THAT’S NOT FAIR!
The 5th Sunday of Pentecost – July 9th & 13th, 2014 (tlc)
238; 378; 340; 184:2,3
Pastor Thomas Fricke
Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. –Romans 5:12
Sometimes life just doesn’t seem to be fair.
I remember a time in the 4th grade when our whole class had to stay in for recess just because a few people were being noisy. To those who were being quiet and doing their work, it didn’t seem fair. Just because some were wrong, everybody had to suffer. I can even remember the teacher telling us, “One bad apple spoils the whole bunch.”
Needless to say, it didn’t sit too well. But now, I think I can see her point. She was telling us that maybe this time the rest of us weren’t misbehaving…but she was well aware that there were other times when we were…and wegot away with it. And so now it was time for everyone to learn a lesson.
Sometimes life makes us feel like shouting, “That’s not fair!”Something doesn’t seem right and we feel hurt. It may trigger bitter arguments and cause us to feel dissatisfied with life. But when you get right down to it, fairness isn’t the problem. The problem is pride—pride that refuses to admit that we ourselves may actually be at fault.
In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul teaches the doctrine of original sin. It is—likeevery doctrine of the Bible—extremely practical. When we are deeply aware of our own sinfulness, we truly appreciate God’s grace in Christ. And when we appreciate God’s grace, there’s no room left in our hearts for pride.
Paul’s point is this: If you want to argue… “THAT’S NOT FAIR!” for instance, that 1) the entire world has had to suffer because of one man’s sin, then you have to realize that it’s not fair, either, that 2) one man had to suffer for the sins of the world. Let me explain what I mean…
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You read the news. It’s filled with stories about criminals and people who seem to be in love with themselves. And you’re tempted to think, “What a wonderful world it would be…if only it weren’t for people!”
It really was a perfect world once,back when there were only two people in it. Then the devil came knocking at the door. He approached Eve with the question, “Did God really say…?”and that should have made it clear that he was no friend. But Adam and Eve opened the door and let him in. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” Then, “She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Genesis 3:6).
It was the most tragic decision ever made. With it, in Paul’s words, “sin entered the world” (Romans 5:12). And now we have to live with it—every day. We don’t live in harmony with our Maker. We live in conflict with him and with each other. This world is filled with hatred and greed and lust, gossip and bickering—and it all began that day when Adam and Eve opened the door and “sin entered the world.”
Yeah, it’s bad…and the worst part of it is that we are the problem. By our very nature we are sinful. Weinherited our sinful nature from Adam and because of iteach of us has a dark side. We call that originalsin, inherited sin—the sin that we’re all born with. Because of it, our hearts are corrupted to the core. It’s the ugly truth: “Every inclination of [man’s] heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:21).
Consider the proof: We can teach our children all kinds of things. We can teach them how to fish, how to handle money, how to hold a bat and maybe even how to throw a curve ball. We can tell them, “Clean up your room.” “Don’t talk with your mouth full.” “Be polite.” But we never have to teach themhow to fight. They already know. They were born that way.
We might want to shrug it off. “After all, nobody’s perfect.” But our inherited sinfulness is no small matter, because with sin comes death. Paul makes that clear. “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin,” he says (Romans 5:12). Wecan try to stay young, but that doesn’tchange the fact that we continue to age. We can exercise and take vitamins and do everything right, but sooner or later, our health will show signs of decline. We don’t know when it will be or how it will happen, but we do know that one day, we will die. Sin is serious, so serious that it merits death—and not just physical death, but spiritual death, the eternal separation of our souls from God.
To understand that is a key to understanding the Bible. This is where theology begins—with the reality of sin. It’s where the Lutheran confessions begin—with the fact of our sinfulness.The Augsburg Confession begins with this point.“Since the fall of Adam, all human beings…are conceived and born in sin. That means that from birth they are full of evil lust and inclination and cannot by nature possess true fear of God and true faith in God” (Augsburg Confession, Article II, 1).
Today, that’s hard for a lot of people to accept…and maybe it is for us, too.After all, we want to think that everyone’s good at heart. But the opposite is really closer to the truth. Evil exists in the heart of all. “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10), and that truth removes every reason to boast. If I’m going to be truly wise, the first thing I need to know is this: That the inclination to sin affects every part of my life. I need to know that deep inside is a self-willed creaturewho doesn’t want what God wants…and that my own self would rather be served than to serve. I need to know that if there’s a problem in my life, in my relationships, it might just be with me.
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And I need to know that if there’s to be a solution, it’s going to have to come from Someone Else.
Thank God he decided to take action. He sent his Son Jesus into this world to defeat sin, and with it, death. “If the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!” (Romans 5:17).
At the beginning of Christ’s ministry, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, andthe devil came knocking once again. He came with evil intent. He came to tempt God’s Son to sin. It was almost as if God had turned the clock back to paradise. Once again sin came face-to-face with perfection. But this time the results were different. This time, Christ, the second Adam, took Satan on. And this time, he resisted the devil’s lies. He said, “Away from me, Satan!” (Matthew 4:10). He slammed the door shut on sin. Yes, he was “tempted in every way, just as we are.” “Yet,” the scriptures are quick to add,“was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
There in the wilderness and throughout his life, Jesus defeated sin for us, and in so doing, he became the victor over death. By his death, he conquered death once and for all. Now keep in mind, he was without sin; he didn’t have to die! The thief on the cross understood. “We are punished justly,” he said, “for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41). When Jesus gave in to death, he did it “of [his] own accord” (John 10:18). It was he who decided, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). And on the third day, when he broke death’s hold forever, he emerged triumphant as the Living One,who“holds the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18).
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Friends, if Jesus has defeated death, then death cannot defeatyou. It has to serve you. And it will. One day, death itselfwill deliver you from this sin-filled world and will gently lay you in your Father’s loving hands. By one man’s sin, the world was plunged into sin…and with sin came death. But by one man’s death, sin and death have been overcome for us…forever.
That’s not fair. It wasn’t fair to Jesus. But it was more than fair to us. Jesus came and did what Adam should have done. He came and did what we did not and could not do for ourselves. He came and gave us what we did not deserve. He gave us heaven as a gift of his grace—his undeserved favor and love.
Think about that, the next time you begin to feel that life’s not fair, when you see that bickering and griping and complaining are starting to creep into your life. “Jesus Christ my Savior has been more than fair to me. Can’t I put away my pride and, thinking of him, seek to be fair to others?”Amen.