Through A Man

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (I Corinthians 15:20-22)

          This is one of those passages that bothers people. How is it fair that death should come through one man? Just because Adam and Eve at of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil doesn’t mean that you or I would have…except for the fact that we have each sinned. We may not think it’s right that we have inherited a sinful nature any more than we think it’s right that we’ve inherited a love of sweets, or boring brown hair, or a likely diagnosis of cancer or Alzheimer’s.  That doesn’t change the reality that we have inherited these things. Complaining that if we had been there, we would not have made the mistake Adam and Eve did seems to me to be a contemptuous and arrogant claim, which reveals our argument that we wouldn’t sin invalid. 
          Equally, people complain that it is not fair for salvation to come through one man. “We can’t all…” we’re told. There are so many other religions, how dare we arrogantly claim that ours is the only right one? I tend to agree. The thing is, though, that religion tends to be about how a person can be good enough to get God’s approval. Biblical Christianity is the one that states that man cannot be good enough to earn God’s approval, but that God has done what man cannot. It seems to me that it Christianity, therefore, deals in the truth, while the others do not.