Do we sin because we are dead or are we dead because we sin?
Do we sin because we are dead or are we dead because we sin?
Some will think this is the same question, or that it does not matter, but I assure you it is not the same question, and it does matter. One is correct, and one is not correct, and a knowing the difference, means everything!
All men believe, and all religions basically teach the same thing: God grants us entrance into heaven based on our good works, because we really do do good works, which are more in number than our bad works!
All religions teach that we are sick, not dead, so we can do good things, and of course the good works we do are more in number than the bad we do, because we are not really that bad, we are sick, not dead, and so the bad we do is not really that bad, and since God is good, and God is love, he accepts those good works that we do, and will let us into heaven. That is what most people believe, and what most religions believe.
The only problem is, the bible does not teach that.
So you have all the religions of the world on one side, saying basically one thing, and the bible on the other side, saying something quit different!
In this Blog, we will deal with these four (4) points:
1) The fact that we are spiritually dead, dead to God, because our hearts, our nature, is dead.
2) The fact that sins, specific actions, thoughts, etc, flow out of that dead heart.
3) The need to have that dead nature made alive.
4) Our need to have those sins, those actions, thoughts, etc, which we do, dealt with.
1) The fact that we are spiritually dead, dead to God, because our hearts, our nature, is dead.
The bible clearly teaches that we are spiritually dead, dead to God, and that we have inherited that dead nature from Adam, our common ancestor.
"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen 2:16-17
"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:" Gen 3:4
God said you will die! Satan said you will not die!
Who is telling the truth? God or the devil? Does that question really need to be answered?
Jesus said the devil was a liar from the beginning, the father of lies (Jhn 8:44), it is this lie to Adam and Eve, to which Jesus is referring; and Jesus said he, the devil, was a murderer: he murdered Adam and Eve, and us too, with that lie.
So Adam and Eve eat, and immediately they see their nakedness, not skin nakedness per say, but nakedness before God, and so they hid from God, and then Adam turns on both God and Eve, blame shifting, telling God that it was his fault that he sinned:
"And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Gen 3:12
Sound familiar?
Yet how do we know, how do I know, that Adam's sin, and subsequent spiritual, and yes physical death, passed on to me? After all, I did not eat the forbidden fruit!
I know it, not only because I see in myself an innate ignorance of God and an antipathy toward him (before I was saved that is), but I see death all around me, and I know that I too will die!
Death is the evidence that Adam's sin passed on to all mankind.
"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Rom 5:14-19
Sounds pretty clear to me! Adam sinned, and immediately died spiritually, and physical death also entered into the creation. The consequence of Adam's sin, spiritual and physical death, was passed on to each and everyone of us. How do we know that? We die!
And how do we know Adam died God-ward? He saw his nakedness, hid from God, evaded his sin, and blamed Eve. And because we too do the same things, we can know that the consequences of Adam's sin have passed on to us! We hide from God, evade our sin, know inherently that we are naked before him, and that causes us to feel guilty, ashamed, vulnerable, and we blame shift, saying either "I didn't do it!" or "It's not that big a deal," or "It was his fault!"
2) The fact that sins, specific actions, thoughts, etc, flow out of that dead heart.
The human heart is like a fountain head, out of which come our actions, thoughts, desires, motives, etc. etc. But now that we are spiritually dead, we have no desire for God, but rather we loves the things of the world, and believe the lies of the devil, who is the father of lies and hater of God and all that is good. And so we being dead, our heart is also dead, and it spews out bad works, and is so foul, that even what we might think are good and righteous works, are really filthy rags.
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Isa 64:6
That is it in a nutshell: dead heart produces dead works – period. It is not brain surgery.
"Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Mat 12:33-34
"And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man." Mar 7:20-23
We are truly the children of the Disobedient one!
"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of the disobedient one: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph 2:1-9
Now, while this is of theological interest to Christians, I am aiming this Blog at non-Christians, and ask you one simple question: Why do you sin?
If you were born good, you would have had no inclination to sin, you would have been ignorant of sin, having never sinned before, and so would not have been attracted to sin, BUT the fact that you did sin, and continue to sin, shows that you were actually born with a dead and evil nature, which was/is inclined to sin.
You would rather listen to your father the devil (Jhn8:44, 1Jn 3:12), than to God.
In fact, you really want nothing to do with God!
"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God:" Rom 8:6-7
None of us wanted anything to do with God! BUT GOD. We who have been birthed again by the Holy Spirit know all abut this. We were dead and running away from God, just like you still are, BUT GOD intervened in our lives, and changed us. He birthed us again, giving us a new heart, a heart which wants him, a heart which is inclined toward him, a heart that does not run away from him.
Why do we Christians harp on sin? We are like doctors, we must tell you of the malady! He would be a bad doctor, actually an evil doctor, if he told a sick person that they were well. He would be a liar, and his lie would lead to their death.
You are sick, and the sickness is terminal.
Sins, the actions and words and thoughts and desires that you see, are the symptoms, of your sickness disease; the sickness is a dead heart, and left un-treated, will lead to your eternal death in hell.
Think of gangrene and necrosis; that is the heart that every single human being is born with, and that is why God says our righteous are just filthy rags ("filth rags" mean menstrual rags; used Tampons!); that is what our best deeds alike, and they flow out of our heart!
This should convince you, that the road to heaven, is not your doing good works, and that your good deeds cannot outweigh your bad deeds, because even our righteous deeds are filthy rags! Even if we could do some truly God acceptable good deeds, what do we do about our dead and evil hearts? We need to make the source, the fountain head, our hearts good; AND WE CANNOT DO THAT!
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." Jer 13:23
The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, the leopard cannot change his spots, and we cannot change our hearts!
We have a problem, a big problem!
3) The need to have that dead nature made alive.
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." Joh 3:6-7
"Born-again" is not a Christian denomination! It is a sovereign work of God the Holy Spirit, giving life to a dead sinner. It is being birthed again by God the Holy Spirit. It is life for the dead. It is of the Holy Spirit, not of the flesh.
And he, the Holy Spirit, uses the bible, his own words, to impart that life to us:
"In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise," Eph 1:13
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." 1Pe 1:23
That is why we Christians are forever telling people, "READ THE BIBLE!"
The Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth, uses the Word of Truth, the word which he caused to be written in the bible, to impart life to dead sinners; it really is that simple!
4) Our need to have those sins, those actions, thoughts, etc, which we do, dealt with.
Here is where Jesus' death on the cross comes in.
He is the Lamb of God, who took our sins upon himself, and carried them to the cross, and there suffered the just wrath and punishment of God, which was due us, on our behalf; he suffers, we go free!
"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, who is taking away the sin of the world." Joh 1:29
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." 1Pe 2:24
Isa 53 clearest presentation of the gospel in the entire bible: substitutionary, propitiatory, atoning, expiating.
In the next Blog, we will look at those words, but for now, here is what we need to know:
Jesus takes our sins upon himself, during his life and in the garden, they are imputed to him, reckoned to him as if he had committed them, considered his, and he brings them to the cross, where, though he had not done them, and was therefore not sinful, yet he dies for us, in our place. When he stands before Herod and Pilate, he is not an innocent man, he is guilty be reason of having taken out sins upon himself, he had become sin:
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2Co 5:21
In financial situations, we say, "I assumed his debt;" it was not mine, but I assume all of the obligations that are in his loans papers: his name is crossed off, my is written in the place of his, and I sign off on it!
"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isa 53:4-6
"He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken." Isa 53:8
"He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and he made intercession for the transgressors." Isa 53:11-12
Because we have no standing, or worth of person in our own right, sufficient to die for our own sins, our death would just not cut it; that is why those in hell have to suffer for all eternity for their sins: their debt is greater than the worth of their person, so their personal death is insufficient to cover that debt!
But Jesus, as the eternal son of God, being of infinite worth, his death is of sufficient worth to cover our debt, and he does it in a 3 hour time frame, which when over, says, "It is finished." (Jhn 19:30)
So to sum up this Blog:
We died in Adam, out of our dead being flow sinful actions and thoughts, God the Holy Spirit births us again, to solve the problem of our dead being, and God the Son dies on the cross to pay the debt of our sinful actions and thoughts.
And so we have answered our initial question:
Do we start off bad, and therefore sin, or do we start off good, commit sin, and become bad?
We start off bad, from the "get go," but God:
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" Eph 2:4-5
That is the gospel.
2 November 2025