If Babies Are Doomed, Who Forgot To Tell Paul?

What if the core assumption many of us grew up with—being born with a sin nature—isn’t what Scripture teaches? We take a hard look at the origins of “original sin,” how Augustine’s legal mindset reshaped earlier thought, and why Paul’s timeline of imputation challenges the idea of congenital guilt. Along the way, we return to the Hebrew and Greek roots of sin—chet and hamartia—and discover a directional definition: missing our intended aim, falling out of alignment with our unique expression of God’s image.

From there, we widen the frame. Sin is not the biggest story—death is. Not just biological death, but the quiet reign of fear and shame that burrows into the psyche and builds a counterfeit self. We trace how this hidden engine shows up in the story of Cain: a fallen countenance that signals inner collapse, God’s invitation to realign rather than perform, and the “door” as a threshold where sin crouches, seeking consent. Desire becomes a pull toward unhealthy union with a distorted identity. The act of murder is the fruit; the root is orphaned belonging.

We then unpack Nod—not as a pin on a map, but as a state of restless dislocation. It identifies that the nervous system is on high alert, the mind convinced it must hustle for approval, and the heart feeling inheritanceless. Against that backdrop, salvation looks less like legal acquittal and more like the restoration of sonship: a return to the original commission to co-create with God, to live from an identity that was never revoked. If sin is mis-aim and death is the deeper tyrant, our task is to meet each threshold with consent to life, to choose alignment until our countenance lifts.

If this reframe stirred something in you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with one belief you’re re-examining. Your reflections help shape where we go next.

Transcript

Setting The Stage: The “Sin Nature” Lie

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Well, welcome back. I'm glad you've returned for the second episode. That first one was a bit of a shocker, wasn't it? Well, today's episode is going to be a longer episode because I have to discuss one lie and two intertwining concepts. Born with a sin nature is the lie I need to dismantle next. And then I will get into sin and what it really is, and then death and why it's the bigger story above sin. Contrary to popular belief, Adam and Eve are not the birth parents of a child called sin. Let me say that again. Adam and Eve are not the birth parents of a child named Sin. Christianity has made a whole theology, a whole doctrine, a foundational doctrine on the idea that Adam and Eve sinned, and all the generations thereafter now are born with a sin nature. And the key word there is born. Adam and Eve had God's image and likeness as their nature. And within that nature is a unique and personal expression of that image and likeness through union with God internally. Meaning each person has something of God that is theirs to express to the world. Each of us has a commission. Co-mission. It is a mission that is carried out by two people. And each of us is to bring about that co-mission as co-creators with God. A blueprint, a path, a calling, if you will. We are all gems, each one of us. Some are diamonds, some are rubies, some are jade, etc. And within each gem, when cut and fashioned by the tools of the trade, we each then have facets that when the light is shined on them reflects the core of the jewel in different ways. So we each have a unique path to walk. And while each is on their path, we are going to be cut and fashioned by the hardships of life. But those are what make us all into the light bearers we are. Have you ever seen the ashes of a deceased person under a microscope before? It's amazingly beautiful. And it is one little way of proving what I just said about each of us being a jewel. And if you haven't done so, I encourage you to do so. Anyway, scripture never says that the image and likeness of God as Adam and Eve's nature was negated and removed, and that the sin nature was then implanted in its place. Never. That alone should convince us that a sin nature is a complete and total fabrication. That stance didn't become the prominent Christian viewpoint until the late fourth, early fifth century CE through Augustine of Hippo, who read Paul's writings in Latin, not Greek. So there was already a translation difference right there. And Augustine was also heavily influenced by the Roman legal mindset. He had a deeply held pessimism about the body, and he tied sin to sexual reproduction. So he concluded that Adam's sin corrupted human nature itself, and that corruption is transmitted through procreation. As a result of his own conditioning, he concluded that humans are born guilty and unable to choose good without grace. This is when the idea of born with a sin nature, or as we like to call it, original sin, came about. And it's been with us ever since. But here's the thing: this is a circular argument that, when really investigated, deeply caves in on itself and proves its own argument as false. The running theory falls apart quickly if you ask some very simple questions. Augustine believed that we are born guilty and unable to choose good, meaning every baby is born already destined for hell. Because isn't that the punishment for bad behavior? If a baby is already born guilty, that must mean that it can only express bad behavior right from the moment it has its first breath, right? If a baby is born with a sin nature, then how in the world can a baby who is not even conscious of itself, others, or God express any kind of moral behavior, good or bad. This whole argument of being born with a sin nature was never part of the Hebrew culture and never part of the later Greek culture in Jesus' time. Paul, when writing to the Romans, says something that totally negates the idea of sin nature theology. In Romans 5, 13, he says, For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. If humans were born guilty, sin would be imputed automatically upon every single baby ever born. If humans were born guilty, then babies would automatically be attributed with guilt as a result of inherent sin. But Paul is saying nobody was associated with sin until the law came about. And the law was not given until Mount Sinai with Moses. So what about all the babies born from Cain all the way up to Moses? Were they born with or without a sin nature? If sin became our nature because of what Adam and Eve did, then wouldn't all the generations from Cain or Adam and Eve all the way up into Moses would be born with a sin nature. But Paul is saying nobody is imputed with sin until the law comes about. So you had generations of people that we now have to question what their nature is. See what I mean? The whole doctrine falls apart just by asking some simple questions. Even later, other Old Testament writers deny the idea of original sin. Ezekiel 18, 20, the person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity. Deuteronomy 24, 16, fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers. Everyone shall be put to death for his own sin. Scripture repeatedly describes sin as learned, chosen, and repeated, not an inherited biological nature. Whether our theology allows us to believe this or not, we all start out in this world sinless and innocent and without a sin nature. I had a quote hanging on my son's bedroom door. It said, children learn by what they see. There is a line from James Baldwin where he says, Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. That insight helps us understand what Genesis is actually showing, is about how sin moves through generations. Okay, can we all agree that at minimum there is a wide open space allowing for the idea that born with a sin nature could be false? And in my opinion, is false. We are way too sin conscious in Western evangelical Christianity. What we have done is we have defined sin as a moral barometer of failure, bad behavior, breaking a law. We made it into a measuring stick, and when we don't measure up, we get punished. And we focus a great deal of our attention to avoiding sin. But we forget what the actual consequence was in the garden. Sin was not the consequence. Death was. So isn't death the thing that we should be trying to avoid or defeat? Let's look at the Hebrew and the Greek to define what sin actually is. If you know anything about studying scripture, you've at the very least have heard of the rule of firsts. The very first mention of sin in the whole Bible is in Genesis chapter 4, verse 7. And if you remember from the last episode that sin was never mentioned in the Adam and Eve story, it's in a response from God to Cain about his countenance falling as a result of the rejection of his grain offering. That word sin appears first in verse 7. And it says, If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it. The Hebrew word for sin is chat, which comes from a root word chet. Its core meaning is to miss the mark, to fail to hit a target, to go astray from an intended path. Remember what I said earlier about our unique expression of the image and likeness of God? The word chet, it's directional, not behavioral. We've heard this definition a thousand times, missing the mark. But have we ever stopped to ask ourselves, missing the mark of what? We make it mean missing the mark about our behavior, our performance, what we do or don't do, what we say or don't say, what is good, what is bad? This is where we focus more on the good and evil part of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil. We're constantly in our minds going back and forth with the proverbial angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. Is this good or bad? Is this going to have good consequences or bad consequences? Do I do this or do I do that? And this constant battle in our mind floods our brains thousands of times every single day. Right? Let's look at the New Testament from Greek mainly, and from the Septuagint, which is the Old Testament translated into Greek. Sin here, mentioned first in the New Testament in Matthew 1.21, has the definition of missing the mark, to fail to hit a target, to fall short of an intended aim as well. Again, this is functional and directional, not moralistic. Before the Bible came into being, the Greek word was used in archery, missing the target, failing at a task, making an error in judgment, not accomplishing a goal. Hamartia is the Greek word, and it's from a word, uh excuse me, a root word, hamartano. And this word is two separate words conjoined together. Ha is a negative participle, and it means in this context, without. Death drills its way into the garden, our soul, through the seeds of thought, but it does it in hiding. Remember the fear and hiding that Adam and Eve did in the garden? Fear and shame are what covers death up, so death can stay in hiding, ruling everything that we think. Fear and shame become the weevil into our subconscious and becomes a false identity that Adam and Eve then live from. Adam cultivated, because that was his actual job, that God gave him, you know, cultivating the garden. Adam cultivated the mental ground by which death could enter. Death becomes a mirror identity that they then lived out the rest of their lives from. Shame is what we think of ourselves, and fear is what we feel, while death drives the car from underneath. Adam allowed death a very quiet entry point. And we've been a slave and afraid of death ever since. Romans 5.12 and Romans 5.14. Verse 12 says, Therefore, justice through one man centered, sin entered the world, and death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sinned. And look at verse 14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of him who is to come. Now, in that verse, we focus on that word sinned, and we miss the word offense. Offense is the word that is tied to Adam. That word offense is really super important here. It means a stepping across a boundary. Yes, Adam crossed a boundary that God clearly laid out for their own protection, by the way. God said the consequence for crossing that boundary would be death. But physical complete death didn't occur in the Adam and Eve story. That's not to say that they didn't eventually die, but the bigger story is how death quietly entered the whole of the human experience. Where we see death and sin becoming linked is in the story of Cain. Cain allowed sin to take him over and inhabit him. And as a result, the death that had only lived in the subconscious came into being, and a literal death occurred. In order to get a really good idea of what sin is and how it operates and is present in all the generations after Adam and Eve, we must enter the story of Cain. In chapter four, we meet Cain and Abel. Cain being the central character, each child had a different vocation. Abel was a keeper of the flocks, and Cain was a tiller of the ground. And as the story begins, both sons had given their offerings to God from their purpose and mission in life, their unique and personal expression of the image of God. Cain's offering was rejected by God while Abel's was accepted. And as a result of the rejection, Scripture says that Cain's countenance fell. In the Hebrew, the word countenance is not just Cain lowering his head and looking at the ground. According to the Hebrew, the word countenance often carries meanings like inner state, emotional posture, relational orientation, and one's presence before God or others. So this isn't just Cain looking sad, it's about his whole inner orientation going in a downward spiral. Cain's reaction to the rejection of his offering says a lot about what Cain thought of himself. Cain was not seeing himself as a child of God or a bearer of God's image any longer. Cain confuses God's rejection of the offering with rejection of himself. So Cain feels as if he's fallen under God's judgment. His face falls because his sense of worth was tied to approval. Comparison and competition now enters the picture. How did Cain get to this point? Well, Cain grew up in an environment where shame, fear, and hiding were the environment he was steeped in. He came by it honestly. Shame eventually curdles into anger, and anger always seeks a target. Cain withdraws from the relational openness towards God. Can you see how this is progressing? Adam and Eve live the rest of their lives in a mental state of fear and shame, and then modeled that to Cain. And Cain lives in a constant state of dejection and fear of being seen. It's not a stretch to think that Cain inherited low self-esteem. God begins reasoning with Cain, not threatening, not punishing, and not condemning. Instead, he asks the question, Why has your countenance fallen? In other words, why has your inner man become so small? Why do you think so little of yourself, Cain? And God continues with, If you do well, will your countenance, will not your countenance be lifted up? And this is where the Hebrew is much more rich with meaning than the English. We think this is about earning our way back. If you don't do good, then you're condemned and therefore worthy of punishment. But if you do good, then you're back in God's good graces. This may be the very place we get the idea that sin is about behavior. God already accepts Cain as is. But Cain just cannot believe it. God is trying to remind Cain of things he already knows. And is already part of his nature. The phrase, if you do well, it sounds like a commandment. But what it really means in the Hebrew is to act in alignment, to act rightly, to restore what has gone crooked, or to choose what leads towards wholeness. And in Hebrew, this is a relational alignment. It's not merit based on performance. God is saying to Cain, if you restore your crooked thinking and realign with who you are, you being in a unique expression of my image, won't your countenance be lifted back up? He's encouraging Cain to come back home. Let me stop there for a moment and bring some more recent thinking into the discussion. What we're seeing here aligns closely with what modern psychology now understands. When a person is faced with a choice, the option you select is shaped and based by what is already operating inside of you. Often long before the conscious moment of actual deciding. We don't choose from a neutral place without some frame of reference. Even Adam and Eve didn't. And also meaning making. Therefore, he doesn't belong. And from all of this, you can get a picture of Cain's internal posture. And this is where sin finally enters the picture and makes its appearance in Scripture. God encourages Cain to remember who he is. But if he doesn't, sin is crouching at the door. And it's desire for you. But you must master it. I'm going to break this phrase down, but it's not going to be in the order of the scripture itself. Let's talk about the door first. Paytock is the Hebrew word for door. This is not just a door like on a house or in a room. It is defined as an entry point, a threshold moment, a place of transition or decision. In summary, it's a crossroads. Cain is not in sin. He is at a threshold, a crossroads. And God is trying desperately to get Cain to see this. And he's saying to him, You're at a crossroads, son, and your next move matters. And it's in your control. But Cain doesn't hear that. And he doesn't really hear God either. All he can hear is coming from his death subconscious. And his subconscious is saying, My offering wasn't regarded, therefore I'm not regarded, and therefore I am no good. And God is responding back to Cain saying, No, you are regarded, and you are very good. We've already talked about the definition of sin, but in addition to our earlier definition, here in this verse, it functions as an active force, not merely a bad act or evil behavior. Remember that Hamartia has the idea of not having an inheritance. Scripture says that God is our inheritance, said succinctly, the unique and personal expression of God's image that we bear is our inheritance. So sin is not defined as bad behavior, it's the loss of perceiving divine identity and living from that until we have no inheritance or no expression of God left in us that can come through. Isn't that the base of our calling? This all comes from a death perspective that is always whispering in our ear, you're not good enough. So you might as well hide and be afraid. And ultimately, why don't you just curl up and die? And the tension we live in is that we are always afraid of death. The bullseye on the archer's target is to live from our identity, the unique image of God we are to express. And to have that image of God always be before us. To a finer point on it, sin is living from a distorted identity. But let's finish the story because this is where we see in scripture that original sin, that of being born with us in nature, now crumbles completely. We know that God has told Cain that if you don't come back to your right mind, repent, which we'll talk about much later, sin is crouching at the door. Crouching in the Hebrew is rabbats and has the meaning of animals resting but alert, predators poised to spring, or something latent but not yet activated. Basically, sin is pictured as something waiting to be activated, not something that is already controlling Cain. So as you can see, the idea of original sin rumbles right here. Now the word for desire is tashuka, and it means a longing, a pull, directional attraction. It is an urge towards union or influence. Think union to a distorted identity versus union with the image of God. And lastly, it can also mean an attraction to an unhealthy dependency. Sin is seeking a relationship with Cain through his distorted identity, and it wants influence and ownership, and it requires Cain's consent. Sin is not something that is already inherently inside of Cain. It wants to be, but it's not. Not until Cain says so. God says to Cain, you can master this. You are not powerless here. This has not taken you over, and it is not your true nature. But it will become entrenched as your perceived nature if you say so. Sin's pulling you in, but it doesn't own you. You can beat this. Cain's tragedy is not that sin was strong, it's that shame and fear convinced him he was weak, and therefore he gave into it and became its slave. The murder of his brother begins inside Cain's inner belief about himself long before he ever sheds blood. And unfortunately, Cain gives in to his distorted identity, shaped by shame, fear, and anger. And so Cain rises up and kills his brother. Killing his brother is a result of living from a wrong identity. It is not the sin itself. This is where we see both sin and death show up in a lived experience in one human being. The murder happens, and because Cain now is living from his subconscious view of himself, scripture says that Cain went out. Not that God sent Cain out, but Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled into the land of Nod, east of Eden. This is the first person living out of a perception of separation. Now let's talk about Nod for just a minute. The English translation makes it seem like Nod is a geographical location, but the Hebrew does not indicate that at all. The core meaning of the Hebrew word nod means to wander, to roam, to be restless, to be unstable or unsettled, to move back and forth, to totter, sway, or shake, to be homeless without a fixed place. Nod names a condition, not a geographical location like Egypt or Canaan or Babylon. Nod is a state of being. It's being dislocated, unrooted, psychologically restless, relationally unmoored, borderless, inheritanceless. When Genesis says that Cain lived in Nod, it's describing a nervous system no longer at rest. A psyche in a perception without God's presence and a life lived from independent vigilance instead of relational trust. And who is it that lives in a state of not having an inheritance? Orphans. Salvation then becomes about awakening and restoration, not legal acquittal. It becomes about restoring sonship. It becomes about reminding us of our inheritance that was given to us right in the beginning, and it was never taken away. This is what Jesus came to restore, along with showing us who God truly is. To summarize, death entered through Adam, caused a fracture, and an unseen identity, shame, and fear were rooted into their psyche. They passed that down to Cain, who then took it the next step further and succumbed to the force of sin that enslaved him and all the generations thereafter. Cain brought death into existence by killing his brother, and then Nod became the prominent mental state of all humanity. Sin is lying in wait for every human to have an Adam and Cain moment. When we choose our twisted subconscious and then live from that state, it causes perceived separation and orphanhood to become the identity that humanity lives from. I will end the story here and give you a challenge. Who are you? Do you know your true identity? And not just know it in your mind, but do you inhabit it? Do you embody it? Do you live from a complete realization of your true nature, or do you live from the buried identity you learned from the generations before you? Which identity is it that you're manifesting? Are you manifesting life from the unique image of God that you carry, or are you manifesting death from a fractured image? I thank you for taking the time, time out of your day to listen. I know this was a long one, but next episode will be a little bit shorter. And as I have been hinting at, we will get into the lie of separation. So I'll see you next time.