Ephesians 4:17-19

• "The Corruption of Our Souls"

  Text: Ephesians 4:17–19
  Series Theme: "Who Are We?"

  Main Themes:

  • The Reality of Total Depravity:

    • Our minds, affections, and wills have been radically corrupted by sin.

    • The fall in Genesis 3 is the root of this corruption, resulting in spiritual death.

  • Mind:

    • Intellect is now futile and darkened (Ephesians 4:17–18).

    • Humanity rationalizes sin and suppresses truth (Romans 1:21).

    • Culture often reinforces distorted thinking (e.g., entertainment, self-justification).

  • Affections:

    • Hearts are turned from delighting in God to desiring sin (Ephesians 4:19).

    • Covetousness and discontent illustrate corrupted desires.

    • Popular culture’s mantra “follow your heart” is deceptive (Jeremiah 17:9).

  • Will:

    • We choose sin freely and repeatedly.

    • Sinful choices reveal our spiritual condition (John 3:19–20).

    • The will is not abolished but enslaved to sin until redeemed.

  • Imago Dei (Image of God):

    • Though corrupted, humanity retains the image of God (Genesis 9:6; James 3:9).

    • Total depravity does not mean total loss of value or moral capacity.

  • Salvation’s Necessity:

    • Understanding our depravity magnifies the grace of God in Christ.

    • Only Jesus, who was without sin, can rescue us from ourselves.

"The Corruption and Redemption of the Soul"

I. Key Scripture Passages:

• Ephesians 4:17–19 – Describes the darkened understanding and alienation from God.

• Genesis 3:1–6 – The entrance of sin through the fall.

• Romans 5:12–19 – Sin and death through Adam; life and righteousness through Christ.

• Jeremiah 17:9 – The deceitfulness of the heart.

• John 3:19–20 – Rejection of the light due to love for darkness.

II. Theological Themes:

1. The Fall and Total Depravity

• Definition: All human faculties—mind, heart, and will—are affected by sin.

• Impact: We do not seek God or choose Him naturally (Romans 3:10–12).

• Confessional Support:

  • WCF 6.2: “By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God…”

  • WLC 25: “Wherein consisteth the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?”

2. The Image of God: Dignity Despite Depravity

• Biblical Evidence: Still present post-Fall (Gen. 9:6; James 3:9).

• Implication: All humans are valuable and worthy of dignity, even as sinners.

• Confessional Support:

  • WSC 10: “How did God create man?” – In His image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.

3. The Gospel’s Remedy

• Necessity: Sinful man cannot save himself; he must be born again (John 3:3).

• Provision: Christ came while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).

• Confessional Support:

  • WSC 21: “Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?”

III. Historical and Cultural Insights:

• Early American education taught the reality of inherited sin (e.g., "In Adam’s fall, we sinned all").

• Our culture's obsession with self-glory (social media, influencers) contrasts with biblical humility.

• Postmodern denial of sin and moral accountability is directly opposed to the biblical narrative.

IV. Practical Applications:

1. Self-Examination

• Regularly examine thoughts, affections, and choices (2 Corinthians 13:5).

• Ask: Am I glorifying God or seeking my own way?

2. Confession and Repentance

• Confess the specific ways your soul’s faculties are corrupted.

• Pray Psalm 51:10 – “Create in me a clean heart, O God…”

3. Gospel Assurance

• Rejoice that Christ died for the corrupt, not the righteous.

• Live daily by grace, not self-righteousness or despair.

V. Westminster Confession & Catechism References

DoctrineReferenceSummaryOriginal SinWCF 6; WLC 22–29Man fell in Adam, all sinned in him.Free WillWCF 9Man's will is free, but in a fallen state, it is enslaved to sin.Imago DeiWSC 10Man created in God’s image.RedemptionWSC 21, 29–31Christ redeems from sin and renews the will.

in your Bible with me to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, and this morning we'll root the text, or the sermon text as Ephesians four, 17 through 19. If you're using the New King James pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 1040. We continue through our topical series, who are we? I've talked about who we are as body and soul. We've talked about who we are as made in the image of God. Talked about who we are as our bodies and why our bodies are valuable. And also now we've been exploring the soul. And last week we talked about the faculties of the soul, our will, our intellect, and our affections. And so as we look this morning, we'll start in Ephesians chapter four, but it is a topical series. This morning we need to talk about the corruption of our souls. That we did not remain in that estate wherein we were first created. So turn with me now to Ephesians chapter four, beginning at verse 17. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness to work all in cleanness with greediness. Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's word. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have given us your word. And Father, as we come to a emotionally difficult and charged topic, it is not a topic that brings a great deal of sunlight and joy. But as a sobering reminder, Lord, we pray that your spirit would please soften our hearts, that we might evaluate ourselves as you see us. that we would accept hard truths. Lord, we pray that we would see into the mirror that your scripture shows us who we are with all the warts and all the blemishes, that you might be preparing our hearts by your spirit for the good news that comes out of the darkness. Please help us, Lord. Give me words to speak. May your saints be built up in their faith. In Jesus' name, amen. There's this weird thing in American culture where we love happiness. It's even baked into our constitution. We have a divine given gift to the pursuit of happiness. And people love everything happiness. They love smiles, they love sunshine, they love rainbows, they love puppies, they love sparkles on cakes and weddings and everything, right? We love happiness. And yet our culture is also a culture that loves darkness, death, horror films, movies that are so grotesque you wonder what type of perverted person came up with a movie that's meant to entertain people by showing them hacked to death by chainsaws and torture. Video games that glorify violence. We live in a weird culture, don't we? It's not just American culture, it's the human heart. It's the human heart. And this happens because every faculty of our soul, our mind, our will, our affections, all of them since the fall have been corrupted. Tainted by sin, poisoned by death. And I can't stress to you enough that we live in a time that doesn't want to hear the bad news. But we need to hear the reality check of who God says we are if we're to understand how much God's love is so true and profound and amazing that while we were sinners, He would send His Son, Christ Jesus, to die for us. Because we're that corrupt. We need to see how poisoned we are that we might cry out for the medicine of Christ. So first, we need to understand where this came from. Where did this problem of our souls being deformed and corrupted, poisoned, As Ephesians 2 says, dead. We gotta go all the way back to the beginning, don't we? Go all the way back to Genesis chapter 2. God warned Adam and Eve when they were in the garden. He told them in this covenant of life that he had given them, it was a covenant that was based upon their perfect obedience. They were allowed to eat anything in the garden. Anything they wanted. There was a giant buffet for them. They could choose whatever they wanted, but there was one tree that was off limits. Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And he gave them a double warning. For the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. In the Hebrew, it goes along the lines of dying, you will die. This will have the consequence of death to come with it. As we go through Genesis chapter three, I'm gonna go through that, Genesis three, one through six. I'd like us to slow down the narrative and see how this happened in the Garden of Eden. Genesis chapter three, now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he, that is the serpent, said to the woman, Has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Satan there is trying to get her to think, which as we talked about last week is part of the soul, to think and to evaluate, did God really say these things? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the tree of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. So she comes back with what the Lord had told them. She adds a little bit more, maybe, you know, don't even touch it, right? But she knows. She knows what the Lord has said. But then notice what Satan does in verse four. Then the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die. He creates what people call cognitive dissonance. He's saying, no, no, no, you're trusting this God, but you can't trust him. You will not surely die. And he tries to change her mind, to get at her heart, so she'll change her actions. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. He does a double-pronged attack there, doesn't he? The first thing that Satan does is not just tries to get her to question, but sows a seed of covetousness in her, as well as sowing a seed of distrust in her. God wants to hold back something from you. You can't trust him. There's something good in that tree. There's something good that that God is just cruel, malevolent, and holding back something is his covetousness, breeding in her. That's a God you can't trust. It's a God you can't follow. It's a God you can't love. It's a God you can't, Serve. And then notice verse six. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise. See how she's thought about that tree has changed, hasn't it? Every other day that Eve saw that tree, she thought, I'm not going near that tree. I'm not even gonna touch that tree. I don't want what's on that tree. I don't want whatever that death thing is that God is saying comes with that tree. I don't want nothing to do with it. God said it. I trust him. I love him. I follow him. I'm not going there. And now, for the first time, she sees that tree. Instead of seeing something that brought what God had promised was going to be horrific, She sees it and she says, that looks good. Maybe Satan's right, I will be wise. God has been holding back. Do you see this? We often wanna just flatten this story, it's like, oh, that dumb Eve, why would she do that? Those women, golly. No, hold on here. This is how sin operates in every single one of our lives. When God has told us there is something good and beautiful and lovely and true, and don't go in this other area, because this other area is going to bring nothing but heartache and death and horrific consequences, and yet every time when we choose those things, our minds turn towards what Satan did here. Our affections are stirred up for those things that God told us not to desire. And then we will to do the sin. So she ate. And she also gave it to her husband, with her, and he ate. But that sin didn't just stay with them. See, it had cascading effects for all of humanity through all the generations that would come. It's a waterfall event. Romans chapter five picks us up when Paul says in Romans chapter five, verses 12 through 14, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. In verse 17 of chapter five, for by the one man's offense, death reigned through the one. And then in verse 18, therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. One of the very first books that was given to school children in early colonial history, was a reader, and in it they would teach the ABCs. Very different than our American modern public school system, because when they taught A for Adam, it was in Adam's fall, we send all. Because when the public school system was first created, it was created with the nickname, The Old Deluder of Satan Act. We're going to teach these children how to read so they can read the scriptures, so they can avoid the temptations of Satan. And one of the very first lessons was, we're sinners because we're in Adam. Our confession talks about us, we have an inherited sin. There is a guilt upon us in Adam because we're under him as our covenant head. He was our representative. And you might say, well that doesn't seem fair that I'm declared guilty because Adam sinned way back there. Our confession goes on to say we have actual sin ourselves though, don't we? We sin daily. In our thoughts, in our words, and in our deeds. We show ourselves to be children of Adam. We're no better than Eve. And so what's happened with the fall? or our intellect is corrupted. It no longer leads us towards God, but it misleads us. Our intellect misleads us. We saw that in Ephesians chapter 4, 17. This I say, therefore, in testifying the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. And notice how Paul categorizes how the Gentiles, what's the pattern of their life. How do they walk? In the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Did you hear it? The futility of their mind, their understanding darkened. God gave you your intellect, God gave you your thinking, God gave you the ability to process information for His glory. God gave you your mind to glorify Him, to be creative, to subdue the earth, to come up with amazing stories and art and inventions for His glory. But yet we use our minds to go after our own ways, Romans chapter 121, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. And you know what this is like, right? When your intellect fails you, and by the way, people are trying to dupe you into thinking wrongly all the time still. My wife and I, we were driving on vacation with the kids one day, and I'll never forget, there was this billboard for McDonald's. This was an amazing statement on their billboard. I loved it. It's not true, but I loved it. It said, road trip calories don't count. And I thought, well, I might like that statement, but I know it ain't true. But they almost got me to stop for a quarter pounder. Because they're trying to, they're appealing to your mind, they're like, well yeah, maybe that doesn't, maybe I don't have to worry about that. Maybe I don't have to think about the salt and the sodium and the fat. But I mean, we see this all the time, don't we? And we even convince ourselves, God commands us, you shall not bear false testimony in the ninth commandment. And yet, how often do we rationalize away our own sins? If I just tell this white lie, it'll help my reputation a little bit. If I just bend the truth a little bit here, it won't hurt somebody's feelings. That thought process is a darkened mind choosing to lie rather than to glorify God. And this isn't just with small things, right? It's not just with billboards on the road, with silly advertisements, and it's not just white lies. In 1997, there's a 39-year-old man who was pulled into an amazing restaurant called Jack in the Box. It's a fast food joint in California. He worked a hard construction work day, and he went there to go get a sourdough jack, a big burger. And as he was in the line, some altercation happened between him and the car behind him. They got into some type of argument, and the guy in the car behind him walked up and shot this guy in the head. in the middle of the drive-thru. Why? And his mind thinking this was the easiest way to stop this. He needed to protect his reputation. He needed to protect his honor. And that guy had to die. That man's name was Cheyenne Figaro. He was my parents' pastor. The guy's mind was so darkened by his sense of injustice that he would take another man's life with his own hands. Murder destroy another person made in the image of God Because it's in his mind that person was nothing more than a problem to him On your life catch Catch which lies Either the world is trying to tell you or you find yourself trying to convince yourself of Throughout this week whenever you justify a falsehood Maybe you need to ask yourself, if I tell the truth and they hate me, what's more important, glorifying God or trying to seek my own comfort? Confess your sins to the Lord. Confess your wrong thinking to the Lord. And glorify Him, even though there may be a cost. Let's see, sin. has also affected our affections. We no longer delight in God, but we delight in sin. This is what we saw in Ephesians 4.19. Who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness. The heart as it's entwined with our passions, will go after whatever you're loving. Right, sin twists our hearts and instead of us loving the Lord our God with all of our heart, instead of seeking after him, we seek after whatever thing is going to give us the highest level of passion that we're desiring. That's why Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? There's a huge lie in American pop culture. Just follow your heart. One of my favorite lines from a pastor ever was Paul Washer when he was preaching on this. At one point he just said off the top of his, off his cuff, somebody said, about following his heart. You know what you need to do when your heart tells you to do something? You tell your heart to go shut up. I think that's wonderful advice. Don't do what you're naturally inclined to do, but ask yourselves whether you're going to speak, whether you're going to think, or whether you're going to do, am I following my heart or am I trying to bring glory to my Father who is in heaven? Am I serving my Lord Jesus Christ? But you will not do that if it's just out of a sense of duty and obligation, but because your heart is gripped that Jesus has loved you so much that he's laid down his life for you. There's a constant desire that we have to follow our own foolish conduct. That's what Ephesians 2.3 says. among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. There is none righteous, brothers and sisters, no, not one. The only one who has been tempted in every way and has been found without sin is Jesus Christ. Our affections are so easily turned, corrupted. We have a constant, I know I, Olivia and I were talking, I think it was just a couple days ago. It was yesterday morning maybe. We were talking and she was saying, you know Brian, I just really, I long for the day that we could just, I just want you to have one car. and just be okay with just having one vehicle. See, since the time we moved here, we've been here like seven years, I think we've had like six or eight cars, something like that. And I just keep buying these jalopies and fixing them up. I'm gonna put that in quotation marks. There's many cars that I've sold that still have Bondo on the side. And I know this about myself. And her whole point is, Brian, I wish that you would just be content. And yet I still find myself knowing I don't have the time, I don't have the skill, and I don't have the money, yet still going on Copart and looking at salvage auctions and thinking, what type of jalopy can I bring home without Olivia killing me? Why is it though? Because I can't be content with the good things that God has given me. The 10th commandment says, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey. And yet, how often do we find ourselves discontent? Right, we wanna have their car. Did you notice our neighbors got new siding? They got an addition on their house, maybe we need to get an addition on our house. Man, their kids are so well-behaved, why can't our kids be behaved like their kids? Well, you know, man, his wife takes really good care of herself. All of a sudden, my wife ain't looking so pretty. That's what discontentment does. That's what covetousness does. It turns and twists our hearts away from the good things that God has given us and towards what God has given somebody else. Our hearts seem to be constantly craving and affections for other things. Our culture. shows its constant longing for total acceptance. One of the things that we see in our culture that is just breeding narcissists, breeding people who are in love with themselves, it's just a social media combined together with this idea of you need to accept me exactly how I am and people who just publicize their filth and publicize all their problems or will publicize their lives, whatever they can do just to get people to accept them more and more, get whatever like or thumbs up or share or whatever, just to build up their ego. Because their desire is for their own glory. We live in a self-glorifying culture. where influencers run their idolatrous ways. It used to be that if you asked people when I was a kid, you know, what do you want to be when you grow up? And almost all of them would say, you know, either a movie star or some type of professional basketball player or something. You go back a generation before that, it's an astronaut, right? For some reason now, the number one job that kids say they wanna do, social media influencer. The fame, the self glory, the covetousness for eyes on me. It's an inward bent desire. Do you see that? That's what sin does to our souls. turns us towards whatever we want, rather than whatever God desires. King David knew this well. King David knew that his affections, his desires can be turned in wrong directions. He knew this when he went after Bathsheba. As he saw her with his eyes bathing upon the roof, by the way, that was not a, there are people who will say, well, she shouldn't have been doing that there, blah, blah, blah. No, that's what you did, that's where you did your shower. This is a David heart problem. He saw a woman, instead of going, oh man, that's not my wife, I need to preserve her modesty, I need to preserve her dignity, turned around and gone back inside. Instead, what does he do? He desires her with his heart. And then he desires his own reputation over his friend's life. He desires himself over God's glory. So much so that one of the biggest condemnations against David is you have brought reason for the enemies of God to blaspheme against him. His affections were turned against the Lord, and so we must do heart evaluations ourselves. What are you delighting in? What are you rejoicing? What is most beautiful to you? What do you desire? What are the things that are motivating you in your heart? And how does it play out in your life? Because what you're thinking about in your soul, what you're desiring in your soul, will play out in what you choose out of your soul. Our will is bent from choosing to crave ourselves. Again, Ephesians 4.19, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness, to the work of all uncleanness with greediness. John chapter three, the apostle says it this way, and this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and the men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. We naturally love the darkness and we choose the darkness. That's why people won't come to Jesus Christ. Because they're choosing to continue to love and to do their own sinful wills. We want to often in our lives excuse ourselves and act like we don't have a will. It's one of those weird things again in American culture. I don't know why I'm on this kick today, but it is so just stick with me, right? But in American culture we have this thing where people will act as if I have absolute total free will, I can choose whatever I want. I live in a free country, don't you know? And yet, We live also in a culture where everybody's trying to tell you, you don't have any choice. You're nothing more than a pawn in an economic system, or you're nothing more than a pawn in some type of system of oppression or something, right? And so there's people who are trying to tell you, absolutely, you can do whatever you want, and then other people who say, no, you can't do anything that you actually want, because you're just a pawn in a giant game. I don't think either of those are true. Exclusively. Condemning movie for me to watch with my kids a while ago was the movie hook This Peter Pan movie came out in the 90s. And the movie Hook, there's Peter Pan who's left Never Never Land. He comes into the real world and he gets married and he grows up. And he's got a corporate job. This is the real 90s, right? He pulls up the antenna, opens up his flip phone and he's talking. It's a really funny movie. But there's this thing that happens in the beginning of the movie that shows the problem that I wanna get at here. This issue of he acts like he doesn't have a choice. He tells his daughter, he promises her, I'll be at your play. I'll be there, I'll be at your play. And the play is going on and his wife is sitting in the chair and she says, you're missing it, Peter. Sorry, this is self-contemptation. And as the play is going on, somebody sits next to her, and it's not her husband. It's some dude with a video camera. Because he's decided he's going to stay at work, and work is more important than his kids. In another scene, he's stuck at work again. He's supposed to be going to England, and his son has a baseball game. It's the last baseball game of the season. It's a championship game. and he promises his son, I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna be there, and there's this long drawn out scene of something's holding him up at work, something's holding him up at work, something's holding him up at work. At no point is Peter willing to say, no, leave me alone, I'm running down the fire escape, I'm gonna go to my son's game, because that's what matters. Instead, what does he do? He sends, again, the guy to go videotape the son's baseball game. Peter has a choice. He can choose what he loves most and that's one of the whole subplots of the entire movie is, Peter, choose who you're going to be. You choose, Christian, who you will be. Will you be one who delights in the Lord's day? Who decides I'm gonna come to worship and I am going to rejoice in the Lord. You choose this day whom you will serve. Will it be the Lord that you take delight in? Will you look at the wife of your youth and say, I love that woman, nothing's gonna separate me from her. You choose, Christian husband, who you will be. You choose, Christian mother, who you will be. You choose, Christian children, what type of adult you will become. The choices you make today, children, matter. God has given us a volition. Yes, we have a will and we often choose sin. Don't let someone tell you that you do not choose in this life. You constantly choose. Our problem is we are so bent towards choosing wrongly. We choose to sin. If I asked you, why do you sin, what would you answer? Answer is, you sin because you choose to sin. Make no doubt about it, Adam and Eve, left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created. They chose freely, willingly, God didn't arm wrestle or force Eve into her sin. God didn't take the apple and shove it into Adam's mouth. No, they did that of their own will. You also have a will. There is nothing in the Westminster Confession of Faith that says you do not have a will. You won't find it there. There is nothing in the Westminster Confession of Faith that says that Calvinists believe that you are nothing more than a puppet and you don't make choices. No, it's actually the exact opposite. The problem is that we do have a will and we choose every single day in the things we say and the things we do and in the ways we think to go against God's will because that's what we want. And so we do it. We don't get to just blame God. I'm the problem. Do you see, that's when salvation becomes real for the human being. When we look at Ephesians chapter two, when we look at Ephesians chapter four, and we say, I'm the one who chooses to walk in the ways of death. God save me from the wretch that I am. It is never going to bring you salvation to pass off the buck to somebody else. You must own sin as yours. Because when you say my sin is mine, then you're able to tell God, I need you to save me from me. That is salvation. That is when we are able to confess our sins and find that He is faithful and He is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all of our transgressions. There is hope, Christian. When your heart cries out, God, save me, a sinner, there is hope for one like that. We're gonna talk about how that happens more in the next sermon. But this morning I need you to taste the bitterness of depravity. I do need to make sure you understand in the last few minutes we have together that our hearts, our souls, being bent towards sin, what we would call, and the comment kind of, it's a term, total depravity or radical corruption, It doesn't mean that people who are walking around in the world no longer have any image of God in them. That's not, thank God, that's not the case. No, in Genesis chapter six, in Genesis, sorry, Genesis chapter nine, verse six. This is after the flood. The Lord says this, whoever sheds man blood by man, his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God he made man. This is really important. Because this means God made them in his image, Genesis 1 and 2. They sinned, Genesis chapter 3. God destroys the world because of sin, Genesis 6, 7, 8. And as we get into Genesis chapter 9, they're still in God's image. humanity has not lost the image of God. And that's just not just an Old Testament thing. In James chapter three, verse nine, when James is talking about the mouth, he says, with it, we bless our God and father, and with it, the mouth or the tongue, we curse men. And notice what he says after that about people. He says, who have been made in the likeness of God. Old Testament, New Testament, people are still made in the similitude, the likeness, the image of God. We've seen that sin ravages every part of us. And yet scripture doesn't say that the image of God has been absolutely crushed and destroyed. No, we still bear God's image. And there are some objections I'd like to just bring up from this. One, the first objection is, if the image remains, how can we say that man is totally depraved? And if the image of God still is there, how can you also say that people are totally depraved? Total depravity means that our faculties, our intellect, our affections, our will, they're twisted, but not destroyed. We still think, we still choose, and we still feel, even though they're warped. And so we have to have this balance between both dignity and defilement. Both of those are true in every human. I gave you a little chart, I think it's on your outline there. On the left hand side, what remains made in God's image. There are things like the conscience. It still convicts people of sin. They may do wrong things about it. I talk to people in India all the time that they'll talk about, okay, they have guilty consciences, they sin. What do they think they need to do? They go down to the Ganges River and they think if they take a bath, their sins are done with. It's part of the image of God that's still in them. We still have a capacity to love. We still have an ability to worship. Now people take that in Romans chapter one, they twist it and they worship the created rather than the creator, but the point that they still, across all sorts of cultures all over the world, people still desire to worship something, shows that they know innately that there's something that should be worshiped. But on the right hand side, we're able to see that those areas are still distorted. I mean, just remember what happened around the pandemic. When were you able to get toilet paper? People hoarding resources for themselves. People not wanting to bless others, but instead care for themselves. We still, we can speak, but we gossip. We numb our emotions with entertainment. And I just left some area blank on the bottom of the chart there. Feel free to go home and fill it out for yourselves. How are you still made in the image of God with knowledge and righteousness and holiness? Is there anything in there that still applies to you? But on the other side, where is it gone haywire? Pray. Pray for the Lord Jesus to shine his light into your broken heart, into your twisted soul. and to bring light and healing, renewal. Second objection, some people might say, well, this is confusing. How can we be both deeply broken and deeply valuable? Again, we say that because the scripture teaches it. The scripture has both those commitments there. We are worse than we think, and we are loved more than we know. Both of those things are held true. Third objection. Does this just not justify humanism? Doesn't this just teach that, well, people are made in the image of God, and so we should just be all about people. No, human worth is never grounded in autonomous human being in ourselves, but our worth is rounded in God who created us. If you take somebody out of the category of being made in the image of God, you do not have any dignity. If you are nothing more than a series of genetic mutations and accidents across millions of years of history, just go ahead and kill the old people. Just go ahead and wipe other people off like germs. If they disagree with your political ideology, just put them in a camp. Why don't we do those things? Why do we not advocate? Why do we fight against that? Why do we fight saying that no, there is a child in the womb of the mother and that child has dignity and a right to life even though they cannot live on their own yet? Because we believe that they were made in the image of God. That's why they're not just an accidental clump of cells. But God has given them dignity. Apart from God, any idea of dignity and people just becomes this idol. And so as we just wrap up this sermon, it's not a good place to end it, but that's where I'm going to end it. We wrestle in our inner being, in our souls. God has given you life. He's given you a body and He's given you a soul. They're conjoined together and your soul is real. Your soul thinks. Your soul has affections. Your soul makes choices because you are that body and soul. And those things have been corrupted. You know it in your life. So I'm gonna just make two final pleas with you. For those of you who are in Christ Jesus, praise God. Praise God that he saw, knew the corruption of your souls, and yet for some mysterious, miraculous reason, yet decided to still love you. Not because you did anything good enough or grand enough or were great enough, but while you were still dead in your transgressions and sins, Christ died for you. Not by works of righteousness, which you did, but by his mercy. I pray that your heart will be overjoyed with the love of God that he has poured out in you. Christ Jesus. I ask you today, when will you, maybe it's even this morning, when will you come to face-to-face reality with the mirror of Scripture, see who you are as God says it, in your own sin? When will you start to hate your sin enough to turn from it and cry out to God for salvation? Brothers and sisters, the whole law of God is summed up in these two commandments. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourselves. Abide in the love of God that he has poured out in you in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we confess to you that we have sinful proclivities, desires. Lord, we confess to you that we are people who desperately need your salvation. And Father, I pray as a sinful man, often a failing shepherd, that you would lead your people by your spirit into the sweet green pastures, Lord, that they might rest in Christ and drink from the living water. Lord, we pray that we might be like that woman in the well, told of our sin, but then also told of the one who gives us water that we might never thirst again. Help us, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

• Why is human righteousness insufficient before God? Human righteousness is insufficient before a holy God because, as Romans 3:10-12 and Genesis 6:5 highlight, we are all inherently sinful. Our thoughts, intentions, and actions consistently fall short of God's perfect standard. We are prone to evil, and even our best efforts are tainted by selfishness and pride, meaning we cannot achieve a state of righteousness that would satisfy God's justice. This demonstrates the dire need for an external source of righteousness.

• What is meant by 'substitutionary atonement' in the context of Jesus' suffering? Substitutionary atonement refers to the concept that Jesus, who was completely righteous, willingly took the punishment for our sins upon himself. As Isaiah 53:4-6 and 2 Corinthians 5:21 show, he suffered and died on the cross as a substitute, bearing the consequences of our wrongdoing. This act of love and sacrifice satisfied God's justice, allowing us to be reconciled to him. Christ's suffering was not merely a demonstration of love but a means of payment for the penalty that we deserved, hence the "just for the unjust".

• How does Christ's resurrection impact our hope and justification? Christ's resurrection is vital because it proves the completeness and success of his sacrifice. Romans 5:1-5 and Philippians 3:9-11 describe how it demonstrates that God has accepted Jesus' atonement. It signifies not only the forgiveness of our sins but also our restoration to a right relationship with God. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, the believer has been given an "alien righteousness", one that was not earnt by them, but imputed to them by God through faith. It is through Christ's resurrection that we have the hope of eternal life, having been both acquitted of our sin and declared righteous in God's sight.

• What does it mean for a Christian to be "blessed" in suffering for righteousness? According to 1 Peter 3:13-17, suffering for righteousness is a blessing because it means our lives are aligning with Christ's teachings, and we are participating in His suffering. When we are persecuted for our beliefs, it is not a sign of God's disfavor, but rather a testament to our faith and a confirmation that we are following Christ's example. It gives us a unique opportunity to testify to the hope we have in Christ. Instead of fearing such suffering, we are to view it as an honour and an opportunity to glorify God.

• How should Christians respond when they face evil or persecution? Christians are called to respond to evil or persecution not by retaliating, but by exhibiting compassion, humility and love. 1 Peter 3:8-12 says, instead of returning evil for evil, we should bless those who persecute us. We are to seek unity and pursue peace, trusting that God is ultimately just and will avenge us. The focus should be on reflecting the character of Christ, showing grace even when facing injustice. This includes being gentle and respectful when defending our faith.

• Why is the concept of Christ's finished work so crucial for Christians? The "finished work" of Christ means that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection were all sufficient for our salvation. This means our righteousness is not based on any personal achievement, but a gift given freely by God. As the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms point out, Christ's obedience and sacrifice fully satisfied God's justice. Because of this, we can have full assurance of our salvation. There's nothing more we can or need to add to what he has already accomplished. This frees us from the burden of trying to earn our salvation and establishes Christ as the sole foundation for our relationship with God.

• How should the assurance of Christ's finished work influence our daily lives? The assurance of Christ's finished work should lead us to live with a deep sense of gratitude and confidence in our relationship with God. Knowing we are righteous because of Christ, not ourselves, should cultivate humility and motivate us to pursue a life that is pleasing to him. We should seek to display unity, peace, and love in our interactions with others. In our lives, we must seek to give a defence to others for the hope that we have in Christ, in meekness and fear. This should inform the way we approach every aspect of our lives.

• What is the practical application of the phrase "the just for the unjust" in our lives? The phrase "the just for the unjust" highlights the central tenet of Christian faith: Jesus, being perfectly righteous, took the punishment that we, being unrighteous, deserved. This realisation should foster a spirit of gratitude and humility. We must acknowledge we have no merit of our own, and our salvation comes entirely through grace. The just one took our place so that we might be brought into the presence of God. The application is that we can never rely upon ourselves for our own righteousness, and so must place our full trust in Jesus. This should lead to living lives that honor God's grace.

• Justification: God's act of declaring a sinner righteous in his sight through faith in Christ, not through their own good works or merits.

• Imputation: The act of crediting or transferring something, in this context, God credits Christ's righteousness to believers.

• Atonement: The reconciliation between God and humanity through Christ's sacrificial death, which covers the debt of sin.

• Substitutionary Atonement: The doctrine that Christ died as a substitute for sinful humanity, bearing the punishment and penalty for their sin.

• Righteousness: Moral perfection and conformity to God's law. In Christian theology, it's seen both as a standard and a gift of God through Christ.

• Sanctification: The process of being made holy, where God works in believers to transform them into Christlikeness over time.

• Passive Obedience: Christ's willing submission to suffering and death as part of his obedience to God's will, not limited to simply his active obedience to the law.

• Alien Righteousness: A righteousness that is not inherent to the individual but comes from an outside source. In Christian theology, it refers to the righteousness of Christ imputed to believers.

• Reconciliation: The restoration of a relationship to harmony, specifically, the bridging of the gap between God and humans through Christ.

• The Spirit: In the context of this study, refers to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who is believed to give life and bring about spiritual regeneration.