Romans chapter 5. I'm not going
through this verse by verse. I'm going to begin in verse 10,
and we're going to look at some of the places throughout, especially
verses 12 and the remainder of that chapter. But let me begin
in Romans 5 and read a couple of verses to you. Verses 10 and
verse 11. For if when we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being
reconciled we shall be saved by His life. And not only so,
but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
we have now received the atonement or reconciliation. The atonement
there in verse 11 is the same one as in verse 10, reconciliation. When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Webster says the
word reconciliation means two parties at violence. They have
got a division. Something has happened and drove
them apart. There is a wedge there. There
is a disagreement come between them. And he said reconciliation
is brought, the friendship is restored from a state of disagreement
or enmity. So there's two parties at violence
and brought into friendship again from a state of disagreement
and enmity. And you and I understand the
concept of reconciliation. We see it in our everyday life,
don't we? You have two friends, two brothers that I've been friends
for a long time and something happens and they're divided.
The Lord Jesus deals with this in Matthew chapter 5. He said
when you bring your gift to the altar and remember that your
brother hath ought against you, leave your gift there and go
be reconciled to your brother. And then come and offer your
gift. So our Master spoke something in everyday life about brethren
being separated. We know something about husband
and wife. We see this all the time, don't
we? Something comes between the husband and the wife. Sometimes
they go to marriage counsel. Sometimes they separate. Paul
said if the wife leave her husband, remain unmarried or be reconciled
to her husband. And the same goes for the husband
being reconciled to his wife. So in everyday life, we see this
whole concept Reconciliation. Sometimes we see it in countries.
There's a falling out between two countries. And they that
were friends one to another, had agreements with another,
boy, they're mad at each other and ready to go to war. They
need to be reconciled. And one of the most important
aspects of reconciliation is the terms or grounds of reconciliation. What is it that reconciles us
to God. Now, if you've fallen out with
a friend, you go talk it out, don't you? If you've fallen out
with your wife, you go tell her you'll buy her something, or
something like that. But there's the grounds of our
reconciliation. What is the grounds of our reconciliation
with God? Well, there's a dispute, isn't
there? Between God and man, there was
a dispute. There was a disagreement. There
was a falling out. But reconciliation has been made. And how was it made? I read it to you, I think, in verse
9 and verse 10. Look in verse 10.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, how? By the death of His Son. by the death of his son. In verse 9, Paul says it is by
his blood. We are justified by his blood. Look over in verse 19. For as
one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. They were reconciled by his obedience. Listen to Colossians chapter
1 verse 20. Christ hath reconciled, God hath
reconciled all things unto himself by Christ. And you that were
sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his death." So what's
the grounds of reconciliation between the sinner and God? It's
Christ. His obedience. His death, His
doing, His dying, He is the grounds or terms upon which we are reconciled
to God. Jesus Christ has reconciled us to God, restored
our friendship and our fellowship with God. Now, what was the controversy? What was the disagreement? What
was the falling out about? What brought about the separation
from God, between God and man. Now, we can easily see on man's
side, can't we? We talk about this a lot of times
from man's perspective. What did we do? What are we that
we caused this falling out between us and God? Well, he mentions
that here in verses 8 and verse 10, doesn't he? We're sinners.
There in verse 8, But God commendeth his love toward us And that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And verse 10 even says
more than that. When we were enemies, enemies. We can see the controversy on
our side. Our sins have separated between
us and God. Our iniquities have caused Him
to hide His face. On our part, I know what I've
done. I know what I am. I know what
the controversy is with me. It's my sin. It's your sin. But what is it on God's part
that He has to be reconciled to us? In what sense does God
have to be reconciled to us? Well, it can't be His love. God
has never had to be reconciled to us in His love because He's
always loved His people, hasn't He? That love is never changing. We looked at that just the other
day. So His love doesn't need reconciliation. His mercy, it
can't be His mercy. When we fail in the sin, mercy
longs to restore us. What was it then in God that
had to be reconciled to us? Well, it had to be His justice. It had to be God's justice. God
is a just God. He's a judge of all the earth. Someone said, the holy, uncompromising
justice of God. Scott Richardson used to say
this all the time. He said, you know something?
Before God can do anything for us, He must do something for
Himself. And what does he have to do for
himself? He has to do something to satisfy his justice, don't
he? There was this division. On our side, it's sin. On God's
side, it's justice. And only Jesus Christ can bring
us together again. Satisfy God's justice and satisfy
the sins that you and I have committed. I want to show you
a few passages of Scripture. Look over here, Romans 5. We'll
come back to that in just a second. Look in Romans 3. Look in verse
23. Romans 3, verse 23. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That's us. Being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom
God has set forth to be a perpetuation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just, and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." If God is going to
be reconciled to us, he has to be just in doing it. His justice
has been offended, and His justice has to be satisfied. Look over
in another place. Look over in Ezekiel chapter
16, in verse 63. This is speaking of the little
infant that the Lord found out in the field and washed it from
its sins and clothed it with His garment of salvation. And
look how he closes this chapter in Ezekiel 16, verse 63. Do you find it? Ezekiel 16, verse 63. That thou mayest remember, and
be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of
thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee, for all that thou
hast done, saith the Lord. When I am pacified, the word
there means the same that we are studying about, reconciliation. When I am reconciled to you for
all that you have done. How in the world then can God's
justice be satisfied? The death of Christ, Christ Himself. Look in another passage, look
in Isaiah chapter 53, just over to your left just a little bit. Isaiah chapter 53, and look in
verse 10 and verse 11. This speaks of the father bruising
his son, and he tells us why that he did that. In verse 10
of Isaiah 53, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath
put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for
sin. God shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hands. God shall see the travail of
his soul, the soul of Christ," and look at this, "...and shall
be satisfied." What was it in God that is satisfied in the
sufferings and death of Jesus Christ? His justice. His uncompromising
justice. There was an old one-eyed Welsh
preacher, Christmas Evans, and I was reading a message that
he preached, that he talked about. He had such imagination, and
he talked about going to the graveyard. And he said, there
stood Mercy, and her tears were running down her face. She was
standing at the gate of the graveyard. And she had her hands on the
gate, but she couldn't open it. And one spoke to her and said,
Mercy, why are you weeping? She said, I long to go in there
and raise them from the dead. But I cannot. And the one said,
Why can't you? And she turns and says, Justice
rightly forbids me. And they asked Justice, what
would it take for Mercy to open the gate and to raise them from
the dead? And you know Justice answered,
I'll be satisfied. only with the blood of Emmanuel. And Emmanuel stood up and said,
I'll be a charity. I'll be a charity. And with that,
mercy went in and raised her chosen vessels from the grave. But what did it take to satisfy
justice? The death of Christ. One more. Look at one more. Look in 2 Chronicles
chapter 29. These blessed old saints in the
Old Testament probably understood this as much as you and I do
today. When they offered these sacrifices,
they understood that God was being satisfied in his divine,
strict, uncompromising justice, and man was having his sins purged
away. And in the blood of these lambs,
in the blood of these goats, God and man was being reconciled
again. Look what they said in 2 Chronicles
chapter 29 and verse 23. Years and days of Hezekiah the
king, the priests were offering these offerings. And they brought
forth the he goats for the sin offering before the king and
the congregation. And they laid their hands upon
them, and the priests killed them, and they made reconciliation
with their blood upon the altar to make an atonement for all
Israel, where the king commanded that the burnt offering and the
sin offering should be made for all Israel." What did they do?
They made reconciliation. What with? With blood. With an
atonement. And that's the only thing that
will reconcile a fallen sinner, an enemy of God, and the justice
of God. If I come to you tonight and
told you that God would save you, that God would forgive you
irrespective of justice, He'd just lay justice aside. God is
such a loving God. God is such a merciful God. And
therefore, He'd save you irrespective of justice. What would you say
to me? What about justice then? Was
there justice in that? So God had to be reconciled to
us His justice, His holy justice. Now He can save us. Now He can
justify us and be just in doing so. He can be a friend now. He can smile upon us even in
His justice because we've been reconciled by Jesus Christ. Look in one more passage in the
New Testament, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. This is our message. This is the message of the New
Testament church. Every man that God calls to preach
the gospel, this is his message. It's a message of reconciliation.
And when you preach reconciliation, we've got to preach that there
was two at variance. You've got to preach that. You've
got to start there. You can't start that God is Such a good
God and merciful God and loving of God that he ain't going to
find nothing wrong with anybody for anything. And you can't start
that man is just walking along with God. He's a pretty good
fellow. And all he needs to do is just
step over next to God. You've got to start with these
two at Byron's against each other. And then you go to reconciliation. That's our message. That's the
message of the New Testament church. And boy, is it needed
or not? It's needed. Look what he says
in chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse
17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things have become new. And all things are of God. All things of this new creature,
they are of God. Who hath reconciled us to Himself
by Jesus Christ, by His death, by His suffering, by His blood,
and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation. That is to
say that God was in Christ, or He was in Christ in a way that
He is not in us. He is in us by His Spirit. But
I tell you, the fullness of God dwelt in Christ. If you have
seen me, you have seen the Father. God was in Him in His fullness.
God was in Christ. What was He doing in Christ?
Reconciling the world unto himself. And when you see that there,
that's not everybody without exception. That's just the same
thing John taught us. Not to the Jews only. He's not
a propitiation for the sins of the elect Jews, but elect of
all over the world. All nations. He's got his people.
And he's reconciled them unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now look at verse 20. Now then
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us. Now this is amazing to me. This
is astounding. And I know some Armenians may
take this and abuse it, but brothers and sisters, listen to what these
words mean. Now then we are ambassadors. What is an ambassador to do?
He goes representing his country, doesn't he? His king, his president. We are ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beg you by us. Isn't that amazing? He prays you by us. And we pray you in Christ's stead,
on Christ's behalf, be you reconciled to God. And when is this poor
sinner apt to be reconciled to God? when he finds out that God
is reconciled to him. I can't approach unto a God that's
angry, and I know it's going to destroy me. But I can approach
unto a God that I've heard has been reconciled, that can forgive
all my sins and justify me freely and be a father to me in Jesus
Christ. Since God has done this, Paul
said, throw down your weapons. and come and be reconciled to
God. For He has reconciled us to Himself
at a great cost. Look in verse 21. For He hath
made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Reconciliation. Now, when and
where was this separation When did it first take place? Can
we put our finger on a time and a place where this separation
happened between God and humanity? You say, I remember in my lifetime
one time when I was about 12 or 13. No, it wasn't there. It
wasn't there, was it? When did this separation take
place? Where did we first see that there
was going to be a necessity of reconciliation between God and
man? We find it right here. Romans chapter 5. This is the
first place that we see it. Turn back over here to chapter
5 and look at it. There are two words here that
show us clearly why there has to be reconciliation with God
and man. Let me go ahead and read some
of these verses to you. Look in chapter 5. Let's go ahead
and read some of them. Then I'll show you. Look in verse
12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, so death passed upon all men from all that sin. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude or likeness of Adam's transgression. who
is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offense,
so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one, one man, many be dead, much more the grace of God and the
gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded
unto many. And not as it was by one that
had sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is 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 judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one The free gift came upon all men to
justification of life. For if 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 and to
eternal life by Jesus Christ the Lord. There are two words
here I want you to notice that show us the necessity of reconciliation. It shows where this division
was between humanity and God. The first word is, you find it
here in verse 15, verse 17, and verse 18, and it is offense. Offense. Not offense. if through the offense of one
many be dead." You see it again in verse 16, "...and not as it
was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was
by one to condemnation." The judgment was by one to condemnation. And then in verse 17, "...for
if by one man's offense death reigned, And then you see it
again in verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one. There's the offense. Who offended? Adam, didn't he? Adam offended
God. Verse 19 tells us what this offense
was. It was disobedience. By one man's
disobedience, many were made sinners. You know what? Adam disobeyed. You know the one command that
he disobeyed, the one positive command that Adam disobeyed.
Thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. Isn't it amazing that you and I have got into all of this
trouble because one man disobeyed one positive commandment? Ain't that amazing? By the offense
of one, that was on Adam's side. This one act, one disobedient
act from one man has brought dread, dread, dread upon all
Adam's posterity. That's the first word. Offense.
Offense. Here's the second word in verse
16 and verse 18. Look at this. And not as it was
by one that sin is the gift, for the judgment was by one to
condemnation. And look in verse 18. Therefore,
as by the offense of one, judgment came. Judgment came. You have Adam's sin, and then
you've got God's judgment. And buddy, where you've got a
man's sin and where you've got God's judgment upon it, therefore
you've got to have reconciliation. Or somebody's in trouble, aren't
they? Somebody is in trouble. Notice the different aspects
of this judgment. It brought from God, the just
judge, condemnation. See there in verse 18? Therefore,
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. The word means guilt. Condemnation,
guilt. For the first time in his life,
Adam was afraid to face God. You know why he hid? He said,
I was afraid. What was the matter with him?
Well, the Lord knew, but He's going to ask him to drag it out
of him. He said, why are you afraid of
me? Why are you hiding? Why are you guilty in your conscience? Have you eaten of the tree that
I told you not to eat of? He had, hadn't he? And what happened? Condemnation. guilt. But this
was the judgment of God upon His sin. As by the offense of
one judgment came. Here is another aspect of it.
Look in verse 12 again. Here is another aspect of God's
judgment. The first one was guilt, condemnation. In verse 12, Wherefore, as by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Here's another aspect of God's
judgment. First of all, God's judgment came on Adam, and he
found him guilty. He's guilty before God. Here's
another judgment. Here's another aspect of that
judgment. God pronounced death. Remember the warning that He
first gave? In the day that you eat thereof, you'll surely die.
And here the judgment now comes. And what happens? He dies. He
dies. Adam died two deaths. If you
and I would have been back in those days, we probably wouldn't
have understood that. But looking back now, we know that he died
two deaths. He died one death immediately,
didn't he? In the day that you eat, you'll die. And in the day
that he ate, he was separated from God. Separated from the
communion, the friendship of God. Everything changed when
he sinned. That's what death means, separation
from God. Alienation from God is death,
isn't it? And 930 years after this, he
died physically. And that was because of the judgment
of God. On Adam's side, there was the
offense. On God's side, there's a just judgment that fell on
Adam. And there you've got the judgment
of God, and you've got the offense of man. And where you've got
those two, you better have one to reconcile you. Or a man is
a goner, ain't he? He's a goner. Who is involved in this judgment
of condemnation and death? Who is involved in it? It involved
everybody. It involved everybody. What humanity
is suffering today, brothers and sisters, It's not because
we've got a bad president. It's not because things are just
worse. There's things that we've left
we need to be doing. You know why we're in the predicament
that we're in today. You know what our whole trouble
is? It's sin and the judgment of God upon it. And you know
where you can trace it to? Right back yonder to the garden.
when our first father sinned, and God judged him because of
it. He found him to be guilty, and
he says, this is my judgment upon you. You're dead, man. You're
dead. You're dead. And what all does
that mean? We're still finding out what
that word means. It says, in the day that you eat, you will
die. God knew what it meant. I doubt seriously if Adam knew
what it meant, but God knew what it meant. But boy, we look around
us now and look at the devastation. Look at the devastation. And
what is that? The death. And yet God brought
the judgment. If the Lord was ever going to
be slack in judgment, it would have been you, wouldn't it? But
He wasn't. He wasn't. He judged and found
Him guilty. And the sentence of death came
upon Him. But not only Him, but everybody. Everybody in Him. That's what
he says here in verse 12. "...As by one man's sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon..."
Who? All men. All men. Why do all men die? Everybody dies. Why is that? Ain't it something how nobody...
Do you know anybody 150 years old? I don't. Why does everybody die? Because Adam sinned against God.
That's where we trace it to. And let me ask you this question,
brothers and sisters. Why is it that nobody comes into
this earth and born of their mother and is not guilty before
God? Everybody that comes forth from
their mother's womb is condemned. You say, Bruce, that child hasn't
done a thing. I'll tell you what's condemned
him. You find it in verse 18, don't you? Therefore, as by the
offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. All men to condemnation. And
Paul tells us here in verse 14, And I'm just convinced this is
speaking of infants. He said there, until the law,
sin was in the world, but sin's not imputed where there's no
law. There must have been a law then, wasn't there? It wasn't
written, but it must have been a law. Because if there's no
law, there's no sin. So there must have been an unwritten
law that says, in the day that you eat, you'll die. And all
your posterity's going to die. And here comes these little infants,
and Paul says in verse 14, they've not sinned after Adam's likeness. How did Adam sin? Well, he sinned
deliberately, didn't he? He sinned willingly. He sinned
knowingly. Little babies don't do that, do they? They don't
strike out at God. They're unconscious. Why do they
die then? If they don't actually sin against
God, why do they die? Adam's sin. By one man's sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men. Infants die because of Adam's
sin. Now, the only way you can explain
that is just read it and believe it and say, here's a fact. Here's
a fact. The graveyards are full of infants
who have died in their infancy. And why are they judged to be
guilty? because of Adam's sin. Condemnation
because of Adam's sin. I remember the first time that
I ever felt any guilt before God. I had to be very young. I don't know how old I was. Four,
five, six years old. I can't remember even how old
I was. But I was looking up in the sky,
and all of a sudden I was smitten with guilt. And it wasn't anything
that I had done. Was it any sin that I had committed?
But I was guilty before God. I stood condemned before God. What was that? I was a child
of Adam. And by this one man, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation. How old does somebody have to
be before they are condemned before God? They have to be 12
years old, 13 years old, 14 years old. We're all condemned in that. And you know, it's just not those
who are going to perish. The elect fell too. We had a
dear young lady here that left the church, and one of the reasons
she left was because she denied the fall. She denied the fall. She didn't deny every aspect
of it. She said she fell within herself.
But she never could see any way that she came under God's judgment
in the fall. But everybody did. Everybody
did. And brothers and sisters, you
and I, I'm not telling you anything you don't know. You and I would
have stayed under that judgment and perished under that judgment
if Jesus Christ had not stood up for our surety and saved us
from that awful, awful judgment by His own death. And it's on
blood poured out. So Adam's sin subverted the whole
nature of things. The earth was cursed. Man's nature
is corrupt. He's born a sinner. Satan's kingdom
is established now among humanity. But Jesus Christ has come and
undid all of that. He has purged sin away. He's
given his people a new nature and time and he has destroyed
the works of the devil. And someday he'll put him under
our feet and we'll crush his head. Verse 15 in Romans chapter 5
teaches us the benefit we receive from Christ is abundantly more
than the devastation we receive from Adam's sin. Look what he
said, but not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For
if through the offense of one, that's Adam, many be dead, much
more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one
man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded to many. Now he doesn't mean
here that the grace that's in Christ and this reconciliation
that he's abounds to more in number. I doubt that. I wish
it did. I hope it does. Spurgeon said when you consider
all the saved and all the infants that are saved, and we believe,
I believe, that all infants dying in their infancy are saved. Not because they're innocent,
but because Christ has reconciled them to His Father. And you add
up all the infants and all the saved There may be more in heaven
than in hell. I don't know. But I don't think
that's his meaning here. What he's meaning here, the benefits
that Christ brings to his people are much more abundant than all
the devastation that Adam brought. Let me give you a few examples.
Adam was the son of God by creation. God created him his son. But
we're sons of God by new birth. We're barned of God. We have
the Spirit of His Son sent forth in our hearts crying, Father,
Father, Father. Adam never was a son as you and
I are. Adam had a life. He had a life. God breathed unto
his nostrils the breath of life. He lived. He was alive. But what
happened? He lost it, didn't he? He lost
that life. But listen, Jesus Christ has
come and give us life more abundantly. I've given to you eternal life,
and you'll never lose it. Ain't that what He said? You'll
never perish. Someone said, well, Christ restored
us to what Adam had. No, no, no, dear soul. It's much
more than what Adam had. The life that the children of
God have is eternal life, and they'll never lose it like Adam
did. Adam had a righteousness, and
that righteousness was dependent upon his own obedience. And as long as he obeyed, he
retained that righteousness. But by his own disobedience,
he lost it. Forever he lost it. You can't
get it back. People's trying to get it back,
aren't they? They're trying to work their fingers to the bones
to get this righteousness back. We lost it. When He lost it,
we lost it. But bless God, His Son has brought
in an everlasting righteousness, and it's established by His own
obedience. And you know that obedience is
accomplished? It's finished. Christ is in heaven. And if you have His righteousness,
it's not based upon what you do or don't do. It's His obedience. By one man's obedience shall
many be made righteous. My poor dad died in his sins,
and he never did understand that he had to be saved by another
man's righteousness. He told me not long before he
died, he said, it would scare me to death to stand before God
without something of my own. Isn't that sad? That's sad, ain't
it? You've got to have the righteousness
of another. It has to be perfect to be accepted. Christ's obedience is perfect,
and it's a finished obedience. Adam was made a little lower
than the angels. The saints are made equal with
the angels, and they'll judge angels. Adam fell in separate
condemnation. Boy, Christ has brought in such
a just divine righteousness and life. But he says you'll never
be condemned again. The saint of God can never be
condemned again. There is now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. He that hears my word and believes
on him that sent me, he has everlasting life and shall never come into
condemnation. You don't have to fear the judgment,
brothers and sisters, that's to come. We stand in awe of it. We have reverence for it. But
I tell you, it won't be there to condemn one of God's children.
They'll never come into condemnation again. Adam, in his best estate,
had a beautiful garden to live in. And if He was still alive
today and still holy and obedient, He'd still be living in that
garden. Now, that's a beautiful place. But when the Lord Jesus
come and restored His people, He didn't restore them to the
garden of Eden. He restored them to the paradise of God. Heaven
itself. The Father's house. Now, ain't
that better than what Adam had? And verse 16 contrasts the one
sin and the condemnation to the many sins and yet were justified. And look how Paul says it here
in verse 16. And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift. The one sin and then the gift
that Christ gives us. The gift of righteousness and
life is vastly different. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation. Just one man committed one sin
and look what it did to the whole human race. Threw every one of
us into condemnation. But the free gift is of many
offenses unto justification." And what Paul is saying here,
if this one man committed one sin, ruined the whole human race
and involved them in the guilt and condemnation, is there any
hope for us who have committed a mountain of sins? And he says, yes. Yes. That's the benefits Christ has
brought in. That's the benefits of His reconciliation and His
grace. Her sins, which are many, are
forgiven her. Grace covers many of our sins. And he says in verse 17, he repeats
sort of what he says in verse 12, Whereas 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." Notice what he says here. We
don't die physically for our own actual sins. He repeats that,
doesn't he? For by one man's offense, death
reigned. Why does death reign? Why is
everybody dying? Why is the infant still dying?
Death is reigning, isn't it? It rained from Adam to Moses,
from Moses to our present time. Death is still raining. Why is
that so? By one man's offense. So you go tell people why you're
dying. It's because of what our first father did back yonder
in the garden. That's why everybody's dying. If you sin, you'll die. You don't have to act to commit
a sin to die. You're going to die because of
what he did. And notice what else he says
here in the last part of verse 17. He makes it clear here that
he's not speaking of everybody without exception. See what he
says there in the last part of verse 17? They which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. There's
two representatives, brothers and sisters, in the whole lineage
of mankind. There's Adam and then there's
Christ. They're called the first Adam
and the second Adam. First Adam and the last Adam.
And we're told here in the last portion of verse 14 that Adam
was a figure of Him that was to come. What does he mean by
that? Adam represented the whole human race. And look at the devastation
he brought. Jesus Christ represents who? All of those who receive abundance
of grace and the gift of righteousness. He represents all of those who
will be saved. He represents all that is elect. They are the ones who will receive
abundance of grace. You say, Bruce, what is it to
receive? Well, I like this. Suppose you were a poor man and
you got stuck out in the desert. And you had no food and you had
no water. And there you lay perishing.
And your poor skin looked as dry as a prune or a piece of
dried up leather. And there you lay, dying. And some man came along and he
lifted your head up and he took his canteen of cool water and
he poured it down your mouth, down your throat, into your stomach.
And that saved your life. That's the way you receive the
gift of righteousness. That's the way you receive Christ.
It's as though the Holy Spirit comes to us in our deadness,
our unregenerate state. And He pours Christ into us.
He pours the water of life into us. We receive. The Giver pours
it in us and we receive it. And therefore, we receive this
life and grace and righteousness. Everything you have, you receive,
don't you? Everything you have, you receive. And I'm not talking,
brothers and sisters, about coming up front and repeating a prayer
after a preacher and saying, I now receive Jesus as my personal
Savior. All this stuff that goes on in
the head, that's not what this means. But there's no such thing as
universal redemption, is there? No such thing as universal redemption.
Christ never represented men who were already in hell when
He died and suffered to die. Who does Christ represent? Those
who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of life. You
can know He's yours if you've received abundance of grace,
if He's made you a new creature, if He's given you faith to believe
Him, if He's broken your heart, if He's regenerated you, if He's
revealed Christ to you. You can say, He's my representative.
And my, He's restored you. He has surely restored you. All that believe in Christ have
received from Christ grace, abundance of grace. Verse 17, he says, Much more,
and we'll stop here. I want to read one more passage.
Much more. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one,
much more, much more. They which receive abundance
of grace, much more, much more. I tell you, if Adam, as our representative,
brought us into such condemnation and death, what is Christ, the
Son of God, the Lord from heaven? What is he going to do for us
if he represents us? Much more. Much more. And let's close with
this. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter
15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Paul talked about the resurrection
of the dead. He said up there in verse 22,
chapter 15, "...for as in Adam all die." If you're found in
Adam, dear soul, you're going to die. If somebody doesn't come
and represent you besides Him, all the benefits that He wrought
for you is going to be given to you. It's going to be condemnation
and death. You can't escape it. You can't
escape it. Quit looking to yourself. You've
done been represented. already been represented. There
are different kinds of condemnation, and that man back yonder brought
us into the awful condemnation and judgment of God by his own
sin. We need another representative,
don't we? In Adam all die, even so
in Christ shall all be made alive. Now let's finish this by looking
down into verse 44, talking about to the old body that is going
to be raised. In verse 44, it is sown a natural body that is
going to be raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body
and there is a spiritual body. So it is written, the first man
Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening
spirit. A spirit that quickens. It quickens
people. Howbeit that was not first which
was spiritual, but that which is natural, afterwards that which
is spiritual. The first man is of the earth. He is earthy. God made him from
the dust, didn't He? But the second man is the Lord
from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, We shall also bear the image of the heavenly. May the Lord bless His Word.