The lie about the "sinful nature" (Part 1)

"Sin is crouching at your door.  It desires to master you, but you must master it." 
~God to Cain, before Cain murders Abel

I learned a lie in church:  that we were born with a "sinful nature," meaning we can't help but sin.  I heard things like "nobody teaches you to sin," which meant that we were "born sinners."  I learned that we have a sinful mind, emotions, and will from the womb, and that's it's only a "work of God in our hearts" that can save us.  And even then, we'll still sin.  Even when God "takes away our sinful nature" and gives us a "new nature," we'll still sin.  I heard that "Christians aren't sinless, they sin less."  All of this is a lie.  This is the truth.

We are born in a state of separation from God.  And left to ourselves we will destroy ourselves.  But we're not "born sinners."  We can't be.  Sin is a deliberate act of disobedience against God; we aren't born deliberately disobeying God.  According to the scriptures, sin means we "know to do good and refuse to do it." But we aren't born knowing knowing to do good.  Sin means we know we should "choose good and refuse evil," according to the Prophet Isaiah. And according to the prophet, we aren't born knowing to choose the good and refuse evil.  (See Isaiah 7:15-16)

You might think "evil" is a strong word.  Alright, how about going against your conscience?  I'm talking about doing something that you define as wrong.  Not that the Bible or any religious book defines as wrong.  Not that your parents define as wrong.  Not the law.  Not the government.  Not even education.  You think something is wrong, and you do it any way, knowing it's wrong, and feeling guilty even if nobody knows you did it.  You don't feel guilty for any other reason than you went against your own conscience.  I can't stress that enough.  No one is condemning you in this situation, because nobody but you made up the rule that you broke.

For example, a girl decides she's not going to have sex with someone unless she loves him.  Her mom didn't tell her this.  In fact, her mom said all she needs to do is make sure the guy has a condom.  "You're young," says her mom.  "You can explore your sexuality."  Her dad agrees.  Her friends agree.  Her school agrees.  She doesn't go to church, and her parents don't go to church.  This girl decided she wanted to wait until she's in love to have sex because she wants sex to mean something.  She thought about it, and feels very strongly that if she has sex without love, she's wrong.

But in spite of this, she has sex with a guy that she doesn't love; and she feels horrible.

This example shows what sin really is: when we go against our conscience.  And we don't have to go against our conscience.  We don't have to sin.  We don't have a nature that makes us sin.  The story of Cain and Abel proves this.

Read here to find out how.