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Human Reason Just Doesn’t Get It!

 There is one fundamental truth presented in the Bible that seems to defy human reason and logic and that is the true nature of the sin barrier that separates mankind from God. It seems that everywhere I turn I’m repeatedly faced with complete confusion on this subject, not only in the world but in the church as well; in way too many cases confusion is taught as doctrine from the church pulpit and that is truly unfortunate!

A Contributing Factor

Our perspective on life is made up of the life lessons we acquire as we grow up in a particular social context. The totality of our life lessons, growing up in a specific culture, creates the mortar which binds that culture together; this then becomes the foundation for the common knowledge, the “everyone knows” which we hear in one form or another. While this is vital for a national culture to survive, it can also be a limiting factor when viewing something from outside that culture.

If we try to apply our cultural reference points to something outside our culture we are in danger of getting a distorted image of what is being presented. An important breakthrough in observing extra-cultural phenomena is to be aware of the existence of our cultural bias. An analogy might be looking at everything through rose colored glasses; which, in this case, would be culturally colored glasses.

The Bible as a Case in Point

There is probably no occasion when removing your culturally colored glasses is more important than when opening the Bible to study it. To try to apply “the everyone knows” of the culture of your society to the Bible is an invitation to misunderstanding God’s message to mankind; this is most particularly true when it comes to understanding the nature of the sin barrier separating man from God.

What the Bible tells us is completely contrary to the cultural bias that is the norm in most societies. If we are to fully understand the message of Scripture we must take off our culturally colored glasses and examine Scripture with a much more objective view.

How Does the Bible Describe the Sin Barrier Between God and Man?

The most concise description of this barrier is given in Romans 5:12-15 where it is written:

^“12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. ¹³ Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. ¹⁴ Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come. ¹⁵ But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.”

These verses describe what is referred to as “The Federal Headship of Adam.” They tell us when Adam sinned the entire human race present and future all died in Adam. That means that you and I along with everyone else were charged with Adam’s sin; we died in Adam when he disobeyed a direct command of God; we were born spiritually dead.

Due to our cultural conditioning we would immediately complain, “THAT’S NOT FAIR!” Fair or not that’s what happened; it’s very liberating to make peace with that thought.

Christianity is not primarily about what you do, it’s all about what was done to you; God’s relationship to mankind focuses on two men, Adam and Christ; in Adam you died, in Christ you can live.

But What About Everyone’s Sins?

Personal sin is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself; before the Mosaic Law was even given men were found guilty and charged with the penalty of sin, physical death. Mankind’s history before the Mosaic Law is filled with death; the early chapters of Genesis mention the deaths of multitudes climaxed with the deaths of billions at the Flood. This was all the work of Adam and Satan, not the personal sins of the individuals as there was no law against which they could sin.

What then was the purpose of the Mosaic Law? Paul concludes Romans 5 with the answer to that question.

“²⁰ God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. ²¹ So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

What about Us, Today? We’re Just Like Adam!

Today we live in an age of God’s grace, the door to reconciliation with God is open to all who will receive Christ as Savior and experience the new birth by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. All our personal sins have already been paid for by Christ’s death on the cross. As I stated in Is There One Unforgivable Sin? the only sin anyone can commit against God is failure to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior; all other sins were paid for at the cross.

How then are we just like Adam; there was only one sin Adam could commit against God, eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Today there is only one sin we can commit against God, rejecting Christ as Savior. What about all the other sins? In the Garden the Mosaic Law had not been given, there were no other sins; today the penalty for failure to observe the Mosaic Law has been paid in full by the death of Christ on the cross, there are no other sins that have not already been forgiven!

It was Finished at the Cross, Embrace God’s Truth and Enjoy God’s Peace!

Next time we’ll examine the impact of your crucifixion on the balance of your life.