Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There is a chapter in the Bible that is clear as sunlight, but because of our fallen state our minds have confused it: Romans 5.
For some years after I was ordained to the gospel ministry and served as a pastor, I shied away from preaching about it. I too was confused! But it was never God's intention to confuse anyone. He simply wants us all to learn to share the joy of Paul who said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14).
What is the message of Romans 5 in simple, understandable terms?
(1) It is based on the principal truth that everything that our fallen, sinful father Adam passed on to us as the human race, Jesus Christ has reversed. Christ has become the "last Adam" or the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:22). Adam passed on to us all a judicial verdict of condemnation, that is, death itself. Christ has given to us all a judicial verdict of acquittal. This is the only reason that the Father can treat every man as though he has never sinned, and can send rain and sunshine "on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:45).
(2) As soon as Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, the Son of God stepped in to be our Savior from that terrible, endless death. Thus Christ was "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8).
(3) It follows that Christ died the second death for the entire human race: "We see Jesus ... that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (Heb. 2:9). That's the real thing--not just a sleep for a weekend.
(4) It follows again that because He died every man's second death on His cross, Christ has given every man a second opportunity to be loyal to the government of heaven. This is a "judicial ... verdict of acquittal" (Rom. 5:15-18, REB).
(5) What Christ accomplished on His cross was to give to every man Esau's "birthright." You remember, Esau had it; not all the angels in heaven or hell could have wrested it from him; but he willfully, of his own free choice "despised" it and "sold" it for a "mess of pottage" (Gen. 25:34; Heb. 12:16).
It was by His sacrifice on His cross that Christ gave that "birthright" to us all. Now, hang on to it forever!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 14, 2008.
Copyright © 2012 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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