First, thanks so much for your replies!
If we are constantly being refined, then what is it that is actually being refined, and for what purpose (I don't know - one could ask why God didn't make us refined to begin with)? If Satan weren't here to tempt us, we wouldn't go through this refining process.
Confusing a bit, but I think I get it.
![Wink :ewink:](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
If we weren't born depraved, why would the refining process be necessary? Makes sense. And I'm not denying that it's our nature to sin...it is. I just want to know why, because of Adam and Eve, we ALL have to be
dominantly sinful. If they had obeyed God, would we be mostly righteous by nature? I'm just wondering why they were given such a deadly, costly responsibility of determining the nature of their offspring. Why can't we decide our own natures? Then again, isn't that what makes it a nature? Can you
choose a nature?
I'm not saying this is what you are thinking, but I always laugh because some think that if they were the ones in the garden, they wouldn't have eaten the fruit.
Oh, I would've eaten the fruit, no doubt.
![Razz :P](./images/smilies/icon_razz.gif)
But that's because I know I'm sinful and selfish, and would love to be like God. Why did the sin even appeal to Adam and Eve if they didn't have a sinful nature? The fruit would appeal to me because I'm mostly sinful. The choice is still mine to make, but it would undoubtedly be
appealing. Why did it appeal to them, if they were mostly...well, nothing?
The capacity to sin is there aT birth, but not the sin itself. A newborn child is completely selfish. Not because they choose to be that way. They just are. This is not willful disobedience to God.
So...being born sinful is not the same as being born condemned? That would explain why people say babies who die go to heaven, even though they had no time to accept Christ.
If there were no sin, there would be no cross.
If one could accomplish holy living apart from Christ, then there would be no need for a cross.
The plan of the cross was not an afterthought. God was not caught off gaurd in the garden.
Sin entering the world wasn't really what I was wondering about...I wonder why we all have to be born sinful, without our consent. Why was it that Adam and Eve's failure made us
mostly evil?
Maybe it can be asked like this: Are we mostly evil because it is our nature, or is it our nature because we are mostly evil?
I'm just curious as to why God decided that one man's sin would determine the overall nature of His future creatures. It's our choice to give in to temptation, but the Bible says sin is there in us at birth. Why do we have to be born with the bad thing instead of the good thing?
God is reconciling the world to Himself. And that is only accomplished through Christ Jesus. (2 cor 5:19) And the reason things are the way they are is that this is THE PLAN. The way that God has made that harmonizes with His Holy character. That plan is the cross. And the incredible mystery is that everything, I mean everything, from Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to David, to Babylon, to Rome was all culminating, building, progressing, focusing pointing towards this event called "the cross."
There is no alternative.
I know the cross is important. Direly important. It's important because man does need a Savior. I am not denying that man is evil and sinful. That's an obvious fact. I'm just looking at the truth and wondering, "Why?" It's incredible that God delivered us. It's beyond my scope of understanding of love...seriously. But
why did we have to be born mostly evil? Is it just because of Adam and Eve?
![A rose y@};-](./images/smilies/yahoo/40.gif)