Born
in Sin?
By
Ron Corson
And
said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked
shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be
the name of the LORD. (KJV) Job
It would surely be every mother’s nightmare
if they took the words of Job as literal as some take the psalms of David. Job
was not saying that the old man returns to his mother’s womb in his unclothed
condition. But using poetic language he tells us that as we came with nothing
into this world, there is nothing we shall take out of this world when we die.
God has given us the gift of life yet man’s days are not without end. Let us
bless the Lord for what he has given us while we have the gift. The poetry of
David tells us that he was conceived in sin. So then is it his aim to say that
the newborn baby is a sinner?
Looking at the verse in question and those
surrounding it will help immensely since that is how practically every written
document is intended to be understood.
Ps
51:1-13
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing
love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before
me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is
evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified
when you judge.
(Verse 5) Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from
the time my mother conceived me.
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach
me wisdom in the inmost place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me,
and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have
crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my
iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a
steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy
Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a
willing spirit, to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners
will turn back to you. (NIV)
Preceding
the poetry is the title of which is helpful in understanding the context of the
writing.
"For the director of
music. A psalm
of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after
David had committed adultery with Bathsheba."
David is acknowledging his sinfulness to God.
Trusting that God will blot out his sins. And as such
he addresses God, few people would agree with David
here that it was only against God that David sinned. Certainly Bathsheba and
her late husband would not agree. However David realizes that it is his wrong
desires, his broken relationship with God which is the cause of his actions.
His desire is to be restored to the joy of God’s salvation. As with most people
who are raised in an environment where right and wrong are taught David looks
back and as far as he can remember, he has always been a sinner. To him in his
poetry it is just as likely that from his very conception he has been a sinner.
No excuses in this psalm just acknowledgment that David is a sinner in need of
restoration with God.
Now today there are some who do not want to
understand context, poetic language or in many cases simple logic. They are the
proof text promoters of the world. For them it is easier to lift a passage out
of context and proclaim that here is a universal truth, take heed of the way
they use it and proliferate it's use as they have
instructed. In this case they would point to verse 5 and say "see man was
born in sin". There it is in black and white, true it is the only verse in
the entire Bible that says that and it may easily be a hyperbole presented in
poetic form, but to them it is a concrete fact. We today may wonder how these
two cells multiplying can be sinning or sinful when they neither have a working
mind or ability to perform any actions, but that is of no consequence to the
proof text proponent logic never stops them.
In short the proof text method is a way of
taking verses or portions of verses and using them to "prove"
a particular point. This is legitimate only when
context and meaning are substantially the same as the
point which is trying to be proved. The proof text method
in contrast takes a verse or section of verse
and often arbitrarily uses the isolated text as their
"proof". Failing to take into account the context where the text
originated or it historical or literary relevance. Often the proof text
proponent will take a verse out
of context and use it for their own particular
interpretation. As the saying goes " A text taken
out of
context is a pretext". Instead of taking the appropriate
time to study the issues fully they insert meaning
into the text which were not there to begin with. Hoping
to create the illusion that their proof text
has solved a particular question, inevitably leading to
wrong conclusions.
If we reject the proof text method we are
left with several other options. Could David mean that he was
born separated from God, or perhaps that since his birth through the influence
of his family learned to rebel against God. Maybe he was just
exaggerating to make his point, or maybe it is something else. Whatever it may
be it is fairly certain that it is not a concrete statement of fact meant to
teach us what the condition of zygotes and newborn babies is in relation to
God.
We don’t have to rely on the unreliable proof
text people though, they have been telling us what to
think for years. We can move on, paying attention to the Bible as a whole,
interpreting with the use of context linguistics, and logic. It might not be
that everything is black and white as we once thought, but then what ever
really is? The challenge for us is to test what our traditions have said, it
may be that the proof text disciples have been before us and the water is now
muddy.
Test everything,
hold on to what is good, discard the rest. Ask those who seem so sure of
themselves upon what they base their opinion. Check the texts to which they
point you. If someone tells you that Paul said he had to "die daily"
to self, look up the texts, and see for yourself * if they know what they are
talking about. It could be that you are dealing with a proof text proponent,
someone who thinks they know more then they really do.
* 1 Cor
Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise
not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?I protest by
your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.If after the
manner of men I have fought with beasts at