The two men : Adam & Jesus

Romans 5:12-21

12 October 2008

Life changing power in Jesus

We have rejoiced inbeing justified by faith and having peace with God. Paul now compares Adam, the first man with Jesus – God in man.

READ 5:12-21

Have you watched the BBC programs “Who do you think you are?” I am amazed at the title. We find people looking back into their family history to find some identity, some sense of who they are.

Platt family? These are my forbears. There are four grandparents and none of them bears. All four lived in Brentford. Trace the Platts back and they were Thames watermen. Grocers was a late change of employment. Gran (Ada was cook to the family who owned Inverery Castle in Scotland. William is buried among the 75 000 others who died in the Battle of the Somme.

My maternal Grandmother I know little about.

And our passage today is right there. Your identity is in Adam and, if you have put your faith and trust in Jesus, your identity comes from him.

So Paul makes a whole string of comparisons. I have listed them as they appear in this passage:

12-14 Sin entered the world: original sin

15 Curse compared to grace

16 Judgement compared to justification

17 Death compared to life

18 Condemnation compared to life

19 disobedience compared to obedience

20 The Law effect

21 sin and death compared to grace and eternal life.

So why is Adam so significant? Because he is your ultimate father. Human life began when God created Adam and then Eve. And in case you are thinking this is sexist, Paul makes no distinction here. Adam is identified as bringing sin into the world. So you could read Adam and Eve for Adam. But sadly Adam is not just the first person on earth. He is the original sinner. We will return to this in early November. For now let me remind you that God forbad Adam and Eve to know good and evil and they choose to ignore God and go for knowing evil. That was sin. It still is. Choosing to rebel against God and choose your own rules. And lets be clear, sin did not feel like rebellion, it felt like exploring new ideas and reaching out for a new pleasure. But it is still sin, however it is packaged, whatever excuses you give for it.

Sin is an infection far more serious that HIV. And the infection was right there in humanity from the start. In fact it is so part of humanity we say being human is to fail. And as Paul will repeat in Romans 6, the wages of sin is death. The consequences of the fall of Adam and Eve is to infect our world with sin and death. This is what is called ‘original sin’. We try to pretend it is not there or say its not fair but each of us was born with the bias to sin from our parents. Who do think you are? Your parents were sinners and their parents before them, right back to Adam.

Modern man has rebelled against this idea, saying it is unfair, what about the children?, it is our environment that makes us bad not our parentage!

I am not suggesting these are full answers but I hope they send you in the right direction.

Life is not fair, but you have the same choices, just a different context. Our Gospel is that Jesus offers a way of escape to all who believe regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity, family, environment, sexual orientation, mental capacity or religion.

The death of an child is always particularly painful. Original sin seems to add another pain. But our gospel is one of super-abundant grace. God is just. He judges on your capacity for making choices. And the choice is whether you have accepted or rejected Jesus. I believe young children are covered by the abundant grace of God. He died for their sin as much as mine. But once we have the capacity to know his way, we are judged. I was able to understand enough of this at eight. And able to choose to seek his salvation. But it is wrong to set any upper or lower limit, because this book does not. In every case of the death of someone, we have to trust God to be just and loving.

. This is an example of blindness to experience. In my years of teaching I came across identical twins who were quite different. Of course, being born in a dysfunctional family is a hard call. Many of us have deep psychological injuries from our childhood and teenage years. But grace is strong enough for you as well as those born with Christian parents with pots of money and good health. God is on a rescue mission for mankind. You have come to faith as a trophy of his grace. And the pain that you carry can only find healing in his grace, as you know unlimited love, unreserved forgiveness. Only then can you release the past and are released from it. That is true whatever you background. In fact it is harder for so-called well brought- up people because of pride, which gets in the way of receiving grace. The point of what Paul is saying is that in Christ we can escape the heredity and the background because he places you in a new family, the family of Jesus.

Paul points out that this sin and death applied even without the law. Sin is rebellion against God. The Law simply points out what sins are.

Then we get to verse 15 and Paul lifts our heads up. Instead of wallowing in the sin and death and hopelessness, we need to look to Jesus. And Paul compares, compares and compares again to show how wonderful God’s grace in Jesus is. Who do think you are? If you are tracing your ancestry to Christ you are part of him,

Instead of the curses of Genesis 3 we have in Christ the grace overflowing .

Instead of judgement and condemnation we are justified, the sin is wiped clean away. Instead of death reigning in humanity eternal spiritual life has broken out in Christ. Think of it. Creation is all about life - death cycle, but Jesus is all about eternal life.

Instead of condemnation for rebellion or trespass, because of Jesus’ righteous act of obedience in coming to earth and dying on the cross for you and me we have life! But not just boring old life. Paul makes up words here to express how super-exceptionally lively this new eternal life is.

One act of disobedience infected the whole of humanity but one supreme act of obedience to led sinners you and I being made righteous.

Paul as it were pauses to mention the Law which is not the key problem. The key problem is the breakdown of our relationship with Jesus. But the Law was introduced by God, through Moses, so that we knew what was wrong with our relationship. It tells us when we are living out our rebellion. It is not there to make sin worse, but its very existence worsens our guilt. Not only are we rebels but we know we are rebels! The Good News is another super-word. Grace increased all the more. Hallelujah! There is no mountain of guilt that grace cannot tackle. There is no sin that Jesus death ha not taken on himself.

Finally we have the outcome of grace. Instead of sin bringing death. Grace brings restored relationship with God and that is the eternal life that we have in Christ. This is a wow! Book. At every page we are reminded of just how wonderful our Saviour is and how great is our salvation.

The question remains. Are you a child of Adam? YES! And a such you share his refusal to believe God and to sin. Are you a child of Jesus? Have you received salvation through faith in his name? YES!

There may be a financial meltdown, your money may well be locked up and some of us will lose money. There are hard economic times ahead. But hey look how rich you really are! You have peace with God, you have been justified, you have eternal life, and you have super abundant grace in Jesus. Enjoy Jesus today and invest wisely, invest in Jesus.