The Holy Martyrs Manuel, Sabel and Ismael; Our Venerable Father Hypatius, Hegumen of Ruphenia (446)
Romans 5:17-6:2; Matthew 9:14-17
Apostles’ Fast. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat.
Read Romans 5:17-6:2
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Jesus is sometimes referred to as the “Second Adam,” “New Adam,” or “Last Adam.” In 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 5 (the latter which we hear in today’s epistle reading), St. Paul draws connections between Adam and Jesus which lend to these titles.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the one tree in the garden which God told Adam if he ate of it, he would surely die (Gen. 2:17). Adam’s act of disobedience brought the corruption of his human nature and mortality – “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). Adam, being the father of the human race, transmits his fallen human nature to all his offspring, to all his descendants, to all humanity. Unlike Adam who was disobedient to God in regards to a tree, Christ the New Adam was obedient to His Father’s will by freely accepting to be nailed to the tree of a cross. Just as we are all the human offspring of Adam by birth, we become the adopted offspring of God the Father in Jesus Christ by our baptism when we “put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). Remember that Jesus once told Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3). We are born again into a new creation through Jesus, the New Adam!
Towards the end of today’s reading, Paul writes that “the law entered that the offense might abound” (Rom. 5:20). The Jewish law was impossible to keep in its fullness, and so its role was to make it crystal clear that we are helpless in the face of sin without God’s grace. The law makes us keenly aware of our fallen humanity and ultimately our dependency on God in Christ Jesus. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul explains that “the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor” (Gal. 3:22-25). The law was not meant to be an end in itself, but it was a tool to bring us to Christ.
Critics of Paul could twist his message to make it sound like he is encouraging sin so that grace might abound. In today’s reading, he answers: “Certainly not!” (Rom. 6:1). In our sinfulness, grace is poured upon us by our loving God, but this does not mean that we should increase our sins to try to increase God’s grace! Rather, we need to remember that in baptism we died to sin and rose as a new creation, as adopted children of our heavenly Father. Do we live our lives in ways that reflect this awesome reality?