Apart from resolving a multitude of historical doctrinal contradictions, such an understanding provides reassurance concerning the nature of human disability, especially that affecting the brain or mind. Even in cases of severe dementia or brain damage there is no fear that the real person i.e., their eternal soul/spirit is changed or damaged even though they may cease to recognize their own loved ones or no longer be able to articulate any faith they may possess. Their true personality is retained and imprinted within the immaterial spirit that returns to God when the body dies. Sickness, aging and accident may damage the body and brain but only sin can corrupt the soul, and so it will to an extent for those who are not “saved” through the gospel unless they die in early infancy. Some within the faith who have discerned such a dualism have used it as an excuse for sin, believing it is not they who are sinning, citing Rom7:20. They fail to realize that in so doing they place themselves in a state of bondage233 and in continually sinning against the light they fatally disrupt their relationship with God – in Paul’s language they “die”.
Human nature: inclined to sinfulness
231 Mk9:49-50
232 1Pet2:11
233 Rom6:16
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Just as Paul has been misunderstood so has the human condition been
misdiagnosed, especially within Western Christianity. Eastern Orthodoxy has more fittingly presented the matter, being less enamoured with Augustine and careful to adhere to the corpus of Faith as it had been handed down by the apostles. Orthodoxy believes that human nature cannot be intrinsically sinful being created in God’s image, but through the Fall has become open to evil intents and actions and so is ever “inclined to sin”. More strictly it is the soul or spirit that cannot be sinful in itself; it becomes “inclined to sin” through infusion with that with which it is associated. So human nature as a whole is sinful in itself, for the mortal body (flesh) is very much a part, albeit a temporary part of human nature. That is why man has been deprived of the quality of Life and divine communion that God ultimately intends for him whilst he remains in mortal flesh unless he encounters the grace of the gospel. But fallen man is not morally rotten at heart, for the core (the spirit/inner man) is directly supplied and enlightened by God. He does not look at the outward appearance of man but observes the heart and finds it to be quite variable234, or even in accordance with His own235.
Yet neither is mankind morally neutral but has an unrighteous bias, always tending to err unless aided by divine grace. For whilst our Heavenly Father does not create or assign what is rotten and morally degenerate (which many Christians unwittingly insinuate), our human father unavoidably does, and it becomes the spirit’s earthly home. The human spirit having been enlightened by Christ236 has discernible impulses of its own, directed by a body of law237 referenced by the conscience, which unless it has been rendered inoperable genuinely guides and restrains. In taking heed to his conscience, even an otherwise irreligious man exercises a form of godly fear and does or at least tries to do what God would have him do in any situation. By means of this commonly provided divine enabling a person made in God’s image even without the spiritual provision available through obedience to the gospel may live a decent, upright and worthwhile life, leaving the world a better place than he or she found it; even contributing to the building of God’s Kingdom on earth, just as the Gentile Cornelius had done before his conversion238.
However, the unconverted have yet to fulfil the purpose of life itself which is to be united and in a meaningful relationship with their Creator. Through original sin and the inherited “body of death”, they cannot live a victorious, spiritually fulfilled life, or be " free indeed" from the enslavement of sinful concupiscence which requires not merely the common grace of enlightenment and sound reason but “the exceedingly abundant grace which is in Christ Jesus”239. Those receiving such a “supreme gift of grace” 240 not only aim for what is right but having been spiritually renewed are provided with the ongoing spiritual resources to practice it241. The rest of humanity in Pauline language is described as “dead”.
234 1Sam16:7
235 1Sam13:14
236 Jn1:9 King James Version
237 Rom2:15
238 Acts10:31
239 1Tim1:14
240 Acts11:17
241 Cf. 2Pet1:3
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Yet those who have been blessed to experience Life with a capital “L” will know why he uses such language and proclaim with the apostle - “For me to live is Christ; to die is gain”. Meaningful communion with God is life; anything short of it, whilst fine for the animal kingdom, is not worthy of the name for those who have been fashioned in the Creator's image for an eternal relationship with Himself. Those who are not in Christ are currently alienated from the life of God; they are dead in that sense. Yet every human life is valued by the One who gave it and each person’s experience within the corrupted intellectual vessel inherited through the fault of their first parents provides a test and preparation for the eventual fulfilment of their eternal purpose: to be reconciled to God through an introduction and willing submission to Jesus Christ. In a certain sense they already know Him242 and serve Him243 whenever they show compassion to anyone in need.
Yet such virtue as they do possess is a result of the grace they have received, albeit the universally provided enlightenment provided by conscience with which, unlike Cain, they have co-operated.