TRIUMPH OVER SIN AND DEATH PART TWO

 

Rom 5:12-21

Warren Wiersbe drew a beautiful summary of what we looked at last week when he said this, Adam came from the earth; Jesus is the Lord from heaven. Adam was tested in a garden, surrounded by beauty and love; Jesus was tempted in a wilderness, dying on cruel cross surrounded by hatred and ugliness. Adam was a thief, and was cast out of paradise; Jesus turned to the thief and said, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”

This is what Paul is telling us this morning! “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. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the 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 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.” Romans 5:17-21

 

Peace with God was recovered the same way it was lost…..

by the actions of one man.

 

But not just any man! The God man, the Good Shepherd, The Messiah, The Anointed One, the Christ, the First and the Last, the Truth & the Light, God incarnate Deity, the Great I’AM, The Lamb of God, The Lion of Judah, Mighty God, Word of God, Word of Life, Sun of righteousness, Head of the Church, The Resurrection and the Life, Son of God, Glory of the Lord, The Great High Priest,…… “YHWH”. This is the One, whom we find reconciliation because of our fallen state.

 

Justification declares us free of guilt and righteous in God’s sight, once and for all. Reconciliation puts an end to the hostilities from our original state with God and allows us to have ongoing relationship with Him.

 

“Much more” is genuine peace, a greater impact and access to God, hope in the future, eternal life. (v15, v17, v20)

Why is there much more grace? Death spread to all men and one trespass led to condemnation for all men. This was our state before the Law was given; because when the Law was given we read in (v20) “the law came to increase the trespass”

 

What does this mean?

 

Paul states later in his letter, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” Rom 7:12. Because the Law is holy, righteous and good, this has increased the trespass, all have sinned and fallen, and we constantly miss the make of God’s holy standard. Those who lived without the law are just as guilty as those living after Moses. This increase was to demonstrate that we are completely at the mercies of God because we are without excuse.

 

God gave the Law, through Moses as a pattern for righteousness,

but not as a means of righteousness.

 

Just as all people are physically linked to Adam, does not mean that all people are automatically spiritually linked to Christ. The Law doesn’t save a person it only exposes them the reality of their hearts. John Bunyan illustrates this truth in The Pilgrim’s Progress. “In the Interpreter’s House, Christian sees a very dusty room that had never been swept. First, a man with a broom tries to clean the floor, but the broom’s only effect is to raise choking clouds of dust. The more he sweeps, the more the dust is stirred up; this is a picture of the law, Bunyan says, which cannot clean a sinful heart but only stirs up the sin. However, Christian watches as the broom is set aside and a young girl sprinkles the whole room with water. After that, the room is quickly cleaned; this is a picture of the gospel of grace and its ability to purify the heart. The grace of God can do what the law could never do: cleanse us from sin.”

John MacArthur wrote, “The law identifies particular transgressions, so that those acts can more easily be seen as sinful and thereby cause men to see themselves more easily as sinners. For this reason the law also has the power to incite men to righteousness, not because the law is evil but because men are evil.”

 

Example of this is seeing a sign in the park that says “Do not pick the flowers” and you proceed to pick the flowers; this demonstrates his or her natural automatic rebellion against authority. In the natural man or woman the Law stimulates them to disobedience and unrighteousness because this is what they are inclined to do. “The Law came in to increase the trespass” which means its presence caused man’s sin to increase. Romans 7:8-11 But for the child of God who is born again, the Law stimulates obedience and righteousness. Where sin increased because the Law exposes the heart, grace was much more abounded in love through His Son. The law increased to expose our ruin, so that we could see the abundant display of grace in God.

 

R C Sproul said, “God is holy, and when God is withholding justice, He is giving grace.”

 

The law exposes our hearts to God’s holy standard. “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. Gal 3:20-26

 

The law increased the trespass but it was to point us to

the abundance of grace of God through His Son.

 

All that the grace of God brings to mankind is what came though the gift that Christ secured. “Grace abounded” were sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Paul uses “superlative language” when he says “abound”. What he is saying is “God’s grace super-abounds or a greater abundance” to those who are His through the gospel. It’s not that grace matched the same weight of sin, but that grace abounded, to break the scale. The Son of God will save more than a mere man (Adam) lost. Grace is lavishing gifts on someone who doesn't deserve it. See! The scales are not equal; our ruined state due to original sin is far outweighed by the grace that God gives.

 

The gospel has and always will be about this one simple truth….. A truth that has become a stumbling block for many generations, and that is the gospel is all about grace. Not just any “ole grace” but God’s perfect, abundant, and unmerited grace, that he gives to underseeing sinners like you and me. It’s this grace, that sets the bar to God relentless mercy and longsuffering that He has towards you and me. It’s this one truth that blows the mind of self-righteous man thinking to himself “how could God do such a thing.” As the Pharisee’s said “And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Mark 2:16

How could he sit and eat dinner with such wicked

and evil people?

 

Sadly, people then and now misunderstand this grace. He came to save sinners, not the self-righteous. This only creates confusion and ideas of ways to finding grace or working to win favor with God by our goodness. We live in the presence of a superabundance of grace that is far greater than the depths of our disobedience and sinful disposition. This is why Paul said what he said when he compared our suffering and pain we experience in this life. “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Cor 4:16-18

 

The source of this grace is the sovereign, loving, compassionate, gracious will of our God and Father. The Father who “…Showed His love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (v8) . It was the Father’s perfect grace that willed to crush His Son for you and me. (Isaiah 53). That’s the grace Paul is expressing to us here that broke the scales of sin and death to……. life and godliness. The source of this grace is cause for our gladness. “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” 1 John 1:3-4. This was demonstrated in the only One who is worthy and capable of such a gift, as John said, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13

Grace is the ability to fellowship once again

with a holy God.

 

Salvation is not a trophy to brag upon, but a banner to stand under. It is the understanding that God came and bore the weight of our sins, placing Jesus, with arms outstretched, in the space between Him and us. This is why the gospel is so important, why the doctrine of justification by faith alone can never be negotiated. Why? In it the “glory of God” is manifested” God coming in the likeness of men, He came and defeated sin and death through His sacrifice to save sinners. Sin reigns in death the law increased the trespass, and Christ triumphs over everything….meaning sin and death. Death is but a moment; the triumph lasts forever. This is what it means to under the abounding grace of God.

 

There is a story about a man who was desperately lost and the only way to be found was through the gospel, but this man was blind by his own sinfulness. “Back in the seventeenth century, a young boy was born into a Christian home. For the first six years of his life, he heard the truths of the gospel and he was loved. Sadly, though, his parents died. The orphaned boy went to live with his relatives. There he was mistreated and abused. The boy couldn’t tolerate that situation, and he fled and joined the Royal Navy. In the navy, the boy’s life went downhill. He became known as a brawler, was whipped many times, and participated in some of his comrades’ being keel-hauled (to drag along the keel, is a form of punishment and potential execution once given out to sailors at sea.. The sailor was tied to a line looped beneath the vessel, thrown overboard on one side of the ship, and dragged under the ship's keel, either from one side of the ship to the other, or the length of the ship (from bow to stern). The common idea is that keelhauling amounted to a sentence of either death by extreme torture, or minimally a physical trauma likely to permanently maim. The hull of the ship was usually covered in barnacles and other marine growth, and thus, keelhauling would typically result in serious lacerations, of which the victim could later suffer infection and scarring. If the victim was dragged slowly, his weight might lower him sufficiently to miss the barnacles, but this method would frequently result in his drowning. There was also a risk of head trauma from colliding against the hull or keel, especially if the ship was in motion. Additionally, if sailing through shark-infested waters, there was a risk of the victim suffering a fatal shark attack. Finally, while he was still young, he deserted the Royal Navy and fled to Africa, where he attached himself to a Portuguese slave trader. There, his life reached its lowest point. There were times when he actually ate off the floor on his hands and knees. He escaped and then became attached to another slave trader as the first mate on his ship. But the young man’s pattern of life had become so depraved; he couldn’t stay out of trouble. As the story goes, he stole the ship’s whiskey and got so drunk that he fell overboard. He was close to drowning when one of his shipmates harpooned him and brought him back on board. As a result, the young man had a huge scar in his side for the rest of his life.

After that escapade, he couldn’t get much lower. In the midst of a great storm off the coast of Scotland, when days and days were filled with pumping water out of the boat, the young man began to reflect on the Scripture verses he had heard as a child, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” Rom 3:23-24

 

This man John Newton found new life in the abundance of grace that God gives in the free gift of new life. John Newton being found by the abundant grace of God is reflected in his own heartfelt words that he wrote in “Amazing Grace”

 

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound—

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost but now am found,

Was blind but now I see.”

 

Newton’s experience put into words: the ultimate point that Paul’s says here in this letter. We need to understand God didn’t have to do this! That’s what makes the grace exceed beyond the trespass. James Boice said "if God had simply taken Adam and Eve in the moment they sinned and cast them into the lake of fire, He would still have been just; and the angels could still have sung, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to come. Rev 4:8”

 

Grace is the kindness and love of God"

 

R C Sproul says “Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him... To love a holy God requires grace, grace strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts and awaken our dilapidated souls.”

 

There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.” That’s why we read in Eph 1:6-8 “to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,” What does it mean to receive His Grace? This is what John the Baptist was proclaiming to the people. “John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'" For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:15-17. The bible says "He cried out" which means, “he called out loud, the One I speak of is full of grace.”

 

Like what Paul said to Timothy, “And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.” 1 Tim 1:14

 

What abundance of grace do we

 have in Christ Jesus?

 

We have victory over sin and earth.

Eternal life with the glorious King of kings.

Indwelling of the Holy Spirit to teach and mode us into the image of Christ.

Fellowship with other believers locally and around world.

A joy and peace that surpasses all understanding and in tribulations.

Communion with God through prayer and worship now, as we await heaven.

An overflow of grace, wisdom, and loving kindness, by our Lord and Savior.

 

God is gracious, so in Christ our sins are dealt with; and we

are more accepted than you ever dared hoped.

 

But the question I hear from Bible Believing Christians is, “If I have this 'abounding grace' and the indwelling Holy Spirit, why do I lack victory and can't seem to overcome sin?

That is a very hard question to answer because everyone faces this dilemma differently, as we grow in His grace. Some of the reasons we struggle in this area is that…. We are still “fallen vessels” as Paul explains in Romans chapter 7.  We tend to forget we are forgiven, adopted, and have access, unlimited access into His grace, when we are caught up in the moment. See! When we do not understand His power to save, forgive, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, we can get caught in a destructive cycle of sin, guilt, and fear. This only leads to a lack of joy in our salvation, which leads to more sin. David pleads with God when he fell into sin in his Psalm of repentance, “Restore to me the joy of my salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” Psalm 51:12. He wrote this after he had fallen into the grievous sins of deception, adultery and murder. David answers the question to why we lack victory when we fall to sin. “he asks God for a return of the joy of his salvation.”

 

Joy is the key in our victory over sin.

 

It’s important that we understand that God sustains us “with a willing spirit.”

 

God takes joy in saving us, and

we take joy in being saved.

 

We need to remind ourselves this truth, when we lack victory over our sin. David Platt said, “The only way to break the cycle and stop sinning is to accept the fact that we cannot stop sinning. This may seem contradictory, but if a person does not stop trying to save himself, he will never rest in the knowledge that God has saved him. The joy of salvation comes from accepting the fact that God’s grace covers us, that He will change us and conform us to the image of Christ, and that it is His work, not ours. Once this reality is truly grasped, sin loses its power. We no longer feel the impulse to turn to sin as a means of temporary relief from anxiety, because the anxiety and pressure has been relieved once for all by Christ. Then, the good works we accomplish in faith are done because of love and joy rather than out of fear or duty.”

 

What can we take home from this passage beside the fact our justification brings peace and rest in Him for all eternity? That He loves you with an infinite amount of grace. That He is the one who completes your grace to each trying day. That His grace overflows with the riches that come from Scripture. That His grace super-exceeds our desires and expectations. In Adam, sin influence over us. In Adam sin rules over us. We are under the dominion of death.

 

But in Christ, grace reigns over us.

 

We have been declared righteous and that produces life not death. We will share in the life that is to come and share in the new creation. What grace we have in Christ? (v21) “grace that is abounding” To reign in life through Christ is also to have power over sin. Paul will express this truth in the next chapter. “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” Romans 6:17-18

 

Sin is no longer the nature and

the master of the believer.

 

In Christ we are no longer victims of sin but vectors over sin. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor 15:57