Hi Passionate Youth Reaching Out, today is Thursday June 30.  My name is Grant and this is Start Up, helping you start your day with an upward focus.  Death and Life are not equal forces as you will see in todays passage.

 

Romans 5:12–17 (HCSB)

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned. 13 In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a prototype of the Coming One. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift overflowed to the many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. 16 And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification. 17 Since by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Death and Life are not equal opposites.  Sin and righteousness are also not equal.  When we consider death and sin, we see the absence of good, and the perversion of good.  Life and righteousness are far more powerful then sin and death.  Inside of life is the promise of abundance, hope, generosity, kindness, patience and so many other good things.

When Adam disobeyed God he started a pattern of sin that has passed down throughout history to every other human born, with the exception of Jesus Christ who escaped that pattern because Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  This pattern of sin is incredibly destructive to this world that God has made.  But Jesus sacrifice on the cross brings life back to this world in such a way, that it will be even better then before Adam had sinned.

The gift of life in Jesus is much more powerful then the curse of sin through Adam.  As amazing as the Garden of Eden sounds, our future with God in eternity is far better then the paradise that Adam and Eve enjoyed.  And this future is in its entirety a free gift of God, for all who will be called by Jesus name.

Questions & Answers

I hope that you are having conversations with your friends and with your family about what does it mean to live a Christian life.  If you ever come across a question in a conversation that you want to get more information on, please send it on to me.  You can ask your questions, or your friends questions, and I will take one of the podcasts to answer it for you, and for anyone else who might have that same question.

Challenge

The Challenge for this week is to be a peacemaker.  We are blessed by God when we make peace in Jesus name.  Look and pray for opportunities where you can show God’s kindness and grace to others, and where peace can grow in that place instead of anger.

Thanks for listening to today’s StartUp, you can find all of the details about our youth group online at hbcyouth.ca.  We are also on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, just search for Hawkwood Youth.

https://www.facebook.com/HawkwoodYouthPYRO/

https://twitter.com/HawkwoodYouth

https://www.instagram.com/hawkwoodyouth/