Sign up for our free newsletter:

Key Bible Verse: [S]in entered the world through one man … and in this way death came to all men (Romans 5:12b).
Bonus Reading: Rom. 5:13-21

A few years ago, the great tennis player Arthur Ashe died of AIDS contracted through tainted blood given to him during heart surgery. He didn't know it; the doctors didn't know it. But when the blood was pumped into Arthur Ashe, it contained the deadly AIDS virus that eventually took his life.

When Adam sinned, sin entered the human bloodstream; as a result, every baby born into this world is tainted with the deadly sin virus. Every person is born with a tendency to do wrong. We're all born with a sin nature.

We may not like to face this truth about ourselves, and protest that we had nothing to do with Adam's sin. A friend told me that his father has gout and three of the sons also have gout. He said his father jokingly told his boys, "You didn't choose your parents very well."

But just as we had nothing to do with the physical characteristics we inherited from our parents, so we inherited a sin nature from Adam because he's at the root of every family tree in the whole human race.

—Ray Pritchard in An Anchor for the Soul

Adapted from: An Anchor for the Soul (Moody Press, Moody Bible Institute, 2000).

Prayer for the Week

Father, You sent Your Son to overcome the power of sin. Please make me clean—and help me to be free from my sin.

				Try an Issue of Men of Integrity Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders. If you decide you want to keep Men of Integrity coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless. Give Men of Integrity as a gift Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!

FREE Newsletter Sign up for the Men of Integrity Newsletter    RSS Feed   RSS Help