in Christ. Romans 6:23 assures us that the “free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

To those who belong to Christ, we are no longer alienated from God. What man lost in the fall has been restored to his sheep. He laid down his life for us and raised us up to new life in Him. And we can be sure that he who began a good work in “us” will bring it completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6). 

If you have felt the quickening of the Holy Spirit within you, listen to the words of the gospel. Christ's work has redeemed you. Believe in the Lord Jesus. Trust on Him and Him alone offering nothing of yourself and you will be saved. As Paul said to the jailer, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. (Acts 16:31).