Romans 5:12-20
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. 17 For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The first Adam brought physical and spiritual death to all his descendants having been denied access to the tree of life in Eden’s garden due to their disobedience to God’s word and refusal to take accountability and ask forgiveness. This means all mankind descended from Adam is born in sin under that same judgment of banishment from the tree of eternal life (Genesis 2:17, 3:5-6, 17) and suffers the corruption and eternal consequences (Genesis 3:19) of sin. We have all sinned and come up short (Romans 3:23) of God’s will and design wherein we were originally made and declared to be good (Genesis 1:31) before our fall from the grace of God through our disobedience and lack of faith in God’s word and warning as we attempted to obtain knowledge of good and evil apart from God defining and explaining it to us (Genesis 3:5-6, Hebrews 5:14) as we should have done. Even those few who did not repeat the exact sin of Adam and Eve are still held to account by inheritance of this sin gene in a spiritual sense; every creation after its own kind (Genesis 1:24) to include mankind multiplies and fills the earth after its own nature, which now is corrupted by sin. Death therefore ruled over man until Moses who delivered the Law of God, which if it could be followed would bring deliverance, and instituted atoning sacrifices to temporarily cover our sin by giving life for life. Only the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb, Jesus Christ, could fully and eternally cover our sin as hinted at in Genesis 3:15, 21 which the Law and temple sacrificial system was unable to do. The free gift of God then for our salvation from the consequences of sin is through the second Adam from heaven who is divinely perfect as a spotless Lamb given to us to give abundant grace in place of the sentence of judgment leading to our condemnation which we are all born into. He is perfectly just and so He alone can be our justifier as none other can ever work to accomplish for us. Our own works are forever tainted no matter how good we might imagine they are because the motives of our hearts are painted with sin’s rebellion of disbelief and disobedience. We think that we can choose to come to God our way and reimagine our works to be good enough to earn a seat in heaven, but we come up short every time and need someone else who is perfect to do the work for us. We need therefore to trust God’s word as we failed to do in Eden and take Him at His word and work by faith (John 6:29) instead of vainly and foolishly attempting to work our way through ineffective acts like penance and other ways to be forgiven instead of going to God for forgiveness and righteousness in Christ. Yes, through that one man Adam came disobedience passed down to us all yet by the perfect and righteous work of the one Man who is also perfect God can we obtain eternal life through God’s grace in Jesus Christ abounding so much more than the sin that abounded before Him since the Fall. Death reigns through Adam to us all. Grace reigns in Christ to all who believe, receive Him and His work, and enter into His righteousness to be accounted as righteous in His righteousness and not our own. He is our Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4:2-3, 9-10) we enter into as we cease attempting to gain salvation by our works to pretend we are worthy of deliverance from sin and trust by God-given faith to hear the word of the gospel and rely solely on His work to save us. There is only death in the created Adam’s way of works and sacrifices, but there is life forever with promised assurance in Jesus Christ the second Adam from God Himself who is neither created nor sinful. We trust in Him alone.
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