Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine

by Wayne Grudem

Nothing else in God’s creation is ever said to be in the image of God.13

have an ability to reason and think logically and learn that sets us apart from the animal world, and surely this is part of being in the image of God.

will probably amaze us to realize that when the Creator of the universe wanted to create something “in his image,” something more like himself than all the rest of creation, he made us!

Do you think that God has made us so that we become more happy or less happy when we grow to become more like him?

Man as Male and Female Why did God create two sexes? Can men and women be equal and yet have different roles?

husbands and wives no longer have exclusive rule over their own bodies, but share them with their spouses (1 Cor. 7:3–5). Husbands “should love their wives as their own bodies” (Eph. 5:28).

In creation, the Father speaks and initiates, but the work of creation is carried out through the Son and sustained by the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:1–2; John 1:1–3; 1 Cor. 8:6; Heb. 1:2).

None of these relationships is ever reversed—that is, husbands are never told to submit or “be subject to” (hypotassō) wives, nor the government to citizens, nor masters to servants, nor the disciples to demons, etc. In fact, the term is used outside the New Testament to describe the submission and obedience of soldiers in an army to those of superior rank.

Ephesians 5:21: “submitting to one another” means “submitting to others in the church who are in positions of authority over you.”

tyranny by the husband and usurpation of authority by the wife are errors of aggressiveness, there are two other errors, errors of passivity or laziness. For a husband, the other extreme from being a domineering “tyrant” is to be entirely passive and to fail to take initiative in the family—in colloquial terms, to be a “wimp.”

The Essential Nature of Man What does Scripture mean by “soul” and “spirit”? Are they the same thing?

The view that man is made of three parts (body, soul, and spirit) is called trichotomy.2 Though this has been a common view in popular evangelical Bible teaching, there are few scholarly defenses of it today.

The view that man is made up of two parts (body and soul/spirit) is called dichotomy.

The view that man is only one element, and that his body is the person, is called monism.

dichotomy has been held more commonly through the history of the church and is far more common among evangelical scholars today, trichotomy has also had many supporters.4

This chapter will support the dichotomist view that man is two parts, body and soul (or spirit), but we shall also examine the arguments for trichotomy.

1. Scripture Uses Soul and Spirit Interchangeably

2. Scripture Says That Either the Soul or the Spirit Departs at Death

So David can pray, in words later quoted by Jesus on the cross, “Into your hand I commit my spirit” (Ps. 31:5; cf. Luke 23:46).

At death, “the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7).6

3. Man Is Said to Be Either “Body and Soul” or “Body and Spirit”

5. Everything the Soul Is Said to Do, the Spirit Is Also Said to Do, and Vice Versa

Creationism is the view that God creates a new soul for each person and sends it to that person’s body sometime between conception and birth.

Traducianism, on the other hand, holds that the soul as well as the body of a child are inherited from the baby’s mother and father at the time of conception.

the degree to which he allows the use of intermediate or secondary causes (that is, inheritance from parents) is simply not explained for us in Scripture.

one passage even speculates about “the spirit of the beast” in contrast with “the spirit of man,” (Eccl. 3:21), but the context (vv. 18–22) is one expressing a worldly, cynical perspective that shows the vanity of life and argues that man is but a beast (v. 18): in the overall context of the book it is not clear that this is something the author is encouraging his readers to believe.

Sin What is sin? Where did it come from? Do we inherit a sinful nature from Adam? Do we inherit guilt from Adam?

sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.

Much sin is not selfishness in the ordinary sense of the term—people can show selfless devotion to a false religion or to secular and humanistic educational or political goals that are contrary to Scripture, yet these would not be due to “selfishness” in any ordinary sense of the word.

God necessarily and eternally hates sin. It is, in essence, the contradiction of the excellence of his moral character. It contradicts his holiness, and he must hate it.

it would be wrong for us to say there is an eternally existing evil power in the universe similar or equal to God in power. To say this would affirm what is called an ultimate “dualism,”

the sin spoken of does not refer to Adam’s first sin but to the guilt and tendency to sin with which we are born.

more precisely called “original pollution.” I have used instead the term inherited corruption because

The constraints of civil law, the expectations of family and society, and the conviction of human conscience (Rom. 2:14–15) all provide restraining influences on the sinful tendencies in our hearts.

by God’s “common grace” (that is, by his undeserved favor that is given to all human beings), people have been able to do much good in the areas of education, scientific and technological progress, the development of civilization, the development of beauty and skill in the arts, the development of just laws, and general acts of human benevolence and kindness to others.

In Our Natures We Totally Lack Spiritual Good before God.

Pelagius, a popular Christian teacher active in Rome about AD 383–410 and then later (until AD 424) in Palestine, taught that God holds man responsible only for those things that man is able to do.

the idea that we are responsible before God only for what we are able to do is contrary to the testimony of Scripture, which affirms both that we “were dead in the trespasses and sins” in which we once walked (Eph. 2:1) and

Are Infants Guilty before They Commit Actual Sins?

Are There Degrees of Sin?

The question may be answered either yes or no, depending on the sense in which it is intended.

In terms of our legal standing before God, any one sin, even what may seem to be a very small one, makes us legally guilty before God

and therefore worthy of eternal...

some sins are worse than others in that they have more harmful consequences in our lives and in the lives of others, and in terms of our personal relationship to God as Father, they arouse his displeasure more and bring more serious disruption to our fellowship with him.

Our conclusion, then, is that in terms of results and in terms of the degree of God’s displeasure, some sins are certainly worse than others.

What Happens When a Christian Sins? a. Our Legal Standing Before God Is Unchanged.

Our Fellowship with God Is Disrupted and Our Christian Life Is Damaged.

Our Christian life and fruitfulness in ministry are also damaged.

unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (John 15:4).

must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). Paul implies that there are degrees of reward in heaven,29 and that sin has negative consequences in terms of loss of heavenly reward.