Jesus Only, Jesus Everything: Me-ward – The Problem of Sin (Romans 5:12, 18-21)

So far Paul has been talking about ‘sins’, but now he switches his focus to ‘sin’. There is a great difference between the two words. Sins are what we do, but sin is what we are. We inherited a sin nature, which produces sins. The blood of Christ has paid the penalty for our sins, but our teaching must not stop there. We are a sin factory. The factory must be dealt with, and we will see in chapter 6 that this is by the cross.

I have a two year old son. He resembles me, he inherited my nature. I had a dog when I was younger. My dog did not inherit my nature. It doesn’t matter if he’s a good dog or a bad dog, or if he tries to act like me. He will never be called Mr. Spangenberg. My son will, because I have given to him my nature; his life has come from my life. My dog died several years ago without ever attaining Mr. Spang status. But my son will never lose his Mr. Spang status.

How does one get their hereditary nature? They must be born into it. So then how does one lose their hereditary nature? They must die. I was born a sinner. My human body is a sinner’s body, a sinning body. Since I came in by birth I must go out by death. To pray “God cleanse my heart” is a major error. Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart is desperately wicked.

We wonder why we can’t overcome our problems. We make a decision for Christ, and two weeks later we fall back into the sin. We try and try harder. We determine and determine more. We use our will to serve God, and then we only fall deep into failure. In chapter 5 Paul tells us that Jesus is the answer to this problem, the only answer; but we have to go to chapter 6 to see HOW He is the answer.