Go to Index or Introduction

#4.2 THE CAUSES of SIN

This bible study uses a Greek Unicode font and is printable.

Full Sin Nature Index || Search this website || Bible Studies Index

Introduction 4.2

In this bible study we will explain a number of things that cause people to sin. Understanding exactly what causes us to sin is very important because then we will understand better how to overcome it. The basic root of sinful desire in us is sin in our heart. Sin causes lust and lust causes sin. Sin causes spiritual death and spiritual death causes sin. The knowledge of evil causes sin, and that is what Adam let into the world in the beginning

#4.21 Sin causes sin

PSALMS 69:27 (David)
27 Add iniquity to their iniquity: and do not let them come into your righteousness.

PROVERBS 5:21-23 (Solomon)
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of Yahweh, and he ponders all his goings.
22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins.
23 He shall die without instruction; in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

JEREMIAH 9:3
3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies; but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says Yahweh.

JOHN 8:34
34 Jesus answered them; Amen I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin.

ROMANS 6:6 (Paul)
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin.

ROMANS 6:12 (Paul)
12 Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

ROMANS 6:16-20 (Paul)
16 Do you not know, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
17 But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18 Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the weakness of your flesh: for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity to iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness to holiness.
20 For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.

ROMANS 7:5 (Paul)
5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death.

ROMANS 7:15-20 (Paul)
15 For that which I do, I do not know: for what I would do, that I do not do; but what I hate, that I do.
16 If then I do that which I would not do, I consent to the law that it is good.
17 Now then it is no more I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I do not find.
19 For the good which I would do, I do not do: but the evil which I would not do, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not do, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Note: These scriptures show us clearly what causes us to sin: it is sin in our heart. Paul referred to "sin that dwells in me" (Romans 7:17, 7:20) as the reason why he did wrong things. Both Jesus and Paul referred to us as "servants of sin" when we commit sin (John 8:34; Romans 6:17), showing that sin in us is the cause of us doing more sin, not a sinful nature that we are born with.

#4.22 Sin causes lust

ROMANS 6:12 (Paul)
12 Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

ROMANS 7:8 (Paul)
8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, worked in me every lust. For without the law sin was dead.

Note: When sin dwells in us it gives us a desire to commit sin and that desire is called lust. Each sin gives us the desire to repeat the sin that we have been doing.

#4.23 Lust causes sin

JOHN 8:44 (Jesus)
44 You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

ROMANS 1:24 (Paul)
24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.

JAMES 1:13-15
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does he tempt any man:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.

JAMES 4:1
1 Where do wars and fighting come from among you? Do they not come even of your lusts that war in your members.

Note: Here again, these scriptures show that the lusts that the sin in us produces is the cause of us sinning more, not a sin nature that we are born with.

#4.24 Sin causes spiritual death

GENESIS 2:17 (God)
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

EZEKIEL 18:4 (God)
4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins, he shall die.

EZEKIEL 18:20 (God)
20 The soul who sins, he shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

ROMANS 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

JAMES 1:15
15 Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.

Note: Adam was promised by God that he would die the day he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17) but he lived to be 930 years old physically (Genesis 5:5). God does not lie (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2) so it seems obvious he was referring to spiritual death. Anyone who sins suffers this and Adam sinned when he disobeyed God's command.

#4.25 Spiritual death causes sin

ROMANS 5:14, 17
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him who was to come.
17 For if through the offence of the one man, death reigned through the one; much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

ROMANS 5:21
21 That as sin has reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

ROMANS 6:12
6:12 Do not let sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts of it.

EPHESIANS 2:1, 4-5
1 And you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;)

COLOSSIANS 2:13
13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

1 TIMOTHY 5:6
6 But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.

Note: It seems obvious that whether death reigns in someone (Romans 5:14; 5:17) or sin reigns (Romans 5:21; 6:12), the end result is the same: the person is dominated by sin. A person can be physically alive but spiritually dead while they are living in pleasure (1 Timothy 5:6) or living in sin (Ephesians 2:1; 2:5, Colossians 2:13). The only way to be free is to repent out the sin in us, get the knowledge of good from the scripture, and put it into practice in our lives.

#4.26 The thoughts of the heart cause sin

PROVERBS 24:9
9 The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men.

MICAH 2:1
1 Woe to those who devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.

MATTHEW 5:28
28 But I say to you, That whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

LUKE 16:3
3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? For my lord takes away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
5 So he called every one of his lord's debtors to him, and said to the first, How much do you owe to my lord?
6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, Take your bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
7 Then he said to another, And how much do you owe? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, Take your bill, and write eighty.

1 JOHN 3:15
15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Note: Even wrong thoughts are sin (Proverbs 24:9). Looking with lust is considered as spiritual adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:28) and hate in the heart is counted as spiritual murder (1 John 5:15). The apostle Paul wrote, "The carnal mind (the mind that thinks fleshly thoughts) is enmity against God" (Romans 8:7), and to be "carnally minded" is spiritual death (Romans 8:6). This is why he encouraged the believers to "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2), and "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind" (Ephesians 4:23), a renewing that requires a new knowledge (Colossians 3:10), to be done "day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16). The unjust steward (Luke 16:3-7) planned in his mind before he was dismissed to defraud his master and get favor from his debtors. A carnal person is "sold under sin" (Romans 7:14), a slave to sin, and the only way out is to get the thinking changed. A new-born child has none of these traits; his mind will only need renewing after he learns wrong things. If he is trained up properly from birth he will continue to go right with God (Proverbs 22:6).

#4.27 Sinful Wisdom and Knowledge causes Sin

ISAIAH 47:10
10 For you have trusted in your wickedness: you have said, No one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you; and you have said in your heart, I am, and no one else beside me.

JEREMIAH 4:22
22 For my people are foolish, they have not known me; they are silly children, and they have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:19
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; for it is written, He catches the wise in their own craftiness.

Note: The thing that makes us do evil is the knowledge of evil that we learn from the time we are born. The statement, "they are wise to do evil" (Jeremiah 4:22) proves this. When we get the wrong wisdom it perverts us (Isaiah 47:10) and our wisdom is then "foolishness with God" (1 Corinthians 3:19). However, we are not born with any wisdom good or bad, but because we are born into a world full of the knowledge of evil we obviously learn it. Every decision that we make that is contrary to what the word of Got teaches is sin in God's sight. So if we do not know what the scripture teaches then sin is unavoidable.

If you have benefited from reading this study, then please tell your friends about this website.
If you have a website of your own, then please consider linking to this website. See the Website Links page.
Please copy and paste this link into Facebook and Twitter to all your friends who need to know the causes of sin and give it a Google+.

Arrow pointing left  Not Born in Sin || Full Sin Nature Index || Bible Studies Index || How Sin Dwells in Man  Arrow pointing right

Top