I. Who is JESUS?
We know Jesus is our substitute. He is our mediator. God is holy and righteous; man is lost and undone and in a fallen condition. As Job said in Job 9, the barrier between man and God is impassable, but God found a way to do it. He came to this earth as a man; He became the mediator.
Jesus became equal with man so He can put one hand on man. Jesus is equal with God; He can put His other hand on God. Jesus is God/man. He can satisfy the claims of God because He is God. He can satisfy the claims of men because He is man.
He is not fifty percent God and fifty percent man; He is one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man. Therefore, He can do what no one else can do, which is why Acts 4:12 says, “There is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we might be saved.” The only name that links us to God is Jesus.
John 14:6:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
Buddha cannot save you. Mohammed cannot save you. Redemption can only be found through the name of Jesus.
II. Salvation Through Death
There is no way that God, as Deity, could die. The characteristics of God are also true of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God is sovereign; He is absolute righteousness; He is justice, love, and eternal life. God is everywhere (omnipresent); He is all powerful (omnipotent). God cannot change in any way. How can eternal life die? For eternal life to die, God would have to change; but He can’t change because He’s immutable. If He did change, He would lie because He said He wouldn’t change, but then He can’t lie. How can omnipresence reduce itself to one spot and die? How can omnipotence weaken itself and die? Death is contrary to the very nature of God.
God had to become humanity to die. The work of the cross had to be our substitution, and God can’t substitute for man. We needed someone to go to the cross that would take our place — spirit, soul, and body. God came into this earth one day in the form of Jesus, and He went to the cross. Through Jesus’ death, we have eternal salvation.
III. Why Jesus?
Why did it have to be Jesus? Why couldn’t some other man represent us on the cross?
Leviticus 1:3:
Let him offer a male without blemish.
In the Old Testament, the lamb offered as a sacrifice had to be without blemish. The shepherd had to examine his flock for over a year and find one lamb without blemish. Once he found one without blemish, he had to watch over it to make sure there was no blemish made before it could be offered up as the one sacrificial lamb.
This is the problem: we all have a blemish. God could look all over the whole world, century after century, and never find anyone without blemish. Jesus was the only lamb without blemish, which is why John the Baptist could say, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29)
Romans 3:23:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Man is fallen. Man is in an undone condition because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
“Have sinned” is past tense. “Come short” is present tense. Some translations say it this way: All have sinned and are coming short of the glory of God.
When did we all sin? We all sinned in Adam. Adam passed on a sin sentence to all mankind. Any personal sins you commit begin with a root because the Word says, “All have sinned.” Because all have sinned — past and present — we are coming short of the glory of God.
IV. What is the Blemish?
Romans 5:12:
Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Sin passed onto all men. “Sin” is singular. When you find the word sin in the singular, it is not referring to personal sins or personal acts or deeds. That would be sins — plural. Sin — singular — is referring to the nature of sin, which produces sin in you. What Adam passed on to all men was the nature of sin.
Don’t think about sin nature being in your spirit. It is not in your spirit. I believe when you get born again, you do not lose the sin nature. Even though you still maintain the sin nature, you have the power and authority over it because the sin nature is located in your flesh. It is in your body. The term flesh is nothing more than another term for the nature of sin. It is not an internal battle within your spirit.
I used to think there was a good guy and a bad guy fighting within my spirit all the time. However, a bad guy can’t live in my spirit where the Holy Ghost lives. When I got born again, my spirit got recreated. The battle going on is the battle of the inward man versus the battle of the outward man.
Romans 6:6:
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
This refers to “body of sin.” Notice sin is singular.
Ephesians 4:22:
That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
The second name for sin is old man.
Galatians 5:16:
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
John 3:6:
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The third name for the sin nature is flesh. Using the term flesh in Galatians, Paul is trying to define where the sin nature abides.
V. Freedom From the Law of Sin and Death
Romans 7:21:
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Even though Paul is born again, sin keeps rising up and he can’t figure out why. In Romans 5, he tells where this sin nature came from. In Romans 6, he starts defining its power. In Romans 7, he starts describing what a miserable wretch he is (Romans 7:24)when he yields to the sin nature, to the flesh, that is in him. In Romans 8, Paul breaks into the glorious liberty where he finds out that he doesn’t have to handle it all by himself. He has the Holy Spirit living inside of him, and he’s telling us that when we follow the Spirit on the inside of us, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death.
Isn’t it amazing that when we decide to do something for the Lord we are bombarded with temptations to not do it for the Lord? Paul kept running around, trying to swat all these temptations out like flies. He had a fly swatter in his hand called self-effort. How many times have you tried to stop sinning through self-effort? It doesn’t get you very far. That is because in ourselves, we can’t battle sin. It is bigger than we are. We have to depend on the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us. Then we realize greater is He who lives in me than he who lives in the world.
Paul was trying to stamp out little sins as if they were flies, until one day he decided, “Wait a minute. There’s bound to be a Mama fly around here. If I can get her, I can stop all of her kids.” It would be like trying to put out little brush fires here and there, but if you can find the guy with the match, you won’t have to keep putting out the little fires.
If the law says, “Thou shalt not covet,” then there is something in us that can covet. We can try to shun every covetous thought that comes our way, but it would be easier to take authority over it. If we can take authority over that desire in us that rises up, we would have trouble with all the personal sins that rise up in our lives.
Romans 7:22-23:
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Notice the sin nature, that which prompts you to sin, is in your body. Paul says, “It wars against my mind.” Why? Because the mind is the link between the spirit and the body. Both are fighting for attention with the mind. If the mind goes with the spirit, we are spiritually minded. If the mind goes with the body, we are carnally minded. This is why the whole essence of the Word of God is the renewing of the mind to follow after the Spirit, to listen to the voice of the inward man, and to go with it.
When we listen to the voice of our inward man, we follow after the ways of the Spirit and our body can’t fight back; it has to go with us. It has no power when we’ve made up our minds to follow after the spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
VI. Spiritual Death Leads to Physical Death
Romans 5:12:
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
When God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, it was a perfect environment. Adam had a perfect body, a perfect soul, and a perfect spirit. He was placed on this earth just like Jesus was placed on this earth, which is why Jesus is called the last Adam. While in the Garden, Adam could specifically say, “To see me is to see God,” because his inward man was made after the image of God and his outward man was made in the likeness of God. (See Genesis 1:26-27.)
Since God placed a will inside of Adam, we know God has a will. Since all creatures are made similar to the form of God and to the being of God, we know angels have wills and men have wills. There had to be some way in the Garden to test that will. The only way Adam could be tested was with the negative because if everything is positive or good, how can one be tested?
God placed a tree in the Garden to test the will of Adam and gave specific instructions about that tree. He told Adam exactly what the tree was for. God didn’t try to shun the issue or pull the wool over Adam’s eyes. He made the tree as repulsive as possible when he talked to Adam about it, “The day you eat of that tree, you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)
It says, “surely die” because “die” is mentioned twice in the Hebrew. The correct translation says, “In the day that thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die.” “Dying,” (present tense) “thou shalt die” (future tense). God was simply telling Adam, “Adam, in the day you eat of that tree, dying (present tense), you’re going to future die also.” In other words, dying spiritually thou shalt die physically.
Adam would have never died physically had he not first died spiritually. Spiritual death entered into Adam because when he partook of the fruit of the tree, he went negative to the will of God. He went to the tree and did exactly what God said not to do. When he turned his will against God, the first thing that entered into Adam was sin, as the Scripture says, “For by one man sin entered into the world, and then death through sin.” When Adam partook of the fruit, the curse entered into the ground. The curse moved through the ground and everything that was made out of the dust of the ground became polluted. Suddenly, thorns began to grow. The curse went right on into the animals and those that used to be at peace with each other began to turn on each other.
Since everything that was made out of the dust of the ground received the curse, the bodies of Adam and Even received the curse. They received a curse in their body, which was the sin nature. Through that sin nature, spiritual death came in. When Adam partook of the fruit, the nature of the flesh entered in and that was the doorway through which Satan worked. Spiritual death came in and conquered Adam. That set in motion the physical death which took place hundreds of years later. Since that time, man and woman produced children. Flesh produced flesh. Dust produced dust. Curse produced curse.
Children born into this earth today automatically have a blemish against them — the nature of the flesh. When a person gets born again, the nature of the flesh is still there because the curse entered into man from the outside in, but redemption began from the inside out. Our spirit became in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit came to live in us. Our minds are to be renewed day by day, but there is still a future redemption left for the believer — the day our bodies are fashioned into the very image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. For us to inherit the kingdom of God right now, we would have to drop this body and go to heaven in spirit form because it is our spirit that is redeemed in the image of God.
One of these days, Jesus Himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. On that day, this mortal shall put on immortality, this corruptible shall put on incorruption and the whole earth shall break forth into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Glory to God! The whole earth is waiting for that day the curse is lifted, but until that time, man has a blemish — the nature of the flesh.
VII. Spiritual Accountability
Romans 5:18-20:
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
The offense of one is Adam. The righteousness of one is Jesus Christ. One man’s disobedience is Adam; the obedience of one is Jesus.
In verse 20, Paul brings out the purpose of the law. I used to believe that when a child is born into this earth, he is born spiritually dead. But God doesn’t hold him accountable for it because without knowledge, God can’t hold him accountable. Therefore, if a child dies before it reaches the age of accountability, he automatically goes to heaven because God doesn’t hold him accountable for something he doesn’t know.
I taught this until I asked myself, “Can God give dead spirits?” The answer is, “No.” When you give birth to a child, you birth their body. God gives the inward man. You can’t pass along spiritual life. You can’t put a spirit in a person; only God can. Man produces the outward man; it is God who gives the spirit on the inside of that child and actually gives it life. We don’t pass on life; we pass on flesh and blood.
When a child is born he carries the brand marks in his body of the curse of Adam, but his spirit is given by God and that child is born spiritually alive. There is a difference between being spiritually alive when a child is born and the actual new birth. At the time of the new birth, the Holy Ghost comes to live in you and makes you in the very image of God. But when a child is born into this earth, he is alive unto God.
Think about this for a moment: We know that no one in the Old Testament was ever born again. No one could be born again until Jesus arose from the dead and became the first born of many brethren. But under the Old Covenant, they were considered “spiritually dead.” How could God speak to them if they were spiritually dead? I believe spiritually dead means they had the life and nature of Satan in them — death. Death is totally contrary to the nature of God
When a person of the Old Covenant trusted in the Lord, as Abraham did, it was accounted to him for righteousness. His spirit became alive unto God as it was when he was a child. I believe that is why Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of God.” He continued, “Except you become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 18:3)
Until a child reaches the age of accountability, he’s alive unto God. Once that child begins to get knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, he reaches the age of accountability. If he refuses to accept Jesus as his Savior, he opens the doorway for spiritual death to enter in. But what about the argument that there are people in distant lands who have never heard the Gospel?
Romans 1:20-21:
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
When they stand before God on Judgment Day, they will be without excuse. Why? Because God taught them. God didn’t create the universe so it would be pretty. He created the universe to teach us the Gospel — to get people born again.
Verse 21 in the Greek says, “when they knew about God.” They came to a knowledge of Him through things around them — through things they heard and saw. Before their knowledge of God, their heart must have had light, but when they reached the knowledge of God, they turned back to the ways of their fathers, worshipping idols around them. At that point, they became vain, empty in their imaginations and their foolish heart became darkened.
VIII. Purpose of the Law
Romans 5:19-20:
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
The word “entered” is a Greek acting term for when a minor actor comes on stage and remains there until the major actor comes. Once the major actor comes on stage, the minor actor leaves. The law was the minor actor on the stage that entered that the offense might abound.
Think about some of the old movies where a villain comes to take away the deed to the ranch of a sweet young thing. Judging from outward appearances, she and the viewing audience don’t know he’s really a villain. How are we going to find out who the villain is? The minor actor enters at this point only long enough to expose the villain. “Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound.” He comes in to tell us who the villain is — someone she has fallen in love with.
She represents the inward man and the villain represents the outward man. She is looking for the villain throughout the show and suddenly the law enters and says, “Here is your villain.” She suddenly turns to the law and cries out, “Help me!” The law responds, “I can’t help you, but I can tell you who can, and that’s the hero!”
The purpose of the law is to bring us to Christ. Once we have come to Christ, we no longer need the law. The minor actor leaves the stage because the major actor has come on the stage. The purpose of the law is also to expose the sin nature.
Paul kept thinking that his sins were the problem. But one day the law entered, the knowledge of the Word, and exposed the villain.
Romans 3:20:
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The law exposed the culprit that was causing him to sin. The law couldn’t save him because by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified. The law could only expose who the real Savior was — Jesus Christ. Because Jesus came, we are no longer under control of the law.
IX. The Law: Good or Evil?
Romans 7:7-11:
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
If Romans 5:20 says the purpose of the law is to expose sin, does that make the law evil? No! The law simply fulfilled its purpose: it exposed sin. If we take the law and try to make it a means of salvation, we take the goodness of God and are trying to get saved by it. That is wrong. The law was never designed to save; it was designed to point out the culprit and then point us to the way of salvation — Jesus Christ.
Paul was trying to trace down the fact why he lusted after all these things, until one day the law said, “Don’t covet.” Paul realized, “There is something in me that can covet. If I can gain control over that covetousness, I won’t keep desiring all these things around me.” In other words, if we can conquer sin at the root, we won’t have any problem with personal sins.
Verse 8 says, “without the law sin was dead.” Sin wasn’t dead, it was asleep. Sin was dormant. Without knowledge, the sin nature doesn’t rise up. Until the law, or knowledge, comes, the sin nature might actually look like the hero. Knowledge comes in through the law to reveal the culprit.
When “sin revived,” it woke up. When sin “slew me,” death entered in. Just as it did with Adam, the doorway to kill the spirit of man is through the sin nature, the nature of the flesh.
X. The Sin Nature Entered Through Adam
1 Corinthians 15:21-22:
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
The man that brought death was Adam. The man who brought resurrection of the dead is Jesus Christ. Scripture says, “As in Adam all die.” Who got us into this mess? Adam. Who got us out of this mess? Jesus. But stop and think for a moment: Who was the first one to sin in the Garden of Eden? Adam or Eve? Eve. Then, how come it doesn’t lay the blame on Eve if she’s the one who really got us into this mess? Satan came along and tempted the woman first. The woman partook of the forbidden fruit and gave it to her husband. He ate it and the blame is put on him! Why?
1 Timothy 2:13-14:
For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
The reason Eve was not held accountable for the sin, even though she was a part of the sin, was because the woman was deceived. Adam walked into the sin with his eyes wide open. He knew exactly what he was doing. Eve was deceived and she turned to her husband and gave him the fruit. God had given Adam specific instructions not to eat of that tree. Adam took the fruit of his own will and ate.
When God asked Adam about it, Adam pointed to Eve and said, “It’s her fault.”
God asked Eve if it was her fault, and she said, “No, it’s not my fault.” She told the truth. She said, “The serpent beguiled me and I was deceived.” That was the truth. God holds Adam accountable.
The moment they both ate, they both had the sin nature enter into their flesh. But only the man passes it on to his children. The woman possesses it, but she doesn’t pass it on. She is not the producer. The man passes it on to his children, boys or girls, and they all have the nature of the flesh at the moment of birth and throughout their lifetime on Earth. Children have the curse in them because of their father. Adam passed it on to his children, but Eve did not. From that time on, men have passed it down to their children. Their wives possess it, but they don’t pass it on.
XI. Why the Virgin Birth?
The only way to be born into this earth without blemish, without the sin nature, is to be born of a virgin. Jesus came into this earth born in the fullness of time, through the virgin birth. Mary was no different than any other woman around her, except for the fact she lived for the Lord. Her physical body was no holier than any other woman’s body. Although she possessed the nature of the flesh, she did not produce it.
Since Jesus, even in His physical body, was produced by God the Father, He was free from the curse. He was born without blemish to redeem all mankind from the curse of the law!
Could Jesus have received the nature of the flesh? Yes, but only the way Adam did. He would have had to voluntarily take it on. Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet he chose not to receive sin. Therefore, when He went to the cross, He voluntarily took on the sins of the world, conquering sin at the root. So when we are born again, we have power over the flesh. Power over the nature of sin!
Because Adam passed on the curse to the whole human race, every member of the human race is born in slavery. We can’t help it. We all have a natural father. Yes, our spirit was alive unto God, but we aren’t qualified to redeem mankind. It took someone born outside of the curse. Since we are all born into slavery, Buddha was born a slave, Mohammad was born a slave. Slaves can’t free slaves! It takes a free man to free a slave.
Jesus came into this earth, born free from the curse, without the nature of the flesh, the Lamb without blemish. God examined Him for thirty-three years, then Jesus went to the cross where all our sins were poured out on the spotless Lamb of God, and He redeemed us back to God! Jesus became our substitute so we could have eternal relationship with the Father. JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD!!
