Dueling Dominions

Scripture Reading

Will you please turn in your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. This morning's sermon will come from verses 12 through 21. Romans chapter 5 verses 12 through 21. Brothers and sisters this is God's perfect word. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, but thus death spread to all men because all sinned, for until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.

For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation. But the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who received abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Therefore, As through one man's offense judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover, The law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, so even grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Prayer for Illumination

Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's word. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, You have given us Your Word, and it is perfect, and true, and righteous altogether. Father, we plead with You that You would give us Your Holy Spirit, that we might hear these words, take heed to them, that Your Spirit would prick our consciences, Soften our hearts. Open our ears. Enable us and empower us to receive and live and fill us with thankfulness. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon

Very first semester of college, I remember sitting in an English class And it was a review of my ninth grade English class all over again. I put my head on my desk as I looked at the textbook and thought, oh no, not again. Because it was different forms of essays. That's what the very first class lecture was on, is different forms of essays. And so they had thesis essays.

But there's one that always stood out to me. And I thought, ooh, I like that one. It's an old one. It's actually one that Paul uses here. It's a compare and contrast letter. Paul here has, on the one hand, death and judgment and Adam. And on the other hand, life. righteousness in Jesus and so I I made that chart and instead of having you fill it in I actually filled it in for you so what we're going to do is we're going to work through the passage in front of us we're going to see the amazing thing that God has done in giving us Jesus and I hope I hope that some of you are going to walk out of here And you're going to, if you are a Christian, go, oh, I know which column I'm in. I'm in the one that has Jesus.

But there's others of you that I hope that when you walk out of here, you're going to have to wrestle. And you're going to have to really be honest about in your heart, because I hope the Holy Spirit gets underneath your fingernails. And you can't let it go, because it bugs you all day long and all week long and the rest of your life. Am I still an Adam? I'm not saying I want for you to have no assurance of salvation. I'm saying if you don't know if you're a Christian, I hope that you have to wrestle with this passage this morning.

So let's go ahead and turn in our Bibles. And let's look at how Paul sets this up. The Holy Spirit gives him, in verse 12, the therefore. Okay, so the therefore we're going to talk about next week. We're going to have an overview sermon of chapters 1 through 5. So I'm not going to rehearse all the therefore now. But the point being in chapter 5, up to this point, is that God has given us trials and tribulations for a reason.

We shouldn't be surprised by that. He's doing something through it. But He has given us Jesus. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have access to the Father because of Jesus. And that we were saved. We were saved when we were weak. And our only boast is because God saved us. God saved us from the wrath to come. God made us no longer enemies but friends.

So the question that flows out of a whole bunch of this is, okay, has that always been the case? Has this been a problem for a long time? And this is where I think the therefore in verse 12 is actually pulling us to what some of the people were doing in chapter 4. Do you remember what people were doing in chapter 4? There are some people in chapter 4 who are saying, well, hold on, I'm not like the rest of the world.

Adam’s Representative Sin and the Reign of Death

I've got Abraham as my father. I'm good. And he says, no, you're not. Mm-mm, Abraham was justified by faith. Romans chapter 2, no, no, no, you who are sinners, you think that you're in Abraham so you're good? No. No, because you judge people and do the same things. And so in verse 12, as we look in verse 12, that there is a representative role of Adam. Look with me at verse 12. Therefore just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.

Who's this one man? This one man is a real person. His name was Adam. By the way, I'm convinced that Paul believes Adam was a historical person who really did sin. The garden was real, and there was a real command from the Lord. You shall not eat from the knowledge of the tree of good and evil, for the day you eat of it, you will surely die. I think Paul believed that that was a real event.

And because of that one real transgression, sin entered the world. Just as a fun thing, if you go to Genesis chapter 3, you won't actually find the word sin there. You find the concept, the idea, but the word sin isn't there. But it's clear what the passage is getting at.

Sin entered the world and death through sin and then death. spread to all men, right? Sin was like a malignant tumor that spread and the cancer reached out through its nodes and went out through all humanity, no matter how many generations, how many steps away from Adam you are, no matter how many begotten, begotten, begotten, begotten, begotten in the genealogy, every single one. If you look, just look at the rest of the book of Genesis. Have you read the genealogies before in Genesis? It's just a fun thing. Look with me, go to Genesis chapter three is where Adam sins. And notice what happens. You just flip over a couple pages. Genesis chapter five. This is the book of the genealogy of Adam.

In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them, male and female, and blessed them and called them mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived 130 years. He begot a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were 800 years. And he had sons and daughters. And so all the days that Adam lived were 930 years. Man, that's a good life, huh? Almost a millennia. 930 years. This is great.

And he died. Look down just a few verses. That's son Seth, verse 8. So all the days of Seth were 912 years. And he died. And verse 11. So all the days of Enosh were 905 years. And he died. Verse 14. So all the days of Canaan were 910 years. And he died. Verse 17. So all the days of Mahallel were 895 years. And he died. Verse 20. And he died. Verse 27. And he died. Verse 28. And he died. And he died. And he died. And he died. And he died. And he died. And he died.

And someday you will also And so will I. Because in Adam sin entered the world. Sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men. Because all sinned. What does it mean though? Because all sinned. Does that mean like every single person? Well, yes. All sinned. But this is in the past tense. This is the Aorist and the Greek. But the point being is that how did all of us sin in Adam? Because Adam was our representative. He was our covenant head. Right? We don't like this because in the West we're very individualized, right? I don't want to be judged for anybody else's actions because I'm my own person.

And yet I'd like to ask you, how much do you love paying the higher gas prices right now? Did you have to declare war with Iran? Or did somebody who represents you declare war? Decide to start shooting off rockets and dropping bombs? Did you have a say in that?

No, and yet in Iran they will chant, death to America. Why? These were citizens of this country. These were a part of this group. It's called corporate guilt. Adam was our corporate representative. Whether we like it or not, he sinned, and he was our representative. And now I know some of you might say, well, hold on.

If I was in the Garden of Eden, I wouldn't have done that. Why does he get to represent me? Well, okay, if you don't like the idea of that you have represented guilt or inherited guilt and you want to go to the garden and you think that you would be the perfect measure, just let me ask just a simple question. Did you ever disobey your mom or dad even once? What makes you think that you would obey God for eternity in the garden then?

No, we would have done the exact same thing. We have our own actual guilt and we have the inherited guilt. It's ours. So Adam... Adam is the one who represents us. But we also have his sin nature. Now... Paul's going to stop here, and for a second, if you notice, I actually really enjoy this in verse 13. It has parentheses. You got that little half moon there, kids. If you see that in your Bibles, that means this is kind of like something he has to clarify. So what does he got to clarify? He kind of leaves off a thought in verse 12, and he needs to make some qualifications. And so the first qualification he has is, well, hold on.

I thought it was the law that brought death. But there was no law at Sinai yet. So why were people dying in Genesis chapter 5 when the law of Moses is until Exodus chapter 20? There's a lot of years between there. Why? For until the law, sin was in the world.

But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who was a type of him who was to come." It didn't matter that they didn't have the law at Sinai.

They had the moral law. When Cain decided to slay his brother Abel, he knew it was wrong. His brother's blood cried out. He didn't have to have the law written down because God had made Adam and Eve and all their children, their progeny, with a conscience.

Christ’s Greater Gift of Grace and Justification

And so still sin and death reigned. Generation to generation to generation. It was a kingdom of sin. It was a reign of death. It was a terror to every generation. But notice, here's where the contrast comes in. This has been a whole bunch of bad news. But notice verse 15, the contrast. But the free gift is not like the offense. He's setting it up, right? There's the offense. There's the eating of the forbidden fruit. And by it, death, sin, and death, and the reign of terror. Because one man did one thing.

But, notice, for if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. Do you see? Which is greater? Which is greater, the condemnation of the trespass, the judgment of guilty, of the verdict guilty, or the love of God displayed in Jesus, that the Father would have the Son lay down His own life as a ransom for many? Which one is greater?

This is not, right, some people will come to this passage, I need to warn you, some people will come to verses 13 through 17, and they'll start thinking of like, oh, well, everybody in the world is saved, because this is talking about everybody and all people.

No, no, no, hold on. Everybody is the all in Adam, but it's clear that those who are in Christ are those who receive. Not everybody receives Christ, sadly. So it's not quantitative. It's not that, oh, well, somehow there were more people who died by sin, but there's going to be even more people now. So like, well, there were 100 million people who died because they were sinners, but there's going to be a billion people saved by grace. It's not quantitative like that.

This is saying, do you understand the depths and the riches and the extent of God's love poured out in Jesus? What greater thing could God do to show the mercies of the richness of His grace in the free gift of the offering of His Son? That's what it's getting at here in this contrast. Much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded to many. So it's greater. Jesus is greater than Adam, and Jesus' work is greater than Adam's. And the gift, that gift is the right standing with God. Your justification. His giving you Jesus' righteousness. His making propitiation for you. All those things we've been looking at of God's grace that's given to you as a gift.

And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from the one's offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification." See, Adam's one act, his transgression, resulted in sin and judgment, a guilty verdict, condemnation and death. But that's not like what happens in Jesus. In Jesus the reign of life comes, the kingdom of righteousness. But the free gift came by Jesus. For if by verse 17, the contrast continues, For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one...

By the way, that word reigned, that's like a really old English word. The idea here is specifically tied into the idea of, is the king over? Some translations will even talk about the dominion of it. That's again another old English word. We grapple with this because we don't have kings with reigns now, right? In America we don't have that. We don't talk about the president who reigns over, we talk about the, it rules over. But it is a kingdom here.

For if by the one man's offense, or we could say for Adam's, for if by Adam's offense death reigned, had dominion, ruled as king through the one. Much more, those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.

I want you to see that. I need you to sit with that for a little while. Because you're either in one kingdom or another. Either you are in the kingdom, being represented by Adam, and sin is still king over you, and death is your end, or you have new life in Jesus.

And because you have new life, You have righteousness and abundant grace. You see, God is not stingy with those who he loves. He gives grace upon grace. You don't even earn it. Your standing, your favor with God isn't something that you earn. But your right standing, the reason why God's face smiles upon you, can have his peace upon you, is because he chose to do it. And you get to receive it. Do you see some of you are going to walk out of here and I'm concerned as a pastor because you're going to walk out of here and you're still going to wrestle with your assurance of salvation. And I cannot give you, I cannot proclaim that you are definitively a Christian. I can't convince you of it either. That's a work of the Holy Spirit. He's got to do that in you.

But one of the things that will be a great blessing to you as you wrestle with this and you try to figure out, well, I don't think I'm in Adam, but I don't really know if I'm in Christ. Often when I'll talk to people about whether they're wrestling, am I in Christ? Am I in Jesus's kingdom? Is he really the one who's in charge of my life? They'll often say, yeah, but I still struggle with sin.

Yeah, but I see that I'm still lacking in good works. I'm like, oh, so you're still trying to earn God's grace. So you gotta do something more than receive. You're still trying to earn the good gifts. You'll never have assurance of salvation. Your soul will never find rest if you are trying to constantly earn God's favor. No, if you are in Christ, you already have his favor. It is already a free gift. Abundant grace. The gift of righteousness. And so he comes back. Notice the parenthesis ends at verse 17. And in verse 18, we get the next therefore. He's coming back to it. So let's read 12 and then 18.

Verse 12 first, therefore just as through one man's sin, one man's sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sinned, therefore as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, this is verse 18, resulting in condemnation. Even so through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life. Adam sinned.

I want you to see what happened, right? We see the woman saying that she was deceived by the serpent. Right? The serpent lied. The serpent sowed seeds of doubt. Did God really say you're not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? God's holding something back from you. He doesn't want you to be like Him. He's actually not a good God. He's cruel. He holds good things away from you.

She ate. Her eyes were opened and she took it to her husband. Adam didn't have to eat. Adam could have said, oh my dear wife, I can't believe this happened. Let's wait until the Lord comes and we'll talk to God. We know that he is kind. He comes when it's the cool of the day and he'll walk with us. And he's reasonable and he's good. Look at this good garden he's given us. He wouldn't withhold good things from us, my love.

But that's not what Adam did. Adam chose of his own volition, from his own free will, that he would trust the words of his wife and what Satan had told him, instead of upholding God's goodness. And judgment came, resulting in condemnation through that one man's sinful act. It wasn't a small thing that Adam did. He was saying, God, I don't trust that you're good. He was saying, God, I don't believe that you have what's best in mind for my wife and myself.

Christ’s Obedience and Grace That Abounds

There's something better, and I want that instead. That was Adam's act. So what is this one act? This is the second half of verse 18. Even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men. What is this free, this act? This one man's righteous act. This is Jesus' righteous act. What did he do? What did Jesus do? Well, he never believed the lie of Satan. He actually went toe-to-toe with Satan when Satan tried to tempt him.

Tried to tell them, hey, you shouldn't be here in the desert. You shouldn't be hungry. You can go and eat bread. Just tell this rock, turn into bread. Oh, you don't need to go through the whole plan of redemption. You don't have to go to the cross. Look, I'll take you to the highest mountain. I'll show you all the kingdoms. You can have them right now. There's a shortcut. You don't have to go anywhere near the valley of the shadow of death. You don't have to have the scourging and the mocking and the trials. You don't have to go through the betrayal and the pain. I'll just give you the kingdoms right now.

What would have happened if Jesus had bowed the knee to Satan at that moment? He would have proved to be just like Adam. And yet he was tempted in every way as we are yet without sin. Jesus endured sin. Jesus endured trial and temptation. Jesus endured the cross. Both in his, what theologians call his active obedience, and never sinning against God in any way, fulfilling the covenant of works, doing everything absolutely perfect, as well as in what theologians call his passive obedience. Jesus willingly laying his life down for his friends. Jesus being the lamb who was slain. By this one act of obedience, many were made righteous. You're not going to be righteous because you act it. You're never gonna be good enough to earn God's grace. You're never going to drum up enough zeal and just oomph.

I'm going to really obey God today. I'm going to do it. I'm going to pick up my big boy pants. I'm going to pull myself up by the bootstraps. I'm going to be a big girl today, and I'm not going to sin at all. I'll tell you what. The pattern of my life is when I get deceived by that, it's like 1 o'clock or 3 o'clock when I'm a little bit hangry, and it's nap time. That's when I blow it. And I look in my journals. I'll say, man. Blew it again, God.

And I remember an elder telling me one time when I was talking about this, he just said, Brian, why do you keep starting with your own will and then running to grace? Wouldn't it be better if you start with grace in the morning? You preach this gospel to yourself first. You start with knowing that God's love has been poured out upon you in Christ Jesus.

And then you live from that strength By the one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. We have been justified. He frees us from this tyranny of sin and death. And he promises us that we will reign in life and righteousness forever. And then Paul continues in these last few verses. Stick with me, I know it's long here. Verse 20.

Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin abounded. It multiplied, it grew, it held sway, dominion, power. But that's not the Christian life. Grace abounds that much more. What charge can there be brought against God's elect?

What more What more can be demanded from you that would somehow be greater or deeper or of higher quality than the death of Jesus himself? See, it's not that we are saved by grace alone after everything we can do. No, it's not that you are saved and then you got to make up the rest of it. No, you're saved by grace. through faith.

It's a gift of God and we have no place to brag about it. Instead, what do we get to do? We get to boast in the finished work of Jesus. That's what we're going to come to the Lord's table for. As we come and we celebrate the Lord's Supper, even as I'm going to tell you to take sin seriously in your life and deal seriously with sin, There's a reason why we call the Lord's Supper a means of grace. It's a picture of God's goodness to you. That God loves you so much that he would give his own son, his own body broken for you, his blood poured out as atoning sacrifice for your sins.

Which Kingdom Are You In?

So which kingdom are you in? Who is your ruler? What dominion are you under? Is it still Adam? Are you still under Adam and sin and condemnation and death? Or has God's grace smiled upon you in Jesus Christ and you with an open hand have received and you rest in Jesus Christ alone for life as He's presented to us in the Gospels? Who is your King? What reigns over you? That's a question you have to wrestle with in your own soul.

Closing Prayer

But I hope, oh, I hope that if you are resting in Christ, that as we come to the Lord's table in a few moments, you might have a joy that abounds. and a peace that nothing in this life could ever strip away from you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the free gift that you have given us in Jesus. Life and righteousness and a hope of glory. God, I don't know. I can't see into the people's hearts here who is born again or not. Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit might do great work comforting those who are your children, but also, Lord, for those who do not know you. Lord, I pray that you might break their hearts Break apart their hearts of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

Regenerate. Convert. Save. Sanctify and glorify. God, if there are sinful things or wrong things that I have said up here today in this long sermon, Father, we pray that you would please let them blow away like chaff in the wind. Pray that your people might be like Bereans going to your word and finding out whether this good news is truly so. Lord, please rejoice our hearts. Let us rest in you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.