Psalm 51:1-5: The Doctrine of Original Sin

Scripture Reading

Psalm 103:8–12 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Intro

What is sin?

Where does it come from?

Are we born inherently good or are we born in sin inheriting a corrupted sin nature.

These are all questions that have to deal with Original Sin and Total Depravity.

Two key doctrines that trace our sinfulness not just to what we do but to who we are.

They are a mirror to show us who we are apart from Christ.

Now why would we focus on our sin.

Are we just morbid?… do we just want to feel guilty about ourselves?

Do we think we need to punish ourselves to get God to accept us?

Sin doesn’t get preached… because sin brings with it many hard truths.

Our sin is not just some bad things we do.

It is a deep… inherited corruption that twists all that we are… mind… heart… will… and affections towards sin and way from God.

But only by looking at sin… at the plight and misery of our sin… can we see God’s Amazing… Wonderful… Kind and Loving grace.

David… the man after God’s own heart… wrote about his sin and confessed his sin in Psalm 51 not just going back to the sin itself but how he was born a sinner in need of God’s grace from the womb.

Psalm Background

The Psalm begins with an intro that gives us the original context of the Psalm.

Just before verse 1 it says…

Psalm 51 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

The Story of David and Bathsheba is well known and it begins in 2 Samuel 11.

2 Samuel 11:2-5 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

NEW SLIDE

So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

There’s an echo here of the Fall.

Just as Eve saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes so David saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful (Genesis 2:6).

And he lay with her and they committed adultery together.

We know that because Bathsheba goes along with David’s plan to try to cover it up when she becomes pregnant (cf. Deuteronomy 22:23-24).

And the emphasis is on David because he’s the King.

2 Samuel is focusing on his failure as Head and King of the People looking forward to True and Perfect King, Jesus Christ. .

Well, after Bathsheba became pregnant, David tried to cover it up by bringing Uriah, her husband, home in hopes that he would lay with His wife (Cf. 2 Samuel 23:24-39).

But Uriah wouldn’t while the ark of the Lord and his fellow soldiers slept of the fields of battle (2 Samuel 11:6-13).

And so David decided to kill him and he sent Uriah back with a letter to his general, Joab, that said “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die” (2 Samuel 11:15).

And afterwards David brought Bathsheba into his house and made her his wife (Genesis 50:10, 1 Samuel 31:13).

And 2 Samuel 11 ends with But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord (2 Samuel 11:27).

literally it says “What David had done was evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

The Man after God’s Own Heart had a heart that was out of sync with the Lord (1 Samuel 13:14).

David had broken at least 5 of the 10 Commandments.

He started by breaking the tenth… you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife (Exodus 20:17).

And then he broke the seventh… you shall not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14).

And then he broke the sixth, eighth, and ninth… he murdered Uriah… he stole his wife… and then he lied about it (Exodus 20:13, 15-16).

And that’s where Nathan came in.

Now Nathan was a prophet sent by the Lord to confront David.

And Nathan said There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.

The rich man had very man flocks, but the poor man only had one little ewe lamb.

And when a traveler came to the rich man, instead of killing one of his own flock, the rich man took the little ewe lamb to feed and host the man.

And David’s anger was greatly kindled and David said, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die!”

And Nathan said, “You are the man!”… Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in His sight? (2 Samuel 12:1-7, 9).

And speaking on behalf of the Lord, the Lord said through Nathan “You have despised… me.” (2 Samuel 12:10).

And David breaks under the weight of His sin.

He confesses “I have sinned against the Lord” and writes Psalm 51 which says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,” clearly calling back to this moment. (2 Samuel 12:13; Psalm 51:4).

Application - Sexual Immorality

One of the Applications this shows us is how on guard we need to be against sexual sin.

David was the most devoted man and a Man after God’s own heart.

Samson if you remember, was the strongest man.

And Solomon, David’s son, was the wisest man that had ever lived.

And they were all overcome by lust.

What makes us think we are any better.

Flee from sexual immorality! (1 Corinthians 6:18).

Can a man carry coals next to His chest and not be burned? (Proverbs 6:27).

Application - The Evil/Weight of Sin

The other thing this shows us and gets us into our focus for today in Psalm 51… is the Evil and Weight and Wickedness of our sin.

Its crushing and grotesque.

This story fills us with revulsion.

To see noble David and just how far sin can go.

Adultery… murder… lying?

We’re shocked by it… we’re scandalized by it.

But that’s not usually how we see our own sin.

All our sin… no matter how small… is just as revolting and grotesque and heinous in light of God’s holiness.

And it leads to just as much death.

Uriah died.

The baby dies.

The horror we fill should be the horror for our own sin because but for the grace of God there go I.

When we see the full weight of sin, we can do nothing but repent of it as David does in Psalm 51.

We can do nothing but cry out for God and his mercy.

Because sin… and the inward corruption of sin… is a crushing weight… a millstone around our neck… that outside of God’s grace… threatens to destroy us all

Psalm 51:1–2 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

Have mercy!

David cries out as a beggar of grace.

His only hope is God’s abundant and steadfast love.

He says blot out my transgressions.

Erase them… cover them up… make them to be forgotten and remembered no more.

Wash me… thoroughly… from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

The three words David uses for sin tells us a different aspects of what our sin is before God.

What is Sin?

Transgression

First… sin is transgression.

The root word means to go against or rebel.

You can think of it as crossing the line or going out of bounds.

God’s Law draws a line around our life.

It tells us what’s in bounds and what’s out.

We are made in His image and called to live for His glory.

And when we sin we rebel against the known will of God and deliberately crossover that line.

We transgress… rebel… go against God’s will.

Transgression is high-handed rebellion where we say we will not have God rule over us (cf. Psalm 2:2-3).

Iniquity

Iniquity is the picture of ground in dirt.

It literally means to bend or to twist and talks about the inward warping of our sinful nature.

We are bent towards sin.

We are warped and bent out of shape.

Something has been twisted in us from how God originally created us.

So when we say, “God forgive me my iniquity,” we are saying God forgive me of my inner bent.

Forgive me that I desire sin… that I’m even tempted towards sin.

The temptation itself is not sin… Jesus was tempted.

But the inward desire… the inward bent is something to be repented of.

We can pray, “God thank you from keeping me from that sin or temptation but renew me to where that is no temptation at all.”

Put that sin and that desire to sin to death in my life.

Sin

Finally sin means to miss the mark or fall short like an arrow off target.

Paul says All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

As Creator… God is glorious and worthy of all of our life.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable (Psalm 145:3).

As the All-Glorious, All-Worthy Creator… God is worthy of all of our life, love, worship and obedience.

But with sin we fall short and miss the mark.

We fall short of God’s glory and living up to who God is and giving Him the glory that He is due.

Why God Must Punish Sin

With every sin we say God is not good… He is not glorious… and He is not worthy of all of our life, love, and worship.

This is why God is just and righteous in His wrath and must punish our sin.

If God didn’t… it would deny who He is.

It would say that He is not Good… Not Glorious… and in effect no God at all.

So God has and must have a righteous indignation towards sin because God is God and He cannot deny Himself or lessen the radiance of His glory.

And so God is just to punish our transgression, iniquity, and sin because God’s Own glory…

The glory of His holiness, and righteousness, and justice… not to mention His glory as Creator… demands it.

And that’s verses 3 and 4.

Psalm 51:3–4 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Now wait a second.

Didn’t David commit adultery with Bathsheba and murder Uriah?

David didn’t just sin against God… He sinned against at least two other people.

How then is David saying Against you, you only, have I sinned?

Because David recognizes that all of His sin first and foremost is ultimately a sin against God.

All our sin against others is the fruit of our sin against Him.

Remember how Nathan had said that David had “despised [God]” and “despised His Word.”

All of David’s Murder, Adultery, and Lies was ultimately despising the Lord.

That’s why David says so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

David sinned against God and God is good to judge sin.

He is blameless in His judgment.

Hell?

God does no injustice in punishing sin.

When we question the goodness of God and His righteousness in judging sinners…

When we… like many people do today… question Hell and say, “How can a good and loving God truly do that? How could a loving God ever send someone to Hell?”

This is a very humanistic and self-centered way to see the world.

To question God’s goodness in judging sinners doesn’t just sin against God but spits in His face.

What it effectively says is, “God, your not that good… your Not that Great… your not that Glorious and my sins not that bad.”

It fundamentally rejects and denies the Creator-Creature Relationship.

What David has here is a God-focused repentance… a God-glorifying repentance.

There’s a real humility for how bad our sin really truly is.

God I deserve Hell… I deserve death… I deserve to be punished and to perish for my sins.

I have no excuse… I am a worm and not a man and you are the King of Glory… (Psalm 22:6).

Will you please be merciful to me?

If you can’t get sin and righteousness right… If you can’t put God’s glory and righteous judgment in its proper place against our sin… you’ll never understand God’s grace.

The only way to see the light of God’s grace shine the brightest is to see how sin evil… dark… and wretched our sin truly is.

And so that’s what I want to do.

I want to look at the depth of our sin… just how lost we truly are.

So that in the plight and misery of our sin… we can see the glory of God’s mercy.

Psalm 51 3 and 5…

Original Sin/Total Depravity

Psalm 51:3, 5 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me… Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

These two verses together the us the Doctrines of Original Sin and Total Depravity.

When David says For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me… the idea is that it is ever with me.

I can’t escape it.

This is that iniquity and inward bent idea.

The inward corruption of the sinful flesh…

Its the Old Man (Romans 7:15-25).

And when He says Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

He’s not saying that his mom was sinful or that he was born of a sinful relationship.

David is saying that he was born in his sin.

That he was a sinner from the beginning… even from his own conception.

Original Sin

Original Sin is the Doctrine that says we are born sinners.

That through Adam we are born guilty… condemned in our sin… and that we inherit Adam’s corrupted sin nature.

Ephesians 2:3 says We were… by nature… children of wrath… that’s guilt.

And Paul says in Romans 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh… that’s the corrupted sin nature.

Everything in us is wholly bent towards sin and hostile to God.

Inherently Good?

Now this doctrine goes directly against the popular myth of our day that people are born inherently good.

That sin and our failures are just at the edges of who we are but not an essential part of us.

This is how you get “You can’t judge me” and the Homosexual and Transgender identity madness of our day because if people are born essentially good who are you to question who they are.

Criminals don’t need to be punished… they need to be rehabilitated.

That the problem is not us or our sin but the inequalities and outdated way of thinking of society.

We’re not sinners… we are victims of our environment.

But the Bible says we are sinful to the core.

Our problem is not just that we do bad things… we are sinners.

Our greatest need is not self-actualization or living your true self.

Its being forgiven and reconciled to God.

Original Sin says that we are all born sinners in Adam.

Romans 5:12, 18-19 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… [and] one trespass led to condemnation for all men… [and] by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.

When Adam fell, we all fell in Adam.

Adam… as our father… represented us before God as our Federal or Covenantal Head.

So when Adam sinned, he sinned as our representative… and therefore we sinned in him.

We were… as Paul said… made sinners and inherited Adam’s corrupt sinful nature.

Because the Bible says God created man in His image, but after the Fall it says that Adam fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth (Genesis 1:26, Genesis 5:3).

We are all “Little Adams” fallenness and all (1689 6:2, 3).

And as the 1689 says: From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions (1689 6:4).

And this takes us to the Doctrine of Total Depravity… this inward bent towards sin.

Total Depravity

If the Doctrine of Original Sin says that we are Fallen in Adam… the Doctrine of Total Depravity emphasizes just how thoroughly fallen we are.

The Doctrine of Total Depravity essentially says that we are so twisted and gnarled by Original Sin that all that we are and all that we do is to serve and under the dominion and control of sin.

What It Doesn’t Mean

What Total Depravity doesn’t mean is that we are all as sinful as we possible could be or tempted by every kind of sin

Not everyone is a serial killer.

And we are all drawn towards our own particular kinds of sin by our own particular lusts and desires.

It doesn’t mean that non Christians can have no conscience or awareness of sin… God has written His Law on the conscience of our hearts being made in His image (Romans 1:32, 2:14-15).

And it doesn’t mean that a non Christian can’t be moral or compassionate or do some moral good relatively speaking

Non Christians can still love their wives or their children.

And Jesus even said even Evil parents know how to give good gifts to their children (Matthew 7:11).

But what it does mean is that everything in us is utterly and absolutely bent towards sin and hostile to God.

That we are dead in our sins.

The 1689 says that Fallen Humanity is wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body and utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil (1689 6:2, 4).

Our minds… hearts… loves… wills… affections and emotions…

Our conscience, goals, motives, desires…

Every thought, word, action, and deed…

Everything about us! has been corrupted by our sin.

As Calvin said, if God broke the arms of sinners we would still kick against Him with our legs (Curt Daniel, The History and Theology of Calvinism, 307).

Biblical Descriptions

Listen to how the Bible talks about us in our sin.

Blind… Deaf… Sick… Lame (Isaiah 6:10, 35:5-6, 59:10, 2 Cor 4:4, John 3:3).

Sold under sin… (Romans 7:14)

Lost in our sin… (Luke 15:32; Luke 19:10)

Captive to our sin… (Romans 7:23).

Slaves to our sin (John 8:34).

Under the Dominion of Sin (Romans 3:9, 6:14).

Enemies of God (Romans 5:10, 8:7).

Lovers of Darkness (John 3:18-19).

Children of Wrath… (Ephesians 2:3).

Followers of Satan (Ephesians 2:2).

Wise in doing evil… ignorant of doing good (Jeremiah 4:22).

Darkened in our undertanding (Romans 1:21).

Dead in our trespasses and sins… drinking sin like water with evil, unbelieving hearts whose every thought and intention of the heart is only evil continually (Ephesians 2:1, Job 15:16 Hebrews 3:12, Genesis 6:5).

Dead… sinful to the core… utterly lost in darkness with no hope or light outside of God’s grace.

Now before we get to that grace and the good news of the Gospel…

The Doctrine of Original Sin brings up two very important questions that honestly we just don’t get a lot of opportunity to address.

And they are… Abortion and Personhood… and What about babies that die?

First…

Abortion and Personhood

David clearly identifies himself as a morally culpable person in the womb from conception.

We always say that life starts at conception and Psalm 51:5 is one of those verses that proves it.

Its only persons… whether angels or humans… that sin against God.

Being sinful from the womb… even from the moment of conception… clearly identifies an unborn child as a person.

Psalm 139:13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

The “inward parts” in Hebrew poetry are usually the seat… the heart… of the affections.

They are the place where we can experience grief or distress (John 16:13, Psalm 73:21).

Psalm 16 says its where the conscience exist (Psalm 16:7).

We are talking about the soul so even in the womb… a little baby is an unborn person with a soul.

This is why heartbeat laws… while well intentioned… are not enough.

A heartbeat is not what makes you human… its having a soul and being made in the image of God.

Therefore we should be against abortion from the moment of conception because all abortion is the murder of unborn human beings.

Now that raises a very difficult question…

What About Babies that Die?

We have said from Original Sin all people are born sinners and morally culpable from the womb does that mean that babies that die… or are miscarried… or the mentally disabled for that matter go to Hell?

This is a very tender question because some of you… like I have myself… lost children and had miscarriages.

What does God’s Word say to you?

Well first of all… there is no “Age of Accountability” in the Bible.

Some people will look at Isaiah 7:16 that talks about there being a time before children know how to choose between good and evil and say that they are not morally culpable until they can make that choice.

But that goes agains the doctrine of Original Sin we just looked at and it implies that there is some righteousness other than the righteousness of Christ… some kind of childhood innocence… that can justify us before God.

Well are you saying all infants go to hell?

No… what I’m saying is that as sinners God would not be wrong to do so.

But we have a great hope!

The 1689 Chapter 10 paragraph 3 says: Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit; who worketh when, and where, and how he pleases so also are all elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.

The elect are those predestined before the foundation of the world and God effectually brings all of them to faith in Christ.

John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from the Womb (Luke 1:41-44).

Jeremiah was consecrated and chosen before he was born (Jeremiah 1:5).

Jesus said let the children come to me for to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 18:15-17).

He said whoever God calls to come to Christ will come to Him (John 6:37).

And God is a God who calls Himself our Heavenly Father.

Even in the background of our Psalm when David’s son born to him by Bathsheba dies for His sin… David says Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me implying that David would see Him again in Heaven (2 Samuel 12:23).

So what does that mean?

Some like Charles Spurgeon and John MacArthur take it that every child that dies is accepted into heaven.

And while the Bible is not explicit one way or the other, here’s what I can say.

God is a good Heavenly Father and will the Judge of all the earth not do what is right? (Genesis 18:25).

I think if you are a Christian… even if you became a Christian losing a child… you can have the utmost confidence that you will see your baby again.

God is faithful to a thousand generations and God’s pattern in Scripture is to save the children of His people.

We were all born in Original Sin… and the same grace that covers us and raised our life from the dead is the same grace that can cover unborn infants in the perfect righteousness of Christ.

Righteousness of Christ/New Creation

Because that’s ultimately what Original Sin shows us.

The only righteousness that can save… is Christ’s righteousness.

1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

In Adam… we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

But by grace through faith in Jesus Christ we are Born Again and made New Creations (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The eternal Son of God became a man to live the life of perfect obedience we failed to live.

And He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins that we deserved to die.

In the same way that Adam’s sin and guilt was imputed to us… reckoned to us… as our Covenantal Head.

In Christ we have a New Covenantal Head in the True and perfect Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45).

We are born again and Christ’s perfect righteousness is credited to us in the grace of the New Covenant.

Its that passage we looked at earlier in Romans 5:18-19…

Romans 5:18-19 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

In Adam… born in Original Sin… you are condemned… a slave… dead in your trespasses and sins.

But in Christ you are righteous… free… forgiven… you are a New Creation and filled with the indwelling Holy Spirit taken out of the Old Adam and hidden in Christ.

And in Christ… you are given the free gift of Eternal Life.

No longer guilty and condemned in your sins but forgiven, redeemed, and reconciled to God.

Conclusion

Original Sin shows us the plight and misery of our sin.

The sinfulness of our sin and the great grace of what God saved us from.

Non Christian

Are you guilty and condemned in your sins?

Do you know that you were born a sinner and even now are you under the crushing weight of your sin and the conviction of the Holy Spirit?

I’m lost… I’m blind… I’m under God’s wrath and I cannot save myself!

Jesus said…

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).

Come to Christ!

Believe in Him… Trust in Him

Say, “God be merciful to me a sinner and give me grace.”

And all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Today you can be made a New Creation

Taken out of Adam and hidden in Christ to never come under the condemnation and death of your sins.

Christian

For us Christians the Doctrines of Original Sin and Total Depravity show us just what God saved us from.

We where wholly bent on sin with no hope and no power to ever save ourselves.

Left to ourselves we would be lost forever.

But God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

God would have been good and just to send us all to Hell.

But He adopted us instead.

Original Sin and Total Depravity lead to worship.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!… who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. (Psalm 103:1-4).

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23–24).

Let’s Pray