April 25

Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.” — Isa 6:5 BSB

God has described His Zion as “full of wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.” When the Church of God fell in Adam, it was a catastrophic fall, breaking every bone and leaving the flesh bruised and covered in wounds that have festered from head to toe. The Church’s understanding, conscience, and affections were severely damaged. Her understanding was blinded, her conscience was dulled, and her affections were alienated from God. Every mental faculty became distorted and perverted.

Just as a shipwrecked vessel takes on water through every breach, so when Adam fell upon the rocks of sin and temptation, he wrecked the image of God in which he was created. Sin flooded every part of his being, penetrating deep into his soul and body. Or consider another metaphor: when a person is bitten by a venomous serpent, the poison courses through every vein and artery until they die, their entire body corrupted. Similarly, the poison of sin infected Adam’s soul and body, spreading from head to toe.

However, the full extent of sin’s devastation is not truly seen or felt until the soul is quickened into spiritual life. When the Holy Spirit opens up the conscience, the destructive nature of sin becomes painfully evident. Superficial views of sin vanish as the Spirit reveals its desperate and malignant nature. It is this sword of the Spirit that cuts and wounds the soul, this light that exposes the darkness within, gashing the conscience and revealing the depths of corruption. Only the “balm in Gilead” can heal such deep wounds.

The awakened sinner not only feels the lacerations in his conscience but experiences the truth of the prophet’s words: “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.” He labors under a burden of spiritual diseases. Every thought, word, and action is tainted by sin. His will is inclined to evil, his affections cling to the world, his memory holds onto the bad while forgetting the good, his judgment is compromised, and his conscience lies dormant, like an opium-eater in a stupor.

All of God’s people must experience some measure of this misery, brought upon them by the fall. There is no use pretending that one can be saved by God’s grace and Christ’s blood without understanding the depth of their own wretchedness as fallen children of a fallen father. We must descend into the depths of the fall to truly grasp the depravity of our hearts and their capacity for evil. Only when God’s sharp knife cuts deep into our conscience and exposes the sin embedded in our carnal nature can we begin to experience the beauty and blessedness of salvation by grace.