THE FALL AND THE APOSTATE HEART OF MAN
In the beginning, God created man in His own image. Not the mind, but the heart of man was created the religious root, the centre of his being, the supra-temporal root from which spring all the issues of life. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) The heart transcends all things temporal in the service of God. The heart is the centre of our religious life and experience.
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Roman 10:9)
It is within our heart that we believe unto salvation. It is here that faith operates. This is far more than a decision of the mind or a persuasion of our reason. It is from the heart that we love God and this love is effused in all our being. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
Our whole religious sense of God’s creation lies in our heart, our entire ego, eternity itself lies there. It is the supra-temporal centre of human existence, the creaturely centre of all creation. Therefore, at the Fall, apostasy of the heart, the root of creation, necessarily swept all temporal creation with it. Not only Adan fell, but the entire cosmos of which man had been crowned head. In Christ, the Word became flesh. He is the second covenant Head, the new root of redeemed creation, in whom true humanity has been implanted.
The Fall of man is just as much an historical event as is our restoration in Christ. Sin entered the world because man withdrew his heart from the God of the Covenant. He exchanged the life-giving commandment of God for the false word of Satan. His heart became corrupt and inclined to evil, unable to perform good. Adam represented the entire human race as first head of the Covenant. All mankind fell in Adam, sinned in him, shared his guilt and corruption. Sin lies in the very depths of our existence.
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” (Matthew 15:19)
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
With the Fall came separation from God. Man’s heart rebelled against its divine origin and he thought of himself now as being something in and of himself and he began to seek God in temporality. But men cannot live without certainty, without filling the hole where God once was. To fill the void, they replace it with a part of creation. “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” (Romans 1:25) Once directed towards God, the heart is now diverted towards idols. It is apostate in that it seeks to make a god out of some particular sphere or aspect of creation. It is idolatry, but it is to live life in the service of the kingdom of darkness. Pagan philosophy moves the supra-temporal centre from the human heart to ‘reason’. Reason concentrated in nature was declared to be self-sufficient and autonomous in her own sphere of temporal world order. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384-322 BC), replaced the supra-temporal heart as the centre of human nature and its religious root, with ‘reason’ within nature as the origin and seat of human nature. The worship of reason is a form of idolatry. The unregenerate heart leads away from God. Our lives in all areas must be grounded in Holy Scripture, lived in obedience to the Word of God.
Roman Catholic theology, to some extent following Aristotle, also maintains that despite the Fall human nature was not totally depraved at its root because of a falling away from God in the heart, it was merely wounded, only the supra-natural gift of grace had been lost, natural reason remains virtually intact. This despite the fact that God’s Word says something very different.
The disharmony we now see in creation is because of sin. Human activity has not been ad maiorem gloriam Dei (to the increased glory of God). The earth brings forth thistles and thorns, sickness and death. The preserving grace of God checks demonization. Nature itself was affected by human sin, but is free from sin, animals do not sin. Man’s fall dragged the cosmos down with him.
Christ’s death atoned for our sins. The power of sin has been broken by Christ. Victory is clear in the resurrection. Our hearts are renewed by the Holy Spirit. The direction of our hearts has been corrected to His true service and to fight the good fight against idols. The Word of God is the only sure guide for the whole of life. We delight in obeying God’s commandments. “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” (Romans 7:22)
David W. Norris
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