“Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”
(Eccl. 7:29)
Contrary to the calvinistic and catholic teaching, man was not born with an original sin inside of themselves. Also, apart from what man would tell you, we do not have within ourselves an innate desire to transgress God’s laws. These are both lies and are contested by the simple statement from Solomon above, when, in his quest to find wisdom on the earth, discovered that much of the world was wrapped up in wickedness (see rest of chapter 7 for context). BUT, his logical assumption was not that God had somehow failed us in His creating, but that we, as His creation, had failed Him.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we like to pawn off our sins onto other people; that was, after all, how the first sin was rationalized (Gen. 3:11 AND 12). But yet, we also understand that man had a little help in figuring out what sin was in the first place. While Adam and Eve were created by God and placed in the Garden of Eden with a specific instruction not to partake of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the first inkling that they might disobey the commandment was when Satan saddled up next to them. The rest of the story is well-known, with them eating it, their eyes being opened, realizing their situation and explaining themselves to God, but what’s most interesting is God’s response to their admission that they had sinned in the first place:
“Who told you that you were naked?
(Gen. 3:11)
It seems to indicate that apart from Satan, man had no real knowledge of what disobedience actually was, or at least would have taken longer to figure it out. This in no way absolves us of any sin that we commit, but does pinpoint the main culprit in the whole story, once again depicting the eternal battle between God and Satan for man’s souls. Apart from Satan and his temptations, Adam and Eve would have been much better off, but allowing him to get too close and whisper into their ears produced their downfall.
God has made us pure and holy and designed us to be vessels for honor in His Kingdom, but when we allow ourselves to be manipulated by Satan’s devices, we are opening the door for someone else to teach us about eternity besides God. Though the temptation for such might be strong, follow the instructions on morality from the only One who has never known immorality, never turning from the right or to the left.
Last modified: February 25, 2019