The most destructive force in the universe is people’s sin. Sins like the ones Paul listed in Galatians 5:19-21 — immorality, debauchery, hatred, jealousy, rage, to name a few — break hearts and take lives. While everything else God created continues in obedience to him to this day, people constantly upset the order of life with their sins.

And people are powerless to stop sinning. Exercising will power produces only a temporary change, and often when a person stops sinning in one area they start sinning in another. We need something much greater than ourselves to put an end to the power of sin.

“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 person, though for a good person 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.” Romans 5:6-8

Jesus went head to head with the worst that sin could do and he was victorious over it.

One Man Sins, Another Man Saves

It only took one sinner to fill the world with sin. It could have started with anyone, but it started with Adam and Eve and since then everyone has sinned and come under the penalty of death. But God sent Jesus who is able to save everyone from paying that penalty themselves.

“But the gift [of salvation] is not like the trespass. For if many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to many! . . . Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous . . . where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” Romans 5:15-20

Christ our Substitute

People cannot die to pay for their sins; they can only die in their sins and suffer eternal damnation. But because he was sinless, Jesus could die for everyone’s sins and then rise from the dead and live forever in glory.

Jesus was our substitute and God applied his death as payment in full to the account of everyone who asks for it. In Christ we all died to sin because he died in place of all of us.

Not only does God attribute the death of Jesus to all who ask, he also gives them his resurrection and eternal life. When people receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, they get the whole package – forgiveness, eternal life and the Holy Spirit to help them live as Jesus lives.

No Longer Slaves to Sin

“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do no let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:11-14

The power of sin has been broken and no longer masters people who belong to Jesus, but temptations to sin still come. The person with new life in Christ has to choose how to respond.

“You are slaves to the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” Romans 6:16-18

Struggling with Sin

Sin is a harsh master and doesn’t let people go easily. Temptations worm so deeply into people’s hearts and minds that they only need a hint of temptation to go down the path of sin again. Paul was frustrated by his own propensity to sin.

“I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do . . . As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me . . . For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out . . . Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. ” Romans 7:14-20

Paul felt terrible when he sinned despite his best intentions. He felt like a prisoner in his own body.

“So I find this law at work: Although 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 me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work in me.” Romans 7:21-23

Was there any hope?

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24-25

Life in the Spirit

Thank God that when people receive Christ, his Spirit comes to indwell them and set them free from the law of sin and death. Jesus, who resisted every temptation, lives in the hearts of believers and teaches them how to be free from sin’s mastery.

People access the power of the Spirit to defeat sin by setting their minds on Christ. They make knowing Jesus the aim of their lives, going to his life and teachings in the Bible as the resource for their decisions, and talking to Jesus all day long about everything in their lives.

“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:5-6

The presence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is proof that he or she is a child of God.

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:14-16

When we were lost in sin there was no way we could approach God. Our hands were dirty, our hearts were impure, and we could not come near the Lord or stand in his holy presence. But thanks to the work of Jesus on the cross and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we can cry “Abba, Father!” and live constantly in his love.