The Gift Abounds!

As we were in Adam, So Now we are in Christ

I remind you that we have been looking at the fullness and finality of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ in Paul’s epistle to the Romans, an exposition which starts here in the first verse of Chapter 5, all the way over to Chapter 8.

As you may recall, Paul had just started into this section with his main theme in v12, stating

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned⁠—

But, rather than continue his argument, the logical mind of Paul could not simply let it go at that, but he had to immediately stop there, and to explain to us just what he means by that statement in v12, “death spread to all men, because all sinned”

He therefore sets out to show and explain to us just what it means to be in Adam, or to be in Christ in a most explicit manner, that we may be certain to grasp within our minds the important nature of this truth!

It was so very important to him for this reason, for if we do not sufficiently grasp the true nature of the historical man Adam and his one act of sin, and the one result of that sin, then neither will we understand the enormity of the one act of the one man Jesus Christ, and His result.

And so in v13 and 14 we digressed, and learned that through the one act of Adam, every person has been condemned, for in that act of Adam, we all sinned. Adam sinned, and that sin led to death in all men; sin results in death. It supports and amplifies what the apostle said in v12 when he stated “death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

Yet it is not sufficient for us to solely understand the similarities between the transgression and the gift; though the similarities are vitally important, the contrasts and differences between the transgression and the gift are also vitally important to our understanding the fullness and finality of our salvation in Christ Jesus.

And Paul has again broken into his argument with a second interruption, in order that we not take this analogy “As we were in Adam, so now we are in Christ” too far, he desires to highlight for us the essential differences and contrasts we may otherwise gloss over and miss. So we digresses a second time in Romans 5:15-17 with this,

Romans 5:15 (LSB)

But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

Romans 5:16 (LSB)

And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the gracious gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

Romans 5:17 (LSB)

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

In our society today, we hear a lot of discussion and complaints about fairness - being fair to everyone is highly prized, and a common complaint people have of this entire section is

“Isn’t it unfair for God to condemn the whole world on account of just one man’s disobedience?”

We have a dislike, even an outright hatred for the idea of being held accountable for what another person does, it is offensive to us and to our minds, but time and again, we see that is exactly what the apostle Paul declares.

But thank God that is the case! Thank God that we are held accountable for the sin of Adam. For the one act of Adam is held up as the contrast to the one act of Jesus Christ! The condemnation which comes by the one act of sin, is super-countered through the one act of righteousness! Let me show you what I mean!

Changing our Focus

Now I want you to look at the 2 opening phrases, first in v15, and then in v16, I’ll put them on the screen to help call this out for you.

I know it sounds like we’re repeating the same thing over and over – to be clear we’re not, it just feels like it – but it bears repeating because in fact each time Paul is bringing in some new nuance, some new element or view or aspect that he had not yet covered, and in reality it’s not just Paul, but the Holy Spirit, so it behooves us to pay attention rather than to simply gloss over it!

Romans 5:15 (LSB)

But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. (15)

And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. (16)

In v15, our focus is specifically on the act of sin, and the grace-gift from God to indicate unmerited favor has been given – this contrast describes the initiating action, if you will, the sin and the giving of the gift

However, in v16 this focus has changed. We are now talking about the intermediate result of the one act of sin, and though we see the same English word “gift”, we are now talking about the thing given as a result of Christ’s one act of righteousness.

Legal Declaration for the One Act of Transgression

The one act of disobedience by the one man Adam was indeed a transgression, it was a willful act taken by Adam in which, although he was plainly and clearly told “do not do this, there is a specific consequence if you do this”, he went and did it anyways.

Paul explains to us here in v16 that Adam’s one transgression brought a judgement of condemnation upon all of us. That’s what he just finished saying in v15, that

By the transgression of the one the many died

Who is the many? That’s easiest to answer with another question - who is it that dies? This was the point of the first digression, even back to v12, it’s not just that many people have died, and some have not, but rather that “death spread to all men” as it says, even from Adam until Moses! They didn’t sin like Adam did, yet they still died, every one of them, with the incredibly unique and miraculous exception of Enoch, who God took on account of the fact that Enoch walked with God! But everybody else died, it is on account of this that we should know even without Paul’s letter that it was in Adam’s one sin that we find the ultimate cause for everyone’s death.

And so Paul lays out here for us in v16 and 17 just how this works internally, and to do so he uses language intended to bring to our minds a courtroom setting, in which a judge, having heard all of the evidence, pronounces his legal determination of the facts.

Now, this itself may seem offensive to us in our culture, being so conditioned as we are by our own American notion of being judged by our peers, to have people as sinful and corrupt and self-absorbed and as likely to have broken our laws as ourselves be the ones who decide if we were sufficiently out-of-line so as to deserve condemnation.

But God, however, is impartial, He is no respecter of persons, He judges each person according to their works in righteous judgement, Romans 2:5-6 declares! If we were judged by other sinful and fallen people, that judgement would be open to flaw and corruption.

So, our ultimate judge is an impartial and holy judge, who cannot look upon evil with favor, who cannot be bribed or cajoled or even have to pause to consider if He would have done the same thing! No, our Judge will always judge righteously, according to truth; that which is sin, is sin; that which is righteousness, is righteousness; He will never mix the two, and cannot be persuaded to call a thing other than what it is.

So God, as the only one truly qualified to judge, did judge the sin of Adam,

“…the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation.”

We should fix in our minds this word, “one”; the one thing caused the sentence of condemnation, namely the sin of Adam. The imputation of sin to man by Adam’s one act, and that act bringing the judgement of condemnation is not merely a passing mention in v12, but it is throughout and repeated such that it ought to be plain and clear.

We ought to be certain to understand: it is not that we have been given a nature which leads us to sin ourselves, nor is it simply a path that we are led down own by our parents. Rather, Paul plainly and clearly emphasizes once again that there is one, single event which has caused condemnation – the one act, of the one man Adam.

God saw the one sin of the one man Adam, and He judged it accordingly, He determined it to be sin; God has proclaimed that the verdict is clear, and based upon that verdict, the prescribed penalty for that sin, the condemnation for that sin, is nothing less than death.

So Adam sinned, God passed righteous judgement on that sin, and the condemnation of death is the penalty to be paid as a result of that sin.

Legal Declaration for the One Act of Righteousness

And again, here’s where it pays to not gloss over things, especially things that sound like repetition in Scripture; things that are repeated, and patterns that are repeated, are present for a very good reason. If we were to be carried away, and move on to the result of the legal declaration of the one act of sin, we would miss the important contrast to be found in the legal declaration regarding the one act of righteousness.

So now, Paul is providing us a balanced contrast, one side then the other, with all of their similarities and differences laid plain. And having looked at the legal declaration of our supreme Judge regarding the one transgression by the one man Adam, and the legal character of that judgement, namely condemnation, he now turns to the other side, the contrast in the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ, to discover the legal character of this judgement.

And we do have great hope here, for in the same manner as God has considered the evidence and made His determination as judge regarding the one act of Adam, so, too, has He considered the evidence and made His determination as judge regarding the one act of Jesus Christ, humbling Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Romans 5:16 (LSB)

And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the gracious gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

And immediately, we are faced with this same term, “the gracious gift”, χἀρισμα, something that is not only free, which it is and always is, but even more importantly it is something that is based entirely upon grace, the unmerited favor of God.

I stress this so much on account of our own failures as part of the fall. You see, it is the nature of man to reject this notion, the idea of salvation being something not only do I not deserve, but something that I can never deserve. For we like to feel that if we are given a thing, we have earned it, that it is owed to us.

When it comes to a thing like salvation, where our eternity is involved, we are no different – we want to feel that we’ve earned it, or at least significantly contributed to it, to feel that we’ve done our part and so God owes us.

But that’s simply not the case, the meaning of χάρισμα is far too clear, it is and always will be proof of unmerited favor! We can either accept that as truth, and delight in the freeness of the gift, admitting our own sinful helplessness and depending upon God’s favor alone, otherwise we can reject this truth, denying the good news of the gospel, and continue our rejection of the clear message of God. There really is no middle ground here!

And unlike the one offense of Adam bringing condemnation, this grace-gift comes out of many transgressions, many offenses against God, many sins.

For we were condemned in the sin of Adam, that ought to be clear in our minds. But we also have committed offense against God, we also have broken His commandment, we also do what is wrong and is offensive to Him; we were not deserving of salvation in our own selves!

Understand, if the one sin of Adam – so simple and minor a thing to us as eating the fruit of a certain tree, and yet to God this was monumental! – this one, simple thing caused the condemnation of the entire race of men! And the sins that I have done, no matter how they are cast in my mind, or the mind of any other, is equally sufficient to condemn me. For God demonstrated in the transgression of Adam that no sin is so small that it may be passed over!

And I do sin, I do not deny that, I cannot deny that and truly know God, the truth would not be in me if I did deny it. I cannot, I am sure, go a single day without sinning. My sins that I have done myself may not have been what condemns me, but they have certainly added to that one sin that did. And so in my own self, I am guilty of many offenses. And not only mine, but all of the sins of all of His people were put upon Him; the free and gracious gift can only work if it is able to overcome that massive mountain of guilt, and praise God, that it does immensely!

The supreme Judge of All considered the evidence of Jesus’ act of perfect obedience, obedience to the point of death, as being righteous, and the determination of the judge after considering all was justification.

And it is important that we understand that just as condemnation is a judicial determination, so too is justification a judicial determination. They are both legal pronouncements; condemnation and justification however are antithetical to each other, where the first brings due punishment, the other, justification, brings freedom!

And so, just as we saw up in v9 where the apostle writes

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

We once again realize that this judgement for us has already occurred in Jesus Christ, we need not fear our Judge rejecting His own ruling!

The gracious gift would have no value if it could not un-do the condemnation in Adam, but thanks be to God that “much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many!”

Opposing Judgements, Opposing Results

So now, having considered the 2 opposing acts, the one man Adam’s act of sin, opposed to the one man Jesus Christ’s act of obedience; and next having considered the 2 opposing legal judgements, the judgement of Adam’s act of sin being condemnation, the judgement of Jesus Christ’s act of righteousness being justification.

Now, in v17, the apostle takes us yet further, to the results of these 2 opposing judgements.

Romans 5:17 (LSB)

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Opposing Judgements, Opposing Results:

Condemnation Yields Death

“For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one...”

We know this, this isn’t some new, earth-shattering fact. If I were to run up to someone and tell them that everybody dies, they’d cock their head and look at me funny, and say “well, yeah…!”

Lamentations 8:8 begins by declaring,

There is no man who has power to restrain the wind with the wind, and there is none who has power over the day of death

Death is a great equalizer, far beyond Samuel Colt’s invention a short time ago given the scope of human history. And death reigns, no man can escape its mastery, no man can outrun its domain, no man can fail to succumb to its sting. Rather than living forever, as Adam had the possibility of doing before his sin, the one act of Adam was judged by God with condemnation unto death; none of my acts of sin are so profound, so damning as his one act, for it is on account of the legal judgement of that one act that death reigns, and none of us on our own can escape its grasp.

We spend billions of dollars every year trying to avoid it, but we can’t. We spend billions more to make it seem less painful, to delay it, but in the end we cannot overcome its reign and terror.

For death has indeed reigned over all mankind, there are none who can escape; the experiences of each one of us, our very lives, stand testament to this inescapable fact. Even the greatest of men die, our world is filled with cemeteries, tombs, and memorials declaring and confirming this as truth. It is in many ways our master, and no one can prevent succumbing to death for very long - it is inescapable, it always wins, it always proves its mastery over us.

This is the easy part, this is the part that we know and understand at a very visceral level; what we don’t understand, what we have never fully experienced, is the absence of death, such is its reign over us.

The antithesis of life is death, the opposite of death is life; the absence of death is an unbelievably glorious condition so sought by men, who desire that our bodies would never slow and decay and die. We do not have to be taught how to die, the same as we do not have to be taught how to sin - it is our something with which we are all too experienced, and fear!

Why else do you think men so feared the threat of nuclear war, the threat of terrorism, the threat of unchecked violence? Why else do you think there was such fear of cancer and other fatal diseases? Why else was there such a great fear of the plague, or of COVID-19, or other diseases which prove our frailty? It’s not that we won’t die, we know we will – but even here, we are offended when we realize just how little control we have over death.

Death truly reigns over us!

A Contrast of Choice

But thank God, that “not as the offense, so also is the free gift”! For the free gift is not merely the opposite of death, meaning life. There is a vast contrast, here!

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

The offense we are born into in Adam, we have no choice, we are unconsciously involved in the sin of Adam, every one of us at the start! It took no choice or effort on our part. But on the other hand, the free gift, the justification offered in Christ Jesus is not like that, it requires that we not just give assent, but that we receive the message, and believe it! Paul has already expounded on this in Romans 3, saying in v21-22

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; ...

There is, then, a great distinction between the 2; unconscious in condemnation, conscious in our embrace of the great gift of salvation! Truly, our being in Jesus Christ is a great contrast to our being in Adam!

...much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

So, receiving comes by faith, by believing the message God has declared in His gospel, that Jesus Christ lived, and died, and on the third day was raised up just as He said in His word, that He is indeed Lord!

Opposing Judgements, Opposing Results:

Condemnation Yields Death

Justification Yields Life

But what we receive through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is not merely the opposite of death, but it is once again much more than that!

In v16, Paul left us with “the gracious gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification”, and now here in v17, we begin to realize that God has not simply restored us back to the point where Adam was prior to the fall – although necessary, and glorious, and an act of grace by God, we are not merely justified!

...much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

No, the one act of the man Jesus Christ goes beyond simple justification, but we also receive the gift of righteousness! Justification is a legal pronouncement that we are righteous, that reconciliation has occurred. But we are not merely left there, in a place where the balance scales are brought back to even, as it were. Oh, no!

For above and beyond a mere balancing of the scales, in which we could easily sin and fail and return to a state of condemnation and guilt, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is lavished on us, it is freely bestowed upon we who have believingly received the gospel!

We weren’t simply forgiven our sins and left as we were, with an admonition to never do that again, not at all! We are freely and aboundingly given the the righteousness of Christ; nowhere in Romans does Paul refer to righteousness as being the relative righteousness of man, but in each case he is always talking about the holy and perfect righteousness of God!

Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, it is placed upon us and within us! It’s not simply the idea of giving a person a new set of clothes that they can put on and off, but we are fundamentally and profoundly changed in the whole of our being!

So what we receive through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is not merely the opposite of death; it includes life, but it is so very much more than life! Here, the apostle makes a grand statement, that those who believingly receive the gospel, those same people who we have been talking about all along since verse 1 who have been justified by faith, will most certainly reign in life through the One man, Jesus Christ! We are in Him, that’s what matters, and so being that we are in Him, in the future we will reign!

Just as David was anointed while Saul still lived and remained upon the throne, and David knew and was certain that his time would come to reign in the time God appointed, we, too ought to temper our thinking and behavior here and now with the realization that we will reign, that we are destined to rule and judge, Peter even declares us to be a royal priesthood, both priests and kings!

And we must not miss this last part, its importance is far too great, its impact far too weighty to ignore – if death no longer reigns over us, the sin which causes death also no longer reigns over us! Recall, sin is the act which leads to the pronouncement of condemnation, which results in death. If death no longer reigns, then likewise the condemnation no longer exists, which means that sin can no longer the dominating character of our lives!

In other words, through faith in Jesus Christ we now have been justified, we now have been pronounced righteous, and we have been made righteous, and our glorification is certain! The character of our life has changed from that of death to that of life!

Once again, throughout this digression, we realize the fullness and finality of salvation in Jesus Christ, because I have nothing to do with my salvation other than to simply receive it! I can’t earn it, I can’t merit it, I can’t win it like some prize in a parlor-game, I can’t cooperate with God to do my part for it, I can’t even contribute to it.

All of these are flatly rejected by God, we must come to Him solely and only as a pauper, setting aside my own morality and ethics and personality and everything else, and by faith in Jesus Christ alone come before him and trust Him!

The one man Jesus Christ alone has accomplished this great work, He alone could act in perfect obedience to the Father, He alone could be found by a just and holy God as being righteous, He alone can provide life, and life abundantly to us!

Let us pray!