1005 堕落的本质
这就如罪是从一人入了世界，死又是从罪来的，于是死就临到众人，因为众人都犯了罪。《罗马书 5:12》
圣经并没有说神因一人的罪而惩罚人类，而是说罪的本质，即我对自己的权利的宣告，是通过一人进入人类。但圣经也说，另一人祂自己承担了人类的罪并把罪除掉——这是何其深奥的启示（见希伯来书9:26）。罪的本质不是不道德和过错，而是自我实现的本质，它导致我们说：「我是我自己的神。」这本质可能表现在正确的道德或不正确的不道德上，但它总是有一个共同的基础——我对自己宣告我的主权。当我们的主面对无论是内心充满一切邪恶力量，或生活纯洁、有道德、正直的人祂都不理会一个人的道德败坏，或另一个人的道德修养。祂看到的我们看不到的东西，即人的本性（见约翰福音2:25）。
罪是我与生俱来的，是人无法触碰的——只有神通过救赎来触碰罪。神藉基督的十字架，拯救了整个人类，使我们可以脱离罪的遗传而受到的诅咒。神从未让人为遗传的罪负责，也不会因继承的罪性而定罪任何人。定罪是来自当我认识到耶稣基督来拯救我脱离遗传的罪时，我却拒绝让祂这么做。从那一刻起我开始受到诅咒的印记。 「光来到世间， 世人因自己的行为是恶的， 不爱光， 倒爱黑暗， 定他们的罪[和关键时刻]就是在此。」（约翰福音3:19）
来自章伯斯的智慧
我们开始我们基督徒的生活是通过相信被告知要相信的事情，然后我们必须继续如此同化我们的信仰，以至于它们以一种回响神荣耀的方式产生结果。危险是在于我们越来越接受我们自己没有活出的信念。《改变像祂的样式》
1005 The Nature of Degeneration
Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned… —Romans 5:12
The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26). The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which leads us to say, “I am my own god.” This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis— my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man (see John 2:25).
Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch— only God touches sin through redemption. It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “This is the condemnation [and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light…” (John 3:19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We begin our Christian life by believing what we are told to believe, then we have to go on to so assimilate our beliefs that they work out in a way that redounds to the glory of God. The danger is in multiplying the acceptation of beliefs we do not make our own. Conformed to His Image, 381 L