Romans Part 3 - LIFEनमूना

God's Remedy

Romans 5:12-21 is the heart of the gospel, difficult perhaps, but essential, if one is to truly understand the message of divine Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. This passage tells us what went wrong with humankind and what God did to remedy the wrong, the great and glorious answer to justice. The two verses assigned to this devotion have to do with God’s dealings with sin before the Mosaic Law was given to Israel at Mt. Sinai. The full passage, 12-21, points out that through the fall, through the original sin of the first created being, Adam, all mankind was born into sin (see verse 12).

But, some may ask, “If there was no law to tell people what was right or wrong, how were they judged, since they had inadvertently done wrong?”

Paul wants us to understand that even though God had not yet pronounced judgments for breaking the written law given to Moses, mankind was born under the curse of the law given to Adam in the garden: death by sin. Being born with a sinful nature condemned all mankind as guilty, even before the individual’s first act of sin.

In theology, it is said that Adam’s sin was imputed or transferred to all who came after him. If those who lived before the law of God were condemned without a written law, how much more condemned were those who lived after the law was given? The law plainly explained God’s wishes for His people; it revealed sin, rather than preventing it. The end of verse 14 says that Adam was a pattern of the One to come.

What does it mean that Adam is a “type” of Christ?

Just as Adam was considered the head, or representative, of the human race, so Christ is the head of the new creation. Through Adam, came the race of carnal mankind. Now, Christ brings spiritual life and imputes His righteousness, the opposite of sin. Through Adam’s one act came death, through the one act of Christ, the last Adam, comes life. This idea is developed further as you read through the passage. Verses 18 and 19 make this clear, while verses 15-17 point out the distinctions between Adam and Christ.

In my school, the class was once asked to write essays on “firsts that have impacted our lives.” There were many interesting papers written, one on Columbus (1492), one on the invention of the first TV (1927), another on the wheel (5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia) and today, there would be so many more!

But nothing has impacted the world like that first sin and nothing has given us more hope than that one act on the cross that pardons the believer from that sin for eternity.

-Jinet Troost