READ: Romans 5:12-21
Verses
chosen for meditation: Romans 5:19-21
19 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. 20 Now the
law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace
abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin
reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
REFLECT
Today,
we tackle some uncomfortable truths, but still truths nonetheless. In this
section, Paul contrasts the work of Adam, the first human and Christ’s work on
the cross.
We
first look at the relationship between sin and death in Romans 5:12. Sin
entered the world through one man’s (Adam) disobedience. Eve was involved but
Paul was holding Adam responsible, and rightly so. Eve was deceived when she
sinned, but Adam sinned with full knowledge of God’s command.
As
a result, death entered the world through that sin. Then all people experienced
death, because all sinned. The event in Genesis 3 had cosmic repercussions on
all humanity. Paul’s basically saying we have all sinned in and through Adam,
and therefore all died and will die. If Adam didn’t commit the original sin,
mankind would be immortal.
One
thing to note regarding death coming into the world, is that “world” in this
context, is referring to humanity. So, it is not death to all things in
general. Death of non-human species existed during and before Adam’s time. But
the human species is special to God, created in His image, and He meant for humanity
to thrive without death. Death as wages of sin is serious not so much because
we physically disintegrate, but it symbolises spiritual death, separation from God.
Sin
has a corporate nature to it. Because of Adam’s sin, everyone is caught up
together in sin, being born into a world of sin. Before we think that’s unfair,
God offers something even more unfair through another man. We are justified (made
righteous in God’s eyes) by Jesus’ work on the cross, not only from Adam’s sin,
but every sin that comes after.
RELATE
God
has always dealt with humanity through a representative. The story of humanity
is summarised by what happened because of Adam, and what has happened and will
happen because of Christ. But can we accept this teaching? It is harder in our
postmodern era, with our individualism as compared to those who, say, grew up
in tribes, where collective solidarity is a given. The theme of human
solidarity is not alien in the Bible, but we may place our cultural perspectives
above that of the Bible.
Because
of this discomfort, scholars argue or interpret differently these verses. The differing
views in trying to link or de-link our human fate to Adam’s sin is not what’s crucial.
What’s crucial is that we see how this original sin shapes how we think of what
Christ has done. What that means is that we could not understand properly what
Christ did until we see what Adam did. That’s the point of Paul’s contrast.
Why
was Adam’s sin so serious, and by extension, all our sins? This is because at
the heart of it, every sin is linked to how we make ourselves god, though we were
created for God. Sin entered the world, not simply because “Oops, I picked a
fruit from a wrong tree. Sorry!” It’s not so much about breaking a rule, but
about dethroning God and elevating self. It’s about me becoming the centre of
the universe, so that, God, if He exists, can serve me, or else, I’ll find
another god who can. That’s the beginning of idolatry.
It’s
interesting that in the 10 commandments, the first 2 commandments are not to
have other gods, and not to have idols. Why this is so because the disobedience
of those 2 leads to the disobedience of the rest. Idolatry starts when I try to
be the centre of the universe, finding other gods to serve me. Then I meet you,
and you also want to be the centre of the universe. Hence, we build walls
between us and fight over spoils. What follows is envy, pride, violence,
hatred, arrogance and all sorts of sins because we try to be our own god,
rather than submit to our actual Lord.
Even
babies are not innocent. Without needing to teach children how to be bad, we
see the inherent nature of children in making themselves the centre. Only difference
between them and us, is that they do it so openly like it’s the most natural
thing, while we disguise our self-centredness with some humility, a thin veil
concealing our egos.
By
making ourselves god, we separate ourselves from God and He comes in judgment.
The wonderful thing is, despite standing against us in judgement, God still
pursues us and provides the means for returning to Him, in Christ’s work (v19-21).
Unless we appreciate and understand how messed up the nature of Adam’s and our
sins, we cannot appreciate how wonderful God’s solution is.
We
may dislike the idea that we are guilty for something that Adam did, but the
truth is our commonality with Adam is confirmed by our own sins each day. If we’re
honest with ourselves, the brokenness in the world starts with the brokenness
in us. Because we are broken as sinners, what we need is not justice, but God’s
mercy and grace.
Then,
in v20, it talks about the law and how it increases the trespass. How does that
make sense? Surely the law was given so we become more righteous and less sinful.
But it says the intention of the law is to increase sin, not decrease it! Before
Moses’ law, sin still exists, but people were not law breakers since things
were not explicitly spelled out to tell them how wrong their sins are.
With
the law, they became law breakers, knowingly disobeying God’s direct commands.
The law didn’t make them righteous as they continued in the same sins. However,
this time, they did it with full knowledge that it was wrong, like Adam. It was
blatant rebellion. In that sense, sin increased. It was more serious. But the
law made people realise their brokenness and sinful nature more. Now, they can
truly appreciate the ugliness that is in them and their helplessness against
it, leading them to admit that they need God’s grace.
Where
sin increases, grace abounds all the more. Are we captivated by this line? There
is a danger of us using words like grace and forgiveness so often that it rolls
off our lips without being moved by them anymore. God’s grace is so abundant
and powerful that it could cover the increase in, and sheer ugliness of sin. We
cannot out-sin God’s mercies and forgiveness. This, however, doesn’t give us
the license to sin freely to “give opportunities” for God’s grace to be shown
more, as Paul would clarify in Romans 6.
May
we have an increased awareness of how ugly sin is, so that we can be captivated by how
valuable, how spectacularly overflowing the grace of Christ is, and how powerful
the release it brings to us.
REST
It was my sin that held him there,
until it was accomplished.
His dying breath has brought me life.
I know that it is finished.
Lyrics
from the song: How Deep the Father’s Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gdy8Bu8Cg0
Chris
Chong
Comments
Post a Comment