Week 4 | Day 3 – FROM ADAM’S RUIN TO CHRIST’S RESCUE – Romans 5:12-21

In Romans 5:12–21, Paul traces humanity’s story through two Adams. Through the first Adam’s, sin entered into the world through his defiance of God’s command causing death to spread to all—contaminating and infection the entire creation. The result is that condemnation became our universal reality. As a result, we all are born into a fallen order—powerless to repair the rupture, unable to cover our guilt with any “fig leaves” of goodness. But thanks be to God, who in Jesus, the second Adam, stepped into time to make a full and satisfactory atonement for the first Adam’s mistake. Jesus’ obedience unto death and resurrection secures justification and life for all who believe. Whereas Adam’s trespass unleashed a reign of death, Jesus’ grace super-abounded, establishing a reign of righteousness so that sinners are not only forgiven but restored to fellowship with God. Jesus alone is God’s single, sufficient solution to the problem of sin.
 
APPLICATION
 
1 - Own the Diagnosis

I am a sinner by birth and choice—separated from God and unable to fix myself. Such realization should humble me and end any pursuit of self-reliance. I am a condemned sinner in need of a Savior.

2 - Trust God's Provision

What Adam broke, Jesus repaired. The cross Christ is God’s once-for-all propitiation that forgives sin and restores my relationship with God.

3 - Drop Your Fig Leaves

No amount of righteous, good deeds can ever cover my guilt, shame, and stain—only the blood of the Lamb of God can cover my sin. Such a transaction of grace and mercy is received by faith allowing for God’s favor to become imputed righteousness over my life.

4 - Live in the New Reign

Grace never excuses sin but empowers obedience. As such, as a new creation in Christ, with the Holy Spirit having been deposited in me to become the Temple of God—I now must choose daily to all Jesus to reign in my life by surrendering to the leading of the Spirit through the abiding life—no longer I who live but Christ lives in me (see Galatians 2:20).

5 - Hold Out the One Way to God

Because Jesus is God’s only remedy, I must strive to point others clearly and kindly to Him—not to moral effort, religion, or self-help—but to grace and mercy by way of the cross.

PRAYER
 
Lord, thank You for doing for me what I could never do for myself. In Adam, I was fallen, condemned, and unable to cover my shame, but in Jesus—the second Adam—you have fully atoned for my sin and given me righteousness and life. Teach me to lay down my fig leaves, to live by Your abundant grace, and to walk in the power of the Spirit so others may hear and see Your mercy in me. Use my life to point many to Your single, sufficient solution—Jesus Christ. Amen.