The text for our meditation on God’s Holy Word is the Epistle lesson appointed for this First Sunday in Lent. I bring you grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
What we have before us today in the three lessons appointed for this first Sunday in Lent is a summary of the basic teaching of the Bible on sin and salvation that I have summarized in the sermon title: “Death in Adam-Life in Christ”.
Genesis tells us how sin entered the world and what it did to us. The Gospel lesson shows us what Christ has done to earn our salvation by remaining faithful to God in temptation. And Romans perfectly joins them together so that we can clearly see the terrible curse of original sin for what it is—so that we can understand it’s deadly effects in our live—and so that we can give thanks to God for his incredible grace that has made things right again in his Son Jesus Christ. The bible says:
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—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. Genesis tells the tragic story of mankind’s fall into sin. It is the Bible’s historical account of how we came to this place of spiritual broken-ness that always—without fail—leads to death.
The first thing that I want you to recognize from that early history of mankind is that there is a demonic element to our fallen human condition. The Bible doesn’t tell us a lot about the angelic rebellion against God except that by the time that Adam and Eve arrived in creation, evil already existed and Satan was determined to destroy mankind.
The same is still true of the world today. The Bible says that the devil is a roaring lion looking for people he can destroy. Those who deny the existence of Satan as a belief unworthy of modern people—deny the Bible. Satan is real.
But while rebellion against God did not originate with Adam, it is Adam’s disobedience that brought sin into the world and into every human life that followed. And yes, it is Adam and not Eve who sin is counted against even though Eve sinned first--because Adam came first-- and Eve came from him and when he sinned it destroyed every one of his children all who would come after him. All of them!
From the moment that Adam disobeyed God and ate from the tree in the Garden of Eden that was forbidden to him—he and every one of his descendants have been affected by his sin and die because of it—including us here today.
There are no exceptions or exemptions regarding the deadly effects of Adam’s sin. The Bible says that death spread to ALL men—even to those who did not break a specific command of God.
Adam and Eve had a specific command of God not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would die. Moses was given the Ten Commandments and death was the consequence for breaking those commandments.
But in between Adam in the Garden and Moses on Mount Sinai there was no particular, special revelation of God’s will in an audible or written way-- and yet every single person within that great length of time also died. Why is that?
First of all, even though there was no audible command or written law, the will of God was still written in man’s heart. Every person knew that it was wrong to kill and steal and commit adultery because God had written his will into their heart.
Ignorance of the Ten Commandments—or even the absence of the Ten Commandments (like there was for all those years between Adam and Moses) was no excuse.
Neither is it an excuse today. The Law of God is still written into every human heart. People can deny it—they can suppress it—they can join churches that tell them that it is no longer in effect--but they can’t get rid of it-- because it is written in their hearts and it accuses them and convicts them and God holds them accountable for it.
Second of all, every person between Adam and Moses died because Adam’s sin had spread to them simply by virtue of their being a part of the human family. Even little children died during that time just like they do today-- not because they had committed some great offense against the Ten Commandments or even sinned against the law written in their heart—but because they were descended from Adam.
The Bible says that death reigned over humanity even during this time that lacked a particular revelation of God’s will for humanity, because of the sin of Adam that was passed on to every human person.
Adam’s actions affected the entire world and in this, the Bible says, he is a type or a picture of the Savior who would come, Jesus Christ, but only for this reason: that the actions of Jesus Christ would also affect every person in the world—not for our condemnation—but for our salvation. The bible says that:
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. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. One man’s disobedience brought condemnation upon every single person in the world—Adam’s sin destroyed our life with God and brought death to every person.
But another man’s actions—Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection-- made things right between mankind and God--so that Christ’s resurrection from the dead was God’s declaration of “not guilty” spoken upon the entire world-- just as he had declared the whole world guilty in Adam and condemned us to death.
In our Gospel lesson today we see Jesus making things right between God and mankind—standing in Adam’s place where Adam fell (and where we fall) and succeeding in true obedience and righteousness of life—saying “no” to Satan every place where we have sinned and said “yes”.
Satan came to Jesus just as he did Adam: with food—with a promise of power—with a promise of a position equal to God. But where Adam fell into temptation and by his sin destroyed humanity (where we do the same) Jesus resisted temptation and was the faithful, obedient man whom God demands every one of us to be.
In that one powerful scene of our Lord’s victory over temptation in the wilderness, we see Satan’s reign over mankind being broken by Christ’s perfect obedience to his Father’s will-- and so it would continue throughout our Lord’s life—moment by moment fulfilling—for us-- in our place every thing that God wanted humanity to be right up until that moment when he suffered on the cross for sins that were not his own—but Adam’s sins and our sins and the sins of all of men.
When Jesus Christ was raised by the glory of the Father three days later—the death sentence that was pronounced on each and every one of us by God because of the sins of Adam and our sin—was lifted off of us-- because of the obedience of Jesus in our place. Where there was death in Adam, now there is life in Christ.
Once again we can know God and love God and have a life with God. And all of this is given to us as a free gift of God’s grace. How much clearer could the Holy Spirit make it, than he makes it here, that our salvation—our justification before God—our right standing and right relationship with God-- is solely his gift to us based upon his Son’s work?! Salvation is by God’s grace alone!
But we also need to know that that the gift of salvation through Christ’s righteousness must be received by us personally and individually if we are to benefit from it-- for salvation is not only BY grace alone, it is received by us THROUGH faith alone. The bible says:
If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. God has reconciled the world to himself in Christ. Jesus has fully atoned for the sins of all humanity. He has destroyed the reign of death and restored the reign of life by his own mighty resurrection from the grave. The justification of the world is an accomplished fact of history. That is what the Bible teaches about the work of Jesus.
So does that mean then that every person will be saved? Does that mean that every person will go to heaven? No! Because each person must receive what Christ has done for the world for himself if the reign of Christ’s life is to be present in his own life.
There are no exclusions or exemptions to the necessity of faith in Jesus—not because of gender—not because of race—not because of a lack of knowledge of the Gospel—not because of age. Even babies need to receive the salvation Christ has won for them on the cross which is why we bring them to the waters of Holy Baptism so that they, who by birth are given death from Adam, can receive life in Christ. The Bible says:
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. It is the worst possible news that one man’s trespass-- thousands upon thousands of years ago-- has caused the death of every person who has ever lived. But that is not the end of the story about us by any means—and in fact, the certainty of our demise points—with certainty to something far better.
Besides the old Adam who brought sin and death into the world—there was another Adam—a new Adam—who brought righteousness and life. And just as certainly as we die for the first Adam’s sin—so we will just as certainly live because of the second Adam’s obedience and righteousness.
That’s the point God is making here in these verses! There is simply no denying that all of us are alienated from God by nature and that we will all die—we’ve experienced that in our congregation twice in as many weeks. But neither is there any denying that we have all been declared right in God’s sight and through faith in Jesus will live forever in his presence. Just as certain as there is death in Adam—so is there life in Christ.
What Jesus Christ did in his holy life, bloody death, and glorious resurrection MEANS life and salvation for us! Through faith in Jesus Christ you are right in God’s sight and restored to the perfect relationship Adam had with God in the beginning and you will live forever for there is life in Christ. Amen.
And now may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
