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Bible Dictionaries
Innocence
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or INNOCENCE.—Innocence, strictly speaking, denotes the entire absence of sin in a human soul. As such, in its primary meaning, we have no personal experience of it in ourselves or in others. ‘For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). We can, therefore, have no actual knowlege of what would be the effect of this quality upon a human character. In this sense it is an attribute of Jesus Christ alone among men, who ‘was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15); ‘who knew no sin’ (2 Corinthians 5:21); who could address to His watchful foes the challenge, ‘Which of you convicteth me of sin?’ (John 8:46). The gulf between innocence and the state of the soul that has once committed sin can be realized only as we comprehend the nature of sin and its immeasurable depravity and consequences. See art. Sinlessness. (For the subject of our Lord’s innocence of the charges which led to His crucifixion, see art. Trial of Jesus Christ).
Innocence in a comparative sense may be attributed to men who, though fallen, are yet, in respect of particular sins, innocent, or who from circumstances of upbringing, or by the special grace of God, are shielded from that knowledge of sin by personal experience which is the common lot of men. Such a man was John the Baptist, who ‘was in the deserts until the day of his showing unto Israel’ (Luke 1:80). It has been said that there are only two states of life open to the man who wishes to serve God. The one is the state of innocence, the other of penitence. John the Baptist may be taken as a type of the one, St. Peter of the other. It must not be supposed that innocence implies ignorance or weakness. If John the Baptist, in whose life no fall is recorded, the essence of whose career is one unbroken record of devotion to the service of God, be taken as a type of innocence, he is pre-eminently the stern masculine type of character, and he displays great knowledge of men and power of dealing with the varied temptations of soldiers, publicans, and professors of religion.
The temptation specially addressed to innocence is the knowledge of evil as well as good (Genesis 3:5), but the experience of evil which entails the irrecoverable loss of innocence is not wisdom in the true sense of the word. ‘The knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom’ (Sirach 19:22). Innocence possesses an intuitive perception of right and wrong, observable in the child, which becomes blunted by the indulgence of sin; it also implies a strength which is lost by a fall. Each successive lapse from innocence makes the soul weaker in that particular direction in which the fall has taken place.
For further treatment of this subject the reader may be referred to a sermon on the subject in Illingworth’s University and Cathedral Sermons, p. 99 ff.
M. R. Newbolt.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Innocence'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/i/innocence.html. 1906-1918.
