“Adam and Christ: Mirror Image”
Romans 5:12-19

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Third Sunday after Pentecost—June 21, 2020

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you’ve taken a class in physics, you are familiar with Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” That law from the natural realm of physics is also a good summary of today’s Epistle Reading from the fifth chapter of Romans, and the supernatural, spiritual reality which in this reading St. Paul reveals to us.

Speaking of Adam and Christ, he writes, “Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” Adam and Christ are like a mirror image. Everything that Adam destroyed by his fall into sin, Christ restored by his sacrifice on the cross. For every destructive, sinful action by Adam, there is there is an equal and opposite saving reaction by Christ.

“Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” St. Paul begins with one of the clearest statements in Scripture of the doctrine of original sin. The fall of Adam and Eve into sin had cosmic consequences that still reverberate down to us and our lives.

Genesis chapter 1 says that originally, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them.” This doesn’t mean that human beings had a physical resemblance to God, for as Jesus says, “God is a spirit.” The “image of God” that humanity originally possessed means that we originally had a spiritual resemblance to God, innocent, holy, and righteous like him.

But, God also gave to humanity free will, which our first parents abused to rebel against their Creator.  Genesis chapter 3 records the sad story of how Adam and Eve sinfully followed the Word of Satan instead of the Word of God.

After their fall into sin, God explains the tragic, cosmic consequences: “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you. . . By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Because of humanity’s fall into sin, our world is no longer a paradise.  Having been spoiled by sin, it is now a place of toil, and pain, and eventually death for us all.

The final blow comes in Genesis chapter 5: “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. . .  [Adam] had a son in his own likeness, in his own image.” The popular notion is that humans are born basically good, or at least a neutral, “blank slate.” But, the hard truth is, humans are no longer born in the likeness of God, innocent, holy, and righteous. As David says in Psalm 51, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

Since the fall into sin, we are all born spiritually no longer in the image of God, but in the fallen image of our sinful ancestors. “[Adam] had a son in his own likeness, in his own image.” Since the fall into sin, we are all born not even as a neutral “blank slate,” but rebellious, evil, and deserving of damnation.   “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”

We all “act out” this original sin we are born with by committing actual sins in our lives. As Jesus says, “A bad tree bears bad fruit. . .  the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.” Because of the curse of original sin, we are all that “bad tree” and the “evil man” of which Christ speaks, bearing “bad fruit” and doing “evil things.”

“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!” In 1st Corinthians, St. Paul describes Christ as “the second Adam.” For every sinful action by the first Adam, there is an equal and opposite saving reaction by the second Adam. God sent his own Son into our world on a rescue mission. Everything that the first Adam ruined and destroyed, Christ as the second Adam restored and made right again.

“Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 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.”

We see this mirror image between Adam and Christ in the story of Christ’s temptation by Satan for 40 days in the wilderness. Why was Christ tempted by Satan? Because, in order to make up for the sin of first Adam, the second Adam had to succeed where the first Adam had failed. Just as the sinful wickedness of the first Adam was the worst bad news for humanity, the perfect holiness of the second Adam is the best Good News for us.

“Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”

What does it mean for you that a country carpenter turned rabbi lived and died in a far-off part of the world nearly 2,000 years ago? What possible impact could that have on your life today? He was more than a carpenter, he was more than a rabbi, he was more than a man. He was the second Adam, the very Son of God, sent by his heavenly Father to put all things right again, to rescue the world from the consequences of the first Adam’s sin, sent by his heavenly Father to rescue you.

For, by his perfect life and his sacrificial death, Christ, the second Adam, restored all things. As St. John writes, “This is how God showed his love for us: He sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we would live through him. . .  the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin. . .  he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

You were not born with a blank slate, but the Good News is that in God’s sight you are cleansed from every sin, your slate is washed clean by the blood of his Son. The slate of original sin that you were born with, and the slate of actual sins that you commit in your life. “For I will forgive their wickedness,” the Lord says in Hebrews, “and remember their sins no more.”

What does it mean for you that a country carpenter turned rabbi lived and died in a far-off part of the world nearly 2,000 years ago? Because of him, your slate is clean in the sight of God. Because he lived, and died, and rose again, God forgives your wickedness, and remembers your sins no more.

Adam and Christ are like a mirror image. For every destructive, sinful action by Adam, there is there is an equal and opposite saving reaction by Christ. Everything that the first Adam destroyed by his fall into sin, Christ, the second Adam, restored by his sacrifice on the cross.

“Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”

Amen.