Romans 5:12-19
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in
this way death came to all people, because all sinned—13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where 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 is 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 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of 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!
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
It’s Not Fair
“It’s not fair. It’s not my fault. He started it.” says the 7 year old boy who was just caught fighting with his 9 year old brother, and now has to go the rest of the day without screen time.
“It’s not fair. It’s not my fault. He started it.” says the wife whose husband didn’t help with the kids all day and now he has the audacity to complain that the house is messy and the dishes aren’t clean. Now they’re both grumpy.
“It’s not fair. It’s not my fault. He started it.” says the driver who got t-boned at the intersection and now not only has to give a report to the police, but also has to deal with a beat up car and an insurance claim and all kinds of headaches, both procedural and medical.
It’s not fair. It’s not my fault. If it wasn’t for this other person or this other thing that’s going on in my life – if I had gotten more sleep, more food, more support – none of this would have ever happened! How many times a day do you feel that way? How many times a week do you make yourself the victim? How many excuses can you come up with to justify your behaviour or to explain away your circumstances?
Sometimes it feels like whenever something goes wrong, it’s someone else’s fault. If it weren’t for other people messing it up for everyone else, I’d be just fine. It’s even tempting to feel that way when we read Bible passages like Romans 5:
Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people… one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people… through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners.[1]
C’mon, Adam! You couldn’t have eaten from any of the other trees? You had to eat from that one? Now look at this world. It’s certainly not Eden. Now I have to bundle up in 12 layers before I go out the door. Now I have to deal with people who make my life miserable. Now there are wars and inflation and environmental disasters and acne and anxiety and death. Imagine what could have been if Adam had not ruined it for everybody, i.e. if Adam could have just kept that one command. You had one job, Adam!
It's tempting to look at all the fallout from that first fall into sin and to blame Adam, which is just another of saying that if I had been there, none of this would have ever happened. We’d still be living in a tropical paradise with the perfect tan, with free food at our fingertips whenever we wanted it.
It may be tempting to think that way, but the truth is that the end result wouldn’t have been any different had any of us been in Adam’s place. When Satan came to Adam and Eve, he was tactical in his temptations. He started by getting them to question God and his goodness. And even though, at first, they defended God, the seed of doubt had already taken root in their hearts, so that by the time Satan suggested that God might be holding out on them – that they would experience the next level of enlightenment and pleasure and satisfaction if they ignored God’s draconian laws – they were primed to believe Satan and to give in to his temptation and lies.
And then, when they did, they refused to take accountability. They passed the buck. They shifted the blame. Adam even blamed God for putting Eve there with him, as if he would have been strong enough to resist the devil had it not been for her.
We can read Genesis 3, like we did today, and shake our heads at Adam. We can read Romans 5, like we did today, and blame Adam. But what we have to be careful to do as we read these passages is to realize that the devil tempts us in the very same ways.
The devil loves to get us to doubt God, to fear that God is holding out on us, that there are certain joys in this life that Christians miss out on; that the Christian life is boring, unfulfilling, incomplete; that there’s so much more out there. The devil is so good at pinpointing our insecurities, our anxieties about ourselves, our fears, and then tactically targeting them with his temptations.
And the result is the same. We give in, and when we get caught, we shift the blame. We get defensive. It’s not my fault. He started it. He provoked me to anger. She practically begged me to do it. I was tired, stressed. I didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. Basically, it’s everyone and everything’s fault except for mine. And, before you know it, when you look in the mirror, you look an awful lot like Adam and Eve.
And so, even though Paul repeatedly lays the blame at Adam’s feet, e.g. “sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people…” he doesn’t end his sentence there. He goes on to say, “because all sinned.”[2]
Adam is not the only guilty party. Death, judgment and condemnation are not just things we inherited from our ancestors. They are consequences we have earned entirely on our own.
Sure, he may have provoked you, but you didn’t have to respond. She may have pushed you, but you didn’t have to go along. What Paul wants you to know in Romans 5 is that you have no one to blame but yourself for your sin.
We are losers. We have lost so many battles with the devil. We have given in to so many temptations. Our willpower has not been strong enough.
But then we read Matthew 4, and we see a totally different Jesus. Here he is in a one-on-one dogfight with the devil. Satan is using the same tactics that he used on Adam and Eve – the same tactics he uses on us today. He comes to Jesus when he’s isolated and alone and hungry. He tries to pick at Jesus’ insecurities. “If you are the Son of God,” he says. He tries to provoke Jesus to act in pride or overconfidence. He holds out the forbidden fruit and suggests that Jesus’ heavenly Father is holding out on him, making him suffer unnecessarily.
But Jesus did something that no other human was ever able to do. He resisted every temptation. Even at his weakest, Jesus had the power to tell the devil where to go. Even isolated and alone and hungry, without the aid of a smartphone or Google, Jesus was able to rattle off Bible passages that perfectly responded to the devil’s temptations. And at the end of it, Jesus emerged victorious.
Forget UFC, MMA, WWE, this is the fight I would pay to see. Jesus won the victory. And if that were all that Jesus accomplished, it’d still be worthy of our study to learn just how Jesus was able to win the victory, so that we could try to follow his example.
But if that were all that Jesus accomplished, and if passages like Matthew 4 were just meant to be blueprints for us to follow, they’d be setting us up for failure. We can learn from Jesus and we can try to do what he did – and with some success – but never as well as he did.
God doesn’t record these moments from Jesus’ life as a way to motivate us to follow his example. It’s to give you the assurance that Paul gives in Romans 5:
Just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.[3]
The victory that Jesus won over the devil was much more than personal. It was universal. What Jesus did – not just in the desert for those 40 days, but for every one of his 33 years on earth – what Jesus did changed your destiny.
Now you don’t need to fear the judgment and condemnation and death that you deserve for your sin. Now you don’t have to worry that your weakness will make you unworthy of God. Now you don’t have to try to live up to his love.
In other words, because of Jesus, God does not treat you as your sins deserve. He shifted your blame to the most blameless person possible and sentenced him to die the death that you deserve. Because of Jesus, you are forgiven for when you fall into temptation. Despite your guilt, God declares you “not guilty” in his sight because of Jesus’ guiltlessness. Even though you will die someday, death will not reign over you. You will “reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”[4]
It's not fair. It really isn’t. It’s not fair that Jesus, of all people, should suffer for all people. It’s not fair, but it is grace. That’s how much God loves you. He sent a champion to win the victory for you. And now, as Paul says, God’s grace “overflows” to you. Now, you have received “God’s abundant provision of grace.”[5] No matter how often we fail or fall into temptation, no matter how many sins we accumulate over a lifetime, his grace is greater.
Thank God that it’s not fair. Thank God that my salvation does not depend on me or what I do. Thank God that he not only started it but finished it for me. Now may he continue to work in you a humble heart that sees your sin, but rejoices in his forgiveness and love. May he continue to work in you a strong faith that recognizes temptation and resists it through the same power of the Word that Jesus used. May he who began a good work in you, carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Romans 5:12,18,19
[2] Romans 5:12
[3] Romans 5:18,19
[4] Ibid
[5] Romans 5:17