Romans 5:12-19
First Sunday in Lent
Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, February 22, 2026 “A Champion for All the Defeated”
The entire Israelite army was lined up on one side of the Valley of Elah. Their enemies were lined up on the other side. It looked as though the battle was about to begin. Soldiers felt the rush of adrenaline as they prepared for a fight. But the battle never raged. Instead, an enormously tall, strong, well-armored man stepped out from the enemy’s ranks. He said, “We don’t all have to fight. I’m here. You pick one man to fight me. That’s what we’ll do. I will be the one representative of our side, and you can choose one representative for yours. We’ll fight, man-to-man.” Maybe you recognize this as a retelling of the Bible’s account of David and Goliath. Goliath was the giant soldier who stepped out on behalf of Israel’s enemies, the Philistines.
Goliath was a champion. He had done this before. He was such a unique warrior that it didn’t make sense to risk the lives of fellow soldiers. Why wouldn’t he want to fight one man for them? Why wouldn’t his entire army want him to fight on their behalf? Every one of the Philistines were pleased with the arrangement: one man from each side could decide the battle.
I’m not sure the Israelites felt quite the same way. They didn’t have a nine-foot tall warrior on whom they could call. In fact, as it happened, they had no one brave enough to go against Goliath until young David the shepherd boy showed up. In the meantime, they were terrified that they could not possibly beat the giant. They weren’t so sure that one-on-one combat was the way to go, but they didn’t know what else to do.
Apparently, it was common enough for ancient battles to play out this way. But in this case, it seemed like such a mismatch. It seemed like one champion fighting for his side was the incredible favorite. And the other side didn’t even have a champion. If it didn’t find one, it faced certain defeat. Our reading from Romans today is not about the battle against Goliath, but it does bear some resemblance. It talks about champions fighting a battle for everyone on their side, in a certain sense. And it has us view two great battles from two different perspectives. Our two other Scripture readings in our service today zoom in on each of those battles.
The first battle is introduced in the first words of our text. So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned. This is the battle of Adam. Adam was the first man God had created, and along with his wife, Eve, he lived in the Garden of Eden and ate from the trees God had given them. The one exception was a special tree in the middle of the garden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that Adam was not to eat from. You heard how Satan in the form of a serpent brought his temptation to Eve and Adam was with her. You could picture this as a great battle with all of the people who would be born from Adam and Eve on one side with the devil and his demons on the other. Adam could have been a champion, standing up against temptation, winning a battle that would impact the whole human race.
But he ate the fruit. He was defeated. He had disobeyed the one who had given him everything, the one who had given him all that he needed. Instead of listening and obeying, he listened to temptation and obeyed that. And he faced the consequences. He felt the separation that came between him and God and between him and Eve. He would fall prey to earthly death when his soul and body would be separated, and he risked eternal separation from God. He had brought death into the world. And everyone died. Not everyone had a specific command of God like Adam did. It wasn’t until Moses that God gave his Ten Commandments and told people in a very clear detail what his expectations were for them. But every one of Adam’s children felt the consequences and the guilt of Adam’s sin, and every one of them faced death.
There are a lot of people in our world today who think this sis simply unfair. We didn’t get a chance to agree to the battle plan. We didn’t hire Adam to act for us. We didn’t trust that he was the champion that we needed. But God isn’t asking us whether this was fair. He’s telling us what the reality was. Adam was the man, the only man alive. He and Eve represented the entire human race. What they did necessarily made a difference for everyone. And what happened was sin and death came into the world. In fact, death ruled and reigned over the world. It was and is inescapable. The many died by the trespass of this one man. And the judgment that followed the one trespass resulted in a verdict of condemnation
This is the reality of the one-on-one confrontation between the devil and Adam. Our side lost, and the result was sin and death and damnation. We are guilty as charged and sentenced to condemnation. And if you still think that God is not being fair with you, if you think that maybe you would have done better, you probably need to consider a little more closely just how much you are like Adam. It is so hard to simply take God at his Word and trust him when the devil tells us about all the other things that sound so good and look so good that they make us question God’s goodness to us. The reality is that we are all defeated. Death and sin rule over us.
But God had a plan, and he made a promise. He told us about a one-on-one battle. He told us that he would send the head-crusher to win the battle. Our Gospel today didn’t show us the whole battle, but it did show us how that battle played out. The devil came again with all his, “Did God really say” questions. The devil suggested again and again that he had a better way and a better plan than God’s way and God’s plan. There were easy ways to get what we want. There were shortcuts to having it all. There were opportunities not to trust God but to test him. “Go ahead and see if he really loves you,” said the devil. “Go ahead and see how is angels will care for you.”
All we can do is sit and watch. The Lord Jesus walks out to the wilderness to fight this battle for you and for me. We have a champion. He doesn’t look like a nine-foot tall giant. He maybe makes us think about all the battles that the devil has already won against us and so many that we know. We may swallow hard and feel our hearts racing as we can do nothing but watch. And this is what Jesus does: he simply takes God at his Word and trusts in him when the devil tells him about other things that sound so good and look so good and are intended to make him question God’s goodness to him. He doesn’t question. He trusts. He doesn’t forget God’s Word. He uses God’s Word. He doesn’t fail; he is not defeated. He is victorious and remains our champion.
And the Apostle Paul in our verses absolutely celebrates the incredible news. He gushes over the truth of what Jesus has done. Yes, he is like Adam, but he is so much better. Adam and his trespass brought death, but Jesus and his victory give us the gift of God’s grace. Adam’s actions brought condemnation. Christ’s conduct brings justification. That means that God declares us not guilty because of what our champion accomplished—he was not guilty for us. Death had reigned from Adam on, over all people. But through Jesus and his incredible gift of grace, we reign in life.
In other words, Adam was a pattern in which Jesus followed, but Jesus was and is so overwhelmingly better in every way. Adam’s failure hurt and harmed. It passed sin and death on to all his descendants. It was the beginning of the rule of death. But from that moment God promised the rescuer. He promised a champion. He promised someone to set right what was wrong. So Jesus followed the pattern of Adam, but he also was so much more than a follower of a pattern. He was a champion, a champion for all the defeated. And that was exactly what we needed. Thanks be to God.
The Text: Romans 5:12–19 (EHV)
12So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned. 13For even before the law was given, sin was in the world. Now, sin is not charged to one’s account if there is no law, 14and yet death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those whose sin was not like the transgression of Adam, who is a pattern of the one who was to come.
15But the gracious gift is not like Adam’s trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of this one man, it is even more certain that God’s grace, and the gift given by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, overflowed to the many!
16And the gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin, for the judgment that followed the one trespass resulted in a verdict of condemnation, but the gracious gift that followed many trespasses resulted in a verdict of justification.
17Indeed, if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through the one man, it is even more certain that those who receive the overflowing grace of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ!
18So then, just as one trespass led to a verdict of condemnation for all people, so also one righteous verdict led to life-giving justification for all people. 19For just as through the disobedience of one man the many became sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will become righteous.