Living Hope Church

Pastor Phil Steiger: Today we're going to continue in our study of the book of Romans. So if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Romans chapter five. If you don't have a Bible, feel free to use the one in the chairs in front of you or around you. We'll have scripture on the screen to help along as well, but I hope you brought your physical Bibles. This is what we do. We open the word of God and we make sense of it.

We're going to begin reading here in just a few minutes in Romans chapter five, beginning in verse 12. But a few thoughts before we actually read this particular passage of scripture. If you read ahead, if you are prepared for our time together in God's word this morning, you realize that the Apostle Paul in this passage of scripture finishes this part of the chapter before he moves to his next steps in chapter six with what feels like a rather complicated part of his argument as he turns his attention to us and says, "This is what your life is now like." Remember in chapter five, verse one, he says, "Now you have these things in Jesus Christ. This is what this life is like."

Now at the end of this chapter, this is what Paul is doing as he speaks these things to us this morning. There's a lot of talk in this passage of scripture about death and life, about Adam and Christ, about sin and righteousness. But it is absolutely critical to where we have been and where we are going in the rest of this book.

In a certain kind of fashion, the Apostle Paul takes a step back to give us a little bit of a big picture about all of us. It isn't just Gentiles who sin against God. We read that story and we dealt with it in depth in Romans chapter one. It isn't just Gentiles who disobey the natural law in order of God. It isn't just Jews who break the actual law of Moses and thus break their faithful covenant with God. We read that in Romans chapter two.

But Paul in this passage is going to make it abundantly clear that every single one of us is born into sin, and he is going to use the word sin and death. We're born into death because we are descendants biologically of Adam and Eve. We are all one human race, and as a result, we are all actually sinners.

But because—and this is part of what the Apostle Paul's going to try to put across in this passage of scripture to us this morning—because sin came into the world through the disobedience of one man, Adam—this is the sin of Adam and Eve, and as we read through this passage, he's going to use Adam, and in other passages in Paul's Epistles he uses the word Adam, but he speaks of the sin of Adam and Eve, our biological mother and father, so to speak—because sin comes into the world because of the rebellion, the disobedience of one man, Paul is going to tell us that God came in flesh so that through one man life would be made available to all of us, the life for which we were created.

We're going to read that phrase a few times in this passage, "through one man," "through one man," referring to Adam and then referring to Jesus, back and forth and back and forth, an incredibly important part of this passage. We notice this as well with Adam, and we need to understand this as we jump into this passage. Adam and Eve were created to be what we were intended to be: in perfect relationship with the Father, in perfect relationship with creation, and in perfect relationship with each other.

Can you imagine that? Adam and Eve were created in that kind of relationship with God and creation and each other. They were created to be what we were intended to be in our relationship with God. But because of their rebellion, because of their act of sin, Adam then also becomes the forerunner of what we have become in our sin and death. Adam is who we were supposed to be, but because of his sin, he now is a forerunner of who we are.

So Jesus, the perfect God-man, comes to this world to make it possible for us to receive that life again and become who God created us to be. That's the movement of this last section of Romans chapter five. It's important to have some of these big ideas in our heads as we start to read.

So a couple of the thoughts that are going to help hold this together for us this morning. The first is this: what is death? What is death? We need to understand this biblically. We need to understand how Paul uses this phrase, what brought death into this world, and what death means biblically. Scripture illuminates a universal reality. We know that there is physical death. Until Jesus comes, this is just the universal reality for absolutely every human being.

But death biblically also means spiritual death—our separation from that created and intended relationship with God. And that spiritual death is what brings into this world physical death. So what is death? Our physical death and our separation from God.

So then throughout this passage, we're going to read this kind of notion as well. So then, what is life? God's word has incredible things to tell us about what is actual, true life. Not just biological life, but the kind of life that God gives us, makes possible in Jesus Christ. Here's one of these Bible study things that you can do if you want to do it this week: the Greek has two words for life. The first is *bios*, and it just means our physical biological life, breathing in and out kind of normal life. But it also has this word *zoe* life, Z-O-E is how it's transliterated into the English. And that *zoe* life means a unique kind of life, a type of life, and scripture says it's the kind of life that only God can give. So it's actually making a distinction between our biological reality and what is possible spiritually because of Jesus Christ.

So let's begin reading here in Romans chapter five. We're going to read from verse 12 through the end of the chapter. So friends, this is the word of the Lord. Romans chapter five, 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—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."

So far, so clear, right? Verse 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. 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."

"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."

I hope it felt like there's a lot of important stuff here. There's a lot of beautiful stuff here, and Paul is drawing on the arc of the story of scripture to explain to us why life looks the way that it is, where our sin comes from. Through the trespass of one man, all this sin enters the world, so then through the act of righteousness by one man, all those trespasses are overcome by the abundance of the grace of God. This is what is and why it is. This is what is possible in Christ and why it's made possible.

So for all of the back and forth in this passage of scripture, if we can keep those kinds of thoughts in our heads, it's going to help us with this this morning. So as he begins here in verse 12, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man." Let's ponder this for a moment or two. First of all, there was no sin before Adam. No sin before Adam at all. You and I would have a very difficult time making sense of that. God created a world without that kind of sin as far as his relationship with Adam is concerned. He created Adam and Eve without sin. It had not entered the world until that act of disobedience.

And so what then is sin? We need to make sure we're clear on this as we understand why it's such a big deal and what it is God has done to actually overcome it. The biblical language has a lot to say about what sin is. It speaks of missing the mark, not hitting the target that God intends for us. It speaks of twisting, oftentimes in the Old Testament words in our English translations that are words like iniquity. It means the twisting of the things of God for our own purposes or for things that aren't for the purposes of God. So we miss the mark, we twist things, and sin is just outright rebellion against the command of God.

So all of these things, this rich language that scripture has about what sin is, it really boils down to our rebellion against the will of God, our desire to walk the other way, our inclination to believe that, as a matter of fact, I think God might be wrong about this. All of this is the sin nature inside of us that moves us in these directions away from the will of God.

So there was none of that when God created Adam and Eve. Can you imagine for just a moment life without sin? Life without sin between Adam and Eve. That relationship was free of everything that makes any of your relationships difficult or complicated. From the simplest misunderstanding and confusion to the most dysfunctional and violent brokenness inside of a relationship, none of it, absolutely none of it, it wasn't there when God created it.

This relationship between Adam and Eve and creation was not broken. In fact, God's intention for them is that they were going to turn the world into a garden. They were going to cultivate it. They were going to tend to the earth. They were going to husband the animal kingdom. This is God's intention. That relationship wasn't broken.

And then can you imagine an unbroken, unmediated relationship with God the Father? They could actually walk in the garden with God. And there are no misunderstandings, there's no sense of distance, there's no feeling as if I haven't talked to God recently or I don't understand what he means by this, or I pray and I don't receive what I want to receive. There's none of that. There's just perfect, intimate relationship with God.

And so where there was no sin, there was no death. But as Paul makes clear in this passage of scripture, where sin came into this world, it brought death. Friends, death is sin's great witness. One of the things the Christian, the follower of Jesus Christ, should be reminded of in the moment of death, even the death of a righteous man or woman, is that this is the result of sin. This is the result of what came into this world, what is now inside of this heart, even the actions that I take. We did not die until sin entered the world, and now death is our perpetual reminder of sin and corruption.

And there are a lot of attempts in this world right now to try to overcome death, to try to extend life, to try to augment the human body, maybe even get rid of the human body so that we can live longer, at least some people can live longer, or maybe even live forever. Every human attempt to deny or overcome death is just sin's reaction to its own consequences. That's what it is. Because sin has entered this world, then death follows immediately.

So this is how God created the world without sin, but then one man sinned. Genesis chapter two, verses 16 and 17, God lays out the groundwork for Adam and Eve inside of this garden, this relationship that he has created. And in Genesis 2:16-17, the text says this: "And the Lord God commanded the man saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'"

You've got to love how this command is laid out. Everything you see is good for you, except the one thing. So guess what becomes attractive to Adam and Eve? The one thing. What is the thing that the serpent in the garden draws their attention to? Well, that one tree. And Eve takes of it, she gives it to Adam, and Adam takes of that fruit as well, and they rebel against the one command that God gave.

So sin enters the world. God says, "In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die." And here's where we understand clearly what death means biblically. Eventually, many years later, Adam and Eve physically died. But it is actually in that moment that that spiritual separation between them and God is created.

So in the moment in which you rebel against my one command, spiritual death will enter this world, and then we're going to discover that physical death enters this world as well. So sin enters the world, and human nature is now corrupt, and we are born with that corruption. So Paul speaks of in this passage that it is the sin that we have inherited from the act, the trespass of one man. And then he says, "And then we have all sinned." It's because every one of us, as we were conceived and born, we inherit that corrupted nature, and so sin is inevitable within every single one of us.

Psalm chapter 51, verse five, David says this: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." He means that as I was conceived, sin nature was there with me. This is what he means by this. So every one of us sins because we have inherited this corrupt and sinful nature.

Now, this is a little bit of a side note, but some of you have read these kinds of things or you're going to run across these things in your study Bibles or the people that you watch on YouTube. Paul's argument requires a literal Adam and Eve. There's a lot of talk in Christian circles right now about whether or not there was a literal Adam and Eve. Well, probably not. Eve stands for a collection of individuals who lived in this part of the world. That's where all of our genomes came from. And Adam refers to this group of people over here. It's not really literally Adam and Eve; it's a group of people that we sort of evolved from.

It's a very popular point of view in some Christian circles right now. But notice how often Paul says because of what one man did, the other one man had to enter this world and actually fix it. So Paul's argument here and in other epistles requires a literal Adam and Eve. So now you know where I stand on that little story.

And oftentimes, especially if somebody is frustrated by this story or skeptical of this story in any fashion, they become amazed or they become angered at the consequences of the actions of our biological mother and father. Well, it's unfair that this has actually happened. And yet, nonetheless, here we are. It doesn't matter whether you think it's unfair or not. All of us have inherited, every one of us has inherited this corrupt nature.

We look at the world around us, and for all the good and beauty and joy that we can find, the darkness and the corruption is right there, and we can pay attention to that as well. And we can imagine as much as that sin and death now reigns in this life, we have to keep our eyes on what Paul is really focused on. He says where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. If we are going to be amazed at the brokenness that's been brought into this world because of the trespass of one man, Paul says you should be even more amazed at the grace, the forgiveness, the justification that's been brought into this world because of the act of one man. It is so much more.

So this becomes an important part of what Paul is working inside of this scripture. In fact, he tells us in verse 14 that Adam was a type of Christ. What happens with Adam foreshadows what needs to happen in Jesus Christ. And we're going to think about that as we move along in this passage of scripture. In verses 13 and 14, the Apostle Paul said, "So sin indeed was in the world, and yet death reigned from Adam to Moses." So there is sin and death before the law of Moses shows up. And then when the law of Moses shows up, it—the language he uses is interesting—it counts sin. It now actually sort of keeps track of it. It makes it clear what the law of God is so that we understand more clearly now what the breaking of that law and what our sin actually is.

So there exists this universal law based on the character and nature and creation of God, even outside of the Mosaic Law. In fact, this is how Paul spoke about the sin of the Gentiles in Genesis chapter one. People who don't have the law, they still break it because God has actually placed it in the hearts and minds of every human being.

So we look back quickly to Romans chapter one, verses 19 and 20. This is part of what the Apostle Paul says to us: "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they, anyone without the law of Moses, are without excuse."

So again, Paul has made that argument explicitly. So he draws on that in this passage of scripture. Before the Mosaic Law, there's still brokenness and trespass and sin and death. And where the law enters in, then it begins to make all of that even clearer for us. But in that story of the trespass that brings condemnation, he says, "But the free gift is not like the trespass."

And he's going to use that phrase a few times in several verses. The free gift of God is not like that. The free gift of God is not like that either. So the trespass of one man brings condemnation, sin, and death into this world. And so then the Apostle Paul says this: the free gift, however, is not like that, because after—and this is an understatement—after many trespasses, more than three sins in this world and human history, the free gift overcomes all of that and brings justification and eternal life. So the trespass is like this, but the free gift is like this. It is so much more. This is death; this is life that God offers.

The free gift is not like the trespass. There's a way of seeing this passage of scripture and looking at it like this. There are two historical events that define our human existence: Adam and the Fall, and then Jesus and the cross and the resurrection. The trespass is our sin and death. But the free gift is the offer of salvation, and also the offer of this brand new life that only God can actually produce for us.

So here's how Paul is developing this thought, when he literally tells us that Adam is this type of, or this foreshadowing of, Jesus Christ. Adam is acting as the biological head of the human family. Sometimes the word federal is used for that, it's kind of a legal sense that he's the federal head, but he is the biological head, the biological father of the human race. And that biological father is the one who brings sin and death into the rest of the family, all of the rest of the family.

So Jesus, our brother and savior, our divine Father, is the one who's going to bring us life. So friends, Christ gives his life for his family so that we might be brought back into God's designed relationship with us. All of that that we spent a few minutes on, that relationship with Adam and Eve and God in the garden that was unmediated, unbroken, and without sin, Paul says Jesus Christ has come in the flesh to re-establish that. We can taste it now, and we will receive it then in all of eternity.

This is why the incarnation is necessary. This is why the Christmas story is necessary. The story of Jesus becoming flesh, God in flesh, is not a myth, it's not a metaphor, it's not an unprovable theological claim; it is a divine necessity. Because our biological father brought sin into this world, so our spiritual Father is going to bring life back into this world in human flesh.

Look at this passage of scripture. We love reading this around Christmas. Isaiah chapter nine, verse six, in this context, I think helps us. Isaiah 9:6: "For unto us a child is born, this is Jesus Christ. To us a son is given. The government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace."

So we can actually speak of Jesus, our brother in the flesh, but Isaiah the prophet says there's another role that he fulfills, and that is as our Everlasting Father. And he's the Father who walks into this flesh, leads a sinless life, goes to the cross on our behalf, dies our death in our place, and conquers sin and death, comes out the other side of the grave, and then offers that life to everyone who believes. This is what happens in Adam; this is what happens in Jesus Christ.

The free gift is not like the trespass; it does different things. Paul tells us in this passage that the free gift is not like the judgment. God's righteous judgment is upon sin and sinners. He is just and right to judge all of these things. This is where separation from him comes, this is where physical death enters into our reality and existence.

But the free gift of Jesus makes us right through Jesus Christ, makes us right with God. And it brings, as Paul's been talking about for a couple of chapters now, this justification that he keeps talking about. This justification that we are now in right relationship with God, not because we have ginned up enough of our own capacities, but because Jesus has given us a free gift. And what was separated in the garden has been now put back together because of the sacrifice of the one man, Jesus Christ, God in flesh. It is a stunning reality of what God offers sinful human creatures. I am under, in my sin, the just punishment for it. But God offers this free gift to escape judgment and return to the life for which we were created.

Verse 17, I'm going to read this again as we kind of keep walking through what Paul says here. "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."

Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace. So the depth of this free gift continues. Paul continues to be amazed by it. Paul continues to try to make sure that we understand the power, the divine overwhelming power of the free gift of Jesus Christ. This word for abundance that he uses a couple of times in the passage that we read, it just simply means to exceed what was expected, to overflow what we thought was going to happen. The abundance of the grace of God is so much more.

Friends, this is critical to our understanding of this passage, to understanding what the cross of Jesus Christ does, and it's critical for you and me on a personal basis because I know that there are people who feel this way, and from time to time Christians feel this way: there is no hope for someone like me. You don't know what I have done. You don't know what has happened in the past. What I have done cannot be forgiven.

What Paul says over and over and over, he says look, I know what the trespass has done. You know what judgment feels like. I'm trying to let you know what the free gift is like. And it's abundant. Where sin abounds, where your sin and your past abounds, guess what? In Jesus Christ, grace abounds even more. Sin and death appear to be the strongest and inevitable forces of our existence. But God's free gift is stronger still. Be encouraged. Go to Jesus Christ and receive this free gift. It is so much more. It is so much more.

Paul is telling us too that Christ's righteousness in the life of the follower of Jesus will rule over sin. It will rule over it. He uses a couple of times in this passage a phrase about how grace will reign. Instead of sin reigning, grace will reign. It is absolutely beautiful.

The law makes clear our sin. Look at verse 20 again. "Now the law came in and increased the trespass. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." The law makes clear our sin. Without it, people remain in their rebellion, believing that they are right with God or right with themselves. But he says look, the law showed up and it just made clear the brokenness of the human heart and what our sin is really like.

Here's part of what Paul is saying: in the end, we need to know what the law says so that we know that we need the grace of Jesus Christ because it then makes clear where I have sinned, how I am a sinner. This is the expression of the law. You flip that coin in the other direction, and you get false teachers who will not tell you about the law of God. False teachers will not tell you that's a sin. They will not tell you that behavior is contrary to the law and will of God in your life.

They will tell you you're going to be just fine, God made you the way you are, he loves you just as you are, you don't need to change, God approves of all of your behavior. And friends, that's going to happen all over downtown Colorado Springs this afternoon by people in vestments and with collars around their necks. They're going to support everything and say God loves all of this. That's false teaching. We need the law so that we know our need for Jesus. If we refuse to understand the will and law of God, then we very quickly believe that we are just fine.

I use this passage of scripture fairly often because I love it. I cannot get past the image. It's very straightforward in Jeremiah chapter 11. Jeremiah, this prophet doing the best that he possibly can to get across God's word in a rebellious culture, and he's fighting with false prophets constantly, and here's part of what he says. They, speaking of false prophets, have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace.

My people have a systemic infection of sin, and a false prophet wants to put a Band-Aid on a cut. They heal lightly the wound, the actual wound of my people. They don't see it, they don't know it, they don't expose it, they don't express it. In fact, what they say is you're fine, you are fine. Whereas, as a matter of fact, you're not fine. Peace, peace, where there is no peace.

Paul says the law enters so that we understand where sin and death come from. And where sin reigns, grace will abound even more. He says in verse 21, "As sin reigned in death, grace also might reign leading to eternal life." The language of reigning and ruling: so sin rules the structure of the human existence, he says, in a certain way that it brings the universal consequence of death. It just reigns like this. But the free gift is not like that; it makes something else possible. It actually brings you the abundant grace of Jesus Christ that now reigns in righteousness.

He uses this same thought a little bit later on in Romans chapter six. I want to jump ahead a little bit. We'll get there in five or six months, but just a few verses later on in Romans chapter six. Turn over to the next chapter, verse 15. He speaks of the same thought but he uses different language. Verse 15: "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one to whom you obey, either sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to righteousness?"

"But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. You are now slaves of righteousness." Grace now reigns in your life through righteousness instead of being a slave to sin, instead of sin reigning in our lives.

Even with all of this talk about Adam, trespass, sin, and death, Paul's ultimate focus is on the eternal life that only comes through Jesus Christ. Who is really dead? It's not just those who are now memorialized by a tombstone. Paul is telling us before Jesus, you were dead. Anyone without Jesus Christ right now is dead. Dead in sin and on their way, when physical death comes, to eternal separation from God. This is who is really dead. This is what the Bible teaches us about this concept.

But humanity has this twisted version of what is good. And humanity basically believes, however you want to categorize it, but they believe that God, as a matter of fact, is dead and we are alive. God himself does not exist. God is dead. The notion of God is dead and in the past, this is old, this is ancient, this is oppressive, it's a white man's religion, which is a crazy thing to say about a Jew 2,000 years ago. All of these things: God is dead, religion is dead, Christianity is dead. We've found a better way, we've found different gods. Humanity in its twisted vision has the whole game backwards. He's dead and we're alive.

And Paul is saying nope. Without Christ, you're dead. In Christ, that's where you find life. The great Christian author and apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote a small book, a kind of commentary on part of the book of Romans, called *The Finished Work of Christ*, and this is how he expresses this thought. Some people in our own time say that God is dead. But whether people overtly say such a thing or simply choose to live as though God doesn't exist, they themselves, in fact, become dead. Because their unbelief has destroyed the purpose of their existence. Get that. Because their unbelief has destroyed the purpose of their existence. They can no longer find themselves as real humans. But because Christ has come and has died, those who do believe in him can become a true and living humanity.

Without Christ, we cannot find ourselves as real humans. But guess what? Christ has come, and all of it is possible now in the free gift of the life that Jesus brings. This is who is dead. Well, who is really alive? Everyone who dies to self and accepts the free gift of Jesus Christ is to become a true and living human being. The soul has been saved. Jesus says, "I've come to give them life and to give it more abundantly." The taste of this life of God here on earth, and then friends, at this moment we think back to where part of where we began.

If Christ tarries and you die in this physical body but you are a son or daughter of Jesus Christ, because of what he has done, you will find yourself back where God intended you to be—in his perfect, glorious presence forever and ever. And all of that sin is gone. Can you imagine your life without sin? It will be you, but without any of the consequences of sin.

That's great news, friends. Paul just told us grace will reign, will rule in your life through righteousness. See, God takes our sin and he takes it and exchanges it for his righteousness instead. The one who mocks this concept is dead. The one who thinks this story is oppressive is dead. The one who believes that this story is a fairy tale and belongs in the past is dead. But the living know better. You know what life is like with Jesus now, don't you? It is true and living water. The surest way to lose your life is to cling to it, to refuse to give it to God. But the surest way to gain your life is to lose it for Jesus Christ. This is true divine life and everlasting blessedness with God becomes yours. Let's pray.

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