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Are We Born Sinners?
Part 5 - Objections
 How Can We Sin Without a Sinful Nature?

Bro. Mike Miller
4/23/2005

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But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. James 1:14-16

If you are one of those who has been taught the doctrine of original sin someone has implanted in your mind the idea that your physical makeup is what makes you sin. You think you can’t help it, your body is physically flawed because of Adam’s sin. Some say it is in the blood, but no one has ever identified it there. Some say it is in the genes and DNA, but again, it hasn’t been found there. If it were in the blood or the DNA the scientists could one day eliminate it and cure our sin problem. We would not need God or the blood of the Saviour to “take away our sins.” The humanists would be right and man is really his own God.

What a bunch of nonsense! Sin is not a physical problem and cannot be cured by physical means. It is a spiritual problem and must be cured by spiritual means. It is a malignity of the soul and not of the body. There is no drug that can make you do righteousness. There is no drug that can make you think holy thoughts. If sin were a physical problem and simply the result of chemical reactions in your brain we could squelch it with drugs, but that cannot be done. As a matter of fact, mind-altering drugs usually weaken our natural defenses against sin. They make it EASIER to sin and that is precisely the purpose the devil has for them. That is why they are always condemned in the Word of God and associated with witchcraft and evil. I would like to talk about that a little more, but that is another subject.

The propensity to sin is developed AFTER your are born. There is no possible way it can be blamed on a physical flaw in our bodies and there is not a shred of evidence to support that lie in the Bible. It is the result of our continual yielding to lust. You get used to having what you want, when you want it, and it becomes your nature to be motivated and follow your lust. That becomes the driving factor in your life. You set the affections of your heart on the things you lust after. You LOVE the world and the things of the world. If you love something you will seek after it. You will rationalize, reason, manipulate, and whatever else you need to do in order to acquire that which your heart loves and lusts after. That becomes your life’s purpose and this is what people are calling a “sinful nature.” Yes, it is there and it is real, but you were not born with it and it is not a problem with your physical body.

There is no physical cure for sin and God does not do a physical work on our bodies when we are saved. The only cure for sin is that your affections be set on “things above and NOT on things on the earth.” What you need is a new HEART - not a new body! You need a heart that loves God instead of this world and the things of the world. That is why God said it can’t be both ways. If your heart loves the world it cannot love God – the Bible says so. Sin is a HEART problem and God has a HEART cure.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Rom. 10:10

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. John 3:19

The Atonement through the blood of Christ is the only means by which these things can be accomplished. A person simply cannot stop loving this world and the things of the world until he falls in love with Jesus Christ. When you really see what God has done to redeem your soul from sin through Christ you will love him.

The Scripture in James is very clear. We don’t start out astray – we are “drawn away,” and it is by our lust that we are drawn away – not a sinful nature we were born with! Lust is NOT a sinful nature.

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. – James 1:14-6

The word “lust” does not imply evil in itself. To prove that point take a look at some other verses where this same word is translated “desire” and there is obviously no evil connotation:

For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. – Matt. 13:17

And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: – Luke 22:15

For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: – Phil. 1:23

So lust is NOT a sinful nature! Lust is natural desire. This IS something you were created with, but it is something that reaches beyond the physical. Our modern day scientists are creating robots that can imitate a living creature in many ways. They are making robots shaped like humans that walk upright on two legs. They are making robots as small as flies that can fly and carry cameras to spy on the enemy soldiers. They are making robots that catch insects and “digest” them with chemicals to generate their own energy to continue operating. However, there is one thing that they cannot, and will never be able to put into a robot, and that is DESIRE. It is not a physical thing, but a part of the soul. It is something that God put in man because he was made a “living soul” in the image of God. Man has corrupted this gift of God by fulfilling these desires outside the boundaries in which God established for them to operate. It is man’s heart that has become evil. You do not inherit that from Adam – it is the result of your own choices, decisions, and actions. You were made a living soul of infinite value and you have LOST that soul by becoming a sinner. You have SET YOUR AFFECTIONS on the things of the world and turned your back on God. You have set up enmity between you and God because of your sin. The whole intent and thrust of the Atonement is to reconcile you to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sin makes you depraved – you do not start out that way. Sin warps the mind, pollutes the heart, blinds the eyes, and damns the soul. It is like a snowball rolling down a hill – it ALWAYS starts out little and ends up big. Sin is progressive. The first time is the hardest, but each time after that it gets easier. Your conscience gets quieter each time. The warnings you have heard and the fears you have had dissolve away and you are able to practice your sin with less and less obstacles. Then you begin to justify and rationalize and come up with reasons in your mind why it is RIGHT for you to do what you are doing. You finally come to the realization that “there is nothing wrong with this.” What you once knew to be wrong you now embrace, defend, justify, and promote for others to do, also. It all started with your lust – something natural that God gave you – something that was not evil.

Eve had a natural desire for knowledge and that was not sinful. The serpent played on that desire and pointed her at something that was forbidden. God had clearly set the boundary and she knew it. But with a little lie, and a little encouragement and influence from an evil being she let her desire control her in spite of God’s commandment. After she sinned against God she went and gave it to Adam and he followed her in her transgression. She justified what she had done and saw no wrong in it. She thought it was so great that she recommended it to someone else – even he whom she loved. They immediately thought God was their enemy and hid themselves from him. That is exactly the pattern and result of the sin of every person ever born. It is so plain and the road to sin never changes. It is mapped out clearly and happens the same way EVERY SINGLE TIME. Yet men, with the help of the devil, have created a false doctrine that teaches they sin because they cannot help it. They imagine it to be a physical flaw in their earthly bodies that compels them to sin and they call it a “sinful nature” or the doctrine of original sin.

How wicked is this doctrine that says that we sin because we are sinners – because we are born that way! Created by God with a sinful nature! In other words, sinning is what we are SUPPOSED to do. It is what we were CREATED to do! That is the essence of the teaching that we are born with a physically sinful nature, which is the root and cause of all our sin. Proponents of original sin insist that we are condemned because of that sinful nature – not because of our particular sins. I have read in their books where they plainly say that “no man ever went to hell because of any sin of the flesh.” He goes to hell because he has a sinful nature that causes him to sin and he can’t help it. He is doing what comes natural to him.

Then to add insult to injury they teach that salvation does not deliver us from this sinful nature because our physical body is the problem. Therefore, death of the body is the only deliverance from sin. DEATH is our Saviour – not Jesus Christ. This is exactly what the Catholic Church and all other “works for salvation” people teach. You are not a saint until you are dead. Anyone who knows anything about the Bible knows that is a lot of heresy. God is in the business of changing hearts HERE AND NOW in THIS PRESENT WORLD, and the state of your soul when you die is fixed for eternity. Your heart and your spiritual condition do not change after death. The Scripture is plain:

He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. – Rev. 22:11

If we are born with a sinful nature and it is the cause of our sin, and salvation doesn’t deliver us from it, but leaves us in its bondage, then the New Testament is full of contradictions. All the promises are empty -  because they are only given to the overcomers. To him “that overcometh” are made many promises. See Revelation 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 2:26, 3:5, 3:12, 3:21, 21:7. If we are still under the bondage of a sinful nature after we are saved then 1 John 5:4 is a lie:

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

The Bible teaches that living under the control of our lust is something that happened in the past, but NOT after we are saved. Notice that being under the control of lust is put in the past tense of all these verses:

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. – Gal. 5:24

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. –Eph. 2:3

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; – Eph. 4:22

For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. – Titus 3:3

As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: – 1 Pet. 1:14

For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: – 1 Pet. 4:3

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. – 2 Pet. 1:4

Why under heaven would anyone want to abandon and ignore the wonderful promises of the Word of God to delight in the bondage of sin? What a wonderful thing to know freedom from sin! What a miracle to be delivered from the bondage and misery of a sinful lifestyle – right here and now! Salvation is not a “pie in the sky – bye and bye” – it is REAL deliverance from sin in THIS PRESENT WORLD.

Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: – Gal. 1:4

Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? – 1 John 5:5

THAT is the message and power of the Gospel that once turned the world upside down. THAT is the message that has brought every great awakening and true revival that has ever happened. If modern Christianity would preach true deliverance from sin and throw out all the doctrines of devils that excuse, misrepresent, and even condone sin, we might see a revival in our time. Sin is the great problem of the universe. Until we face that fact, and get our doctrine straight on what it is, where it originates, what causes it, and what the cure is, we will remain under its bondage and the church will continue to grow more and more corrupt and powerless.

Next part: Are you teaching sinless perfection? (coming soon)

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