Sinful Nature – Being a Pilgrim

“Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?”
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NLT

We all still have our “sinful nature”, unfortunately. Here is a definition of what this is: “the sinful nature is that aspect in humanity that makes us rebellious against God. When we speak of the sinful nature, we refer to the fact that we have a natural inclination to sin; given the choice to do God’s will or our own, we will naturally choose to do our own thing“. Paul was quite correct when he wrote, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). Parents know that a child will be drawn intuitively to sin, in that their behaviour, even when very young, will choose the wrong, sinful response rather than the right, sinless way. David knew that when he wrote Psalm 51, “For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me” (verse 5). Paul singled out problems experienced by the Corinthian church’s “sinful nature” – jealousy and quarrelling – and he concluded by suggesting they were “living like people of the world”.

Paul wrote about his personal frustration with his tendency to sin, “ … 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” (Romans 7:14b-15). He continues, “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” (Romans 7:18-20). And he concludes in verse 24, “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” And that is Paul, the great Apostle, saying what was on his heart. We pilgrims I’m sure, deep down will tick the same box that Paul did – in the natural, he, us, and the rest of mankind, all have “sinful natures”.

So where did this “sinful nature” come from? We know from Genesis 1:27 that human beings were made in God’s image. Now, because God is a sinless, perfect Being, sin never originated with Him. How could it? But we can read what happened in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve committed the very first sin, an act of rebellion and disobedience to God. And that has been the root of sin ever since. And in some strange way, the “sinful nature” has been passed on, generation to generation, a seemingly endless and depressing cycle that is impossible to break. Adam and Eve, we are told, brought forth a son called Cain, and he became the very first murderer. So human beings, with only one exception, are sinners, and will continue to be so until the End of the Age. The one exception is Jesus. He came to break this merry-go-round of sin and death, being born to a virgin, thus bypassing Adam’s curse. The sinless God-Man Jesus was able to become sin for all mankind, so that their “sinful natures” could be redeemed forever.

Jesus said to Nicodemus that humans must be “born again” into a spiritual life worthy, through Jesus, of standing before God wearing His cloak of righteousness. John 3:5-6, “Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life“. Humans have been offered a way out of their sinfulness by believing in Jesus and accepting His substitutionary death in their place, allowing Him to take onto Himself the punishment for their sins. But that isn’t all, Paul wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Divine Exchange – Jesus took on our sin and in exchange He gave us His righteousness. That surely must make all us pilgrims everywhere fall on our knees with grateful, and eternal, thanks, because one day we will experience the reality of what the Apostle John wrote, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). We will be like Jesus on day. This is Good News indeed.

We pilgrims have a “sinful nature“, but we are no longer slaves to it. Jesus has set us free, and one day we will join Him in the place where he is building us a new home. The freedom from sin that we can enjoy now on this earth is the best news this planet has ever seen. Instead of becoming depressed by reading worldly news that is almost all bad, we can open the Book and read eternally good news. Long after all the wars, sickness, and death have disappeared, those believers like us will be enjoying a new life for all eternity, set free forever from the “sinful nature”.

Father God, at that point of rebirth, our spiritual beings were born. Within us, we have two natures, one of sin and one sinless, but we pray that more and more the sinless being within us, the “new man”, will prevail. Please help us to live Your sinless way, every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and its people to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. He did astounding miracles, even making fire flash down to earth from the sky while everyone was watching.”
Revelation 13:11-13 NLT

As if one beast wasn’t enough, another one pops up. This one is perhaps the devil himself, because “he spoke with the voice of a dragon“, but what can we glean from these verses?

Firstly, the new beast came “up out of the earth”. Now we know that after the war in Heaven, the devil was cast out down to the earth. So that would be where he would be expected to appear from. And now we have an interesting few words – “He had two horns like those of a lamb”. One thing the devil is good at is how he counterfeits the things of God. There is a good chance he appeared as a lamb, mimicking the Lamb of God. And by so doing he would deceive many people, even Christians, in the process committing one of the biggest scams this earth has ever seen. As Christians we must be very, very careful and discerning. The Apostle Peter warned us. He wrote in 1 Peter 5:8, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” Watch out we must.

In my pilgrimage, I have encountered some Christians who talk a good story but, on closer examination, what they say or do troubles me. They sound very plausible and spiritual but issues start to emerge that undermine them. There’s not so much a problem with what some Christians say, if it can be checked out against the Bible. The Bible is the final arbiter of what we say, what we believe. One danger that can trap Christians is when someone builds a doctrine around a Bible verse taken out of context. As an example, I can remember some years ago that a church was established around Mark 16:18, “they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on people who are ill, and they will get well.” So they started to bring poisonous snakes to their meetings. However, it is the marginal sayings and actions that don’t have a direct Biblical parallel that can be a problem. I have met people who start a conversation with “I believe God has told me to …” and they then launch into how they are undertaking a set of actions in accordance with what they believe God has said to them. They might be perfectly correct in what they have heard and are now doing, but the danger is that the devil has planted an evil thought in their minds. Remember the devil’s conversation with Eve in Genesis 3:1? “The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”” Often the enemy will try and plant doubts about God in our minds and in the process sound very plausible and logical.

It is sometimes very difficult to discern if the still small voice we are hearing is God or someone else. The old Apostle John wrote some words of wisdom in his first epistle, “Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world“. (1 John 4:1).

Often what we are hearing can be our sinful natures trying to reassert themselves. There are some checks and balances that need to be followed to avoid us falling into a trap set by the forces of evil, whatever their source.
Firstly, is there Scriptural support for what “I believe God has told me to …”. If what we think God is asking us to do is at variance with what it says in Scripture then it is probably not Him speaking.
Secondly, if necessary, it is worth checking out what we think God is saying with a trusted Christian friend or our pastor. Their counsel will be priceless. I like what Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.”
Thirdly, and particularly if what we believe God has said may lead to a decision that is life changing, we pray and ask God for confirmation. He is our loving Heavenly Father and He won’t want us to succumb to the devil’s ways. And if we don’t get an answer straight away, leave what we think God said on the “back-burner” until confirmation arrives.

Dear Heavenly Father, we know the devil wants to lead us into paths that aren’t right. Please help us and protect us in our pilgrimage through life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.