Who is to blame?

Who is to blame?

Scott Ingram

TEXT: Genesis 1:27-31 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

THESIS: To prove that we are capable of pleasing God and that we aren't destined to sin by nature, but choose to sin by conscious, willing choice.

INTRODUCTION:

1. The first book of the entire collection of biblical text opens with a clear and thorough declaration that God made mankind in His image and it closes with Gen. 1:31 stating that He saw everything and it everything was VERY good.

2. Many who claim to follow christianity in our world today, generally speaking, even believe that everything was good in the very beginning and blame all the problems with sin today on Adam and Eve, pointing back to their sin and making the claim that we inherit a sinful nature from Adam.

3. That idea has influenced the entire religious world of Christendom in so many different ways,

4. We have here an idea that seeks to undermine God's word in so many ways yet I speak of inherited sin only to contrast it to another idea that is beginning to be more and more popular each day, often without our realizing it.

5. This other idea that has been colored by a little inherited sin, points back beyond the man Adam and directs it's finger of blame towards the very creator himself, and it constantly casts doubt into people’s minds as to whether they have the ability to obey God in all things and/or follow Christ's example.

6. This idea is commonly expressed by those that are often times trying to bring comfort to others who feel guilty because of some sin that they chose to commit, it can be seen in expressions such as “we are all just people”, or “everyone sins from time to time”, “I was born this way” or even “I’m only human”, and the list goes on and on with the various ways that the idea is put into words.

DISCUSSION:

I.” I'm only human” or similar phrases

A. First of all in what way is this meant?

1. Is it said in the context of physical feats, related to performance to a certain skill or job, or the limitations that a man has by his existence in a physical world?

2. Or is this said in a way that seeks to create an excuse for sin, such as letting anger take hold in our heart and choosing to scream at someone and insult them because we had a bad day at work, because things aren't going our way in our social click, or failed at a project, made a bad grade, or you name it.

B. Well what's the big deal, you might ask.

1. We need to stop and use a little common sense for a moment and think about what we are really saying when we blame our human nature for the fact that so many of us commit, what we call, the occasional sin from time to time.

2. When you and I, or anyone else says this phrase, we have not blamed Adam as the Calvinist do in order to explain man's evil, nor are we saying what some others may allege, “the devil made me do it”, but we are blaming the creator Himself.

C. Follow along in thought with me for a moment and take the logical steps backward from this statement.

1. First of All “I am only human” points to what we are physically and spiritually, but then we must ask from who did we descend.

2. We descended from Adam and suffer from certain consequences of his sin such as physical death but God said through the prophet Ezekiel “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son...” (Ezekiel 18:20) and also (Jeremiah 1:5) “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;”

a) God does the creating and He doesn't create sinners, not at the time of all creation in Genesis nor at the time a child is conceived, and a soul is given.

b) We are all responsible for ourselves and answer for our own actions.

3. So then, Calvinism is wrong in blaming our sins on Adam, and our sins are not due to the fact that we are descended from Adam, and further more if we continue to think backwards, we have to ask next, who created Adam? Since we can't say we inherited a sinful nature from Adam?

4. The answer of course is found in the book of Genesis. (Genesis 1:26) God made man in His image, and man was made very good (Gen. 1:31).

D. So then, finally, the Bible says that God created man, He gave us human nature.

1. We cannot ever excuse ourselves by saying I’m only human.

2. I know many well meaning brethren do not intentionally mean to blame God but the fact is that we are made in His image, we get the foundation of our being from the Godhead.

3. Brethren, let me submit to you then that it is at best, an ignorant slap in God's face to say that we sin because we are human, and at worst, it is out right blasphemy.

4. Logically, God could not justifiably condemn mankind for sinning, if it was because we are only human and being only human causes us to sin by virtue of that fact.

5. If it was because we lack the ability to please him, to be “perfect”, as we so often time claim with these statements, if it were true, it would be God’s fault and He wouldn't be a just God in sending anyone to hell.

E. Carry this question with you, as we discuss the next point, “In the context of morality?” does God ever, or has He ever at any time, told man, to do anything, which man was incapable of doing?

II. Be ye Holy for I am Holy (Lev. 11:44 For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ; Leviticus 20:7 “ Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lordyour God.” ; 20:26 “And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. “; (1 Pet 1:15-16) “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.")

A. Throughout the whole Bible God's concern for man has been His desire to save man, and for man to be Holy.

1. (Heb. 12:14) “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:”

2. (2 Cor. 7:1) “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

B. We have in scripture both commands and expectations to be holy but also the idea of perfection, (Matthew 5:48) “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

C. (1 John 2:1) “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:”

1. We come to this scripture with another exhortation to avoid sin but with a condition given that if we do, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who will speak on our behalves.

2. We need to recognize from scripture and even from observing our own lives or the lives of those around us, that man does indeed sin, and we do often find ourselves wanting in the area of holiness, but the reason is because we have made those choices on our own, and not because our human nature made us do it.

III. Men do sin

A. The fact that men do sin is apparent when we look at the world and the church today.

1. We have often dealt with this fact by quoting verses such as (Romans 3:23) “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"

2. Or (1 John 1:8) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." and we use them to justify the idea that it is inevitable that we sin because of our human nature.

3. At the very most, we can conclude that these passages observe a fact, or predict an action, rather than teach that sin is the result of the human condition.

B. The significance between why we sin, human nature vs free choice might seem somewhat small in some people’s minds, but do not dare to let it be so in yours.

C. This life and the world we live in is already hard enough, and dark enough, without us, God's saints and children, buying into the lie that we can't help it but to sin, and it is hard enough to be faithful through this life without believing that as we go around each corner that we should expect failure, waiting there for us.

D. We need to understand that we can do it, and that our brethren can do it, that God called us to do it, and that we must do it, be different from the world, and be like Him.

E. Let's stop blaming God for our sins, don't blaspheme His Holy name by implying that He made us this way, that we can't do it because He didn't make us capable of doing it, that we are “only” human.

F. If we do sin, He will forgive us, but only if we are penitent and obey but we can't truly be penitent if we blame sin on our human nature, the human nature that we received from God.

G. Those wanting to be forgiven must believe the word (Heb. 11:6, Rom. 10:17), confess Christ (Matt. 10:32), repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38) and then live faithfully as Christians (James 1:12).

H. Christians need to confess those sins, of which we need forgiveness and repent (1 John 1:9; Psalm 32:5; Prov. 28:13)

CONCLUSSION:

1. We can be good, brethren, we can live up to the expectations God has given us, He wouldn't ask us to if we couldn't.

2. He provides a way even though we choose to rebel, to be forgiven, but also teaches that we don't have to, and shouldn't rebel in the first place.

3. We can help others and and encourage them much more with the truth than we can with a sweet sounding lie, tell them they can do it, not that they have to fail over and over and it's out of their control.

4. If you do sin, repent and be faithful, that is part of being faithful, but don't believe that you don't have the ability to overcome sins, God made you and that means something.