Why are we held accountable for the sin nature we can’t help having?
If someone has an answer to this, I would love to hear it.
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thinking it over coffee
trying to figure it out with two monkeys on my hips
May 16th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I think Romans 5:12 gives us a pretty good picture.
Just as through one man sinned entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all have sinned. (NASB)
May 16th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I don’t know your level of theological training (not to say that you aren’t smart enough!), but I’ll give the somewhat technical answer.
You are assuming that responsibility necessitates the ability to do otherwise.
However in Scripture, the only conditions for responsibility are:
a.) the desire to do the action and
b.) that you actually did the action
[Of course, Christ makes it a sin (though a lesser sin!) even if only a. done (example: Matthew 5:27-28).]
The belief that responsibility is necessary only if one could have done otherwise comes from the Greek philosophers and their ethical theories, not the Bible. The influence of Greek philosophy on Western culture has been tremendous, and that is why most Westerners feel that Original Sin is ‘obviously’ unjust (though it isn’t at all ‘obvious’ to me).
Hope that helps.