In these messages on the believers we shall cover the believers’ status, designations, symbols, life, nature, past, present, and future. We shall begin with the believers’ status, and in this message we shall cover the believers’ status before they were saved.
Before the believers were saved, they had a sixfold status. They were sinners, sons of disobedience, children of wrath, children of the Devil, enemies of God, and sons of Gehenna.
Before we were saved we were sinners. In Matthew 9:13 the Lord Jesus says, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul declares, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
In our status as sinners we all have sinned. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). The word “all” refers to all human beings. First Kings 8:46 says, “There is no man that sinneth not.”
As those who have sinned, we have come short of the glory of God. God’s glory is God Himself expressed. Whenever God is expressed, His glory is seen. Man was made by God in His image that man may express Him for His glory. But man has sinned. Instead of expressing God, man expresses sin and his sinful self and thus is short of God’s glory. We sinners were not only under the requirements of God’s righteousness but also under the demand of God’s glory. We all have broken God’s righteous law, and we all have come short of God’s glory. Therefore, before we were saved we were under God’s condemnation.
As sinners we not only sinned but were constituted of sin. A sinner is one who is constituted of sin. Romans 5:19a says, “Through the disobedience of one man the many were constituted sinners.” As a result of Adam’s disobedience, the many, including us, were not only made sinners but were constituted sinners. An element not created by God was injected into our being and constituted us sinners. We are sinners by constitution, not by accident, for sin has been wrought into us and constituted into our being. Therefore, sin is not merely an outward deed; sin is an inward, subjective element in our constitution. Before we were saved we were typical sinners by nature.
We were sinners not only because we had sinned, but because we were constituted of sin. We were constituted sinners in Adam long before we were born. As a result, when we were born, we were born sinners. We were born with a constitution of sin. From this we see that we do not become sinners after sinning. Rather, we were sinners even before we sinned. All unbelievers, being constituted of sin, are sinners by birth.
As those constituted of sin, we were enslaved under sin. Romans 7:14b says, “I am fleshly, sold under sin.” The phrase “sold under sin” means sold to sin. Sin is the buying master, and we were sold to him to be his slaves.
In John 8:34 the Lord Jesus says, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.” A slave is always under bondage. Satan, the Devil, has brought all humankind under the bondage of sin by imparting himself into man as the sinful nature that compels man to sin. Although we were not taught to sin, we were born as those enslaved to sin and could not keep from sinning. Because we have a devilish nature, we are slaves of sin. It is impossible for anyone to free himself from this slavery.
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