In Romans 5:12 God tells us how we are all related to the first man, Adam:

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin… so death passed upon all men…”

This verse clearly indicates that every child born into the world since Adam has partaken of Adam’s sinful nature.

Parents sometimes wonder why their children act as they do. The answer is simple! Every child is related to rebellious Adam by physical birth, and soon rebels like Adam, whose offspring he is.

In Scripture we are told that God “commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

When you are in trouble and someone comes to your aid, are you not automatically drawn to that person? Should we not then be attracted to the One who cared so much for us that He “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:7,8)?

Through natural birth we partake of the sinful natures of our parents back to Adam, and frequently we even have the same physical features as our parents. How touching, then, to know that the Lord Jesus Christ took on Him “the likeness of men” (apart from sin) and, as the God-man, died for our sins upon the cross, where sinful men (people like us) nailed Him! As we recognize this and place our faith in Him, a spiritual birth takes place and we become the children of God (John 1:12). More than this, we become members of the Body of Christ, God’s new creation, for “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation” (II Cor. 5:17). “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

I was addressing an Assyrian audience on the raising of Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter by the Lord Jesus Christ, and using the narrative to illustrate how God, through His Word, gives resurrection life to those who are “dead in trespasses and sins.”

I had as my interpreter the incomparable Bedour Hanush Afraim Kassab, but there was one point in the narrative where my audience needed no interpreter. I will explain.

It so happens that Aramaic, spoken by our Lord on earth, is almost identical to Assyrian and there is one small phrase in the story where our English Version presents the very words our Lord spoke to Jairus’ daughter: “Talitha cumi,” or “Little girl, arise.”

Now it also happened that in our audience there was a little Assyrian girl who, like Jairus’ daughter, was twelve years old. As I told of Jairus’ anxiety for his dying daughter and his anguish at the news of her death, the little Assyrian girl could understand nothing; she had to wait until my words were interpreted into Assyrian. But when I got to the words “Talitha cumi” she needed no interpreter. Leaping from her chair she stood looking at me with eager, sparkling eyes, as if to say: “What do you want of me? What can I do now?”

Like Jairus’ daughter, our little girl had heard and understood just those three words and had applied them to herself. So it is with those who have received “life in Christ.” “Dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1), they paid little heed to the Word of God (I Cor. 2:14), but one day, by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, they did take heed and believe some simple gospel passage, like “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3) and, applying it to themselves, were “raised to walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

Nothing would please us more than if some reader should thus apply the gospel of God’s grace to himself and receive eternal life.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and THOU shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Romans 8:2, when correctly read, is a most blessed passage of Scripture. To get the sense we should place a dash between the words “Spirit” and “of.” Thus it would read: “For the law of the Spirit — of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

When a sinner places his trust in Christ as Savior he is justified before the bar of God, because Christ’s death and righteousness are imputed to him. This is a judicial matter.

But at the same moment something else happens: the Spirit regenerates and gives new life (Tit. 3:5). This is a law, an inexorable, unchangeable law. The sinner who sincerely places his trust in Christ as Savior is given life by the Holy Spirit. It is always so; it is never otherwise.

I John 5:12 says: “He that hath the Son hath life….” John 3:36 says that “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” and Col. 3:3 declares that the believer’s life is “hid with Christ in God.”

Thus the Apostle could say: “The law of the Spirit, [that of] life in Christ, hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Adam forfeited his life by sin, but the believer’s new life can never be forfeited, for this life is nothing less than the life of Christ, in whom the believer now stands perfect and complete before God.

It is a law, a fixed unchangeable law, that sin brings forth death (Rom. 5:12; 6:23; et al). This is called “the law of sin and death,” but the believer has already died for sin in Christ and has been given new life by the Spirit. Thus “the law of the Spirit,” that of “life in Christ,” has made the simplest believer “free from the law of sin and death.”

Thank God for “the law of the Spirit,” everlasting life through the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins.

In his great Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul introduces himself immediately as “a bondslave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,” to proclaim God’s good news about Christ.

Paul’s “gospel of the grace of God” was essentially about the Lord Jesus Christ. He was always talking about Christ. His epistles are filled with Christ. Christ, in his message, was everything. This is in striking contrast to much of our modern preaching and evangelism, which is not Christ-centered, but man-centered.

The gospel Paul proclaimed was God’s good news about Christ and His power and glory in defeating Satan, overcoming death, paying for sin and nailing the Law to His cross.

This is why the Apostle calls his message “the good news of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4). To enter experientially into the truth of this good news is the greatest blessing one can possibly experience.

In Verse 4 of his introduction to the Roman Epistle, the Apostle declares that Christ was powerfully declared to be the Son of God “by the resurrection from the dead.”

The resurrection of Christ had been both prophesied and proclaimed as a historical fact before Paul, but to Paul was committed a special message of good news concerning the resurrection. In his God-given message, Christ was raised from the dead to demonstrate that as God the Son He had paid the full penalty for sins that would have sunk a world to hell. Thus the Apostle writes to Timothy, his son in the faith:

“Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

“Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David [this is how Christ had formerly been known] was raised from the dead according to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds” (2 Tim. 2:7-9).

Read the Epistles of Paul and see how salvation by grace through faith always hinges upon the finished work of Christ for our redemption. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

In his farewell address to the nation Israel, Moses said:

“Ask now of the days that are past… since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?” (Deut. 4:32,33).

Moses referred, of course, to the giving of the Law, when God spoke to Israel by word of mouth amid the lightnings and thunders of Sinai. In Israel’s case alone “God spake all these words” audibly. Never before had He undertaken to address a nation personally.

This was indeed a great honor for Israel, but God has since spoken to all mankind in an even more striking manner, for in Heb. 1:1,2 we read:

“God… hath in these last days spoken unto us by [in] His Son… who… when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

At Sinai God spoke the words of the Law, but now, in Christ, He speaks of mercy and grace. There He spoke of the righteousness which He demands, but here He tells of the righteousness which He provides in Christ.

Some suppose that the absence of miraculous demonstrations, the want of divine intervention in the affairs of men, etc., indicate indifference on God’s part, but actually this apparent indifference speaks to us of His love and grace.

Remember, the Psalms and all prophecy had predicted God’s judgment upon men for their rejection of Christ, yet today the Son still remains a voluntary Exile from His own world, while neither He nor the Father do anything to avenge His cruel crucifixion. Meanwhile, still lingering in mercy, He sends His ambassadors to offer reconciliation to His enemies by grace through faith. Thus His silence actually cries: “The door of grace is still open. Be reconciled while you may. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”