WEBVTT

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Our human story often begins with a simple phrase,

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born this way. Before choice, before you've acted,

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before you've formed a memory, you were born

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bent, born corrupt, born ruined at the root.

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If that's the beginning, then everything else

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follows. If we were born metaphysically broken,

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then salvation must repair our substance. But

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what if scripture begins somewhere else? We return

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to the epistle to the Hebrews. For as much then

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as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,

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he also himself likewise took part of the same,

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that through death he might destroy him that

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had the power of death, that is, the devil, and

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deliver them who through fear of death were all

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their lifetime subject to bondage. Hebrews 2,

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14 and 15. Bondage, fear, death. Bondage, fear,

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death. That is existential language. It's not

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courtroom language. We'll be returning to that

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verse often because it's my conviction that Hebrews

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2 should be placed alongside John 3 .16 in terms

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of how we view what's going on in the New Testament.

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Let's go back to Genesis. After Adam sins, he

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says, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I

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was afraid, and I hid myself. Death had just

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been pronounced. For dust thou art, and unto

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dust shalt thou return. Death enters. Fear awakens.

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Hiding begins. The first recorded emotion of

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fallen humanity is not philosophical corruption.

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It is fear. So here's the thesis. Maybe we were

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not born metaphysically monstrous. Maybe we were

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born mortal. And mortality does something to

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you. It talks to you. It whispers, you will not

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last. You cannot control the ending. You are

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vulnerable. And when that settles into the human

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heart, fear becomes instinct. And then sin begins

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to form. Sin is self -preservation without trust.

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Sin is self -preservation without trust. It's

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not wrong to preserve your life. It's not wrong

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to not want to die. But when you go outside the

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means, when you go outside the parameters, the

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boundaries of what God has given you, now you've

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entered sin. Do we sin because we are sinners?

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Or are we sinners because we sin? If we sin because

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we are sinners, corruption is our original essence.

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But if we become sinners because we sin, and

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if we sin because we fear death, then mortality

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is at work. Listen to the epistle to the Romans.

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For we have proved both Jews and Gentiles that

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they are all under sin. Romans 3 9. That's dominion

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language. Romans 5 verse 12. Wherefore, as by

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one man sin entered the world, and death by sin.

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And so, death passed upon all men. Two verses

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later, nevertheless, death reigned. Death reigned.

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R -E -I -G -N. The reign of a king. Death spread.

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Death became atmospheric. If death reigns, fear

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is rational. And if fear becomes instinct, self

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-preservation becomes urgent. But self -preservation

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without trust becomes sin. So, let's make this

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concrete. Sin is self -medicating fear. Hebrews

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says we were enslaved to fear of death. So here

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is the uncomfortable question. What prescriptions

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are we writing ourselves for fear of death? What

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are we doing to numb our vulnerability? Pleasure?

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Control? Money? Being admired? Being right? Being

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certain? We all write prescriptions. Loneliness

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rises. We medicate. Insecurity rises. We medicate

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with pride. Financial fear rises. We medicate

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with accumulation. Loss of control rises. we

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medicate with domination. All along, we know

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we will still die. So sin becomes anesthesia,

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temporary relief, long -term distortion. Honestly,

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you can take any sin, and if you think about

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it, you can trace it to the fear of death somehow.

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This is going to radically alter how you deal

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with your own sins, if you see that connection.

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A drowning man will push someone under to get

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one more breath. Is that because he was born

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a monster, or because he is panicking? Human

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history is panic scaled up. Fear reshapes behavior.

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Behavior reshapes identity. Identity hardens

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into what we call sinner. And what is the engine

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underneath? It's fear. John Calvin famously said,

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Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory

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of idols. He's not wrong, but he's wrong as to

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the cause. The cause is not inherited depravity

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from Adam. The cause is fear of death and bondage

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to the enemy. Now, look at Christ instead. In

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Gethsemane, he says, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful,

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even unto death. Matthew 26, 38. He feels mortality

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fully, and yet, nevertheless, not as I will,

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but as thou wilt. He doesn't numb out. Even on

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the cross, they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled

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with gall. And when he had tasted thereof, he

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would not drink. He refuses the anesthetic. He

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does not medicate fear. he absorbs death consciously.

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Where Adam hid in fear, Christ remains. Where

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we write prescriptions, he refuses anesthesia.

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That is not incidental. That is redemption. Our

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predicament does not require inherited depravity,

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original sin, inherited guilt as the engine when

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we have already inherited death and susceptibility

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to the demonic. Paul says, For as in Adam all

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die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

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Made alive. If death is the root problem, the

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answer must be new life, that through death he

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might destroy him that had the power of death

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destroy. Because if death is defeated, fear loses

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leverage. If fear loses leverage, sin loses its

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oxygen. Paul declares, the last enemy that shall

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be destroyed is death. O death, where is thy

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sting? O grave, Where's thy victory? That is

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conquest. So, perhaps the story does not begin

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with born corrupt. Perhaps it begins with born

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into death, enslaved by fear. Medicate the panic

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until Christ walks into death without numbing

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out. He breaks it from the inside and rises.

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And if he rises, death is not ultimate. If death

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is not ultimate, fear is not sovereign. That

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is resurrection life. That is union. That is

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the gospel.