These are the words of God to Cain, who was on the verge of murdering his brother Abel. Murder was the sin crouching at the door of Cain's heart, the sin that desired to have Cain. What was Cain to do? What could Cain do? God said Cain must rule over the murderous intent that desired to have him.
Cain didn't have a "new nature." Nor did Cain have the Holy Spirit. Yet God assumed Cain could do right and be accepted. God also assumed Cain did not have to murder his brother, but could rule over his murderous anger. We all know God's words are true because of course they must be. But we also know they are true practically. Our lives in the civilized world depend on it. But when we discuss things "theologically," we often lose sight of clear truth.
This is the clear truth:
You don't have to sin.
If you do, then so did Cain.
If Cain couldn't rule over his murderous desire,
then no murderer can.
And if we can't keep from one sin,
then we can't keep from any sin at all.
We all know this. This is why we call the police. We don't have a separate police force for believers and unbelievers, for those with "sinful natures" and those with "new natures," or for those with the Holy Spirit and those without the Holy Spirit.
We assume that everyone, believer and unbeliever, is responsible for their actions, and the consequences of their actions.
- We expect those with murderous anger to learn self-control, and to not commit murder.
- We expect the adulterer to stop committing adultery.
- We expect the thief to stop stealing.
If they don't, we don't excuse their behavior based on a "sinful nature." Notice my list deals with "big sins," not the "little sins" of gossiping, bad attitudes, etc. When we in the church sit around and debate about sinning, and say things like, "We don't have to sin, but we're going to sin," or "I'm not sinless, I just sin less," we ignore those whose sins will lead to their own death, or the deaths of others. Like drug addicts, for example. One overdose, and they are dead. Or the murderer. Do we say things like, "Oh you're going to mess up every now and then Mr. Murderer. But it's a process. You didn't kill as many people this year as you did last year. You're growing!"
Do we say to the adulteress, "Well, you're going to be unfaithful to your husband. Just keep getting up and trying again. You had sex with fewer men this year than last year?"
The word of God is clear: The soul that sins shall die. The wages of sin is death.
Of course we have forgiveness by faith in Christ. But we are also set free from sinning by the same Christ. Free from actually committing murder, adultery, drug addiction, thefts, and all the other things we know as crimes in this world for which we would rightly go to jail, because we assume we don't have to do these things. We assume that we can choose what we do and don't do, to sin or not sin, to pull the trigger or not pull the trigger, to have sex with someone or not have sex with them.
Believers don't have to sin.
Unbelievers don't have to sin.
Why don't you have to sin?
Because God says you don't have to sin.
He says that you must master the sin that desires you.
God says that we can rule over the sin that crouches at the door of our hearts and desires to have us.
Evidently God knows more about us than we know about ourselves.
God didn't say to Cain,
"Sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you, but you cannot rule over it because you have a sinful nature passed to you from your father Adam. So you're going to kill Abel. You can't help it. You're a sinner. But I'll honor Abel and put a mark on your head so people won't kill you."
God also didn't say that He had to master the sin for Cain. And He didn't say that Cain "should" master it, but that Cain MUST master it. Cain had an obligation to resist the temptation to kill Abel.
Apply this to your life, and make it as real as possible. Don't think of sin "theologically," like it's just a topic to debate. Think about real sins, like someone killing you after you read this blog, just as Cain was contemplating murdering Abel. Today, we call that premeditated murder, a 1st degree felony. In some states the punishment for 1st degree premeditated murder is the death penalty. And why is that? Because we assume that those who commit premeditated murder didn't have to do so, whether they believe in Jesus or not.
But murder is a sin, a violation of one of the 10 commandments.
If we can keep from this one sin of murder, we can keep from the other 9 sins against God and humans.
How do I know?
God says so.
A sinful nature, or a sinless nature, is not the issue in sinning.
How do I know? This is how.
- Lucifer and the angels who rebelled against God did not have sinful natures, yet they sinned.
- Adam and Eve in the Garden did not have sinful natures, yet they too sinned.
They acted contrary to their natures because they all had free will.
The same is true for sinners. We expect them to act contrary to their natures. And they can.
If not, why do we arrest them? Why do we hold any one accountable for their behavior?
This is what we can't do for ourselves:
We can't die for our own sins.
We can't make ourselves born again.
For these two things, we must trust the One who did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves: Jesus Christ our Savior, the one who died for our sins, and to set us free from sinning.
And this is how He sets us free:
We renounce our old master, ourselves, and embrace Him as our new master.
We are free from sinning when we are slaves of Christ.
But it's a choice.
Just as it was with Cain.
Just as it is with you.
As God said to Cain, He says the same to you:
"If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it."
click HERE for part 2
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