THE EXTENT OF OUR TOTAL INABILITY A writing by A. W. Pink When seeking to uphold some other great truths of scripture by means of contemplating separately their component parts, we reminded the reader how very difficult it was to avoid some overlapping. The same thing needs to be pointed out here in connection with the subject we are now considering. A river has many tributaries and a surveyor must necessarily trace out each one separately. Yet, he does so with the knowledge that they all run out of or into the same mainstream. A tree has many boughs which, though distinct members of it, often interweave. So it is with our present theme. And as we endeavor to trace its various branches, there is of necessity a certain measure of repetition, though in one way this is to be regretted. Being apt to weary the patient, yet it has its advantages, for it better fixes in our own minds some of the principal features. We begin by showing the solemn reality of man's spiritual impotence, furnishing clear proofs from holy writ. Next, we endeavor to delineate in detail the precise nature of man's inability, that it is penal, moral, voluntary, and criminal. Then we consider the root of the awful malady, evidencing that it lies in the corruption of her very nature. We now examine the extent of the spiritual paralysis which has attacked fallen man's being. Let us state it concisely before elaborating and offering confirmation. The spiritual impotence of the natural man is total, and entire, irreparable and irremediable, as far as all human efforts are concerned. Fallen man is utterly indisposed and disabled, thoroughly opposed to God and His law, wholly inclined to evil. Sinner with thistles yield grapes, and fallen man originate a spiritual volition. The reign of sin and unregenerate man. We have supplied a number of proofs that man's nature is now thoroughly corrupt. This is seen in the fact that he is sinful from his earliest years. The first dawnings of reason in a child are foul by sin. It appears as well in that men sin continually. As Jeremiah 13 verse 23 expresses it, dare accustom. to do evil. It is also evidenced by the universal prevalence of this disease. Not only some, nor even the great majority, but all without exception are depraved. It is demonstrated by their freedom in this state, all saying continually of their own accord. A child is only to be left to himself, and he will quickly put his mother to shame. Moreover, men cannot be restrained from their sin. Neither education nor religious instruction, neither expostulation nor threatening, human or divine, will deter them. Dead witches bred in the bone. comes out in the flesh. Corruption can neither be eradicated nor moderated. The tongue is a little member, yet God himself declares it is one which no man can tame. James 3 verse 8. The law of sin which is in my members. Romans 7 23. The first thing which attends every law, such as its rule or sway. The law has dominion over. Literally, it lords it over a man as long as he lives, Romans 7.1. The giving of law is the act of a superior. In its very nature, it exacts obedience by way of dominion. The law sin possesses no moral authority over its subjects, but because it exerts a powerful and effectual dominion over its slaves, It is rightly termed a law, though it has no rightful government over man, yet it has the equivalent, for it dominates as a king. Sin has reigned unto death, Romans 5, 21, because believers have been delivered from the complete dominion of deceitful monarch. Dear exhorted, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Here we learn the precise case with the unregenerate. Sin reigns undisputably within them, and they yield ready and full obedience to it. The second thing which attends all law, as such, is its sanctions, which have efficacy to move those who are under the law to do the things it requires. In other words, A law has rewards and penalties accompanying it, and these serve as inducements to obedience even though the things commanded are unpleasant. Speaking generally, all laws owe their efficacy to the rewards and punishments annexed to them. Nor is this law sin, entwining corruption and the exception. The pleasures and profits which sin promises its subjects are rewards which the vast majority of men lose their souls to obtain. A striking biblical illustration of this is the occasion when the Law of Sin contended against the Law of Grace in Moses, who chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, steaming the reproach of Christ's greater riches and the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect to the recompense of the reward, Hebrews 11, 25 and 26. In the above example we see the conflict in the mind of Moses between the law of sin and the law of grace. The motive on the part of the law of sin by which it sought to influence him and with which it prevails over the majority was a temporary reward which it set before him, namely, the present enjoyment of the pleasures of sin. but that it contended with the eternal reward annexed to the law of grace, called here the recompense of the reward. By this wretched reward, the law of sin keeps the whole world in obedience to its commands. Scripture, observation, and personal experience teach us how powerful and potent this influence is. This was what induced our first parents to taste the forbidden fruit, Esau, to sell its birthright, Balaam. to hire himself to Balak, Judas, to betray the Savior. This is what now moves the vast majority of our fellow men to prefer Mammon to God, Belial to Christ, to things of time and sense, to spiritual and eternal realities. The Law of Sin also has penalties with which it threatens any who are urged to cast off its yoke. These are the sneers, the ostracism, the persecution of their peers. The Law of Sin announces to its votaries that nothing but unhappiness and suffering is a portion of those who would be in subjection to God. Dead of service is oppressive and joyless. It represents the yoke of Christ as a grievous burden. His gospel is quite unsuited to those who are young and healthy. The Christian life is a gloomy and miserable thing. Whatever troubles and tribulations come on the people of God because of their fidelity to Him. Whatever hardships and self-denial the duties of mortification require. Represented by the law of sin is so many penalties following the neglect of His commands. By these it prevails over the fearful and unbelieving of no share in the life eternal. Revelation 21.8 It is hard to say where its greater strength lies in its pretended rewards or in its pretended punishments. The powering effect of this law, then, appears from its very nature. It is not outward, an operative, directing law, but an inbred. working, effectual law. A law which is proposed to us cannot be compared for efficacy with the law bred in us. God wrote the moral law on tables of stone, and now it is found in the scriptures. But what is its efficacy? As it is external to men and proposed to them, does it enable them to perform the things which it requires? No, indeed. The moral law is rendered weak through the flesh, and dwelling corruption makes it impossible for man to meet its demands. And how does God deliver from this awful bondage in his present life by making his law internal for his elect? For their regeneration, he makes good dad promise, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, Jeremiah 31, verse 33. Thus, his law becomes an internal living operative and effectual principle within them. Now the law sin is an indwelling law. It is sin that dwells in me. It is in my members. It is so deep in man that in one sense it is said to be the man himself. I know that in me, That is, in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. Romans 7 verse 18. From this reasoning, we may perceive the full dominion it has over the natural man. It always abides in the soul, and is never absent. It dwells, has its constant residence in us. It does not come upon the soul only at certain times. If that were so, much might be accomplished during its absence, and the soul might fortify itself against it. No, it never leaves. Wherever we are, whatever we are engaged in, this law of sin is present, whether we are alone or in company. By day or by night, it is our constant companion, a ruthless enemy and dwells our soul. How little this is considered by men. Oh, the woeful security of the unregenerate. of fires in their bones fast consuming them. To watch one of the most professing Christians corresponds little to the danger of their state, being an indwelling loss and applies itself to its work with great facility and ease. It doesn't need to force open any door, nor use any stress, whatever. The soul cannot apply itself to any duty except by those very faculties in which this law has its residence. Let the minor understanding be directed to anything, and there are ignorance, darkness, madness to contend with. It's for the will, in it there's spiritual deadness. Mewlish stubbornness, devilish obstinacy. Shall the affections of the heart be set on divine objects? How can they be, when they are wholly inclined toward the world, and present things and are prone to every vanity and defilement? Water never rises above its own level. How easy it is, then, for indwelling sin to inject itself into all we do, hindering whatever is good and furthering whatever is evil. Does conscience seek to assert itself? Can our corruption soon teach us to turn a deaf ear to its voice? Does scripture everywhere declare the seed of this lost sin to be the heart out of the heart? It is there that indwelling corruption keeps its special residence. It is there this evil monarch holds court. It has invaded and possessed the throne of God within us. To heart of the sons of man is full of evil. and madness is in their heart while they live. Ecclesiastes 9.3 Here is the source of all the madness which appears in men's lives. All these evil things mentioned in verses 21 and 22 come from within and defile the man. There are many outward temptations and provocations which befall man, which excite and stir him up. to many evils, yet they merely open a vessel and let out what is stored within it. An evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. This evil treasure stores the principle of all our moral action on the part of the natural man. Temptations and occasions put nothing into men to only draw out what was in them before. The rooters' ring of all wickedness lies in the center of our corrupt being. Enmity. of the carnal mind against God. Let us next consider the outstanding property of indwelling sin. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. That which is here called the carnal mind is the same as the law of sin. It is to be solemnly noted that the carnal mind is not only an enemy, for as such there would be a possibility of some reconciliation with God, but It is enmity itself, thus not disposed to accept any terms of peace. Enemies may be reconciled, but enmity cannot. The only way to reconcile enemies is to destroy their enmity. So the apostle tells us when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. That is, a supernatural work has been accomplished in the elect on the ground of the merits of Christ's sacrifice, which results in the reconciliation of those who were enemies. But when the apostle came to speak of enmity, there was no other way but for it to be destroyed. having abolished in his flesh the enmity, Ephesians 2, 15. Let it also be duly considered that the apostle used a noun and not an adjective. The carnal mind is enmity against God. He did not say that it merely is opposed to him, but that it is positive opposition itself. It is not black, but blackness. It is not an enemy, but enmity. It is not corrupt, but corruption itself, not rebellious. but rebellion, as C. H. Spurgeon so succinctly expressed it to Hart. Though it is deceitful, it is positively deceitful. It is evil in the concrete, sin in the essence. It is a distillation, the quintessence of all things that are vile. It is not envious against God, it is enmity itself, not at enmity. It is sexual enmity. This is unspeakably dreadful. To the same effect are those fearful words of the psalmist. Their inward part is very wickedness. Beyond that, human language cannot go. This carnal mind is an ever-falling creature. not even excluding a newborn infant. Many have had the best of parents have turned out the worst of sons and daughters. This carnal mind is in each of us every moment of our lives. It is there just as surely when we are unconscious of its presence as when we are aware of the rising of opposition in us to God. The wolf may sleep, but it is a wolf still. The snake may rest among the flowers and the boy may stroke its back, but it is a snake still. To see it's a house of storms even when it is placid, it's a lake, and a heart. When we do not see it see things, when it does not spew out a hot law of its corruption, it still is the same dreaded volcano. The extent of this fearful enmity appears an effect that the whole of the carnal mind is opposed to God. Every part, every power, every passion of it, every faculty of man's being has been affected by the fall. Take to memory. Is it not a solemn fact that we retain evil things far more easily than those which are good? We can recollect a foolish song much more readily than we can passage a scripture. We grasp with an iron hand things which concern our temporal interests, but hold with feeble fingers those which respect our eternal welfare. Take the imagination. Why is it that, when a man is given that which intoxicates him, or when he is drugged with opium, his imagination soars as on eagles' wings? Why doesn't the imagination work thus when the body is in a normal condition? Simply because it is depraved. And unless our body enters a sordid environment, a fancy will not hold high carnival. Take the judgment, how vain, often mad, are its reasonings even in the wisest of men. The fearful enmity is irremediable. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, Romans 8 verse 7. Even though divine grace intervenes and subdues its force, yet it does not effect the slightest change in its nature. It may not be so powerful and effectual an operation as when it had more life and freedom, yet. It is enmity still. As every drop of poison is poison and will infect, as every spark of fire is fire and will burn, so is every part and degree of the law of sin enmity. It will poison. It will burn. The Apostle Paul can surely be regarded as having made as much progress in the subduing of this enmity as any man on earth. Yet he exclaimed, O wretched man that I am! and cried for deliverance from this irreconcilable enmity. Mortification abates this awful force, but it does not affect any reformation, is it not? Whatever effect divine grace may work upon it, no change is made in it. It is enmity still. Not only is this awful enmity inbred in every one of Adam's fallen race, Not only has it captured and dominated every faculty of our beings, not only is it present within us every moment of our lives, not only is it incapable of reconciliation, most frightful of all, this sin dwells in its enmity against God. In other passages, it is exhibited as our own enemy. abstained from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. 1 Peter 2 verse 11. Those indwelling corruptions are constantly seeking to destroy us. This deadly poison of sin, this ruinous law of sin, this ruinous law of indwelling evil consistently opposes the new nature or law of grace and holiness and the believer. The flesh lusts against the spirit. that it is the principle of sin, fights against and seeks to vanquish the principle of spirituality. It is dreadful to relate that its proper formal object is God himself. It is enmity against God. This frightful enmity has, as it were, received from Satan the same command which the Assyrians had from their monarch, fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king. 1st Kings 22, verse 31. Sin sets itself not against man, but against the King of Heaven. Disappears in the judgments which men form of God. What is the natural man's estimate of the creator and ruler of this world? For answer, let us turn to the regions of heathendom. Consider the horrible superstitions, the disgusting rites, the hideous symbols of deity, the cruel penances and gross immoralities which everywhere prevail and lands without the gospel. Consider the appalling abominations which for so long passed and which in numerous instances still pass under the sacred name of divine worship. These are not merely the products of ignorance of God. They are the immediate fruits of positive enmity against Him. But we need not go so far afield as heathend them. The same terrible feature confronts us in so-called Christendom. Witness the multitudinous and horrible airs which prevail on every side in the religious realm today. The degrading and insulting views of the Most High held by the great majority of church members. And what of the vast multitudes that make no profession at all? Some think of and act toward the Great Jehovah as one who is to be little regarded and respected. They consider him as one entitled to very little esteem. scarcely worthy of any notice at all. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not a knowledge of your ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve him, and what profit should we have if we pray to him? Job 21 verses 14 and 15. Such is the language of their hearts and lives, if not of their lips. Countless others flatly deny the existence of God. The most solemn and dreadful aspects of the subject we are here contemplating is that the outstanding property of the flesh, or indwelling sin, consists of enmity against God Himself. Such enmity that is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be. This frightful and implacable enmity is entire and universal, being opposed to all of God. If there were anything of God, his nature, his character, or his works, that indwelling corruption was not enmity against, then the soul might have a retreat within itself where it could shelter and apply itself to that which is of God. Unfortunately, such is the enmity of fallen man that it hates all that is of God. everything in which or whereby we have to do with Him. Sin is enmity against God and therefore against all of God. It is enmity against His law and against His gospel alike, against every duty to Him, against any communion with Him. It is not only against all His sovereignty, His holiness, His power, His grace, that sin rears its horrible head. It abhors everything of or pertaining to God, His commandments and His threatenings. His promises and his warnings are equally disliked. His providences are reviled and his dealings with the world blasphemed. And the nearer anything reproaches to God, the greater is man's enmity against it. The more spirituality and holiness manifested in anything, the more the flesh rises up against it. That which is most of God meets with most opposition. He has said it not, all my counsel and would none of my reproof, Proverbs 1.25. is the divine indictment. The wicked heart of man is opposed to not merely some parts of God's counsel, but the whole of it. Not only is this fearful enmity opposed to everything of God, but it is all-inclusive in the soul. Had indwelling sin been content with partial dominion, Had it subjugated only a part of the soul, it might have been more easily and successfully opposed. But this enmity against God has invaded and captured the entire territory of man's being. It has not left a single faculty of the soul free from its tyrannical yoke. It has not exempted a single member from its cruel bondage. When the Spirit of God comes with His gracious power to conquer the soul, He finds nothing whatever in the sinner's soul which is in sympathy with His operations. Nothing that will cooperate with him. All within us alike opposes and strives against his working. There is not the faintest desire for deliverance within the unregenerate. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint, Isaiah 1, 5. Even when grace has made its entrance and still dwells on all its coasts,