Amazing Grace

Your Journey to Grace

In my last blog, I shared that we inherited the sinful nature in Adam, the first man. Depravity entered the world. Corruption invaded the human realm and none of us can escape.

I would like to clarify that sin did not originate with Adam. There was sin prior to Adam. Lucifer, that great archangel fell from grace because of his pride¹, he was the first and original sinner. Sin entered into the world and he introduced it to mankind. Adam became the agent of the devil.

Now what kind of death was it? Adam did not die physically after he had sinned. The Bible says that he lived 930 years (Genesis 5:5²). Therefore, he did not die on the spot after his sin. He was separated from God. It was a spiritual death that separated him from the presence of God.

There are three kinds of death:

Spiritual death is the separation from God. Paul talks about it in his letter to the Colossians, where he says that we are dead in our trespasses and sin³. We are alive in the physical dimension but dead to God.

Physical death is the separation from the living. Death is that great enemy that hold every man in fear. We see someone parting in front of our eyes and we reluctantly accept the meaning of a physical death. We ought to be more afraid of the spiritual death, the separation from our creator. Friends don’t fear the physical death. Be fearful that if you have not made a commitment to follow Christ you are separated from God forever. If you are a believer in Christ, physical death is a promotion into the life with God and we can then share the anticipation of Paul when he said that to die is a gain because he would live forever with Christ⁴.

Eternal death is the eternal state of both the physical and spiritual death where you are separated from the living God and from the people you love and all living creatures, and you are eternally dying apart from God and forever in hell⁵.

Dear friends, our depravity, our sinfulness, our fallenness is not the result of our sinning, our sinful inheritance has become the cause of our sinning. We don’t teach babies how to disobey but they do surprise us with their behaviour. The Bible says that the foetus is guilty because it bears the Adamic nature⁶.

Another interesting point to note, when God made a covenant with Abraham to set a people apart for his worship. God said that he wanted Abraham to circumcise every male child on the eight day. Why you may ask? Why did God not ask Abraham to make a mark on the hand so people could see? Why the circumcision? Because the cutting away of that skin was a demonstration of the fact that man needed a cleansing. Something in his life had to be removed, cut away. And more so, in his capacity to procreate. That is so interesting.

Now we all believe in the virgin birth. Christmas is celebrated every year all over the world. But do you know why Jesus had to be born of a virgin? Do you know why Jesus had to bypass a human father? The reflective analysis of the above answers that question. He had to be created by God in the body of a woman, Mary, bypassing the human race altogether, otherwise he would have been born a sinner. The virgin birth is very important because it makes the baby both human and divine, he was a God child.

Let’s summarise a bit:

Sin entered the human race by one-man (ADAM) sinning. When you look around you, there is no perfection. You will all agree that there is sin in the world. We are born in sin.

But God had a plan to save the world. Therefore, by one-man (JESUS) salvation became possible.

The Jews did not understand this. Nor do the religious people. For men have always been instructed that if they are to be forgiven for their sin and have access to God and enter into a right relationship with God, it will happen when they do something. It is going to be because of some level of virtue, some amount of goodness, some religious achievement, some religious ritual and ceremony in which they engage. This has always been the religion of human achievement.

The Bible tells us that by the work of one man, Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, has brought about salvation for all who believe. That message spoke wonders to me. It narrates a story of love between God and man; wonderful grace of a sovereign God bridging a relationship with mankind. And it is nothing that we need to do to earn this wonderful grace. It is a gift given to those who believe that Jesus is the Saviour.

So far, I shared:

A.     Sin entered the world through Adam:

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Roman 5:12 ESV)

“all men” = The Greek word anthropoi refers here to both men and women

The message that the Apostle Paul wants to communicate here in the book of Romans, is that forgiveness of sin and access to God is provided through one person, Jesus Christ.

B.     Death entered the world through sin:

God said to Adam and Eve, if you eat of the fruit you will die. They ate and they died, of a spiritual death. The death principle became operative in Adam⁸ the day they ate of the fruit.

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 12:22 ESV)

C.     Death spread to all men⁹:

Everyone who is born is spiritually dead and one day we will die physically; we have a choice now; we can choose to either die eternally or make reconciliation with God and receive salvation.

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Roman 2:10-12 ESV)

You died because of Adam and you can live eternally and become a saint if you choose Christ to be your Lord and Saviour.

Apostle Paul, in verse 15 of chapter 5, in his letter to the Romans, said that we are justified in Christ.

“Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” (Romans 3:18 ESV)

Much more Grace

In verse 15, Apostle Paul refers to the free gift as ‘much more’ than the ‘one trespass’. Interesting. The grace gift is life in Christ. We have spiritual life in Christ. We have reconciliation with God the creator. We will live eternally with God when we leave this earth.

“But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.” (Roman 5:15 ESV)

What is much more? The Greek translation perisseu means to be over and above, to excel, to be better than the trespass of Adam. This gift of wonderful grace from the one act of Jesus Christ on the cross is far superior than the original sin.

Christ, the wonderful grace in Him, meets sins and defeats it. Abundant grace reigns in Christ, and then grace becomes the controlling power of our lives. Christ and His one act unleash grace that produces righteousness, forgiveness, justification, adoption, conversion, and one day, glorification. The one work of Christ transfers the sinner from death to life. The one work of Christ and the grace that it unleashes carried the justified, reconciled sinner into heaven. And this is the only way. We have peace because of Christ, we have adoption because of Christ, we have reconciliation because of Christ, we have justification because of Christ, there is no other name that can save us from spiritual and eternal death.

We close in the words of our lord Jesus Christ himself in John 10:27:

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me is greater than all; no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27 ESV)

Once we accept Jesus as our lord and saviour, we will never perish. Adam action could be overturned. What Christ did on the cross cannot be overturned. Adam’s action was temporal. Christ action is everlasting. No one will ever snatch us from Jesus Christ’s hands.

What an amazing and wonderful grace!

We can reign in life; let’s pray:

 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.” (Ephesians 1:3-8 ESV)

Father we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the rich realities that it proclaims to us. We thank You for giving us the opportunity to celebrate the glories of the resurrection. Increase our love for You as we come to understand how much You love us, that You would do such act of mercy for us. Set Your love upon us; give us life in Christ. May we be true worshippers, pouring out praise for the gift in Christ that rescued us from condemnation in Adam. And may we be faithful to proclaim this glorious gospel. May the resurrection of Christ so grip our hearts that thrill us that we cannot but speak of it to all we meet. Amen.

Bible references:

1.      Isaiah 14:12-15

¹²“How you are fallen from heaven,
    O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
    you who laid the nations low!
¹³ You said in your heart,
    ‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
    I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
    in the far reaches of the north;^[c]
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
    I will make myself like the Most High.’
¹⁵ But you are brought down to Sheol,
    to the far reaches of the pit.

2.      Genesis 5:5

“Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.”

3.      Colossians 2:13

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh”

4.      Philippians 1:21

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

5.      Revelation 20:15

“And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

6.      Psalm 51:5

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.” 

Psalm 58:3

“The wicked are estranged from the womb;
    they go astray from birth, speaking lies.”

7.      Roman 5:12

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

8.      1 Corinthians 15: 22

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

9.      Romans 3:10-12

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”