The Nature Of Man

Greg

​God created mankind in a state of innocence.  Being tempted by Satan, man yielded and willfully disobeyed God, becoming a sinner and incurring the judgment of death.  By means of Adam’s disobedience, sin and death entered the world.  The scriptures teach that Adam’s actions have impacted his descendants - “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” (Romans 5:19a). The scriptures do not explain how Adam’s disobedience resulted in many being made sinners, it merely states the fact.  Some believe that because of Adam’s sin, all of his descendants are born guilty of sin, that we inherit a sinful nature at our birth, and that we cannot help but sin. However, to be consistent, if the first part of the passage means that the sin of Adam resulted in all becoming sinners involuntarily, then the second part of the passage would mean that the obedience of Christ results in all becoming righteous involuntarily, for it states: “so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous” (Romans 5:19b).  The idea of universal righteousness and salvation for all is not supported by the scriptures.

I believe the scriptures reveal to us that we become sinners when we sin, not that we sin because we are born sinners.  James 1:14-15 states: “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.”  We are born with fleshly appetites, thus we can be tempted, but temptation is not sin.  We can fulfill these appetites in accordance with the moral law, or we can be tempted to fulfill them unlawfully.  When we are tempted and the will is overcome by the impulses of the flesh, we sin.  We are not guilty of the sin of Adam, nor are we deemed guilty apart from the personal choice to sin.  

I believe we can say that Adam’s disobedience is the occasion for the increased immoral influences in a world in which sin was introduced, and the occasion for the subsequent constitutional degeneration of his descendants (the result of being barred from the health-and life-giving Tree of Life) and corresponding increase in susceptibility to temptation, thus by his “disobedience many were made sinners”, and this upholds the truth that people are condemned for their own sins and not the sin of another.  In like manner, Christ’s obedience (his loving sacrifice) is the occasion “for many being made righteous.” Not that all are rendered righteous by birth or involuntarily, but because his sacrifice has met the governmental demands of the law against us, and because he has overcome sin, death, and Satan, we can be released from the penalty and power of sin by choosing to follow him as Lord.  The Old Testament scriptures reveal to us that on several occasions, certain kings “made Israel to sin.”  For example, the Bible says in 1 Kings 14:16 - “And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.” A king or kings “made Israel to sin” because of their wicked influence.  This does not imply that the Israelites were not responsible themselves for becoming sinners, only that they were influenced by their surroundings and the actions of another. 

I do not think the answer to the sinfulness of mankind is that we are born with a sinful nature.  Though in the flesh we are vulnerable to temptation, and we all at one point have chosen sinful self-gratification over obedience to God, the flesh itself is not sinful, or Christ himself would have been born sinful, for he too came “in the flesh” (1 John 4:2).  However, it is sinful to walk in the flesh, or to be controlled by the flesh (Romans 8:5-8).  Walking in the flesh, or being ruled by the flesh, describes a sinful state of a person whose ultimate purpose is choosing sinful self-gratification over obedience to God.  Christ, though tempted in all points as we are in the flesh, did not sin, proving to us that sin is a moral transgression and that sin is in the will, not in the physical substance of man. The commission and practice of sin is the cause of moral depravity, resulting in people becoming “by nature (a mode of feeling and acting which by long habit has become nature - Thayer’s Lexicon; A disposition formed by custom and habit – Adam Clarke, Clarke's Commentary on Ephesians 2:3) the children of wrath.”  The Bible teaches that each person is condemned for his own sin, not the sin of Adam: “death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Hebrews 5:12).  

Death has passed from Adam to his descendants due to Adam’s sin, but the first death is not the judgment for our personal sins.  All will be resurrected - some to eternal life, and some to be judged and condemned to eternal death.  The judgment of eternal death (the second death) has passed upon all men for their own sins.  Sinners make themselves objects of God’s wrath; we are not born as objects of his wrath.  When a person chooses to disobey the moral law of God, he becomes, or is made, sinful due to his own free will.  When a person, through the influence of the Spirit of God, chooses to repent and follow Christ in obedience, he becomes, or is made, righteous of his own volition.

In order to prove their belief that people are born with a “sinful nature”, some will reference Psalms 51:5, in which David stated: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” As already shown, sin is a moral transgression (1 John 3:4), not something physical that can be inherited.  In fact, the Bible says this: “Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). The word “they” shows this verse is not limited to Adam.  This verse does not mean that men are born righteous, for people are born neither righteous nor sinful.  It means that people are born innocent, but they go astray, choosing sin over obedience to God. There are none that do good apart from following God, but this is because of their selfish choices, not because they were born of a substance that made them sin.   

In a Psalm in which David was grieving over his sin, he offered several poetic expressions to convey his brokenness and contrition.  David said: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean” (Psalms 51:7a).  David knew that hyssop could not literally cleanse him from sin.  David also asked God to “wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalms 51:7b), once again using figurative language to address how his sin had stained his soul and how he wanted to be cleansed.  David made mention of “the bones which thou hast broken” (Psalms 51:8b), yet God had not literally broken David’s bones.  Elsewhere in the Psalms, this is written: “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies (Psalm 58:3).  Newborns do not speak at all, so this is another example of the use of poetic expression to convey the idea that people go astray at a young age. This matters greatly, for it puts the responsibility for sin on the selfish choices of mankind, not the nature that we are created with.  It appears that the weight of sin was bearing on David’s mind, and it reminded David that he was conceived and born into a world of evil, an environment characterized by sin, and David was relating this to his own transgression. 
 
People should not be defined by their temptations, but by their actions. Temptation is not sin, but yielding to temptation is sin.  Adam was not created with a sinful nature, yet he sinned and thereby corrupted his nature, showing to be false the theory that being born, or created, with a sinful nature must be the explanation for why we all sin.  We cannot use the nature we were born with as an excuse for sin.  Because of our God-given nature we can obey or disobey God, and for selfish reasons, we choose to disobey him and we corrupt our nature.  Sinning goes against our God-given constitutional design, and that is why sinners will be held accountable for their sins.  God designed our nature to be in favor of righteousness, by writing his law upon our hearts (Romans 2:14-15), yet we go against our God-given nature and choose to walk in the flesh.  To claim that sin is unavoidable because of the nature we are born with is to blame our Creator, rather than ourselves.