Romans 05(12–21)

Review

We’ve been going through Paul’s letter to the Romans since March. And his letter began with the bad news that there’s no difference between us, because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And so, all of us are justly liable to suffer God’s wrath against sinners in this life and in the next.

That’s the bad news and it’s very bad. But after the bad news there comes the good news which Paul was so eager to preach in Rome. And the good news is that though there is no difference between us, because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, nevertheless we are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. So, because of God’s grace, because of God’s kindness to sinners, he sent his Son into the world to accomplish our redemption. That is to say, God sent his Son into the world to save us from God’s wrath by his life and death and resurrection. And because of what Christ has done to save us from God’s wrath by his life and death and resurrection, sinners who trust in Christ for salvation are justified.

And to be justified means God forgives us for all that we have done wrong. And God can forgive us because Christ paid for our sins with his life when he died on the cross. He took the blame for us and suffered the consequences of our disobedience in our place. And so, instead of punishing us, which is what we deserve, God forgives all those who trust in his Son.

And not only does God forgive us for all that we have done wrong, but he also treats us as if we’ve done everything right. And he’s able to do that, because Christ shares his own record of perfect obedience with all who trust in him for salvation. He’s the only one who has done everything right. And he shares his record of perfect obedience with his people so that even though you may have done everything wrong, God treats you as if you’ve done everything right, because of Christ.

So, the bad news is that all of us are sinners who deserve to be condemned. But the good news is that all who trust in Christ are justified: God forgives us for what we have done wrong and God treats us as if we’ve done everything right. And it’s all because of Christ and God’s overflowing grace and mercy and love towards us.

And in the first part of chapter 5, Paul says that since we’ve been justified through faith, then we have peace with God. So, God is no longer against us. We’ve been reconciled to him. And since we’ve been justified through faith, we also have the hope of glory. So, we no longer need to fear the wrath of God on the Day of Judgment to come, because we have now been reconciled to God through faith in Christ and we can therefore look forward to everlasting life in the presence of God in the life to come.

Introduction

And today we come to verses 12 to 21 of chapter 5. If you have a sense of deja vu, or a sense that you’ve heard a sermon on this passage not so long ago, it’s because you did. We studied this passage in April last year at one of our invitation services. And at that time I referred to a work event which Yvonne attended, which began with an ice-breaker to get everyone talking to one another. And for the ice-breaker, they were asked to discuss among themselves which two people have made the biggest impact on the world. Which two people have had the biggest influence on history?

And I can imagine people suggesting the names of political leaders, because when the leader of a powerful nation says something or does something it can have an impact on many thousands or even millions of people for many years or for many generations even. Or someone might suggest a scientist or medical researcher who has made some discovery that has changed our lives for the better. Think of how our lives are so much better now than the lives of people in the past because of the medicines we now have and the medical procedures that are now possible. Or perhaps someone might suggest someone who has invented some gadget which everyone uses and which has revolutionised our lives. Or there might be some other kind of person which people would suggest to answer the question: Which two people have made the biggest impact on the world?

But in today’s passage, Paul gives us the definitive answer. So, which two people have made the biggest impact on the world? Easy. It’s Adam and it’s the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s Adam, because what Adam did in the beginning has affected every single person who has ever been born in the ordinary way. And it’s the Lord Jesus Christ, because what the Lord Jesus Christ did when he died on the cross affects every single one of his people throughout the generations.

And what Paul does in these verses is he compares and contrasts Adam and the Lord Jesus Christ. He compares them by showing us in what way they are similar to one another. And he contrasts them by showing us in what ways they are dissimilar to one another.

And I can tell you right now the way they are similar to one another. Adam and the Lord Jesus Christ are similar to one another in that both of them are representative figures. When Adam was in the Garden of Eden, he was representing the whole of the human race. And what he did affects us all. And when Christ died on the cross in obedience to his Father in heaven, he was representing all of his people throughout the generations. And what he did affects them all.

And this is how the world works, isn’t it? God has so created the world that we’re all connected to one another in various ways so that the life we live now is affected by what other people do or have done. And so, if I were to become rich, it would not only affect me, but it would affect my family as well. They would benefit from my new-found wealth. And many rich people today are rich, not because of anything they themselves did, but because of what their ancestors did. And the present generation has inherited the wealth of the previous generation. Many movie stars are where they are today not simply because of their talent, but because one or both of their parents are also in the business. And I remember someone I knew as a teenager whose parents decided to move to another country. And so, that person’s whole life was changed and they grew up as a citizen of another country because of the decision of their parents. And we’re not only affected by what our parents and ancestors did, because we’re affected by what our politicians do and we’re affected by what organisations do and we’re affected by what people in our community do. And if you’ve got noisy neighbours, you’ll know that what other people do affects you in a very simple and annoying way.

God has so created the world that we’re all connected to one another in various ways so that the life we live now is affected by what other people do or have done.

And what Adam did in the Garden of Eden affects us all. And what Christ did on the cross affects all of his people. That’s how they’re similar and that’s why they are the two people who have had the biggest impact on the world.

What Adam did

And so, what did Adam do? He let sin come into the world. So, take a look at verse 12, where Paul says that sin entered the world through one man. And when he says ‘through one man’, he’s thinking of Adam. Paul is thinking of what happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam sinned against the Lord by disobeying the Lord’s command concerning the forbidden fruit. And in this way, he let sin come into the world.

Now, you might recall that Adam wasn’t the first person to take the forbidden fruit. It was Eve, wasn’t it? She took the fruit and ate it and then gave it to Adam. But Paul doesn’t mention Eve, because Eve wasn’t the one who was representing us. She wasn’t the head of the human race. The head of the human race, the one who was representing us in the Garden, was Adam. And when Adam took the forbidden fruit and when he disobeyed God’s clear command and sinned against God, it was as if he opened a door and he let sin into the world. When God created the world in the beginning, there was no sin. Everything was very good. But then Adam opened the door and he let sin come into the world, so that sinning comes naturally to us now. Because of Adam, our whole human nature has been corrupted so that we’re not the way we’re supposed to be and instead of being naturally inclined to do what is good, we’re now naturally inclined to do what is evil. As people sometimes says, parents don’t need to teach their children be bad. It comes naturally to them and we have to teach our children to do what is good.

And when Adam opened the door to sin, he also opened the door to something else. He opened the door to death. That’s also in verse 12. Death entered the world through sin, because death is the penalty for sin. So, God warned Adam that on the day they eat from the Tree of Knowledge they will surely die. And on the day Adam disobeyed God, sin came into the world and death also came into the world. And you’re perhaps familiar with Genesis 5 and the first genealogy in the Bible. There we read about Adam’s descendants. For each one, it says the person’s name, and the name of that person’s first son and how long the person lived. And they it says: ‘and then he died.’ And then he died. And then he died. And then he died. With one exception, they all died. And they all died because sin came into the world through Adam and death came into the world through sin.

And so, death came to all men — or death came to all people — because all sinned. Do you see that at the end of verse 12? And what Paul means when he says that death came to all people because all sinned is that death came to all people because all sinned in Adam. So, while it’s true that sinning comes naturally to us all, because our human nature has become corrupt, and while it’s true that every sin we commit deserves death, because the wages of sin is death, nevertheless Paul, in these verses, is trying to show us the impact Adam has on us all. And so, he’s saying to us that we all sinned in Adam. We were all implicated in his first sin. We were all implicated in his first sin, because he was representing us in the Garden of Eden. And what he did in the Garden affects us all. And because we’re all implicated in his first sin, then the moment we were conceived in our mother’s womb, we were guilty sinners in the sight of God and justly liable to God’s wrath against sinners.

And so, we read in verse 15 that the many died by the trespass of the one man. When Paul says ‘the many died’, he means ‘they all died’. All die because of Adam’s one trespass in the beginning.

And then take a look at verse 16, where Paul says that the result of the one man’s sin is judgment that brings condemnation. We deserve to be condemned, not only because of our own many sins, but because of Adam’s one sin in the beginning.

And then there’s verse 17: by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man. Because of Adam’s sin in the beginning, we all live under the power and dominion of death.

And then there’s verse 18 where Paul says that the result of one trespass was condemnation for all people. Because we’re all implicated in Adam’s one sin in the beginning, we are all under God’s condemnation. And then there’s verse 19: through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners. And when Paul says the many were made sinners, he means we were all made sinners. We are born sinners. Adam was created in a state of innocence, but we are born in a state of sin.

Paul is showing us in these verses that what Adam did in the beginning affects us all. When he sinned that one time in the Garden, he opened the door to sin and sin came into the world. And now, disobeying God comes naturally to us. We are all sinfully inclined to do evil, instead of good. And when Adam sinned in the Garden, death came into the world. And death has spread to everyone, because everyone who was born in the ordinary way was implicated in Adam’s one sin in the beginning.

What the Lord Jesus did

So, that’s what Adam did. What did the Lord Jesus do? Well, what he did and the impact it has on us is very different from what Adam did and the impact it has on us. Adam and Christ are similar in that they’re both representative figures. But they’re very different from one another because of what they did and the impact it has.

And the best place to see what the Lord did is in verses 18 and 19. Take a look at verse 18 where Paul says that the result of one trespass — performed by Adam — was condemnation for all men, but the result of one act of righteousness — performed by Christ — was justification that brings life for all men. And now look at verse 19: through the disobedience of the one man — he means Adam — the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the one man — now he means Christ — the many will be made righteous.

So, Adam sinned against God. He trespassed into sin. He disobeyed and did what was wrong in the sight of God. On the other hand, the Lord Jesus performed an act of righteousness. That is to say, whereas Adam did what was wrong, the Lord Jesus did what was right. Whereas Adam was disobedient, the Lord Jesus was obedient. And when Paul refers in verses 18 and 19 to Christ’s one act of righteousness and to his obedience, he’s referring specifically to the cross. So, the Lord Jesus was always obedient to his Father in heaven. He never did anything wrong. He did not sin once in thought or word or deed. But Paul is thinking here of the cross, where the Lord Jesus suffered and died for the sins of his people in obedience to his Father’s will. It was his Father’s will for him to suffer and to die and to give up his life as the ransom to pay for our sins. And Christ submitted to his Father’s will and was obedient to him even to the point of death on the cross.

And so, that’s what Christ did. Unlike Adam who was disobedient, the Lord Jesus obeyed his Father in heaven. And obeying his Father in heaven meant dying for his people on the cross.

And if that’s what Christ has done, what was the result of this one act of righteousness? Paul tells us in verse 18 that the result of this one act of righteousness was justification. And we know by now that justification means that God forgives everyone who trusts in his Son for salvation and he treats us as if we’ve done everything right. He pardons and he accepts. He forgives us for what we have done wrong and he treats us as if we’ve done everything right. That’s what we mean by justification.

And Paul says in verse 18 that justification brings life for all men. He means that all men and women and boys and girls who are justified through faith in Christ receive the free gift of eternal life. Adam’s sin in the beginning brought death, but Christ’s obedience brings life. Because of Adam, we face death. But because of Christ, we receive the hope of eternal life in the presence of God.

And in verse 19 Paul says that through the disobedience of Adam, the many were made sinners, but through the obedience of Christ, the many are made righteous. This is astounding, because when people look at us, they see our faults and failures and the mistakes we’ve made and the things we have done which are wrong. And there are certain people who like to bring up our failures and they like to criticise us. And the thing is: we know that they’re often right, because each one of us knows our own faults and failings and the foolish things we have done. And when we think about those things, we’re ashamed. We know we’re not right and that many of the things we do are wrong. But how wonderful! Because of Christ’s obedience to his Father’s will, we are made righteous. That is to say, God declares us right in his sight. We may have done everything wrong, but God is willing to treat us as if we’ve done everything right, because Christ shares with his people his own record of perfect obedience.

So, God declares us right in his sight. And he also fills us with his Spirit to work in our lives to enable us more and more to do what is right instead of what is evil in our daily lives. The Spirit, working inside us, helps us to resist our natural inclination to sin and he inclines us to do what’s right.

And then, when we’re brought into God’s presence in the life to come, we’ll be made perfectly righteous so that our every thought and desire and inclination will only ever be to do good and we’ll never ever have an evil thought ever again. And this is the hope we have because of Christ’s one act of righteousness when he gave up in life on the cross in obedience to his Father in heaven.

What Adam did in the beginning affects us all. But what Christ did when he died on the cross affects all of Christ’s people in a way which corresponds to what Adam did, but what also surpasses and undoes what Adam did. Because of Adam we’re made sinners. But because of Christ we’re made righteous in God’s sight. Because of Adam, we die. But because of Christ, we shall live with God for ever and for ever. And that’s why we must all cling to Christ by faith, because he’s the only one who is able to deliver us from the reign of sin and death.

Conclusion

And before we finish, look at what Paul says here about God’s grace. In verse 15 he writes about God’s grace and the gift of Christ’s grace and how they overflow to the many. And in verse 17 he writes about God’s abundant provision of grace. And in verse 20 he says that where sin increased, grace increased all the more.

Paul always come back to God’s grace, which is his abounding kindness to sinners. We don’t deserve anything from God except condemnation and eternal punishment. We don’t deserve anything else, because we’re all implicated in Adam’s first sin so that we’re guilty sinners from the moment we were conceived. And every day we sin against God in countless ways. We don’t deserve anything from God apart from his wrath and curse. But instead of treating us as our sins deserve, he is gracious and merciful. And his grace is overflowing. It is abounding. It is abundant. Where sin increases, God’s grace — his kindness to sinners — increases as well. God’s grace to his people always surpasses our sin.

Christians sometimes worry that our sins will turn God against us. But our sins will not turn God against us, because God’s kindness to his people is overflowing and abundant. His grace to us is a never-ending river of love and mercy and kindness and goodness. His grace to us can never run out. And so, you may come to church on Sundays feeling down because of your many weaknesses and failures. But you can go home on Sundays, with your head lifted up because of God’s abounding and overflowing grace towards you in Christ Jesus, who, by his obedience to his Father, has overcome all that Adam did in the beginning. And so, you can lift up your head and rejoice.