ROMANS 5: 8-21
18 Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. †
Adam Wrecks It all
A pastor friend of mine out east tells me the story of competing high school basketball teams. What we’ll call the home team was having an amazing year. As they approached the end of season tournament, they were 10-1. They were in top position by a large margin; something they had never done.
As they approached the playoffs and the high school state tournament, the team submitted their application—everyone expected them to sweep the board and they had every reason to, but, as it happens, one guy on the team made a difference for everyone. He wasn’t even much of a player, he barely hung on to the bottom of the roster and sat at the far end of the bench, but he was, formally, part of the team.
As the teams prepared for the state tournament, our home team coach received a disturbing phone call. Player Z from the end of the bench had not only failed a class, but had failed to report that he had failed that class. State rules specified disqualification.
Oh well, too bad—one player down, right? Wrong. The entire team faced disqualification. Unfair as it sounds, this one player’s oversight cost the whole team—players, coaches, school and community—total disqualification and the forfeit of their entire record. The team would enter the tournament with a record of 0 wins and 11 losses.
One guy’s goof cost the entire team everything. The entire school suffered for it. Sad, but them’s the rules.
Adam, stupidly, disobeys the Lord in Eden. Oh well, too bad—one player down, right? Wrong. The sin of Adam drives humankind permanently out of Paradise and robs them all of life.
“Wait—who? Just his family? Just the Jews? Just the unbelievers?” No, all humankind is fallen into disqualification with a sinful score of 0 wins. What’s more, even nature falls with Adam. Genesis 3: 17-18a:
cursed is the ground because of you;
in toil you shall eat of it
all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles i
t shall bring forth for you;
Adam is driven from Paradise and robbed of life. Our inheritance is that, by extension, Adam drives us from Paradise and robs us of life. And so we live in a world—as cosmos, a universe—dominated by decay, erosion, entropy, and death. All of us—all of humankind—inherit the curse of sin and death. It is guaranteed for us all, and it’s a rotten deal, thank you, Adam.
God Into the Entropy
Into this bleak horizon of total fallenness, God reaches out to us nonetheless, which is grace in and of itself. He plans to save us in spite of ourselves, and begins by revealing Himself to Abraham, as we read last week. God promises Abraham children upon children—a great nation from him and his barren wife Sarah. Abraham’s faithfulness consists of waiting against all reason—trusting against all odds—that God will most certainly follow-through on His promises. Abraham lived by trusting God’s promise. And so do we.
In today’s text, we read how Christ’s resurrection gives us a new promise. There is a new inheritance on the way: not decay and death, but life everlasting in communion with God. And just as the natural world fell with Adam, so the new inheritance promises a new cosmos—a new Heaven and Earth—according to Revelation 21: 1:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Christ Himself is the evidence of the new life and promise. He is the New Adam—the first of the new human race—the immortal human race. He is the New Abraham—the Father of the faithful Chosen.
Moreover, He is the initiator of the New Creation:
•the new cosmos in which death is no more,
•the new Earth that is slave to neither decay nor death,
•the new cosmos no longer subject to entropy,
•the new universe without the curse of death.
EARTH version 1.0
We can think of this life—this world—as the demo version of reality, but not merely a study that is to be totally abandoned. We ought not to think that this world will be burnt up or trashed by God for the sake of the new. We must not think this because of what happened to Jesus.
As Jesus’ body was not discarded or left buried in a tomb and subjected to decay, so ours will not be, and neither will the Earth. Just as Jesus’ body was used in resurrection—its raw material all taken up and into His resurrected body—transformed into eternal, resurrected Lordship, so we can expect our cosmos to be used in the same way.
This means that this dying body of Earth, like a human body, will be used and transformed to its new life, just as you and shall.
And here’s what strikes me as so wild about this. In the new Earth and new Heaven, there may be an Upland, albeit a transformed one. And perhaps also:
•a Los Angeles, minus grime, poverty, and corruption;
•a California, minus politicians;
• oceans and mountains, fish, trees, and animals—all minus the curse of death. Can you begin to imagine it?
Resurrected Cosmos
A new world means a new cosmos—one with stars that do not burn out, and planets that neither erode or decay. That means a physical cosmos that is truly eternal.
The promise is a new inheritance instead of the old one: Life instead of Death. The new promise is the reverse of the curse of death into a cosmos that is absolutely eternal.
There, we will see resurrected bodies that neither age nor decay, never grow weaker through age or illness, and every soul will have total, perfect access to God’s power and presence.
We will see His face.
We will know—completely—how to glorify Him and live out the perfect joy of doing so.
All of that Inheritance is the Promise of God’s Coming Kingdom. Christ’s resurrection both announces it and demonstrates it. Christ’s resurrection initiates that New World and we live in it and for it even now.
Our faith is exactly like that of Abraham—waiting and trusting—being fully convinced that God will bring it to completion. The Holy Spirit is our gift—only the Holy Spirit can fully convince us to trust, believe, and follow, just as it convinced Abraham. And as Abraham trusted against all reason—hoping against hope in its fulfillment—so should we.
Hope = Foreknowing
It is our foreknowledge of Christ’s coming kingdom and what he shall yet fulfill that shapes the way we live our lives here and now—in this demo Upland. Think of it: we are even now practicing and being prepared for our inheritance in the resurrected, eternal Upland.
“But I want to live in Laguna! or Paris! or Portland!”
That’s fine—I expect you’ll be able to live wherever you like (and travel there at the speed of thought), but ask yourself, “Why does God have me in Upland here and now?” Certainly it is for some purpose of His. Are you and I being shaped, prepared, and trained for our life in His Kingdom? Of course we are! So why does God have you here now? If you’re wondering, then you should ask Him. Today. This hour.
Seeking the Kingdom
The Kingdom of God—in the form of God’s Holy Spirit—is presently in our midst, here and now, as the foretaste of our eternal life in resurrection.
Are we seeking it? Do you look for it? Do you accept every day as another step of God’s provision for your training? Well, why not?
Take a look around—at your family, neighborhood, and community. If you were looking at God’s eternal Upland—the Upland after resurrection—what would be different? Were you and I perfected in Christ’s love, living in immortality, but looking around at our exact same landscape, what might we be wanting to do to please and glorify God?
• Seeking His will for us in every moment of every day
• Eager to involve ourselves in whatever God is doing next.
• Gathering to sing God’s praise and glory with thanks.
That’s exactly what we need to do here and now:
• Help little ones to know, love, and serve The Lord.
• Healing the weak and helping the lost to find their way.
• Gathering to sing God’s praise and glory with thanks.
God may inspire us differently, but the motivation is one and the same—God’s Holy Spirit—motivating and moving us into action.
Faith, hope, love, healing, helping, teaching, encouraging, affirming, building up one another in love, and out-doing one another is showing honor—we start that work not after Jesus returns, but here and now. Today. This very hour.
As the First Adam drove us all into death and decay, Christ, the Second Adam, rescues us from death for life—eternal life—abundance and everlasting joy.
Look at your world today—your home, family, friends and neighbors, your community—and seek the kingdom of God’s will there.
SEE that eternal, resurrected, and perfected form.
SEE the redeemed souls of every person,
SEE the redeemed Earth and cosmos—the life that is beyond pain and every tear.
SEE all people living in peace, justice, and harmony because everyone sees and knows Jesus as Lord.
That is our goal-line. It is our endzone—the purpose of our every effort.
Jesus has won the war and finished the game.
Jesus has completed the work that needs to be done.
We, like Patton’s 3rd Army, are making our way from Normandy to Berlin. We know we’ve won.
We, like the Kansas City Chiefs, push toward the endzone again and again—but unlike them, we do so having had a glimpse of the final score.
We, the hometown basketball team, have been reinstated for the tournament—the disqualifications and forfeits have been reversed. We enter the tournament with our full record and every chance of success.
Brothers and Sisters, the New World is on its way. It has been promised to us by an Almighty God who never fails to keep every promise. We can be fully convinced, and like Abraham trust in God t fulfill His promise!
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it! †