Just
as our experience of sin and death was connected to Adam’s disobedience,
our experience of restoration with God is directly connected to Jesus Christ’s
obedience.
We
can’t understand our story without also understanding the human story. And
we can’t understand the human story without understanding how the two most
important people in human history have impacted our lives. More than our parents,
more than our siblings, more than the world’s philosophers and rulers, we’ve
been impacted by Adam and Jesus. In Adam we all experience death. But in Jesus
we’re offered restoration with God, liberation from sin and death, forgiveness
and love.
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People
often go to counseling to understand how other people have affected them. We often
find ourselves doing things we don’t understand, responding to other people
in ways that are destructive and don’t make sense. It’s that kind of
confusion that often drives people to a counselor or therapist, and of course
the counselor often tries to help the person understand how the significant people
in their life have impacted them. Once we understand how a father’s abuse
or a mother’s abandonment affects us, we can better understand why we cut
people off, why we can’t express our own emotions, or whatever our specific
problem is.
Freedom
comes through insight into how other people have impacted us. We find something
similar here: That we must understand the impact of Adam and Jesus on our lives
before we can truly understand what it means to know and love God.
1
Joseph Fitzmyer, Romans: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary,
Anchor Bible Vol. 33 (New York: Doubleday, 1992), p. 411.
2 The
Daily News (8/5/00), cited from PreachingToday.com.
3 Paul Achtemeier,
Romans: Interpretation Commentary (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1985), p.
98.
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Sermon
brief provided by: Tim Peck, Pastor of Life Bible Fellowship
Church in Upland, CA.