October 17

"I can of myself do nothing." John 5:30

At his creation Adam became a distinct self-conscious person, but he had no sin. There was not yet ruling in him what Paul in Romans 6:6 calls "our old man." He possessed free will, which made it possible for him to act on his own account; so that self, we may say, was already there - but not sin. But then the fall changed all that. Now there was the "old man" dominant in him, and certainly in all of us.

We must be cautious about drawing parallels between ourselves and the Lord Jesus in his incarnation, but we can say with assurance that he had no old man, because he was free from sin. Nevertheless, he had a self. He possessed natural strength; yet not once in the smallest degree did he abuse it. It is not that he lacked an individual personality - every man has that - but that he did not choose to live by himself. In our verse he makes clear his estimate of the worthlessness of natural human effort apart from God. We can understand, therefore, why he went on to say of our spiritual fruitfulness, "Apart from me ye can do nothing."