Born to be Wild!

“I can’t help it. I was born this way!”

Christians have taken a strong stance against this statement. It seems we are afraid that science is going to prove that certain individuals have a genetic makeup that predisposes them to unacceptable behavior. We are afraid that if science proves this, it will undermine the Bible. We have been taught that man was created in the image of God. If true, then a person cannot be born as a homosexual, a liar, a child molester, or with any other sinful predisposition. From this ground, we have no choice but to stand in adamant opposition to the idea that people were “born that way!”

I would counter that while man was created in the image of God, we are not born in the image of God. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Yet, after man’s fall, Adam and Eve had a son. Listen to what the Bible says about their son: “When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in HIS OWN LIKENESS, IN HIS OWN IMAGE; and he named him Seth.” (Gen. 5:3)

Man was originally created in the image of God - meaning man was spiritually alive. When man fell, spiritual death fell upon man. Everyone since has been born spiritually dead. Because we are born spiritually dead and we have to have some basis by which to live our lives, man is born in and lives after the desires of the flesh.

You were born to be wild! Ephesians 2:1-3 says, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, . . . among whom also WE ALL conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath, JUST AS THE OTHERS.”

The Bible is clear that we were all born the same - in the flesh. And while your flesh may lust after men and mine after women, or yours may lean towards lying and mine towards stealing, or your weakness may be alcohol and mine pride, sin is sin. We were all in it. And we were all guilty of all of it. Social tolerance of certain sins and intolerance of others does not dictate God’s tolerance. Flesh is flesh and it leads to destruction and death.

It is amazing to me how many people marvel at this idea. If you do not understand that you were born in the flesh, then you do not understand what it means to be born again! Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. . . . That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:3,6-7)

When someone says to me, “I can’t help it. I was born this way!” I simply say, “I know. I was born that way too.” This disarms them and takes away the weapons they have mounted against Christ. It gets you off the battlefield of science -- which doesn’t matter anyway. If a persons genetic makeup gears them towards homosexual or heterosexual lust, it’s still lust. It’s still flesh. It’s still sin. -- and it gets us back on the ground of Truth.

I was born to be wild. I was born in the flesh and it brought destruction and death. Yet, I was born again! I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. And “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, . . . who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12,13) I was born to be wild, but I was reborn to be a child of God!

Today, I have a choice. I can walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. My flesh will never change, but I can choose to change how I walk. “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16)

Choose to change how you walk today! Pray: “Lord, I trust you. Live through me today. Walk through me. Talk through me. Show me how to trust You to live through me in every moment of my life. Amen.”

And do not argue with people about how they were born. Focus on sharing with them how they can be reborn as a child of God. Focus on sharing with them how they can choose to walk according to the Spirit.