For as through the one man’s disobedience [Adam] the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One [Christ] the many will be made righteous.
The Bible confirms that everyone enters this world corrupted and condemned by a sinful nature: “I was brought into this world in sin and guilt, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). We have a tendency to do what’s wrong before God—we think and behave sinfully—because of the godless disposition we inherit at birth. This condition deep within us “…is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV; see also Mark 7:20-23). As we grow through childhood no one needs to teach us how to be bad—the compulsive tendency is already there. When we start to sin and give in to its impulses, we become accountable. In fact, “all the world” is “accountable to God” (Romans 3:19).
The inherent condition of sin drives us to commit sins. Sin permeates the essence of our being: “…the sin [principle]… is at home in me and has possession of me” (Romans 7:17, Amplified Bible). Tragically, everyone is condemned before God because Adam’s original disobedience causes us to be born with a fallen nature: “in Adam all people die”; “one trespass led to condemnation for all” (1st Corinthians 15:22, Amplified Bible; Romans 5:18, ESV). So we find that everyone will be inclined to behave sinfully. Due to their inbuilt nature and resulting wrong behaviour (sin and sins) they are guilty before God (see Ephesians 2:3).
Although Christ came into this world in a human body, He did not inherit the corrupted and condemned nature that was caused by Adam’s disobedience: “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he [God] condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3, 4). Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh; He did not in any sense become sinful flesh. In Him humanity’s universal condemnation was turned around enabling us to be made just (righteous) before God by faith.
By His perfect sacrifice Christ has saved us from God’s righteous anger that was directed against the corrupted nature we inherited in Adam. By Christ’s blood, and in response to our true faith, He has cancelled out God’s penalty for Sin and appeased His holy judgement against us. “By nature” we were “children of wrath”, but now in Him we have been brought from death to life:
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-5, ESV).
So we see that by placing our faith in Christ and His finished work He has dealt with the problem of our inherited sinful and rebellious nature. But the full extent of His salvation goes much further than that. In Him we also have forgiveness for every wrong thing we have done—without exception our past sins are forgiven and forgotten:
“… the Lord Jesus Christ… gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Galatians 1:3, 4, ESV); “…your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake” (1st John 2:12, ESV); “And you, who were dead in your trespasses… God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” Colossians 2:13, 14, ESV); “’…their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more’” (Hebrews 10:17, NKJV).
Not only has Christ dealt with our sinful nature and our many past sins, but in Him we continue to find forgiveness: “But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1st John 1:7-9, NASB).
Christ has dealt with God’s penalty that stood against our corrupted nature. In Him we also find forgiveness for our past sins and our ongoing sins. To help us defeat sin in our walk, He goes further and provides a way for us to resist the power of sin. When we abide in Him and walk in the Spirit we will rise above the destructive impulses of our fallen character. We know that:
“…our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” (Romans 6:6-12).
If we want to continually challenge the ways of our fallen nature we must make a daily commitment to walk in the Spirit: “…walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want” (Galatians 5:16, 17, HCSB). By the power of the Holy Spirit Who lives within us we can die each day to our corrupting impulses. We must effectively die to the influences of the flesh, or self.
By abiding in Christ daily we can triumph over the conflict that is caused by the desire of “the flesh” clashing with the holy desire of His Spirit: “…those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires. If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24, 25, Amplified Bible). If we believe God’s living Word to us, that our sinful nature has in fact been “crucified” with Christ, we know that we can experience ongoing victory over sin. It is by faith in His Word and in the power of the Holy Spirit that we overcome.
In all that we have briefly shared we can see that Christ has dealt with sin in all its forms. In this life we will never be totally detached from the underlying nature of sin we inherited. But in Christ we can claim all that He has provided. By the Spirit we can continually put to death the corrupting impulses of the flesh. “…for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13, NASB).
