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 infinite and profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26)  The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which lead us to say, "I am my own god."  This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it alwyas has a common basis--my claim to my right to myself.
     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 entrie human race from the possibility of damnation throught heredity of sin.  God nowhere holds a person reponsibile for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it.  Condemation 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 critcial moment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than light  John 3:19    Oswald Chambers