Sermon Tone Analysis

Are the way things are today, the way they have alwasy been since the beginning?

Racism

War

Rich and poor

If there has been no change since the beginning then racism, war, rich and poor has been there since the beginning -

“It has always been this way”

But the bible’s view is quite different.

The bible asserts that the way things are today is not the wway God intended things to be.

That humanity was created in such a way that it was possible to keep God’s requiremements, but that something happened that would change that, something that can be summed up in one word...

AUTONOMY

auto - meaning “self”

nomos - meaning “law”

self-law or self-rule

let’s remind ourselves what Paul says in his letter to the Romans...

Up until chapter 5, Paul has been developing his argument.

He has surveyed the universal extent of human sin and guilt in comparison to teh glorious adequacy of God’s grace in and through Jesus.

On the one hand he has made the charge that both Jew and Gentile - effectively ‘everyone’, is impacted by sin.

But he has also declared that Abraham is the father of everyone through faith.

Effectively, what Paul wants his readers to see is that there are two communities - one characterised by sin and guilt and the other by grace and faith.

Paul identifies himself with the second community.

Having been made right with God, brought back into relationship with God, Paul says a person can enjoy peace with God, stand in that peace even now, rejoicing in present sufferings and future glory, assured of final salvation and receiving God’s blessings through Jesus.

Our faith in Jesus, opens the door to us being seen by God in and through Jesus’ obedience and faithfulness.

As we come to chapter 12 - in the NIV and other more literal translations, we notice the

Therefore...

Paul’s on a roll.

We cannot separate what he now says, from what he has already said...

He has already said that our reconciliation to God and salvation comes through the death of God’s Son, Jesus - so that begs the question - why? and how?

And what he says, also helps us to answer the question we have before us today.

If last week we learnt from scriptuire that no one, except Jesus, can keep God’s law perfectly, and if we were created by God,

...does that mean God created us unable to keep His law?

Notice the three downward steps Paul outllines:

Sin enters the world through one man.

Death enters the world through sin.

Death comes to all humanity, because all sinned.

When we look at what Paul says about the coming into the world of sin by Adam and Eve exercising autonomy and by considering the creation account itself, we can conclude that when God created us, he created us with the ability to live under his rule and blessing perfectly.

He did not create Adam and Eve as robots, programmed to obey.

They were created with a freedom to exercise autonomy - but they didn’t have to go that way.

In church speak we would say

he fore-knew

but he DIDN’T fore-ordain

Adam and Eve had access to the tree of life, everything they could have wanted, complete freedom from guilt and shame - a perfectly clean slate.

And we know how the account unfolds.

Paul says - because Adam sinned - all have sinned?

What does he mean by this?

Well, throughout the history of the church there have really been two possible answers:

We don’t have time to look at it in too much detail, but it is important to understand how we might gravitate towards one, but really need to be clear on which is a more faithful rendering of the whole biblical text.

In the early 5th century a British monk by the name of Pelagius developed the view that Adam was indeed the first sinner and everybody ever since has followed his bad example.

I should say that in 415 AD he was deemed a heretic and harshly criticised by Augustine.

Basically - he was all about free will and the human’s ability to choose for him or herself.

It certainly does sound from verse 12 he could be on to something, but there are far more texts that suggest he is wrong.

Also, if we follow his teaching that humans are by nature good and reject everything else, we undermine the sovereignty of God and ultimately the need of a Saviour.

After all, if we are just following Adam’s example - the power lies in us achieving perfection.

If the power lies in us, it doesn’t lie in God.

And we become our own saviours.

The other view - more difficult to accept, but more faithful to what the bible says - particularly about God and salvation - is that rather than copying Adam, we have inherited sin from him.

Now kids, what have you inherited from your parents or grandparents?

In what ways do you look like, talk like, walk like, other members of your family?

The young at heart can think about this also...

So why might inheriting sin be the correct approach?

A few things to consider...

Paul says that sin was in the world before God gave us his laws.

If there is no law, there is no law to break - yet sin was in the world - how? Would that be fair to assign sin to a people who had no law and therefore no reference from which to assess whether they were being disobedient or not?

Paul is clear - death, judgement and condemnation come through one man - Adam.

Paul is equally clear throughout this letter that the grounds for our acceptance by God is not in and of ourselves, but solely on the merits of Jesus’ sacrifice, his death and his resurrection.

It is a weird concept for us individualistic westerners.

But in African and Asian nations - not so.

The bible shares much in common with these cultures where human beings are considered in solidarity with each other.

The bible also gives examples:

When Melchizedek, an ancestor of Levi receives Abraham’s tithe, the writer of Hebrews says:

When Achan stole the treasure from Jericho, it was as if

Luke assigns what Pilate, Herod and the Jews did in conspiracy to the whole people of Israel in Jerusalem.

And the writer of Hebrews suggests that when we turn away from God it is as if we are crucifying jesus all over again.

Looking at it from a positvie angle we could also consider Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians:

Is it fair that because of Adam’s sin we inherited sin and can do nothing about it, save from putting our daith and hope in Jesus?

Well, maybe not.

But if you apply that reasoning you should also ask the question - is it fair that because of sin one man shoud bear it all through an agonising death on the cross?

Kids - picture - bring one up and suggest you write the word SIN in big black letters over the top of it...

Friends, without the fall, confusion reigns and our understanding of God is warped.

With “the fall” the problems and difficulties the world and all its people have faced make sense.

Without the fall, there is no basis for sin.

Unless we are with Pelagius, in which case we are under the misconception that we hold the power to live lives worthy of God’s holiness and perfection and if only we can work hard enough we will be OK.

Good luck with that one...

On that basis, if you get there, or without sin as an inherited problem, we have no real need for a Saviour.

Jesus’ death was pointless and therefore so is our faith.

With the fall, everything in the Old and New Testaments makes ‘complete’ sense.

We may not fully understand all of it, or why God does what he does, but we know he is the only remedy and the only one we can take refuge in.

If you haven’t already done that - might today be the day you do?