In a recent debate with someone that proposed that the Bible teaches that “man is created without sin”, I offered a little different way to illustrate that man is inherently evil. (Sorry Oprah.)

Though part of it, sin isn’t just about doing or not doing a particular action as we often think. (Can I get through the day without lying, stealing, cheating, lusting, etc…?) Sin is about trusting in anything else besides God Himself. Consider Jesus being tempted in the desert. What would have been so sinful if He made the rocks into bread? He was hungry and tired and after 40 days, dang it, He needed some food. The only difference is that Jesus would have been acting outside of communion with the Father’s will. (I also imagine Jesus knowingly staying in the Temple while His parents had heart attacks while wondering where He was looked a lot like dishonoring your parents but again, He was doing His Father’s will.)

When a child is born in a country. Are they any particular nationality because of some patriotic oath or because they personally identify with that country? No, it’s because the very second they are born they take on that nationality by simply existing in that country. Similarly, the very second we are created, we begin a life that is lived outside of communion with God. Just like the very moment Eve took the first bite of forbidden fruit.

The perfection that God demands from us, and that Jesus fulfilled, is about so much more that just our behavior and actions. It’s about the very core of our being.