Old Testament Lesson; Genesis 2:7-3:7
Gospel Lesson; Matthew 4:1-11
Sermon Text; Romans 5:12-19

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned – for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 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 was a pattern of the one to come.

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! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 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."

Now, just having read through that section of scripture, Romans 5:12-19, at first glance it seems pretty confusing, doesn't it? But, here are basically the two prevailing thoughts of what it is that I just read through. It is the difference of death and life.

Death has come to us,

because of Adam.

And life has come to us,

because of Christ.

So, what may be confusing to us right now, hopefully, will be crystal clear for us by the time I am done with my sermon.

Let me start by putting it to you this way. Let's say there was a servant whose name was Jack. It was Jack's job to chop wood for his master. He had been doing this for as long as he could remember. One day, Jack thinks to himself, "Whose fault is it that I am here, chopping wood for my master?" And so, he starts to wonder, "Is it my parents' fault? Is it my grandparents' fault?" And Jack finally comes to the realization it is Adam's fault. It is Adam's fault that I am here chopping wood for my master. So, Jack begins to chop his wood harder, to take out his frustration.

Well, his master comes to see Jack. He can see that he is disturbed. So he says to Jack, "Jack, what is wrong?"

Jack says, "It is Adam's fault. It is Adam's fault that I am here in this predicament, chopping wood for you."

And so his master says, "Well, Jack, if it is Adam's fault, and it is not your fault, quit chopping wood. Go to my house, into the kitchen, sit down at the table, and I will have a delicious meal made for you." And the master concludes by saying, "Jack, I don't want you to look inside of the little box that is sitting on the kitchen table."

So Jack goes into the house, sits down at the kitchen table, eats a delicious meal, looks up from his plate, when he is done with his meal, and lo and behold, there is that box, sitting in the middle of the kitchen table. Jack goes over to the box, and picks it up. It is super light. He says, "There can't possibly be anything in this box." He opens the box, sees one sheet of paper, and takes out the sheet of paper.

This is what it says.

"Dear Jack,

See! Don’t ever blame Adam again. If you would have been in his place, you would have done the same thing.

Go back and chop some more wood."

Now that is just a little illustration this morning showing that we can't blame Adam only for our sin.

Today, in our scripture reading, we are going to see that we are equally as guilty of our sin, as Adam is.

Again, the two prevailing thoughts that we are going to be looking at in our text for today is how death has come to us because of Adam's sin and our own, but also how life has come to us through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our text begins today by saying, "Just as sin entered the world through one man," sin comes out on the stage. Sin is standing there, front and center. But wherever there is sin, there is also death. And so, death comes out on the stage, and sin and death are standing there hand in hand, because where there is one there is the other.

And we see the result of one man's sin, as it has presented itself to the world. Because of the sin of Adam, and because of our sin, death has come into the world. Notice what happened after the fall into sin. Cain killed his brother Abel. And then, as we look at the table of nations, from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, it says that everybody lived and then it says this.

And then he died.

Adam lived and then he died. Seth lived and then he died. Enoch lived and then he died. Kenan lived and then he died…and that continues all the way up to Noah. And that continues up to us, today. The cause of Adam's sin means that the death rate is 100%.

We can't completely blame it on Adam. Our text for today also says that we have sinned. And so, I ask the question this morning, "Is there sin in your life?" And the answer is, "yes." Let me just take the sins of lying and gossip. If I were to give to everybody a tube of toothpaste this morning and a little dish, and I were to ask you to squeeze all of the toothpaste out of that tube and into that dish, it would be an easy thing to do, wouldn't it? Probably, even fun. But, after you have squeezed all of that toothpaste out of the tube into that dish, I now ask you to put the toothpaste back into the tube, it would be impossible. Squeezing the toothpaste out of the tube is much like the words that come out of our mouths - words of lying and gossip. Once we say them, we cannot retract them. Those words of gossip that come out of our mouths can only damage another person's reputation. And the words that come out of our mouths as lying need to be covered up by another lie, that comes out of our mouths. We simply can't retract them. But rather, scripture says,

"Let no unwholesome talk

come out of your mouth,

but only that which is

useful for building one another up."

Yes, we are guilty because of Adam's sin, but we are also guilty because of the sins that we have committed. And wherever there is sin, standing hand in hand with it, is death. And that is what we deserve. That is what the first paragraph of our text for today is talking about. How, because of sin, death will come to us.

But, thanks be to God that we also have the second paragraph to look at, as well, today. In the second paragraph we hear how when Christ came, who is a pattern of Adam, He came to undo what Adam did. And through Christ's act of righteousness, He has undone death and He has given to us life and salvation.

Let me put it this way, this morning, with this illustration. This made pretty good press a couple of years ago. There was a man who was a convicted felon who was going to be put to death because of what he had done. Before he was put to death, he said that he wanted to give his cornea to another person who was in need. And so, it was the case that the recipient and the convicted criminal were able to meet, before the criminal was put to death. It made a great human-interest story for the newspapers and the press.

Well it came to be that the criminal was put to death. The cornea was taken from him, given to the recipient, and that blind man was now able to see.

Well, suppose that a police officer came to the recipient of that cornea and said, "You are going to jail, because you have the cornea of a convicted criminal."

Well if that were to go before any judge, the judge would say, "Yes, that cornea was in the eye of a convicted criminal, but it is now in the eye of a man who is righteous in the eyes of the law. Therefore, the cornea is as righteous as the man is.’

The same it is with you and the same it is with me. We were in Adam. And being in Adam, we deserved to die. But thanks be to God that we have been transplanted and we have been placed in Christ. God no longer sees us as sinners. In Christ, and through Christ, God now sees you as if you had never sinned. That is what the second paragraph of our text is telling us, today. While it is the case that we deserve death, because of our sin, Christ who is a pattern of Adam came and He undid what it is that we deserve.

Not less that five times is the word 'gift' used. What it is that we have received is a gift from God. It is not something that we could earn. But rather, it is something that we have freely and graciously received. It is Christ's active obedience, His perfect life that He took to the cross so that we could receive life and salvation. That contrast between Adam, sin, and death, and Christ, life, and salvation becomes even more apparent, when you think of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree on which Christ was crucified. The tree in the Garden of Eden was planted by God. But the tree on which Christ was crucified was planted by a man. God forbade Adam and Eve to eat from the fruit of the first tree, while God freely welcomes us to come and to eat from the fruit of the second tree, through faith in Jesus, as our Savior. By eating fruit from the first tree, Adam and Eve brought sin and death. By eating of the fruit of the second tree, God promises to give life and salvation. When Adam and Eve ate from the first tree, they were banished from paradise. But when the thief on the cross ate from the fruit of the second tree, and when we eat from the fruit of the second tree, Jesus welcomes us and says, "You will be with me in paradise."

How wonderful it is that God did banish Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, so that they could not eat from the tree of life and be sinners and live forever. You see, it is actually a good thing that we do die, because it is only after our temporal death that we receive exactly what it is that Jesus came to win for us. Through His active obedience and through His death, He has given to us exactly what we need. It is the opposite of death.

He has given to us life.

And He has given to us salvation.

It is the very last verse of our text for today that really sums up the first two paragraphs that we looked at. The first paragraph talks about death, and the second paragraph talks about life. The apostle Paul puts it this way. (This is one of those passages in scripture that our confirmation students learn here at Holy Cross.) It closes by saying this,

"For just as through the disobedience of the one man (and that is Adam) many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one Man, (that is Christ) the many will be made righteous."

God says to you, "You are declared not guilty, because of your sin, for Christ's sake."

By faith in Jesus, as our Savior, we too can respond, "We are not guilty!"

Amen.