Non Posse Non Peccare.
(I cannot not sin)

aymon de albatrus

The first thing to investigate is the nature of sin, in particular from where sin comes form, or indeed what is sin.

What is sin?
In this modern age the concept of sin is hardly known, even in many churches, this is because the notion of God is hardly believed and also the prevalent thought of the importance of man in the scheme of things precludes any such possibility. Besides if God were to exist He would be such a nice fellow to not contradict man, let alone condemn him for anything, rebellious man states. Unbelievers say:"But I do not believe in God so this is not applicable to me" what a shallow statement, God is the Creator of all that exists, even unbelievers and they too are under God’s Law, whether they accept it or not.

Deluded man so believes, but Scripture quite clearly negates this notion and tells us what sin is:

There so plainly stated again "all have sinned" ALL means that nobody is excluded.

The origin of sin is a problem that has occupied theologians in all ages, without any resolution, notwithstanding many of their highfaluting theories. Their main argument is: "God did not create Sin, God created everything good; He is not the Author of sin. Moral beings were without sin when created. Satan was created a sinless and perfect being."

Well, OK, but from whence does sin come from then? The facts of the matter are that nobody knows, indeed all of our knowledge comes from God, if He does not reveal, then we will never know.

However we can reason a little logically and consider that since God created all things, there in nothing created that God did not give life to it, NOTHING in God’s creation can occur without God giving conscious energy to it to exists, this clearly means that if He gives that life force He must also will it to be so. If something were to enter into God’s creation outside Himself, then God will come short of His major attributes; Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence, and thus He would not be God anymore, by definition.

Now if someone were to send an emissary to lie to someone else so to convince this latter one to do an action that will cause his death, would not a modern court condemn the original instigator?

HE HAS EVERY POSSIBLE RIGHT.

Every unbeliever says, indeed even many believer these days: "We know of sin only because God decided to impose on us the Law, a good God would not do that, I do not want this Law, for it is set up for me to fail and be condemned for this Law infringes on my free will and doesn’t not let me do what I really want to do." A survey was carried out with many university professors that were reported to believe in the religion of Evolution, when confronted many confessed not to really believe in it but they must carry on the pretence of it, for the acceptance of God would limit their sexual life inclinations, they said. This position is very common in our days.

So, those who inveigh against God’s impositions are rebels without a cause deserving every bit of Hell they get.

Why we sin?
The oft-mentioned excuse: "the devil made me do it" certainly cannot be used here. We sin wilfully and often we even enjoy it.

Another grand man of God, Augustine of Hippo, in his painful Confessions he laments: "Non Posse Non Peccare" (I am not able not to sin). He has suffered this troublesome situation and proposed 4 states of man possibilities in relation to sin:

1. able to sin, able not to sin (posse peccare, posse non peccare) the state of man in innocence, before the Fall

2. not able not to sin (non posse non peccare); the second the state of the natural man after the Fall

3. able not to sin (posse non peccare) the third the state of the regenerate man

4. unable to sin (non posse peccare) the fourth the glorified man.

This of course involves the concept of "free will". Well does man have free will? Men are so rebellious that they will fight till their green tongues fall off, in insisting that they are the Captain of their Souls and that they have absolute free will? But, do They?

What is the meaning of free will to these proponents? That they must be free to do whatever they want without limits. Well that is impossible, if one wants to have sex with the wife next door but if the husband is waiting with the shotgun it cannot be done even if one wants to. And so with practically every situation in life, one is limited or stopped by physical reasons and by circumstances continually, thus in practically every case one is not free to get what he wants, e.g. his freedom is limited in a way or another and not totally free to get what he wants.

In theological terms free will is normally defined as the ability to choose equally between what is good and what is evil without any encumbrances and his will is free because it is not forced or compelled from without.

Looking at the table above we see that before the Fall, man was able to choose to do either good or evil, his heart, and so his inclination and disposition, being innocent and not tainted by sin. But Adam’s state was mutable and when Satan tempted Eve, and then Eve tempted him, he wilfully chose to sin against God by eating the forbidden fruit and so fell from the estate of innocence. 

Whilst in the Glorified state man will always choose to do good because his heart’s inclination is always to glorify God; (O LORD, How long? How long?).

So with reference to "free will" as proposed by its proponent we can say that it is false, for man has NEVER total free will, to be sure man has a will but never totally free as intended by them, ONLY God has true free will.

So puny man should answer these simple questions before claiming "Free Will" for himself:

• Did you freely choose to be born?

• Did you freely choose to be born man or woman?

• Did you freely choose in which nation to be born?

• Did you freely choose to be born black or white?

• Did you freely choose to be intelligent or dumb?

• Did you freely choose to be part of your family?

• Did you freely choose the life you have?

• Did you freely choose to be healthy or sick?

• Did you freely choose in which way and when you shall die?

• Did you freely choose to be saved? This is a good one for the proponent of free will, but look at these verses:

"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." (Joh 6:44)

"And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." (Joh 6:65)

Seems that before claiming "free will" for himself man should claim "free rebellion".

With Augustine we agree that:

• The children of God are actuated by His Spirit to do whatever is to be done

• They are drawn by Him, out of an unwilling state to be made willing

• Since the fall it is owing only to the grace of God that man draws near to Him

• It is owing only to the same grace that God does not withdraw or recede from him

• We know that no good thing which is our own can be found in our will

• By the magnitude of the first sin, we lost the freedom of the will to believe in God and live holy lives

• Therefore "it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs"—not because we ought not to will and to run, but because God effects both the willing and the running.

Can we totally stop sinning whilst on this earth?
I must and will confess that so far I have been unable to stop sinning altogether. I will admit that I am well aware of sinning and at times do go on, regardless of the pangs of conscience. My old nature is not completely dead, I fear. "O my Lord, do have pity of this miserable soul."

If the devil confronts me with a long list of my sins I will respond: "Yes, it is true they are mine, but you are wrong for the list is longer than that, nevertheless I live by Faith in Him who has crucified my every sin on the cross by His sacrifice and He is continually interceding for me with His Holy blood in front of the Mercy Seat in Heaven".