The Basics: Our Fallen Nature

If G-d who is perfect in all ways made us, how come despite our best efforts, we screw up so much? We make mistakes even when we try as hard as we can not to. The answer is in our inherent fallen nature.

Hello! You’ve started reading the first of a four-part set of posts about our fallen nature, sin, reconciliation and its meaning. After reading this series of posts, it is my intent that you understand the basics behind your fallen nature and what sin means to you, others, and to G-d.

We begin with our fallen nature. G-d creates us to be inherently good beings. All human beings will intend to do the “right thing” as often as we can. The problem is, we are also predisposition to sin. This means we are going to “miss the mark” of doing the “right thing” from time to time. That is all sin really means: to screw up.

This predisposition was part of G-d’s plan for humankind. He knew long before He even created us that we were going to miss the mark and get things wrong. However, for our sake, He makes it part of our history when our first parents chose sin as an act of free will. When the original sin was committed, it opened the door to all other possible sins. While G-d made it possible for us to be forgiven of our original sin, there were consequences. They are:

• We must have a weakened will. After original sin, we no longer have the perfect ability to always say “no” to evil temptations and to say “yes” to all inclinations of G-d. Our will was weakened, we can now fall prey to future mistakes.
• We must experience life with a darkened intellect. This means that we are no longer going to know perfectly the difference between right and wrong. G-d’s messages to us become garbled, we can not have knowledge of every action we take as being right or wrong and we’ll sin again because of it.
• We must suffer. Suffering is as much a consequence of original sin as it is of our own personal sins. Its not so much a punishment as it is a way for us to understand G-d through reconciliation. Suffering puts us in our rightful place beneath Him.
• We must die. Humans must have an end to their earthly lives. There is no escaping death, and when we do die we can only take with us three things: our faith in G-d that He does exist and Christ is our salvation, our hope that He will save us instead of judging us for an eternity in Hell, and our love for G-d and all of his creations. The love is the most powerful of them all.

Sin is evident in our daily lives. It begins right as we are born. Anyone who spends five minutes with a new baby knows how selfish they are and how they will compete with other children for food and attention. Children will even go as far as making it impossible for other children to survive just so they can live and continue to prosper. Babies do not need to be taught this – its part of our makeup to commit sin.

The Dichotomy of Sin

To understand sin, it comes in six stages, as illustrated to the left of this text.

Temptation: We are tempted by another or our own fallen nature to commit a sin. We feel the need to do wrong. In itself, temptation is not sinning.

Sin: We consider a temptation and take joy in it, and accept it. By committing an action (or not performing an action) we sin by setting our will against G-d’s.

Reconciliation: After committing a sin, we realize it and find ourselves feeling sorry for committing it. We reconcile ourselves by saying we won’t commit it again and we’ll take steps so it won’t happen any longer.

Forgiveness: With a sorrowful heart, and a plan to change our lives we now ask for forgiveness. G-d always forgives us for our sins, as we ask Christ to die for our sin on the cross.

Atonement: We make reparations for our sin. As a gesture, we do something that makes us closer to G-d by some act of personal correction or in helping someone else in some way. We repair the fabric of our community that we damaged.

Consequence: Forgiveness is meant to be permanent. We forgive, and we forget. However, since we still are fallen creatures, humans can not perfectly forgive, forget, and atone. There are going to be after-effects.

Stay tuned throughout the next three posts, as a further explanation of these stages of sin will be discussed.

The Basics: Christ is your Role Model

We all had role models when we were growing up, heroes to which we aspired our hopes and dreams. Think back, who did you “idolize” when you were growing up? I remember myself liking TV characters and trying to be just like movie stars I saw on the big screen.

I say to you that the easiest way to understand Christ at first is to treat him as the ultimate role model of your life. Idolize him, read about him, follow his ways and emulate him. You can even copy his sayings, he won’t mind. My personal favorite is, “Away with you Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” (Mt. 4:10). Try using that the next time you feel tempted to do something wrong, and you won’t.

G-d the Father who sent Christ to us did so that we can understand G-d and what living a perfect (ideal) life would be like. Christ reconciles us to G-d, he is the bridge we must cross to understand G-d and His ways. If we compare an action of ours to what Christ did, we can see where we might be wrong and need to change our ways to become more compatible with G-d. Reconciliation is done through forgiveness, a simple recognition that an action taken was not the right one and a promise to try to change using Christ to be the role model for you. That is how we grow closer to G-d through Christ, we use Christ as our role model.

G-d knows that we can’t do this perfectly. Even the holiest person must sin. Peter, the greatest of Christ’s apostles sinned by denying him at the end of Christ’s life. We can’t get it perfectly right, and believe me when I say G-d knows this! He still loves you anyways, even when you mess up. Its also worth saying that its not a contest as to see who is most like Christ. Some will be given more aptitude to receive Christ’s teachings and more is thus expected of them, others will be given less and thus less is expected of them. G-d will recognize even the smallest of your efforts and bless you immensely for trying as hard as you can to emulate Him by emulating Christ as your ultimate Role Model.