Romans chapter 5. Therefore, since we have been
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Through Him we also obtained access by faith into this grace
in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance. and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame,
because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit, who has been given to us. For while we were still weak,
at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will
scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a
good person one would even dare to die. But God shows His love
for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us. Since therefore we have now been
justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him
from the wrath of God. For if, while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more,
now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More
than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received reconciliation." Therefore, just
as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin,
and so death spread to all men because all sinned. For sin indeed
was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted
where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to
Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression
of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the
free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one
man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free
gift of the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abound for many.
And the free gift is not like the result of the one man's sin.
For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation,
but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if because of one man's trespass
death reigned through that one man, much more will those who
receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness
reign in life through the one man Christ Jesus. Therefore,
as one trespass led to the condemnation of all men, so one act of righteousness
leads to justification and life for all men. For as by one man's
disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's
obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in
came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace
abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace
also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord." I know it's a lot and it seems redundant
because Paul intentionally is being redundant. Paul is saying
the same thing over and over again. Let's not forget the context
of this actual writing. that up until this point Paul
has been writing to a Christian audience who are Roman citizens
who are comprised of Gentiles as well as Jews. And so when
we get here and we begin to see that Paul is sort of recapitulating
this idea that all have sinned, for we see in the third chapter
of this letter that all have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God and there is no distinction So that there is
not a good group of people and a bad group of people. There
are not people who are righteous in the eyes of God and then another
group of people who are wicked in the eyes of God as many, if
not most, all Jews thought. That they were justified through
some means other than through Jesus Christ. So they felt in
some sense superior in a spiritual way. One, because they had the
oracles of God. Two, because they were the people
of God by definition. Three, because they followed
after God for millennia. And fourthly, because they indeed
were a special race of people who had understood true worship
or understood the coming of the Messiah as a prophecy. But we've
learned that even those who taught or held to the standard of justice
that God is going to pour out upon all men, just like we see
in the first chapter of Romans that God will pull out His righteous
judgment on all sin. And because men are all sinners,
He shall pour it out on all men. So then As we come to this text,
we've been reminded that it is by the gospel of grace alone
that we have our justification, not by the works of the Law.
We also see that Paul uses two ways in which he refers to what
we see as the Law. When he says the Law, he refers
to, of course, the Law of Moses. inclusive of the Ten Commandments
given on Sinai. And then also the law of tradition
or the law of the rabbis. But also Paul refers to the Psalms
several times and other places in the Old Testament that are
not the law, but yet he refers to them as the law in so far
that we understand that when Paul says law, he's not only
meaning the teaching of Moses and the law of Moses, but he's
also meaning the entirety of the scripture of which now Romans
is included. So that as Paul wrote apostolically,
he is also showing that that which he writes is law in the
sense that it governs the hearers and that it governs all those
who are subject to the law and we as human beings are subject
to the law of God. Paul will now in chapter 5 unpack
that in some sense as we see in verse 12, so let's go through
these one at a time. See there's a lot here, so we're
going to rush through it in a reading and over the next few weeks we'll
break these things apart theologically. Therefore, just as sin came into
the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death
spread to all men because all sinned. Let's be reminded that
we are sinners, therefore we sin. We are not labeled as sinners
because we sin. We are sinners, therefore we
will sin. and we do sin. The very nature
of our being is that of being subject to the flesh and to the
wickedness of our own depravity. And here Paul reminds his readers
that we as human beings are guilty in Adam. That because Adam and
Eve sinned through their sin, then all of their offsprings
are guilty before God as sinners. We see then that Jesus Christ,
of course, is the one who reconciles by grace through faith the sinner. If any sinner is to be justified,
he is justified by the work of Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 5.19
we hear these words, that is, in Christ God was reconciling
the world to himself by not counting their trespasses against them
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Paul would
say the same thing to the beginning in the introduction of the prologue
to the church of Ephesus, where he says, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in
Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for
adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the
purpose of His will. to the praise of His glorious
grace with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of His grace. Paul says something very similar
to the Philippian church. And he says, And to be found
in Him, not having a righteousness of my own. He's talking about
Jesus Christ. That I'm found in Him, not having
a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that
which comes through faith in Christ, who is the righteousness
from God that depends on faith. Colossians 3, he says the same
thing. If then you have now been raised
with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God. So we have no question about
the reality that we are saved by the grace of God to be received
by or through faith or by faith, and it is the work of God and
His pleasure, that no man through any act of obedience was doing
anything except that which is required of him by God, and no
one is rewarded for obedience, and certainly no one is obedient."
So we have a problem and the problem is answered through the
person of Jesus that we have our righteousness. because all
have sinned." Remember, in Genesis chapter 2 we see that out of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.
For if you do, on the day that you do it, what does God say?
You shall surely die. And the enemy, as a serpent,
comes and says, did God truly say you shall not eat of it?
And Eve adds to the teaching of God and she says, God said
for us not to touch it lest we die. And of course the devil
tempted her and then in turn Adam and she both ate. And in
1 Corinthians 15, 22 Paul says, For in Adam all die, so also
in Christ shall all be made alive. See what we're reminded of here
in verse 12 of Romans chapter 5 is that sin brings physical
death. What we've also learned is that
sin brings spiritual death. Look at verse 13. For sin indeed
was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted
where there is no law. Now see, a lot of people take
this text and say, okay, before the law was given at Sinai, because
that's where the law was given, after the exodus of Egypt, and
Moses led the Israelites through the Red Sea, and then just some
months later, they get to Sinai. And at Sinai they've seen the
mighty work of God. They've seen the exodus. They've
seen the plagues. They've seen the miracles. They've seen God
provide. They've seen the pillar of fire
and the pillar of smoke. They've seen the destruction
of the Egyptian army who were baptized. That's a reference
we'll talk about a little bit this coming Sunday. The Egyptian
army were baptized in the Red Sea by God and the Israelites
were baptized through the sea by God. So it has a two-fold
purpose in its picture, redemption and death. But here, as the Israelites
get to Sinai, God meets with Moses and the Shekinah glory
of God is present on the mountain. And it's so terrifying that the
Israelites hide and ask that they cannot hear the voice of
God any longer. And that is where the Law is
given. This is what Paul is talking about here. He's saying that
before the Law was given, in the world, sin was not counted
where there was no law. Now what's strange about it is
that people can use this verse as a didactic, as something that's
taught directly as a doctrine in Scripture, but it's not that
at all. As a matter of fact, it's a reference to what his
readers may say. Well, how are we guilty of violating
the law before the law existed? Because he's already said that
death reigned in the world. before the law was given, but
the sin was not counted where there is no law." Well, let me
ask you this question. Is it wrong to murder even if
you do not know it is wrong to murder? But I would argue that
every human being that lives in the world today, no matter
if they're old enough to speak yet or they're too old to hear
or think or speak anymore, they know innately that it is wrong
to take a life. They know that it is wrong because
God has written that type of law on the hearts of every human
being. We know that it is wrong to steal. We know that it is
wrong to covet. We know that it is wrong to lie. We know that
it is wrong to commit adultery. We know. We know what is right
and wrong internally. And so therefore, before there
was a law, there was actually a law written on the hearts of
man. God spoke to Adam directly and gave him law, didn't He?
He says, do not do this. But yet the law given to the
rest of Israel wasn't done until Sinai. So Paul is not arguing
here that there was not being subject to the law or that no
one's sins were counted against them. For even though the law
might not have been written, there was still the law. But
yet there was no violation of the law. It was just sin. even
if the law had not been given. We are still guilty if we violate
the law. If we're running through a state that requires seat belts
to be worn and we don't know, we've still violated the law.
Or what if there is a particular thing that we know that innately
we should not do, but we do it and we come later to find out
that it was wrong. We already knew that it was wrong,
but as we see the law written before us, we understand then
very clearly that it was indeed wrong, and now it magnifies that
sin. That's what Paul's about to argue here. So indeed, sin
was in the world before the Law was given. In Romans 3, as we've
already reiterated today, in verse 23, all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God. This is Paul offering an objection
by his readers, and it is true. There is no law before Sinai
to break. There was no law to break. So
we're not guilty of breaking the law before Sinai, yet we
are still guilty of sin. And that's what Paul is showing,
that it didn't matter if the law was there or not. You're
guilty of sin, even though you might not be guilty of breaking
the written law. You might not be guilty of breaking the law
of God, for it was not there. But you're still sinner, and
you're still guilty of sin. So because of that, though there
was no sin counted in the context of law breaking. In other words,
God could not say, you violated my law, so you're guilty. God
says, you're a sinner, so you're guilty, even before the law was. And that's what he says. Listen
in context. For sin indeed, verse 13, was
in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted
where there is no law, yet, verse 14, or nevertheless, if you are
in the King James, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses before
the law. Death reigned before the law. Death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression
of Adam. was a type of the one who was to come. Now there's
three things that we need to see here. First is in verse 14,
even though there wasn't a law between Adam and Moses, death
still reigned. Why? For the wages of sin is
death. So sin, whether we know specifically it is a law that
we've broken or not, is still worthy of death and the righteousness
of God. We see in Genesis chapter 3 where
God curses humanity. where God curses creation, that
we see that there will be one day the restoration of creation,
as we see in Romans chapter 8, which is subject to the futility
of sin, not willingly, but unwillingly, and groans, if it will, as if
in childbirth, to be free of the consequence of sin. So death
reigned which shows the guilt of men. And what this does for
the Roman reader is the Roman reader identifies with Adam.
The Roman reader identifies with all those before Moses. And what
it does to the Jewish reader is the Jewish reader identifies
from all those from Moses to Christ. and says, wow, we followed
the law and we violated the law, because haven't we already established
in chapter 3 and 4 that all are guilty of violating the law of
God? And now in chapter 5 Paul is arguing that even though before
there was the law, because isn't that how logic works? Well, what
about those who were before the law? How did they violate the
law? Haha, got him! You see, that's how we work.
That's how our children argue with us. They find a way to get
out of it. Just like we've been learning
on the Lord's Day in John, the Pharisees found a way to skirt
around the law. Well, I can't move this handkerchief,
but I can wear it. So I can put it on and then take
it off where I need to store it. So I've not broken the law,
but I've done what I needed to do in work. Yay, God is happy.
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if we've got
the law or we don't have the law. We're guilty of sin and
so therefore death reigns. Death reigns from Adam to Moses,
even those whose sinning was not like the transgression of
Adam. And this is the second thing that we learn here in verse
14. What is the transgression of Adam? He heard the Word of
God, He heard the Law of God, and He purposefully and willfully
rebelled and disobeyed against the very teaching of God. So
that even after Adam, those who did not have the Law of Moses,
they might not have directly disobeyed God, but they're still
guilty before God of disobeying God. It doesn't matter our intention. It doesn't matter our ignorance.
It doesn't matter if we're able to stand and go, but I just didn't
understand. We're still guilty before God,
and this is what we see here. The transgression of Adam was
a direct rebellion. Many of us would say, well, we've
probably sinned today, but I'm not so sure that in my conscious
mind I purposely sinned against God. It doesn't matter. We're
guilty. It doesn't matter, for we are indeed worthy of death,
and death reigns over all who sin. So death reigns over all
men. The wages of sin is death. Thirdly,
we see that because death reigned over all humanity, or reigned
because of Adam, death reigned over all humanity because everyone
is a descendant of Adam. Everyone is of the human race.
So Adam being representative, a type of the one who was to
come, Jesus the Christ. All that are in Adam are guilty
of his disobedience. So just as we understand and
as we'll see in just a second that Jesus, we are all imputed
His righteousness. That means we're not imparted
His righteousness. That's a heresy. To impart means
that someone gives you something that is yours. We've already
heard Paul say that I do not have a righteousness of my own,
but one that is given me by Christ, one that is His. In other words,
I am righteous because Christ is righteous, so it's imputed.
It's not our righteousness. It's not a righteousness of our
own. But see, we are imputed the guilt of Adam. Even though
we do not sin with Adam, even though we do not rebel against
God in the garden, we are descendants of Adam and thus we are guilty.
We have inherited the guilt of Adam. And that's where Paul is
going. He's shown that already, but
he's making it very clear for his readers to understand that
we have an imputed guilt. And all who are in Adam, though
they do not directly disobey God in the same manner, are guilty. Because we have then a sin nature. We call it in our theological
terms, depravity. We are depraved. We are radically
corrupt. That means that everything that
we think, everything that we do, everything that we understand,
every desire that we have, even the reality of how we live out
our faith is tainted by the depravity of our human flesh. There is
never an opportunity when our flesh is not at work in some
way in us. Imagine having my eyes, not their
color or their bloodshotness, but imagine having the color
hue that I have or the hues that I see when I appear. I have a
color blindness that is light sensitive. So, tonight, if I
leave and I go out, there are only three colors in the world,
gray, black, and light. That's it. That's all I see.
Gray, black, and white. If there's a white car in front
of me, it's gray. If there's a red car in front of me, it's
black. So we see all these things and we have no way of really
telling what the color is or things of that nature or the
taste buds that we have. Some people have a defective
taste bud. I look forward to the day when I can see colors
the way everybody else sees colors. You know, I have to have good
light, because I put a pair of brown slacks on with a pair of black
socks and a navy blue shirt. If I don't have good light, it's
all gray. If you don't notice, I wear a lot of hues that are
just black and gray. And if my wife's kind enough
to see me wearing something else, then she'll say, mm-mm-mm-mm.
That doesn't go. So through the years, I've learned
to just buy the colors that I can see. Because everything I look
at is tainted by my color blindness. Some people have taste bud problems.
They can't taste certain foods. Some people can't smell certain
smells. Some people, like myself, cannot hear certain frequencies.
And it's very sad. When I first put on some headphones
one day and I was playing an electronic keyboard, and I'm
like, I've been playing this song for 15 years and I cannot... something's missing. I cannot
hear the timbre of this instrument. So I went to a place that had
a piano. I went into my church and I played the grand piano
there and I couldn't hear it there either. And then I got
really freaked out. Like, what's wrong? My ears are
messed up! Well, my ears are messed up. I could not hear the
high ends that I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear the bellowing
resonance of that piano. And I couldn't hear it any longer.
Now, I've become accustomed to it, but because of the restrictions
of our age, our eyes change, and our ears change, and our
taste buds change, our joints change. You get the point. It
is just the same as our sin nature. Our sin nature affects everything
that we observe, everything that we enjoy. Even our worship, our
sin nature can affect it. It doesn't mean that we don't
truly believe. It doesn't mean that we aren't enjoying a piece
or a picture or a slot atmosphere of the rest of Christ or the
worship of Christ. But friends, imagine what it
will be like when we see Christ face to face and we have escaped
these mortal, corrupt, depraved, and sinful bodies that fight
against the Spirit of God within us with everything that they
are, that we can see Christ without colorblindness, that we can hear
Christ without ear damage, that we can taste and see that the
Lord is good without sin in our way. Oh, how glorious a day! But until then, Death reigns. Death reigns. In verses 12, Paul
begins a thought and he does a parenthetical. That means he
puts a parenthesis in there and crams the stuff in there. 13
and 14 is crammed in the middle of that. So we look then here
at verse 15, Listen to verse 12 and 15 together.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and
death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all
have sinned. But the free gift is not like
the trespass. You hear that? The free gift
is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's
trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift
of the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And so we see here, as we see
that Adam is a type of Christ, people say, that is very odd.
Why would Adam be a type? What is a type? A type is like
a prototype. A type is a picture. A type is
the artificial. A type is the commercial. A type
is the trailer. A type is not the real. The antitype
is the real, the not-type. So we have something that's a
type of Christ, so He looks like Christ in some way. He is a Christ
in this, in that He represents a people. And He's like Christ
in this, in that He represents a people's guilt. So He imputes
the guilt of Himself into the people who are His. In the same
way Adam imputes sin and guilt and death, Jesus, who is the
true Christ, the antitype, imputes righteousness and life. But there's
a difference in the number, isn't there? There's a difference in
the actual people in this situation. Let's continue to verse 16. And
the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin.
Look at this. It's not like this. For the judgment
following one trespass brought condemnation. But the free gift
following many trespasses brought justification. And I'm going
to spend some time with that verse in the weeks to come because
it's important and I don't want to mull it over here in 45 minutes.
For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one
man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace
and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one
man, Jesus Christ. This echoes much in the Old Testament
Scripture. Specifically, and in some place,
in one place, Isaiah chapter 53 verse 11, which reads, Out
of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By
his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to
be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Now I want you to note, church, remember. We don't remember. I mean, let's just face it. I
teach this stuff and I have to see it every week to remember.
I have to look at it every few days to remember. Why? Because
our depraved mind and the world in which we live that is shackled
by the wages of sin is that we work and work and work. It is our plight, but it is also
our gift. We forget, but we've already
gone through the justification that is found only
in Jesus Christ. That through Christ, through
the promises of God, blessed are those whose lawless deeds
are forgiven. Remember that? Blessed are those whose sins
are covered. Blessed is the man against whom
the Lord shall not count his sin." God, through Jesus Christ,
through the one man, did not just let our guilt go. He paid
for it. He satisfied it. He satisfied
justice. Romans 3 verse 21 through 25. He satisfied. The righteousness
of God is manifested apart from the law, It's manifested apart
from the judgment of God according to the law. It's manifested by
Jesus Christ, to be received by faith in Jesus Christ, whom
God looked at and through whom God then propitiated us. He satisfied His wrath against
us. We are justified. Our sins are
expiated. We have been propitiated. God
no longer is angry. at us because Christ took our
punishment. Let me tell you something, beloved,
a little side note here, and we'll get into this, and then
I'm going to have some of the other brothers teach in this
vein too, Lord willing, is that we need to understand that the
gospel of God is a finished work through which God is satisfied
in His own work. God did not provide opportunity
for salvation. He secured it particularly. And He applies it to those who
are His, those who believe when they hear the gospel. For the
gospel in itself is not good news by definition if God is
a possible Savior through Jesus Christ the Son. Because if Jesus
died, He paid the penalty of sin for someone. Who is it? This is what the gospel boils
down to, and it boils down to the atonement. How is it that
our sins are atoned? Because Jesus satisfied the wrath
of God. How is it that our sins are atoned?
Because Jesus justifies us before the Father. How is it that our
sins are atoned? Because God does not remember
our sins any longer. God is the just and the justifier
of all who have faith in Jesus Christ because God was just to
spare Adam and Eve and give them righteousness though they directly
rebelled against Him because one day in the future God would
satisfy His just wrath against Adam through Jesus Christ the
Son. So the gospel rises and falls
with what the atonement accomplishes. The atonement either accomplishes
something effectual or it's nothing. And let me tell you this, beloved.
No one for whom Christ died shall ever be lost. No one for whom
Christ shed his blood will ever perish. No one. Who are they? I pray, beloved, it is you. Do
you believe the gospel of grace tonight? Do you believe that
God satisfied His judgment against you through the person of Jesus
Christ who came and gave Himself as a ransom for many? Do you
believe that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God that takes away
your sin? Do you believe that Jesus Christ Indeed is your only
hope for life. Are you trusting that He obeyed
God as we are commanded to do perfectly? And are you trusting
that He satisfied God in judgment as His Word promised He did?
Are you certain? See, He will bear the iniquities
of His people and they shall be accounted righteous. they
shall be counted righteous." So the free gift is different
than the trespass. Because through the trespass
of one, all died. Many died. But much more, he
says, will have the grace of God, which is a free gift. And
it is received by grace. It is given by grace. That means
that God saves those whom He wishes to save. That God does
it only through the teaching and the preaching of the gospel
of grace. And it is not for men to choose Christ, but it is for
men to believe on Christ. There's a big difference. There's
a big difference. Many choose Christ and will perish
in the day of judgment. Many choose their own way through
works and will perish in the Day of Judgment. Many consider
themselves in Christ because of the fruitfulness of their
morality or ethics and they will perish in the Day of Judgment.
Many will stand before men and say, look at what I do in ministry,
look at what I teach from the pulpit, look at how I work to
serve others, yet they shall stand still guilty in the Day
of Judgment for they have not believed in the One who took
their guilt. and their punishment and their
shame, in His name is Jesus Christ." Of that one man, Jesus, it says,
the grace of God and the work of Jesus, the abundance of grace,
abounds for many. It abounds for many. Matthew
20, 28, Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to
serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. See, in Jesus'
death, our death became gain. Though
we still die in our bodies, though we still feel the penalty of
sin, we shall not experience the wages of sin because Jesus
died in our place. So therefore, Paul can say with
all authority, without being ridiculously insane, in Philippians
1 verse 21, to live is Christ, but to die is gain. You see that? To die is far better. Because we no longer die when
we are in Christ to judgment. We die to life with the promise
that we also shall live again in the flesh. So those who are
the descendants of Adam died in Him, and it is due them. Those who are found in Christ
live in Him. and it is not due them. It is
a gift of God. This is the gospel. So in verse
18, he recaps the entire thing one more time. Therefore, as
one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness
leads to justification and life for all men. Now let's stop right
there. Let's say the elephant that's
in the room already. Well, it says all men. Well,
let's read this then in the context that you think that both of these
mean all men, every single person without exception. Let us see
that then. And therefore, as one trespass
led to the condemnation of every human being that ever lived,
so then one act of righteousness leads to the justification in
life for everyone who ever lived. Then who's a liar? God is a liar. For the Bible teaches us that
Jesus even says out of His own mouth that the way of destruction
is broad and many follow it, but the narrow path of righteousness,
few will find it. The Scripture says that though
many will come to faith and many will be saved by the Lord, a
multitude that cannot be counted of myriads and myriads and thousands
and thousands and I looked and behold, you see what John saw? There are even more that shall
also perish. Is it because Jesus failed in
His redemption? No. It is because they do not
believe on the Son. It is because they are judicially
consigned to judgment. It is because they rejected the
grace of God and for some reason in their flesh they continue. Well, not for some reason. Because
of their flesh they continued in unbelief. So here, as the
one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the
one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. Why does
he use the term? Because he is using an ambiguous
idea or an ambiguous expression of showing all have sinned. We've
already said that. But now we see many have died,
many have been made righteous. It's just a natural comparison
in the language. But see, what we need to understand
about this in this recap is that Jesus' obedience is ours. We
get credit for it. We haven't obeyed, have we? But
yet we get credit for His obedience. So it's imputed to us. In Philippians
2.8, "...and being found in human form, He humbled Himself." You
want to know what the obedience of Christ looks like? He obeyed
in every single way, but more importantly, He obeyed under
the hand of judgment and under the hand of wicked sinners. By the power and the decree of
God, God put forth Christ as propitiation. Romans 3. He obeyed to the point of death. Philippians 2.8, even death on
a cross. So Christ's obedience is imputed
to us, just like Adam's disobedience is ours to bear. In Christ, those
who are in Christ, His obedience counts for our righteousness.
There's no difference then between Jews and Gentiles, is there?
There's no difference between those from Adam to Moses and
those from Moses to Jesus. No, all are guilty. All die and
all live according to whom they are connected. I guess the question
on the table then is, are we connected to Adam or are we connected
to Christ? How are we connected to Christ?
By faith. Do we believe that Christ has
accomplished the work of God in redemption? Are we trusting
in Christ and who He is? And you might say, well, what
shall I do to be saved? Change your mind about what you think
about the gospel and believe in it. Verse 20, Now the law
came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace
abounded all the more." It seems obvious, but let me break this
down for a moment. Some people think that that means
that the law came so that people would sin more. I mean, can people
really break the law more and more and more? Think about a
garment that someone sneezes on. You're walking in the laundry,
I mean in the laundry room, in the laundromat, you're walking
out in public, you're at a public market, you're at a grocery store,
I'm trying to think, and someone's standing in your line and they
just, achoo, achoo, achoo, and you can see the mist, and they
sneeze all over you. Can you see the bacteria? Can
you see the virus? Can you see after the droplets
of water evaporate? No, you can't. But if we were
to take that and swab it, and stick it in a Petri dish, a few
days later, you would see it. If we were to take that, swab
it, and look under a microscope, not even a really nice one, but
a somewhat cheap microscope, we could see the bacteria. And
just like that, the law becomes a magnifying glass. In the same
way, the law came in to increase the trespass. Because, I mean,
I'm pretty clean. My jacket's pretty clean. My
hands are pretty clean. I feel like I'm a clean guy from
a hygiene point of view. But, oh boy, if I were to swab
myself, if I were to swab this jacket that I only clean once
a year at the end of winter, there would be a lot of grody
stuff on it. If I were to look and take a magnifying glass with
a lot of magnification, and you could look up here on this thing,
I spit an awful lot when I teach. And there's a lot of sprinkles
on this thing, and it's not decor. It's spit. So no matter how clean
we may be, if we look closely with the right material, with
the right devices, we can see, wow, we're really gross. I mean,
not to get disgusting, but take a little tour of some biological
parasites that live on your body every day. And without, you would
not live. It's not that we can get rid
of them. It's that they're necessary for the ecosystem and the symbiosis
of our life. But we're not here to talk about
biology. We're here to see what the law
has done. When the law came, sin became obvious. When the
law came, we were able to see through the magnifying glass
of the law, whoa, we knew we were wrong. We never realized
how bad. When the law came, holiness for
humanity was deemed impossible. Because not only did we see that
we were sinners and that we were going to die, but we saw just
how absolutely impossible it was for us to stand before God
and measure up to His standard of perfection. It's impossible.
When the law came, it did not bring men to God. A lot of people
think that the law actually brings men to Christ. The law does not
bring men to Christ. The law shows them how far away
they are from Christ. What brings men to Christ? Christ
brings men to Christ. That's all. The law does not
do that. The law repels. No man has ever
robbed a bank, walked outside, saw on the side of the thing,
it is a federal crime to break the law and to rob this bank,
and walked back in and went, man, I didn't know. Now that
I saw that, I really feel guilty." No, we know we're guilty and
when we see it written down before our face, we hate it even more.
And in some sense, we feel justified in our wickedness and our disobedience
to the law. The law came and it repels humanity. And for those it does not repel,
it creates in them a heart of self-righteousness that they
think they can honor God and please Him in such a way that
they can stand before God and boast. But we've already established
that's an impossibility, for no one is justified before God
through the works of the Law. When the Law came, it magnified
the evil of the human heart. It magnified it in such a way
and it did not make it more evil, it just revealed the reality
of its wickedness. The law shows us. I mean, let's
just start with the first one of the Ten Commandments. Love the Lord your God with everything
you are, with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all
of your strength. Have no other gods before me.
Do not make yourself a graven image. Do not bow down to it.
Do not worship it. Do not... How we doing, church? Graven image? Pictures? Especially
of loved ones? How we doing, church? We're not
doing well at all, because some of us even love ourselves. More
than God sometimes. I know for me, I love my family.
And often time my love for my family takes away any focus on
my love for God. So, is it evil to love my family? No, but let's just be honest.
I am not doing well with the first commandment. Yet the rich
young ruler thought he was doing quite fine. Oh, I've done well.
I've followed those since the days of my youth. I've never
had an idol before God. I've always loved God. I've always
loved everybody. Okay, then take the thing you
love the most and give it to the people that you say you love.
All your wealth, give it all away to the people who've never
worked for it, but stand and said, please, can I have it?
I don't deserve it, but give it to me. And the man walked
away dejected, for he had much wealth. So if we were ever put
to the test, and that's what the law does, it actually shows
us just how deep the wickedness of our heart is. That even in
the greatest of ministry days, we find a little pride. We find
a little bit of a satisfaction of going, man, these people really
like what I say. That's great. Amen. It's whoo-hoo. You know,
they really make a preacher hot under the collar, pop it up and
stay warm. What are we doing? We're playing
games when we think that we have any bearing of righteousness.
It is the work of God alone through Jesus Christ, and the law shows
us that very clearly. When the law came, sin became
very clear. It stood out, didn't it? See,
I have some rules in my house that are followed most of the
time. And if they're not followed, I can get quite loud in that
I can make sure that everyone hears me across the street if
I need to. And one of those rules is, I
don't want you to yell. Another rule is, what is it?
Some of my kids answer, what is it? Don't sleep in? No, that's
a good one. Let's start that one. But I mean,
just the typical rules of engagement in the house. Don't run in my
house. Don't run at all. Why? Because
the house is 126 years old, and when you run, I feel like I'm
in Oakland again. You know, I don't want to hear
it, I don't want to see it, and heart pounding to the face going
nine miles an hour is a concussion. So you will die if you run in
my house and you hit the corner of my loophole or a step or the
wall or the 50,000 pairs of shoes that might be pouring out of
a child's bedroom any given moment. Don't run, don't yell, and don't
eat on my couch. Just simple rules. If everybody
would follow them, the angels in heaven would sing louder.
But they don't. We don't follow them. We don't
follow simple things. Sin became clear. It stands out. My children know what's expected.
Other children come and visit, and they don't know not to run.
Maybe in their house it's a rule, you gotta go real fast, because
we're tired of waiting on your slow butt, so we want you to
run every time. You get out of bed, I want you
to run to the bathroom. I want you to run to the shower. I want you to run and
brush your teeth. I want you to run. If you choke on your toothbrush, we'll
buy you another one. I mean, you know, I want you
to run. And they come to my house, and they're running around, and
I'm going, what in the world is happening? This is not what
we do. And then I say, hey, y'all slow
down. Hey, y'all slow down. And then how I correct it, I
stop one of my children and say, do we run in my house? No, sir,
we don't run in my house. And all of a sudden, the child
that's visiting is like, oh, I'm so guilty. I've broken the
rules. That's what the law does. Now
we know it's the rule. We don't do it anymore. Like
the rule when you're in JCPenney, you don't let your kids lick
their finger and draw on the display cases. That's nasty. Because somebody else's kid has
already done that, and they're just mixing germs. It's important that the law came.
Because for the believer, the law shows us that we can never
please God in our works. The law shows us that we can
never earn one inch toward our salvation. The law shows us that
God's love for us is not found in our obedience. Did you hear
that? The law shows us that God's satisfaction
toward us is only found in the obedience of Jesus. The law shows
us that Jesus breaks the power of sin for us. and has really
taken, when we think about Christ taking the wrath of God, He's
taken a lot. For Jesus to die is some kind of something. The
power of sin is no more. It has been canceled because
it is all of grace. So that, verse 21, and I'm done,
as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness,
leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Galatians
3.24 says, So then the law was our guardian until Christ came,
in order that we might be justified by faith. Do you see what that
means? How is the law a guardian so
that we'd be justified by faith? Is that not ridiculous sounding?
Because without the law we would still be trying. Without the
law, there'd be nobody holding our hand through this redemption
process. Without the law, there'd be nothing
there to show us the boundaries and for us to realize that it
is all by faith in Jesus Christ alone. That's what Paul is arguing.
That's what Paul is showing us. And you can call me an antinomian
if you want to, because chapter 6 is coming. We are going to
sin in our lives, church, and when we do, there's consequences
for it, and it is a violation of the command of God, whether
we're a believer or whether we're an unbeliever. Nobody said that
we can just sin because we live in grace. But friends, we don't
live in fear because we live in grace. And I'm going to tell
you what motivates the heart of the believer is not fear. Because fear pushes us not to
obedience, but to self-righteousness. Fear always pushes us to legalism
and judgmentalism. It will not give us liberty.
It will not give us freedom. It will not give us worship.
And we will never have thankfulness. But the gospel of grace results
in gratitude to the praise of His glorious grace, not His glorious
rules." So we're justified by faith and
the law is our guardian. But not only is the law our guardian
to show us it is by grace alone, but the law is also something
for the unregenerate in the world. You know what it is? Listen to
this for a second. Understand this, Paul says to
Timothy in chapter 1 verse 9 of his first letter. Understand
this, that the law was not laid down for the just, but for the
lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for
the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and
hit their mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for
men who practice homosexuality, for the enslavers, for the liars,
for the perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,
in accordance with the gospel, the glory of the blessed God
with which I have been entrusted. without giving away anything
else, I would just tell you this, that the law by its existence
actually restrains the evil of unconverted men. Because there's
something to be said about what Paul teaches in chapter 13, that
we who have a good conscience, that means we've not violated
the law of man, we don't worry about the police. We're not scared
when the police officer walks up and says, good day, how are
you doing? We don't run the other direction. Now there are some
who are innocent who run because there are some places in our
culture where police are just not nice. But for the most part,
the point that Paul's making is we don't have to fear the
authority when we haven't violated the law. But oh, the unconverted
man is bound to the law and he's guilty before God of violating
the law. Even before there was a law,
he's still guilty of sin. So he must fear the judge. And
the law brings fear, and fear brings sometimes a curving or
a restraint to wickedness. Does it? How many of us, if we
could get away with killing, would have already killed? Let's
be honest. Even if it were just in a fit
of rage, we'd have at least beat somebody up pretty bad. How many
of us, just for our reputations in the community or for our job,
has kept our mouth shut so we don't get terminated? In our
marriage, we just walk the other way so we don't burn the house
down. But for the believer, it is our
guardian so that we might trust by faith in Christ. For the unbeliever,
it is their judge. And though it does not keep them
from sin, it does show them they're guilty of it. Let's pray. Father,
as we hear these words tonight, Lord, let us rejoice with great
joy and overwhelming pleasure in the person of Jesus, Your
Son, the eternal God, the Son, come to earth. He obeyed and
He died and He rose again. May our faith forever be in Him.
and that we may not understand all the nuances or the ordo salutis
or the order of salvation. We may not comprehend the depths
of the mystery of redemption, Father. We may not grasp the
intricacies of your wisdom. Lord, we are indeed the redeemed,
and let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Praise to your glorious
grace. Let us be a people who worship
you and rejoice in the grace You've given us through Jesus
Christ. Father, You are just and righteous and holy and loving
and merciful. And you look down at us, Lord,
not in disdain and displeasure, but, Father, with an eternal
affection, for our sins are finished in Jesus. Let that motivate us
to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, that we've been called
to and are found in the righteous One, who is Jesus Christ. For
it is His work and righteousness that belongs to us, not because
it is ours, but that we wear His instead of our sin. In Jesus' name, amen.