When Rachel and I first visited Ridley Hall, Cambridge. The institution where I am currently training to be a priest with the Church of England. Someone there told Rachel and I about a conversation they had been having with some friends prior to the day. His friends had dared him to come up with the most shockingly awkward and potentially inappropriate thing to say to his future colleagues on this first day.
I think the best he could come up with was to say that on the weekends he liked to wear woman’s clothing and call himself Brenda! But I was then determined to come up with something much more awkward.
And perhaps I have been saved the effort of having to think of something awkward to share because of this wonderfully challenging passage from Romans. No better way to break the ice and make good first impressions than to preach on the original sin and death that we all have in Adam.
Original sin is difficult because generally we do not like to accept that someone has done something which is causing us to be punished.
Through my basic training in the Royal Air Force I became pretty familiar with corporate punishment. Being given restrictions of privileges because someone else messed up. On more than one occasion my entire squadron of 150 men and women lost their weekend because one person was found to have alcohol in their room. Or the entire squadron received additional physical training because one person had not done their share of cleaning for the block inspection.
We like to think at the least we control our own destiny.
Or we like to think that we start off with a clean slate.
Many people believe that they will be judged for the balance of right and wrong deeds they have done in their lives and hopefully the right ones will be enough.
I spent time with a mission organisation in Birmingham, England. We were doing some street preaching and one of the tracts we had was a short questionnaire. One question in fact, “are you good enough to go to heaven?” A bit pre-loaded, but neither the less, a way into conversation.
Paul writes this passage to the Romans so that they are left without a doubt that they are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. And nothing else.
Last week Charlie reminded us that God is in the business of loving sinners. The Gospel is good news because not only does God love you as you are, but also God died for you as you are. This is radical love, sacrificial love, the kind of love that brings about a hope that cannot put to shame.
In this passage Paul uses a comparison between Adam, the first man and Jesus Christ.
This past two weeks, I have joined Charlie on many occasions in common place coffee. If you have not been to common place coffee, I might try to describe it to you, so that you could imagine what common place coffee is like should you want to visit.
I could say, it’s like Starbucks, but it’s independent. Or it’s like Starbucks, in as much it serves coffee and some snacks. But, it’s actually much more than Starbucks in that the staff show a real interest in how you are doing that day and truly care about the coffee they are serving. I mean you can get a cold coffee served from a jam jar… how cool is that!
I take something that you are likely to know, in this case Starbucks and make the comparison. Hopefully you’ll agree with me on this one, and apologies if any of you are passionate about Starbucks, but common place coffee is in a different league to Starbucks. Perhaps the only similarity is that they serve coffee.
It is this logic Paul uses in this passage to show us how the gift of grace through Jesus Christ affects the whole of humanity.
See how sin entered the world through one man…
Now see how much better the gift of righteousness is that will reign in life through one man.
Point 1: know the pattern. Paul wants you to see the pattern for all of humanity comes from Adam, the one man. That’s in versus 12 to 14.
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned – To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.”
The problem of sin is one that effects the entire human race, because of Adam.
We can see it clearly in the impartial death all humankind experiences. There is no one exempt from death.
Just yesterday, a lady was asking me about the royal family, she asked when did I think the Queen would hand over the reins to Prince Charles. I said that I was optimistic the Queen would live forever. This lady quite rightly said, nope she’s mortal like the rest of us.
Background, status, race, gender, wealth, religion, political stance, education. There is nothing that can exempt you from death. Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin.
The whole of humanity comes into the world with hearts inclined away from God. That is the effect of Adam, this one man, the pattern of the one to come.
It’s quite clear how this affects us. All of us at some point are going to die. When sin entered the world Adam died an immediate spiritual death, he no longer knew God in a personal and intimate way. And there also the beginning of his mortality, a gradual death. And that affects all of us, the entire human race.
It’s awkward to begin with, original sin. But, here are two reasons why Paul wants us to understand it:
1) Firstly, it effects the whole of humanity with impartiality. See how Paul says that sin was in the world before the law was given. He says that to show that it does not depend on our ability to understand or comprehend something. It points to the need for a solution to sin that is not reliant on something we can achieve. If it did then there really would be no hope! The law did not come in order to save, but in order to reveal just what God was like, so they could know how perfect his ways.
On night time battlefield training, we would stumble around in the dark until someone fired a para luminaire into the sky. It was a small rocket that would burn bright in the sky and slowly descend casting light over the battlefield. In that moment you could see, the light showed up where you were, the state you were in. I recall crawling into something sludgy. The para luminaire went up and showed me I had crawled into a caw pat. The law revealed the condition of the heart. But Paul is clear, it is the sin inherent through Adam that causes death, that is why people from Adam to Moses died aside from the law.
2) Secondly, God’s rescue plan comes in the form of Adam. Adam broke the command. It was Adam’s purpose by God to fill the earth and subdue it, but he could not because he broke God’s command. God’s plan is Jesus, who comes in the same form of Adam but Jesus is much more than Adam ever was or could be.
Point two: the gift of righteousness. That’s in versus 15 to 17.
“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: the judgement followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”
Do you see how Paul continues in his comparison?
Paul has set out what Adam is like, the pattern for humanity, and then shows how much more the second man Jesus Christ.
In Adam is death, in Christ is life
In Adam is trespass, in Christ is righteousness
In Adam is condemnation, in Christ is justification
Humanity in Adam has it one way, Paul makes it clear that humanity in Jesus Christ has it another way. Paul wants you to be without a doubt that the gift of righteousness come through the one man Jesus Christ.
There is no room for being mistaken. Am I good enough to get to heaven. No, unless you are in Jesus Christ.
I was once on a flight to Helsinki in Finland, or at least I thought I was. I had gone through the terminal reasonably successfully and taken my seat on the flight. As we began to taxi they did the usual announcements. Then the aircraft stopped and over the tannoy system they called my name. I was asked to stand and make my way to the front of the aircraft. The flight attendant checked my ticket. I was on the wrong flight!
On that flight, whilst in that airplane. There was no way I was going to Helsinki. We were headed to Spain. In an airplane, you head where the airplane is headed. Only when I got off that airplane and boarded the correct airplane did I get to go where I wanted.
Here’s my comparison for you:
You are either in Adam and headed for death, or in Christ and headed for life because of this gift of righteousness. You cannot be sat in the wrong airplane hoping it might make it to the destination. You cannot stand outside and watch the airplane take off, you need to be in the airplane. You cannot pretend to be an airplane and run down the runway flapping your arms. You need to be in the airplane.
In Christ, we have the gift of righteousness.
Here’s a great and simple truth:
I die because of Adam’s sin, I live because of Christ’s righteousness, neither death nor life are a consequence of my own action. The obedience of Christ triumphs over the disobedience of Adam.
Versus 18 and 19
“Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”
The story of the world is based on two men.
We all belong to one of these two men, Adam leading to death, or Christ leading to life.
Jesus pays the penalty for our sin on the cross. He is the true man who really submits to God. The promise was made to Adam, the first man, but it was lost by him because of his disobedience and then fulfilled in Jesus because of his obedience.
This obedience is not submission to the law, but a life of unbroken union with, and submission to, God, ‘obedience unto death, even death on a cross’. By this obedience Jesus expresses both the ‘forms’ that he bears—the form of God, whose will he obeys, and the form of humankind, whose death he shares.
Point three: the brilliance of the gift. It’s my final point and a great one to end with. Look with me at versus 20 and 21.
“The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ.”
If you are like me, then you have had times in your life, you might still be there, where I look at myself and the state I am in and wonder how on earth can God love a sinner like me.
Or you might have friends who do not know Jesus and their lives seem so far from the gospel that you think they might be impenetrable to God’s mercy. I know people who almost pride themselves on how sinful they think they are.
Grace triumphs over every sin, every time.
There is no sin beyond the mercy of God.
Christ trumps death every time. Whatever card sin and death can play against us Christ trumps it. No matter what blackness we see in our own heart, Christ trumps it. In Christ there is forgiveness and justification that can beat it. Whenever you are worried about death coming in this world, know that Christ brings eternal life.
That's God's grace… it is abounding. Not reluctant of begrudging. Everything goes wrong because of the debt Adam has created. God is like the billionaire father, he can meet any debt we create.
What does this mean for us today, about 30 men and women sitting in the stuffiness of a non-aircon Presbyterian church hall? A small sample of the community we call church. Different background, different worries, differing stages of faith.
As we journey together, know for sure, 100% that salvation relies on Christ alone.
When you are in Christ that is it, nothing more is required.
Sin and death came into the world through Adam he is the pattern. But the gift of righteousness comes through Jesus Christ who is fully human and God, Jesus brings God’s grace to those who believe and trust in Him.
Paul writes this passage to the Romans so that they are left without a doubt that they are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. And nothing else.
I wonder what you might have thought to be the most awkward thing to talk about for a first sermon… but hopefully you will have seen this morning that original sin is not an idea which needs to be repugnant, leaving a bad taste in your mouth. But rather, through these two men, we see God’s rescue plan for the whole of humanity, which brings us great certainty, hope and a closer relationship with our creator.
Point one: Adam is the pattern. Paul is making a comparison so that we know how much better the gift of grace is which is given to those in Jesus.
Point two: the gift of righteousness is a transfer from being in Adam whose destination is death to being in Jesus and the destination eternal life.
And lastly point three: the brilliance of the gift. Know that no matter how you view your own personal sin, the struggles you face, the powers of darkness that prevail. God’s grace will overpower. Nothing contributes to salvation other than Christ.
God’s grace triumphs over every sin, every time.
