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Romans 5:15
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!
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February 18
The Gift of God
Romans 5 is a long and complicated comparison
between Adam and Jesus. In essence, Paul
summarizes that because Adam brought death into
the world by himself, this made it possible for
only one man - Jesus - to bring grace into the
world.
Scripture is clear that we are born sinful.
Not only are we sinful at birth as a result of
Adam's sin we are quite capable of sinning on
our own and do so on a regular basis. All
of this sinning means that we deserve to be
punished which means we are worthy of death in
God's eyes.
But Jesus is much greater than Adam. Even
before the fall of man, Adam was not capable of
bringing grace into the world. At best he
could live his life the way it was meant to be
lived and prevent death from entering into the
world through him.
Only through Jesus was grace able to enter into
the world. Grace is not an Old Testament
concept. People lived and died by virtue
of their own righteousness or what God
attributed to them through faith. Not
until Jesus do we have grace.
Jesus was a gift from God when He came to earth.
His grace was a gift to us in place of our sin.
And our salvation is a gift as a result of
having God's grace replace our sins. |
