Man cannot live in unity with God if he has not died beforehand. But God can make man worthy of putting to death the life of sin. Justice requires that man alone should struggle and conquer sin since he has fallen into sin of his own free will. But after becoming a slave to sin, he can no longer conquer it by his own strength. After the fall, sin became the master and man became a slave. Could man appear stronger than sin since “the slave is not better than his master” (John 13:16). He who was supposed to be the victorious conqueror became a slave under the feet of sin.

True spiritual life could not shine where the power of sin extended. Man, who had fallen into sin of his own free will, had to raise the banners of victory against sin alone. God alone had the power to achieve such a great victory and to appear as an eternal victor. Therefore, He became man. Thus, the divine and human natures were united in the person of the Lord. Man, who was to overcome sin, and God, who had the power to achieve this victory, were united. Christ makes the struggle for man His own struggle, because He is also man and, as He is free from sin, He overcomes sin because He is at the same time all-powerful. Thus, man was freed from slavery and shame and crowned with the crown of victory, and the kingdom of sin fell. Now, after Christ’s victory, man is easily freed from the shackles of sin.

The Savior gives believers the power to put to death the life of sin and become partakers of the great victory. It was only right that the Savior should receive the crown and appear as a conqueror after he had raised the banner of victory against sin. The Lord Christ was nailed to the cross for us sinners and endured the pains and wounds opened by the nails and even tasted the bitterness of death, “and forsook the pleasures offered him, and endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2), says the Apostle Paul. The Lord did not commit a single injustice, “he did not commit a single sin,” for he remained free from sin and innocent. Therefore, the impudent slanderer Satan could not find a reason to attack and accuse him, and death itself had no power over him, because the wound, pain, torment, and death are the result and fruits of sin. If sin had not entered the world of man, would God, the All-Merciful, have allowed death? Our belief in the goodness of God is logically incompatible with our belief that divine goodness loves to see the dreadful reign of death extended and dominate the world. After the fall of man, God allowed death, not as punishment for sin, but as a punishment for the weak man because of sin. Since death had no power over the Master, because He was innocent of all sin, the Savior healed our spiritual disease by His eternal and all-powerful medicine by His death. The power of death on the cross gives us the power to kill the germ of sin, because the wound of the innocent satisfied divine justice for us believers.