SCRIPTURE: Romans 5:12-19
TEXT: 15But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. THEME: The free gift of grace is forgiveness. INTRODUCTION We begin our lenten journey towards Easter with a discussion about abundant grace. Paul identifies our first parents as the first sinners. Whether these are metaphorical or historical figures, no one escapes the dominion of sin and death. Except unlike Paul I have been toying with a different scenario of what actually took place in the garden. Human beings are wired for choice. At creation we are ‘good’ but not perfect. As slim as the differences are between good and perfect it has huge implications. Perfection means that there is no room for improvement. While being good, we have the potential of doing more or less, and we have the potential for choosing for Good or for Evil. We have the ability to make choices for what is good for our relationship with God, as well as to make choices for what can bring harm to our relationship. In the garden comes a time when we move beyond our innocence and become responsible for the choices we make. This happens when Adam and Eve mature enough to be responsible for the consequences of their actions. They are responsible for the consequence of their choices, when they chose to their own selfishness instead of trusting in God’s wise ways. This is the choice that is passed down to every person and every generation since. SCRIPTURE Paul lays out a mathematical formula for our relationship with God. A + sin = death. So, if there is some way to take sin out of the equation then the result of our lives would be life. God adds Jesus Christ to our equation. Jesus brings a free gift of grace that counter acts the effects of sin and thus, A + sin + Jesus Christ = Life. The free gift of grace reconciles the death of sin and cancels out death’s dominion over humankind. But there are a couple of things that I have difficulty with Paul’s thinking. I know it is arrogant for me to think that I know more than Paul, but we both write out of a cultural and historical time that effects our perspective of the biblical narrative. Genesis 3, the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden eating the fruit from the tree God told them not to eat from, is answering the question of how did sin come into the world and why do people die. I also have been reading some weird things from a pod cast called BioLogo. This web page is dedicated to show the consistencies between science and theology. It led me to read something from Oliver Crisp. He was teaching systematics at Fuller Seminary and is now the professor of analytic theology in the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He defined sin as a kind of dereliction of or wandering away from God’s law, a failure to live up to God’s commands. He takes sin out of the court of law (like a speeding ticket) and puts it back into relationships, like in a marriage. So, this is where I disagree with Paul in verse 13, because we don’t need to have the Law to know that we have chosen against what God wanted and that this has changed our relationship by adding guilt, same, regret, doubt, mistrust and sadness. This injury separates us from God, the source of life. But forgiving the hurt and giving up our right to hurt back heals relationships. Flowers, candy, gifts, money, acts of devotion cannot buy forgiveness from God. It is up to God to forgive, from God’s own heart. I was working on a project with a few people and I was making snide remarks to be humorous but I was not funny and angered and hurt one of the people I was working with. I saw this right away and apologized, but the damage had already been done and although I asked for forgiveness, the injured party said, they were not ready to forgive me. There was nothing that I could do to fix this relationship. All I could do was wait until for whatever reason that person chose to forgive me of the hurt, I caused. I was held hostage until, from their side, they decided to forgive. There is nothing that we can do that will make God forgive us. But out of the goodness of God’s own heart, because God values our relationship, and desires fellowship with us, God forgives. The free gift of grace is forgiveness. Here is the kicker, if we listen to the words of Jesus and not Paul’s, what we find is the forgiveness of sins take place even before Jesus dies on the cross. God does not need a worthy sacrifice to be offered before God can forgive us. God can forgive us on God’s own, just because God loves us and gives up God’s right to hurt us back just as much as we have hurt God. This is the ‘free gift’ of grace, it is forgiveness. Paul describes the healing of our relationship with God as justification, as righteousness, it is reconciliation through a loving forgiveness. Because Paul sees original sin as disobedience, the solution to sin is extreme obedience. This comes with an extreme sacrifice that enables this free gift to pay a tremendous debt. This is disguised works made to look like faith. But when our hurtful choices, against our relationship with God are forgiven, because God loves us, we have a different lens to see Jesus' love for us, that leads Jesus to the cross, not because of paying an unpayable debt, but by showing us how much He loves us, that he would not compromise loving us even at the cost of his life. This is not a cheap grace. It is a Priceless grace that is given to us freely from God’s heart. APPLICATION Our sin keeps us as hostages to those we have injured. No amount of reparations is enough. Only forgiveness coming from the injured party can bring solace, and we must live differently because of that forgiveness and retell the story of forgiveness, so the proceeding generations can remember the hurt along with the stories of forgiveness that resolved that hurt and how our lives have changed but our relationships restored. CONCLUSION Lent is a soulful, reflective time. It opens us up to consider something that we have taken for granted and to see them in a new way; like the garden, the words of Paul and the words of Jesus. The sorrowful Jesus, headed towards Jerusalem for the last time, with his 12 buddies, doing what he enjoys the most, talking about his Father, and opening the theological understandings of his hearers. Priceless grace in motion.
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