Wounds and bruises and putrefying sores!

(Arthur Pink, "The Good Samaritan" 1942)

"The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is afflicted. From the sole of the foot even unto the head—there is no soundness in it; but only wounds and bruises and putrefying sores!" Isaiah 1:5, 6

Sin and Satan have wounded man's body, which bring it down with disease and pain to the dust from whence it was taken. They have wounded his soul in all its faculties—his understanding with darkness, his will with a wicked choices, his affections with worldly-mindedness, so that he places his love upon the creature instead of the Creator. They have wounded his conscience with guilt, and with fear of death and dread of Hell. They have stopped his ears to the voice of the Spirit, and closed his eyes to the glory of God. How completely and severely man is wounded! Worst of all—sin has inflicted a mortal wound which has deprived man of his spiritual consciousness, for he is insensible, unaware of his desperate state!

Fallen man is in such a wretched condition, that he is beyond doing anything for his deliverance. But such a truth is far too distasteful to proud human nature. Man will not accept the Divine verdict, he will not believe his case is so desperate as the Scriptures depict it. He persuades himself that it lies in his own power to win the favor of God. He thinks that if he tries his best, and employs himself in religious duties—that such endeavors will receive an eternal recompense. All the expedients which human wisdom has devised as remedies for the wounds which sin has inflicted, may be reduced to two: good works—and religious duties.