God's Answer to Everything: In Christ

 The following is from Watchman Nee's book The Messenger of the Cross:

"We should never forget that all of us were sinners because we all were in Adam. Every one born of Adam inherited the nature of Adam. It took no effort when sinners for us to lose our temper, tell a lie, and so forth, since the life, nature and behavior of Adam flowed in us. Now the way of salvation for us was not in God making us good but in His saving us out of Adam and putting us in Christ. So that now, all which is of Christ flows into us.

"The Bible shows us that as soon as we are in Adam we sin, and that only as we are in Christ do we practice righteousness. May I remind ourselves that lurking in the secret place of many of our hearts lies an error: the thought of expecting God to change us. But God does not and never will do anything in us; instead, He will put us in Christ.

"Our pattern of thought is that since the root of sin is in us, we must ask God—after we are saved—to eradicate our root of sin just as we ask a dentist to extract a painful tooth from our mouth. Perhaps some people will even tell you and me that we must pray and ask God to eradicate our root of sin. They may perhaps also inform us that after a long time of prayer they themselves have succeeded in this and have thus attained holiness.  

"But let me hasten to tell you that if you expect God to do such a thing to you as the eradication of the root of sin, you will be disappointed, for God would never do it.  What the Bible shows us is that all the works of God have been accomplished in Christ. From the day on which Christ died, every spiritual thing has been accomplished in Him. God can do no more. So that if you ask God to do something like this in you, He cannot do it. You can only receive what He has already done in Christ."