Human sinfulness reveals the inherent depravity and rebellion of mankind against God, a condition deeply rooted in the fallen nature inherited from Adam (Romans 3:23). Christian preaching often uses vivid imagery of corruption, ruin, and hidden evil seeds within the heart to illustrate the pervasive and universal reality of sin (Psalm 51:5). These pictures emphasize the desperate need for divine grace and redemption.
Selfish desires cause conflict, illustrated by children wanting more than they can have.
One day, in Springfield, a neighbor of Lincoln's was drawn to his door by the sound of crying children. He saw Lincoln passing by with his two sons both crying lustily. "What is the matter with the boys?" asked the man. "The same that is the matter with the whole world!" answered Lincoln. "I have three walnuts, and each boy wants two."
Human abilities are always limited and insufficient, like a blanket that cannot cover all.
The abilities of man must fall short on one side or other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed: if you pull it upon your shoulders, you leave your feet bare; if you thrust it down upon your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.
— Sir W. Temple
Parental anger and rejection reflect deep brokenness in human relationships.
Saturn is represented in mythology as a monster who devoured his own children. Vulcan was born lame, and his mother Juno was so enraged that the threw him out of heaven.
Human lifespan is shortened by sin, labor, and emotional turmoil compared to animals.
Five or six times the period of growth, which in man averages twenty years, gives the term of life. Five is pretty near the average: some animals greatly exceed it. But man, of all the animals, is the one that seldom comes up to his average. He ought to live a hundred years, according to his physiological law, for five times twenty are a hundred; but instead of that, he scarcely reaches, on the average, four times his growing period; whilst the dog reaches six times, the cat six times, the rabbit even eight times his standard of measurement. The reason is obvious: man is not only the most irregular and most intemperate, but the most laborious and hardworked of all animals. He is also the most irritable of all animals; and there is reason to believe, though we cannot tell what an animal secretly feels, man cherishes wrath to keep it warm, and consumes himself with the fire of his own secret reflections. Blackwood.
Our sinful actions stem from the corruption inherent in our nature.
As the nature of trees and plants, of their roots, stocks, stems, and boughs, is in the seed: so the cause of our transgressions is our own corruption, whereby we are moved to do evil, and hindered to do good.
The carnal mind resists God, causing eternal despair and darkness.
The carnal mind, which is enmity, fortifies the soul against God, as with bars and doors; averts it from him; carries with it a horrid, guilty consciousness, which fills it with eternal despair and rage; and inwraps it in the blackness of darkness forever. Howe.
Depravity is as extensive and encompassing as a serpent encircling the earth.
Northern mythology tells of the Migdard serpent, whom Odin feared would bring much trouble to the gods. He caused it to be brought to him, when he hurled it into the deep ocean. But the monster grew to such enormous size, that it could hold its tail in its mouth, thus encircling the whole earth. So extensive is that depravity which follows the serpent's trail from Eden.
Depravity is a fact we must address rather than just question its origin.
If you ask how nature hath detected us, how we came originally thus depraved. I answer, "We know not so well how we came by it, as we are sure we have it. Nothing is more certainly true to be preached, nothing more secretly hard to be understood. Therefore, as in the case of a town on fire, let us not busily inquire how it came, but carefully endeavor to put it out. A traveller passing by, and seeing a man fallen into a deep pit, began to wonder how he fell in; to whom the other replied, 'Do thou, good friend, rather study how to help me out than stand questioning how I came in.'"
— T. Adams
A Christian fears their own depraved heart more than external enemies.
Let us not forget that we have all a caterpillar's nest in our own bosoms: I mean a carnal and depraved heart, in which wicked lusts, the spawn of original sin, are bred, and swarm. These, if indulged, immediately creep forth, and destroy both soul and body. It gives the Christian enough to do to keep them down, and at last put them to death. To this effect, Luther himself said, that he was more afraid of his own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals; and to myself a good man once observed, "My own heart makes life bitter to me, and death sweet." Gotthold.
Dormant evil seeds in our hearts can spring to life under certain conditions.
A few years ago, a house was built at Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and the earth which was dug out of the foundations was thrown over a piece of ground in front, intended for a garden. The following spring, a number of caper-plants came up: they were not common in that part of the country, and their appearance excited great surprise. Upon inquiry, it was found, that, years before, that ground had been a public garden: it therefore appeared certain that those seeds had remained dormant while buried deep in the earth, and had sprung to life as soon as they were brought within the influence of heat and light. How like to our hearts! What seeds of evil may lie dormant in them!
— Spurgeon
Our hearts attract evil rather than good, rejecting God's precious things.
The fall of man has made our hearts like the loadstone. We refuse gold and silver and pearls, and priceless jewels, and only draw to ourselves inferior things, like steel and iron. A man once wrote on the door of his house, "Let nothing evil enter here!" on which another, passing by, remarked, "Then the master of the house must never come in."
Even the godly know their hearts are deeply sinful beyond others' perception.
Samuel Marsden, the New-Zealand missionary, well known for his piety and humility, when told, one day, by a friend, how basely he was slandered, "Sir," he exclaimed, "these men don't know the worst. Why, sir! if I were to walk through the streets with my heart laid bare, the very boys would pelt me."
Envy and revenge are natural human tendencies, learned without formal teaching.
They say that love and tears are learned without any master; and I may say that there is no great need of studying at the court to learn envy and revenge.
— N. Caussin
Human nature shows clear evidence of corruption and loss of original purity.
No man that takes a view of his own dark and blinded mind, his slow and dull apprehension, his uncertain, staggering judgment, roving conjectures, feeble and mistaken reasonings about matters that concern him most, ill inclinations, propension to what is unlawful to him and destructive, aversion to his truest interests and best good, irresolution, drowsy sloth, exorbitant and ravenous appetites and desires, impotent and self-vexing passions, can think human nature, in him, is in its primitive integrity, and so pure as when it first issued from its high and most pure original. Howe.
Proverbs illustrate that innate nature and sinfulness are persistent and unchanging.
You will never make a crab walk straight forwards.—Greek.—The wolf changes his coat, but not his disposition.—Latin.—What is sucked in with the mother's milk runs out in the shroud.—Spanish.—Drive away nature, and back it comes at a gallop.—French.—The son of an ass brays twice a day.—Spanish.—What's bred in the bone will never be out of the flesh. English
Man's only constant trait is inconstancy, reflecting the instability of human nature.
Inconstancy once desired to have her likeness taken; but no artist would undertake it, because her features were so changeable. Old Time, at length, consented to do it. Being at a loss for a suitable canvas, he selected the face of man, upon which he drew the picture; and, so says the fable, ever since, man has been constant in nothing but his inconstancy. This attaches to every domain of his nature.
Man is a contradictory being, both judge of truth and full of uncertainty.
What a chimera is man! what a confused chaos! a professed judge of all things, and yet a feeble worm of the earth! the great depositary and guardian of the truth, and yet a mere huddle of uncertainty! the glory and the scandal of the universe. Pascal.
Man is described variously as lazy, tool-making, and bargain-making animal.
Man is a two-legged animal without feathers. — Plato. — It is said Socrates brought a cock despoiled of his feathers into Plato's school, exclaiming, "Behold the man of Plato!" Again: he has been called "a laughing animal," "a cooking animal," "an animal with thumbs," "a lazy animal." A travelled Frenchman, being asked to name one characteristic of all the races he had visited, replied, "Lazy." — A tool-making animal. — Dr. Franklin. — A cultivating animal. — Walker. — A poetical animal. — Hazlitt. — Man is a dappled animal. Quacks in medicine, quacks in religion, and quacks in politics, know this, and act upon that knowledge. There is scarcely any one who may not, like a trout, be "taken by tickling." — Southey. — Man is an animal that makes bargains. No other animal does this: no dog exchanges bones with another. — Adam Smith.
Man either rises toward angelic nature or sinks below beastly condition.
If a man is not rising upward to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downward to be a devil. He cannot stop at the beast. The most savage of men are not beasts: they are worse,—a great deal worse.
— Coleridge
Man is like a jewel robbed of its precious stone, symbolizing fallen humanity's loss.
Man is a jewel robbed of its precious stone, with only the costly setting left; and even of that we must exclaim, "How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed!"
— Rev. H. Gill
Man uniquely rebels against God, failing his created purpose unlike all other creatures.
There is no creature on earth that does not fulfil its mission except man; none but what promotes God's glory except the one that boasts his image. All God's works praise him. The song of birds, the lowing of cattle, the chime of the sea-waves, the sighing of the wind, — all creatures, all sights, all sounds, — are full of worship. Man, once the high priest of creation, the mysterious yet glorious link between the material and the spiritual, has put off his Eden robes, and no longer ministers a holy Levite before the Lord. Rev. H. Gill.
The soul of man is desolate and defiled, showing God's withdrawal due to sin.
That God hath withdrawn himself, and left this his temple desolate, we have many sad and plain proofs before us. The stately ruins are visible to every eye, that bear in their front, yet extant, their doleful inscription, "Here God once dwelt." Enough appears of the admirable frame and structure of the soul of man to show the Divine Presence did some time reside in it; more than enough of vicious deformity to complain he is now retired and gone. The lamps are extinct, the altar overturned, the light and love are now vanished, which did the one shine with so heavenly brightness, the other burn with so pious fervor; the golden candlestick is displaced, and thrown away as a useless thing, to make room for the throne of the Prince of Darkness; the sacred incense, which sent rolling up in clouds its rich perfume, is exchanged for a poisonous, hellish vapor, and here is, "instead of a sweet savor, a stench." The comely order of this house is turned all into confusion; the "beauties of holiness," into noisome impurities; the house of prayer, into a den of thieves: for every lust is a thief; and every theft, sacrilege. He that invites you to take a view of the soul of man, gives you but such another prospect, and doth but say to you, "Behold the desolation!" all things rude and waste. So that, should there be any pretence to the Divine Presence, it might be said, "If God be here, why is it thus?" The faded glory, the darkness, the disorder, the impurity, the decayed state, in all respects, of this temple, too plainly show the great inhabitant is gone. John Howe.
A distorted, melancholy view sees creation as bleak, reflecting a sinful perspective.
This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you; this brave o'erhanging firmament; this majestical roof, fretted with golden fire, — why! it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. Shakspeare.
Corrupted memories reflect sin, but grace can renew even a faulty memory.
It is the bane of the wicked, the home of the past, the mind's magnetic telegraph. — Family Friend. — Our memories, corrupted by the fall, are often like those ponds where frogs live and the fish die. — Cripplegate Lectures. — Grace makes a good heart memory even where there is a bad head memory. — Boston.
Human nature's sinful tendencies can lie dormant but revive unexpectedly under temptation.
Let not a man trust his victory over his nature too far; for nature will lie buried a great time, and yet revive upon the occasion or temptation, — like as it was with Æsop's damsel, turned from a cat to a woman, who sat very demurely at the board's end till a mouse ran before her.
— Lord Bacon
Original sin is innate and darkens the soul until enlightened by God's Spirit.
Sin is born in a child as surely as fire is in the flint: it only waits to be brought out and manifested. — Dr. Hook. — Original sin acted as an extinguisher; and therefore the soul is born in darkness, and cannot see until enlightened by the Spirit of God. — Toplady. — Though goodness may be repaired in ourselves, yet it cannot be propagated to ours: even the cleanest grain sends forth that chaff from which it was fanned ere the sowing. — Bishop Hall. — Our striving against Nature is like holding a weathercock with one's hand: as soon as the force is taken off, it veers again with the wind. — Adam.
A tamed tiger's nature awakens with blood, illustrating inherent sinful passions in man.
A gentleman in India domesticated a young tiger, which became as playful and harmless as a kitten. One day, the animal began to lick his master's hand, and drew forth and tasted blood. At once, his tiger nature was aroused. His eyes glared; and he prepared to spring upon his master. The gentleman seized a revolver, and shot the tiger dead. Man and the tiger have much in common.
Unchecked passion grows dangerous like a lion becoming uncontrollable and destructive.
An Indian once brought up a young lion, and, finding him weak and harmless, never attempted to control him. Every day, the lion gained in strength, and became more unmanageable, until at last, when excited by rage, he fell upon the Indian, and tore him to pieces. Passion resembles that lion. Bib. Treasury.
A bear's anger leads to self-destruction, showing passion's harmful consequences.
A bear once entered a saw-mill, sat down on the log which was moving close under the saw, and began to eat the sawyer's dinner. Soon he felt a nip at his tail, and gave a growl; then another, which so aroused his bear-nature, that he turned and hugged the great saw till he was sawed in two.
Scripture uses many vivid images to describe the sinful nature of sinners.
The following are some of the phrases which the Scriptures use to set forth the state and character of sinners. They are compared to "Abominable branches, ashes under the feet, bad fishes, beasts, the blind, brass and iron, briers and thorns, bulls of Bashan, carcasses trodden under feet, chaff, clouds without water, corn blasted, corrupt trees, deaf adders, dogs, dross, early dew that passeth away, evil figs, fading oaks, fiery oven, fire of thorns, fools building upon sand, fuel of fire, garden without water, goats, grass, grass on the housotops, green bay-trees, green herbs, heath in the desert, horses rushing into the battle, idols, lions greedy of prey, melting wax, morning clouds, moth-eaten garments, passing whirlwinds, potsherds, raging waves of the sea, reprobate silver, scorpions, serpents, smoke, stony ground, stubble, swine, tares, troubled sea, visions of the night, wandering stars, wayward children, wells without water, whited sepulchres, wild ass' colts."
Differences in character do not excuse sin; all sin is rebellion against God.
Every man would infer, from the absence of some one sin, the presence of a positive virtue; but the conclusion is evidently an unsound one. The poet Milton paints the fallen angels as each possessing a distinctive character, — one swayed by love of gold, another by a love of splendor, and a third by fraud, and another by force; yet this difference of characteristic has never been reckoned as excusing the rebellion of any; and just as little can the diversity of man's character be held as excusing the sin of any given individual. That soil would be described as polluted which produced only weeds; and this, though it did not produce every kind of weed, — though the soil at the tropics did not yield the same species as the soil in the arctic regions. Dr. McCosh.
Sin is pervasive and unnoticed like air, affecting life and happiness profoundly.
Nothing is more widely diffused or more constantly near us than atmospheric air; yet few ever notice its existence, and fewer its nature. Dust and chaff and feathers, that sometimes move up and down in it, attract our regard more than the air in which they float; yet these are trifles which scarcely concern us: and in this we live and move, and have our being. The air affects our life and happiness more than those occasional meteoric phenomena which excite the wonder of us all. Such is sin: it pervades humanity; but, in proportion to its profusion, men are blind to its presence. Arnot.
Even great men like Newton and Marlborough face mental decay, showing human frailty and vanity.
It is truly humbling to the pride of man to see to what a state of mental and physical ruin he is brought by the lapse of time. Sir Isaac Newton, that wonderful scholar, of whom it is said, that he "surpassed the whole human race in genius," and who, if any one can be properly styled great and illustrious, is surely entitled to these epithets, when in his declining years he was requested to explain some passage on his chief mathematical work, could only, as it is reported, say, that he knew it was true once. A circumstance in some degree similar is related of that celebrated military commander, the first Duke of Marlborough, who flourished about the same period. When the history of his own campaigns was read to him, to beguile the tedious hours in the evening of life, we are told, so far were his intellectual faculties impaired, that he was unconscious of what he had done, and asked in admiration, from time to time, "who commanded?" Here, then, not to cite more examples, we have fresh proofs that "all the glory of man," even in what he is most especially apt to value himself, is but "as the flower of grass."
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