Fallen

Did God create man thus, wicked and perverse?

     No, but God created mand good 1 and after His own image 2, that is, in righteousness and true holiness 3, that he might rightly know God his Creator 4, heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness, to praise and glorify Him 5.

From where, then, does this depraved nature of man come?

     From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise 6, whereby our nature became so corrupt 7 that we are all conceived and born in sin 8.

But are we so depraved that we are completely incapable of any good and prone to all evil?

     Yes 9, unless we are born again by the Spirit of God 10.

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1

Genesis 1:31 (NLT) — 31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.

2

Genesis 1:26–27 (NLT) — 26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

3

Ephesians 4:24 (NLT) — 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT) — 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

4

Colossians 3:10 (NLT) — 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

5

Psalm 8 (NLT) — For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument. 1 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens. 2 You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you. 3 When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers— the moon and the stars you set in place— 4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? 5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority— 7 the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, 8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents. 9 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

6

Genesis 3 

7

Romans 5:12 (NLT) — 12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

Romans 5:18–19 (NLT) — 18 Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. 19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.

8

Psalm 14:2–3 (NLT) — 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. 3 But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one!

Psalm 51:5 (NLT) — 5 For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

9

Genesis 6:5 (NLT) — 5 The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.

Genesis 8:21 (NLT) — 21 And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things.

Job 14:4 (NLT) — 4 Who can bring purity out of an impure person? No one!

Isaiah 53:6 (NLT) — 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT) — 9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

John 3:6 (NLT) — 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

Romans 7:18 (NLT) — 18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t.

10

John 3:3–5 (NLT) — 3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” 4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” 5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.

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Heidelberg Catechism