Romans 5:12–17Scripture
Everybody turn your Bibles to Romans. We'll continue on our path. Romans chapter 5 is where we're at. I've been given, I have a large section of Scripture here, quite honestly probably too much to deal with today. I'm saying this often, but you know, I really feel like, although it's large, although it's difficult to talk about in its entirety in one Sunday, I feel like that all of it needs to be read together. I think it's a continuation of a thought. You actually could probably go, so we're looking at 12 through 17 today, but you probably could go from 12 to 20, and that would actually be a good way to cap that out. But 12 to 17 was enough verses for me to try to figure out how to manage in one Sunday. And so here's the way this is going to go: I'm going to lay a foundation here, maybe give a general overview of kind of where we've come from and where we are and what the apostle Paul is doing. I feel like we see a shift happening here as he begins to explain the greatness of Christ, who is God.
And that is really an important thing. It's important that we understand that Jesus is not just a good man, he's not just a prophet, he's not just well liked, he's not just a part of history, but he is God. And I think that's really important. It's very important. As a matter of fact, it's that phrase that helps us maybe gain an understanding of the Scripture that says, "Wide is the gate that leads to destruction, but narrow is the gate to eternal life." What does it mean there? I think it means two things. I think it means many people will not go to heaven, if you will. I think it literally means that. I also think it means that there is a small way to get to heaven, and his name is Jesus Christ, so it is narrow. Right? And you'll hear today in language and talks, in blogs, in videos, you'll hear pastors and people from not only different denominations but different world religions begin to try to find another way to get to heaven, to draw near to God. But he is very plain in his word that there is one way, and his name is Jesus. Now, that is extremely important. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to lay a foundation, maybe give it an overview, and I'm going to give you three points, and those three points I give you are going to be at the very end of my sermon, and they're going to be very quick. So I'm going to give you tools to understand the three points with the Scriptures, and then you've got to go home and you've got to work this out more. I'm just dropping bombs, and then you go do some personal study. Okay, so that's how I'm going to approach this. There are,
Point 1Sin and grace are two powerful forces
I'll start off by saying this: there are two powerful forces at work in the world today, simultaneously, I might add. One of them is sin and the other is grace. They are powerful in the way that not only do they operate, not only the way that they are present, but the way that sin is contagious and is imputed, much like God's grace is imputed. So when we see Adam sinning in the garden, what happens is that sin then is transferred to all mankind, one child after another being born into the world. That's pretty powerful, right? To think that one man's sin is imputed, not only the sin but the consequence of that sin is imputed to all men. Paul begins to talk about these two powerful forces, to talk about their effects on the world
In which we live. Now, if you've lived
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any amount of time, if your eyes are halfway open, maybe just glancing a bit in our society, if you pay attention to sin in our world, you will know that it is a powerful force. Amen. Very powerful indeed. But you know what's more powerful still? Grace.
And that brings encouragement to our hearts on this Sunday morning, because we sit and know and feel the ramifications of sin in every part of our society, in every part of our family, and every part of our daily life, and quite honestly, people even inside the church, we feel it, we feel its effects on our life.
But even though that seems great, grace is greater still.
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Now, that's what Paul is trying to lay before us today, that we would be moved to hope in the midst of desperate times, that we would begin to see that what comes from Christ, what literally comes from God through Christ, or actually God is Christ, but you understand what I'm saying, what comes from God is grace, which saves. It saves our life. It saves us from worry, it saves us from anxiety, saves us from stress, it saves our life completely, ultimately. It saves us from eternal damnation. This is good news. So the Scripture, Romans 5:12–17, we'll read it together. Said not out loud, but we'll read it together. I'll read out loud, you'll read it in your heads. Verse 12 says, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law." We've talked a lot about this. I'm not really going to go into this. I'm not going to talk about the historical reasons for why the law reveals sin in us and not only reveals it but helps it grow. All right, I don't even want to talk about that today, but just know that's a reality. God gave the law that sin may abound more. I don't have time to talk about that, because that's not really what I want to focus on, but just know that's a reality. You can go look that up, you can do some homework on that. Be careful what you search on Google, because there's crazy people out there with PhDs. Just because you have a PhD doesn't mean you should be listened to. Too. All right, you've got to do your homework out there. Just don't be just Googling and the first thing that's not the top. So they might have somebody that really does good at SEO, but they're idiots when it comes to theology. So just be very careful what you read out there. All right, number 14. That's why I think God's Word is the best. It's just the best. I mean, God's Word can do the work all by itself. If you find yourself not trying to pray and read and getting understanding, not only through the Word but through the Holy Spirit, through the inspiration he gives, but you find yourself always going out to ask other people what to believe, then that's dangerous. I mean, that's just dangerous. So we've got to be careful. Verse 14, yes. Yet death, by the way, before we go to 14, Paul is king of run-on sentences, amen. I mean, like 12 and 13, that's literally a paragraph. Dude, come on. All right, 14: "Yet death reigned from adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam." How much of a bummer is that you didn't sin like Adam but still it was imputed to you because Adam sinned? You didn't even do the things that Adam did, but it still hit you, right? It became yours. "Who was a type of the one who was to come." So he's going to give two types. Adam is a type of Jesus Christ. Now, we've got to be very specific about what, how was he a type of Jesus Christ? Because over here in Adam you have sin, in Christ you have righteousness, you have perfection, he did not sin. In what way was he a type? We see here that he's a type. Verse 15: "But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ." I love that. That's good stuff. Let's just talk firstly about,
Point 2Jesus is supreme; we need him, not his stuff
Well, let's not talk about that. The supremacy of Jesus. All right, Jesus and what he accomplished is greater than what Adam accomplished.
That's important today, because as we live in our modern context, in the modern society in which we live, it seems as if, and feels as if, and we lose hope and we turn to anxiety and we feel stressed, because we feel that what Adam accomplished was greater than what Christ accomplished.
How do you know that, Shawn? Why would you say that? Because you don't go to hope when you listen to the news, you turn to despair.
Why? Simple answer: you believe what Adam accomplished is greater than what Christ accomplished. Listen to me today. Paul is working extra hard to help us understand that our hope is not in this world, but our hope rather is in Jesus Christ, right, ultimately God the Son, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit. And it is very difficult when we're inundated with the cause or the result of what Adam did. I would say that it is very important to be daily in your Word. Why? Well, because that's the churchy thing to do? No. Well, that's what Pastor Shawn says every Sunday at some point in a sermon. That's why? No. Because those who are not looking heavenward, and I believe this is a turning of our head heavenward when we read the Word, live life here without hope, and honestly, God didn't want that for us. He wants us to be full of hope.
But how many of you know your focus matters, right? So the direction of your focus, the direction of your life. There's this old story of a farmer who was lining his tractor up to, you know, trim the field, wheat, right? And the way that he did that is he fixed his eyes on something that was set far out in the future, or out in the distance, and when he looked back, he saw that he was going all over the field and realized that which he fixed his eyes on was a cow wandering in the field. We've heard the story. Everybody who has been alive any amount of time probably has heard this story. I find that many Christians live their life this way, with the intent of living straight lives for Christ, but what we fix our eyes on is not him.
And honestly, it just doesn't help you in your daily life Monday through Saturday if you only fix your eyes for an hour on him on Sunday, but then the rest of your life you're just wandering in our world. Jesus is supreme. He's not only supreme if you make him supreme, right? So his identity is not relegated down to you valuing him. His value is marked, and he is what he is regardless of whether you appreciate it. It is the work of a believer, it is the work of an individual, to understand the value of Christ. Know that the more you value him, it is not that the more you value him the more he is glorified. He's glorified because he's God. So his glory doesn't depend on you, on your worship, on your love, on your
Appreciation. His glory is dependent on his nature and his character and who he has always been.
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All right, it is not that God gets bigger when we magnify him. It is that we draw closer, and as we draw closer, he becomes bigger in our lives.
Ladies and gentlemen, Paul is trying to help us understand that Jesus is supreme. He is supreme, and I believe one of the aims of Romans is to impress on our minds the fact that Jesus Christ is the most important person in the universe. Not the visitors through our church on Sunday morning. We love you. We think that, you know, a lot of churches did this, VIP.
Just in case you didn't know, visitors to your church on Sunday are not the VIPs of the room. Jesus is.
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Are you with me today?
But in an attempt to make people feel valued, we have valued them more than we do Christ, and the church has failed in this endeavor. And all of the intentions, mind you, I don't think are necessarily in there that we're setting our face like flint to just dishonor God, but the reality is that even in church, in our homes with our children as parents, we have valued ourselves more than him. Jesus is the most important person in the room. He's the most important person in the universe. He's the most important person in the past, in the present, and in the future. Not more important than God the Father or God the Spirit.
That's important, because people love worshiping Jesus and they have a hard time worshiping God, but all of them are God. That's important. With them he is equal.
With God the Father and God the Spirit, Jesus is equal in worth and beauty and wisdom and justice and love and power. That's what Paul's been saying.
But he is more important than all other persons, whether angels or demons or kings or commanders or scientists or artists or philosophers or athletes or musicians or actors, the one who lives now or have ever lived or ever will live. Jesus is the man. That's the way I would say it. Or for you intellectuals, he's supreme.
He's supreme. I'll just throw this out there. Listen, more of something does not necessarily make it better. Just track with me here. Here comes an Oreo example. Double Stuf Oreos, for instance, right? No, don't celebrate Double Stuf Oreos, that's sacrilege.
You know why? No, you guys can like it. I'm just kidding. I don't know who it is, so I can't see anything. But because more is not necessarily better. More money is not necessarily better. In my mind, in my heart, I'm going, "I'd like to try that out, because I believe more is better." Well, then why do we have very rich people that are very miserable people?
More is not necessarily better. We live in a world where we commit our life to having more. I need more house, I need more garages.
Why? So that I can fill up all my garages with junk, can't park my car in it, have five cars in my driveway and two storage units in Pleasant Hill. You know why we have more alcohol stores and storage units in Pleasant Hill than any other place in the world? No, literally, it's crazy. There's a new alcohol store popping up everywhere, and there's a new storage unit popping up everywhere. Why? Because our bigger houses that we've got to store our stuff in have run out of space, so we buy
Storage units to put our stuff in. Why? Because we
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think more is better. And I came here today to tell you it's not. It's not.
You don't need more of Jesus, you just need Jesus.
That's it. And honestly, you have all of him or you have none of him, so you can't have more than all. I know we live in a world that says, "I'm going to give 105." Nothing makes me madder than when I'm sitting, right, because I'm wondering what's happened to our education system in the world today. Like literally, I have massive problems. And I watch this military show where they took regular people from the world and they brought them in and they showed them what boot camp was like, and they said that, you know, three quarters of the group would quit, and actually out of a group of like 30, only two people made it to the end. That was crazy, right? But the two people that made it to the end, when they interviewed them, you know, I've just always had the philosophy, "Give 110." I'm like, man, and I turned the TV off and then wanted to never watch TV again, and it just makes me so mad, because we live in a culture that says more is better. You can't have more than all. So the struggle of a Christian life is not getting more of Christ, it's just getting Christ.
Right? Okay, you know why we think of having more of Christ? You know why? Because we want his benefits, those things which come from him. We don't
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want him.
You can get more of the things that come from Christ, you can get more and more of that, but you can't get more of him.
You either get all of him or you get none of him.
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That's why when we worship, a lot of our songs say, "More of Jesus, more of Jesus." What they're really saying is, "I want your stuff, Jesus. Forget you." And we call that worship, and that worship makes us shout in America. But around the world, when they hear songs like that, they know what that means, and they understand the heart of the one who wrote it, because they want Christ, they don't want his stuff.
This is important, because when we say something like "Jesus is supreme," you need to understand it is him that is supreme, it is him we should worship, it is him that we should value, not his stuff, not that which he will bless us with. His life is the blessing, his death is the blessing, his mercy is the blessing, his long-suffering is the blessing. Jesus is supreme. You can't just say Jesus is supreme, we have to have an understanding of how American culture affects even that statement.
Do you want him or do you want his stuff?
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All right, what Paul is going to do, and we see a shift here that's going to happen that's
Point 3God is sovereign, even over evil
Really going to stretch the way we think, because we live in a culture that is free will, free life, free democracy, freedom of thought and speech and freedom of everything. I can do what I want, it's my life, you can't tell me what to do, and it doesn't matter if my choices affect the rest of the world, I have the right to do whatever I please, and I'm in control of everything. Wrong. Talk to Jonah about that.
You ask him how in control of his life he was. Come on now. Well, he had the free will to not obey God for a season, and then God got what he wanted. Why? He sent a storm, and he got thrown into a fish and spit out on land where God wanted him. Why?
Because God is God all by himself, because God is Lord not because you make him that.
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He was Lord before you were born, and he is sovereign, and it says of him that he's the King of kings and Lord of lords, and he reigns. You know why he reigns? Because he's a sovereign ruler, and you know what sovereign rulers do?
They do what they want. They don't ask you for your opinion. Now, this runs counter-culture to us. This blows up the way we think, the way we live, and the way we behave. It throws a bomb, a nuke, it throws a nuke in the american culture. And now we have to begin to understand that God is God, and he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and he does what he pleases, and he doesn't ask for our vote. Now, and if any of you walk with the Lord any amount of time, how many of you could echo this phrase: God gets what he wants. I've had opinions, you know how that's worked out for me. I've not only had opinions, but I've told him what I'm going to do, even though I know, I think, that he don't want me to do it, and I do it anyway, and let me tell you how that works out for me: it ain't fun, because he don't spare the rod. He has no problem in disciplining his children, and he has no problem grabbing you by the nape of your neck and getting you to where he wants you to go. That's God. He's God all by himself. So when we understand this, we have to then contemplate that all things are for Jesus, even evil. Now, this is what Paul begins to lay out for us, and we could have conversation after conversation, we could philosophize, we can talk theology, we can try to extrapolate truth from his Word in a multitude of different ways, but the reality is God even uses evil to get his will done. As a matter of fact, if it were not for evil, we would not glorify in the beauty of Christ. It is this dichotomy that exists between these two extreme, opposite forces and powers at work in the earth today that makes us hope in, glorify, and be thankful for a Christ who is so abundantly different than sin and the devil and the issues of life and all that sin that was imputed to us through the choice of Adam and Eve in the garden. Listen, that sets up a foundation for us to look forward to Christ and hate that which we are in. If not for evil, how much would we really be grateful for Christ? I don't know to what magnitude, what degree, how much. And the way that God remains holy and righteous yet uses evil for good, I mean, just look at the Bible. I don't know how God does that. If you were to come to me after service today and ask me, "Shawn, how does God remain righteous and holy although he uses evil for his purposes? How does he stay holy?" I don't know. His ways are higher than my ways. I don't know. And if you talk to anybody who thinks they know, they don't know. They don't know.
How could we know how God is God? We can't know. We can know that he is all sovereign, all-powerful, King of kings, the Lord of lords, and he does what he pleases. We can know that. And Paul is trying to help us, that even evil, even the evil that's imputed through Adam to the rest of the world, even that is used for us to glory in Christ all the more. That's crazy. I believe our assignment today is meant to show that everything that exists, including evil, is ordained by an infinitely holy and all-wise God to make the glory of Christ shine even more brightly. Let us take Proverbs 16:4, for instance. This is a good case verse to support this case. It says, "The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble."
That's a troubling verse, and there are many more verses like this, many more. God has done this in his own mysterious way and preserves the responsibility of the wicked and the sinlessness of his own heart. We know that all things were made through Christ and for Christ, not just through Christ but for Christ. Colossians 1:16 says, "For by him all things were created, by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him." Now, not on track with me here. All things were created for us to glory in Christ, for us to more highly appreciate Christ, for him. Notice what Paul says, it also includes the thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities, who were, by the way, defeated by Christ at the cross. That's good news. That helps our hope. They were made for the day of trouble, and on that day the power and justice and wrath and love of Christ were displayed. Sooner or later every rebellion against him comes to ruin. That should have you shouting and running.
Notice this: God in this text, and we're going to get specific, I'm going to break down these verses in just a moment, in this text we see that God is always there. That's foundational, folks, because the secular worldview would say that we're God and everything begins and emanates from us. But ladies and gentlemen, before you showed up on the scene and your whole world was about you, it is ultimately about him.
And Romans, and this Scripture also, aims to solidify the conviction that Christianity is not merely a set of ideas and practices and feelings designed for our psychological well-being. This is important, because there are a lot of people today using Christianity as a way to help them have peace psychologically.
They are practices adopted by worldly men and women who adopt Christian practices, they quote Scripture as a way to live life that they would feel is healthy, while at the same time accepting the teaching and rejecting the person of Jesus Christ. Are you with me? Ultimately, God, his way.
You can find who trusts, those who trust in God and his truth, you can find out who does that and who does not do that based on people who pick and choose out of the Bible what they please to live their life according to. You can see if someone is using the Bible as a means to try to help them live a good life, or someone who's been transformed by the words that fly off the page. Listen, we do not make God what he is by thinking a certain way about him. He's God because he's God. There's this man named Francis Schaeffer who said, "He is the one God who is there."
We don't make him, he makes us. We don't decide what he's going to be, he decides what we're going to be. He created the universe and it has the
Meaning he gives it, not the meaning you give it. If you
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give it a meaning different than his meaning, you are a fool and your life will be tragic in the end.
Christianity is not a game, and it certainly is not your therapy. That's hardcore, man. I want to go to that guy's church, because that calls us out of this sense of self-worth.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are not worthy. That's why you need Christ.
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Only he is worthy, and it is seeing your worthless state that you can glorify what he makes you through the cross and resurrection. Why is this so important, that God is always there? I am deeply convinced from the Bible that your
Eternal joy and strength and holiness depend
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on the solidity of this proper worldview, putting strong fiber into the spine of your faith.
Point 4Weak worldviews make weak Christians
Listen, weak worldviews make for weak Christians. Track with me now, don't lose me on this, because the last several months I've been saying there are two worldviews. There's a secular worldview and there's a biblical worldview, and I've said that is the hard work of not only a Bible scholar but those who open the Bible, to consider in every verse they read whether or not they are reading this verse through a secular mindset or through a biblical one. We've seen that in many of the verses we've read in Romans, that we've seen that we will default to viewing and reading and interpreting the Bible through a secular mindset. You know how these people that have a secular, weak worldview make weak Christians? Do you know how we see that your worldview is askew and it's not biblical? When COVID happens and you walk away from the faith you once claimed because your life has been inconvenienced. Listen to me today, this is good stuff.
This is not fun preaching, but this is good stuff. People walking away from the church, never coming back, some people leaving so they wouldn't get sick at church, whatever, but never coming back. You know why? Because they think that all of life begins and starts with them, begins, starts, and ends with them, emanates from them. They actually believe that this whole thing is about them. So if they're inconvenienced, they will never consider that maybe this inconvenience could bring glory to God, because life isn't about God to them, life is about them. You can see this kind of person, a person who has a secular mindset, by somebody who cannot get along with somebody else. Why? Because all of life is about them and their comfort and their peace and their ease, and instead of becoming a living sacrifice, they sacrifice others on the altar of their convenience and their feelings. Listen, the worldview you have either makes you a strong Christian in times of trouble or it makes you a weak one, and ladies and gentlemen, it's very obvious in storms to see who sinks quickly. And I would propose to you that your worldview is key. Wimpy Christians, weak Christians won't survive the days that are coming ahead of us. Rootless emotionalism that treats Christianity like a therapeutic option will be swept away in the last days, along with the people who hold those philosophies. Those who will be left standing will be those who have built their house on the rock of great objective truth, with Jesus Christ as the origin, center, and goal of
It all. We see Jesus' glory planned in Adam's
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sin. The glory of Christ is the main purpose that God had in mind when he planned for and permitted Adam's sin and, with him, the fall of all humanity into sin. Listen, whatever God permits, he permits for a reason.
He is not hands-off. He's not floating in some glorious cloud in the heavens above, hoping we find our way. He's involved, and his reasons are always infinitely wise and purposeful. He did not have to let the fall happen. He could have stopped it, just like he could have stopped the fall of Satan. The fact that he did not stop it means he has a reason for it, a purpose for it. Like, this will make some people mad, I mean, what I'm saying here, but it's just facts. And he doesn't make up his plans as he moves along. He has plans, and he's at work making his plans come to fruition. What he knows to be wise, he's always known to be wise. Wisdom is not something he grows in, it's something he is. Ladies and gentlemen, don't make the god of your image. "Well, I've grown in wisdom, so God must grow in wisdom." Now, you'd never say that out loud, but you live like you believe that.
God is all-wise, all-knowing, all and ever-present. He is all things to all people, all in all.
All of this is not a surprise to God. One of the clearest ways to show this from the Bible, and we won't go into it in detail here, is to look at those places where the sin-defeating sacrifice of Christ is shown to be in God's mind before the creation of the world. Here's a good book to read, if you want to read a book: The Suffering of Christ and the Sovereignty of God. That's a great book that will help you as we go through Romans, The Suffering of Christ and the sovereignty of God. For example, in Revelation 13:8, John writes, as he's on Patmos and he has this vision and he's taken up by the Lord and he writes this down: "Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world, before the foundation of the world, before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain." So in other words, there was a book before the foundation of the world called the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain. We could also go into other numerous texts, like Ephesians 1:4–5, 2 Timothy 1:9, Titus 1:1–2, 1 Peter 1:20, to see the biblical view that the suffering and death of Christ for sin were not planned after the sin of Adam but before. He had a plan before, and I would propose to you that it was a part of his plan. Listen, either we're in control or God's in control, and I don't want to live in a world where I'm in control. I don't know about you. I don't know about you. Moving on, Jesus is coming. Jesus, who has come and will come again.
So first let's look at the way Christ is referred to in verse 14. Here we go. In 14, the verse today, and read verses 12–13 for context. Let's do it. "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come." There it is, there's the reference to Christ, the one who was to come.
So in other words, verse 14 sets up the way Paul is thinking and the rest of this passage. Adam is called a type of the one who's to come, that is, the type of Christ. Notice the most obvious thing first: Christ was to come. From the beginning, Christ was the coming one, and Paul shows that Christ is not an afterthought because of the stupidity of man. As a matter of fact, if you go to a certain passage it says Christ was slain before the foundations of the world. Why does it say that, and how can it say that? Because what God determines in his mind becomes a reality in time and will happen. In other words, the slaying was not done at the hands of Roman soldiers, the slaying was done as God purposed and willed it to happen in his mind. In other words, Roman soldiers are used for God to accomplish his purposes.
Who can understand that? But it's all for Christ. I think it's important we understand that God had a plan from the beginning. He did not adjust his plan because man is silly, or, as we've been saying, a filthy rat and a bunch of prostitutes who will not stay faithful to our Lord.
Jesus is our representative head, because what he had just said gets at the very essence of how Christ and Adam are alike and different. Here's the parallel: people whose transgression was not like Adam's died like Adam. Why? Because they were connected to Adam. Here's the good news, here's the hope: Adam was the representative head of their humanity, and his sin is counted as their sin because of their connection with him. That's the essence of why Adam is called a type of Christ, not because he was good but because he was bad, and it was delivered to men because our obedience is not like Christ's obedience, and yet we have eternal life with Christ because we are connected to Christ by faith. Here's the hope: he is the representative head of the new humanity, and his righteousness is counted as our righteousness, much like Adam's sin was counted as our sin. That's good news for all that have faith in Christ. We are made righteous by Christ.
This gives much reason to celebrate. Amen. Much reason to celebrate. Now, let's look at these three things, and we're going to do them quickly, and you're going to have to go study them. I'm not going to preach on them. I've tried to set this up, giving you tools, to make sure that you have a biblical worldview, and I want you to do some homework. I'm going to briefly give a summary, Cliff's Notes version, and we are going to be done.
Let's look at three ways in which Paul celebrates the superiority of Christ and his work over Adam and his work. Let's look at the superiority of Christ's work
Point 5Grace abounds, obedience is perfect, Christ reigns
Over Adam's work, what Christ accomplished over what Adam accomplished. Let's look at the difference between these. Here's the way they can be summed up in three phrases. Number one, write this down: the abundance of grace. Where sin is abundant, grace all the more. Where sin seems powerful, grace is more powerful. Where sin brings despair, grace brings hope.
Grace is greater still than any sin. Number two, the perfection of obedience.
Christ's obedience was greater than Adam's disobedience. Number three, the reign. Everybody
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say "reign" of life.
Listen, it is not you who reigns, it is Christ who reigns. Come on now. I know there are books that talk about you reigning.
It is Christ who reigns. He may reign through you in certain parts of your life, but it is not you who are reigning, it is he that is reigning.
Let's go back. Number one, I'm going to give you these verses, the abundance of grace. Under that, let's look at verse 15, and the abundance of grace: "But the free gift," namely the free gift of righteousness in verse 17, "is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many." Much more, it says.
The point here is that God's grace is more powerful than Adam's trespass. This should encourage you, because many of you have performed trespasses against God, and we are learning here to be encouraged that if we have faith in Christ, his grace is greater than our trespasses. But now, some of you haven't been forgiven of much, at least in your mindset. All of us have been forgiven of much, because even the smallest trespass against God is the greatest act of sacrilege man could perform.
But in our mindset, those who feel like they've been forgiven of little will be grateful little, but those who've been forgiven of much will be grateful much. Ladies and gentlemen, it is important for you to understand that sin destroys, but grace is greater still. It abounds for many.
If man's trespass brought death, how much more will God's grace bring life? Let me just say this to you. There are people that I talk to sometimes, it isn't all the things that people have done to perpetrate evilness against God, but there are people that I sit with, whether in prison, whether out of prison, whether on a missionary trip, whether in my office, whether out having dinner with somebody, who will say, "I don't think God could ever forgive me. He might have been able to forgive you because what you did wasn't so great an offense against God, but he'll never forgive me for what I've done. I took it too far." And although I understand where that comes from, let me just hit pause for a second and let me just tell you the facts about the Bible.
Grace is greater than any trespass you will ever or have ever committed. It's just a fact.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 48:17
And what worldview you have determines whether you will feel hopeful in that or you will feel desperate and that God will never forgive you. You either believe God is God or you believe you are God. Either you believe what the Bible says, that grace is more powerful than your trespass, or you don't. But it's in the Word, black and white, we just read it this morning. There is nothing that will separate you from God if you have faith in him. You are covered. Paul then is even more specific than that. God's grace is specifically, and I quote, "the grace of that one man Jesus Christ. Much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many." These are not two different graces. The grace of that one man Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the grace of God.
That's the way Paul talks about it, for example, in Titus 2:11: "The grace of God has appeared," namely in Jesus, "bringing salvation." This is God's grace. It's not your grace, it's not Jesus' grace, it's God's grace, and it appeared in Christ. This is important. And 2 Timothy 1:9, "his own grace."
God's, not yours, God's.
You don't own grace. Only a perfect, righteous God can extend grace.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 50:07
You're not perfect and you're not righteous. Grace doesn't begin with you once you become a Christian, for all those other peasants out there in your family who don't love God. "I just got to stay in grace this Christmas, I just got to extend grace on Thanksgiving, I'm just extending grace." Well, it didn't begin with you. If you're gracious in any sense of the word, it didn't start with you, Scott.
This is important: "his own grace," 2 Timothy 1:9, "his own grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus." So the grace that is in Jesus is the grace of God. Number two, the perfection of obedience. Second, Paul celebrates the way that the grace of Christ conquers Adam's trespasses and death, namely the perfection of Christ's obedience. Verse 19: "for as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience," namely Christ, "the many will be made righteous." So the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, keeps him from sinning, keeps him obedient unto death, even death on the cross, Philippians 2:8, so that he offers flawless and complete obedience to the Father on behalf of those who are connected to him by faith. Adam failed in his obedience, Christ succeeded perfectly. Adam was the source of sin and death, Christ is the source of obedience and life. He was perfect. Number three, the reign. He reigns. Third, Paul celebrates not only the abounding grace of Christ and the perfect obedience of Christ, but finally the reign of life. Grace leads, through Christ's obedience, to the triumph of eternal life. Verse 21.
I know we're not there yet, but I'm going to go ahead and give you a sneak peek: "so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Grace. Everybody say "grace reigns through righteousness."
There was only one who was righteous, and his name is Jesus Christ. The same pattern: grace through the free gift of righteousness leads to the triumph of life, and all of that is through Jesus Christ, but originates with God the Father. The grace of God in Christ that Paul mentions in these three verses is what is referred to today in the church as sovereign grace. Sovereign grace.
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