Humanity is corrupted by a natural viciousness. However, this corruption did not come from within our human nature. When I say that it didn’t come from nature, I mean that it was an event from outside of humanity that caused man to fall rather than an inner flaw given to humanity from the beginning. I call our corruption natural, though, to prevent anyone from thinking that we pick up our sinful nature merely by habit instead of realizing that we receive from our hereditary connection. We can call our sinful corruption natural because the apostle Paul says that we are “by nature, children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3).

Yet, our sin raises this question: “If God takes pleasure in his most humble creations, why would he be offended by his noblest ones, humans?” God is offended not with humanity in itself but with the corruption of his handiwork. Therefore, because people are corrupted by sin, they are naturally hateful towards God. We can also say that people are naturally vicious and depraved. Because of our corrupt nature, even Augustine calls our sins “natural,” which reign in our sinful nature whenever God’s grace is not found. The utter corruption of humanity dispels the fanciful notion of the Manichees. The Manichees believe that humanity is essentially wicked, that is, wicked from the beginning and in the core of its nature. Because of the essential wickedness of humanity, the Manchicees make up a fanciful theory that humanity must have come from a different “Creator” than the righteous God because a righteous God could have never made evil beings.

“Blogging the Institutes” is my on-going attempt to paraphrase John Calvin’s work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. You can find out more about the series in the Introduction. For all the posts in this series, check out the Master List.