A substitute inheritance: From Adam—death; in Christ—life!

 

Sermon for Lent 1, February 26, 2023

Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you through faith in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Romans 5:12-19  ¹²So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned.  ¹³For even before the law was given, sin was in the world.  Now, sin is not charged to one’s account if there is no law, ¹⁴and yet death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those whose sin was not like the transgression of Adam, who is a pattern of the one who was to come.  ¹⁵But the gracious gift is not like Adam’s trespass.  For if the many died by the trespass of this one man, it is even more certain that God’s grace, and the gift given by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, overflowed to the many!  ¹⁶And the gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin, for the judgment that followed the one trespass resulted in a verdict of condemnation, but the gracious gift that followed many trespasses resulted in a verdict of justification.  ¹⁷Indeed, if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through the one man, it is even more certain that those who receive the overflowing grace of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ!  ¹⁸So then, just as one trespass led to a verdict of condemnation for all people, so also one righteous verdict led to life-giving justification for all people.  ¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of one man the many became sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will become righteous. (EHV)

A substitute inheritance: From Adam—death; in Christ—life!

Dear friends chosen by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit,

            Inheritances have often been quite controversial in our world.  For some people, the idea that anyone should receive an inheritance is somewhat offensive.  Politicians often consider the estates of the wealthy as an appropriate source to pay for whatever programs they might want to fund.  As parents do their estate planning, they often struggle with making decisions that are equitable if not equal in how they might treat what each child will inherit. 

On a more positive note, we can consider inheritances that having nothing to do with money.  New parents often examine their baby wondering whose nose the child received.  Where did she get that hair color?  Ooh, and that temper, did he get that from Mom or Dad? 

There are thousands of different aspects about our bodies and lives that we inherit from our parents and grandparents, but in our text this morning, St. Paul teaches us about two inheritances granted to all people: the first is a fatal condition inherited for our parents which we can’t escape; but the second is a most gracious substitute inheritance.  Dear friends, I present for your attention, your legacies: From Adam—death; in Christ—life!

From Adam—death: it’s a bit hard to think of something as horrible as death as a thing we inherit, isn’t it?  An inheritance is supposed to be a gift, right?  Who could be so cruel as to pass death on to his children?  It is something like showing up for the reading of your loved one’s will only to hear that the only thing you have inherited is a massive, crushing debt that requires you and your children to be enslaved forever?  Now, of course, Adam didn’t write this in a will.  It isn’t what he intended to leave behind, but once sin had enslaved Adam, his bondage to sin and death has been handed down from generation to generation to every child since born into this world.  And, there was no way for any of us descendants of Adam to escape from that sentence of pain, sorrow, and death.

Recognizing this, Paul wrote, “So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned.”  Every child born in the line of Adam and Eve, which is every person ever born, received the same cursed inheritance.  While we are blessed with a variety of eye colors, and there are blonds, brunettes, redheads, and some have straight hair, while others have curls.  Some are naturally tall or short.  Yet, every child is born with the same complete inability not to sin against God.  God later explained His will for our lives saying, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2)  But, what we received from our parents, by the inheritance of birth, is total opposition to God’s authority and terror of His holiness.

Now, the arrogance of our enslaved condition will lead many to say, “I wasn’t completely opposed to God at birth; I wasn’t really that bad a kid.”  However, Paul refutes that idea, saying “Now, sin is not charged to one’s account if there is no law, and yet death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses.”  That first sin Adam committed caused him to lose the holiness with which God had created him.  It brought instant spiritual death and eventually physical death.  In that one failure, Adam crossed the border from the kingdom of God into Satan’s kingdom of slavery, torment, suffering, and death. 

By his own power or cunning, there was no way for Adam to escape the devil’s bondage, and his children were likewise born under the same spiritual tyranny.  Though they could no longer break God’s command against eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (the only command given to our first parents), Adam’s children also were chained by sin and the condemnation it earned; death became master over all.  If you want to know who are sinners in this world, check the obituary columns of history.  Then also check to see who among us is on a continual march to the grave.  That is the legacy left to us by our parents, each of whom, like us, was born in the dungeons of the devil’s rebellion from which none of us could escape.  Our legacy?  From Adam—death.

In a word, mankind’s condition was instantly hopeless.  Cut off from peace with God by guilt and shame, the wealth of Paradise was lost.  Harmony between husband and wife was shattered.  Once the caretaker of all the wealth and riches of earth, Adam became a slave to his basic needs.  His labor now tiresome, hatred, illness, strife, and pain soon followed for Adam and his children.  If not for the goodness of God, immediate annihilation would have felt merciful.  Sadly, some people still feel that way.

However, there is a reason our “God is love.” (1 John 4:8)  It was not God’s desire to leave us in the wretched state sin had put upon us.  Therefore, in pure, sweet, undeserved mercy and grace, God grants to the human race A substitute inheritance: in Christ—life!

Though we were all born poor sinners with no ability, talent, ingenuity, strength, or holiness by which we might free ourselves from the slave master, we have a Friend who recognized our helpless condition, a Savior who knows your troubles and understood the crushing debt you inherited from before you were born.  The Holy Only Begotten of God entered our world to make Himself our Brother so that we could inherit from Him all the wealth our first parents had lost.  Paul described it this way: “The gracious gift is not like Adam’s trespass.  For if the many died by the trespass of this one man, it is even more certain that God’s grace, and the gift given by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, overflowed to the many!” 

Do you see the magnitude of what this means?  You have been set free from the chains of sin and death!  The legacy you received from your first parents has been overcome by that from your friend, Jesus.  Christ carried out this righteous act by setting aside His throne in heaven and coming to earth to live and die for you and me.  By taking on our flesh, Jesus took on the command of perfect obedience to all the laws God gave to keep this sin-sick world somewhat at peace.  Jesus took on the command of perfect obedience to everything that God willed for the human race.  Jesus’ life on earth was one completely holy and righteous act—a life without sin—each and every day lived in perfect holiness for you and me.

Having obeyed all righteousness for us, Jesus did something more.  He went to the deadly cross to suffer the separation from His Father’s love our sins deserved, the physical death, the pain and punishment our sins had earned.  Jesus took His perfectly holy and obedient life and offered it up on the cross to make all the sinners of the world righteous in His Father’s will. 

Today, because of Christ’s death, there is a last will and testament you want to hear.  It has some wonderful passages in it that give us hope: gracious promises like, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  Another assures us, “God made Him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  The last will and testament of our Savior also tells us how we will receive His wonderful legacy, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call." (Acts 2:38-39) 

Though in the past we were caught in the hopelessness of the devil’s cruel chains, we now are assured that we will never again be separated from the God who loved us enough to sacrifice His own dear Son to set us free from tyranny to live in peace and joy, “For God has said: ‘I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5)  We are assured that we will live and never die for the Holy Spirit had Paul write, “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life.” (Romans 6:3-4)

I know many of you have already read God’s will and testament: the Bible, but I hope you read it again and again and marvel and rejoice at the gift of salvation and eternal life Christ brings to you through its saving message.  You maybe never thought of the Bible as a last will and testament.  However, it tells us of God’s will for our lives, of His desire that we enjoy eternal life and fellowship with Him in the paradise of heaven, and it shouts God’s promise of a Savior from the sin and death that has afflicted this world since Adam’s fall.  Just as important, it tells us how God has accomplished our release from the devil’s chains through the preaching of the Good News of all Jesus has done for us and the washing flood of Baptism. 

The Gospel is Jesus’ last will and testament.  From the cross, Jesus announced, "It is finished!" (John 19:30)  With our ransom price fully paid, the war between God and Satan is over, the separation between God and man is removed, and we are free to live in Him.  Everything necessary to bring us back into perfect fellowship with God is accomplished.  Jesus has done it all for you and me.  Paul wrote, “For just as through the disobedience of one man the many became sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will become righteous.”

Through the hand of St. Paul in this letter, the Holy Spirit announces the inheritance that became ours when Jesus died—A substitute inheritance: no longer From Adam—death, but now in Christ—life!  This is your eternal inheritance: the forgiveness of all sins and life everlasting, a gift more precious than all the gold and silver in the world, a gift God, in His great love for sinners, wants the whole world to receive for the joy it brings to all who believe.  Therefore, “If by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through the one man, it is even more certain that those who receive the overflowing grace of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ!  A substitute inheritance for you: in Christ—life!  Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen.