The verse for 5/15 is from Romans 5:15, "But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ." (NLT)
WHAM! We showed up in a world with the odds against us....thanks to Adam. Some people blame Eve for being disobedient to God, and, yes, they would be right to say that she made the ultimate error in judgement. Yet, Adam was the man of the garden and a rib was not the only thing he lost with the creation of Eve. It seems that his backbone was mysteriously misplaced, somewhere along the way. We can lament their bad choices and blame them for inheriting a world of sin, but it is what it is. They were only human and we cannot change history.
God saw that we were hopeless and knew that Adam's sin put us in a world of hurt. How gracious of God to love us so much that He made "Perfection" to come down to rescue us. In His mercy, He gave us Jesus Christ; the only One who could put us back in right standing with God. As much as Adam got it wrong, our destiny is no longer defined by his sin. Now, we can seek forgiveness through Jesus Christ and receive the gift of Eternal Salvation. What a mulligan God gave us. We went from having no shot to getting a free shot. We once were dead, but now we live. Thank God, for the Perfect Lamb who made it possible for us to have a LIFE sentence instead of a death sentence!
The Message translation further brings the above verse alive, as it continues through verse 17 to show us how Jesus is the difference between life and death. It says, "Yet, the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man's sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God's gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There's no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?"
I think that says it all.
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