Philemon (3)

I want to continue on with the consideration of what Paul means when he refers to Onesimus’ former condition as “useless” or “worthless” prior to the conversion of the runaway slave.

As opposed to the ideology of the day that claims people are born innocent, Scripture teaches that we are born into sin and rebellion against God, wicked and worthless compared to His holiness and infinite worth. This is not some new “Pauline” concept. God warned Adam and Eve of this result in the beginning before their sin against Him.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen 2:16-17)

Physical death was not the immediate result of their disobedience. That would come later. Spiritual death was the immediate result. Adam and Eve were at once ashamed of their nakedness before a Holy God. The sin of Adam led to the sin of the entire race of man. We are born with a total inability to please God because our motives for even the things we consider “good” are sinful and fall short of doing those deeds as glorifying to God.

In other words, we operate naturally to honor ourselves and our desires rather than God. We trade the greater satisfaction of knowing the glory of God for the cheap, quick and far less satisfying pleasures of a fading life. In the Psalms, David laments that the corrupt nature of our hearts is present even at conception.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Ps 51:5)

The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies. (Ps 58:3)

This condition is clearly from birth, even from conception before an infant has done any moral action. In the New Testament, Jesus instructed a Jewish leader on the universal plight of mankind.

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (Jn 3:5-7)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus again discusses the absoluteness of our fallen nature by comparing the situation to the nature and fruit of a tree.

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. (Mt 7:16-18)

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. (Mt 12:33)

We are condemned not only because of the natures with which we are born, i.e. the bad tree, but also by the individual acts that we commit against God, i.e. the bad fruit.

This condition is not limited to a few bad apples. This condition is universal. Every man, woman, and child is born spiritually worthless, spiritually corrupt, and by nature “children of [God’s] wrath.” The testimony of Scripture concerning the universality of our fallen condition is overwhelming. Here are a few more examples.

What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water! (Job 15:14-16)

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? (Ps 130:3)

Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. (Ps 143:2)

Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”? (Pr 20:9)

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. (Ec 7:20)

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Is 53:6)

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Is 64:6)

For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body...but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (Jas 3:2, 8)

If anyone claims that they have no sin or that we are born innocent, they deny the clear teaching of Jesus and the witness of the Holy Spirit through the inspired authors of Scripture.

There are parallels to the slavery of Onesimus and his spiritual status prior to his conversion. As we have seen, the parallel is universal to all of fallen mankind. Elsewhere, Paul describes the spiritual bondage of all people as deadness. We will resume later by exploring the testimony of Scripture as to what that deadness entails.

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