Man = ?

Emily and I had a good discussion after church today. It was spawned by hearing the words "man" and "sin" used many, many times together frequently.

Is "man" synonymous with "sin"?

Emily and I came to the conclusion, "not entirely", but it is sure talked about that way a lot. It is incomplete to stop at man = sin, because man equals at least one more thing that is very, very important, namely, created in the image of God.

Is it fair to say, "apart from God all we can do is sin."?

It says at the end of Romans 14 that "whatever does not come from faith is sin." True for both the believer and non-believer.

Here's the progression I have trouble with.

1. A non-believer performs an act of service (like helping save someone's life at a car accident scene).
2. It's a sin because it does not proceed from faith.
3. Sin deserves punishment.
4. A non-believer doesn't have a propitiator.
5. Therefore the non-believer suffers more of God's wrath in hell because the performed an act of service.
6. It would have been the same for the non-believer if he had just sat there and watched the person die, even though he could have helped.

I don't know about this, it's troubling to me, and perhaps I thinking about things all wrong.

Emily and I came to the conclusion that for the non-believer, an act of service toward someone else out of a "genuine" heart isn't a wrath-heaping act, though it doesn't achieve the ultimate purpose of glorifying God. Our rational for this is that, the non-believer is created in God's image, and when performing acts of service is doing what he or she is created to do, and that shouldn't be something that produces for them more wrath.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. I know there really isn't such a thing as "neutrality" in Christendom, but I'm a little confused on this one.

Let me sum up my thoughts with these statements:

1. When the believer serves it blesses God and people.
2. When the believer sins and repents, the wrath is absorbed through Jesus' atonement.
3. When the non-believer serves it blesses people, but not God.
4. When the non-believer sins and they don't repent (ie, get saved), they incur wrath for their sin.