Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Quincy, IL
Rev. Larry D. Troxel
The First Sunday in Lent
Sunday, February 10, 2008 @ 8:00 and 10:15 a.m.
“Grace Abounds Where Sin Once Prevailed”
(Romans 5:12–19)
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
How vast is the grace of God? How far does it reach? How many sins does God’s grace cover? To how many people does God’s grace extend?
These questions are not merely the subject of theological study and debate. These are questions which arise in the minds of many Christian men, women,
teens, and children. And underlying all of these questions is the very personal and sometimes troubling question, “Can I really be sure that God
has forgiven all of my sins?”
Today we have heard once again the very familiar account of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin.1
Even though some comedians have made jokes about what really happened and some scholars have dismissed the account as a fable or myth,
there is one undeniable fact that marks this account as the truth. That fact is that people die. Young people die. Old people die. Even infants and
unborn children die. All of the cemeteries of the world silently shout the fact that all human beings die.
The account in Genesis 3 and what Saint Paul wrote in Romans 5 make the cause of death for everyone both clear and universal. “Sin
came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”2
The simple fact is that we die because we are born with the condition known as sin. All of us have this deadly condition because all of us
are Adam’s descendants.
Now, I realize that some people may think that God is being unfair in this matter. But the simple fact is that the entire human race is descended
from Adam. Every human being is the son or the daughter of a sinner, and the condition is so deeply a part of us that the only thing sinners can
reproduce are other sinners.
In our modern world there are researchers who are studying how human genes and chromosomes and DNA operate in the conception of new life
and in the functioning of our bodies. I do not expect that any research in human genetics will identify the presence of sin in our genetic make-up.
The condition of sin is so deeply embedded in us that it has adverse effects even upon our genetic building blocks.
Sin has such a universal presence in the human race that the condition of sin existed before God gave His Law to Moses at Mount Sinai.
We know it existed apart from God’s giving of His Law because all of the millions of people who lived from the time of Adam and Eve
until the time of Moses died.
Sometimes people ask me, “Pastor, what about people who never heard of God and His Word?” The answer is both simple and sad.
hey die, and the fact that they die indicates that they also were conceived and born with the condition of being sinful. They die because they also
are descendants of Adam. That is what puts such great urgency into our carrying the Gospel of Christ Jesus to those who have never heard of Him.
Adam died because he disobeyed a specific command of God. God had told Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."3
God was not kidding. And even though Eve and Adam did not drop death instantly after they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, the fact remains that
in that instant both physical and spiritual death came upon the entire human race, even upon the infants who are yet to be born before God brings
His end to this creation.
By the way, this is the very reason we baptize infants, because they are included in Christ’s command to make disciples of all nations
by means of Holy Baptism,4 and because they are conceived and born with the most deadly of all conditions,
the condition of being sinful.
By now it should be clear that sin is not just doing something that God has forbidden us to do, nor is it just not doing what God has commanded us
to do. It also is a deadly condition in which we were conceived and born.
When you assess this situation from a very human, personal perspective, it seems utterly hopeless. We cannot change the fact that we are
descendants of Adam. And no amount of genetic screening can help us avoid conceiving and giving birth to children with the condition of sin.
It is at this point that Saint Paul announces the Good News: “The free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass,
much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one Man Jesus Christ abounded for many.”5
There is both a great similarity between Adam and Christ Jesus and a great contrast. Adam was one man. Christ Jesus was one Man, both true God
and true Man. What Adam did brought death to the entire human race. His one act resulted in God’s verdict of condemnation upon all people
because we are sinners descended from the very first sinner. What Christ Jesus did was to take upon Himself our sinfulness and our sins,
our guilt and the punishment we deserved.
In perfect obedience to His heavenly Father’s will, Jesus took it all to the cross and dealt with all of it there once and for all. Scripture makes this
so clear when it says that God the Father made Jesus who had no sin of His own and was conceived and born without sin to be sin itself and punished
Him in our place and on the basis of Jesus’ perfect obedience and substitutionary suffering and death for us and for all people has declared us
to be righteous in His sight.6
God has done this for all people of all time, no matter who they are, no matter how many or terrible their sins have been. Jesus did not suffer and die
just for nice people, just for churchgoing people. He did it for all people, for every person who ever has lived or will live, from Adam and Eve until
the End of Time. Jesus suffered and died for Adam, whose first sin was enough to condemn the entire human race. Jesus suffered and died for
every person who commits “polite sins,” such as forgetting to say “Thank you” or telling what we call a “little white lie.”
Jesus suffered and died for the most terrible criminal and terrorist, for the worst dictator and the mass murderer. We are sure of this because Saint Paul
wrote in First Timothy chapter one, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”7
Because Christ Jesus has suffered and died for the worst of sinners, we can be certain that He has died for us, that His death and resurrection are enough
to cover every one of our own sins.
That’s the great contrast that Paul shows us between Adam and Jesus. Adam’s one sin was enough to bring both physical and
spiritual death upon all people of all time. Jesus’ perfect life and substitutionary suffering and death and glorious resurrection are enough
to bring forgiveness of all sins and reconciliation with God the Father to all people of all time. His grace far exceeds all sinfulness and sins.
All those who receive His gracious gift of saving faith will reign in life. Yes, through the gift of saving faith, conveying to us all that Christ Jesus
has done for us, the bondage in which sin and death once held us has been broken. Now we can and do reign over sin and temptation. We can
and do say “No” to temptations using the same power that Jesus used against Satan’s temptations, God’s Word.
Now we can resist the devil and he will flee from us,8 as we stand in God’s Word and employ it as the
Spirit’s sword.9
Now we also have the great privilege and the divine commission to invite others to hear this Good News. We even can speak it to them.
We can invite them to worship with us. We can invite them to study it with us in Bible classes on Sunday mornings and during the week.
How vast is the grace of God? How far does it reach? How many sins does God’s grace cover? To how many people does
God’s grace extend? God’s grace is so great that it fills our lives and reaches out through us to those around us. It is
the news of sin forgiven — all sins, no matter how many or how great. It is the news that no one is overlooked. For God would
have all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.10 God’s grace is boundless and
still it is very personal. It is for you, and it comes with the power that creates and sustains in you saving faith in Jesus. It is for someone
you know, and it comes with the power to create and sustain in that person also God’s gift of saving faith. Please speak to that person
and invite him or her to come. Amen.
1. Genesis 3:1–21
2. Romans 5:12
3. Genesis 2:16–17
4. Matthew 28:19
5. Romans 5:15
6. 2 Corinthians 5:21
7. 1 Timothy 1:16
8. 1 Peter 5:9
9. Ephesians 6:17
10. 1 Timothy 2:4
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