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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
February 10
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Today's Pathway:
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Yesterday we finished off with I Corinthians 15:22, which says
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
I want to elaborate on that a little bit more. The Bible says, "as in Adam all die". The principle here is that all mankind was "in" Adam when he chose to sin against God. That we could have sinned in Adam may seem strange and unnatural to our way of thinking. Nevertheless, we do see this principle of the descendants of a man being "in" the man in other portions of Scripture. Hebrews 7:1-10 discusses the relationship between the Levites and Melchisedec. It reads,
- "For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
- To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
- Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.
- Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.
- And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:
- But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises.
- And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.
- And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
- And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.
- For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him."
A brief synopsis of Hebrews 7 is this: Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedec, because Melchisedec was greater than Abraham. Because Levi was Abraham's great grandson, he was "in" Abraham when Abraham paid that tithe. Thus, Levi also paid tithes to Melchisedec, which meant that Mechisedec was also greater than Levi, and thus the priesthood of Melchisedec is greater than the Levitical priesthood. Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchisedec (Psalm 110:4, Heb 6:20), therefore his priesthood is greater than that of the Levites.
In the same way, all humans, with the exception of Jesus Christ, were "in" Adam when he sinned, and thus became guilty along with him. When Adam sinned, the entire race sinned because the entire race was in him. What he did, his descendants, who were in him, did also. Charles Ryrie put it this way:
"Some call it inherited sin. This emphasizes the truth that all people inherit this sinful state from their parents, and their parents from their parents, all the way back to Adam and Eve. Others call it the sin nature, which focuses on the fact that sin has corrupted our entire nature. The term “sin nature” provides a clear contrast between that root nature and its fruits (which are particular acts of sin). Still others prefer the term original sin because Adam’s original sin produced that moral corruption of nature that was transmitted by inheritance to each succeeding generation."
Whatever we wish to call it, the bottom line is that because of Adam's sin we are all conceived with a sin nature, and then we act upon that sin nature throughout our lives. We are not sinners simply because we sin, but we sin because we are born sinners.
Tomorrow we will look at "even so in Christ shall all be made alive".
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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