The Search OF the Savior: Why Jesus Came, Part 2 (Gal. He was enthroning himself as a god, in the place of God. God is punishing us for Adam's sin, and that's not fair!" In fact, what Jesus demands from the world can be summed up as: “Trust and treasure me above all.” This is good news! Some kind of a twist has come in, something that we cannot explain -- a taint, a moral poison that makes us act in irrational ways -- so that even when we know that something is wrong or hurtful, we want to do it. In my book Authentic Christianity,I call this "an unquenchable optimism." We share life together. Philippians 4:4. Adam broke the command and, as a result, death and sin passed upon all his descendants. Anything that is prohibited, that's what he wants to do. Adam trespassed once and brought death to all that were in him. It is something that has gripped the race. Other times when Jesus speaks, His words bring correction. "The Lord Jehovah is my strength." God did not remove Paul’s pain, but he did enable Paul to praise him through it. From 1977-1992 he was the pastor of Lake Gregory Community Church in Crestline, California. God demands worship because He and He alone is worthy of it. Sometimes we become frustrated and hard and cynical. He is the only being that truly deserves worship. And home, rejoicing, brought me. But, in either case, what comes to us, comes from one man, either Adam or Jesus. In Romans 5, we have been learning that the one clear mark of a true Christian is that he always rejoices. Christ is the way to God. Some are robbed of joy when they think of God’s sovereign grace because they take the doctrine to conclusions that may seem logical, but they are not biblical. He wants us to be in His arms of care. 12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. They are not necessarily chronological levels, but they are levels of understanding truth and responding to it that reflect a continually growing and deepening maturity. Nobody had to teach him that. That is the contrast. As we cross over this bridge by our faith in Jesus, our relationship with God is restored. (Romans 5:12 RCS Version). That is what is called "original sin." He himself said so: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. G. K. Chesterton said, "Whatever else may be said of man, this one thing is clear: He is not what he is capable of being." They were excited about how God had used them in defeating Satan’s forces through their ministry. 15But the gift is not like the trespass. Does God’s sovereign grace make you rejoice greatly or stumble? What if I’m not one of the elect? (Romans 15:13) You are a new creation. It was an act of rebellion; it was an act of idolatry. We've never sent him to school to learn how to disobey. “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (I Corinthians 15:57). We can take the gift of worth over and over again. What is life? Paul tells us that the worse we get -- the more we fling ourselves into rebellion and sin and evil that we know to be wrong -- the closer we are to being broken, to coming to the end of ourselves and discovering how foolish and hurtful this whole thing is, and the closer we are to discovering the grace of restoration, cleansing, and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. But God’s truth remains true through any crisis. Don’t envy him for a second. God stands eagerly welcoming anyone who will believe the good news and come home (repent, Luke 15:7-10). People died from the time of Adam to Moses, even people who never had a command to break. The same is true of rebellious, fallen man. Do you adore God your Redeemer? As we see him thus, we discover what the Scriptures say, that the blessed Lord, who broke through death and sin, has come to live within us, to give himself to us, and to infuse us with his strength and purity, his wisdom and power. You can call it karma, destiny, fate, evolutionary darkness, or whatever -- but it is clearly evident that something is wrong. Sin and death will never loose their filthy hold on us except at the command of Jesus Christ. From Verse 12 of Romans 5 to the end of the chapter is a record of the greatness of Christ, his achievement of what Paul calls the reconciliation. But a strange thing happens at that point. And as we suffer, knowing we are undergirded, protected, and covered over by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we learn to rejoice in our sufferings. What will be, will be.” But as we saw in our last study, Jesus commands us to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers (10:2). And each time, she brings a new neighbor or friend to join us. Paul's answer is, "The Ten Commandments never were given to make men do right." And, even more than that, Jesus presents us holy and blameless in God’s sight. If permitted to continue in the self-centered world of his infancy, given free reign to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist. If he could only see as God sees, that successful man would gladly and quickly trade places with the person whose name is written in the book of life, even if that saint were suffering from terminal cancer! He is completely selfish and self-centered. Now, let us go forth in joy. 2:25-26). That means right now, today, in this moment, in this situation, with the body I have, the job I have, the home I have, the circumstances I find myself in. Paul is saying this: Adam brought a single experience of death to all people. Adam trespassed once and brought death to all. 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