Many Christians have bought into the cultural lie that people are born good and corrupted by their environment. This means people sin because they have needs that haven’t been met.
But this popular belief is a lie, dear Christians, a lie that affects how we view ourselves, how we parent, how we counsel, and how we talk about sin in general. Instead of accepting what the Bible says, we excuse, justify, and blame-shift people’s sins onto their environment, circumstances, parenting, mistreatment, etc. And this seems to be especially prevalent when talking about LGBTQ+ sins.
But the gospel is perfectly clear: everyone is born selfish and sinful. No one has to teach us how to sin. Our environment affects us, but it never forces us to sin.
"Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." James 1:14-15
God created man in His image, but Adam damaged that image by his willful sins causing all of mankind after him to be born with a sin nature, a propensity to make selfish, sinful choices (Genesis 5:3).
Before Christ, all of us “were dead in [our] transgressions and sins…gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts” (Ephesians 2:1-9; Romans 8:7-8).
Sin always has been and always will be an intentional choice.
You might want to read Why Do We Suffer for Adam's Sin? and the short Bible study Suffering from Adam's Sin. And please read the notes below about Genesis 5:3.
Digging Deeper:
⮞ Why Adam is held responsible
Eve is held fully responsible for her sin, but Adam is held responsible for sin entering our world. Adam was the first created human, a representative for mankind. Romans 5:12-14 says sin entered the world “through one man.” And 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 says, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
1 Timothy 2:11-14 explains that Eve was deceived by the serpent and Adam was not deceived. As the head of his family, he didn't lead Eve away from sin. He followed her into it.
⮞ We were and still are created in the image of God.
Genesis 1:27: “So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.”
⮞ But when Adam sinned, he damaged that perfect image, and all of us born after Adam have a sin nature.
Genesis 5:3: “When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.”
Commentaries on Genesis 5:3:
“As Adam was created in the image of God, so did he beget ‘in his own likeness, after his image;’ that is to say, he transmitted the image of God in which he was created, not in the purity in which it came direct from God, but in the form given to it by his own self-determination, modified and corrupted by sin.” Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament
“Adam was made in the image of God; but when fallen he begat a son in his own image, sinful and defiled, frail, wretched, and mortal, like himself. Not only a man like himself, consisting of body and soul, but a sinner like himself. This was the reverse of that Divine likeness in which Adam was made; having lost it, he could not convey it to his seed.” Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
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Bible Love Notes
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