HOW DID ADAM & EVE SIN WITHOUT A SINFUL NATURE?

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Someone in my Theology Group asked a good question:

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“Curious about Adam and Eve…I never understood how, created in the image of God, and not having a fallen, sinful nature, how were they capable of sinning? I understand that they fell to temptation by the serpent – my question is how? After the fall they were imperfect beings capable of sin, but prior to that they were without blemish. It seems like only a fallen, sinful nature could lead someone to sin.” ~ Brian

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God creates our nature with natural desires which have lawful means of gratification.

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The devil tempts us to gratify these natural desires in unlawful and unnatural ways.

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Sin is a free will choice to gratify a natural God-given desire in an unnatural unlawful way.

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That is how Adam sinned without being born with a sinful nature. And the same applies to us.

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Jesus was created with natural desires and appetites, having a human body like us.

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He had a natural desire for food, for example.

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The devil used this natural desire to tempt him to cause a rock into bread.

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So even in the scenario of Jesus, in which all agree He had no sinful nature, we see how the devil tempts by suggesting you gratify a natural desire in an unlawful way.

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Sin doesn’t come from a sinful nature. It comes from free will.

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Human nature is not sinful. It has natural desires Given by God which we could gratify through sin.

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But if your will is necessitated by your nature, a sinful nature would be required to sin, in which case Adam and Eve could never have sinned.

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I asked this same question to Matt Slick in our free will debate. “If your will is necessitated by your nature, how did Adam and Eve sin?”

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All he could say was “Adam and Eve sinned because they chose to.” Which was a non-answer to the dilemma.

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I explain all this in my book.