Thursday, November 10, 2016


Pennsylvania Apples

"Redeeming Grace To Adam's Race"

Message Summary: Today we urge all our readers to accept the divinely appointed means that God provided in Christ to the problem we all have due to Adam's "apple".

Listen to this message on your audio player.

"But God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). "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" (Romans 5:19).


We periodically comment on the various ways people express their faith using bumper stickers, signs, and articles of clothing. My first recollection of seeing this type of witness was the Christian-themed bumper sticker, which I think arrived on the scene about the time I started to drive. Prior to that my first memory of a bumper sticker was the one they plastered on your car when you went to Six Flags Over Texas. I still remember how excited I was for others to see the sticker that proved we had been there in the mid-sixties.

When I got my first car I had recently committed my life to Christ and was beginning to learn spiritual truths. I decided I wanted others to know of my new found faith so I wanted a cool bumper sticker with a profound message like, "HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS" or an even neater one, "IN CASE OF RAPTURE DRIVER WILL DISAPPEAR". In my youthful innocence and enthusiasm I thought this message would surely cause all who saw it want to be Christian.

Now my witness in regard to these types of expressions is limited to my spiritually-themed tie collection which I almost inevitably get comments on, although these days it could just be the novelty that some people still wear ties.

When we were in San Diego last month we visited Balboa Park where the San Diego Zoo is located. We saw a man wearing a T-shirt that inadvertently was a witness for Biblical truth although he probably had no idea how. The shirt stated "3 Apples That Changed The World" Adam's, Isaac's, Steve's.

Now lest I seem technologically uninformed I am quite sure the wearer was an Apple device fan. Steve Jobs developed this Apple.

Isaac's apple refers to Isaac Newton and gravity. Legend has it that a young Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree when he was bonked on the head by a falling apple, a 17th-century “aha moment” that prompted him to suddenly come up with his law of gravity.

But I wonder what the casual, Biblically uninformed reader thinks regarding "Adam's Apple" on the t-shirt? I bet there's more than a few that think it's part of the anatomy that protrudes from a person's throat!

Now to be sure the Bible doesn't specify that the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden was an apple although for some reason that's what artists usually draw. As a child I recall wondering why we ate apples if that's was the forbidden fruit. If the fruit had been identified in Scripture and, and forbidden for all times, I would want it to be the persimmon since that's about the only fruit I don't like!

But the sense that Adam's apple changed the world was the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. In this sense Adam's apple had a world changing impact far, far greater than Isaac Newton or Steve Jobs.

The original record concerning Adam's disobedience is recorded in Genesis 3 but today let us consider the teaching by Paul in Romans 5 where he contrasts Adam and Christ. Our daily text states, "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."

Bible teacher William Newell writes, "We were so connected with the first Adam that we did not have to wait to be born, or to have a sinful nature; but when Adam, our representative, acted, we acted… The great truth of Romans 5.12-21 is that a representative acted, involving those connected with him (Romans 5)." This is what theologians refer to as "original sin". Adam’s sin constituted them as sinners. They were born as members of a race already separated from God." Indeed Adam's "apple" really, really changed the world!

But the supreme act of God's love and mercy is expressed in the latter part of the verse "so by the one man's (Jesus Christ) obedience the many will be made righteous." Stanley Horton, one of my professors in Bible College calls this "The Adam-Christ Parallel."

Pastor David Guzik writes, "Only a sinless person acting on our behalf can save us, and it is fair for Him to act on our behalf because another man put us in this mess by acting on our behalf… The person who says, “I don’t want to be represented by Adam or Jesus; I want to represent myself” doesn’t understand two things. First, they don’t understand that it really isn’t up to us. We didn’t write the rules, God did. We simply must choose to follow or ignore them. Secondly, they don’t understand that our personal righteousness before God is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

Today we urge all our readers to accept the divinely appointed means that God provided in Christ to the problem we all have due to Adam's "apple".



Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Merciful Father, we thank You for the love You extend toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It was necessary for our salvation, so that we might have abundant life here on earth and a future inheritance in heaven. Because of Adam's disobedience we are all born into sin, but because You gave Your only Son, Jesus, and because He obediently sacrificed His life on the cross we have forgiveness of sins and are made righteous through His divine, loving act. Though we are born into Adam's race we gratefully receive Your redeeming grace through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

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