I want to bring a sermon to you
today from the book of Romans. We didn't cover this very extensively
when we went through Genesis, and it's time, I think, to deal
with it. It's actually a future study in our Bible study. So
it's necessary that we cover this at some point in time, and
I'd like to try to do it now. It's a very difficult scripture,
and so I pray that God would give us grace to understand it
from his word and convince us the truth of it. We know that
we're not sufficient to do one thing of spiritual good in ourselves. Our sufficiency is of Christ,
Paul the Apostle said to us. And we know that, but it's more
difficult to understand it when we feel strong. It's easier to
believe it when we don't. So I'm thankful that God has
given us this time, that you can be patient with me. I hope
that my weakness to speak this morning isn't an impediment.
I hope you don't focus on that, but hope that you're given grace
just to focus on the truth of God and His word. So let's ask
the Lord to be with us and then we'll read our scripture. Dear Lord, we thank you that
you've given us this time together, and this place, and these people,
and your word. This is on earth. This is heaven
to us. As the psalmist said, I would
rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell
in the tents of wickedness. A day in thy courts is better
than a thousand anywhere else. And so here we are gathered in
your name to hear from you, our great and mighty Savior, and
all of your grace towards us and what you've accomplished.
We pray, Lord, that you would teach us from your word. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen. Romans chapter 5, verse
12. We're going to read from verse
12 to the end of the chapter. Romans 5, verse 12 through 21.
Now, I'm going to read this out of the King James Version. I
always do. The King James Version puts words
in italics that were not in the original, but were felt by the
translators to be important to understand the meaning or the
sense of what was said in that phrase or that sentence. And
so when I read this, I'll probably skip over those words just to
give you the unmodified version of the translation. And we're
just going to read it that way, so if you follow along here.
I'll give you the background after we read it. Verse 12, Wherefore,
the Apostle Paul says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. That's the statement of the truth
he's about to unravel to us. It's just a flat statement and
that's often done. The Apostle does this frequently.
And it's done throughout scripture. God just makes a frank and plain
statement of truth. And now he's going to explain
something more about that. He says in 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, even over them that had not sinned, after the
similitude of Adam's transgression, who was the figure of him that
was to come. A figure, by that he means one
who represented the one that was to come. Adam represented
Christ in what God used him and his life to represent Christ.
Verse 15, But not as the offense, so also the free gift. For if
through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace
of God and the gift by grace by one man, Jesus Christ, hath
abounded unto many. And not as by one that sinned
the gift. For the judgment by one to condemnation,
but the free gift of many offenses unto justification. For if by
one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the
offense of one upon all men to condemnation, even so by the
righteousness of one upon all men unto justification of life. For as 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. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Now, in this particular scripture,
many things are revealed to us which we could never know unless
God told it to us. These are truths we could not
know unless God made it plain to us in Scripture. But let me
give you a little bit of a lead-in to these verses here in Romans
chapter 5. In the book of Romans in chapter 1 verse 18 through
3 verse 19 and 20, The Apostle Paul proves that
all men universally are under the condemnation of sin. And
God's wrath is against them for their ungodliness and their unrighteousness. And this is proven in those first
two chapters, two and a half chapters. Then in chapter 3,
the Apostle announces the fact that even though man is void
of righteousness, all men, without exception, there's none righteous,
no not one. Yet now, at this time, the righteousness of God
is revealed. And that's what the apostle spends
the remainder of the next few chapters in Romans dealing with,
is the righteousness of God. In fact, the righteousness of
God is the theme of the book of Romans. So in verse 21 of
chapter 3, he says, but now the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested. In other words, without our personal
obedience to the law. being witnessed by the Law and
the Prophets. In other words, Scripture has foretold this before,
even though it's not by something we do, yet it was spoken of in
Scripture. The righteousness of God. And
so, in Romans 3, he announces this righteousness, and he doesn't
really expand on what this righteousness is until later on in Romans 10-4. He makes it very clear this righteousness
is the obedience of Christ. Romans 10.4, Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So
the subject is the righteousness of God in the book of Romans.
And this is glad, glad news, because we have none. And all
that we have is in Christ. But, even though the righteousness
of God is revealed, and in chapter 3 he says it's unto all who believe,
He spends, in chapter 4, he spends chapter 4 showing that in the
life of Abraham, who is without question the most prominent of
those among the entire nation of Israel, because he was the
father of all, of the nation. And the life of David, who also
without question was the greatest symbol of God's Messiah, David
the King. That in these two men, they confessed
and reaffirmed the fact that righteousness is not by our own
personal obedience, but by the imputation of what Christ did. So the title of our sermon today
is, Justification by Imputed Righteousness. And that actually
is the title of a book written by John Bunyan, but it's a very
common phrase. We're justified. by the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, imputed to us by God." Now, that was
a statement made in chapter 3. It was proved with Abraham and
David in chapter 4. And the word imputed is used
in chapter 4, I think, some dozen or 13 times. I counted them last
night. I think it was at least 13 times.
That word, imputed. So, I want to talk about that
word a little bit. But I wanted you to have that
background because when Paul jumps in here in chapter 5, what
he shows in the first few verses from verse 1 to verse 11 of chapter
5 is the great grace of God that even though we were sinners,
and when we were sinners, Christ died for us. God reconciled us
to himself by the death of his son. That's the grand truth of
the first few verses of chapter 5. And He says this truth enables
us to endure all troubles. It gives us peace even in trouble
and strength through every tribulation. Because we know that if Christ
died for us when we were His enemies, then we will most certainly
be saved by His life. Verse 10 of chapter 5. But now
in chapter 5 verse 12, he begins this analogy. Because the question
comes up, what is the basis? Give me some scriptural basis
for the fact that God imputes righteousness to His people. How does that happen? How can
you explain that from scripture? And so the Apostle Paul shows
us how. He answers several questions
here. What is sin? What is sin? How did man become
sinful? How did he become a sinner in
the eyes of God? How did he become guilty? How
did he become a sinful person in himself, corrupt by nature?
How did he become condemned? Why is death in the world? Why do all men die? All those
questions are answered here. And what is righteousness? And
how is that righteousness the possession of any man? And so
these things are all laid out for us in these few verses here
in Romans 5, verses 12-21. It's a glorious truth. It's one
of the most important places in all of scripture. Romans 5,
verses 12-21. It establishes for us the basis
of our righteousness before God and how it comes about. It also
establishes the basis for our guilt before God and how that
comes about. It's a glorious thing. Now, as
I said, none of this could be understood by us unless God made
it known and thus He revealed it in Scripture. Men can't get
this from observing nature. Men can't get this from some
logical deduction starting from some fundamental premise and
then deducing all things from this. It doesn't happen that
way. Only one way can men understand the Gospel. God by His Spirit
reveals it from His Word. And God the Holy Spirit inspired
men to write it in His Word. That's the way we know it. So
what's written here is the very words of God. And we can only
know this truth if God persuades us of the truth of it. We have
to start by faith we believe what God has said. Faith is believing
what God has said. It's very simple. We just believe
what God said. We believe what God said because
we believe God. And God has spoken these things
and by His word persuades us the truth of them. So, let's
begin here in this section here. First of all, I want you to understand
not only are these fundamental questions about what is sin,
how did we become sinners, What is righteousness? How do we become
righteous? And all these things are answered
here. But there are several parallels that are drawn forth. And preeminently,
in these scriptures, Christ and Adam are set side by side in
parallel. God compares them and contrasts
them. He compares how they were similar
and He contrasts how they were different in this. But in all
of this, He says in verse 14 that Adam was a figure of Him
that was to come. God predetermined, when He created
Adam, to set him up to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, understand
that that's always the case. God doesn't look back through
history and say, Oh, this is exactly what I was trying to
say. I'm going to use that as an illustration of what the truth
I'm trying to tell you now. No, God predetermined and set
up the truth in a type, in a figure, in a representative thing. And
then He brought forth the spiritual reality of it. And then He tells
us about that spiritual reality in the original type. If you
think about it, that in and of itself is evidence that scripture
is divinely inspired. You see, because God has set
up Adam as a type of Christ before we ever knew it. And then he
tells us, and then we look at it and we say, wow, that's amazing. And we might wonder, how could
it be that Adam could be a type of Christ? Adam sinned. And Adam
died because of his sin. And all of the trouble and misery
in this world came about because of that sin of Adam and his disobedience. How could he be a type of Christ?
And that's the wonderful thing of Scripture. It takes those
things that we don't expect and brings forth the truth of God's
grace and mercy, His wisdom, His justice and all those things.
But I want you to think about a few things here. First of all,
two men. Two men. These two men are set
side by side as parallels. The one came first, Adam, but
he foreshadowed Christ who would come later. And when looking
at Adam, which Paul does first, we're going to see how God makes
us righteous in Christ. Secondly, Not only two men, but
there were three imputations here. The word imputation, or
impute, is not something we often say. We say, I impute that you
were envying when you took that from me. We don't say that, but
that's what we would think. We would say, I'm considering
the fact that when you did that thing, you had an evil intention
in view. And so we regard them as having done something wrong
or right by the action that we see. And so this is used throughout
scripture in several places. Let me just give you a few of
them that occur here. In fact, let me just turn to
a couple here. I don't want to spend too much time on this,
but just to establish this. Look at Leviticus chapter 17. Leviticus chapter 17 is one,
and this is throughout scripture, but this one and several others serve
as good examples. In Leviticus 17, in verse 24,
it says here, I'm sorry, not 24, Let's see, 17 verse 4. Yes, in verse 4, not 24. Let
me read from verse 1 through 4. The Lord spake to Moses, saying,
Speak to Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children
of Israel, and say to them, This is the thing which the Lord hath
commanded, saying, What man soever there be of the house of Israel
that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat in the camp, or that
kills it out of the camp, and does not bring it into the door
of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering to the Lord,
before the tabernacle of the Lord, blood shall be imputed
unto that man. He hath shed blood, and that
man shall be cut off from among his people." So, God commanded
Moses to tell Aaron and his sons and all the children of Israel,
do not kill an ox, a lamb or a goat in order to make a sacrifice
and do it outside of the camp or even in the camp and not bring
it to the tabernacle to be offered as a sacrifice to the Lord. In
other words, if you do that, you're saying, I don't need to
come to God through a priest And I don't need to offer my
offering, my sacrifice, to the Lord. Because the only way you
can bring a sacrifice to God is to bring it through a priest.
And there's no sacrifice to be offered except the sacrifice
to the Lord. He says if you do that, if you
fail to do that, if you try to offer a sacrifice without bringing
it to the tabernacle, without going to the priest, without
bringing it to the Lord, i.e. idolatry, then you will be considered
a murderer and an idolater. That sin, murder, will be imputed
to you. You will be considered by God,
regarded by God, and treated by God as a murderer. Blood shall
be imputed to you. Look at Isaiah 66 where this
is brought out. He says in Isaiah 66 in verse
3, He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man. He that sacrifices
a lamb as if he cut off a dog's neck God is saying, just like
I try to explain from Leviticus 16.4, that if you try to bring
a sacrifice, If you kill an animal in order
to make a sacrifice, you don't bring it to the Lord, or you
don't come to the priest, you're considered a murderer and an
idolater. And you'll be treated by God
as such. The guilt of murder will be imputed to you. The sentence
for a murderer will be passed upon you. You will be made subject
to the condemnation of that crime of murder because you attempted
to offer a sacrifice not to God and not through a priest. Our
High Priest is the Lord Jesus Christ. The sacrifice He offered
was Himself. There's only one way that we
can come to God. It's by the offering of the blood
of Jesus Christ, which He offered to God for His people. That's
the only sacrifice God accepts, and we must come to God by Him
alone. Otherwise, we are imputed as
murderers and idolaters before the Lord. So, what does impute
mean? It means that God treats us,
He considers us, He regards us, He reckons us as sinners. Guilty of a crime. And He brings
upon us, for that crime, that guilt. Now, I'm going to just
tell you about a few other cases in scripture. In the book of
Joshua, in chapter 7, you can read about it in your own time,
Achan, a man of Israel, When they went in and they fought
against the people of Jericho, God told them, when the city
is destroyed, don't take anything. Burn all of it. But Achan went
in when the walls came crumbling down and they saw all the people
there were terrified and they beat that people down. Achan,
a man of Israel, saw some gold. He saw some silver. And he saw
a Babylonian garment. And he lusted and took those
things for himself. And he hid them in his tent.
And God brought the consequence of what Achan did on the people
of Israel. Because the next city they went
to, which was called Ai, several thousand, many thousands of Israelites
died because God allowed the men of Ai to come out and beat
down the children of Israel. Finally, God revealed to Joshua
who had sinned, and it was Achan. And God told Joshua told Achan, confess to
the Lord. Tell us what you've done. And
he told him. He told him all that he'd done. And God had the
people of Israel stone him. Not only him, but his children
and his household and everything that was with him were destroyed.
So that's another example of how God treated man and his belongings
and even his family because of his sin. Then again, if you remember
Korah, Dathan and Abiram in Numbers. The book of Numbers, chapter
16 I think it is. In chapter 16 of Numbers, Korah,
Dathan and Abiram stood up against Moses and Aaron. And they said,
we're a priest, we're of the family of Levi, how do you guys
think that you could be the only ones who God has spoken through?
And so they stood up against them and God told Moses, separate
yourselves from Korah, Dathan and Abiram. And Moses told Korah,
Dathan and Abiram and all the people of Israel, he said, if
God is with these men, then they will be left alone. Nothing will
happen. But if He's not, if He's with
me, if God has been with me, then something new is going to
happen today. The earth is going to open up. And Korah, Dathan
and Abiram and all that pertains to them will be swallowed down
alive. Which is exactly what happened. The earth opened up
and all these men, all that they had and all their people that
were with them were swallowed up alive for their sin. So you
see these things, how God charged all of their children with that
sin that they committed. Someone might say, well, it's
because they were guilty also. They were no doubt guilty of
being sinners, but God brought upon them the consequence of
that sin. Now, I mention all those things just to give you
some examples of what it means to impute. God imputed the crime
that those men did and he brought against their household the consequences
of that crime. Now let me give you some illustrations
from our everyday lives. The President of the United States
can make treaties with other countries. And when he does,
he binds those treaties on all the citizens of this country.
If the President of the United States made a treaty with Mexico
and South America called NAFTA, then we're all bound to keep
that treaty. And we didn't have any part in
making the treaty. But we elected the president who made it, and
we're bound by it. And so we can see there's something
there about a representation that God has set up, even in
our government, where someone represents the whole people.
In fact, we call our senators and our assemblymen representatives,
don't we? This person goes to Congress,
they create legislation, or they cast their vote, and their vote
and that legislation is considered the vote and legislation of all
the people they represent in that state. That's why it's important
that people elect Senators and Representatives who are going
to faithfully represent them. And we're bound by it, whether
they raise taxes or do other things. We're bound by it, and
it's the law, and we have to live by it. And so we see how
God, even in our everyday lives, gives us some understanding of
what it means to represent. If I was a lawyer, and someone
here was my client, and we went to court, the person who had
allegedly committed the crime wouldn't talk in court. The lawyer
would do all the talking. Everything the lawyer said to
the court would be considered as coming from the client. And
everything the court said to the lawyer would be directed
not only just to the lawyer, but specifically to the client.
And so we see this representation throughout our everyday lives
and also throughout the Word of God. Now, look at Romans chapter
5. Two men, three imputations. The word impute is used throughout
scripture. It's especially used in Romans
chapter 4, which we're not going to go over today. But God imputes
sin and He imputes righteousness. Now there's two men. These two
men are clearly Adam and Christ. The three imputations I will
get to in just a second. But there's two paradoxes. Two
men, two paradoxes. The first paradox is this. How
can God, who was holy, How can God who is holy, who will not
clear the guilty, justify the ungodly? Isn't that a paradox? That is the most amazing paradox
in all of the world, isn't it? How could God, who will not clear
the guilty, justify the ungodly? Romans 4, 5 says that God justifies
the ungodly. In other places He says that.
How can that be? How can holy God, who will not
clear the guilty, justify the ungodly? That's the first paradox.
The second paradox is this. How can God, who is holy and
will not condemn the just, condemn the righteous one? Isn't that
amazing? How could God condemn His Son,
who is righteous? That's a paradox, isn't it? The
answer to both of those paradoxes lies in what's said here in Romans
5, verses 12-21. Three imputations occurred. The
first imputation is described in verse 12. Look at it. He says, He doesn't name the man because
it's someone that, in the Jews' religion, they were familiar
with this truth that by one man all men became sinners. He says,
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Death is the consequence of sin. All men die. Therefore, all men
are sinners. That's a very fundamental truth
that has to be understood when we read this verse. Death is
the wages of sin. The payback for sin. The soul
that sinneth, it shall die. Only sinners die. If we underscore
that and we understand that, then we cannot go too far astray
here. If only sinners die, and all men die, because this is
where we're at in Genesis, Adam lived so long and he died. Cain,
Abel, they all died. No one lived except Enoch who
walked with God, but that's a different, that's an exceptional case. Everyone
died. Therefore, what can we conclude?
Everyone is a sinner. How did they become sinful? How
did they become sinners in the eyes of God? He says, Now, there's two questions that
naturally come to our mind when we read that. What does it mean
when sin entered the world? Does it mean that somehow, when
Adam ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, that sin infiltrated the world like a dark mist and all
of the plants and everything was somehow infected by that
sin? What happened? What happened here? When sin
entered into the world, sin entered through Adam and passed to all
men." In this sense, that all men were judged to be guilty
of that sin. And so when it says, for that
all have sinned, it means all have become guilty by that sin. How do we know that's what it
means here? Well, look at verse 15. Look at verse 15. He says, Not as the offense,
so also the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead. You see that? One man, one offense,
many dead. Look at verse 16. Not as by one
that sinned the gift. For the judgment by one to condemnation. You see that? The judgment was
by one to condemn. And look at verse 17. If by one
man's offense death reigned by one. It doesn't say death reigned
because all men were influenced by Adam and therefore they sinned
just like he did. And therefore death passed upon
them. No, it says by one man's offense
death reigned by that one. That one offense of that one
man. And then look at verse 18. as by the offense of one. Judgment
came upon all men to condemnation. And then verse 19, As by one
man's disobedience many were made sinners. So in all these
cases, God himself explains in this context what it means when
it says all have sinned. It means that when Adam disobeyed
that one law that God gave him, that when he acted in that one
to disobey God in that one command. Just one command. That he acted
as a representative and his action was imputed by God as the action
of all those who were in Adam. All who would ever be born to
Adam. That's how sin entered into the world. What was sin? What is sin? Sin is transgression
of the law. God gave one command to Adam.
Do not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. If you do, in that day you shall surely die. Genesis
2.17 Adam ate, he disobeyed. He became guilty. The condemnation
was passed upon Him by God in His judgment. And He came under.
He became subject to death. And guess what? So did everyone
ever to enter this world through Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who did not enter the world through Adam. Remember
what happened when Eve ate? She ate before Adam, didn't she?
Did all men become sinners when Eve ate? No. Why? Because Eve was not the representative
head, not the covenant head of all of the human race. Adam was. And that's why it's significant
that Eve, in disobeying first, that sin didn't immediately come
upon the human race. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. Sinned. God imputed his disobedience
as their guilt. And you say, how in the world
could that be fair? How could that be fair? By any human logic,
how could that be fair? You know how it can be fair?
Because God did it. And God said that He did it.
Therefore, it's just. Therefore, it's right. Because
God can only do what's right. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? He cannot do wrong. So because
God did this, this is the way it is. But now, in verse 13 and
14, He explains. This is the conclusion. And so
He uses verse 13 and 14 to give a supporting evidence that what
He said in verse 12 is the case. He says in verse 13, And He means
the Law of Moses. But sin is not imputed when there
is no law. That's a fundamental truth. If
there's no law, God is not going to impute guilt. Well, someone
could say, until Moses, men didn't have the written law. How could
they be guilty? Well, were they guilty? I don't
know. Did they die? Yes. Well, then
they must have been guilty. Well, what law did they break
then? That's the question that kind of comes up. He says, for
until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed,
God doesn't impute it, when there is no law. Nevertheless, Death
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude or the likeness of Adam's transgression, who
is the figure of him that was to come. There was a category,
a class of people, who lived between Adam and Moses, who did
not in their own action transgress a written law. Now, there were
sinners. There's no doubt that there were
sinners before Moses gave the law. We know there were, don't
we? How do we know that there were sinners before Moses gave
the law? Well, because men died. Well, what law then were they
under that caused them to transgress? Because unless there's a law,
there can be no transgression. What was that law? Well, you
could say it was the law of nature, because the Gentiles, which know
not, do not have the law, which do by nature the things contained
in the law. These, having not the law, are a law to themselves.
See, Romans chapter 2 proves it. Well, it's true they had
the law of nature, but God doesn't talk about that here. They were
sinners, and no doubt when God told Noah that if a man takes
another man's life, by man shall his life be taken, that was in
itself a law. A law of capital punishment against
murder. But here God is trying to, through
the Apostle Paul, is trying to get us to realize that what he
said in verse 12 is true. That Adam's disobedience was
imputed as the guilt of all mankind. And so he sets it up in this
way. He says, there were a class or
category of people, in verse 14, who lived before Moses gave
the law and God considered them guilty. And they died, even though
in their own person they never broke a law. And what people
could that be? Because there obviously had to
be some law. There could have been no transgression.
It was those who died, like infants, in their infancy. Now, Denise
and I had a son who died when he was a week old. I don't know
exactly how many days old. But he was born, he was conceived
in the womb with birth defects which could never have allowed
him to think clearly or to function without life support. His body
couldn't support him. And that experience in our lives
has often come back to me as a supporting evidence of the
fact that my son was conceived and he had deformities that would
never have been his if God had not considered him guilty. And he didn't, in his own experience,
ever break a law. And he didn't have a mind sufficient
to even understand. I doubt that he could even hear.
But yet he died. And we know that death is the
wages of sin. So God imputed to him the same
guilt that he imputed to his father and his mother. The guilt
of Adam's disobedience. And that's what he's talking
about here. Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them
that had not sinned after the likeness or similitude of Adam's
transgression. In His own person, neither you
nor I, we never did eat that fruit from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. We didn't even receive that command, did we?
The whole garden was closed down. We couldn't get back in to do
it. God charged us with that act as our act, as our guilt. And, as I said, we can only take
this by the faith on God's Word. God said it. And, as I pointed
out in verse 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19, this is reiterated so
we know that's the truth. Besides that, we also know this
is the truth of this passage because the two men that are
contrasted and compared here are Adam and Christ. We know
from Scripture, without question, that Christ died for the ungodly. How could He die for the ungodly?
Why would He die for the ungodly? Because sin was imputed to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore He bared their
sins in His own body on the tree. How could that be? By imputation. God imputed what they had done
as if He did it. He regarded their sins Christ's
sins. He hath made Him to be sin for
us. God regarded Christ as having
committed those sins. And the Lord Jesus Christ understood
what that meant. He understood the guilt that
God imputed to Him was His own guilt. And so, in the Psalms
throughout, He confesses, mine iniquities are more than the
hairs of my head. And he lamented under them. And
he sweat great drops of blood under the guilt and shame of
those things in the garden. And that's something we can never
really understand. But he knew what it was to be considered
by God a sinner. Because he owned those sins as
his. And so we're jumping ahead of
ourselves. Let's go to verse 15. He continues to explain,
verse 12, first by contrasting here the difference between the
offense of Adam and the gift of Christ. He says in verse 15,
But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. Okay, so this
is a contrast. Not as the offense. It's a contrast. For if 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. You could read that verse probably
a hundred times and you may not understand what it's saying.
But let me see if I can shed a little bit of light on it.
First of all, he's contrasting two things. He's contrasting
the result of Adam's disobedience, the offense. He says, "...if
through the offense of one many be dead." Why? Why did many die? Because of the offense of one.
What is that called when God imputes the guilt of Adam's sin
to us and passes the sentence and consequences of all of that
sin on us? What is that called? It's called
justice. Justice. He's contrasting the
justice of God in his treatment of Adam and all of his seed with
the grace of God. He says, much more, the grace
of God and the gift by grace by one man, Jesus Christ, hath
abounded unto many. One man, one sin, one condemnation. It came upon all. Death passed
upon all. That was God's justice. But look
at this. One man. One life of obedience. And grace comes upon all those
who are in Christ. That grace abounded toward us
even though there was no cause for that to come to us. It was
just of God to pass along the guilt of Adam's sin, but there
was no justice. in God doing this for us, except
that it was grace of God that moved him. It was just that God
treated us as He treated Christ. But that's a different story.
The point here is the contrast between grace and justice. Between the one offense that
brought us all under guilt and caused us to be subject to death
and the grace of God that brought us into relation with Christ
and gave to us all the benefits that flowed to us from Christ.
So that's what verse 15 is about. It's contrasting now. But look
at verse 16. Remember three imputations? What's
the first imputation? God imputed the guilt of Adam's
disobedience to all of his children. That's the first imputation.
God did it. And verse 16, And not as it was
by one that sinned, so is the free gift. For the judgment was
by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses
unto justification. Once again he's contrasting something
here. Not as. Not as by one that sinned
the gift. One that sinned was who? Adam.
What did Adam do? He sinned. God is saying not
as by Adam who sinned. For the judgment, the judgment
of God that all men were guilty. Was by one, by Adam and by his
one offense to condemnation. Now, you expect the rest of the
verse to go something like this, Therefore, by one, Jesus Christ,
by his obedience, in spite of many offenses, unto justification. But he leaves out all that stuff
about Jesus Christ and his obedience here. What happens? He says,
For the judgment by one to condemnation but the free gift of many offenses
unto justification." How could it be that a free gift, and what
is that gift anyway, in many offenses would lead to justification?
There's no amount of judicial consistency that would allow
us to take many offenses and lead to justification. What kind
of a gift is that? Read in verse 17. Look what the
gift is. The gift of righteousness. In
verse 17, you see that? So the gift is what? The righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is that righteousness?
It's the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ to fulfill the will
of God in such a way that He fulfilled all of the Old Testament
Scripture. All of the Law and the Prophets.
He said, I did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. And
when He cried on the cross, it is finished. Romans 10.4, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. He perfected it. He brought it
to its consummate perfection in all that He did. Including
the fulfillment of the precept and the fulfillment of the penalty.
And so, taking that now, we see verse 16. It's what it's saying.
It's not as by one that sinned, the gift. The righteousness,
the gift of righteousness, which is the gift here, is not as by
one that sinned. For the judgment was by one,
the one being Adam and his one offense, to condemnation. But
the righteousness of Christ is of many offenses unto justification. This is the second imputation.
The disobedience of all of God's people was imputed to Christ,
just as the disobedience of Adam was imputed to all mankind. Here
he's saying that the many offenses were laid upon Christ, and then
being laid on Him led to, by His obedience unto death, our
justification. Verse 15, contrasting the justice
of God and the grace of God. Verse 16, contrasting the imputation
of our sin from Adam, Adam's sin to us, and the imputation
of our sin to Christ. I hope you see that. Two imputations
so far. Now, In that same verse we see
the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us because He says that was
unto justification. Look at verse 17. It becomes
more clear. For if by one man's offense death
reigned by one, what's the result of Adam's one sin? Death has
absolute rule over all men. No exceptions. All men died. It says in 1 Corinthians 15.22. In Adam all die. 1 Corinthians
15.22. If by one man's offense death
reigned by one. Death reigned by one because
sin was over. All men were sinners by the sin
of Adam. Much more. Here's the grace of
God. Much more, they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one Jesus Christ. You see, now this is where the
glory of the gospel shines so brightly. To us who are sinners. We know we're sinners, don't
we? In our conscience we know we're sinners. And we might ask,
how did we get this way? You could say, we were born this
way. The devil made me do it. Or my environment made me do
it. Or something. But you weren't born with a clean slate. You
could say, I inherited my corrupt nature from Adam through the
birth process, through the conception. Psalm 51 David says, in sin did
my mother conceive me. Therefore, I was conceived in
iniquity and I received my corrupt nature. That's why I'm a sinner.
No, there was something that happened before that. God counted. He considered you. He reckoned
you as a sinner and treated you as a sinner even before you were
conceived. You were in Adam and guilty in
Adam. Condemned. The sentence passed
upon you. Condemnation. You became subject
to death. Your alienation from God, your
separation from God, occurred before you were born. When you
were born, did you ever hear the voice of God? Did God come
to you in the garden and speak in communion, in sweet communion
with you or any man? No. Why? Because we were out
of peace. We were unreconciled at that
point to God. We were separated from Him. We had committed the offense
in Adam and we were in a state of enmity with God. And so that
nature that we receive from Adam is the result of our guilt. It's
not the consequence of our guilt. It's the result of it. Just like
in Christ, His obedience is the result of all the blessings that
come to us. We never committed this sin that
Adam committed in our own experience or person. We weren't there.
We never heard that law. We never reached up, took the
fruit and ate it. But we were counted guilty of
it because we were in Adam. And we never, none of us, contributed
one thing in all that the Lord Jesus Christ did. We weren't
there when He was patient with His enemies. We weren't there
when He spoke the truth. We had nothing to do with it.
When He worked the miracles, when He healed the guilty. When
He took the sins of His people, when He bore them and He endured,
we weren't there. Not in our own person. But God
imputed what He did as ours because it was for our sins that He suffered. Remember what Isaiah 53 says,
The three imputations are Adam's sin imputed to us, our sins charged
to Christ. and Christ's obedience credited
to us. These two men determined the
destiny of all men on this earth. For if by one man's offense death
reigned, by one much more. They which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ. Justice through Adam's disobedience
leading to our condemnation and death, grace Consistent with
justice, but grace the motive that led to our justification
through the substitutionary sin bearing and obedience of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He acted as our head. Adam had one law. One law. And it was a prohibition. Just don't eat of it. And he
couldn't, he didn't keep it. He transgressed in it. That transgression
is the cause of all of our guilt and our death and all those things
that followed that. Christ had to fulfill all the
law with his whole heart, soul, in his whole life, even unto
death. And that righteousness is the
everlasting righteousness of his people. And that's the righteousness
spoken of in verse 18. He says, Therefore, 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 unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. And now this verse gets us to
this point that our standing before God depends entirely upon
what the Lord Jesus Christ did as our second, as the last Adam,
as the second man. Because that's what 1 Corinthians
15 says. Adam was the first man, Christ was the second man. Adam
was the first Adam, Christ was the last Adam. Three imputations. Adam's sin to us, our sin to
Christ, and Christ's righteousness to us. What was the result of
Adam's offense? All became guilty. What was the
judgment of God because of that guilt? They're condemned. What did the condemnation specify? Death. Disobedience, condemnation
and death. Through Adam, one man. What was
the result of Christ's obedience? Righteousness. He fulfilled the
law. And what was God's sentence that
he passed because of that obedience of Christ on his people? Justified. Justification. What's the result
of being justified before God? Eternal life. Everlasting righteousness. Everlasting life. That's what
he says here in verse 20 and 21. Moreover, the law entered
that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That is, sin hath reigned unto
death. What a wonderful thing this is.
How God has fixed it so that His people would be in Christ.
Now, it says here in verse 18, that for the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life." If Adam represented you
and me, what do we know about that in his disobedience? If
Adam represented us, are you guilty or not? There's no possibility. You're guilty before God because
of what he did. If Christ represented you then,
What's the consequence? Are you righteous or not? You
have to be made righteous by what Christ did. There's no possibility
that if Christ stood for you, that you're righteous before
God. That's the result here. How then did we come to be in
Adam? How is it that God could legally
impute what was Adam's action to us? What was the basis of
that imputation? It was the relation that we held
to Adam. How did that relation come about?
Because God, when He made man, He says, And God formed man from
the dust of the earth. He created all men in Adam. It
was a natural, physical relation by which we were connected to
Adam so that his action was imputed to us. How were we put into Christ? God hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world, so that when God, in His choice
of election and His adoption of His people to be His sons,
He put them into Christ, He gave them to Christ, so that He would
stand as their surety and He would bear the blame forever,
as Judah did for Benjamin. And his obedience would satisfy
the governor, Joseph. And they would go free. Let the
lad go free. If you seek me, then let these
go their way. And that's the story. Of him
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made into us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We didn't do
one thing to become guilty in our own person. Yet we were guilty. And all the consequences of that
guilt came upon us. We continue to propagate that
consequence, don't we? And we incur more judgment by
the sin that we commit. But, we didn't do one thing to
establish our righteousness before God. It was all done by our head,
our representative head. And this is the glorious truth
of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us. God didn't
actually make us righteous in ourselves and then say He's justified. I see now He's a holy person.
God looked at the obedience of Christ and says, that's enough,
that's enough. He's made full remission of all
their sins and God no longer imputes their iniquities to them
but imputes to them His obedience. Let's pray. Father, we pray that
we would fall on our faces and stand in awe of you for your
wisdom and your justice and your sovereignty and your righteousness
and your grace and your love and your mercy, that you would
find our Lord Jesus Christ a suitable subject to be our representative
who could stand and for us do everything God required from
us, even fulfill the punishment, endure that punishment that we
deserve for our sin. Lord, we pray that He would be
all to us. You would make it so by Your
Spirit. You would convince us and persuade us that Jesus Christ
is my Lord, my Savior. He stood up for me. And He answered
for me. And now I come to God by Him
alone. I don't bring my sacrifices somewhere
else. I bring them to God through Him.
And I don't even bring them myself, but He offered Himself for us.
Lord, help us to see our Savior and stand back and say, look
what He did. What a wonderful Savior. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen. Let's stand now and sing hymn
53, Hiding in Thee. That's what sinners do, they
run. Oh, that I might be found in Him, not having my own.