Last week, as I was studying for the upcoming Sunday morning sermon, I had a thought cross my mind, which led to me jotting it down on my desk calendar.
Before long, my “thought” became notes which would affect 6 days’ worth of my calendar and become the source of much discussion between several other pastor friends and myself.
Amused, I picked up my phone and took a picture, then posted it on Facebook. I commented, “This is what having a ‘thought’ looks like.”
So, with no editing or commentary, I’d like to share my “thoughts” with you. All I did was re-write them so that they could be read in this format.
One doesn’t have to have a sin nature to sin. Angels sinned without a sin nature. Adam sinned. But, since Adam, all have sinned (Romans 5:19), whether innocent or not, for their very nature – the sin nature – is not holy as God is.
The true predicament: Are you as holy as God? No, of course not! Then that is sin! The sheer fact that we are anything less than holy defies the holy law of God which is a reflection of His nature.
The Law is not arbitrary, but in conformity with the nature of God. Therefore, no amount of keeping of the Law, even if possible, would make us holy. Only God could keep the law of His own Character, and only God could live holy and without sin, for it is His nature and only His to live consistently holy.
Therefore, no amount of law-keeping could change one’s nature, thereby making him holy, much less to become holy by keeping the law that denotes past imperfection… unholy to holy. This, again, is contrary to the nature of God which would be contrary to His Law. We have no hope! We need a Savior!
Did Adam have a sin nature that led him to sin? Or, did he willfully sin without a sin nature?
Men might be born innocent, but they are not born holy. One could then be at one moment innocent for never having willfully committed a crime, but because he is not holy, and must become holy, he is in contradiction to God’s nature (the Law within Himself) and is, therefore, a law-breaker – a sinner.
One thing is for sure – We need a Saviour! Amen?
The Recovering Legalist 
the name of the tree Adam ate from may be important. And romans may have a point. where there is no law, there is no sin. Romans 4:15, 5:13
Where you been?
Around every day. I only interject when I have a thought to add. With all the politics going on, I have been doing a lot of blogging to defend the cause of what is good and right.
On that topic I have seen a contrast between beliefs in the USA and beliefs in Canada. given enough rhetoric its possible to brain wash people to be intolerant to religion.
You would never see a Politician have a Nun speak at a convention in Canada. The Media would have you for breakfast. They have convinced the public here that if you are a christian you’re a dummy.
So, In these times, I fight the fight, win the arguments, provide the evidence and push the tide backwards. The Republicans are also seeing this and are pushing the cancel culture back.
So that is where I have been. I have been around but busy.
On your subject, the Romans change from law to grace to spirit to presenting yourself as living sacrifices still ends up back at faith. The Idea that you trust God. This was the sin that Adam really did. It wasn’t law, it was about trust.
One might ask what is Sin. its not necessarily just breaking a law. There is a betrayal of trust.
Anthony I have a interview you may want to share around.. I put it on my website but this mans story about his sons really opens the eyes and touches the heart. worth watching.
(skip forward to the interview. )
Oh, and since I am thinking. this will likely alter your sermon. There is 3 types of faith. Faith is a broken word. Some see it as a belief in someone, some see it as trusting what someone says and some see it as Obedience on your part because you trust the person who said to do it. Romans 16:26.
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A lack of trust or value in what someone says or is can be like a rape. a person oversteps the persons boundaries with no regard for that person. The sin is not the rape, but the human rights violation.
This same thing can happen in relationships, a wife a husband can simply disregard the other, buy something that the other forbids. This conflict is rooted in a lack of faith or trust. The words are muddy the minds understanding makes it hard and its why some believe they are saved when they are not. They may believe in God, but the devil does too. But do they have faith? They may. They may believe Jesus is a great guy and does miracles. But, do they have faith to do as he says. Or are they just another Adam that believes and knows God but does not do as he says. 1 john 4 and Romans 8 talk about the spirit but also about freedom but also about doing what God says. This mixes people up.
This is why I think Jesus used John 3:14-15 the story of the contempt in the wilderness and the snakes to explain salvation. We don’t parish because we believe , we lose the contempt and trust.
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Without realizing it, our whole culture is upside down right now because of this very elusive definition. It involves feelings of betrayal, revenge, contempt and definitions of trust, Loyalty , Obedience, blame, Judging etc. Mark 12:30, Deut 6:4-8.. and Am I my brothers keeper Luke 10:15 Genesis 4:9-11.
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That leads me to a Canadian problem, Let everyone do as they like its not my business. So, we need no laws on abortion another persons issues are their own.
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I have never given this any thought. (sarcasm.)
I was surprised there was no reply. LoL. another scripture came up in my mind.
23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
I was in the car most of the day, if not on the phone or working on sermon stuff. I broke the law when I read (skimmed) your comment – I was driving.
Oh, well that was a long text enough to put you in the ditch. LoL. It must have been done by faith. Without faith its impossible….
I guess that is what they say “done in good faith means” with good motives and trust in God!
These are just my thoughts since I haven’t researched it too much quite yet. But the question ‘did Adam sin because he had sin nature or did he sin without sin nature?’. My thoughts are that it is slightly more nuanced. I think that originally he didn’t have sin nature but God gave him a choice to sin as he also did with the angels. After he sinned, he acquired sin nature and his offspring(us) has it as well since he was our representative. The angels had the choice and some decided to sin and therefore have sin nature today. The reason why all of them didn’t acquire sin nature though is because they each were accountable for themselves individually and since none of them were offspring of other angels(I don’t think angels reproduce, prove me wrong if I am). The choice to sin was given to all the angels at the same time and since there were a lot of angels already created.
That’s my thoughts on it at this current moment. I haven’t researched it too much yet though.
Sounds good to me. But there are those who might refer back to the supposed angels that created offspring with women, the offspring being giants (Genesis). I’m not sold on that one, either.
True. I hadn’t thought of those but that is a point that could be brought up. I’ve thought of that before and I’ve seen both sides of that issue. I’m not quite sure on either side either.