If you can remember back 2 weeks ago to Rom 5:1-11 you’ll recall that we discovered there that the gospel brings us peace with God. That’s because Jesus has reconciled us to God through his death and resurrection. What’s more, we also discovered that a proper understanding of the gospel gives us peace within ourselves. That’s because in it we discover that God’s love for us is unconditional, since Christ died while we were his enemies, that our salvation depends on Christ’s righteousness alone, since we were still sinners when he died for us, and that because he did it while we were still his enemies, still sinners, we can have confidence now that nothing can separate us from that love. So we can have true peace: peace of mind based on the actual peace that exists between us and God. But now as we read on in Romans ch5 we discover there’s now a new world order in place. Here we find the reason that we can have this peace with God, and why it is that this is a message that needs to be passed on to all people, to everyone we know.
Di and I went to a play a few weeks ago, called "Life X3." It was set in an apartment with a couple and their young child. The husband was an academic working on a theory in astronomy. They had just finished dinner and put their daughter to bed. There was nothing to eat in the house because they were planning a big shop the next day in preparation for a dinner to which they’d invited the husband’s professor, who was supervising his research. Well, they’re in the middle of an argument over whether their daughter should be allowed something to eat after she’d cleaned her teeth, when the door bell rings. It’s the professor and his wife. They’ve got the date wrong. Well, the scene progresses from bad to worse until they end up in a ding-dong argument, with the Professor and his wife walking out in a huff. Then the stage falls into darkness and it all starts over again. The same scenario, but this time their reactions and words are slightly different. And the end result is different. Then again the scene starts over for a third time. Again the reactions of the various people is different and the final scene ends up with almost the opposite conclusion to the first time round. The point of the play, of course, was that small differences in the way we respond or the things we say can make enormous differences in the way situations work themselves out. If you’ve seen the movie "Sliding Doors" there’s a similar message there. Something as simple as missing the train can make a huge difference to the way your life works itself out.
So why am I telling you all this? Well, because that’s something of the idea that we find here in Rom 5:12-21. What we discover here is that a single decision made thousands of years ago has had far reaching consequences ever since. He says: "sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned." Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and as a result they died, spiritually, and were removed from the place of God’s blessing physically. Their death was, at the same time, the result of their sin, the sign of their sinfulness, and the determinant of their future and the future of their offspring. This diagram tries to represent what happened when they sinned:
Now this is a bit tricky. We need to think carefully about this. We know that we continue to live outside the realm of God’s blessing, in our fallen state. But sometimes we think that this is simply because of our own failings. We’re just repeating Adam and Eve’s mistake. Well, it’s true that we are doing that. He says: "death spread to all because all have sinned." Yet it isn’t as simple as that. If it was just that we’ve repeated Adam’s mistake, that is, that we’ve rebelled against God’s lawful commands, there’d still be a question mark over those people who lived between Adam and Moses. You see, the people who lived, say, in Noah’s day didn’t have a law to tell them how to live. So in a sense there was nothing for them to rebel against, was there? Yet they continued to die. So why did they die? They weren’t disobeying God. God hadn’t given them commands as such. In fact, we’re told, they died because sin ruled them, death exercised dominion over them even though they hadn’t disobeyed God in the same way as Adam and Eve did. So why was this so? Because the death that Adam and Eve suffered was passed on to all their descendants. So we find now that all of us are constitutionally unable to do the right thing. All of us continue in the line of Adam, unable to help ourselves.
That then prompts the question, how can we get out of this dilemma we find ourselves in? How can we climb out of this pit that we’ve dug for ourselves? Well, let me ask something of a hypothetical question. What would have happened if Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned in the first place? Well, we wouldn’t be in this pickle would we? The long term consequences of their obedience would have led to a totally different outcome.
So, then, what if another human being came along, another Adam, who would be totally obedient to God’s will, and who would not only be totally obedient, but would also have the wherewithal to incorporate other human beings into his life. Again the long term repercussions would be enormous wouldn’t they? You see, if one man’s disobedience led to death for many, imagine what this new man’s obedience, righteousness, would mean for those who are incorporated into him. Again, here is a picture that illustrates what happens when Christ comes as a human being to do what Adam was unable to do.
Christ takes on human flesh and transforms it, restores it to life by his total obedience. When he dies he overcomes death, because death has no hold over him. He has no sin and it’s sin that’s the power of death. So Christ transforms human life from the depths of the fall, back to the realm of God’s blessing. He lifts us out of the pit and sets our feet back on the rock. And then he gives to his followers his other great gift. He fills them with his own Spirit, who draws us into his life, so that from that moment on, we too are drawn back into the realm of God’s blessing.
So we have this semi-parallel: One man’s trespass leads to many dying. One man’s obedience provides a gift of grace that abounds for many. Except that it isn’t exactly a parallel is it? One has totally negative consequences - condemnation, the other has positive consequences - justification. The one man’s sin meant that death exercised dominion over all people, God’s free gift in Jesus Christ means that those who are in Christ will now exercise dominion in life. One man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, now one man’s act of righteousness has led to justification for all. And so it goes on. Parallel after parallel. The world now looks so different. Now there are two paths that can be taken, depending on the choice we make. Just as where we went as a human race was the result of the choice made by Adam and Eve, so now we’re again given a choice. Will we believe in Christ and join his line or will we continue in the line of Adam?
But notice the unspoken implication of all this. All people suffer the results of Adam’s sin. All are under the rightful condemnation of God, because all people continue to disobey. Yet there’s now available a cure for this incurable human disease. All people can now be made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. All people can be brought back into the realm of God’s blessing. And that means that the task of evangelism, the task of sharing this good news with our friends and family is incredibly important. Because unless they hear about Jesus Christ and put their faith in him they’re stuck down there with Adam and his descendants in the fallen world. But when they put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection, he lifts them up, raises them into God’s presence again.
Well, that just about covers what I want to say, except for one thing. That is to point out what he reminds us of in vs20 & 21: "Law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." We still live with the consequences of Adam’s sin. Those born in Adam’s line remain in that line until death. So sin continues to exercise its dominion over us in death. Until the day when Christ takes us to be with him in God’s presence we’ll continue to battle against sin and temptation. Yet at the same time grace exercises its dominion over us through justification. That is, God’s takes our continued failure to please him and wipes it away, over and over again. Where sin increases, he says, God’s grace abounds all the more. Even though our human frailty means that we struggle to resist temptation, God’s grace is great enough to overcome our sinfulness. Christ’s death on our behalf was sufficient to cover all our sins. His resurrection life is poured into us through his Holy Spirit and nothing can separate us from that life. In other words, once we’re born again into Christ’s line we continue in that line forever.
Just as an aside, it’s interesting that as you read through the Bible what you find is that the expressions of God’s judgement on sin increase in intensity. But always, along with the announcement of judgement comes a promise of rescue or mercy, and the intensity of these promises grows accordingly. So where sin and judgement abound, grace abounds all the more.
Well, the point of that is that there’s a struggle going on in our lives all the time between sin and grace. We live our lives in a place of tension, where what we will be is not yet seen, where we long for that day when our obedience will come naturally to us, even though now we struggle to obey. So the picture we get looks like this:
Now next week we’ll discover that the implications of this state of living under the grace of God means that we can’t take this tension lightly. We’re called to fight against sin and temptation. But that struggle isn’t what determines our future. Our future is determined by which line we live in. Are we continuing in the line of Adam, ignoring the work of Christ, or have we accepted the free gift of his grace? Have we allowed Christ to bring us back to the Father?
The same goes for every other member of the human race. Christ has done everything necessary to restore humanity to God’s original design, but people still need to hear the gospel so they too can decide to put their faith and trust in Christ. So while we live in this place of tension, let’s keep two things in mind. First of all, we’re now living in the realm of God’s blessing, God’s original design for us. There’s nothing more we need to do to enjoy that great benefit of his grace. But at the same time, this is something that needs to be shared with others, so they too can benefit from the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness won for them and offered to them by the one man, Jesus Christ. So let’s be thankful for God’s grace to us and at the same time be seeking to share that grace with others.
One night at a small church in Atlanta, Georgia, a man shared how he had become a Christian while in Sydney. "I was at the street corner in Kings Cross," the man began, "when I felt a tug on my sleeve. Turning, I found myself face to face with a street bum. Before I could say anything, the man simply asked me, ’Mister, if you were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity?’ That question troubled me over the next three weeks," the man continued. "I had to find an answer, and I ended up giving my life to Christ."
The pastor of the Atlanta church was amazed that a man on a street corner could have such an impact. But imagine his amazement when, three years later, another man came to his church and gave an almost identical testimony. He, too, had been at Kings Cross in Sydney when a derelict had pulled on his sleeve and asked him, "if you were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity?" This second man, also haunted by the street bum’s question, eventually sought and found an answer in Jesus.
Shortly after hearing the second testimony, the pastor of that small church in Atlanta had to be in Sydney for a mission conference. On one of his nights off, he went to Kings Cross to see if he could find the man who had been mentioned at his church by two different people. Pausing on a street corner to look for someone like the street bum he’d heard about, he felt a tug at his jacket. He turned, and before the poor old man could say anything, the pastor blurted out, "I know what you’re going to ask me! You’re going to ask me if I were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity?" The man was stunned. "How did you know that?" He inquired. The pastor told him the whole story. When he finished, the man started to cry. "Mister," he said, "10 years ago I gave my life to Jesus, and I wanted to do something for him. But a man like me can’t do much of anything. So I decided I would just hang out on this corner and ask people that simple question. I’ve been doing that for years, mister, but tonight is the first time I ever knew it did anybody any good."
The destiny of all human beings was changed by the actions of one man who disobeyed, and again, potentially at least, by one man who obeyed. But we can change the destiny of individuals that we know by the simple gift of sharing the gospel with them. Let’s pray that we might have the opportunity of changing the future for the better, for someone we know.
For more sermons from this source and access to the diagrams go to www.sttheos.org.au
