One Man

As a lot of you know we have this dog named Tinley and for her age she is actually a pretty good dog.

But for a long time she was caught in the puppy stage and if you have ever had a puppy you have no idea what you are getting yourself into.

and this is not just an ordinary race, because first off this

Because you pick out the dog and you are going this is such a sweet animal.

But then to top it off this race has 60 opsticals that you have to complete during those 31 miles.

And a lot of these obstacles are crazy some of them are climbing over a huge wall, others are climbing under barbwire, some are jumping through things that are on fire.

But then after just a few days of owning a puppy you realize that you actually brought home a TRex.

And these obstacles are actually pretty dangerous because it is not to uncommon for people to sprain or break things while doing these obstacles.

Because they just destroy everything.

and one time I actually went to a mini version of this race and you would see someone fall and you would go that person is done.

and I remember thinking in my head did we pick out the dog in the litter that was crazy.

Will she ever be a decent dog?

They are not finishing this race.

Its impossible to finish this race with a broken leg

But what would be so cool is a lot of times if they had someone who trained with them they would actually come and somehow carry the person to the finish line .

And I remember going thinking that this would be something that would last forever and we were just stuck in the puppy stage forever.

But was so cool is that often times these people who you are just thinking its over for will actual

But you know in life there are times where there are different challenges or problems that come up in our life where we go will this problem ever be over with.

And really that was the only way this person is able to finish the race.

And probably a lot of them are more serious then have a dog stuck in the puppy stage.

But really

But we end up with a problem where we go how am I going to overcome this problem.

And today we are in a passage of scripture that its written by a guy named Paul.

And Paul is talking about this problem that effects every single person

And this is a big problem and Paul actually tells us that this problem is a huge issue that really effects our life negatively, but he also tells us how we can get out of the problem.

So turn to and we will be in verses 12-21.

and really we are going to see what the problem is and then see what has to happen in our life to fix this problem.

And this is actually the first sermon in our new series called planted where we are talking about preparing ourselves and out hearts during this time before Easter.

So once again we are going to be in and we are starting in verse 12. It Says:

Romans 5:12–21 NIV

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— 13 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. 14 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. 15 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! 16 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. 17 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! 18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 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. 20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:12–14 NIV

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— 13 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. 14 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.

Pause here because this tells us the problem that every person faces.

And it is something called sin (which if you are unfirmilure with sin its basically just living outside of where God wants you)

And Paul in verse 12 he is basically showing the effect that sin has had on all of humanity.

And

If you were here the past couple weeks we talked a little bit about what sin does to our personal lives, but here Paul tells us what sin does to the world.

Because it tells us that sin entered the world through one mans disobedience.

Because of one choice a man named Adam made to disobey God the world was exposed to sin, and because of this sin there is death and hurt in the world.

To put this simply its almost like a virus.

I am not sure if you know this but a there are certain viruses that actually can effect you your entire life and not only that but if you have kids that virus can actually get passed down to your child before they are even born.

and it will impact them there entire life if nothing is done about it.

And really that is what Paul is saying has happened here. He is saying this virus called sin has entered the world and it has spread to every single person

Where God created us healthy and perfect, but when sin enters in our life it changes us where now we are living differently then how God has called us to.

And this causes our life to be broken. It causes sin to corrupt the perfect image God made us in

Its almost like if you have been in a fun house and looked into one of those weird mirror where it distorts what you look like.

I mean it is ugly. and it has a more personal effect on us to because it destroys relationships, it causes brokenness in our life, and what will often times happen is we do not even understand that we are caught in sin

Where we say I am

We say well I

so we keep living in that brokenness (Paul actually uses the word death ), and its because our behaviors are like we talked about last week toxic to us.

And if we just read this we would say the outlook here is really bad.

Because we are just saying this is the new me.

I am going to be stuck in this distorted image for the rest of my life.

But look at this next part because Paul tells us the solution in verses 15-17 it says:

Romans 5:15–17 NIV

15 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! 16 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. 17 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!

So like I said Paul tells us that there is a solution to this problem, because he is says look sin came into the world through one person and because of that we are where we are.

But he tells us that there is someone else who came Jesus and because of what Jesus did we are made free in Christ

We have separated ourselves from God. Almost like if you can picture a giant dam that holds back water.

and it seperates the water because in a way thats what sin has done.

Even in

But here is the solution because it says that just as one man brought sin into this world, there is one man that made it right. and thats Jesus.

And it actually says that what these two men did were opposites, because Adam brought condemnation, but Jesus brought Grace and makes it so our sins are forgiven.

But heres the deal because Paul actually tells us that the penalty that Adam brought on the world is nothing compared to the gift that Jesus brings.

And this is amazing because sin builds a dam that separates us from God, but sin will never be able to build a damm that the Grace of God can’t overflow.

And read the second half of verse 20 with me (it will be up on the screen),

But where sin increased, Grace increased all the more.

This is so important for us to understand because in the Old Testement what they would do is they would sacrafice animals to cover their sins.

So if you did something bad you would often have to sacrifice another animal to cover your sin.

And what Paul is saying here is vital for us because I dont know about you but I have not sacrificed any animals recently, but its because Jesus was the ultimate sacrafice.

We do not sacrifice animals because when Jesus came He was born into the world fully God and fully man and He lived life like us, but He lived actually a perfect life, but was punished because of our sins,

and whats amazing is if we accept Christ into our life and mess up we do not need another sacrafice because Jesus was THE SACRAFICE.

And what is amazing is he did not stay in the grave but he rose from it which means that we are not stuck living in sin.

and that when we choose to accept Christ in our life our hearts are literly changed and we are made free

So now we do not have to stay in the brokeness of our life where we are defined by sin,

Your not defined as the addict

or the gossiper

or the mess up

but we can be defined by who Christ say we are

Which is a child of God.

And maybe today there are some of us that need to embrace that identity

where we realize that we are living a life distorted.

We look in the mirror and all we can see if how sin has distorted us.

We are looking at this huge dam in front of us and we are saying how could the love of Christ get to someone like me.

Christ died for you knowing the exact brokenness of your life and he is ready to meet you in your brokeness this morning.

And I want to finish today first off by responding in our hearts will you close your eyes this morning.

Are you there this morning where you are going could Jesus die for someone like me?

Maybe this morning you need to invite Christ into your life. I would just invite you from where you are sitting to raise your hand

Maybe your in another place where you are in need to recommit yourself I would invite you to raise your hand.

As a way of saying Yes God I want to experience that love.

And I want to pray for those who raised their hands this morning and ask God to come into your life in a new and fresh way.

Let’s pray.

And now we are going to respond corrpritly by recieving communion together as a way of remmembering the Grace that was pured out to us through Christ.