By “dog” I mean the sinful predisposition ‘dog’ that may be lying in wait at your ‘doorstep’ (Genesis 4:7-8).
Isaac’s love of hunting wild game linked him to his eldest son Esau, who was a skilful hunter. His other son Jacob was a trickster, who used his father’s desire for game meat to deceive him — and through that gained the eldest son’s birthright, which was to have gone to Esau.
Paul the apostle refers to “the first Adam” and “the last Adam”. God created the first Adam and declared him “good”. Having been created sinless, Adam was not by nature predisposed to sin, but chose to disobey God. Had he not sinned, his firstborn son Cain would not by nature have been predisposed to sin.
We are not “born sinners” but become sinners when we act against what we know to be right and instead choose to do wrong. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
The “dog” that lay at Cain’s door’ was subject to him; he did not have to let it in. But he did and as a result murdered his brother Abel. Cain chose to ‘let the dog in’ much like his father Adam had done, and through Adam’s fall and consequent sinful nature, Cain was by nature predisposed to sin.
Jesus, the “last Adam”, was not created but “begotten” (generated) through the Holy Spirit, conceived by the virgin Mary. Jesus was not predisposed to sin because he had the Divine nature of his Father, and though tempted like the first Adam, chose not to sin. When “born from above” we receive the nature of Jesus, which is the nature of God our heavenly Father. When “born from above”, we are “born again” without the sin nature that ‘dogged’ us in life before we were saved by grace.
We are baptized in water in an act of identification with Jesus. Prayer and the study of God’s Word prevents us from doing the things that we once did and still could if we lived the old life instead of the new one. There’s an old and true saying: “We can’t prevent the birds from flying over our head, but we can prevent them from nesting in our hair.”
Is your condition the result of an inherited predisposition? Are you tempted because of a genetic predisposition toward a certain sin? Some sins are by nature, in that they have been passed on, and others are by nurture, in that they are cultivated for self-gratification.
When the devil lets a ‘dog’ out, does your mind allow it entry? Jesus said, “The prince of this world comes but finds nothing in me.” Satan ‘dogged’ our Lord but not only did he keep the ‘door’ closed but told Satan to “get behind me! That is, “Get where I cannot see you!”
Has Satan found something in you that responds to his offers? Is there a a demonic ‘dog’ lying at your door? Its desire is to come inside your mind, but your responsibility to rule over it by telling it to GET LOST!
Through pornography demons build a ‘nest’ in your mind, ‘twig by twig’ (so to speak) until it is hard to get them ‘out of your hair’. God can break them off in an act of power, but to stay free you need to count yourself “dead indeed to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ.”
You are a new creation in Christ, so the old predisposition to sin should no longer be a memory but rather forgotten forever. Your new nature — the nature of Jesus, the Son of God, predisposes you to godliness and holiness! Thank God for the mind of Christ and your new disposition toward clean thinking!