The gift far outweighs the crime! – Tuesday, 17 April
| “When 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.” Romans 5:12 The Passion Translation When Adam sinned, the entire world was affected. Sin, pain, sickness and suffering all came into the world because of Adam. Adam’s disobedience changed everything and as a result, we all inherited a sinful nature from our great-great-great-great…granddaddy Adam. We often blame God for the pain, sickness and suffering in the world, when it is clearly the result of one man’s disobedience. “One man’s disobedience opened the door for all humanity to become sinners…” Romans 5:19a The Passion Translation By being born into the family of Adam you and I were born with a sinful nature. Within each of us is this driving force and propensity to do evil. You don’t have to teach a child to be selfish and do wrong, you need to teach them to be considerate and do right. Through one man’s disobedience death came into the world and reigned (Romans 5:17), placing all mankind under judgement and condemnation. “Now, 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!” Romans 5:15 The Passion Translation This is the message of the gospel – the good news of what Jesus has done for us and is freely offering us! What Adam messed up, Jesus came to make right. What Jesus did for us is far greater and more powerful than what Adam did to us. It’s sad that so many Christians have more faith in the inheritance of Adam (separation, sin, sickness, pain and suffering) rather than in the inheritance of Christ (perfect redemption)! There is no comparison between Adam’s transgression and the gracious gift… for the magnitude of the gift far outweighs the crime. Yes, sin was a huge problem – it caused death, destruction, suffering and sickness – but what Jesus did (the payment for sin – 1 John 2:2) is far greater than what Adam did (the offence). The debt of sin was enormous – it was so enormous that no one would ever have been able to pay for it unless they were God. That’s why God came in the flesh and likeness of sinful man (Romans 8:3) – to pay the debt of sin we could not pay. The payment was made in His own blood and the payment was made in full, on our behalf (that’s why you’ll never have to pay for your sin – it’s been paid in full!). The beauty of the payment is that is wasn’t just enough to pay for our sin, it far outweighs the crime – we have an abundance of grace (Romans 5:17) which means that there is more than enough grace for us! We could never exhaust God’s payment for sin (grace)! “One 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.” Romans 5:19 The Passion Translation Our inheritance from Adam was death because of sin – we were born with a sinful nature because of Adam’s disobedience. Through faith in Jesus’ obedience on our behalf we can die to sin (Romans 6:2, 6 – 11, 14, 18, 22) and be made perfectly right with God and acceptable to Him (righteous). By being born-again into God’s family we have a change in nature – the sinful nature dies and a new nature is born within us: a perfectly righteous and holy nature. As a child of God, within each of us is a new nature; a driving force and propensity to live like Jesus. As a Christian, you are no longer a sinner. You were a sinner, then you got saved by grace (not works) and now you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). |
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