Freed from sin’s dominion. An overview.
“What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Romans 6:1 -2, NET. How did the sinful humankind fie to sin? Some first-century Christians maintained that sin was justifiable. They based their belief on Paul’s statement that grace increased even more where sin increased. Those who maintained that acts of sin are justifiable reasoned that God waited for sin to increase so that he could pour out his grace in greater measure. According to such a concept, sin is an opportunity for God to increase his grace. However, Paul refutes such teaching. The grace of God was at its highest before God began his creative activity. God chose humankind in his grace, Jesus Christ, before creating the world. Sin, in contrast, arose after God began creating. God created Lucifer, who became his adversary before he created other angels and humankind. God’s grace and sin are opposites. Therefore, increased sin resulted in greater contrast between grace and sin. This is what the Apostle Paul emphasized.
Some Christians, even today, question the reality of God’s forbearance. Why did God not destroy Lucifer the moment he rebelled, they ask? Why did God not accomplish in the garden of Eden what he accomplished on the cross at Golgotha for humankind, they ask? “But who indeed are you – a mere human being – to talk back to God?” Romans 9:20, NET. God acted in human history at just the right time always. God knows and sees the end from the beginning. The history of humankind, from creation to eternity, is absolute in the present to God. Therefore, human beings do not have the right to question God’s actions on behalf of successful eternity.
When humankind sinned in the first man Adam, the Moral Law condemned it to eternal death, with no way out. Adam and the Woman should have died when Adam made the deliberate, intelligent decision in the garden of Eden. Neither Adam nor his descendants could reverse or nullify the first man’s decision. Accordingly, humankind was not able to nullify the death sentence. The sinful humankind had to die forever. It has died forever in the body of Messiah, on the cross at Golgotha. The sinful activity of humankind was at its highest level at the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Humankind reached the possibility of self-annihilation. However, God acted at the right time because of his great love for humankind. He removed the sin from humankind and restored it to him as his children. The ensuing blogs will present how God has accomplished the removal of sin.
The solution to human sin condition. Read the next blog.
