The Two Adams – by Des Ford
- Bible
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- Dr Desmond Ford
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May 27, 2015 1904
The Book of Romans, the fifth chapter, says that the first Adam was our first representative and that when Adam sinned, death came upon all men for all men sinned in Adam. We were all in him, and when our great representative failed in the garden, we all failed and that’s why we’re born without the Spirit. Born crooked. More crooked than any sofa spring, every one of us. That’s the way we were born, corrupt, dead, born dead, dead in trespasses and sin. That’s why it’s harder to go right than wrong.
That’s why in all of the world there’s sin, there’s not a continent or a city or a town or a family or a heart without the terrible gravitational pull of sin. All because our first representative failed.
But, let me tell you the other half. In the same Book of Romans, chapter 5, verse 18, it tells us of the second Adam. And it tells us that by the sin of one we were all ruined, so by the righteousness of one, we were all redeemed. In Romans 5, verse 12 (and onwards) read how it calls righteousness “a gift”.
Have you ever thought about that? What you and I strive to earn, is a gift! You can’t buy it – how could you buy anything infinite?
And why should you hope to buy it anyway? The best things are beyond buying. Try buying a sunset. What do you pay for a ray of sunshine? What do you pay for a drop of water? What does it cost you to have a smile from a friend? Or for one spouse to have the embrace of the other? The best things of life are free.
And the best things of the life to come are free, because of our representative. He’s bought righteousness for all of us. His life is taken in place of our life, and His death is taken in place of our death. Do you see it? You can’t buy righteousness. And you can’t earn it – not by Bible study or prayer or soul winning, or sacrifice (as important as these things are!)
There’s no way of buying it. You know what love that’s bought is. They know in Amsterdam, they know in Los Ange1es, they know in all the great cities of the world what bought love is –that’s prostitution! What will we make of God if we try to prostitute His love? The love of God is free! The gifts of God are free, they are infinite, beyond the purchase of weak, crooked creatures – beyond our purchase.
The Lord Jesus – the Second Adam – did not think heaven a place to be esteemed while we were lost. He changed his marvellous estate for a cowshed. He exchanged a throne for a cross, a royal diadem for a crown of thorns, glorious robes for nakedness, and He did it, that we who deserve hell, might have heaven. May we not make the mistake of rejecting Christ’s free gif of righteousness and everlasting life. May we exert our arms, to fold them around the living Christ, and then to kneel at His feet, and rising, crown Him Lord of Lords.
– Des Ford. Rom 8:27–32. Adapted from “Planetary Interchange”
it is ablessing to learn about this reality about the bible
Eliezer Gonzalez
May 30, 2015
You are welcome, in the name of Jesus.