Why Are We Prone to Sin if We Are Made in God’s Image?

Why are we prone to sin if we're made in God's image? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. If you get our voicemail, feel free to leave your question there. You can also email us anytime at questions-at-core-christianity.com.

We would love to hear from you. Well, let's start off today by going to Galen, who's calling in from Oklahoma. Galen, what's your question for Adriel?

Good afternoon. My question is—an elderly lady asked me this—when do saints receive their glorified body? Thank you for that question, Galen. Not soon enough, right?

We all wish you got it a little bit sooner. The answer that we see in Scripture is really at the final judgment on the last day, quote-unquote, when Christ returns. I think all of these events are contemporaneous, meaning they happen at the same time. But for a passage of Scripture to go to, to be able to take her to and encourage her with comfort, I would say the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 3, chapter 15, beginning in verse 50, are the right place to go. He says this, I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. So we have, you have, this elderly friend of yours has the hope of the resurrection of the body. And as we age, as our bodies experience sickness and pain and weakness, we long for that glorified body more and more.

But that is a hope that we have. And so Paul concludes everything there in verse 58. And so Paul concludes everything there in verse 58. I am really struggling with trying to remember every sin that I've committed.

You know, that's my question. How, it's like sometimes whenever I'm saying, you know, a sin that I committed in the past will pop up in my mind, and I confess that sin, but I'm struggling with trying to remember every single sin I committed. You know, there are stories told, Colby, of the Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, that he would go into the confessional for hours and hours trying to remember all the things that he had, he had done, all the sins that he had committed. And then finally, he'd get out after just an exhausting amount of time. And then he'd remember something else and go back.

And it was just this crushing, crushing weight. And we look at passages like the one you referenced in 1 John 1 that talk about confessing our sins to the Lord. I don't think that that means, you know, unless you name it, you're in trouble. And so then we're, you know, scouring, you know, our lives and our minds and our hearts, trying to figure them all out, trying to name each and every one. And the fact of the matter is, even if you could remember all of them, we also sin in ways that we're not even aware of.

Unintentionally, even, you know, things that we do. And so we have to come to the Lord in weakness and say, God, you know my condition. I'm coming to you, confessing my sins to you, the sins that I'm aware of, Lord, which I do name in your presence, saying be merciful to me, a sinner. But I pray that you would even illuminate my heart to see those sins that I commit that even I am unaware of, that I might confess those to you as well. And the sins that I am unaware of, the things that I do that are displeasing to you.

Oh, forgive me for those things as well, Lord, because there isn't anything in my life that I want to do that displeases you. I think we pray like that. We confess our sins in that way. And by the way, Colby, this is biblical.

So if you're looking in the scripture and you turn to Psalm chapter 19 verse 12, listen to what David said. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.

Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. Who can discern his errors? I mean, it's like our sins are so many, more than the hairs of our head.

I can't even begin to count them, to list them. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent, O Lord, from even hidden faults, those things that I am blind to because they are not hidden to you. And when we come to the Lord in contrition and humility, confessing our sins, we have hope that he's gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. That, as you quoted in 1 John, that as we confess our sins to the Lord, thank God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He is faithful and just to cleanse us. And he does that for you, Colby, even when you can't remember all of your sins when you're coming to him and saying, be merciful to me. He's merciful to you.

God bless. That is so well said, Adriel. And you know, if there are people who will claim that they don't sin or, you know, I'm basically a good person. I was thinking of, you mentioned that verse from David, Jeremiah 17, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? And of course, it goes on to say, I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind.

Right? So we need to be aware that sometimes, as you said, we don't even realize it. We have a lot of hidden sin and sins we just don't even want to acknowledge. It's, I wonder if it's just, you know, in some ways not a part of God's grace. You know, it's like a lot of times we're aware of a particular sin struggle that we have.

We're praying against it and asking the Lord for help and growing, hopefully, by the grace of the Holy Spirit and putting those sins to death. And then right when we feel like things are going good, it's like, you know, the light shines on another area of our lives. And it's like, oh man, Lord, I, this too, you know?

And I wonder sometimes, man, if the Lord just sort of showed it all to us at once, I think it might be overwhelming. And so we pray, God, open my eyes. Help me to see and help me, Lord, not to be crushed by the weight of my sin, but to see Jesus, the Savior, who has taken my sin, the crushing weight of my sin upon himself.

And help me every day to put it to death, not to do those things which are displeasing to you. We need the help of the Holy Spirit, truly, to confess our sins rightly. And so pray for that. And that's a prayer that the Lord will answer. Oh, amen. Keeping our eyes on Jesus, right? The finisher perfecter of our faith.

That is so, so well said. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Chris calling in from Missouri.

Chris, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, thanks for taking my call. I am a lay minister in Missouri, and I gave a message a couple weeks ago about keeping the Sabbath and how important that was. And a member from my congregation emailed me after the sermon and said that I was wrong and that, you know, the Sabbath was a law that was made for Israel, for the Jews, and that it's not something that is important anymore. And lo and behold, you know, I've heard a couple sermons from a couple different very affluent preachers, and there's differing opinions between these two preachers that I listen to.

And so now I'm really confused as to whether or not we're to keep the Sabbath where we are. Chris, God bless you in your service to the church as a lay minister wanting to share the Word of God with others. I think that that's wonderful, and one of the things you'll find as you talk about the Bible, as you preach, I mean, we see this on this broadcast, but I certainly have gotten emails like that too. And I think it's a great opportunity for you to dig into the Scriptures more and also to graciously engage with the people in the church. I know that for some people it's really hard to get an email like that.

Of course, right? I mean, especially you pour your heart and your energy into preparing a sermon, and then you preach it, and then somebody just sort of says, that was all wrong, and then you think, oh, okay. Well, I think, one, I just want to encourage you as a brother and say, man, use it as an opportunity to dig deeper into the Scriptures and to encourage this other person as well, to thank them for being Berean, for wanting to study the Word of God, and for, I think, wanting to weigh everything by Scripture. I think that's something we have to be open to. Any time we teach the Bible, I feel the same thing with this broadcast.

We've had people call in before and say, hey, I disagreed with something you said here, and I actually really appreciate that, and I always want to say, let's go back to the Word. Now, the Sabbath, the Sabbath command, is a part of the moral law, which we would say is universally binding. Now, the question is, how does it apply for us as believers under the New Covenant?

And that's where we would say there are some differences. Certainly, we don't keep the Sabbath like Israel did under the Mosaic Covenant. And so for this individual, you could say, you know, you're right about that, but the fact of the matter is there does remain a Sabbath rest for the people of God that we're looking forward to. In one sense, we've begun to enter into it through Jesus Christ because you remember what Jesus said at the end of Matthew 11.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. In other words, in Jesus, we experience that true Sabbath rest, which is why we worship God on Sunday, the first day of the week, as opposed to on Saturday. And so we understand that commandment, the Sabbath commandment, as having been refracted, if you will, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now we rest on the first day of the week in Jesus Christ, worshipping together with the people of God. We don't observe the Sabbath in the same way that the people of Israel did in the Old Testament, but we still have this way of observing it in terms of, you know, gathering together with other believers on the Lord's Day, resting in Christ and worshipping the Lord. And again, I think of what the author of the Hebrews said in Hebrews 4, verse 8. If Joshua had given them rest, he's speaking about the wilderness generation, if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

And so I think you have an opportunity here, one, to affirm this individual who reached out to you and to encourage them and say, man, love that you're digging into the Scriptures. And you're right that we don't observe the Sabbath like they used to, but the Sabbath is a part of the moral law and we do observe it in this unique way, in this new way, in this beautiful way under the new covenant through Jesus Christ when we gather together for worship and to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. And that's something that's still binding on us today.

That's why the early followers of Christ met together on the first day of the week to worship God and to break bread. God bless you guys as you continue to do that. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We love your questions. If you've got a question about doctrine or theology, you can email us anytime at questions at corechristianity.com.

We do our best to go through our emails each day. Let's go to John calling in from Oklahoma. John, what's your question for Adriel? Hello.

Good afternoon, Pastor Adriel and Bill. We have a gentleman in our small group and he insists on believing in annihilationism, even though we've given him plenty of scriptures on eternal punishment, but he insists on believing that way. Would that be considered a primary doctrine that he would have to believe in or a secondary issue?

Great question. More and more in our day today, there is a minimizing of the doctrine of hell, eternal punishment, conscious punishment. You bring up annihilationism, and for those of you who are listening who are unfamiliar with what that is, it's just that for those who are not in Christ, they experience the judgment and there's sorrow there, but after that, essentially, they're annihilated. They cease to exist. That's the idea of the second death, they would say in the book of Revelation, and so it's not this conscious torment, but it's something else.

It's just no longer existing, not being conscious anymore. Now, in terms of doing theological triage, how important is this doctrine? I think the doctrine of hell is a very important doctrine. One, I think we just have to first unpack the text of scripture like you've been doing and look at those passages and consider what God is trying to say through those passages, and I think those texts, some of the ones that you've already brought up even, teach the reality of hell as being this place of conscious torment, the second death being the same thing, ultimately the final destination of the wicked. In fact, I think it says something about our understanding of God, about his holiness, and ultimately how we're understanding his word. Now, of course, what annihilationists will say is, you look at those passages and they don't literally mean that you're in fire for all eternity and that the worm doesn't die and so on and so forth. Those passages are highly symbolic. They're giving us these pictures, these metaphors, and while I think there's truth to that, the reality can't be less than the picture, and so this is painting a vivid picture for us, and what is the picture that's being painted so often in the Gospels? It is of this unending judgment, torment, experience of the wicked outside of the presence of God, and so I don't think, again, doing some triage here, theological triage, I don't think that someone who holds this view is necessarily outside of the faith, so it's not on the same level of, say, this guy rejected the deity of Christ or the doctrine of the Holy Trinity or the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

No, that would be a real issue. That would be striking at core Christianity, the very vitals of our faith, but that doesn't mean that this is an unimportant doctrine as well, and so I think that a Christian, someone can truly believe in the Lord and have a vibrant relationship with the Lord and take this view, but I don't think it's the biblical view, and I don't think that that person should be a teacher in the church or hold a leadership position or something like that because the view would be contrary, one, to what I would say the Bible teaches, but also what the universal church has affirmed. There have been some who have taken kind of a more annihilationistic view, but the majority of the church throughout history has recognized those texts in the same way, and so I think it really is to sort of go astray not just from the teachings of the Bible but from the teachings of the universal church on this very important doctrine. John, may the Lord give you guys wisdom as you seek to minister to and encourage this young man and appreciate your calling in. It's really well said.

Thanks for that, Adriel. This is core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We want to say thank you to a special group of people who support this program on a regular basis. In case you don't know, we don't receive money from a church or denomination.

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Love to have you join that special group of people who support this ministry on a regular basis. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the core. You can call us 24 hours a day and leave your voicemail on our system. The number is 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Jennifer. I listen to you almost daily at lunchtime, and I have a question. If we are made in God's image, then why are we so prone to sin and to evil and to pride? If God's perfect and we're made in his image, why aren't people better in general?

Why do they turn evil? That's my question. Thank you.

Bye. Yeah, thank you for that question. We do believe that all people are made in God's image, such a beautiful thing. You know what is amazing is you don't have to be a Christian really to fully grasp this.

I mean, a lot of people who reject the Christian faith, maybe they wouldn't even call themselves believers in God at all. We still have this sense of the dignity of human life and human beings. Now, of course, we're losing that in a lot of places, and you see this through the abortion industry and other avenues as well. But most people, even if you're talking to somebody who isn't a Christian and you said to them, shouldn't all people be loved and respected and treated with dignity?

They'd say, yeah, we're not just roadkill. We're human beings, and there's something unique about that, and indeed there is. Well, what is it that's unique? What is it that sets the human race apart from the rest of the creatures? The fact that we are made in the image of a loving God and having been made in the image of God.

You see this in Genesis 2. Having been made in the image of God, we are called as human beings to reflect God, His goodness, His holiness, His grace, His love. We're called to love His creation, to take care of it, to rule in one sense as God Himself is the great King and ruler. Why is it that we, made in the image of God, are so sinful? Why is it that we hurt each other and sin against each other?

Why is it that there is so little beauty in the way we interact with one another? Well, it's not because of something wrong in God's creation, in what He did. It's because of something in us, sin in our own hearts, the entrance of sin into the world. Sin entered the world.

It was like this disease, this sickness that infected everyone. And so what we're called to image God, to reflect Him, to glorify Him by loving Him and by loving each other, what has happened is the opposite. Now, instead of loving God and worshiping Him, we worship the creature rather than the creator, oftentimes ourselves.

Now, instead of loving each other, we have become lovers of self. And that's why God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world. The true image of God that He might restore that image of God in us in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.

Not that we lost it. Everyone's made in the image of God. But only through Jesus can we live as God calls us and know God as He wants us to. And so may God bless you to that end.

Thanks. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.