Fractured Soul, Prone to Evil
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Lacking the character of God, and possessing a fractured soul, we are prone to commit evil
Lacking the character of God, and possessing a fractured soul, we are prone to commit evil
After the Fall
After the Fall
Adam was intimate with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have had a male child with the Lord’s help.”
Then she also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of flocks, but Cain worked the ground.
In the course of time Cain presented some of the land’s produce as an offering to the Lord.
And Abel also presented an offering—some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he looked despondent.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent?
If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”
Then He said, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground!
So now you are cursed, alienated, from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood you have shed.
If you work the ground, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
But Cain answered the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear!
Since You are banishing me today from the soil, and I must hide myself from Your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me.”
Then the Lord replied to him, “In that case, whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” And He placed a mark on Cain so that whoever found him would not kill him.
Then Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Was Cain unusual? Consider the words of the Teacher:
Was Cain unusual? Consider the words of the Teacher:
Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: the righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hands. People don’t know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them.
Everything is the same for everyone: there is one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as for the one who takes an oath, so for the one who fears an oath.
This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: there is one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live —after that they go to the dead.
The whole world is guilty, according to Paul:
The whole world is guilty, according to Paul:
What then? Are we any better? Not at all! For we have previously charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin,
as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one.
There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away; all alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.
Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and wretchedness are in their paths,
and the path of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Now we know that whatever the law says speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment.
For no one will be justified in His sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
“Strangely, it is precisely the intrinsic greatness of the person that makes it in its ruined condition 'a horror and a corruption such as you now meet...only in a nightmare." If we were insignificant, our ruin would not be horrifying. G.K. Chesterton somewhere says that the hardest thing to accept in the Christian religion is the great value it places upon the individual soul. Still older Christian writers used to say that God has hidden the majesty of the human soul from us to prevent our being ruined by vanity.
This explains why even in its ruined condition a human being is regarded by God as something immensely worth saving. Sin does not make it worthless, but only lost. And in its lostness it is still capable of great strength, dignity and heartbreaking beauty and goodness - enough so to hide from the unenlightened, or those who do not wish to understand, the horror it has become and is becoming."
--Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p. 46
But, can man not choose good over evil?
But, can man not choose good over evil?
But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.
So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.
I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.
But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.
So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t.
I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
I love God’s law with all my heart.
But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
The perfect answer at the perfect time...
The perfect answer at the perfect time...
Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
A key reminder
A key reminder
The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.
So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.
That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)
And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.