The Reign of Sin and the Reign of Grace
Grace and Peace: Welcome One Another As Christ Welcomed You • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction:
Introduction:
What is the root of most of our conflict?
I would suggest it is this: We’re living in different stories.
- When you go to work or school in the morning…
- Even in your family
- Even right now in this room
The story you think you’re part of, MAY NOT be the same as the person beside you.
Here’s what Paul was trying to get his audience to understand was…
Your story is too small!
Your story is too small!
Any story that revolves around YOU is too small.
Any story that revolves around YOUR ethnic group is too small.
Any story that revolves around YOUR nation is too small.
trade that story for a true and bigger story
This is the story Romans is telling…
This is the story Romans is telling…
Ch. 5 - Slavery (all the children of Adam)
Ch. 6 - Deliverance (the waters of baptism)
Ch. 7 - Law/Spirit (rather than Law, we’ve received the Spirit)
Ch. 8 - Life and Peace (for us and—someday—all creation)
This was ALWAYS the story God was telling
It was never just about Abraham
It was never just about Moses
It was never just about Israel
It was always about the redemption of all creation
And the story is NOT just about you…it’s about God and his desire to reconcile all things to himself through Jesus.
Biblical Text:
Biblical Text:
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
Adam disobeyed
Sin entered the world
Death entered the world through sin
Between Adam’s sin and Moses receiving the law
People sinned
People died
But there was no…
accounting for sin
no keeping track of it
no calling it what it was
Before a mess can be cleaned up, someone has to…
take account of the situation
name what is wrong
14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Death reigned
Everyone was subject to death
Everyone was ruled over by death
Even those who didn’t sin like Adam
They didn’t disobey a direct command
They didn’t have a command to disobey
They didn’t know why they were in the shape they were in, but they were in it nonetheless
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
These two can’t be compared
What Adam brought us
What Jesus brought us
They are not equal and opposite
Not like the trespass
“much more”
“abounded for many”
N.T. Wright’s commentary
Paul for Everyone, Romans Part 1: Chapters 1–8 The Big Picture in Shorthand: Adam and the Messiah (Romans 5:12–17)
God took the initiative in a situation where there was nothing but sin to be seen, coming to the place where humankind was in ruins in order to make of his human creatures
We are far more than JUST forgiven!
We are reconciled
We are God’s children
We are Spirit-filled
We are a new kind of human being
17 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.
We…
receive the abundance of grace
receive the free gift of righteousness
reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ
The whole creation is longing for that day
when God’s sons and daughters are revealed
when we are unmasked for what the Spirit is making us
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 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.
Because of what Jesus did
one of act of righteousness
by one man’s obedience
NOT by works of the Law, but by trusting in his obedience
20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
“Sin reigned” in death
the law increased the trespass
sin increased
“grace also might reign”
through righteousness (the righteousness of Christ)
leading to eternal life
All of Adam’s children live under the reign of sin and death
but we don’t have to!
we can be delivered and live under the reign of grace
and experience life for the age to come (eternal life)
The Lion King
- The reign of Mufassa
- The reign of Scar
- Simba re-establishes his father’s reign
- restores
- renews
- grace and life
THIS is what we experience in Christ
one last question: you know it is one the Jewish Christians are asking after all this talk about grace and forgiveness
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
If these things are given as a gift of grace
forgiveness
restoration
justification
sanctification
Then what is going to stop people from continuing to sin in order to try to get more of God’s gracious gifts?
And there are people who think that way, aren’t there?
This isn’t just hypothetical
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Baptism is a new exodus
It’s a deliverance from death to life
But we left the old man on the other side
we buried that old man
we don’t belong to that life anymore
that old life of flesh, sin is not who we are anymore
Listen to Paul’s words in the next few verses…
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 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, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Application:
Application:
It all comes down to the question: What story are you a part of? Because…
You’re either dying in a story about YOU or living in a story about JESUS.
You’re either dying in a story about YOU or living in a story about JESUS.
The story that centers around YOU
and your people
and your tribe
is a story that leads to death, because you are not righteous
But JESUS is righteous
he has successfully won the victory
we have to leave our old life (story) behind
we have to attach ourselves to him by faith
We died to that old self
Invitation:
Invitation:
Baptize
Recommit
Prayer
