Many years ago, I delivered a two-part series that I titled Two Gardens, Part One and Two. And those sermons focused on two significant events which took place in those gardens. The first referred to that which took place in the Garden of Eden, the fall of all mankind, and our federal head and representative, Adam. And the second referred to that which began to take place in another garden, the Garden of Gethsemane, where another representative, he's referred to in 1 Corinthians 15 as the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, where he entered to begin his substitutionary suffering unto death that would bring about the final deadly blow to sin and Satan.

an accomplishment that would fully recover all those he came to save from that which they lost in the Garden of Eden, in their fallen Adam.

Well, today I want to focus on this passage from Romans chapter 5. It clearly deals with us, it clearly shows how God deals with us through these two representatives. And so I've titled today's message simply that, Two Representatives. And we'll be turning to Romans 5 in just a moment.

But first, let me direct your attention to Genesis and look at Genesis chapter 2. Because before I get to the text, I do want to quickly review what took place with this first representative, Adam, in his disobedience in the Garden of Eden, an event often referred to as the fall of all mankind.

I know many of you are familiar with the story. God had created the first man, Adam, and he did so in his own image. And then when we get to Genesis 2 verse 15, we read, and the Lord God took the man, referring to Adam, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. That literal translation of that would be dying, thou shalt die.

So God created Adam and he put him in this paradise, the Garden of Eden. And he just gave him this one command to obey, In this, this covenant of works that he made with Adam. In the verses that follow, we see that God thought it was not good for man to be alone, so he created Eve to be his wife. But as we'll see when we get to Romans 5, God determined that Adam would be the representative, the federal head of the entire human family, of all of Adam's descendants.

Well, in Genesis chapter three, Satan tempted Eve by challenging the command that God had given Adam. And when Eve replied to Satan, explaining that God had told them they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, neither touch it or they would die. And Satan, still in the form of a serpent, he famously replied in Genesis 3, 4, ye shall not surely die, For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

In the verses that follow them, we read that when Eve saw that the tree was good for food and pleasant to her eyes, and a tree to make one wise, she took and ate the fruit and gave it to her husband, Adam, and he likewise did eat. But then picking back up in verse seven of chapter three, we read, and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

In essence, Satan was telling Adam and Eve that they could set their own standard of good and evil. Consider how he told Eve, ye shall be as gods. Now, Adam knew that he wasn't God, but in eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, he sought to be as God, in this sense, that he could aspire to be independent from God, that he could decide, he could set his own standard of right and wrong, of good and evil, of saved and lost, if you would, continuing on in life versus dying or perishing. He could assert control over his own destiny, he thought.

And this describes the problem with all of fallen sinful humanity and their natural religion, when I say natural, their first religious thoughts in that natural state which we all begin, spiritually dead, spiritually blind, spiritually lost. We all, you know, most folks I know believe in an afterlife, and if they do so, everyone wants to go to heaven. Our problem is, is that by nature, we want to go to heaven our way. In the book of Proverbs, we read, there's a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. So what seems right to us naturally isn't.

The moment Adam sinned, he became guilty. defiled, totally depraved, and spiritually dead. And you can read all the, there are other effects of the fall, but we won't go into those today. I just want to direct your attention to these three effects. One, Adam immediately died spiritually. He lost his original righteousness. And without spiritual life then, his and Eve's understanding was darkened. And then secondly, his physical bodily death became a future certainty, dying he would die. So he didn't lose the immortality of his soul, but he lost the immortality of his body, as did all he represented, all his posterity. As Mark read from 1 Corinthians 15, for as in Adam, all die.

And then thirdly, eternal death was no longer avoidable by anything he could do or refrain from doing, by his own works. He had broken this covenant of works that God had entered into with him, and he and all he represented suffered the sure and certain consequences of that. By that one sin, Adam brought himself and Eve into a state whereby they were now alienated from God, enemies of God, allied with Satan under his influence, the powers of darkness. Now they were guilty and defiled.

So what was the first thing they did after the fall? Well, as we read, they realized their own nakedness and they sowed fig leaves together to cover themselves. You know, their nakedness before the fall brought them no shame because they had no sin at that time to make them ashamed. Before the fall, they were pure and holy, created in God's own image. And this recognition of their nakedness after the fall is symbolic of how they both immediately realized that they were now exposed, exposed to God's just wrath due to their disobedience, their sin.

The sewing of fig leaf aprons, most commentators agree, represents fallen man's natural sinful inclination to try to cover himself, to shield himself from the wrath of God by something he or she does, his or her own efforts. If you recall the story, you know that God then killed an animal and he clothed them with animal skin instead to show them it would take the shedding of blood. It's picturing the shed blood of the Lamb of God, the last Adam, Jesus Christ. For only that, that alone will appease God's just wrath against sin. It would not be some work of their own hands as was represented by their having some of those fig leaf aprons together.

Let me mention that notion of being able to take care of your sin problem by something that proceeds from you, the sinner, It's terribly sinful, and here's why. To do so is to place that which we presume to do to be saved, whatever perhaps was prescribed to us, just invite Jesus into your heart, accept Christ, say this prayer, whatever it is, it puts that in rivalry with, in opposition to, and actually in a denial of what it actually took, the precious shed blood of Christ. And sadly, that's, just what most of religion promotes. Sadly, even the majority who call themselves Christians.

But since Adam's fall, eternal life, or the continuation of life if you would, became unattainable by anything that proceeds from the fallen center. God makes that clear in Romans 3.20 when he says, therefore, by the deeds of the law, by any obedience or compliance that you might render, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight and God's sight. None will be accepted seeing to God's holy presence, clear to their guilt and declared righteous as they must be if they're to be in his presence, not by any efforts of their own, not by their believing, not by their church going, not by their sincere interest in the things of God. No, fallen man really does need a savior. They need another representative who would come and did come in time and begin to suffer in another garden on his way to accomplishing for them what none could do for themselves.

So thank goodness there's another covenant. There's the everlasting covenant of grace. And thank goodness there's another representative, the eternal, immutable, infallible, impeccably sinless God-man, Jesus Christ the Savior.

So now turn with me to our text in Romans 5. And I want us to consider here this representation by Adam and Christ as it's set forth here. And we'll begin there in verse 12 where we read, wherefore is by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. So here at this first verse we're reading, it's established that Adam was what theologians refer to as our federal head and representative. And you know, we know something of this experientially because we know we're all dying. We come into this world dying.

He further explains here how we can know the results of Adam's sin fell upon all of us as he adds this. For until the law, verse 13, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses. So you're speaking of the law of Moses there, Moses being the lawgiver. Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned. after the similitude of Adam's transgression. And most commentators think this refers to those who die in their infancy, who have not consciously sinned as Adam did.

Adam, who is the figure of him that was to come, another covenant head, another representative.

So see, this is proof of sin having entered into the world by Adam, and that all mankind was represented by him and condemned to suffer the effects of the fall, because even infants die. So Adam's sin is what causes their death. It's Adam's sin that brought on that death. And that was even before the law of Moses was given.

Verse 15, but not as the offense, so also is the free gift. There's a difference. The free gift being the righteousness of Christ, that's the merit of Christ's obedience unto death that is freely imputed to God's elect, his sheep.

Continuing, it says, for through the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. He's saying again, there's a difference. For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification.

So Adam's one sin broke this covenant with God. So he ceased to represent mankind in his future acts following that sin. That covenant with Adam as our federal head was over. It was broken.

But in the last Adam, Jesus Christ, this free gift is based upon his perfect satisfaction to God the Father's law and justice that was rendered by his finished work on the cross and that for all who Christ represented. He kept the law perfectly and he paid the debt in full due unto the Father's justice for the sins of his elect. the sins of his elect, the merit of their sins were judicially charged or imputed to him as their surety, that he might bear the punishment as a substitute of all those chosen in Christ by God the Father before the world began. You can read about that in Ephesians chapter one.

And this free gift, that's his righteousness being imputed to them, reckoned to their account, It took care of all the sins of God's elect in every generation. It took care of their fallen Adam. It takes care of their past sins, present sins, their future sins, sins that they may be oblivious to. All paid for by the blood of Christ. And listen, where the debt's paid, the debt is forgiven. Thereby they're found righteous in his sight. justified, forgiven of all their many offenses, all based upon the merit of his obedience unto death on the cross. His righteousness freely imputed or accounted to them.

Verse 17, for if by one man's offense, death reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

So what we lost in Adam, the continuation of physical life. The loss of spiritual life, which is the reason we're all born into this world, dead in trespasses and sins. Even those who later, he gives the gift in the new birth of spiritual life, it says in Ephesians 2, it says, you hath he quickened, made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. So we all come into the world this way because of our representation in Adam. alienated from God, but by God's gift of righteousness, at some point in time in each generation, when by that same power that God raised Christ up from the dead, he raises up all those for whom he died and arose, raises them from their state of spiritual death to spiritual life in the new birth, and that by means of the preached gospel, heard and believed upon, And thereby, we discover what we have. By that gift of faith, we discover we have eternal life. But it all grounded upon God freely imputing the merit of what Christ, our Savior, accomplished for us, his righteousness.

Verse 18, therefore, as by the offense of one, or by one offense, one sin, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. that would be all represented by Adam, and that includes God's elect. And as we read this, as we read before, we know we're all condemned to suffer the consequences of Adam's sin, but we also know this, and frankly, this is, my interest in this verse is what really prompted my study here. We know that justification and eternal condemnation are judgments that are made in the mind of our eternally immutable God, whose mind does not change. God, who we're told, chose those he would save, as he liked, before the foundation of the world. Again, Ephesians 1. And he chose them in Christ, their surety, the one who would pay the debt. So God saw them righteous. He saw them justified in Christ. long before the ground upon which they were justified had taken place, meaning Christ's obedience unto death on the cross. Long before they were born, and then even after they were born, he saw them as righteous before they were reconciled in their own minds to him through their new birth, their regeneration and conversion, through the God-given gift of faith.

Now I say all of this to pose this question. How are we to understand this phrase, that judgment came upon all men to condemnation? And as I say, it was my interest in this that prompted my study. Well, for example, consider if a criminal committed an armed robbery. It could be said as a result, if he was found guilty, he could be condemned to 20 years in jail. Not necessarily condemned to die. And based on my study of that word that's translated condemnation, it has that connotation of being subject to having a sentence imposed upon you.

understanding, I kind of lean toward believing that condemnation in this phrase here is not necessarily referring to God's elect being eternally condemned to hell. And I say this because we know that eternal justification and eternal condemnation is something that takes place within God's immutable mind. Our pastor likes to refer to it as an imminent reality in God's unchanging immutable mind. So that leads me to believe this phrase could be referring to God having this sentence placed upon us all, being condemned or sentenced to suffer the consequences of Adam's sin as we know we all do. We're dying, we come into the world dying and we came into the world spiritually dead as a result.

I do know this, I know this phrase cannot imply that God saw us eternally condemned to hell while at the same time seeing us as eternally united to and justified in Christ, because God's not double-minded, and he doesn't change his mind. But given the context, I also believe there's another sense. I'm gonna give you two alternatives here, because I think neither one does any damage to the truth of representation that's set forth here.

There's a sense in which this sentencing could be a reference to eternal condemnation. A fellow much smarter than me, I'm going to read you what he had to say about it, the highly regarded commentator of old that many of us use in our study, John Gill, he seemed to suggest that, and I'll share what he said. He wrote this. He said, this sentence of condemnation comes upon all men, all the sons of Adam without exception, even upon the elect of God themselves, though it is not executed upon them. excuse me, upon the elect. So clearly by that, he's seeming to suggest that this does refer to eternal condemnation, it's just the sentence isn't carried out on them because they have another representative.

He obviously has to be meaning eternal condemnation because the other consequences, physical, spiritual death, they are executed even upon the elect as we know. So again, Gil said that it is not executed upon God's elect, but instead on their surety, where that'd be the second Adam, Jesus Christ, whereby they are delivered from that condemnation.

And he supported this by making note of how the verse continues, as it reads, even so, or in the same manner, By the righteousness of one, that's one righteousness, nothing added to it. By the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men. You can't earn it, it's free.

And the all men there would be all those represented by the Lord our righteousness, the last Adam. Those that Christ called his sheep. You remember in the book of John, when he told the Pharisees, he says, you don't believe on me because you're not my sheep. And just prior to that, he had said, I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. So he's telling these Pharisees, I didn't die for you.

Well, that's who the free gift came upon, all represented by Christ, given to him before the world began. And as it reads, it says, the free gift came upon all men and to justification of life. So that is, they were recovered from the sentence of eternal condemnation that would have been theirs if Adam had been their only representative. But the elect, having another representative, Jesus Christ, they're sentenced to an eternal life of just standing and acceptance before God, and that in his immutable, eternal mind.

So I think both of those explanations are consistent with and do no damage to the truth of how God deals with us through these two representatives. And so I hope that's been helpful to you.

Continuing now in verse 19, we read, for it's by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. That proves to us our inability to meet any conditions for our own salvation. When we see the perfection of the law that's required by God, as Christ said on the Sermon on the Mount, be ye therefore perfect, well, that makes the offense abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

That is, sin hath reigned unto death, even so, or in the same manner, through another representative, a better one, That if sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign, and how will it reign? Through righteousness. That's the entire merit of a better representative. What he accomplished by his obedience unto death. Might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life? Whose righteousness? By Jesus Christ our Lord. The righteousness we need sits at the right hand throne of the Father right now, ever living and making intercession for us. So the righteousness we need is His, not something infused in us. It's the very righteousness of God, the merit of what He accomplished, imputed, charged to our account, credited to us, if you would. We need a righteousness we can't produce, and it's the imputed righteousness of God in Christ.

Well, I think you can see clearly from this brief passage in Romans 5 that this is how God telling us that he's determined to deal with us in these two representatives. Sadly, the doctrine of most so-called quote Christianity denies its truth as many teach that Christ died for all men. And so that men and they teach to in concert with that, that men and women make individual choices, decisions, or take actions. that they imagine determines whether or not they are included among those whom Christ represented.

The natural man, even if religious, will cry out that if salvation's not left up to me, that somehow God would be unfair. We're prone to reason this way. One, we may say, why should I suffer and be held accountable for what my forefather Adam did. I didn't choose him to be my representative. I hadn't even been born. And then two, you'll say, Randy, what you're suggesting by your doctrine is that if God didn't choose me in Christ so as to make him my representative, that Christ didn't die for me. So there's nothing I can do to procure salvation for myself. And when we reason like this, we'll say, surely there's something I can do. Some decision I can make, walk some mile, repeat some prayer, something.

And so the natural man will say, I don't like how God set things up through these two representatives. That would be unfair, is our natural response. And so what do we do by nature? Unless God does the work and puts us under the gospel, we will naturally seek salvation our way. And that's a way that would have it conditioned at least in some way to some degree on me, something I do, some decision I make. And in doing that, we believe Satan's lie too, that we will not die eternally while we're under a false presumption that we can meet some condition in order to be saved.

And sadly, a lot of so-called quote Christian preachers will join Satan and cry in peace where there's no peace. You shall not surely die, all the while I'm suggesting to you that you base your hope for salvation on this false refuge I'm promoting, that it's somehow conditioned on you, the sinner, at least some way to some degree, and not exclusively conditioned on Christ.

So for any who have a problem with accepting the fact of suffering the consequences of The fall of our representative, Adam, I want you to think with me just a second. If we had to choose a representative from among the human race, we couldn't have chosen anyone we would consider to be less likely to sin than Adam. Remember, God created Adam and Eve in his own image. That means that Adam and Eve possessed all the communicable qualities of God's character in his own image. When I say communicable, I mean it excludes those qualities of character that can only belong to God, that are not communicable.

For example, God is holy, and most credible commentators I studied agree that he created Adam as holy, upright, righteous, and without sin. On the other hand, God is uniquely immutable. You can only, that's only, only, Entity, you can say, doesn't change. It's God, deity. He changes not. He's the creator. He's not a created creature. He's eternal, the great I am, meaning he has no beginning and no end. But Adam was created. He had a beginning. And being a creature, he could never be immutable. By definition, being created means change has taken place.

So as created beings, Adam and Eve were not immutably righteous. He could lose his righteousness, and he did. He failed when he disobeyed God, and as a result, we are all subsequently born with this built-in predisposition to sin. But Adam was not so predisposed, remember? In the beginning, Adam and Eve were sinless. Adam was the first man and a better man than any of his descendants would ever be in his original state. He was the crown of God's creation. And unlike you and me and the rest of Adam's descendants, he didn't come into this world as a sinner, spiritually dead, naturally allied with Satan, naturally an enemy of God. as the scripture declares to be true of all the rest of us.

So Adam was the best created representative we could have ever hoped to have. Again, we read there in Romans 5, 18, that verse that I was focusing on. Therefore, it's by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, meaning in the same manner, by the righteousness of one, The free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. And I tell you, when you consider this, it'll make you love the doctrines of representation and imputation. When God the Holy Spirit gives a sinner life, he humbles them to the position of being a mercy bearer. You see, until then, as long as you believe salvation's conditioned on something that you do or some decision you make, something coming from you, the sinner, you don't really need God's mercy. You just need to cut your end of the bargain, whatever's being prescribed to you.

But when God does a work, when he gives us spiritual life, puts us under the sound of the gospel wherein his righteousness is revealed, Why? You find out you really do need mercy. You don't need it. You don't need it as long as you imagine it's conditioned on you. But God's chosen people, they are brought to realize that they do at some point in time. They find out they're helpless to save themselves.

And as such, what better representative could one have than to have the eternal, the spotless, sinless, God manifest in the flesh God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the spotless lamb of God whose sacrificial substitutionary death alone could and did satisfy the holy justice of God, paying the sin debt due unto all the sins of all that he represented. The sins that were charged are imputed to Christ by God the Father so that he might endure the just penalty. that would have otherwise fell on them, as we quote often from 2 Corinthians 5, 21. For he, God the Father, made him, God the Son, to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Now that's some kind of an exchange. Our sins imputed to him, his righteousness imputed to us. And that's true of every one of God's elect. as evidenced by their, at some point in time, coming to hear and believe this gospel.

Well, if that sound reasoning isn't quite enough for you, then maybe looking at God's word and his own proclamation of his sovereignty and salvation will settle the score for you. So turn with me to Romans 9. We've already seen in Romans 5 that God has made clear that this representation of us in the first and last Adam is according to his sovereign purpose and will. It's basically saying this is how it is.

Well, in closing, let's look how God answers this common objection that God's way of salvation, as I've tried to set forth this morning, would be a way that is unfair. Unfair if we're subject to his sovereign will. We may say it's unfair even his purpose to have us suffer all the consequences of Adam's sin, or we may just feel like it's unfair if he recovered his elect unto eternal life, but only his elect, and that through Jesus Christ alone. So all of this taking place through these two representatives, eternally impacting all who they represented.

Well, here God's answer beginning in Romans 9.9. He says, for this is the word of promise, at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son, and not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, for the children, he's speaking here of the unborn twins, Jacob and Esau, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, couldn't be of works, he's talking about them before they had ever been born, Not of works, but of him that calleth, that's God, speaking of the irresistible call of the Holy Spirit when he calls his people to come in belief of the gospel.

Verse 12, it was said unto her, Rebekah, the elder, that would be Esau, shall serve the younger, Jacob. If you remember the story of the birth of Jacob and Esau, Jacob was said to be holding on to the heel of Esau, so Esau would have been the elder. And so then he says in verse 13, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Is God not doing right here? Is this unfair, in other words? And he answers clearly, God forbid. And then look at his explanation. He begins it in verse 15. For he saith to Moses, he's quoting here from Exodus 33, when Moses asked God to show him his glory. God's glory is a revelation of what he's like, so that he might be worshiped as he truly is. And here's what he told Moses. I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

So then it is not of him that willeth. It's not your so-called free will decision that makes a difference here. nor of him that runneth. It's not any work of your hand, anything that you can produce that makes a difference. What is it then? It's of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and underline this phrase in your mind's eye, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. That's his glory. what he's like.

Therefore, hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Again, he says, thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Wait a minute here. If you're saying salvation is all up to God, how can I be held responsible? And listen to God's blunt answer. Nay, but O man, excuse me, Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replies against God? You say it's unfair, you don't like how I set this up. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter, excuse me, I'm losing my voice here. Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?

What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory?

Now how do you know if you're one of those vessels of mercy or one of those vessels of wrath? Even us, verse 24, whom he hath called, called, irresistible call of the Holy Spirit, when God puts a sinner under the gospel and gives them that God-given gift of faith, whereby they now look to Jesus, to Jesus Christ alone for all their salvation, even as whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

You see, this thing really isn't about you and me. It's so that God's chief design to glorify himself will be realized. That's his name. His name is what identifies him as he is, that it might be declared.

Well, only God's way of salvation by Jesus Christ alone reveals how Christ can be both a just God, justice be served, and still be a merciful savior. Well, can a man or a woman naturally bow to that? And when I say naturally, I mean in that initial, natural, spiritually dead state. So as to realize they really do need God's mercy? Not in that natural state. In that initial, spiritually dead, spiritually blind state, we're told in 1 Corinthians 15 that the natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God. They're spiritually discerned. So we won't naturally bow to God's sovereignty as it pertains to our salvation.

But you know who will? All the objects of God's electing love, the Jacobs of the world, all for whom Christ came, lived, and died, they shall bow as they are made willing in the day of God's power, Psalm 110.3, and that by that God-given gift of faith and repentance. He gives them a willingness to bow and to thank their sovereign God for his mercy and sin in Christ to do for them what they could have never done for themselves.

Two representatives, death by one, eternal life by the other, as Mark read from 1 Corinthians 15, but now as Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept, for since by man, meaning Adam, came death by man, the God-man Christ, came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall be made alive.

See, this is life and death. I know if God judged me on the best I could render, it would mean eternal condemnation for me. So I thank God for having fell in a representative so as to, in the same manner, likewise, be raised up by the success of another perfect, infallible representative, God manifest in the flesh, raised in the new birth, ultimately resurrected unto heaven's glory, all due to the merit of the finished work of Christ being accounted to me.

That's the very righteousness of my substitute, my surety, my savior, my redeemer, my representative. I shall eternally value and praise God for my representation in Jesus Christ, and I pray you can say the same. Thank you.