I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that anyone reading this has heard the famous Billy Joel song “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” The lyrics are a rapid-fire succession of mostly historically tragic events. It refers to the thought that history has been ongoing and is not the fault of those currently living in this world. The refrain explains that we didn’t start the fire of problems in the world. They’ve been burning since the beginning. While pondering those words, a thought popped into my head. Wait a minute; we did start the fire! When sin entered the world through Adam, we were collectively responsible.
Romans 5:12,13 informs us, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given.” But the apostle Paul does not stop there and leave us hopeless. In verse 17 he says, “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” Beautiful, beautiful.
I encourage you to read Romans 5:12-21. It is a wonderful reminder that there was death through Adam (and us) but life through Christ. We did start the fire, but God’s gift of our Savior extinguished it eternally.
