"One... Who Was to Come."

Holy One, bring us close. Help us to witness your presence in these ordinary words, in this ordinary place, at this ordinary time.  Transform our heart from desolation to hope, from barrenness to joy, from exhaustion to peace.


Romans 5:12-14
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned— ¹³sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. ¹⁴Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.


1) "a type of the one who was to come;" "


2) This very passage is one of the reasons I avoided continuous reading for 20 years!  What is said here that means anything to me? that resonates in my heart?  Paul is building an analogy between Adam and Christ.  Death is associated with sin.  Real literal death?  It seems to me that according to Genesis, if we do a simply read, mortals were already mortal in the garden and were removed from the garden after eating the fruit of knowledge to prevent them from eating the fruit of life that would make them immortal.  So some form of death preceded Adam's transgression... but first, Adam's transgression isn't reckoned (counted to him) because there won't be law until Moses, some time later.  I think Paul got ahead of himself with this particular argument.  Death didn't spread because of the "sin."  According to Genesis, mortals were already mortals.  So Paul has to be making a very loose analogy, one that isn't intended to stand up to much rigor.  Clearly, there are two "kinds" of death because even after Christ died and was raise, we still die.  Death must be a metaphor for ignorance (as in of the law).  Sin/Death/Shadow is definitely pervasive in the world.


3) What is the invitation in all this?  To wake up.  To deny sin and death their power.  To follow "the one who was to come."


"Holy One, raise us up from death."


Breathprayer: "One... who was to come."