Read Romans 5:12-21
How can we be declared guilty for something Adam did thousands of years ago? Many feel it isn’t fair for God to judge us because of Adam’s sin. Yet each of us confirms our heritage with Adam by our own sins every day. We have the same sinful nature and are prone to rebel against God, and we are judged for the sins we commit. Because we are sinners, it isn’t fairness we need: it is mercy.
Adam was the counterpart of Christ. Just as Adam was a representative of created humanity, so is Christ the representative of a new spiritual humanity.
Paul has shown that keeping the law does not bring salvation. Here he adds that breaking the law is not what brings death. Death is the result of Adam’s sin and of the sins we all commit, even if they don’t resemble Adam’s. Paul reminds his readers that for thousands of years the law had not yet been explicitly given, and yet people died. The law was added to help people see their sinfulness, to show them the seriousness of their offences, and to drive them to God for mercy and pardon. This was true in Moses’ day, and it is still true today. Sin is a deep discrepancy between who we are and who we were created to be. The law points out our sin and places the responsibility for it squarely on our shoulders. But the law offers no remedy. When we are convicted of sin, we must turn to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and healing.
What a promise verse 17 is to those who love Christ. We can triumph over sin’s power and death’s threats through the power of Jesus Christ. We were all born into Adam’s physical family: the family line that leads to certain death. All of us have reaped the results of Adam’s sin. We have inherited His guilt, a sinful nature, and God’s punishment. Because of Jesus, however, we can trade judgment for forgiveness. Christ offers us the opportunity to be born into His spiritual family: the family line that begins with forgiveness and leads to eternal life. If we do nothing, we receive death through Adam; but if we come to God by faith, we receive life through Christ. To which family line do you belong?
As a sinner, separated from God, you see His law from below, as a ladder to be climbed to get to God. Perhaps you have repeatedly tried to climb it, only to fall to the ground every time you have advanced one or two rungs. Or perhaps the sheer height of the ladder seems so overwhelming that you have never even started up. In either case, what relief you should feel to see Jesus offering with open arms to lift you above the ladder of the law, to take you directly to God. Once Jesus lifts you into God’s presence, you are free to obey: out of love, not necessity, and through God’s power, not your own. You know that if you stumble, you will not fall back to the ground. Instead, you will be caught and held in Christ’s loving arms.