Theological Term of the Week: Concupiscence

This term was recently suggested by a reader. (If you have a theological term you would like to see featured here, you, too, can email your suggestion to me by using the contact button in the navigation bar above.)

concupiscence

Disordered inclinations or illicit desires. In the historic protestant view, acts that arise from illicit desires and the illicit desires themselves (concupiscence) are both sins for which people incur guilt.

• From scripture::

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. [6] On account of these the wrath of God is coming. (Collosians 3:5-6 ESV)

• From the Second London Baptist Confession, 1689 :

Chapter 6: Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof

5. The corruption of nature, during this life, does remain in those that are regenerated; and although it be through Christ pardoned and mortified, yet both itself, and the first motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What is the meaning of concupiscence in the Bible?
2. Jared Kennedy: Concupiscence. It’s Not Just About Sex.
3. Kevin DeYoung: Hamartiology, Concupiscence, Temptation, and Suffering (video)

 Related terms:

• fall (of man)
• original sin
• sin
• total depravity

Filed under Anthropology

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Sunday Hymn: I Sing the Mighty Power of God

I sing the migh­ty pow­er of God,
[or I sing th’al­migh­ty pow­er of God…]
That made the moun­tains rise,
That spread the flow­ing seas abroad,
And built the lof­ty skies.
I sing the wis­dom that or­dained
The sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at His com­mand,
And all the stars ob­ey.

I sing the good­ness of the Lord,
That filled the earth with food:
Who formed the crea­tures with His Word,
And then pro­nounced them good.
Lord, how Thy won­ders are dis­played,
Where’er I turn my eye,
If I sur­vey the ground I tread,
Or gaze up­on the sky!

There’s not a plant or flow­er be­low,
But makes Thy glo­ries known;
And clouds arise, and tem­pests blow,
By or­der from Thy throne;
Creatures—as nu­mer­ous as they be—
Are sub­ject to Thy care;
There’s not a place where we can flee,
But God is pre­sent there.

In Heaven He shines with beams of love,
With wrath in hell be­neath:
’Tis on His earth I stand or move,
And ’tis His air I breathe.
His hand is my per­pe­tu­al guard,
He keeps me with His eye:
Why should I then for­get the Lord,
Who is for ev­er nigh?

—Isaac Watts

Sunday Hymn: Once in Royal David's City

Once in roy­al Dav­id’s ci­ty
Stood a low­ly cat­tle shed,
Where a mo­ther laid her ba­by
In a man­ger for His bed:
Mary was that mo­ther mild,
Jesus Christ her lit­tle child.

He came down to earth from Heav­en,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shel­ter was a sta­ble,
And His cra­dle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and low­ly,
Lived on earth our Sav­ior ho­ly.

And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own re­deem­ing love,
For that Child so dear and gen­tle
Is our Lord in Heav’n above,
And He leads His child­ren on
To the place where He is gone.

Not in that poor low­ly sta­ble,
With the ox­en stand­ing by,
We shall see Him; but in Heav­en,
Set at God’s right hand on high;
Where like stars His child­ren crowned
All in white shall wait around.

—Ce­cil F. Al­ex­an­der