Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgement came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so, through one Man’s righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience, many will be made righteous. More over, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5: 18-21, NKJV.
Our Savior and our God, please come divinely close to us, that we may behold grace in all its beauty, and be saved, thereby. For Christ’s sake we pray; Amen.
In this marvelous chapter on grace, Paul juxtaposes the results of sin, with God’s remedy for sin. It is an amazing sight to behold. It is encouraging, and empowering, to know that we belong to a God, who is not intimidated by, “His creation gone bad.” I believe that the reason for this, is, as we mentioned a day or two ago, nothing takes God by surprise. God has a plan for every situation; He never loses control.
One man’s offense – one Man’s righteous act. When Adam sinned; sin became a part of man’s DNA, as it were. David declares: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51: 5). In other words, we were born, bent on sinning. When I worked for the Department of Defense, in my native Republic of Panama, I had a friend, who, when things would work against him no matter how hard he tried to get it right, would say, “You can’t win for losing!” That seems like a mighty accurate way of describing the lot of humanity after Adam sinned. And then Jesus came. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1: 12, 13). In other words, we are re-born, with a desire for righteousness!
One man’s disobedience – one Man’s obedience. Our first parents sinned by disobeying the expressed will of God: “And the Lord God commanded the man saying; ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die’ ” (Genesis 2: 16, 17). This command seems rather clear to me. I do not think that there was any room for misunderstanding what God said. Even more than six thousand years later, when our senses have been greatly diminished by years of sin, and abusing “the temple of God;” that command is crystal clear to me. Yet this direct command was disobeyed. This tendency to disobey passed from parents to son(s) and daughters. Cain, the first child of Adam and Eve, brought “an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord… And the Lord did not respect Cain and his offering… And Cain was very angry… So the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry?… If you do well, will you not be accepted’ ” (4: 3-7)? Had God not told Cain what it meant to, “do well,” He could not have expected him to “do well.” That is justice in its most basic form! Then Jesus came. “In the same way count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires” (Romans 6: 11, 12, NIV).
We will continue with this topic tomorrow.