Have you ever been a part of a group of people with the requirement that all of you do the exact same thing, but if anyone of you messed up in any way you all received a punishment? It wouldn’t matter if there were a couple dozen of you, if just one of you failed to do something correctly then you all will receive a penalty of some sort.
This can happen quite often in just about any team based sport. If you look at a game of baseball for an example, you may have a roster of 25 players currently active who can participate in the game. Your main starting pitcher may pitch absolutely incredible and nearly flawless throughout the first eight innings of the game, and all of his defenders behind and around him may do the same. They are all almost on the edge of winning the entire game, but if the closing pitcher makes a mistake by walking a hitter, and gives up a home run to lose the lead at the very end of the game, everyone will receive the same result. A “L” in their win/loss record. Just that one person brought upon the entire team the loss because of their mistakes.
Well this is comparatively similar to the way that everyone has received the exact same punishment that all happened because of one person’s sin. Because of the sin that happened in the Garden of Eden in the beginning, now everyone who is born on this Earth automatically receives the same punishment, in that we all are sinners from birth. We inherited it, in a sense, because from the moment that the original sin occurred, death came upon everyone. Because of that sin, bodies began to age and grow old, and eventually they would die. Remember that Adam and Eve were created to be eternal beings, but again, it was because of that one single mistake that brought death.
Romans 5:12-19 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
As time went by everyone continued to receive the results of that big mistake. People would be born, people would die. Generation after generation this has been repeated, from the beginning of time until now, as we all are sinners. That one single mistake sure has had quite an effect, hasn’t it?
But unlike a baseball game that can be ruined by a single mistake with no way to rectify it, there was a way to fix the result of sin (death and condemnation.) Through what Jesus did when He died on the cross, we can have our sins taken away. Because Jesus was able to defeat sin, He grants us the opportunity to receive the gift of forgiveness and eternal life, something that no one else can do. And that is really what the Judaic Law showed over the years, which was the truth that we are all sinners and have made mistakes during our lives, and if we want to be freed from the punishment that everyone will receive from their sin we need to go to the Lord Jesus Christ to obtain forgiveness.
This forgiveness that Jesus offers is not something that anyone deserves or can obtain by a merit that someone can do, but it is a free gift. Completely free, but it can only be gifted, not earned. And just as all gifts should be, the gift that Jesus gives us needs to be treated with great care, and the understanding of what Jesus had to go through to make it available to us. Jesus had to allow Himself to suffer and die a painful death in His earthly body, and He did it because He loves us. He certainly didn’t have to do what He did, and no one forced Him; it was all because of His great love.
Ephesians 2:1-8 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
It is a gift of love. By one we received the sentence of death because of sin, and because of the One we may have the gift of life. His love is what frees us from that big mistake.
In Christ
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 