Romans 5:12-19 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Lent 1 Sunday, March 1, 2020 “One For All”
“One for all, all for one!” It is the motto, according to French author Alexadre Dumas, of the Three Musketeers, members of an elite royal guard unit in France. It is a largely fictionalized and politicized story, one that has led to many movie adaptations as well. And it uses that motto, “one for all, all for one,” as a rallying cry. It announces solidarity. No one of the three friends or their larger group of soldiers will abandon the others in need. They will stick together. Each one of them loyal to the group, and the group loyal to each member. And in many ways, that sort of solidarity is admirable. It is good to be loyal to others, to be faithful to responsibilities that call on you to be concerned about their needs and their welfare. But as admirable as it is, that sort of solidarity is rare. What is often found in its place is a self-serving or self-centered approach. People may be willing to help when it isn’t too much of an inconvenience, or as long as the needs of others kind of fit in with our own needs and interests. We kind of like the idea of all for one, as long as the one is me! It is that very sort of sinful human thinking that underlies the very first sin, the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden. The eating of the forbidden fruit was a “me first” moment. It was about serving the best interests of Adam and Eve rather than about what was best for humanity as God intended it to be. But it was also a one for all moment. This does not mean that Adam, the one man at the time, had interests for or designs upon all men of all times. Instead, as Romans 5 reminds us, Adam’s actions had consequences for all men of all time, for all people of all time. God moved Paul to write about it this way to the Romans: “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.” We reviewed that account of the first sin in our First Lesson this morning (Genesis 3:1-15). Adam and Eve had been created in the very image of God. Genesis chapters 1 and 2 tell us how God created and formed and organized the whole world, the whole universe, and how people were the crown of his creation. Adam he had formed out of dust and breathed life into him. Eve he had formed by taking a portion from Adam’s side and using that as the starting point. He brought Eve to Adam and they became the first married couple, setting a pattern that continues to this day. And for a brief time, everything was perfect: their relationship with each other, their marriage, their interactions with the wonderful world around them. The lived in a beautiful garden in which God had set them, a garden abounding with fruit trees for their use and enjoyment. Even their relationship with God, with whom at the time they walked and talked, was perfect. It was a joy and a pleasure for them together to spend time with God. They delighted in what God delighted in. But the temptation of the crafty serpent Satan wormed its way into their hearts. Did God really say? Did God really give you all the good and the best that he could? Doesn’t the fruit look tasty? Don’t you want to be even more like God? The fruit did look tasty, even though God had put it off limits, just that one tree. And maybe the serpent was telling the truth, maybe there was something to be gained by not listening to God. There was only one way to find out. There was only one way to know for certain. And Eve took a bite. And Adam, who was there with her, who should have put a stop to this before it even started, also took the fruit and ate some. The consequences were immediate for Adam and Eve. The shame, the fear. They hid from God. They blamed each other. Everything was ruined. They were separated from God and from each other in a way that they had never experienced before, in a way that would lead to both their earthly death and their eternal death in hell. And it didn’t stop there. Every child of Adam and Eve, and grandchild, and greatgrandchild, conceived and born in the course of nature was conceived and born into those same
consequences. The many died by the trespass of this one man. The judgment followed the one trespass and resulted in a verdict of condemnation. Death reigned. Right up until this very day. Unless Jesus comes back before then, unless this world as we know it ends first, every single one of us will face death, just like countless generations before us. All as the result of one sin. Now, perhaps you think that sounds unfair, and many people do. Perhaps you think that you never had a chance. And we acknowledge a profound but not always obvious truth when we say that Adam’s sin condemned us all, that we all come into the world with that guilty verdict hanging over us. One for all is true in the matter of sin. And it is not for us to determine fairness. It is up to us to admit what is obvious. We like everyone else have fallen short of the glory of God. We have fallen short of perfect love and obedience. We have taken the same attitude toward sin that said, if even for just a moment, that what seemed best to us or best for us was not what God had instructed or commanded or intended. But Paul has a comparison to make. There is a one-for-all not only on the side of sin, the side of Adam, but also on the side of grace, the side of Jesus Christ. They are alike in this, that what they have done has farreaching consequences. From Adam’s sin came death to all people. From Christ’s perfect life and innocent death came life intended for all people. Adam was a pattern of the one to come, Jesus. But Paul also drives home this truth: they are not exactly alike. The gift, the gracious gift, is not like the trespass. It is not like the effect of sin. And he describes the difference in terms like “overflowing,” “gracious,” “gift,” and “righteousness.” If you thought or were tempted to think that it was unfair that Adam’s sin has consequences for you, how much more unfair would it be for Christ’s obedience to count for you? But it does. His obedience is counted as your obedience so that you are made righteous. In the place of the death that you deserved, God gives you the gracious gift of eternal life. This overflowing, overwhelming grace comes from and through the one man, the second Adam, Jesus Christ. That is why today’s Gospel (Matthew 4:1-11) is really the counterpoint to the First Lesson. Once again, the tempter came to foil God’s plans. He whispered, “Did God really say?” He even quoted God’s own words from Scripture in order to twist them enough to convince his victim to listen to him and not to God, to do the devil’s will or to serve his own selfish purposes. But where the first Adam failed, the second succeeded. Jesus did not give in. He did not set aside God’s command or intention for any reason whatsoever. He relied on God’s Word. He trusted his Father to provide. And so in every temptation over those forty days and throughout his life, those highlighted for our learning and also all the others, in every temptation Jesus succeeded so that his perfect life could be given as a gift to you and to me. Paul concludes our verses this way: “So 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. 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.” God pronounced a righteous verdict over Jesus when he raised him to life after his death on the cross. And that same verdict is pronounced over all who were under condemnation from the first Adam’s sin. We just sang a hymn verse that so well, succinctly, and poetically proclaims the same thing: “As by one man all mankind fell And, born in sin, was doomed to hell, So by one Man, who took our place, We all were justified by grace” (Christian Worship 378:5). One for all. It was bad news when one sin brought sin and death to all, but it is amazing news when one sinless life and innocent sacrifice brings righteousness. That one for all is Jesus Christ. Let us thank and praise him by giving him our all.
The Text: Romans 5:12–19 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. 13 For 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, 14 and 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. 15 But
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! 16
And 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. 17
Indeed, 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! 18 So
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. 19 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.