How did mankind get so depraved?
Adam was not depraved when he was created, yet he sinned while in God's very presence within a perfect environment. Perhaps his was some sort of temporary depravity inspired by the Serpent, but it's plain to see from the account that the Serpent merely "reasoned" with the first couple and advocated an alternate view of God. The couple then concocted through their untainted, untouched, God-pronounced "good" being their own rationalization for rebellion to the command of God. The simple truth is that depravity had nothing to do with Adam or Eve's sinfulness.
According to my reading Romans 1, the pattern leading to depravity is laid out with an explanatory emphasis. Three times (vs. 24, 26, and 28), we are told that "God gave them over." In other words, depravity was the result of willfulness being expressed against God (sin), and God stepping back from mankind leaving them to their own devices. Therefore, depravity is a lack rather than a possession: an absence rather than a presence. Sin separates us from God and depravity is the vacuum. The order of development was not that depravity led to sin but that sin led to depravity.
That mankind since Adam and Eve has been born separated from God is beyond argument. Since the Fall, humans have been born in sin, are dead in spirit and are depraved as a result. We are capable of perceiving the good when presented it, but are always unable and unwilling to do anything with it. It is our innate distance from God that ensures our depravity. Nothing but a visitation of the Spirit of God can alleviate the condition.
According to my reading Romans 1, the pattern leading to depravity is laid out with an explanatory emphasis. Three times (vs. 24, 26, and 28), we are told that "God gave them over." In other words, depravity was the result of willfulness being expressed against God (sin), and God stepping back from mankind leaving them to their own devices. Therefore, depravity is a lack rather than a possession: an absence rather than a presence. Sin separates us from God and depravity is the vacuum. The order of development was not that depravity led to sin but that sin led to depravity.
That mankind since Adam and Eve has been born separated from God is beyond argument. Since the Fall, humans have been born in sin, are dead in spirit and are depraved as a result. We are capable of perceiving the good when presented it, but are always unable and unwilling to do anything with it. It is our innate distance from God that ensures our depravity. Nothing but a visitation of the Spirit of God can alleviate the condition.
If that is the case, then the effects of depravity can be mitigated by God coming near to the depraved. When the Spirit of God "speaks" to the depraved soul, the possibility of response is elicited. This was the case throughout history before Christ (it was how Old Testament saints reacted to God), and certainly remains the case afterwards. Ultimately, that Holy Spirit connection will be perfected when responders (believers) are made incorruptible and the dwelling of God is with man at the end of this present age.
In the meantime, what depraved mankind needs is to be contended for by God. That does not ensure that we won't sin or walk away from God, it's not irresistible (remember untainted Adam in the Garden), but it does open up the possibilities of faith and perseverance. If we yield to that contention, and welcome the Holy Spirit within, a life of faithful obedience to God becomes possible. The battle is not to rid ourselves of depravity, for depravity is merely a consequence of absence.
Depravity arose as an addition by subtraction, it can only be resolved by a subtraction by addition.
What we need is God within us.
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