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The Doctrine of Sin

The purpose of this research is to examine the doctrine of sin, or hamartiology, in Christianity, with respect to how "the flesh" is conceptualized in Scripture. The plan of the research will be to set forth ways in which "the flesh" is used in the Bible and then to discuss how the term makes meanings in the text and the implications that its usage has for the moral experience of the community of faith.

No single meaning attaches to the usage of the word flesh in the Bible, except insofar as it is associated with human identity and experience and is to be distinguished from spirit. That the word may be liable to multiple interpretations is stated more or less directly at 1 Corinthians 15:39, when Paul says that all flesh is not the same, "but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds." The statement at John 1:14 that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us refers to Jesus' human nature, hence to divine participation in human experience. If such participation is worth God's time--and the Incarnation suggests that this is the case--then that must mean the flesh as human nature is not irredeemably evil. Indeed, the purpose of human life is to find its way to God, even if that involves sacrifice of human preferences, including a preference for life. That is in the background of 2 Corinthians 4:11: "For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh."

Even so, the flesh as human nature is markedly imperfect, and that is how it is associated with the concept of the sin nature. "Acts of sin," says Thiessen, "spring from a principle or nature that is sinful. . . . Sin is present in everyone as a nature before it expresses itself in deeds" (173). He cite's Paul's statement that "sin . . . indwells me" (Romans 7:17) and the Christian idea that acts of sin, which are bad enough, spring from fund...

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The Doctrine of Sin. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 09:19, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1689352.html