John,
After reading the new section and scanning several times through chapter 2, I have a question concerning what you wrote about Satan’s nature being different from his external body after he sinned. Today, man’s body/nature is sinful, but what was the nature of Adam’s body before he sinned? Not sinful? Was the nature of Adam’s body changed when he sinned (to be sinful)? Or have human bodies always had the nature of sin in them, including Adam’s body before he ate the fruit (just ignorant of sin before that)? Just wondering after reading the new section.
Thanks!
Lyn
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Hi Lyn.
Good question. It appears that you are confused about the body and the nature being one and the same. They are not. They are closely connected, but they are not the same thing. The natural, human body is not sinful, even now; it is just carnal, material substance, something made of flesh. It is neither good nor evil. It is man’s nature that is evil, and that nature is in man’s “heart” – not his physical heart, but deep down in his soul. How do I say it? It is impossible to describe apart from the body, but it is not the body!
Adam’s physical body remained the same after he sinned, just as Satan’s beautiful heavenly body was unchanged. But the nature within man and Satan’s body “fell”, and became perverse. So, both man and Satan continued to look normal after they sinned, continued to look the way they looked before they sinned even though they were very much changed.
Hope that helps a little.
jdc