Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Debelak
I agree that the sin is/was disobedience. But does this mean that I was not BORN sinful, but rather lost access to God only after my first actual act of disobedience (which, if I remember correctly, was at age 8 months  )?
If not - that is, if I WAS born with and in sin, how is that possible? Bio-theology? |
To understand this, we only need to understand the basic truth of the gospel. We were born in bondage to Satan because of Adam's transgression. We are slaves to sin and under the power of an evil master. Our Daddy was a slave, so we are born into slavery, into Satan's dark kingdom. We work for the evil master and earn the wages of death. The "devil made me do it" is true in the sense of the master/slave relationship, not because Satan inhabits our our body. He is stronger than us and he has the legal papers showing ownership since the day Adam chose to obey him. An evil master has power over a slave's body but does not live in it.
Jesus has now Jesus paid the debt for us and bought our freedom. When we believe this we get transferred to another kingdom where by faith we become sons of God and His willing servants.
If you believe that your body acts under the control of Satan because he is in it, then it follows that the only way God can take over is to move out Satan and move Himself into your body. The Bible does not teach either of these things. Our body is not swallowed up by Him until the very last, when God has done his work in our heart.
Lee taught us that Christ lived in our spirit and Satan lived in our body and that they both were fighting for possession of our soul. (This is the stuff mental illness is made of.) Yet, the Bible charges us (as believers) to be cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and
spirit. This means we can have a filthy spirit. The spirit that works in the sons of disobedience works in us and convinces our mind to sin. When we do, we are supplied by the evil source to carry out the deeds. We are persuaded in our mind by lies and we act.
In the same way, when we are cleansed from our sins, we begin a new relationship with the Holy Spirit, who inspires and persuades us by the truth in His Word and transforms us by renewing our mind, changing our way of thinking. As as we choose to obey God, which is our most reasonable service, and present our bodies to him for his use, He supplies us by His Spirit. He doesn't come and inhabit our physical body when we surrender it to Him. Rather he makes his home in our heart and lives there comfortably with us. The Father and Son come and make their abode with us. He doesnt' pack us up and move us out.
There is much more scriptural support for what I am presenting than for the automaton idea.
Thankful Jane