Slices
Prepare
Most of us don’t like to face up to the reality of sin in our lives. Spend a few moments asking God to show you how sin affects you.
Bible passage
Death through Adam, life through Christ
12 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 –
13 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. 14 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.
15 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! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 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!
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 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.
20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Explore
These verses raise deep questions about original sin (Are we born condemned?), evolution (Was there death before the Fall?), Adam and Eve (Did they really exist?) and universalism (Will everyone be saved?). If you feel confused or overwhelmed by what you’ve read, you are not alone.
Let’s ask some questions. How many people sin (v 12)? How do ‘the many’ die (v 15)? What brought judgement and condemnation on humanity (v 16)? Whose sin ushered in the reign of death (v 17)? Paul states simply: human beings are spiritually dead on arrival (v 12). We all belong to Adam’s fallen race, broken and condemned by his sin – and unable to avoid compounding his sin even further with our own.
Now look at the contrast between Adam and Jesus. Look for the ‘how much more’s; look for the ‘overflow’ and ‘abundant’. The original sin is awful – it has condemned billions to death. Yet the free gift is so ‘much more’ powerful, undoing the effect of the sin, removing its condemnation, and bringing a life even Adam did not know!
Respond
Because of what Christ has done, we’re given the gift of abundant life and declared righteous. Let’s give thanks and praise to our God!
Deeper Bible study
Pause for a moment to give thanks for God’s love in Christ.
Jews and Christians read the Old Testament differently. For Jews it is about how the people of God should live righteously. For Christians it is a story of creation, fall, the beginnings of redemption and the anticipation of its completion. For Jews, Adam does not much figure; for Christians he is definitive.
To be ‘in Adam’ is to be made in the image of God, but turned away and fallen short of ‘the glory of God’.1 That fall can be discerned in the gap between what we have the glorious potential to be and what we actually are. This problem goes back to the beginnings of the human race (v 12). All of us are implicated. Sin, spiritual death, disobedience and condemnation flow from being in Adam, since we have all sinned.
However, we have been redefined! A second and greater Adam has arisen who abolishes the old and brings in the new. He recreates humanity and fulfils its true potential. What he brings is gift not deserts, gain not loss. The benefits of this greater Adam are vast: grace (v 15), justification (v 16), life (v 18), righteousness (v 17), eternal life (v 21). These gifts are ‘for all people’ (v 18). If Adam represents a deviation from the true path, then the greater Adam is an arrival at the proper destination. In this sense he is the ultimate human being, having become, through his obedience (v 19), all that each person is supposed to be. Notice another ‘how much more’ in verse 17: if the first Adam has had such a powerful (though destructive) impact upon humankind, how much more powerfully will the Son of God, made incarnate, enable us all to ‘reign in life’ (v 17). Now, in him, we can receive everything we need to move towards our true and God-given goal.
‘… let us press on to know the Lord’.2
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Numbers 8,9; Acts 16
Pray for Scripture Union
Please pray that God will prepare the hearts of many more children and young people to hear about Jesus and the difference he makes to the adventures and challenges of life. (This week's prayers relate to Where faith is seeded, gardeners are needed.)
