How can it be a battle if it is not a choice?
You are missing the point of what “sin” is exactly.
The word “sin” is an archery term that means to “miss the mark”….it means that humankind “miss the mark” of the perfection with which Adam was created. After sin entered the human race, all Adam’s offspring inherited his defect.
When sin entered the human genome, it became a defect in mankind. How did sin enter the human race? Through the actions of one man…(Rom 5:12) it is an inheritance, passed on genetically so that we cannot escape this genetic death sentence.
A deliberate choice was made by Adam to join his wife in disobedience….his choice to sin was made by himself…..but with his descendants, there was no choice. We were plunged into sin through no fault on our part, which is what Paul stated in Romans 7:14-25. The propensity to sin in inborn, but the choice to give in to it, is our own choice. There are two kinds of sin….the one that is inborn (which we cannot eliminate ourselves) and the actions we choose to take (which are entirely under our control) This is the reason why “self-control” is a fruit of God’s spirit. A powerful factor in combatting the sinful tendencies in us.
Because they all sinned. Not because Adam sinned. Adam was just the first (actually the second, but no matter) to sin. He introduced sin to the physical creation. As a result, he introduced spiritual death to the physical creation.
Think for a moment about what you just said…..all humans sinned because they wanted to? Why would God create all humans to sin? Why was there a death penalty for sinning if God was just going to sit back and watch his creation wither up in old age or sickness and die? That makes no sense. We are made in his image…and death was never supposed to be a part of that.
Adam was the first human to misuse his free will, baited by the devil, (who was the first rebel) by using his affection for his wife to encourage him to make a bad decision. Adam played right into that scheme, thereby making satan his god and ruler, severing their relationship with their Creator.
Jehovah allowed satan to have his “week” of glory, ruling over mankind and acting as their god. (Luke 4:5-7) This time period has allowed God to separate those who love him, in spite of what the devil has done, from those who love their disobedience.…(both in heaven and on earth).
The devil’s time is almost up…and he is not happy. He knows he is going down, but he will take as many as he can deceive, down with him. (Rev 12:7-12)
Physical death is an integral feature of this physical creation. The tree of life was placed in the garden to fend off that integral feature. Once ejected from the Garden, Adam and Eve no longer had access to that fruit and thus ended up eventually dying. But the spiritually died in the day the sinned.
Yes, the humans began to die from the day they ate of the fruit and rebelled against God’s Sovereignty.
Their mortality did not mean that they
had to die….only that they
could.
Not a lot is said about “the tree of life”….only that they were prevented from accessing it after they had sinned. Sin was the only stated cause of death in Eden….so access to the tree of life would have meant no death ever occurring, for any reason. That is “everlasting life”…not to be confused with “immortality”.
Where do you read any of that? No one is born with the inheritance of sin. Sin is not inherited. Sin is committed.
There are two kinds of sin…..the one in our DNA that gives us the propensity to make flawed decisions….and the one we choose to commit. We are judged on the latter, not the former. Which is why Christ’s sacrifice covers only the inherited sin….his blood does not cover the deliberate and willful disobedience seen in Adam…and all who display his attitude. God’s laws are not negotiable.
The physical death of Christ on the cross did not stop anyone from dying physically. It didn't even stop anyone from dying spiritually. The physical death of Christ on the cross was a sacrifice to God for the sins of the world. It was the means of redemption for all who would accept it. Those who accept it still die physically; however, they do not die the second death (Rev 20:14).
Those who have died have ‘paid sin’s wages’ and await a resurrection, either to life, or to a period of judgment. (John 5:28-29) Christ’s blood reaches into the grave (Sheol, hades) to bring all the dead back to life. Some who have practiced vile things in the past due to ignorance, will be given another chance at life.
But the incorrigibly wicked will never live again, having gone to “Gehenna”…”the lake of fire” from which condition no one returns. It means the “second death”…..no resurrection is possible for those ones.
Everlasting death is the opposite of everlasting life.
What we are waiting for now, is the foretold “end“ of satan’s rule, and the abyssing of him and his hordes, so that God’s Kingdom can replace the disgustingly corrupt rulership of man that is now destroying the planet and making us all slaves to material things. (Daniel 2:44)
What does mankind have to look forward to? Projections are scary to say the least….but the Bible tells us what to expect, and how God will intervene to rescue his people and to end the wickedness forever.
Sin is not inherited. The natural tendency to sin is inherited. That natural tendency was built into the creation of the human being. Otherwise, there would be no need for any of God's law. The tendency to sin is not sin.
Why would God create man “in his image” and then make it a natural tendency in him to sin?….and then punish him for sinning?!
God’s creation was without defect…as he stated after the close of the sixth day….everything was “very good”….meaning that all that God had made met with his declaration of satisfaction. There was no tendency to sin in the human genome until sin was carried out as an abuse of free will. Use your logic. Sin did not exist until Adam disobeyed…..only then did it spread to “all men“.
If you go back to Genesis, you will see that God had only one law that carried a penalty. And it was there to basically test out free will. Because they transgressed that one law, humans, now bound to sin, had to have hundreds of laws to govern their behavior, if they wanted to please God. Having those laws, God’s people were completely different in their behavior to the nations around them who did not have God’s laws to govern them.
