DrIBEX Ideas

Recently I dealt with someone who believes that Christians no longer have a sin nature. The problem is a semantic one since the NT does not use that exact phraseology, but does clearly teach that there is still a problem with indwelling sin in our inner beings as believers (Rom 7:14-25; Gal 5:16-24). Here is a small section from my forthcoming commentary on James.

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil things, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown gives birth to death” (Jam. 1:13-15).

This description of the inner workings of temptation and sin reveals a profound theological anthropology that can be favorably compared to Paul’s insight into the human psyche in a passage like Romans 7. The way in which James describes temptation as being traced to “desires” also shares similarities (and differences) with how Sirach describes the same subject (Sir 15:11-20). Both probably refer to the “inclination” of the human heart, which according to Genesis is an inclination toward evil (Gen 6:5; 8:21). What is important contextually is that the genealogy of sin in 1:14-15 leads to death, a vivid contrast with the “crown of life” in 1:12. God rewards with a special quality of life those who have undergone and passed the testing process. They have shown by this faithful endurance that they “love God.” And by crowning them with life, God shows himself faithful to his promises. This would also point to a possible eschatological meaning of “death” in 1:15, since it is eschatological “life” that was previously promised. If eternal life can be experienced now as a foretaste, then eternal death can also be experienced now as a foretaste.

It is human “desire” personified that leads humans to sin and eventually to death. This “desire” refers not to legitimate human desire, but to desire disordered by sinful passions. James will later show more fully how such distorted desire leads to the conflicts between believers (James 4:1–3).

The passage again vividly portrays the bi-polar choices that James sets before his readers throughout the book. The person who endures and passes the tests that come his way will pass if he follows the wisdom that comes from above. The one who yields to temptation will do so because he has followed worldly wisdom that comes from below. A force from deep within, so often described in Jewish literature as the “evil inclination” (yetser hara), is the real culprit in this battle with sin – not God!

The person I referred to above believes that sin never comes from within the believer, it only comes from an external source as in a temptation from Satan. James shows the falsity of this view. 1 John also teaches that if a person says thay they “do not have sin (the noun hamartia),” then they are self-deceived (1John 1:8).