The Assurance of the Universal Reign of Grace

Yeah. We are now several weeks into our sermon series on the book of Romans. I can imagine that some of you will think, oh man, that's really heavy stuff. So all this doctrinal stuff that Paul is presenting to us, and I just want to hear that God loves me, that I'm his child. I want to hear that the yoke is easy and the burden is light.

I want to hear that I don't have to worry because God takes care of me like he takes care of the plants, lilies on the field. But now we are talking about all this deep stuff, like almost philosophical. But it's very important that we are deeply grounded in these doctrines. That's why we really follow the entire book of Romans here, because that's the foundation on which we stand. That's a foundation on which our hope, our confidence rests.

And maybe you have seasons in life, in the past where you stand, where you struggled, where you doubted your salvation, when you thought, I really messed up, I failed big time. And maybe you, maybe, maybe on a daily basis you're switching between feeling good about your salvation and then you wake up the next morning when you think you lost your salvation because it's all based on your emotions and not based on the doctrines that we find in God's word, God's promises. So to find your confidence in the promises of God instead of your constantly changing feelings.

And today we want to talk about some doctrinal stuff that will deeply humble us, maybe humble us more than any other doctrine in the New Testament. It's as if we just lose all honor of our own, that there's nothing that really can contribute except just embracing what God has done for us to find our insurance entirely on, on the work of God in our lives. And the New Testament makes a big case that we should be really not be tossed around by like ever changing doctrines, but we should reach a level of maturity also in our understanding of God's plan of redemption. That's why we preach through this book of Romans. One reason to be firmly grounded in these doctrines, to have solid answers.

Just imagine you're on your deathbed. You look back on many failures, you look back on many shortcomings. Where will your confidence come from? Hopefully it comes from God's Word, comes from the fact that you have been saved by grace through faith in Christ alone and not based on your maybe performance the day before. So this might sound like dry theology, but it's highly actually relevant.

It's highly relevant for each single day, but especially when it comes to our confidence of eternity. What will await us in the future. Yeah, Today, as someone said, Douglas Moore in a comment, he said, like in this passage today, Paul paints this picture with broad strokes. It's like a bird's eye picture. It's a picture of the history of redemption in this passage, where he goes back really to the very beginning, to Adam, the first human being and the fall of mankind, and also to Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the prophecies.

So you should listen to these words of Scripture not as something dry, but it's something that is very personal and very relevant to each one of us. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you that you speak in human language to us. You speak from eternity into our time. We hear words that are truth, words that we can build our lives upon. Lord, and this is a difficult topic today, and we may disagree. And some aspects of this passage here, we ask that we would not forget the main message, that we can have full assurance that we have full confidence of our hope because of what you have done.

And nothing needs to be added to that, Lord. So please speak to us through this word. Please use me, help me to speak the truth and yet the power of the Holy Spirit today. Amen.

Yeah, we start just with the first verse. And that's often like Paul begins a thought and then he immediately just goes into something else. And it's the same here. He starts in verse Romans 5, verse 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.

And he starts this thought here, and then he just takes a break, speaks about some aspects of the main topic, some illustrations, and continues this thought actually later in verse 18:19.

But Paul begins this new thought here in chapter five with a therefore. So he this therefore points to something that he must have said before. It connects this passage to something that he had already said in this letter before. And I think that it's probably more or less a conclusion of everything that he has said with the beginning of 1:16. The gospel is the power of salvation for everyone who believes.

And basically it covers everything. The misery, our sinful state, our helplessness, but then also our justification. And then, as we had seen last Sunday, that we have peace with God now, that we have access to this grace of God, this reconciliation, this forgiveness by faith. And kind of this passage kind of relates now to these points. And I would say it wants to provide even further assurance of our salvation, further assurance that we are truly justified, that we can have full confidence when we look into the.

Look to the future. So again, he, in a conclusion kind of, he wants to give us more assurance of God's power that is effective in the. In the Gospel message that is effective for everyone who believes. Not only certain people, but for everyone. In this sense, it's universal.

But there's also this absolute assurance of reconciliation and peace with God that we now have.

But as I said, what makes this passage somewhat difficult is that he starts this main thought and then he digresses into some side aspects of the main topic and picks up the thought later in the passage, because he begins to make a comparison between two individuals who lived. And it's Adam and Christ in this passage here. And if we would just continue the verse that he has started, it would go like this. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and he talks about Adam here and death through sin. And in this way death came to all people because all sinned.

And now we jump to verse 18:19 to continue the thought. It's one side of the comparison he talks about Adam, the other side Christ is missing so far. So in verse 18, then he continues, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, Adam, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 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. So don't get confused.

This is kind of the main idea. The main topic, one man here, contrasted with one other man who came later, Jesus. And there's only actually one similarity between these two characters, Adam and Jesus. And the similarity is that their life before God, their disobedience in the case of Adam, and their obedience in the case of Christ had a universal effect on all or on a multitude of people. And in this way, Adam actually prefigured the Messiah.

Adam was a type of the coming Savior. But we also have to recognize, besides this one point of similarity, there's a vast difference, a vast dissimilarity between Adam, the first human being, and Christ.

But verse 12 here already states that that basically all sinned since Adam, we all sin. That's kind of, yeah, mysterious. There was this one person who transgressed the specific law, and in consequence, every human being who ever lived. Yeah, by necessity also became a person who transgressed, who became a sinner. All sinned.

We all sin with necessity. Sin is part of our nature. It's part of our identity. We sin because we are sinners by Our identity. And I find it fascinating if you are in the kindergarten or around young children, how this self centered attitude is expressed at a very young age.

Like you shall not covet what do they do? They are in the kindergarten, they covet the toys of the other children. They might even hit the other child because they are so selfish and self centered that they covet this one thing for themselves. And you ask yourself where is this coming from? Stems from our sinful nature that even these young children by their very identity they have to sin, they have to transgress, they have to act against God's moral law.

It's kind of mysterious, but that describes situation of humanity. Each person born will is a sinner and will perform acts of sin. But before Paul now unfolds his thought here about Adam and then the other one man, Christ, he he answers a question that someone may ask. The question is why did death reign even over all those people who did not have a specific command in the law that they could transgress? All those people who lived before the law of Moses was given, those people who didn't have a clear instruction what God's requirements are.

And he answers this question here in verse 13, then says 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. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses in even over those who did not sin by breaking a command as did Adam, who is a pattern or a type of the one to come, the Messiah. So here Paul makes clear that the reign of death, no matter if you have law or not, specific instruction by God or not, the reign of death is both universal and inescapable. And that was true even before the law of Moses was given.

And death reigns overall creation.

Later in Romans 8 we will also talk about that the entire creation is subjected to futility. It's in bondage to corruption, it's groaning together in the pains of childbirth. It says all creation through Adam's act of disobedience is trapped in this situation of of decay, of corruption, subjected to futility. In our home group we just reading Ecclesiastes and Ushi did a great devotional last Friday because this guy seems so cynical who wrote Ecclesiastes like everything is futile and it's doesn't matter what I do, in the end it's futile. But Ushe pointed out very well that it points us back to this God given desire actually to accomplish something, to gain something, to work for something and then to actually see the fruit of that, a fruit that will last.

And the author of Ecclesiastes obviously always was like investing himself in all kinds of endeavors and always ended up like everything is futile. I can't get a hold on this thing, it will run through my fingers.

But it points us back to this God given desire. We want to actually accomplish something. We want to have some gain that will last. But the problem here is everything is corrupted. There's decay, there's a lot of entropy.

Everything goes down, is deteriorating, it's not improving in quality, it's instead deteriorating. And in the end it's all death. That's the law that you will find out very quickly. You may be very healthy, but we are all on the same track towards death.

We have a pet at home, his name is wolfie. He is 12 years old, older gentleman, and his entire life he has tons, tons of health issues. His joints, he can't eat any meat, only fish and vegetables. Imagine this for a dog, not being able to eat meat. So I feed him cheese.

Like he was sitting there this morning and looking at me while I was eating breakfast and I if I'm gracious then I will feed him some Gouda cheese. So. But this is a poor guy. And every week we think this might be the last week he has a tumor of this size, maybe next to his lungs. So he barely makes it down the stairs and he starts coughing and trying to breathe.

So it's a lot of misery. And you see he is clearly on this track to at some point we will have to put him down, put him to sleep. But on the other hand he's still enjoying his life, but it's a daily reminder of that he is on this definite track towards being taken to the vet and that's it. That was the end of his life. And that's true for each one of us.

Decay, corruption, and then death. At the end, death reigns. It's unavoidable. So death reigned in the lives of the people who lived before the law was given. People who could not transgress God's command and sin in the way Adam did, who had a very specific, only one command, clearly stated that death reigns even over those who have done nothing wrong.

I think of babies who are just dying in childbirth, babies who die right after their birth, they die, they suffer the consequences of this decay, the corruption in the world, although they are not have not committed any sin yet. So there's a lot of suffering, tremendous consequences of the, the act of just one man, think about this. One man, one law, one transgression. Everyone will ever be affected by this one action. But then he indicates the hope that we have.

There's a new pattern, there's a type. So this Greek word points to like, a mark that is made by striking like you, you as a mold, and you leave a certain shape, a certain form in this material. So Adam is a type as a figure of something that would come in the future in the eschatological fulfillment, the Christ. Or we called him sometimes the second Adam.

But in which way is Adam actually a pattern or a type for Christ?

If we just looked at the disastrous consequences of his life for each person. But the point of similarity, or the main point is that his action, his act, had universal consequences. And that's the main point of the comparison between Adam as a type of Christ.

But before Paul gives now an explanation why Adam is a type of Christ and clearly states this point of similarity, he mentions points of great dissimilarity, points of great differences. Basically said, it's not like that. It's very different. Christ is very different than this Adam, the first man. So we shouldn't misunderstand the comparison here between these two men in regard to both dissimilarities.

Paul is using the phrase how much more? It is an expression that is supported by, supposed to give assurance to Christians that those are under God's. Those under God's grace. Then how much more will this be true than for them who are under God's grace? He says, but the gift is not like the trespass.

It's not like the trespass. The gift of Christ is not like the trespass of Adam. 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. The gift is not like the trespass of Adam. What is the gift?

Most likely it's the forgiveness of sins, it's reconciliation with God. It's a right, legal standing before God without guilt. But here Paul says about this dissimilarity between Adam and Christ that basically God is infinitely stronger than man and his grace is infinitely more effective than man's sin. Basically, God's grace will overflow to many, I imagine, like a bucket of water, and it's already 100% full. And there's still water flowing.

It's overflowing. That's a beautiful picture. God's grace is overflowing. Sorry, 100%, but it's overflowing constantly. And that points us to this infinitely stronger and more effective grace of God in our lives as those who believe we had this how much more already twice in the passage that Pastor Chad preached on, and it wanted to provide this absolute assurance that we now know that we are saved by faith, we have access to the grace.

But Paul wants to provide further assurance. Like if God did what was most difficult to reconcile us to himself, how easy will it be for him to carry us through to the end? And if God did what was most unlikely to do, that someone would die for his enemies, then how much more likely is it that God will now sustain us and help us to overcome until the race is finished, after having proven his love for us. So all these aspects of assurance, of confidence come together in the passage last Sunday, but also in our passage today. How much more effective and powerful will the grace of God manifest itself in your life than the consequences of Adam's failure and our own failures?

And now he's kind of also giving us extra arguments here about the dissimilarity. A second point in verse 16. It's also true, he says, nor can the gift of God, this reconciliation, 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. 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 in this these two verses here, he points out two decisive dissimilarities or differences between Adam and Christ. He says the judgment was the consequent of just one sin, one commandment, one transgression by Adam, one sin. But the gift, the gift that Paul is talking about of reconciliation was God's answer to a countless a multitude of sins in the history of mankind. That's the dissimilarity here, one sin and here multitude and numberless sins in the history of mankind that God's grace is able to cover.

Cranfield here one commentary said it very well that one single misdeed should be answered by judgment. This is perfectly understandable that the accumulated sins and guilt of all the ages should be answered by God's free gift. This is the miracle of miracles utterly beyond human comprehension. So we have seen the dissimilarities between the vast dissimilarities. There's really only one point of similarity between Adam and Christ.

So the Ends of their action is either condemnation in the case of Adam, or then justification in the case of Jesus Christ. So in conclusion, we can say there is a measureless generosity of God's grace and an inexpressible glory of God's purpose for man. That God's grace would reign in life, that we would finally reign over sin, overcome sin by God's grace.

And after he has just digressed a little bit, he talked about the dissimilarities, the law. Now he picks up his original thought from verse 12 again and adds the second half of this comparison. You talked about Adam, but now he will talk actually both sides of this comparison. Adam and also Christ. Verse 18:19.

He states the full Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 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 by one trespass of this one first human being. All were made sinners. Condemnation came over the human race like an immediate result of this one transgression and the consequences and all this. We often we use the term original sin, or maybe more precisely the inherited sin.

It's a sin of Adam that we have inherited. It is legal guilt before God that was passed down through the generation. It's inherited by us. In this sense, we are all born sinners. And we are born sinners not only by our very nature as sinners, that we have a nature that by necessity leads to sinful actions.

But I think what Paul apparently means is also that we inherit a legal status before God, a status of being legally guilty before God.

God counted Adam's guilt as belonging to us, you could say. And we are so used to see us as individuals in the Western society. We think of us and the freedom to be the best person we can be. And maybe at the expense of someone else. But this is not how all cultures or other societies work.

They think of themselves corporately, collectively. If I do something wrong, it affects not only me, it affects everyone in this community, in this tribe and this family. And apparently, it seems, it seems here similar in this case here. God does not see us only as an individual. He sees us also collectively as an organic whole, as a unity, as the human race which one had Adam.

So we have two people who represent us. One is Adam by nature. We are represented by Adam. He is our forefather, our head, and he was the one who transgressed God's law. And we inherited the consequences of this transgression.

But then there's also Christ, who represents us now, all who those who believe in the gospel, who put their trust in him, Christ represents as new now one has become our new head. So the entire human race is either represented by Adam in our natural state or represented by Christ, all those who believe in him. And Christ assures the benefits of his salvation for all those who belong to him.

Our acceptance in God's eyes will never be based on our own deeds, the moral quality we possess. It's always the merit of Christ that it has been imputed to us, written to our account.

So you can maybe summarize this main idea, the encouragement in this passage to say the assurance that we are truly justified once for all and that we truly have life after heaven, being dead. This assurance is as strong and as certain as the assurance of condemnation that was upon us before. And that's the great assurance. There's certainty of death before condemnation. It has been replaced now by faith and the union with Christ, by the assurance of life and hope.

Christ's work here, what does it mean when it refers to Christ's work? Probably the final act of obedience when he basically denied his own desires and was fully obedient up to the cross, as Philippians said, the ultimate act of obedience as the second Adam. So his entire life was characterized, his entire work, ministry life was characterized by obedience and especially and then culminating in his obedience to go to the cross. And that's Christ's work of obedience contrasted with Adam's work or act of disobedience.

So all people became legally guilty through Adam's act, his transgression. But by faith, now in union with Christ, we enter a different realm. We are now not guilty. All those who are in Christ, we have assurance of being justified and reconciled to God. So we have two divinely appointed, you can say figures, Adam and Christ.

In this sense. It's really a bird's eye view here of redemption, history. One man, through him condemnation came, and then one man, and through him came forgiveness of sins, God's grace.

In a different way, Paul expresses the same thought here in 1 Corinthians 15 we had it on our prayer guide, 1st Corinthians 15:21. For as by a man came death by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, there's one man, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. So it had to be another man, the man Jesus Christ, another person who would represent Us, If you have gone through our membership class, we have a doctrinal statement. I want to also mention that because that's sometimes a matter of controversy.

We have people among us who would mainly think the same, but would maybe think differently in some aspects of it. And I want to just say a statement on humankind here. And we state we believe that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, but that they sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death, but also spiritual death, which is separation from God. As a result, all people are born sinners, totally unable to save themselves from the wages of sin, which is death. We are all born sinners.

And I guess all evangelicals would say, yeah, we all know we have a sinful nature. By necessity we have to sin. That's part of who we are. But it goes beyond this. Born sinner really means we have legal guilt because of this inherited sin of Adam.

Paul now, as he concludes, this passage here answers a possible question. What was the purpose of the law then? If we can only be saved through the second Adam, through this other representative, Christ, then why did God give the Jews a law at all? So in verse 2021, he says the law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The law came with this one purpose actually to make the situation worse, to increase, as it says, the trespass. And the Jews were so proud of the law. No, they thought they are better, they are different, and they're actually keeping the law. But Paul says the opposite. It makes the situation worse for the youth because now they had explicit commands in the Mosaic Law and they should have realized how they transgressed God's law.

So it added in actually a new dimension of rebellion. You can say when you think of pagans, there was natural sense of good and right, good and evil. But here the the Jews had explicit commands, not you shall not covet, you shall not do this, you shall do that. So it adds a new dimension of rebellion. If Jews still transgressed the explicit commands of God, it was outright rebellion.

Then it was absolutely obvious then that they were prompted by their sinful nature to still transgress God's holy law. Douglas Moon, his commentary puts it this way. It is turning those it addresses the Jews into their own Adam. They had known a specific law, and it was shown that they were also in the same category as Adam, also in the category of the transgressors of the law. In this sense, Paul here dethrones the law.

There was no reason to be, in this sense, to be proud of the law, because it only proved their own failure to keep the law. So it says here that the trespass might increase. It was supposed to prove that we are utterly sinful people.

In Romans 7, when it talks about sanctification, our struggle with sin, Paul says then that why was the law then? What's the purpose of the law? The law is holy. But I still see kind of this sinful tendency. But he says the law was given that in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure, same aspect, it's being increased.

Sin is so enlarged that it looks like beyond measure, because we have now a specific guideline, specific command by God. But the beautiful and encouraging aspect in all of this passage is that there's this super increased grace all the more. Grace will abound all the more. In the midst of this misery and the in the midst of our shortcomings, of our lack of the capacity to keep God's commands, grace is just super increased. It's the climax of this contrast between Adam and Christ.

Here we have been transferred from this one realm of condemnation, of constantly transgressing God's law, of being under God's wrath, being condemned in our actions to this new realm of being in Christ, in union with Christ, participating in his death, in his victory over death and sin and the devil, and living in this new spiritual life now that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and in our union with Christ, now in this process of sanctification, we now reign over sin and produce fruits of righteousness, not because of our own strength, but because of the power of God working in us. So the reign of sin is over because of the power of God's abundant grace. Now grace reigns, and grace has dominion in our lives. And in the Next chapter, Romans 6:14, Paul says, For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace.

So it was another tough message here, but it points us to some solid theology, solid ground, a solid foundation of our hope. We can have absolute confidence that we are of the powerful effect of God's grace, of this Christ, the other man who was obedient to God's law and who represents us in this relationship with God. So we are condemned on account of what Adam did in our natural state, but then justified on account of what Christ did on the cross. It is imputed to Us as righteousness. So there's a striking analogy between the fall here, Adam in the garden, and redemption through the cross.

We are condemned in Adam, but justified by Christ. We are condemned by the sin of one man and saved by the obedience of the other man.

And this obedience of Christ, of the second Adam is. Is so much more impressive in its universal power and effectiveness than the disobedience of the first Adam. It's truly God's power of salvation for everyone who believes.

Yeah. If you struggle in life, in your work with the Lord, if you are deeply aware of your sinfulness, then just find comfort in this passage today. Find assurance, find new hope that you have left this realm of the old man and you are living now in the realm of life, new life in Jesus Christ, who, yeah, won the victory for us. What I always find so comforting. And when I read my Bible and the older I get, I must say it's the miracle of this revelation in the Bible that the Bible presents us with the whole picture of creation, fall, law, sinfulness, transgression, and then Christ, the solution, God's grace, it's the problem, but then also the solution.

And our justification, our sanctification to overcome sin, and then our glorification to finally receive a new body and to be with the Lord. And there's a supernatural harmony in all of these books of the Bible, which is a miracle in itself. It's not a patchwork of religious ideas and people choose and pick these days from all kinds of contrary religions. But this is a miracle of the word of God. It provides with a complete, consistent picture of who God is and what he wants with us.

So there's a universal escape from this, the effect of sin. And if you have not entered the new realm of life in Christ, then please study more about the gospel, about this offer that God makes us in his Son, Jesus Christ, who loved you so much that he was willing to sacrifice himself on a cross to take your sins and my sins up upon that cross. I want to ask the worship team to come here and then I'll pray with us.

Oh, Lord, we thank you for this assurance that we can be firmly grounded in your word. And you describe all these problems that we have, all the consequences of one man's action here, but you also present us with a solution and you invite us to enter the realm of this life in Christ. Lord, and I ask for each person in this room that we would rest in this. And that what Christ has accomplished, what he has done, that we would not start to add our own merits again and wasting this grace, Lord. And as for all those who had never entered this realm, that they would.

Yeah. Sense the invitation and the magnitude of this offer to be forgiven. Despite of all our shortcomings, our sins, our willful rebellion and transgression, Lord, please lead us all to repentance and transform us into the image of Christ. Amen.

Just a reminder about our refreshments. We offer them after this service. You can actually get a cup of coffee or a snack. But we will have it in the cafeteria here if you leave. Just right down the hallway, at the end of the hallway.

The cafeteria for refreshment time. Yeah. I want to dismiss you guys with this benediction here. It talks about our sanctification, how God, we can have full assurance that God will help us to overcome, to finish this race. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it.