The sin of Adam brought consequences for the whole of the human race every member of which inherited a proneness to sin and the certainty of death. Men are in no way responsible for Adam’s sin nor is there any guilt attaching to them on account of the nature which they bear, even though it is unclean and tends only to sin. Man’s guilt is for his own sin, actual transgression of God’s law, and not for the natural state in which he finds himself.
Man’s plight was such that there was no remedy and no hope of life eternal except by the grace of God. The weakness of man’s flesh meant that men not only have the tendency to sin, they all become actual sinners. None can redeem himself, still less his brother.
The Scriptures describe two kinds of sin in relation to man. The first is the personal sins which we have committed, the sins which can be forgiven in Christ.
The second relates to the law of sin and death at work in our members which, because it is the root cause of sin, is described as sin, although it is not attributed to us as guilt before God.
Redemption was wrought by the love and grace of God, and provides deliverance from both kinds of sin, the sins we have committed and the body in which they were done. The means of our redemption was by God’s provision of a righteous man who fully bore our nature with its mortality and proneness to sin.
The process, described in Psalm 40, was the raising of a man prepared by God who would delight to do God’s will and wholly uphold His law and righteousness.
But, the Bible makes it plain that living righteousness was not sufficient, the redeemer had to suffer death and taste it for every man. This perfection was achieved through suffering and his Sonship was crowned by complete obedience, obedience unto death. He loved the Lord his God with all his heart and soul and mind. This he achieved by overcoming completely and actually the lust of the flesh ,the lust of the eyes and the pride of life which, though active in his very nature were never allowed to conceive and bring forth sin.
This sinlessness was the first and marvelous step in the redemptive process by which we can be brought unto God. The Lord Jesus Christ did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, despite the flesh he bore in which by nature dwelt no good thing. Sin was conquered in its own stronghold and all unrighteousness was condemned in the sanctuary of his body.
But this was not enough. Not only was sin to be destroyed by righteousness, its very roots were to be destroyed by repudiation of the actual flesh in which it had hitherto been victorious. He whom God set forth as the mercy seat was also to be blood sprinkled to demonstrate the righteousness of God in a sinless life and to show forth openly the condemnation of sin by crucifying the flesh which gives rise to sin.
Still there was more. All this was done of the Lord’s free will and love. He brought himself as an offering to his Father in order to restore what Adam had stolen. No one took away the Lord’s life, he laid it down of himself. As others in time past brought an animal offering for their sins, so Christ freely brought himself as an offering to God on our behalf. By Christ’s carrying his flesh right up to the tree, the possibility of the victory of sin was finally defeated, since it was the last act of self-denial and self-repudiation. His life blood shed was the outpouring of himself, the accomplishment of emptying himself, that no flesh should glory in God’s presence.
The death of Jesus demonstrated that death is the wages of sin and God was justified in requiring that flesh be crucified. The uniqueness of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ lay in the fact of his righteousness, and he offered himself in love to provide the means whereby God could righteously forgive our sins. In the nature which he had, the Lord bore our sins representatively and bore them away in the shedding of his blood. Our personal sins are removed by forgiveness through the grace of God when we have faith in God according to his word and make full confession of our sinfulness before him. In baptism, we identify ourselves with his death and we draw nigh to God in Christ by the new and living way, sanctified by his shed blood. Thenceforth we are committed to putting to death the old man of the sins of the flesh and to live according to the new man in Christ.
So, Christ entered into death itself in order that he might abolish it in himself. For he too needed redemption from death and was saved in that he feared God. The weakness of our flesh will be removed in the day when mortality is swallowed up of life.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ to receive immortality and eternal, joy was the divine evidence of his holiness and of God’s righteousness, it is the key to our justification by faith when we are baptized, believing the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, and are sanctified by the blood of the everlasting covenant whereby we receive forgiveness of sins and are granted hope of the redemption of the body at Christ’s return. Covered by his mighty atoning work, we long for the day when he shall fashion this body of our humiliation and make it like unto his glorious body. Meanwhile we mortify our members upon earth and seek to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. As the captain of our salvation was perfected by suffering unto death and has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, so we have fled to him for refuge and have renounced the hidden works of darkness, being cleansed by faith in his blood whereby we have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Thus the one sacrifice will bring many sons to glory even as it has already made their captain perfect through suffering and death.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One