{"id":236,"date":"2004-12-04T22:00:28","date_gmt":"2004-12-04T22:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/12\/human_nature.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:46:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:46:52","slug":"human_nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/12\/human_nature.shtml","title":{"rendered":"Human Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a great new article<\/a> at Douglas Jacoby’s web site by Michael Cameron. It takes on the common Christian notion about ‘Human Nature’ and the associated idea of original sin I suspect that many folks who call themselves Christians haven’t thought much about original sin, but they may know and hold to the idea of the sinful nature. I certainly believed in the idea that, as humans, there’s a part of us that is inclined to sin. It’s the part of us that longs<\/i> for sin, it’s why we cannot help ourselves.
\nMichael Cameron’s article makes the case that what’s referred to as the ‘sinful nature’ could really be translated as ‘the flesh’ meaning a reliance on ourselves rather than God. He also says that this idea of humans having an ingrained sinful nature shares a common heritage with the idea o original sin. They both rely on the idea that we inherited the desire to sin from Adam and Eve. He makes the argument that it is really not consistent with the story in Genesis. What was passed down to succeeding generations is not an inborn inclination to sin but an environment of sin.<\/p>\n

What do I mean? Adam and eve are tempted externally \u2013 by Satan. The idea of sin doesn’t actually come from them first, but rather from outside of them. But the idea of sin is then transferred into the general environment (let’s call this “the World”) as humans pass it on to each other. We see this as Eve passes the idea on to Adam, and so infects his thinking with it, as he simultaneously also chooses to doubt God’s goodness. The world now becomes the agent of Satan in infecting each successive generation with sin, as people also individually choose to doubt God’s goodness, and so to rely on the false hopes of the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He goes on to show how sin is a result of our doubting God’s goodness, but needing hope. We turn to the false hopes and temporary satisfaction of sin. This begins a self fulfilling spiral where sin produce guilt which keeps us from approaching God deepening our need for fulfillment and leading to more sin. Sin is like an adictive drug; it provides a temporary cure for our lack of love but leaves us empty and longing for more to satisfy our need.<\/p>\n

Worldly influence towards uncertainty of God’s goodness, and therefore worldly influence to sin is all that is required to pass this situation on from one generation to the next. This is enough to fully explain the situation we see in the world, so there is no need to find anything intrinsic in human nature to explain it. This also explains how Jesus death potentially breaks the chain reaction through providing a basis for certainty despite our sin and weaknesses.
\nHere, for once, is a way of being forgiven and accepted that is dependent on God himself, on his decision to forgive – rather than on how we measure up to God’s expectations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What I love is how he goes on to show how this idea that we have a sinful side prevents us from feeling certain of God’s love for us.<\/p>\n

How does the idea of “human nature” in itself affect certainty? The concept of an intrinsic “human nature” and the related concept of original sin fights against certainty because they make one feel intrinsically ashamed, in a similar way that some people are made to feel intrinsically ashamed of their skin colour through racism. Another example is people feeling shame over being sexually abused as a child, or being abandoned by a parent, even though these things are not their fault. All of these phenomena dissociate shame from the actions of the one feeling the shame, making it a false, and very toxic idea of shame.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The idea of a ahuman sinful nature also works against the idea that Jesus was fully human and can sympathize with our weaknesses. If he was fully human, did he have a sinful nature too? If not, then was he truly fully human?<\/p>\n

He bore our sin – that much is true, but he wasn’t sinful in his nature, he was perfect, that’s why he could be our perfect sacrifice. (2 Cor 5:21). But did he feel tempted to sin through the external environment he was in? Of course he did \u2013 exactly as we do, but he resisted (Heb 4:15). There is a good argument to say he was so empowered to do so largely because he was so certain about heaven, having just come from there, and so certain about God’s love because he was God’s only Son. This certainty would have helped him to block out the external influence of the world.
\nAccording to the idea of a sinful nature, it is impossible to be both perfect in nature and also fully human. This begs the question of whether the idea really fits, and whether the one exception \u2013 Jesus, disproves the rule. In other words, the idea of a sinful nature doesn’t fit both with Jesus’ full humanity, and his total perfection. The idea of certainty versus external influence does.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If is was no sinful nature, then how do we explain the spread of sin?<\/p>\n

Another common verse touted as a justification actually argues to condemn the idea that sin passes to the next generation by birth. Romans 5:12 says that sin entered the world through Adam, and death through sin. Then the next bit is interesting. “And so, death spread to all men, because all sinned”. It didn’t spread to all men because all men were born, but because they all made the choice to sin, to doubt God’s goodness, to rely on the flesh instead of on God’s promises.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He nicely wraps up his argument here:<\/p>\n

Some might say that I am missing the point entirely. They might say Jesus died on the cross and through this crucified our intrinsic sinful nature, destroying it on the cross, and setting us free from its power. But if the sinful nature is our intrinsic tendency to sin, and this has been destroyed, this doctrine leaves such people in the difficult position of having to explain why they still have this tendency at times\u2013 even as Christians. And this persistent contradiction would put doubts in their mind as to whether they really are saved after all, further compounding the problem in the familiar vicious cycle.
\nIf they say they no longer do sin however, (as some do), then they have a problem with 1 John 1:9-10, which says they are deceiving themselves, and calling God a liar. Here, at the very least we see that the doctrine of the “sinful nature” or “human nature”, together with the doctrine of original sin, is a foothold for uncertainty, and therefore for Satan. It is also historically, the genesis point for a whole raft of other false doctrines that have relied on it.
\nFor these reasons, it makes much more sense to say that sin is a choice we all make, because the environment we live in is strongly influential towards this, and it becomes emotionally compelling because of our uncertainty. Jesus’ death gives us a basis for certainty, through knowing that our sin is paid for up front. As we believe, the addictive power of sin, uncertainty and emptiness drains away. We don’t actually need sin any more – we have the real thing now, so we can progressively decide to discard all the substitutes as they become apparent, but from a position of security and confidence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s so much good stuff, there I have only scratched the surface anad frankly haven’t done it justice. Please, go read<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a great new article at Douglas Jacoby’s web site by Michael Cameron. It takes on the common Christian notion about ‘Human Nature’ and the associated idea of original sinRead More Human Nature<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHuman Nature - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/12\/human_nature.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Human Nature - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There’s a great new article at Douglas Jacoby’s web site by Michael Cameron. 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Jared is an unapologetic Calvinist. I, frankly, had no idea what that meant until recently, and even now I'm not entirely sure. But thanks to Jared's patience in answering, probably, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":985,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2009\/11\/i_need_more_than_a_clean_slate.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":236,"position":1},"title":"I Need More Than a Clean Slate","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"November 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A common idea among Christians is that Jesus came and wiped our slate clean, washed us of our iniquities, cleaned us with his blood. 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He was hairy! 27:26-29 - This favoritism is so foreign to me and me US people pleasing politacal correctness. 27:34-36 - He had little respect for his honored, yet undeserved,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":180,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/08\/rethinking_the.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":236,"position":3},"title":"Rethinking the idea of a ‘Gay Christian’","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"August 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"That title ought to get you reading. A couple of news stories have got me thinking about this. The first is the California Supreme Court decision that the Mayor of San Francisco acted out of line in granting same-sex marriages. 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