One Act of Righteousness:
A Meditation On Jesus' Sacrifice
By John Hendrix
Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. (Romans 5:18, NIV)
I cannot say much for or against Adam and Eve. I might like to blame them for the troubled world and my troubled mind. If not for them, maybe I would have been born into a garden.
What would I have done with Eden?
I look at my own life choices-and they have been my choices-and see a man much like Adam: I often choose the evil way. I have every reason to believe that-had I been born into Adam's paradise-I would have done just as Adam did; I would have challenged the law against the fruit. How many other sins have I committed to my hurt and those around me? Adam just beat me to it.
It is a shame that one sin brings about so much trouble. That trait is not unique to Adam's sin. We see it in sin today. I see it in my sin. It is the inheritance of the drunkard, the penalty a thief's child must pay, the torment suffered by an adulterer's offspring.
We need God. That is the lesson we should learn from the horror of this world. This world was once "very good" (Genesis 1:31). Now it is destined for destruction (2 Peter 3:7), a just condemnation for a creation that rejected its Creator.
Why do we ever step off the path of righteousness? Our Maker tells us how to live; do we think we know better? Do we want to be free of God's control?
If you could imagine such a thing as freedom from God's control, you might imagine a world as troubled as this one.
But God stepped in to save "a few" (Matthew 7:14). Where we could not-would not-say "no" to sin, Jesus came to do it for us. He came to pay the debt that we could not pay. He was not forced to come; He came because He wanted to.
No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father. (John 10:18)
Jesus chose to live in the same world we live in. He felt the hot sun on his neck. He felt the sting of sand on his face. He hungered, He thirsted. And He was tempted with evil (Hebrews 4:15). I am sure that Satan paid extra attention to Him.
Adam was forced from paradise for his sin. Jesus left Heaven willingly because of our sins. He came here for us.
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)
Jesus lived more than thirty years on this earth and he did not sin. Jesus was a man like me, and yet not like me: He was my God, showing me what I could do if I clung to Him.
In Gethsemane Jesus waited for His tormentors. A perfect man waited; A sinless man waited for the sinners. He waited as a man with a body that felt everything that mine feels. We should never forget how much the body of our Lord abhorred the thought of the trial to come:
And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch."
He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will." (Mark 14:33-36)
Why should He suffer so? Why submit to the vilest urges of His own rebellious creation? Why humble Himself before men who should fall on their faces in His presence?
What man deserves such a service from his God? Who among us has this claim on Jesus? Who can say to the Lord, "You owe this to me."?
That submission to the Father's will-that willing obedience for our sakes-makes it possible for us to be reconciled to God. One disobedient act set free a storm of sin that no amount of good deeds on our part could quell. Jesus' one act of obedience brought the sun out again.
It was not simple: the endless lashing, the crown of thorns, the strikes, the spit in His face, the nails-those terrible nails that pierced through His sinless flesh, the struggle to breathe, the thirst, the scorn, the awful, terrible pain.
Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)
That submission is what saves us. The perfect Christ choosing right reverses the damage of the perfect Adam choosing wrong.
...who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.... (Hebrews 5:7-9)
That one act of righteousness was obedience. The obedience of Jesus makes our obedience worth something.
Now the choice is mine. Do I despise the sacrifice of Jesus through disobedience? Do I treat His precious blood like an unholy thing (Hebrews 10:29), or do I glorify Him through my own obedience?
Jesus offers salvation to those who obey. I *will* choose the life He offers!