First Sunday in Lent
Romans 5:12-19
February 22, 2026
Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin. And because all have sinned, death spread to all people.
You see, the law of God – you know, those pesky commandments that get in the way of our fun and good times – it does not create sin. Sin came into the world the moment the first man, Adam, traded His status of “very good,” and the gift of freedom given him by God, for another god, another lord, the serpent and his lies.
See, the serpent cannot grant eternal life; Satan cannot grant freedom; the devil cannot promise anything, especially that man can be equal to God, knowing all things, freedom or eternal power. Satan has not the power nor the position to speak for God or create or grant…anything. He is creation, not creator.
But Adam and Eve, for that moment when sin entered the world, they were confused. They were confused because they were not listening to God or hearing His Word. God gave them everything they needed – and even more – but they were deceived into thinking that it wasn’t enough, deceived by a creature who couldn’t promise anything.
And because Adam and Eve sinned, because they cracked open the door in their hearts and in their minds to understand what it is to be disobedient, to know good and evil, it corrupted them to their core so that sin was not merely bad decision or having a bad day, but sin was nature, it was being.
This is often a hard thing for modern, rational thinkers to grasp. How can sin be something more than our poor choices? How can we be born or conceived sinful? It seems unfair, it seems contrary to God’s love to think that sin is “in the air” as a famous Lutheran teacher has said.
But we must go back to creation, back to the Garden before the fall. In six days, literal 24-hour days because that’s what Scripture says, God created everything just as He wanted. It was perfect, it was a machine that operated just right and was finely tuned to God’s specifications, and it was so very good.
But like a drop of water in a collection of gears, or like a few grains of sand in the injection system, sin entered into creation through Adam and to this day has continued to gum up the works. Not that God created sin, or that God willed that people should be born with disorders or weaknesses or that we should be predisposed to sinful behavior, but that sin literally changed us, changed creation such that even simple things like trees or grass, which have no power of decision or will, grow with sinful imperfections, scars, disease, and yes, they die too.
That’s the power of sin, and to say that it is just bad choices, that it is merely from human will is to totally miss the ontology of humanity, and it’s to bring Christ down and to say that His death on the cross was not all that paramount to our salvation. Sin is nature. Sin is in the air, in the bones, in the blood, in the core, in the DNA itself, and deeper. This isn’t Lutheran theology; this is Christian theology. This is Ephesians 2 and Romans 5 and Genesis 3. Nature has changed, and the fact that we all die is proof.
In fact, when there was no law, no commandments, sin still ruled and death of God’s creation, including man, was still inevitable.
And as the machine is unable to repair itself and make itself function as intended once more, likewise, creation is incapable of fixing itself or removing the disease of sin which has infected it for these many thousands of years after the fall. The Law of God defines what sin is very clearly for us, but it doesn’t fix the problem.
We can deny it’s there; we can pretend we’re pretty good people and hope for the best when the Day of Judgment comes. We can compare ourselves to the corrupt politicians or the wicked world leaders of history; we can compare ourselves to those who sit in the bars or strip clubs night after night wasting away on booze or women; we can compare ourselves to the murderers or the rapists or the worst of the worst in our world and say that we are not as bad as them and conclude that we must be “good,” and yet no matter how good we might thing we are, we still die. Our heart stops, our breathing stops, and our spirit leaves us. And if we still die, then whatever good we think we are is just not good enough.
So, why pretend at all? Why compare yourself to others at all, if we all end up in the same pine box and 6’ pit anyway? If your degree of goodness is not enough to keep you from dying, then it is not a ticket, it is not an investment worth living for.
I’ve heard people tell me over the years, that I shouldn’t preach about sin or how we’re sinners, but that I should instead preach about how to live a better life, or how to be good people. But if you really think about it and you take all this seriously, such is exactly what the serpent preached to Eve, isn’t it? “You’re not good enough; you can be better, if you just follow this one simple step…” We still crave that wicked serpent’s sermon, don’t we, and we crave preachers who preach his message, don’t we? And millions and millions of people, without giving it a second thought, listen to that snake’s sermon, and like Adam, like Eve, think his message will give them a standing with God to be rivaled.
Yet, when we look to Jesus, not only is it not His message, it’s not His actions. When the serpent comes to Him and promises wealth, health, goodness, prosperity, purpose, and power, when the serpent promises Him status equal to God, Jesus defies that ancient beast at every turn. When it comes to hunger and the lusts and passions of the flesh, Jesus says, “no, for man does not live by such things, but by the Word of God.” When it comes to trying to one up God, to beat Him at His own game, Jesus says, “No, for I will not put God to the test.” When it comes to the desire for worldly power, for influence, for success and predominance over His own life and the lives of others, Jesus says, “No, for we shall worship only God, and not beasts who crawl on the ground.”
Even in His dire weakness, Jesus is stronger and more faithful than Satan could possibly imagine. He is no Adam; He is no run of the mill sinner, conceived with Adam’s nature enslaving Him to follow the devil’s words. He is God in the flesh, and ya don’t mess with God in the flesh or otherwise.
Because of Adam, many died, but because of Jesus many are justified or made right, and only God in the flesh could accomplish this. God had to accomplish it in Eden, after the fall, after the curses he imparted upon creation, after He promised the devil that the seed of Eve would ultimately crush his head forever. After these things, God replaced Adam’s lousy and sinful attempts at self-righteousness, the covering of leaves, with a sacrificial covering, the skins of an animal, the first sacrifice done and the first blood shed for the atonement of man. A creature had to die so that Adam and Eve could live.
You might ask, “Why does it work this way; why does something have to die that we might have atonement?” Because, as Scripture says, “The life is in the blood,” and “Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness.” Everything must be in balance. Where there is sin, death must occur as payment for sin. “Why death?” Because the price of sinning is so great that only death can equal its price. And if you tally up the receipt, it’s not just the “big sins” which require a death for payment, but it is even the little sins, the small white lies, the impure thoughts that never amount to actions, the subtle disdainful glances out of anger, the finger taking the extra penny from the plate, the mouth consuming the extra 100 calories, that extra mile or two over the speed limit.
Every sin – every sin of great or small degree requires payment by death. And this is why, when God established the ceremonial system, every type of sin required a sacrifice of some sort, required the shedding of blood, and there was a LOT of blood shed up until the time of the temple’s destruction.
And while a small bird or lamb might cover only some sins, when the Son of God sheds His blood, His sacrifice covers ALL sins for all time, and Jesus can never be unsacrificed. This is why, beginning with Adam, there had to be constant sacrifices. The blood of beasts was not enough because it was also impure and intwined with nature’s sin. Blood flowed endlessly from Adam until Christ, but it was never enough to pay the price for even the smallest of sins.
But because Jesus trusted His Father, even to the point of death on a cross, His blood – the blood of God –covers a multitude of sins, covers every sin from Adam’s first sin until the very last sin that will be committed before the judgment.
And it’s all free for the receiving. Since Christ’s blood has paid the price for sin, there is no more payment due. In Christ, you are set free because you do not owe God anything; He’s paid it all on your behalf. And as a delivery truck delivers right to your front door your Amazon package, so too does God deliver to you this free gift of salvation through baptism.
In baptism, God promises you forgiveness of sins, and where sins are forgiven, there is also justification, and where there is justification, there is eternal life. He stamps His own name and reputation on you, that by water and the Word, you are marked as His redeemed property.
Yes, you can despise His gift; you can defile His sacrifice and trample on His blood so that His Spirit leave you and on the Last Day you be judged by every sin you committed in life and condemned.
But I ask you, why would you do that? Why would you throw away your eternity with God just for a few short and fleeting moments of carnal living in this life? Why would you reject the gift of God for the sake of money or popularity or power or whatever other worldly passion entices you from Christ and His Church? Why would you disregard God’s Word and listen once more to the devil’s preaching knowing that it will lead to destruction in the end? What do you gain?
The Lord counts nothing against you; He holds no sin against you. It is all forgiven; it is all washed clean in the blood of Jesus, and the really, really good news is that there is no “if’s, and’s, or but’s” about it! God is not laying it upon you to choose Him or commit to Him or make promises to Him, for He has already made His unchanging promises to you and given it to you without cost by water and the Word.
Jesus cannot undie; the Lord cannot undo His defeating of the devil and his lies in the wilderness; Christ cannot be unbaptized. It is done; it is finished. There simply is no more to do but to repent – turn from sinning and doubting – and believe.
And we, right now, are His children; we have the gift. But as Paul says to young pastor Timothy, “God desires ALL PEOPLE to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” The Lord doesn’t desire that anyone should live with one foot in the grave, living by the illusion of reality and truth created by the devil, blinding people from what is really and truly true. He wants everyone to hear and believe. So, He first sends His Apostles, those 12 men of the 1st century, to go out and proclaim Christ and His cross to both Jews and Greeks like. And as they preached, and as the Spirit grew the church, more preachers were called from within the church to continue to preach and teach and administer the sacraments according to Christ’s instruction.
This is how the Lord grows His church. He sends His church workers into the harvest field to faithfully proclaim His Gospel, to bring sinners to repentance, and to set people free from the chains of Adam by proclaiming the truth. And you who are not called and ordained servants of Christ, you also have a new life to live and a new job to do. You are given the Spirit of Christ so that you serve your neighbor. Every person in your life, believer or unbeliever, is there for you to love and serve as Christ so graciously loves and serves you. You need not be a prolific speaker or trained theologian to serve Christ, for you have been given gifts of the Spirit to help you.
But serve you must as you raise your children in the faith, surrounded by His Word, catechized into the truth. No, don’t leave it up to them to choose because within each of them is that old Adam, pining for resurgence and saying from the depths of their minds, “Did God really say?” For as the Scripture says, “Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.” And yes, parents, it is your job to raise your children in the Christian faith, raise them knowing the difference between right and wrong, between what is important and what is not, learning the commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Sacraments, and teaching them to rightly and boldly confess the truth in a world and in a church where truth is so splintered.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, do not fear death for death has been defeated. You are a people of life and Spirit and freedom. For just as Jesus has been raised from the dead, so too will you be raised, for He who dwells in you can never die again. Amen.
