The First Response

It would seem that if sin is to be contrasted with something, it would be something like righteousness.  Or, maybe the contrast of obedience and disobedience would be the choice.  Interestingly enough, when Paul set out to write about the way sin has pervaded the human nature created in the beginning in the image of the Creator, he contrasted sin with grace.  We often miss the contrast when we read the fifth chapter of Romans, but it is there written with a boldness that cannot be missed for too long.  

With our eyes and spirit looking for the contrast, it begins to show up over and over until we come finally to that often quoted verse 20 which says, "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more"  And then this Word is followed by another which goes on to say, "...so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification..."  (Romans 5:21)  It would seem that God's natural and immediate response to sin is not condemnation, but more grace.   

Of course, what we have learned from our own bouts with sin is that there is more than enough condemnation to go around without someone, even God, throwing stones into the ring upon us.  The first seeds of condemnation come not from outside of us, but from within us.  The Garden of Eden couple hid during the evening walks of the Creator not because He has issued judgment upon them, but because they had already issued judgement upon themselves.  In a world where condemnation is our first response to our own sin, it is good to know that God's first response is not judgment, but more grace.