58 Owing to original sin, the natural man is morally unable by himself to do what is good because he will not do what is good; he is “a slave to sin” (John 8:34), being “dead in trespasses and sins” (Col. 2:13) and “by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:1–3). Indeed, this proclivity to sin is part of our very constitution, as evidenced by the following scriptural passages: “I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5). “The wicked go astray from the womb” and “go astray from birth, speaking lies” (Ps. 58:3) for “their minds and their consciences are corrupted” (Titus 1:15). Therefore, “What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman that he can be righteous?” (Job 15:14). “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one” (Job 14:4). “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also can you do good who are accustomed to do evil” (Jer. 13:23). Given this biblical fact that “no one does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:12), it is a foregone conclusion how man will act apart from the grace of God, which restrains the full destructive power of our rebellious nature, thereby making human civilization possible. That there is moral orderliness to our existence in a world under the curse of sin testifies to the fact that God is supervening over and intervening in the affairs of men — introducing righteous spontaneity to what would otherwise be a nonstop committal of lawlessness on our part. Absent this supernatural infusion of grace, we would not have the freedom to do good because all our actions would be immorally yet volitionally determined by our natural condition — a condition from which we are powerless to break free of or overcome on our own. God’s grace is the only way for man to have any choice other than to carry out evil, for apart from God, man faces a grim determinism of his own making because, according to Paul, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). Something, then, must first attune our darkened hearts so that we will hear and understand what God has revealed. Thus, prior to faith, the natural man must be renewed by the Holy Spirit — that “spirit of wisdom and of revelation” — who changes our moral disposition and inclines our hearts to God “by having the eyes of [our] hearts enlightened” (Eph. 1:18). As Paul succinctly stated, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3), who must first “circumcise” the heart of fallen man in order for one to receive the Gospel: “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that
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