Romans 5:12-20

Sin is powerful; the love of God is more powerful.  Sin has the power to bring death and destruction to everything it touches.  The sin of one man condemned all men to death.  Sin was only possible because God gave humanity freewill.  Adam could choose between right and wrong.  When he chose disobedience, he chose to enslave himself and all of his descendants to evil.  He still had limited freewill.  He could choose to struggle against selfishness and sin.  He could not choose to atone for his sin.  His transgression was against God, and there was nothing he could choose to do that would make it right.  Humanity was in a terrible mess; that is how powerful sin is.

God loved his creation, and it grieved him to see them suffer in sin and from sin.  He had given them freewill, and they had thrown it away.  God’s love was so great that he chose to offer his son Jesus Christ as atonement for sin.  That atonement was greater and more powerful than sin.  It covered all the sin of the past, it covers all the sin of the present and it is so powerful that it will cover all the sin of the future.  The more that sin abounds the greater grows God’s grace and mercy.

Christ’s sacrifice of his life on the cross, and his resurrection through the power the Holy Spirit means that grace reigns through righteousness. God through Christ made eternal life possible for all.  Yet we know that not everyone is righteous, and not everyone has chosen to receive the gift of eternal life.  So what did Christ’s sacrifice really do?  He returned to every person the gift of freewill, and offered to everyone a chance to reconcile with God and receive a pardon for sin and the gift of eternal life.  God did not force Adam to be obedient; and he will not force us to be repentant.  God’s grace returns to us the freedom to choose.  When we choose Christ, we choose life.