We are talking about the doctrine of justification and the incredible difference of knowing that you are right with God makes in your daily experience.
When God justifies you, you have experiential peace with God.
You have access to Him.
You rejoice in what is awaiting you.
Even your sufferings cannot diminish your joy. Quite on the contrary, even your sufferings are producing pleasant fruit: endurance- character – hope!
To crown it all the experience of being justified floods your heart with God’s love. This is the work of the Holy Spirit (5:1-5).
What is even more
amazing is that all this comes to us when we are weak and ungodly (5:6).
It comes to us while we were sinners (5:8) - when we were enemies (5:10).
The Bible leaves no
room for thinking that we can be justified by virtue of our own goodness or
merits. Not at all! Our salvation is unmerited.
We are saved by Grace alone, through Faith alone, in Christ alone. The
Bible is explicit: “We have been justified by His blood!” (5:9). We are justified by Jesus’s
merits alone.
As we come to our
text, we shall find that great word, justification (Gr. dikaioĊ) again
in 5:16,18. That word has followed
us since 3:24.
Paul teaches us that being a Christian makes a real difference. You are never the same once you have become a Christian. It is a real experience. Listen to Paul as he reflects on his own experience in his first letter to Timothy:
12 I thank him who
has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful,
appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer,
persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted
ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the
faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. (1 Tim 1:12-14)
This is the
language of a converted man! Paul experienced God’s strength, mercy, and
overflowing grace along with faith and love.
Paul loves a ‘felt’ Christ, even
in his experience of suffering for the
sake of the gospel. He feels the love of God poured into his heart by the Holy
Spirit. He knows that God has done this to him, despite the fact that he does
not deserve such kindness. He feels the
relief of having escaped the great wrath of God. All this fills him with great joy
(5:2,11).
5:12 “Therefore….”
If Romans 5:1-11 was a testimony to the great experience of
having been justified by faith, Romans 5:12-21 deals with two of the key
figures in the drama of our redemption and justification: Adam and Christ!
The first man, Adam, is the biological father of the human race. As such he is also the federal head of the human race. He is our first representative before God. In Genesis 3 we read of how Adam’s sin has such a profound effect upon us all- so profound that we can say, “in Adam’s fall, sinned we all.”[1] The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). That is bad news.
Thankfully death is not the final word for God’s people. Enter the Gospel! Where sin abounds, Paul says, grace super-abounds[2] (5:20). Enter the second Adam ! This grace comes to us through Jesus, the second Adam. He is the living head and representative of all whom He justifies – all those whom the Father had chosen in Christ before the beginning of time (John 17:2,6,9,10,24).
In Romans 5:12-21 the central idea is that people are saved in precisely the same manner in which they were lost - through the act of another. Follow the logic of the Bible.
Just as Adam, by his one sin brought condemnation to all connected with him, so Christ by His one act of righteousness - that is, His sinless life and His substitutionary death, brings justification to all connected to Him (i.e. given to Him by the Father – read Jesus’ prayer in John 17 carefully).
All people of this
world, past, present and future stand in relationship to these two men.
The actions of these
two men determine the eternal destiny of all who belong to them.
Every person is
either in Adam or in Christ, whatever race or religion they may find themselves. There is no third option. Thomas Goodwin
(1600-1680), an English Puritan theologian and preacher put it like this,
“In God’s sight,
there are two men—Adam and Jesus Christ—and these two men have all other men
hanging at their girdle strings.
Girdle strings …This is an image that needs to be explained. In
the days of Thomas Goodwin a bird hunter hung the birds he had hunted from his
girdle – a thick leather belt. All of
humanity’s spiritual fate is tied to either Adam, through whom sin entered the
world, or to Christ, through whom salvation and righteousness are offered to
believers. All of us are either trophies of sin or trophies of grace. Keep this
picture in mind as we work though this passage.
1. 5:12-14: ADAM, BY HIS SIN BROUGHT SIN AND DEATH ON THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE
(i) 5:12 “...sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned”. The whole human race descended from Adam became contaminated by Adam's one sin! If that seems unfair, we just have to think how many people die in wars begun by one man. Sin is far more devastating in its extent or effects than Aids or War. With respect to sin the death spoken of here not only leads to physical death but also eternal spiritual separation from God.
(NB. 5:13 - 17 form a parenthesis (a break in
thought) between 5:12 -18).
(ii) 5:13,14 makes the point that sin existed before the law of Moses was given. Normally you can’t judge something to be sinful if there is no law to measure it by. This raises a vital question : On what basis were the people from Adam to Moses then judged?
5:14a provides the answer. They were judged on the
basis of ADAM'S ONE SIN. Adam who was created for immortal fellowship with God
died as a result of his sin. Death is a judgement. And everyone after Adam dies. This
idea is repeatedly emphasized in 5:
15 - 19. The point is here that all men are guilty as the result of ONE
MAN'S SIN, and not simply as a result of many personal sins!
What happened?
Adam’s guilt was imputed/ transferred to every subsequent human being. Adam’s
original sin became ours. This is the
result of the choice he made, and we in turn reflect that choice in our sinful
beings. Here is something to think about: WE ARE NOT
SINNERS BECAUSE WE SIN; BUT WE SIN BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS! We do not become sinners when we sin. We are constituted sinners.
5:14b speaks of Adam as a "type” (figure) of the One to come. This "One" is
Christ. But in what sense is Adam a pattern of Christ who is the "One to come"?
Answer: Just as
Adam is the head and representative of the human race, who have been affected
by his fall, so Christ is the head and representative of His people who
are redeemed by His saving work. As the sin of one was the ground of our condemnation,
so the righteousness of the Other is
the ground of our justification.
2. 5:15 - 17: BEFORE COMPARING THE WORK OF CHRIST AND THE WORK OF ADAM, PAUL SHOWS ONE OUTSTANDING ASPECT IN WHICH THE TWO DIFFER
The free gift (of Jesus) is not like the trespass
(of Adam) (5:15) …. the free gift is not like the result of
that one man’s sin (5:16a).
Where is the
difference? The difference is found in 5:16b:
the judgement as a result of Adam’s one
trespass brought condemnation (death), but the free gift (through Christ) following
many trespasses brings justification.
The works of the
two differ in that Christ did much more for His people than just to remove the
imputed guilt of Adam's one sin. Christ
made complete atonement for Adam's sin and also for all our many
trespasses- past, present and future.
Moreover, Jesus gives
His people an abundance of grace, and also His perfect righteousness as a free
gift, so that they are even triumphant in this life (5:17). In the cross
of Christ ALL His people’s sins are taken up. Romans 8:1 is a wonderful
affirmation of this fact.
The point is simply made: Men were condemned
on the ground of the imputed sin of Adam; and they are justified on the
ground of the imputed righteousness of Christ.
QUESTION ANTICIPATED: Is this passage teaching us that, just as all have been condemned in Adam, so now all are justified in Christ - so that everyone is actually now saved (i.e. the teaching of UNIVERSALISM)?
ANSWER: Clearly not!
(i) Plain
observation shows that. Clearly, not all people are converted.
(ii) The Bible
teaches consistently that God's people are an elect/chosen/predestined/ set
apart people.
The ALL of
scripture refers to ALL God’s elect or chosen people. These constitute a people
from every tribe, nation and tongue. So we see that:
·
Adam is the head
and representative of the Human Race
·
Christ is the Head
and Representative of God's elect people
4. 5:20,21 THE LAW
OF MOSES WAS ADDED LATER. IT DID IN FACT INCREASE MAN'S SIN-BURDEN; HOWEVER,
WHERE SIN INCREASED, THE GRACE OF GOD ALSO INCREASES, BY BRINGING RIGHTEOUSNESS
AND LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.
5:20a : The law of Moses was added by God for the express
purpose of making man’s guilt even greater. Many people think that God gave the
law so that they could, through the keeping of the law save themselves. This is a wrong idea, because
the law was never designed by God to do this. In fact, the law shows that it is
impossible for us to keep it. Therefore, the law increases guilt (see 5:20).
5:20b,21: But where sin increased (as a result of breaking
the law) grace increased all the more. When God gave us Jesus, He gave us a real and lasting solution.
Thanks be to God
for Christ’s superior work!
Can you see why the Christian church worships with gladness and joy?
Such understanding of theology produces deep-seated joy and assurance of salvation.
This is what we need to know in order to be healthy and productive Christians.
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