The scriptures for this Sunday are Genesis 3 and Romans 5:12-21.
For many reading this blog, Genesis 3 is a familiar story. It’s the story of how a perfect world created by God becomes tainted with sin. Our parents, Adam and Eve, in the garden did not follow the one rule God laid out for them: Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They failed and they were ashamed. Adam placed the blame on Eve. Eve placed the blame on the serpent. A perfect world became stained with the illness of sin.
Yet, even in anger, God still showed Adam and Eve compassion and love. God made for them clothes for them to wear. Even in the midst of sin and its devastating effects of brokenness, lies, disease, and decay, God showed our first parents grace.
In Romans 5:12-21, Paul states the obvious: Through one person’s action, sin entered the world. On the other hand, through one person (Jesus Christ), grace entered the world. The free gift that restores our relationship with God, neighbor, creation, and self is brought to us through the faithfulness of Christ’s birth, ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection. Even when we feel sin’s damaging effects on us and our relationships, grace is even more powerful. As Paul says in Romans 5:20: “The Law stepped in to amplify the failure, but where sin increased, grace multiplied even more.”
Our brokenness, our shortcomings, our sins do not have the final say.
Beloved, believe this Good News!
Christ’s Peace,
Pastor T. Wes Moore