Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program. Now,
today's message will be taken from the book of Romans chapter
five, verse 21 will be my main text. Romans 5, 21. The title
of the message is The Reign of Grace. The Reign of Grace. Now, as many of you who have
followed this program for a while know, this program is an outreach
ministry of evangelism by Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. That's the church I pastor, and
that's the church that sponsors this whole program. But we call
that outreach ministry Reign of Grace. reign of grace, R-E-I-G-N,
meaning having to do with the throne of grace and all of that.
And I've had people ask me, say, well, where did we get that name,
the reign of grace? And so I thought I would just
bring a message to show you where it come from, because it's in
Romans chapter five and verse 21. Let me read the passage.
The Apostle Paul, writing here by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
says that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Grace reigns, the reign of grace. Now that's where we got it from.
Well, what does all that mean? Why are we so adamant on that
subject? What is stated there is the heart
of the gospel. There are many other verses that
we could use to do that, but it's one of my favorites anyway. But this passage here is talking
about how God saves sinners. And it's by His grace. And grace
has a foundation. And grace reigns. It rules. How? Through Jesus Christ, our
Lord. That's what it says. Now, if
you follow the divine logic of the book of Romans as it was
revealed to Paul and he was inspired to put these things down, You
know, the book of Romans starts out in chapter one with a proclamation,
a general proclamation of the gospel. It starts off in Romans
1.1 about how Paul says he's preaching the gospel of God.
He tells them that this gospel is not a new message. It's the
same message that was spoken before by the prophets of old.
In other words, Paul's preaching the same gospel that, for example,
Samuel preached, or Isaiah preached, or Elijah, any of the Old Testament
prophets. And he tells them that this gospel
concerns a person. It concerns the Lord Jesus Christ. And who is this person? Well,
he makes mention how Christ was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh, That refers to His holy, sinless humanity. See, Jesus Christ is man in every
way except without sin. We have to say that because when
we talk about man, all we know and all we've experienced is
sinful man. We fell in Adam. We're going
to talk about that in just a moment. We're born in sin, the Bible
teaches. The Bible doesn't teach that
we're born innocent and then we reach a point where we then
have to finally become sinners. There is a point at which we
make decisions that are sinful and all that, but we're born
dead in trespasses and sins. Scripture teaches that. So that's
the problem when we talk about man. We're talking about sinful
man. But when we talk about the man
Christ Jesus, we're not talking about sinful man. We're talking
about the perfect man. And we're talking about the God
man. Not only is he perfect, sinless
man, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit
and born of her, the seed of woman, he's also God in every
way. He's one person with two natures.
One nature God, deity in every way, every attribute of deity,
and one nature man without sin. And that is a mind-boggling truth. And I freely admit, we can't
grasp that and understand it and wrap our minds around it,
but that's what it had to be. This is the kind of person that
it took to save us, to save His people from their sins. So that's
how Paul starts out. He is God in human flesh, that
is Christ. And then he goes on to talk about
the work of Christ. And I've quoted this verse so
many times on this program, Romans 1, 16, where Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek
or Gentile also, For therein, verse 17, is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just
shall live by faith. In other words, the gospel is
the revelation not only of the person of Christ, but it's the
revelation of the work of Christ on behalf of God's elect, the
church, who he redeemed by the price of his blood, for whom
he established righteousness. And it's called the righteousness
of God. Several weeks ago, I preached a message on that, on the righteousness
of God. What does that mean? Again, another
verse, the heart of the gospel. And the righteousness of God
there is the entire merit, value, worth of the work of Jesus Christ
in his obedience unto death. For the sins of his people charged,
accounted, imputed to him, that work that he did, It resulted
in righteousness by which God's people stand before Him justified,
not guilty. Righteousness imputed, accounted,
charged to them. And there's the basis, the ground
upon which God receives them. So we look back at Romans 5 in
verse 21. That is, sin hath reigned unto
death. See, that's us by nature. Sin has its dominion unto death. If sin is not taken away, if
it's not removed, if it's not cleansed, it will result in death,
eternal death. Even so might grace reign through
righteousness. That's the righteousness of God.
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, the God-man, our Lord. Now, how
does all that come about? Now, Paul, when he starts off
the book of Romans, as I said, if you follow the divine logic,
he talks about that up through verse 17 of chapter one. The
righteousness of God, he says. That's what's revealed in the
gospel. And then beginning at verse 18 of chapter one, all
the way down through chapter three and verse 20, he shows
why it is we need the righteousness of God. Why do I need the righteousness
of God? And basically in those verses
from Romans 1 18 to Romans 3 20, he shows us that the reason we
need the righteousness of God is because we're such a sinful
people. We're sinners. And I talked about that last
time. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But
even before that, he makes this statement. Listen to this. This
is Romans 3, 19. He says, Now we know that what
thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may
become guilty before God. In other words, we're sinners
who deserve nothing but judgment and wrath. But he says in verse
20, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight, that is in God's sight, for by the
law is the knowledge of sin. So what he shows there, the reason
that I need the righteousness of God, which is in Jesus Christ,
is because I am a sinner and I missed the mark. I fall short,
nothing I do in my best efforts will put away my sin or make
me righteous before God. I'm in need, in order for me
to be saved, I'm in need of a righteousness I cannot produce. And it's one
that I cannot even contribute to. And what's even sadder about
the sinfulness of man? It's one that I don't even want
by nature. In other words, the reason I
want the righteousness of God in Christ is because God the
Holy Spirit has taught me some things. He's revealed some things
to me. He's convicted me of some things.
He's given me eyes to see and ears to hear. That's why we must
be born again. But he says in this, he says
that in verse 24 of Romans 3, He says, being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God hath set forth, or literally foreordained, or made an open
show of by His foreordination, to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood. In other words, a satisfaction. The blood of Christ satisfies
the justice of God for my sins. We sing a hymn in our church,
Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. What can wash
away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
You see? So it's a propitiation, that's
a satisfaction. That is, God is satisfied. through
faith in His blood, believing that Christ met all the conditions
and met all the requirements and paid all the debt for my
sins, to declare His righteousness And that for this remission of
sins that are passed, that's the Old Testament sites. How
was Abraham justified? Same way I'm justified by the
righteousness of God in Christ. The difference between Abraham
and me, in his lifetime he looked forward by promise to the promise
that God made to him of sending Christ into the world. I look
back upon that work already having been fulfilled. So for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. Now,
that's the righteousness of God. That's the reign of grace. That's
what it is. Look back over in Romans chapter
5. Look at verse 17. He begins to bring a contrast
here. And the contrast is between condemnation
in Adam because he fell and brought the whole human race into sin
and death and justification by grace through Christ he says
in verse 17 this is Romans chapter 5 he says for if by one man's
offense death reigned by one now that's Adam's fault Adam
offended Adam sinned against God Now, Adam didn't do that
as a private person. Adam did that as the federal
head, the representative of the whole human race. And I've heard
people say, well, I don't like that. I like to stand on my own
two feet. Now, let me tell you something
about that kind of thinking. Number one, it's nothing but
sinful self-righteousness and pride. Because what you're actually
saying is, well, I would have done better than Adam. You wouldn't
have. You see, the fall of man was
ordained just like the rest of it, even though God is not the
author of sin. You can argue with that point
all you want, but your argument's not with me, it's with God. For
a person to say, well, I don't want Adam to represent me, is
to say that you would do better, and that's pride. Sinful pride
in self-righteousness. Secondly, it's questioning and
denying the wisdom of God. You need to understand it. Everything
in this scripture concerning the issue of sin and righteousness
and salvation is the product of God's sovereign wisdom. And then thirdly, it's denying
salvation by the grace of God. And you need to understand that.
Death reigned by one. The reason that we're born dead
in trespasses and sins and the reason that the law of God pronounces us to be dead and
pronounces death upon us is because of the offense of one man. Now
that's not to say that our own sins are not held against us
if we don't have Christ. You see, God doesn't send us
to hell just for Adam's sin. It's our own sins too, if that's
what happens. That's why I need salvation from
all my sins. So don't get the impression that
God's unfair or unjust. He's not. I'm a sinner. And if
I stood on my own two feet, I'd deserve nothing but death. but
he says for if by one man's offense this is Romans 5 17 if by one
man's offense death reign by one much more they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one Jesus Christ see this righteousness is by grace
it's a gift it's given to God's people God gives it to his elect. And that's all for whom Christ
died, redeemed them from their sins, and it is known by the
Holy Spirit bringing them to believe the gospel. And that's
the new birth. He gives them life. And he goes
on, he says in verse 18 of Romans 5, he says, therefore as by the
offense of one Judgment came upon all men to condemnation. In other words, by the offense
of Adam, judgment came upon all whom Adam represented, which
is the whole human family, to show that they deserve nothing
but condemnation. And that's why we say, I say
this all the time, if God ever gave me what I've earned, or
what I deserve, it would be condemnation. But he says, he says, even so,
verse 18, even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life. That's the free gift of
righteousness that justifies the people of God. Now he says
here, the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men.
Well, people go here and they say, well, that's everybody without
exception. You're justified, but you just
have to receive it. That's not what it's saying at
all. That's a travesty. That makes salvation conditioned
on you or me. And that's not grace. Who are
the all men here? Well, he tells you. The free
gift came upon all men unto justification of life. It's all whom Christ
represented on the cross. It's all for whom he died, was
buried and raised again the third day. It's all who come to justification
and it's all who come to life. Do you have spiritual life? Do
I have spiritual life? How do I know? Do I believe the
gospel? Do I believe that all of salvation
was conditioned on Christ? And he by himself as my substitute
and surety fulfilled those conditions. This justification, you know
what it means? It means you're not guilty. It
doesn't mean you're not a sinner, but it means that God does not
impute sin to you. That's why David said back in
Psalm 32 verse two, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity. You see, God does not impute
their sins to them because He imputed them, charged them, accounted
them to Christ. The debt of sin was laid upon
Him. And it means to be righteous
before God, having Christ's righteousness imputed, laid to your account,
charged to your account. So that God cannot condemn His
people, they're justified. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
is risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. Verse 19 of Romans 5
says, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Now, how many? as many as Adam
represented. By his one act of disobedience,
many, however many he represented, were made sinners. That's how
we got into this mess. He says, so by the obedience
of one, that's Jesus Christ, shall many be made righteous. How many? As many as Christ represented. As many as God chose before the
foundation of the world and gave Him. As many as whose names are
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. As many as Christ died
for on the cross. As many as are born again by
the Holy Spirit and brought to faith in Christ. They're made
righteous. How? by the imputation of Christ's
righteousness to them. Now, he says in verse 20, one
of the issues that Paul had to deal with was the issue of the
old covenant law. Does the law, does people trying
to keep the law make them righteous before God? And the answer is
no, we've already seen that back in Romans chapter three in verse
20. Therefore, by deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. It's all by the law-keeping of
Jesus Christ. And His law-keeping included
His death on the cross to save His people. Well, why was the
law of Moses given then? He says in verse 20, He says,
moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. The
law was given as a rule by which men could see the impossibility
of salvation by their works. To show them the exceeding sinfulness
of sin and the impossibility of being righteous by their works.
But he says, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Basically
what he's saying there is there's no one who's too sinful to be
saved. where sin abounded. The picture there in the language
is like where sin overflowed, drowned me like in a sea of sin,
like a flood. Grace did much more abound. And then we come to the reign
of grace. Look here, verse 21. That is, sin hath reigned unto
death. Sin equals death. The soul that
sinneth must surely die. My friend, I talked about last
week how we missed the mark. If we don't have righteousness,
then all that's left is sin reigning unto death. That's all there
is. But that as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign. Oh, the reign of grace.
That's the hope of the sinners. Even so might grace reign through
righteousness. You see, God's grace must reign
but through righteousness. through Christ fulfilling the
law. Romans 10.3 says Christ is the
end of the law, the fulfillment, finishing, perfection, completion
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So
grace reigns through righteousness. In other words, what we're saying
is God is a gracious God. God is a loving God. God is a
merciful God. but not at the expense of His
justice. Justice must be satisfied. Sin
must be paid for. Redemption must be accomplished.
God cannot just look at you and feel sorry for you and say, well,
I forgive you or I have mercy on you. Mercy must be met with
truth. Grace must be met with justice. So how is that possible? How
can God be both a just God and a Savior? Through righteousness. Righteousness established. And
how is righteousness established? Unto eternal life. By Jesus Christ
our Lord. Not by me. Not by you. Not by your family. Not by baptism. Not by prayer. Not even by faith. People say we're justified by
faith. That's a confusing term. To be justified is to be justified
by Christ. And faith lays hold of Him. You
see, not made righteous because I believe. I'm made righteous
by Christ and I believe in Him. I believe He is my righteousness. And there's a difference. So
justified. through the grace of God based
on righteousness established in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so that's what grace is all about. That's how it reigns and
rules in the lives of God's people. And then people come along, you
know, many people will come along and they say, well now look,
if it has nothing to do with my works, and then let me make
this clear. The righteousness by which God
justifies his people has absolutely nothing to do with their works.
Now that's right. It's all the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But having his righteousness
imputed, charged to me, does not give me any excuse or license
to sin. Somebody says, well, if that's
the truth, then I don't have to do anything. No, not at all. You see, grace reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, and life is
given through Christ. This body is dead because of
sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. The Holy Spirit
imparts life to a dead sinner. and gives him a heart, a new
heart, that's what it's called. In the new birth, a new heart,
a new spirit that causes him to desire the things of God,
to follow after Christ, to believe, to repent, to obey, to love. All of these things are graces
of the Holy Spirit that are given and imparted to a sinner because
Christ has already established righteousness for me. So that
my believing, my repenting, my praying, my obedience, my worship,
my love, all of these things, they don't make me righteous.
Christ did that. But they are the fruit and the
result of what Christ did and what Christ does in my heart. You see, grace is not just a
doctrine, it's a dynamic, it's a power, and it's the power of
God the Holy Spirit. You see, all of this took place
on behalf of God's people, not that they might live unto themselves,
but that they might live unto God through Jesus Christ. Well,
I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
by phone at 2-2-9-4-3-2-6-9-6-9 or email us through our website
at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.