Death and life

DEVOTION

ROMANS

DEATH AND LIFE

Rom 5:12-17

12 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— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 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. 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! 16 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. 17 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.

NIV

Even without a law, sin existed. Although God had not yet given the complete law through Moses, he did tell Adam one rule. This could in some sense be considered a law, but not the law. Paul makes that clear, the law did not come till Moses. Yet Adam still disobeyed the one rule God gave him, not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What this tells us is that even if there was no law, man can sin. The law merely gave us more to be disobedient to. However, sin was not sin until the law was given. That is difficult to understand as if it was in the world before the law, and was not taking into account, did that mean men where not condemned because of their disobedience? How could that be, since when Adam, who was created to be eternal, died after he disobeyed God. The fact remains, sin brings death. The result of sin is death whether it was before the law or after the law. The law only gave more for man to sin. What we are also told is that even if we personally never sinned, which is absurd to even think that is possible, we would still be in sin and die as a result because we are all a descendant of Adam. Because if this one man’s sin we all sin. That is the point Paul is making here. He does that so he can make the case for not dying because of Jesus Christ. If we sin and die because of one man, Adam, then we can be blameless, declared innocent of sin because of one man, Jesus. But we have to accept God’s provision for eternal life. In addition, although the law brought more for man to sin, that was not the reason for the law. It was to show man he could not be righteous on his own by keeping the law. No one could keep all the law, except Jesus. Sometimes we might think we do not sin, in fact, we have heard some Christians actually say they do not sin in word, thought or deed. However, in just saying that they sin. The truth, is that Jesus is the only man who did not sin in word, thought or deed and it is only through accepting him as our Lord and Savior are we freed from death and given eternal life. Through Adam we all die, but through Jesus we can live. It does not make any sense to live to die, if we can live forever. This is all a matter of life or death.