I've been wrestling with sin...What I mean is the concept of sin...it is our universal problem as human beings. One thought that hit home yesterday was that we are not responsible for having a "sin nature". Every man, woman and child since Adam has inherited the nature to sin. As we saw in Romans, chapter 7 this nature dwells, like a separate being, within our framework. I believe that even Jesus had a sin nature, because He was born in the flesh and was fully man (of course, Jesus didn't succumb to the sin nature..He, alone, resisted the temptation to sin). We know that we will carry this sin nature for the rest of our natural lives. Romans, chapter 8, addresses God's solution and how we are to implement that solution. It seems that Christ came into the world to save us from this sin nature, but that this solution doesn't take effect on a personal level until Christ comes into our personal world. Romans 8:10 tells us "If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness." We need the actual presence of Christ within us to overcome the sin nature, also within. We not only need for Christ to be in us...we also need to be in Christ. Verse 1 says "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". The paradox of living after we have Christ in our lives is that we are set free from the control of sin on an eternal level while we still must grapple with it on the natural level. Verse 2: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death."
Tomorrow we will look at how to cope with the sin nature after we have trusted in Christ.
blessings,
Rob Smith
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