Sunday, February 1, 2009

Grace Week - Sin Nature


Sin Nature

A person is made up of three parts: Body, Soul, and Spirit. Body is easy enough to understand. The Soul is made up of our mind, will and emotions (also known as our personality). The Spirit is the eternal aspect of ourselves.
Before Adam and Eve willfully disobeyed God and broke God’s original covenant with us, we were by nature inclined to do good - to be godly, Body, Soul, and Spirit. When we chose to break away from God, our natures were corrupted - now man’s first inclination is to do sinful things.
Once you’re a believer, your corrupted spirit is indwelled by the Holy Spirit and so made perfect in God’s eyes. Daniel taught something that I had not heard before, though - (and he backed it up with scripture, too - just ask for the references) the sinful aspect of your Spirit, the sin nature*, is removed totally when you are saved. So, your Spirit is perfect. You still have to deal with the corruption of the Soul and Body, but it is now possible for sinfulness to be the exception, not the rule, in your life. The Holy Spirit gives you the power to overcome the inclinations to do evil.
Because our Spirit is perfect, God will always see us as perfect - there is absolutely nothing we can do to be any more loved by him. Positionally, our relationship to God will never change. We will always be loved by him, unconditionally. There is nothing we can do to make him love us more or less.
Throughout life, our Soul can be brought more toward godliness. Basically we’re trying to become the people we would have been had sin never been introduced to the world - to become the people God sees us as already.
We can improve our relationship with God by becoming more aware of his presence. Relationship is the most important thing in our existence - more on that another day, hopefully.
When we die and are given the perfect bodies we have been promised, Body, Soul and Spirit will be perfect again, as they aught to have been.

*Nature meaning “basic characteristic”.

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