Do you have involuntary sin?
Trained instincts—that’s how fighter pilots can react immediately to rapidly changing situations as they operate $27 million war machines. When a threat aircraft is closing in, there’s no time for pilots to reason through what to do. They have to rely on instinct—but not just natural instinct. They need instincts shaped deep within them through years of the regiment. The countless little decisions they make in the cockpit are automatic, but that doesn’t mean they’re involuntary. The pilot voluntarily trained for them, and in the cockpit, he reaps the instinctive benefits of that training. This is a good illustration of how unintentional sin works . Can we be guilty of sinful responses that seem to erupt in us automatically? Can we really consider sin voluntary if it is not consciously chosen? Scripture’s view of human experience is complex enough to answer yes. Scripture speaks of involuntary sins as including three characteristics: they are (1) from ignorance of God’s will and th...