THE STANDING BEFORE GOD OF THOSE OUTSIDE JESUS' REDEMPTION

320.010.000 Torrey: p298, T:I
Topic 10: The Present Standing before God of men who are outside the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

320.010.010 Torrey: p298, T:I, P:1
POINT 10: Outside of the Redemption in Jesus Christ there is no difference in the standing of men before God: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; there is none righteous, no, not one.

Romans 3:9-11 [9] What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. [10] As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; [11] there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God."

Romans 3:22-23 [22] ... There is no difference, [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Psalms 14:2-3 [2] The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. [3] All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Isaiah 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

1 John 1:8, 10 [8] If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. [10] If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

320.010.020 Torrey: p298, T:I, P:2
POINT 20: Every mouth is stopped and all the world brought under the judgment of God.

Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

Compare Psalms 130:3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?

Psalms 143:2 Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.

320.010.030 Torrey: p299, T:I, P:3
POINT 30: All who are of the deeds of the law, i.e., outside of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, are under a curse.

Galatians 3:10 All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."

Romans 2:12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.

320.010.040 Torrey: p299, T:I, P:4
POINT 40: All who have not been born of God, i.e., all outside the Redemption in Jesus Christ, are children of the Devil.

1 John 3:8-10 [8] He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. [9] No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. [10] This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

The doctrine of the universal Fatherhood of God is utterly unscriptural and untrue. It is true all men are his offspring, or stock, or race, or nations (Acts 17:28, γένος [genos] not τέκνα [tekna], see usage in a Greek concordance), in the sense of being His creatures, having our being in Him, and made in His likeness. (See context, verses 28-29.) But we become His "sons" or "children" by faith in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:26 [26] You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,

John 1:12 [12] Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God --

320.020.000 Torrey: p299, T:II
Topic 20: The Present Condition of men outside of the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

320.020.010 Torrey: p299, T:II, P:1
POINT 10: They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, hardened in heart.

Ephesians 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

320.020.020 Torrey: p300, T:II, P:2
POINT 20: The natural man does not receives the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.

1 Corinthians 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

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POINT 30: The natural heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

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POINT 40: The entire moral and intellectual nature of unredeemed man is corrupted by sin.

Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

Genesis 6:12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.

Genesis 8:21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

Psalms 94:11 The LORD knows the thoughts of man; he knows that they are futile.

320.020.050 Torrey: p300, T:II, P:5
POINT 50: The outward life of unredeemed man is vile and detestable.

Titus 3:3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

Ephesians 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

Colossians 3:5, 7 [5] Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. [7] You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.

320.020.060 Torrey: p300, T:II, P:6
POINT 60: Men unsaved by Christ are the slaves of sin, in helpless and hopeless captivity to the law of sin and death.

Romans 7:5,8, 14-15, 19, 23- 24 [5] For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. [8] But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. [14] We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. [15] I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. [19] For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing. [23] but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. [24] What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Romans 8:1-2 [1] Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, [2] because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 6:17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.

320.020.070 Torrey: p300, T:II, P:7
POINT 70: Outside of redemption in Christ men are under the control of the Prince of the power of the air.

Ephesians 2:1-2 [1] As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, [2] in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

320.020.080 Torrey: p300, T:II, P:8
POINT 80: By nature, men are children of wrath.

Ephesians 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

320.020.090 Torrey: p300, T:II, P:9
POINT 90: The mind of the flesh is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be: and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:5-9, New American Bible [5] Those who live according to the flesh are intent on the things of the flesh, those who live according to the spirit, on those of the spirit. [6] The tendency of the flesh is toward death but that of the spirit toward life and peace. [7] The flesh in its tendency is at enmity with God; it is not subject to God's law. Indeed, it cannot be; [8] those who are in the flesh cannot please God. [9] But you are not in the flesh; you are in the spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

It is obvious from this passage that "being in the flesh" does not mean the time between the birth of our physical body and the death of our physical body. It means those who let man's carnal nature have reign over their actions -- lewdness and sexual immorality, greed, selfishness, lack of charity, jealousy, suspicion, hate, violence, anger, revenge, and so on.

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POINT 100: Men outside of Christ's saving power are dead through their trespasses and sins.

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POINT 110: The whole world, the whole mass of men who have not received Christ, lie in the evil one, rest in his arms, in his power, in himself.

1 John 5:19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

CONCLUSION. -- The present standing or condition of men out of Christ as pictured in the Bible is dark and hopeless. One word will express it -- lost, utterly lost. This is very different from the conception of man that is popular in novels, on the lecture platform and in many pulpits today. But it accords with the facts. The more one has to do with men and women, and the more one comes to know the depths of his own heart, the more convinced he becomes of the truthfulness and accuracy in every line of this hideous and repulsive picture. The nearer one gets to God, the more fully he sees the truth of this picture; the fact that one has an exalted opinion of human nature, and his own nature, does not show that he is living near God, but far from God. Compare Isaiah's, Job's and the Psalmist's conception of self and man when they were brought face to face with God:

Isaiah 6:1, 5 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. [5] "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

Job 42:5-6 [5] My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. [6] Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

Evidently those who live nearest God and see things most nearly from His standpoint have the poorest opinion of self and human nature.

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