02-22-2026

“CHRIST IS GREATER THAN ADAM(US)”

Text: Romans 5:12-19

Sunday February 22, 2026 – Lent 1

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this First Sunday in Lent is the Epistle lesson from Romans 5 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that we are equal to Adam and all men in our sinful condition.  Equal in all men except for Jesus who’s saving work is greater than our sin.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

Very often, the actions of one person can affect the lives of many others. A president issues executive orders or a dictator decides a policy that touches an entire country. A general plans a military campaign that moves a whole army, or a field officer gives a command that sends a platoon into a dangerous battle.

A football coach or the manager of a baseball team calls plays or orders a defensive shift that sets all his players in motion and could affect a win or loss, exhilarating or breaking the hearts of millions of fans.

In the Epistle for this First Sunday in Lent from Romans 5, Paul depicts the two most influential people in all of human history: Adam and Jesus Christ.

He compares and contrasts the effects of their actions, which have affected all people ever since. A couple times, he also measures the degree of impact the two have had. Fortunately for us, in all cases, the work of Jesus Christ is greater!

The Work of Christ Is Greater
than the Sin and Death Wreaked by Adam.

       I.   (v 12) “Sin came into the world through one man.”

A.  Paul begins by referencing the fall (Gen 3:1–21). Adam (and Eve) sinned, and the entrance of sin brought death as its consequence. Suddenly Adam and Eve became subject to death, which God had never intended for them.

B.  Paul makes his first comparison, which actually does not involve Christ.

1.   Adam sinned and died; like Adam, we “all have sinned” (3:23; cf 3:9–20).

2.   Therefore, death reigns over all people (v 17; cf 6:23). You and I are going to die, just like Adam.

       II.  (vv 13–14) “Sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses.”

A.  Adam sinned against God’s command, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” But God didn’t give his Ten Commandments to the world until thousands of years later, through Moses.

1.   So those folks for thousands of years are contrasted to Adam.

2.   Does that mean they get a pass? Was sin not counted against them?

B.  No! Paul’s primary point in these verses is that people are still accountable for sin, even without a revealed Law, that is, without an explicit command.

1.   They didn’t “transgress” (transgression means stepping over a revealed boundary), but they still committed all kinds of sins against what they knew in their conscience was wrong.

2.   Proof that they were still guilty? Everyone (except Enoch) died. And how about the flood during those days? It killed nearly everyone on the planet.

C.  What Paul says about those living in this interim has great significance for all throughout time who have not received the revealed Word of God.

1.   There are still people around the world who have never heard the Ten Commandments.

2.   But they are guilty of sinning against conscience, for everyone has one. Hence, they die.

D.  Lots more we might say about this period between Adam and Moses sometime in Bible class. Paul explains it further in Romans 2 (vv 12–16).

       III. (v 15) “But the free gift is not like the trespass.”

A.  Paul contrasts the results of Adam’s trespass with God’s gracious or “free gift.” Paul isn’t just stating the obvious, very bad versus very good.

B.  Paul utilizes a rabbinic formula for comparison by degree (as in 5:9, 10, 17). Adam’s trespass brought death to many; how much more will God’s grace in Christ overflow to all who receive him! Christ’s work is so much greater than Adam’s disaster!

       IV. (v 16) “One trespass . . . many trespasses.”

A.  A most blessed contrast!

1.   It took only one trespass, Adam’s, to bring judgment and condemnation on the whole world.

2.   But, astonishingly, many trespasses—every trespass ever committed, by Adam, by Eve, by St. Paul, by you, by me—were answered with God’s gracious gift, leading to a decree of righteousness.

B.  You—and the whole world—have been declared righteous! The Greek word group for “righteous” and “righteousness” is rendered here in English with that wonderful word, “justification.”

       V.  (v 17) “If . . . death reigned . . . , much more will those who receive . . . the free gift of righteousness reign in life.”

A.  Remember the rabbinic formula Paul used before. The trespass of one person, Adam, led to death reigning. How much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and undeserved gift of righteousness reign in life!

B.  All of this, of course, is through one person, Jesus Christ.

1.   This First Sunday in Lent especially focuses on the active obedience of Christ—Jesus’ actively, perfectly keeping God’s Law, where Adam and all of us since have failed.

2.   This keeping of the Law by a man was necessary before that man could finish Lent by his passive obedience, going obediently, passively, to the cross to pay for the sins of all of us who didn’t keep it.

C.  This righteousness and this abundant life we receive simply by faith (3:21–24).

       VI. (v 18) “Condemnation for all . . . justification and life for all.”

A.  Adam’s one trespass compares with Jesus’ one righteous act because Adam’s act led to condemnation for all and Jesus’ act leads to the righteousness of life for all. This is objective justification of all people of all times.

B.  However, this is received subjectively through faith (3:28). Sadly, many who have indeed been justified will nevertheless be lost because they do not believe in the forgiveness Christ truly won them.

       VII. (v 19) To summarize: “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

A.  Paul once more compares: the disobedience of one person, Adam, established many as sinners; the obedience of Jesus makes many sinners righteous!

B.  Memorize that and live by it, for in fact, we do live by it!

Conclusion: A political leader, a military officer, a coach or manager—what they do can affect many people. But what Adam did that fateful day by a tree in the garden has fatally affected everyone since. By Adam’s sin, death is universal and inescapable. But by Christ’s perfect, active obedience and passive obedience to a tree of his own, he has done something greater: overcome Satan, sin, and death. That, too, is for all people.

Bottom line: As the author of our Concordia Commentary on Romans poses, “All people stand with Adam. The question is whether or not they also belong to Christ, whose effect overcomes the negative results of being in Adam” (Middendorf, 408; emphasis his). Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.