Bulletin Column: The Transgression/The Gift

St. Paul’s letter to the Romans gives us one of the most theologically rich overviews of the basic Gospel message. It touches on the basic narrative of sin and salvation, of falling from God’s grace and returning to it. The second reading this weekend describes the roles of two main players in this narrative, Adam and Jesus.

We know what happened with Adam: Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned (Romans 5:12). Thus the drama of human salvation begins. Having lost friendship with God, Who is Life Himself, we no longer had claim to life eternal – and thus death came to all men. This is the transgression St. Paul speaks of, this first sin of Adam which we all came to feel the consequences of. This consequence St. Paul describes by saying, But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam (Romans 5:14).

Transgression, sin, death. These three things came together through Adam.

Yet, sin and death cry out for forgiveness and salvation. Thus, we hear how God, in His love for the world, sent His Son Jesus that we might find forgiveness and have life through Him. Thus we come to the gift, to the unmerited grace of God whereby the sin of Adam is undone in those who live in Christ. To give it an image, Adam was the seed of humanity that grew into a tree. But since the seed became diseased, so too was all the human family (the branches of the tree, as it were) diseased. The gift comes to us as the opportunity to be grafted onto a new tree, a living tree, a tree where there is no disease, where there is no sin, where there is no death lying at the root. Christ tells us elsewhere I am the vine, you are the branches, and this is exactly what He is talking about.

One more image which can drive the point home is that of a ship. The ship of which Adam was the captain, the ship we were all born into, is taking on water and sinking. It is no longer seaworthy. So we need an Ark. The mission of salvation is Christ coming to take us onto his own boat, his own ship which is seaworthy. He need not come out into the storm to save us; He certainly was not obliged to do so. Yet, if we’re willing to make the jump, we can find safe haven.

Sin and transgressions. Dying trees and sinking ships. These are the lot of humanity without Jesus. But with Him, with His grace, we find forgiveness and salvation. We are grafted onto the living tree and taken aboard the seaworthy ship. Let us, then, wholeheartedly be given over to Christ, that we might lay claim to His gift, so that we remain not merely condemned sons and daughters of Adam, but rather redeemed sons and daughters of the living God.