The Nature of sin - WHAT IS SIN????

This is an attempt to update an old article.I am OPEN to ALL input. I think it is very important that we all know what sin is.CHAPTER FOUR. THE NATURE OF SIN. God created the human race so He could share His life and love with them, so that He could have a relationship with them, and love and bless them. We were created for union with God and He made us in His image and in His likeness, uniquely fitted to interact with Him in love. This is the meaning of our existence, to live by the life of God enjoying the privilege of being His children. We are unique in our creation; we were created with the ability to commune with God in our in a body of flesh made from the dust of the earth. We were created to live in and respond to God in love. God created human beings with a free will because He desired to share His love with free beings that could partake of His life and join Him in His unspeakable joy. He did not create us out of a some need within Himself for company. He is the infinitely fulfilled One. He created us because wanted to share His love with us. He loves you because He loved you into existence. God created every one of us as moral beings, with a free will, the ability to choose Him or reject Him. Love must exist by choice alone. Love cannot be forced or legislated. Robots can not love! God created mankind, with no necessity within Himself and no pressure from without to bring about another creature with free will. He freely chose to create us with free will. Al of us have the God given ability to say yes or no to Him. Man was not designed to live independent of God. God's intent was to rule in the heart of man, for man's good, and for His own enjoyment. Man needs God, and was to live in (and enjoy!) total submission to Him. God is no 'tyrant', His demand for our submission is for our good. In order for mankind to make the deliberate choice to believe God, to love Him and walk in His love, He made a tree called, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and He placed it into the Garden. Remember, without the choice of at least two things, love, obedience, holiness and sin cannot exist. "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:16,17) The response of the Adam and Eve to the tree would either be one of obedience, which would develop into trust and love toward God. Or they would make the choice of disobedience; unbelief that rejected God and His love and the result of such a declaration of independence from God would be death. Adam and Eve lived in fellowship with God until they chose to rebel by eating the forbidden fruit. God had designed them so they would rely and trust Him for all wisdom and knowledge. Adam and Eve had everything they could possibly need. God provided them with everything as a free gift. Since they were created, every breath they took they were reminded that they were not God but dependent on Him. The meaning of their life was to be submitted to their Creator. It was at that point that the devil came to tempt them. He tempted Eve with the lie that she could like God. The heart of sin is the desire to be king and ruler of ones own life. To be independent of God and to dethrone Him and take His place. Sin in its ultimate desire wills to remove God, kill him if it could and crown oneself in God's place. Satan began tempting Eve by portraying God as a liar that could not to be trusted. He inferred that God did not really love her because He did not have her best interests in mind. Satan made it look like God was withholding something good from her. He then told Eve that in eating from the tree she could declare her independence from God and she could like God. He assured her that God had lied; eating from the tree would not bring death but was instead the doorway to her total self-directed freedom. "Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Eve saw that the fruit was good for food, pleasing to the eye and desirable for gaining wisdom, so she took it and ate it. She gave some to Adam and then he also ate it" (Genesis 3:4,6) Instead of trusting and having her confidence in God, Eve believed the serpent and made the choice to disobey and declare her independence from God. In this act of defiance towards God, she severed herself from God, who was the only source of her life and the meaning of her existence. This was not just a slip or fall but an act of total rebellion! Both Adam and Eve rebelled in an act of disobedience that declared independence from Him. By rebelling they disconnected themselves from God who was the only true source of life and plunged themselves into death. They were created to say yes to God and choose to trust His love. Instead they have said no to God and yes to the lie of Satan and in so doing become the enemies of God. They have denied the meaning of their existence as creatures and rejected their God given glory of submission and obedience to the Creator. They have said no to the covenant union with Him, for whom they were created, exchanging it for the dead end street of independence that results in death. When God said "In the day you eat of it you shall surely die" this was not just a punishment, but the announcement of a fact. You are dependent upon God for your life, you are created to live in His love and if you walk away from Him, a law will be triggered that cannot be reversed - you will certainly and unquestionably die. Adam and Eve died in the moment they ate of the tree. God is Life and the source and upholder of all life, no life exists outside of Him, and nothing is independent of Him. When Adam and Eve ate this fruit they turned away from God's rulership. The life-sustaining relationship with God was broken. They cut themselves off from God and His wisdom, blessings, life, power, love and light. They decided to live for self, and for the purpose of self-gratification, rather than for fellowship with, and in obedience to, God. They kicked God out of His rightful place on the throne of the heart and replaced Him with self. All of us have sinned in same way. Each of us have turned away from God and to our self. We have placed ourselves above God and our fellow man. In doing so, we become the voluntary but real slave of lust, appetite and desires. We freely choose it and that is why we are totally responsible for it and why God can justly send us to hell. Adam and Eve's spirit did not die, nor was it annihilated when they sinned. Adam and Eve died to God and became alive to self. Instead of receiving only what God had to offer, they received only what selfishness could offer. Sinners are dead in trespasses and sins but their spirit is still alive. Our spirit is like a phone that is discontented from the true source. The phone itself is not dead but the fact that is disconnected makes it defective. We have all rebelled and have discontented our spirit from the only true source. Now instead our spirit is contented to our own selves as are source of life. After we sin, we do not lose the ability to choose, we still have a free will. We all have the free choice to decide to believe and submit to God or reject Him. There must be a free choice of at least two things for sin or holiness to exist. This choice must be voluntarily made. Without a choice and the freedom to make it, good and evil could not exist. The two choices are: 1. The choice to believe in and submit totally to God, to rule and rein over us.2. The choice to rebel and be independent of God, for self to rule and rein over us. A person is either led (controlled) by the flesh or led by the Spirit. If led by the flesh, he is living to gratify his senses. His will is in submission to his own selfish desires. If led by the Spirit, he is living with his will in submission to God. No other choice exists nor can both choices coexist because they completely oppose each other. The two aspects of sin are: 1. The choice to live supremely for oneself.2. The refusal and unwillingness to let go of selfishness and turn to God. A sinner is a criminal and a rebel because he can let go of his selfishness and self-serving and turn to God, but refuses to do so. Selfishness is the root, the trunk, and the branches of all the destructive evil and sin of man's rebellious state. Self-esteem, self-love, and self-seeking are the very essence and life of pride. Pride rules in the heart of man and daily worships the idol of self. Man's ego, pride, and selfishness raises up in his heart and self exalts itself above God. Pride takes over God's place in His temple. Self shows and declares himself to be God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that is already at work in the hearts of all sinful men. The sinner's self-exaltation is the ruling power of his life and the cause of all sin. Many think that everyone is born sinful or with a sinful nature and this is the source and cause for all sin. This is false. A sinner does have a sin nature but this is the direct consequence of his own free choices. A sin nature consists in habit patterns formed by the sinner living for himself and not for God. All sin is a wrong choice freely made. A sin nature is the result of sin, not the cause of it. Each sinner has a carnal mind and walks after the flesh. The carnal mind is the choice to live entirely for oneself. This choice shuts out God's life, presence and control. It is a state of complete rebellion against God and His character. The carnal mind is a total enemy of God. It hates God and is totally hostile to Him. The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. Obedience is impossible in this state. When a person chooses to have self as king instead of God in his heart, he violates God's original design and purpose. He decides to pursue and to gratify self. The carnal mind is not the mind itself, but a voluntary choice and preference of the mind. It is not a part of man's body, soul or spirit. No one is born with a carnal mind or a sin nature. This enmity against God is not transferred from father to son. It is impossible for a voluntary state of mind to pass from one generation to the next. Sin is the direct result of the free choice to live entirely for the gratification of his desires, lusts, emotions, and feelings. This desire and pursuit becomes the law of his life. The Apostle Paul calls it the law in one's members that wars against the law of the mind. Romans 7:23 "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." The reason behind the choice to indulge a desire makes it right or wrong. God made man with desires. They will bring joy if used rightly. They will bring destruction if used wrongly. Desires, feelings and emotions have no moral character in themselves. Indulging them in an unlawful way or for the purpose to please oneself supremely is sin. The choice to make self-gratification the goal of life is the whole of sin." The dominion of any desire, lust, emotion or feeling over the will is called minding the flesh. Romans 8:5 "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit." The Bible says that sin is the transgression of the law and we sin when each of us turn to his own way. It also says that if we love God supremely and others as ourselves we fulfill the law. Isa. 53:6a "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." I John 3:4 "Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." Matt. 22:36-46 "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Romans 13:8-10 "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Sin is supreme selfishness. It is the choice of self-gratification and self-indulgence in direct opposition to one's own reason. Sin is the choice to live supremely to please oneself disregarding God's higher and more important interests, the greater good of all moral beings, and one's own reason. Sin is the wrong aim or intention of the heart. It is the heart of man aimed at and intending to get personal pleasure and satisfaction at all cost. Sin puts self with its pleasure first. We sin when we consent to gratify a desire that violates God's law, to bring ourselves pleasure. All sin is the misuse of our own natural resources. It is for self gratification and self pleasure that the sinner lives, moves and has his being. His entire purpose in life is seeking after his own pleasure. He fulfills all acts for only one reason: to promote his own gratification. He regards nothing else worthy of choice except as it applies to self for self-gratification. The sinner demands his own rights to such a degree that they are more important to him than all other interests, including God's. He is the king of his own realm and wants, He wants God and all other interests to bow to him. He makes himself a god and tramples underfoot the law of God and his own reason and intelligence. He becomes lawless and full of iniquity. He becomes the voluntary but real slave of lust, appetite and desire. Sin is a voluntary committal of the will in a state of seeking its own gratification and using all the methods it can to achieve this goal. The sinner is the king or ruler of his own realm. Here is a list of things sin is not. 1. Not just a slip. 2. Not just a mistake. 3. Not unavoidable nor accidental. 4. Not a sickness nor disease.5. Not ‘only human’.6. Not something we inherit from Adam or our parents.7. Not a part of any person's soul, spirit or body.8. Not something we are forced to do.9. Not something in which we are helpless victims.10. Not something that is natural or normal. Sin is completely unreasonable and a crime worthy of eternal punishment. Sin is the intent to live supremely for oneself at all cost. It is a premeditated, calculated, voluntary, choice to live contrary to God's original design. No one is born a sinner. There can never be any excuse for sin. Sin is original because each sinner creates it. Sin is a crime and sinners are rebels and not a subject of pity or sympathy. Sinners truly deserve the punishment of hell for their crimes because they are monsters of iniquity. I recommend the reading of the following books for those of you who wish to study more in detail about sin and why we are not born sinners. 1. FINNEY'S SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, by Charles Finney. Bethany Fellowship. 2. YOUTH AFLAME, by Winkie Pratney. Bethany Fellowship. 3. THE GOD THEY NEVER KNEW, by George Otis Jr. Mott Media. 4. DON'T BLAME IT ALL ON ADAM, by J.W. Jepson. Bethany Fellowship. 5. ARE MEN BORN SINNERS? THE MYTH OF ORIGINAL SIN, by Alferd T. Overstreet. Study questions. 1. What was man designed to be by God? 2. Did Adam's spirit die when he sinned? Why? 3. What happened to Adam when he sinned? 4. Explain how we have all sinned. 5. What must always be present for sin and holiness to exist? 6. What are the two choices we have? 7. How is a person led by the flesh? 8. How is a person led by the Spirit? 9. What are the two aspects of sin? 10. Why is a sinner a criminal and guilty of hell? 11. Explain how the spirit of antichrist is at work in the hearts of all sinners. 12. What is a carnal mind? How does a person get one? 13. What is a sin nature and how does a person get one? 14. What does the law require? 15. What is sin? 16. From where does sin come? 17. Can a sinner turn to God and stop sinning? Why? 18. What does a sinner live for supremely? Why? 19. If you sin, explain why. 20. Are we born sinners? Why?

The heart of sin is the desire to be king and ruler of ones own life. To be independent of God and to dethrone Him and take His place. Sin in its ultimate desire wills to remove God, kill him if it could and crown oneself in God's place.

WHAT WENT WRONG? Adam and Eve awoke in a world of loveliness. Made as a tiny replica of their Heavenly Father, having in finite miniature the abilities and qualities of God, they were given His law of love to live by. The first man and his lovely wife walked and talked with God in the garden paradise that was Eden. There was no sickness, pain or death. There was no sin or rebellion in the world. Man was supremely happy, healthy and content. God saw everything that He had made was "very good" (Genesis 1:26-31). Only one thing remained to be done. Before Adam was granted the gift of eternal life, he had to prove to God that he could be trusted. A test of his loyalty was given him. A forbidden tree grew in the garden. Its fruit could extend his light beyond that which he had yet proved himself worthy to be given. Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat of it, lest they fall into the same selfish quest for power that had turned Lucifer, prince of the angels into Satan (Isaiah 14:12-15). God was very clear in His warning. He made sure that they understood how important their test was. It was the only way they could be tested for the glorious future God had in store for them. He guarded this most solemn law of the Universe by the greatest possible penalty. It was called - DEATH; it was an awful but absolute necessity if a moral being should ever do something insane as to break this protecting law. It would simply and finally cut him off from interfering with anyone else's happiness. Incredibly enough, that tragedy happened! Eve, tempted by Satan in the form of a serpent, took the forbidden fruit. In a perfect environment, surrounded by everything he could wish for, Adam also ate the fruit, joining his wife in deliberate sin. It opened his eyes to evil. Right there man became both morally and physically ruined! Sin entered the world, and with it death, as Adam and Eve gave in to selfishness against the clear warning of God. The first pangs of guilt struck terror into our first parents' hearts as they heard, through the still air of evening, God's voice calling for them in the garden. In unspeakable sadness, God was forced to clamp down His Divinely-appointed penalties. Man was turned out of the Garden lest he take also of the fruit of the tree of life and become immortal in sin - a second Satan! The ground was cursed, so that man would have to labor in future to live; he would have less time for self-pleasing and resultant sin. Death began its deadly work, setting alight a time-fuse to detonate in every man's final exit from this life (Genesis 3:1-24). ME OR ADAM? It is vitally important to notice here HOW Adam fell, and the consequences of his fall. To understand present human depravity, we must first define the word "depravity". From the Latin "de" very, and "pravus" crooked, depravity means the failure to meet an existing standard, a fall from a place of original perfection. Adam became depraved in TWO ways; his SOUL first failed to obey God, then his BODY began to fail. The first depravity was thus MORAL, and was followed by the second, which was PHYSICAL, caused by Adam's selfish choice in spite of the clear warning of the penalty of God. These two depravities caused TWO kinds of DEATH; physical and spiritual. Although these are linked, they are not the same thing. Both deaths are states of SEPARATION; spiritual death being a state of separation from Cod (essentially, to live sinfully is to be spiritually dead 1 Timothy 5:6);and physical death being finally a separation from the material world of Earth. PHYSICAL DEPRAVITY is the inherited result of Adam's sin. It has brought great tragedy to earth. Our bodies are all subject to these problems from it: 1. DULLNESS of mental faculties. None of our human "temples" function as well as they could. Our minds are not as clear, our feelings not as capable of intense perception, our strength not as vibrant as our first parents. Our whole systems have "cooled" in their original vivid relationships and responses. 2. DETERIORATION of HEALTH. This is painfully evident across the world. There is no "perfect" health. All of us inherit bodies that are greatly subject to disease and sickness. Sickness is ultimately a result of Adam's sin, and we can reinforce our physical ill-health by our own selfish choices. The delicate way God balanced our physical and psychological systems make it easy for our moral lives to influence our physical beings. 3. DEFORMATION of innocent children. The moral disease of sin has invaded the delicate controls that influence the formation of new little bodies; sin has given us misshapen and tragic little forms that could have been beautiful babies. 4. DISEASE and sickness world wide are another limiting factor that tend to cut down the amount of moral damage selfishness can do. Consider the countries that turn from the Living God to serve idols. Devaluation of individual human life leads to poor living conditions, uncleanliness and disease. Sickness abounds, reducing the age of the population to a very low value. As the Gospel has come in to such places, moral purity has been followed by social changes, leading to expanded life expectancy. This is another automatic law tending to curb selfishness. This physical depravity is the power that makes our bodies decay and die. The first man had a perfect body. It was made to operate in flawless harmony and was constantly repaired and replaced cell by cell in wear. There is no medical reason for age death. We have a highly efficient set of repair organs that gradually re-make every organ and bone. Every seven years the ENTIRE BODY has been fully re-made. Science cannot yet explain why these "repairers" stop and the person gets old, feeble and dies. Physical depravity is a failure of the way you are built, of the material you are made of. It is an "out of balance" set of once finely-tuned interdependent body functions. It is a physical breakdown of the laws of health, a fallen state in which healthy life is not kept going. This is not something of the SOUL; it concerns only the material of which the body is made that influences the soul. It is not sin, but the fruit of sin, our's and Adam's. The Bible testifies to our PHYSICAL depravity by birth and circumstances, that make it easier for the will to choose self-gratification, but this is not the cause of our wrong action. It is obvious that man is in a weakened and unbalanced condition: Psalm 103:15-16; Matthew 26:41; Romans 6:19; Romans 8:3,23; 2 Corinthians 4:11; 5:2-4; 12:7; Galatians 4:13-14; Philippians 3:21; James 4: 14. This simply gives him the bias towards selfish action, and is only an influence for sin. Adam's terrible choice opened the lock to a tide of temptation, sin and death for his race (Romans 5:12; Hebrews 9:27). As man's sin increased, God slowly shortened his physical life span to help curb the resulting spread of destruction and unhappiness (Genesis 5:27,32; Genesis 6:3; Psalm 90:10). Mankind is a fallen race, not growing better, but progressively worse. We are all victims of physical depravity and death, circumstances and environments that provide powerful temptations to sin, and all. men follow the wrong choice of our first parents. Our own family lines, and ultimately Adam himself, are responsible for our PHYSICAL depravity. But this is, in itself, not sin. It is not the direct CAUSE of sin, so that we sin from some sort of physical necessity, but simply the weakened constitution and strong desires that give sin power and make men open to the tug of temptation. "AT THE LAST FRONTIER THERE WILL BE NOTHING TO DECLARE -- ONLY A PASSPORT EXAMINATION" WHAT SIN IS NOT 1. Sin is not NATURAL - A common answer of man when faced with sin has been - "Yes, we all sin - nobody is perfect - we're only human!" Nothing could be further from the truth. Only by comparing ourselves with the perfect example of TRUE humanity - the Lord Jesus - can we see just how un-natural sin is. When God became man, He took on Himself a perfectly human body. Jesus was not God disguised as man, but God who BECAME man. Although He was conceived supernaturally, He was born of a perfectly normal human girl (Luke 1:31). He grew, learned, was hungry and thirsty (Luke 2:52; 2:40; Matthew 4:2; Luke 4:2). His body was as human as any man that ever walked the earth; it was in NO way more special than any other human body (Hebrews 10:5; John 2:21; Luke 24:3,23; 1 John 4:3). He ate, drank, felt weary and rested (Mark 2:16), and declared His body to be flesh and bones (John 20:20,27). He had a soul as human as any other man's soul (Isaiah 53:11, 12; Psalm 16:10; John 12:27; Acts 2:27; Matthew 26:38). John, Peter, Paul and Isaiah all called Him a man (John 1:30; Acts 2:22; 1 Timothy 2:5; Isaiah 53:3) and He called Himself a man (John 8:40). His favorite name for Himself when He walked this earth was - "The Son of man" used seventy-one times in Scripture. Christ was, of course, always God. He knew that He had come from the Father, and after that His earthly mission He would go back to the Father. His essential relationship with the Spirit and the Father was never removed. But while He walked this planet, to show us that it WAS possible to resist temptation and defeat the Devil with only the power of the Holy Spirit, the guidance of His Father, and the Word of God, the Lord Jesus used NONE of His Godhead powers. To be fully "tempted in ALL points such as we are" and yet be "without sin" the Lord Jesus had to become fully human. To make Him more than this during His brief stay on Earth is to MISS completely the whole purpose of His life; not only to offer His body as a perfect substitute for our sin, but to show us the way a child of God was to live in this world! (Hebrews 2:14-15; 5:5-9). He laid aside His rights and powers as God to tread this world; (Philippians 2:5-8; Luke 2:52; Hebrews 5:7-9) although, His essential nature as God remained unchanged. Understand - the Lord Jesus had NOTHING available to Him on Earth that ANY child of God does not have available; His Father even arranged for Him to have some disadvantages! (Luke 2:7; John 1:46; 8:41). The Lord Jesus was our pattern of TRUE human nature, yet He was "without sin" (Hebrews 4:15); and He "did no sin" (1 Peter 2:22). GOD made human nature; God did NOT make sin! Sin is NEVER natural. It is horribly UN-natural. Sin is NEVER "human." It is horribly IN-human. Sin creates remorse, guilt and shame; every time a man feels these three witnesses in his soul, they tell him sin is NOT natural. Even the simple lie-detector can tell us this. The whole body reacts adversely when a man sins. Sin is in fact, a kind of insanity (Ecclesiastes 9:3). No one ever sins because they love sin. Even the worst sinner does not like to be called a sinner; he resents the fact of his selfishness, even when he is selfish! And even the worst of sinners cannot help but admire right in another, whenever that other person is sufficiently far away from him not to convict him of his selfishness (Isaiah 58:1-2; Ezekiel 33:32; Romans 7:22). Nobody sins merely for the sake of doing wrong. Sinning men and women hate themselves when they do wrong. A man sins only when he wants something for himself more strongly than he wants to do right. God never planned sin for man. It is the most un-natural thing in the moral Universe. To equate humanity with sinfulness is to make God the Author of His own worst enemy; to make God responsible for the thing that has brought Him unhappiness. Do not DARE say sin is "natural"! God hates sin with perfect hatred; He loves humanity. ARE WE REALLY UNABLE TO OBEY? 2. Sin is not UNAVOIDABLE - One of the favorite heresies of the past, that is rapidly now becoming the favorite heresy of the present, is the lie of Antinomianism - that men cannot do what God expressly REQUIRES them to do; and therefore they may live how they like and still enter the Kingdom of God. In the midst of the greatest moral landslide the world has ever seen, in the midst of the most flagrant disrespect for law and order and government of any century, it is unblushingly proclaimed AS GOSPEL truth from pulpits across the nation that man cannot keep the law of God! In our wariness of the dangers of legalism, we have forgotten the perils of antinomianism; we have forgotten that the LAW is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24) and that "by the LAW is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). Gone is the preaching of moral responsibility that streamed from men like William Booth, George Fox, John Wesley and Charles Finney that made men weep with conviction; gone is the heartbreak of the Psalmist for the honor of God when he cried "Horror has taken hold of me, because of the wicked that forsake Thy law!" (Psalm 119:53; 119:37). Many sincere men are saying, "God gave us good laws to keep," and in the next breath saying, "we are actually unable to keep them!" If this is true, then God's laws ARE NOT GOOD! No law is good that asks the impossible of its subjects. If God demands obedience to impossible laws then God is not just, for even men do not require obedience to impossible laws. If God demands such obedience under penalty of DEATH, then God is not only unfair, but monstrous What kind of Being would pass laws upon his subjects they are unable to keep, then condemn them to death for their failure to obey. This is a blasphemy on God's character. The Bible expressly declares that God has given good laws. All the laws of God are based on the one great Law of love, that governs the actions of all moral beings in God's Universe - that every moral creature should unselfishly choose the highest good of God and His Universe according to their real, relative values; God's being greatest, first of all; then all others in the order of their true value under God. The Ten Commandments are just the letter expression of that law, given when men began to ignore the love law written on their hearts. They define man's obligations God ward in the first three commandments, then those of his obligations to his fellow-men in the last seven. The Lord Jesus summed these in His two commandments (Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-3 3; Luke 10:25-28) covering what Moses had already been given (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). Paul summed up the law into the one basic word "love" (Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:14; 1 Timothy 1:5; James 2:8-10). This law, expressed in different ways, is given as the unchangeable condition of happiness and holiness; it defines man's obligations and can never be changed or suspended in our present relationships (Galatians 3:19; Psalm 19:7; Matthew 5:17; Romans 7:12; 1 Timothy 1:8). Which of God's laws are we actually UNABLE to keep - if we love the Lawgiver! Do we have to relegate God to some other position than King of our lives and put something else in His place? Do we have to take His Name in vain? Must we steal? What man has ever been born that could not help BUT murder? Do we have no choice but to commit adultery, to lie, to covet, to dishonor parents and refuse to honor God on a special day of rest? God says "His commandments are NOT grievous". Do WE say they are not only grievous but impossible? The Lord Jesus said - "My yoke is easy and My burden is light". Do WE say His yoke is not only HEAVY, but completely unbearable for any human being? No saint in Scripture thought they were "unable" to keep God's laws. Moses didn't (Exodus 24:3; Deuteronomy 5:1; 6:24-25; 10:12-13; 11:22; 26:16-19; 28:47; 28:58-59; 30:8; 30:11-14). Neither did Joshua (22:5), Ezra (7:23-26), David (Psalm 19:7; 40:8), his psalmist friend (Psalm 119:165-168) or Daniel (9:9-11) or others! (2 Kings 17:13,7-18, etc.). The Lord Jesus Himself told men to obey His Father's laws, and that this was the test of being a true disciple (Matthew 5:17-20; 19:17; John 14:15,21; 14:23-24; 15:10). The Apostle John stresses this obedience (1 John 2:3-6; 3:18-22). Obeying God's love law simply means living for Him with no selfish interest; to live up to all the light you have with all the effort of will, mind and feeling necessary for the task in hand. For the Christian, obeying God and keeping His commandments are a natural part of his new life. Only the sinner finds it hard to walk in God's ways because he is trying to use the law as a means to his own end. the ultimate satisfaction of his own selfishness. He must fall. 3. Sin is not PHYSICAL -- Many think they have explained the fact of sin in the human race by using a phrase we shall call "Doggie Logic." It goes essentially like this: "A dog is not a dog because he barks; he barks because he is a dog. Thus, man is not a sinner because he sins; he sins because he is a sinner." The assumption is, of course, that all sin flows from a pre-determined sinful nature, and it is this nature that creates sinful acts of the sinner. Just as the bark of a dog comes undeniably from the fact that he is a dog, so man's sin will flow inescapably from the fact that he is a sinner, and was born so. It sounds nice; is it true? There are, unfortunately, two things wrong with this logic. They are serious flaws because, once they are assumed, they actually destroy the basis of the very thing they seek to prove - that all men are guilty of, and responsible to God for, their sin. These logic flaws are: (a) A Man is not a dog. A dog's actions are right if he barks because God created dogs to express themselves naturally by barking. But God did not create men to sin! A dog's bark is natural; sin is NOT. The Bible everywhere represents sin as an alien invasion to a moral nature made in the image of God. Assuming that man sins because it is his nature to sin, also assumes that sin is natural. A dog barks because he is a dog. A man can also bark if he chooses to. Does this prove that he is a dog? No, it proves that he has chosen to do a thing he was never created to do naturally. If a man sins, it merely proves that he has so chosen to sin; and his sin will certainly be treated as unnatural in the eyes of God. (b) Do we need a sinful nature to sin? Is it necessary to have an "implanted sinfulness" to enable man to do wrong? If one sinner can be found in Scripture who sinned WITHOUT first having a sinful nature, the answer is no; and the case is closed. And of course, there are at least three moral beings who committed sin without sinful natures. Satan was the first. The first man Adam was the second, and his wife, Eve. The angels who were cast out of heaven were apparently before perfect. No moral being needs a sinful nature to sin; if he is given one that makes it impossible for him NOT to live right, he is not GUILTY but IS SIN A SOMETHING? Is sin a "thing"? Are feelings or desires, for instance, good or bad IN THEMSELVES? The following diagram lists some common desires. Mark the column where you think each desire could be classed - as "right," "wrong" or "either." DESIRE FOR: RIGHT WRONG EITHER (Moral) (Immoral) (Amoral) MONEY SEXUAL LOVE POWER FRIENDS FOOD REST Did you think CAREFULLY? You will find you can frame a situation for EACH where the desire in the question could be right OR wrong or an "EITHER"! This is because desires have no will of their own. They are built into all men in greater or lesser degree. There is no desire that cannot be used for God's glory, and no desire that misused could not make you like the Devil himself. It is the PURPOSE behind the choice to indulge a desire that makes it right or wrong. That choice is carried out by the WILL, after consulting reason, conscience and intuition as to the rightness or wrongness of the action. DESIRES are NEVER wrong IN THEMSELVES. They are neither IMMORAL (bad, wrong) or MORAL (good, right) but AMORAL (having no morality or deliberate rule of right and wrong in themselves). Desires are God-given; used rightly, to ENJOY life; used wrongly, to DESTROY ourselves. The tug of desire is not sin in itself; but a natural feeling produced by stimulation and without direct control by the person. THOSE BRAINWAVES Are THOUGHTS right or wrong in themselves? They, too, are AMORAL. The Lord Jesus Himself was given "wrong thoughts" during His dark wilderness temptation But He NEVER SINNED (Hebrews 4:15). A thought may be a temptation to do wrong, but it is NOT SIN until the will gives assent to the thought. It is not the feelings OR the thoughts that make men sin. Reason tells men right or wrong (using memory and conscience), but reason does not carry out decisions. Feelings tug, the mind advises, but neither DECIDE. Reason may tell choice the right, but has in itself no power to CHOOSE that way. Moral decision is under the exclusive control of the WILL, the key center of the whole personality. The will's choice makes a man sinner or saint in God's eyes. TEMPTATION Don't mistake TEMPTATION for sin. Temptation is a suggestion to gratify a desire in an illegal way or amount. Temptation is NOT sin. Jesus was tempted (Hebrews 4: 15). All men are tempted whether sinner or saint. "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed" (James 1:14). The feelings ("Lust" - over-strong desire) tug at the will. The mind refers to memory and moral law for knowledge of right and wrong. The will is informed and is faced with a decision. If the reason tells the will that carrying out that desire would be RIGHT as well as pleasant and the will acts on this, happiness and harmony result. But if the mind gives a verdict of wrong, the choice can be caught in a struggle between the right, and the pleasant, but WRONG. There is always "pleasure" in sin of a very temporary kind (Hebrews 11:25; 1 Timothy 5:6). The mind knows right is best. If it should not know the choice made is bad, it is NOT SIN to the individual! It is for this reason that we are told not to "judge" another person. We cannot know how much light they have. Two people may be doing exactly the same thing; to one it is wrong, but to the other (as far as HE is concerned) it is not. This must not be confused with deliberate deceit. Not always are the actions of outward conduct the proof of a right heart (1 Samuel 16:7; John 7:24). There is therefore no such thing as "unconscious" sin. God holds us responsible for all the light we have and are able to get - no more, no less. There is no sin that we know nothing at all about that God will judge us for. Men can sometimes do things that may be legally wrong, but in ignorance, without knowing they WERE wrong. A child's first defence against discovered wrong by its parents is invariably - "But I didn't KNOW it was wrong!" If that can be proved, he knows the case is closed. It is "to him that KNOWETH to do good, and DOETH IT NOT, to him it is SIN" (James 4:17). Should we sin in the eyes of the law through ignorance, it is only when we discover our mistake that we can ask pardon and forgiveness (Leviticus 4:2-3; Numbers 15:27-31). For the Christian, DOUBTFUL ACTIONS are sinful. Doubt is nearly always a sign of some duty not done or some illegal choice about to be made. A man may have equal doubts on some things whether to do them or not. In such cases, he must act according to the best light he can get. But if he should go and deliberately do something of which he doubts the lawfulness, he is condemned. It shows a spirit of self-pleasing without careful regard to the Lord's glory. "Whatsoever is not of faith is SIN" (Romans 14:23). Any action that might cause another younger Christian to stumble falls into the same category. There are some things a Christian could do from a pure heart and right intent that outwardly could be misunderstood. Even of the Lord Jesus Himself it was said "He has a demon" (Matthew ll:18). Abstain from the very appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22; Romans 14; Acts 24:16; 1 Corinthians 10:32). The condition of our PHYSICAL depravity gives great Power to temptation. Consider two men, Dick and Jack. Dick, a non-Christian, always seems assured, well-balanced and at ease. Jack, who is a Christian, seems however to be run down, highly strung and somewhat touchy. How can we account for this? Digging a little deeper, we find that Dick's parents are clean-living Christians who are reasonably well-off and physically in very good health. On the other hand, Jack's parents are unsaved, alcoholics, and his home is little more than a hovel. We can see it would not be too fair to condemn Jack for what he is outwardly, until we find out what he WANTS to be. We must also ask ourselves, not what Dick is like compared to JACK, but what Dick is like compared to Christ; or what better of man Dick could be if he WAS a Christian. Give both Dick and Jack ten years or a set of tough circumstances and you will soon see there is all the difference in the world. In Romans 7:7-24, the Apostle Paul personifies sin to show its power over the enlightened, but unconverted mind. The excited love of conscious freedom, wanting to have its own way, clashes with the judgment of conscience and the moral law; a conflict begins between the "law" (rule of action) of sin, and the law of God. Without the drawing power of Christ, the convicted sinner cannot free himself, until the Gospel comes to deliver him (Romans 7:25; 8:1). But although Paul places the tug of this "law of sin" in his bodily members (from where the excited desires sparked into unnatural strength by the habit of selfish gratification reside),he does not really make a case for any "physical" sin, as if this was his helpless inheritance. If sin WAS physical, in what form would it exist? Would it be solid, liquid or gas? If sin is material, it can be isolated in a test-tube. May we then see the phenomenon of a vial of sin concentrate. This is, of course, absurd. All efforts to trace actual sin to some organic connection with parents have failed of any evidence, medically or physiologically; at the most, ALL inherited traits from parents simply contribute INFLUENCES for later selfish choices. Neither does sin reside, as some sincere men have stated, in the blood. No place in the Scriptures give the blood morality. It is a symbol of life, and as the electrochemical and circulatory system of the body, is the "life of the flesh" and the "circuitry" of the soul. As a symbol of a man's life, it is certainly a precious symbol of Christ's atoning sacrifice for our lives (Isaiah 53:10-12; Hebrews 9:22-23; Matthew 26:28; Acts 20:28; Romans 3:24-26; 5:9-11; Ephesians 2:13; Hebrews 10:10-14; 10:19-20; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7). If it was true that moral characteristics are transmitted through the blood, then a blood transfusion from a saint, will make a man more holy, and one from a sinner will make a saint less sanctified. It will follow then, that a prenatal blood transfusion on a "blue" baby will give it a totally different nature!

THE FINAL CONCLUSION WHAT SIN REALLY MUST BE 1. Sin is UNIVERSAL - Nothing is clearer in Scripture or in daily life. World history is a chronicle of wickedness. Every man prior to conversion is a slave to his own selfishness. Every unsaved man knows that he is selfish. The Bible shows the unsaved to possess one common zoicked heart or character: Genesis 6:5; 1 Kings 11:9-11; 15:3; 2 Chronicles 12:14; Psalm 28:3; 66:18; 78:37; 95:10; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Ezekiel 14:2-3; 18:30-32; Ecclesiastes 9:3; Matthew 5:27-30; 9:4; 13:15; Mark 3:5; 7:18-23; 8:17; Luke 21:34; Acts 8:21 (18-24); Romans 2:4-6; 8:7; Hebrews 3:7-15. All men without God are totally selfish at heart; it is exceedingly humbling to admit that ALL a man's pre-conversion actions are not in the least virtuous when examined in Eternity's light. Man has nothing to commend him to God, when he comes asking for forgiveness. The Bible further reveals that from the beginning of man's moral accountability,(seeing his spiritual responsibility to God and his fellow-men) man has made a choice to live supremely for himself, with no exceptions of true goodness, no pauses for really virtuous behavior, no alternative weeks of true unselfishness before God. Many factors influence the forms of this selfishness; there are many "good" clean-living, outwardly moral sinners, as well as those who are humanly despicable and degraded. Man chooses the particular form of selfishness that brings him the greatest pleasure; and this includes deeds and actions usually considered "good" by society, including prayer, religious activity, Bible study and preaching! But all sinners from those who have done "many wonderful works" to those God has had to "give up to vile affections" have one uniform morality - "there is NONE that doeth good, no, not one. " This universal persistency in sin is also shown in: Genesis 8:21; Psalm 10:4; 14:13 (53:1,3); 28:3; 94:11; Ecclesiastes 1:14; Isaiah 55:7-9; 64:6 Jeremiah 13:23; 17:9-10; Matthew 7:21-23; 12:34-35; Romans 1:21; 3:10-12; 3:23; 6:16-17; 6:20; Ephesians 2:1, 3; 5:8; Titus 1:15; 3:3; 1 Peter 2:25. YOU AND YOUR ORIGINAL SIN 2. Sin is ORIGINAL -- There is nothing clearer in the Bible that man is VERY original in his sin! Sin is not a transmitted thing, it is created by each being with the elements of true morality - (emotions, reason, free will, moral light and spiritual perception of this). Throughout the Bible, man's moral nature is shown to spring from his HEART. This "heart" is not your PHYSICAL heart that busily pumps life-giving blood to all the members of your body. It is an illustration of the SUPREME PREFERENCE, or ULTIMATE CHOICE of your will, just as the physical heart is the center and source of all physical life. The RULING CHOICE of your will is the center and source of all your actions, and is the one thing most entirely under your control. If God had made salvation dependent, say, on moving your body, or solving a problem, or even feeling a certain emotion, you may not have been able to do it. If you were paralyzed, your muscles might not be able to act. If you had little education, even on pain of death you could not solve a problem beyond your own reason. Even with a threat of everlasting torment, you would not be able to keep any emotion for long. But if God only asks for the choice of your will, all is brought within your reach. You can always give this "heart" to God. You can always CHOOSE so long as you have a rational mind and a moral nature. Every man born is faced with God's request to the awakening Adam - "My son, give Me your HEART" (Proverbs 23:6; 4: 23; 3:5). When men choose wrong, following Adam's example, they become guilty of the second kind of depravity MORAL depravity. All sin is moral depravity - "missing the mark" in the ultimate choice of life. The Bible pointedly testifies of man's free choice in his life of sin, using a variety of words that show explicitly man's guilt and total moral depravity. No definition of man 's moral depravity that tends to remove personal and individual blame or responsibility from each sinner is a definition inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. ALL the Bible words used for sin show that man is a REBEL, not a subject of pity who has lost his ability of will to do right. Who can study the penetrating pictures of sin in the Scriptures and make sin something small! From the very least expression (to "err, stray from the mark or path planned for man") to the strongest term ("utter evil, wickedness of the mind and heart") all sin is WRONG CHOICE (Numbers 15:27; Ezekiel 3:18; 2 Kings 8:20,22; 1 Kings 8:47-50; 1 Chronicles 5:25; 1 Samuel 12:13-15; Joshua 22:16; Isaiah 66:3; Jeremiah 7:24; Romans 6:14-15; Hebrews 6:6; Galatians 6:1; Matthew 15:2; Acts 1:25; 1 Timothy 1:9; Romans 6:19; 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12; 2 Timothy 2:19; 1 Peter 4: 18; Titus 2:12; Matthew 7:17,18; Hebrews 3:12). From this study of Bible words describing sin, we look in vain for evidence that sin is anything else than a wrong choice. There is always the idea of movement, voluntary action, never a static or inactive something behind the will, received by heredity, that CAUSES the will to act in sin. The Word of God protects itself from theological speculation like this; sin is a CHOICE. Without God, man does have a sinful nature, but this nature is NOT physical. He inherits no causation from his parents or anyone else. Man is responsible for his own actions. His sinful nature consists in the habit patterns of a life lived for self instead of God. They flow from a wrong HEART, or ultimate choice in life. They need not be all pre-meditated to be sin. A man who has unyielded rights and resentment in his heart that has been allowed to build for some time does not have to coldly calculate to fly into a rage. If a man says an unkind thing, then tries to cover it by saying, "Oh, I didn't mean that," the Scriptures flatly contradict him by stating "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." He may not have meant it to be revealed in all its ugliness. But it WAS in his heart, and the unconscious action followed. Nature does not mean natural, as compared to ordinary, but that which is common, that which man does AS A RULE. If we say man has a sinful nature, we are not talking about some solid "thing" causing sin; but that AS A RULE OF LIFE, the sinner always behaves sinfully. His own heart is set on pleasing himself; out of this choice flows all his thoughts, actions and choices. Scripture reveals that NO sinner seeks God. His selfishness has made him run from the call of God just like Adam did long ago: Genesis 6:5: 2 Chronicles 12:14: Psalm 10:4; 53:2 119:115; Ecclesiastes 8:11; Isaiah 9:13; 31:1; 59:4; 64:7; 65:1; Matthew 23:37; John 5:40; 6:26; Romans 2:4; 3:11. For this reason, he cannot be saved unless God invests great efforts in him to turn him back to righteousness. WHY DO CHILDREN SIN? How, then does a child sin! One does not have to teach a child to do wrong. The explanation becomes clear if we carefully consider the development of a man. A baby enters the world as the object of its parent's fondness, unceasing care, and concession by those who guard it. In these circumstances, the natural, inherited appetites are Just developed; and the child's natural love of conscious freedom begins to express itself. The feelings develop long before the reason, and both are deeply entrenched before the spirit begins to awaken to the claims of God. Much depends at this point on the parents. If they are faithful in their duty to God, they must train their child to yield up its own way when that self- willed way will interfere with the happiness of others. The child will learn at first obedience to its parents only in a love/discipline relationship; it is here that the habit of response to authority must be ingrained in the child's soul, so that later, when God opens up the spiritual understanding, the child will surrender to Him (1 Samuel 15:22; Proverbs 6:20-2 3; 10: 17; 13:18; 15:5;31-32; Ephesians 6: 1; Colossians 3:20). Since the feelings develop before the reason and conscience, the will begins to form the habit of obeying desire, which deepens every day. The obvious consequence is that self-indulgence becomes the master principle in the soul of the child long before it can understand that this self-indulgence will interfere with the right or happiness of others. This repeated bias grows, stronger each day before a knowledge of right or duty could possibly have entered the mind. Finally, the moment of true moral responsibility arrives. The child is now old enough to understand wrong. (This will probably be earlier in a Christian home than in a non-Christian one.) Does the child approach this test in a perfectly neutral state? If Adam, in the maturity of his reason, with full consciousness of the morality of his actions could give in to such temptation, is there any doubt that a child will not? The moment that child chooses selfishly, it sins. From this point on (and NOT before) God holds the child responsible for its own actions and destiny. It is significant that all words of the Lord to sinners begin FROM THEIR YOUTH, and NOT from birth, as some have supposed. It may be objected - does not the Bible teach that man is born sinful. The answer is an unqualified no. A small number of verses have at times been urged to support this idea, but they will not stand up to careful scholarship, and have only been used because no better explanation of the universal sinfulness of man has been forwarded. God is very plain; He does NOT hold the child in any kind of responsibility for its parent's sins. "What do you mean, you who use this proverb: the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live . . . you shall not have occasion to use this proverb in Israel. All souls are MINE; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine; the soul that SINNETH, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:1-3, 20-see also the whole chapter; Jeremiah 31:30; Deuteronomy 24:16; 2 Chronicles 25:4; Psalm 94:23). In speaking of the coming judgment, we are told in the Bible that God shall judge every moral being for his own sins, no mention being made of the imputation of Adam's guilt: Psalm 9:7-8; 96:13; Ecclesiastes 11:9; 12:14; Isaiah 3:10-11; Jeremiah 31:30; 32:17-19; Matthew 12:36-37; 16:27; Luke 12:47-48; 20:46-47; John 5:27-29; 12:48; Acts 17:30-31; Romans 2:2-11, 12, 16; 14:10-12; Galatians 6:7-8; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Timothy 5:24-25; Hebrews 9:27; 1 Peter 1:17; Jude 14-15; Revelation 2:23. God has specifically stated He would not judge man for another's sin. Yet, all sin in Scripture is under the judgment of God. Man cannot, therefore, inherit sin from his parents or Adam. Some Scriptures used to try to support this "inherited sin" idea have been pressed right out of context. In examining these. it will be important to adhere to some universally-accepted principles of Biblical interpretation. They are (1) interpret each verse or passage in the light of ALL OTHER revealed Scripture; (2) Examine each verse in the CONTEXT where it is placed, taking into account the design, purpose, authority and author of each passage; (3) Texts that can be used to prove either of two theories prove NEITHER; (4) Passages must be interpreted in a way (if they can be) by which they will not contradict each other. It is with these principles in mind that we shall examine the so-called Scriptural objections. (1) Psalm 51:5, "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." David speaks; he speaks from personal experience, and not for the whole world; and who is the subject of this sentence? NOT David, but his MOTHER, pressed literally, this verse says that during his time of gestation and conception, his mother was a sinner; David is the object. There is a world of difference between being shapen in iniquity and iniquity shapen in him, just as there is a great difference between being born in England and England being born in me! What then, does this passage teach! Three different interpretations have been given, none of which teach the dogma of transmitted sin: (a) That David was illegitimate as the Jews have always believed (David's mother's name is not mentioned; David was not with the sons of Jesse when Samuel came to anoint them; David's brothers seemed embarrassed by his presence); (b) That David came from a lineage in which there had been immorality, and remembered his "lineage" mother in comparison to his own sexual sin; That David was simply deeply cut to the heart by his sin. and broke out in the extravagant language of poetry (cf. v. 3, 3, 7 and 8); in thinking back along his lite, he broke out affirming that from the earliest moments of light he had been a sinner, and had come from parents who were sinners, without in any way implying that this sin had been TRANSMITTED down to him by his mother. In no way does this passage teach "inherited" sin, no matter which way it is interpreted literally or figuratively. (2) Psalm 58:3 has been pressed into service along the same lines; note that it is the wicked who 'go ASTRAY", if the text is to be literally interpreted, it means that infants TALK as well as lie from birth! Job 14:4 and 15:4 have been stretched to fit into this dogma, but both these two verses simply imply the universality of human sin and bodily frailty, without any reference to the MEANS by which man sins; both may be used to support the idea that man is physically depraved, and by these influences will certainly (not necessarily fixed) sin. John 3:3 can only at the limit state that which is born of fleshly desire will tend to sin (when the will yields to its control), while that which results from the Holy Spirit's agency (in the sense that the will yields to Him), is holy. Nothing here about inherited sinfulness. (3) Ephesians 2:3 "By nature, the children of wrath" must be compared with Ephesians 2:1 which states man is dead THROUGH HIS OWN trespasses and sins; man's wicked nature has come as the result of his wicked walk in the way of this world, and as previously stated, the word "nature" does not mean the way we were born. God shows that a sinner goes against his nature in his sin (Romans 1:31; 2 Timothy 3:3; James 3:6) his "nature of wrath" is the result of his sinful actions, which have formed in his life a character that makes God angry with him. Romans 5:19 is an exact parallelism. If the word "were made" means "constituted", as some have said, then all men will be saved, BECAUSE of what Christ did, which is outright Universalism! However, this phrase occurs 21 times in the New Testament and in ALL other places where Paul uses it, it means "to ordain, appoint, put in place of': It is used for the ordination of elders, bishops, priests or judges, and properly means "to put, place, lay down" or put in a position': With this qualification, the passage is clear; Adam's sin put all men in the place of sinners (dependent on their qualifying choices, as we shall see shortly) the Lord Jesus Christ's death put all men in the place of being righteous IF they will make the right choices! As Adam's sin was the occasion (NOT cause) of his race's sin, so Christ's obedience was the occasion, not cause of our redemption by grace through faith. Every word in this passage (with the possible exception of v.17) where "death" is mentioned is manifestly temporal, or physical, and not spiritual death. This passage has nothing to do with proving that sin "descended from Adam." This interpretation was not found in the early church fathers; it was never given to the passage until the fourth century; was never adopted by the Greek church at all; and is wholly at variance with the design and scope of Paul's whole argument and presentation. Romans 5:12-14 shows that "death" was the penalty of disobeying God's law; but men died from Adam to Moses when there was no law; thus, the death that all men die is not spiritual, but physical. Because Adam sinned, all men DIE; they inherit not sin, but DEATH. In verse 17, Paul catches on points of correspondence between Adam and Christ, (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:45-49); the work of Christ equals, and even surpasses Adam's own failure, so that while Adam brought temporal death to his race, the Lord Jesus brought to man the gift of ETERNAL life. Nothing is said, as would be expected in verse 20, about Adam's fall extending to his race. Paul knew the word for "impute" (logazomai) meaning to count, reckon, and used it for righteousness (Romans 4:22); but a different word is used in Romans 5:13 (ellogeo - to bring into account). Verse 20 shows instead that the law came in as the occasion of universal sinfulness, implying that men sin now just as Adam did then; by intelligent transgression of the known law of God. Man IS able to repent when faced with the love of God and the enormity of his sin, and must do so as a first condition of God's restoration to His family. This is directly asserted in both the Old and New Testaments (Isaiah 1:16-18; 55:6-7; Hosea 10:12; Matthew 3:2; Luke 13:3, 5; Acts 17:30-31). Because repentance involves a facing of, and turning from, sin, sin is ultimately a MORAL act. "FALLING SHORT OF THE MARK DOESN'T PROVE IT OUT OF RANGE; THE AIM MAY NOT HAVE BEEN HIGH ENOUGH' PROBLEMS SINCE THE FALL Sin has deeply affected every area of life. The same God given endowments that were to take us to the stars of joy and satisfaction have turned against us in sin. Our beings and our world form a unity that has been terribly degraded. Consider: 1. Our BODIES - Afflicted with INTEMPERANCE and SICKNESS Physical depravity gives great power to temptation. We cannot help our physical nature, and God does not condemn us for being born in such a condition without choice. Parents genetically transmit their blends of physical likeness; if they have lived clean lives for God's glory, the child's body will be similar barring hereditary mishaps or accidents before birth. To a large extent, a likeness of DESIRES and feelings will also be born in baby. Were his parents too fond of food? The child can be born with an over-strong eating appetite. The parents: greed may be sin; the child's appetite the unfortunate result. Thus the parent's sin is "visited" on the children, lasting three to four generations even if the child does not follow its parent's or grandparent's example (Exodus 20:5; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9). Apart from God's transformation, the world's sin will multiply in each generation. Our ENVIRONMENT has often been filled with smog, polluted rivers, grass buried under concrete, each removing a testimony of God's goodness; our ECOLOGY has rebelled, turning on man's selfishness in an ever-closing circle of destruction, as floods, famines, tornadoes and plagues sweep the world (Matthew 24:7; Romans 8:19-2 3). 2. Our SOULS - Filled with PRIDE and UNBELIEF Moral depravity deepens every day in the lost. By sinning much, man has learned to sin more. The natural LOVE of CONSCIOUS FREEDOM God gave us has had no control or discipline; selfishness has flared through our world out of control. Two hundred years ago, the great statesman Edmund Burke warned: "Men qualify for freedom in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains on their own appetites. Society cannot exist un-less a controlling power is put somewhere on will and appetite, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperant minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters. " As moral control collapses, the natural drives governing nourishment, reproduction and defence take terrible power, resulting in the deadly sins of gluttony, (1 Timothy 3:3,8) immorality and immodesty. Once, before sin, nakedness did not induce lust; since the fall, God has commanded covering to reduce temptation and violence in this area (James 4:1-3). The chain of destruction involved in these misuses is described in Romans 1:21-32. 3. Our SPIRITS - Open to spiritual DARKNESS and DEMONIC WORK Our spirits have been affected by sin. Men have an ignorance of God, an insensitivity to His drawing love, a spiritual night that hinders Divine direction. He is now an alien to God (Ephesians 4: 18; John 12:40; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 2:11; Matthew 6:23; John 3:19; Romans 1:21; 1:18; 1:25; 1 Timothy 6:5). His CONSCIENCE has become defiled and seared in sin (Isaiah 64:6; Titus 1:15; 2 Peter 2:20; Revelation 22:11) losing its sensitivity to His Spirit. He is open to demonic and Satanic deception and delusion (John 8:44; Ephesians 2:3;Titus 3:3). 4. Our SOCIETY - Degenerate through WORLDLINESS and LUST The very relationships designed to make man happy have become tools of sin. Man has lost all true perspective of life under God with his fellow-men. He is shown to be a self-satisfied (Revelation 3:17) slave of sin (John 8: 34; Romans 6:16-17, 20; Titus 3:3) who is hypocritical (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16; 23:13, 28) hateful and envious (Titus 3:3) and an enemy of God (James 4:4). The WORLD of sin is not the earth God made, but the whole sinful system selfish men have put together for their own pleasure that is opposed to God and righteousness (Galatians 1:4; John 7:7; James 1:27; John 14: 30; Ephesians 2:2; John 16:8. Man is pleasure-loving or worldly in sin (2 Thessalonians 2:12; 1 Timothy 5:6; 2 Timothy 3:4) that leads to fleshly lusts being developed. The FLESH in Scripture, when referring to self-centered man, is a combination of this bodily self and sin, and refers to man's concentration on emotional gratification through the five senses. Man's worldliness is not a thing, a particular form of dress or behavior, but a wrong heart-attitude. A RACE OF REBELS Should a man continue to please himself in deliberate rebellion against the moral or written law of God, his "heart" (supreme choice of purpose) begins to harden (Proverbs 4:23). By giving into desire he becomes a willing slave to it. The mind, building memories and thought habits for living, is torn between God's inbuilt moral law and the growing slavery to sin (Romans 7:21-24). Man is forced to excuse his actions, trying to justify his wrong choices and ignore the twisting knife of conscience. Torment, unrest and unhappiness all result. All unsaved men have in common evil hearts, "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9; Ephesians 2:3). Because all choices are made from hope or fear with respect only to self-pleasing, NOTHING man does can be "good" out of Christ. The broken law of God can only condemn him. Conscience rises up and points an accusing finger. Desire becomes a terrible dictator, turning body members into servants of sin (Romans 7:23; 6:12-19). The SAME God-given endowments which were designed for man's service now become his master. If we obey SIN, we become its slaves. All men, without exception, are in one of two choices; service to please God or slavery to pleasing self (1 John 5:12; Matthew 6:22-24). If we fix a pattern of self pleasing too long, we can harden our hearts beyond hope (Mark 16:14; Proverbs 28:14; 29:1; 27:1; Psalm 95:8; Hebrews 3:15). WHAT then, IS sin? Sin is not primarily the THINGS you DO. It is a state of will. It is a CHOICE of a strong ultimate end in life. It is intent of purpose wrongly and selfishly directed. It is denying God's right to be God in your life. His Holy anger flames out against sin because it destroys all that is beautiful and good in life. Man living in slavery to sin is a hollow mockery of the holy being once made in God's likeness and image. Yet we see Man from his first selfish choice forge an unbroken chain of deceit, pride, lust and rottenness. Without God in His rightful place as Center and Director of the heart, nothing a man can do will spare him from the righteous wrath of the King of Kings. All his actions, deeds and works are made for selfishness. Aware of his defiance of God's right, but choosing to be ruled by desire, a sinner lives supremely to please only and ultimately himself. Every heartbeat of the life he borrows from God, he flaunts his rebellion in the face of ever-increasing guilt and coming judgment. A deep sense of sin is sobering. But the Bible never presents sin in such a way as seeing it in ourselves will lead us to hopeless despair. Jesus never condemned a sinner aware of his guilt, but wanting to change (John 8:11). In fact, it was only for those who had SEEN their sin that He offered hope! (Matthew 9:12-13; Romans 3:9-10; Luke 18:9-14; Matthew 21:31-32). With all the race of Adam deliberate rebels against God's just and holy government, we could expect Him to have just vengeance in His heart. He sees His beautiful world broken and bleeding. Horrors of poverty, immorality and disease rage in men's lives. War, hatred and murder fill the earth with the stench of man against man. Monsters of suicide, insanity and fear stalk the corridors of men's minds. Who would blame God for wiping out this corrupted world and starting all over again? All know right, but choose to sin instead. All know what is best, but insanely do wrong. Filled with lust to have, to do and to be, sinful Man strives to be as selfish as he can. Uncaring of the happiness of others or his Creator, he madly fights to please HIS God - himself. God cannot forgive man by waiving the demands of universal justice. In His position as Director of the Universe, God must mete out exact justice to all, regardless of their relationship to Him. To do less would disqualify Him to be Judge of the Universe. God's laws are GOOD. There is nothing wrong with THEM. God had to set a penalty for breaking them to bar men from rebellion against the law. Without a penalty, law is only ADVICE. The Ten Commandments are a written expression of a law God Himself keeps; willing the highest good of His Universe and its creatures according to their relative values. They are rules of life to show man the right way of holiness and happiness. If broken, their rights must be upheld by punishing the law-breaker. A penalty shows the seriousness of disobedience and tends to prevent the law from being broken again. The penalty of sin is DEATH, separation from the privileges of fellowship with God, the Source and Substance of all life. God must be true to His own holiness. To set aside the penalty of a broken law would be to throw out the law itself. Justice, the letter of a broken law, can only CONDEMN the law-breaker. We cannot turn to the law for pardon. It excludes pardon and forgiveness and has no power to reform the guilty (James 2:10; Romans 6:23; 7:7-12; Matthew 5:17-20; 1 Timothy 1:8). Since the Fall, MERCY, not only JUSTICE is God's rule of action for man. The Bible pictures God as pleading with man, waiting to suspend judgment at the slightest sign of repentance. God longs to forgive and relax all claims against our race of rebels. Yet - a problem! For God to freely forgive would weaken the strength of justice and encourage future rebellion and disobedience. Others could say, "If those law-breakers could get away with it, so can we." God has no way to forgive a sinner without transforming him. How could God resolve these two great opposites of mercy and justice. God has given us a Book. With amazement, we discover in its Pages what is without doubt the most amazing truth in the Universe! The BIBLE, God's wonderful revelation to man shows us that despite the ruin of His world and the great grief man's rebellion has caused the Godhead - God is LOVE! God's problem in forgiving man is NOT personal, but governmental. He has conquered all vindictive feelings of bitterness and vengeance towards His wayward creation. His heart longs for man to be reconciled; restored to the warm fellowship He once had in Eden. God is not only willing to FORGIVE, but having found a way to be just and pardon too, is willing to FORGET! (Psalm 86:5; Nehemiah 9:17; Lamentations 3:22; Nahum I:3; Titus 3:4; 1 John 4:8)! God needed a substitute for the penalty of the law that would uphold the law and yet have as much effect on the law and the law-breaker as the penalty itself would have had. Faced with terrible difficulty, the Godhead's infinite wisdom found the only possible way to satisfy both the demands of justice and their loving choice to show mercy and pardon. "THE VERY NAILS REJECTION DRIVES, KEEPS God'S HANDS OUTSTRETCHED." MERCY AND JUSTICE FUSED The Lord Jesus, Himself part of the lawgiving Godhead, humbled Himself and became man (Philippians 2:5-7; John 1:14; Luke 1:26-35). He lived a spotless life in perfect obedience to His Father's will (John 8:29; Hebrews 5:8). He went about "doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil" (Acts 10: 38). He healed the broken-hearted, preached deliverance to the captives, brought sight to the blind and set at liberty them that were bruised (Luke 4: 18). For just over three years, the Prince of Peace walked the sin scarred streets of this world as a living demonstration of God's tender concern for man. He gave man a glimpse into the Father-heart of God (Matthew 6:26-30; John 6:39; 14:9; 16:26-27). He gave the ultimate demonstration of God's love for His sinning world, when before a sobbing Universe He bore in His own body on the cross of Calvary, God's just punishment for sin. The earth shook, the sky screamed as the Son of God bled and gasped out His life. The Father hid His face as His Son showed how much sin really cost God. He, the Holy One Who knew no sin, became sin for us (1 Peter 2:24; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21). On the lonely Hill of the Skull, a windswept cross draws an unforgettable picture. Once seen with the eyes of faith, it magnetically draws man to God in tearful love and broken repentance. The Cross reconnects the smashed relationship of man and God. He can now forgive because His only begotten Son provided the great Substitute. The agony of the worst torture in history wrote God's grief and hatred for sin in letters of blood. To see the cross both upholds the law and forgives the repentant sinner (John 3:14-17, 12:32). "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was He stricken" (Isaiah 53:3-12). When a man discovers the truth of the cross, he sees how bad his sin really is. His own guilt is penned in the torn flesh and broken heart of the Son of God. The cross defines the reality man is running from. The soul-shaking shock of understanding the seriousness of sin strips away deceit and pride. Words from the parched lips of the dying Son of man take on a terribly personal meaning . .. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." We see it is not THIS Man Who deserves to die - but US! The cross does all that God's holy justice and tender love could not do apart from it. It makes a blood atonement for sin (Hebrews 9:22; Ephesians 1:7; 1 John 1:7). It provides a substitute for the penalty of the law (Galatians 3:13; Romans 8:3-4). It throws up a roadblock of love in the life to possible future sin. You can go free if you will - the Man on the middle cross took your place ! CONDITIONS, OF COURSE God has done all He can to save you from sin. There is nothing more left in heaven or earth God can use to set you free with, to live and to love Him forever. He has met all HIS conditions for mercy and justice. Have you - WILL you meet YOURS! If you have seen the Truth and you are NOT really God's child, conviction has gripped your heart. The Holy Spirit makes REAL your deceit and lays bare to you the awfulness of selfishness! Your heart is NAKED before your Maker, Whose all-seeing gaze penetrates every lie and every excuse. You will not just want to "accept Jesus" -- you will cry out from the bottom of your being for the Lord Jesus to accept YOU! Your guilty, rebel heart has been an enemy of God too long. Nothing you could ever do could make up for the pain and sorrow your sin has caused God and His world; you and I are utterly unworthy even to ask forgiveness of the gracious King of the Universe. Yet, He loves you, despite your sin! And He offers you a FREE PARDON - if you will take it now! "What must I do to be saved?" Give up your rebellion against reality. Admit your sin. Forsake the gaudy little God you have made of your selfishness. It is not enough to "feel sorry" or to merely admit these facts to be true (James 2:19). You must utterly and totally renounce all future claims on your life - time, talents, money, possessions, friends, career and future (Luke 13:3). Choose with your will to serve and love Jesus Christ and to take sides with Him against your past sin (Luke 13:3). Determine in your heart from this day onwards to love Him, obey Him and follow Him forever. Your heart will never be broken, your doubts will not clear up, you will never die to the world until you trust, surrender, BELIEVE Him from the HEART. Pledge to your Heavenly Beloved to "cleave only to Him, for richer or poorer, for better or worse, in sickness or in health" and you will never part at death (John 8:51). NOW READY? THERE IS NO TIME LIKE NOW... God HAS DONE ALL HE CAN FOR YOU THE NEXT MOVE MUST BE YOURS! "God, I've been selfish; I've been proud; I've been nothing but a Hell-deserving REBEL, and I'm sorry! I see NOW what sin has done to me. I'm sick of my old life, God; I really WANT the change You promised me." "Please God - FORGIVE all my sin. I need you Lord! I surrender my will; I give You my heart. Send me Your Holy Spirit; make Jesus real to me now. From this day on I want to live to please You. Make me Your own child; be my Lord and Master. Amen." To do this from your heart is to "believe to righteousness. " The moment you grasp the things of Christ, by receiving Him into your heart's throne as King, you will see in the light of eternity the emptiness of the world, of reputation, riches, honor and pleasure. Take hold by faith His forgiveness and His righteousness; surrender to Him all rights to your life. Make a step of committal to Him with the faith that works by love, purifies the heart and overcomes the world. All that you need you will find in the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30). From this moment on, tell the world who you belong to. "For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth, confession is made to salvation" (Romans 10:10-13). When Christ is enthroned in your heart, He will recreate in you His own life. It will no longer be a life lived for selfish "I"; but Christ Who "dwells in me" (Ephesians 3:17). As far as is in your power, make right that which is wrong (Luke 19:8). Show the world your new ownership by a changed, transfigured life; that you are a man or woman for whom Christ died, IN whom He dwells and THROUGH whom He works (2 Corinthians 5:19; Colossians 1:17; Philippians 2:13). Then, and only then will you know the joy and peace of forgiveness - the fellowship of the Godhead in eternal life (1 John 5:1-5; 5:10-13). "God PAID THE WORLD'S HIGHEST PRICE FOR THE SCRAP OF BROKEN MEN ." A WORD FOR THE FOOL Either our God is the LORD or our God is OURSELVES. We can pretend a hypocritical sort of self-righteousness; but there will always be the nagging certainty that it is "appointed unto man once to die, but AFTER DEATH, the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Should you choose to stay selfish and reject the light God has given you, you multiply your guilt and deserve your final destiny (Romans 2:4). Your God is the person or thing you think most about, that to which your thoughts return when there is nothing else at hand, the center of your life. If it is the Lord Jesus Christ, úyou will one day share the unspeakable privileges of ruling and reigning with Him in the Kingdom of Heaven. If it is yourself and you will not obey the pleadings of the Holy Spirit to repent and believe, you have spurned your last chance for life. You can only come when He calls you. Without the drawing of the Holy Spirit, you will never WANT to obey God (John 6:44). Reject His tender call and you are in great danger of committing the one sin God CANNOT pardon - the final and ultimate rejection of His love. We have only short years to decide before the curtain of death will draw life to a very permanent close. Life is so short - eternity is so long! If, like the rich young ruler, you must here turn away "sorrowful,"the Lord Jesus too will be grieved - but He will LET YOU GO (Mark 10:17-22; Ephesians 4:30). If you will not give up your rebellion against the King, we must here sadly say goodbye to you but do you know where you are going? (2 Corinthians 4: 3-4; 6:2; Psalm 14:1; John 14:2; Mark 16:15; 2 Thessalonians 1:7- 9;2:10-12). STICK TO IT, SAINT! There is no hint in the Bible that God promises forgiveness of FUTURE sins. He hasn't planned any cycle of sin and repentance for His disciples! You are not infallible, but neither are you expected to go back into sin. God will keep you safe and protected, but KEEP GOING ON with Him! (Luke 9:62). Should a man fail God, his heart will condemn him. The law will again bind him to its terrible penalty as long as he persists in his wilful rebellion. If the penalty no longer applied to a disobedient "disciple", it is no longer law, but advice. Such a man would have no rule of right or wrong any more, not being good OR bad. No such Christian exists in Scripture or life. The express teaching of the Bible is to live a life of victory over sin out of love to God (Matthew 5:13-48; 7:12-27; Mark 12:28-34; John 15:8-14; Romans 13:9-11; 1 John 3:3-11). No other life is truly Christian. All of us will be faced with temptation, weakness and failure. But by God's grace we can HABITUALLY overcome. Should you ever disobey, go in deep, total repentance to ask forgiveness of your Father. God covenants with His children to draw them back to Himself should they stray (Psalm 89:30-34; Hebrews 12:4-11) but never DARE "use" His mercy and grace! Should a so-called "disciple" despise God's love, return to the vomit of past selfishness and die in rebellion trading on His mercy, such a hypocrite will find Hell waiting for him (1 John 2:1-6). We have a great High Priest Who is able to "save to the uttermost" (Hebrews 7:25). If any man sin, we have Him as our Advocate (1 John 2:1). But nowhere in the Bible is forgiveness AUTOMATIC as long as sin is persisted in. Thousands of so-called "Christians" are fooled by thinking can "do what they like" now they have "believed," when their "like" is nothing like God's love. A lot of luke-warm half-hearted church members are going to get shocks on the Day of Judgment.

SIN A RACE OF REBELS This is the third chapter from the book THE GOD THEY NEVER KNEW THE TRAGEDY OF RELIGION WITHOUT RELATIONSHIP By George Otis JrSIN A RACE OF REBELSEvery one who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. I John 3:4 (NASB) The wrongness of the sinful act lies not merely in its nonconformity, or its departure from the accepted, appropriate way of behavior, but in an implicitly aggressive quality-a ruthlessness, a hurting, a breaking away from God and from the rest of humanity ... alienation or (an) act of rebellion. Dr. Karl Menninger The Earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes (and) broke the everlasting covenant. Isaiah 24:5 (NASB) In his definition of the nature of sin, Dr. Menninger goes on to say: Sin has a willful, defiant, or disloyal quality; someone is defied or offended or hurt. The willful disregard or sacrifice of the welfare of others for the welfare or satisfaction of the self is an essential quality of the concept of sin.' That's a fine definition, even coming from a man who makes no profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Even Webster's Dictionary gives a better definition of sin than do most "born again' Christians: Sin is transgression of the law of God; disobedience of the divine will, moral failure. Sin is failure to realize in conduct and character the moral ideal, at least as fully as possible under existing circumstances; failure to do as one ought toward one's fellow man. Sin has lost its prominence and most certainly its popularity as a sermon theme for clergymen searching for a word to pass onto their congregations. It isn't so much that preaching on sin and guilt has lost its effectiveness as it is a matter of contemporary pastoral preference. In the foreboding and depressing atmosphere of our troubled times, a man of the cloth, if he is to enjoy success, must give attention to inspirational themes. Topics revolving around love, unity and grace are "hot" sermons and very much in demand by religious constituencies; while messages having to do with sin, guilt and repentance are currently experiencing a steady decline. The popularity of the new "freedom messages" is indicative of the direction of the church. 'Inner Healing," a la Ruth Carter Stapleton, and the PMA (positive mental attitude) seminars are prime examples of the trend away from piercing sermons on guilt and sin. We have witnessed the arrival of the day when the church has begun to place more emphasis on the results of sin than on sin itself. We have observed the shocking metamorphosis of sin as it discards its old cocoon of personal, moral responsibility to take on the form of a sickness. It seemed strange to begin this chapter with a definition of sin. Yet today it seems there are more views on sin than there are flavors of ice cream. People embrace doctrines like they do almost everything else in our society, donning whatever is in fashion, and thus the need for definition. It is reminiscent of the day on Mount Sinai when God, as a result of the lost relationship, had to write down man's moral obligations. About a decade ago prominent psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger lectured a group of young seminarians at Princeton Theological Seminary. It was here that he first began to sense, as he put it, the 'anxious and unsettled feelings" within the clergy. After several more years of evaluating the problem, he stated "they have become shaken reeds, smoking lamps, earthen vessels'. . . spent arrows. They have lost heart.' The intoxication of success combined with the fear of failure has affected far too many ministers of the gospel. The net result is a series of sermons tailored (often subconsciously) to suit the people. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Ezekiel 33:31 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. Therefore ye shepherds; hear the word of the Lord; .... Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. Ezekiel 34:6-7,10 SOME ERRONEOUS CONCEPTS OF SIN Famous attorney Clarence Darrow delivered the following address to the prisoners in the Cook County Jail: There is no such thing as a crime as the word is generally understood. I do not believe there is any sort of distinction between the real moral conditions of the people in and out of jail. One is just as good as the other. The people here can no more help being here than the people outside can avoid being outside. I do not believe people are in jail because they deserve to be. They are in jail simply because they cannot avoid it on account of circumstances which are entirely beyond their control and for which they are in no way responsible ... There are a great many people here who have done some of these things (murder, theft, etc.) who really do not know themselves why they did them. It looked to you at the time as if you had a chance to do them or not, as you saw fit; but still, after all you had no choice ... If you look at the questions deeply enough and carefully enough you will see that there were circumstances that drove you to do exactly the thing which you did. You could not help it....2 This address is supportive of the doctrine of causation, determinism or inevitability. During our investigation into the five major theological-philosophical errors concerning the nature of sin, notice how this concept of causation and inevitability plays a prominent role. SIN IS A SICKNESS False Concept 1 This is precisely what we are currently hearing from all quarters. Psychologists, criminologists, lawyers, and sociologists are singing in unison for the rehabilitation of the unfortunate, sick element in our society. Punishment is out of the question because it is applicable only when an individual is responsible for what he does. We are living in an age when criminals possess more rights than victims; an era when a tolerant lawyer will enlist the expertise of a humanitarian psychologist to prove to an unbiased and just court that to prosecute constitutes cruel and unusual treatment. Once again, Dr. Menninger asks: Is no one any longer guilty of anything? Is it only that someone may be stupid or sick ... ? Is no one responsible, no one answerable for these acts? Anxiety and depression we all acknowledge, and even vague guilt feelings; but has no one committed any sin?3 The thing we ought to find most frightening of all, however, is the fact that more and more Christians are jumping on this bandwagon. One prominent Christian author refers to the 'sin infection,"contending that when Adam sinned 'that one sin infected the whole human race, still in his loins, with the sickness of sin and death. Since then, all men are born sinners with the sentence of death upon them. It's a fatal disease with only one known cure."4 The implications of this mentality are given in verse in Anna Russel's "Psychiatric Folksong."At three I had a feeling ofAmbivalence toward my brothers,And so it follows naturallyI poisoned all my lovers.But now I'm happy; I have learnedThe lesson this has taught;That everything I do that's wrongIs someone else's fault.5 In a world of lenience, tolerance and rationalization of sin, will even the church of Jesus Christ fail to call sin what it is? Will we join the ranks of those who would make people pathetic rather than guilty? Where in scripture is sin spoken of as a sickness or disease? Where no choice is involved neither can there be accountability. This is certainly basic, elementary reasoning and only those seeking sanctuary from personal responsibility and accountability could possibly find issue. SIN IS A SUBSTANCE False Concept 2 A revolutionary concept, as far as then-young Christendom was concerned, was conceived in the mind of a budding theologian by the name of Augustine. After an immoral and unstructured past that included many years studying the philosophy of Manes, Augustine turned to the teachings of Christ under Ambrose, a leading scholar of that day. Most likely searching for an explanation of his former conduct and help in understanding his present shortcomings, Augustine began to formulate the doctrine of original sin and what is commonly known today as the Federal Headship Theory. Briefly, the Federal Headship Theory states that when Adam sinned he did so in proxy for the entire world. All men born thereafter entered the world replete with a sinful nature which was and is the causative source of their sins. Thus Adam's original sin was passed, on from generation to generation -- from parent to child. Augustine, however well-intentioned he may have been, began what would become centuries of confusion and misunderstanding over the concept of sin. He taught that sin was fundamentally a physical rather than a moral problem. He even theorized that children were born in Satan's power because: They are born of the union of the sexes which cannot even accomplish its own honorable function without the incidence of shameful lust.' Again, it is highly probable that Augustine's tarnished past had a strong bearing on his teaching. Today we refer to this type of person as a reactionary. Although Augustine undoubtedly reacted in the right direction to begin with, his extremes would later cause him (and the church) grave problems. He went on to teach that sexual intercourse was a venial sin (unless the motive was procreation) and the act was always shameful since it was always tinged with passion. Only Christ was born pure since conception took place apart from intercourse. 7 Augustine's teaching provided the ground from which the Puritan movement would later grow. When we analyze the situation in the Garden of Eden we see that when Adam sinned he became depraved in two ways: 1) Morally-his soul disobeyed God 2) Physically-his body began to fail Augustine and subsequent theologians have, in their expounding of the doctrine of total depravity, failed to distinguish between these two types of failure. Physical (metaphysical) depravity-This gives man the bias or the bent toward being sinful, but is not in itself sinful. In other words it is an influence to, but not a cause of sin. This depravity comes by inheritance not choice. Spiritual (moral) depravity-This is what we do with our situation. It involves unintelligent responses to influences and suggestions. This is sin, but it is not inherited-it comes by choice, it is created. Men today for the most part acknowledge that it is sin when they make wrong choices. The snag is that they attribute these wrong choices to a 'sinful nature" which they receive physically at birth. It is a basic fact that everything in the universe is inherently matter or inherently moral. According to the theory that subsequent to Adam's fall, sin has inevitably been transmitted from parent to child, sin is evidently matter or substance-a physical factor. With this in mind, let's consider the following argument: If I have inherited this sinful nature from Adam, how is this sinful nature passed on to me? In which part of me is this sinful nature passed on? It must be passed on in the physical body somehow since moral character cannot be passed on. 'Moral" has to do with choice and a choice cannot be inherited (only the results of a choice). If a choice can be passed on, here is a question that must be answered: If two Christians have a baby, is their choice to be passed on to the baby? They are much closer to the baby genealogically than Adam and their characteristics would be the more dominant or stronger. Many have said in desperation that sin is passed on in the blood. If this were the case, it might prove interesting to isolate some sin in a test tube. We may ask, in addition, what happens to the Christian who is involved in a serious accident and receives blood given by someone who is not a Christian? If this sinful nature is present in the donor's blood, does the Christian who receives it take on a sinful disposition again? This theory also makes evangelism much easier. All that would be required to convert a sinner would be a simple blood transfusion, using of course the blood of a Christian. One solution might be to close down our churches and open up Christian hospitals. (Incidentally, did you ever wonder why Jehovah's Witnesses don't allow blood transfusions?) Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary, tells us, "Men do not now fall by their first sin; they are born fallen sons of Adam."' It is only fitting that this statement should be followed by a graduate of this same school of thought commenting on the sin of Adam and Eve: 'They actually had something added to them-a sin nature. And that made them sinners. Since that awful day of infamy, all men have been born with that same, sinful nature, and that is the source of our sins."' As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the concept of causation glares at almost every turn. We must keep in mind that which is caused cannot be free, nor can it be accountable or responsible. Here again we have man in a pitiable situation deserving sympathy rather than judgment. Isaiah Berlin, in his book Historical Inevitability, concludes that Determinism means the elimination of individual responsibility: Nobody denies that it would be stupid as well as cruel to blame me for not being taller than I am, or to regard the color of my hair or the qualities of my intellect ... as being due principally to my own free choice; these attributes are as they are through no decision of mine. If I extend this category without unit, then whatever is -- is inevitable ... to blame and praise ... becomes an absurd activity. If I were convinced that although choices did affect what occurred, yet they were themselves wholly determined by factors not within the individual's control, I should certainly not regard him as morally praiseworthy or blameworthy. How could we have stooped and acquiesced to these theological and philosophical absurdities which have crept into the Church? The Word of God is to be presented in such a way that 'every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (Romans 3:19). If I am born with an inability to obey God, then can you conceive of a better excuse for not obeying Him? If I can't obey God, then why should I be disturbed that I'm not obeying Him? Yet the Word of God declares emphatically that all men are without excuse! This indicates that all men are responsible for their own choices, which implies they are free to make their own choices. If I was born with an inability to do what God says, how can we justify eternal punishment with the love of God?' This dilemma is readily discerned by some, but the great majority try to ease the pressure and present God's justice by viewing His intention in sending Christ to let all 'off the hook' who would respond to His call. The flaw in this argument is that it destroys the aspect of grace (getting something we don't deserve) in Christ's advent by virtue of the fact that, according to this position, God was under obligation to send Christ to assure all men a 'fair shake.' The Federal Headship Theory, which we have briefly discussed, is an extremely widespread doctrine which is difficult to explain logically. The important factor, however, is whether or not the Bible will allow the representational theory of transmission of sin. Let's look. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, "What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel saying, 'The fathers eat the sour grapes, but the children's teeth are set on edge'? "As I live," declares the Lord God, you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel any more. "Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die. "But if a man is righteous, and practices justice and righteousness ... if he walks in My statutes and My ordinances so as to deal faithfully he is righteous and will surely live,' declares the Lord God. "Then he may have a violent son who sheds blood ... he will surely be put to death; his blood will be on his own head. "Now behold, he has a son who has observed all his father's sins which he committed, and observing does not do likewise ... he keeps his hand from the poor, does not take interest or increase, but executes My ordinances, and walks in My statutes; he will not die for his father's iniquity, he will surely live. "As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what was not good among his people, behold, he will die for his iniquity. "Yet you say, 'Why should the son not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity?' When the son has practiced justice and righteousness, and has observed all My statutes and done them, he shall surely live. "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.' Ezekiel 18:1-5,9-10,13-14,17-20 (NASB) The various biblical words used to describe human sin leave absolutely no doubt whatsoever as to sin's true nature. We search in vain for any evidence that would indicate that sin is a substance or anything other than a wrong moral choice. We will further pursue the matter of biblical vocabulary later in this chapter. SIN IS A SLIP False Concept 3 There are a great many evangelists, Sunday school teachers and pastors who convey an almost accidental picture when they describe the tragedy of Adam and Eve's disobedience in the Garden of Eden. The way the story is often told, we find a couple walking in tender loving fellowship with God, and then, all of a sudden falling into sin. This is certainly a misleading word. I personally cannot recall having ever purposely fallen. The implications of the term "the fall" are certainly less arresting than would be the case with, say, 'the rebellion.'The idea that it is possible to simply slip and fall into sin must be dispensed with all rapidity lest we find ourselves clouded by its influence. It is important to refresh our memories as to the difference between what transpired in the Garden and a legitimate mistake. We determined earlier that an individual's intentions were examined by the courts in order to ascertain whether or not his actions were willed. If the action was not willed, then the individual is not dangerous to society. Thus the consequences connected with a murder conviction are far more severe than with a manslaughter conviction because, in the former, there is a premeditated, injurious design involved. Adam and Eve's sin can never be referred to as a slip or ignorant mistake. God gave ample instruction concerning what they were to do and not to do in Eden and included sanctions or consequences to support His words. We read that 'the woman being deceived was in the transgression . . ." (I Tim. 2:14). We are not dealing with a woman who in her naivete had no understanding of what she was doing, but rather we see a transgressor, one who was voluntarily deceived, breaking and violating known laws. Then, too, Adam voluntarily transgressed with his wife. I'm persuaded that it would be far more accurate and descriptive if we would refer to the incident in the Garden of Eden as "The Jump" As Floyd McClung has said, 'Every mistake is not a sin, but every sin is a mistake." SIN IS A SUGGESTION False Concept 4 Temptation is a universal problem. It is not confined to continents, races or economic classes. Temptation has many faces. It spans the scale from the subtle to the blatant, and seems to have an uncanny knowledge of our susceptibilities. Biblical accounts of temptation range from the well-known flight of Joseph from the seductive advances of Potiphar's wife to the crashing downfall of David with Bathsheba. Compare these to the person who says, "I never have a problem with temptation-I just always give in"! There are a great number of people who assume that the battery of temptations entering their minds are solicitations of the devil, and their desire to comply emanates from their "sinful nature." This is a common but serious error. God designed human beings replete with many astonishing endowments. Some of these attributes, our emotions, enable us to sense, feel and respond to the thoughts in our mind. Eve's desire for the fruit which her mind perceived as being "a delight" was not a product of any sinful nature. Nor was her desire for further knowledge wrong in itself. There is no necessity of a sinful nature in order to be subject to temptation. Gordon Olson has given what I consider to be one of the finest definitions of sin: Sin is an unintelligent abuse of God-given endowments of personality." With this definition in mind, let us remember that it is God who has made us the way we are. It is God who has created appetites and desires within us. It is God who formed our emotions to respond to what our minds contemplate. There is no sin in desiring to fulfill or gratify a God-given appetite. Sin enters the picture when we abuse our endowments by trying to gratify ourselves in an illegal manner or proportion.Thoughts should not be classified as sin either. It was necessary for Jesus to have comprehended the words of the devil in order for it to have been a legitimate temptation. Again, things cannot be evil and sinful for they are the product of God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:3 If we respond to temptation by treating it as though it were sin or indicative of sin, then we are forced into the uncomfortable position of considering Jesus an ally in sin since He too was subject to temptation. A suggestion or temptation is not in itself sinful. Things in themselves are not sinful, for sin manifests itself in unintelligent abuse of an otherwise good thing. This is especially critical for those who have been suffering under an unnecessary load of condemnation because they have been tempted. When confronted with a strong desire, it is essential to take hold of the thought and give it a long, analytical look. Then ask yourself if it is possible to wisely gratify that desire. Remember, God does not disapprove of pleasure associated with gratification, but He does mind an unintelligent quest for pleasure in order to gratify yourself at the expense of others. It's probably worth mentioning that all so-called 'secret sin' is ultimately at someone else's expense. When we realize that God wants us to be happy and fulfilled, then we will recognize His restraints as blessings designed to increase our enjoyment of life. SIN IS THE STATUS QUO False Concept 5 In a book on major biblical themes, Lewis Sperry Chafer reveals the following thought: ... every child of Adam is born with the Adamic nature, (and) is ever and always prone to sin, and ... it remains a vitally active force in every Christian's life. It is never said to be removed or eradicated in this life....12 How interesting that the nation's number one purveyor of stylized selfishness, Robert Ringer, should say a similar thing.... You will always act selfishly, no matter how vehemently you resist or protest to the contrary, because such action is automatic. You have no choice in the matter.13 I remember getting into my car after work and discovering a note taped to my steering wheel. It was an apology from one of the secretaries who'd had a rough day and had made some rather terse remarks. It read in part: "I'm sorry for having snapped at you-please forgive me for being human. " Have you ever heard someone say after they did something wrong, 'Well, I'm only human"? We are told today that sin is 'only human." Sin is kind of a natural thing by implication. "It's just my nature.' I'm sure you have noticed Christians wearing buttons on their lapels or bumper stickers on their automobiles with slogans like "Christians aren't perfect-just forgiven"! This was the attitude that former President Carter displayed in his Playboy interview. Commenting on adultery, he stated: "I've committed adultery in my heart many times... this is something which God realizes I will do... and He forgives me for it.' Several years ago I was speaking at a youth missionary retreat in the mountains of southern California. I was talking with a camper who had several questions concerning sin. We were sitting on the bunks reading from I John when another young man entered the cabin to hear these words: "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. . . ." (I John 3:6) With red-faced indignation, he proceeded to tell me that it was impossible to live without sin, that even Christians expect to sin every day in word, thought and deed. I paused for a moment and asked this young man if he believed sin was the most powerful force in the universe. He didn't think so. What was the purpose of Christ's mission? Was it not to set the captives free, to seek and to save that which was lost? Isn't the message of the gospel, the good news, that Jesus has come to transform us by the renewing of our minds? He came not just to save us from hell, the penalty of sin, but from that which actually binds us-our sin itself! Why do we preach a message of defeat? Why do we declare a doctrine of continuing bondage? The Bible states: Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.... 1 John 3:9 That ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. Philippians 1:10 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. I John 2:3 Whosoever abideth in him (Christ) sinneth not.... 1 John 3:6 Where do we get the idea that sin is only natural and human? Whenever a polygraph test registers a lie, it proclaims that sin is not natural! Whenever one feels remorse, sorrow, or guilt it tells us with eloquence that sin is not natural! To those who are of the opinion that the only thing that separates a Christian from the world is forgiveness, I can only surmise they have little time for the Word of God. The arrogant slogan 'Christians aren't perfect-just forgiven' brazenly flaunted in the face of the world, is more accurately read, 'My conduct is similar to yours-only I'm forgiven and you're not!' What joy do you think God derives out of a 'relationship' of that sort? Has He expressed in your relationship, or through His Word, that sin is the status quo for a Christian? What is the blood of Jesus Christ worth? Where is the power in the blood? Is it possible that we have actually accepted the fact that the love of God displayed on Calvary is an anemic force compared to the mighty power of sin? WHAT IS SIN? In order to effectively deal with an enemy, it is of utmost importance to be thoroughly and accurately briefed on the qualities and characteristics of the foe. That sin is the deadliest of all foes need hardly be debated. With the defeat and elimination of sin, the cessation of war, crime and cruelty would necessarily follow. Christianity now has to preach the diagnosis, in itself very bad news, before it can win a hearing for the cure, . . . a recovery of the old sense of sin is essential.14 As long as sin remains an elusive, undefined phantom it is no surprise that its victories over humanity continue to escalate. SIN IS CALCULATED Sin is a transgression of God's moral law, the intent to live supremely for oneself at whatever the cost. It is a premeditated, calculated choice to live in a manner contrary to your original design. There is absolutely no ignorance involved in sin. Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. John 9:41 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. James 4:17 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin .... If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. John 15:22,24 It is most enlightening to look at the various scriptural words used to describe sin. When the root words are analyzed in the original biblical languages (Greek-N.T.; Hebrew-O.T.), the overwhelming evidence is that man is a rebel choosing to violate known requisites. Here is a sampling: * To act perversely, to twist and distort* To be stubbornly disobedient* To refuse to serve God* To act treacherously or deceitfully* To be rebellious* To be lawless, to refuse to conform* To be obstinate or uncompliant* To deviate from the right* To be ungodly, to act impiously* To be unjust, to refuse to do right. Does the Word of God describe sin as a weakness or as rebellion? There are many Christians who derive a certain amount of satisfaction from their sin. Their conscience, of course, refuses to grant peace when they are living in this abnormal condition. The solution to this situation has been a gross rationalization of their conduct and adherence to the soothing concept that they are unable to obey God! This is but a calculated act of treachery and deceit in the continuing insurrection against God's standard and authority. SIN IS CRUEL The ruthless, defiant, aggressive characteristics of sin that are the headlines of our race will undoubtedly become our epitaph unless the world we live in can be revived. To the ears of the celestial Listener, earth cries ... and before the eyes of her Maker ... earth bleeds. The cruel nature of sin is nowhere depicted more graphically than in the treacherous dealings of King David toward Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba. It wasn't enough for the king to have taken Uriah's wife to satisfy his lust. David, caught in his own web as a result of Bathsheba's pregnancy, sent for Uriah, who had been away fighting for Israel. The idea was to use Uriah's expression of love for his wife to cover up the king's sin. Uriah's integrity, however, was not a factor that David had reckoned with. The loyal soldier slept with the servants at the door of the palace rather than enjoy what his comrades on the battlefront could not. When David's desperate attempts to urge Uriah to move home with his wife failed (in spite of David's success in making him drunk), the king, driven to cover his sin, finally settled on a surefire plan. The following morning David sent Uriah off carrying his own death warrant. The king's instructions were immediately understood by his military captain, Joab, and the cruel scheme unfolded. Uriah was placed on the front lines of the battle. The loyal Uriah probably never noticed his own army quietly retreating behind him as he fought with renewed vitality and determination after his privileged audience with the king. Left exposed and alone, Uriah became the target of the enemy. The king, receiving the news of Uriah's death and heaving a sigh of relief, 'graciously" allowed Bathsheba time to mourn her dead husband before making her his own property. After hearing a story like this one, it doesn't require much effort to become incensed and indignant over man's inhumanity to man. If Uriah had deserved such treatment, the Bible account would not have stirred such pathos. We tend to see sin as a cruel and reprehensible phenomenon in proportion to the goodness and innocence of the victim. In light of this, don't you find it mystifying that people, at least Christian people, are not revolted over what sin has done to God? He came unto His own and His own received Him not. John 1:11 ... They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters.... Jeremiah 2:13 I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. Proverbs 1:24 0 my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me. Micah 6:3 And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it. Luke 19:41 Often I have pictured God, the Mighty Ruler of the universe, sitting on His throne with His face buried in His hands, weeping. Sitting on that throne is all the incomprehensible power of the universe under absolute control. Yet the adulterous behavior of His beloved touches the heart and feelings of this mighty yet gentle Being and the response causes the hosts of heaven to marvel. Where is there a more poignant sound than that of Jehovah sobbing? Who will stand by God in His hour of grief? SIN IS CONTINUOUS Unfortunately the parade of depravity continues to march down the corridors of human history without fatigue. It is but a brief respite when God leaves His weeping over Adam's race to rejoice over an obedient saint. He made them right but they've all gone wrong. The planet is in the hands of a race of rebels who have defiantly snatched their lives away from God. They demand liberation from God's "celestial colonialism." In the case of the individual who has chosen to live a life of selfishness, no decision or activity subordinate to this wrong motive of heart may be considered other than 'filthy rags." No matter how "good" our deeds may seem on a human level, as long as our supreme purpose in life remains unchanged "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). Sin is a choice to seek and maintain our happiness supremely in an unintelligent supposition that this is of paramount importance. This state of sin and rebellion persists until exposed in an encounter with the cross of Jesus Christ. SIN IS CORROSIVE Sin is a moral cancer and it tends to spread once it starts. It must be recognized as an extremely dangerous, highly active corrosive that eats away at the human personality. The longer sin continues, the less actual control we have over our lives. The year 1973 was an especially exciting one for me, as I spent the early months with Youth With A Mission in Switzerland. I have fond memories of the impromptu sledding "expeditions" after evening lectures. After bundling up, several fellows would trudge about half a mile to a local slope puffing their sleds behind them. Even though the slope provided an adequate angle for the average sledder to get a full quota of excitement, the winter sky continually covered the hills with extra coats of snow. As a result, the first few trips down the slope were somewhat less than exhilarating. Each successive run, however, compressed the newly fallen snow eventually carving out a "slide" that gradually gained our respect. In time, the slope became so slick and treacherous that nobody could manage to remain connected to his sled. It was then that our tired but happy group knew it was time to turn in. This is precisely the manner in which sin, persisted in, manifests itself. In the end it becomes extremely difficult to slow down the train of accumulated indulgences. SIN IS CAPTIVITY As sin carves its moral slide, each time down becomes easier and easier. We find ourselves inundated by habits. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:1-3 (NASB) Thayer's Greek Lexicon tells us that 'nature" in verse 3 is the result of habit. God has admonished us to allow our minds to dwell upon only that which is wholesome (Philippians 4:8), because as a man "thinketh ... so is he' (Proverbs 23:7). In other words: * Our thoughts and choices become actions * Our actions become habits * Our habits become our nature and character * Our character becomes our destiny The great danger of sin is that we become slaves to appetites and desires without even noticing what is happening. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Romans 6:16 A sinful nature develops in our lives through habitual self-indulgence and subsequently affects everything we do. Paul mentions this situation and the impossibility of fighting it in our own strength in the seventh chapter of Romans. Thus we concur that though a sinful nature is present, it originates by choice. For example, the junkie bound by heroin addiction cannot help but crave drugs now, but the origin of the addiction began with his choices. We have discovered that there are certain emotional gratifications in life that are pleasurable. However, since emotions cannot be experienced directly but rather respond to what the mind thinks upon, the mind therefore is harnessed to produce thoughts that will result in emotional gratification. Emotions can be a hard taskmaster, resulting in an abnormal imbalance, and a chaos of personality. This is slavery. This is captivity. The freedom that the world proclaims only leads to bondage. There is no reason to secretly envy the men and women of the world. But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. Isaiah 57:20-21 ... the way of transgressors is hard. Proverbs 13:15 GUILT AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR SIN In this day no one is left without a cause to champion. Everyone has a matter in need of attention and justice. The world offers plenty of exploitation, deprivation, unhappiness and brutality to go around. But who is responsible for the groanings of the planet? Is it politicians, corporate executives, scientists? Is it a nation, a race, a society? Here is an interesting adaptation of a parable from the gospel of Matthew: And then the servants counseled together saying, It would be much better to pull out those weeds right now rather than wait, but we must obey the master even when he is wrong. In the meantime, let us look about for the enemy who would do this evil thing to our master, who is kind to everyone and doesn't deserve this treatment.' So they quietly inquired and made search in all the region round about, but they could find no one. But one of the servants came privily to the chief steward at night saying, "Sir, forgive me, but I can no longer bear to conceal my secret. I know the enemy who sowed the tares. I saw him do it.' At this the chief steward was astonished and full of anger. But before punishing him, he demanded of the servant why he had not come forward sooner. 'I dared not.' cried the servant. 'I scarcely dared to come and tell you this even now. I was awake the night the weeds were sown. I saw the man who did it; he walked past me, seemingly awake and yet asleep, and he did not appear to recognize me. But I recognized him." 'And who was he, indeed?' asked the chief steward in great excitement. -Tell me, so that he can be punished." The servant hung his head. Finally, in a low voice he replied. 'It was the master himself." And the two agreed to say nothing of this to any man.15 It is the Church, those who profess the name of Christ, who must hold forth light or the world will surely perish on the rocks of sin. They will be crushed by the tide of their own folly and neglect if the light of the gospel does not penetrate their clouded minds. The sinner must realize and confess that it is he himself who is fully to blame. Dr. Menninger declares, 'If the concept of personal responsibility and answerability for ourselves and for others were to return to common acceptance, hope would return to the world with it!"16 There are those who declare their belief in God and faith in His doctrines and standards, yet live as though He doesn't exist! Those living under great light who refuse to conform their lives to the truth are only sowing their own destruction. If you do not mean to live a holy life, then God's house is the last place you should be! America's greatest revivalist, Charles G. Finney, once uttered these piercing words: Men really intend to secure both this world and salvation. They never suppose it wise to lose their own soul. Nor do they think to gain anything by running the risk of losing it. Indeed, they do not mean to run any great risks-only a little, the least they can conveniently make it, and yet gain a large measure of earthly good. But in attempting to get the world, they lose their own souls. God told them they would, but they did not believe him. Rushing on the fearful venture and assuming to be wiser than God, they grasped the world to get it first, thinking to get heaven afterwards; thus they tempted the spirit ... lost their day of salvation and ... lost the world besides. 17 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts. Isaiah 65:2 They did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve Him or consider Him worth knowing.... Romans 1:28 (Amp) -------- Footnotes* Karl Menninger, Whatever Became of Sin (Hawthorn), P. 19. 1. Ibid., p. 19. 2. Gerald Dworkin, Determinism, Free Will and Moral Responsibility (Prentice-Hall), p. 1. 3. Karl Menninger, Whatever Became of Sin (Hawthorn), p. 13. 4. Hal Lindsay, The Liberation of Planet Earth (Zondervan), pp. 63,67. 5. Anna Russell quoted in The Crisis in Psychiatry and Religion (Von Nostrand), p. 49. 6. Augustine, Marriage and Concupiscence 2.15. 7. Ibid., 1.5,1.9,1.24,2.37,16,17 & On Original Sin 2.42. 8. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Major Bible Themes (Dunham Publishers), p. 136. 9. Hal Lindsay, The Liberation of Planet Earth (Zondervan), p. 49. 10. Gordon C. Olson, Sharing Your Faith (Bible Research Fellowship, Inc.). 11. Ibid., chap. 3, p. 4. 12. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Major Bible Themes (Dunham Publishers), p. 141. 13. Robert J. Ringer, Looking Out for #1 (Fawcett Crest), p. 46. 14. C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (Macmillan), pp. 55,57. 15. Original author of adaptation unknown. Quoted in Whatever Became of Sin (Hawthorn), pp. 11,12. 16. Ibid., p. 188. 17. Charles G. Finney, The Guilt of Sin (Kregel), p. 77.

What about a sin nature?A sin nature is NOT a requirement for sin or holiness to exist. Lucifer was the chief angel. He had no sin nature, yet he rebelled against God. Adam and Eve both had no sin nature when they sinned. Before a sin nature can exist, sin has to take place. Also 1/3 of the angels rebelled against God having no sin nature. The sin nature was a creation and the result of sin

Romans 5:12-18 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Romans 5:19-21 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 5:19 is a parallelism. If Adam's sin made everyone sinners then Christ's obedience made everyone righteous. The result of this would be that every single person would automatically go to heaven based not on their own choices, but Christ's obedience. The Bible definitely does not teach that everyone will get to heaven. Adam's sin was not the cause for any person's future sin but only an occasion or opportunity for sin. Christ's obedience was also not the cause of any person's personal obedience, but only an occasion or opportunity for redemption by grace through faith. No person can become a Christian or sinner without using his own free will.

Psalm 51 - In Sin Did My Mother Conceive MePastor Richard OwenPsalm 51, begin reading in verse number one "Have mercy upon me, oh God, according to thy loving kindness: according to the multitude of thy mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judges!. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom."Let's pray. "Father, in Jesus name, I want to thank you Lord for your precious Word, I want to thank you for the time that we have, the privilege that we have to preach the Word, and I thank you Lord for the understanding you give us, realizing Lord, that we don't know the way and without you Lord, we will be confused and will not have the answers. But, I know that Lord, your able to give us understanding, to give us wisdom, to show us the height and the depth and the ways of God, and I thank you Lord. I stand. Lord, believing in your Word and your ways and your guidance, you promised to guide us into all truth, and so I'm looking to you this morning for wisdom again to preach your Word. Have your way in this message this morning , in Jesus name. Amen and Amen."When I started this Psalm out I fully intended to deal with the entire Psalm. Actually, I was uncertain just which way I'd go at times and I figured, just as I read the Psalm, as I studied the Psalm, God was going to give me understanding and I'd look to the truth and trust Him to guide me into all truth. When I started this Psalm, if you'll remember back it's been almost a month ago, I think, when I started this study. I was determined to do every verse of this Psalm, and to ask God to give us the understanding, to make it fit, and harmonize and deal with the theme. The subject of this Psalm, the subject, the theme of this Psalm, is David's repentance, his contrition over his sin. If you get the setting, the setting of this Psalm is when Nathan said to David "Thou art the man," and God revealed to him that his sin was open before him, and that He had seen his sin, and that David was guilty. And so this is David's confession, this is David's brokenness, this is David's repentance, and it's still the theme all the way through this chapter. It doesn't change, it doesn't altar, and it doesn't vary. It deals with David. Can I say to you, I believe, that this is one of the best chapters in the Bible to use to show a man how to deal with sin in his life? This is one of the best. This shows David, dealing with every part of his life. This shows David, in a broken and a contrite heart. It gets down to the end of it and he says that's what it takes to have a right relationship with God, for God to forgive him of his sin. So David here is dealing with this. This is theme - this is the subject. It doesn't get off that subject. It doesn't build other doctrines into here. This deals with David's repentance, brokenness - he's crushed over his sin.Now I've studied and meditated, and meditated on this chapter. There have been so many times that I've begun to look at this chapter, I'd write lots of notes on this chapter, and then I'd put them aside. I'd say, "No, I don't feel comfortable with it". Then I'd come back and I just felt liberty. It's one of the first times I felt in twenty-six years the liberty to go on and just deal with this chapter, and deal with the verses I'm going to deal with this morning. These two verses this morning are the most controversial verses, no doubt, in the book of Psalms. I hope that you'll take notes, I hope you'll study with me. I hope you'll write down references that I'll give you, and study on your own. I want you to do that.I've looked at scores of thoughts of this. I've looked at almost every commentary I could find. I've searched the internet far and wide, asking for views of this particular chapter, and sought out men from every comer of the globe as far as from every different view, from every different type of religious beliefs and backgrounds that you could imagine. Trying to find just what the truth is of this passage of Scripture. I've read where some have distorted this, and twisted it to mean some things, and some other things. I read one man, where it says in here, "in sin did my mother conceive me", he said it speaks of how that David's mother had an illicit affair. And I said "what a perversion of the Scriptures!" Because you've got to remember this, there are some things that you keep in the back of your mind. You've got to take the whole Bible into view. You can never interpret a Scripture to make it contrary to other Scriptures. You must stay in context, you must not make one verse say something that another verse totally contradicts. You must keep the author in agreement with himself and what he's doing, or you contradict the Scriptures. There are laws and rules of interpretation of the Bible that you cannot violate. You must not make a man inconsistent with himself. You have to make sense with the Bible and not nonsense. And so, there are rules and laws of interpretation.And so, I'm looking at the passage of Scripture, I've studied, and studied and studied. I want to just take you through slowly through verse number five, and if the Lord enables us, verse number six, this morning. But as I said, this is a continuation of David's contrition, it's a continuation of his describing the consequences and the weight of his sin. He's dealing with this, and David is not looking, if you'll approach this verse realizing, he is not looking for a cause and effect. David's not looking for a reason why he sinned. He's not looking for a cause, if you'll remember that. Because the first four verses, he tells you that he is personally responsible for his sin. He takes full responsibility. He is saying, "…of my own free will and volition," - that is what he's saying. In verse number four he says, "…have I sinned". He didn't say, "I was caused to sin, this is the reason I've sinned". He takes full responsibility, he's not looking for an escape route. He's not looking to be a victim of some kind because of an effect upon his life, he's taking full responsibility for his actions and full account. He's saying, "It's my sin." You'll see it over and over again, verse one, "my transgression." Verse number two, "mine iniquity." Verse number two, "my sin." Verse number three, "my transgression." Verse number three, "my sin." Verse number four, "have I sinned," and so, he takes full responsibility for his sin. He doesn't blame it on anybody else. He's not looking for a cause, or purpose or reason why he sinned. "It's my sin, I have sinned."David is not looking for someone to blame it on. He's not looking for an excuse, he's not looking for a cause that made him sin. David is looking for a cure. He's not looking a cause, he's looking for a cure! He's looking for deliverance! He's looking for God to heal him, to cleanse him, to sanctify him, to justify him, to purify his life. He feels defiled, he feels unclean, he feels wicked in the sight of God. He wants to be washed whiter than snow. He's looking for deliverance, he's not looking for a reason for the state he's in, he's not looking for a cause. He's looking for deliverance. If you'll approach this verse as you come down through to verse number five, you must realize that David is not seeking a cause or a reason why he sinned. He's really accepted his own responsibility for his sin over and over again. Six times I believe it is here, that he makes it clear that it's his, "it's mine, it's my transgression, my sin, mine iniquity."And so David is taking responsibility of that. He doesn't say "it's because of this... because of somebody else... because somebody made me do it..." You remember. Eve tried to blame Adam, and Adam tried to blame Eve, and they both tried to blame the serpent, and everything else? David's not doing that, he's not trying to pass the buck, he's not trying to get out from under it to try to find relief, and try to find an excuse.Listen to me carefully, and look at me. You interpret the Bible - I hope you get this little point - you will interpret the Bible according to what your looking for in the Bible. Now if you really have a predetermined view that you desire to get out of the Bible. If you're already set in your mind, and you're determined that you're going to find something in the Bible, you can take the Scriptures and wrest them, and twist them to your own destruction. Every cult in this world has done exactly that. They've sought, they've went to the Scriptures looking to justify - looking to find scriptural backing for their own views and ideas. And believe me, if you want to do that, you can take the Scriptures I am using this morning and wrest and twist and distort them to conform to your own opinions, or to get an agreement to what you already believe, if you want to do that. But if you're going to allow the Scriptures to flow in harmony, the Scriptures have a unity, they have a harmony that has to be recognized. The Scriptures don't have contradictions and confusion. The Scripture has a beautiful harmony to it, and a unity that the Scriptures just flow through. Nor are the Scriptures complicated. God didn't make them confusing and complicated so that you couldn't understand them. He merely expects you to look to Him and to trust Him and to seek His will for His Word. He expects you to obey it.If you are not going to obey it, - you get this down if I don't get any farther this morning, you get this down clear, - He will not reveal the Word of God to you! He will not open the Scriptures to you. He will not teach the Word of God to you! It will be a dead book! It will be a book that will be closed to you unless you have a heart with a desire to obey what He teaches you. If you're going to question, and I've seen times that I've laid before God, and wept before God, and asked God to reveal the Word of God to me, and I've been challenged with that thought in the forefront of my mind. Are you going to proclaim it? Will you believe it? Will you walk in it? Will you teach it? Will you question what I show you? And over and over again I've had that challenge in my heart. If you're not willing to obey it, if you're not willing to accept it, if you'll not accept it by faith without reservation, if you're going to question God and question the Holy Spirit of God, mark it down, listen to me carefully, and look at me, you will get nothing from God!"He that doubteth is like a wave tossed in the sea." I'm saying, you seek wisdom, this is the Wisdom Book, this is the Wisdom Book. And if you doubt, if you're going to enter into this Book with doubts and questions about what God reveals to you - forget it! You'll get nothing from God! Nothing! Can I say to you that there are many portions of Scripture similar to this one that you're going to have to wait on the Lord for. I remember an old preacher preaching one time down at Sammy's camp meeting and I never forgot the thought that he give, and it just really impressed me. I was a young preacher, I was looking up to this man. He was an eloquent preacher, and I remember a statement he made, and it just stuck with me. He said, "Never try to force the interpretation of the Scripture." Do not try to pressure that into a mold, do not try and force that Scripture to where you understand it. This was an old man - been preaching probably 35-40 years at the time. He stood in the pulpit and he said " I've got many verses that I've underlined and looked at and studied and meditated on, and had to back away from them and just say, 'I'll wait until God opens that one up to me, I don't understand that one.'" He said, "Some of them have taken ten, twelve, fifteen, some of them have taken many years, twenty, thirty years."I've read my Bible, come across that verse, still couldn't get it. Go back the next year, read that verse of Scripture, still couldn't get it. Go back and read that verse of Scripture again, still couldn't get it. And can I say to you, listen to me carefully, understanding the Bible depends on your growth and maturity and obedience. You can't give strong meat to babies. Just as you don't set your little child down and give them a steak, the little baby that doesn't have any teeth, so it is that you must mature in your own spiritual life. You must develop a level of Christianity where you mature in the Lord and you begin to get understanding of the concepts and the understanding of what God is like. Until you begin to have a true picture of God in your mind and your heart, - a concept of His holiness, His righteousness, His judgment, and His truth! And when you begin to understand God, you begin to understand the Word of God and the Spirit of God begins to open slowly to you here a little, there a little. Line upon line, precept upon precept. This Bible isn't automatically opened to you as soon as you look at it. You're not going to understand it for years, some of it you will never understand. As I said this morning it will take time. But if you'll wait on the Lord, patiently wait on Him, I believe God will open the truth to your mind.David is seeking here, if you'll keep this in mind, David wants to be clean. He wants to be pure, "wash me". He's wanting to be cleansed, "wash me thoroughly, cleanse me from my sin", he says in verse number two. He wants his sins blotted out, as I said in verse number one. He wants these sins removed. He is not seeking to find out how he can reason about these sins and how he can reconcile about these sins, but he wants rid of them. He wants them out of his life. He doesn't want to understand them, he wants rid of them. He's not looking for a cause and effect. Can I say also, that David is agonizing under his consequences of his sin. His sin has brought shame. His sin has brought reproach upon his life. His sin has brought guilt upon him. His sin has broken him down in contrition. His sin has brought him to where he's brought into the very presence of God. David realizes that he didn't do this sin in the dark so that God didn't know it. He said in verse number four, he talks about how that God has seen that sin, and this evil. "And done this evil in thy sight." God saw him commit that sin!And so, David is dealing with this brokenness, David is dealing with this nakedness. He feels naked before God. He feels open and exposed before God. He feels wicked in the sight of God. He feels defiled in the sight of God. I'm saying, David is broken, he's in contrition. He's bowed down over the weight of his sin. He's telling us the way of the transgressor is hard. He's telling us how that the way of the transgressor is one that God knows exactly what he's doing and God can see his ways. And David feels this defilement, he feels this wickedness in the sight of God. And so, you come to this verse, number five, with those thoughts in mind. He's not seeking for a cause - he is seeking for deliverance. He is realizing the consequences of his sin. The only way that you will ever deal thoroughly with sin is to realize what it is costing you - what it has done to your life. The old songwriter says, " I'm tired of sin and straying Lord," and then it deals with I'm sick of my sin. Can I say to you, until you get sick of it, until you get tired of it, until you realize what it's done to you, you will not deal with it thoroughly. The prodigal son realized how foolish he was and how the sin had brought him down to the very depths of degradation. And there in the hog pen, eating hog slop and realizing what sin did to his life, he said, "I will return to my father's house."And so, David is beginning to deal with the brokenness, the weight of sin, the consequences that sin has brought upon his life. And as he approaches this verse, number five, he sees himself in this state. Now, David comes to this verse and notice what he says here. "Behold I was shapen in iniquity." Now this verse does not step out and deal with something else, it doesn't run a rabbit trail. It's still uniformly, it's still in harmonious accord with what David is speaking about. He's dealing with his sin. He's dealing with the consequences of his sin. He's dealing with the results of his sin. He's dealing with what he's reaping because of his sin. His sin made him feel defiled, he wanted to be clean. His sin has brought him before God, he feels guilty before God. He sees himself as God has seen him, he's naked before God.Now he comes into verse number five, and he begins to address this brokenness and what he is suffering because of his sin. The key word, the key word, in interpreting this verse, is the word shapen, the word shapen. "Behold," notice what he said, "I was shapen in iniquity." For years I've studied and would meditate on this Scripture. I had no problem with the remainder of the verse. The remainder of the verse is easy to interpret, it's just open. Can I say to you, when people put a different twist, when man puts his doctrinal twist on a verse, you have a hard time undoing that twist. When man has twisted the Scriptures, for you to put it back right, it just complicates it, because you're just constantly fighting what's already been said. Before your mind has always been this thought of that's the way everybody views it. And so, your going to have a hard time interpreting this verse without the influence of man's doctrines and what has already been said.Now the key to this verse is the word "shapen." It depends how you look at this word shapen. Now the word shapen here does not mean "to form or design". That's the first thought in your mind, to shape something, to mold something, to create something, to form something. But that's not what the word means. You'd think that's what it means. Now I'm going to give you references, I'm going to give you cross-references, I'm going to take you through the Bible. Now remember, David's not looking for a cause. David's not looking for an excuse. David has already admitted his guilt, "my sin, my iniquity, I have committed". It's David openly confessing his sin, broken over his sin. He has given the consequences of his sin, and now he's going to deal with the suffering and the pain that sin has caused him. Can I say to you, the word shapen here, if you want to have a number, I'll give you some numbers here to go by. This number, the Strong's number if you want it, is 2342. You might write that down, and if you've got a Strong's concordance, you go back and search this out.Now listen to me carefully, the word shapen here means, "to wither in pain". The word shapen actually means "to twist, and to wither in pain". It's the folding and the withering in pain, is what the word shapen means. Albert Barnes, the notable Presbyterian preacher of old, agrees with the thought, and then the Scripture does. Now can I say to you, I'm going to show you in Scripture, how the Scripture is interpreted here. Albert Barnes is an imminent writer of commentaries. If you go into any book store, you'll see a list of commentaries that you can buy. One of the most prominent and notable commentaries, is Barnes Notes. Albert Barnes was back in the 1800's a notable Presbyterian preacher, and he said, he agreed that this word, because it's simply interpretation of what the word means, it means "to twist", it means "to wither". It means "to just wither in pain". And this deals, if you'll take your Bible and you'll follow with me, this deals with how the pain that sin causes you relates in comparison to the travail that your mother goes through at birth. Now that's what this verse is talking about, and I'm going to show it to you.This "withering in pain". You remember David, if you went back to II Samuel 12:15-16, right after Nathan said, "thou art the man." Right after Nathan said that to David, you'll find the next two verses, verses 15-16, deal with the baby being born, and David on his face. If you remember, he was fasting and on his face, he would not get off the ground. He was praying for the sickly child, the child born of this fornication, of this adultery. And David was mourning, and weeping and travailing for that child. And if you remember, the child died. Now David has suffered much. Sin has cost him, he's in travail in his soul. He's broken, he's been hurt and he's suffered much, and he's taking you to the depths of suffering that sin will take you!Can I say to you, if you live in sin, you will suffer much! You will travail in pain at times because of your sin, and the Scripture repeatedly speaks of this! Watch with me as we go through the Bible. Notice in Psalms, and please take these reference verses. Psalms 55:4, the Bible says, "My heart is sore pained," that word pained right there is the exact same Hebrew word as shapen. "My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me." Write that Scripture down. It is the same exact word, you can search it out in your Strong's Exhaustive Concordance. It is the same exact word in the Hebrew as the word shapen.Look over with me to Isaiah, I've got to move fast. I want you to see this comparison all through your Bible. Isaiah 26:16, "Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening ..." When thy chastening was upon them, here's what it's like: "Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, 0 Lord." What did verse number four say? It brought you before the very presence of God. God hath seen this sin. God hath broken me. God hath branded me. God hath dealt with me over my sin. God showed me my sin, and now here in Isaiah, you'll see the same comparison of the pains of conviction, the pains of the chastening over your sin is likened under and compared to the travail of the soul in the deliverance of a child. Can I say to you, it's brought into the same likeness. "Like as a woman..." Notice verse sixteen says, " ...when thy chastening was upon them." "Like as a woman with child that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, 0 Lord."Look with me to Isaiah 13, Isaiah 13:8. "And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain..." now watch the comparison, "…they shall be in pain as...", or in comparison like, "...as a woman that travailed: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames." This is exactly what David is saying in Psalms 51:5, just like my mother was in pains when she bare me in the penalty of sin; so I'm going to show you that in a few moments. The exact same comparison! Look at Jeremiah 30:23. Notice this same connotation of the twisting and withering in pain, "Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon...", that word pain is the same word as shapen in Psalms 51:5, ".. .it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked."Turn to Micah. Micah is after Jonah - Amos, Jonah, Micah. Micah 4:10: "Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, 0 daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for not shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies." Be in pain! And this is exactly what the Psalmist is saying back in Psalms 51, he's saying that he is withering in the pains, notice what it says, if you'll read it like it is, the Bible says, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;" In my sin, in my iniquity, I withered and wept, and twisted in pain. It's in the comparison, just like it is in the remainder of the verse. Through your Bible, it makes the comparison of the pains of this convicting contrition breaking down, makes the comparison of childbirth.Please look with me back to Psalms 51:5. Notice it says here, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Now remember, Jesus is in the lineage of David. Jesus born as a human - human AND divine, but he was all man, and he was born after the seed of David. David was not born in fornication, nor was he born in sin. If you'll study this out - My!, the Bible is so careful, it's so perfect, it's so perfect! The word sin here, again I'm going to give you reference verses, the word sin in verse number 2-3, now look at verse 2-3: ".. .cleanse me from my sin.", verse number three, ".. .and my sin is ever before me." Did you notice that sin, and sin? Check your Bible, check your Strong's concordance, and you'll find that is reference 2403 in your Strong's concordance, 2403 means, "on occasion, an offender and sinfulness." Now this is important that you study this. I want you to study this out. Those two words, sin, are different than when it said, "...in sin did my mother conceive me." You need to study your Bible, that is all you need to do, just study your Bible. ".. .in sin did my mother conceive me." is a different word altogether than those two words. Study it out. The word "in sin did my mother conceive me" is number 2399. Did you notice the difference? The first two sins it is 2403, ".. .in sin did my mother conceive me.", is reference number 2399 in your Strong's concordance.Now what does that mean? Notice what it says, "...in sin did my mother conceive me." Oh, Preacher, was she in sin? Who was in sin? What sin did they commit? I've never had a problem with this part of this verse. The first part of the verse, it took me years of study, and honestly, before the Lord, do you know where I got the first part of this verse? Yesterday, up there splitting wood. I got up early and studied, and studied and studied, and meditated and meditated. It still didn't come. I have studied for years on this verse. I have put this verse aside, come back and studied it, put this verse aside, and studied. I was out there, and the only way I can split wood without hurting my back is get on my knees, and then I can run the splitter, and then I can bring the wood in beside me and I can split it. That way I don't have to stand up and bend over to put the wood under the splitter. But, I was on my knees there splitting wood and I was meditating on this verse, I just was overwhelmed with it. And when I was out there at that splitter yesterday morning, God opened this verse to me and revealed it to me. I began to write notes, I'd stop the splitter, I'd sit there and write notes, and write notes. I'd start splitting again, and more would come, and I'd write some more notes. I'd go back and study. But this second part of this verse has never been a problem. Honestly, before the Lord, a simple study of your Bible will show you that the first two times the word "sin" is mentioned in Psalms 51, it deals with a transgressor's sinfulness. It deals with sinfulness.The next time, in verse number five, when it says ".. .in sin did my mother conceive me" -please listen to me - it speaks of the penalty of sin. Go search it out. Go look in your Strong's concordance. It speaks of the penalty of sin. This is dealing with David's mother, suffering, withering, just like he is making his comparison, that I am withering under the consequences of my iniquity (the first part of the verse), just like, in comparison of the penalty of sin that my mother withered in, in having me, in labor. Look with me to Genesis, chapter 3, Notice in Genesis 3:16, you need to study this out, "Unto the woman He said, ...", now here's the curse that's on the woman, "Unto the woman He said, I will greatly...", that means, I will multiply, upon multiply, upon multiply, "...I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; " "in sin did my mother conceive me" "...I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow..." - in sorrow, in sorrow, "...in sorrow thou shall bring forth children;"And the second part of that curse was, "and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Two curses put on a woman because Eve sinned. One was, labor pains. Am I in your Bible? Are you reading your Bible right? Can all women that have had a baby bear witness to this? Did it hurt? Did you travail? Were you in great pain and sorrow? The word sorrow there, means painful labor, grievous pain, sorrow in toil. Just study your Bible that's all you've got to do. It means grievous pain. It means sorrow and toil.Now, back in Psalms 51:5, ".. .in sin did my mother conceive me." The penalty of this pain and sorrow in labor did mama bear me. Picture Psalm 51:5. David comes to this verse, broken over his sin. Showing the consequences of his sin. This is what sin has cost me, this is what sin will cost you. If you haven't seen people broken and in pain over their sin, you've not seen people under deep conviction, and you've not seen God deal with them. God brings a painful, a sorrowful, godly sorrow that will pain you, as it did David! David compares the turmoil of his pain, "I was shapen, I was withering in my iniquity, in the pain of my iniquity", "my iniquity caused me great pain and sorrow, just like my mother when she had me." In conception, in the sorrow of my conception, in the time of my birth, when mama travailed and brought me into this world, so sin has cost me travail and pain.Can I say to you. Let me just say one little thought here, I'll interject this, to say that man is born a sinner, to say that man is born of a sinful nature, is to blame God for his sinfulness. Now how Preacher? Well, man sinned and he brought it upon himself. Well, God created man in his image, but did not God also set up, did not God also design - look at me and listen, you've got to think a little bit - did God design procreation? Who is responsible for procreation? What is procreation? That means you having kids. Who designed procreation? Who set up procreation? Who is responsible for setting up procreation? Is it not God? Did God design that? Did God make a way for you to have children to replenish the earth? And so God knew just what would come out of his creation. And so to say that man is born with a sinful nature is to say that God designed man's sinfulness.Now listen to me carefully. God is not only involved - now I want you to listen to me, I'm going to give you a bunch of verses here - God was not only involved in the creation of Adam and Eve, He was involved in your creation. Why do you have a different lip print than your mom and dad and anybody else in the world? Why do you have different fingerprints than anybody else in the world? Why? Your mama didn't give you your fingerprints. Your daddy didn't give you your fingerprints. Why do you have a different DNA? It'd be nice if we had someone else's DNA, wouldn't it? Why do you have a different DNA than anybody else in the world? And they can track you down. Why are you different from other people? If you've got a pencil and paper, you can write down a bunch of these verses. "Thy hands have made me and fashioned me:" Psalms 119:73, "Thy hands have made me and fashioned me:" This is not Adam speaking. This is the Psalmist speaking. "Thy hands have made me and fashioned me:" What a blasphemous thing to say that God made me a sinner. Malachi 2:10, "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?" Malachi 2:10. Psalms 100:3 "Know ye the Lord that He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves;" "And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness:" "So God created man in His own image, and in the image of God created He him; and male and female created He them." Genesis 1:26-27 . Genesis 9:6 ".. .for in the image of God made He man." I Corinthians 11:7 Man ".. .is the image and glory of God:" That's a far cry from Adam on that I Corinthians, isn't it? Men are made after the similitude of God, James 3:9: "The Lord formeth the spirit of man within him." Calvinism teaches that his spirit is dead. Zechariah 12:1 says the Lord formeth the spirit of a man within him. "The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Job 33:4. Acts 17:25 "...He giveth to all life and breath, and all things;". Does the Bible teach us that our breath is in His hand? ".. .He giveth to all life and breath, and all things;". We are the offspring of God, Acts 17:29. Revelation 22:16 "...I am the root and the offspring of David...". Who is speaking that? Who is saying that? "I am the root and the offspring of David", Who would say that of this sinful man? The one that wrote that was the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ! "I am the root and the offspring of David" Revelation 22:16: "Lo this only have I found that God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions."Let me say to you this, and my time is gone, but I just want to look at it just for a moment. Please look at Psalms 51:6: "Behold, thou desirest...", Desirest what? "...TRUTH in the..." Where? "..inward parts:" Now, can I say to you, if you interpret verse number five to make man have a sinful nature, where he has inherited being sinful - with no cure. There isn't any atonement in Heaven or earth that can atone for a sinful nature. There's not one verse in the Bible that deals with a sinful nature's cure. If you have a sinful nature, it's inevitably something that you'll carry with you to your grave. There's no cure. There's no atonement for it. There's no deliverance for it.Can I say to you, you will be habitually sinful if you have a sinful nature. You will continue in sin. Now, you'll have a corruptness about you that you won't be able to do right, you won't be able to respond. I mean, if you'll listen to most of the doctrines of our day, you cannot respond, there's nothing good within you. You cannot answer God, you cannot speak the truth, you cannot do right! You're a sinner! Just like everybody else is a sinner! And you'll always be a sinner! And you can't do right! Except for the grace of God, you'll always do wrong!Well, David came to this verse and he said, "I know what you're looking for and you require and demand of man, and that is, the Truth." Now listen to me carefully, when you come to verse number six, you've got a real problem if you have an inherently sinful man, because God is looking for truth in that man. You say, "wait a minute Preacher, wait a minute, how can a sinner be truthful?" Well, let me ask you a question, and I want you to meditate on this thought. I hope you listen on purpose this morning, and you study these thoughts out. Do you really believe that God is going to do business with a dishonest person? Do you believe that we can come to God deceitful in heart? Dishonest, with no sincerity? No honesty, no truthfulness? And we can come to God, and get God to do things and deal business with Him and God will forgive us and we don't even mean what we say? We have no intentions of carrying out what we say? We have no truth within us, we're dishonest with fact? We're just flat out lying to Him, but He's going to believe it?Do you remember the verse I read when I opened the service up? Listen to me carefully, here's what it says, ''The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. Psalms 145:18" To all that call upon Him in truth. Can I say to you, yes a sinner is wicked. I have no problem understanding that a sinner is wicked. His deeds are wicked. But when he comes to God, he's going to have to come with a good and an honest heart. He's going to have to mean what he says. He's going to have to be truthful with God. How can you say, Lord, I give you my heart, I'm sorry for my sin, when you don't mean it? You say God's going to forgive a man, when he says, "I don't mean it"? "I'm going to go back to it, I'm going to return to my sin, I just want you to forgive me in my sin, and have a tolerance toward my sin. I have no intentions of quitting my sin." Will he find forgiveness? Does the Bible say that the person that finds mercy is the person that confesses his sin and "fosaketh" it? HE shall find mercy.Do you remember the two men that went up to the temple to pray? One was a Pharisee, one was a publican. One of them went home justified, one of them went home a sinner. Now what made the difference? Both of them prayed unto the Lord. One of them was just honest, and the other was a hypocrite, or just totally dishonest. I'm saying to you, you've got to be truthful with God. God's looking for sincerity. God's looking for honesty, and I'm saying to you, that you cannot, you cannot, you cannot come to God with a deceitful heart, with no intentions of carrying out, or living up to, or doing what you're saying to Him."Lord, I give you my life, I give you my all, I'm selling out, I realize the cost, I realize that I'm going to look to you eternally. I'm not going to turn back, I'm going to look to you, I'm going to stay with you, I'm going to walk with you. I'm going to love you, I'm going to obey you, I'm going walk with you...maybe...if I can." Do you believe that we have to be truthful? This truth, this inner parts, God is looking for truth in the inner parts. That is the very... it's called the reins of a man. That means the very soul and heart and spirit, the very fiber on the inside of a man that controls the man. This is the reins of a man, what leads a man, and controls a man in his volition. This is his inner reins, and there is where God looks for truth. He looks for honesty. He's looking for somebody that is sincere. He's looking for somebody that says "Yes! and I mean it! And Amen! and I'll do it!" I'm saying to you that in order to have this relationship, in order to come... David says, I know what you're looking for, and I know what you desire, I know what you require. I can't come to you phony and saying, 'Well, if I'm not overpowered, if I can't help it...'."I remember one old preacher telling this story to illustrate the shallow repentance that you hear in our day. This wife came to her husband, and she said, "Husband, I'm going down to the bowling alley with some of the ladies and I'll be back later on." He says, "But Wife, there are men down there that are wicked and they will try to take advantage of you when you're out there alone" "Oh, Husband, you know I love you. And if by chance I am overcome, when I get back, I'll ask you to forgive me."That's kind of the spurious, deceitful type repentance that's going on in our day. God's looking for truth on the inward parts of man. He expects it. He demands it. He desires truth. You can't do business with God if you're not honest. You can't do business with God if you're insincere. You can't come to God and try to reason with God and justify a sin you're living in. No! No! No! No! When you come to God in repentance, you've got to be willing, to not only acknowledge your sin, and desire for God to forgive you of your sin, but you have to come with an honest heart. "Lord, I'm going to stop, I'm going to quit that sin, I'm going to leave that sin. I hate that sin, I'm not going to commit that sin anymore. I realize what that sin has done to my life." God is looking for truth.Dr. Luke wrote, in the parable of the sower, that's it's the person that comes to Him that has the good and honest heart. Notice what he says in the parable of the sower. He said of those that were truly saved, they… "having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." I'm saying to you, if a person is going to do business with God; if they're going to have a relationship with God, they've just got to be honest with God - they've got to be truthful with God. And if I have an inherited, sinful, nature, there's no way I can be honest with God. If the inside of me is just totally corrupt, rotten to the core, nothing good within me, my heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, how can I be honest with God? Now men that live in open sin, their heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. But would you answer me a question? What does the Bible say in the book of Romans about the way you come to the Lord Jesus Christ? It says something about, if a man believeth with his... heart. Isn't that the way you come to Christ? If a man believeth with his… heart. In the book of Proverbs He says, "...my son, give me thine heart" "give me your heart" If you're going to do business with God, you're going to have to be honest with Him. Truthful! You're going to have to be open. You're going to have to be willing to do exactly what you say, and what you tell God. Don't make a vow to God and not keep it. When you tell God something, keep it. Keep it! Do it! It's the doers of the Word, the people that say, "I'm going to, and I will." What is that song? I have decided to follow Jesus, I'll not turn back, I'll not turn back. Let's stand!The Sunday school lesson and the message, I hope you will receive it. I hope you will search it out. Go home, study it, study it. If you have any questions, come back and bring them to me. I'd love to answer them. I've meditated and studied for years on these thoughts, I'd love to talk to you about them. I'd love to bring to you the facts about what sin is, and show that sin can't be a substance. Sin can't be a substance. Sin can't be physical. Sin can't be physical, in the sense that you pass sin on to another person, physically. You can't do that!One of the most obnoxious things to the sound mind is that you be charged for another person's crime. Would that bother you, being charged for someone else's crime? That is just totally against your reasoning in your mind for you to be charged with another man's crime. Sin is not transferable. I can't put my sin over on you, and you can't put your sin on me, and have God charge me for your sin. He would not be a just God. I didn't cause you to do it, and I didn't make you. And God can't charge me for your sin. Whatever sin you commit, you commit of your own free will and volition. Sin is not a substance, sin is an act. The transgression of the law is sin. It's an act of the will. It's something you do, it's not something you are! It is something you do! So you can't transfer sin. Sin is not a substance that's tangible, or something physical. Sin is an act of the will - of your own will against God. It's a transgression against God. "I was shapen in iniquity: in sin did my mother conceive me." "Behold, thou desirest truth on the inward parts."Father thank you for the time together this morning. I pray Lord, that this message, I pray Lord, they will search this out. I've labored, I've tried to be faithful to you. I believe you gave me these thoughts, and I pray Lord, they'll search these things whether they be so. I pray Father, you'd help us, not to follow man, but to follow God. Not try to look for an excuse for sin, but to look for a cure for it. For a deliverance, for a cleansing, for a washing, to be clean, to be pure, to have a clean heart, and a clean mind. I ask in Jesus name, Lord guide us into all truth. Bless this message, I pray, and work in the lives of these people to your glory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen and Amen.

Responsibility for sin.No one can truly repent if they do not believe that they are responsible for their sin. As long as a person blames his parents, Adam, his physical condition, God, the devil, or whatever, he will never truly repent. A person must see and realize that his sin truly is his own creation. The sinner must realize that he has chosen to rebel and refused God's righteous authority over him. He has willingly set his heart against God to live entirely and only for himself. This is the true condition of the sinner. He is not a victim born in a sinful state in which he has absolutely no control over sin. Sinners do not deserve any pity or sympathy at all! They are chosen criminals fighting against God. Would God punish sinners for something that really was not their own fault?

from THE NATURE OF SIN By Winkie Pratney Many think they have explained the fact of sin in the human race by using a phrase we shall call "Doggie Logic." It goes essentially like this: "A dog is not a dog because he barks; he barks because he is a dog. Thus, man is not a sinner because he sins; he sins because he is a sinner." The assumption is, of course, that all sin flows from a pre-determined sinful nature, and it is this nature that creates sinful acts of the sinner. Just as the bark of a dog comes undeniably from the fact that he is a dog, so man's sin will flow inescapably from the fact that he is a sinner, and was born so. It sounds nice; is it true?There are, unfortunately, two things wrong with this logic. They are serious flaws because, once they are assumed, they actually destroy the basis of the very thing they seek to prove - that all men are guilty of, and responsible to God for, their sin.These logic flaws are:(a) A Man is not a dog. A dog's actions are right if he barks because God created dogs to express themselves naturally by barking. But God did not create men to sin! A dog's bark is natural; sin is NOT. The Bible everywhere represents sin as an alien invasion to a moral nature made in the image of God. Assuming that man sins because it is his nature to sin, also assumes that sin is natural. A dog barks because he is a dog. A man can also bark if he chooses to. Does this prove that he is a dog? No, it proves that he has chosen to do a thing he was never created to do naturally. If a man sins, it merely proves that he has so chosen to sin; and his sin will certainly be treated as unnatural in the eyes of God.(b) Do we need a sinful nature to sin? Is it necessary to have an "implanted sinfulness" to enable man to do wrong? If one sinner can be found in Scripture who sinned WITHOUT first having a sinful nature, the answer is no; and the case is closed. And of course, there are at least three moral beings who committed sin without sinful natures. Satan was the first. The first man Adam was the second, and his wife, Eve. The angels who were cast out of heaven were apparently before perfect. No moral being needs a sinful nature to sin; if he is given one that makes it impossible for him NOT to live right, he is not GUILTY.

Quote from ARE MEN BORN SINNERS? The Myth of Original Sin written by A. T. Overstreet. Page 101THIRTEEN REASONS WHY THE DOCTRINE OF ORIGINAL SIN IS FALSEThe doctrine of original sin is false because:1. It makes sin a misfortune and a calamity rather than a crime.2. It makes the sinner deserve pity and compassion rather than blame for his sins.3. It excuses the sinner.4. It makes God responsible for sin.5. It dishonors God. It makes him arbitrary, cruel, and unjust.6. It causes ministers to wink at and excuse sin.7. It begets complacency and a low standard of religion among Christians.8. It is a stumbling-block to the unsaved.9. It makes Jesus a sinner or it must deny his humanity.10. It contradicts the Bible.11. It "adds to" and "takes from" the Bible. God warns against this in Deut. 4:2 and Rev. 22:18, 19.12. It begets false doctrines and false interpretations of the Scriptures.13. It is ridiculous, absurd, and unreasonable. It contradicts the necessary and irresistible affirmations of every man's consciousness and reason, which is something that no true doctrine of the Word of God could do.

From THE NATURE OF SIN By Winkie Pratney WHAT SIN REALLY MUST BE1. Sin is UNIVERSAL - Nothing is clearer in Scripture or in daily life. World history is a chronicle of wickedness. Every man prior to conversion is a slave to his own selfishness. Every unsaved man knows that he is selfish. The Bible shows the unsaved to possess one common zoicked heart or character: Genesis 6:5; 1 Kings 11:9-11; 15:3; 2 Chronicles 12:14; Psalm 28:3; 66:18; 78:37; 95:10; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Ezekiel 14:2-3; 18:30-32; Ecclesiastes 9:3; Matthew 5:27-30; 9:4; 13:15; Mark 3:5; 7:18-23; 8:17; Luke 21:34; Acts 8:21 (18-24); Romans 2:4-6; 8:7; Hebrews 3:7-15. All men without God are totally selfish at heart; it is exceedingly humbling to admit that ALL a man's pre-conversion actions are not in the least virtuous when examined in Eternity's light. Man has nothing to commend him to God, when he comes asking for forgiveness.The Bible further reveals that from the beginning of man's moral accountability, (seeing his spiritual responsibility to God and his fellow-men) man has made a choice to live supremely for himself, with no exceptions of true goodness, no pauses for really virtuous behavior, no alternative weeks of true unselfishness before God. Many factors influence the forms of this selfishness; there are many "good" clean-living, outwardly moral sinners, as well as those who are humanly despicable and degraded. Man chooses the particular form of selfishness that brings him the greatest pleasure; and this includes deeds and actions usually considered "good" by society, including prayer, religious activity, Bible study and preaching! But all sinners from those who have done "many wonderful works" to those God has had to "give up to vile affections" have one uniform morality - "there is NONE that doeth good, no, not one. " This universal persistency in sin is also shown in: Genesis 8:21; Psalm 10:4; 14:13 (53:1,3); 28:3; 94:11; Ecclesiastes 1:14; Isaiah 55:7-9; 64:6 Jeremiah 13:23; 17:9-10; Matthew 7:21-23; 12:34-35; Romans 1:21; 3:10-12; 3:23; 6:16-17; 6:20; Ephesians 2:1, 3; 5:8; Titus 1:15; 3:3; 1 Peter 2:25.YOU AND YOUR ORIGINAL SIN2. Sin is ORIGINAL -- There is nothing clearer in the Bible that man is VERY original in his sin! Sin is not a transmitted thing, it is created by each being with the elements of true morality - (emotions, reason, free will, moral light and spiritual perception of this).Throughout the Bible, man's moral nature is shown to spring from his HEART. This "heart" is not your PHYSICAL heart that busily pumps life-giving blood to all the members of your body. It is an illustration of the SUPREME PREFERENCE, or ULTIMATE CHOICE of your will, just as the physical heart is the center and source of all physical life. The RULING CHOICE of your will is the center and source of all your actions, and is the one thing most entirely under your control. If God had made salvation dependent, say, on moving your body, or solving a problem, or even feeling a certain emotion, you may not have been able to do it. If you were paralyzed, your muscles might not be able to act. If you had little education, even on pain of death you could not solve a problem beyond your own reason. Even with a threat of everlasting torment, you would not be able to keep any emotion for long. But if God only asks for the choice of your will, all is brought within your reach. You can always give this "heart" to God. You can always CHOOSE so long as you have a rational mind and a moral nature. Every man born is faced with God's request to the awakening Adam - "My son, give Me your HEART" (Proverbs 23:6; 4: 23; 3:5).When men choose wrong, following Adam's example, they become guilty of the second kind of depravity MORAL depravity. All sin is moral depravity - "missing the mark" in the ultimate choice of life. The Bible pointedly testifies of man's free choice in his life of sin, using a variety of words that show explicitly man's guilt and total moral depravity. No definition of man 's moral depravity that tends to remove personal and individual blame or responsibility from each sinner is a definition inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.ALL the Bible words used for sin show that man is a REBEL, not a subject of pity who has lost his ability of will to do right.Who can study the penetrating pictures of sin in the Scriptures and make sin something small! From the very least expression (to "err, stray from the mark or path planned for man") to the strongest term ("utter evil, wickedness of the mind and heart") all sin is WRONG CHOICE (Numbers 15:27; Ezekiel 3:18; 2 Kings 8:20,22; 1 Kings 8:47-50; 1 Chronicles 5:25; 1 Samuel 12:13-15; Joshua 22:16; Isaiah 66:3; Jeremiah 7:24; Romans 6:14-15; Hebrews 6:6; Galatians 6:1; Matthew 15:2; Acts 1:25; 1 Timothy 1:9; Romans 6:19; 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12; 2 Timothy 2:19; 1 Peter 4: 18; Titus 2:12; Matthew 7:17,18; Hebrews 3:12).From this study of Bible words describing sin, we look in vain for evidence that sin is anything else than a wrong choice. There is always the idea of movement, voluntary action, never a static or inactive something behind the will, received by heredity, that CAUSES the will to act in sin. The Word of God protects itself from theological speculation like this; sin is a CHOICE.Without God, man does have a sinful nature, but this nature is NOT physical. He inherits no causation from his parents or anyone else. Man is responsible for his own actions. His sinful nature consists in the habit patterns of a life lived for self instead of God. They flow from a wrong HEART, or ultimate choice in life. They need not be all pre-meditated to be sin. A man who has unyielded rights and resentment in his heart that has been allowed to build for some time does not have to coldly calculate to fly into a rage. If a man says an unkind thing, then tries to cover it by saying, "Oh, I didn't mean that," the Scriptures flatly contradict him by stating "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." He may not have meant it to be revealed in all its ugliness. But it WAS in his heart, and the unconscious action followed. Nature does not mean natural, as compared to ordinary, but that which is common, that which man does AS A RULE. If we say man has a sinful nature, we are not talking about some solid "thing" causing sin; but that AS A RULE OF LIFE, the sinner always behaves sinfully. His own heart is set on pleasing himself; out of this choice flows all his thoughts, actions and choices.Scripture reveals that NO sinner seeks God. His selfishness has made him run from the call of God just like Adam did long ago: Genesis 6:5: 2 Chronicles 12:14: Psalm 10:4; 53:2 119:115; Ecclesiastes 8:11; Isaiah 9:13; 31:1; 59:4; 64:7; 65:1; Matthew 23:37; John 5:40; 6:26; Romans 2:4; 3:11. For this reason, he cannot be saved unless God invests great efforts in him to turn him back to righteousness.

"sin is a transgression of the law." This is, no doubt, the only correct definition of sin. But the law does not legislate over substance, requiring men to have a certain nature, but over voluntary action only. If you are really intending to affirm, that the substance of your body was sinful from its conception, then you not only make a stand against God's own definition of sin, but you also affirm sheer nonsense. The substance of an unborn child sinful! It is impossible!

I do not know you at all but I do know Winkie Pratney personally. He is a very respected evangelist and teacher who has meetings all over the world. He is the author of many books. His book YOUTH AFLAME was instrumental in my salvation.You may disagree with Him and me but you went a little extreme when you called his teaching rubbish. Many people have been brought to the Lord as a result of his teaching. You have a free will and can do want you want but I think you should be more careful and not be so extreme.My posts are not for you because I doubt there is any thing I could ever say to charge anything about you. There are others here who may find my posts helpful. I already explained why our world changed when Adam sinned, you just do not agree with what was said and I doubt you ever will.

Ezekiel 18:1-5, 9-10, 13-14, 17-20 (NASB)"What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel saying, 'The fathers eat the sour grapes, but the children's teeth are set on edge'? As I live," declares the Lord God, "you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel any more. Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.But if a man is righteous, and practices justice and righteousness...if he walks in My statutes and My ordinances so as to deal faithfully then he is righteous and will surely live," declares the Lord God. Then he may have a violent son who sheds blood...he will surely be put to death; his blood will be on his own head. Now behold, he has a son who has observed all his father's sins which he committed, and observing does not do likewise....but executes My ordinances, and walks in My statutes; he will not die for his father's iniquity, he will surely live. As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what was not good among his people, behold he will die for his iniquity. Yet you say, 'Why should the son not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity?' When the son has practiced justice and righteousness, and has observed all My statutes and done them, he shall surely live. The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."This passage teaches that sin cannot be inherited or transmitted from your parent or ancestors. Each person alone is responsible for his own moral choices. The fact that your parents may both have been Christians at the time of your birth does not make you a Christian anymore than the fact that one or both of your parents may have been sinners can make you a sinner.

From Sermons on Gospel Themes By Charles Finney- Lecture 20.I. What constitutes a sinner?1. A sinner is, essentially, a moral agent. So much he must be, whatever else he may or may not be. He must have free will, in the sense of being able to originate his own activities. He must be the responsible author of his own acts, in such a sense that he is not compelled irresistibly to act one way or another, otherwise than according to his own free choice.He must also have intellect, so that he can understand his own relations and apprehend his moral responsibilities. An idiot, lacking this element of constitutional character, is not a moral agent and can not be a sinner.He must also have sensibility, so that he can be moved to action -- so that there can be inducement to voluntary activity, and also a capacity to appropriate the motives for right or wrong action.These are the essential elements of mind necessary to constitute a moral agent. Yet these are not all the facts which develop themselves in a sinner.2. He is a selfish moral agent devoted to his own interests, making himself his own supreme end of action. He looks on his own things, not on the things of others. His own interests, not the interests of others, are his chief concern.Thus every sinner is a moral agent, acting under this law of selfishness, having free will and all the powers of a moral agent, but making self the great end of all his action. This is a sinner.3. We have here the true idea of sin. It is in an important sense, error. A sinner is one that "erreth." "He that converteth a sinner from the error of his ways." It is not a mere mistake, for mistakes are made through ignorance or incapacity. Nor is it a mere defect of constitution, attributable to its author. But it is an "error in his ways." It is missing the mark in his voluntary course of conduct. It is a voluntary divergence from the line of duty. It is not an innocent mistake, but a reckless yielding to impulse. It involves a wrong end -- a bad intention -- a being influenced by appetite or passion, in opposition to reason and conscience. It is an attempt to secure some present gratification at the expense of resisting convictions of duty. This is most emphatically missing the mark.

The Bible defines sin as voluntary transgression of law, and it is absurd to think that a nature can be a voluntary transgression. The Bible never represents God as condemning men for their nature, either here or at the judgment. Nowhere in the Bible is there the slightest hint that God holds men responsible for their nature, but only for the sickening, perverted and unyielding abuse of their nature. Other views of this use, differing from this, are not the Bible. Everywhere in the Bible men are condemned only for their voluntary sin, and are required to repent of sin. Indeed, there can possibly be no other sin than the sin of the wrong use of what we have.