I must first point out that what we will be talking about in this section is Sin (noun) not the "sin nature." The term "sin nature" is a theological term using sin as an adjective describing the effect or operation of Sin within human beings. Our term "nature of Sin," on the other hand, is used to define Sin itself, a noun.
An understanding of Sin is absolutely essential if we are to explain it to someone else. Unfortunately, a biblical understanding of Sin, what it is, and how to detect it, is sadly lacking in society today. Satan has done a good job confusing what Sin does with what Sin is even in the minds of many church leaders.
This confusion has been the primary factor that has led to the decadent, immoral decline in society and the apostate, powerless, liberal theology of the Church since the 1950's. In other words, an improper discernment of Sin has been the incubator that has festered a disrespectful, irreverent society and a permissive Church!
We could spend forever explaining to someone who grew up and lives in a New York high rise what a garden hoe does (it works up the soil), but that will not give him the understanding of what a hoe is. In fact he could be very familiar with what it does and yet be looking right at a hoe and not know it was one.
For example, if the city fella went to the farm he could look at the first cultivated field he came to and say, "Oh, I know what did that to the ground, a hoe." Then he could point to an object rolling down the field and tell the farmer, "That's the first hoe I've seen."
The farmer would laugh at the fella and tell him, "What worked up this ground was not a hoe but a four bottom plow, and the thing you pointed to is a tractor pulling the plow!" At which point the city fella would feel pretty silly.
Trying to save face, the city fella might well stop at the garden beside the farmer's house and say, "I see your wife really knows how to use that hoe." Only to have the farmer reply, "Well, you're right about that being my wife, but the tool she is using to work up the ground is a rake."
At this the city fella turns to walk away and steps on the blade of a hoe causing the handle to come up and hit him on the forehead. "Ouch! What kind of a dangerous tool is that?" he exclaims. The farmer laughs and answers, "Ahh, that's a hoe."
The parallel is that we not only need to know what Sin does but what it is! If we don't know what it is, we may find ourselves stepping on it and being wounded by it. And how great a wound Sin will inflict for the "wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). We must know what Sin is if we are to distinguish between the spiritual forces at work in our physical lives.
Without an accurate knowledge of what Sin is we can not do the first step in coming into salvation, and that is to REPENT. To be saved the formula is not 1) believe and 2) repent, it is 1) repent and 2) believe. "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).
Jesus also said, "except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3 5). See also Mark 6:12; Acts 3:19, 17:20, 26:20 & Rev. 3:19.
For there to be salvation there must be repentance, belief and confession all three.
James 2:19 states that even the devils believe but remain lost and in fear. John 12:42 speaks of men who believed in Jesus but remained lost because they didn't confess him as Lord. In Mark 1:24 a demon confesses that Jesus is Lord and is not saved but cast out.
This is important because many today are simply quoting John 3:16 and Romans 10:9 as "all we need do to be saved" and are misleading people into a false salvation void of repentance!
Even the devils are confessing believers. But they are eternally lost!
Those who are preaching a "gospel" of confessing and believing without repentance are only converting people to a religion, not Christ. Christ's words still stand, "except ye repent, ye shall ALL likewise perish."
People not only need to confess and believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord and is risen from the dead. They MUST also confess and believe in their heart that they are sinners full of Sin, AND THEN REPENT (turn away from Sin). Repenting and believing with public confession as the outward testimony of God's grace at work in one's heart is what the Bible calls being "born again" (John 3:3).
When we tell someone they need to repent, they might ask "Why?" or "What is repentance?" Our answer might be "Because you're a sinner" or "Repentance is to turn from your Sin and quit sinning." After this, their next question will be the all important one, "What is Sin?"
At this juncture we need to be sure we know the correct answer. If we give the wrong answer the person we are trying to reach will either be unaffected, have false repentance (sorry he got caught rather than sorry for what he did), or he will try to repent of the wrong thing (outward actions rather than his inward attitude).
We don't need to know what sin is in order to be doing it, but, we need to know what it is in order to repent of it.
Before we examine just what sin is we need to examine one of the things it is not. It is not "the willful transgression of the revealed will of God."
This little phrase is a very popular theological definition of Sin but it is the furthest thing from the truth. In order to sin one does not have to first know God's will and secondly willfully go against that will.
The above definition of Sin is actually Satan's definition. It is Satan himself who would try to pawn that definition off on us.
This phrase is simply a religiously candy coated version of the worldly statement, "What ya don't know won't hurt ya." The devil has been trying ever since the Garden of Eden to get people to believe that "What ya don't know won't hurt ya," "If it don't hurt nobody, do it," and "If it feels good, do that, too." Satan says, "Do it!" God says, "If you do it, you will surely die even if you don't know what 'it' is."
Romans 13:1 6 states that the physical authorities and laws of earth are established by and upon the spiritual authority of God Himself. To break the earthly laws of society is to be breaking the spiritual laws of God, i.e. the Ten Commandments. Physical earthly law has validity because it is founded upon a higher spiritual law.
We also know that ignorance of earthly laws is no excuse in court for having broken them. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, be it man's law or God's. Likewise, this principle of ignorance not being an excuse has physical validity only because it is based upon the same principle in the spiritual.
We can not escape punishment by the law just because we are ignorant of the law. We will be punished in accordance with the law, not according to our understanding, or lack of understanding, of it.
SO WHAT IS SIN? To understand this we must go to the origin of Sin. Sin did not begin in the Garden of Eden. It only came to the physical universe there. Sin originated in the spiritual realm, in heaven itself. This is important because it tells us that Sin is not a physical thing we do or do not do. Sin is a spiritual thing, and as such it influences, motivates, and causes a physical reaction in our day to day lives.
These reactions are only the "fruits" of Sin and not Sin itself. One might say these fruits are like symptoms of a disease. Symptoms are caused by a disease, the disease is not caused by the symptoms.
For example, a man bitten by a rabid dog at that moment would be infected with Rabies. However, it will take 10 days for the disease NOW PRESENT in the body to produce symptoms. The man's lack of symptoms in those first 10 days does not mean he is not deathly sick it only means he has not yet felt the disease's effect upon him. The same can be said of someone with an AIDS virus.
Sin is not the physical fruits we do or do not do. SIN IS THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF THE HEART.
In Isaiah 14:12 14 we find Sin's origin, author, goal, and nature. "How are thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground." (Note that the progression is from the heavenly to the earthly, from the spiritual to the physical.) "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most high."
Lucifer, who is the devil and Satan, the author of Sin, desired in his heart to place his will in equality with Almighty God. Sin is the spiritual condition of a heart which desires to place its own will in equality with or above the will of God.
Now since all humanity is born plugged into the power of Sin through the fall of the human race in the Garden of Eden, Sin has been alive and kicking in every child that has ever been born. For it is simply the I WILL in each of us that is Sin!
It is the fact that Sin is so simple and uncomplicated that makes it so hard for people to see it for what it really is the singularly most deadly thing in the universe! The "I will, I desire, I want" it seems so trite, harmless, and unimportant.
Well, we need look no further than Eve standing before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Just standing there desiring in her heart to be like God, then ever so silently reaching out to fulfill her desire (Gen. 6:3). Harmless? How can anyone call it harmless, for her one selfish action that one day back in antiquity has forever determined the spiritual state of the entire human race!
Satan's sin was not depraved of all morality or perverted as we usually think those words mean. Neither was Eve's. In fact their sin was very religious and full of worship. But it was self worship and self righteousness. They were determined to have it their way.
It was self, self, self. Self gratification, self improvement, self centeredness, self reliance, self exaltation, self justification, and self redemption the Gospel of Self interest. The gospel according to Satan. The good news of self. The hideous satanic doctrine which is now even sweeping into the Church of Jesus Christ!!!
This is what has prompted us at this ministry to shout, "There are wolves among the sheep!" Wolves which base their false Christianized gospel of self on the grossest misrepresentation of verses like, "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24).
This passage is presented by the gurus of self as a blank check from God by which a Christian can acquire all kinds of carnal desires.
But this verse has nothing to do with our "self" desires. Christ is speaking to saints who have died to self and seek ONLY the things that will further God's desire to see lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness brought to the earth (Jer. 9:24, Gal. 2:20).
Psalms 37:4 says to "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine [dead to self] heart." When we delight in the things God delights in then those things become our desire. And God gives them to us because in reality (spiritual fact) they are God's will. Proper prayer petitioning is simply asking for God's will to be done, not ours! Mark 11:24 is simply a rephrasing of "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22)!
Sin places ourselves first which is the essence of pride and selfishness. Ignorance of what Sin is results in people not realizing they are living for themselves, and how sinful it is.
Even though someone may have been touched to tears by Christ's death, responded to an altar call, and asked God to forgive his sins, if he has not asked Christ to put self to death and turned his life over to Him (Gal. 5:24), then he has not experienced biblical repentance. He is still not saved from Sin self.
A religious heart that is not fully repentant will still be delighting in worldly things. Not the "dirty things," but "nice" things. This is why they like the preaching that as Christians they are "Kings kids," have rights and are entitled to the best life offers.
There are many today who are living clean religious lives, but it all revolves around self and not Christ.
They think they are right with God because they've stopped using dope, getting drunk, fornicating, watching dirty movies, and using filthy language. Instead they go after the "Christian" guys and girls, pursue education, and a good career. They hone their talents, buy expensive homes, make money, have and wear the latest fashion all for Jesus.
They now perform on the Church stage rather than the bar room stage, of course only with the best musical accompaniment and dressed as fashionably as possible to "honor the Lord." Others spend much time on civic committees and in politics to help improve the community and world for Jesus and give all diligence to these matters as "a good witness."
It seems to have escaped many that following Jesus starts with not caring if we even see tomorrow. A Christian's only desire is to comply with God's will. The only important thing is to live for Christ alone and His glory. Such things as higher education, marriage, business opportunities, where one lives, and individual talents are laid at the foot of the cross and left there unless and until God directs otherwise.
Not only do we need to know what Sin is but also how to detect it. Which brings us to the area of the fruit of Sin.
When asked the question "What is Sin?" people usually give some of the following definitions: smoking, drinking, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, witchcraft, murder, stealing, partying, heresies, idolatry, greed, and on and on. However, as we shall see these answers are incorrect.
Many Christians have been telling people for years that these things are Sin. They think the Bible in I Corinthians 6:9 10; Galatians 5:19 21; Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5 6 says they are Sin. But they are mistaken. Look at these scriptures again. The things mentioned are not referred to as Sin but the fruit of Sin.
What's the difference? There is a lot of difference. We can go to a town and look at the destruction left by a tornado the night before, but the destruction is only the fruit of the tornado, not the tornado itself.
In Galatians 5 a comparison is made between the "works" of the flesh and the "fruit" of the Spirit. The works of the flesh are the fruit of Sin, not Sin itself. Likewise, the fruit of the Spirit is the influence of the Spirit of God in a person's life, not the Spirit Himself. Apples grow on apple trees, but they are only the fruit and not the tree itself.
This may seen like hairsplitting but it is essential if we are to be effective soul winners. You see, we Christians have become so eager to tell others and ourselves for that matter that Sin is "things we do outwardly" we have inadvertently led those people who do not do "bad things" to believe they are not sinners!
If we tell people that Sin is what they "do wrong," then the person who doesn't beat his wife, smoke, drink, steal, and is by all ethical and moral standards a "good person" will also believe he is not a sinner.
We are creating a false religious conscience of guilt or innocence based on outward actions. The guilt or innocence of a person is no longer determined by his heart relation with God but by his own feelings based upon his own perception of what is right or wrong. This mentality is the basic foundation of religious humanism the belief that an individual can save himself simply by stopping this or starting that. Just make a New Year's resolution, turn over a new leaf, clean up your act, JUST DO BETTER AND IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT!
But it will not be all right! We must tell them that true Biblical Sin is A HEART THAT IS CENTERED ON SELF PERIOD, and that no matter how "good" they are they are still going to hell unless they repent of THAT ATTITUDE and give their whole will and life to Jesus Christ!
If an apple tree stops bearing apples, it is still an apple tree. It is an apple tree in the spring when it blooms, in the summer when it bears fruit, in winter when it is barren of both fruit and leaves. It was an apple tree when it was a seed planted in the ground and put forth its first shoots. Likewise, we are sinners full of Sin from the day we come out of our mother's womb before we have "done" anything!
Oh! How we need to see that if we are continually telling people to quit this and stop that we have become no more than fruit pickers. And we all know what a fruit pickers does, don't we. They go back year after year, season after season, picking the same ol' fruit over and over again.
Sound familiar? You bet it does, for we have seen them, the same people who enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, repent (supposedly), and in a few weeks or months are right back bearing the same ole sinful fruit again and again. Back and forth to the confessional or altar they go, round and round, back and forth, never getting anywhere with God! This is not biblical Christianity because it is void of biblical repentance from biblical SIN.
A person does not have to bear the fruit of Sin to go to Hell. He's going there anyway by birth, fruit or no fruit. He is going to Hell because he is a sinner; he is Sin. What a startling revelation, when someone asks me, "What is Sin?" and I reply to them, "Why, sir, you are Sin!"
Isn't it the apple tree that bears the apples? Isn't it the sinner who commits the sins? The dirt is not responsible for the apple tree bearing apples, and the devil is not responsible for the sinner sinning. The scriptures clearly state that it is our own fault and responsibility for "every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed" (James 1:14).
What the Lord wants people to repent of and turn from is the fact they have been living life for themselves and loving themselves rather than living for God and loving Jesus more than anything.
Sin is that rebellion in humanity against God. We are rebels, sinners, because we are in rebellion to God, not because the things we do are "good or bad." The bad fruits are only the outward expression of the selfishness that is already in every unregenerated human heart. Our rebellious heart within is what we are to repent of. That is true repentance. This will lead to God giving us a new heart (tree) which causes the Christian to bear the fruit of righteousness (II Cor. 5:17).
Do you know that religiosity is as much a fruit of sin as murder? Even the good things we do are sin if they are independent of the will of God. Let me give a personal example.
After living a rather wild life by church standards, I finally got married and settled down. Eventually I began to go to church, believed in Jesus as God, quit smoking, quit drinking, began teaching Sunday school, praying and became rather religious. I was considered a Christian by others and myself. But there was one big problem I had not repented in my heart.
During all this niceness and religiousness, I found myself committing adultery! At this point, I knew something was wrong somewhere!
Eventually God got it through my thick head (or heart) that I was an unsaved, religious person. I WAS STILL LIVING FOR MYSELF, DOING MY OWN THING. Yes, when I wanted to quit smoking, I quit. When I wanted to quit drinking, I quit. When I wanted to read the Bible, I read. When I wanted to go to church, I went. And when I wanted to fool around on my wife, I did that also! I wasn't doing anything, not even "good" things, because Christ wanted me to but because I wanted to.
Therefore, even my good was one of Sin's worst fruits religiosity. I finally came to realize what Jesus meant when He said, "not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matt. 26:39). How blind we can be to what God is trying to tell us!
All this talk about Sin can sound like bad news rather than good news, but you know what? It is the bad news that makes the good news so good. The good news of the gospel of Christ only has meaning if someone also knows the bad news of Sin and damnation.
It is the bad news that we are all born dirty, rotten, self-seeking sinners doomed to an eternity in hell that makes the Good News so gooood! The good news is that Jesus can and will make us free from our own self will so that we can obey and serve God in the now according to His will. I John 1:9 states that not only will God forgive us of our sins but also cleanse us from all unrighteousness (Sin).
The mind set that all we need do is walk up to sinners and say, "Jesus loves you. Would you please like to become a Christian? Huh, would ya?" is about as useless as a screen door on a submarine. This approach will at best only make a few folks religious. It will not bring anybody into being a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
People only come to Jesus once they realize they need Him and His blood to forgive and wash away their sins and Sin. WHICH MEANS THEY HAVE TO KNOW THEY HAVE LIVED FOR THEMSELVES AND ARE DOOMED SINNERS IN NEED OF A SAVIOUR. The next time you witness to someone, do what Jesus did. Ask, "Will you give up everything you've got your dreams, family, possessions, and life to be a Christian?" (Luke 14:25 33).
Ultimately, there is no nice way of telling people they are sinners on their way to hell. There is no way around the bad news. And there is not supposed to be, for the bad news of hell and Sin is the blackened backdrop against which the glorious gospel of Christ is supposed to be presented.
Emotions are an important part of a Christian's life. But we must be careful not to put too much emphasis on emotions. Thousands of people have been touched to tears by the passion and life of Christ and have come to believe Jesus is both the Son of God and God the Son, but being moved to tears does not save anybody.
Churches are full of do gooders and hypocrites alike talking about the "love of Jesus," and thousands of them are on their way to hell this very moment because they have never given Jesus first place in their self-centered hearts! They may have given emotional assent to the good news and changed some of the things they do, but they have never sold out to Christ and let saving faith take root within. "Either make the tree good, and the fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit" (Matt. 12:33). Jesus said we can't have it both ways. See also Romans 6:16 and Gal. 6:7 8.
This is why the scriptures say, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). A Christian is dead to self and alive to Christ. If Jesus is not the Lord of our lives, we are eternally lost no matter how religious we may appear.
We have become plagued with a generation of preachers who have reduced the holy, all self consuming love of Jesus Christ to sugar y nothingness. Repentance preaching has been replaced with resolution making make believe. And the sanctifying, Sin purging power of the blood of Christ has been reduced from that element which has the power to take away Sin (both root and fruit) to so much meaningless white wash to only "cover sin."
The blood of mere bulls and goats "covered" people's sin quite effectively (Heb.9:13) and the precious blood of Christ was not shed to perpetuate that farce and folly of the law, for the covering of sin did not save anyone. Christ's blood was shed to issue in a new and powerful final blow to the power of Sin in the innermost heart of man (Heb. 9:14). "That he (man) no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God" (I Peter 4:2).
"For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Cor. 5:17). "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds" (Col. 3:9). If you are a Christian one thing is for sure, you are no longer a self willed sinner, fulfilling your self interests, for you will be dead to self but alive to and in Jesus Christ.
Now that we know about Sin, its detection becomes easy. We see it all around us when we see people living out their lives to gratify their own desires. Hence, the reason for this essay, to help us better detect and minister to those who, no matter how "good" or religious they may appear, are still only following Satan's gospel of SELF INTEREST.