Just as through one man sin
entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men,
because all sinned… —Romans 5:12
{CHAMBERS} “The Bible does not say that God punished the human race
for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to
myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that
another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an
infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26). The nature of sin
is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which
leads us to say, “I am my own god.” This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality
or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis— my claim to my
right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil
in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no
attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral
attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the
nature of man (see John 2:25).
Sin is something I am born
with and cannot touch— only God touches sin through redemption. It is through
the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the
possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a
person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone
because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to
deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From
that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “This is the condemnation
[and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men
loved darkness rather than light…” (John 3:19).”
{ELGIN} Normally I try to
find a few nuggets of spiritual truth in the Chamber’s devotion as a segue into
an elaboration on those spiritual truths.
And then there are time when the devotion is so rich with truth, I quote
the entire devotion. Today is such a day.
The essence is this. Man chose to go his
own way in the Garden in response to Satan’s question “Did God really say you
will surely die?” In other words, “What
does God know?” You know what is best
for you, you don’t need God telling you what to do. “You can be your own god.” Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan and sin
entered in. The eating the fruit was not
the evil thing, it was disobedience that was evil. Humans are capable of doing much good and
much evil. We would like to think that
the good people have a shot of getting into heaven, but the only way is to be
born again (John 3) by faith in Jesus
(John 14) and not by trying harder (Ephesians
2). Your desire to be your own god
will haunt you until the day you see Jesus face to face. (Romans 7) You can only be successful in this new life by trusting
in Jesus and keeping yours eyes on Him and your heart devoted to God. That, my friend, doesn’t just happen, it
requires a determined effort on your part.
It is important to understand your old nature and understand your new
nature. They are incompatible. Your can’t do both. “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways”
(James 1:8) It’s up to you what you
do with it.
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