What are the noetic effects of sin?

In what does the ruin of man consist? By sinning he has placed himself under a burden of guilt and has rendered himself liable to judgment. There is more than this, however. He has also become possessed of a fallen nature utterly and incorrigibly bad, with a heart "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9). But even this is not all. Sin has acted like a subtle poison in his veins and has so stupefied and perverted his reason, will and judgment, that "there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God" (Rom. 3:11). Even in the presence of grace and the sweet pleadings of the Gospel men reject the Saviour provided, and with perverse unanimity prefer the empty follies of the world. Like the "great herd of swine" they rush madly to destruction, and hence the only hope is a sovereign interposition of God.

The important question to be settled is this — Is the mind of man (whence are his thoughts) a safe guide in the things of God? or is it affected by sin, and therefore unreliable? All scripture affirms that it is so affected, and since the cross (the crowning proof of it, 1 Cor. 2:8) its statements are more explicit and precise as to this. For subduing the earth, and things connected with it (see Gen. 1:28), its powers may be undiminished and the results astonishing, but in divine and eternal things there is total incapacity. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14). In Eph. 2:3, the mind, as well as the flesh, is said to have evil desires. In Col. 1:21, it is alienated and at enmity with God; and in 2 Cor. 4:4, the minds of those who believe not the gospel are blinded by Satan. These are some of the statements of scripture, and more serious ones could not be as to the effects of sin on the mind, and they are confirmed by others which declare the effects of grace.

In 1 John 5:20 we read "We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us" [believers] "an understanding that we may know Him that is true." In 2 Peter 3:1 this is called a "pure mind." In 1 Cor. 2:16 it is said to be "the mind of Christ." In Eph. 1:18 the Spirit enlightens it, and in Rom. 12:2 and Eph. 4:23 renews it.

Our first father hath sinned. Thus the fountain was defiled. Evil has abounded, and sin has taken its free, full course. We learn in all this scene in the garden what has distorted the natural conscience, in circumstances so plain that we can say what they are. Now it is hard to learn what we are, because that which has made us sinners in heart has made us sinners in understanding also. As the conscience is affected and renewed by the Holy Spirit, so is it perverted by sin. There may be a false standard of good and evil, and thus blindness through that (as a law of darkness), as well as corruption of heart. Paul says, "I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did," etc. (Acts 26:9-11). And the time was come, the Lord forewarns, when those that killed the disciples would "think they did God service," John 16:2.

But just at this point a sadly interesting element must be introduced. How is it that God should be unknown to His creature man? The fact that He is unknown implies the presence of sin. A moral distance has been placed between God and man—a cloud, a film has darkened our spiritual vision—a spring of enmity has poisoned our affections, and has warped and vitiated our mind and judgment. Man has lost by sin his knowledge of God. He is fallen. This is sad indeed, but the admission of it goes far to help the honest enquirer out of his difficulty.

It is quite clear that sin having entered, mankind did not lose the knowledge of God all at once. For evidence of this Romans 1:18-32 may be read. The Apostle Paul here draws a lurid picture of the state of the heathen world. Incidentally it reveals three things: (1) That all, even the most degraded heathen peoples, once had the knowledge of God. It speaks of "when they knew God" (v. 21). (2) That not glorifying Him as God they gradually lost all true knowledge of Him. They "became vain in their imaginations," "their foolish heart was darkened," and so they "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things" (v. 23). (3) That all this process took place because "they did not LIKE to retain God in their knowledge" (v. 28). They were glad to forget Him.

To this degradation of the understanding the scriptures bear the clearest testimony. It is true that the mind of man is a marvellous creation. That he by it is capable of subduing the earth and of making it, and what is in it and connected with it, subservient to his wants. "He can cut out rivers among the rocks and his eyes see every precious thing. He can bind the floods from overflowing, and the thing that is hid he can bring forth to light" (Job 28); but he has lost the knowledge of God by sin, and all desire for that knowledge. "There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God." The guilt is not in the capacity, but in the will. "Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil." The Gentiles "did not like to retain God in their knowledge." The prophets declare of Israel, "There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land." "For my people are foolish, they have not known me." And, even in the church, Paul testifies in his day there were some who had no knowledge of God. We may even go farther, and, seeing the difference between Abraham and Jacob, both men of faith, learn that there are grades in the divine life. Abraham, by walking in the obedience of faith, had the name of the Lord revealed to him from the beginning of his course; Jacob, by failure in his conduct, only at the close, (Gen. 17:1; Gen. 35:11). Is not this true of Christians?

But man sinned, and his mind became darkened. Sin alienated him from God and rendered him incapable of finding out God, or of understanding Him, or of discerning and receiving the things of God. Hence, from the garden of Eden to the present time, men have not apprehended the life and light dwelling in the Son of God. Whether it be the partial manifestations since Eden, or the full shining forth of the light in Himself become a Man and tabernacling among men, the light of eternal life in Him has not been perceived by man naturally.

But there is a reality worth clinging to. To the pure all things are pure: everything in creation has a proper place and function. To be pure is to be unmixed as regards motives and character, and therefore to regard things in their proper perspective, in uncorrupted simplicity. But those who have no faith are defiled or adulterated by sin's corruption, and consider nothing to be pure. Even their minds and consciences are defiled. Witness the present-day callous disregard for the sanctity of the marriage bond, the revolting abuse known as homosexuality, the prevalence of lies and hypocrisy; and all this mixed with a measure of religiousness! Their minds no doubt are active, but adroit enough to so rationalize as to twist truth totally out of its perspective; and knowledge becomes a deadly weapon rather than a help to a noble end. And conscience, though it cannot help but speak, becomes so defiled as to be ignored. How much better is "a pure conscience," one not adulterated by the strong desires of the flesh.

The mercy bestowed upon us reveals our need. This is strikingly exhibited here. Sin has not affected our bodies only, the evil has reached, and is deeply seated in, the understanding. It is darkened (Eph. 4:18), and, naturally, "there is none that understandeth: there is none that seeketh after God." "The world by wisdom knew not God;" and no greater proof of this can there be than its ignorance of Christ. "O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee;" for had they known Him, they would have known His Father also (Rom. 3:11; 1 Cor. 1:21; John 17:25; John 8:19). Men are not innocent, they are not pure in heart; therefore their understanding is incapable of holding a true balance. Alienated from God and enemies in their mind by wicked works, how can they know Him?

But when once the human will has begun to act deliberately apart from God, the reign of ignorance has already commenced. God alone is Light and is Truth. His will being disregarded, the imaginations (dialogismois) of the human heart become substituted for the wisdom of God. But these imaginations not only act as a veil and barrier to exclude the light and blessing of Divine truth; they become themselves the guide and directory of human action — conscience, meanwhile, being all too weak, of itself, to force its way through the mists of human thought into the presence of Truth — of God. Hence the Gentiles are said to have the understanding darkened (Eph. 4:18), and their ignorance is affirmed to be the cause of their moral alienation from the life of God — the hardness (porosis,) of their hearts being the low ground on which all this ruin lies.