Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/gnc/sermons/6148/death-in-adam-life-in-christ/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Paul has been talking about how if Jesus died for us when we were God's enemies, how much more then? How assured should we be of our salvation now that we've been reconciled to God?

[0:22] We were once enemies of God, but through the blood of Christ shed for us, we've been reconciled to God, and so we are now children of God. We are saved, and the way in which Paul has been really stressing throughout the letter in this part is that we are justified, justified. That is, you might say it's justified, never sinned. That's how God looks on us when we place our trust in Jesus. His blood shed for our sins makes it so that God can reckon us to be without sin, to be righteous in his sight because of what Christ has done for us. We can be reckoned as righteous. That's what justification is, and it's a glorious gift. It's not something we can earn or pay for or try to get into God's good books through. Rather, it's something that Jesus has done for us, and what we must do is receive it.

[1:32] If God's grace is the free giving of justification, our faith is the surrendered receiving of that gift and leaning entirely on Jesus for that justification, for that right standing before God, which brings this wonderful blessing of reconciliation. There's been this age-old hostility between God and man ever since the fall, but in Christ, God is reconciling people to himself. People who were once alienated from him now become near and brought near and become friends and even adopted sons and daughters. So it's really wonderful news. But Paul now turns his attention to the one through whom that sin and death came, Adam. And we see that whilst death came through Adam because of his sin, life comes through Christ because of his obedience, his sinlessness.

[2:46] And we see, therefore, that Adam and Christ are both being held up not as private individuals whose actions were merely on behalf of themselves and didn't affect anyone else. Rather, Adam was acting as a representative of other people, representative of other people, and so was Jesus. And that's why Jesus is referred to in this way as another Adam, as a last Adam. In fact, Adam, you'll notice there at the end of verse 14, Adam is simply described as a pattern of the one to come. In a way, Adam is a copy of Jesus, not the other way around. Jesus is the man, the ultimate man on behalf, who acts on behalf of fallen man to redeem them. But once more, Paul is making the point the focus is not so much on Adam as it is much more on Jesus Christ. Paul, as you'll remember, or if you were here last Sunday, Paul is using this language of how much more. How much more, he was saying before earlier in the chapter, if whilst we were sinners, how much more will we be assured and saved now that we have been reconciled to God?

[4:10] And we'll see here again, he's using that language still in this last part of the chapter. In verse 15, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to many? And then in verse 17, death threatened 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 what Paul is saying is, if we placed our trust in Jesus, we have overflowing hope and assurance that we will finally be saved on that great day when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead, because Jesus has more than made up for what came into the world through Adam. Through Adam's sin, yes, death and sin reigned, but in what Christ has done, he has more than made up for that, so that life and justification will reign through all those that are in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so it really is this picture of Christ having done more than enough to reverse what Adam brought into the world with his sin. So first of all, let's consider the fact, this interesting fact that Paul is saying in Adam, all sinned. We see there in verse 12, therefore just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because, he says, all sinned. There's a very important sense in which we were all included in Adam. And the name Adam means human. It means human being because he was acting as a representative of all humanity in the Garden of Eden. And we can clearly see then when God gave Adam and Eve the command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

[6:30] So, if Adam had obeyed that command, the blessing that would have come from that obedience would have been in all of those who followed him, all of his children. But if he disobeyed, the curse that fell upon him for his disobedience would also follow to all those who were descended from him.

[7:00] Hence, Paul can say, all sinned. We were all in Adam when he sinned. And therefore, we see the chief consequence that Paul wants to draw our attention to from that sin is death entered the world. And death has this kind of reign in the world. See there in verse 14, nevertheless, death reigned. Death had a rule over human being. And we still see the effects of that today. Death is in the world. Last week, we were looking at the genealogy of Adam's descendants. And there it was. And he died. And he died. And he died.

[7:47] Death is now a part of life in this fallen world. And we see it all around us, all too painfully, of course, today, the reign of death. That has come through this fall of all humanity in Adam.

[8:07] We have all sinned in Adam. Death reigns over all of us. But then, when we're faced with that tragic picture, Paul gives us this beautiful golden dawn. A wonderful picture of the rays of hope bleeding in through this dark sky. Eventually, the light dominating that darkness and taking over from it completely in the fact that God wasn't going to leave it at that. God gave us a gift. In verse 15, the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of that one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many? So, Adam has plunged humanity into this dreadful plight where death is now everywhere. And as Paul has said earlier in the letter, all are then under the power of sin. How are we going to get out of that? Well, God has acted to get us out of that with a gift. See how often grace is mentioned in this passage? And as we've seen before, grace is just unmerited favor. It's not earned. It's God because he's a gracious God giving it to the undeserving so that they can be saved and be restored into fellowship with him. This is grace abounding now.

[9:55] God is going to sort this out through a gift which is far more powerful than the trespass.

[10:08] That's why Paul can say the gift is not like the trespass. The gift trumps the trespass, if you like. The grace is greater than the trespass. The grace overwhelms the trespass because it came through Jesus Christ. And as at the end of verse 15 we say there, it overflows to the many.

[10:31] You see the picture of this abundant grace. For if the many died, he says in verse 15, by the trespass of the one man. So again, Adam, not acting as a private individual, acting on behalf of all humanity, messes things up. But 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?

[11:00] Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin. The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation. But the gift followed many trespasses, that's all our sins, and brought justification. So there, Christ has come as another representative human being, acting on behalf of the many. And through him, following all this sin, all this trespass, and think of all the sin there is in the world. Think of all the sin there has been in the world. That's a lot of sin, isn't it?

[11:42] But Paul says in verse 16, that's not enough to stop Jesus. The judgment followed one sin. All Adam did was sin once and plunged the whole world into judgment and brought condemnation. But the gift followed many trespasses, all of the sin that's happened since Adam's fall. But it still brings justification to all those who believe. That means, friend, if you're not a Christian today, you could have sinned a great deal. A lot. A lot, a lot. But justification can still be yours.

[12:25] Because what Christ has done totally overwhelms and trumps all that sin that you have committed. And if you place your trust in him for your salvation, you can be wonderfully saved.

[12:39] You can be cleansed of all that sin. Immediately, it will be taken away. And you will be justified. It's just as if I'd never sinned because of what Christ has done for you as a gift.

[12:54] Just as a gracious thing God is doing through Christ, an amazingly gracious thing. But it's not something we earn. It's not something we merit. Rather, as Paul has been saying over and over again, this is grace. This is a gift. And it's overflowing such that it can wipe out all your sin in an instant and make you right with God. Now, and of course, because of what Christ has done to kill this sin forevermore as well, you can have every assurance that you will be saved on the last day, the day of judgment. But how exactly did this come about? And we've kind of been getting there already with this. It's through a gift. It's through the gift of Jesus. But what was it exactly that Jesus did to ensure that what the damage that Adam has done will be reversed? How has he done more than enough to undo what Adam's sin led to? And we get that in verses 18 and 19. It's a gift. It's a gift of obedience.

[14:08] Obedience. It's through Christ's obedience. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners. And you might be thinking, thanks very much, Adam, at this point. So through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous. Now, you see, of course, Adam sinned and fell, but we all sin too, don't we? We're like sons and daughters of Adam. Like father, like son and daughter, you might say, we sin too and incur condemnation. But just, Paul says, as through

[15:16] Adam's one act of disobedience, the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous. It's the whole reason, or one of the main reasons behind the Son of God becoming man, so that by becoming a man, he would act as a representative man and live a life of perfect obedience before God. The life we couldn't live. One day in our lives, we see how many ways in which we fall short. But the grace of God is this. He sent his own Son to be Adam for us, to be a new representative, who through his righteous life, where Adam failed, he sinned and plunged the world into death.

[16:12] Christ did not falter. You see, in his temptation in the wilderness, this is what Satan's trying to do again. It's so like the garden. He meets with Jesus and is trying to get him to sin, to disobey, so that this plan will go awry. But what does Jesus do? Does he, like Adam, fail? No. He resolutely stands his ground, rebuking Satan with God's own word. It is written. It is written. It is written.

[16:46] And the devil is frustrated time after time after time, because Jesus lived a sinless life, a spotless life. And so he invites those who are in Adam to come to him. That's why there's this expression throughout all of Paul's letters. He describes Christians are those who are in Christ.

[17:14] They're no longer in Adam, in the old humanity. They're in the new humanity that is in Christ, that has his spotless record of righteousness reckoned to them. No curse anymore. No death. That's why he can say, I'm the resurrection. Yes, death will still take us in one sense. You know, we will all die unless the Lord comes back before that. But he can say, though you die, you will never die.

[17:49] Eternal life. Eternal life. Death has lost its grip on us because death is the curse for sin. And if we're in Christ, that sin is no longer reckoned to us. Rather, the righteous life of Christ is.

[18:07] So the obedience of that one man, the many will be made righteous. So we have to give thanks to God for the sinless life of Christ in this earth because that's ours as a gift.

[18:24] Sometimes our lives can be a desperate struggle with sin, and Paul will go on to talk about that before long in the letter to the Romans.

[18:35] We cling then, still of course, turning from our sin, striving by the grace of God to put sin to death.

[18:47] What our justification is, though, is Christ's obedience on our behalf, whose perfect, sinless life given to us as a gift.

[19:00] So when we're struggling, when we look inside too much and see what remains there and how it may discourage us and disappoint us, we look outside of ourselves to the last Adam, to Christ, who on our behalf lived that life of total obedience to God.

[19:24] And in doing so, reversed for us, the curse and the condemnation that came through Adam. We look to him. For every one, look to ourselves.

[19:37] Take ten looks to Christ and what he's done for us. And that will give us the encouragement we need to live each day before the Lord.

[19:48] But of course, if we haven't put our trust in Jesus yet, we're still in Adam, the failure, the one who has brought death and condemnation into the world, the one in whom we are still condemned.

[20:08] So it's a clear choice, isn't it? There's no one in between. Every human being on this earth is either in Christ and justified and saved or they're in Adam and they're condemned and still under that curse and death still reigns in them and over them.

[20:30] So if you're still in Adam today, well, what's the obvious conclusion you should draw? Get into Christ. Get into Christ.

[20:42] Be transferred out of Adam, out of the failure, out of the one who brought death and sin and into the one who succeeded, into the winner, into the champion, into the one who conquered death and sin.

[20:57] In his perfect life for us, in his death on our behalf and in his glorious resurrection and ascension now reigns on high. Get into Christ.

[21:09] How do you get into Christ? You believe on him. You believe on him, on his name, on what he has done for sinners such as you, in that perfect life, in that sacrificial death, that he's done everything necessary for your salvation.

[21:31] All you must do is trust in him and you'll be gloriously saved. Give your heart to him today and you will be gloriously saved today.

[21:43] And so you can say, yes, grace trumps sin. Grace is greater than sin.

[21:55] And that's what the end says. 20, verse 20. The law was added so that the trespass might increase. And he'll go on to talk about this later.

[22:06] The law was brought in to show God's people just how in need of grace they were. Because the law convicts us of sin.

[22:16] The law makes the transgression, it makes sin exceedingly sinful. It makes us realize how sinful we are. But, Paul says, where sin increased, grace increased all the more.

[22:31] So that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[22:48] Adam brought sin and death into the world. Christ brings life and righteousness into the world.

[22:58] And that life and righteousness overwhelms the sin and death that Adam brought in. So that if we placed our trust in Christ today, grace reigns through righteousness to bring eternal life to all of us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[23:17] That gives us a different perspective to other folks, doesn't it? Whatever is happening in those that don't trust in Christ's lives can utterly overwhelm and completely discourage.

[23:31] And more than lead astray and confuse and bewilder and perplex. But, if we remember the fact, if we are sure of the fact that while sin might have reigned in death, so grace now reigns through righteousness to bring us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[23:57] If you belong to Jesus, eternal life is yours. Paul is assuring us of our final salvation here.

[24:08] Because Christ has done more than enough to reverse what has happened in Adam. Are you in Christ?

[24:20] Or are you still in Adam? The invitation today is to come to Christ and say farewell to Adam.

[24:31] And embrace Christ and say thank you for being Adam for me. And if we are in Christ.

[24:42] Remember we're in Christ. The old is gone. The new has come. We're part of the new creation now. And we can live in Christ.

[24:53] Knowing that being united to him, the curse is gone. And the reign of death is also gone. We are under new ownership.

[25:05] There is a new reign. We have undergone regime change. And we now live in Christ. Grace reigning through righteousness to bring us to eternal life.

[25:23] Amen. Amen. Thank you.