Romans 5:12 “Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

All of us possess an internal value system – our worldview – that guides our behavior and is the basis for how we see and treat others. But regardless of our beliefs and behaviors, we all have the same problem.

This problem is skillfully explained by Chinese Pastor Watchman Nee. He earned no degrees in theology. His wealth of knowledge of God’s purpose, Christ, the Spirit, and the church came by studying the Bible.

In this second article, we capture 9 insights in part 1 of 2 of Chapter 2 of ‘The Normal Christian Life’ – this problem that we all have in common – what it means to be “in Adam.”

CHAPTER 2 Part 1: THE CROSS OF CHRIST – Being “In Adam”

1) There is peace with God, but there is no peace with myself. There is civil war in my own heart. This condition is well depicted in Romans 7 where the flesh and the spirit are in deadly conflict within me.

2) How can we live a normal Christian life? We must, of course, initially have forgiveness of sins, we must have justification, we must have peace with God: these are our foundation. But with that established through our faith in Christ, it is yet clear from the above that we must move on to something more.

3) Sin vs. Sins: The Blood deals with our SINS. The Lord Jesus has borne them on the Cross for us as our Substitute and has thereby obtained for us forgiveness, justification, and reconciliation. We must now go a step further in the plan of God to understand how He deals with the SIN PRINCIPLE in us.

4) The Blood vs. the Cross:
a) The Blood can wash away my sins, but it cannot wash away my “old man.” It needs the Cross to crucify me. The Blood deals with the SINS, but the Cross must deal with the SINNER.
b) The Blood pardons us for what we have DONE; the Cross delivers us from who we ARE.

5) Our Initial Focus: At the beginning of our Christian life, we are concerned with our doing, not with our being. We are distressed by what we have done rather than by who we are. We think that if only we could rectify certain things, we should be good Christians, and we set out to change our actions.

6) Our Discovery: We try to please the Lord but find something within that does not want to please Him. The more we try to rectify matters on the outside the more we realize how deep-seated is the trouble. Then say to the Lord, “Lord, I see it now! Not only what I have done is wrong – I am wrong.”

7) Our Constitution: The teaching of Romans is not that we are sinners because we commit sins, but that we sin because we are sinners. We are sinners by constitution rather than by action. We do not become sinners by what we have done but because of what ADAM has done and has become.

8) Being “In Adam”:
a) We are sinners, not because of ourselves but because of Adam. It is not because I individually have sinned that I am a sinner, but because I was IN ADAM when he sinned.
b) By birth I come of Adam, therefore I am a part of him. What is more, I can do nothing to alter this. I cannot, by improving my behavior, make myself other than a part of Adam, and so a sinner.
c) The one who sins is the evidence that he is a sinner, but it is not the cause. It is equally true that one who does not sin, if he is of Adam’s race, is a sinner also, in need of redemption.
d) We are all involved in Adam’s sin. By being born “in Adam” we receive from him all that he became because of his sin – that is to say, the Adam-nature which is the nature of a sinner.
e) We derive our existence from him, and because his life became a sinful life, a sinful nature, therefore the nature which we derive from him is also sinful.

9) The Conclusion: The trouble is in our heredity, not in our behavior. Unless we can change our parentage there is no deliverance for us.
“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance” _ Article #599