The Amazing Journey

Well, you know what it's like to try to explain something that is unexplainable, to describe something that's indescribable. Have you ever tried to describe a beautiful sunset to someone? Have you ever tried to describe a peaceful, full moon on a clear night to someone? And you really have to see it, don't you? Have you ever tried to describe the awesome power of the ocean to someone? Have you ever tried to describe the power of Niagara Falls to someone? Or maybe the wonder of the Chicago Cubs winning three straight. We don't have a picture of that, because this never happened in history. It's just no documented instance of that taking place. That would be a wonder. It is difficult to describe something that really is indescribable, isn't it? That's the way I feel when I come to Romans chapter 5 in verses 12 through 21. And our journey through the book of Romans, we come to this amazing passage, which is agreed by all who write on this passage. It's one of the greatest theological sections in the Bible. It is also agreed that it is one of the most difficult sections of the Bible and most difficult of Paul's writings. It describes that amazing journey from condemnation to justification, from condemnation to conquest, condemnation to Adam to conquest in Christ. But it's one of those difficult passages. I'm convinced that when Peter wrote in second Peter chapter 3 about our dear beloved brother, Paul, where he said in his writings, there are some things that are hard to be understood. I'm convinced he was thinking about Romans 5. It's one of those passages where Paul starts out with a thought and never finishes it. It starts out with a thought in verse 12 and never completes it. It's indicated by a slash in most English versions. He gets off on kind of proving something he said at the end of that thought. Then he goes on another rabbit trail with run-on sentences. And it's just really difficult to put it all together and wrap our minds around it. So as we approach this passage this morning, I want to try to do what Albert Einstein once said. Not explain, equals MC squared. No. I want to do what he said one time when he said we should always make things as simple as possible, but not more simple than they are. And so what we'll try to do this morning is make this passage as simple as possible, but not more simple than it is. It is a complex passage describing very deep truths. This much is clear that this passage summarizes everything Paul has written thus far in Romans. We saw in the first section of the book, chapter 1 through chapter 3, verse 20, that Paul's talking about the need for God's righteousness. The key thought is sin. He's talking about us as sinners needing the righteousness from God. So he talks about our condemnation that we face, our judgment that we face because we're sinners. Then the second part of the book, beginning in chapter 3, and verse 21, he talks about righteousness given by God. We need his righteousness. He also offers to give it. That's justification. We saw that word means to be declared righteous in the courtroom of heaven. When you trust Christ, God marks it down on your record in heaven. You're righteous. You're right with him. You can go to heaven. And so that's justification. And righteousness is given to us. The key thought in that section is salvation. And what Paul does is he pulls together all of those themes here at the end of chapter 5. And he describes this amazing journey from condemnation to conquest in Christ or justification. And he describes it in his wonderful, complex passage. So let's take a journey and examine this amazing journey from condemnation to conquest, from condemnation to justification, from sin to salvation. We have to begin where Paul does in verse 12 with our condemnation in Adam. Look at verse 12. Therefore just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned. And then he doesn't finish his thought. You see the slash in your English version there. It's an incomplete sentence. He doesn't finish the thought. And some say he never does in this passage, although others say maybe in verse 18, he picks it back up again. But this much is clear. This much is clear from verse 12. The progression of Paul's thought or Paul's argument is this. First of all, you got one man, right? Sin entered the world through one man. Who is that one man? Obviously Adam. Sin entered the world through one man. That's obviously Adam's disobedience in the Garden of Eden. And through his disobedience, sin is introduced to the human race. So we got Adam introducing sin to the human race in the Garden of Eden by his disobedience. And notice the next step in Paul's argument is, and death through sin. Now if you go back in Genesis 3 and read the account of Adam's sin, you can know that death is very comprehensive there. It's talking about physical death because when Adam sinned, he began the process of physical death. If Adam had never sinned, he would have lived forever in a perfect environment in Eden. We would have too. But that didn't happen. And so he began, the moment he sinned, he began the process of physical death. But he also was the moment he sinned, separated from God. His fellowship with God was cut off. And he experienced spiritual death. And both of those are in view here. Adam introduced both physical and spiritual death into the human race through his disobedience in the Garden of Eden. And so because of that, Paul goes on to say the next stage of his argument, in this way, death came to all men. In other words, all others got affected by that. Adam sins, he disobeyed God, he introduces sin and physical and spiritual death into the human race. And we all are infected with that disease since Adam. And the reason for that, Paul says, well, these last three words in the verse is because all sinned. Now that's the most difficult part of the verse, believe it or not. Those three words, there are at least four views on what that means. Let me try to break it down and combine a couple of them that I think help us to really understand what Paul is saying here. I think, first of all, Paul is saying that all of us sinned in Adam. In other words, Adam was our representative. And when he sinned, when he disobeyed God, all the rest of us who would be born from Adam, got dragged into it with him. We didn't have a choice. Adam was our representative. He was the first man. He drug all of us into it. It's kind of like when the President of the United States declares war, and not supported or not, whatever, you're involved. The nation is at war, and everybody is a part of that. You may not actually fight the battle or whatever, but you're a part of that. The nation is at war because the President declared war. Adam sinned as our representative, our head, if you will, and we are all dragged into that with him. But there's more to it than that. It's not just that Adam was our representative, and he sinned, so we're all included in that. If something else happened, this death, this spiritual separation from God, Paul says, was passed on from Adam. In other words, every person born since Adam has been infected with a sinful nature. When you were born, you had a sinful nature. You still do, by the way. You haven't gotten rid of it. Some of your husbands know that very well. Your wives are elbowing your ribs right now. You got a sinful nature. Well, all of us have a sinful nature. And we were born with it. We got it from our parents, both mother and father, by the way. And that passed down from their parents all the way back to Adam. Every human being since Adam has been born with that sinful nature. So Adam who represented us failed, and we were all dragged into that. But he also infected the human race with a sinful nature. And we're all born with a bent, with a nature that bends toward sin. That's what Paul's talking about here. Now that's so important to see, because we are not condemned, we do not fall under the judgment of God, just because of what we do, because of who we are. You see, you are not under the wrath of God. You're not judged by God. Just because you've done something wrong, it's because you're born a sinner. It's not because when you turn 10, you lied, or when you turn 15, you stole something. But you were born with a nature to sin. And because of that, you're already condemned, separated from God, when you enter this world. In fact, it goes back nine months before that, according to what David says in Psalm 51. Notice this on the screen. David says, surely I was sinful at birth, and then he backs it up nine months. Sinful from the time my mother conceived me, from the moment of conception, along with all the other traits that come down to you through your parents, you inherit a sinful nature. So from the moment of conception, you're a little sinner. You really are. And that little baby that's born in the hospital, you know, and you just, oh, 10 fingers, 10 toes, just two eyes, all this stuff, and one sin nature. They got that too. We're all born with that. And that is a description of our condemnation in Adam. Now Paul breaks off from that description of his argument of what he's talking about here to prove it. He's going to prove that you're not condemned just because of what you do, but because of who you are. He's going to prove it in verses 13 and 14. Notice what he says in verse 13. For before the law was given, sin was in the world, but sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Now what Paul means by that is that before the mosaic law came, sin was not counted as a trespass or a transgression and put individual on people's accounts because there was no law. A trespass is to go against the law. There was no mosaic law yet. And so it's not counted or reckoned as a trespass before the law. Chuck Swindall tells the story of his childhood to illustrate this point very well. He tells about like many of us when we were kids, he had a paper route, like many of us who had paper routes, he rode his bike on his paper route. And he would sometimes when he was coming to a corner, you know, and would have turned on the sidewalk or the street rather than going all the way to the end of the sidewalk, he cut across the yard. So whoever happened to have the misfortune of having a corner lot got a little trail through the yard. And actually on a couple of those corner lots, he wore a narrow trail with his bike as he'd cut through there every morning. Nobody said anything. Nobody did anything. He kept right on doing it. Everything's fine until one day he came to that corner lot and started to cut across the corner of the yard. And there's a sign right there that says keep off the grass. No bicycles. And so you know what Chuck Swindall did, don't you? To go right off of the yard, same bike trail until he rode right up to the feet of the homeowner and author of that sign. Whereas Chuck Swindall says he shared with me something from his heart. Now it seemed okay until the sign was put up. You know, until there was a law that said don't trespass, don't do this. Nobody said anything. It was seem to be fine. But once that sign's put up, the offense moves to another level. It goes to the level of transgression. It goes to the level of trespass. You're actually going against a written code now. And that's what Paul's saying here. Before the written code, before the law, that sin was not reckoned as a trespass or a transgression, but people still died. People still suffered the consequences. Look at our 14. He says nevertheless, death range from the time of Moses to the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command as did Adam, who was a pattern of that one to come. So even when there was no law so that sin was not reckoned as a trespass or a transgression and chalked up in that way, people still died. They still suffered the consequences. So there must be another reason for being declared guilty before God. Rather than just personal sin, it's because they were sinners. It's because they were in Adam. It's because Adam's sin is passed on to all of us and were condemned because of our sin nature. And so that's the condemnation that we have in Adam. You say that's not fair. I should have had a chance in Eden. I think you would have done any better. I doubt it. I don't think so. But it is what it is. Adam sinned. We all were drug into that. And a sin nature was passed on to us like ever other person who's born. And thus our condemnation, our judgment, the wrath of God, justly given because of our condemnation, our sin in Adam. So what Paul does after he describes this condemnation in Adam is at the end of verse 14 he's introduced a likeness with Christ there. He says, Adam who was a pattern of the one to come. So Adam is like the Lord Jesus in this way only what he did affected the whole human race. And what Jesus did affected the whole human race. But that's the only likeness. What Paul's going to do now is make clear there's a great contrast between Adam and Christ. By the way, that's very important to see because there are cults that put Adam and Christ on the same level and make them both equal heads. The Mormons do that by the way. Christ and Adam are not equal representatives of the human race. What Christ did was far greater than what Adam did. And that's what Paul's going to prove. So in one sense, Adam is like Christ in the sense that what he did affected the whole human race. But look at verse 15 where this contrast between Adam and Christ now begins. He says, but the gift is not like the trespass. What he's saying is I want to make it clear they're not really like each other. They're more unlike each other than they are like each other. So there are more dis similarities. There are more contrasts than there are similarities between Adam and Christ. And he lists for us six contrasts. This is where the run on sentence is start where he begins to give all these contrasts. It's very complex. But again, let's do what Einstein said. Let's make it as simple as we can, but more simple than it is. Six contrasts between Adam and Christ. Number one in verse 15, there's a contrast in quality. They both affected the entire human race, but in a different way, difference in quality. Verse 15, the gift is not like the trespass for if the many died by the trespass of the one man that's Adam. How much more did God's grace and the gift that came by grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many? Here's the point in our nutshell. Adam brought death. Christ brings life. See the contrast in quality. Adam brings death. We deserve that because we're all sinners. Christ brings life and notice Paul tags on the fact that this is a gift. We don't deserve that. It's not something you can earn. It's by God's grace. God just freely chooses to give eternal life to those who trust Christ. So there's a difference in quality. Adam brought death. Christ brings life. There's a different secondly contrast in quantity. Notice verse 16. Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man sin showing the contrast between the two. Here it is. The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. Okay, here's how we can make sense of that. Basically what Paul is saying is this. It took one sin, one disobedience by Adam to drag the whole human race into sin. But then sin begins to multiply multiply one sin, 10 sins, 100 sins, a million sins, all the sins represented in the human race. And by Christ's sacrifice, he covered a gazillion sins. He died for millions of sins. It's like this. It only takes one match to start a fire, but it takes a much greater work to put out that fire once it's spread. So it only took one sin to infect the whole human race, but Christ when he died, blotted out millions of sins. And so there's a difference in quantity. But there's also a difference in certainty. Look at verse 17. For if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned, that's key word there, reigned through that one man. How much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in the life through the one man Jesus Christ? Okay, here's the contrast in a nutshell. The contrast in certainty is the result of Adam's sin is certain death. Death rules, he says. Death reigns. Death is in control. And so as a result of Adam's sin, death rules. But as a result of Christ's obedience, life rules, life rules. And the certainty of that, notice how it's expressed there in verse 17. How much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through Christ? How much more? I mean, if death is certain, what Paul is saying is that eternal life is even more certain. You know the old saying that there are only two things that are certain in life, death and taxes. But what Paul is saying is there's something in life that's more certain than death and it's more certain than taxes in that eternal life. One of the reasons why I believe in eternal security is this verse. I mean, we're all going to die because of sin. That's a given. We're born with that sin nature separated from God. We're headed toward death. But Paul says even more certain than that, those who receive Christ have eternal life and life rules. It reigns. We reign in life through Christ. So it's certain. There's a contrast in certainty. One bringing the certainty of death, one bringing the absolute certainty of life. Fourthly, there's a contrast in extent. Look at verse 18. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass, again, that's Adam, was condemnation for all men, notice who all's affected, all men. So also the result of the one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. Now, the effect of Adam's sin was that the whole human race, all men are infected. And by the way, that's the many that he's been talking about before in the first few verses. The many is equivalent to the all in verse 18. Everybody was affected by Adam's sin. Likewise, everybody is affected by Jesus' death. Now, that does not mean that everybody's going to be saved. Paul is not teaching universalism here because in verse 17, he's already told us it's only for those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness. When in verse 18, he makes the point that in some way, in some measure, Christ's death made a provision for all men. And there are about five passages in the New Testament that make that crystal clear. You can't argue against that. That Christ died in some way, in some measure, His death made a provision for the sins of all men. It is only those who receive Him who will have that death applied to them and it will become effective and they'll be forgiven and justified. But in some measure, that gift of justification, at least a provision for that to be possible, is made to all men here in verse 18. The extent of Adam's sin, all men, the extent of Christ's death, provided for all, but only applicable to those who, verse 17, receive Him. So difference and extent, contrast and extent. And then a contrast in effect in verse 19. Verse 19 says, for just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners. So also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous. Key word here is be made. We are made sinners through Adam, we're made righteous through Christ. And the word made means to be constituted or to be appointed to a certain status. It's like when you are in Adam and we all are by virtue of being born, by virtue of being conceived, actually, we're all in Adam. Because of that, we are constituted sinners, we are appointed to that realm of sinners. But in Christ, we are appointed to an entirely different realm. And that is the realm of believers, the realm of being righteous. So there's a difference in effect. And then lastly, there's a difference in rain. Notice the word rain, again, comes up in verses 20 and 21. The law was added so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin, here's the word, rain in death. So also grace might rain through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our reward. Another one of those long sentences is it fall. But here's the summary of it. In Adam, sin rains. And he says that the law was brought along later so that the sin might take on a different category of rebellion, transgression, going against the command. And you know what the law does something else, and Paul talks about that sin increases when the law comes, because law does something to a sinner. Law induces that rebellious spirit that we have. You see a 55-mile an hour speed limit? What do you want to do? I'm going to test that out, man. I don't see any troopers around. I'm going to go what I want to go. I'm going to do what I want to do. Just like Swindall crossing the front yard, even after the signs there. There's something about law that challenges us. It makes us in our simple spirit. Want to rebel against it. And so that's what Paul says when the law came sin increased. But you can't outdo the grace of God because wherever sin increases, grace superabounds. And the word, the word there translated grace increased all the more. It's a difficult word really to put in English. It literally means that God's grace was unending, overflowing. It knows no bounds. It's superabounds. Wherever sin abounds, grace superabounds. God's grace can cover any sin and can save any sinner. So no matter where you are, no matter where you've come from, no matter what you've done, no matter what your past has been like, no matter what your life has been like, no matter what kind of cesspool of sin you lived in, God's grace superabounds and can cover all of that wipe it away, change your life completely. That's the marvel of God's grace. I can 1911, a hymn writer looked at this verse and pinned these words. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord. Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt, yonder on Calvary's Mount Outport, there where the blood of the Lamb was spilled. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is greater than all our sin. That was certainly true of Mel Trotter. Mel Trotter was one of the greatest evangelists in the first half of the 20th century, was saved in Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. When he walked into Pacific Garden Mission out of a life of alcoholism, he was under the influence of alcohol that he had bought by stealing the shoes off of his baby daughter in her coffin. And God saved him that night, as he heard the gospel. Eight years later he was ordained into the ministry, Presbyterian ministry, and he founded over 60 rescue missions in the United States in his ministry as an evangelist. No matter what you've done or where you've been, God's grace can deliver you. God's grace can free you like Jerry saying this morning, your chains can be broken this morning. You can be freed from your past and your sin by the grace of God, the grace of God's super abound, wherever sin abounds, however far it goes, God's grace goes so much further. The contrast and that leads me to this final point that Paul makes and that is the conquest that we have in Christ, our conquest in him. Look at verse 21. So that just the sin reigned in death so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life and notice this reign of righteousness and eternal life is through Jesus Christ, our Lord. This conquest of grace that ends the rule of sin, this conquest of grace that ends the rule of death is available only through Jesus Christ. Only through trusting him as your Savior can your past be overcome, can your chains be broken, can you find freedom in Christ only in Christ can that happen. And so this amazing journey that Paul has taken us on from sin to righteousness, from death to life, from condemnation to justification, from Adam to Christ, it's all because of Jesus Christ. A few years ago, named by the name of Walter Wyatt took off from Nassau in his beach craft plane to Miami, normally only a 65 minute flight, but he was trying to fly this flight without navigational equipment had been stolen from the aircraft the night before. So he had a compass and a radio that he could signal if he got in trouble. He took off and he was flying into some clouds and so he got to a point where his compass was gyrating and he felt like maybe he was going the wrong direction. So he dropped down below the clouds, couldn't figure out where he was and realized after a while of trying to change directions and flying around that he was getting lost. And so he radioed the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard sent a search plane and found him and started to lead him toward a place where he could land. But before they could get there, he ran out of fuel. There were miles away and he had gone around in circles so much that his engine finally sputtered and coughed and it was gone and he ditched the plane. All he could do was try to make as safe landing as possible in the ocean. The plane sank, he was cut pretty severely on his head, he had a life vest and for fear of sharks, he rolled over on his back and thought I'm going to try to ride out the night. It was 8 o'clock at night when that happened. 10 hours later he's still floating on the ocean. But through the night, sharks kept coming close to him, he could feel him, he could see him, he'd kick them away and it was about to lose strength when it six o'clock in the morning. Sun coming up, he hears the drone of a plane engine getting closer and closer and closer. With his last bit of strength, he pulled off his life vest and he weighed that above him and they saw him and radioed a Coast Guard cutter who was 12 minutes away. Get there as quick as you can, this guy is shark food if you don't get there quick. They arrived, he had been kicking away sharks as best he could but they got there in time. They got him up on the boat, a couple of divers went in, got him up and got him up on the boat and he kissed the deck of the boat when he got up there. What Walter Wyatt needed was not a new airplane. What Walter Wyatt needed was not a better life vest. What Walter Wyatt needed was not a book on survival techniques. What Walter Wyatt needed was a rescue. He needed to be saved, rescued from impending death. That's what you need, that's what I need. We don't need another self-help book telling us how to live a better life. We don't need more works to do or some other thing that we can impress God with. What we need is to be delivered from impending death. We need salvation, we need a rescue and that rescue has been provided in Christ. He is the one that delivers us from the condemnation from God's judgment in death because of being born from Adam. It's through Christ and Christ alone and is death for us on the cross that we can have salvation and be delivered, be rescued from death. Here it is, the only way, the only way to be saved from sin and death is to receive God's gift of eternal life through Christ. That's the only way, there is no other way. And so unless you've trusted Christ as your Savior, placed all your confidence and hope in what He did for you on the cross, you're still condemned in Adam. But you know what, you can make that amazing journey today. You can make that amazing journey today from condemnation to conquest, from being a sinner who's on his way or her way to hell, to being one who has now adopted into the family of God, God's child on your way to heaven. You could make that amazing journey today if you're willing to place your faith in Christ. Would you pray with me, please? Father, thank you. Thank you that you've made salvation possible for us. Thank you that you've made a way for us to be rescued. Thank you, Father, that you've made a way for us to be saved. Be in heaven with you forever. Or Father, I pray that if there's anyone here today who's never trusted Christ, they would realize their need of Christ and trust Him as Savior. It's in His name we pray. Amen.