The Sinner

QUESTION - You have now reached the half-way mark to the goal of how to become a Christian. "Having no hope, and without God in the world," there is only one way left to go. The way up is down, as you well soon see.

There is but one provision by which to escape the condemned family: a new family! And there is but one provision by which to enter that family: a new birth! If you were to ask, "how can this be?" you would not be the first to pose that question. Now let's find the answer in the Word of God.

Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews in Jesus' day, was one of the foremost theological teachers in Judaism at that time. In his need he sought out the Lord Jesus, and received some totally unexpected answers to his questions.

ANSWER - The Lord Jesus said to this seeking sinner, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus then asked, "How can a man be born when he is old" Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" (John 3:3,4).

The Lord Jesus reemphasized, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.... Nicodemus answered, and said unto him, How can these things be?" The very same question you may have asked. "Jesus answered, and said unto him, Art thou a teacher in Israel, and knowest not these things?" (John 3:7,9,10).

BLINDNESS - How could such a highly intellectual and theologically astute religious doctor come to such a wrong interpretation of the most important statement he had ever heard or ever would hear? Easy. Wrong family! Hence he was a "blind leader of the blind".

The Apostle Paul, another one-time "blind" leader and teacher of Israel, wrote after he had received his spiritual sight, "If our gospel be hidden it is hidden to them that are lost, in whom the god of this age (Satan) hath blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" (2 Corinthians 4:3,4).

Satan conquered Adam and the human race by means of deceit, thus he became the arch-usurper--the god of this world and the Adamic race. He has blinded the mind of the natural man and has placed enmity in man's heart against God, in order to prevent him from turning to the Savior.

The Bible says that "the carnal (Adamic) mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." "There is none righteous, no not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God" (Romans 8:7; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Romans 3:10,11).

By now you may have something pressing quite heavily on your mind, such as, "All the time I have kept my eyes upon Adam there has been nothing in view but condemnation and death. Where is God in all this scene? He doesn't seem to have been able to do anything on my behalf, and Satan seems to have had about everything his own way. Worst of all, God has condemned me for something over which I had no control. It was not my choice to be born of the wrong family!"

GUILTY - Dear friend, I read you. And you are right...in part. It is true that you could not help being condemned in Adam, and therefore a lost sinner by nature. But it is also true that you are a condemned sinner by your own personal choice--in thought, word, and deed.

Is it not true that you have "broken every commandment in the Book"? Have you even kept the first one? "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (Matthew 22:37,38; James 2:10).

Oh, you have earned your condemnation before God all right, and that because of your self-centered heart and will. God says that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).

Like Satan you have said, "I will" in the face of God's will to the contrary. What is more, as the sinful clay you have no right to question the holy, sovereign Potter. "Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" (Romans 9:20).

When it comes to being a lost sinner, you are a self-made person.

It is best to admit to God that He is right after all, and that you are wrong, wrong, wrong. And the good news is that God has been very much on the scene all the time, and that on your behalf!

"Satan in never so completely defeated as in his apparent victories!"

The Last Adam

Enter the Last Adam: enter Life! Did you know that God has two Adams, two contrasting representative men as heads of two completely different streams of humanity? "The first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit" (1Corinthians 15:45). Note the disparity between these two sources: "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven" (1 Corinthians 15:47).

THE FALLEN ADAM - The first man brought forth the sinful, earthly race by natural generation. The Second Man is bringing forth the righteous, heavenly race by supernatural regeneration. The wrong family is entered by physical birth; the right family is entered by the "new birth".

Watch carefully now, and see what God has done for you. Having kept your eye on the first Adam long enough, you can now keep your eyes on the Last Adam for all eternity. See how God has been silently working in order to consummate His original purpose of making man in His image.

THE RISEN ADAM - "God...hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person" (Hebrews 1:1-3).

The first Adam ceased to reflect the image of God because he rebelled and turned against God's will. The Last Adam maintained God's image because He confessed, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me" (John 6:38).

God in mercy has given another Adam through whom He means to carry out His original purpose for you. He is no less than God the Son, and hence the express image of God. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). Actually, the failure of the first Adam set the scene for the triumph of the Last Adam.

The Lord Jesus is God's Last Adam because there would be no need for another. At the Cross He appeared to be a hopeless failure--but, "except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24).

SINLESS BIRTH - See how justly and perfectly God has wrought the plan of salvation. Your condemnation came by human birth, and your Redeemer came also by human birth. It has been said:

"The manner of the birth of Christ, termed the virgin birth, might better be defined as the virgin conception, for the birth itself was normal enough once He was conceived by the Holy Spirit."

The angel announced to the virgin Mary, "Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.... The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:31,35).

That was the manner by which the Son of God entered the human race. The difference was that He as God was born sinless, while we were born "dead in trespasses and sins." And, during His life on earth, He "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).

Remember now, in order for God to justly and perfectly replace the sinful first Adam, His Last Adam had to succeed where the first Adam failed. He had to remain faithful to God under the same circumstances and limitations in which the first man brought ruin. Further, He had to be tempted to do the same thing, in the same way, by the same person, as was the first Adam.

RE-ENTER SATAN - In Luke 4 we see that the Holy Spirit led the Lord Jesus into the desert, where He fasted for forty days. When the Last Adam's hunger was acute, Satan tried to tempt Him to eat--the very temptation by which he had conquered the first Adam.

Satan launched his attack on the Last Adam, knowing that if he could get Him to step outside God's will and go His own way, he would thereby conquer the last representative Man. He would then have all and be as God.

Keep in mind that the Lord Jesus was not facing this temptation for His own sake, but for yours! He was doing it as your Substitute in order that He might become your Savior.

Satan cast his first fiery dart at the Lord Jesus by saying, "If thou be the Son of God, command this stone, that it be made bread" (Luke 4:3). Being God, the Lord Jesus could have done it.

Famished as He was, He just parried the deadly dart with Scripture: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God" (Luke 4:4). As the Last Adam, the Lord Jesus was in glad subjection to His Father, and He refused to do anything contrary to God's will for Him. "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God" (Hebrews 10:9).

When food failed, Satan projected his power play. Taking the Lord onto a high mountain, he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Then he said to Him, "All this authority will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it" (Luke 4:6).

Here, Satan had the effrontery to offer the world to the very One whom God has "appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:2). Notice that the Lord Jesus did not challenge Satan's claim nor question his offer, but by His silence acknowledged that Satan is indeed the god of this present world.

Satan finally revealed his all-consuming lust for the ultimate. "If thou, therefore, will worship me, all shall be thine" (Luke 4:7). Think of it! Satan, the implacable foe of the Most High God, seeking to bribe God the Son into worshipping the usurper. Here was his boldest bid to become as God.

But the Last Adam again effortlessly cut down the Enemy with the sword of the Lord: "Get thee behind Me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shall worship the Lord, they God, and Him only shall thou serve" (Luke 4:8).

The Mediator

Enter the Mediator: enter justice! Now we come to another wonderful aspect of God's work on your behalf. He sent His beloved Son from heaven, not only to be your Last Adam, but to be the Mediator between Himself and you. A Mediator is one who stands between two parties to reconcile their differences when there is a breach between them. And the gulf between you and God is considerable.

REQUIREMENTS - The Lord Jesus is God's only Mediator. And He is the only possible mediator for you. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5).

A mediator must be one who is accepted and trusted by both parties involved. God said of the Lord Jesus, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" (Matthew 17:5). He asks you to receive His Son. You enter into your part of the mediation by accepting and trusting God's Mediator.

In order to be the Mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus had to partake of both God's nature and man's nature. That is mediation--He entered into the very nature of both parties involved! Are you not beginning to be gripped by the marvel of all this?

The Lord Jesus always was God; He had God's nature from all eternity. By being born of the virgin Mary, He took upon Himself the nature of man. He is referred to in the Scriptures as both "Son of God" and "Son of man".

PAID IN FULL - Observe what else the Word of God says of Him: "Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant (the Last Adam), and was made in the likeness of men; and, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:6-8).

Our Lord willingly shed His life-blood on the Cross, dying the most agonizing and shameful criminal death for you. Yes, the Lamb of God was sacrificed in order to pay your penalty. "Without shedding of blood is no remission (forgiveness)" (Hebrews 9:22).

Your blessed Substitute "made peace through the blood of his cross.... And you, that were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his (God's) sight" (Colossians 1:20-22).

Further, as Mediator, the Lord Jesus must equally represent both God and man. Think of that! He stood between the holy God and the sinful human race. He had to be one who would satisfy every claim of God upon man, and every claim of man upon God. Being your Creator, God has considerable claim upon you, does He not?

STAKE YOUR CLAIM! - There is but one legitimate claim that you have upon God, and that is that you are condemned and there is absolutely nothing you can do to alter the fact. Although you had nothing to do with your birth into the wrong family, of your own volition you established your condemnation.

No matter how much you try to alter your condition, or how good you may attempt to be, you are still drawing from the wrong source, one that is totally unacceptable to God. So the claim you have upon Him is, "God, I can do nothing about my spiritual position, or condition. You will have to undertake for me."

And He has already done that which is required for your personal case! He sent His Son to take your place in the death that sin required--the Lord Jesus took upon Him that death and paid the penalty for you.

"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold...but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, who raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God" (1 Peter 1:18-21).

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MJStanford

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(Materials by Miles J. Stanford are republished here under exclusive permission from the author.)