Nature, Origin and Results of Sin
WE BELIEVE that sin is disobedience to the law of God, resulting in a position of guilt and in a condition of positive evil in the nature of men. This condition is not only an absence of good or failure to do right, it is an entire distortion of human nature producing habitual rebellion against the will of God.
1 John 3:4; Rom. 3:19; 8:7; Col. 1:21.
Sin began, not in God, nor in man, but among the angels before the creation of man. The biblical history of the entry of sin into the world and of the fall of Adam is factual and is the foundation of basic doctrine in Scripture.
Gen. 2:15-17; 3; Rom. 5:12-21; 2 Cor. 11:3; John 9:3; 11: 4-15; Rev. 12:7-9; Isa. 14:12; Luke 10:18; Rom. 16:20.
Adam was the representative of the human race and the sentence passed on him was passed on all mankind. All Adam’s posterity is without exception dead in sin, entirely defiled, guilty before God, subject to the death of the body, and deserving of eternal judgment. This explanation of man’s plight is not an excuse for continuing in sin, for all are accountable to God. The body is not in itself sinful but is made the instrument of sin and the excuse for it by fallen man.
Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12-19; 1 Cor. 15:20-25; Eph. 2:1-5; Ezek. 18:19-20.
Natural man is totally unable to receive God’s truth or to desire true godliness because his mind is blinded and his heart is wholly inclined to evil.
Mat. 16:17; Eph. 4:18.
God has given man power to choose his own course of action. His will is not forced from outside himself against his inward disposition, but always operates in harmony with his own personality, emotional and intellectual state. He is thus responsible and accountable to God for his choices.
Until the fall man was able to choose either to please God or to disobey him. Since the fall man still chooses freely according to his own nature, but that nature is now sinful and dead towards God. Consequently, all his decisions, both in material and spiritual affairs, lack the enlightenment of the divine will and he is completely unable to please God, to choose Christ, or in any way to contribute to his own salvation from sin.
Deut. 30:19; Josh. 24:15; James 1 :14; Mat. 7:15-20; 15:19; Gen. 2:16-17; 3:6; John 6:65; 15:5; Rom. 8:7-8; Eph. 2:1; John 6:44; Heb. 11 :6; 9:14; Isa. 64:6.
In salvation God frees the sinner from this bondage enabling him to will and to enjoy all spiritual good. Indwelling sin, however, remains to ensnare the believer; he is still liable to choose evil, or to choose good and yet fail to achieve it, until he is perfected in glory.
John 8:36; Rom. 7:14-23; Eph. 2:5; 4:13; Gal. 5:16-17; Phil. 2:12-13; Jude 24; Eph. 6:10-18; 1 John 3:1-3; Psa. 17:15; Phil. 1:6.