36
The Fundamentals
always takes for granted human freedom to choose. Yet he regards the lower nature of man (his sarx) as the element of weakness and corruption in man, which furnishes a field for the operation of the sin principle. The law is the " ba se of operations” (occasion), but the flesh is the open f ie l d where the sin principle operates. This sin principle drags the higher man (called “the inner man”, Rom. 7 ‘22 , “the mind, or reason,” vois, 7 :25, or more usually, the spirit) down into the realm of the flesh and through the passions, appetites, etc. (Gal. 5:16, Eph. 2:3), leads the whole man into thoughts, acts, and courses of sin. But we must hasten to say that Paul does not adopt the Platonic view that matter is evil per se. Paul does not think of man’s physical structure as being in itself sinful and his spirit, or soul, in itself as holy. He merely emphasizes the serfdom of man under the sway of the sin principle on ac count of the weakness of human flesh. Nor does Paul claim that human reason is free from sin because it approves the law of God. His expression (Rom. 7:25) “I of myself with the mind [reason] indeed serve [am slave to] the law of God; but with the flesh the law o f sin”, only emphasizes the fact of struggle in man; that the higher nature does ap prove the requirements of God’s law, though it cannot meet those demands because of the slavery of his lower nature (flesh) to the sin principle. THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN This point needs no prolonged discussion. Paul thinks of death, with its train of antecedents, sorrow, pain and all kinds of suffering, as the consequence of sin. This means physical as well as spiritual death, and the latter (separation of man from fellowship with God) is of prime import to Paul. We need not bring Paul into conflict with the claims of modern natural scientists, that man would have suffered physical death had Adam never sinned. The only man that scientists
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker