Sermon -- 1st Sunday in Lent (February 26, 2023)

ROMANS 5:12-19

ONE MAN RESTORES WHAT ONE MAN RUINED.

In the name + of Jesus.

      Throughout the Lenten season, we usually focus on the passive obedience of Jesus.  Passive obedience refers to what Jesus endured, what Jesus let happen to him.  So, we think of the betrayal, the false charges, the illegal trial, the beatings, the spitting, the mockery, the scourging, and the crucifixion.  All of this was necessary to fulfill the Scriptures and to make the sacrifice which atones for the sins of the world. 

     What often gets overlooked, especially during Lent, is Jesus’ active obedience.  Active obedience refers to what Jesus actively engaged in.  Our Gospel reading gives us a perfect example of that.  Satan came to tempt Jesus.  They faced off in a battle for Jesus’ dedication to his heavenly Father.  The devil tempts us similarly every day, and we often fail.  But Jesus overcame each temptation that the devil threw at him.  Jesus actively obeyed his heavenly Father’s word and triumphed over the devil.  He did the work that we have not done and could not do.

     Ironically, while we often focus on passive obedience when it comes to Jesus, we think of active obedience when it comes to ourselves.  This is the case whether we think of our sins or our good works.  Either we have actively disobeyed God’s Commandments or we have actively obeyed and done what God expects of us. 

     God has always had expectations for mankind.  The world God created was flawless.  The people he created were holy.  God’s expectation was that they continue in perfection.  To enable Adam and Eve to demonstrate their love and obedience, and in time be confirmed in their perfection, God gave them one command: “Of the tree that is in the middle of the Garden you shall not eat.  On the day you eat of it, you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17).  The tree in the middle of the garden would be seen every day by Adam and Eve.  It gave them daily opportunity to demonstrate their active obedience to God.  It was simple: Listen to God’s command.  Do not eat from the tree. 

     God gave Adam and Eve one commandment.  God gave us ten.  But we have them for the same reason—we get to actively demonstrate our love for God by keeping his Commandments.  We are not presented with a tree, but with countless opportunities every day to live the life God expects us to.  We get to put that obedience into practice most immediately with our families.  Children listen to their parents and cooperate around the house.  Husbands love their wives with self-sacrificing headship.  Wives honor their husbands with self-sacrificing support.  Brothers and sisters put aside rivalries and cooperate for the good of the family.  Loved ones get to demonstrate selfless love for each other.  But how well has that worked?  What family knows nothing but pure harmony?  We have not lived up to what God created us to be.  We have actively sinned against God and each other.  We have proven that we are sinners.

     The first holy man was to actively obey God and to confirm his perfect relationship with God and with all creation.  He did not last long.  The devil came to entice the man and the woman to ignore God’s word for his seductive lie.  The devil sold them on these ideas: If you do what you want instead of listening to God, you will be wiser and happier.  You will be your own boss.  You will become like God.  And they bought it. 

     One man brought ruin on everything.  As we heard in our Old Testament lesson, their harmony with God was replaced in animosity.  When God asked Adam if he had eaten from the tree, Adam had words for God.  There was no sense of remorse or regret, just blame-casting.  The man and woman lost love for one another.  Adam was quick to blame Eve for his sins.  Eve would chafe under Adam’s headship.  The world lost its harmony, too.  Thorns which cut and thistles which prick were not God’s plan for a perfect world, much less are natural disasters, disease, and death.  But the disobedience of the one man brought ruin upon all creation.

     What the one man ruined, he could not restore.  The harmony that the one man ruined he could not reconcile.  The creation that fell into ruin because of the one man’s sin could not be repaired.  Everything from that moment on was brought into ruin.  St. Paul wrote, “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.  Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come” (Romans 5:12-14). 

     St. Paul addressed a question that people ask when they try to excuse themselves from blame.  If Adam sinned, why do I have to pay the price?  St. Paul acknowledged that many generations from Adam to Moses did not violate a specific command of God.  Adam violated the command to not eat from the tree.  The Ten Commandments were not given until Moses.  Nevertheless, all the people in between Adam and Moses were ruled by death.  They died for one reason: They were all sinners. 

     The ruin of Adam has been passed down to everyone.  Even without eating from the tree, men found fault with their wives and women despised the headship of their husbands.  People were greedy, violent, and jealous.  And they all had words for God, thinking that they could be better at being God.  Of course, nothing has changed.  Even though you and I know better and want to do better, we still actively sin against God and each other.  What one man has ruined, no one can restore.  The harmony that the one man ruined no one can reconcile.  The creation that fell into ruin because of the one man’s sin no one can repair.    

     Our greatest need is someone who can restore, reconcile, and repair everything that has gone to ruin.  St. Paul assures us that one man has done just that.  One man restores what one man ruined.  St. Paul explains how this is, “As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.  For 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.” (Romans 5:18-19). 

     Jesus Christ is known as the second Adam.  He is the second perfect man to walk the face of the earth.  And, of course, the second Adam faced the same devil the first Adam did.  When Jesus was baptized, the heavenly Father declared, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17).  Immediately after that, the devil came to challenge that and to overthrow him.  The first Adam failed and was overcome by the devil.  The second Adam, Jesus, remained faithful to his active obedience to his heavenly Father.  The first Adam did not listen to the word of God; the second Adam, Jesus, quoted the word of God to persevere against temptation.  This one man did what no other man has ever done—he remained sinless.  He refused to give in to temptations, no matter how attractive the devil made them.  Jesus overcame the devil.  By his active obedience, one man restores what one man had ruined.

     When St. Paul refers to Jesus’ perfect obedience, however, he does not speak of many victories over Satan.  St. Paul wrote, “As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men” (Romans 5:18).  We know what Adam’s one act was: He ate from the tree he was commanded not to eat from.  What was the one act of Jesus which restored what the one man had ruined?  Our communion liturgy helps us here.  Throughout the Lenten season, we ponder this truth: Jesus “brought the gift of salvation to all people by his death on the tree of the cross so that the devil, who overcame us by a tree, would in turn by a tree be overcome” (Proper Preface for the season of Lent).  The one act of righteousness was Jesus’ perfect obedience to his heavenly Father who sent him to suffer and die for sinners.  God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and the Son so loved his Father that he gave his life on behalf of the world so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

     By this one act of obedience, the one man restores what the one man had ruined.  Jesus’ innocent death atones for the guilt of every sinner.  Therefore, you are justified, that is, God declares you not guilty of sin for Jesus’ sake.  He has taken away your guilt, and you are freely pardoned.  Jesus consumed the cup of God’s the wrath and swallowed every bit of judgment we had deserved.  Jesus took into himself the venom of the serpent’s bite and let it do to him what he should have done to us.  In this way, Jesus delivers you out of the devil’s grasp and reconciles you to God the Father. 

     But neither death nor the devil could keep their hold on Jesus.  He is the Savior who takes away your sin.  He is the victor who has conquered death.  He is the champion who has defeated the devil.  But know this: Jesus victory is for you.  It is not just that Jesus died for sins.  It is that Jesus redeems you from sin.  Therefore, God will not condemn you.  He is not even angry with you.  He loves you enough to give up his Son into a cursed death to save you.  Jesus conquered the grave, but he overcame death for you.  Because of Jesus, the grave is just a resting place for our bodies.  Since he is the master over death, Jesus will bring us out of death.  We look forward to a resurrection with restored bodies that will be forever free from injury, weakness, or death.  Jesus defeated the devil, but he did so for you.  The devil taunts and tempts, accuses, lies, and makes promises he cannot keep.  But now, you belong to Jesus, and the devil cannot snatch you away from him.  Jesus gives you a life of meaning and purpose.  If you were worth it for Jesus to die for you, then your life is worth something.  Jesus sure thinks so.  He delights in you and wants you to be with him forever.

     What the one man ruined, the one man restores.  The harmony that the one man ruined, Jesus has reconciled.  The peace of God is yours, and that peace can be shown to others by loving them as God loves us.  The creation that fell into ruin because of the one man’s sin, Jesus will repair.  At the resurrection of the dead, the creation itself will be delivered from corruption to restored to perfection.  The one man restores all things, and everyone who believes in him will receive a place in the new heaven and new earth, the home of righteousness—a holy dwelling for Christ’s holy ones.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.