The analogy of the poisonous snake

Tyndale used this analogy:

To see why 'good works' or 'being a good person' doesn't and can't save you, or justify you before God (and to see just why man is condemned by God) you have to see yourself as a poisonous snake. Maybe you as a poisonous snake never strike anybody with your fangs? OK, that is nice of you, but that 'being good' means nothing, and why? Because you're not condemned by God for striking people with your fangs, you're condemned by God because you have poison in you.

You may have ability to strike or not strike, but you don't have any ability to get the poison out of you...any more than a leopard can change his spots.

You may demand to know just why you were born with poison in you when you never asked for that or had anything to do with it? Because you are 'in' Adam, and Adam, as your federal head, fell, causing all descended from Adam to share in his fallen state. Fair? Kind of. Because you'd have fallen just as Adam fell. Adam represented 'man' and Adam fell. Man fell. You are man. You are fallen in Adam. You can't complain too much, blame it on Eve, whatever. You're a fallen being. Part of a fallen creation.

Are there any advantages to it all? Probably. Maybe if you'd not have fallen in Adam you'd be some kind of created 'thing' with no real consciousness, or real understanding, or real will (or any chance of developing those things). Maybe that is how God has worked things out. He wants you to develop those things in a real way, so He's set everything up this way, i.e. you had to fall so that you could climb back up and develop along the way. Yet it's kind of a shaky thing getting the first step up, which is being regenerated by the Word and the Spirit. Only God can do that. Still, the wild card is the living Word of God. Once you come in contact with it you have a chance. Maybe you'll have nothing to do with any of it. OK, fine, so you'll go to hell. Who needs you. The Word of God will just harden you. Some it will regenerate, some it will harden.

Yet God is in control. How, you say? Because you have to see that reality to effect that necessary internal 'turning' from vanity, worldly pride, and self-will to faith, repentance, and God's will. You have to realize you can't do it, and only God can do it. That is needed to truly get above yourself. It's reality anyway.

You don't just climb up, you are also drawn up by God (who works on you top-down). That is the subtlety of it.

Jesus is the 'second Adam.' He came to earth, took on flesh, and performed what Adam failed to perform, then he died the only 100% innocent man, on the cross. He, God, died, sacrificed Himself, on the cross. The first part of what He did, follow the law and do what Adam failed to do, took the curse away and made it possible for all who become 'in Christ' - by faith - to have eternal life (this is what Adam would have merited if he had followed the law in the Garden for a certain probationary period of time); the second thing Jesus did, sacrifice Himself on the cross, paid the penalty - paid the debt - all human beings have, and effectually for those who have faith in Him (because somebody had to pay a sufficient penalty to satisfy God's justice), and only God Himself, sacrificed on a cross, could effect that (no animal sacrifice could effect that). To be 'in Him' is to be connected to him as a true born citizen (in God's Kingdom) is connected to their King (and the connection is effected by the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Christ - which Jesus sends into you). You 'were' in Adam. Now you are in Christ. Adam and Christ, the first and second Adam, are the two 'federal heads.' You're either 'in' one or you are 'in' the other. All died in Adam, but some are saved in Christ.

God 'imputes' Christ's work (His doing of the law and His paying the ultimate penalty required by man for breaking God's law) to you when you appropriate Christ and His work by faith, and this justifies you before God (frees you and makes you one of His children and gives you all that God has). Faith is an 'appropriating organ.' That is one definition of faith. It's like Higher Centers and their connecting with Real I. Approprating Real I. Behind Real I is God. Jesus (Real I, in this analogy) is Mediator between you and God.