The "old sin nature" is the charactaristic of our human exsistence which was inherited from our original parents,
Adam and the woman, as a result of their fall from grace. It was not created by God.
Other references to this concept in scripture are "old man" and "flesh", or "fleshly". The OSN is embedded within
every cell in our bodies, and it's influence is the enemy within us that becomes "the trojan horse" of our lives.
From the OSN comes temptation which is exclusive of external stimuli that also lure us into carnality, or a state
of sinfulness. As such, we war against this inner demon all our lives, and many are the times that we fall prey to
it's allure. Paul said "Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the flesh of this death?"
The Apostle's sentiments are doubtless reflected in the lives of all devout Christians who strive to meet the high
standards of God and miserably fail on so many occasions. We will bear this stigma until we shed this corruption and
put on incorruption at the resurrection.
But the influence of the OSN is not so easy to isolate until one learnes what subtle impact it has on our thoughts
and subsequent actions.
The OSN has two primary trends, which we will classify as "lascivious", and "asthetic", the former being obvious
tendencies to "normal" manifestations of sin, such as fornication, and the latter is the more obscure inclination
which involves self righteousness, or human good. These trends work in tandem with the OSN's area of strength, and
its' area of weakness. Here again, the naivette of mankind many time interprets the combination of the OSN area of
strength and it's counterpart, human good, to be virtue, when in fact they are just as sinful as weakness and the
trend toward lasciviousness.
The irony is that of the 7 worst sins listed in the Bible, which is God's view of the matter, 6 of them are sins
which do not involve an outter manifestation of sinfulness, and the one overt sin is murder. Adultry and illicit
sex isn't even mentioned, much to the chagrin of the devout religionist. Not to say that all sins aren't destructive,
for when we sin, no matter what category it may be, we become carnal (if we were filled with the Holy Spirit in the
first place) and are "out of bounds" in God's plan for our lives.
I mentioned the origin of the sin nature was our original parents, Adam and the woman. Technically, it is Adam, alone,
who is responsible for the fact that we are all born with the sin nature in every cell, for his sin of cognizance cast
him as the villain. The ova, or egg of the woman is not contaminated with the OSN until the sperm of the man is
introduced, a process which is explained in more detail in The Virgin Birth. This
principle explains, in part, how Christ (His humanity) was born without a sin nature, for the sperm of a man did not
enter into Mary's egg to cause his birth. Thus, the importance of the virginity of Mary as an overt sign of His
sinlessness.
Every human being is born with the sin nature, and thus we are spiritully dead, separated from God. This is the
fundamental reason why we need to be saved. I should point out though that when a human being dies before they
reach the age of accountablilty, or if they are mentally impaired, they are saved by default. It is not until
we sin the very first cognizant sin in our lives that the requirement of salvation by faith in Christ kicks in.
It is the OSN which is the target of one aspect of Christ's work on the cross, specifically Redemption, or the
deliverance of mankind from the slavery to the OSN. Without redemption, unsaved man is subject to his sin nature
all his life. Saved man, on the other hand, has been given a means of escape. This concept is also explained in
great detail in Rebound, which is the subject of 1John 1:9. When we sin, regardless of
the source (OSN or outside influences) we lose the filling of God the Holy Spirit, and become "carnal". In this
state we cannot accomplish the will of God, and fall under the pall of condemnation. But, whereas we could not
do anything about this status before, after salvation we can cite our known sins and God purifies us, after which
the Holy Spirit is restored to our souls.
With The Spirit residing in our soul we are "spiritual", the status in which we serve God. One of the most important
aspects of spirituality is our ability to glean the dynamic principles of scripture. Apart from this enabling
presence of The Spirit we cannot fathom the deep things of God, no matter how well they are taught, because our
human resources are inadequate to understand divine phenomena.
The good news is, our resurrection bodies will be free of this terrible flaw. Unlike this body of death, the incorruption
we will one day be clothes with is alive to God, possessing His eternal life.
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