Romans 5:15-17 :: Changing the Story

Romans 5:15-17 in the Message and TNIV translations

On Sunday, Brad challenged us to consider what kind of story we were living. Today, Paul talks about the story the whole world was and is living, and how Jesus changes the story.

Every great story has a main character, a hero. In the Hebrew story of humanity, that character was Adam. The first man. The prototype. His name means "man" in Hebrew, and is also a wordplay on the Hebrew words for "made" and "earth." He was Adam, but he was also Man. He was the world. He was all of us, and he was a hero. But his story was a heroic tragedy, the story of great potential spoiled by a fatal flaw. And his story became our story--yours and mine. A story of what could have been, and wondering whether it can still be.

The world still lives this story today, striving for the limits of human potential, struggling to make sense of the fatal flaws that hold humanity down. Some still hold stubbornly to the heroic view, that the original Adam greatness is latent in each of us, just trying to get out. I, for one, am less optimistic.

Throughout chapter 5, Paul describes Jesus as the new Adam. If Adam was the prototype, Jesus is the archetype, the perfect example of a human being. He was everything a hero was supposed to be. The theme of Adam's tragic story was God's Justice. Jesus' epic theme was God's Grace, that secret ingredient that overcomes the destructive power of our fatal flaw. And because of Jesus' sacrifice, we can live his story instead of Adam's.

Jesus is called a lot of things these days: my buddy, my co-pilot, my homeboy...how about "my hero"? The churchy term "savior" meant this, but we lost that meaning along the way.

How is Jesus your hero?

Throughout chapter 5, Paul describes Jesus as the new Adam.