The Reign of Grace

The entirety of Chapter 5 has been intended to help the believer see, know and trust in the certainty of salvation. the way that Paul has done this has been to explain more about justification, about what Jesus has done, and about how that work of Christ is applied to our account. We have said over and over that the key phrase in this chapter has been “how much more” by saying that Paul keeps likening it to the as seen on TV commercials that say “but wait! There’s more!” There is so much more to our salvation than we normally think about , and Paul wants to help us think about it!

This last three weeks we have been evaluating one passage that really belongs together, from v. 12 to v. 21. But there was so much in this passage that we felt it best that we break it into three sermons. This week, we are at the end of the sandwich, if you will, and now we can look back and see overall what Paul is trying to show us. His main idea in this whole process, to help us understand the certainty of our salvation, has been to show us one big idea: the certainty of our salvation is just as secure and sure as the certainty of our condemnation was. (If time, look for and insert Jones’ quote on looking to facts, not feelings, for certainty). Let’s wrap this passage up and talk through it together, and then take a look at the chapter as a whole.

1. We didn’t earn it (18-19)

Romans 5:18–19 ESV

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.

The comparison here is intended to show the certainty of condemnation for people who are not justified by grace, as well as to show the certainty of salvation for those who are. If Adam’s sin led to certain doom, then Christ’s righteousness leads to certain hope!

Now, if you have been reading this passage this week as we have prepared for today, you may have had some questions pop up in your mind. The first few times I read this passage, I had lots of questions too! In fact, there are some excellent questions that we can ask of the text here, that deserve answers. Part of our job as faithful students of God’s Word is to ask good questions and seek answers to them. As I have read this passage through the years, here are two of the main questions I’ve worked through:

when he says “justification and life for all men, does he mean that everyone will be saved?”

When he says that “many were made sinners,” does that mean that not everyone is a sinner?

I am happy to spend more time talking about these questions with anyone who wants to discuss it further, but let me just say this very briefly:

First, keep in mind that the whole passage starts in v. 12 and ends in v. 21. To take one part out and separate it from the overall meaning of the text isn’t fair to the original author. We are looking to discover Paul’s intentions for writing this, as he was under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and from there we can start to look at details.

Why does that matter? verse 17 is key here - Romans 5:17

Romans 5:17 ESV

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.

the key phrase there is “those who receive the abundance of grace.”

Second, the whole of the book of Romans, as well as the rest of the New Testament, has made it clear that not everyone will be saved. Consider just the passages in Romans that teach that justification is by faith alone:

Romans 1:16 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 3:22–24 ESV

the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 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,

Or, those passages that show that the wrath of God will be poured out?

Romans 2:5 ESV

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

Romans 2:12 ESV

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

In other words, the only way that this passage teaches that everyone will be saved is if it intentionally contradicts both everything Paul has already said, and everything he is getting ready to say. In fact, this passage isn’t so much intended to give a picture of the scope of the atonement as it is to make a strong contrast between the two types of people in the world: those who are in Adam, and those who are in Christ. It may be helpful to look at each of these little phrases and rearrange the words to help make more sense of what Paul is teaching here:

One trespass led to condemnation for all men - we saw this in verse 12

One act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men - one act of righteousness = the life of Jesus; one extended act of righteousness from beginning to end.

From every nail he drove as the carpenter’s son, to every nail driven into his innocent hands, Jesus’ life was one uninterrupted act of righteousness.

3. One man’s disobedience led to many sinners - can you count the sinners?

Paul’s shift here from the statement “all” to “many” is intended to help us to see the number of people who have rebelled against God in this world. Think about it, friend - how many sinners have their been since Adam? Billions

4. One man’s obedience led to many who would be declared righteous - and now, Paul uses this same phrase to help show that there have also been countless numbers of those who are justified. Actual numbers vary on the number of Christians in the world today, but the number is in the billions. The billions!

- Think about the promise made to Abraham, that we examined in Romans 4. God takes Abraham outside and has him look up and says, can you number the stars? This is how your offspring will be. And by the work of Christ, this is an already realized promise! - A legacy of men and women justified by grace through faith, just like Abraham was, when he believed God, and it was counted as righteousness.

So, what does this mean? let’s think about it this way. Based on what we have learned in Romans so far, what did you do to create the original sin in you? Not one thing. You had it before you were even able to choose evil. It is as David says in Ps. 51:5

Psalm 51:5 ESV

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Brought forth in iniquity. Dead in trespasses and sins, before you ever even committed a sin. That is what we mean by original sin.

Now, here is what Paul has been leading us towards in this whole chapter - if that is true, and we truly are dead in trespasses and sins, before we eve make a choice, then there is no “choice” we can make to undo that. The undoing of our death must be done for us. It must be grace.

And when it is grace, what happens? God speaks into our cold, dead hearts, which are full not just of the poison of original sin, but also of the darkened, sinful nature that we have cultivated, and He brings forth life! And what did we do to earn this? Not one thing. What did we do to create this? Not one thing. He opened our eyes, and we responded once our eyes were opened. But it is His work that saves us, and cleanses us from the sin inherited by Adam, as well as the sins committed in our lives.

And if this is true, if it is truly all a work of grace, then God will not go back on that grace so that we are no longer spared from His wrath. I just can’t imagine the fear that must go along with not believing this. If I believe that my salvation is dependent upon me choosing God, then it definitely follows that I can lose it; but I would take it farther - it is a certainty that I will lose it. And who even knows how many times I will lose it? And that is precisely what Paul is addressing here: our certainty in our salvation is as certain as the condemnation of the unjust is. We have Christ’s righteousness, and so are in Him. And that idea, of being “In Christ” is the anchor of our security.

The Jewish objection here: what about the law? In the Jewish mind, there was another iteration, another dispensation of salvation that involved the Jewish people receiving the law of Moses. Many would have believed that one could have been saved through works of the law.

Now, not as many would have said that anyone was actually saved by the law; they would have rather said that the law had the potential to save even if no one was ever saved by it. So, Paul wants to address this, to point us to the reality that there has only ever been one way that people were saved!

2. In fact, things got worse

Romans 5:20 ESV

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

To believe that one could have been saved by obedience to the law dramatically changes everything you believe about Jesus, the Gospel and salvation. The reason for this? You have to believe that somehow, humanity has in them the potential to choose to do righteousness. This strikes at the very heart of what Paul is trying to say here: what happened at the Fall? It may be helpful to think about an actual fall to think about what Paul is teaching here theologically.

- (illustration: you fall off a 10 story building. You either a. fall, say ouch, get up and walk away from that fall and back towards heaven, b. fall, and are seriously injured, but are still able to pull yourself towards help and healing, where you can then receive help, or c. die. and the only hope for you is to be brought back to life. In a nutshell, these are the three views. Paul is now showing us that not only were we dead in Adam, spiritually dead, but that the law was never intended to bring us back to life.)

- He starts by showing us how the law came in. This word that we translate “came in,” carries with the idea of coming alongside, or being peripheral to the main idea. When Paul uses this word in Galatians, he uses it to describe the Judaizers, who came in after his message of grace was received by them. We see Paul say something similar in Galatians 3:19

Galatians 3:19 ESV

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.

- What is he saying here? That the law “came in on the side” - in other words, the law never served a primary purpose in salvation; in other words, the law was never intended to save anybody!

So, what did it do? It increased the trespass. How? what does that mean? Answering this question will be a great deal of the work Paul does in Romans 7, and you can read that at home to get a lot more than we can do here, and you will hear it in a whole lot of sermons next year, but there are three ideas that can help us think rightly about this idea:

The law increased my knowledge of sin

Romans 3:20 ESV

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Romans 7:7 ESV

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

not only that, it shows the depths of that sin - leviticus example.

2. The law increases our conviction of sin

our offense is no longer shown to be simply horizontal, but also vertical. This makes sin even more heinous.

We see that we have offended a holy God, and that we are accountable before Him for having violated His rule.

3. Because of our sinful nature, we sin more when we have the law then we did when we did not.

Why? We have a tendency to be naturally rebellious.

When we discover a ridiculous law, what is our tendency?

It is illegal to have a horse in a bathtub. Do you know what this law makes me want to do? Find a horse and bathtub.

That’s why you cannot legislate morality - people are not moral! For the rebellious heart, the more rules you create, the more I have to break.

But, where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. it super abounded!

Original sin puts us in the door of hell

We act according to our sinful nature and rebel against the will of God

We are devoid of all righteousness and simply filled with wickedness.

But then grace...

superabounds - the cup is plunged under Niagara Falls. It is never ending, always superabounding, and it does even more than restore what Adam lost - it gives us life, it keeps us forever and it makes us co-heir with Christ. Which is the final word of chapter 5

3. But Grace has the final word (21)

Romans 5:21 ESV

so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

what a simple, succinct explanation of the Gospel.

When we were in Adam, sin reigned in death. Though our hearts beat, we were spiritually dead, lifeless, slaves to sin and sons of disobediences. Our physical heartbeats were the clock ticking to the day when our physical state simply matched our spiritual one.

But, God’s grace came through the one man Jesus Christ, and through grace we were adopted into the household of Adam; no longer in Adam, but instead in the true and better Adam, Jesus Christ.

This happened because of the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, whose perfect righteousness is given to us so that we are justified, declared righteous. We receive this by faith, through turning from our sin and trusting in Jesus to save us.

And so, we who were once under the reign of death in Adam, now reign in life, which leads to even more life, eternal life. And all this is possible through Jesus Christ our Lord!

grace reigns through righteousness, which is given to us by Christ

And so, Paul shows that This righteousness given to us leads to eternal life, just as certainly as our unrighteousness led to hell. This righteousness cannot come through the law, and never has come through the law, but can only come by grace.

What is Romans 5 Telling Me to do?

Recite the much mores! When you doubt, go to the much mores of Romans 5.

We have peace with God (5:1)

because of this, not only can we rejoice, we can rejoice in suffering, bc suffering is ultimately producing something good (5:3-5)

Christ’s death wasn’t for righteous folk; it was for us! (5:6-8)

We aren’t just declared righteous now, but I am forever saved from His wrath (5:9)

Our salvation is finalized - past, present, and future (5:10)

We don’t just have this hope later, but we can rejoice even now! (5:11)

Death comes to all men, but God’s grace abounds for us! (5:15)

Christ didn’t just defeat death for us, but empowers us to reign in life (5:18-19)

If I did nothing to affect my state in Adam, I can do nothing to affect my standing in Christ (5:18-19)

Though my sins are great, and I may feel the terrible weight of my sin, they are nothing compared to the glorious weight of grace (5:20) which superabounds in my life, and is greater than my sin, my shame, and even my doubt.

This grace in a sinner’s life always leads to eternal life (5:21)

Inevitably, really thinking about grace leads us to questions. And Romans 6 will answer some of those. But today, friends, just stare at grace. As we celebrate a visual picture of this great gospel, let your heart be filled with thankfulness for the beautiful truth of justification.

LS instructions

Benediction: Titus 3:3-7

Titus 3:3–7 ESV

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.