“For if by one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:17
No ethnic group has been more particular with their ancestral family tree than the Jews but these days many others seem interested in their family roots. There are websites that will help a person to discover their ancestral line in detail.
The Bible does not give us our detailed ancestral line but it does give all we need in order to discover our roots. Every human is descended from Noah and one of his three sons; and Noah was a descendant of Adam. Therefore we are all descendants of Adam and Eve.
Through just one man, Adam, sin entered the world bringing death with it – and death spread to all his descendants. It was our father who brought sin and death into the world. He had a choice but we had no choice. We do have a choice as to what we do about that situation.
The world considers death to be an enemy which, though it cannot be avoided, must be delayed as long as possible. But death is an act of God’s mercy, love and kindness. If there were no death there could be no substitutionary death and no resurrection. If there was no death for sin how could God “demonstrate His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)? If there was no death we would remain in our sinful state for eternity without hope.
Through death and resurrection life we who have trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour have had our ancestral line miraculously changed. Our father is no longer Adam but is now our Father in heaven through Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” and “The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” Also, “As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45, 49).
Many a saint has testified at the time of their bodily death of the joy of passing into the Lord’s presence and saints today look forward with great expectation of the moment when we depart this body through bodily death and see Jesus face to face in resurrection bodies “raised in incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15: 42).
We may not have had a choice of being born in Adam’s line but we do have a choice as to whether we remain in it. With Adam as our father we die as a result of sin but if we accept God’s Gift of resurrection life in Christ Jesus our Lord we have a new ancestral line imputed with our Heavenly Father as our ancestral Father. No wonder Jesus told His disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven …” (Matthew 6:9).
This Fathers’ Day rejoice in and worship your heavenly Father.