Sunday Hymn: I Sing the Mighty Power of God

We sing the mighty power of God 
that made the mountains rise, 
that spread the flowing seas abroad 
and built the lofty skies. 
We sing the wisdom that ordained 
the sun to rule the day; 
the moon shines full at his command, 
and all the stars obey. 

We sing the goodness of the Lord 
that filled the earth with food; 
he formed the creatures with his word 
and then pronounced them good. 
Lord, how your wonders are displayed, 
where’er we turn our eyes, 
if we survey the ground we tread 
or gaze upon the skies. 

There’s not a plant or flower below 
but makes your glories known, 
and clouds arise and tempests blow 
by order from your throne; 
while all that borrows life from you 
is ever in your care, 
and everywhere that we can be, 
you, God, are present there.

—Isaac Watts

Theological Term of the Week: Original Sin

original sin
The sinful state and condition in which all human beings are born, which includes both imputed guilt (the guilt of Adam’s sin counted as their own) and inherited corruption (a disposition toward sin); “that hereditary depravity and corruption that makes us guilty before God and yields in us sinful thoughts, desires, and actions.”1

• From scripture:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV)

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 … (Romans 12:1 ESV).

• From The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 18:

Q. 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

• From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof, pages 244:

This sin is called “original sin,” (1) because it is derived from the original root of the human race; (2) because it is present in the life of every individual from the time of his birth, and therefore cannot be regarded as the result of imitation; and (3) because it is the inward root of all the actual sins that defile the life of man. We should guard against the mistake of thinking that the term in any way implies that the sin designated by it belongs to the original constitution of human nature, which would imply that God created man as a sinner.

Learn more:

1. Simply Put: Original Sin
2. R. C. Sproul: Original Sin
3. Richard Phillips: Original Sin
4. Louis Berkhof: Original Sin and Actual Sin
5. Augustus Toplady: A Short Essay on Original Sin
6. R. C. Sproul: Adam’s Fall and Mine

Related terms:

• concupiscence
• fall of humanity
• federal headship
• inability
• total depravity 

1Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung, pages 117-118.

Filed under Anthropology

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Sunday Hymn: How Sweet and Aweful Is the Place

How sweet and aw­ful is the place
With Christ with­in the doors,
While ev­er­last­ing love dis­plays
The choic­est of her stores!

While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to ad­mire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thank­ful tongues,
“Lord, why was I a guest?

Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And en­ter while there’s room,
When thou­sands make a wretch­ed choice,
And ra­ther starve than come?

’Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweet­ly drew us in;
Else we had still re­fused to taste,
And per­ished in our sin.

Pity the na­tions, O our God!
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy vic­tor­ious Word abroad,
And bring the strang­ers home.

We long to see Thy church­es full,
That all the chos­en race
May with one voice, and heart and soul,
Sing Thy re­deem­ing grace.

—Isaac Watts