Continuing our 'Out of Control Optimism' series I am reminded of a construct in Romans Chapter 5 that offers great hope for the believer in Jesus Christ, that is hope for himself and his fellow man.  Paul explains a parallel comparison and contrast between the first man from God, Adam, and the second man from God, Jesus Christ.

12) Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned. 13) For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. 14) Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren't like Adam's disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come. 15) But the free gift isn't like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16) The gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. 17) For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. 18) So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. 19) For as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. 20) The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; 21) that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:12-21 (WEB)

Consider and analysis.

A careful study of the passage above shows that the many, in fact all men, stand condemned before God because of our relationship with Adam.  However, the awesome news observed through the parallel construct above is that the many, in fact all men, stand justified before God because of the one act of righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Those who believe and receive this good news will reign in life, while those who do not believe miss a great blessing because they live as condemned men EVEN THOUGH they and all mankind have been justified through the work of Christ.

For further proof, let's exercise some of our high school geometry theorems to prove that the work of Christ has justified all mankind as I argue above and in my article, Justified!  Since I have been helping my own high school kids with their geometry proof homework this will be an excellent exercise for me. Let's use the algebraic Substitution Property or the geometric Transitive Property and the givens from the Scripture above to make our proof.

• Givens
  
  • The transitive property of equality states for any real numbers a, b, and c:
    If a = b and b = c, then with a substitution a = c.
  • The Many = Those who died as a result of Adam's sin, Romans 5:15
  • The Many = Those who the grace of Christ overflowed to, Romans 5:15
  • All men = Those condemned as a result of Adam's sin, Romans 5:18
  • All men = Those justified as a result of Christ's righteousness, Romans 5:18
    
    
• Direct Proof
  • The Many = Those who died as a result of Adam's sin - GIVEN
  • The Many = Those who the grace of Christ overflowed to - GIVEN
  • All men = Those condemned as a result of Adam's sin - GIVEN
  • All men = Those justified as a result of Adam's sin - GIVEN
  • Those who died as a result of Adam's sin = Those condemned as a result of Adam's sin - LOGICAL EQUALITY
  • Those who the grace of Christ overflowed to = Those justified as a result of Adam's sin - LOGICAL EQUALITY
  • The Many = All men, Geometric Transitive OR Algebraic Substitution property
    
    
• Indirect Proof
  • Begin with wrong assumption to expose contradiction
  • The Many Not Equal to All men, INDIRECT PROOF WITH WRONG ASSUMPTION
  • The Many < All men, CANNOT BE MORE SO MUST  BE LESS
  • The Many = Those who died as a result of Adam's sin - GIVEN
  • Those who died as a result of Adam's sin < All men, Geometric Transitive OR Algebraic Substitution property
  • CONTRADICTION of Romans 3:23, Romans 5:18, and Romans 11:32
  • Initial assumption wrong so The Many = All men
    
    
• Alternate Direct Proof
  • All mankind has sinned and falls short of the glory of God,  GIVEN in Romans 3:23
  • Again God has bound all mankind over to disobedience, GIVEN in Romans 11:32a
  • God did this in order to show mercy to all mankind, GIVEN in Romans 11:32b
  • Those bound to sin by God = Those who sinned = All Mankind = Those chosen for mercy, Geometric Transitive OR Algebraic Substitution property

Sorry to trouble you with a return to algebra and geometry proofs.  I happened to love proofs during my youth and relished in a fleeting popularity with my classmates as they lined up to me for help.  However, for many algebra and geometry proofs are a source of nightmares.  The question is, do the proofs above bring you nightmares or joy?  Do you see the hopelessness of trying to persuade yourself along with the Jews that God only loves a subset of humanity?  No, instead there is great joy in seeing that the Bible says that even though all mankind has sinned that God loves and forgives all mankind through Christ?  Do you believe it?

We have got to share this 'Out of Control Optimism' with somebody!