The First and the Last Adam
Romans 7: 14-17 “14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.”
Even Paul, the greatest apostle of all time, identifies with the struggles common to all of us. He knows we all can feel trapped, confused, eager to do what is right, unable to follow through and there is an inward war going on that we find hard to overcome sometimes. He wants to do what is good but he continues to do what he hates. Are you facing the same struggles? You are not alone! Read on!
How do we overcome this inward struggle? We need to understand that as human beings, we all have our fallen nature because of sin. We were conceived in sin (Psalm 51: 5) and we cannot deny that. “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). This passage refers to the original sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The sinful nature has been innate in all people since the moment Adam blatantly disobeyed God’s commandment and ate the forbidden fruit. Adam, being the first man and therefore the father of the human race, passed down this sinful nature to all who came after him. Sin has been our inheritance from Adam ever since.
The only exception to those born with a sin nature is Jesus Christ. Jesus, the virgin-born Son of God, was sinless from the moment of His conception. First Peter 2:22 speaks of Jesus’ sinless nature: “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” The good news is that there is a solution to this problem. In Adam, we die, but in Christ, we live. “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Romans 5:17).
This is where we have to exercise our free will to either continue to live in sin and die from it or surrender complete control of our life to Christ, the only ONE who can redeem us from the penalty of sin. True repentance, therefore, is vital and we need to be born again of the Holy Spirit. That’s our only way out of sin so that we can live a life that is holy and pleasing to God.
The curse of sin that all people inherit from the “first man Adam” can be broken by faith in “the last Adam” Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45). AMEN and AMEN!
BE BLESSED!
