In these verses, and we're studying
in Romans chapter five, one of the most significant words
that you find in these verses is the word one. Listen to it
in verse 17, for if by one man's offense, one man, verse 18, therefore
as by the offense of one, It says, even so by the righteousness
of one. One, one, one. And of course,
we know what we're talking about there is when it comes to sin
and death, we're talking about the one man, the first man, Adam. The first man created by God.
And when we talk about righteousness and life, we're talking about
the one man who is Christ, the God man. In the Bible, Adam is
referred to as the first man, 1 Corinthians 15. Christ is referred
to as the second man and even the last Adam. And what that
means is that Adam was the first man in the sense that as far
as humanity was concerned, Adam was the first created in time. Now Christ was before Adam. in his deity, but his humanity
was born after Adam. So he's called the second man,
but he's more than man, he's God-man. And he's called the
last Adam. And what all that teaches us
is one of the most fundamental truths of the Bible. In fact,
you really cannot understand the Bible, you cannot understand
issues of sin and righteousness, of death and life, of salvation
itself, until you come to confront this point of truth, and it's
called representation. Adam was a representative man. And what he did, he did as the
representative of others. Well, who were they? All whom
Adam represented. So how can we know if we were
represented by Adam? Well, he's telling us here. Now
the Lord Jesus Christ, as God-man, he represented a people too.
Who are they? All whom he represented. Well,
how can I know if he represented me? Well, that's what he's talking
about here. Now those who deny the truth of representation,
what we call the federal view, they don't know the scriptures.
They don't understand issues of sin and death. You know, man
in his pride, you know, when we talk about, people talk about
free will, for example. And of course, we know that man
has fallen in Adam, he's not free, his will is not free. He's
free to choose what he wants to choose, but he's not going
to want the things of the Spirit of God. He's not going to want
the things that glorify God naturally. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. All that. But you know really
what the issue is of freewillism, it's not just that I can choose
what I want, you know, things like that. It's what we call
autonomy. And you know what autonomy is?
It's self-rule, self-governing. And that's what Adam wanted.
He wanted to be his own captain. His own sovereign. And he rebelled
against God. You remember when Satan told
Eve, you shall be as God's? That's what he's talking about. In other words, you have the
right to be the determiner of your own destiny. As that poem,
the captain of your own fate. You don't have to be submissive
to a higher power, to God. You can be your own God. You
can determine what's right and what's wrong. You don't have
to go by God's standard. And that's what that tree of
the knowledge of good and evil represented. It wasn't just an
apple or a plum or a fig or whatever. It was God's sovereign right
as the sovereign creator and ruler to say, I'm gonna tell
you what's right and wrong. You have children, now what you
did when they were growing up, you taught them right from wrong
according to what you've been taught. You're the parent, they're
the child. And what happens when they get
older? When they become teenagers? They want to say what's right. They want autonomy from you.
They want to govern themselves. And you have to hold them in
check. Well, see, Adam declared his autonomy. He declared his
self-rule, all right? And so it's not just free. So
people, that's what people do when they say, well, I'm gonna
stand on my own two feet before God. I don't want, I don't think
it's fair for God to hold me accountable for what Adam did.
You've heard that maybe. Well, if you're on your own,
think about what's gonna happen. You stand before God on your
own without a representative. That is eternal damnation. Now
let's look at this. He says in verse 17, for if by
one man's offense, that's Adam's offense, his sin, death reigned
by one. Death reigned over the whole
human race. We already read that back in
verse 12. where he said in Romans 5, 12, wherefore as by one man
sin entered into the world and death by sin. Death is the just
judgment against sin. Rebellion against God. And so
death passed upon all men for that all sinned, literally. So how do I know my connection
with Adam in the fall? "'cause I was born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins, "'and I come forth from the womb
speaking lies.'" In other words, I'm a sinner. Now, if you ever
wonder if you had any connection with Adam, just ask yourself,
have I ever committed a sin? Well, that's the answer. Well,
of course you have. You're born in sin, the scripture
says. That means you fell in Adam.
Are you subject to the pangs of disease and death in this
physical life? Where'd that come from according
to the scripture? For as in Adam all die. And that's
what he's talking about. Death reigned, it ruled, it was
a sovereign over you in essence. And you can't do anything about
it. Oh, I mean, I know. I know about all the vitamins
and all the stuff like that. Take your turmeric and all that
stuff. Take it all. Take it all. But
what's going to happen eventually? You're going to die, physically.
They can prolong it. They can keep you alive on a
machine now, all that, if you want to call that life. Eventually
it's coming in. It is appointed unto men. Once
to die. And that's God's appointment.
That's God's judgment. See? And so death reigned by
one. Now, but here's the good news. Look at it. Much more. I love the much mores of the
Bible. There's several of them. Much
more they which receive abundance of grace. Now there's a free
gift, unearned, undeserved gift involved here. And of the gift
of what? Righteousness. That's what he
calls it. It's the free gift of grace,
the abundance of grace he says. Much more. He says the gift of
righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. And there you go. There's the
hope of salvation. Just in that one phrase. The
much more phrase. And it involves righteousness.
Norm Wells, Brother Norm Wells called me and he's been reading
some of the books and he said, he said, I've underscored every
time where you say the word righteousness and he said it's almost the whole
book. And he said, you know, he said, he said, I believe that's
the way it is. Righteousness, that's what it's
all about. You can't preach righteousness without preaching Christ, and
you can't preach Christ without preaching righteousness. He is
the Lord our righteousness. And so when God gives us a free
gift, it's not just a token, it's not just a good intention,
it's not just an attempt to get you to do what he wants you to
do. It's life through Christ because he's our righteousness.
And so, how do I know that I have any connection with Christ? Well,
do I have spiritual life through his righteousness? Evidenced
by what? By faith in him. God-given faith
in him. Faith is the gift of God that
comes based upon the gift of righteousness which comes through
Christ. You can't break that connection. And if you do, you've
lost it. See, righteousness is not what
we do for God. It's what he did for his people
through Jesus Christ, the representative of what the Bible calls the election. I'm gonna preach on that this
morning. Make your calling and election
sure. In the Bible, the electing grace
of God is never placed in a negative light. And yet most people who
call themselves Christian today, they wanna spit it out of their
mouth as soon as you say it. Don't talk to me about that,
that's unfair. It's not unfair and unjust, it's
our hope. We're electing Christ. And so that's the gift by grace. Christ, the second man, the last
Adam. And what he's shown us here,
and this is important, is that this salvation, that God freely
and fully provides through Christ based upon his righteousness
that brings life. It was not an afterthought with
God. It was not a plan B. It was before
the foundation of the world. This salvation which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. In fact, you can
say it this way. It's the very reason God created
the world. It's the very reason God put
Adam in the garden. It's the very reason Adam fell.
Because God purposed to have a people to live with him eternally
in the person of his son. And so all of this, the grace,
the abundance, and he says the abundance of grace, and he's
gonna explain that because what he's gonna show is that what
we, we lost a lot in Adam. When Adam fell, we lost a lot.
But what we gain, in Christ far outdoes what we lost in Adam.
Look at verse 18 now, he says, therefore for this reason as
by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation
even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon
all men under justification of life. In other words, all men
to condemnation. Now that describes all whom Adam
represented in the fall. And because of that fall in Adam,
and because of our own personal sins too, here's what it is. We all deserve condemnation. We have all earned condemnation. So that when you talk about salvation
or any blessing of it, you can forget any notion of us earning
or deserving what God freely gives. In the words of Saul of
Grace, we fell in Adam. We've sinned against God. And
that's enough if God were pleased to do so in his justice to send
all of us to hell. And that's what we earn and deserve.
But he says, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men under justification. Now, when you look at this, you
see the word all men. Well, all men fell in Adam, every
one of us without exception. Every one of us deserved death
and hell. Somebody said, well, this means
the sentence of condemnation. Well, we all deserve that. We
all deserve it. But God had in mind another all
men Who's the first all men? All whom Adam represented in
the garden. Who's the second all men? All whom Christ represented
on the cross. That's the all men. So I know
I was represented by Adam because I was born spiritually dead and
I came forth from the womb speaking lies. I'm a sinner. I deserve
death and hell. I deserve condemnation. Now how
can I know if I was represented in Christ at the cross? Christ
didn't die for all men without exception. If he did, what it
says here, if Christ died for everybody without exception,
then everybody without exception are righteous, justified, and
will have life. That's what this verse says.
Whoever Christ represented, however many it was, They are righteous
in God's sight, based on his righteousness imputed. They are
justified, they're forgiven, made righteous in God's sight,
and it's justification of life. Now how do I know if I was represented
by Christ on the cross? How do I know that Christ was
made my surety before the foundation of the world? How do I know that
I was redeemed by his blood on the cross? Well, at some point
in time, I'm going to be given spiritual life, justification
of life. Righteousness demands it. Just
as sin demanded spiritual death, righteousness demands spiritual
life. And how do I know I have that
spiritual life? By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. By looking
to Him. I'll put in your lesson here,
the question may be raised, were God's chosen people brought under
God's just sentence of condemnation by Adam, or because of Adam,
and by his following to sin and death? In other words, let me
ask you this, put it this way. If you're one of God's chosen
people, when did he choose you? Before the foundation of the
world, and what the Bible teaches? All right, and how did he choose
you? Was it, did he look down through
a telescope of time and say, look, there's Randy Wade. You
know, at some point in time, back in 1985, he's gonna believe
in me. No. Didn't do it. It was unconditional election,
that's what we call it, because that's what it is. And you read
Romans nine, that makes it so plain. I mean, Paul just spells
it out. Here's Jacob and Esau. Before the two did any good or
evil, That's the way it is. It was God's sovereign choice.
You will not be able to answer the question, why did God choose
me? The only answer the Bible gives,
I believe, is found in Matthew 11, where Christ said, for so,
Father, it seemed good in your sight. I didn't seem good, because
I wasn't good. But it seemed good in his sight.
So God chose us, how did he choose us? He chose us in Christ, Ephesians
chapter one. Whatever God does, he does on
a just ground. Whatever choice God makes, whatever
work God does, whatever plan God purposes, he does it in a
just way, on a just ground. He's not, you know, he cannot
do anything in an arbitrary way. It always has to be right with
him. his character, his attributes. They have to be honored. He cannot
dishonor himself. That's why he can by no means
clear the guilty. See, in other words, for God
to clear me, the guilt has to be taken away. The soul that
sinneth, it shall die. That's God's justice. God hates
all workers of iniquity. That means this. If God's gonna
love me, he's got to do it in some way that he justly removes
the iniquity. That's what that means. So how
did God choose me before the foundation? He chose me in Christ.
And what was the ground of that choice? The redeeming work that
Christ would come and accomplish in time as the second man, the
last Adam, as God-man. So, if that's the case with you,
and what does he do? He sends his spirit forth to
give us life. Spiritual life, the new birth.
Gives us a new heart. Now, if that's the case with
you, when did God ever look at you and say, I'm sentencing you
to go to hell? Doesn't the Bible say in Romans
9, I think it's verse 23, that we are vessels of mercy, afore
prepared unto destruction? Now we deserve, by nature there's
no difference between us and those who perish and go to hell.
By nature. We're just as sinful, we're just
as deserving, we have earned just as much eternal damnation
as they have in ourselves. But you see, God looked at his
people in Christ before the foundation of the world. Chose them unto
salvation. Bless them with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And at some point
in time, he applies those blessings to us as he brings us to faith
in Christ and repentance. Good words. If you're a sinner
saved by grace, what does that mean? That means God loves you.
When did he first start loving you? The Bible says he always
loved us. with an everlasting love. There
was never a time he didn't love us. Well, when God loves us,
he's got to do it on what? A just ground. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. It was in Christ. Now again, now understand, now
we fell in Adam. We're born spiritually dead.
We're sinners. And if it weren't for Christ,
before the foundation of the world, if it weren't for Christ
coming into this world and dying on the cross, if it weren't for
Christ sending the Spirit to give us life, we would be just
as condemned as what the Bible calls the vessels of wrath fitted
to destruction. But the Bible says we were vessels
of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory. So here's the question,
and somebody says, were the sins of God's elect ever imputed to
them? Technically, no, they were imputed to Christ. But if it
weren't for Christ, where would we be? Somebody said, well, if
that's the case, then Christ didn't have to come. Oh, no,
if it weren't for him, we'd be damned forever. We would be condemned
forever. But we're not. Christ was made
our surety in the everlasting covenant of grace before the
foundation of the world. And what is the work of a surety?
A surety takes the debt of another onto himself. Put it on my account,
I'll repay it. So that's what I believe this
verse is teaching. Look at verse 19. He says, for as by one man's
disobedience, many, or literally in the Greek it would be the
many, were made sinners. They were constituted, they were
looked upon by God, they were rendered, however you want to
put it, appointed, designated sinners. In Adam, sin and death. As in Adam, all die. And it was
for the many, how many, however many Adam represented when he
fell. All right? So by the obedience
of one, that's talking about the obedience of Christ, his
obedience unto death, shall many, the many, be made righteous. How many? However many Christ
died for. However many God chose and gave
to him. And how do you know if you've
been made righteous? And that's, how are we made righteous? Well,
we're made righteous by God imputing his righteousness to us. Well,
how do I know that I'm part of that many that Christ represented? Well, what does the scripture
say? It says those who are justified will have life. They'll be given
life. The Bible says in Romans chapter
eight verse 10, if Christ be in you, and that's by his spirit
and by his word in the new birth, this body is dead because of
sin, but the spirit, which is the Holy Spirit, is life because
of righteousness. If God has justified me, that
will be made known in my life as the Spirit imparts spiritual
life, knowledge, gives me the gift of faith, turns me to Christ,
brings me to repent of my dead works and my sins and my idolatry. That's what he's talking about.
And so, however many Christ represented, and they're known by the new
birth, by their faith in Christ. So, verse 20, it says, moreover,
the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. Now that's spoken in light of,
again, you remember back in the parenthesis, that basically ended
at verse 17, most scholars say. When he was talking about death
reign from Adam to Moses, That has to do with a particular heresy
that Jews, unbelieving Jews, who profess to be believers in
Christ, who profess to be Christian, would try to insert the Mosaic
law and even the Mosaic economy into the paradigm of Christian
life. In other words, they came in,
you know, the book of Galatians deals with this. Here you are,
they claim to be Jewish Christians, and they would tell the Gentiles,
now you Gentile males, you've got to be circumcised in order
to really be saved, really be righteous. Or you've got to keep
the law, or you've got to keep the Sabbath, you've got to do
this. Can't taste that, can't touch that, can't handle that.
And they were trying to do that. And so Paul is very, very adamant
in the Galatians especially, but even here in Romans, to tell
them that the Mosaic law has no hold over those who believe
in Christ and follow him. So the question would arise,
well, why then was the law given? Well, here he answers it. He
answers it in Galatians too. But he says, moreover, the law
entered that the offense might have been. It was a measure of
the righteousness of God, whereby when we measured ourselves against,
when the Jews measured themselves against, they could see that
they did not measure up. You're a sinner. In other words, if your salvation
depended upon you keeping the Ten Commandments, you can forget
it. That's what the law was given for. You need a righteousness
you cannot produce. That's why the law was given.
Kind of like that kind of a mirror or an x-ray machine that exposed
the depravity of man. We'll see this over in Romans
7 when Paul talks about, when I was lost, when I was blind
to my own sinfulness, I thought I was okay. I thought I was right
because I looked at the law and I thought, well, man, I'm doing
the best I can or I'm keeping that. But then when the spirit
opened his eyes, gave him eyes to see and ears to hear, he saw
that sin revived. Oh, I'm not as good as I thought
I was. Sin revived and he even went
this far, he said, I died. In other words, he's saying,
when I saw the reality of that law, the spirituality of that
law, I found out I was still a sinner and the law condemned
me to death. And that's why the law was given
to the Jews, to show them their sinfulness, their depravity,
their need of righteousness that they could not produce. Remember
Christ said in Matthew 5 20, except your righteousness exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you cannot
enter the kingdom of heaven. And it's sad today, most people
look at that verse and they say, well they just weren't sincere,
so in order for me to exceed their righteousness, I just have
to be more sincere than they were. Now, do you realize what
you're saying there? First of all, I'd ask you this
question. What measure of sincerity equals
the righteousness of the law? Well, first of all, you're not
gonna find that in Genesis to Revelation, so you know what
your hope of salvation is? It's a stab in the dark. You say, well, I'm sincere. Well,
I hope you're sincere enough. Well, how sincere do I have to
be? I don't know. I just hope it's enough. No, that's not the
way the word of God works. First of all, there's not a,
Paul wrote in Romans 10, he talked about the Jews had a zeal of
God. They were zealous and sincere,
but they were still ignorant of God's righteousness. How do
you know, Paul? Well, they're going about to
establish one of their own. and they've not submitted to
the righteousness of God. Well, how do you know if a person's
submitted to the righteousness of God? Well, what is the righteousness
of God? Verse four of Romans 10. Christ
is the end, the fulfillment, the finishing, the perfection
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
That's how you know. Is your hope in the merits of
the God man? his glorious person, his finished
work. So he says where the law entered,
that sin might abound. Most scholars will say that that's
kind of like a picture of a person drowning in an ocean. And so what that shows is the
law was given to show us that we're drowning in a sea of sin. But where sin abounded, where
sin overflowed us like a flood, Grace did much more about. Grace did much more about. There's
no sinner too sinful that grace cannot save. Grace provides for
the salvation of the worst of the worst. And you know who I
call the worst of the worst? The self-righteous. And how does it do that? How
does it accomplish that? Well look at verse 21. Well then
as sin hath reigned unto death, sin demands death, even so might
grace reign through what? Righteousness, there it is again.
I got preachers who make fun of me for preaching righteousness
and I don't see how you can get away from it. I'd have to work
to get away from it in the Bible. It reigns through righteousness.
Well, where are you gonna find righteousness? Not in you, not
in me. Unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's the only one you're gonna
find righteousness. If you wanna find the perfection
of righteousness required by God in the law, look to Christ. That's what Paul's saying here.
Don't look to yourself. You say, well, preacher, shouldn't
we try to be righteous? Well, yes, but not in order to
attain or maintain salvation. It's impossible. In fact, it's
unbelief. It's self-righteousness. It's
legalism. Where are you gonna find it? Only in Christ, and
that's his righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to us, whereby
God the Holy Spirit gives us life to receive him by faith.
That's the much more in the scriptures.