The Noetic Effects of Sin

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. ~ Romans 12:2

In the last post, I addressed common grace and special grace. Under the heading of common grace, I briefly talked about the noetic effect of sin. I defined the noetic effects of sin as the fall into sin that caused humanity to incur consequential effects to each part of a person—physical effects such as sickness and death, and heart-mind effects that affect our thinking to become useless apart from Christ. The noetic effects of sin is the term given to such futile thinking. So, then, a non-believer’s mind will not operate the way a believer’s mind does (Eph. 4:18).

Although this helped explain an aspect of common grace, it did not expand upon the noetic effect thoroughly. This post hopes to make the explanation clearer.
Although the noetic effects of sin connect to common grace as suggested, it properly falls under the theological doctrine of total depravity. Berkhof reminds us that the inherent pollution of sin in a person that makes one unrighteous before God: Total depravity “indicate: 1) that the inherent corruption extends to every part of a man’s nature, to all faculties and powers of soul and body; and 2) that there is no spiritual good, that is good in relation to God, in the sinner at all, but only perversion” (Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 203). Since noetic, a word derived from the Greek words nous, “mind,” and noein, “to think,” means “of, relating to, or based on the intellect” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary); sin not only corrupts the world, humanity’s bodies, and brings death but it corrupts the heart-mind, how one thinks. Robert Reymond states it this way: “Because of sins effects on them, men now must face the fact that, in spite of the aid from common grace, there are many things hampering them as they construct their sciences—falsehood, unintentional mistakes, lapses in logical reasoning, self-delusion and self-deception, the intrusion of fantasy into the imagination, intentional and unintentional negative influences of other men’s minds upon their’s. Physical weaknesses influencing the total human psyche, the disorganized relationships of life, the effect of misinformation and inaccuracies learned from one realm of science upon ideas of other realms, sinful self-interest, the weakening of mental energies, the internal disorganization of life-harmonies and most importantly, their detachment from the ‘base of knowledge,’ found only in the revealed knowledge of God which alone justifies human knowledge and from which alone true human predication may be launched” (Robert L. Reymond, Systematic Theology, 452-453). Thus, the effects of sin cause man to have unrecognized and unacknowledged ignorance. Jeremy Pierre explains, “Cognitive thoughts affect desires, and volitional choices are all moral by nature since God designed them to be the means by which the heart worships him. Dysfunction occurs when a heart’s worship design is directed away from God and toward self. Sin, much more than external action, hijacks the dynamic heart’s beautiful function” (Jeremy Pierre, Dynamic Heart in Daily Life, 55).

One must understand that the noetic effects of sin do not make humans into beings of brutish irrationality. People can follow a logical argument because of God’s common grace (Reymond, 452), although they base their view upon unbiblical thinking. Charles Hodge states, “According to the Scriptures, the chief sins of men consist in their wrong judgments, in thinking evil to be good, and good to be evil” (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology:2, 255). Morton Smith lists the following four effects that make opposition to God be a natural condition of sinners: 1) the understanding (1 Cor. 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 4:18); 2) the will (John 5:14; Rom. 8:7); 3) the feeling or affection (1 John 2:15-17); and 4) the conscience (Titus 1:15; 1 Tim. 4:2). However, this dysfunction of worshiping other idols rather than God and thinking wickedly produces guilt that one must reconcile. Instead of affections following the understanding, the understanding follows the affections. Psychology may attempt to help people deal with guilt feelings. Though, often, these are misguided efforts that never deal with guilt itself, only the feelings which guilt produces. Christianity deals with the real issue: we are all guilty sinners in God’s sight (Rom. 3:9-23). Therefore, a biblical view of human psychology helps a person understand the proper remedy of the noetic effects of sin (Rom.8:5-11).

Morton Smith’s section “Man, His Nature – Biblical Psychology” states that modern man’s attempt to study human nature has primarily been experimental and anything but a precise science because, “It has been based upon humanistic assumptions, and though it has been able at times to come to certain hypotheses that seem operable, it is essentially false in its view of man” (Morton Smith, Systematic Theology:1, 243). He continues with the Christian’s most serious error of “thinking that they can borrow the alleged findings of non-Christian psychology and simply ‘baptize’ it with biblical ideas” (243). A Christian must not do this. As the only infallible rule of faith and practice, the Bible gives us God’s special revelation and reflects His truth. Instead of falsely interpreting the universe and humanity’s psychology based upon natural revelation, one must understand the world and humankind with the renewed mind of Christ (Rom. 12:2).

In conclusion, the noetic effects of sin result from a darkened heart. However, as Hodge states, a person can understand and receive the truth when he loves it. Regeneration is simply a change in the state of affection. When the Holy Spirit’s power is at work in the person through the sufficiency of God’s Word, one changes loving wickedness to loving God. (Hodge, 254). Therefore, Christians have a significant advantage over non-Christians. Christians view God’s Word as infallible, making it a valuable source of authoritative information that non-Christians reject. (Smith, 244). Because of the noetic effects of sin, worldly understanding such as secular psychology and scientific discovery is limited in its scope of the human heart-mind, but by the grace of God, the biblical Christian is not limited in this way.