Adam’s Predisposition for Sin

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them…God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. – Gen. 1:27, 31

Indeed, as Scripture declares, God looked upon all that He had made, and it was very good.

I have a question, though. How was Adam able to sin? Michael Horton, in Putting Amazing back into Grace, writes, “the impression is given that there is something inherent in our humanness that predisposes us to sin…there is nothing wrong with the Manufacturer or his product; the problem is with what his creatures decided to do with the freedom he sovereignly gave them.”

How, though, did the creature ‘decide’ to do something that he was not predisposed to do in the first place? Is that possible? Is that logical?

I agree that there is nothing wrong with the ‘Manufacturer’, who is God. And I also agree that in the beginning, everything He made was ‘very good’. What I am pondering is how something that is created good and sinless can sin, unless they were created with a predisposition, or bent, toward sin. Horton says Adam was NOT created with a predisposition toward sin. My reply is, how then could Adam sin? Where did the disposition, the propensity, the tendency, the inclination to sin come from? Would it not have to be something he was already capable of doing prior to his doing it for him to be able to do it in the first place? And, if he was already capable of doing it prior to him doing it, does it not follow then that he had to have been created with a predisposition for doing it?

I think many consider Adam’s sin to be that point at which he took and ate, but Scripture teaches that actual sin begins prior to the act. James said of sin, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”

According to James, sin begins with lust, and I think we would all agree that Adam’s sin had to begin somewhere prior to his actually taking the fruit and eating it. Adam, in his heart, had to begin thinking about what he was getting ready to do (Scripture even shows us that Eve, prior to eating, developed lust for the fruit and the results of taking it prior to eating). And my point is that, if Adam had not been created with an inclination toward sin, then he would not have been able to even conceive of sin at all. For if there is no inclination toward something, then there will be no movement in that direction.

I would be interested in your thoughts on how Adam came to sin if he was not already predisposed to sin, or inclined to do so…and don’t give me, “The devil made him do it”!