What is the root cause of sin? Part 1

What is the root cause of sin? What is the essence and the core - nature of sin and were did it come from?

Most of us think that sin is specific acts of the breaking of the law of God, but these outward acts are just sins which are the normal result of SIN and are caused by SIN.

Now the works - deeds of the flesh are manifest - obvious, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Just in cause if you think that these deeds do not apply to you, there are the words "and the such like" making every person completely guilty.

So we focus on our outward behavior, not seeing that there is an inner principle (law) which is self-centeredness that becomes obvious by our outward deeds. Now it is this very principle - law that is CAUSING us to do these outward sins. We're too blind to see our self-centered condition or the being which is causing us to be a self-centered person. That is beyond our sight then, but we do see our outward actions and deeds. That's why the outer law came to us. It came to expose that fact because you have lied, you have committed adultery, you do what is equivalent to murder, and you do worship anything except God.

Now the fact is that we've been so blinded by the deceit of Satan into a self-affirming self with his deepest form of a self-righteous self, which is when we receive some external approaches to God by the requirements of the law and external forms of religion. And in our self-righteous self, we think we're outwardly supposed to conform to these standards of the law. Attempting to conform our outward by behavior modification and sin maintenance programs is the very essence and core of sin.

What is the root cause of sin? What is the essence and the core - nature of sin and where did it come from? We look at our deeds and we focus on our outward behavior, not seeing that there is an inner principle (law) which is self-centeredness that becomes obvious by our outward deeds. Now it is this very principle - law that is CAUSING us to do these outward sins. We're too blind to see our self-centered condition or the being which is causing us to be a self-centered person. That is beyond our sight, but we do see our outward actions and deeds. That's why the outer law came to us, to expose the fact that we have broken the law because you have lied, you have committed adultery, you do what is equivalent to murder and you do worship anything except God.

Now the fact is that we've been so blinded by the deceit of Satan into a self-affirming self with his deepest form of a self-righteous self, which is when we receive some external approaches to God by the requirements of the law and external forms of religion, and in our self-righteous self we think we're outwardly supposed to conform to these standards of the law. Attempting to conform our outward actions by behavior modification and sin maintenance programs is just an outward religion. The idea that we can make ourselves acceptable to God by changing what we or do or do not do is a LIE in it itself.

Many Christians think they are sitting in the control room throwing switches and adjusting knobs while thinking that they are in charge and control of their lives. Now this control room is just an illusion and a lie that they have believed that they can be independent of God. We have spent a great deal of time and effort in some type of sin maintenance program or behavioral modification tricks and techniques that only make matters worse.

The purpose of the outward law then is to pinpoint those outward deeds, and then as a result we come to the point that we recognize them, and therefore recognize our guilt. We also know that because we have sinned we are guilty, and as a result we experience the consequences of the curse and death of the law. There is the curse of the law for those who have committed sins. Even if you have only committed one sin, you are entirely guilty of the whole law. If you're born again that's all gone out. If you're born again, you're no longer motivated by the spirit of self-centeredness. You're motivated by a new spirit - the Spirit of love.

Where did this self for self and this self-centerness come from? It came from the lie of satan to Eve in the garden. The first thing he did was to get Eve to question God by asking her "hath God said?" Then He told her that God had lied to her by telling her she would not die if she ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and she would become as God, knowing good and evil. He made Eve think that God is not trustworthy and that He did not really love her because He was withholding something from her to keep her from being a God. The truth was God never withheld anything from her. She was already in complete union in God and was made in His likeness and image.

When Adam and Eve both ate from the tree, they became totally subject to the law of sin and death, and they were enslaved to this inward principle that they could NEVER get free from. This became their operating system, and they were in complete bondage to it and could do NOTHING about it.

Now here is the good news of the Gospel. Jesus Christ did what the Law could NEVER do. He also did what we could never do. Paul cried out when he finally realized after making many vows and putting forth much effort to make himself "better" by doing good and avoiding evil. He totally exhausted himself doing all that he could do but failed miserably. He found that he could not get free by his own will power. Look what he said, "For to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not." To will daily to do good and yet to be totally unable to do it is a very tiring thing. Now the Lord does not require us to do good; neither does He want us to will to do good. He wants to come and live in us.

The issue is not whether there is any good, but who does the good. Paul came to the conclusion that he was a complete prisoner of sin and he could nothing to escape it. He finally realized that he could never get free by anything he did or did not do. He could never deliver himself from the law of sin and death. He had absolutely no hope in himself at all, so he cries out, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

Then he sees the only answer was in what Jesus Christ had already accomplished for him. Then he realizes that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made him free from the law of sin and death. The law and our efforts could not cleanse us, make us holy, and make us perfect, make us righteous, justify us or give us life - impossible. Christ completely delivered us and set us free from this old law by giving us a new law - a new operating system which is HIS LIFE AND DIVINE NATURE.

We now have the very person of Jesus Christ dwelling and living within us. Christ Himself gives - supplies us with the faith that is needed. He is the initiator and perfecter of faith. We live by His faith that resides in us, not by our faith in Him. "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." He is the gift. Under the OLD OPERATING SYSTEM - The law of sin and death, we were put under obligation to totally love God every second of every day. This was a demand with a penalty that if we failed to do that even for a second we were forever doomed and cursed. Now because Christ lives in us, we are delivered from living and we do not need to try to live. God has exempted us from living. As it is good news that we need not die, so it is good news that we need not live.

Now under the NEW OPERATING SYSTEM, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ sets me totally free from this obligation and all obligations to that old law. Now God who is LOVE dwells in my physical body, supplying me CONTINUOUSLY with that Love that the law demanded but could never provide. Now I am FREE to love without effort. Not only am I SUPPLIED with Love, I am that LOVE. Now then I am not under ANY further obligation at all, for His LOVE inside of me fulfills all the requirements of the law. I have been set free by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ, and I am FREE INDEED!!!

A principle - law is just the way something works; it cannot do anything different. We were under the law of sin and death which was our source that caused all of our outward deeds and actions. WE could not help it. This was the way we were without any possibly to get free from this system.

While we yet living under that LIE, Christ places us under the law (the operating system) of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus making us free from the law (the operating system) of sin and death. Under this law THE LIFE IN CHRIST is our new source that causes all of our outward deeds and actions. We are now holy, cleansed, made holy, made perfect, made righteous and He has given us HIS LIFE. Now Christ's LIFE CAUSES YOUR OBEDIENCE!!! It is God who said "I will cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments." We cannot help it. It is just the way it works. It impossible for it act differently.

What Christ did was to take the whole sin system upon Himself, not just that He bore our sins. Christ was "made sin." Now this sin is the very root and cause of all outer sin. Sin is the whole system of self-centeredness; sins are just products and the judgment of Adam's sin. Sin - the whole system, the whole sin system, the whole sin dimension - He was made that! This was the final place, Jesus Christ, as God became the whole sin system, which involved us and everything else that's gone wrong.

As He became the sin system, we became the righteousness system. Now we don't get righteousness; we are the righteousness system. We are god-forms of God in His righteousness. It says He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we may be made the righteousness - not have the righteousness-not get justification. Be made the righteousness. We are now the right people! We are now as He became the wrong person in all its implications, so we're now the right people with all its implications! So we boldly say we're the right people. We're God's righteousness; we're God's rightness now. Not made right-are right! He totally removed us from the Whole of the ROOT of all sin - The cause of outer sins - a self for self and the idea of an independent self.

Now we are under the WHOLE ROOT of righteousness - the cause of our obedience, and we are now in complete union in God. The law in the Spirit of Life in Jesus Christ is "I have got a new principle a new law - the Spirit of Life." I used live to under the law, but God has removed - transferred me to a NEW kingdom and a NEW law. I am NO longer under the sin principle of self - which brings death. I am now under the law of Spirit of LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS!! God has delivered us from one law by transferring me to another law. The law of sin and death used to rule me, but now I am ruled by another law that operates within me - the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and that law has completely delivered me from the law of sin and death. You see, it is a law of life in Christ Jesus - the resurrection life that is in Him has met death in all its forms and triumphed over it.

The Lord Jesus dwells in my heart by faith, and He is my keeper. When I was under the law, Sin was my ruler and I could not help not sinning, but now I am ruled by a different law of Life and Love; I cannot help being holy, righteous, and perfect. It is what it is. Now I am a free from a mere outer law that only produces death telling me shoulds and should nots that could never cleanse me from sin, give me life, or make me holy, perfect, or righteous. Now I have an inner LIFE - God's own divine love, Life, and nature causing me to be all that the law could never do.

A law or principle only means how a thing works and operates. It has no choice to do or be anything different. It is a rule of action. The results are unchangeable and fixed. We are now under the perfect law of freedom from that old system of law. This New law sets us free from sin and death; that is how it works and operates and it also it has no choice to do or be anything different. The results are unchangeable and fixed.

What is the nature of this law of life? Such a nature will operate spontaneously along a certain line without the need of it being forcibly controlled and without the need of any conscious effort. God has given us His life within us and this life is a law by itself. He has not placed in us a mere outward form or letter; He instead puts in us a living law of life which operates spontaneously. Since what God has put in us is HIS Life, it naturally is a law, which operates spontaneously. This law will automatically "law" out life. And this life will spontaneously "law" out the contents of the life within us - even "law" out the riches of God. It will naturally flow because that is it very essence and nature.

Now that I know that I am ruled by a new law the operating system of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus making me free from the law (the operating system) of sin and death, I am now no longer concerned or give any thought to my feelings, circumstances, outward conduct, action or deeds. The oughts and ought nots have no effect on me because I am under a new law that actually causes my obedience all the time without any effort on my part at all.

That is it - see the law working within you now - the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus making you free from the law (the operating system) of sin and death. The Holy Spirit of the living God is now showing and making it real to that you are under His new operating system, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and He has made you free from the law of sin and death. Now as you see it, you need to take it and make it your own. When you take it, it will take you.

Rom. 6:11, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Reckoning is a banking term. Lets say that someone tells you that they just deposited 1 million dollars into you bank account. Yes- you get all excited and go to the bank counting on the fact that it is there and withdraw some money. Please note that reckoning does not put the money there. No amount of reckoning can make it true. You reckon and count on it because you know it is already an existing fact. If it was not an existing fact, you could never reckon it to be so - IMPOSSIBLE.

There are two things we must realize that we are told to reckon. The first thing we need to realize and know is the fact that we are NOW DEAD INDEED UNTO SIN. Now this is an unchangeable divine fact that was already done for us by Christ on the Cross. The scripture plainly states that when He was crucified, we were crucified WITH HIM. When He died - We died. 2 Cor. 5:14-15, "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."

Now the all important thing is that you get that you died with Christ and you are now dead to sin. You reckon yourself dead unto sin. Get that! Get that clear. Now the second thing you haven't got so clear that you are now alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is more than that. Alive unto God is a just a relationship but it is so MORE than that, it is union. It is replacement. It isn't a relationship unto God through Lord Jesus Christ. It is a replacement. Christ has taken me over. That is a deeper thing. You can't quite get that yet, because you have this false concept, "I'm a person, a kind of independent person," which is a lie. You are dead to the law because if you are there, the law shouts at you, and it shows that you're not there. Because the law is there while I think I'm an independent person or under Satan operating system. That's the law. It tells you, you shouldn't be that! So while you are under the law you are under a false illusion. It means that you are there. If you are dead to the law, it means you are not there. Because the law will shout at you, while you think you are independent.

Relationship with God vs. UNION IN GOD

When we are born again we enter into a relationship with God not realizing at that time there is much more is available. We see God as above us, over there, besides us or even in us but we think and act as we are a separate and unique individual that is fully responsible to run our own lives according to our knowledge of Good and evil. When we see the law we actually believe that we could and should obey them. We boldly think by our own will power and efforts that we can. When we miserably fail we confess or sins daily and "repent" but we always come up short. So in our self-righteous self, we attempt to conform our outward actions by behavior modification and sin maintenance programs to improve our self and to make us better. We make promises and vows that never work and we feel guilt, ashamed, dirty, unclean, and worthless before God. Then we believe God is angry and mad with us and we better some how shape up. When we are in a relationship with God, we ask God for help, for wisdom, strength, love, power, revival, patience and so on and on.

Now union In God is totally different because instead of two distinct individuals now there is just one. Now God is living in us as us. All the things that the law demanded - we already were but we just did not know it. The Sermon on the Mount is not telling us what we need to become that or something we need to achieve, it just describes who we really are this very second. Everything God has, we have but it is better that that - everything that God is I am!

From the moment you were born again you have lived in a new marriage. That's what you don't know! You've moved from death to resurrection - that's the new marriage! You walked in death in the old marriage. Now God, in Christ has united you IN Christ's resurrected life and you are married to Him. You believe that you were just raised with Him but you not yet realize that you were really raised AS Him. You don't know that part yet.

You know that you belong to Jesus, but you haven't got the other thing right. You haven't got that outlook right. So you think you run your own self - fighting. That's the lie. You may not have realized you were governed by Satan in that sense. Doesn't matter except that when you've got a false union you can conceive a new one when you recognize I was indwelt by Satan, expressing him through me, it is easier to move into and say, "Now I'm indwelt by Christ. He's handling it through me." There's a change of union.

Affirm what Christ was done by saying, "I am strong in faith and I give glory to God because I am fully persuaded that what He has said He has done he is able also to perform it in me NOW. I know that by doing this I have totally conformed myself to God's truth. This completely destroys and totally delivers me from any false idea of any self-reliance." Yes you MUST TAKE IT as belonging to you. Faith sees it and just takes it - receives that truth as your existing reality.

Also say, "I am standing firm in the liberty because Christ has made me free, and I will not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Now this is my liberty. I have been delivered from being controlled by that old self - that quality of self-centeredness, and I have in its place the Spirit of Self-giving love. Now I operate only from that basis and source - no other source exists! IT IS SO! That law is working within me right now - I am depending on it working. It cannot BUT work. Once I was a prisoner and slave of the law of sin and could not help sinning. There was nothing that I could do about it, it was normal. Now I AM a prisoner and slave of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ and cannot help but be righteous. There is nothing that I can do about it, it is normal. Now I have an inner LIFE - God's own divine love, Life, and nature causing me to be all that the law could never do.

And this - "I'm crucified with Christ, I live, no I don't live, Christ lives in me." I have changed over from wrong self in Satan to - not I but Christ. I now live in the flesh and I live it by the recognition that is not just me. An exchange has taken place, and now Christ is my life, and no other life exists. Christ is the author and finisher of my Faith, and I now live by HIS faith - the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. I am now under new management and I have a new operating system. I know God. He's my Father! He's Daddy. All my old bondage is out. I Dare to believe that I am free to be myself, and God is now operating through me and operating in me!"

You were MADE righteousness. Jesus Christ, as God, did that. You are NOW the righteousness system. You have bee delivered from being controlled by that old self - that quality of self-centeredness. And I have in its place the Spirit of Self-giving love. See that - embrace that - enjoy that - IT IS SO!!!

You only begin to get deliverance when you affirm those things. When was the last that the law of gravity stopped working and you floated away? What part did you play in that law working? You can depend on this new law likewise to do what it does.

So Christ as God did MORE than just taking our sins away and removing our trespasses from us - He totally removed us from the WHOLE sin principle (Law). He removed that whole total mess out of self forever! Now we are back in the garden like Adam and Eve were but BEFORE they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that SIN does not exist. Now we are in a much better place they were because we know what it has taken us to get here. Look there are the two trees in front of us. I do not know about you, but I will run quickly to the Tree of LIFE and freely grab the fruit and sink my teeth into it!!

//Now it is this very principle - law that is CAUSING us to do these outward sins.//

I think this is an overstatement of what is the actual truth. I think it could better be stated as, The sin principle is stimulated by the law even though the law itself is good and blameless. The root problem is still the sin principle itself.

-Daniel

I see and understand what you are saying. Look at Rom 7:23, "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." This is the law that I was referring to, NOT the 10 commandments. Yes the root problem is still the sin principle itself. The commandments stimulate sin but is not the root of sin. Yes -I could reword that to make that clear. THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

How about this?

So we focus on our outward behavior, not seeing that there is an inner principle (law) which is self-centeredness that becomes obvious by our outward deeds. Now it is this sin principle - law (not the 10 commandments) that is CAUSING us to do these outward sins. The root problem is still the sin principle itself. The commandments of the law stimulate sin but the commandments are not the root of sin. We're too blind to see our self-centered condition or the being which is causing us to be a self-centered person. That is beyond our sight then, but we do see our outward actions and deeds. That's why the outer law came to us. It came to expose that fact because you have lied, you have committed adultery, you do what is equivalent to murder, and you do worship anything except God.

//I am now no longer concerned or give any thought to my feelings, circumstances, outward conduct, action or deeds. The oughts and ought nots have no effect on me because I am under a new law that actually causes my obedience all the time without any effort on my part at all.//

This goes against like almost all of the NT. Count the warnings.

Whenever I read posts like this (we have seen them here before from other posters) it seems exactly like you are saying that what bad a Christian does simply can’t be called sin any more- that the word sin does not apply to Christians any more.

Your whole premise seems to grossly neglect the fact that Christians sin often and sometimes very badly.

But you seem to be saying that for a Christian it’s just not sin any more.

But as the Bard said, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

I understand your concern. For over 39 years after being born again I was involved in MANY outward sins. Some of these sins were extremely bad and I would have spent many years in jail if I had been caught doing them.

During that time I was living under the sin principle (the law of sin and death - living from my knowledge of good and evil) that this article describes. So this sin principle was the root cause for my outward actions. I really could not help it while living like that.

After failure after failure attempting to deliver myself from this bondage and evil system ”“ I found I could not escape no mater I did no did not do. Then my eyes were opened to the fact that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus had made me free from the law of sin and death. Now I am no longer under that sin principle because God, has removed me completely from under that system and has placed under a new law - the law of LIFE and LOVE.

So can born again Christians commit sins. YES - they often do. I did also but now I live under a different operating system and I am entirely set free from that old system. The whole reason that I posted this article was to show the way of escape from that satanic system even after being born again.

Can you state how to do it in very simple and terse language? I’m sure everyone reading would appreciate it.

First off it is something that God, in Christ has already done. We enter in only by faith as we hear the word of God. The LIVING word - contains everything you need. No works of the flesh or self effort are involved. The Holy Spirit of God takes the things of Christ and makes it real to you. AS he does, your eyes are open to see it and the you just take what you see. It is a gift of God. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith””and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast."

What do we need to believe?

Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

And

Rom 6:6-7 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

In your estimation what percentage of Christians believe this in the way you mean?

In other words what percentage are walking around sin-free?

I do really do not have a clue on the number of Christians who believe this way or experience freedom from the domain of sin but I do know that God by his grace is pleased to reveal His Son IN us at this time. This is what God is doing now and it will continue to expand and grow. This is what needed to have Christ revealed IN US in these last days.

Before we were born again we were slaves and servants of sin and we were totally free from righteousness (Rom. 6:20). We were dead in sin and trespasses so then righteousness could not exist because we were dead to it. Sin was just completely normal for us and it just flowed out from us without our thought or effort. We were stuck in this death until God MADE us alive in Him.

When were we born again (fathered from above) We were MADE free from sin and become slaves - servants to God, we now have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. (Rom 6:22). Now when Christ died ”“ we died. When He was buried - we were buried. When He arose ”“ we arose having His LIFE within us. Now we are dead to sin but alive IN Him and righteousness is just completely normal for us and it just flows out from us without much thought or effort.

It is one thing to say Christ died for me. It is another thing to say, "When He died, I died.” What does that mean? That is something far deeper than taking my sins. It means the whole sin condition and root cause of sin! Now that can't mean anything personally to me unless I 'get' it. The Sin condition is not me; it is like a virus, a person who is expressing sin by me. In other words sin is the principle of self-centeredness expressed through me.

What Christ did was to take the whole sin system upon Himself, not just that He bore our sins. Christ was "made sin." Now this sin is the very root and cause of all outer sin. Sin is the whole system of self-centeredness; sins are just products and the judgment of Adam's sin. Sin - the whole system, the whole sin system, the whole sin dimension - He was made that! This was the final place, Jesus Christ, as God became the whole sin system, which involved us and everything else that's gone wrong.

As He became the sin system, we became the righteousness system. Now we don't get righteousness; we are the righteousness system. We are god-forms of God in His righteousness. It says He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we may be made the righteousness - not have the righteousness-not get justification. Be made the righteousness. We are now the right people! We are now as He became the wrong person in all its implications, so we're now the right people with all its implications! So we boldly say we're the right people. We're God's righteousness; we're God's rightness now. Not made right-are right! He totally removed us from the Whole of the ROOT of all sin - The cause of outer sins - a self for self and the idea of an independent self.

Christ has placed us under the law (the operating system) of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus making us free from the law (the operating system) of sin and death. Under this law THE LIFE IN CHRIST is our new source that causes all of our outward deeds and actions. We are now holy, cleansed, made holy, made perfect, made righteous and He has given us HIS LIFE. Now Christ's LIFE CAUSES YOUR OBEDIENCE!!! It is God who said "I will cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments." We cannot help it. It is just the way it works. It impossible for it act differently.

Now we are under the WHOLE ROOT of righteousness - the cause of our obedience, and we are now in complete union in God. The law in the Spirit of Life in Jesus Christ is "I have got a new principle a new law - the Spirit of Life." I used live to under the law, but God has removed - transferred me to a NEW kingdom and a NEW law. I am NO longer under the sin principle of self - which brings death. I am now under the law of Spirit of LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS!! God has delivered us from one law by transferring me to another law. The law of sin and death used to rule me, but now I am ruled by another law that operates within me - the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and that law has completely delivered me from the law of sin and death. You see, it is a law of life in Christ Jesus - the resurrection life that is in Him has met death in all its forms and triumphed over it.