The Nature of Our Sin Nature
How Can We Inherit A Sin Nature?
Whenever I find a theological paradox in Christianity, I get excited. Most Christians seem to dismiss them or worry over them. I suppose they are worried that contradictions within their faith will damage their faith. If the concepts and historical facts and logical progressions of Christianity were fragile, I think theirs would be a rational worry.
Pairing Paradoxes With Prayer
But I have travelled down the road of many Christian theological paradoxes, and every time so far, those journeys have led me to deeper understandings of God and His ways of designing and doing things. I don’t mean that poetically, as if the things that don’t make sense somehow are good. No. Deeper investigation has led to deeper understanding as paradoxes are resolved, illuminating more and more truth about God and His Word and His Ways. My life is rich beyond my expectations because I faced down and burrowed into each paradox. And solved them.
Come with me on a new one.
I think paradoxes are great because solving them reveals truth. If a fact or system is false, the paradoxes will point out that it is faulty. If the fact or system is true, apparent paradoxes will lead to deeper understanding of the true thing. I love deep learning about true things. Scientists rejoice when they find paradoxical data in their fields, because they know that this is the beginning of them learning something new and deeper. For instance, Einstein found an understanding of how gravity works that is more deeply true than Newton’s theory by studying paradoxes involving how light propagates. It gave Einstein great joy to resolve the paradox in a way that illuminates further truth, and even though I’m no Einstein, I feel exactly the same way in theology. One could even say I feel like a theological researcher, and the fastest way to new knowledge is to run after paradoxes. Asking God to help me see the base truth, the real fundamental of the subject, is a key part of coming to a deeper understanding.
I’ve done this with Free Will, the Problem of Evil, and How Prayer Works, and I was so glad I did. I’m currently working on paradoxes in understanding the temporal nature of Hell, and on Genesis 1 and the age of the earth, and the nature of Noah’s Flood. I’ve come to search out theological paradoxes, and today I will discuss one of the lesser-known paradoxes: How Can We Have a Heritable Sin Nature?
What deeper truths will we find?
Inheriting Sin Doesn’t Make Sense - The Two-Part Paradox
First, I want to define our Sin Nature. Humans currently have a sin nature. By “sin nature,” I mean that humans lack the long-term ability to NOT sin. Each sin we do is our choice, but none of us seems to be able to go very long without choosing to sin. We still have free will, but it’s like we don’t have the energy, the ability, to avoid slipping into making a bad choice at least once in a while. And so there are some Free-Will-related questions that come up.
As discussed in other essays, it is very clear in Biblical Christianity that humans have some real level of Free Will. Here’s an interesting question: Why was our sin nature heritable, instead of being a test of some sort that we all take and pass or don’t pass at a certain age? Hypothetically, if we hadn’t “inherited” our sin nature from Adam and Eve, would we then have the ability to not sin if we so chose, like Adam and Eve originally did in the Garden? The Bible seems to indicate this, and Jesus’ life apparently illustrated it. If it is indeed true that before the Fall humans could choose to go long times without sin but after the Fall we couldn’t, then did us receiving our fallen state from our forebearers reduce our Free Will? I mean, it seems we can’t choose to stop sinning at least a little. These gaping questions almost seem unanswerable…and that points to something important:
We understand the effects of our sin nature, but we don’t understand the fundamental nature of our sin nature.
This lack of understanding is clear when we state it as the dual Paradox of the emergence and heritability of our sin nature.
Paradox Part 1: Our sin nature involves choice, so how can we “inherit” the inability to totally stop making sinful choices?
Remember, humans make a choice every time they sin, but we don’t seem to be able to choose to go very long without sinning. We seem to be slaves to sin in a way that Adam and Even somehow originally weren’t. But how could this ability to NOT sin fundamentally change?
Sin is a choice, or it isn’t a sin. If we had no choice in our ability to sin or not sin each time, then we would not be to blame for each sin, because blame clearly involves agency1, and agency requires the ability to choose. I am not saying that any human can choose to never sin…none of us has that full of a level of control. But I am saying that any human can choose or not choose each particular sin.
Adam and Eve had choices before the fall and after the fall.
Because the Bible is very clear that humans had some level of Free Will both before and after the Fall, we know our fundamental Free Will nature…our ability to choose things…did not change.
And yet, something got out of whack.
Paradox Part 2: Human heritability is physical, but our sin nature seems more like a spiritual state.
What is the actual mechanism of heritability? Physical, genetic heritability of the loss of the ability to avoid sin seems ridiculous. We can read our DNA…which gene or combination of genes would theoretically grant us the ability to not sin?
Do children inherit the spiritual condition of their fallen state via some transmission of the soul/spirit of their parents? This is hard to rule out. It’s nearly impossible to test. It is very important that Scripture doesn’t seem to hint at this possibility even tangentially. It feels incorrect to most Christians, and we have no positive reason to think it is the case.
A metaphorical interpretation of our sin nature doesn’t seem likely. According to the Bible, humans were sinless and walking with God openly. Then after that, they were banished from being able to do that, and humans became sinful. That is not some abstract set of states. It is very real, with real-world historical consequences.2
So if we didn’t inherit our sin nature through genetics or some weird kind of spiritual inheritance, then why did the children of Adam and Even grow up differently from how their parents were before the Fall?
What Does the Bible Say About Our Sin Nature?
Whatever the answer to this paradox is, it has to fit within a reasonable understanding of Scripture. Here are the most relevant verses on the subject:
Genesis 3:6-7 - When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Romans 5:12-14 - Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned— To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
Paul here in Romans makes it very clear that death entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned, when they fell. When humans lost the ability to NOT sin, the death of the new type of humans3 became the new normal. If they had not made the choice to eat the fruit, to disobey God, then they would not have died, but would have continued walking closely with God and not walking under the shadow of death.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22 - For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
Adam provided the mechanism for our fallen state to begin. In a poetic and also very real way, the actions of Christ lay the groundwork to reverse the situation.
Psalm 51:5 - Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
David here states what is obvious to us all…humans are born without the ability to avoid sin.
Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
The fallen state is universal. Since the fall, all humans except Christ cannot help but sin.
John 8:34 - Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin."
Romans 6:6 - For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
Ephesians 2:1-3 - As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
Our sin nature makes us slaves to sin, and when we give into sin instead of trying to fight it, we ally ourselves with darkness. But still, even though we are slaves to sin in one sense, our Free Will to make each sin means we are still “deserving of wrath.” I think Adam and Eve might have had more Free Will than you and I do, because sin closes doors and limits possibilities. But we still have a lot of Free Will, and God holds us responsible for our rebellious sin choices.
All these verses point a fairly clear picture of the effects of our sin nature:
Sin separates us from God
Sin kills us.
Sin is universal.
Sin (in humans) started with Adam and Eve.
Christ is fixing it, but we still labor under it, and can’t yet continually avoid making sinful choices.
And just as a reminder, we are trying to solve these paradoxes:
Sin Nature Paradox Part 1: Adam and Eve sinning changed a fundamental aspect of our Free Will choice nature. If our Free Will is part of who we are, how could that be fundamentally changed without us losing or gaining Free Will? Did Adam and Eve not have Free Will before they chose to sin? That seems nonsensical.
Sin Nature Paradox Part 2: Each new human somehow inherit this change, but we have no idea how (by what mechanism).
The Solution to the Sin Nature Paradoxes
In order to solve this problem, I am going to introduce two Possibly True Principles. These postulates do not contradict any part of the Bible. There are many passages that support them, but none that explicitly state these principles outright, similar to the doctrine of the Trinity. But like the concept of the Trinity, they have theological value because if they are true, they help us have a much deeper understanding of our sin nature and of very important aspects of reality and God.
Possibly True Principle 1: God’s Presence is somehow anti-sin.
There are many verses that hint at this or almost say it explicitly.
Isaiah 6:3-5 - And one [angel] called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
The angels attending God announce that the hallmark of God’s presence is His Holiness. Isaiah found being in the presence physically distressing because of Isaiah’s own felt sin.
2 Chronicles 7:1-2 - When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.
The priests, having a sin nature, were actively repelled by the presence of the Lord in His glory.
Many other times in Scripture, people finding themselves in the presence of God fall to the ground or express dismay or even faint (list at this footnote)4.
God’s Presence is not just a non-directional energy, it is a directional force. It is energy or power plus direction…moral direction. God’s very presence is the outflowing energy of His Will. In God’s presence, His will is done. This is true in heaven and we are supposed to pray that this happens also on Earth.
There is something very special about being in the presence of God. It chases away (burns away?) sinful tendencies and behavior. I don’t think this is some sort of property of God. It is a strong, localized, intentional expression of His Will. God hates sin, and sinful tendencies flee while people are in God’s immediate presence. His Will be done.
Possibly True Principle 2: Holiness and Choice cannot long perfectly coexist away from the immediate Presence of God.
I assert that free will agents do not have the ability to stay permanently aligned with the will of God if they are not regularly in God’s presence.
Angels and humans in heaven (or the Garden of Eden) are the only mentioned examples of sinless agents that have had free will.5 Isaiah (chapter 6) and Ezekiel (chapter 10) mention that some angels, seraphim and cherubim exist in the constant presence of God. Job (chapters 1 and 2) mention that the angels present themselves before God regularly. In Matthew 18, Jesus says children’s guardian angels “always see the face of my Father in heaven.” Gabriel in Luke 1 introduced himself as “one who stands in the presence of God.” And Revelations mentions “ten thousand times ten thousand” angels encircling God’s throne. And as for the human saints in heaven, they are mentioned to be in the presence of God en masse in Revelations chapters 6, 7, 14, 15, and 19.
Perhaps the way these angelic and human free will agents maintain their ability to not sin is their being regularly in the presence of God.
I don’t mean that being in the presence of God takes away their free will to sin. Rather, it energizes and enables them…gives them the choice to stay aligned with the will of God. It is probably much easier — to the point of feeling natural — to NOT sin when in the regular presence of God.
On an anecdotal level, I sometimes feel the presence of God in prayer or church or in my quiet times or worship times. I do feel more repelled by sin at those times, and I sin less during and after those times.
Resulting Solution to the Paradox:
When free will creatures, such as humans, exist for a long enough time away from the energizing, morally-aligning presence of God, they lose the ability to live without sinning.
Let me say that again, via the converse: Being in the immediate, actual presence of God regularly does something to us. It makes us able to not sin. The energizing, morally-aligning presence of God does something to us that allows us to not sin.
This effect fades the longer we are not in God’s immediate, actual presence. By “immediate, actual presence” I mean like physically in the presence of the Father, like Moses at the burning bush or Isaiah before the throne or the saints surrounding the throne. I don’t mean that being in the felt presence of God during a quite time is sufficient to eliminate sin. Though, of course, it does definitely help us sin less as we draw closer to Him. It is a matter of degree.
But the important discovery is that, as free will creatures, if we spend some time existing NOT in the immediate presence of God, we will sin. Therefore,
The “Inherited” Sin Nature is actually the result of us not regularly being in God’s immediate, actual presence.
What is heritable is that we are not existing in the actual immediate presence of God. And this is our Sin Nature. We inevitably become unaligned with the way and will of God because all free will creatures do this if not regularly in His immediate presence.
What did we inherit from Adam and Eve? We inherited being kicked out of the Garden. We inherited the position of not being in the regular presence of God.
An important caveat: Being in the immediate, actual presence of God does not reduce our Free Will to zero. We could still choose to sin if we actively willed it. This is what happened to Adam and Eve, even though they walked with God daily in the cool of the evening in the Garden of Eden. It’s also presumably what happened with Satan, who rebelled even thought in the regular presence of God (if Ezekiel 28:14 is about Satan: You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.)
The verses most often cited about the heritability of our sin nature are found in Romans 5:
Romans 5:12 "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—"
Romans 5:19 "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous."
The context of Romans 5 is to show the excellence of God’s way of clearing a path for our reconciliation to Him via Christ’s death and resurrection. Paul’s discussion of original sin and its long-lasting effects on our species was used as the first part of a comparison rather than as a careful treatise on the subject, and this is reflected by Paul’s intentional use of poetic, symmetric language. However, this doesn’t diminish the meaning that Adam’s sin strongly and directly affected all his descendants (except Christ).
But in the light of the thesis of this article, how do we read these verses?
Human sin entered the world. That sin caused a strong relational separation between Adam and Eve and God, in that they were banished from the Garden of Eden, and thus banished from being in God’s regular presence. Separation from being regularly with God made sin inevitable in free will creatures, and these humans were now no exception. Regular, often-happening sin, and the inability to not sin, became the normal state of Adam and Eve and their descendants because all of them now were not in the regular presence of God. And because sin entered the world, so did death. Apparently, Adam and Eve would have lived forever due to being physically renewed in God’s presence, just as they were morally renewed by being regularly in God’s presence. But that was taken away because of their decision.
And God chose to not put each new human child in a new Garden of Eden with God’s regular presence. The children inherited not some genetic predisposition to sin, but rather the new relational position of not being regularly in the presence of God. And so they too couldn’t avoid sinning, and they too died6.
I would note here that this concept of God’s regular presence causing (allowing?) human physical immortality solves another small paradox: if children too young to understand decision-making cannot sin, then why do they sometimes die, if sin causes death? It is because they are not in the regular, immediate presence of God, a presence that would banish sickness and death.
The relationally-inherited position of not being regularly in God’s presence is the mechanism of the heritability of the human sin nature. This not only answers many questions…it also fits with all the verses above that discuss our sin nature and its effects.
So What, Then?
Let’s assume that this hypothesis is true. What would it mean? What could we better understand? How could we better live?
Benefit 1: We have a viable solution to the Paradox of the Inherited Sin Nature. We now understand that our sin nature wasn’t inherited genetically. The “inheritance” acted sort of like genetic inheritance, in that all descendants of Adam and Eve were sinners after they sinned. But the “inheritance” of a sin nature is really the inheritance of our position of not being in the immediate, actual presence of God regularly. And that happened because Adam and Eve chose to sin when they didn’t really have to. Our Sin Nature is an important part of the gospel presentation, and if new Christians, searching Christians, or prospective Christians want to examine this aspect, it no longer presents a mystery, but rather a robust explanatory framework.
Benefit 2: We have insight into how humans can act sinlessly if they choose to when in heaven. Humans who chose God and submission to God (e.g., acceptance of Christ in the Christian era) have their decision to be with God honored by them being in the immediate, actual presence of God in heaven. This energizes them to be able to not sin, and this is how they exist. Note the caveat, though, that if they really wanted to, they could still choose to rebel. But apparently that is rare to the point of not happening (though we have basically zero data on this).
Benefit 3: We understand the fallenness and holiness of angels better. The principle that all free will agents needs the regular presence of God to stay in holiness not only explains how angels stay sinless, but it also explains why the demons are so disgusting and twisted. They have spent a lot of time away from the presence of God. And the original rebellion happened even though Satan and his angelic rebels were in the regular presence of God because God’s presence doesn’t reduce free will to zero. It just gives free will agents the ability to not sin if they want.
Benefit 4: We have a better understanding of why our personal holiness on Earth increases the more time we spend in the presence of God, even though it is not as dramatically immediate as the heavenly presence of God. God’s presence being a forceful, morally-aligning force matches very well with widespread Christian experience. We are thus encouraged by this hypothesis to draw close to Him to gain more control over our sin. Drawing close to God allows us to draw closer to God. It’s wonderful. Sin separates us from God, but He mercifully allows us to draw close to Him through fasting and prayer and singing and meditating and reading Scripture. He honors our free will choices by coming closer to us, and that energizes and aligns us to better be able to not sin. What a beautiful system! We should, though, keep in mind that the goal and reward of drawing closer to God is not the reduction of sin, but rather just being closer to Him. The reduction of sin is a tool, not a goal.
Benefit 5: Many Scriptures have a deeper meaning in light of this hypothesis. It left as an exercise to the reader to think about how these passages have new and deeper meaning given this new way of understanding the human sin nature. Below are a few examples of verses that might be a little more illuminated, in addition to the verses discussed above that are more directly about our Sin Nature (scroll up and re-read them, it’s fun).
Ecclesiastes 7:20
"Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins."
Isaiah 64:6
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."
Ephesians 2:1-3
"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath."
And all of these leads us to the biggest benefit:
Benefit 6: We actually understand the mechanics of sanctification. We become less sinful by drawing closer to God, getting closer and closer in this life to being regularly in His presence. This life is not the opposite of Heaven. This life is practice for Heaven.
Why Were We Kicked Out of His Presence?
One thing I have presumed throughout this article is that Christians understand that God does not like sin in His presence. And so sin separates us from closeness with God. But given this new paradigm, can we better understand why God performs this separation in reaction to sin?
There are two reasons:
1) God is repulsed and angered by sin. He sees it as an ugly stain because sin is a misalignment of will and actions that is contrary to His Will, meaning to His Nature, to Him. Sin is anti-God-ness. We must be made holy in some sense in order to enter His Presence.
2) The misalignment, the sin in us, would be destroyed by His actual immediate presence. Because His presence is the aligned force of His Will, it pushes any opposing action and will into complete subservience. This would “burn” us away or “destroy” us, obliterating the thing God treasures, our person and our free will (our ability to choose to love). God’s presence probably would physically injure us because the parts of our bodies (neural patterns?) that are aligned with sinful thoughts and actions would be assaulted by His forceful presence, like an array of long, fragile twigs planted straight up in riverbed when the water all comes at once. The are misaligned with the powerful flow, which certainly has a definite direction, and so they are knocked down or snapped.
What does this look like in practice? God clearly, over and over, states that holiness at some level is part of what is needed for us to be in His immediate presence, and it isn’t just His preference or due to His discomfort. Throughout the Bible, people who found themselves in God’s presence regularly reported discomfort due to their sinfulness. Adam and Even felt naked (Gen 3). Cain said his sin, in the presence of God, was “more than he could bear.” (Gen 4). Moses felt afraid to look at God in the burning bush (Ex. 3). The Israelites at Sinai asked God to stop speaking directly to them because they felt that it would “make us die” (Ex. 20). Isaiah, put into the presence of God, said “Woe to me! For I am ruined!” (Isa. 6). When John had a vision of Christ, he fell at His feet “as if dead.” (Rev. 1). It seems as though even baseline sinfulness burns or causes anguish in the presence of God, real psychic pain. So it appears that we have a feedback loop that missing out on God’s presence makes us fall into regular sinning, and this regular sinning makes us react painfully to God’s actual presence. Until we can be cleansed, that is.
How is that done? How can we enter the presence of God when we die, and also how can we draw close to God during this life?
He chose to “put” us in Christ, to let Christ’s sacrifice to be the covering, the odor-blocker, the first promise of our coming nature. This lets God draw close to us without being repulsed by our current sin, because it is the promise of the sinless state we will one day have.
By giving us the Holy Spirit, a work begins in us to start being more and more aligned with God. There is a small part of God residing in us that IS perfectly aligned with the Directional Moral Force of God. Moses while in pretty decent obedience to God, still couldn’t be in God’s actual presence fully, and even partial exposure made Moses’ face literally shine for days. We can be in the almost presence of God, and our ability to be in God’s more and more full presence is increased as we align better and better with His Will, reducing the sin misalignment in our lives.
Summary
It’s a paradox that we “inherited” our sin nature from our ancestors. Here is how that paradox is resolved:
God’s immediate presence is a morally aligning and energizing field. It is His Will and Intention and Righteousness. Regular exposure to His immediate, actual presence would give us the alignment and energy for us to be able to choose not to sin.
All free will agents will lose the ability to avoid sinning if they are not in the regular immediate presence of God.
So the Sin Nature we “inherited” from Adam and Eve is actually a position, or rather a lack of a position. We inherited from them the lack of being in the regular, immediate presence of God (Adam and Eve walked daily with God until they were kicked out of the garden).
Since our Sin Nature is positional, it gets fixed when we go to heaven, where we will be in the immediate presence of God.
One can still choose to sin, as God’s presence doesn’t reduce our free will to zero. We can still choose to eat the apple or rebel against God. But we don’t HAVE to sin, like we do now on earth, where we are not in the regular immediate presence of God.
We can partially be in God’s presence now on earth, though. And doing so helps us to sin less, which makes it easier to be deeper into His presence…A literally virtuous cycle.
Conclusion
This is a new way to understand our Sin Nature, and as best I can tell it agrees 100% with Scripture. And it certainly makes more sense than some idea of genetic or spiritual Sin Nature heritability. It also helps us to better understand many passages, and helps us to be inspired to grow closer to God.
And best of all, we also get the new treasure of understanding a little bit more about the nature of His presence.
Epilogue - The Gift of Original Justice
In some Christian theologies, there is the concept of “sanctifying grace” that has some similarities to the concept described above of the sanctifying effect of regularly being in the presence of God. While my concept doesn’t contradict the concept of sanctifying grace (and indeed may be some part of it), I don’t think they are the same concept just re-stated or re-discovered. Sanctifying grace is something that is thought by some to be imparted by God to the believer that produces a permanent condition. Above, my description of the effects of being in the immediate presence of God fade with time, and that fading is the actual key to resolving the Sin Nature heritability paradox. So they two are somewhat difference, though clearly being in the presence of God may be an opportunity for permanent change that would be a hallmark of sanctifying grace.
That said, in researching this possible overlap, I came across an old and excellent theological concept that illuminates and is illuminated by the subject of this article.
In the writings of Thomas Aquinas, the phrase "the gift of original justice" refers to the state of perfect harmony that Adam and Eve possessed before the Fall. This original state was a supernatural gift given by God that ensured:
Harmony with God – Adam and Eve had sanctifying grace, which kept them in a state of friendship with God.
Harmony within the soul – Their intellect, will, and passions were perfectly ordered, meaning reason ruled over desires without conflict.
Harmony with the body – They were free from suffering, sickness, and death. (In the fall, sickness and death began, see Romans 5:12-14)
Harmony with creation – They had dominion over nature without toil or hardship.
Aquinas, following Augustine and medieval scholastic tradition, saw original justice as a preternatural gift—meaning it was beyond human nature but not strictly supernatural like the Beatific Vision. This gift was lost due to original sin, which led to the disorder in human nature, suffering, and mortality.
Here, my “moral alignment” and Aquinas’ “perfectly ordered” could be synonymous. Further, we now have a deeper insight into how that gift of Adam and Eve being perfectly ordered was lost. They lost access to the regular, immediate presence of God. The specific curse of the human sin nature and also the wider curse of the loss of a more ordered relationship of man and nature both stem from our loss of alignment with Him.
Creation groans until we again become closer to God. Our families and our society also groans. To the extent we each learn to spend more time in the presence of God, we heal not just ourselves, but our surroundings.
The way God arranges things has such deep, elegant beauty. He always has a path forward for us to choose to let Him make things right.
He calls you right now. Stop and pray.
Sense of agency is the feeling that you are in control of your actions and their consequences. It's a subjective experience that's important for self-consciousness and self-identity. Humans have actual agency…it is our ability to choose and act and experience consequences of our actions and thoughts.
There are people that want to make everything in the first few chapters of Genesis purely metaphorical. That is their way of dealing with some of the paradoxes and difficulties of marrying Genesis and history. While I don’t have space here to fully discuss why I reject strongly metaphorical interpretations of Genesis 1-3, I will say that a) There are many pithy details of things people say and do and geographical details, and these details argue against a strongly metaphorical interpretation. And b): If Genesis 1-3 is purely metaphorical, what is the metaphor? What is it teaching us about ourselves or God? Jesus used metaphor all the time (“I am the vine, you are the branches.” “The kingdom of God is like a woman who had 10 silver coins and lost 1 of them…”). Jesus’ metaphors were clearly so, and had fairly clear meaning. They also lacked the details the differentiate story/history and metaphor. The rest of this essay presumes the heavily metaphorical interpretation of Genesis 1-3 is incorrect.
I will be writing about this in the future, but hominids have existed for a very long time, and Adam and Eve did not live so very long ago. But I assert that Adam and Eve were something new…a version of hominid that God breathed into — put a shard of His spirit into, so that we had a new capability: to commune with God. These new hybrid animal/spirit hominids were the first children of God humans, Adam and Eve. And they would not have died if they had not sinned. Thus, their fall ushered sin into the human world. More on this in another essay. But what is important here is that Adam and Eve lost their ability to not sin, and this made them mortal.
Old Testament
Abraham (Genesis 17:3)
Abraham fell facedown when God appeared to him and spoke about the covenant.Moses (Exodus 3:6)
Moses hid his face, afraid to look at God when He appeared in the burning bush.The Israelites at Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:18-19)
The people trembled in fear and begged Moses to speak to God on their behalf when they witnessed thunder, lightning, and the mountain trembling.Aaron and Moses (Leviticus 9:23-24)
They fell facedown when the glory of the Lord appeared to the people after a fire consumed the offering.Balaam (Numbers 22:31)
Balaam bowed low and fell facedown when the angel of the Lord stood before him.Joshua (Joshua 5:14)
Joshua fell facedown in reverence before the commander of the Lord's army.Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:28, Ezekiel 3:23)
Ezekiel fell facedown when he saw the glory of the Lord in his visions.Daniel (Daniel 8:17-18, Daniel 10:7-9)
Daniel fainted and fell facedown when the angel Gabriel appeared to him and later when he encountered a divine being.
New Testament
The Shepherds (Luke 2:9)
The shepherds were terrified when the angel of the Lord appeared to announce Jesus' birth.Peter, James, and John at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:6)
The disciples fell facedown, terrified, when they heard God’s voice at the Transfiguration of Jesus.The Guards at Jesus’ Tomb (Matthew 28:4)
The guards shook and became like dead men when they saw the angel of the Lord at the tomb.Paul (Saul) on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-4)
Paul fell to the ground and was blinded when he encountered the risen Christ in a brilliant light.John on the Island of Patmos (Revelation 1:17)
John fell at the feet of the glorified Christ as though dead when he saw Him in a vision.The Disciples at Jesus’ Arrest (John 18:6)
When Jesus identified Himself as “I am he,” those who came to arrest Him drew back and fell to the ground.
Angels must have at least some free will, or else Satan and his demons could never have rebelled.
There is another feedback here as well…God clearly, over and over, states that holiness at some level is part of what is needed to be in His immediate presence. Also, throughout the Bible, people who found themselves in God’s presence regularly reported discomfort due to their sinfulness. Adam and Even felt naked (Gen 3). Cain said his sin, in the presence of God, was “more than he could bear.” (Gen 4). Moses felt afraid to look at God in the burning bush (Ex. 3). The Israelites at Sinai asked God to stop speaking directly to them because they felt that it would “make us die” (Ex. 20). Isaiah, put into the presence of God, said “Woe to me! For I am ruined!” (Isa. 6). When John had a vision of Christ, he fell at His feet “as if dead.” (Rev. 1). It seems as though even baseline sinfulness burns or causes anguish in the presence of God, real psychic pain. So it appears that we have a feedback loop that missing out on God’s presence makes us fall into regular sinning, and this regular sinning makes us react painfully to God’s actual presence. Until we can be cleansed.