Jesus the Redeemer

“Then has that which is good become death to me? Let it not be! But sin, that it might appear to be sin, working death in me by that which is good; in order that sin might become exceedingly sinful by the commandment.” (Romans 7:13)

Paul was writing about the Law that exposed sin. Before, people intrinsically knew what was right or wrong. For instance to murder is just wrong even if you don’t know what sin is. But many other things like lying, taking advantage of people for your own gain or hating people who wronged you were not considered wrong. It was like the “me” mentality of today. Everything goes if it’s good for us. But the Law called out sin, what was right or wrong and what pleased God and what didn’t. Now people had no excuse. God gave the Law to His people. They had the oracles of God. That is why they considered other people wicked. Sin was now known to be death and total separation from God. Paul is saying that the Law is good in that it showed us what was sin.

What the Law didn’t do was take away sin. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; so that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3-4) Jesus, the Son of God, was sent in “the likeness of sinful flesh,” meaning like an ordinary man of flesh and blood.  Jesus was born with flesh but without the flesh nature and sin. Sinful flesh is inherited from the father of man which is Adam. Anyone born of man is born with this sin nature in our flesh. Jesus was not because Adam is not His father. God is. He was born of the Spirit of God. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was this way (for His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph) before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:18) Jesus was born like man with flesh, but it was not sinful flesh, it was only the “likeness of sinful flesh.” And Jesus fulfilled the Law, which no one could do and condemned sin in the flesh. When we walk according to the Spirit, we do not fulfill sin in the flesh. Paul made another argument. “Is the Law then against the promises of God? Let it not be said! For if a law had been given which could have given life, indeed righteousness would have been out of Law.” (Galatians 3:21) Again he writes that the Law didn’t lead to righteousness.

Then Paul writes that the Law killed him. It exposed that he was full of sin. And sin is death. “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, worked in me all kinds of lust. For apart from law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to life, was found to be death to me. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.” (Romans 7:8-11) Let’s put it in today’s life. I actually did know a thief. He saw nothing wrong in what he was doing. I don’t know how he rationalized it, but he did. He didn’t see it as sin. It’s how he made his living, stealing and selling what he stole. Now, when God opens his eyes and he sees it as sin, then sin is recognized and “becomes alive” in him as Paul wrote. Sin kills him when he realizes that sin is death.

The beauty and glory of this is that God in His mercy and love sent us the solution to the sin problem. He sent Jesus. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

(John 3:16) Jesus is the solution because He fulfilled the Law and never sinned. He took our sin, all sin, past, present and future of everyone who lived, lives and will live.  He suffered and died with our sin, taking death for us, the payment for sin. And everyone who believes in Jesus and accepts Him as Savior and Lord, accepts this gift of absolution and the blessings of righteousness in Jesus. Which are numerous and another lesson altogether.

We can live a sinless life. But it’s in the Spirit. Our flesh is still full of sin. It wasn’t cleansed. Only our human spirit was reborn of God. And anyone who has received Jesus as their Savior and made Him their Lord, then in their spirit, they are a new creation. “So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2Corinthians 5:17) Our human spirit has been born again of the Spirit of God. It is pure, sinless and holy and in continual communication with the God. Now our flesh still has its sinful desires. When it surges, we recognize it as sin, repent of it and confess it. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9) Now that sin is forgiven, but we did not recognize it as sin when we came to the Lord and that is why it is important to recognize it as sin, repent and confess it. And the Holy Spirit will help us overcome it. Each time sin is revealed and conquered, we are taken from glory to glory, a step closer to becoming the image of Christ. “But we all, with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord Spirit.” (2Corinthians 3:18)

In short, sin was revealed by the Law bringing death. But Jesus, the Son of God was sent by the Father to redeem man. We could not do it. We were full of death. God doesn’t accept anything defiled by sin and death. But Jesus, born of the Spirit was holy and pure, the perfect sacrifice to redeem man from sin and the death of sin. He took it upon Himself and paid the penalty so that we could be free by accepting this free and marvelous gift from the Lord. “For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)