Understanding the Words We Use

When we talk about human nature and sin, we need to be clear about what we mean. Many Christians say they believe Jesus was "fully human" but their other beliefs show they don't really mean it. Here's why:

1. What Makes Someone Human?
   Some think Jesus was just God operating a human body only. However a human body by itself is a corpse, not a human being. Scripture and the teachings of the early creeds are clear - Jesus was exactly like us in every way: with a human body, human mind, human soul and human will. When people teach that we're born with sin in our nature, they're actually saying Jesus wasn't like us, even if they don't realize it.

2. Different Ways We Use "Nature"
   People use "human nature" to mean two different things:

• What makes us human (like having a mind, body, soul and will)
• How humans usually behave

When we talk about "sinful nature," people confuse these meanings. This confusion leads people to think sinful nature means sin is part of being human, when really it just describes how people act when disconnected from God. Throughout this article, when I say "nature," I mean what makes us human, not how people usually behave.

1. The Traditional View: Sin is Part of Human Nature

Since Adam's sin, most Christians believe sin is built into what makes us human - like it's in our DNA. They say we can't abide in love and stop sinning in this life, even after becoming a Christian and receiving the Holy Spirit. This view sees our new creation in Christ as helping us sin less often, but not freeing us completely from sin (lovelessness). At best, we can sin less, but we can never be fully free from it. Sadly, this view says being unloving is unavoidable.

This view has a major problem: If sin is part of being human, then either Jesus wasn't fully human (since He never sinned) or He wasn't sinless, because He was human. Often people try to get around this by saying Jesus was a different kind of human than us. But if He had a different kind of humanity than us, we can't look to Him as our true example.

The Bible directly challenges this view:

Hebrews 2:17 NLT
17 Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters...

2. The Better Biblical View: Sin Comes from Broken Relationship with God

Think of sin like darkness - it's not a 'thing' itself, but the absence of light. Just as a room isn't naturally dark (it's just lacking light), humans aren't naturally sinful (we're just disconnected from God).

Here's what this means:

• Sin isn't part of what makes us human - it's what happens when we're disconnected from God. It's a choice, not something we have to do.
• Yes, humans are weak and easily tempted. That's why everyone sins when they're living apart from God. But sin isn't inevitable - our weakness explains why we sin when we walk alone, not why we must sin.
• Jesus had this same weak human nature we have. He never sinned because He stayed connected to God, living in His Fathers love.
• Through the Holy Spirit, we can do the same - live without sin by staying connected to God, abiding in Christ and His love. For love is the opposite of sin, and sin the opposite of love.

John 15:9-10 ESV
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

Why This Matters

• If sin is built into what makes us human, we're stuck with being loveless until we die. We'd be slaves of sin until death (even though scripture says we're not slaves to sin anymore when we're in Christ).
• But if sin comes from broken relationship with God, we can be free from it now. We just need to stay close to Him through prayer and fellowship, living in His love.
• Jesus shows us what's possible when humans stay united with God
• This freedom is for now, not just after we die
• Staying close to God prevents sin. If we're sinning, we've stepped away from Him. No one ever has to step away from God, its a choice.

John 14:23-24 NLT
23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me.

This isn't a new idea. An early Christian teacher named Athanasius said evil isn't part of human nature. He taught that people were created good but later chose to do wrong. It's how we live, not what we are, that separates us from God.

Against the Heathen, Chp 2 by Athanasius (around 335AD)
"Evil no part of the essential nature of things... In the beginning wickedness did not exist. Nor indeed does it exist even now in those who are holy, nor does it in any way belong to their nature. But men later on began to contrive it and to elaborate it to their own hurt."

The Bible confirms this:

Ecclesiastes 7:29 ESV
29 See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

Jesus becoming human proves human nature isn't sinful. The idea that sin is part of what makes us human isn't found in scripture - people simply assumed it was true and then interpreted Bible verses to fit their assumption. But this wrong idea has spread widely. Like a small amount of yeast making a whole loaf of bread rise, this error has spread throughout most Christian teaching, confusing people about God, Jesus and humanity - keeping them trapped in sin.

This is an Ancient Error

This confusion caused big problems in early Christianity. Some teachers couldn't accept that Jesus could be both human and sinless, so they denied parts of His humanity. Some said He didn't have a real body, others said He didn't have a human mind. They weren't trying to cause trouble - they just couldn't explain how Jesus could be sinless if all humans must sin. But they started with the wrong idea - that being human means you have to sin.

Their teaching, though well-meant, left people trapped in their sin with no hope of freedom in this life. The apostle John saw how dangerous these ideas were and called out these teachers as not being from God. He said their teaching promoted an antichrist spirit (1 John 4:2-3).

Today's common belief about all humanity having a "sinful human essence", a "sin nature", does the same thing, just less obviously. It separates Jesus's humanity from ours, leading to the same result - people thinking they must sin until they die. They live in endless cycles of sinning and asking forgiveness, missing out on the freedom and victory Jesus promised through His Spirit given to us. Think about it: to turn back to God (repent), you first have to turn away from Him. To constantly need repentance means you're constantly forsaking God, trying to love both God and the world at once. What kind of relationship is that? As Jesus said, we can't serve two masters. His yoke is easy, loving Him is not burdensome, nor are His teachings.

Does this understanding align with what God described would occur in the new covenant below?

Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

The importance of this truth was well understood in early Christianity. Irenaeus, writing in the late 100s AD (a disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of the apostle John himself), explained:

Against Heresies, Book 5, Chp 14, Section 3 (modernised quotation)
'If anyone claims Jesus had a fundamentally different kind of flesh than us, then all our teaching about reconciliation falls apart. Why? Because reconciliation happens between things that were previously enemies. If Jesus took on some other kind of flesh, He wouldn't have reconciled our human flesh - the very thing that had become God's enemy through sin. But the truth is, through sharing our exact nature, Jesus reconciled humans to God the Father by reconciling us to Himself through His own physical body and redeeming us with His own blood.'

He emphasized further:

Against Heresies, Book 5, Chp 14, Section 4 (modernised quotation)
'Remember that you were redeemed by Jesus taking on our actual human nature and re-established by His blood. Hold onto this truth - acknowledge that God's Son came in real flesh, that He is divine, and keep focusing on His true human nature. With these scriptural proofs, you can easily defeat all these false teachings that came later.'

Jesus Is Exactly What We Are

Jesus' humanity was exactly like ours - without any exceptions. He wasn't merely God inhabiting a human body, as a body alone doesn't make someone human. He had everything we have: a human body, mind, soul, will, and desires. He felt everything we feel, experienced every human desire we experience, including all our temptations in their full force - yet He didn't yield to sin (Heb 4:15). Everything in our human nature is in His and everything in His human nature is in ours - they are identical (Heb 2:17). Sin isn't part of our fundamental human nature, just as it wasn't part of His. This isn't just an interesting fact - it changes everything:

1. It proves God truly became human (adding our exact human nature to His divine nature)
2. It shows we can live free from sin through His Spirit (as we receive the Holy Spirit, who is divine by nature, into our human person) - mirroring Christ

Again, Irenaeus the early bishop taught by the disciple of the apostle John states this beautifully:

Against Heresies, Book 5, Chp 1, Section 1
Since the Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood, giving His soul for our souls, and His flesh for our flesh, and has also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God and man, imparting indeed God to men by means of the Spirit, and, on the other hand, attaching man to God by His own incarnation, and bestowing upon us at His coming immortality durably and truly, by means of communion with God,—all the doctrines of the heretics fall to ruin.

and

Against Heresies, Book 3, Chp 18, Section 6
But as our Lord is alone truly Master, so the Son of God is truly good and patient, the Word of God the Father having been made the Son of man. For He fought and conquered; for He was man contending for the fathers, and through obedience doing away with disobedience completely: for He bound the strong man, and set free the weak, and endowed His own handiwork with salvation, by destroying sin. For He is a most holy and merciful Lord, and loves the human race.

The Bible shows this truth clearly when we read it without the man-made assumption that sin is part of our human essence or inevitable until death.

Here's what scripture says about real freedom from sin:

John 8:31-36 NLT
31 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. 32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 “But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” 34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. 35 A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.

Understanding Through a Modern Metaphor

Think about humans as cars that can run on both electicity and petrol (gasoline). Many Christians believe regular humans are like petrol-only cars that must pollute (sin), while Jesus was like a special electric-only car. But this isn't what the Bible teaches. Instead, we're all the same kind of car - a solar-electric petrol hybrid that can run on either petrol or electricity via sunlight (using the solar panels on the roof of the car).

The sun in this picture is like God. When we stay in His light, we run clean on electricity, just as a solar car runs clean in sunlight. We can also store up some of this power through prayer and Bible study, like a car's battery storing solar energy. But when we choose to drive away from God's light, we're like a car that chooses to switch to petrol, creating pollution (sin).

Jesus showed us how to live by staying constantly in God's light, never needing to switch to "petrol mode." He wasn't a different kind of car - He had the same "engine" we have. He just stayed connected to the right power source all the time. He retreated to pray alone many times to do this. Through God's Spirit, we can do the same thing.

This helps us understand why everyone sins when they're disconnected from God, but also why sin isn't something we have to do. It's not about how we're built - it's about what power we're using. Just like a solar-hybrid car isn't forced to pollute but depends on staying in (abiding in) the sunlight, we aren't forced to sin but depend on staying connected to God (abiding in close relationship with Christ).

Before Christ came, it was like everyone was driving at night time. Without the sun, we had no choice but to use our petrol engines and create pollution even if we didnt want to (Romans 7 describes this life). But when Christ came, it was like the sun rising - suddenly there was a clean power source available to everyone (The Holy Spirit poured out into Christians). Now we can all run on sunlight like Jesus did and cease polluting (Romans 6 & 8). But strangely, many people still choose to drive using petrol, even though the sun is shining, they neglect abiding in its rays. They've gotten so used to running on petrol that they don't believe they can run any other way, even when they see the sun's power is free and available to everyone.

Many will cling to their false belief that Jesus was a different type of human to us, an electric car only and we are petrol cars, despite this being false. We and Christ are the exact same hybrid car. Many mistakenly hold this view from tradition, while others seek excuses for sin, both running to the darkness from the blazing light of Christ's incarnation (His coming as a man), condemning sin in humans (simultaneously making a path for forgiveness of sin, of liberty from sin through the Spirit, and removing excuses for continuing in sin).

John 3:19-21 ESV
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Romans 8:2-4 ESV
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

We are truly loved and forgiven of our sin. We are truly empowered by the Spirit and set free from sin. And we are truly accountable and will answer to Jesus one day for how we've lived.

Romans 8:12-15 ESV
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Galations 6:7-9 ESV
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

If we say Jesus took on our humanity but do not believe we can live as He did, we deny His true humanity in practice. Either Jesus was not really like us, or we refuse to accept what He made possible for us. Both are falsehoods that contradict His coming in our human nature. Denying Christ-like living is not just a theological error - it is a fundamental denial of Christ Himself. The Incarnation is both a stone of stumbling for those who want excuses for sin (these deny Jesus became like us in our exact human nature) or a foundation stone for those who want freedom from it.

Seeing Jesus as He Really Is Frees Us From Sin to Abide in His Love - Actually, not Figuratively or Partially

When we see Jesus as He really is and understand exactly who He was as a human and stay relationally close to Him every hour, we live free from sin. When we look into what He was and discover He is what we are, we will percieve the truth, that sin is not inevitable nor a part of our nature and we will be truly free. We will walk in the Spirit, living in God's love as He taught us, doing what's right, following Jesus' teachings - all the time.

1 John 3:5-7 NLT
5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. 6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. 7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.

John is saying, if we know him relationally (walking close to Him), and understand who He is (simultaneously both fully God identical to the Father in nature, and fully man identical to us in nature), we will live free from sin, abiding in true divine love, which is the essence of righteousness. Those that keep on sinning either dont walk close with him, or dont truly understand who He really is (not just how he behaved or what he said, but what he is).

1 John 5:2-5 NLT
2 We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. 3 Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. 5 And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God...

This is so important it can't be understated. He became like us in this life so that we can by grace through His Spirit become like Him in this life. We can really walk like Jesus walked - not just sometimes, but always. Pereptually. This is literally what it means to abide.

1 John 4:15-17 ESV
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

John says our confidence for the day of judgment is found in us abiding in Gods love, abiding in Christ. By abiding in Him we walk identical to how He walked in this very life (in love, free from sin).

1 John 2:28-29 ESV
28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

1 John 2:4-6 ESV
4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

This Truth is Plain

The truth is simple but revolutionary: Jesus shows us that human nature isn't the problem - separation from God is. And if we stay connected to God like Jesus did, we can abide in love and live free from sin, just as He did. The focus is simply abiding in love, for those that walk in love toward God and men are far from sin. There is no contradition or tensions to hold in this view, it's so simple. The Son became what we are so that through the indwelling Holy Spirit we could be what He is - real children of God. He is called the Spirit of adoption for this reason.

Think carefully about this. To reject this teaching, you'd have to believe one of these things:

• Jesus wasn't exactly human like us
• The Holy Spirit either doesn't live in Christians today or isn't fully God
• God either can't or won't free people from sin
• The Bible doesn't mean what it clearly says
• That people can't abide in love or in Christ

This doesn't mean God won't forgive us if we stumble (1 John 2:1). We still have real agency and make real choices but not independant of God, rather with Him in unity, so stumbling isn't inevitable. John wrote his letter so people wouldn't sin (1 John 2:1), so their joy would be complete (1 John 1:4), and their love would be perfect as they walked like Jesus walked (1 John 2:5). When people abide in love and walk close to Christ, they don't sin (1 John 3:5-7), just as Jesus lived in perfect unity with the Father. He is our genuine example and older Brother. We can live like our Brother.

Romans 8:29 ESV
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

My Personal Observations

Here's what I've noticed: Christians say they believe Jesus was human just like us, but their other beliefs tell a different story. When someone says sin is inevitable or human nature is sinful, they're really saying (without realizing it) that Jesus must have been a different kind of human than us. You hear it in phrases like "Jesus was human but..." or when people credit His sinless life to His Divine nature rather than His perfect relationship with the Father. This thinking leads to the same result as those early false teachings - Christians end up believing they can't consistently live like Jesus did. Instead of abiding in Him and experiencing the actual freedom from sin He promised, they stay trapped in cycles of sin and repentance yet still call it freedom. Like Israel wandering in circles in the wilderness because of their unbelief, much of Christianiy has repeated Israels mistake for the last 2000 years.

Hebrews 3:19 ESV
19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Hebrews 3:12-13 ESV
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Everyone confesses Jesus as the Son of God and so He is, but do you also confess Him as the Son of Man?

1 John 5:18-21 ESV
18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Isaiah 61:10-11 ESV
10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.