It's
the most basic of all human excuses. I was born that way is the catch
all excuse for the worst parts of who we are. We hear it most in
these modern times by the LGBT community usually followed by, “God
doesn't make mistakes.” It is not new for this particular
community. It has been used by all of us at one time or the other to
justify our sins, and to appease our conscience's. We often excuse
ourselves and others by refering to our birth and or the way we were
raised. It is true that almost everything about who we are is related
to heredity and environment, but it is also true that neither can be
appropriately blamed on God. In fact God both desires and stands
ready to change both. This is actually the only are of life in which
most every one agrees on the same principle. If you ask a college
educated psycologist, he will say that it is “Family Inference”.
The Theologian will call it a “Generational Curse”. (Ex. 20:5) If
you ask an old farmer he'll say, “ The apple doesn't fall far from
the tree.” We have to make note that Ezekiel 18:20 makes it clear
that it is not punishment for our fathers sins, but neither our
parents bear punishment for our sins. It is in fact the sins
themselves that we have a tendency to pick up.
Sin
is an inherited trait:
We
are children of sinfully flawed parents and they were the children of
such, and so the story goes. The story in fact goes back to Adam.
Adam, the first man, was created in a state of sinless perfection.
Adam is the father of all living and so We through the generations
inherited His traits. He is the human agent for all living. When Adam
fell into sin by eating the forbidden fruit, His state of being
changed. His physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual state was
immediately affected by His sin. He had a nature to sin. That sin
nature was then passed down through the generations. David said,”I
was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother concieved me..”
Sin and all that goes with it is in the DNA of mankind. Epesians 2:3
declares, “We
all lived among them at one time in the cravings of our flesh,
indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature
children of wrath.” Paul Put it this way, “ Therefore, just as
sin entered the world through one man and death by sin, so also death
was passed to all men, because all have sinned.” If we reiterate
that “we were born that way” it is actually true, but what is
missing from the statement and where many err, is that God did not
make us this way. I remember a young boy seeing the child's T-shirts
that proclaimed, “ I know I'm special cause God don't make no
junk.” That is a cute statement and has some merit. We hear so many
times “God doesn't make mistakes.” That is true but we are not
born the way we are because God makes mistakes. We are born the way
we are because Adam made a mistake. We were all “born that way
because of sin.
Sin
is influenced by by environment:
Parents
hold an awesome responsibility in the life of the child, into
adulthood. When we bring that beautiful little baby home in all of
it's innocence, we need also to understand that a sinful nature
exists inside this bundle of joy. We won't need to teach our children
to do wrong, they easily figure that out all by themselves. A child
left undisciplined will be a holy terror as an adult. We have already
established that our children tend to take on the worst of our
characteristics. The child raised in an abusive relationship, is much
more likely to become abusive. The alcoholic is more likely to raise
the same in their children. The nature to sin is the way we were
born, but the exact behaviors that it manifests are learned traits.(
Ex. 20:5 Deut.4:9, 11:19, Prov. 22:6, Ephesians 6:4) The bad news is
that we cannot bet a pass by blaming Mom and Dad. The bad news is
that We were born that way and Mom and Dad were not perfect in
teaching us, but then we grow up. We grow up to be responsible for
our own actions. The responsibility is in the idea that this is who
we are but we do not have to stay that way. We are seeing so much in
modern society about the homosexual agenda, and we are told to
believe that they were born with those un-natural desires. While I
disagree with that entire premise, let's pretend for a moment that it
is correct. That still does not give an acceptable excuse. There is a
huge difference in being born with sinful desires, which we all have
in one way or another, and the behavior of acting upon them. Hebrews
12:1 probably explains it best when it says, “ ...Let us lay aside
every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us...” Satan
attacks us at the very core of who we are. There are some sins that
He would never temp me too, and the same goes for all, because there
are simply things that we simply do not like, and have no desire for.
He won't waste His time on those things. He tempts us with the very
things we desire the most.
The
Good and Bad News:
You
were born with a nature to sin and without the power of Christ
activated in your life you are a slave to sin. You and I have the
curse of death on us because it is our choice to act out sinful
desires. The bad news in the coming of Christ to conquer sin is that
we are left without an excuse. The Good news is that He did conquer
sin. Every Sin that Adam faced and fell to in the garden, Jesus faced
and overcame in the desert. (Genesis 3, Matthew 4) Our birth was
flawed and so He told Nicodemus that We needed a new birth, In John
3. Our up bringing was flawed so He challenged us learn of Him, in
Matt. 11:29. Jesus came to free us from the sinful people we are, and
to heal us from those sinful desires. He offers to us forgiveness,
but He requires repentance. (Luke 13:3-5) He leaves the decision with
us. The choice is ours, and so are the consequences. Roman 1:20
explain that we are without excuse. The question is not were you born
that way, the question is what will you do about it.
