romans 5

On Sunday night we discussed Romans 5 at Senior High youth. It was a good discussion with lots of questions asked and most of them answered.

Chapter 5 begins to unpack more fully the idea that we are sinners by virtue of being human, while the first few chapters focus on individual sins as the guilty vice which damns us, this chapter focuses on the absoluteness of the fall and reinforces the idea that we are born evil. Psalm 51:5 is the greatest of examples. "In sin did my mother conceive me."

Truly this puts a great urgency on the Gospel being told to the countless millions who don't know Christ. A great burden is placed on anyone who understands that all people who have ever been born, just by being conceived (which should convince all Christians not to support abortion..God thinks of us as humans at the point of conception (sperm hitting the egg) and not at a later point).

The great truth and joy comes only in Christ, the second Adam, who redeems us and gives us a new birth. Again, we are counted righteous in an instant and continue in that righteousness forever, having been born of the Spirit and washed in Jesus blood. The Gospel comes no sweeter than this.

-joe