Wednesday, March 1

Romans 5:12-19 (vv. 17-19 printed below)

If death ruled because of one person’s failure, those who receive the multiplied grace and the gift of righteousness will even more certainly rule in life through the one person Jesus Christ.

So now the righteous requirements necessary for life are met for everyone through the righteous act of one person, just as judgment fell on everyone through the failure of one person. Many people were made righteous through the obedience of one person, just as many people were made sinners through the disobedience of one person.

The problems in the world all have something in common: they are the products of human beings behaving subhumanly. To put a finer point on it, they are the result of what happens when human beings eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When we take it upon ourselves to judge, to decide who lives and who dies, who counts and who doesn’t, things get ugly in the world. In Romans 5, Paul uses Adam as a representative for all of humanity. We’ve all eaten from that tree, he’s arguing, and the results are before our eyes. That’s the bad news. The good news, Paul argues, is that while the problems of the world are human products, so is the solution. Specifically, Paul says, Jesus also represents all of humanity. Instead of grasping the destructive fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, Jesus embraces vulnerability, and in doing so calls all human beings out of hiding. The question for us is, how do we want to be human: the Adam way or the Jesus way?

Today as you are faced with decisions or responses, take a moment to ask this question: What is the Adam way here, and what is the Jesus way?