Living Understanding Pt 12: Life with Christ

Romans 5:12-21                    12When Adam sinned, the entire world was affected. Sin entered human experience, and death was the result. And so death followed this sin, casting its shadow over all humanity, because all have sinned. 13Sin was in the world before Moses gave the written law, but it was not charged against them where no law existed.  14Yet death reigned as king from Adam to Moses even though they hadn’t broken a command the way Adam had. The first man, Adam, was a picture of the Messiah, who was to come. 15Now, there is no comparison between Adam’s transgression and the gracious gift that we experience. For the magnitude of the gift far outweighs the crime. It’s true that many died because of one man’s transgression, but how much greater will God’s grace and his gracious gift of acceptance overflow to many because of what one Man, Jesus, the Messiah, did for us! 16And this free-flowing gift imparts to us much more than what was given to us through the one who sinned. For because of one transgression, we are all facing a death sentence with a verdict of “Guilty!” But this gracious gift leaves us free from our many failures and brings us into the perfect righteousness of God—acquitted with the words “Not guilty!” 17Death once held us in its grip, and by the blunder of one man, death reigned as king over humanity. But now, how much more are we held in the grip of grace and continue reigning as kings in life, enjoying our regal freedom through the gift of perfect righteousness in the one and only Jesus, the Messiah! 18In other words, just as condemnation came upon all people through one transgression, so through one righteous act of Jesus’ sacrifice, the perfect righteousness that makes us right with God and leads us to a victorious life now available to all. 19One man’s disobedience opened the door for all humanity to become sinners. So also one man’s obedience opened the door for many to be made perfectly right with God and acceptable to him. 20So then, the law was introduced into God’s plan to bring the reality of human sinfulness out of hiding. And yet, wherever sin increased, there was more than enough of God’s grace to triumph all the more! 21And just as sin reigned through death, so also this sin-conquering grace will reign as king through righteousness, imparting eternal life through Jesus, our Lord and Messiah!  (The Passion Translation)

In the verses above I have used the Passion Translation in an effort to make the passage clearer.  The passage is awkward and cumbersome in the NIV and other translations because Paul begins a sentence, goes off on an aside for several sentences then returns to the original thought.  This has the effect of making a difficult read of a passage which contains a difficult concept to begin with.

The sin of one man

It is a common thread of thought in the modern church to hold that all persons have sinned, and Paul himself addressed this concept earlier in Romans.

There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24)

But that was not a commonly held thought in Paul’s day.  The Jews of Paul’s day would have defined sin as any thought or action which transgressed the Law.  Law here means the Law (and its interpretation) handed down to Moses by God on Mount Sinai— also known as the Ten Commandments.  But Moses lived hundreds of years after Adam so the question is, “How can a person be held accountable for breaking a law when there is no law?”  This is like saying, “How can you get a speeding ticket if there is no speed limit?”

But law did exist in a more universal form in the sense that Adam did rebel against God’s express command not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of God and Evil.  But Adam and Eve were the only humans who expressly rebelled against a command of God, so how can it be said that all the rest of mankind has sinned?

Having eaten the forbidden fruit, Adam did not immediately die, in fact according to the Genesis genealogy he lived 930 years.  So what died?  When Adam sinned he became separated from God because God, in his holiness, cannot be in fellowship with sin.  So the divine spirit breathed into Adam by God to bring him to life is what died.  Not having a Godly-influenced spirit means poor decisions are made, mistakes, revenge and retribution are imposed on others.  In short, it means sinful actions gradually became the modus operandi of mankind.  Until, finally, sin became so ingrained in human beings that…

18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.  (Romans 1:18-23)

The gift of another

But God, in his omniscience, knew all this was going to happen, so he planned that in the course of time his Son would become incarnate and come to earth as a man.  And this man, the “new Adam”, would bring a gift of salvation far outstripping the sin and death which was brought by the first Adam.

Grace increases even more

Well, one might ask, “So what?”  Let’s once again consider what has happened:  One sin, although grievous in nature, is all that happened.  One sin!  And from that came the spiritual death of every human being who has ever lived.  Christ’s gift of salvation heals not only Adam’s sin but every sin that has ever been committed for those who accept him as their Savior.  Every spiritual mistake is corrected, every transgression healed, every condemnation changed to “justification”. 

Justification is wonderful in itself, but there is even more.  Having accepted Jeshua as our Savior, we are declared “Not guilty”.  Short of completely turning away from God this declaration is for all time.  Certainly we will sin after  our submission to Christ, but now we have the ability to go to God, repent, seek forgiveness, and be washed of the stain of our sin.  Having been declared not guilty, we have intimacy with Jesus for all eternity, and even, after his Second Coming, we will rule as kings and queens as the earth is cleansed during the millennium of every vestige of sin and evil.

What about me?

Ultimately, all of this is dependent upon one having accepted Christ as Savior.  As we ponder the glorious thing Christ has done, our lives change.  We turn away from our old ways, we renounce Satan, and turn to God.  But there still be times of temptation.  We need to cooperate with God, seeking only what is good, right, and pleasing in his sight.  We need to do what we can to stay away from the world’s way of thinking and Satan’s deceptions.  That means stopping the over-indulgence in alcohol, addiction to drugs and pornography, and hanging around with toxic friends.  I certainly understand that is hard; but it is necessary.  God has done such a wonderful thing; how can we help but refocus our lives on him?