Written on 12/31/2023

To all of you, believing friends,

Have we chosen to be sinners?

– Have we chosen to be sinners from birth?

– Did we choose to be sinners after we were born?

These questions concerning our condition as « sinner » are important, essential, to the point of having become « vital ».

With the answer that will come naturally to us, everyone will be able to approach the meaning of God’s Gospel on a good basis; a sound basis; a basis « outside anything that could be conceived by means of a human concept, alone ».

Indeed, the Scripture precises that Jesus « loves sinners », and that it was especially for them that He came into the world.

Is it not because Jesus knows the gravity of what affects us, that we find no accusation on His part, and that He offers Himself as a substitute for our justification? Because He knows our inability. Above all, He knows our impossibility to get out of this condition we inherited at birth.

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This « non-responsibility of man », as well as the « non-accusation of God » towards the state of man, is therefore primordial.

Yes, it is essential, because this non-accusation shows God’s true position towards everyone.

For, in fact, according to Scripture, « man is not guilty of being a sinner ».

Man does not have to be held responsible for his sinful nature.

Man can only regret it, because sin was introduced into man by deception and therefore against his will.

Doesn’t the fact that man feels bad in this « sinful state » shows that he is being subjected to something outside himself that he doesn’t like?

Doesn’t it show him, on the contrary, that from the beginning he was created in the image of God?

Doesn’t the fact that man feels queasy about sin shows him that he has two natures within him?

– An inner nature, of Divine origin.

An inner spiritual nature, of a celestial essence, in order to return to the life of the « kingdom of God », the One Jesus was always talking about.

– Then there is another nature, an external one, linked to our « sinful condition ».

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It’s a « strange » condition that man neither wanted nor desired.

In this case, isn’t Jesus’ work also to rehabilitate our contact and position with the Father?

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So ?… Are we « guilty » of this « other nature » that intervined after the first?

Jesus, Himself, had no problem rubbing shoulders with prostitutes or sinners, as the Gospel of God preached by Jesus shows us.

But if Jesus never made any accusation about the condition of « sinful man », why should we constantly have to justify ourselves for what we neither chose nor wanted?

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To sum up:

Didn’t God create « man in His own image » ?

– Yes, He did.

So where does this sinful nature come from?

So who spearheaded it and who is the author?

Here’s what Jesus says on the subject:

John 8:44 He (the devil) was a murderer from the beginning (so before the creation of man), and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Moreover, the apostle John writes after Jesus: He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning (i.e. before the creation of man) 1 John 3:8

It is thus, the devil, because he was already in the beginning, and brought sin into the world, making this way “man a sinner”. But as it is written: the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

For us who believe in the Son of God, this is the most important thing. For if the devil brought sin into the world, Jesus took away the sin of the world. He took away sin by dying on the cross, before being resurrected by the Father.

Through His general Work, Jesus took away the “accusation and guilt” that men carried upon themselves. And it would be desirable for men to not putting them back.

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What joy and deliverance today to know that, through the work of God in Jesus Christ, He hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

And above all: « Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son… » Colossians 1:13

Colossians 1:12-14 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins

The brothers and sisters of levangilededieu.fr (meaning gospel of God, in french)