We are born in sin, with a sin nature, and do nothing but sin and we do this in the presence of a most holy God who requires absolute justice. What then allows us to even to live?
We look for the answer in 1 John 2:2 ‘And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.’ Though not all are saved, the Bible teaches there is a sense in which Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, I believe this is that sense. Christ’s sacrifice was required to allow mankind to even continue to live, making the way even possible for the time when the application of His blood could be made to those who would receive it. This verse talks of ‘sins’ not ‘sin’. ‘Sins’ are individual events by which we offend God, ‘sin’ is why we do it. IE Lying falls under the category of ‘sins’ whereas our depraved nature is ‘sin’. ‘Sin’ is the cause, ‘sins’ are the effect. The ‘sins’ of the whole world were judged on the cross allowing us to even live, yet apart from the application of the atonement of Christ by the Holy Spirit, there will have been no application made for our ‘sin’. In fact though our ‘sins’ have been judged to allow us even the possibility of temporal life, ‘our sin remaineth’ until glorification. In the meantime a new nature with new desires is imparted to those who truly trust Christ. It is with this new nature that we battle the old one with mixed victories and defeats. This ongoing battle with ‘sin’, is made manifest in our ‘sins’.
1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
If we say we have no ‘sin’, (that is no sin nature or propensity to sin) we deceive ourselves, for it is our very ‘sins’ (the effects of our sin nature) that should make our resident ‘sin nature’ obvious. With the new nature imparted the Christian should not desire to live in the old nature, yet with the remnants of the old nature still there, the Christian is still very prone to fall into ‘sins’. Know this: It is your ‘sin’, that causes your ‘sins’.
But praise the Lord, ‘if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’