From the Ninth through the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Year A of Ordinary Time, the second reading is taken from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans. Among the authentic Letters that Saint Paul wrote, his letter to the Romans is the longest and most systematic unfolding of the apostle’s thought, expounding in regard to the righteousness of God that saves all who believe. Its outlook is universal and its content governed Israel’s relationship with the emerging Church in the first century.
One of the letter’s over-arching themes involves Christ understood as the new Adam. In chapter 5, not only does Paul talk about the sin of the first Adam, the last few passages of that chapter depict a number of contrasts between the first Adam, as the priest-father of humanity and Jesus who is the last or new Adam. Verses 15 through 17 of that chapter are imbued with repeated references to a gift, which begins with this statement, “But the gift is not like the transgression.” So, whatever that gift is, it differs from the transgression. Then, he goes on and says, “For if, by that one person’s transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift (Gk.χάρισμα) of the one person Jesus Christ overflow for the many.” Justification or the operation of divine grace came to reign in life through Christ alone. Adam’s sin resulted in original, sanctifying grace being deprived from all humanity, but the gift came by the grace of Christ which is greater the transgression. The greatness of the grace of God far exceeds the sin of Adam. Frequently, the blessings of God are spoken of in terms of possessing a vastly greater degree than the corresponding sins—the concept grace as being something greater.
These verses also contain some rather negative ideas, just like many other Pauline verses. The most pivotal is judgment coming by one to condemnation. Adam broke the law given to him by God. The result was condemnation because of a single sin. However, the free gift is better because it followed many other trespasses. Murder, lying, hating what is good and fornication, but those sins are just the tip of the iceberg. Despite all of that and more, the gift still came, and happened after an incredible number of trespasses. Not just one! The result, then? A truly magnificent blessing that is only available through the Lord Jesus. Justification! The act by which God moves a willing person from a state of sin to the state of grace (justice). As a “life-giving spirit,” Jesus, the last Adam, has risen from the dead and, by doing so, He will transform us through the resurrection of the body into a heavenly, spiritual existence (1 Cor. 15:22, 45, 48–9). Thus, through what could be labeled as Paul’s Adam Christology, such a sense of who the Christ truly is, in the Pauline literature, involved both the earthly Jesus’ obedience (Rom. 5) and the risen Christ’s role as giver of the Spirit (1 Cor.15:45).
Nature and dignity 