VARIOUS TITLES GIVEN TO INBRED SIN Part 3

The wisdom of the fathers

VARIOUS TITLES GIVEN TO INBRED SIN Part 3

A fourth name God gives to inbred sin is the "old man." This does not mean Satan, for the devil is not a man at all. With the rest of the angels, fallen and unfallen, he is a different order of being. Moreover Satan is never to be destroyed, while the "old man" is to be crucified and destroyed. The ''old man'' was born in the garden of Eden about six thousand years ago. He is very properly called the ''old man.'' He is not Adam, but the dark result of something that Adam did under the temptation of the devil.

In a word, the reader sees that the expression, ''the old man," stands for depravity, or that bias to evil communicated to the human race by the fall of Adam as our federal head. This '' old man '' is in every heart that is born into the world. He is in every child. The infant cooing in the arms of its mother, or lying like a little snow blossom on the pillow in its cradle, has this ''old man'' in its heart. If there could be such a thing as a moral microscope, we could see the hideous features and form of original sin in that infantile soul.

It is not long before the dark inheritance, or indweller, becomes manifest. At the age of six months and less you will see an infant perfectly infuriated with its mother or nurse, and going through actions that, projected in the life of an adult, would mean murder. At two years of age the child will tell a lie, before it knows what a falsehood is. It will be cunning before it realizes what deceit is, and steal when it has not yet comprehended the character and sinfulness of theft.

The nature of sin, so far as the human race is concerned, is older than the act of sin or the transgression itself. In the fall of the angels the sinful act antedated, necessarily, the sinful nature; but with us the nature antedates the act. This nature, evidencing and announcing itself in a bias to sin, is called the "old man."

But some one asks: " Is it possible that this "old man" is left in the heart after regeneration. The reply is that such is the statement of the Bible, and that such is the experience of the soul. The simple explanation of its remaining is seen in the fact that when we go to God as repenting sinners, and in the name of Christ, we do not ask pardon for Adam's sin, but for our own. We never think of Adam at such a time; we are thinking of what we did, and it is this that bows down the soul.

Suppose the penitent had made such a supplication as: "Lord, forgive me for the sin of Adam! '' To formulate such a prayer and look at it is to see its absurdity. How can we ask God to forgive us for another man's sin? How could God forgive us for another man's sin? Common sense will answer both questions by saying that both cases are impossible. to be continued

(from "The Old Man" by Bev. Carradine)