Transcript

Mirror Adam · The Holy Pause

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SPEAKER_00: So
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SPEAKER_00: in the same way that sin entered the world through one person,
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SPEAKER_00: and death came through sin,
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SPEAKER_00: so death spread to all human beings with the result that all sinned.
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SPEAKER_00: Although sin was in the world,
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SPEAKER_00: since there was no law, it wasn't taken into account until the law came.
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SPEAKER_00: But death ruled from Adam until Moses, even over those who didn't sin in the same way Adam did.
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SPEAKER_00: Adam was a type of the one who was coming.
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SPEAKER_00: But the free gift of Christ isn't like Adam's failure.
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SPEAKER_00: If many people died through what one person did wrong,
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SPEAKER_00: God's grace is multiplied even more for many people with the gift of the one person,
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SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, that comes through grace.
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SPEAKER_00: The gift isn't like the consequences of one person's sin.
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SPEAKER_00: The judgment that came from one person's sin led to punishment.
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SPEAKER_00: But the free gift that came out of many failures led to the verdict of acquittal.
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SPEAKER_00: If death ruled because of one person's failure,
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SPEAKER_00: those who receive the multiplied grace and the gift
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SPEAKER_00: of righteousness will even more certainly rule in life through the one person,
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SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: So now the righteous requirements necessary for life are met for everyone through
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SPEAKER_00: the righteous act of one person,
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SPEAKER_00: just as judgment fell on everyone through the failure of one person.
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SPEAKER_00: Many people were made righteous through the obedience of one person,
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SPEAKER_00: just as many people were made sinners through the disobedience of one person.
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SPEAKER_00: The law stepped in to amplify the failure, but where sin increased, grace multiplied even more.
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SPEAKER_00: The result is that grace will rule through God's righteousness,
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SPEAKER_00: leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, just as sin ruled in death.
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SPEAKER_00: So this passage is often considered the cornerstone of Paul's theology.
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SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a dense passage.
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SPEAKER_00: There's a lot to unpack.
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SPEAKER_00: But it essentially comes down to this.
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SPEAKER_00: That while Adam brought sin and disobedience through an act of disobedience into
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SPEAKER_00: the world, Jesus brings life and grace into the world through an act of obedience.
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SPEAKER_00: They're sort of mirror images of each other.
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SPEAKER_00: It also introduces the idea of what we call original sin.
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SPEAKER_00: In the Presbyterian tradition,
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SPEAKER_00: we say, we argue, we believe that all people are born with the stain of sin.
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SPEAKER_00: We often get confused about sin.
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SPEAKER_00: We think of sin and its manifestations, the ways that we experience sin in the world.
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SPEAKER_00: And so we talk about sins as moral failures or Acts of wrongdoing.
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SPEAKER_00: We sin because we ate a chocolate bar.
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SPEAKER_00: In fact, we go so far as even to call desserts sinful or guilty pleasures.
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SPEAKER_00: But that's not really what sin is.
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SPEAKER_00: Sin instead is the thing that is in our heart that replaces God,
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SPEAKER_00: that takes the place of God, that makes us think that we know better than God.
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SPEAKER_00: That makes us choose death over life.
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SPEAKER_00: That causes us to believe that the things which lead to death,
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SPEAKER_00: not physical death,
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SPEAKER_00: but spiritual death, soul-crushing death, those inclinations, those desires are sin.
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SPEAKER_00: And every one of us has it.
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SPEAKER_00: But Paul goes on to say, every one of us also has access to grace.
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SPEAKER_00: That the one who is the second Adam,
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SPEAKER_00: the second coming of God's promise with the world gave us grace,
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SPEAKER_00: offers us life,
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SPEAKER_00: makes it possible for our hearts to change,
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SPEAKER_00: to be inclined differently, to see opportunities.
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SPEAKER_00: To remember that humility which reminds us that we are not in fact God.
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SPEAKER_00: And every time our hearts remember that we belong to God,
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SPEAKER_00: and every time our hearts are inclined to God's goodness and God's grace,
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SPEAKER_00: we offer ourselves and others a little bit more life.
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SPEAKER_00: This is a story of humility and sin which looks like arrogance.
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SPEAKER_00: We try to make it more complicated than that, but it's not really.
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SPEAKER_00: It's just that easy.
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SPEAKER_00: That humanity is inclined to selfishness and self-centeredness and hard hearts.
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SPEAKER_00: But the one who came offers us life instead.
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SPEAKER_00: And that's it.
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SPEAKER_00: That's the story.
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SPEAKER_00: That's the good news.
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SPEAKER_00: I invite you to consider how you were taught to understand sin.
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SPEAKER_00: And how does that compare to the story that Paul tells us about sin?
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SPEAKER_00: Did you grow up in a world where sin was bad behavior and it deserved to be punished?
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SPEAKER_00: And how does that affect how you see grace and God's free offering of that grace?
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SPEAKER_00: I invite you to remember and to consider today what it would look like to remember
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SPEAKER_00: that grace is offered to you Freely, no conditions, no strings attached.
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SPEAKER_00: And how you might choose to live into that grace today and allow yourself
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SPEAKER_00: the freedom of experiencing God's love.
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SPEAKER_00: Join me in prayer.
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SPEAKER_00: God of grace,
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SPEAKER_00: help us to remember that sin is not the things that we do and
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SPEAKER_00: that sin doesn't make us a bad person in your eyes.
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SPEAKER_00: It's just part of who we are.
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SPEAKER_00: Help us in those moments where we're inclined to selfishness and self-centeredness
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SPEAKER_00: to remember that you offer life-giving grace and that when we choose
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SPEAKER_00: to open ourselves up to it, we can experience life as you would have us to live it.
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SPEAKER_00: Give us the humility to remember who we are and whose we are.
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SPEAKER_00: It's in God's name we pray.
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SPEAKER_00: Amen.
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[music]