We Need a Savior

 

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.”

(Romans 5:12-14 ESV)

 

We all understand and confess that we are sinners. We understand and confess that we’re far from perfect. We understand and confess that we violate the law of God and fail to live up to his standards. 

 

However, this is all that we understand sin to be. We believe that it refers only to our acts of disobedience against the law of God. We believe that it refers only to our violations of the will of God.

 

This certainly is sinful. Sin, however, refers also to something more. It refers to the state in which we find ourselves. It refers to condition in which we are born.

 

What I’m speaking of is commonly referred to as original sin. And what this means is that, from the time we are conceived, we have a natural bent, a natural tendency, to rebel against God. It means that we have a natural desire for those things that are opposed to the Lord and his will.

 

We do not enter into the world as innocent beings. Nor are we born into the world as good. We enter this world as enemies of God.

 

It’s for this reason that we’re in need of the salvation of God from the very beginning of life. Even the sweet, cuddly babies that we enjoy are sinners deserving only of God’s judgment. And we know this because they too are subject to the consequences of sin.

 

We see this as we look at the above passage. In it, Paul discusses those who lived between the time of Adam and Moses. He addresses those who lived between the fall of Adam that the law which was given.

 

There was this period where the law had not yet been given. It had not yet been spoken by God, nor had it been written down. And, for this reason, the people could not have been guilty of violating his law as did Adam, who violated a direct command.

 

They, however, remained guilty. We know this because they were subject to the consequences of sin, namely death. Death, you see, would not have been suffered had they not been guilty.

 

So, although sin is certainly a violation of God’s law, we must understand that it is something more. We must understand that it is a state, it’s a condition, in which we find ourselves. And it’s this state that leads us to commit acts of sin.

 

This sinful condition makes us guilty. It makes us deserving of God’s judgment. And this is true of us from even the beginning of our life.

 

We, then, are in need of forgiveness from the very beginning of life. We’re in need of salvation from the very beginning of life. We’re in need of atonement, we’re in need of redemption, from the very beginning of life.

 

The good news, of course, is that Jesus has provided just that. The good news is that his salvation has been provided and made available to all mankind. And it is received by faith in Christ.