Our Need to Be Reconciled

MEMORY SELECTION: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” —Romans 3:23

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Romans 1:28 through 2:11

WHEN Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, God figuratively turned his back upon Adam and his offspring. The communion that had existed between God and men was cut off, and for man to have a reestablished relationship required a reconciliation. But God’s law is perfect, and his sentence of death and excommunication was a just sentence. A clearly stated principle of God’s law is that “the wages of sin is death.”—Rom. 6:23

Death, by definition, is simply the absence of life, which means that as far as Adam and his offspring were concerned they would go out of existence—go into oblivion—when they died. There was no promise of a life after death, either on earth or in heaven.

The plight of man was hopeless except for the love and mercy of God, for it was impossible for God to alter arbitrarily the just sentence that had been placed upon Adam. We are told that “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” (Ps. 19:9).

Adam was perfect when he sinned; therefore, if the just penalty for sin was to be unaltered and yet a provision be made whereby Adam could have another opportunity for life, it was necessary that a perfect man take Adam’s place in death. But, there were no perfect men of Adam’s progeny, because they had all inherited Adamic weaknesses and were under his condemnation to death.

But God in his love, wisdom, and power devised a plan whereby the principle of justice could be preserved and yet provide a way of salvation for Adam and his race. The Apostle Paul states it this way: “Whom [Jesus Christ] God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”—Rom. 3:25,26

In other words, God demonstrated his love for Adam and his race by giving his only begotten Son to take Adam’s place in death. (John 3:16) Jesus was perfect, holy, harmless, and separate from sinners. He was not of adamic stock—God himself was his Father—and therefore he was qualified to be a price to correspond, or a ransom price for Adam.—I Tim. 2:5,6; Mark 10:45; I John 2:2; I Pet. 1:18,19

The Bible tells us that in his prehuman existence Jesus was a great spirit being, known as the Logos, but when his life was transferred to the babe Jesus, he was born flesh, “made of a woman.” (John 1:14; Gal. 4:4) And in John 6:51 Jesus states that he would give his flesh for the life of the world, and this was accomplished on the cross. So the penalty for sin—adamic sin—was unaltered. The perfect man Jesus took the perfect man Adam’s place in death. Jesus would have gone out of existence had it not been that the Father begat Jesus of the Spirit at Jordan. Because of Jesus’ perfect obedience under difficult and trying circumstances, God raised him out of death to the divine nature and set him at his right hand of power. Jesus died eternally as a man in order to provide the means for the reconciliation of the whole world.

Here again we see the wisdom and the economy of God, for since all were condemned in Adam, all could be released by ransoming Adam. The Apostle Paul states the matter very beautifully and concisely: “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.”—Rom. 5:18,19

It is only after we realize fully the utter hopelessness of our state as the children of Adam that we can begin to appreciate the magnitude of the gracious and unspeakable gift that God gave to us when at great cost to himself he gave his only begotten Son to die on Calvary’s cross that we might have an opportunity for life.

Truly our need to be reconciled was great!

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