Christ and Sin and Christ

Christ and Sin

Sin and Christ in Romans and Isaiah

The Biblical passage Romans 5: 12-21, from Paul's "Epistle to the Romans,." emphasizes the humanity of Christ. It contrasts the gift of Christ with the sin of Adam. Although the negative impact of Adam's sin upon the fate of humanity was great, seismic, the goodness of the gift of Christ had an even greater positive implication for the fate of humanity. "But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!" (Romans 5:15). This is important to remember -- the weight of goodness outweighs evil actions. When judging another human being, give the person's good actions greater weight than the bad. Do not despair at small sins, provided the sinner strives to act morally in the future and seeks forgiveness (although this does not mean that sinning is insignificant). Although Adam's actions brought sin into the world and sinful actions for all men, Christ's obedience brought justification and redemption for all.

In terms of Christian ministry, one always confronts sin, and people who have sinned. People may think of their lives, because of their past follies and disobediences -- broken marriages, substance abuse, or simple bad behavior -- as making their lives unredeemable. But because of the actions of God's only son, they are not beyond redemption. Of course, this does not mean that sin has no implications for the sinner, the sinner's soul, and society. Adam's disobedience and poor judgment resulted in "condemnation for all men" (Romans 20: 18). But past sinning should never propel the sinner in complete despair, because Christ suffered for everyone, and no human being except Christ is without sin.

One of the most interesting aspects of Romans 5 is Paul's stress upon the previous function of the law, presumably Mosaic Law. Paul notes "death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come" (Romans 5:14). Before Christ's obedience, following Mosaic Law to the letter was necessary to keep people holy. Christ's sacrifice superseded the law, and bought forth the possibility of human beings achieving a holiness of the spirit, so that character rather than strict adherence was more important.

One of the problems of simply focusing on rules is that it is so easy to break the simple letter of a moral set of strict commandments: "The law was added so that the trespass might increase" (Romans 5:20).

Laws, sacred and secular, are necessary for earthly society to function, and one must strive to obey those laws. But to simply 'do right' is not enough, rather grace and a good and moral will is required to know what to do -- when to break the strict letter of the law to act morally, and when to adhere to a moral code. Morality is not a cookbook that one can follow in a step-by-step fashion.

This is a potent reply to people who often ask, 'why cannot I be good, without Christ,' or without even a sense of a constant, steadfast, personal ethical system. When ministering to others, frequently one is asked: 'but can't I just follow the golden rule?' Although there is some truth to the importance of simply doing unto others as one would have done to one's self, more is needed when deeper ethical questions emerge. Furthermore, Paul would contend that simply following the law, Mosaic or otherwise, is not taking advantage of Christ's full gift to humanity. There is no driving, internal emotional drive to follow the law without the acceptance of grace and the sense that what one does on earth is thanks for Christ in heaven, for Christ's sacrifice.

Paul's primary theme in Romans 5 is how Christ's actions overcome the actions of Adam and supersede the laws put in place to curtail the excesses of sinful humanity before He came to earth. The Hebraic Bible's poetic passages of Isaiah 52:13-53:12 also stress the transformative quality of God's sacrificial servant. The words of Isaiah are a kind of prefiguring of Christ's coming to earth as the Messiah. Isaiah adds another dimension -- the fact that the moral and righteous are not always recognized as such on the earth. Because God's servant is not beautiful, "his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man / and his form marred beyond human likeness" the unknowing and unseeing are appalled (Isaiah 52:14). However, the servant brings wisdom and insight to kings and the world and is eventually exalted.