Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : February 13, 2005
Grace Triumphed in the Second Adam
Lent 1
Who's your favorite movie superhero? First there was Superman. Three or four movies were made of him. He was followed soon by Batman. He had at least four movies made of him. The latest superhero is Spiderman. We've seen two Spiderman movies so far, and I'm sure they'll make more if people will continue to pay to see them. And they will. Why do people love superheroes? I think one reason is that the superhero always wins. Feel-good movies sell. Could you imagine if in the first Superman movie Superman got killed in the first five minutes of the movie and the rest of the movie is about Lex Luthor setting up his evil empire and causing untold misery and sadness and then the movie ends? It wouldn't sell. Good always triumphs over evil. It has to. At least it has to in the movies.
Unfortunately, that really isn't how it works in the real world. Sometimes crime and evil do triumph, and good loses. Innocent people are murdered. People die in car accidents. Thousands die in natural disasters or from disease or just from old age. Actually, everybody eventually dies. And if that were the end of the movie, this life would be pretty bleak indeed. But that's why we need to listen to the Apostle Paul. He tells us that even in the midst of a world filled with evil and death, good triumphs. Except Paul says it like this: Grace Triumphed in Christ, the Second Adam. Paul proves his point by comparing the first Adam, who brought sin into the world, with the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who took sin away.
Earlier this morning we had a biology professor teach our Bible class on stem cell research. So I thought I would continue in the area of biology this morning. Does anyone know what the most poisonous animal in the world is? I was rather surprised to find that it wasn't a spider or a snake. Most biologists think it's the Poison Arrow (or Dart) Frog. How poisonous is it? Just to give you an idea, there are six micrograms of ink in the period at the end of a sentence. Just two micrograms of the poison of the Poison Arrow Frog can kill a human. But even deadlier than that is the Box Jelly Fish that lives off of Australia. If you don't get medical attention within 30 seconds to 4 minutes, you will die if struck by the Box Jelly Fish. Just one of them has enough venom in it to kill 40 human beings. Now, is it safe to say that if you were even close to one of these, you'd give it a wide berth? You wouldn't even want to get close to those animals because they could kill you.
But there is a poison now that makes all of these poisons look like child's play. It's odorless and colorless and tasteless. It kills you dead instantly -- on the spot -- when you come into contact with it. In fact, this poison is so deadly that you don't even have to come into contact with it at all for it to kill you. If your father or mother was exposed to it, you're as good as dead. In fact, if any ancestor of yours was ever exposed to it, you're as good as dead. It is worse than any poison you can think of. Usually poison can be diluted by putting it in water. But the poison I'm talking about is so deadly that if you start off with the smallest, tiniest, most minute amount of it and drop it in a bucket of water, the whole bucket of water becomes just as deadly as one drop of poison. If you take one drop of this poison and drop it into the ocean, the whole ocean will become just as deadly as that first drop of poison. That's how bad this poison is.
Can you guess what this poison is? It's the poison called sin. Paul tells us, "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned." Who was the one man through whom sin entered the world? Adam, who was created in the image of God and so was perfect in every way, sinned. When he sinned, he lost God's image of perfection and holiness, and ever since every single cute little baby in the world is born a sinner. And as David says, is even conceived in sin. And God has to punish sin because he is holy. That means he had to punish you for your sin, because thanks to Adam, you are a sinner. But that doesn't mean we can sit back and blame Adam. Every time we tell a little white lie or fail to honor our parents or fail to discipline our children as God wants or fail to teach them at home how important Christ needs to be in their lives, we show we have been exposed to sin and are many times guilty of sin everyday. The one sin of Adam was enough to damn every single human being after Adam, and every one of your sins was enough to send you to hell as well. All that's from one sin. It doesn't seem fair, does it? But that is fair in God's eyes because he hates sin so much. Think about it. One sin that Adam committed in the Garden of Eden meant that when you came to be, you would be a sinner. And you are. Wow! One sin! One time of disobeying God, and everyone goes to hell. Wow! That was a huge sin, wasn't it? So huge that everyone, before they can even breathe or think or do anything -- including commit a sin themselves -- they are already sinners and going to hell. Wow! What a huge sin that was!
Paul says, "The result of one trespass was condemnation for all men." So one sin equals death for everyone instantly. All people were instantly enemies of God; they were spiritually dead immediately.
But Adam was actually a pattern of the one to come who would triumph over sin, as great as sin was and is. As far-reaching and horrible as the one sin of Adam was to send all people of all time to hell, the grace that comes through Jesus is greater. And Paul shows how Jesus is greater starting in verse 15 of our text: "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!" Paul's point is this:
1 man committed 1 sin...now all are sinners...now all die.
1 man was righteous...now all sinners are righteous...now all live.
In order for life actually to result now for all men even though all were dead, that one life of righteousness must have been greater than that huge sin committed by Adam. God's grace triumphed abundantly -- it overflowed to many. Why does Paul use the word 'many' instead of all? Because he is trying to emphasize how many people are now declared righteous in Christ. If you were one of only three people that showed up for worship this morning, I can say that all three of you showed up for worship -- of you three, all of you were there. Now even though I said all were there, it doesn't really mean that much because it is only talking about three people. But by using the word 'many', Paul is emphasizing the huge number of sinners that are now declared righteous through Christ. Really it is all people -- all people who have ever lived, are living right now, and will ever live -- that is a huge amount. Wow!
I'd like to compare sin to a piece of paper. It takes 250 pieces of paper stacked on top of each other to make an inch. Now Just think of how many people live in this world -- about 7 billion. If each person sinned just ten times -- just ten times -- a day and each of those sins was represented by the width of a piece of paper, do you know how long it would take for that paper stacked piece-by-piece next to each other to reach all the way around the world? Less than a week. In a year's time it could go around the world 52 times. In the average person's lifetime it would reach from the earth to the sun. That's a lot of sins. Now think of all the people in the world since Adam and all the sins all people have committed. That is an amazing figure. It really adds up. Then think of how great the grace of God is to cover over all those sins. Wow!
God's grace covers every sin...God can judge the world innocent. Verse 17 in our text: "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." Death ruled us. We had no hope. That was the result of one sin -- death ruled us. Now that Christ came and lived a perfect life for us and died on the cross taking away the sins of the world, we rule with Christ. We are the victors. We are triumphant through Christ and the amazing unlimited grace he gave us by sacrificing himself and declaring us righteous even though we are filthy with sin.
Paul sums it up in verse 18: "Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men." The second Adam, Jesus, triumphed over everything that the first Adam caused to come into the world and to all people by nature. Jesus triumphed by obeying God, where the first Adam and all of us failed. But where does that put us? In the perfect position, because we are triumphant through faith in Christ.
No, it doesn't seem like good always triumphs over evil in this world; the good guys don't always win. But in the most important thing in this world the good Guy did win, and we are all good guys because of it, and we win through what he did for us. You are not ruled by death any longer, but you live. Use the life Christ has given you to live then for the One who saved you from death. Amen.
