ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
and climbed up into her lap. Putting his arms around her neck, he said, "Mother, I love you." Then she asked: "How much, my dear? More than your toys?" to which he quickly replied: "Yes, I love you more. I get tired of my toys, but I never get tired of you." That little child rejoiced in his mother. It is a wonderful thing to be justified, to have peace with God, to have access into His presence, to rejoice in the ex- pectancy of His glory, to have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, to know that we are kept safe and secure, to be reconciled, safe from wrath through Him. It is wonderful to know these things. But it is even more wonderful to forget God's gifts, and to joy in Him. Do you ever get alone and put your arms of faith around God the Father, and tell Him you love Him, my friend? That is the highest place you can occupy in the Christian experience. And "the Father seeketh such to worship him" (John 4:23). He delights in our love, unworthy though we are, because we are "accepted in the beloved"-His well beloved Son. OUR HERITAGE IN ADAM versus OUR HERITAGE IN CHRIST 5:12-21 From verse 12 to the end of chapter five our heritage in Christ is contrasted with our heritage in Adam. We come to appreciate things more deeply by way of contrast. That is one way to teach: and that is what God is doing here. He gives us in verses 12-21 the dark picture of our heritage inAdam, as contrasted with our glorious heritage in Christ, already set forth in verses 1-11. In the Word of God the Lord Jesus Christ is referred to as "the last Adam." In I Cor. 15:45 we read: "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." The first Adam ·fell after being tempted to sin, and his children inherited his sinful nature. We are his great-great-grandchildren, so to speak. We inherited cer- Page 86]
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