June 22 | Romans 5:12-21

Dave Mann
Jun 22
2 min read

DAILY READING

REFLECTION

Our Representatives

By Dave Mann

I have heard complaints about Romans 5:12 – “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people.” The reasoning goes something like this, “Why should I take the blame for what Adam and Eve did? I wasn’t in the garden. If I had been there, I wouldn’t have eaten the forbidden fruit.” Really? We all make similar choices every day when we don’t trust God and follow our own ways rather than God’s.

As it is, Adam functioned as our representative. Theologians say that he was our “federal head,” much like our representatives speak for us in Congress, Adam spoke for us in Eden. When he distrusted God, the spiritual gene pool of all humanity was corrupted. This is what we call “original sin.” This term is used to explain the on-going character of each and every human being to trust ourselves instead of our Creator.

If we want to follow the logic of the complaint that we don’t want the consequences of the bad choices made in the garden to be attributed to us, be careful! Do we really want to be on our own in the weighing of sin and righteousness? Do we realize what it means to be separated from God’s plan of salvation? Do we want to be separated from all the God-ordained representation explained in Scripture? Separation from our representative in the garden of Eden also means that we are separated from our Representative in the garden of Gethsemane – separated from our Representative who hung on the cross and who conquered death as he exited the tomb.

Note that the representative understanding of how spiritual corruption is passed along to all humanity is similar to Christ’s representation of us on the cross. Spiritual representation is God’s method of providing us salvation. ^“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (5:19). God’s Word states that just as one person’s sin stained us, so also, one Man’s righteousness saves us.

Because of Adam’s sin, we all have a debtor’s account. We owe God and we do not have the means to settle our debt. But through God’s gracious plan of salvation, we are freed. Though Adam’s sin was imputed to us, Christ’s righteousness was also imputed to all who believe and are baptized. (See Romans 4:22-25 & 6:4-5.)

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, every time I act without trusting you, I can see myself in my flawed representative in Eden. Please grant me also the eyes to see my righteous Representative on the cross, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DAVE MANN

I am a Pastor for Internationals (retired) in the UALC community. I am married to Pam, father of four, and grandfather of seven. Pam and I have lived twenty of our years in other countries including France, Cameroon, Haiti, and Morocco. In retirement, we continue to enjoy writing devotionals, learning languages, and teaching English to internationals.