The movie The Princess Bride has many great quotes, one of which describes a person’s condition this way: “It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.” In many ways, the first few articles of Points 3 and 4 in the Canons of Dort show that humans are not mostly dead without God’s grace but are all dead – and thus in need of someone to bring them back to life.
All Dead…All of Us
Being dead implies that something or someone was once alive; we don’t say that a rock is dead, but we do say that a plant dies. Dort discusses what it meant for humans to be alive in Article 1 of Points 3 and 4: “Human beings were originally created in the image of God and were furnished in mind with a true and sound knowledge of the Creator and things spiritual, in will and heart with righteousness, and in all emotions with purity; indeed, the whole human being was holy” (3/4.1). The Rejection of Errors that follows this point cites Ephesians 4:24 in talking about righteousness and holiness being part of the image of God that resided in humans at creation (Rejection of Errors 3/4.2). Humans had this condition but lost it, as the Canons note: “However, rebelling against God at the devil’s instigation and by their own free will, they deprived themselves of these outstanding gifts. Rather, in their place they brought upon themselves blindness, terrible darkness, futility, and distortion of judgment in their minds; perversity, defiance, and hardness in their hearts and wills; and finally impurity in all their emotions” (3/4.1).
It was not just Adam and Eve who experienced this condition, but all their descendants: “Human beings brought forth children of the same nature as themselves after the fall. That is to say, being corrupt they brought forth corrupt children. The corruption spread, by God’s just judgment, from Adam and Eve to all their descendants—except for Christ alone—not by way of imitation (as in former times the Pelagians would have it) but by way of the propagation of their perverted nature” (3/4.2). The Scriptural basis for the belief that death spread to all humans because of Adam and Eve’s sin is found in the Rejection of Errors, which notes that the Apostle Paul says: “‘Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death passed on to all people because all sinned’ (Romans 5:12); also: ‘The guilt followed one sin and brought condemnation’ (Romans 5:16); likewise: ‘The wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6:23).” Therefore, all are dead because of sin.
What’s a Pelagian?
The Canons contrast their view with the views of the Pelagians, so it is good to know who they were and what they taught. The Pelagians were a group of people who adopted the views of a monk named Pelagius who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries. Pelagius said that the sin of Adam and Eve did not directly affect all their descendants – it provided a bad example that we might follow, but all humans still have the capability to obey God’s law and save ourselves. His views were deemed out of accord with the Scriptures at the Council of Carthage in 418. When one reads the views of the Remonstrants (those followers of Jacob Arminius to whom the Canons responded), one recognizes that they did not have a view like Pelagius either, though some have noted that there is a “semi-Pelagian” element in the view of the Remonstrants in that God’s grace is able to restore sinners to the spot where they can choose whether or not to obey God’s. The Canons, however, reject that view.
Unable to Change
In the next Article, the Canons note that because of the fall of the first humans into sin, we are unable to change or save ourselves. “Therefore, all people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin. Without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform” (3/4.3). This article draws upon many different Scripture passages, such as “The heart itself is deceitful above all things and wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). “All of us also lived among them” (the children of disobedience) “at one time in the passions of our flesh, following the will of our flesh and thoughts” (Ephesians 2:3). “You were dead in your transgressions and sins” (Ephesians 2:1, 5). “The imagination of the thoughts of the human heart is only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5; 8:21). (These are cited in Rejection of Errors 3/4.3 and 4.)
Because of sin, we are condemned and unable to save ourselves. Without God’s intervention, we would not, could not come to Him. Our bodies are broken because of sin, our emotions and values have been distorted, and our will is bent towards evil. We are not free; we are dead, not mostly dead but all dead.
This does not mean that there is no sense of morality in us, as the Canons state that “a certain light of nature remain[s] in all people after the fall, by virtue of which they retain some notions about God, natural things, and the difference between what is moral and immoral, and demonstrate a certain eagerness for virtue and for good outward behavior” (3/4.4). This remaining sense, however, cannot lead us to God or overcome our sin. “But this light of nature is far from enabling humans to come to a saving knowledge of God and conversion to him—so far, in fact, that they do not use it rightly even in matters of nature and society. Instead, in various ways they completely distort this light, whatever its precise character, and suppress it in unrighteousness. In doing so all people render themselves without excuse before God” (3/4.4).
We need help; we need intervention and someone to save us. How this work emerges will be discussed in the articles that follow.
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