Better Than New

Better than New

Romans 5:6-12

I. NO one is exempt from sin. (Rom 5:12)

A. Everyone is a sinner because everyone sins. (Rom 3:23)

B. Adam’s “bad apple” seed spoiled the whole human race “barrel”.

C. Sin brings cataclysmic and catastrophic results: DEATH to ALL. (Rom 5:18)

II. God offers a Gift in Christ: A PARDON! (Rom 5:6)

A. God’s gift is offered to ALL and accepted by MANY. (Rom 5:17)

B. God’s gift restores to a new standing:

From Judgment to Justification- Just as if I never sinned. (Rom 5:18)

C. God’s gift has brought me from death to a new life. (Rom. 6:22-23)

“Better than New”

I don’t know if any of you have ever watched the TV show, “American Restoration”, but it has been described this way: “Rick Dale and his crew of loose screws at Rick's Restorations in Las Vegas, Nevada, take rusty, beat-up items and restore them to their original glory.” (history.com)

I know that bringing THINGS back to life is more difficult than it looks, but bringing relationships and PEOPLE back to life, to restore them, is something infinitely more difficult.

 Although SOME people are exempt from SOME difficulties which others may have to endure, there is one BIG PROBLEM, from which no one is exempt and no one can restore on their own: NO ONE is exempt from the “sin problem” or its effects .

 Romans 5:12 tells us: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way DEATH CAME TO ALL MEN, because all sinned…”

NO EXEMPTIONS

 It means that everyone who was ever born on this earth after Adam (except Jesus) is a sinner because everyone sins.

 In Romans 3:23, it tells us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” When we talk about “falling short” we tend to think: I’ll just try again, but the Greek word, hystereō, is stronger than that: It means that we have FAILED to reach the goal and so we have been left behind. We have failed to become a partaker of the glory of God because we have missed the mark of His Holy standard. We MISS God’s perfect expectations and so we are exempt from participating in His Glory and Kingdom! We get the word “hysteria” from that word. We are in an unmanageable state of being because of sin.

How did everyone acquire sin and “fall short.” Let me SHOW you how that worked out for us. I have some little army figurines here. In Romans 5:12, it says:

 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, (that man is Adam).” Here’s Adam. Adam was created GOOD but he became UNGOOD when he missed God’s mark of perfection. God is perfect and when Adam sinned, he became imperfect, actually, we might say UNPERFECT and UNGODLY. I’ll throw that ONE man called “Adam” in this bucket.

 The rest of the verse says “and in this way death came to all men, because ALL sinned...” Abraham sinned. He was a liar and deceiver. Into the bucket. Moses. He was a murderer before he was a leader. Into the bucket. Aaron: poor parent. David: another murderer, adulterer, liar.

Is there anyone who could claim they are not from the seed of Adam? Is there anyone who could claim that they are PERFECT? No? Then you are sinful. You’re worse than imperfect. You know how people say: “Nobody’s perfect! You’re UNPERFECT and UNGODLY.

James 5:16 instructs the church to “Confess your sins to one another.” If we are supposed to be confessing sin to each other, that would make all of us sinners. I go into the same bucket. (Name some others.) I am SIN-FULL (full of sin) and my just wages according to Romans 3:23 are DEATH along with Adam. SIN puts us all in the same condition as Adam. In Adam, we are covered with sin.

 Adam’s bad apple seed spoiled the whole human race barrel. You know that old adage. But Adam didn’t only ruin everything around him; his SIN SEED ruined everyone who would come after him. We all have an Adam’s apple and it should remind us that we have ALL eaten the same “forbidden fruit” that Adam did. Sin has become lodged in us. In Adam we are all partakers of sin. It’s as if we all ate Adam’s apple. Being “IN ADAM” means we are DEAD to LIFE. Sin puts us in the grave with Adam.

 Part of Romans 5:18 says: “The result of ONE trespass was CONDEMNATION for all men.” (The word for “condemnation” is Katakrino. We get the words “Cataclysm” and “catastrophe”. You know what a catastrophe is. A “Cataclysm” is a sudden, momentous, violent event marked by overwhelming upheaval and demolition; sin brings God’s judgment.