GOSPEL NUGGET # 77

Ro 5:20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound...

Any devout Jew would be bowled over by this statement. It is simply shocking to him: "The Law entered that the offense might abound!"

"THE offense" here simply refers to the one offense of Adam (see verses 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 of the same chapter).

We naturally think that other people are bad and that we are not. We are different. We are good people. The Law entered so that it might become obvious to us that we are sinners. God commanded Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But he violated it. That was THE offense that caused man to fall into sin's slavery. And ever since that time, every single person in Adam's line, is born a sinner---sinners by birth and sinners by nature, slaves of sin.

How do you make someone realize that he is a slave of something? You give him a law that forbids it. And so God gave the law. The result? Did man perfectly obey it? Not one! Every single person born into this world is found to be an offender against the law. He just can't stop sinning!

Like father (Adam) like son. What was true of Adam our father, is true of us his children. We are found to be little Adams. We are exact replicas, we are offenders against God's will. The offense of the father is now multiplied in his sons and daughters making it very obvious that we are no better than daddy!

The Law can't save us. On the contrary, it only highlights our depravity. We need the Savior!