Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. What does that mean? Jesus said to Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Everyone born of woman is born of the flesh as a sinner.  All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. There is no way around it. Not only have all of us sinned, we are by nature sinners and the Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul state that we are slaves to the power of sin. It rules over us and has dominion over us. This is the condition of every one that has never experienced what Christ called the new birth. 

            When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, sin entered the world and death by sin. By this one man’s disobedience we were made sinners. We can try to do good works but it will not change our nature. We can give money to the church and money to help the poor. We can build children’s hospitals and orphanages but it still will not change our sinful nature. We can be baptized in water or join a church but it does not change us. Most religions and even so called Christian churches preach a gospel of doing good and being good as a means of salvation but with all our good intentions we cannot change our sinful nature. You can pray and ask for forgiveness of sin but you cannot crucify your flesh. It has to be done at Calvary. The flesh does not have the power to change. You can stop your habits such as drinking and smoking but you cannot change your nature.  Christ came into this world as a man to redeem us from the power of sin.