D W Supporter

God's Spirit did not abide in Adam once he had decided to disobey God. Adam and Eve decided to do things their way, not God's Way. When that happened their relationship with God was severed ---- they become "spiritless," lost, undone, out on their own. In that way these disobedient humans passed along their condition of being lost and separated from God to all of us. God labored throughout the Hebrew Bible, after choosing a Chosen People to bring His Message to everyone, to get them to walk in obedience to Him. They refused, over and over again. 

When God manifested Himself on earth as Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, once again the Jews rejected Him. 

The scripture that you quote is not applicable in the above circumstances. 1 John 3:9 speaks specifically to those who have accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, one by one. In so doing the condition of being "lost," imposed by Adam's disobedience, is erased. This is the condition of being "born again," or "born from above," to which the passage refers. 

The person who confesses Jesus is now a Christian and is now "found," no longer lost, but safe for eternity in the presence of God. 

Adam's sin is erased for all who trust in Jesus.

October 11 2013 • 8 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Tim Maas Supporter Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

Adam was originally created in God's image, but he was also given free will and the power of choice to obey or disobey God. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God because Satan appealed to the sin of pride, or wanting to be like God, by falsely claiming that God had refused them the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because God knew that eating the fruit would make them like God. This was the same sin that had originally caused Satan himself to rebel against God. As C.S. Lewis said, pride is the essential vice -- the complete anti-God state of mind.

July 04 2016 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Thomas K M Supporter A retired Defence Scientist from Indian Defence R&D Orgn.

The moment Adam and Eve became disobedient they lost many attributes. They lost God's righteousness, become self righteous and went their own way. They lost holiness, fellowship, union with God and freedom. They lost the grace of God. They were under God's curse. They realized that they were naked. They alienated from God. They were spiritually dead and slave to flesh. God's spirit was no longer with them. They lost sonship and became slave to sin. The free will given to them was misused ultimately made a wrong choice. 

Our Creator created man in His image and gave man three great gifts at his creation: freedom, reason, and love. These are all essential for his spiritual growth. But along with freedom goes the possibility of making the wrong choices and being subject to temptation. Being tempted for reason is to become proud in mind, and then seeking the knowledge of good and evil outside of God. This is like making oneself a “god.” The temptation of love in place of love of God and one’s neighbor is to love oneself and everything that satisfies bodily desires. 

If we are to love God with all our heart, we must be able to freely choose to do so. For forced love is not really love. God’s plan was for man to become like God so this possibility was part of man’s creation.

July 04 2016 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht Supporter Arizona Bible College graduate and Dallas Seminary graduate

Good question, Ghassan!

Why did Adam sin even though God's spirit abides in him, as mentioned in 1 John 3:9? 1 John 3:9 ESV - 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

I think Jesus alluded to this when He said in John 14:17, "The Helper is the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it does not see him or know him. But you know him. He lives with you, and he will be in you." In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon certain individuals, e.g., Saul, David, Samson, etc., but did not indwell them. The permanent indwelling of the Spirit would come later.

Most biblical interpreters hold that Adam was not indwelt by the Holy Spirit in the same abiding, regenerative way believers are after Pentecost. He walked with God and had the breath of life from God (Genesis 2:7), but the permanent indwelling of God's Spirit as "God's seed" (1 John 3:9) -- often understood as the new divine nature or the Holy Spirit's regenerating work -- was not his experience. That came later through Christ's redemptive work.

I.e., "Adam sinned because he was not yet what John calls 'one born of God' in the 1 John 3:9 sense; that verse describes the regenerate, eschatological life given in Christ, not the creational life of Adam." -- biblehub

1 day ago • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report