I've entitled today's message, Christ, Our Righteousness, and by that I mean It's not a righteousness that is in us, but it's a righteousness that is in Christ and by Him. It's not an obedience that we rendered, not by satisfaction that we made, it's by a satisfaction in Christ's blood that He made, and by obedience to God that He gave out of love, that is our righteousness.

In the book of Deuteronomy, It says that if we keep the commandments, it will be for our righteousness. It says in Deuteronomy 6.25, it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he has commanded us. Well, they couldn't and they didn't. And so they had no righteousness. But it does show that if it were possible to keep the law, If it were possible to observe all the commandments, then that would be our righteousness. And that helps us to understand something about what righteousness is when God himself provides it. It's an obedience. Righteousness is an obedience, and it's a fulfillment of the law's requirement for our obedience. And so in that sense, that verse helps us.

But it also shows us this terrible problem we have, that we can't provide that righteousness. Look at Romans chapter three. In Romans chapter three, he says this in verse 19. Now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, And this shows who that is, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. So if every mouth and all the world become guilty by the law, and it says this to those who are under the law, then everyone's under the law, doesn't that teach us that? Everyone is under the law.

And the law was designed to do something, to prove our guilt. Guilt means that we have transgressed God's law. If you look at Romans chapter four, it says in verse 15 of Romans four, the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there is no transgression. I was trying to think of how we understand that. How would you understand that? Well, I know that I've heard, I've never been there, but in Germany, they say that they have a road, I think it's called the Autobahn, and people on that road can drive whatever speed limit they want to. There's no speed law. If they drive 110 miles an hour, it's okay because there's no law there. even though it may be faster than they should. The law doesn't say that's wrong, so the law doesn't charge them with guilt. There's no transgression of a law if there's no law. You see, you can't fail to meet the law's requirement if there is no law.

And in 1 John chapter three and verse five, it says, is the transgression of the law. So if there's no law, there's no transgression, and if there's no transgression, there's no sin. And it's important that we understand that. So in Romans 3, 19, where we just read, it says that the law was given to stop every mouth, to shut every mouth, that we all might become guilty before God and guilty means God has imputed to us a transgression or multiple transgressions. James says, I think it's in chapter two, verse 10, if you've broken one law, you've broken all of the law. Because the law stands as a binding covenant. If you're under the law, then you have to keep all of it. Galatians 3 verse 10 says, cursed is everyone who continue with not in all the things that are written in the law to do them. So it's clear from Galatians 3.10, which again was quoted from the Old Testament, it's clear that the law hangs, it stands or falls in terms of our obedience By every command in it, we can't just say, well, I've kept all but one of the commandments, and I failed to keep one, therefore, I'm 90% righteous and only 10% guilty. God says, no, if you've broken one law, you've broken the law, therefore, you're guilty, you've transgressed. And God imputes guilt to us when we transgress the law.

If you look at Romans chapter five, where we are, I want you to see this. He says this in verse 13 of Romans chapter five, where Brad just read. Until the law, sin was in the world. Remember in Genesis six, verse five, God says he looked upon man and he saw that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. So sin was in the world. But he says, sin is not imputed when there's no law. Sin being imputed means God charges us with guilt for transgressing the law. That's what it means. So when we transgress the law, God makes a judgment. The judgment is guilty. That's imputation. God imputes to us what is true. We transgress the law. The law is the standard. Our transgression fails to meet that standard. God says, do this. We don't do it. Don't do this. We do it. That's a transgression. And transgressing the law is sin. Sin is transgression of the law. And when we're under a law, and we've broken that law, then God charges us, he imputes to us the guilt of our transgression.

So now we understand something about the way that God says what is transgression, what is sin, what is the law, and why these things are important. But back to Romans chapter three, he goes on, because we're driving at the righteousness of Christ here, he says in verse 20, After saying the law was given to shut every mouth so that we might all be proved guilty before God, he says this in verse 20, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. And here's why, the law, by the law is the knowledge of sin. So the law cannot justify because the law discovers our sin. It discovers our transgression. And the law is used by God to charge us with the guilt of transgression. He imputes that guilt to us. in his judgment. And so the law can't be used to justify us, because it's actually used to condemn us, to prove our guilt, and then to pronounce that condemnation. You're guilty, you have to answer to the law, and the law has a curse for the guilty. Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the law to do them. That's from Galatians chapter three, verse 10.

Okay, so the law was given, and all under the law were transgressors. And God says the law itself is used to prove them guilty. And therefore, our deeds, our personal performance, our obedience to the law can never be used to justify us. And yet, that's what people do. That's what people do. People spend their whole lives trying to avoid sin. And sometimes they try to perform an obedience that's a positive obedience in order to fulfill that obedience that God requires. And when I say obedience, it can come in any form. Anything that God requires of us, that we are obligated to do, or we consider ourselves obligated to do by our understanding of it. That's an obedience required of us. And our attempts to obey in order to obtain from God a clear record, favor, to remove the punishment, to gain the reward, all those attempts are personal our attempts to gain favor from God by our personal obedience to God's law. And God says, no, no.

That kind of leaves us with a question, doesn't it? And how in the world, if my obedience can't justify me, First of all, because the law requires what I am unable to give and I've already violated the law, I'm a transgressor and God's proved me guilty from verse 19. If I'm guilty, I can't be justified by that law that already condemns me. How then can I be justified?

Well, one thing the law does do is it is very good at this. It gives us the knowledge of sin. Until the law came, we didn't know what sin was. When God says, don't you do that. We knew then, God has clearly said that. Don't you murder, don't you steal, do not lie, and do not commit adultery, and do not covet what is not yours. Don't lust after, don't desire what doesn't belong to you. and so many other things in the law towards God, but those are just towards one another.

So the law proves us guilty and because we're guilty and the law requires us to keep it and we haven't, then we're guilty and we can't be justified by it. Now, is that good news that we can't be justified by the law? Think about it. I said a moment ago that everyone tries to, We all try to, and when God says you can't be, there's something about us that resists that, doesn't there?

But, and you see that when you, I was talking, we were talking, Denise and I were talking, and she said something to somebody. Well, that's not what the scripture says. And she quoted the scripture. And the person said, well, that's not the way, I don't understand it that way. That's not the way I understand it. But it's clear. No, I don't believe that's what it says.

So there's a problem. And the problem is human pride. God is clear. No, I don't think that's what, that can't be true. No, I can be acceptable by God by doing this and that, even though it's clear that he said I can't. So there's human pride, and human pride is always trying to be pleasing to God by saying, I didn't do that. Or I did, I did do that. And so that attitude of trying to be justified before God by my own personal obedience is inbred. It's part of us, isn't it?

But that is not the way God sees it. And this is something that we have to learn, and it's a hard thing to learn. But the truth is the way God sees things. The truth is what God sees. It doesn't matter what I think. It's what God says. And here's what God says. Verse 21 of Romans 3. But now the righteousness of God. This is not the righteousness of man. Clear? This is not your obedience. This is the righteousness of God. Without the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Okay, so the law talks about this righteousness, but it's not a righteousness that is, it's a righteousness of God, it's not a righteousness of man by his law keeping. But this righteousness is made known, it's brought to light. Because the law and the prophets bear witness to it, and what is that? What is that righteousness of God?

Verse 22, Romans 3, even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned, all are guilty, none can be justified by the law. All have come short of the glory of God.

So here we all, every person in the world from Adam to the end of time, across the entire globe. It doesn't matter where they are. Every person born to Adam has sinned against God and is guilty, and they cannot be justified by what they do, not by what they feel, not by what they think. Nothing about them can justify them. Only the righteousness of God can do that. And that righteousness is what the law is talking about. That's what the prophets are talking about.

And he says this in verse 24, here it is. Being justified, being declared righteous. God himself draws a judgment. Righteous, that's what justification means. God declaring us to be righteous before him. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God.

So here we have what God's righteousness is, don't we? We're justified by his righteousness. This righteousness is freely by his grace. We did not produce it. We didn't initiate it. We didn't bring it to a conclusion. We didn't contribute to it. God did it. It's His doing, His initiation, His completion, His perfection, and His bestowing of it, His gift of it, being justified freely by His grace.

This righteousness is produced not because we deserved it, but because God is gracious. God was kind to us not because we deserved kindness, but because God is kind. God loves us not because we're lovable, but because God is love. You see, He justified us freely by His grace and this is how God could do this and still be a just God. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

This is the foundation of God's judgment. They're righteous. How did God say concerning his people, they are righteous? He says here, the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And he expands, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.

What is propitiation? Propitiation is something that's done towards God. It's not done towards you. Propitiation is the satisfaction made to God. It is the removing of God's wrath by an appeasement made in sacrifice to satisfy God's justice, to remove the offense by blood sacrifice, by the sacrifice of a substitute. That's propitiation. And God did this. God set forth Christ. Christ Himself is the propitiation. And this propitiation is through faith in His blood, not faith in our faith, not faith in our attitude.

You see, propitiation doesn't change our attitude. What justifies us is what God did So that he himself as God would be pleased, he would be satisfied, and he would receive a full fulfillment of his righteousness in satisfaction to all of his perfections. And this in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was towards God, not towards us. Christ did not die to change our minds. He died because this was consistent with the way God justifies sinners.

And this is an eternal thing. God didn't change. You know, sometimes we think, well, God was mad at us, and so Christ died in order to take away his anger, and at the cross, Jesus took away God's wrath. That's not the way it was at all. God always loved his people in Christ. but because he found him before time began as the surety for his people, and laid upon him the obligation to make them sure, so that he would bring them to himself out of their sin, and make them holy, and pure, and faultless, and blameless, and without reproach, and unreprovable in his sight, in the presence of his glory.

Therefore, in eternity he already Having obtained the obligation of Christ to bear their sins and to fulfill God's own righteousness, God already received in his own character and person full satisfaction in that choice of him and in Christ's loving obligation and pledge of himself for the sins of his people and to fulfill God's righteousness.

So it's through that redemption. that redemption that paid a price of ransom, a ransom price that brought us out of sin and by which God forgave us. He set us free from our sin debt and from the curse of his law, from all the other things that our sins bring, death.

You see, this is how God justifies. It's through the propitiation. the redeeming work of Christ done out of God's grace, an answer provided by God to God for sinners. That's the only part we had. We were the objects. We were the offenders and we were the objects of His grace by God's own initiative, God's determination, God's purpose to show Himself great and glorious in His goodness of His grace and saving us when we did not deserve it and could never deserve it.

And now let's look at Romans 5. That's the background. And Romans 5 is teaching us, it's telling us that even now that we see these things as the truth of the way things are between us and God, that all of this is done and we have this peace with God through the faith God gives to us. We know now in our hearts that Christ is our peace. We know now that God has provided and received from him everything that God could require, and everything that delights God to the infinite degree of God's own perfections. God cannot demand more than Christ gave. And all that Christ gave satisfied God and pleased God so that it was enough to justify sinners with all of the eternal inheritance that he would give to his son, to make them his children. This was done.

Now this is what God is talking about in Romans 5. In verse 5, he picks it up, he says, Hope makes not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. And what does the Holy Spirit do? When He's given to God's people, what does He do? How do we know we have the Holy Spirit? Because He shows us Christ and Him crucified. because he convinces us, he is all my righteousness. He is all my salvation. Everything God requires is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he goes on. This is how the love of God is overflowingly, abundantly shed forth in our hearts continuously from the gospel.

Verse six, for when we were yet without strength, we could do nothing to do one thing of all God requires. Even in our sinfulness, we couldn't undo our sins, and we certainly couldn't fulfill our righteousness. Christ died for the ungodly. What a powerful statement. You know why it's comforting that we're not justified by our works? You know why that's comforting? because it means I qualify. It means I qualify. If it's not by my works, then I qualify. I meet the qualifications. God will not, cannot, and does not look for something in me to justify me. I qualify. And here again, he emphasizes it. Christ died for the ungodly. That's the opposite of godly. without God in the world. Idolaters, everything you could attach to ungodly, that's me. I qualify, don't you? Have you found that? Has the Lord persuaded us? We're guilty, and I cannot be justified by what I am, by what I do. God has to do something. The one who made me has to save me. He has to answer his own requirements. They're too high for me to meet. I am a wretch. And I'm faulty for that. It's my fault.

Christ died for the ungodly. For a righteous man will one die. Yet, peradventure for good men, some would even dare to die. But God, here's a man, he does everything that's right. You could barely find someone to die for that man. Peradventure, you might find someone who would die for a good man.

But God made known, verse 8, God made known, openly manifested, commendeth his love. This is the love of God, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Overflowing love, God made known to us His love in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Wait a minute, I wasn't born yet. How could I be a sinner? Hold that thought. God's gonna prove Christ died for us. Take God's view. See what God says. That's the way things are. When we were sinners, Christ died for us. Are you satisfied to stay there? I am. I'm happy with that. I might not have known myself. Now I know something about my sin, and I can agree. Yes, I'm a sinner. I don't know how this all works out, but let's keep the reading.

He says, verse nine, much more then. You see that phrase much more? Five times in this chapter, much more is mentioned. And this is the first one. Make note of it. Much more than being now. Justification isn't a progressive thing. You don't start a little good and get better and better and finally reach some plateau. Okay, you're good enough. That's the way the Mormons say. That's the way the Catholics say. You gotta spend some time over here in this place and suffer a little longer or do some good works or something. Somehow you'll actually get to this justified state. You know what that is? That's a bologna sandwich. That's what we call it. That's bologna.

No, he says, being now justified. Why? Because Christ died. It's important that we see the progression here. God did something, the redeeming work, the propitiation that Christ was made to be and that he made this satisfaction to justify us. That's what he's talking about here. He says it in verse six, Christ died for us. Verse 8, Christ died for us when we were sinners. Verse 9, much more than now, being justified by His blood, Christ gave Himself in sacrifice as an offering to God for our sins. God was propitiated. It was a sweet-smelling savor. He says, much more now, being justified by His blood, We shall be saved from wrath through him. There's no possibility. All those whom Christ justified will be saved from wrath.

Second Corinthians 5.10, we're going to stand before the judgment seat of God, but we'll be saved from wrath through him. You see? By his life, Christ lives. He died to justify us. How much more? Will He save us to the uttermost by His risen life, His ascended, reigning, sovereign, at the right hand of God advocating for us by His own death and righteousness?

For if when we were enemies, verse 10, if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Is there a more powerful text of scripture in all the Bible? God himself, against whom we sinned, initiated and provided and did not spare but delivered up his own son in order to make peace with us in the blood of his son. And he made that peace. It was towards God that Christ was sacrificed, not towards us. Outside of your history, Christ accomplished this work. God reconciled us to himself. We who had offended him, he had every right to damn us, and yet he reconciled us through the death of his son. Does that give you some peace?

He goes on, not only so, but now we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement, the removal of our sins and the reestablishment of peace and joy and freedom in the presence of God by the work of Christ.

In Leviticus, if you want to turn there, Leviticus chapter 16, this is the chapter in the Bible where atonement, this is a day of atonement. This foreshadowed, this was used by God to teach us what this atonement is.

In Leviticus 16, I want you to see a couple of places here. Look at verse 30. He says in verse 30, on that day, This is the typical atonement, but it teaches us the real atonement that Christ made. On that day, notice who does this, the priest. Not you, but the priest shall make atonement for you. It's done on your behalf. You didn't do it. The priest is in there doing this. You're not there. He's by himself. The priest shall make an atonement for you. To do what? To cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. Do you understand what atonement is? The priest cleansing you before the Lord from all your sins. And this is what he did on that day. He says, This was on that day. So you shall be clean. You shall be clean on that day.

All right. I was looking for that verse. But anyway, notice back in verse 21 of Leviticus 16. This is the priest. Aaron was the priest. Notice what he does. This is part of how he made the atonement. Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat. One goat was killed and his blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. This one's live. And this is what Aaron does when he lays his hands upon the head of that goat. He shall confess over him, that goat, all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions, breaking the law, in all their sins. And the reason why he put his head on the goat was to take all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat. And then send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities to a land not inhabited, and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

Who is the high priest? It says in Hebrews chapter 7, the Lord Jesus is our High Priest. Who is the Lamb? It says in the Gospels, Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. What happened to the sins of the people? They were confessed by the High Priest, the Lord Jesus, upon the goat, upon himself, putting them that confessing of the high priest, transferring the sins from the people to the goat, was Christ confessing our sins as his own sins. The high priest confessed upon himself, the Lamb of God, that what we did, he did, and he bore that. He sinned against God in that confession. He owned our sins. His soul was made an offering for sin, a sin offering. It says in Isaiah 53, verse 10 and 11.

So here we have what happened on that day. And this is what Romans 5, 11 says. Now we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. God has made the atonement. The Lord Jesus Christ performed it and he has given it to us. Our sins are removed from us. Christ bore them. That's what he's teaching us.

Now, the next word is wherefore. Wherefore. He's teaching us that these things that he's speaking about here are part of this, that he's about to disclose to us, to help us to understand how this was done in God's view. God's view.

Verse 12, Romans 5, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, until this time there was no sin in the world. There was no sin. God created man on the earth. He created everything before that, and he created man last, and guess what? There was no sin in the world. God created a world that was without sin.

How did sin get into the world then, if God created it without sin? By one man. Which man? Adam. By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. How did death get here? By sin. Whose sin? Adam's. That's what he's saying here. Sin came by one man, and death came because of sin. Because death is the payback. It's the just consequence. It's what you earn. by sinning.

God told Adam clearly, in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. That was the commandment. And with the commandment, do not eat of that tree, the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In the day you do eat of it, God attached to the commandment a punishment, a consequence, death. And so when Adam broke that commandment, when he transgressed that law, God imputed guilt to Adam. He transgressed. He was a sinner. God said, you're a sinner. That's the imputation of guilt.

And the consequence was that now, because he was guilty, because he had broken that law, Because he was a transgressor, God brought the condemnation of that same law upon him, which was death. And so by Adam's first transgression, not all of his transgressions, but that first one, sin entered the world. And that's when death entered the world, because when Adam sinned, Right then, immediately, immediately, he came under the judgment of that condemnation of death. Death came because of sin. That's what he's saying here.

But he's saying more than that. He says the next phrase, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Oh, wait a minute. What do you mean, death passed upon all men for that all have sinned? Well, what he's saying here, this is God's view. This is the way God arranged it. That Adam didn't act alone. You see, when God gave him this one law that forbid him from eating one fruit from one tree, All of God's, all of those people who would ever be born to Adam, which means everybody, all of humanity, no one excepted, everyone who would ever be born to Adam. Adam was made, at that time, before he sinned, he was made their head. Meaning, what he did affected them as well. What he did was attributed to them. This was God's doing. And that's why he says here, death passed upon all men, for they all have sinned in Adam. Now that's such a big statement that the Apostle Paul, through the Spirit of God, goes on to amplify and to show why this is so.

Verse 13, verse 13 he says, and notice there's a parenthesis here. It's okay to remove it if you want to, but we can leave it. He says, for until the law, Sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there's no law. If there's no transgression, God is not going to impute guilt. If you haven't broken the law, then you're not guilty from God's judgment. But when the law was entered then, then there is guilt. So he says, for until the law, what law is he talking about there in verse 13? The law of Moses. Until Moses gave the law, Sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." All right, let's understand this. What he's saying there is Moses was at one end of the interval. Adam was at the beginning of the interval. In this interval of time, there was no law given that God said, I'm attaching to this commandment death. If you violate it, you're going to die. Except there was one. God told Noah, if man sheds another man's blood, then by man shall his blood be shed. But besides that, there was no speed laws. You could go as fast as you wanted to. It was sin, but God didn't annex a law to it. He didn't add a law to show that guilt or to bring the condemnation from breaking that law. There was no law.

And so what the Apostle Paul is saying then, okay, since between Adam and Moses there was no formal law that God joined death to a commandment, Therefore, how do you explain why everyone died? The reason is that they sinned. Well, wait a minute. How could they have sinned? There was no law. There was nothing to transgress. There was no law. I mean, you couldn't hold them accountable for breaking the speed law because there was none. True. And yet they died so they were sinners because death is because of sin.

All right then, where did that sin come from? That's the point. Death passed upon all for that all have sinned in Adam. All who would be born to Adam were in Adam in his first transgression. As long as he didn't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what happened? Everyone was alive. There was no sin in the world. Sin entered in the world through this one man, through that first transgression. And in that first transgression, when he broke that law, then a couple of things happened.

Number one, everyone he stood for also broke that law, and God imputed guilt. for that transgression to all of them. Number two, he was no longer the head. Sorry, buddy. You're dying now. Everyone died in Adam. Everyone died in him. So that whatever he did after that didn't affect all of his children. We were all brought under the condemnation, the judgment of guilt by what Adam did. And that's what he's saying here, since there was no law and yet people died, it's proof that we sinned in Adam.

Yeah, I'm sure there were some murderers then, and they probably were put to death. There's no record of it, but we know that there was no transgression of a real law, cuz the law wasn't given until Moses. And that was a very important point to establish here. And verse 15 says, but not as the offense, so also is the free gift. What is he saying there? He's gonna give us a difference, a contrasting difference here between what happened with Adam and what happened with Christ. There's a big difference, and I wanna point out this difference to you. In other words, not like the offense, That's the way the gift is. They're different. There's a big difference. And here's the difference in verse 15. For if through the offense of one, the offense, that's that first transgression of Adam, one, that's Adam, many be dead. Who were the ones that died? Everyone who would ever be born to Adam. That includes the whole human race. Much more. If that one offense of that one man brought death on all of his children, all of his seed, then he says here in verse 15, this is the contrast. Much more. There's the second much more. The grace of God, in contrast, and the gift by grace, again in contrast, by one man, There's a similarity, one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded to many.

All right, this is so important. And I know that this is gonna take more time than we have today, so I'll try to finish this up next time. But I just want you to look at verse 15 and 16 now. What he's saying is that when Adam sinned, what happened? God brought a judgment, you're all guilty. God did this, it's right. You might not be able to understand how it was right, but God says it was right, because God did it. Whatever the Lord does is right.

Okay, so we're all guilty, and death came upon us because of that sin. This helps us to understand what it meant when he says, for when we were yet, when God commended his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Doesn't it? We were sinners in Adam. even though we weren't born, we were sinners in Adam.

But notice the contrast here is huge, much more. It's not little, it's a huge contrast. We deserved to be judged by God as guilty for Adam's sin. That was a just judgment. And the condemnation that came was a just condemnation because we earned it. It was a reward for our sin. But notice here, in contrast to that, God did something we could not earn. We could do nothing to earn it. He says much more, the grace of God.

Well, wait a minute. If we didn't earn it, then how could it be just for God to do this? Oh, it was just. because God himself bore the full cost. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you, through his poverty, might be made rich. This is the poverty here. Much more, the grace of God.

Adam rebelled, Christ obeyed. Adam, in pride, laid hold on that fruit and violated the clear commandment of God, knowing the consequences of it. The Lord Jesus Christ laid hold on the commandment and fulfilled it, knowing the full consequences of that love to God for people in service to God, giving himself a ransom for many to redeem them. He did it in love, and it was a cost he himself bore in total sacrifice of himself, much more.

Adam, out of covetousness, Christ, out of a complete gift of love. No thought for himself, but for the love he had for his father's honor and for his people's salvation, to have them and to make them holy. You see the much more? Much more the grace of God and the gift. The gift, what gift? The gift of righteousness.

Verse 17 says, if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. And verse 21 he says, I'm sorry, chapter 6, verse 23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that gift is because of righteousness, he says in 521. So the gift is the righteousness, which everything flows from that. God's righteousness. That's what Christ did here.

And so one man, One transgression, there was a sinless world and a sinless man. And he laid hold of that fruit and committed that sin and disobeyed God. And because of that disobedience, God imputed a guilt to him for transgressing his law. And the law itself required death to the sinner. And so condemnation followed the judgment of guilt. And so he goes on that much more than that. The grace of God, this gift of righteousness by Jesus Christ is abounded to many.

Which many? Who are the many? Well, the many always is attached to the person, the man. The many with Adam were all of his children ever born to Adam. There's some yet unborn. They're Adam's children. They were in that transgression. I was there, you were there. All who were the seed of Adam by natural reproduction, God had made him the head over them. Not because they were his natural children, but because God established him as the head in that first obedience or that failure, which he was.

But notice verse 16 now, and not as by one that sinned the gift, this gift of righteousness. It was not like that guilt that came by that one transgression of the one man. No, notice, for the judgment. God's assessing what Adam did and saying that's a transgression, that's guilt, that judgment. That was by one to condemnation, to the condemnation of God's law, which was the curse.

But, notice, the free gift doesn't say one, does it? Many offenses. Because all of the sins of all of God's people were confessed on the head of the Lamb of God by the High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, transferring them to Him, and He bore them. That many offenses unto justification.

God made Him sin for us, who knew no sin. He knew no sin. God made him to be sin. He was perfect. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He knew no sin. He did no sin. In him was no sin. And yet God made him. He confessed over himself. There was an agreement from eternity that as the surety he would bear the full cost of what his people owed. And so when they sinned, God had already imputed their sins to Christ.

Many offenses all made His. Before the foundation of the world, the Lamb slain, He was foreordained to be our Redeemer. And before time began, before anything was created, God had already resolved in an agreement, a covenant with Christ that He would stand as our surety and answer in everything with Himself. to fulfill God's righteousness and to take away our sins in order to give us his own righteousness. And in that righteousness, God would say, that's righteous. That is justified. You're justified in the righteousness of my son. That's what he's saying here. That's why it's such a magnificent, much more, isn't it?

And we can read on to see this unfolded much more clearly now, I think, which we will do next time as we go back to 2 Corinthians 5.

Let's pray.

Father, we, like that publican, cry out, God, be propitious to me, thee, sinner. I have nothing but sin. I'm the one your law calls out as guilty and worthy to die, and I earned it. I earned it in the relation you put me in to my father Adam when he first transgressed. I earned it by my own sins, all that followed, the many sins, all of which had to be made right in order for me to be accepted by you.

because of him and the Lord Jesus gladly out of love served you in love and his people when he made himself a ransom for them and bore their sins as his own and took them away in his death and buried them put them out of sight so that God laid upon him the iniquity of us all and he bore them and all those whose sins he bore are justified by his blood by his righteousness

And what a gift this is, what grace, incomprehensible grace, undescribable grace, the unspeakable grace of God, the gift of God, and the sacrifice of Christ. Lord, this is all of our righteousness. We plead no other, we have none else. Find us in him, we pray, just like the publican. Have mercy upon us. For Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen.