it is exactly this, which causes us to sin and rebel against God!
Men do not have a sin nature but they are natural men. This is the reason men must be born again spiritually. It is actually simple, reasonable, and logical. The scripture says sin was introduced into the world by one man and death by sin. God intended for men to have dominion over the earth.
Ps 115:16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
So Paul in Romans 5, which was written 28 years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, looked back over history before Jesus and divided it into two parts. Before Moses and his law and after Moses and his law and he observed that all died physical deaths. Romans 5:12 is most important in this chapter because he makes this point in order to prove that sin reigned supreme during those days before Jesus came into the world to deal with sin. Ro 5:12 says this;
Ro 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:
Sin and death are in this verse as the problem and it came through one man and impacted his entire family, every one. This is the point. Many, meaning all of them sinned and died. It is still true of the family today.
However, Jesus came and was not of this family of Adam. He was a new man. He was in the human family, meaning he received his flesh through the woman, thus receiving all that any man ever received from man, a physical human body,. but God, not Adam, was his Father. He was the only man ever to be begotten of God through a woman. In this sense he is the only begotten son of God. He is the federal head of a new family but not according to the flesh. He had no children during his life time so how can he be the head of a new family and how can God give dominion over the earth to him? It is through God's gift of his Spirit who is his Life. It is a new birth into the family of Jesus Christ by faith, a birth like no man has ever experienced until Jesus Christ. As a man and as a member of the human family he was the first man to experience the new birth, that is if words means anything. When God says in Col 1:18 that he is the first begotten son of God from the dead, he actually and really means that. What does it mean to have a spiritual birth? It means that the Spirit of Christ and of God enters into a body that does not have the Spirit in it as a member of that person and quickens it. The bodies of Adam, after his fall, and all the bodies of every member of his family from then til now are dead in the sense they do not have the Spirit of God in them. They are all once born and the soul is in them but God is not. They will die. It is 100% sure to happen.
Jesus Christ is the first member of this family of God and is the head of it. All who receive the Spirit receive the new or second birth. All of Adams race may receive the Spirit by repentance of their sins, that which causes death, and by faith receive the Spirit of Christ, thus receiving the very exact standing as son of God as Jesus Christ, even to the point of being "joint heirs" with him when the inheritance becomes a reality. Jesus Christ is the "householder" we read about in the parables. He is the husbandman. He and his wife are one. The picture is painted throughout the Bible starting with Adam and Eve. Two, a male and a female, marry and become one flesh. The NT gospel parables anticipates a marriage at supper time. It was in his mind that the guests who came at his invitation would also be the bride.
When the family is complete and the body become the wife and she has made herself ready she will be taken and all others who are left may receive the Spirit but on different conditions and they will not be children of God. They will of necessity receive the gospel of the kingdom by faith. This is the means to their entrance into it just like it was in the days of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. Men are prepared by Jesus Christ and his work for the kingdom of God on the earth.
The bride of Christ will reign with him because she is one with him. When the church is complete then the judgement at the judgement seat in heaven is set to determine the rewards or lack thereof for her work, called in the scriptures "the day of the Lord Jesus' and it will take place in heaven while the earth is being judged in awful tribulation called the "day of the Lord." All rebels alive on the earth will be destroyed at this time and Christ will return to inaugurate his kingdom, that was given him by his Father, over the few redeemed who are left alive on that day when he comes to the earth.
But back to the absolute sovereignty of sin in the world. Sin rules unto death. We have been told this judgement is coming since 1000 years before Christ. Now it is super near at hand.
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 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.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus Christ has dealt with sin, taking the sting out of it by his resurrection from the dead. He will finally put it away in it's entirety by putting away all sinners, leaving only the redeemed.
Praise our Lord Jesus Christ!
