Adam left you a legacy of hurt. There is joy because the second Adam, Jesus, has rescued you from Adam’s dark web. But while you remain on earth the tentacles of Adam’s choice cling to your flesh. Hardship and pain are punctuated by pangs of failure, betrayal, guilt and jaded visions of what might have been. But here we meet the power of the gospel! God never abandons you, even in times of deep sadness.
The Apostle Paul writes eloquently of this mixture of Adam’s legacy and Christ’s redeeming power. His words are printed for you below. Paul knew a mixture of hope and discouragement, joy and sadness, life and death. Jesus has gone before you and he now walks with you. He leads you where he as already walked. He chose to experience all of the ugliness of life so that he could care for you in your hurt. You can know Christ and the power of his gift of redemption and life to you.
You cannot shield your children from Adam’s reach. But you can show them the beauty of redemption. You can show them that joy and sorrow can mix together for good.
Your can’t prevent your children from knowing the sadness of losing a pet, from the betrayal of friend, from the hurt of losing a parent. You cannot always keep them from the pain of the consequences of their sin. But you can always show them Christ. You can live before them the reality that Adam did not have the final word.
Christ has gone before you. He intimately knows your heart and your hurt. He died to free you from Adam’s cursed life and your own sin. Live this reality before your children. Paul had no illusions of a life free of hurt. But Paul also knew the power of Christ which will take you and your children from death to life.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
2 Corinthians 4:7-12