Bible Reading for May 12 – Romans 5:12-21

“Why should I have to suffer because of what someone else did? It’s not fair!” However much we might agree with such sentiments, that’s often what happens in the real world. None of us were alive in 1620 when the first Africans were imported into what became the United States, but we’re all still living with the racial attitudes and the generational poverty that sprang from that fateful transaction. None of the nine Supreme Court justices who outlawed state restrictions on abortion are still alive, but American babies are still denied the right to live because of their decision – a decision none of them or the 60 million other aborted Americans got to make.

And we can’t deny that is what Paul is telling us over and over again in today’s passage. Because Adam sinned, all his descendants inherit the guilt of his rebellion against God. Moreover, because Adam sinned, we also inherit his rebellious nature. And that means we don’t break God’s law because we are taught to do that – after all, no one has to teach two-year-olds how to reject their parents’ authority or insist on their own way. No, we all sin because we are born sinners, not because we consciously chose to follow in Adam’s footsteps.

But if the bad news is that God deals with Adam’s descendants because of what Adam did, the good news is that God deals with Jesus’ people because of what Jesus did. For the fact is that Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross is what “leads to justification and life for all men,” for all who trust in Christ (5:18). Moreover, it is not anything we choose to do or to leave undone that makes His people righteous in the sight of God – it’s only the obedience of Christ to the Law of God that accomplishes that (5:19).

So, isn’t it wonderful that God lets us receive the consequences for what Someone else did? Isn’t it good news that God doesn’t give us what we deserve, but shows us grace and even gives us eternal life because of the work of Christ?

Romans 5:12-21 (ESV)

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–
13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15 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.
16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.