Scripture: Romans
5:12-19
Romans is St. Paul’s masterpiece on justification – the
doctrine which explains how God makes us right with himself through Jesus’
death and resurrection. In this reading we deal with how sin and death entered
the world and God’s response to save us from sin and death. This reading goes
along with the other readings this week as it goes all the way back to the
first sin to explain how sin and death entered the world, points us to Jesus as
the one who overcame temptation on our behalf, and extolls God’s gracious
forgiveness.
Teaching
Sin, in its active definition, is disobedience. When we
disobey God, we sin. Sin, however, is not only action. It is a state of being
that all people are born into. “Here we must confess (as St. Paul says in Rom.
5) that sin comes from that one being, Adam, through whose disobedience all
people became sinners and subject to death and the devil. This is called the
original sin, or the chief sin.”[1]
Here we must recognize that we are not sinners only because we sin (our action),
but because we are sinners (our state of being) we disobey God, as Adam did,
and therefore sin and die.
God, however, has responded to our sin with mercy and grace.
He gives a new beginning in Jesus, who serves the role of a second Adam. In a
sense, Jesus is all of humanity boiled down to one person. His righteousness (his
holiness and obedience to God) includes his sacrificial death which brings
justification. He reverses the flow of Adam’s sin which moved humanity into
death, and Jesus’ obedience brings salvation and life to all who believe.
Life
Lent is often seen as a time to address sinful habits and to
focus on repentance and fasting to purge our lives of things that tempt us. If
we choose to fast or if we choose not to fast, the message of Lent is the same
for all of us: Jesus has purged sin from us and rescued us from death by his
obedience in his life, death, and resurrection.
As an exercise today, think for a moment about sin as a
fatal disease passed on from generation to generation. Look around you and in
you to see its symptoms and impact. Think back across history, even just your
lifetime, and see how it has brought death into the world. Now think of Jesus’
life, death, and resurrection as the cure for that disease. What will you do
with the cure? How will you apply the cure to yourself? Your family? Your
neighbors? Your enemies?
Prayer
“In Adam we have all been one, One huge rebellious man; We
all have fled that evening voice That sought us as we ran.
“But Thy strong love, it sought us still And sent Thine only
Son That we might hear His Shepherd’s voice And, hearing Him be one.
“Send us Thy Spirit, teach us truth; Thou Son, O set us free
From fancied wisdom, self-sought ways, To make us one in Thee.”[2]
Amen
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