Tree of life.

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 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” (Romans 5:12-19, ESV).

What does this all mean? It seems fairly complicated initially but comes down to this one idea: One man got us into this mess; and One Man [Jesus Christ] got us out of this mess!

What’s the mess? Sin came into the world. From childhood I have had the flawed capacity to make flawed judgments and breath out flawed words from a flawed mind. I’m a broken being who can only spew broken thoughts, words and actions. I’m not perfect - none of us are perfect. Such imperfection causes massive misunderstandings and even insults others, whether knowingly or not. Such flaws mean that my work ethic is broken and the outpourings of my hands and my mind will not meet perfect demands.

This mess gets much more complicated and difficult as I age. I begin to stockpile all those broken promises and belittling words. My negative thoughts create a contorted face and betray my lack of trust to other human beings. In turn, their broken hearts and minds also stacks up wounds and misdemeanors as well. Life gets messy very quickly and we run out of options for cleaning up the mess.

Here is the solution that God offers to this mess: “the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.” (Romans 5:16, ESV). Justification is a process that God provides to clean up our record and all of our messes. They get covered up and erased. They get removed from our record - as if they never happened.

Justification means that there is a free gift which we are receiving. God has this fine gift wrapped and ready for each of us to have. The alternative is dark and foreboding; it is judgment for all our sinful traits and desires; it brings our eternal condemnation because we can’t stand up to God’s holy scrutiny.

Several days ago we went to one of the local government offices to get a new ID. As we were going through the process, we looked over all the application material, read the instructions several times in order to better understand how to properly fill out these forms. In the end, we knew that there were things we did not fully understand. But then we sat down with the very competent government officer and she started to scrutinize all that we had filled out. 

She knew the system. She knew what would work and what would not pass. She was able to point us to specific things that needed to be amended or changed so that this form would pass the final inspection. My wife and I were both heartily impressed by her expertise and precise nature. But we were also impressed that she added a personal touch - she had care and concern for what we were trying to do. She understood our time crunch. And she was exactly the kind of help we needed.

Jesus is just that type of person for an even more difficult application. Every human makes an application for eternity in heaven. We all start filling out this application form when we are first conceived in the womb. When we are birthed into this life, there is an internal thought that we should be good. We try to live, breath, work and grow according to the Bible’s guideline or even simply, good human morals. But at the end of the day, or the end of our life, when God sits down to process our application, one flaw of any form disqualifies us for this eternal destination. “All have sinned and fallen short,” (Romans 3:23, ESV).

God could send us back to the drawing board with a brand new application (a brand new life) time and time again but we could never fully meet God’s very precise standards of a perfect heart, a perfect character, perfect decisions in every matter, perfect words for all conversations we’ve ever had, and perfect thoughts that must match God’s standard of purity. “All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). So he had to provide another way for our application for heaven to be accepted. 

God did this by picking the perfect man - Jesus. The flawed person (all of us) never had a shot at filling out the form correctly. Only Jesus could apply a perfect heart, perfect motives, perfect expressions and even perfect thoughts. His application was received and accepted. But notice that one line was left open: the line that says, “first, middle and last name.” Jesus filled out heaven’s application in full, every line correctly completed. Then he left the name blank so that millions and billions of people had the chance to accept his free gift of extreme grace.

Why are we Christians and followers of Jesus today? Because God the Holy Spirit showed us that we could never fill out this form for ourselves. It would be rejected every time. Then the Holy Spirit addressed our sad and aching soul; he showed us that God the Father had already come up with another way in - the perfect record of Jesus, God’s own son. Why are we believers? Faith was built on Jesus’ application for heaven, filled out on our behalf by all his perfect actions, thoughts and dreams. Let us praise our perfect Savior Jesus who paved the way for us and delivers us to heaven himself.

Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith. Thank you, Jesus, for making our faith perfect.