Readings for today: Romans 5-8
The fundamental story of the Bible is a story of life and death. It’s a story of how death first entered the world. Once upon a time, there was a man named Adam. Adam lived in a garden full of perfection and beauty. He enjoyed perfect communion with His Creator. His job was to care for all His Creator had made. Alongside Adam, there was also a woman. Her name was Eve. Together they labored for who knows how long, living in perfect harmony with God, with each other, and with the world God had made. God had entrusted His world into their hands. Given them all the authority and responsibility for it. They were His image-bearers. His high priests. His representatives. But they soon grew tired of playing this role. They aspired to something more. A role they were not designed for. And when they grasped for that role, they fell. We call that fall “sin.” It was the breaking of God’s commands. More importantly, it was the betrayal of a relationship. The cost of this betrayal was high. They were exiled from their perfect garden. Their perfect communion with God was broken. The world that had once thrived under the blessing of their careful stewardship now suffered under the tyranny of their selfishness and greed. But still they were responsible. God never revoked their dominion. Instead, He held them accountable. He judged them with righteousness and justice. Death was the punishment for their sin. And so this huge abyss opened up, separating us from God. And this abyss dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses, from Moses to David, from David to the Babylonian Exile, from the Babylonian Exile to the rebuilding of the Temple, from the rebuilding of the Temple to John the Baptist.
Then something miraculous took place. The same God who made Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed His own Spirit into Adam’s lungs conceived a child in a virgin’s womb through the power of the Holy Spirit. Unlike Adam, Jesus was not born into a perfect world. He was born into a world corrupted and broken and torn apart by violence and suffering and pain. The wages of sin on full display. Death stalking around every corner. And yet Jesus enjoyed perfect communion with His Heavenly Father. In Him was life not death and that life was the light of all humankind. Through His birth, life, death, and resurrection, Jesus brings life into the world and overthrows the reign of death. He bridges the abyss that separated us from God. Death may have had the upper hand for centuries but life - God’s life - overwhelms it in the end. And those who place their faith in Jesus Christ receive this incredible gift. The gift of eternal life itself. The gift of a life beyond death. A life that overcomes death. A life that will transcend death.
Here’s the bottom line: Just as death entered the world through Adam’s sin so life enters the world through Jesus’ righteousness. Just as one person chose to elevate himself to a place he didn’t belong and so brought the whole world down around him so another person chose to humble Himself to a place He didn’t belong and so lifted the whole world up. Just as one man said “No” to God and put humanity herself at risk so another man said “Yes” to God and saved humanity from her sin. And all that is now asked of humanity is faith. Trust. Belief. Hope. God has taken the broken pieces of this world and put them back together again through Jesus Christ,
Readings for tomorrow: Romans 9-12