ke7dux.com Blog Warning: Thoughts From a G33k Below!

Sin Nature

Think, Have you ever gone to bed one day feeling like you treated everyone horribly? Have you woken up the next morning, thinking, this is a brand new day, I will not make the same mistakes today as I did yesterday. You think, I will help everyone, won't treat that one person so bad, obey all the traffic laws, and apologize to your co-worker that you yelled at. So, right off the bat, you're late for work, so you speed and run a few red lights. You get to work, and, the coffee is too weak so you give the janitor a really hard time. Now you have a really bad attitude, so, when your co worker comes to apologize to you, all you say is, "yeah sure" and think "she better be sorry". Then, on your way home, you stop by the grocery store to pick up some milk. And while you are there, you don't bother to help an elderly lady with those heavy bags just because you want to get home. You get home and think, "WHAT HAPPENED!!!" Well, I'll tell you what happened. Sin Nature, that's what happened.

So, as I talk to you about Sin Nature, I will start by defining it, then, I will give three different points.

First; I will talk about the fall of man and how sin nature came into being.

Next,

I will discuss the inherency of sin nature.

And lastly,

I will give the meaning and significance of sin nature.

Webster's 1828 Dictionary defines Nature as:

3. The essence, essential qualities or attributes of a thing, which constitute it what it is; as the nature of the soul; the nature of blood; the nature of a fluid; the nature of plants, or of a metal; the nature of a circle or an angle.

So, Sin Nature would be The nature of man which is characterized by sin.

Now, I think it is important to know where our sin nature came from. In the Garden of Eden, God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But, soon after God commanded this, Adam and Eve were tempted and gave into that temptation and sinned by eating the fruit of that tree. Instantly, Adam started blaming Eve for his own actions when confronted by God. So Adam and Eve were cursed by God, but, he also gave them hope. I will talk about this hope in a minute. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they didn't even know what was wrong, they only knew what was good in the eyes of God. They didn't have that urge that makes us want to take that cookie from the jar after mom tells us to wait till after dinner. They probably never argued or thought that God was this evil guy who wanted to make life miserable because he didn't want them to eat of that tree. They didn't have that urge to rebel against any rules that stood in their way.

So, we see how Adam and Eve sinned against God, but, what about us, today? How does this sin nature affect us? That question brings me to my second point. The inherency of sin nature. Before Adam and Eve sinned, there was no sin. But, upon sinning, Adam and eve both gained sin natures and made the entire human race guilty. Romans 5:12 says: "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned". Matt 7:17 says; "So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit." Jesus was talking about false prophets here but it serves as a good analogy. Adam was a diseased tree full of sin. His son, therefore, was bad fruit. So this disease has been passed on and on until now. Another aspect of sin nature is that it makes us sinful from birth! We aren't born perfect and gradually get worse.

In review, we learned that Adam and eve sinned, upon sinning, they gained this sin nature, which has been passed down to us today.

So, how is this significant and what does it mean to us?

Well, the wages of sin is death, eternal condemnation, and the wrath of an all powerful God. Because of the fact that we have a sin nature, we are overflowing with sin. 1 John 1:8 says; "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." We CANNOT save ourselves by doing good things, as I said earlier, our view of "good" is not God's. I also said earlier that Adam and Eve were cursed by God, but, he also gave them hope. That hope was that someday, someone would pay the death penalty for all people and deliver them from death by defeating death. That person is Christ Jesus. Christ died for our sins so that, if we believe in him and give our life to God, we will not have to suffer the pain of eternal death and condemnation.