"It's OK, I Was Born This Way!"

We are all born sinners. If you don’t believe that, then you don’t believe the Bible and you may spurn the remainder of this blog.If, however, you do believe the Bible is the infallible, inspired Word of God, then listen up! This blog may require you to concentrate more than normal. Why? I propose it’s because the world we live in has so perverted the truth about sinners that we’ve all but given every sin a “free pass”, citing the mantra, “It’s OK, I was born this way.”First, every person is created by the hand of God. Second, it’s also true that God created all of us knowing that we’d be sinners. So? Isn’t that His sovereign right to do so? Scripture says it is.

You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

The person who doesn’t fear God and keep His commandments will challenge His sovereign right to both create them in sin and then judge them. This is futility, of course, but nonetheless, it happens. Some people argue that since God created them “this way”, they are somehow exempt from responsibility for sinning. If this were true, the Bible is worthless and God is unjust.The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.By the way, you don’t get to change the Bible just because modern thinking has changed regarding certain sins. It doesn’t matter what the so-called progressive churches have to say about it; the Word, the mind of Christ, has never changed.Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace.The truth, as Holy Scripture reveals it, is that our Creator has indeed created us as sinners. He also claims exclusive rights to judging us for our sins. These are the irrefutable facts that must be reconciled by every sinner. Now, before we get to the magnificent, “indescribable” solution, let’s consider how arrogance responds to these two facts.The truly arrogant will say, “If there is a God and He created me this way, then it’s His fault that I am a sinner; therefore, I refuse to take responsibility for myself. I blame God for making it impossible for me to live up to His standards; therefore, I denounce His judgement altogether.” Since this person fails to take responsibility for their sins, they effectively never arrive at the most important conclusion ever, which is that they need a savior. The fact that the same God that they have rejected has also offered them a solution through Jesus Christ becomes inconsequential, as the internal “conversation” never gets that far.Here’s an example to help amplify the issue. Suppose you have a five-year-old daughter and a drunk driver kills her. In court, the driver’s defense attorney says, “Well, God made my client an alcoholic, so they can’t be held accountable for this sin.” What would you have to say in that moment? Isn’t it clear that this person ought to be held accountable since they knew what they were doing was wrong? Of course.Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.Well, if you claim to believe the Bible, and the Bible says something is wrong, then how is it any different than the courtroom example above? It isn’t, unless you want to throw out certain parts of the Bible, which relegates the whole thing untrustworthy and your faith worthless. So, you’re either “in” or “out” when it comes to the Bible - there’s no “negotiated” in-between based on societal norms and standards. Sin is sin. Period. However, as I’m about to describe, the issue isn’t even about specific sins…it’s about the arrogant sinner.The conversations about this or that sin are irrelevant! The homosexual says, “I was born this way, so how can this possibly be wrong?” All I can say to that person is what the Bible says - homosexual acts are sins. I’m not judging that sin, for that is God’s duty but, as a Bible teacher, I don’t have the right to play God and disregard sins that are plainly listed in the Bible. I’ve actually been publicly called a “narrow-minded Nazi” because I simply presented what the Bible has to say about homosexuality.For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.Here’s what I’ve learned on this oh-so-sensitive subject. Again, this might take a little concentration, so I encourage you to focus hard now. What is the real issue here? Is the core conflict between the offended person and the Bible teacher, or the offended and the Bible? Is the issue the sin, or the sinner? Well, the Bible answers this.For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.Any offense taken with the Bible teacher is merely a calculated misdirection - a sinner’s attempt to deflect personal responsibility for sinning. In other words, the intent is to discredit the messenger since the alternative is to attack the Word of God directly. This has become increasingly commonplace as other so-called “messengers” (false teachers) have compromised the Bible while clinging to the “Christian” title, effectively “greasing the skids” for assaults on God’s truly anointed communicators. However, opposition to the truth never changes the truth. “For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth” (2 Corinthians 13:8).The real issue is whether or not a person believes the Bible is the infallible, inspired Word of God. If they claim they do, then they must accept the sins as they are listed in the Bible. They must also accept that their Creator actually created them “in sin”. They must then reconcile these two facts. When they do, they will arrive at a natural impasse. The only solution is supernatural. This is the beauty of the “good news”…and it’s the ONLY way a person will ever be able to reconcile that God is both just and righteous in judging sin and loving in providing a solution.You see, all of this misdirection is part of Satan’s plan to distract us from the real issue, that is, man’s need for a Savior - Jesus Christ, to be exact. If Satan can get someone to systematically dismiss personal responsibility for their own sins, something the Bible teaches profusely, citing the socially acceptable excuse, “I was born this way”, then that person may never be humbled to the point of realizing their own depravity. They’ll just blame God; or, even worse, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalms 14:1).So, the next time someone sins and attempts to justify it to you with the likes of, “It’s OK, I was born this way”, respond with, “So what? We’re all born sinners. Does that somehow make your sinning acceptable to your Creator? What’s your point? Do you have a problem with the Bible? Do you consider yourself a “Christian”?…because a title means nothing. If you don’t accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God, why not just say it and be done with it? Are you on one hand presenting yourself as one thing, yet on the other, living as someone you’re obviously not - a believer in the Holy Scriptures?”My friends, people need to see the big-picture…beginning with YOU! Whether the sin is drunkenness, sensuality, carousing, idolatry, homosexuality, etc., it doesn’t really matter (strictly speaking). We’re all sinners! What matters is that people don’t lose their sense of personal responsibility for their own sins. Society’s never going to help us in this cause, coming up with God-knows-how-many new “disorders” and excuses for sin. We must see it all as truth, calling a spade a spade, while never judging a soul, for that is God’s work.Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.Love in Christ,Ed Collins