By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
February 22, 2026
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Romans 5:12–19 (ESV)
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
The letter to the Romans is a letter that is filled with many interesting teachings. Paul wrote this letter not while he was in Rome, but when he was planning to go to Rome. Rome as you might have guessed was the capital of the Roman Empire. We often do not think about how big of a distance this is, but to walk to Rome from Jerusalem it is around two thousand one hundred miles, and according to google it would take 719 hours to make that trip, and this is only if you were able to catch a boat across the Adriatic Sea. That is non stop walking for nearly month. But we cannot walk non stop, at best we can probably walk thirteen miles a day so this trip would have taken around 162 days. If he started to walk on January 1, he might get to Rome by June 11th. But it would take a few extra days since he would not be traveling on the Sabbath, and I am fairly certain weather might become an issue along the way.
I say this because we do not often think of how far the gospel went during that first generation of the Church. We do not often think of how quickly this happened either. According to tradition Jesus would have been crucified around the thirty-three AD, and it is believed that Paul wrote this letter in fifty-seven. In twenty-four years the gospel went from Israel, to the very heart of the empire, and it became established enough that the apostles were writing letters to the church there. I want you to just consider what we have done in twenty-four years? I will have been a pastor for that amount of time. And when I consider what has happened in that amount of time, I think wow a lot has happened. And then I look at the span of work that first generation accomplished and I feel like I have done nothing.
There is a significant difference between then and now as well. The world had not yet heard the gospel. It was something new that not many people knew about. They listened and they were curious, so they listened to more. They began to ask questions, and they observed how the people that participated in this new religion acted. This is not how our world is today. There are pockets within the world that have yet to hear the gospel, but the vast majority of the world has heard something about Jesus. This is no longer a new religion. And because of this we have 2000 years of human existence and experience to deal with.
I am part of a theological book club and we recently read a book written by a former Muslim that converted to Christianity. In this book it spoke about his experiences and what finally convinced him to turn toward Christ. It was a profound book. It deepened my understanding of a faith tradition that I am not very familiar with, it showed me a glimpse at how people of that faith might view me and my faith. I bring this up because in most of this book the author spoke about things that he was told about our faith that were not true, and I think it is important for us to remember that we are probably guilty of this toward Muslims as well. My next door neighbor is a Muslim and they are currently in their holy month of Ramadan where they fast from sun up to sun down all month. Which is interesting that it is right during lent this year which only happens every 30-33 years.
I asked him a little about their holiday and how they celebrate it, and he said that they do not eat or drink anything, it is a complete fast during the daylight hours. And that those that drink coffee and smoke tend to have a tough time because of the cravings during the day. I let him know that I would pray for him during this time because that is tough.
But we do not always know, we might not understand where people are coming from. We might know something about what they believe, but often this comes from stories we are told about them, not from someone that is actually part of that community.
The Church is not new, but we have 2000 years of human experience behind us. Both positive and negative. And like most things, the negative concepts often get around faster than the positive. To this day people will talk about how America used to have slavery, and there are some within our culture that will respond to this dark part of our history saying we stopped that a hundred and fifty years ago can’t we just let it go already? Germany would like us to let go of world war 1 and 2 as well, but it is part of our history. We need to remember it and change. But there are things we are speaking about that go even deeper. When we speak about Muslims, what is the first thing we think about? In America, we think about 9/11, but if we ask a Muslim the same thing they would call us Crusaders. The Crusades were something that happened 1300 years ago, the United States did not yet exist, and the dominate culture in the Americas was the Mayan culture, but it would soon collapse and be replaced by the Aztecs. Over a thousand years, and they still call us crusaders. Not a single one of us participated in those activities and yet if we want to have any relationship with them we must speak to that baggage.
I bring this all up because we cannot simply overlook our history. It is part of who we are as a people. I am not Catholic, yet everything that happened prior to the emergence of the Friends Church is part of our history. Everything the British Empire did prior to 1776 is part of our history. Everything the Norse did, everything the indigenous people of America did and what we did to them, that is all part of our history if we like it or not.
I want us to consider that history. That deep history that stretches to the dawn of time, is ours. Paul says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” There are many theological understandings as to what Paul is speaking about here. Some will say that this speaks of original sin. And they use this concept to justify the baptism of infants. The waters of that baptism wash away the residue that Adam and Eve, our original parents left with us. But that does not change our history. Everything that happened from Adam, to Cain, to Seth, and all those genealogies we skip over in those early books of scripture. That is our history. That is who we were. That is our heritage and our culture. As much as some might like to say there is no evidence that any culture of Europe was one of the lost tribes of Israel, there is some evidence that some of the various tribes within Africa might have some ties to Israel. But the dominate aspects of our heritage comes from one of the dispersed language groups that left Babel, and very few of us can claim Abraham as a direct ancestor. I say few, because some of us can make that claim. But even Israel has similar heritage to that point.
“Sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.”
This is where the concept of original sin, in my opinion, seems to fail. Sin is not counted where there is no law, where we lack knowledge or the wisdom from God, sin is not counted. Even though sin reigned from Adam to Moses. What does this mean?
If we were to go back to the story of our first parents and our first brothers we will see something interesting between the interaction between Cain, Abel, and God. God comes to Cain and said, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” The first thing that is important here is that Cain knew God and God knew Cain. God spoke to Cain. They had a relationship of sorts. We sometimes forget that God does not leave anyone, God wants us to turn toward him. Paul even says while we were still sinners, Christ was there and died for us. Cain knew God, and Cain knew what was expected of him.
Cain went from that discussion with God, and he spoke to his brother Abel, and he killed him. God then spoke again to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain responds by saying. “I do not know; am I my brothers keeper?” To which God responds, “What have you done?”
What was the sin in this interaction? Most of us would say that it was the murder of Abel. But I want us to take a step back. The murder was the fruit of the sin. The sin was within Cain, the same sin that Adam and Eve had in the garden. They felt that God was keeping something from them, and they had to take it for themselves. Greed, envy, jealousy. These emotions that we all wrestle with. They are the temptations that are being used against us by the one that is drawing us away from God. The sin is turning away from God. All have sinned, because we have all listened to those whispers, and in our attempts to get what we think we want or need we have turned our backs on our brothers and sisters. All have sinned, we have all listened to the voice of the evil one, even when we know God was there encouraging us to to do well and be accepted.
This is how those without knowledge will be judged. Did you choose to do well or did you choose to let sin enter? When God judged the nations, he did not judge them according to the commandments given to Moses, because they did not have those, he judged them based on how they treated the people around them especially the widows, the orphans, and the foreigners. These three classes of people did not have status within ancient cultures. All property and status within most of the Mediterranean culture went through men. Wives had a future through their husband and their children. Children gained their status through the inheritance they received from their father. If a husband dies, the wife loses everything because she does not inherit anything as it all goes to her children. And if a father dies before a child is an adult, that property goes to the father’s brother to hold in trust for the orphans. But that brother could do whatever he wanted at that point.
Now the foreigners, I know this is a touchy subject in this climate, but it is important. Why would a foreigner be in the land? Where they traveling? Possibly, but probably not. People did not move around like we do now. Many probably did not travel more than a few days walk away from their hometown, so if there was a foreigner in your community, they were in need. It is likely that there was some famine, natural disaster, or war that displaced them from their homeland and now they are left wondering without anything. God cares about these people. He cares because they are people created in his image. And we are to do well to our brothers and sisters of humanity. We are our brother’s keeper, and when we allow greed, envy, and jealousy enter the door of our lives like Cain, God will hold us accountable for what we do to them.
Basic kindness is what God wants us to exhibit when we have no other wisdom. Basic kindness.
But death or sin reigned from Adam to Moses. Nations rose against Nations, cultures enslaved other cultures. Empires rose up to make a name for themselves. And they lorded that name over all surrounding nations. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Rome, France, Russia, China, Mongolia, Britain, France, Germany, Ghana, Axum, the United States, and more. Empires rose up throughout history they rose is strength, wealth, power. Those that worked with them prospered for a while but eventually were absorbed into their influence to the point one could not tell if they were independent or not, and those that did not often found themselves annexed or conquered. Sin and death reigned, because greed, envy and jealousy drove the empires. We want more, we want what we deserve. We want respect. And if we cannot have it we will take it by force. Sin reigns.
“But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.”
God walked in the Garden with Adam. God was with Eve, and she said, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” when she gave birth to Abel. They knew God, yet sin reigned. God spoke with Cain, God had regard for Abel, yet sin reigned. Cain took the life of his brother, yet God still spoke with Cain, he provided protection even though Cain did not deserve it. God is still with us, he visits with us, He calls out to us, his desire is for us to turn our ear toward him and to listen to his words of wisdom.
Yet we allow sin to reign. We reject our day of visitation and we seek to satisfy the greed, envy and jealousy. We seek wealth and power. We need it for our protection. We need it because we deserve it. We need it. But then God confused the languages at Babel, and he chose one people to be His inheritance, Israel. It is through this one people he would reveal his wisdom. It is from within this people he would shine light into the darkness. And through this people that all nations will be drawn back to him.
God took a man without wealth, and made him a migrant wanderer without land, or an heir. He blessed this man through the wandering and that man made friendships and became respected within the land God had promised him, yet had not yet given to him. This man lived for a hundred years before God had finally given him a son. And through that son, he had two grandsons, and his family began to multiply from there. Yet they had but did not have a land of their own. They went into exile in Egypt, they were enslaved for centuries, and God delivered them. They then again wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and during that wandering God taught them his words of wisdom, he gave them his commandments. He revealed to them how to love God and your neighbor properly. It goes beyond kindness, and becomes service to others.
This people became a nation, they sat at the crossroads between the empires, never being great in themselves, yet having influence greater than their size. They were loved and hated. Blessed and cursed. Because sin still reigned all around them. And eventually they too turned away, and began to follow the ways of the world. They too forgot the teachings God provided to them through Moses in the wilderness. And they were again delivered into the hands of a foreign power.
They recognized their sin. And they repented not just individually, but they repented as a culture. They recognized that they had all fallen short and needed to return to God, and eventually God allowed them to return to their land. And they began to shine the light once more. And the cycles continue.
Until one day a voice cries in the wilderness, “Repent for the kingdom is at hand.” And this wilderness preacher, then looks out at the crowd and says, “Behold the lamb who takes away the sin of the world.” And that man comes to him to be baptized. John pleas with him saying, “I should be baptized by you yet you come to me?” John saw that sin still reigned in his life, even though he was turning toward God, he was not perfect, because all have sinned and fallen short.
This is our history. This is our heritage. We are a people that listen to sin lurching at the door, and instead of resisting it, we embrace it. We turn it upside down and justify it. Yet we know better. “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
We know what is expected, from the very beginning we have known. “If you do well will you not be accepted.” Yet we do not do well, we want what is not ours, we take what is not ours, and we will do violence toward anyone that tries to prevent it. Sin reigns, but that reign has come to an end. It is defeated. Sin and Death no longer have hold on humanity, because God came to dwell among us. He showed us in word and deed the wisdom of God, and he took on our flesh so that he could restore all humanity back to God.
That restoration came not only to allow us to live for eternity in heaven. He came so that we can live that kingdom life here now in this community. Jesus came so that we might live. He hung on that cross so that we know that he is with us even through the injustice, even through the ridicule, and mockery. Jesus is with us even in the suffering. And though sin and death still reigns all around us, Jesus took the sting of death away, because death becomes life. The resurrected life has overcome death, death no longer has a grip on us. It does not hold us as we live facing our trials, nor when we do pass beyond this veil and enter the unknown on the other side. Death no longer reigns because there is hope. There is hope that one day greed, envy, and jealousy will give way to charity, respect, and encouragement. That wealth and power will become cooperation and mutual benefit. That we will once again do well to one anther as we begin to see that we are our brother’s keeper and our brother is ours as well. Let us allow grace to reign in our lives. Let us let righteousness carry us into life with our lord, our friend, and our savior, Jesus. Let us accept our history as being not who we are, but what we overcame.
Previous Messages:
Living Stones
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 03, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 2:2–10 (ESV) 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have…
Endure
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 26, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Query 4 (Faith and Practice of EFC-MAYM pg 61) Do you provide for the suitable Christian education and recreation of your children and those under your care, and…
Ransomed to Love
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 19, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 1:17–23 (ESV) 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time…
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