"His Gift" -5

"Therefore, as by the offense of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Romans 5:18) Last night I could not get 'Toy Maker and Son' out of my mind; over and over I kept seeing the play being played out; with each sequence, a new remembrance was brought forth. If you have never seen this play, then you should. Our church hosted this play about twenty years ago, and I was really impressed with the performance and the characters. The basic story that they put forth is quite amazing, and the simplicity of the message is so easy to grasp. However, Paul is talking about something here in Romans 5 that is not that easy to get a handle on, especially if you do not accept the fact that Jesus is God! Don't get me wrong, because I am sure that some think that they understand clearly what Paul is saying; however, if they do not accept that Jesus Christ is God, then they really can't see the gift clearly that Paul is talking about. For thousands of years there has been those that would try to portray Jesus as a man that had sinned. Most recently, those within the movie industry have tried in several different movies; sadly, many in the world had bought into some of those portrayals, and have even been heard spouting off some of those falsehoods. As I child, I was also mislead in this area, by those that had used the instance of Jesus chasing out the money changers from the Temple, as an example of Him being just a man, and therefore subject to anger, as are we. Anything to prove their point! Paul is not talking about just a righteous man, because he makes the point in verse one, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned". It is perfectly clear that Paul is saying that man cannot save man, because all have sinned. This might explain why works is so important to those that don't quite see who Jesus really is; since they really don't think that His sacrifice was sufficient to completely take away all sin, because they can't see the perfection that was in His sacrifice; therefore, they must be obligated to make up the difference by achieving good works that go along with His ransom sacrifice, as if they must participate in the cleansing process. That is not the point of the "free gift" that Paul is referring to; because, then that would make the gift not free, but subject to some kind of work, by which it is earned; therefore, making it not a gift at all, but a payment for doing works; of which no one can achieve the payment needed, because "our works are filthy rags unto God"!!!! (Oh! what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!)