Trinity Baptist Church

God’s Amazing Grace

Abounding Grace

Romans 5:15-21

 

Just to refresh our memory, we are studying about “God’s Amazing Grace” and so far we’ve seen that God’s grace is saving grace made possible through Jesus Christ.  We’ve learned it is sustaining grace.  He will get you through the trials and temptations and storms of life.

 

It is healing grace. No matter what you have in your past, God declares you to be righteous and accepted in the finished work of Christ on the cross..  And it is liberating grace.  The grace of God sets us free from legalism and the legalists.  I don’t have to keep a code of ethics or check off the boxes on a list.  I am free to serve God without fear of jeopardizing my relationship because I don’t measure up.

 

Today I want to talk about “Abounding Grace” and I draw that title from a passage of Scripture found in Romans 5.  Listen to what we read in

 

Romans 5:15-21

 

It’s interesting to read what the commentators have to say about this passage. They all say that this is one of the chief portions of the book of Romans, perhaps even the central passage of the entire book. One that I read says it is “the chief part of the epistle. All things lead up to it and everything after it flows down from it.” Everyone agrees that these are truly great theological statements.

 

 

Another interesting fact is that all the commentators agree that, while Paul’s overall thought is clear enough, the individual verses are difficult to precisely understand. We see the big picture clearly; many of the particular details are fuzzy.

 

It’s almost like Paul is rushing to make his point and the words just tumbles out, one phrase upon another. He starts a sentence, then breaks off in mid-thought, changes directions, adds a phrase or two or three, then two or three verses later, returns to his original thought, only this time elevated to a new and higher plateau. That fact makes this passage almost impossible to outline successfully.

 

For that reason it’s easy to get tangled up on one or another of Paul’s phrases. I hope to avoid that problem by focusing less on the individual verses and more on the overall theme of the passage because the theme of the passage is God’s abounding grace.

 

In fact, that is the theme, not only of this passage, but of the entirety of Scripture.  The whole Bible is about God’s abounding grace.  Everywhere we look, on any given page, we are confronted with the grace of God. 

 

And to that point, Paul gives us God’s perspective on human history.  Here we discover that when God looks at the history of the human race, he sees only two men. And if you know these two men and what they represent then you will understand world history from God’s point of view. In fact, if you know these two men, you will grasp the essential message of the Bible.

 

 

You don’t have to know about whether or not the earth was created in six literal days.  You don’t have to know the dimensions of the ark.  You don’t have to have the Ten Commandments memorized.  You don’t have to be able to spell Nebuchadnezzar. You don’t need to know anything about the Tabernacle.  You don’t have to be able to locate the book of Nahum.   

 

You don’t even need to know the Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount or the names of the Twelve Apostles.  All those things are good and useful and even important to know.

 

But if you want to know the heart of the Bible and the central truth about world history from God’s point of view, you only need to know two people and that’s what Romans 5:15-21 is telling us.

 

When God looks at the 5 or 6 billion people who live on planet earth, and all the millions who have lived before us, he sees two people who stand out from all the rest of humanity. They are representative men. The whole history of the human race revolves around those two men and what they did and what resulted from what they did.

 

One man is named Adam; the other man is Jesus Christ.  Adam did something in the Garden of Eden; Jesus did something when he died on Calvary’s cross. Because Adam sinned in the Garden, a vast result has come upon the human race. We live today in the continuing consequences of what Adam did in the early mists of recorded history.

 

 

On the other side is Jesus Christ. When he died on the cross and rose from the dead, something happened that counteracted what Adam did in the Garden. The course of the world was changed at Eden and the course of the world was changed at Calvary and we live today in a changed world because of those two events. 

 

Two men, two deeds, two moments frozen in time with two vast results flow across the generations and affect us to this very day.

 

Now, in addition to that, when God looks at humanity today he sees it as having two parts and only two parts. There is no “third part” or “middle group.” Everyone who has ever been born from the beginning of time down to the present hour has either been a follower of one man or the other. You follow Adam or you follow Christ. Or to say it in New Testament terms, you are either “in Adam” or “in Christ.” There is no “third man” to follow.

 

Two men, two acts separated by thousands of years. And yet those two men and those two acts have set off a chain of events that reverberates through history, touching all of us directly. And everyone of us here today has been touched by these two men whether you know it or not.

 

And in spite of the complexity of this passage, Paul’s purpose is quite simple. He wants to compare and contrast what Adam did with what Jesus Christ did and he wants us to understand that what Jesus did was far greater than what Adam did. What Jesus accomplished was greater than what Adam started.

 

That’s the whole message of these verses in a nutshell. What Adam did was far-reaching in its results, but what Jesus did was greater and reaches farther in every way.

 

He begins by giving us

 

 

We find one in verse 15, one in verse 16 and one in verse 17. Let’s look at them, one at a time. 

 

In verse 15 he points out that what Jesus did was greater in

 

 

Verse 15

 

Notice the word “offense”.  Some translations use the word “trespass”.  It means “to go beyond the border”. You “trespass” when you enter someone’s property illegally. It’s what happens when you deliberately break a rule. Someone may draw a line in the sand and say, “If you cross that line, you’ll be in trouble.” Trespassing is what you do when you say, “Oh yeah! You just watch me.” And you step across the line.

 

That’s what happened in Eden. God drew a line in the sand and said, “Don’t cross it.” Adam said, “Watch me.” And he deliberately “crossed the line” when he ate the forbidden fruit.

 

And Paul says the gift of salvation is not like the offense.  By contrast when Jesus died on the cross, he died for others.

He wasn’t thinking about himself and doing what He wanted to do.  He was thinking about humanity.  He died for us. 

 

What Adam did was an act of total selfishness. He didn’t care that others would be hurt by his foolish decision. When Jesus died, it was totally for others. He had no sin of his own, so he couldn’t be dying for himself. His death was self-sacrificing. That’s why Paul calls it “God’s grace” and “the gift.”

 

Thus in the very nature of what these two men did, Christ’s deed was greater than Adam’s misdeed, even as love is greater than selfishness.

 

There is a second contrast in verse 16. Not only is Jesus’ death greater in its nature, it is also greater in

 

 

verse 16

 

Think of it this way. How many sins did Adam have to commit in order to bring condemnation to the world? Only one. That’s all it took. One sin, and the world was plunged into darkness. One man, one sin, condemnation comes to the whole world.

 

On the other side of the ledger, how many sins were forgiven in the death of Christ? Paul says “many trespasses.” He doesn’t mean “many versus all” but “many versus one.”

 

So which is greater? What Jesus did is far greater because his deed was brought about by many sins. What Adam did was his own fault, yet it affected the whole world.

What Jesus did paid the price not just for Adam’s sin but for the sins of the entire human race—from the time of Adam till the end of the world. Thus the power of Jesus’ death is far greater than the power of Adam’s single, solitary sin.

 

Verse 17 brings us the third contrast: What Jesus did was greater in

 

 

Verse 17

 

Now let’s slow down and simplify this verse.  Just focus on two words: Death and Life. First we are told death reigned. That’s our heritage from Adam. Death reigns on the earth because of Adam’s sin.

 

Check the obituary column and you’ll find different names every day because people are always dying.

There’s always work for those who dig graves. That’s what keeps the funeral homes in business.   They never run out of customers because death reigns.  That’s our heritage from our spiritual father Adam. He sinned and as a result death now reigns on the earth.

 

It doesn’t matter whether you are important or not, rich or not or famous or not. Someday you will die and your family and friends will follow the hearse that will lead to your grave. It happens to all of us sooner or later. And when it happens, it will be as a direct result of Adam’s sin.  You may disagree.  You may not like it.  You may not want to admit it.  But some day at your funeral, I’ll be sure and point out that I was right. 

 

The next time you see a hearse, just remember “Death reigns.”  The next time you drive past a funeral home, remember “Death reigns.”  The next time you pass a cemetery, remember “Death reigns.”

 

But remember, that’s only one part of the story. There is a way out. There is a way to reverse what Adam did. There is a way to overcome the reign of death.

 

Back to verse 17, it comes, Paul says, to those who receive God’s abundance of grace and the “gift of righteousness.” That, by the way, is the whole doctrine of justification in three words. Justification means that when we receive Christ by faith, we also receive the “gift of righteousness.” It’s not earned in any way. It’s a free gift and it forever changes our standing before God.

 

And notice the result of receiving the gift of righteousness. Those who receive this free gift now “reign in life.” On one hand, death reigns; on the other hand, those who know Jesus Christ as Savior reign. 

 

So when do we reign?  In this life and in the life to come. We live in a dying world, but in this realm of death, we may through Jesus Christ reign as kings. And in the life to come, we shall reign forever, rising from the dead, clothed with immortality.

 

Only God could take a slave and transform him into a king. But that is what God has done through Jesus Christ.

 

So what Jesus did is far greater than what Adam did and it’s seen in these three great contrasts of its nature, its power and its effect.

 

Then notice Paul tells us that from these two men flowed

 

 

If you are in Adam, you have one set of results; if you are in Christ, you have something else entirely.

Notice

 

Verse 18

 

Now here we discover we have either

 

 

Now that’s easy enough to understand isn’t it?  On the one hand we have Adam.  One man, one act of selfish disobedience with the result being condemnation for “all men.”

 

That’s our inheritance from Adam. Because of him, we are all born “condemned.” Because of him, we are all guilty before God, deserving the flames of hell. And don’t’ miss the fact that the condemnation is universal. It comes to “all men” without exception. Apart from Jesus Christ, the whole human race stands condemned by Almighty God.

 

On the other hand, Jesus Christ died and his act of righteousness results in justification that brings life for all men.

 

So does that mean everyone will be saved?  Is Paul teaching universal salvation?  Obviously not since he says in verse 17 that the gift of righteousness provides life for those who “receive” it. You don’t have to do anything to be condemned.  Condemnation is Adam’s “gift” to you. But if you want to be justified, you must “receive” the free gift by faith.

 

When Christ died, he died for “all men” without exception and without distinction. In some mysterious sense, his death paid the price for the sins of the entire world, even for those who do not receive him. However, the effect of that wondrous death will never be made real in your life until you personally, by a conscious choice, receive God’s gift by simple faith.

 

So that’s the first result and you are either condemned or justified.  The second result is in

 

verse 19

 

 

Again, it’s easy to understand.  Adam’s sin results in the whole human race being “made sinners", that is, declared guilty before God.  On the other hand, Christ’s death results in “the many” (those who receive him by faith) being made righteous.

 

Think about it. One man commits one sin and through him enormous suffering comes to the entire world. You say, “Why didn’t God give Adam another chance? Why didn’t God say, ’Maybe you didn’t understand what I said. Let’s try it again.’  

Isn’t this a harsh punishment for one simple mistake?  After all, all he did was eat a piece of fruit!    Most of us, I think, would have given Adam a second or a third or even a fourth chance. Why didn’t God do that?

 

I think there are at least three answers to that question:

 

1. First of all, Adam didn’t just eat a piece of fruit.Adam disobeyed the direct command of God.And until we see our obedience in the same way, we’ll never be too serious about its consequences.

 

2. It didn’t matter how many chances God gave Adam, he would have sinned anyway. If God had given him a hundred chances, he would have sinned a hundred times.

 

3. By judging him after one sin, God was able to pay for that one sin (and its terrible results in history) through the single act of righteousness provided by the death of his Son Jesus Christ.

 

And the cold hard facts are we are either “made sinners” in Adam or we are “made righteous” through Jesus Christ.

 

And you can make that even more personal:  You are either “in Adam” or “in Christ.” The only question is, How does one move from being “in Adam” to being “in Christ?”

 

 

 

 

In one of his books Dr. Charles Ryrie tells a story from the early days of corneal-transplant surgery. It happened that a certain criminal on death row volunteered to donate the cornea from one of his eyes so that a blind person could see.

 

The doctors in charge of the surgery went ahead and chose a recipient who actually came to the prison to meet the condemned man in person. It made for great human interest and the newspapers spread the story far and near.

 

Eventually the day came for the execution. After the prisoner was put to death, his cornea was removed and successfully transplanted into the eye of the man who had been blind. Now he could see.

 

Dr. Ryrie then poses the following question: Suppose a police officer should pull over the man who received the cornea and attempt to arrest him because he had in his body the cornea of a murderer. And just suppose he actually threw the man in jail.

 

What would happen when the case came before a judge? It would be thrown out of court. Why? Because the cornea which once was in the body of a murderer is now in the body of an innocent man. Therefore, that cornea is now as righteous as that man is.

 

Something like that happens the moment you say “Yes” to Jesus Christ. Though you are born in Adam, and corrupted through Adam, and made a sinner through Adam, the very moment you trust Jesus Christ you are transplanted from Adam into Jesus Christ.

Whereas once you were as guilty as Adam, now you are as righteous as Jesus Christ. The reason you can stand before God uncondemned is because whatever is true of Jesus is now true of you.

 

What you need, what I need, what the world needs, is a spiritual transplant that will move us from Adam to Jesus Christ. That’s how sinners are made righteous in God’s eyes.

 

That leads us to

 

 

Verses 20-21

 

Here is the conclusion:  When God gave the Ten Commandments, he wasn’t trying to tell us how to go to heaven. No one gets to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments. You can’t do it because no one ever truly “keeps” the commandments perfectly. And God won’t accept anything less than perfection. He doesn’t grade on a curve. It’s all or nothing with him.

 

Instead, God gave the Ten Commandments so that we might realize how sinful we really are.  In one of his books, Chuck Swindoll tells the story about his days as a paper boy. He rode his bike on the sidewalk and whenever he would come to a sharp corner, he would just ride on the grass so he wouldn’t tip over trying to make the turn.

 

He had done this so many times on one particular corner that he had actually made a dirt path in the grass. One day he noticed a new sign planted on the corner that read, “KEEP OFF THE GRASS. NO BIKES.”

Swindoll says that he just kept doing what he had always done until the homeowner came out and had a talk with him.  The sign didn’t change his behavior.  It just identified him as a lawbreaker.  Listen:  without the law we would go merrily on our way, patting ourselves on the back, congratulating ourselves on how good and clever we are.

 

But let a person just once take a good look at the Ten Commandments, let him consider the words and the depth of their meaning, let him carefully scrutinize his own life, let him be ruthless in his self-examination.   When a man does that truly and honestly, the only result can be, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” The more we understand of God’s law, the greater our sense of our own sinfulness.

 

We’ve got to come clean.  Too many of us are like the carpet layer, who was laying a new carpet in the living room of a house.  He had such finished stretching it and completed the job.

 

He reached into his pocket for his cigarettes and realized they were not there.  He looked out across the carpet and saw this lump in the middle of the carpet.  He thought to himself, "I'm not going to take that lump out of the carpet.  That is my pack of cigarettes.  I am not going to go through this job again."

 

So he went over and he smashed the lump until it wasn't anymore.  He went out to his truck, opened the door of his truck and looked on the front seat and saw his pack of cigarettes there.  Just at that same moment he heard the woman of the house come out and ask "Sir, can you help me.  I have lost my pet hamster and I can't seem to find it."

There comes a time where we have to come clean and confess that we are law breakers.  And when we do, the abounding grace of God comes to our rescue. 

Let me show you how that works.

 

Notice verse 20 again

 

The law showed up and revealed that sin was everywhere!  But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.”

 

I looked that verse up in several translations and without exception, no matter what word they use, they repeat it.  For instance in KJV and NKJV, it is the word abounded.  “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.:

 

NIV: “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more”. 

 

HCSB: “Where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more”. 

 

The problem is they all miss a vital distinction found in the original language and that is they aren’t the same words in the Greek. They are actually completely different.

 

When he says, “Where sin increased or abounded or multiplied,” he uses a word that speaks of addition.

But when he says “Grace increased or abounded or multiplied,” he uses a word that means multiplication.  And the idea is that on the one hand, sin increased one by one by one. But in contrast, in response to that, God’s grace in Christ Jesus was multiplied over and over and over again.

J. B. Phillips puts it this way: “So where sin is wide and deep, the grace of God is wider and deeper still.” Or you might say, “Where sin abounded, grace super-abounded.”  It reminds me of those famous words of Corrie Ten Boom: “There is no pit so deep that the love of God is not deeper still.”   And the one great principle Paul wants us to get is this:  In Jesus Christ we have gained much more than we ever lost in Adam!

 

Around the turn of the century Julia Johnston wrote a hymn that perfectly captures the sense of this passage:

 

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,  Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,  There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.  Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin.

 

And what that means is you can’t out-sin the grace of God. Some of you have been trying. You’ve been doing a good job. But it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve been doing.  God’s grace is greater than your sin. 

 

There is a tremendous illustration of that found in an Old Testament king named Manasseh.  Raised in the house of Hezekiah, who was a very obedient and honest king before God, Manasseh became king of Israel when he was 12 years old.  And I don’t care who you are, no 12 year-old needs to be king of anything.  

 

Historically, Manasseh fits in with guys like Attilia the Hun and Adolph Hitler and Saddam Hussein. 

If you crossed Manasseh, you paid the price.  This guy had no mercy and he had a hair trigger for anyone interested in obeying God.  In fact, I think it safe to safe that in Manasseh we find one of the wickedest, bloodiest and most rebellious men that ever lived. 

 

Even though his daddy was good man, something happened with Manasseh.  Every kind of sin you can imagine marked his reign, including sexual perversion, idol worship and child sacrifice.   And if that wasn’t bad enough, he actually remodeled the temple of God into a shrine to idols.  He worshipped a god called Molech and at certain times he would set up this huge iron idol. 

 

They would build a large fire in front of it. The hands of this god were stretched out in front it, palms open in a receiving position.  And as the people worshiped, they worked themselves into a frenzy and would take their first born sons, get as close as they could to the fire, and toss the child to his death in those white hot hands.

 

Scripture records that he did more to cause the people of God to sin than those who served before him.  He deliberately mocked God, spat in His face, ignored His holiness and His glory, and turned his back on the God of his father. 

 

And by the way, all this was done in light of coming judgment. 

 

2 Kings 21:10-13

 

But still, Manasseh continued on. 

 

2 Kings 21:16

 

Historical tradition tells us that it was Manasseh who put the prophet Isaiah in a hollowed out log and sawed him in half because he did not want to hear the voice of God. And finally, in verses 17 and 18, we read Manasseh's obituary.

 

2 Kings 21:17-18

 

Now if you stopped reading there, you would think that Manasseh was nothing more than a man who ruled with perversion and terror for 55 years, mocked God, then just died at a peaceful old age. But there is more to this story.

 

2 Chronicles 33:10-11

 

God brought in a mighty military power, stronger than Manasseh. They overwhelmed him; jabbed a hook though his nose and hauled in humiliation and pain to Babylon.  When they got him there, they tossed him into a dungeon to let him rot.  This guy deserved everything the Assyrians could dish out.

 

But, again, that’s not all there is to his story. 

 

2 Chronicles 33:12-13

 

Isn’t that amazing?  It blows me away that God would do this for a jerk like Manasseh.  It boggles my mind to think of the scope of this man’s depravity; the people he killed, the families he destroyed, the judgment he brought on his country.

 

 

 

And when he gets hemmed in, put in a dungeon and starts feeling bad and repents, God forgives him,  just like that.  In fact, not only does He forgive him, He gives him back his throne.  Eventually Manasseh is set free and goes back to Jerusalem to become king again.

 

But that’s the message of this passage. It is the story of God’s amazing grace!  We can put ourselves in the place of Manasseh.  And t’s not that Christ is simply the equal of Adam. He’s telling us that in Christ we have gained far more than we ever lost in Adam. God not only restores what we lost, he gives us much more besides.  His grace is abounding grace!

 

That leads me to press home one final question. Are you in Adam or are you in Christ? You were born in Adam but the good news is, you don’t have to stay there.

 

The president of the Moscow Theological Seminary of The United Methodist Church in Moscow, Russia is Dr. Sergei Nikolaev.  Born in 1972, he is a brilliant man who accepted Christ while studying engineering physics at Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.  After his salvation, he served as a Sunday school teacher and assistant to the pastor before entering the seminary. 

 

He had the privilege of serving with Billy Graham in many of his crusades and was once asked what makes Billy Graham so effective?  Pastor Nikolaev said that in his opinion, Billy Graham’s sermons are not profound.

 

 In fact, they are usually incredibly simple, so simple that learned scholars dismiss him because he doesn’t use high-sounding language or speak with theological subtlety. 

 

Yet he has preached to over 100 million people—more people than anyone else in the history of the Christian church. What is his secret?  Pastor Nikolaev said, “It is the way he presents his message. When you listen to Billy Graham, he preaches it in such a way that you can only come to one conclusion: If I am a normal person, I must say “Yes” to Jesus Christ. If I am a thinking individual, then I must accept Christ.”  Dr. Graham preaches so that the only logical, rational decision is to come to Christ.

 

Therefore, Pastor Nikolaev said, the hearer is forced to ask himself this question: Am I normal or am I crazy? If I am normal, I must accept Christ.

 

If I truly understand what he has done for me, the only reasonable choice is to bow my knee and open my heart to him. So Dr. Graham is constantly bringing people to ask the question—Am I smart or am I stupid? Am I wise or am I foolish?

 

To illustrate, Pastor Nikolaev told the story of a time when Dr. Graham preached in St. Petersburg. During the crusade a very brilliant architect, an atheist, came to hear him. Night after night he listened to the preaching of the gospel. He didn’t make a decision during the crusade.

 

But as he thought about what he had heard, he realized the question was not, “What should I do with Jesus?” but rather “Am I smart or am I stupid?” “Am I a normal person or am I crazy?”

And so while he was taking a shower one day, it all came together for him. With the water splashing in his face, he looked to heaven and said, “Jesus Christ, forgive my sins.” In that moment, he was saved, his sins were forgiven, and he was transferred from Adam to Christ. And he is now active in Pastor Nikolaev’s church.

 

So I ask you, are you smart or are you stupid?  Are you in Adam or in Christ? And remember, you can’t help being in Adam. By virtue of your physical birth, you are in Adam’s family. But you don’t have to stay there. God has made a way for you to pass from Adam to Christ. Your first birth put you in Adam; your second birth puts you in Christ. That’s why Jesus said, “You must be born again.”

 

Have you ever been born again? Have you ever passed from death to life? If you are in Adam, don’t despair. You don’t have to stay there. You can come to Christ right now and become the beneficiary of God’s amazing, abounding grace.

 

It’s the smartest move you’ll ever make.

 

Let’s pray.