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Writer's pictureBible Brian

God didn't make you a sin machine


Because humans are sinful by our very nature, it can be tempting to blame our sin on God. After all, He made us, right? Therefore, the fact that we are sinners is really His fault. We can't be blamed for how we were born.


This is actually based on a misunderstanding of what sin is. Sin isn't some magical force that causes us to do things we aren't supposed to do. What God actually did was give us the ability to choose our course of action according to our own will. In any given situation, we can choose to obey Him, or disobey Him. The Bible actually tells us that God does not tempt anyone.


An interesting thing about sin is that most sins are actually based on a misplaced desire for good. Going back to the first sin, look what God tells us about Eve's reasoning: "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate." (Genesis 3:6a). Notice that in Genesis 2:9, the same is said of all the trees: "And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." The only thing missing there is the ability to grant knowledge. Eve seeing the tree was pleasing to the eye, and good for food, is a desire she could have felt for any other tree in the garden, which she could have eaten from without sin.


Sex follows similar logic. When enjoyed in private by a married couple, sex is a good thing that is natural to desire. It becomes sin when we take it out of the context of marriage.


Violence is often a twisted form of justice. When a wrong is done, it is only natural to want to correct that wrong. The problem is, sinful beings might interpret "wrong" as being done where no wrong occurred, and even if wrong was done, violence is rarely the correct course of action.


Money is not evil in and of itself. It's acceptable to want money, especially when you happen to have earned it. But it shouldn't be something we're willing to sin for. It becomes greed when we want more than we ought to be content with.


So on and so forth. You see, then, that God didn't just create a bunch of sin machines before getting angry with them for doing what they were built to do. Rather, God originally made a very good world, including two good people. But they made a choice. They fell into sin, just like every single one of their descendants after them.


Instead of tempting us to sin and then blaming us for falling for it, God actually commands us to repent, and promises that there is a way out of every temptation. You will never encounter a temptation so strong that God does not give you the ability to overcome it.

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