The Pig Or The Parlor?

The Pig or the Parlor?

G. K. Chesterton once said that “original sin . . . is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.”^a I like that. Chesterton was a robust lover of life and of God—but he knew all too well what kind of stuff he was made of. Our own hearts may whisper that we are desperate sinners who need grace, but our culture does its very best to convince us that we are perfect. That we don’t need forgiveness. We just need a better opportunity or a fatter bonus. But would that really do it for any of us?

When I read the first three chapters of Genesis, I sometimes put myself in Eve’s place. I imagine the Garden: its lush vegetation, the sweet smells of flowers in bloom, the curious animals and even more curious Adam. I think of what bliss it would be to have a personal playground with only the slightest limitations. For half a second, I imagine that I might have fared better in paradise. But who am I kidding?

“Tie ribbons around a well-washed piglet,” writes Donald Barnhouse, “put him in a parlor and see which will change first—the pig, or the parlor.”^b It’s not an elegant illustration, but it does the trick. Environment didn’t affect Adam and Eve, and it won’t transform me. I am deeply, hopelessly flawed. I wouldn’t thrive in—or even survive—any paradise left to my own devices.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t glory in being a “pig,” or a walking advertisement for original sin. I glory in being flawed and human and rescued not by better surroundings, but by God’s amazing grace. When my ancestors in Eden sinned, he allowed the consequences of those actions to fall on them. They were banished from the Garden—but they left wearing the sin covering he lovingly provided for them.

We’re still torn. We still struggle with sin. And he still covers us. No parlor will ever change a pig. No perfect set of circumstances will ever keep me from sin. Only Christ’s sacrifice can cover me. Only his grace can return me to paradise and make it feel like home.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . . There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 7:25–8:1, NASB

^a G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (Chicago: Moody, 2009), 28.

^b Donald Grey Barnhouse, The Invisible War (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1965).