Genetics or environment?

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me (Psalm 51:5).

As a person, you have been shaped by two things—your genes and the environment that you grew up in. Your genes dictated things like the color of your eyes and the texture of your hair; they also determined if you would develop poor vision or would have a higher risk of contracting certain diseases. The traits that are yours by genetics are inherited from your biological parents.

Your environment has also shaped who you are. Watching your parents interact with each other has shaped your beliefs about marriage; how your parents raised you has affected your feelings of self-worth and how independent you are. Your experiences with others have taught you lessons about openness and honesty, and have either made you more optimistic and happy or more pessimistic and negative. Every person who has touched your life has made some impression on who you are and what you believe.

But the most pervasive influence on your life, on any life, is the influence of sin. Sin is what separates us from God. Sin is the inability to understand who God is and what makes Him happy; sin is every thought, word and deed that opposes what God wants.

We are influenced by sin both from within and without. Parents can pass damaged genes on to their children, resulting in birth defects; in a similar way, your parents have passed on to you a defective spirit. Ever since the first people sinned, their souls were damaged—they lost the ability to understand God and to perceive spiritual perfection. And so their children entered life with a spiritual birth defect—they were stunted in their souls. This problem has been passed on to all human beings, including you. Sin is a part of you from the moment of conception. In addition, our lives are immersed in sinful behavior—on any given day, you see and hear many more examples of perversity than you do of God-pleasing conduct. Whether they realize it or not, the people in your life have been teaching you how to sin since the moment that you left the womb.

No doctor can cure a genetic defect; no therapist can remove the memories of evil things in your past. But Jesus Christ is the Great Physician; the Son of God can do what human beings can’t. He can restore your soul; He can bury your past and give you spiritual rebirth. No matter how much damage sin has caused in your life, Jesus can set things right—all you need do is humbly ask Him.