Theological Term of the Week: Noetic Effects of Sin

noetic effects of sin
The negative effect of sin on the minds and thinking of humankind, causing the reasoning ability of fallen humanity to be corrupted, especially degrading the understanding of spiritual things; also called the noetic effects of the fall.

• From scripture:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened (Romans 1:21 ESV).

• From the Canons of Dort:

The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine

Article 1

The Effect of the Fall on Human Nature
Man was originally created in the image of God and was furnished in his mind with a true and salutary knowledge of his Creator and things spiritual, in his will and heart with righteousness, and in all his emotions with purity; indeed, the whole man was holy. However, rebelling against God at the devil’s instigation and by his own free will, he deprived himself of these outstanding gifts. Rather, in their place he brought upon himself blindness, terrible darkness, futility, and distortion of judgment in his mind; perversity, defiance, and hardness in his heart and will; and finally impurity in all his emotions.

Article 2

The Spread of Corruption
Man brought forth children of the same nature as himself after the fall. That is to say, being corrupt he brought forth corrupt children. The corruption spread, by God’s just judgment, from Adam to all his descendants - except for Christ alone - not by way of imitation (as in former times the Pelagians would have it) but by way of the propagation of his perverted nature.

Article 4

The Inadequacy of the Light of Nature
There is, to be sure, a certain light of nature remaining in man after the fall, by virtue of which he retains some notions about God, natural things, and the difference between what is moral and immoral, and demonstrates a certain eagerness for virtue and for good outward behavior. But this light of nature is far from enabling man to come to a saving knowledge of God and conversion to him - so far, in fact, that man does not use it rightly even in matters of nature and society. Instead, in various ways he completely distorts this light, whatever its precise character, and suppresses it in unrighteousness. In doing so he renders himself without excuse before God.

Learn more:

1. Ligonier Ministries: The Noetic Effects of Sin
2. Simply Put: The Noetic Effects of Sin
3. Got Questions: What are the noetic effects of sin?

Related terms:

• fall of humanity
• original sin
• total depravity 

Filed under Anthropology

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Sunday Hymn: Join All the Glorious Names

Join all the glo­ri­ous names
Of wis­dom, love, and pow­er,
That ev­er mor­tals knew,
That an­gels ev­er bore:
All are too mean to speak His worth,
Too mean to set my Sav­ior forth.

But O what gen­tle terms,
What con­des­cend­ing ways,
Doth our Re­deem­er use
To teach His heav’nly grace!
Mine eyes with joy and won­der see
What forms of love He bears for me.

Arrayed in mor­tal flesh,
He like an an­gel stands,
And holds the pro­mis­es
And par­dons in His hands;
Commissioned from His Fa­ther’s throne
To make His grace to mor­tals known.

Great Pro­phet of my God,
My tongue would bless Thy name,
By Thee the joy­ful news
Of our sal­va­tion came,
The joy­ful news of sin for­giv’n
Of hell sub­dued, and peace with Heav’n.

Be Thou my coun­se­lor,
My pat­tern, and my guide,
And through this de­sert land
Still keep me near thy side:
Nor let my feet e’er run as­tray
Nor rove nor seek the crook­ed way.

I love my shep­herd’s voice,
His watch­ful eyes shall keep
My wan­d’ring soul among
The thou­sands of His sheep:
He feeds His flock, He calls their names,
His bo­som bears the ten­der lambs.

To this dear sure­ty’s hand
Will I com­mit my cause;
He an­swers and ful­fills
His Fa­ther’s brok­en laws:
Behold my soul at free­dom set!
My sure­ty paid the dread­ful debt.

Jesus, my great high priest,
Offered His blood, and died;
My guil­ty con­science seeks
No sac­ri­fice be­side:
His pow­er­ful blood did once atone,
And now it pleads be­fore the throne.

My ad­vo­cate ap­pears
For my de­fense on high;
The Fa­ther bows His ears,
And lays His thun­der by:
Not all that hell or sin can say
Shall turn His heart, His love away.

My dear al­migh­ty Lord,
My con­quer­or and my king,
Thy scep­ter and Thy sword,
Thy reign­ing grace I sing:
Thine is the pow­er; be­hold I sit
In will­ing bonds be­neath Thy feet.

Now let my soul arise,
And tread the tempt­er down;
My cap­tain leads me forth
To con­quest and a crown:
A fee­ble saint shall win the day,
Though death and hell ob­struct the way.

Should all the hosts of death,
And pow­ers of hell un­known,
Put their most dread­ful forms
Of rage and mis­chief on,
I shall be safe, for Christ dis­plays
Superior pow­er, and guard­ian grace.

—Isaac Watts

Theological Term of the Week: Image of God

image of God
A phrase used in scripture in reference to humankind as created by God and as distinguished from other creatures. Throughout history, there have been many different ideas as to what it means to be created in God’s image, but the bottom line is that in some way (or ways), human beings are like God and are meant to represent him in the world; also called imago Dei.) 

• From scripture:

Then God said,”Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:26-31 ESV).

• From John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.3:

[T]he image of God extends to everything in which the nature of man surpasses that of all other species of animals. Accordingly, by this term is denoted the integrity with which Adam was endued when his intellect was clear, his affections subordinated to reason, all his senses duly regulated, and when he truly ascribed all his excellence to the admirable gifts of his Maker. And though the primary seat of the divine image was in the mind and the heart, or in the soul and its powers, there was no part even of the body in which some rays of glory did not shine. It is certain that in every part of the world some lineaments of divine glory are beheld and hence we may infer, that when his image is placed in man, there is a kind of tacit antithesis, as it were, setting man apart from the crowd, and exalting him above all the other creatures.

• From Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung, page 113-114:

Older theologians tended to emphasize the structural aspects of the image of God. They viewed man’s capacity for intelligence, rationality, morality, beauty, and worship as that which distinguishes us from the animals. Even in unborn babies and persons with severe impairments, there is still a unique human capacity for these qualities, however limited by physical or psychological constraints.

More recent theologians have focused on the functional aspects of the image of God. That is, they identify God’s image less with our essence than with our ethics. According to passages like Romans 8:29 (“predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son”) and 1 Corinthians 15:49 (“as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven), the image of God is not just what we have, it is what we are called to do and to be (1 John 3:2-3).

Both aspects teach us something important about the image of God, but the Bible allows us to say more about the functional (what we do) than the structural (what we have).

Learn more:

1. Aaron Armstrong: What Does It Mean to Bear God’s Image?
2. Richard Phillips: Man as the Image of God
3. Justin Taylor: The Image of God: A Primer
4. Peter May: What is the Image of God?
5. Westminster Seminary California: Basics of the Reformed Faith: Divine Image Bearers
6. Kevin DeYoung: Six Implications of Being Made in the Image of God

Related terms:

• cultural mandate
• fall of humanity
• federal headship
• vocation 

Filed under Anthropology

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Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.