Now that we have been justified by faith, we can also take hope of the glorious future we have in Christ. Whenever we fall into suffering times, our hope grows as we are transformed. This hope is sure because of the love of God which we experience in both a subjective way and an objective way. This objective demonstration of God’s love by dying on the cross justifies, reconciles, and causes us to rejoice in God. The basis of this hope is that, while every individual human is born in corporate solidarity with Adam, humans can receive the free gift of God to be found in union with Christ. When Adam acted on behalf of humanity in the Garden, his disobedience resulted in death, judgement, condemnation, and positional placement as sinners. Not only are humans corporately regarded as sinners because of Adam’s representative action, but they also confirm this by sinning and experiencing death as a result of inheriting Adam’s sinful nature. When Christ, the second Adam, acted on behalf of His people on the Cross, his obedience resulted in a free gift of life, grace, justification, and positional placement as righteous. The law shows that humans sin against explicit commands of God like Adam, but God’s grace overcomes it and gives eternal life in Christ.
