Question 7

New RH Blog Series:

Beginning this week, RH will begin a new blog series that will seek to inform and equip RH members, and anyone who receives our emails, in various topics pertaining to the Christian life. One of the primary series in this blog will be further exposition of the catechism questions we recite each week. Since there is not enough time to thoroughly unpack the biblical basis behind every Question/Answer, we have decided to utilize this method of communication. The blog will be written by various members of our church and will, overtime, encompass a variety of topics. For now, I pray you will all be equipped and encouraged as we grow in our understanding of Christianity through the lens of the Heidelberg Catechism.

Q. 7: Then where does this corrupt human nature come from?

Answer: It comes from the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in paradise. The Fall has so poisoned our nature that we are all conceived and born in a sinful condition. 

Guest Writer: Holden Barlow

With the coming of the new season come other festive events like pumpkin patches, trunk-or-treats, and fall festivals! I distinctly remember being at a fall festival for a church youth event. We played every game that you would play in the fall, such as bobbing for apples, cake walks, and pumpkin carving competitions. The youth pastor had everyone’s attention until it came time to talk about Jesus. We all gathered around together and sat down on a bunch of haystacks to hear the gospel. It was simply one of the most beautiful and powerful sermons I’ve ever heard. While he was speaking, he had competition for the young teens attention...hay needles. The hay needles we used as a butt cushion were pure entertainment for them. They split them, ate them, and even threw them at each other. As I observed their inattentive behavior, my heart sunk, and the thought hit me: we left the creator of all things, the God of the universe, the all-knowing, all-loving Father, for… hay needles.

This applies to each one of us. We’ve all left God for something we thought was better, even for something as little as a hay needle. Every living person under the sun was born into sin. Romans 3 shows that every person has fallen short of God’s glory and His standard. Every living person’s heart is born wicked to have evil desires. (Romans 3:9-10)

 This all began with Adam and Eve in Genesis. In the beginning, God created everything, and everything The Lord created was good. God left them with one instruction: Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.(Gen.2:17)

Adam and Eve disobeyed God when they ate of the tree, wanting to be like God in knowing good and evil.(Gen.3:5) The irony was that Adam and Eve already knew good; they just didn’t know evil. Prior to the fall of man, God had blessed everything He had made, and Adam had praised God for it (Gen. 2:23). Sin’s aftermath results in Adam blaming God’s creation and even blaming God himself for Adam’s fall to sin (Gen 3:12). This sinful nature has been passed on for generations since Adam and Eve (Gen 5-6). 

Today it feels like we know more evil than good. It is evident with the rising of corruption in the form of governments, authorities, social movements, and pop culture. With political and world tensions as high as they’ve ever been, everything might feel apocalyptic to you. This is nothing new; wickedness has been in the world since the fall of Adam and Eve. In the Bible throughout Genesis, we see a wicked rise of evil in humanity; it just wasn’t on your social media feed yet. In Genesis alone we see murder, adultery, orgies, idolatry, slavery, and other cruelties. God’s beautiful creation that he had once called good was now inherently evil and perverse. Not only is wickedness more prevalent in our world today, but our culture praises it. 

 So what does God do to wickedness?

He crushes it.

 First, let’s look at Noah in Genesis 6:11–12. God decided the world had become increasingly wicked and flooded the earth. The only thing saving Noah from God’s wrath over wickedness was the ark God instructed him to build. This ark kept Noah and his family safe from the flood for over 150 days. 

With the world becoming increasingly wicked and perverse, what should we do? Build a boat? No. Our wickedness cannot outfloat the wrath of God. Our wickedness is more than just around us; it’s in us. We ourselves have no way out of our wicked nature and no escape from the coming wrath of God. 

Then enter Jesus.

 Thanks be to God that he provided us a boat. Noah himself never had the favor of God. He himself had his own sinful nature and downfall. God, with his rich and loving mercy, provided an arc for Noah. The thing that keeps God from his wrath isn’t an ark; it’s the coming promise of a savior. Noah was a descendant of Adam and Eve. God had promised the offspring of Eve, Jesus, “shall crush the head of the serpent, and in turn his heel would be bruised.”.

 What did God do to wickedness? He crushed it. God sent Jesus Christ, his son, to the cross on behalf of your wickedness and crushed him (Isa. 53:10). In turn, we received Christ's righteousness. Three days later, Jesus arose and crushed the sting of death! In this, we too arise and follow Jesus into eternity in fellowship with God. The price of our sin has been paid through Jesus! The wrath of God is eternally satisfied in Jesus Christ’s payment for our sin and can only be received by faith in Jesus alone. Jesus is our ark! We survive the flood of God's wrath through Jesus alone. We can only stay afloat from God’s wrath because our sins have been cast into the depths of the sea! Jesus took on our wickedness to give us his righteousness. This is the love of God. As great as his wrath is, so is His love!

 So when the flood of God’s wrath comes, where will you be found? Inside the ark of God’s love or on the outside with the wicked begging to get in? Are you dependent daily on the grace of God through Jesus Christ? If you hear the message of the salvation of Jesus Christ today, I beg you not to get caught playing with hay needles. Put down your distractions, your desires, and your wickedness, and accept the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ in belief and repentance. Though our world today is going through wicked political trials and warfare, we can hold fast and cling to Christ, who holds it all in the first place (Col. 1:17). Christ holds our governments, our world, our enemies, and most importantly, our salvation in His hands. Do not get caught up and swept into the quarrels of the wicked. Instead, we ought to look to Christ for our help and our salvation. Praise be to God for our salvation through Jesus from the wickedness of this world!

1 Corinthians 6:9-11:

“9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”