It seems that almost every time I turn on my TV lately there is a commercial for some new prescription drug. And I’ve got to tell you that when I watch most of those commercials, the required disclaimers make it seem to me like the cure is often worse than the disease. These two clips from a couple of commercials for sleeping pills that describe the side effects of those drugs are a great example of that:
[Show videos]
What a surprise that a sleeping pill would make you drowsy, right? I could probably live with that. But walking, eating or driving in my sleep and not remembering it or having my tongue or throat swell up so much that I might die aren’t risks I’m willing to take. I think I’ll just be tired once in a while instead.
But when it comes to the cure that Jesus offers for our spiritual sickness, the cure is not just adequate to cure the disease, it is actually much better. That is why last week we concluded that…
The cure for those who are in Jesus by faith
is much more powerful than
the curse for those who are in Adam by nature
This morning we’ll look at Romans 5:12-21 again, so if you have your Bibles go ahead and take them out and open them up to that passage. Once again, before I read that passage, let me briefly remind you of the structure of the passage. Paul begins his train of thought in verse 12 and then he does as he often does and takes a moment to explain something in that verse before he picks up with his main train of thought again in verse 18. With that structure in mind, please follow along as I read beginning in verse 12:
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—
[Verses 13 –17 that we’ll read now are Paul’s explanation of what he just wrote in verse 12]
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 whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
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.
[Now in verse 18, we’ll pick up with Paul’s main teaching again.]
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 5:12-21 ESV)
Last week, we primarily focused on the part of this passage that deals with the curse that we are all under due to the sin nature that we all have because we are “in Adam.” As I was evaluating that message some more, it occurred to me that perhaps I had gotten suckered into Paul’s somewhat confusing circular reasoning to the point where I made the ideas he was expressing more difficult to understand than they needed to be. So before we move on this morning, let me see if I can’t simplify what we learned last week, since we need that background for this morning’s message anyway.
Review of last week:
1. Every human being ever born has Adam’s sin nature imputed or counted to us not because of anything we do, but simply because we are “in Adam.” That sin nature results in us being under the reign of death.
2. That means that we sin because we are sinners rather than being sinners because we sin.
3. However, that truth in no way excuses our own individual sin or lessens its seriousness in God’s eyes.
4. Adam is a “type” of Jesus in the sense that with both of them the action of one man is imputed to all who are “in him.”
5. For those who are “in Jesus” righteousness and justification have been imputed or counted to them not because of anything they have done but based on what Jesus did on their behalf.
6. The reason that it matters that death spread to all men by Adam’s one act of sin and not our individual acts of sin, is because life spreads to all who are in Jesus as a result of His one act of righteousness on our behalf and not as a result of multiple acts of righteousness on our part.
As I promised, this week’s message is going to be much more positive than last week’s because we get to focus on the cure to the curse – a cure that is much more powerful and much greater than the curse.
Last week, we saw that Paul described the greatness of that cure by comparing two men – Adam and Jesus. Last week, we saw at the end of verse 14 that Adam is a type, or picture of the one who was to come – Jesus. When we looked at that verse, we focused on the one similarity that makes Adam a type of Jesus – the fact that with both Adam and Jesus the act of one man results in having something imputed to all who are “in him.” But this morning, we will clearly see what I think most of us already know – there are many more differences between Adam and Jesus than there are similarities. That is indicated by the word “but” that introduces verse 15. And in verses 15-17 Paul is going to give us three reasons…
Why the cure is much more powerful than the curse:
1. What we don’t earn – God’s grace - is much more powerful than what we do earn – death. (v. 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.
You’ll note that Paul uses a different term to describe sin than we saw last week in verse 14 where he used the word “transgression”. Here he uses the word “trespass” instead. When we ran across that word earlier in Romans we determined that it means “to fall away”. I think Paul uses that particular word here because it is much broader than the idea of a “transgression” which describes “stepping over a line.” Here Paul is thinking about the broad impact of Adam’s fall and not just the particular command of God he disobeyed.
This verse reveals so much to us about the nature of God. God’s ultimate purpose in creating the world the way He did is to display His glory through His grace. That, as we have clearly seen already in Romans does not in any way negate God’s justice, judgment and wrath. But it is against that background of judgment and wrath that God’s grace is best seen.
It’s kind of like the PowerPoint slides we display on the screen each week. If I were to use light lettering against a light background or dark lettering against a background, it would be really hard to see. Although I don’t do that nearly as often as I once did, I still make that mistake from time to time. But if I use a contrasting light color on a dark background then that text becomes very easy to see. God’s grace is like that. When He displays the greatness of His grace against the dark backdrop of judgment and wrath, it makes it “pop”.
So Paul reminds us here that if it is sure that judgment and death followed Adam’s fall, it is much more certain that God’s grace will prevail over that because it is God’s ultimate purpose that his abounding grace be displayed in this world.
2. God’s grace is much more powerful than the guilt that results from both my sin nature and my individual sins. (v. 16)
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.
As we saw last week, Adam’s one act of sin brought condemnation to all men because all are born “in Adam” and have his sin nature counted or imputed to them. But God’s grace, which is made available to all based on the one act of righteousness of Jesus, is more than powerful enough to overcome the guilt that results from that sin nature.
But that grace does even more than that. It also overcomes the guilt that results from our “many trespasses.” Every time we disobey one of God’s commandments we commit a trespass. As we’ve stressed in this section, we do that as a result of our sin nature – we sin because we are sinners, we are not sinners because we sin. But the great news here is that God’s grace doesn’t just justify us and declare us “not guilty” of Adam’s one sin that results in us inheriting his sin nature, he also declares us “not guilty” of our individual sins as well.
3. God’s grace is much more powerful than the reign of death so it transfers us to the reign of eternal life (v. 17)
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.
Adam’s sin brought life to an end for all of us. As we talked about last week that means that we will all die physically one day, but even more critical is the fact that we are all born spiritually dead. And because we are born under the reign of death, there is nothing we can do on our own to get out from under that reign.
God’s grace does not merely replace death with life. It transfers us into a completely new realm in which we experience eternal life which has both a present and future component.
That idea is confirmed here by the verb tenses. When Paul writes that “death reigned through one man” the verb “reigned” is in the aorist tense which indicates a one-time action that occurred in the past. By the way, that helps to confirm the point we made last week that we are under the reign of death as the result of having Adam’s sin nature imputed or counted to us and not merely because of our individual sins.
That contrasts with the verb “receive”, which is in the present tense. That implies that receiving God’s grace into our lives through faith in Jesus contains a present, continuing component. We experience life right here and now as we continue to receive God’s abounding grace into our lives.
But there is also a future component to the reign of life which is indicated by the verb “reign” in the phrase “reign in life” at the end of the verse. That verb is in the future tense. Paul is reminding us here of the inheritance he described back in Romans 4 in which we will reign with Jesus in a future physical kingdom. So that means the reign of life into which we enter through the one man Jesus is eternal.
Here in this passage Paul has presented the work of Jesus as the reversal of the work of Adam. The curse which Adam brought on the entire human race has its cure in Christ. And as we have clearly seen…
The cure for those who are in Jesus by faith
is much more powerful than
the curse for those who are in Adam by nature
Paul summarizes this idea in the last 4 verses of this chapter. But before we close with those verses, let’s remind ourselves once again of the structure of this passage. Paul began his main train of thought back in verse 12:
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—
But, then Paul takes a detour in verses 13-17 to explain why it is that death spread to all men as a result of the sin of one man and how the act of the one man Jesus cured and reversed that curse. Now that he’s done with that explanation, Paul will close this section of his letter by returning to his original train of thought:
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul returns here to the idea that one trespass of Adam brought condemnation and death to “all men”, but he now adds to that idea by revealing that the one act of righteousness by Jesus brings justification for “all men”.
We need to pause here for a moment to clear up a common misconception that can occur if verse 18 is taken out of context. Paul begins that verse by writing that “one trespass led to condemnation for all men.” Hopefully by now we would all agree that “all men” there means “all men” since we have consistently shown that we all have Adam’s sin nature counted to us.
But Paul also uses that same phrase “all men” in the second part of the verse when he writes “one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” Some have tried to claim that Paul is somehow teaching “universal salvation” here by claiming that both times Paul uses the phrase “all men”, he is referring to every person ever born. If this verse were all we had to go on, I might be able to agree with that interpretation, but if we consider this verse in its proper context, we find that is not what Paul is teaching here at all.
First, let’s consider the general context of Paul’s letter so far. He spent the first 4-1/2 chapters of the letter showing that the only way to be justified before God is through faith in Jesus. And here in our passage, Paul’s main purpose has been to show why that is the only possible cure to the curse of Adam. Our universal sin problem requires a universal cure, but that cure works only for those who accept it.
But even if we only had the 10 verses we’ve studied these last two weeks to consider, we could still see clearly that Paul never even considered the idea of universal salvation for all men regardless of what they do with Jesus. In verses 15 through 17, where Paul is writing about the “free gift” of God’s grace, he made it clear that only those who receive that grace are justified by God. We saw that most clearly in verse 17 where we saw that only those who are constantly receiving that grace are transferred from the reign of death of the reign of eternal life. While the gift is offered to all, it is only received and made effective as the cure for the curse of Adam by those who receive it by faith in Jesus.
The riches in this passage are nearly inexhaustible, and we’ve certainly only scratched the surface here, so let me close by briefly summarizing why this is such good news for all of us.
What this passage reveals about God
1. God’s love for the sinner is far greater than His hatred of sin
There is no doubt that God takes sin seriously and that he hates sin and that therefore he judges and pours out His wrath on sin because it profanes His holiness. Paul certainly hasn’t avoided that idea at all in his letter so far.
And God would have been completely just had He just given up on us and not provided any way for us to be justified. He actually did that with the Lucifer and the angels who followed him when he rebelled against God. As a result of that rebellion God has already condemned them to a permanent place of punishment and torment in the lake of fire with no hope of salvation.
But the fact that God has provided a way for fallen man to be justified and delivered from the reign of death into the reign of life is proof that His love for all of us who were born with a sin nature is so much greater than His hatred for our sin.
2. God’s grace is exponentially greater than my curse
Look with me at verse 20:
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more
Paul begins here with an idea that he has expressed consistently in his letter so far – the law did not make us sinners, it merely took us to a deeper level of sin in which we also became transgressors, because the law gave us specific standards that we choose to step over.
But the good news is that even though the law increased our sin in that sense, God’s grace abounded all the more. In Greek the phrase “abounded all the more” is actually just one Greek verb that literally means “super abounded.” If we were to try and put this idea into mathematical terms, the verb “increase” as it relates to our trespass would be like addition and the verb “abounded all the more” would be more like at least multiplication or probably more like exponential growth.
What that means is that God’s grace doesn’t just cancel out our curse on a one to one ratio – it completely obliterates it!
What this passage reveals about me
Unlike physical disease in our world for which the cure is often worse than the disease, in God’s kingdom, the cure is far greater – exponentially greater – than the curse which we are all under. God doesn’t just want to give you a better life. He wants to radically transform your life through that cure. There are two important truths that this passage reveals about me that will determine whether or not I experience that transformed life.
1. My identity is found either in Adam or Jesus – but not both
By nature, we are all born “in Adam” and we inherit his sin nature that leads to condemnation, judgment and death. But God has made it possible, by the operation of His grace, for us to obtain a new identity in which we are “in Christ” - an identity that leads to justification and righteousness and life.
But we can’t live in both those kingdoms at the same time because they are mutually exclusive and completely incompatible. But here is the good news…
2. I get to determine my own identity based on what I do with Jesus
My choice of which of those identities I will live by is completely up to me. While all of us are originally born “in Adam”, none of us have to remain there. But, as we’ve clearly seen so far in the first five chapters of Romans that we have studied over the last two years, there is only one way to escape that curse and that is by accepting the cure that Jesus offers to all based on what He has done for us. But while that cure is available to all, it can only be received by placing my faith in Jesus. That is the only way I can be “in Christ” and receive the cure.
Because God loves me and He wants me to love Him, He will never force me to make that decision. Since genuine love can never be compelled, God lets each of us make our own choice of whether to remain “in Adam” and experience the resulting judgment, condemnation and death or to accept his super-abounding grace through faith and find our identity “in Jesus” in which case we receive justification, righteousness and eternal life.
So as we close our study of Romans for now until we pick it up again next fall, I would be remiss if I didn’t invite all of us to respond appropriately to what we’ve learned in these first 5 chapters of Paul’s letters.
First, let me address any of you here this morning who are still “in Adam.” If you have never placed your complete faith and trust in Jesus and accepted the justification and righteousness that He offers to you based not on anything you can do, but based on what He has done on your behalf, then that is your identity right now. And if that’s the case, my prayer is that you won’t remain there. The cure that Jesus offers is far greater than the curse you are under right now. But He won’t force you to accept that cure.
The good news is that you can get that cure right now – today. The process that is required to do that is simple, but I won’t lie to you – it’s not easy. It requires you to place your trust in Jesus alone as the means for being declared “not guilty” before God. It means giving up your own human efforts to obtain or earn God’s approval through your own acts of righteousness. And it means making Jesus the Lord of your life, which simply means you agree to stop living according to your own wishes and desires and submit your life instead to those of Jesus. If you would like to do that today, I’ll be in the office right after this time and I would be more than happy to lead you through that process.
For the rest of you who are “in Jesus” because you have placed your faith in Him, I hope you have a better sense of the greatness of the gift you have been given – God’s super-abounding grace that has transferred you from the reign of death to the reign of eternal life. And so as we pray in just a moment, I want to encourage you to meditate on that for a few minutes and to express your sincere thankfulness to God for that cure that is much more powerful than the curse you were once under.
God’s grace is not at all like Lunesta or Ambien. There are no side effects that actually have the potential to be worse than the curse. Instead, we can be sure that His super-abounding grace guarantees that…
The cure for those who are in Jesus by faith
is much more powerful than
the curse for those who are in Adam by nature
