M_______ wrote:

Hi Mike,
I read your letter on the above subject. I find it right on target. Because we would have to ask, why do we still die if Christ died in our place? It looks as if Rom. 5:12 states that we must also die for our own sins. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” But I do have a question. Abraham taking Isaac to the altar was a type of the Father slaying Christ. But then Isaac’s type seems to change to type us by allowing the ram to be sacrificed for him. This would seem to teach a substitutionary death. Can you please comment? I can see that the NT does not support the idea with a different understanding of the phrase “for us.” Thanks again. M_____

Hi M____,
Thank you for your question.
You are right about Rom 5:12

Rom 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Adam was simply the channel by which death was introduced for sin. We do not die for Adam’s sin. We die because of sin in our lives and in our sinful flesh. Babies who die in their cribs, never having consciously sinned, are still unable to inherit the kingdom of God. Even they must be resurrected and experience a time of proving and cleansing of their sinful carnal mind, before they will enter into the All in all.
Look at the very next verse there in Rom 5:

Rom 5:13  (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

O. K. “Sin is not imputed where there is no law.” What does that mean? Does it mean that since that baby which died in its crib never consciously sinned, that therefore that child can enter into the kingdom of God? Absolutely not! Look at the next verse:

Rom 5:14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Why does death reign where “sin is not imputed?” The answer for those who can receive it, is that Adam and we in Adam, was created of corruptible dust, and sinfully naked while he was yet in the Potter’s hand, before  he ever drew his first breath.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

What does “marred in the hand of the Potter” mean? Here is what that means:

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

So if you think that ‘flesh’ in and of itself is not sin, then you are calling the Holy Spirit a liar: ” I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
It is not a very smart thing to deny that flesh is “shapen… and conceived in sin.”  Yet the entire “historical orthodox Christian church” does just that when they deny that Christ was “made sin” by coming in “sinful flesh.” 

2Co 5:21  For he hath made him [ to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

The words ‘to be’ are bracketed by the publishers to tell us that those words were not in the Greek. Yet all who deny the Truth of Psa. 51:5 insist that Christ was not made sin. Nevertheless the Greek reads:

2Co 5:21  For he hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Christ was not “made sin” by being nailed to the cross. He was “made sin” by being “made of a woman.”

Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

Both of those statements 1) made of a woman and 2) made under the law, equate in Biblical terms to being made sin:
1) Made of a woman = Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
2) Made under the law = Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster [ to bring us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

“After faith… of Jesus Christ is come, we are no longer under… the law… our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.” But “before faith came… the scripture… concluded all under sin… we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. “
That is how Christ came into this world. He came just like His creation; “shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin… made of a woman, made under the law.”
And yet He never sinned even though He was “made sin.”

2Co 5:21  For he hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

All denials of the carnal mind of man to the contrary, Christ discriminates between “being sin” and committing sin as a ‘trespass.’ That is why God gave Moses both a ‘sin offering’ for the fact that we are “conceived in sin,” and a ‘trespass offering,’ for what we do in our “body of sin.”

Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Paul agrees with David and Jeremiah that the body of flesh itself is sin “in conception… shapen in iniquity… in the Potter’s hand… the body of sin… made sin.”
What Christ accomplished was not to die for us so that we do not have to die. Even Isaac died in a figure:

Heb 11:17  By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten [ son],
Heb 11:18  Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:
Heb 11:19  Accounting that God [ was] able to raise [ him] up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

The ram was not put there to teach substitutionary death. “Isaac… died in a figure.” He didn’t ‘avoid death in a figure,’ he ‘died in a figure.’ The ram is Christ, whose  resurrection from the dead gives us life:

Rom 5:10  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

It may seem like a matter of semantics, but if Christ had not been brought back from death, we would have no salvation, because we, too, must be brought back from death. That is why Christ was “made sin for us.” Coming in flesh was coming in death:

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?

Sin and death are inseparable. When Christ entered His mother’s womb, at that moment He had stepped into the realm of death. His flesh and blood like our “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Do you think these words apply to our flesh and blood but not to Christ’s flesh and blood? Here is the Truth of that matter:

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Death is instantaneous and “the dead know not anything.” They are totally unaware of the passing of time. Adam will be raised completely unaware that he has been dead for over 6,000 years. And when Paul says “we shall not all die…” he is not saying that ‘flesh and blood can inherit the kingdom of God.’ What he is saying is that the change will be instantaneous for those elect who are still alive at the time of the return of Christ to take the reins of the governments of this earth. They will not experience being “asleep in Christ.” Paul says it all in the same breath:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
1Co 15:51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

So the flesh must be relinquished by all. We are all to be brought back from death even though the few who are standing when Christ returns will have that experience of coming back from death “in the twinkling of an eye.” Christ did not die in our place. He died “for us” so that we too, like Him, could be brought back from among the dead.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

“The day of judgment,” I think you know, is not just future; it is even now upon the house of God:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Christ died for us so that He could be resurrected, and so that we, too, could be resurrected with Him.

Rom 5:10  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Except we die we cannot bring forth fruit:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that l i ke as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

I hope this has answered your question.
Mike