The Nature of Sin and our idolatry of ourselves

*Some of these basic thoughts are from Richard Foster's book Celebration of Discipline. I have added my own thoughts intertwined with Scripture and his thoughts. I encourage you to read Mr. Foster's book, it is considered one of the Christian greats to help discipline our lives as a Christian should live! Enjoy!


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I want to start off encouraging you, that even though you are about to read the nature of sin that is ingrained within the human soul and you will most likely relate to most of, if not all of it so i want to encourage you. This nature that you are about to read of is a part of you, BUT....there is always a way out, a way to get clean from the filth, and healed of the disease of sin. Jesus came because God loves you so much, so much that saying "I love you" would not be sufficient enough, so He thought He'd show actions of His love. He planned before the creation of the world the plan of redeeming humanity. If sin did not come into the world, God wouldn't have been able to show the greatest love that is to die (see John 15:13 that is mentioned later) and as Scripture states, He is "not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" in 2 Peter 3:9b and because of this He has made Himself known throughout all of Creation (read Romans 1:17-25) in a general sense and has revealed Himself fully in Christ (see Colossians 2:9). Even though we still have this sin nature that I am about to talk about....God still wants you, He still seeks you as Isaiah 65:1-2 (ESV) " I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, "Here am I, here am I," to a nation that was not called by my name. I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices." So, be encouraged, God still loves you and provides mercy, if you are willing to take it.



Sin

Sin is a phenomena not fully understood by humanity, but much has been given about it through the Word. So even though we don't know much about it, let us look through Scripture to see what we do know at least. It was not a part of Creation (Creation account found in Gen. 1:1-2:3....sin was not created). It came into the world in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve violated the law that God placed, that they should not eat of a certain tree in the midst of the garden.



Therefore, we see that sin was not a part of creation, so it didn't come from God and as 1 Tim 4:4 (ESV) states "or everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.” Therefore, we see if sin was not created by God...and everything that God created is good (Compare 1 Tim 4:4 and Genesis 1 where all things created were good, except for man being alone). So logically, we must conclude that sin is bad. The Bible states in 1 John 3:4 (ESV) "Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness." If those who practice lawlessness are sinners, we must again conclude that Adam and Eve were sinners because they violated the law that God placed that they should not eat of a certain tree in the midst of the garden. In addition, because God is just there must be a punishment for sin, which God said is "death." Genesis 2:16-17 (ESV) "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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." Therefore, the punishment of sin is death. Paul expands on this more in Romans 5:12 (ESV) "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--". and again in Romans 6:23a (ESV) "For the wages of sin is death," but praise God He provides even one way when we don't deserve it, the same verse finishes off saying, "but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. "



God hates sin. Zechariah 8:17 states "do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the LORD." God hates sin so much that it is a disgust within Him. Because God is perfectly pure, He cannot be in the presence of the filth of sin, because He is life, He cannot be in the decaying nature of sin, and because He is righteous, He cannot be in the presence of the lawlessness of sin. God's hatred goes as far as hating the very things that the filthy sin nature attaches itself too. We read in Psalm 5:5 (ESV) "The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers." Now, remember, God is perfectly righteous so He must hate what is evil and if our nature is a distorted version of "good" it must be evil, since evil was not a created entity. Moreover, because God is completely pure His hatred is not tainted with sin like ours is, and it is a righteous hate that our just God must have. In addition, His wrath must be satisfied, which can be when you accept Christ, because only Christ was untainted by sin so that He may be blemish free before God on behalf of all men. So, it was through imputation that all men are tainted by sin, and it is through imputation that all men have the possibility to be saved from hell and cleansed from sin. As 1 John 1:9 (ESV) says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Praise the Lord!



All too often, we think of sin as a single moment and act of violation of God's law. Though true, I think Paul explains the nature of sin is much more than we know true today. Romans 3:9-18 (ESV) "What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” There is no fear of God before their eyes."



We see that in Scripture it states that sin works its way through us once in Romans 7:5 (ESV) "For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death." and again in Galatians 5:9 (ESV) "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." (leaven being yeast, so as yeast works its way through the dough, sin works its way into the nature of humanity). So, as we see again in Scripture, sin has a nature of changing things...not immediately and not completely. This is why I cannot accept the doctrine of Total Depravity from the Calvinistic camp but I do accept Total Depravity in the sense that sin works its way through all of us totally...but doesn't completely change us. For example, imagine a drop of ink into a cup of water. The water does not turn as black as black can get, so it is not totally black. Nevertheless, the ink taints the total amount of water. Humanity is not completely changed, as the dough was not completely changed and as the water was not completely changed, but sin has touched all parts of us, our strength, our thoughts, dreams, wants, even our own will. Finalizing this point, I want to state what Norman Geisler stated about the image of God within us after the fall. "That is, it does not in effect erase the image of God but only effaces it." (Chosen but Free, 116). We can affirm several times that sin is not something that takes away other things, but rather distorts them and perverts them, just as Satan distorts Scripture when trying to tempt Jesus....and even ourselves as He appears to us as an angel of light. Even physical nature was distorted and changed when sin entered the world, lets read Genesis 3:1-3 (ESV) "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" Notices it doesn't say, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman freaked out because a snake just talked...." but she continued to have a conversation with it, think of Narnia: The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe.



So we see that sin is lawlessness, being disorderly and rebellious, it changes things physically, it was not good because it was not a part of God's creation but a perversion of the goodness of God's creation that Satan brought the concept of and that Eve and Adam brought the manifest presence of. God hates sin, and hates those who have become attached to sin. Sin distorts, perverts, changes, corrupts, decays, and kills. Now, imagine this disgust twisting all the attributes of love, since God is love and we were originally made in His image.....we have a distorted version of love within us, and all the attributes of love with it as stated in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a; Romans 12:9-21; John 15:13; 1 John 3:16, Revelation 3:19 pretty frightening that we don't even know what true love is until Christ came. Oh God, cleanse us!



This sin nature that I have just expounded on, that is so disgusting has become an ingrained habit of all of humanity because of the imputation of the original man, Adam. Later in the Scriptures it expands on who all has done these terrible acts and has this horrible nature in Romans 3:23 (ESV) "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We often wonder why we keep sinning and we feel so trapped and cannot escape its clutches, because even our own strength and will have sin dispersed within it. This is why we need God. Because if we think we can do it ourselves without God, we will be committing an idolatry that Paul talked about because many people were using outward exercises to try to control sin referred to in Colossians 2:21 (ESV) ""Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" and Paul states that these are wrong as he continued in verse 23 "These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. " I like what the King James states in the same verse, "Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship" Paul states that we are worshipping ourselves when we try to rely on our own outward strength, so we must rely on the strength of God....but we will not receive His strength unless we ask. Matthew 7:7 (ESV) "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." and remember the great hope that we have in this, Philippians 4:13 (ESV) "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."



Therefore, in conclusion, we see that sin is ingrained within the human soul and nature and has distorted the image of God within us that was pure and we can do nothing about it by our own strength or will power because they are tainted by sin too. We can only be saved by His drawing of us, and if we choose Him we can be saved but cannot continue because our will power and strength are not sufficient enough to endure. This is why we need His strength. By this nature, we are impure and there is nothing within us to turn God's heart but only to turn His stomach. So the final question is, now that we know a part of this nature of sin, why would God still save us? Scripture states that He is merciful in Exodus 34:6 (ESV) "The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." God's mercy was display in Scripture because of His love and that He is love. Even though God has a righteous and justified hate toward us because of our dealings with sin, He still offers us mercy because as John 3:16 (ESV) says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Again, Romans 5:8 (ESV) says, " but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." and how do we know God's love, 1 John 3:16 (ESV) "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." This is the greatest love that anyone could have because John 15:13 (ESV) states, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."



Choose God today if you do not know Him, and He will get rid of your sins and restore you and progressively change you from glory to glory. If you do know Christ already, continually seek Him. Discipline yourself to a life of prayer and reading of the Scriptures that you may 1) know Him and 2) know what He has done and promised.