IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD - GRACE
Rev. Bernt P. Tweit
Old Testament Lesson; Genesis 2:7-9, 15-17, 3:1-7
Gospel Lesson; Matthew 4:1-11
Sermon Text; Romans 5:12-19
What can I do? I am only one person. We think we are insignificant. After all, what can one person do?
A man was once trying to convince his friend that one person could make a lasting impression on others. To prove his point, he said that he would introduce a new word into the English language. That night he chalked on walls and pavements throughout Dublin, Ireland, four letters:
Q - U - I - Z
which he had chosen at random from the alphabet.
The next morning everyone who saw this unusual expression was baffled at it. One person after another would ask, "What does it mean?"
It wasn't long until the newspapers took up the question, and eventually this strange sounding word was on the lips of everyone.
The term 'quiz' was incorporated into the language as a synonym for 'questioning'.
He proved his point, that one person can leave a lasting impression on others!
Today I would like to talk about the lasting impression of two men. The first brought death. The second brought life.
The first man is Adam. Our text says..."sin entered the world through one man" Romans 5:12. The Bible puts the full blame of our sin on the shoulders of Adam, the father of the human race. God had given to Adam a clear command and warning when He said, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die." Genesis 2:16-17
Adam disobeyed this command. He ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As a result of his disobedience, sin was introduced to all. And, because of this one sin of Adam, everyone dies.
Have you ever stood by the grave of a loved one? A lady once told about the death of her husband. They had purchased burial plots side by side with one headstone to be shared between the two of them. When the headstone was in place, she went to visit the grave. There, next to her husband’s name on the tombstone, was her name. The only thing that was missing on that tombstone was…
her death date.
Reality set in.
Death is a reality.
One man brought sin and death into the world. "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned." Romans 5:12.
When Adam set his will above the Will of God, he stood in defiance of the One who gave him life.
God did not stand for it. He told Adam, "The day you eat of this tree, you will surely die." And die he did. Oh, he did not drop dead on the spot. Something much more serious occurred. The perfection God gave him at creation – his holiness and his sinlessness, was gone. Now, replacing his perfection, was the total desire to step over every boundary God had set for Adam.
In the book, The Strong Willed Child, by Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Dobson tells of a father who brought his little daughter to a basketball game. The father permitted her to roam freely and climb on the bleachers, but he set up definite limits regarding how far she could stray. He took her by the hand and walked with her to a stripe painted on the gym floor. He said to her, "You can play all around the building, Janie, but don’t go past this line." He had no sooner returned to his seat, than the toddler scurried in the direction of the forbidden territory. She stopped at the border for a moment, then flashed a grin over her shoulder to her father, and deliberately placed one foot over the line, as if to say, "Whacha gonna do about it?"
Unfortunately, Adam gave that same willful defiance of sin to us. We have had it since we were conceived. Just as we inherit many qualities from our parents, such as our eye and hair color, facial features and personalities, we also inherit their sin. Think about that the next time you display your mother’s or your father’s anger and see her or him coming out in you. When we defiantly stand our ground and refuse to budge, even though we know we are wrong, we are Adam.
When we take God’s name in vain,
and think it is funny,
we stand in defiance before God.
When we are promiscuous before marriage,
we stand in defiance before God.
When we blatantly lie
before the face of those in authority over us,
we stand in defiance before God.
We stand in defiance
because we have stepped over the boundary
God has given to us.
You know what God said about Adam because he sinned: "Altogether Adam lived 930 years, and then he died." That epitaph is your epitaph; it is mine as well. We may not live 930 years, but what Adam did in Eden changed the world. He established everyone as a sinner and brought us death. Death has come to all because all have sinned.
One man did leave a lasting impression on the world. Adam’s sin brought death. As a result, what we deserve, not only because of Adam’s sin but also because of our own sin, is death.
Let us also look at the lasting impression of the second Man. He is Jesus. Adam brought death, but Jesus brought life, he gives to us the Gift of God.
The last verse of our text says, "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." Romans 5:19
Jesus undid what Adam did in Eden. He did it through his one act of obedience. Jesus never stood in defiance of God’s Will. He did just the opposite. He said, "I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me." John 6:38
Jesus says, "I and the Father are one." He came into the world without sin; absent of the filth with which we are afflicted.
The God-Man stood in
perfect obedience
to satisfy the
perfect demands
of our
perfect God.
There are two ways in which Jesus was obedient. His first obedience was in his everyday life. Jesus never sinned. Jesus fulfilled the law, the commands of God, for us through his perfection. His second obedience was his willingness to go to the cross and suffer and die in our place.
"Christ died for sins once
for all,
the righteous for the unrighteous,
to bring us to God.
I Peter 3:18
Jesus obeyed his Heavenly Father by taking the punishment that is ours for every defiant sin we have committed and will commit.
When the soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross,
Jesus carried our defiant sins with him.
His blood poured over those sins and
washed them clean.
His one act of obedience
changed the world!
His immortal words,
"It is finished"
established everyone as righteous!
He gave to us the
Gift of God!
Jesus’ role in God’s plan is central, and any attempt to push Jesus to the background misses the point.
Jesus is the only way
we can go from death
to life,
from sinner
to saint!
Just as we can’t escape the effects of Adam’s sins, we can’t escape the central role of Jesus in our restoration. However, we need to believe in Jesus, to have life. Jesus’ replacement of death with the Gift of God comes to us freely, by faith in our Savior. The Bible says, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Acts 4:12
The man in Dublin, Ireland left a lasting impression on the world with his word Q – U – I – Z.
Adam left a lasting impression on the world through his sin. His sin brought death.
Jesus also left a lasting impression on the world.
His obedience brought life!
His obedience brought the gift of God!
Throughout this sermon I have been referring to the Gift of God. What is this gift of God? The gift of God is nothing other than grace. Grace is God’s undeserved love for us. In catechism class we teach students the word Grace as an acronym:
G od’s
R iches
A t
C hrist’s
E xpense.
God’s grace isn’t something that we deserve, because we are sinners. God’s grace is something that we receive, because He loves us!
Amen.
Top of Page
|| Church Sermons || Return to Home Page