Praise God that His grace triumphs over Adam’s sin.
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. 16 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. 19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.
20 God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. 21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 5:15-21
One man brought sin into the world for all humans.
Adam sinned and brought down all of mankind into a sin-filled world. The second Adam – Christ – brought life into the world with the gift of His grace and forgiveness. Let’s look at a verse in 1 Corinthians for a clearer picture of this:
The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person. But the last Adam – that is, Christ – is a life-giving Spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:45
Death ruled after Adam sinned. Life rules now after Christ made us right with God. Christ became our ultimate sacrifice to take away our sin forever and give us right standing with God. We were in Adam by birth but we are now in Christ by faith.
Being in Christ means having eternal life with Him.
The gift of our salvation is truly the ultimate miracle of all. We often overlook our salvation as being a miracle. We think of miracles as being physical healing. But the gift of eternal life is so much more. We should praise God for this wonderful gift and we should want to share this wonderful gift with everyone. We can plant the seed by sharing what Christ is doing in our lives. God will grow the seed.
For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.
1 Peter 1:23
How do we let grace reign in our lives?
When we live godly lives, we allow grace to reign. Through Jesus we have received abundant grace and the gift of righteousness. Jesus tells us that love is the greatest commandment. We are to love our neighbor.
You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.
1 Peter 1:22
Another key to living godly lives is choosing love over hate. Choosing forgiveness over unforgiveness. When we do this, we will see Christ become more in our lives. One thing to note is abundant grace does not give us a license to sin. In fact, it is the exact opposite. When we receive abundant grace from God, we do not have the desire to live a sinful life. We want to please God through our living.
Living godly lives also means that we put others before ourselves. We become less and Jesus becomes more. As this happens, we become less and others become more. We find ourselves with more tolerance and patience for other people. We are more compassionate. His ways are truly so much higher than our ways. To become more, we must become less. To go higher, we must go lower. To gain, we must lose. It makes no sense to the logical part of us. But to the spiritual part of us, it works. We see results when we live a life of giving rather than receiving. When we are humble and on our knees, we are raised up high.
Our God is perfect and true. Every. Single. Time.
Stay in the Light and the Love Always,
Eva
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