Book of Romans
Lesson # 13
Romans 5:9 - 21
By Rev. James May
What a Great God we serve. He is a God that loved us even while we were lost in sin and living in rebellion against his love. We had spurned his love as he tried to reach us so many times, but he never gave up on us. The heart of God ached for the loss of his children. We were created in his image, created and born to serve the Lord, but we were separated from him by a great gulf of darkness and sin, and could never approach him again. How this must have sorrowed God greatly.
Genesis 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
The wickedness of the heart and life of man, and every thought and conversation was so terrible that God was saddened that he had ever created man. The problem was that God had intended for man to be his own children who would be willing to love him in return and with whom he could share all of the wonders of Heaven forever, but it wasn’t going to be possible.
I read one opinion from a well-respected commentator on the Bible who said that it was impossible to change the heart of God in any way and that we could not make God sad or sorrowful. This man said, and I quote, “God is a simple Being, uncompounded, and not subject to any passions and affections.”
Let’s think about that for a moment, because how you think about God’s heart directly affects what we believe about how much God cares; how much he loves; how much he is willing to come to your aid; and to what length God will go to reach a lost soul.
I agree that God is unchangeable, but I believe that God’s great love can cause his heart to be grieved. In fact, I believe that God can weep over the sadness and sorrow of his children who are so far from where they should be.
This scripture in Genesis 6:6 tells us that God’s heart was grieved. I also remember when Jesus, the Son of God, stood by Lazarus’ tomb, he wept. Why did Jesus cry? He shed tears, as the heart of God was broken over the sorrow and hopelessness that he knew was in the hearts of those who stood around.
In Ephesians 4:20 Paul also said that we could grieve the Holy Ghost through not being obedient or reverencing the presence of God in our midst.
In Luke 19:41 when Jesus stood on the mountain overlooking the City of Jerusalem, the Bible says that Jesus “wept over it”. Why did Jesus cry over Jerusalem? He cried because in the foreknowledge of God, he knew the pain and suffering, and the judgment that would fall on the city and the Jews, and Jesus’ heart was broken because they rejected him and lost their opportunity to know the peace that he could have given to them.
So is it then possible that God was grieved over mankind in Genesis like he was at Lazarus’ tomb and as he looked over Jerusalem? Since God is not a God that changes, then I have no doubt at all that we can bring grief to God’s own heart!
In effect, it grieved the heart of God in the same manner as it would grieve a parent in our society who has children and those children end up causing such trouble, or committing some heinous crime, or worst of all, realizing that their children are refusing to serve the Lord and unless they repent, they will join the billions of other lost souls in hell’s flames for eternity.
When a parent thinks of that, though they love those children with all their heart, yet the thought comes that perhaps it had better if they had never been born. To know what they will face in the future and to see that they are only getting worse all the time, and to know that it’s your responsibility that they were born, can bring grief and sorrow to your heart. How much more then, can we sorrow the heart of God by our acts of rebellion.
In another example, imagine you are a potter. You begin working with raw clay, right out of the dust of the earth, and you start with a beautiful vase or bowl in mind. You know the clay and its strengths and weaknesses. You know where it came from, and you know where it’s going. You have the entire process of forming that clay into a useful vessel before you ever place it on the wheel.
In your mind the vase is already formed. You love to create beautiful and useful things. The clay knows nothing, except that it must respond to the touch of the Potter’s hand. From a useless, dead lump of dirt, you, the potter form a vessel. It is decorated and painted beautifully, glazed and fired, and you have such great plans for its display and its use in your home. You carefully work it into a perfect form and shape to look like your vision because the clay has life within itself.
Then, somehow, in the process of its formation, the vessel forms a crack, becomes marred and useless in its marred condition, fit for nothing other than to be cast into the trash heap and recycled.
Matthew 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
You are greatly saddened by the failure of the clay to conform to your image. The more time you, as a potter, had put into the work, the more it tends to hurt to cast it away. The clay cannot redeem itself from the trash. There is no life it the clay to call on you, its creator, to give it another chance. It simply exists but will never be able to bear the image that you envisioned.
That’s where we were when God decided to find our broken pieces and begin to make us into something beautiful once again. We are all seen as beautiful in God’s eyes, and his vision sees you as the perfect vessel you can become.
In Genesis God destroyed nearly all men in the great flood, but through his mercy say faithfulness in Noah. In his great mercy he also sent His Son. Through the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross, our broken pieces are brought together, God’s vision of who we can be is rebirthed, we are created a new man in Christ, and all of our cracks and marred places are healed by the power of the blood of Jesus. Now we can begin to take on the appearance that God had intended for us in the first place.
God’s grieving heart made a way. Through his broken heart and tears of sorrow, God looked upon man and said, “I will not allow this to go on. I will make a way. I will pay the price for their sin that they cannot pay. I will die for them, so that they will never have to die. I will take their judgment upon myself.” And God’s Love came into action, and the amazing thing is that God’s entire plan was already in place before he created the first man. In his love he desired us to love him; by his love he created us; through his love he gave us a choice to love him or not; then by his love he formed a plan to redeem us; and then by his Love, he paid the full price of our redemption.
God still grieves over lost humanity, but he also has joy over those who will choose to be his children again. Yet even those who choose to serve him, still grieve him from time to time because we aren’t perfect.
David said in Psalms103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
God knows that we are made of, after all he formed the first man from the very dust of the earth before breathing his own life into that body made of clay. God knows that we are prone to fail, that we are weak and easily led astray. Yet God Loved us, and loves us still, and he continues to make a way that we can become the vessel of his own vision, a useful vessel that he can be proud of and put on display like he did all of those who listed in his Word as heroes of the faith.
That’s why God inspired Jeremiah to write these words in Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
I said all of this to bring us to the first verse of our lesson for today in Romans chapter 5, verse 9.
Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Paul said that the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ just keeps getting better all of the time. First, Christ died for us, then he gives us eternal life, then we are adopted into the family of God; then we are made heirs and joint heirs with Christ and we are given a new heart and made into a whole new creation – no more to be a crushed vessel in the trash heap of life.
Now, in addition to all of these marvelous blessings, the blood of Jesus has paid the price for our ticket to something great – we are justified, declared righteous before God – and – we are destined to be delivered from, saved from and given exemption from any of the wrath of God that will be poured out upon sinful man. It’s all bought and paid for through the blood of Jesus Christ! Nothing but the blood can make me whole again! Without the blood, there is no salvation!
Now this doesn’t mean that you are always free from the wrath of sinful men, for in this world there may those who exert their wrath upon you. Neither does this mean that you, even as a child of God, cannot sometimes exhibit wrath upon yourself or your fellowman. We can be wrathful at times, can’t we?
This does not mean also that we will always escape the wrath of demonic spirits. Though these demons are under Satan’s control; they are ultimately answerable to God for their actions and have no power to go beyond the limitations that God has placed upon them.
The Bible tells us in Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Neither the wrath of men, your wrath exhibited to yourself and others, nor the wrath of demonic spirits or Satan himself have the power to destroy you. While we don’t want to face their wrath, we can be comforted in knowing that we will never have to face the wrath of God who is above them all.
Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
We were enemies of God – no one can deny that fact! And while we were enemies of God, he came and reconciled us through Jesus’ death on the cross. Through the giving of his blood, our reconciliation was bought.
Reconciliation implies that there was a former friendship or relationship, and that a breach stopped that friendship, and now it’s formed again. That was our relationship with God that was there in the beginning, lost through the sin of Adam, and regained through the blood of God’s own Son! God wanted the relationship with you so he reconciled you back to him. God was already perfect; but we certainly were not. We needed to have a way back to him, to once again become his own children. Through Christ’s death we are reconciled, but by his resurrection we are given a new and eternal life!
Romans 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Because Jesus died, paying the price and redeeming us; and because we have been reconciled back to God; and because he arose from the grave and has given us eternal life, we have received all of the blessings of God’s plan of salvation that have been made possible by the atonement of Jesus’ blood to pay the price!
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Through the sin of one man, Adam, sin entered the world; all of God’s creation was cast into the same sinful state of corruption and rebellion, and evil reigned over it all. Through sin, death came, spiritual death and physical death, and the greatest enemy of all men is death for none can escape it. By one man, this all came; and we all inherited that same rebellious heart and nature.
Romans 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
And so begins a parenthetical series of scriptures, taking an aside from Paul’s discourse on Gold’s outreach of Love to all men, to take time and talk about the law once more. The fact is that sin came into the world when Adam fell, and all men were born into sin. But how could man know there was sin unless the law is given and enforced? If there is no law, then what is sin? Inwardly man knew that something was wrong, that he had lost being in close relationship to God, but what law had he broken. Man was still in his age of innocence concerning the law and sin, even though he had fallen into sin, he wouldn’t understand what had happened fully until the law would be given. Then he could know why he was separated from God.
Here’s a point to help explain this.
Before the days of traffic signals, there were the wagons, buggies and other horse drawn vehicles but very few traffic laws. Yet even in those days, people crashed buggies into one another, ran over people in the streets and often refused to be courteous in yielding the right of way.
Now, since there were no laws written and no signs posted, did that make it okay to behave as though you owned the roads and could behave in selfish ways at the expense of other travelers? The problems of speeding, failing to give right of way, careless operation of your buggy, and failing to maintain control of your horse were considered improper behavior, yet no law existed to control them, and no tickets were issued to riding you horse over 15 mph on the open road. The trouble existed; the “sin” was there; but the law wasn’t there to bring people under its control.
When the laws were written, suddenly people knew what they needed to do, and what they had done wrong. They couldn’t be counted as guilty of breaking a law that wasn’t made into a law yet, at least not by the courts of man, but they suddenly realized that they had been lawbreakers anyway by their own selfish actions, and that the consequences of those former actions had to be dealt with.
Romans 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Even though man did not know God’s law because they were not revealed fully until Moses came along, death still came to every man because of Adam’s sin. Adam was the symbol of all men who would be born, and death would reign over them all.
Romans 5:15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
This first phrase is saying that the first offense of sin came through a man; a sinful man, and likewise, through one man came salvation as a free gift from God, but it didn’t come through the same kind of man, for Jesus was a perfect man. The power of sin in the heart of man that came through Adam is deadly, but the power of the grace of god, and the gift of eternal life and salvation by the grace of God, which are given because of Jesus Christ alone, is far greater than the power of sin. Christ’s free salvation is free to all men and he has life, and more abundant life in every way.
Romans 5:16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
The gift that Jesus gives is not given from the heart of a sinful man, but from the heart of the only perfect, sinless man. Adam’s judgment brought condemnation upon every man, but the free gift of Jesus Christ to save the souls of men, comes because Jesus took upon himself all of the offences that men could do against God, and has justified those who accept him through his own sacrifice.
Romans 5:17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
If the power of one man’s rebellion condemned all of the human race and brought corruption in all of God’s creation; how much greater is the power of grace and righteousness that shall reign in us when we are given eternal life by one man, Jesus Christ? Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Fear not, says Jesus, for I have overcome the world!
Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Romans 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Just as god judged all men and condemned the whole human race by the sin of one man; so now has God, through the righteousness of Christ, given the free gift of salvation and justification to all men who will accept Christ! One obedient perfect man gave us much more than one disobedient sinful man.
Romans 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
We were given the law to lead us to Christ because Jesus is our only hope of reconciliation and redemption. We learned of the great sin in our lives and in the whole of the human race, and we realize now just how lost and sinful man really is.
But thank God, though we had a clear vision of our great sin, and the power of that sin to condemn the souls of every man; we have also come to know of the Great Grace that God has given to all men. That Grace is far greater and more powerful than the sin that we found, and by that Grace we are free from the power of sin.
Romans 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sin brought spiritual and physical death, but now the grace of God reigns over sin, carries more power than sin, and can give us spiritual life, and eternal that will continue on even after this mortal body has been laid down in the grave.
I pray that all men will experience God’s wonderful grace. His Grace is sufficient and everlasting. All we need to do is accept it and apply it to our own hearts. God’s grace has brought us this far, and his grace will lead us on until we pass into that eternal life given to us by Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
