Even so in Christ all shall be made alive

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”

– 1 Corinthians 15:22

In just a handful of words, a division is established that strikes to the very heart of who we are.

Either we are in Adam. Or we are in Christ.

Every single human soul fits under one of those two umbrellas. And the difference is life and death.

Everyone is born under the umbrella of Adam; into the sentence and curse of death.

You don’t have to do anything else – just be born. Our sin nature takes care of the rest.

But in Jesus’ death – and more specifically, His resurrection – another option is pro-vided. It is one that cost Him everything, and one that asks our lives in return.

It is, in one glorious sweep, the establishment of something brand new: That, in Jesus Christ, we should be made alive – such as we have never imagined before. Raised with Him in newness of life and rescued out of the surety of eternal death.

There are only two options.

You can live and die in Adam’s line, having shared in a guilt common to all mankind. To live in Adam is to continue on in death, specifically because our sin against God has separated us from God.

You can live and die in that line.

Or you can die to your own desire now, repent of your sin and give your life to Jesus Christ.

You can surrender the whole of your being to a faith and a trust in Him and in what He accomplished for you on the cross – which is absolute forgiveness and deliverance and freedom from every hold of addiction, every self-serving thought, every self-inflicted fracture between yourself and the presence of God that has ever plagued you.

In that death to self – and in that surrender unto the selfless One, who died and rose back to life to redeem you from death and reconcile you to God – you will live with Him forever where He is. And you will be sustained through the present by His presence in your life.

In Adam, all die. But in Christ, all shall be made alive.

We serve a God – we approach a God – who declares from His throne in Revelation 21:5: “Behold! I make all things new.”

That is the choice before you now, and there is no middle ground.

You either die in Adam. Or you live in Jesus Christ.

You continue on in death apart from God. Or you are made new in the presence of God.

Maybe you’ve been running from it your whole life, but you know it to be true.

The time has come to leave that life of Adam – that life of carnality, the life of defeat and shame and guilt behind. To navigate the divide that only Jesus Himself can carry you across.

But the first step – the only step – is choosing Jesus with your life. Choosing His life, and leaving your death behind.

Moses proclaims a series of instructions for God’s people in Deuteronomy 30:19-20, each of which root from the same action: Choose life. That you may live. That you may love the Lord your God. That you may obey His voice. That you may cling to Him. For He is your life and length of days.

Choose life, that you may live.

Even so in Christ, all shall be made alive.

Joey Crandall is the pastor at Calvary Chapel Carson Valley.