Twin City church of Christ Blog
“July 31, 2024 - The Anti-Adam”
Categories: 2024 Reading DevotionalsThe Anti-Adam
Reading: Romans 5:12-21
Paul has been thinking through how Jesus’ death brings life for us (Rom 5:10) and he wants to make a broader point about how Jesus is God’s great response to the universal problem of sin and death. So he compares Jesus and Adam. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”(Rom 5:12). Adam was the first sinner, but the consequences of his sin were not restricted to him. Death came into the world through him. And because of his sin, death spread “because all sinned.” Adam opened a kind of Pandora’s box, releasing sin and its consequences on the world and poisoning everything.
Yet Jesus is the anti-Adam. “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many”(Rom 5:15). Jesus’ legacy is the opposite of Adam’s. Adam brought death and sin to many, but Jesus brings grace to many. Adam brings condemnation, but Jesus brings justification (Rom 5:16). Adam makes death reign, but Jesus makes grace and life reign (Rom 5:17). “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience many will be made righteous”(Rom 5:19). Jesus’ righteous life and sacrificial death transform the world, reversing the terrible effects of sin. Paul even suggests that God gave the Law of Moses “to increase the trespass”(Rom 5:20), identifying (and even encouraging!) sin so that it could be undone in Jesus.
All mankind wrestles with the problem of evil. We struggle with evil done to us, evil things we observe in others, and evil things we do ourselves. Adam let this sin into the world and we have made our contribution to it. But how can we escape it? Are we doomed to this cycle of pain and death? In steps the anti-Adam, whose obedience blazes a new trail to God and allows grace and life to reign.
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One Thing to Think About: How have I seen grace and life spread?
One Thing to Pray For: God’s grace to abound
