In conversations I have had with people that believe in original sin and sin nature, there seems to be a big question about this. From seminarians to pastors to lay people, a strange doctrine emerges.
I say strange because it does not come from anything the Bible says. It is a doctrine that says that because of original sin and sin nature Jesus’ flesh was just like Adam’s was when he was made. But, could not be the same as ours. Huh? Adam’s flesh was different from ours?
This of course comes from the belief that in our flesh resides an evil nature that is inherent from what Adam became after he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what they call “the fall”, that a sinlessly pure Jesus couldn’t have. Because if His flesh was the same as ours He too would have been a sinner by nature.
To arrive at this conclusion there are a series of steps they had to take along the way. It is a process that is known as following something out to its logical conclusion. Basically it’s when we believe something we discover where it leads by answering questions that arise because of those beliefs. To finally come to conclusions we call doctrine.
So if your premise is wrong then everything that comes from it will be wrong too. This is why in 2Cor.13:5 Paul says to examine ourselves to see whether we be in the faith. In other words, re-examine your premise for what you believe.
Now I’m not saying that through our own logic we can understand the word of God. What I am saying is that by following an idea to its logical conclusion we will discover whether it is Biblical or not. By seeking answers from God’s word to either support or deny those conclusions.
And if our objective is simply to find support for those ideas, and not to come to know the truth, we will force into the scriptures what we want to see. And in so doing we will create strange doctrine just as those who believe in original sin and sin nature have. And like any cult we will re-write or re-imagine the Bible to fit those premises.
It is something we must all learn to practice as we decide what to believe. Doing as Paul said in Heb.5:14 saying that only by reason of use will we exercise our senses to be able to discern between good and evil. Because this is how we know that we have examined ourselves, our doctrinal premises, to see whether we are in the faith as Paul instructs us to in 2Cor.13:5.
So when someone speaks about “the fall” I automatically want to know what the Bible says Adam fell from. What did he have before or what did he lose that he does not have now that would make someone describe what happened in the garden as a fall? A fall from what?
Did you know that one of those things people who believe in original sin and sin nature believe Adam lost was immortality? It’s true. They really do. They believe that before Adam sinned his flesh was immortal. An immortal body they refer to as “glorified” because they believe he had a spiritual body. Do you believe that?
Do you believe in “the fall”? Do you believe that Adam’s body was immortal before this? If so then to follow this out to its logical conclusion the next question to ask must be, does the Bible say his flesh was immortal? And what was it about his flesh that made it immortal that he no longer had after “the fall”?
The churches, from Roman Catholic to her Protestant daughters, say that the difference between Adam’s flesh before and after “the fall” is that before “the fall” he had a glorified spiritual body that was good. And that after the fall it became evil. And that the loss of his glorified state was God’s punishment for Adam’s sin.
With this in mind as we look at Jesus who Paul calls “the last Adam” in 1Cor.15 we must ask this question, if Jesus’ body was the same as ours then wouldn’t that mean He would have also been evil by nature? So this is why they must create this strange doctrine in an attempt to show why Jesus’ flesh was not the same as ours.
So knowing they must have Biblical support for this strange doctrine they begin to look in the Bible for proof that His flesh was different from ours. They are not searching for the truth. They are not examining what they believe to know whether they be in the faith. They are out to find ways they can interpret the scriptures to support the strange doctrine they already believe is true.
So ignoring or perverting the Biblical evidence to the contrary, they proclaim that since Adam’s flesh was different from ours before “the fall”, to keep Jesus from being evil by nature, they come up with the idea that Jesus’ flesh must have been the same as Adam’s when he was made. And this is how they are able to conclude that Jesus’ body was a glorified spiritual one that was immortal.
But, if they were right about this then this poses other questions like, If His body was immortal how did Jesus die? Can what is immortal die? Doesn’t the fact that someone is immortal mean by its very definition that they can not die? And if this is true then wouldn’t their belief in “the fall” change the meaning of immortality? And wouldn’t that change the meaning of immortality in heaven? And so on and so on…
There are many rabbit holes to go down in examining these beliefs. But, what I hope is that you are beginning to see that as we follow the belief in original sin and sin nature out to its logical conclusion we get into some pretty deep weeds. Things that are contradictions to what the word of God plainly teaches.
Strange doctrine like Jesus became a man so that men might become Gods. Or that Adam was a spiritual being when he was made. And all sorts of nonsensical beliefs that are the by-products of beginning with a false premise.
Here are some of those contradictions. First of all there is no scripture that says Adam was immortal or that he had a glorified body when he was made. That is a conclusion they have come to for which there is no Biblical premise.
What we do find in the Bible is that Adam never was immortal. And that his flesh was “the same” flesh that all men have had from the time God made Adam a living soul.
That he was “of the earth earthy” and “that was not first that was spiritual, but natural” in 1Cor.15:45-47. And that this is all that Adam was when he was “made a living soul”. Saying also in vs.50 that the flesh and blood that all men are since God made Adam “can not inherit the kingdom of God”.
So there is no Biblical basis that would create the need to defend the notion that this was something he lost as a result of what they call “the fall”. And the line of questions that arise from it are a red herring. An exercise in futility brought on by one’s trust in Augustine’s gnostic doctrines.
To the contrary we find that “the fall” is something that must be rejected if we are going to believe the Bible to be the inerrant word of the one true God. And the final court of arbitration for all theology and doctrine.
And with Heb.2:14 telling us that Jesus’ body was the same flesh all men have we can clearly see that He would have died of old age just like any other man if He had lived out a full life and was not killed on the cross.
We can see by beginning in Genesis how those who believe original sin and sin nature began with the wrong premise. Because we find here God saying in vs.26, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” And in vs.27 we are told “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Church people, those who believe Augustine, have erred by choosing to interpret these verses in a way that will fit their false premise regarding “the fall”. By assuming image and likeness means more than what someone looks like.
But, what we see in Gen.1:26 is that Adam and Eve were made to look like God. This is what the plain meaning of image and likeness is. It’s like when someone says “that boy is the spitting image of his father”. What they mean is that he looks very much like him. Not that his thoughts and beliefs and inner workings are the same.
Image and likeness is what we see when we look in a mirror. Or when we look at other people. A body that has the same parts as every other body. All humans have this in common. Because they are all made in God’s image and likeness.
Now in Gen.2 we see God giving a more detailed description of what being made in His image and likeness is. Here God says in vs.7 that He “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” So we see that there are 2 parts that when joined together make man a living soul.
So this body with breath breathed into it that made him a living soul was made to look like God. So that all that Adam was that was made to look like God is defined here by the phrase “a living soul”. A phrase that literally means a living breathing creature.
And lest you make the same mistake the church makes that the breath of life is the spirit God placed in Adam that made him in God’s image when He made him. In Gen.7:15,22 God clears that up when He says all animals, birds, and creeping things have this same breath of life breathed into their nostrils. This is why we know that God is talking about air, and not spirit, being breathed into them. Especially not a spirit that is said to be what makes men in God’s image.
Now in 1Cor.15 Paul goes into some detail about this living soul we just saw in the Genesis account. Speaking of Adam Paul says, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”
What we have here are some facts about what Adam was when he was made. And what Jesus was when He came to live as a man here on earth. And in this description we see Paul telling us what a living soul is, and what it isn’t.
Facts that answer the questions that lead to our logical conclusion that it is because men are natural from Adam, and not spiritual, rather than evil by nature, that causes our need for Jesus.
Because here Paul says a living soul, that is all that Adam was when he was made, is natural. He also says the living soul that Adam was when he was made was not spiritual. Do you see that? Here, I will quote it again just as Paul wrote it. He said, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.”
So we must logically conclude from the information Paul has added here about the living soul that Adam was when he was made that he was not a spiritual or glorified man when God made him. But, that he was natural in every way just as all men are when they are born today. And was only natural.
This tells us that all that is taught about Adam from church pulpits is not consistent with what the scriptures plainly say. And that everything they believe about Jesus is also not consistent with what the scriptures say. That they actually teach a different Jesus. And therefore a different gospel.
And that this is the direct result of their believing in the gnostic teaching of original sin and sin nature. (Gnostic because its entire premise is based upon the notion that the flesh is evil.) And not believing what the Bible says about what Adam was when he was made. And what Jesus was when He came to live as a man here on earth.
They have rejected these scriptural truths because they chose of their own free will to believe a lie. A lie that at its core comes from the gnostic belief that the material world, which includes man’s flesh, is evil.
The same gnostic beliefs that John said in 1John4:3 are of the spirit of antichrist. And in 2John1:7-11 are taught by the many deceivers that have gone out into the world. Beliefs that Paul said in 2Thes.2 bring damnation on those who adhere to them because they would not come to love the truth.
And in so doing they have come to a belief in a perversion of the gospel Paul taught that he spoke of in Gal.1:6-9 saying, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”
Pelagius, a man whose name is used in ignorance to slander people like me who reject Augustine’s teaching of original sin and sin nature, when in reality Pelagius believed in original sin and only rejected Augustine’s necessity doctrine, saw that his necessity doctrine came directly from reading gnostic beliefs into the scriptures. And was to be rejected on that basis.
Original sin contradicts both Ezekiel’s teaching in Ez.18:20 that says the son does not bear the iniquity of the father. And Paul’s teaching in Rom.5:13 that says God did not impute sin to anyone before the law was given through Moses.
This is what comes of examining ourselves to see whether we be in the faith. When we ask Biblically sound questions of our beliefs that will show us any error in how we came to our conclusions.
If in doing this we find anything that either changes who Jesus is, changes what the atonement was for, or changes who God is, from what the Bible plainly says. We must cast off those beliefs. And tell others to do so as well.
This is the ministry of reconciliation we have been given to take to the world. A ministry that both calls out error. And especially informs of the truth.
The truth that the Jesus of the Bible is one that came in the same flesh all men have. And that in regard to the Jew this Biblical Jesus died as a sacrifice for sins under the law. To become their final once for all sacrifice for sin to bring an end to the law. Because of which He said on the cross “It is finished”. That through faith in Him and His resurrection they could have eternal life and immortality.
And that for the gentile, those who Paul says in Eph.2 “were afar off” because they were not in covenant with God before Jesus came, He died to give power to a covenant by which they too are invited to receive eternal life and immortality. So that for both the Jew and the rest of the nations it is by faith without works that the gift is received.
Paul says in Rom.10:9,10 that if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in your heart that He has raised from the dead. You shall be saved.
If you will do this then you will have eternal life. If you will do this then you will be delivered from being only natural to spiritual to be made immortal at the resurrection. If you will do this then you will be made a child of God by Him creating a spirit in you that you never had before. A spirit that joins you to Him for eternity. If you will do this… then I will see you there or in the air!
