The Power Of Grace Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: February 18, 2012

Date Preached: February 19, 2012

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: A Journey thru Romans

Sermon Title: So We Are Justified – Why?

Sermon Text: Romans 5:12-21 [ESV]

Introduction:

Over the past two weeks I have camped out on the biblical reality of what Jesus Christ has done for YOU… what He has done for me… Jesus came to die for our sin so that we could receive justification from a holy and just God.

Jesus came and died on the cross to provide for our justification and because of what Jesus has done, we have the opportunity to KNOW God… to stand in God’s presence forgiven, and justified! God has declared those who have faith in Christ to be NOT GUILTY!

But here is something you may not have ever thought about… When Jesus died for our sin, and when God forgives our sin… this is NOT where it ends! You see if God merely forgave our sins, we would be no better off than the children of Israel who wandered the wilderness for many years and were required to bring an offering every year… their offering was for forgiveness of sin… their sin was forgiven, but it was done by way of animal sacrifice.

This is why Jesus came… you see Jesus came to be the perfect and MOST holy sacrifice that would only have to be done ONE TIME… In Hebrews 7:27 Scripture tells us that Christ died ONCE for ALL!

27He [Jesus] has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since He did this ONCE FOR ALL when He offered up Himself…

The children of Israel had to sacrifice constantly for the forgiveness of their sin, bringing offering after offering… but what that never did for them was provide justification! They were NEVER justified or declared NOT GUILTY as we are in Christ Jesus…

When God reaches down and justifies us through our faith in Jesus Christ, He first forgives our sin, which only brings us to a state of spiritual neutrality before God… this is where the children of Israel would be after sacrificing… soon to fall back into the condemnation of their sin.

But when we are justified by God… our sins are forgiven, and then God infuses our soul with the righteousness of Christ. We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ… this is how we can stand blameless and NOT GUILTY before God, because we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ through what He did on the Cross…

So we don’t stand before God spiritually neutral, but we stand HOLY and SANCTIFIED through the blood of Jesus Christ! This is what happens when we receive Jesus as our Savior!

So you have learned THAT justification comes to us only thru what Christ has done on the Cross and you have heard about the benefits and blessings of this justification…

- You have peace with God

- You have a future Hope in Glory (eternal life in Heaven to look forward to)

- You have a joy, in Christ Jesus that carries you thru the tough times

- You have an assurance of God’s love and grace that He will never abandon you

- Finally we have an abundant life THRU Him in this life as well as the next…

But I want us to take a step back this morning and I want us to look at where we have come from and why God did what He did… this will give us a more complete picture of God’s gift of grace and mercy that we enjoy through our faith in Jesus Christ!

When we look at our passage this morning we find Paul writing about sin, about one particular man, as well as another particular man… Paul speaks about death and the law, and Paul also speaks of transgressions and the free gift from God…

What does all this mean for us today? Well I believe as we review these verses it is going to give us a more clear understanding of just what God has done and what Paul was attempting to tell the believers in Rome. Let’s look at the passage right now… I’ll be reading from the ESV this morning.

12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned – 13for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15But 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. 16And 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. 17For 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.