We, like [Adam], rebel against God, and there is nothing we can do to stop us from sinning and rebelling—no work, no ascetic practice, no self-discipline, no religious practice that can restore communion with God. One man, Jesus, the second Adam, God incarnate, does for us, however, what we cannot do for ourselves. In the flesh, God reverses Adam’s rebellion and establishes a relationship with God by being our sacrifice for sin, by overcoming evil, and by being a model by which we are to live.
-Robert Webber, The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2006), 112.