Sin Brings Death, Jesus Brings Life

Scripture: Romans 5:6-17

⁶ While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. ⁷ It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. ⁸ But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us. ⁹ So, now that we have been made righteous by his blood, we can be even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. ¹⁰ If we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son while we were still enemies, now that we have been reconciled, how much more certain is it that we will be saved by his life? ¹¹ And not only that: we even take pride in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one through whom we now have a restored relationship with God.

¹² Just as through one human being sin came into the world, and death came through sin, so death has come to everyone, since everyone has sinned. ¹³ Although sin was in the world, since there was no Law, it wasn’t taken into account until the Law came. ¹⁴ But death ruled from Adam until Moses, even over those who didn’t sin in the same way Adam did—Adam was a type of the one who was coming.

¹⁵ But the free gift of Christ isn’t like Adam’s failure. If many people died through what one person did wrong, God’s grace is multiplied even more for many people with the gift—of the one person Jesus Christ—that comes through grace. ¹⁶ The gift isn’t like the consequences of one person’s sin. The judgment that came from one person’s sin led to punishment, but the free gift that came out of many failures led to the verdict of acquittal. ¹⁷ If death ruled because of one person’s failure, those who receive the multiplied grace and the gift of righteousness will even more certainly rule in life through the one person Jesus Christ.

Questions

1. What does Paul mean that “Christ died for ungodly people” and “while we were still sinners Christ died for us”?
2. Paul connects sin in Adam to life in Jesus in verse 12, what is the relationship he is trying to demonstrate?
3. How does death rule from Adam until Moses, what is Moses’ role if it is Jesus who ultimately brings life?

Background

Related Scriptures: Genesis 3:9-19, 4:1-16; Matthew 1:18-21, 13:24-43; Romans 3:1-31; 1 John 1:5-10

ἁμαρτία (sin) is a failure or a departure from God’s standards of upright behavior.

One of the context clues for understanding sin is that it is contrasted with “reconciled” indicating that sin is in essence a breach in relationship.

There are many understandings of what it means that “through one human” in verse 12 means, but what seems most likely is that Paul is saying that Adam was the first to sin and from that every person has followed that path. The focus then is on the fact that we each add to the sin in the world through our own failures.

Paul uses Adam as a type of Christ however this is not meant to be a perfect comparison, the point is that each represents humanity and they represent two different paths for us to choose, sin and death or forgiveness and life.

Reflection

Sin is a difficult topic, and one we all live with. Sin is our failing to live out our calling to be the image of God, it is our thoughts, actions, and attitudes that have fractured our relationship with God. Sin is also a universal reality; we each at times willfully turn our backs on the good that God wants from us and we feed our own selfish desires. Sin then represents the breach in our relationship with God caused by our own tendencies to listen to ourselves instead of God. This is exactly what Paul points out in Romans 3-5, that each of us is guilty of a breakdown in our relationship with God, that we are each guilty of moral failures that if left unchecked will lead to destruction. The reality of sin in our world is undeniable and the consequences of that sin is readily apparent to most, even if we sometimes have a difficult time admitting our part.

It can be very difficult to consider that I have failed, especially when the one I have failed is God. In fact, the temptation when recognizing that I failed is to push the blame on to another person or the circumstances of my life, “I only did ____ because you ______.” But this language only attempts to sweep the problem under the rug. Yet this is human nature and it is demonstrated beautifully in Genesis 3-4. When the humans eat the fruit in the garden and God confronts them, they each in turn push the blame somewhere else, trying to excuse their failures by the wrongs of another. And if this story was not enough to convince us of human nature, the next story demonstrates the same response. Cain not only tries to pass the blame he demonstrates the fear that is associated with guilt. And so often this is how we are, locked into guilt and fear, passing the blame, trying to sweep our failures under the rug rather than dealing with them. Paul wants us to see all of this in Romans 5 where he highlights how sin leads to death and that we as humans are prone to take that path. We so often begin to walk toward death in our sin, yet God did not leave us in this plight. Instead, God offers us another choice, restoration of our relationship through Jesus and life in him. But recognizing this life that Jesus brings to us also means confronting the sin in us.

When we recognize our sin and how we have harmed our relationship with God we can come to identify our guilt and accept the path that Jesus offers to us. In confessing our sin we are admitting that our relationship with God has been marred and we are at fault. It is important for us to consider our failings, our sins, not simply because we need to confess them (though that is important) but so that our confessions can lead to growth. In recognizing our sin we recognize where we need to work with God to develop more like God. It is when we intentionally recognize our shortcomings and own them that we can begin to change.

As Paul points out we can grow and change, not because we have simply decided to do so, but because God has opened the door to us through the work of Jesus. It is God’s free gift to be reconciled with us, even though we have been the ones to walk away from God, God still wants us to return. This is why John can tell us that if we confess God is faithful to forgive, because God desires a relationship with us because God is loving and merciful. But we need to recognize the ways we have failed to attain to the moral excellence God desires. This is why there are so many sin lists in the Bible, not that they are comprehensive but a glimpse of all the ways we can fail to live out our calling. Jesus himself provides lists like this (Matthew 15:19) but he boils it down to sin is a failure to love either God or neighbor. Sin is when we allow our selfishness to get in the way of our love for others. Sin is expressed in hatred, greed, disdain, control, and so many other ways, but when we recognize these in ourselves and call on God then the Holy Spirit can begin to replace these with love, mercy, kindness, and compassion. We should recognize the sin in our lives, not in a way that cripples us but in ways that allow us to gain freedom from it and live in new relationship with God through Jesus.