What Made You a Sinner?

Dead Old Man (2)

The fact that Jesus has wrought for us much more than the forgiveness of sins is clear from this verse: For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom 5:10, NKJV). Through His death we have forgiveness from our sins, so that we are reconciled to God – restored to fellowship. But the verse clearly states that that’s not all. After this His life also saves us. Saves us from what? It is like this:

His death saves us from our sins. His life saves us from ourselves – the sinner.

How one is constituted a sinner? Is it because of anything he does? Actually, we are not accorded the “honour” by the Bible.  The Bible says it’s because of Adam’s disobedience that we become sinners. So, we were made sinners quite apart from anything we did: For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners… (Rom 5:19, NKJV). Contrary to popular opinion, we don’t become sinners because we sin, not according to the definition in the New Testament. “It’s not my fault!” - Probably there’s more truth in this statement than we realise.

So, what about the condition we inherited from Adam our forefather? What have we become as a result? What kind of nature did we inherit from him?

The sinner is one prone to sins. He cannot help it. To sin is his nature. Before one comes to Christ, he carries this nature. There is one verse that never fails to amaze me, it is astounding:

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. (Rom 6:20, NKJV)

Let me give you some orientation. Paul was speaking in term of conversion. He calls those who have not come to Christ “slaves of sin”. We were all once slaves of sin because of Adam’s disobedience. Because of Jesus’ work we are no more. But we really need to take in the full impact of the above verse to begin to understand the condition we were in.

According to Paul, we were “free in regard to righteousness”. I don’t know about you, I find his language rather peculiar. Normally we use the word “free” to denote exemption from bad things. Free from debt, free from sickness etc. But “free in regard to righteousness”? Paul really wanted our attention! He was essentially saying that we were excluded from the state or position of righteousness and thereby exempted from the acts of righteousness. In a sense, we were imprisoned in sin. When we were in such a state, we were not expected to be good or to do good. In fact, we were expected to sin! Slaves of sin can only sin! The following verse (Rom 6:21) states that only bad fruit can come forth from such a state: a sinner can only sin.

There you have it: the problem of the sinner. Now you know what made you a sinner, and a sinner cannot help but sin, do you know how God solve the sinner problem for you?

Stay tuned …


Scripture Link: BibleGateway.com