Romans Series: Chapter 5, Part 2
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Peace to Live By Romans Series: Chapter 5, Part 2 - Daniel Litton
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[Transcript may not match broadcasted sermon word for word, and contains extra material that was cut from the broadcast due to time constraints]
We are continuing along today in Romans chapter 5. Last time we went through the first part of this chapter, which is a great and classic part of the Book of Romans. We learned that those of us who have believed in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, we learned that we have obtained peace with God, the legal standing of peace with him. This is so important for us, and so very encouraging. In fact, we would not be able to live the Christian life without this foundation of peace. Indeed, this underlying peace allows us to be able to perfectly relate to God, without anything getting in the way. We don’t have to worry about our sin or something else separating us in our relationships with God, and this is something Paul will look further into later in this marvelous Book of Romans.
Nonetheless, Paul is continuing today, for he’s going to go back into compare and contrast mode, he is continuing to show our old life, without Christ, and how that compares to our new life with Christ. What is central to having a new life? One has to believe in Christ Jesus, one has to have their faith in him if they want a new life. The world offers other things to try to gain a new life. We see this in New Age philosophies, we see it in other religions, but really the only way we can have a new life is by disregarding the old, rather than trying to renovate or update the old. The house has to be torn down, and a new one built in its place. For you history buffs, it’s like Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, the old had to be abolished and the new had to be set in its place. There was no hope of making the old government work for us as a new one.
Let us turn in our Bibles, or tap in our Bible apps on our mobile devices, to Romans chapter 5. And today we are going to pick up in verse 12. We read from the Apostle Paul: “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.” (Romans 5:12-14, ESV)
Ok, so first we are presented with a “Therefore.” Interestingly, Paul does a little reversal here. It seems to me that this part of the chapter we are reviewing today would have better come before the first part of the chapter, but Paul is now giving us a background, a defense, as to why the first part is reality for us. We need peace with God because, as Paul states, “sin came into the world through one man.” Notice how he says that “sin entered the world.” He doesn’t say, “sin came into being through one man” but that “sin entered the world through one man.” Do we know, then, where sin came from? If it didn’t come from Adam or Eve, or if rather they weren’t the inventor of it, where did sin come from? We know where sin came from. It came into existence when Lucifer (aka Satan), God’s best angel in Heaven, rebelled against him, trying to take God’s glory as his own. That was the first sin in existence, outside of this world.
We understand, though, in reading Genesis chapter 3, and I don’t want to turn there this morning, but we see that Satan, posing as a snake (for he is the great poser), deceived Eve who in turn deceived Adam. He tempted them to go against God, and do something outside of God’s will. Surely, Satan can be a great compeller. He can compel you, me, or anyone to do things that we shouldn’t do. And what was the result of Adam sin? Well, it was death. Interestingly enough, though, God had warned Adam that in the day he ate of the forbidden fruit, that in the day he did that, he would surely die. Remember? So, it wasn’t that Adam got a consequence that God hadn’t already forewarned him against. Notice how fair God was. He tried to warn him. But what Satan had promised Eve to be life to her and her husband, did just the opposite. It gave them excitement in the moment as they were eating the fruit, in anticipation that they would get something great, as promised by Satan, but in the end what did they actually get? The excitement was over, and they were left with death.
So, death enters the world through Adam’s sin. It is through Adam’s sin because man bears the seed of sin. Recall, I mentioned that’s why Jesus could be born of the human Mary from the Holy Spirit. He could be born human without sin because no man was involved in her pregnancy. The infectious seed of Adam leads all people born everywhere to be born sinners, straight down the line. No exceptions. Those before the Law of Moses was given, in the earlier part of Genesis, were sinners. God ended up destroying the world, the one he had created for Adam, because sin had increased so much. And this was before the Mosaic Law. It is recorded in Genesis 7:5-6: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (ESV). Sin was so bad, at the time right before the Flood, that God actually regretted making men and women. We know we can sway the hand of God with prayer, right? We should know that. Well, humans can also sway the hand of God by their intensity of evil.
Quickly, notice in the text that Paul says, “so death spread to all men because all sinned.” I want to clear something up here. Paul is not saying that the people after Adam had the opportunity not to sin. He’s not saying that none were found to be righteous. For it would have been impossible for anyone not to have sinned, as I stated a little bit ago that people all have the sin nature from Adam’s seed. I think to understand what Paul is saying here, it is good to look at a cross reference Scripture in 1 Corinthians 15. Verse 22 states: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (ESV). You see, all had sinned because they were in Adam, not because they just so happened to sin. That difference is important.
Paul says, “for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.” “Sin is not counted where there is no law.” This doesn’t mean that people didn’t sin against God. It just means because God had not placed a law system in the world yet, that people were incapable of transgressing his law. Adam and Eve went against God’s prohibition in the Garden of Eden. They ate of the forbidden tree. So, they broke his Law of that time. But the people after them had not broken any of God’s actual Laws, in a one-on-one basis. Yet, because Adam and Eve had sinned, the people had the sin nature, and they went about sinning in the world, even though they didn’t have a Law to show them what they were doing wrong. However, they were still sinning, it just wasn’t counted. I’m just not sure if we can really understand what this means in full. We understand that the people were judged by the Flood, so God still gave judgment for sin.
Adam was a type of Christ. Now, how is this? Well, he was a type of Christ in the reverse way. He sinned, and all were affected in a negative way. All inherited the sin nature. All were disobedient to God. One might say Adam is like Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars. He ended up sinning, and many were defiled by his sin. And Christ, who’s he like? Well in this analogy, he’s like Luke Skywalker. The many are given hope and helped through his actions. But as we are going to see in the next section, Paul here is about to explain the goodness of Christ’s obedience to God, how he is the opposite of Adam.
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.” (Romans 5:15-17, ESV)
A few months ago a pastor friend approached me one day with a concern on his heart, and he wanted my thoughts on the matter. He said he had talked to two Christians recently, just in regular conversation outside of church, who had told him that they believed that there is no Hell, that God is all love that he could never send anyone to Hell. Then my pastor friend said he had preached a series on Hell, and that a couple people came up after the sermon and told him they weren't coming back to his church. He even told me there is a pastor out there, a famous one, who is teaching this, and had written a book on the matter. I told my friend that if you eliminate sin, you eliminate the need for the cross. If there is no sin, there is no Hell. If all people automatically go to Heaven, I said to him, then why do you need to have the cross? What was the reason for Jesus coming to the earth in the first place? You see, this is a serious problem among some folks, including those who identify as Christian. Even if they know they do wrong, they don't want to believe that God judges wrong. They want to believe that everyone goes to Heaven.
Paul said, “the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.” Notice that Paul doesn’t say, “abounded for all.” He said, “abounded for many.” You see, not everyone is going to believe the Gospel. Not even everyone who says they believe in Jesus will enter the Kingdom of Heaven when they die. Not everyone who says they are a Christian meets the requirements of being a Christian. Let us bring to mind what Jesus has said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (“Matthew 7:21, ESV). What is the Father’s will; what are those requirements? You have to believe you, yourself, are a sinner and that you are in need of a Savior, and Jesus has fulfilled that need by dying on the cross for you and rising from the dead. That’s God’s grace. That’s how he reconciles us to himself.
What does Paul say next? He says, “For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification” (ESV). What’s that? “Following many trespasses” he says. That means there’s a lot of sin out there, and that sin, in you, in me, needs forgiven. And when it is forgiven, it what? Well, it brings justification. Paul even puts this sentence in the past tense (another good verse for eternal security), as if this has already happened, as if it is certain. What else helps our case here? Paul says, “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.” Wait a minute. We what? We have to “receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness.” If I’m already righteous, how can I receive righteousness? How is that possible? You see, I’m not righteous, and neither are you. None of us our righteous without Jesus Christ’s righteousness.
And what is this about reigning in life? “You mean to tell me that I can reign in life through Jesus Christ?” Yes, that’s correct. The are multiple reasons why we reign in life. We reign in live, first and foremost, in the context of this chapter, because we have peace with God. With that peace, we have power. Remember? We talked about this last week. We are the head, and not the tale. As Paul told the Colossian believers, “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body” (Colossians 3:15, ESV). This is a choice we have to make. We can choose to worry, fret, fear, have anxiety, whatever, or we can choose to reign in life by letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. The choice is ours. It’s not easy, but it requires discipline of the mind. It’s happens a little bit at a time, as you grow, as you practice, as you become more like Jesus. Jesus certainly reigned in life. He didn’t worry about anything. I’ve stated this is the past, but sometimes it is just good to clear your mind by only thinking about now, and not allowing your mind to think about anything but what your eyes see. Try this for twenty or thirty minutes. By doing things like this, by practicing techniques like this, it can allow us to gain more and more control over our minds, to strengthen our self-discipline, our self-control.
Another reason we reign in life is because we have the truth. We have reality. Recall what Jesus said in John chapter 8. He said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32, ESV). Knowing the truth does what? It sets us free. It causes us to reign in life. We can exercise our peace, we can keep calm, because we have God’s truth. And we live by that truth. It says in Psalm 119, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalms 119:105, ESV). Or, as Solomon put it in Proverbs: “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life” (Proverbs 6:23, ESV). Yes, we have to have discipline; we need correction.
Does reigning in life give us prosperity, as Christians? There’s that word, again, “Prosperity.” Man, this is heavy. Is prosperity a bad thing? No, I don’t think prosperity is a bad thing. How did we define prosperity several weeks ago? Prosperity is being able to accomplish what the Lord wants us to accomplish primarily. It is God enabling us to live out our calls, whatever those calls may be; we each have different calls. Reigning in life, though, also includes successes on this earth undoubtedly. It just does. I mean, you have personal successes as a result of your relationship with God through Jesus. God may have helped you get a better position at work. He has helped people have favor when buying that house, so that they were the ones who ended up getting it in the bidding war. God has given people prosperity in finding a mate. He’s given us more money. There are all kinds of ways that God prospers his people. You ask for things in prayer, and you expect God to answer those requests, and a lot of times it is for worldly successes. So, you do believe in God’s prosperity for this life; you surely do.
After all, what earthly father wouldn’t want to help their children, to give them good things in life? Even Jesus made this argument. He said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (“Matthew 7:7-11, ESV). This isn’t a free-for-all, though. Let’s bear in mind what James has told us, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3, ESV). So, let’s keep watch on our motives, but God definitely does give us, prosper us, with good things. He causes us, again, to reign in life.
Getting back to our text in Romans 5. Verse 18: “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 5:18-21, ESV)
Verse 18 again: “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” This, again, is not saying that all people will be saved. Many other places in the Bible tell us that won’t be the case. Jesus told us that on multiple occasions, and the Book of Revelation clearly states that. We know that Paul was a Jewish man, and in the Jewish language, this comparison in the sentence by Paul is called a parallelism. This was common in Hebrew writings. The one act of righteousness, by Jesus, leads to the possibility of all being saved. “For God so loved the world,” John states, “that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, KJV). As John recorded, “whosoever” includes anybody and everybody. The requirement is “whosoever” believes; that’s all there is to it. But one has to believe. It’s not a default setting, but you have to make it your default setting.
Verse 19 says, “so by the one man's obedience.” We know that Christ was obedient to the Father by going to the cross. That was a tremendous act of obedience. We also are aware that throughout his life Christ was obedient to God in every way. His life was one marked by obedience. He gives us the example to follow in our lives. Christ learned obedience through what he suffered, as the writer of Hebrews points out to us (see Hebrews 5:8-10). That’s his model for us. And, we too, can and should learn to be more obedient to God when we suffer. You know, and I know that suffering leads us into obedience, or, at least it should. Remember what we talked about last week, at the beginning of this chapter? Paul said, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4, ESV). And, what did the writer of Hebrews say? That Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (ESV). I understand; this is uncomfortable. But we do learn and become better people in our sufferings, as I’m sure many of you can testify.
Paul said, “the many will be made righteous.” Indeed, he is going to spend the next three chapters talking about how this works—how we become righteous after believing. We gain God’s approval when we believe initially, and interestingly enough, as we continue along following Jesus, God makes us more and more righteous. So, the statement “the many will be made righteous” can have a double meaning. We are righteous from the moment we trust in Christ, and we start the process of becoming more righteous which will have its fulfillment when we actually go to meet Christ after this life.
It is certainly true that the Jewish law in the Old Testament showed people where they failed to meet God’s expectations, that they were unrighteous. So, “the law came in to increase the trespass.” Because we all as humans have a sin nature, a law system only points out to us where we are wrong, where we fail to measure up. And not only that, but it also causes our flesh to want to do more and more wrong. And Paul is going to talk about this a bit later in Romans. But thanks be to God, because even though our sin was out of control, God’s “grace abounded all the more.” It is definitely true that we need a tremendous amount of grace, both you and me. Without God’s grace, we would be nothing. With his grace, on the other hand, we can be very successful for God. As John penned for us in his Gospel: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17, ESV).
There is a great series of verses I want us to consider from Galatians chapter 3 in regard to this matter. Paul says, “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:21-26, ESV). I think that gives a bit clearer of a picture of what Paul is talking about here in Romans chapter 5.
Paul told of his coming to faith, his believing in Jesus, his testimony to Timothy, who was a pastor, in 1 Timothy chapter 1. Let’s consider his words there. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 15, Paul told Pastor Timothy: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:15-17, ESV).
Before Christ, death reigned. It reigned for Paul, as he just told us, and it reigned for us. Death had its way all the time. But before Christ literally came to the earth, there was no hope of becoming a new creation. No hope even existed of going to Heaven when people died. Rather, before Christ, people would have to go to a waiting place, which was in the same place where unbelievers would go, which had a great chasm that separated the believers from the unbelievers. Recall, Jesus talked about this in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, which is found in Luke chapter 16. People couldn’t be with Jesus. Grace, though, grace gives us the ability to go up and be with God forever in eternity. Due to what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, by depending on that accomplishment we can now go to be with him when we die. No more waiting room. No more delay. When we die, we get to be in God’s presence. Paul’s there now, and we will be there in the future. Again, another awesome truth from this great chapter in Romans.
And anyone today can go to be with God when the leave this earth. Anyone who is willing to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of his or her sins, anyone who is willing to do that can gain God’s life for them now, and a much, much better life for themselves in the future.
-Daniel Litton
We are continuing along today in Romans chapter 5. Last time we went through the first part of this chapter, which is a great and classic part of the Book of Romans. We learned that those of us who have believed in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, we learned that we have obtained peace with God, the legal standing of peace with him. This is so important for us, and so very encouraging. In fact, we would not be able to live the Christian life without this foundation of peace. Indeed, this underlying peace allows us to be able to perfectly relate to God, without anything getting in the way. We don’t have to worry about our sin or something else separating us in our relationships with God, and this is something Paul will look further into later in this marvelous Book of Romans.
Nonetheless, Paul is continuing today, for he’s going to go back into compare and contrast mode, he is continuing to show our old life, without Christ, and how that compares to our new life with Christ. What is central to having a new life? One has to believe in Christ Jesus, one has to have their faith in him if they want a new life. The world offers other things to try to gain a new life. We see this in New Age philosophies, we see it in other religions, but really the only way we can have a new life is by disregarding the old, rather than trying to renovate or update the old. The house has to be torn down, and a new one built in its place. For you history buffs, it’s like Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, the old had to be abolished and the new had to be set in its place. There was no hope of making the old government work for us as a new one.
Let us turn in our Bibles, or tap in our Bible apps on our mobile devices, to Romans chapter 5. And today we are going to pick up in verse 12. We read from the Apostle Paul: “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.” (Romans 5:12-14, ESV)
Ok, so first we are presented with a “Therefore.” Interestingly, Paul does a little reversal here. It seems to me that this part of the chapter we are reviewing today would have better come before the first part of the chapter, but Paul is now giving us a background, a defense, as to why the first part is reality for us. We need peace with God because, as Paul states, “sin came into the world through one man.” Notice how he says that “sin entered the world.” He doesn’t say, “sin came into being through one man” but that “sin entered the world through one man.” Do we know, then, where sin came from? If it didn’t come from Adam or Eve, or if rather they weren’t the inventor of it, where did sin come from? We know where sin came from. It came into existence when Lucifer (aka Satan), God’s best angel in Heaven, rebelled against him, trying to take God’s glory as his own. That was the first sin in existence, outside of this world.
We understand, though, in reading Genesis chapter 3, and I don’t want to turn there this morning, but we see that Satan, posing as a snake (for he is the great poser), deceived Eve who in turn deceived Adam. He tempted them to go against God, and do something outside of God’s will. Surely, Satan can be a great compeller. He can compel you, me, or anyone to do things that we shouldn’t do. And what was the result of Adam sin? Well, it was death. Interestingly enough, though, God had warned Adam that in the day he ate of the forbidden fruit, that in the day he did that, he would surely die. Remember? So, it wasn’t that Adam got a consequence that God hadn’t already forewarned him against. Notice how fair God was. He tried to warn him. But what Satan had promised Eve to be life to her and her husband, did just the opposite. It gave them excitement in the moment as they were eating the fruit, in anticipation that they would get something great, as promised by Satan, but in the end what did they actually get? The excitement was over, and they were left with death.
So, death enters the world through Adam’s sin. It is through Adam’s sin because man bears the seed of sin. Recall, I mentioned that’s why Jesus could be born of the human Mary from the Holy Spirit. He could be born human without sin because no man was involved in her pregnancy. The infectious seed of Adam leads all people born everywhere to be born sinners, straight down the line. No exceptions. Those before the Law of Moses was given, in the earlier part of Genesis, were sinners. God ended up destroying the world, the one he had created for Adam, because sin had increased so much. And this was before the Mosaic Law. It is recorded in Genesis 7:5-6: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (ESV). Sin was so bad, at the time right before the Flood, that God actually regretted making men and women. We know we can sway the hand of God with prayer, right? We should know that. Well, humans can also sway the hand of God by their intensity of evil.
Quickly, notice in the text that Paul says, “so death spread to all men because all sinned.” I want to clear something up here. Paul is not saying that the people after Adam had the opportunity not to sin. He’s not saying that none were found to be righteous. For it would have been impossible for anyone not to have sinned, as I stated a little bit ago that people all have the sin nature from Adam’s seed. I think to understand what Paul is saying here, it is good to look at a cross reference Scripture in 1 Corinthians 15. Verse 22 states: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (ESV). You see, all had sinned because they were in Adam, not because they just so happened to sin. That difference is important.
Paul says, “for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.” “Sin is not counted where there is no law.” This doesn’t mean that people didn’t sin against God. It just means because God had not placed a law system in the world yet, that people were incapable of transgressing his law. Adam and Eve went against God’s prohibition in the Garden of Eden. They ate of the forbidden tree. So, they broke his Law of that time. But the people after them had not broken any of God’s actual Laws, in a one-on-one basis. Yet, because Adam and Eve had sinned, the people had the sin nature, and they went about sinning in the world, even though they didn’t have a Law to show them what they were doing wrong. However, they were still sinning, it just wasn’t counted. I’m just not sure if we can really understand what this means in full. We understand that the people were judged by the Flood, so God still gave judgment for sin.
Adam was a type of Christ. Now, how is this? Well, he was a type of Christ in the reverse way. He sinned, and all were affected in a negative way. All inherited the sin nature. All were disobedient to God. One might say Adam is like Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars. He ended up sinning, and many were defiled by his sin. And Christ, who’s he like? Well in this analogy, he’s like Luke Skywalker. The many are given hope and helped through his actions. But as we are going to see in the next section, Paul here is about to explain the goodness of Christ’s obedience to God, how he is the opposite of Adam.
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.” (Romans 5:15-17, ESV)
A few months ago a pastor friend approached me one day with a concern on his heart, and he wanted my thoughts on the matter. He said he had talked to two Christians recently, just in regular conversation outside of church, who had told him that they believed that there is no Hell, that God is all love that he could never send anyone to Hell. Then my pastor friend said he had preached a series on Hell, and that a couple people came up after the sermon and told him they weren't coming back to his church. He even told me there is a pastor out there, a famous one, who is teaching this, and had written a book on the matter. I told my friend that if you eliminate sin, you eliminate the need for the cross. If there is no sin, there is no Hell. If all people automatically go to Heaven, I said to him, then why do you need to have the cross? What was the reason for Jesus coming to the earth in the first place? You see, this is a serious problem among some folks, including those who identify as Christian. Even if they know they do wrong, they don't want to believe that God judges wrong. They want to believe that everyone goes to Heaven.
Paul said, “the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.” Notice that Paul doesn’t say, “abounded for all.” He said, “abounded for many.” You see, not everyone is going to believe the Gospel. Not even everyone who says they believe in Jesus will enter the Kingdom of Heaven when they die. Not everyone who says they are a Christian meets the requirements of being a Christian. Let us bring to mind what Jesus has said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (“Matthew 7:21, ESV). What is the Father’s will; what are those requirements? You have to believe you, yourself, are a sinner and that you are in need of a Savior, and Jesus has fulfilled that need by dying on the cross for you and rising from the dead. That’s God’s grace. That’s how he reconciles us to himself.
What does Paul say next? He says, “For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification” (ESV). What’s that? “Following many trespasses” he says. That means there’s a lot of sin out there, and that sin, in you, in me, needs forgiven. And when it is forgiven, it what? Well, it brings justification. Paul even puts this sentence in the past tense (another good verse for eternal security), as if this has already happened, as if it is certain. What else helps our case here? Paul says, “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.” Wait a minute. We what? We have to “receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness.” If I’m already righteous, how can I receive righteousness? How is that possible? You see, I’m not righteous, and neither are you. None of us our righteous without Jesus Christ’s righteousness.
And what is this about reigning in life? “You mean to tell me that I can reign in life through Jesus Christ?” Yes, that’s correct. The are multiple reasons why we reign in life. We reign in live, first and foremost, in the context of this chapter, because we have peace with God. With that peace, we have power. Remember? We talked about this last week. We are the head, and not the tale. As Paul told the Colossian believers, “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body” (Colossians 3:15, ESV). This is a choice we have to make. We can choose to worry, fret, fear, have anxiety, whatever, or we can choose to reign in life by letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. The choice is ours. It’s not easy, but it requires discipline of the mind. It’s happens a little bit at a time, as you grow, as you practice, as you become more like Jesus. Jesus certainly reigned in life. He didn’t worry about anything. I’ve stated this is the past, but sometimes it is just good to clear your mind by only thinking about now, and not allowing your mind to think about anything but what your eyes see. Try this for twenty or thirty minutes. By doing things like this, by practicing techniques like this, it can allow us to gain more and more control over our minds, to strengthen our self-discipline, our self-control.
Another reason we reign in life is because we have the truth. We have reality. Recall what Jesus said in John chapter 8. He said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32, ESV). Knowing the truth does what? It sets us free. It causes us to reign in life. We can exercise our peace, we can keep calm, because we have God’s truth. And we live by that truth. It says in Psalm 119, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalms 119:105, ESV). Or, as Solomon put it in Proverbs: “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life” (Proverbs 6:23, ESV). Yes, we have to have discipline; we need correction.
Does reigning in life give us prosperity, as Christians? There’s that word, again, “Prosperity.” Man, this is heavy. Is prosperity a bad thing? No, I don’t think prosperity is a bad thing. How did we define prosperity several weeks ago? Prosperity is being able to accomplish what the Lord wants us to accomplish primarily. It is God enabling us to live out our calls, whatever those calls may be; we each have different calls. Reigning in life, though, also includes successes on this earth undoubtedly. It just does. I mean, you have personal successes as a result of your relationship with God through Jesus. God may have helped you get a better position at work. He has helped people have favor when buying that house, so that they were the ones who ended up getting it in the bidding war. God has given people prosperity in finding a mate. He’s given us more money. There are all kinds of ways that God prospers his people. You ask for things in prayer, and you expect God to answer those requests, and a lot of times it is for worldly successes. So, you do believe in God’s prosperity for this life; you surely do.
After all, what earthly father wouldn’t want to help their children, to give them good things in life? Even Jesus made this argument. He said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (“Matthew 7:7-11, ESV). This isn’t a free-for-all, though. Let’s bear in mind what James has told us, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3, ESV). So, let’s keep watch on our motives, but God definitely does give us, prosper us, with good things. He causes us, again, to reign in life.
Getting back to our text in Romans 5. Verse 18: “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 5:18-21, ESV)
Verse 18 again: “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” This, again, is not saying that all people will be saved. Many other places in the Bible tell us that won’t be the case. Jesus told us that on multiple occasions, and the Book of Revelation clearly states that. We know that Paul was a Jewish man, and in the Jewish language, this comparison in the sentence by Paul is called a parallelism. This was common in Hebrew writings. The one act of righteousness, by Jesus, leads to the possibility of all being saved. “For God so loved the world,” John states, “that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, KJV). As John recorded, “whosoever” includes anybody and everybody. The requirement is “whosoever” believes; that’s all there is to it. But one has to believe. It’s not a default setting, but you have to make it your default setting.
Verse 19 says, “so by the one man's obedience.” We know that Christ was obedient to the Father by going to the cross. That was a tremendous act of obedience. We also are aware that throughout his life Christ was obedient to God in every way. His life was one marked by obedience. He gives us the example to follow in our lives. Christ learned obedience through what he suffered, as the writer of Hebrews points out to us (see Hebrews 5:8-10). That’s his model for us. And, we too, can and should learn to be more obedient to God when we suffer. You know, and I know that suffering leads us into obedience, or, at least it should. Remember what we talked about last week, at the beginning of this chapter? Paul said, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4, ESV). And, what did the writer of Hebrews say? That Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (ESV). I understand; this is uncomfortable. But we do learn and become better people in our sufferings, as I’m sure many of you can testify.
Paul said, “the many will be made righteous.” Indeed, he is going to spend the next three chapters talking about how this works—how we become righteous after believing. We gain God’s approval when we believe initially, and interestingly enough, as we continue along following Jesus, God makes us more and more righteous. So, the statement “the many will be made righteous” can have a double meaning. We are righteous from the moment we trust in Christ, and we start the process of becoming more righteous which will have its fulfillment when we actually go to meet Christ after this life.
It is certainly true that the Jewish law in the Old Testament showed people where they failed to meet God’s expectations, that they were unrighteous. So, “the law came in to increase the trespass.” Because we all as humans have a sin nature, a law system only points out to us where we are wrong, where we fail to measure up. And not only that, but it also causes our flesh to want to do more and more wrong. And Paul is going to talk about this a bit later in Romans. But thanks be to God, because even though our sin was out of control, God’s “grace abounded all the more.” It is definitely true that we need a tremendous amount of grace, both you and me. Without God’s grace, we would be nothing. With his grace, on the other hand, we can be very successful for God. As John penned for us in his Gospel: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17, ESV).
There is a great series of verses I want us to consider from Galatians chapter 3 in regard to this matter. Paul says, “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:21-26, ESV). I think that gives a bit clearer of a picture of what Paul is talking about here in Romans chapter 5.
Paul told of his coming to faith, his believing in Jesus, his testimony to Timothy, who was a pastor, in 1 Timothy chapter 1. Let’s consider his words there. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 15, Paul told Pastor Timothy: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:15-17, ESV).
Before Christ, death reigned. It reigned for Paul, as he just told us, and it reigned for us. Death had its way all the time. But before Christ literally came to the earth, there was no hope of becoming a new creation. No hope even existed of going to Heaven when people died. Rather, before Christ, people would have to go to a waiting place, which was in the same place where unbelievers would go, which had a great chasm that separated the believers from the unbelievers. Recall, Jesus talked about this in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, which is found in Luke chapter 16. People couldn’t be with Jesus. Grace, though, grace gives us the ability to go up and be with God forever in eternity. Due to what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, by depending on that accomplishment we can now go to be with him when we die. No more waiting room. No more delay. When we die, we get to be in God’s presence. Paul’s there now, and we will be there in the future. Again, another awesome truth from this great chapter in Romans.
And anyone today can go to be with God when the leave this earth. Anyone who is willing to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of his or her sins, anyone who is willing to do that can gain God’s life for them now, and a much, much better life for themselves in the future.
-Daniel Litton