Study_Sin

STUDY -- Sin Nature

What Are the Roots in Our Sin Nature That Causes Our Practice of Sin?

Indwelling Sin a Fact: (Rom. 7:21) “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. a). First, he says that sin is a “law.” b). Then it is a discovery, “I find a law.” c). He indicates the context of this discovery: “when I would do good.”

d). He specifies the state and activity of this law of sin: “evil is present with me.”

1. Indwelling Sin is a Law, a Working Principle:

a. It is a directive rule or an operative principle that is effective within.

b. As a moral rule, it directs and commands, regulating the mind, the will, the affections, in many ways.

c. A secondary sense of a law is an inward principle which moves and inclines a person.
(Like electricity or the law of nature which moves things toward its own end. Rom. 7:21, 23)

d. A law has dominion, (Rom. 7:1), it lords over a man. (Sin often has dominion over the believer, because we allow its rule. Consider
Romans 6:11-14; Gal. 5:16-24.)

f. Sin has power to give rewards and punishment: The pleasures of sin are its rewards. (Heb. 11:25-26) Guilt, soul destruction, despair and a host of things are its punishments that are inherent in sin itself.

2. The Human Heart is the Seat of Sin:
(Gen. 6:5; Eccl. 9:3; Matt. 15:19; Gen. 8:21; Lk 6:45; Jere. 19:9-10; Matt. 13:35-38)

a. In Scripture the heart is often used as a synonym -- sometimes for the mind, and understanding, sometimes for the will, sometimes for the conscience, and sometimes for the whole soul, including the affections.

b. Generally, it denotes the whole soul of man and all the faculties of it.

c. The mind inquires what is good or evil, and judges ethically what shall be done or refused.

(But is our mind taught by the Word?)
d. Then the affections like or dislike, cleaving to one thing or having aversion to another.

e. The conscience warns and determines (but can only act upon what the belief system is).

f. Then, the will acts basically upon what the mind, affections, and conscience have given direction to do.

g. The heart is deceitful, full of abominations, contradictions, and constant sinful desires. (Heb. 3:12-13; Jere. 17:9)

3. Indwelling Sin Within Works its Enmity:
(Rom. 8:5-8, 5:10; Eph. 2:15; Gal. 5:16-17;

a. Sin is universal in its enmity against God.

b. Sin is universal in its enmity against the soul.

Here we find a universal warfare in the soul of man. The mind contends with its own stubbornness, obstinacy, and perversity. Every affection deals with its own willfulness, sensuality, and aversion of God. Thus our knowledge is imperfect, our obedience is weak, our love is mixed in its virtues, our fear of the Lord is not pure, and our delight in God is not free and noble.
Sin never gives up in spite of all the powerful opposition it encounters from the law of the gospel. If only we believed this we would be less careless in yielding to this enemy of sin within us. We would be far more vigilant over our hearts, or souls. (Prov. 4:23; I Cor. 16:13)

4. Indwelling Sin Has Great Power:
(Gal. 5:17; Rom. 7:23; James 4:1; I Pet. 2:11; Rom. 5:6; 3:9-18; Isa. 1)

a. Sin opposes God by lust: (Gal. 5:16; Rom 13:14; Gen. 6:5; Gal. 6:1)

b. Sin opposes God by warfare: (Isa. 57:5; Rom. 7:21-23; Rom. 7:18; I Pet. 2:11)

c. Sin opposes God by leading the soul captive:
(Rom. 7:23; Psa. 19:12-13; 139:23-24; II Tim. 2:26)

d. Sin generates anger, lack of judgment or madness: (Jere. 2:24; Hosea 8:9; Jere. 50:38; 44:4)

5. Indwelling Sin is Very Deceitful: (Heb. 3:13; Jere. 17:9;
Jere. 4:22; Eph. 4:22; 2:1-3; II Thess. 2:10)

a. Sins’s Deception of the mind:
Scripture emphasizes that deceit is most often the origin of sinning. Sin proceeds only when deception goes before it. (see I Tim. 2:13-14).
Eve said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat” Gen. 3:13.
(See Rev. 12:9; 20:10)

The basis for the efficacy of deceit is its effect upon the mind. For sin deceives the mind. When sin attempts to enter into the soul by some other way (such as affections), the mind checks and controls it. But when deceit influences the mind, the chance of sinning multiplies. The mind’s office is to guide, to direct, to choose, and to lead. We see the danger of sin’s deception of the mind by examining the general nature of deceit.
The mind is the leading faculty of the soul. When the mind fixes upon an object or course of action, the will and affections follow suit. (See man’s fall, Genesis 3.)

b. Sin’s chief means of deception is temptation:
In James 1:14-15 we see that
• sin deceives • it entices • it conceives
• it develops • lastly, it finishes, brings death!

c. Sin diverts the mind by emphasizing “cheap grace.”
(Titus 2:11-14; Phil. 1:27; Rom. 12:2; Rom. 6:1-2)
Sin twists grace to achieve its ends, and pleads for the
abuse of grace... “a little sin won’t hurt, you know!”

d. Sin deceives the mind from seeing the true state and
condition of the soul (of people) in the world.

e. The deceitfulness of sin argues falsely about the pressing circumstances of life. (Matt. 26:41)

f. Sin feeds the soul with false promises and purposes:
(Acts. 24:25; Prov. 4:23-27; Psa. 23:3)

6. The Mind is Diverted from Specific Duties:
(Heb. 2:1; I Sam. 15:13; Mk 13:37; Haggai 1:5, 7;
Heb. 6:11-12; II Pet. 1:5; Heb. 5:11; Prov. 19:24)

Sin persuades the mind to deal in generalities and to avoid particular duties. The mind feels content in performance of its duties while secretly sinning. The mind often becomes perfunctory in its performance of duties. Sin distracts the mind from maintaining its diligence. Then sin distracts the mind by using deceit to take it by surprise.

7. We Experience Enticement of Indwelling Sin:
(James 1:14; Micah 2:1; II Pet. 2:24; I Jh 2:15-17;
Jere. 4:14)

Sin deceives to entice and to entangle the affections. It does it by: a). making use of the tendency of the mind to be distracted toward sin, diverted away from the dangers of false reasoning and pretenses, b). Sin proposes to be desirable, for it gilds over an object with a thousand pretenses which the imagination promotes as pleasures of sin. (Heb. 11:25; James 5:5; Eph. 2:3).

It hides the danger associated with the sin. Sin covers the hook with bait, and spreads the food over the net.

8. We Experience the Conception of Indwelling Sin:
(James 1:15; II Cor. 11:2-3; Eph. 4:19)

The will is the cause of obedience or disobedience, for in the end all moral actions are willed. The will actualizes sin or obedience. The will consents to sin! (In the Christian’s heart there is the desire not to sin, Rom. 7:21-23.) The will consents to sin as a result of sin’s deception. Sin often abuses grace to deceive the will. Sin even alleviates guilt in order to deceive the will. When sin deceives the mind it paints what is absolutely evil as having an apparent good appearance. (I King 21:2, consider King Saul.) Rationally, the will is guided by the mind and creates an appetite for sin. The will is also excited by the emotions. (Eph. 2:1-3; 5:11; Rom. 13:12)