So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25 (NIV)
Since the fall of Adam, we have all been born broken – every.single.one.of.us. All of us arrive on this earth needy - coupled with a sinful nature which is hostile toward God. And we are all in grave need of a Savior. We cannot save ourselves. It is the great dilemma. There is no amount of strength, no amount of money, no amount of prestige or whatever else mankind may muster up to secure them from the rage and ravages of hell and fortify them from Satan’s assaults and wily ways. There remains a proclivity within each of us to sin – even the so called “best” of us. And the “greater” the person the bigger the fall. The most refined and pure can end up wallowing in the pig pen of their own depravity by their own poor choices – just as the weakest – and sometimes even quicker. No one is immune – the mightiest have as much need as the weakest. Indeed, Paul gives us the following warning in 1 Corinthians 10:12 (NIV): “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” Apart from Jesus Christ we all remain helpless and hopeless. He is our great Advocate Who alone can clear our great debt.
John writes in 1 John 2:1 (NIV): “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” Indeed, Jesus Himself tells us: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 19:10 (NIV). Jesus knew there is no way we can save ourselves and He willingly chose to leave heaven, come to earth and live a perfect life so that He could be the perfect sacrifice for us. Jesus - the perfect Lamb of God – came to save our scrawny necks and to teach us the correct way to live through His power and for His glory. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV): “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” “Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God shouldst die for me?” as Wesley wrote in his famous hymn. The cross demonstrated the love of God and of His Christ. He took upon Him our sins and we receive His righteousness obtained by our faith in Him.
Paul also tells us in Romans 5:6-8 (NIV): “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time. 1 Timothy 2:4-6 (NIV)