Let’s pray:
Lord God almighty,
speak to us now, through your word,
help us to grasp the glories of your grace,
freely given to us
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
You might be looking forward to lots of different things in 2026. Some of us will be looking forward to the football World Cup. Northern Ireland still have a pathway to qualify, but England and Scotland have already qualified. And even now, five months to the day before the World Cup begins, already I can make a certain prediction. The commentators will keep banging on about England and 1966.
The eleven players who were on the pitch won the World Cup, but they did it for the English - and we’ve never stopped hearing about it ever since! What the players did, they did on behalf of their people. And so, even people who weren’t around then, who weren’t born, live out the reality of the actions of their representatives. They’ll say, ‘We won’ even if they never kicked a ball in their life, even if they didn’t contribute anything to the decisive action.
It can work both ways. Fans rejoice when we win; but also feel it when the results aren’t going our way. I have a niece who delights to text me ‘haha, you lost’ when I definitely wasn’t playing football. Our ultimate destiny is tied up in who our representative is.
That’s what we see in our Bible reading today. There are two representatives; two options, and we are in either one or the other. Their actions have consequences for us. Our standing is tied up with theirs - for good or ill. The two men are Adam and Jesus Christ. What they did affects us. The question is - who is our representative? Which one are we in?
Last week we saw how we have peace with God (covering our past), and now stand in grace (securing our present), and rejoice in hope (guaranteeing our future). We have been reconciled to God, as Jesus died for us, his enemies, showing his love for us. Today we see how Adam’s sin drags us down with him; but that Jesus’ grace abounds to us even more than we could imagine. We’re either in Adam, or we’re in Jesus - so which is it?
You might remember the road safety campaign - just one drink increases your risk of crashing. Well, in our first reading, from Genesis, we saw that just one bite brought the loss of paradise, and unleashed untold suffering on an innocent world. Adam had been told to not eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was his own command. And, he disobeyed. In Genesis 3 Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent, and the serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on - but the buck stops with Adam. He was given the command. He was the first man, the representative of all of humanity, and he failed. He disobeyed. But we can’t blame Adam - each of us would have done exactly the same.
Actions have consequences. If you drop a stone into a lake, the ripples spread further and further out, far beyond the original impact. Listen to Romans 5:12: ‘Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned…’
Sin entered the world through one man. Adam ate, and we’ve been living with the consequences ever since - and dying with the consequences ever since too. When we see the word sin here - don’t think so much of one wrong action. Rather sin here is a power, a slave master. And sin leads to death - and so because all have sinned, death comes to all. That’s the reality of life ‘in’ Adam - it’s what it is to be human. As verse 19 says, we were ‘made sinners’ through Adam’s disobedience - we’re not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we’re sinners.
All of us are in Adam. It’s the human situation. And just as family traits are passed down - you’re just like your mum; you have your dad’s eyes or whatever; we’re all just like our first father, Adam. He has passed down his sinfulness to us - by nature, and by our choice too.
It’s why Jesus had to come to rescue us. Adam is (14) a pattern of the one to come. So you have Adam, and his action affecting everyone connected to him; but now you have Jesus, and his action affecting everyone connected to him. (Referred to as the gift, the act of righteousness, and the obedience)
Veres 15: ‘But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace… overflow to the many!’ One trespass led to death for many people; God’s grace overflows to many people in a how much more kind of way.
Verse 16: ‘Again, the gift of God is not like the result of one man’s sin: The judgement followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.’ One sin led to judgement and condemnation. Jesus’ gift of grace gives us justification.
Do you see how Jesus overturns what Adam had messed up? Jesus restores what was broken. But not just bringing things back to where they were before. By overabundantly exceeding how things were before. Just look at verse 17. ‘For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. The trespass meant that death reigned. You would expect it to say that through God’s grace, life now reigns. That’s not what it says! Rather, it says that we who receive God’s grace will reign in life through Jesus. We who were in Adam, with death reigning over us, are now, in Jesus, reigning in life. It’s a complete reversal! It’s even better than before. And it’s all because of what Jesus has done for us, on our behalf.
The result of Adam’s one trespass brought condemnation for all men (and women!); and the result of Jesus’ one act of righteousness is justification that brings life for all people. What is that one act of righteousness? The perfect life Jesus lived, obeying God’s law, and giving himself for us on the cross. Where Adam had followed his own will; Jesus prayed: Your will be done. And so whereas Adam’s disobedience made us sinners, Jesus’ obedience makes us righteous.
We need to be careful, though, when we see the words ‘all men’ or ‘the many.’ They’re not referring to the same group of people. Everyone is in Adam, but not everyone is in Christ. The representatives act on behalf of those they’re representing. All of us are in Adam, born into the human family. But to be in Christ, we must be born again; receiving what Jesus did for us - accepting the gift he gives, the grace he offers.
And the glorious good news of our reading today is that where sin increased, grace increased all the more. There is always more grace for us than sins in us. God’s grace abounds to us, covering our sin, bringing pardon and peace and reassurance because of all that Jesus has done for us. We can be all too aware of our sin. We can wonder - could God still love and forgive me, for the number of sins, or the type of sins that we’ve committed? His grace abounds. Where sin increases, grace increases all the more. We can never run out of grace; there’s always more for us, in Jesus our Saviour.
On my shelves I have the book written by Philip Yancey: What’s so amazing about grace? He wrote the book about grace, and yet this week, he admitted to an eight-year long adulterous relationship. In Adam, our sinfulness runs deep. May God’s grace in Christ abound to Philip Yancey, and to us too.
May we rejoice even more than England fans recalling the triumphs of 1966; as we rejoice in the grace of Jesus, and all that he has achieved for us in his perfect life, death, and resurrection.
Let’s pray:
God of grace,
we thank you for your grace,
abundant, and abounding
covering our sin,
setting us free.
Thank you for Jesus, our Saviour. Amen.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday 11th January 2026.
