One Man?
Romans • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
This morning we continue our study in the book of Romans. We are still in the fifth chapter.
Over the past couple of weeks we have seen that Paul has been building on the fact that ALL salvation comes through “faith.” Now if you have thought about this much, you may be like some of the people I talk with. Many of them struggle to understand what faith is all about.
I like what Charles Spurgeon said about faith. He said:
Faith is both God’s gift and man’s act. The Lord is the author of our faith, but we ourselves believe.
Charles Spurgeon
I think one of the reasons that “faith” has been hard to understand is because there are times in scripture that it is used as a noun, and there’s times when it is used a verb. Then again, sometimes faith is uses as an adjective or adverb—so what does it really mean. That is why I like the quote from Spurgeon—because faith is something that God gives us, while at the same time it is something that we do or exercise!
When we come to our passage today Paul begins to answer the age old question about why we have sin anyway! If you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, turn with me to Romans chapter 5 and we’ll begin reading with verse 12.
As we begin there is something that we need to understand about sin. According to Charles Ryrie there are three ways that humans are guilty of sin.
Inherited Sin: Ephesians 2:3 “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”
This kind of sin is passed on Generation to Generation.
This kind of sin results in Spiritual death.
The remedy is Redemption and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Imputed Sin: Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—”
This kind of sin passed on Direct from Adam to me.
This kind of sin results in Physical death.
And the remedy is Imputed righteousness.
Personal Sins: Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
This kind of sin is NOT passed on—it is personal.
This kind of sin results in Loss of fellowship with God.
And the remedy Forgiveness: 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
One Man?
One Man?
I titled this sermon in the form of a question: “One Man?” That’s because in our passage today the term “One Man” is going to be used nine times. But it’s not always used to describe the same person.
So let’s begin looking at the passage:
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
Sin came into the world through one man--Adam (although Paul doesn’t mention him here by name).
Still there is a progression:
Sin came in.
Sin leads to death.
Death came to all of humanity.
This is “Imputed Sin” that is true of all of humanity. Every one of us was BORN into sin.
Death that is mentioned here is both physical and spiritual death
Physical death--Adam and Eve had access to the tree of life. Now they were banned from the tree, because they were banned from the garden. At that point, they began the process of dying!
Spiritual death--no longer could Adam and Eve fellowship face-to-face with God. No longer did God walk and talk with them in the cool of the evening as He had done in the past.
Sin came to ALL people. Through this one person’s sin, all of humanity was infected with sin.
And also because all have sinned!
A Bit of Clarity
A Bit of Clarity
To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.
Since the time that Adam and Eve first believed the lies of Satan—the deceiver—and sinned, sin has been in the world!
But man was not charged with ALL of their offenses against God. This was because they had no law to define the limits of their behavior.
Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
Still the effects of sin—death—reigned during the time from Adam to Moses.
Even those who did not break God’s commands, like Adam still died!
Finally the idea of one man’s sin effecting every person is going to become a pattern in our redemption.
The Precious Gift
The Precious Gift
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
The gift works differently than the “trespass” (v. 15a)
Trespass--Gk. false step, slip, blunder, transgression, wrongdoing or sin.
Verse 15 is still dealing with Imputed Sin—many died as a result of one man’s blunder.
This just means that God’s gift of grace is much greater than the one man’s blunder! (v. 15b)
And this gift of grace also comes through the actions (not the blunder) of One Man—Jesus the Messiah (Christ) (v. 15c).
And this gift will overflow to many! (v. 15d)
Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
No Comparison
No Comparison
The gift of God cannot be compared to the result of one man’s sin! (v. 16a)
What was the result of one man’s sin? It was judgment which ended in condemnation.
Because of Adam’s sin man was condemned! (v. 16b)
But God’s Gift—It came after many, many blunders (transgressions)! (v. 16c)
And God’s Gift brought justification—it was able to make people justified before God! (v. 16d).
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death 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 life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
Paul’s conclusion is found in verse 17.
If by one man’s blunder, death began to reign.
How much greater will it be for those who experience the reign of God’s wonderful grace and His wonderful gift of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ!
It Only Takes One!
It Only Takes One!
Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.
It only took one person to “transgress” to result in condemnation of all humanity.
Condemnation—Gk. penalty, to render a verdict of guilt, judgment, a sentence of doom, or adverse sentence. (v. 18a; cf. John 3:17 ).
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
One righteous act produced justification and life for all people (v. 18b).
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.
Disobedience verses Obedience (v. 19)
The disobedience of one man made many sinners.
The obedience of one man made many righteous!
The GREAT news of the gospel is the fact that we now have an opportunity to be brought into a right relationship with God.
But, for the gospel to make sense we must understand and acknowledge that all of humanity stands condemned before the holy, just God, and because of this condemnation we are in need of the Savior, Jesus the Messiah (Christ).
The Purpose of the Law
The Purpose of the Law
At this point in the text, Paul anticipates a question. “What about the Law?” After all the Jews believed that by keeping the law they would be able to relate to God. So if this is not the purpose of the law—then what was? Look at verse 20.
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
First, the law was given so that trespass (our blunders) might increase—in other words when God gave the law, my blunders against God were exposed, thus they “increased all the more. . .” (v. 20a).
First, the law was given so that trespass (our blunders) might increase—in other words when God gave the law, my blunders against God were exposed, thus their number increased.
Where sin increased—grace increased all the more!
The greater our offences are against God the greater amount of His grace He extends to us!
so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sin verses Grace (v. 21):
—When sin reigns in us it leads to death (physical death, and more importantly spiritual death).
—But when grace reigns through our being declared righteousness (right living before God) it leads to eternal life through Jesus!
So What?
So What?
Our ability to know God and to experience Him is only available to us because of God’s grace.
But I fear too many of us have a cheapened this magnificent grace, because we have limited it to be part of salvation, rather than experiencing God’ grace throughout the entire spectrum of life.
The martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it this way:
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Throughout our study in the book of Romans, Paul has argued that grace has been extended to humanity so that mankind could experience what it means to know God. And to know God means we must spend time with Him.
Discipleship is one way we get to know God. It is one way to grow in our knowledge and our relationship to Him.
So our experience of God’s grace for salvation is supposed to make us want to join Paul as he declared Philippians 3:10:
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
This is the core of what it means to be a Christian, and it should be the desire and goal of everyone who claims to follow Jesus.
Each one of us should long to be holy men and women. Yes, we are seen holy by God, but at the same time we should long to live holy lives here on earth. A. W. Tozer put it this way:
The holy man is not one who cannot sin. A holy man is one who will not sin.
A. W. Tozer
If you claim the name of Jesus, then I want to challenge you to make the commitment today to work at NOT sinning!
And at the same time, I want to challenge you to live in the power of Philippians 3:10 “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,”
[PRAYER]