Day 2 - I’m With Him

We were in trouble from the very beginning of our lives. We were born into a world that was corrupted by sin. Even physicists know that the very universe itself is in a state of decay. The principle of entropy essentially proves that; it states the universe is heading toward death. When we examine life on this earth, we see the same thing – everything that is living now will eventually die. Things left on their own will decay and fall apart.

There will come a time when this will change, but for now, this is our environment. And obviously, we humans are in the same boat. The reason we are in this state is something that happened back in Genesis 3. The most succinct statement of this is found in Romans 5:12: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men…” Outside of divine intervention, we didn‘t have a chance. We are born “in Adam,” meaning we share Adam’s sin nature. What was true of Adam is true of us.

Since this is an inborn nature, we can’t change it ourselves. We can try to tame it, but at its core, it is still sin. Our mind and flesh are prone to the same tendencies. You can see this in 1-year-olds. They don’t have to be taught to be selfish – they are by nature. They have to be taught to share.

As we saw at the end of Romans 7, there is a solution to the sin problem, and that solution is Jesus. He was born a sinless man, lived a sinless life, and then died on the cross with our sin upon Him, thereby paying the price for our sin. And when He rose from the grave 3 days later, He made that same new life available to us.

When we respond to this good news, we are moved from being “in Adam” to “in Christ.” When we are in Christ, it means we share His nature, His righteousness, and His standing before God. What is true of Christ is true of us. It doesn’t mean we are perfect, it means we are innocent before God – blameless. This can be a hard thing to understand. Somehow it doesn’t quite seem fair or even right. How can we be innocent when we all know we are guilty of sin? The answer is that Jesus paid for our sin – so we don’t have to. It’s as if our sin was taken from us. In fact, in God’s eyes, it is removed.

We don’t have to perform some ritual or go through some ceremonial cleansing for this to happen – it happens when we receive Jesus’ salvation by grace through faith. Eph 2:8-9 makes this clear: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” We can’t work for our salvation, our righteousness, our peace – it is a free gift from God.

It may not seem fair, but it’s true. And it’s wonderful!

Consider:

How much must God love us to send His Son to die so that we, even though we are guilty, can live as innocent people?