Nathan George | Created. Corrupted. Christ.

Sunday Evening, January 18, 2026
Given by Nathan George | Pastor of Worship, Christ Covenant Church

Created. Corrupted. Christ

Heidelberg Catechism—Lord’s Day 3; 

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Transcript

Well, good evening. It's good to be with you, singing and worshiping and looking into the Lord's word with you. As you know, we are in the beginning of a year-long look at the Heidelberg Catechism. We are on Lord's Day 3, and my outline is image created, image corrupted and – you could say Christ. I also played around with “is it really all that bad?” A few things like that. And we'll get into that in just a moment. By way of introduction, some of you know that I'm a little bit of a car guy. I like cars, especially when they run well. When a car rolls off the showroom floor, ostensibly, it's perfect. It shines. It runs smoothly. It's reliable. You can get in it and drive it wherever you like. It smells new. You like that new car smell? The seats are still comfortable. Even the windshield is clean, and the tires are shiny. But as soon as you roll it off the lot, it's the fastest way to lose $10,000, and the wear and tear begins. A month on, a year on, ten years later – every system on the car needs some attention. 30 years on, 50 years later – the whole thing needs restoration. Even if you simply drove it home and put it in your climate-controlled garage, the rubber starts to crack, the plastic fittings degrade, the really cool biodegradable sheathing on the most expensive cars in the world degrade like clockwork. Moth and rust take even the best of engineering down. You might be able to shine it up, but it's simply lipstick on a pig until you restore every single system on the rig. Humans are like this. And while this does apply to our physical state, the point here tonight is that our spiritual state is like that car being driven off the lot. Of course, the analogy breaks down a bit, because the car's degradation is gradual, and ours was instantaneous. We were new, we were in good shape, we were unsoiled, we were righteous, holy, we were without sin – but then we started the car and headed down the wrong way in a one-way street. We crashed and burned. In an instant, every aspect, every faculty of us, needed restoration. Kevin was telling me about one of their cars this morning, and he asked, you know, could this evaporator sensor set off this and this and start affecting – and it’s like, yep, it's all connected. Once one thing goes bad, it's all bad. It's just like the law. 

For humans, one sin affects every faculty. Now, maybe I'm pushing this analogy to the breaking point, but if you've ever tried to renew bent, broken, or rusted parts, you know that it can't really be done. It's never truly new again. Even if you're a master at restoration and you can weld in new metal with the best of them, it won't ever be the same. To be new again, that would require a miracle. Let's read the questions together. Lord's Day three – you'll find it there at the back of your bulletin on the last page:

Q: Did God create man so wicked and perverse together? 

A: No. God created man good and in his own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that he might truly know God, his Creator, love him with all his heart, and live with God in eternal happiness for his praise and glory. 

Q: Then where does man's corrupt nature come from? 

A: From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in paradise. This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are all conceived and born in sin. 

Q: But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil? 

A: Yes, unless we are born again by the Spirit of God. 

If someone is basically a positive person, you might summarize these three questions like this: our purpose, our problem, our solution. If you're generally a pessimist, you might say what we lost, how we lost it, and the inability to get it back. Or you could just say alive, died, revived. I know it's not the same tense, but it rhymes. Poets can get away with all sorts of things. The outline I've chosen, as I said before, was image created – and that we'll be looking at Genesis 1:27 briefly, although we've already read it, image corrupted – we see that in Genesis 3:6-7, and then the renewal in Christ. And while I could have used John 3:3, Tom had an excellent sermon on that just recently – that's with Nicodemus and being born again – therefore, I've chosen a few passages in Colossians, and we'll deal with that as we get there. Would you join me in prayer, and then we will jump in. 

Father, would you use this evening to further our devotion unto you, unto Christ, unto your ways? Would you teach us from your word that we might love you more, obey you more, and be glad to do it? This I pray in the powerful and precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Image created. Like I said, we just read in worship Genesis 1:27-31, so I won't repeat it. Through the first chapter of Genesis, as you know, there's a repeated phrase after each of God's creative activities: “God saw that it was good.” The light was good, the land, the seas, the vegetation, the ant, everything. And then he makes man, and the phrase changes just slightly. God surveys his creation, including man, and he says, “It's very good” in verse 31. God liked what he had created, and he pronounced it good. Ephesians 4:24 even says that we were created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Well, that sounds pretty good. Colossians 3:10 adds to this and indicates that man was created in knowledge after the image of its creator. This paints a pretty rosy picture. It points to good and peaceful relations. In fact, Genesis 3:8, if we were to examine that, we would see that the Lord even took walks in the cool of the evening with his creation. This speaks to a relationship where there's no jealousy, there's love, there's understanding. It was a relationship that was open and transparent and normal and joyful and blessed. It was a mutual relationship of love and happiness. They lived with God, walked with God, and though the song maybe is a little overly sentimental, I did think of “and he walks with me, and he talks with me.” They truly knew each other. A blessedness and a happiness was theirs. What is man that you are mindful of him? I appreciated Ethan praying from that Psalm. The answer to that question in Psalm 8 is that mankind was God's crown jewel of creation. They were a good creation, capable of representing God, like God in righteousness, holiness, knowledge. They were distinct from God, yes. But because they were in his likeness, they could have a relationship – a blessed relationship with him was possible. Also, amazingly, there was no shame. You know this – you know the phrase in Genesis 2:25, "And the man and the wife were both naked and were not ashamed." This state of heart and mind is completely foreign to us. It sounds just so much different than Psalm 53, doesn't it? All they could do were deeds that were abominable. No one was good. No, not one. Well, we'll get to that in just a minute, but let this opening section just sink in for a moment. Before the fall, man reflected God well. He was a good representation of God – unstained, unashamed, very good. 

Before we do jump into the issue of corruption directly, I want to make sure we understand just a little bit about the imago dei – the image of God. What is it? Can we at least have a couple hooks to hang our hat on? At a very base level, we've already seen that man was created to be like God, that is, after his likeness, and of course, this includes male and female. So, it has to do with nature. Further, after the fall, we're going to start adding a few things here to our belts. After the fall, in Genesis 6:9, we find out that man is still the image of God. That's very important. And of course, the New Testament enlightens us more. We find out that Christ is the perfect image of God (2 Corinthians 4 and Hebrews 1). We also learn that we need to be transformed more and more into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). And also, we learn that we need to kill sin and be renewed after the image of our creator (Colossians 3). 

So, when we talk about the image of God, we can at least say three things. We could say more, but here's at least three. The image of God is to bear his likeness – number one. Number two: though marred, it's not something that is fully lost after the fall. I recognize that you can talk about the image in different ways, but nonetheless, Genesis 6:9 teaches us this. And number three, as believers, we are to have the image renewed more and more. The classic definition of the image is that it is knowledge, righteousness and holiness, and we've already mentioned that. Others have included things like rationality or dominion. I think rationality is implied by knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. But as Kevin indicates in Daily Doctrine, perhaps one of the most helpful ways to think about the image of God is with the words reflection and relationship. We were to be a reflection of God in the world, just like my son and daughter – my sons and daughters – are to be a reflection of me, or they are, in my case for better or worse. But there you go. And we were to have a relationship with God, just like my children have a relationship with me. However, at the fall this was marred. We are still human. We are still the image of God. But all aspects of us have been marred. We learn from the doctrine of depravity that all the faculties of mankind were affected by the fall, and what we're talking about there is our will, our desires, and even our reason. Knowledge becomes confused. Righteousness is corrupted. Holiness is then out of reach – perfect holiness. Our will becomes opposed to God's will. Our inclinations and desires became bent toward hate and evil. Now, just as a caveat, this does not mean that every human is as bad as they can be all the time. But it does mean that after the fall, every human is faced with the same predicament, and that is that we no longer truly know or love the nature, will, and works of God. The nature, the will, and the works of God – those are categories from Ursinus. Also, we no longer freely obey God. So, to wrap this little section up, the image of God, at a basic level, is a reflection of him and a relationship with him in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, such that our will, desires, and reasoning – that is through Christ, now – align with his. 

Clearly the human race has struggled with this, have they not? Another side note here: there is a view that man, even in his created state, could not truly know or have eternal blessedness with God. So that's the opposite of what I've just been saying. According to R. Scott Clark, Catholics and those in the Revivalist traditions believe that being human is the fundamental problem. Specifically, they would say our finitude, the fact that we're finite, does not allow for an eternal blessed relationship with God. And therefore, we must overcome being human and attain divinity from degree to degree, which is a different way to interpret a place like 2 Corinthians 3:18. But as reformed Christians, we confess that we were created in righteousness and true holiness. That means that Adam experienced blessedness and happiness with God. He lived at peace with him, because he was created good, righteous, and holy. Even though he was human, he was like God in each of those respects. His problem was not being human. His problem was disobedience, and we see that in the catechism. Those differences really do affect the way we view things like salvation and grace and even our nature. We don't need to get into all these particulars, but suffice it to say that some traditions believe that grace overcomes our human nature, and others go even further and say grace obliterates our human nature. A form of this was the view of the medieval church and is probably the prevailing view in modern evangelical church. And while it may not be evident on the surface, just follow me here. If grace obliterates human nature while we become more divine, then sinning, even once you're a Christian, is to be expected. Or, maybe it's really not that big of a deal because why? It highlights grace. And besides, all this goes away with your human nature anyway. Assurance, then, is relegated to mere assent and uprooted from reality and real sanctification. You can simply confess your wretchedness, rinse, and repeat. Unfortunately, striving after holiness and godlikeness then gets put on the back burner and called legalism. However, the Reformed view says that grace renews our fallen human nature. The implication is that human nature was not evil before the fall. It was the fall that corrupted our nature, such that it needs renewal. It's a very different way to frame the situation. God called his creation good. He said we were created in righteousness and true holiness, and therefore a life of sanctification is a path that makes us more human, more like we were created, as we become like Christ in the image of God. Our humanity doesn't disappear. It revives. It's renewed. 

That's a fairly long side note that I just walked us through, and it's to say that the catechism is not just about crossing our theological t’s and dotting our philosophical i’s. Yes, it is about teaching biblical truth, but it points us to the miracle of new birth and new life. It means that humans, you and me, can truly grow in holiness. We can truly grow in our love for God. We can truly grow in our love for others, and our eternal blessed happiness with God is possible, starting now and growing into all eternity. All this was available to Adam and Eve in the garden and is available to us by the wonder-working power of the Spirit. We were fearfully and wonderfully made. God looked at the humans he created, and what he saw was very good. 

So, what happened? What happened? We move into the section of image corrupted. Then where does man's corrupt nature come from? If we were created so good, how did corruption come to be? Well, there are at least three ways to answer this question. One is historically, one is theologically, and maybe another would be philosophically. That is, how did it happen? How does it continue? And why? The catechism first answers it historically, and it's very, very straightforward. It says it came from the fall and disobedience. Listen to a portion of Genesis 3:6 and following: “When the woman saw the tree was good for food, it was a delight, she desired it, it was going to make her wise. She took it. She ate it. She gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” It's plain. It's straightforward. Where did this corrupt nature come from? An historical sin. It was demonstrative disobedience. And you can see in the text that it had immediate results. The corruption was visible. It was felt. They saw themselves, and they hid in shame immediately. 

Next, the catechism also points us to the theological reason that it continues. The fall poisoned our nature such that all are conceived and born in sin. Just three quick points about this point, that we're conceived and born in sin. Number one, our nature is poisoned, it says, and we're conceived in sin. This is what we call original sin. And when we say original sin, we're not talking about the first sin, although it includes that, but we're talking about our nature being inclined toward sin, toward evil, and away from God. Genesis 6:9, which I've referenced, says this: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” That's number one. Number two, we need to remember that Adam was our representative before God. You've probably heard before this phrase that he is our federal head. He was our legal representation. When we fell, or when he fell, we fell with him. We read from Romans 5:12 earlier, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. There we see that Adam represented us. That's number two. Number three, this happens by ordinary generation. So how does this continue? By ordinary generation. That is, if you are conceived as a human in normal ways – I think that includes all of us here – then you have been represented already, and Adam's nature is passed on to you. Genesis 5:3, “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” I like to point that out to my brother Seth. You're a bad guy. Job 14:4, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.” 

So, historically, it came because of an actual sin. Theologically, it comes to us by representation and ordinary generation. And now we could ask, why? Why did a good man, created in righteousness and true holiness, sin? How could this be? This more philosophical-oriented question can easily enter our minds. Some have answered this by saying God withheld grace, in an attempt to absolve God of doing anything wrong directly. But suggesting that the covenant made with Adam depended upon God's grace rather than obedience – first of all, it's not true to the text, but it also destroys everything that Christ accomplishes for us. He fulfills the law on our behalf. So, if we were represented by Adam, we need the new Adam to represent us now. So, it can't simply be that God withheld some aspect of grace, for everything depended upon obedience. If this more philosophical question sort of gets under your skin, it's good to remember a few things. I don't intend to answer the question. Instead, I want to encourage humility. First, as Augustine taught, mankind was able to sin or not sin in paradise. In other words, he was created as a free agent, able to choose. Second, though my wife will tell you I'm generally averse to using this word, there are a few things in scriptures that deserve the word “mystery.” The incarnation perhaps is one of those things, and so are things like eternal decrees and Adam's fall. Third, we should continually and humbly seek the truth and godly wisdom, even if we're not given enough information to parse out all of our whys and our hows. Our philosophical questions must eventually give way to doxological wonder at the kindness of God to create, to redeem a fallen people, and to provide lasting joy. This should overcome our head scratching about events that happened at the dawn of time. You know when we walk up to pyramids, or in my case, I've seen it on a screen, we stop and we gaze and we wonder, "Wow, how did they do that?" But somehow when we hear about the fall, redemption, and future glorification, which is way more glorious than decaying pyramids, we go, hmm, that's not quite fair. And we impugn God, our creator, and I think that may just be more evidence of our complete corruption. 

Which leads us, then, to question 8: but are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil? Well, at this stage, a couple more things to think through, and we'll do that with two questions. One I alluded to this earlier, is it really all that bad? And two, is there any hope? So, is it really all that bad? Yes. We've already covered the yes portion of this question related to being inclined toward all evil. We've looked at Genesis 6:5. You could go to other places. And that we must answer yes to this question is pretty painfully obvious. But also, the question asks if we are so corrupt that we are totally unable. At first glance, this phrase maybe doesn't sound quite as bad as totally depraved. You've probably heard that phrase before. Which is it? Totally unable or totally depraved? What are we talking about? Well, in reality, we're talking about the exact same thing. A slight difference in the words there, but we're used to the phrase “total depravity” because we're used to hearing about the five points of Calvinism. However, our Westminster Standards use the phrase “utterly indisposed and disabled,” which is a lot like this catechism question and made opposite to all good. In any case, the idea is that it touches every aspect of who we are. We're made opposite to all good. Then, by definition, we are incapable of choosing the good – unable to choose the good, only able to choose sin. We call this being dead in sin, being a slave to sin. And that's why we think of salvation as spiritual rebirth, spiritual re-creation. When one is dead, no faculty or part of him can choose life. It's not that depravity is a bad description, but as Kevin writes, a better phrase might be total inability, and I appreciate this, because it captures the helplessness and the hopelessness of the human will apart from Christ. This highlights, I think, the glorious miracle of rebirth. We add nothing to it, and yet we gain everything because of it. It helps us highlight that little word “unless” in this answer. Are we totally unable? Yes, unless. 

As I mentioned last week, Tom did a great job of walking us through our need to be born again, so I won't repeat that, except to say that it takes a work of the Spirit to be able to do any spiritual good. So, now let's circle back around to that second question. Is there any hope? Again, the answer is yes, and the catechism hints at this. If you have looked to Christ, then the Spirit has powerfully made all this possible. Just listen to a few passages. The Spirit has made all of this possible. Colossians 1, “And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.” Colossians 2:13, “And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven all our trespasses.” Colossians 3, starting at verse 12, “Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other.” That sounds totally different than living in malice and hate against God and your brother, doesn't it? The opposite of this. As a redeemed person, born again person, once you have been made alive, the peace of Christ can rule in your heart. And so, you can see in these questions, it moves from the unregenerate to the regenerate. To continue, I referenced this briefly earlier, but to continue with Augustine's Doctrine of Man, “At creation, man was able to sin or not sin. At the fall, he was only able to sin. At rebirth, he is once again able to sin or not sin.” We are in a real battle, but this is really, really good news. Though the image of God in you, each of you here tonight, is marred, and though you were born in sin, if you have looked to Christ for your salvation, if you have been born again unto new spiritual life, then you are in the process of having that image renewed. And therefore, you are able – not unable – more and more to die to sin and live unto righteousness. All is lost, unless. 

This points to a reason for hope, joy, motivation to kill sin, to love your Lord and love your neighbor. 1 Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live under righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls.” 2 Corinthians 4, “So we do not lose heart. Though the outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” Hebrews 6:10, “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints.” I love this. Mark 1, verse 10, “And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased.’” 

Will not your Father in heaven, looking at you, his redeemed child, recognize the resemblance of his Son? Will he not be pleased with you as you represent Christ more faithfully day by day? Will he not see this new creation brought about by the power of the Spirit and fashioned after Christ? Will he not see this and say, "It's good"? Will he not say to you, "Well done, my good and faithful servant”? This is impossible, unless you are renewed in Christ, re-created, born again. It is possible to please your God, walk with your God, represent your God in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. And I don't mean some sort of perfectionism. I don't mean to base your salvation in your progress. I don't even mean that there is not forgiveness for you and mercy for you if you fall. But I do mean that by the power of the Spirit, you can, and you do, and you will have an eternal blessed relationship with your God now and forevermore. Amen. 

Father, we are grateful that in your wisdom you have seen fit to redeem your children from sin, to change us from being slaves to sin to slaves to righteousness. I pray, Father, that as we consider these great things, that we will love your Son more and more each day, that we will take joy in learning your ways, loving to obey, and resting in Christ for all our days and into all eternity. This I pray in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen.