When they had children, Adam’s image and likeness was passed along to his offspring (Genesis 5:3). They were immediately stricken with a sense of shame and unfitness, and they hid from God’s presence (Genesis 3:8). By that one action, sin entered into their nature. However, Genesis 3 records the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Where did the sin nature come from? Scripture says that God created humans good and without a sinful nature: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Elsewhere, David states, “Even from birth the wicked go astray / from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies” (Psalm 58:3). David rues the fact that he was born with sin already at work within him: “Surely I was sinful at birth, / sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). The apostle John perhaps puts it most bluntly: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).Įven children have a sin nature. Solomon concurs: “Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, / no one who does what is right and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Paul was in his “sinful nature a slave to the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). Paul admits that “the trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin” (Romans 7:14). All of us have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6). This is the doctrine of total depravity, and it is biblical. All of us have a sinful nature, and it affects every part of us. And Romans 6:6 speaks of “the body ruled by sin.” The flesh-and-blood existence we lead on this earth is shaped by our sinful, corrupt nature. It’s our “earthly nature” that produces the list of sins in Colossians 3:5. The Bible speaks of “sinful flesh” in Romans 8:3. Sin is part of the very fiber of our being. Humanity is sinful, not just in theory or in practice but by nature. The Bible explains the reason for the trouble. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived.” Charles Spurgeon said, “As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. The news is filled with tragic examples of mankind acting badly. No one has to teach a child to lie or be selfish rather, we go to great lengths to teach children to tell the truth and put others first. When we speak of the sin nature, we refer to the fact that we have a natural inclination to sin given the choice to do God’s will or our own, we will naturally choose to do our own thing. The sin nature is that aspect in man that makes him rebellious against God.
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