Now we are drawing near to the very heart of the matter. What is it which distinguishes the lower nature from the higher, the animal from the Divine in us, the flesh from the spirit? The distinction lies in the objects to which the desires of each of these natures are directed.
The animal, predominantly, desires the good of self: the Divine, the good of others.
This we must now expand. There is nothing morally wrong in the self-seeking of the animal. Moral evil—sin—only arises when two conditions are fulfilled.
The self-seeking desire must be felt to be in contradiction to the unselfish dictates of the higher nature.
The will, having this knowledge more or less
clearly before it, chooses to give effect to the lower rather than to subordinate it to the higher. We may express the same truth somewhat more accurately.
The material of human sin is the co-existence of the animal nature and the Divine Nature within us.
The occasion of sin is the conflict between the two.
The conditions of sin are two—knowledge and freedom; knowledge of the antagonism between the desires of the two natures, and freedom to give effect either to the one or to the other.
The actual fact of sin is the movement of the will, making its choice in favour of the lower in opposition to the higher.