PROPENSITY

I have written that it is my firm belief that babies are born without sin, and remain so until they with full knowledge, do that which they know is wrong. At that point they join the rest of the world in need of a savior.

Even so each and every one of us is born with a propensity toward sin. Sin interacts on this propensity like a magnet to draw us toward it. If you take a young child and tell them “Don’t step on these flowers,” something happens within the child, and they have a strong urge to step on the flowers. It is more than temptation; it is temptation plus the power of sin.

Once man was not indwelled by this force, but when granddaddy Adam disobeyed God, the power of sin came to stay within. When there was no law this power was active, but was not revealed as such.

In the 6th and 7th chapters of Romans, Paul tries to expose the power of sin within man. Then he declares we who are saved are free from its power. He basically says; there is something in us, that is not us, and it tries to cause us to act in conflict with who we are.

I didn’t struggle with sin before I was saved; I just did it and in some cases enjoyed it, consequences not withstanding. My official title was “Servant of sin”.

But now I’m born again and have become “The servant of GOD.” Still there is inner conflict, from which Paul declares most emphatically, we are free from it. But sin has a strong drawing power much like the Sirens of mythology. Their song could not be resisted without aid from outside.

The story of Jason and the Argonauts tells of when they sailed into the sirens lair, and the sailors plugged their ears so they could not hear the song they sang, but Jason had himself tied to the mast, and as he listened to their song it nearly drove him crazy. When one hears the siren calling; his only defense is the deaf ear. What ever you lust after will be your undoing for that is what you will be seeking. Jesus said; take heed how you hear.


The term “World” is used to depict external lures, those things to which you can be drawn toward. Whether wine, women and song; or wine, men and diamonds. Whatever stimuli that causes the target to drool, this the world provides.

Jesus, the man, faced the strongest of temptations that the evil one could present to him. This was done when Jesus was at his physically lowest, and He was weakened from forty days of fasting. The reason He was able to withstand this onslaught was because there was nothing IN him that responded to any of the tempters wiles.

James 1:14-15 Each person is tempted by his own desire, being lured and trapped by it. When that desire becomes pregnant, it gives birth to sin; and when that sin grows up, it gives birth to death.

James understood this principle and warned against it.

Even though we are free from the power of sin, it will attempt to enslave us, and all it requires is our cooperation with it. But if we resist it, the power is broken and that which is in us, and is not us, and sin will not be manifested by us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKhtD3TsftI&feature=related

This post is linked to Deidra’s Sunday Jump Tandem
And with Michelle’s  Hear it on Sunday