Autonomous Man?: Part Three

Autonomous Man

Man was created in a state of creaturely perfection. Man was not created with a tabula rosa. Man was created physically and ethically mature, with knowledge in his mind, righteousness in his will and holiness in his heart. Goodness, then consists of moral perfection in harmony with all of Gods laws (Lev. 19:2; Deut. 6:5; Matt. 5:48; 22:37; Eph. 5:1; 1 Pet. 1:15-16).[1] Though man was created perfect he was not created infinite. He was endowed with certain capacities to which he could use to will the will of God as vicegerent of earth. As man used these capacities in right relation to their created function (to glorify God) with joy and spontaneity he would grow in his understanding and knowledge of his perfect Creator.

Being appointed as vicegerent, Adam represented not only himself but the earth, his bride and all their progeny. When Adam sinned in the first act of disobedience against God he cursed all that was under his lordship. As a result, all of the earth now groans in pain (Rom. 8:21-22), and all of Adam’s offspring are born into a complete state of depravity before God (Rom. 3:9-20) so although they know the truth of God they suppress it for a lie (Rom. 1:21).

When Adam sinned the Holy Spirit left him. He was no longer perfect and was no longer able to commune with God. All of his progeny are now born without the Spirit upon them and as such they no longer bare the image of God in his moral excellency, namely in knowledge, righteousness and holiness. Though man has lost his ability to attain moral excellency he still retains the image of God in his created capacities. This means that man is still a moral creature because he retained his volitional capacity, he is still a thinking creature because he retained his mental capacity, and he is still a loving creature because he retained his emotional capacity. So, although man lost his ability to obtain moral excellency he still retains his moral agency.

At first glance this may appears to be similar to the Roman Catholic view, but it could not be further removed from such an abomination. Though man retains his capacities he can no longer use those capacities as they were originally created to function. Function follows form, or as our Lord put it, “A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear healthy fruit,” (Matt. 7:15-20). When Adam sinned it changed his disposition and thereby changed the way he would use his created capacities. He no longer can use his capacities to glorify God unless the indwelt presence of the Holy Spirit allows him to do so by the grace of God. So moral agency remains, but it can never be used for God outside of God and as such natural mans only inclination is towards self.

No one can be sure what was going through Adam’s mind the moment he sinned. We do know, however, that in Adam’s decision to eat of the tree he was specifically told not to he was judging for himself was best for him and, in effect, what was essentially determining what was true. Every sin has since manifested itself in the same way as man’s original sin. Thus, every sin stems from the desire to be autonomous.

Webster’s defines autonomy as, 1: the quality or state of being self-governing; esp: the right of self-government 2: self-directing freedom and esp. moral independence 3: a self-governing state. Thus, to claim autonomy is to claim ultimacy. It is an absolute state. Therefore, man is either autonomous or he is not. Man cannot be autonomous and at the same time be conditioned by God, as if God was some grandfather in the sky wanting to reach down to man but could only stretch down from his walker so far. Thus, man needs to lift himself up to God through proper choices and actions as the heretics hold.

Even this position is entirely inconsistent with their concept of autonomy. In autonomy they must take the place of God. Cornelius VanTil writes, “On the non-Christian basis man is assumed to be the final reference point in predication. Man will therefore have to seek to make a system for himself that will relate all the facts of his environment to one another in such a way as will enable him to see exhaustively all the relations that obtain between them. In other words, the system that the non-Christian has to seek on his assumption is one in which he himself virtually occupies the place that God occupies in Christian theology.”[2]

In the same respect God cannot be sovereign and be conditioned by man in any respect. God cannot be God and be reactionary. Therefore, in order for man to be autonomous God cannot exist. But if God does not exist than man cannot exist. Again, VanTil writes:

It was thus that man, in rejecting the covenantall requirement of God became at one and the same time both irrationalist and rationalist. These two are not, except formally, contradictory of one another. They rather imply one another. Man had to be both to be either. To be able to identify himself apart from God, man had to distinguish himself as an individual from all the relationships of the system of which he actually is a part. If he were not part of the God-ordained system of relationships, he would be an entity in a vacuum; he would not be distinquishable to himself from any one or anything else. In fact he would not be self-conscious at all.”[3]

Therefore, any system which postulates the autonomy of man whether it claims to be Christian or not is in fact distinctively heretical and is a sign of God’s wrath. The fallen reason of man left unto itself is a never-ending spiral of self and thus, outside of God man has no meaning and no purpose. David Wells writes, “The autonomous self is autonomous because it has liberated itself from an outside world of meaning, of obligation, of rules, rites, customs, and practices. Or, to be more accurate, what has happened is that the outside world seems to have evaporated and all reality has contracted into self. It is in the self that the business of life is all settled.”[4]

Any system that bolsters in man’s abilities either directly or indirectly minimizes the saving work of Christ. Wells writes, “It is about God reaching down in grace and doing for sinners what they cannot do for themselves. For if this is God’s Kingdom, his rule, the sphere of his sovereignty, then it is not for us to take or to establish. We receive, we do not take; we enter, but we do not seize; we come as subjects in his Kingdom, not as monarchs in our own.”[5]

It is all about God in creation and in re-creation. God in His perfect Triune character restores man and breathes new life into his dead and decaying lunges. God the Father draws sinners to Himself, God the Son redeems those sinners through His perfect and spotless life and His propitiation on the cross, and God the Holy Spirit reveals to the sinners the perfection and completion of God’s mighty plan and their place within that plan. Man is, and always will be a dependant creature. The Christian revels in this fact and fallen man despises it.