In Adam or in Christ?

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(Q) What is the gospel?

The Gospel is the good news of forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ. It is his virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, and bodily resurrection from the dead that reveal the love of God for sinful mankind.

To reveal the good news, we’re going to start with the bad news.

Romans 5:12 NLT

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. In the beginning God made everything good and perfect, but when they chose to disobey God sin entered the world and has been passed to all of us.

The penalty for sin was and is death…they didn’t die instantly but it still brought death.

Sin brought a division in man’s relationship to God…caused them to run, and that is the tendency of most people today, to run from God.

None of us are able to be perfect and no matter how good we try to be we all have days we fall short.

Many people struggle to believe mankind is sinful…but think even good people doing good things can just be for their own pride and credit…it can be inherently selfish. No matter how good or bad we are, we fall short on our own.

Even the Pharisees looked really good on the outside and were really religious, but they fell short and Jesus rebuked them!

13 Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. 14 Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come.

Because Adam was the first man he was the head of the human race and as a result we’ve inherited the bad side of things from him as his descendants.

You might think this is unfair…but there’s something else that’s unfair that is good news.

15 But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. 16 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.

Here’s some good news, in the same way that Adam’s sin was passed down. So Jesus’ righteousness can be passed to us as well!

17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

This gift is for all who will receive it. Until someone is in Christ, they are in Adam…this is why we must be saved from our sin!

Everyone is either in Adam or in Christ. . .

But in Christ we can have life!!

18 Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. 19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. 20 God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.

Here’s a great promise…you ever find it is easy to do the wrong thing? Hard to do the right thing? Listen to this:

21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the same way that sin reigns in those who are under Adam, grace can reign for those in Christ. This includes forgiveness and the ability to overcome sin!

So although there is bad news, the good news is that through the free gift of salvation in Jesus we can be saved from our sin and experience the grace of God!