Good morning everyone, I'm going to read our Bible passage, which is from Romans chapter 5, and we're going to start at verse 12 and it's on page 1132.
So Romans 5, and I'll start from verse 12 to the end of the chapter.
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.
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, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
But the gift is not like the trespass.
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.
Nor can the gift of God 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?
For if, by the trespass, the one man, the trespass, the one man, the many will be made sinners.
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.
Amen.
Great.
Thank you, Michael.
Let's pray as we come to God's word.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, we do pray and ask for your help this morning.
Lord, I'm very conscious of not just my own personal weakness, but just sort of the weakness of the moment of us just trying to sit and listen and concentrate and the things that might distract us.
And yet, Lord, we recognize that hearing your word is the most urgent and important thing for us this morning.
So please be at work by your spirit.
Do us good.
Help what I say to be true and useful.
And help all of us to have tender hearts to you, we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
I want to start this morning with a simple question.
It's a profound question, but a simple one.
Who are you?
It's one of those questions, I think, as you think about it more and more, it gets harder and harder, right?
So you might go, well, I'm Steve.
That's an easy question.
I am Steve.
But then you think, well, actually, no, I'm more than just that.
I'm more than my name.
I'm a husband.
I'm a father.
I'm also more than my relationships as well.
I don't really want to get into the weeds of all the different ways that you might identify yourself this morning,
only to show you that if you keep asking that who are you question, you eventually end up at the root of it all,
which is the Romans 5, 12 to 21 answer, which is something like this.
I am a son or daughter of Adam.
Which means simply, really, at its very root, who am I?
I am part of the human race.
That regardless of whatever else I add afterwards, this is who I am.
I am a son of Adam.
It doesn't matter whether I'm black or white, rich or poor.
It doesn't matter whether I've got PhDs and masters coming out of my ears
or whether I went to the University of Life and the School of Hard Knocks.
All of us are people.
Born as babies into the world, not by our own choice, not in a location that we decided,
not with the circumstances that we could have designed for ourselves.
I am, you are, body, mind and spirit, a human person, living, breathing, loving and working.
And Romans 5 says that that sort of core fundamental identity that we all share,
that identity, that humanity comes with a huge problem.
Look at verse 12.
Here it is.
My humanity, your humanity, given to us by Adam, comes with the problem of sin and death.
Sin and death enter the world through him, it says.
In other words, this is our inheritance along with our identity.
Our inheritance from the one man.
There's no getting away from this.
The Bible is really clear that Adam, whilst being an ordinary man, just like us,
was unlike us by being in an extraordinary position.
So in Adam, humanity is in some senses on probation.
So humanity is being put to the test in Adam.
The whole fate of the human race is resting on his shoulders in the garden.
And the question is something like, will we obey?
And so we're tied up with Adam.
Not just kind of biologically, but morally and spiritually.
He's our head, our representative.
Will Adam obey and bring life to humanity?
Or will he, like the fallen angels before him,
reject God's right to rule and bring down with him the whole human race?
Now, this idea of representation we've thought about, haven't we,
with the children earlier,
where in sport an individual carries with him or her the hopes of the nation.
If they win, we win.
If they lose, we lose.
And it's like that in a way here.
All of humanity on his shoulders.
But there's an obvious distinction, isn't there?
It's not a penalty kick or a game of cricket.
It's not a matter of skill with everyone, including Adam,
willing himself to win.
This is not really a matter of will like that.
It's a matter of desire.
We're told in Genesis 3 that Adam desires to be like God.
And so he eats the forbidden fruit.
He desires rebellion.
And so pursues it.
And Adam falls.
And so, verse 12,
sin enters the world and death comes to all people
because all sins.
Or if you're looking down at your Bible,
as verse 15 puts it,
the many died by the trespass of the one man.
Now, there's lots to say about this, right?
And I know in a sense it's sort of abstract and complicated,
but it is really important.
I want you to notice with me very firstly
that sin and death is not a natural thing.
We often talk like it is, don't we?
You know, when someone screws up,
we often say something like,
oh, he's only human.
But screwing up is not actually essential to our humanity.
We're not made like that.
Adam brought that in.
We weren't designed to sin, get old, and die.
Rather, death itself is a kind of condemnation
on humanity because of the sin of Adam.
It's why sin and death hurt so much.
If you're grieving, it's why it hurts so much
because death is an unnatural imposter into our life.
Verse 16 puts the judgment this way.
The judgment followed one's sin and brought condemnation.
So that, verse 17, death reigned through one man.
To go back to the image of the sports ground,
our representative lost, the penalty was missed,
the match was lost, the catch was dropped.
We all lost in Adam.
Sin entered and we took on his status, losers,
and faced with him the condemnation of those who lost.
I don't purport to be able to work out
what's going on in your head right now,
but maybe you're thinking,
well, that seems a bit unfair, Steve.
Are you saying that we are guilty in Adam
outside of anything that we have done wrong?
Don't condemn me for Adam's sin.
Give me a chance, God.
Well, you don't get the answers to all of those questions in the passage,
but Paul does say in verse 13 that our actions do matter.
He tells you that after Adam, a law was added,
a law that was given by God to Moses,
and that law is given for the purpose of what he calls counting sin,
adding it up.
And it's that sin that we are condemned for,
because it turns out we're no better than Adam,
and our own actions have consequences,
even if we're not in Adam's position.
But still he points out,
we don't need the law to condemn us,
because even before Moses gave the law,
people still died.
Not as lawbreakers, for there is no law,
but as inheritors of the guilt of Adam,
enough to condemn us to death.
Nevertheless, he says, verse 14,
death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses,
even over those who did not sin by breaking a command as Adam did,
who is a pattern of the one to come.
Maybe it helps to think about it like this.
Imagine, as you grow up,
you can see in yourself, can't you,
that the family traits,
that you can't seem to get rid of,
or shake.
Maybe it's the baldness of your maternal grandfather,
for example.
And try as you may,
it comes and gets you.
Maybe it's the metabolism of your father,
or the eyesight of your mother,
or the gray hair of your auntie.
We here then inherit, don't we,
the ultimate family trait of all humanity.
It's unmistakable.
You see it around you all the time.
It's the family trait of death.
And all of us, without exception,
will die.
So who am I?
I am a son of Adam.
And what happens to sons or daughters of Adam?
We die.
In condemnation for Adam's sin,
and in the counting up of our own rebellion,
no one has escaped.
Not a single person.
Walk around a graveyard,
and you will see it.
No one has ever avoided the family likeness of humanity,
except for one person.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, we're told in this passage,
is born as a second Adam.
He is born, as it puts it in verse 14,
in the pattern of Adam.
Jesus is a new representative.
Jesus is God in flesh,
a real man,
united in frail, broken flesh,
but unique in his perfection,
born of a virgin woman,
but conceived by the Holy Spirit.
And this man, Jesus,
did not fall into disobedience,
but obediently lived his life
in full submission to his father's will,
even to the point of giving up his life on the cross
because of the sins of his people.
And because of his obedience,
he was raised to a new life by the Spirit,
defeating sin and death.
And so this is the big point.
This is the big point of Romans 5, 12 to 21.
It's one of those greater to lesser arguments.
Look at verse 15.
But the gift is not like the trespass.
For if the many died by the trespass of one man,
how much more did God's grace
and the gift that came by the grace of the one man,
Jesus Christ overflowed to the many?
Here's how this works, right?
If Adam's disobedience brought death and condemnation,
how much more significant do you think
the obedience of the Son of God is
that brings grace and forgiveness?
Look at verse 16.
Nor can the gift of God be compared
to the result of one man's sin.
You just, they're not even in the same categories of value.
The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation,
but the gift followed many trespasses
and brought justification.
Here it is there.
Adam's sin brought death to the entire human race.
It stained us with sin and guilt.
But Jesus' obedience gifts his people with justification.
It declares the guilty righteous before him
through his death in their place.
Think about it like this.
How easy is it to ruin a white shirt?
It's dead easy, isn't it?
To ruin a white shirt,
all you have to do is spill your coffee, right?
Or your spag bowl,
or mark it with pen or something.
And the job is done, right?
The shirt is ruined.
It's stained.
How difficult is it to remove that
and to perfect a stained and ruined white shirt?
Well, it's often impossible, isn't it?
It's very hard.
And here's Paul's point.
Adam did the easy thing.
He stained humanity with his guilt.
It brought death.
Jesus has done the difficult thing,
the impossible thing.
He, by his death in our place,
bearing our sin,
has made the dirty clean.
What we've been thinking about for weeks now,
that Jesus' death on the cross
has the power to justify the sinner.
That God is able to look on Christ
and his work on the cross
and look at you in your sin
and me in my sin
and say,
they are perfect,
they are justified,
they are clean
because of him.
And so here's the argument.
If the lesser thing that Adam did
had such significant consequences,
don't you think that the greater thing
that Jesus did
will have even more significant consequences?
And what will those consequences be?
Well, it's obvious, isn't it?
If Adam's thing brings death,
then Jesus' justifying obedience
will bring life.
Life.
Verse 18.
Consequently,
just as one trespass
resulted in condemnation
for all people,
so also one righteous act
resulted in justification
and life for all people.
But 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.
Perhaps an illustration
will help us grasp this.
It's a good illustration.
It's not mine.
It's Paul's.
Verse 21.
You notice there he compares
sin and grace
like two different kings.
Yeah?
Two rulers.
Two kingdoms.
He uses the word reign
actually over and over
in the passage.
So here's the image.
Imagine two kingdoms.
One kingdom
is called death.
And the kingdom of death
is ruled by a king
called sin.
And sin is a weak,
pathetic king
who reigns terribly.
He is a pathetic,
weak king.
But even in his weakness
he is capable of bringing death
to all his subjects
without exception.
Everybody dies.
Some die young,
others die old.
It's of no consequence
because all die.
But there is then,
he says,
another kingdom.
And it's ruled by a strong king
called righteousness by grace.
And that king is more powerful
than sin.
So even while the weak king sin
manages to inflict death
on all his subjects,
so the more powerful king,
righteousness by grace,
can give life
to all his subjects.
So that if you belong
to his kingdom,
you will live.
Everybody does.
The king of righteousness
by grace sees to it
that they do.
Because the king of righteousness
by grace is stronger
than the king sin.
So this really is,
this is the question
for you and I
from the passage this morning.
Where do you want to live?
Who do you want to be your king?
Who's going to be
your representative?
Whose actions are going
to define your destiny?
Which king is going
to define your identity?
Do you want Jesus
to be your king
and to live?
Or do you want Adam
to be your king and die?
Which do you want?
Which will it be?
Of course,
the answer is obvious,
isn't it?
I want Jesus.
I want to belong to him.
I want the life
that flows from his victory,
not the death
that flows from Adam's failure.
And that really is
the passage this morning,
King Jesus
reigning in life
to bring life
to all who belong to him.
As we finish,
I want to draw out
two lessons for us.
One about our identity
and one about our confidence.
Let's start with identity firstly.
I want you to see with me
that Romans 5 tells you
that being a Christian
is about having
a whole new identity.
I hope you can see this
in the passage this morning
that being a Christian
in a kind of Romans 5 way
is not about getting a hobby,
right?
It's not about taking up golf.
I don't know why you'd do that,
but if you did,
it's not like that.
It's not like learning to knit
or going to the gym.
Being a Christian
is not sort of tagging on
something to your
already established identity.
Instead, being a Christian,
this is the only way
that Paul is able
to explain it, right?
Being a Christian
is as fundamental
as no longer belonging
to Adam
but belonging to Jesus.
It's a whole new life.
It's new creation.
It's being born again.
In other words,
what has happened to us
for us in Christ
is the most important thing
about us.
Who are you?
I'm a son of the living God
through Jesus Christ.
Now, we're not yet receiving
all the benefits
that we've been promised,
but we know we will
because Jesus is stronger
than Adam.
Let's try and think about
how this works with me.
Imagine it like this, right?
Life, in a way,
is like living in a small,
damp, condemned-to-destruction
flat, right?
The paint is peeling off
the walls,
the windows are broken,
the front door
is hanging off the hinges.
I mean, I know that's
a depressing view of life,
but it's kind of true,
isn't it?
Life is not always
terribly miserable,
but it is basically
living in a thing
that's condemned
to destruction, right?
And we all know
that the day is coming
when the door will fall off,
the damp will take over,
the paint will crumble completely,
and the bulldozer
will move in.
And it's a depressing
place to live,
so for the most part,
we just try and ignore it.
All right, put it
out of our minds.
Focus on other things.
Or maybe we try
and fix it up.
Perhaps we find a religion
that offers to hang
a few paintings
on the walls
of our condemned flat.
Or maybe we find
a career that offers
a can of paint
to paint over
a few of the cracks.
But still we know
that it is crumbling
and there's no escape
and the flat is condemned.
But then along comes Christ
and he builds
a whole new house.
It's got walk-in showers,
balconies,
jacuzzi bathtubs,
giant bedrooms
with king-sized beds.
The walls never fall
or crumble
and he offers us
the keys as a gift.
Justification by faith
that we've been thinking about
is the handing over
of the keys
to the new house.
It's being liberated
from the condemnation
of the flat.
You've not moved in yet,
but we have the keys.
The work has all been done.
You can see the house.
It's finished.
It's ready.
And the Christian life
is the invitation
to think with increasing clarity
that that house
is my home,
not this crumbling flat.
Realizing that fundamentally
that is where I belong.
I have the keys already.
I know that Jesus
has finished the house.
I'm no longer defined
by the weakness
and suffering of this life.
Not because I don't experience it.
I do experience it.
But because they're not
the most important thing to me.
Because I'm in Christ.
I'm new creation.
When Vanessa and I
were first married,
we had a week
in a pontines
where they were
knocking down
the apartment blocks
that we were staying in.
So we were in one end
and the bulldozer
was at the other end, right?
And it was Easter time
and it was wet
and it was damp
and it was cold
and it was kind of miserable.
But we had a really fun time
because why did we have a fun time?
Because we knew
that's not where we lived.
Right?
That's that.
We're going home
to somewhere better than this
where they're not knocking it down.
And that's true, isn't it?
That's the Christian life.
Life is tough and difficult.
But God in Christ
has done everything
that is necessary
to liberate us
from sin and death.
So one day
we will be home.
And Christian living
is increasingly seeing
that as where we belong.
I'm a son of my father in heaven.
I'm destined to live with him.
So let me just ask you,
have you understood that before
about the Christian life?
Have you seen
what a radical thing
it is to be a Christian?
Or maybe you're not yet
a Christian this morning
and you're just thinking it through.
Listen, this is what
the Christian life is all about.
You can go anywhere else
in the world
and they will offer
to patch up
your falling down flat
for you, right?
Only Christ can offer you
a new home.
Only Christ.
New birth, new life,
new creation
through Christ forever.
Maybe you've been
a Christian for years.
It's still possible, isn't it?
That you've made
the Christian life
a bit too small.
That you've kind of
tagged it onto your life
and you wonder
why you find
the Christian life
so dissatisfying.
Living the Christian life
as if the keys
to eternal home
and eternal security
are not yet in your pocket.
As if being a Christian
was mostly about
fixing up the crumbling flesh.
That's never what
the Christian life was.
Christian life is not a poster
on the crumbling humanity
of this life.
It's a whole new creation
to be longed for
and excited about
and to live in the light of.
So that's the first one,
identity.
Second one, confidence.
I wonder just as we finish
if I can invite you
to think about
why Paul writes
this little section.
I mean, you have to admit
as you read this section
it is a little bit technical.
I do a sermon read-through
on a Friday
to a few staff
and other volunteers.
You're welcome to come
if you want to ask me.
And words like
heavy,
dense,
difficult
were used to describe
the passage
and the sermon.
You have to admit,
don't you,
that second Adam
is not really
the sort of language
that we would use.
You know,
if someone comes to you
and says,
oh, tell me about
what it means to be a Christian,
you go,
it's all about
a second Adam.
You wouldn't really talk
like that, would you?
You know,
people memorize
the first half
of Romans 5
but not many bother
with the second half.
So perhaps you think,
well, maybe this is just
aimed at theological geeks.
And maybe I've not done
a brilliant job
of explaining it this morning.
It's all been a bit obscure.
But if I could just ask you
to think why for a moment.
Why,
what is Paul writing this for?
Is Paul's purpose
to confuse you this morning?
Is that what he wants to do?
I don't think it is.
Instead,
I think Paul is concerned
that if you don't understand
the significance
of Jesus,
in the terms
that he describes him here,
you will not have
appropriate confidence
as a Christian.
See,
I think Paul here
is being a brilliant pastor.
Paul knows
that one of the great struggles
in our Christian lives
is a battle
with confidence
or assurance.
Can I really be sure?
Can I be certain?
How can I know
that life with God
is a reality?
And for some of us,
we see that lack
of confidence
in a perpetual worry.
Now,
our doubt is maybe
not so much
is the gospel true,
but is it really,
is it really for me?
Does God love me?
Am I saved?
I'm sure I don't feel saved often.
I come to church
and other people feel
they seem to be
really emotionally engaged
and I'm not.
For others of you,
you see this lack of confidence
in something
which is like half-heartedness.
You're basically living your life,
hedging your bets.
You know,
I want to do enough
to assume that
if the gospel is true,
I will be saved
on the day that I meet
the Lord Jesus,
but I'm not going to do so much
that it makes this life
more difficult
because that might be
a big mistake,
wouldn't it?
I might miss out.
That'd be a waste.
It's the same disease,
it's just different symptoms.
It's a lack of confidence.
And so Paul writes,
Romans 5, 12 to 21,
to fill you and me
with confidence
that justification by faith
is enough to bring you
eternal life.
And he does it
by basically asking you
to compare the magnitude
of two historical events.
In one event,
a man ate fruit
as he desired
to be like God.
In the other historical event,
God in flesh
desired to show you
grace and forgiveness
and mercy.
The man who ate the fruit
died and brought death
to us all.
And you know that's true
because you see it
all around you.
The God man
also died
in our place
and was resurrected
to new life,
a life of a whole
different quality.
And Paul effectively
holds those two
historical men
in front of you
and says,
have a think about this.
Which one is more
significant?
Which is more
seismic?
The one man's
disobedience
that brought death
or the obedience
of God the Son
that brings life?
What's more precious?
The blood of Adam
or the blood of Jesus?
The infinitely valuable
blood of the God
man Jesus.
And the answer
is obvious, isn't it?
The righteous death
of the Son of God
in human flesh
has to be
more significant
than the unrighteous
death of a mere man.
It has to be.
And because
that is the case,
if you and I
are Christians
this morning,
if we're believing
and trusting
in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we can be
as sure
that we will receive
eternal life
as you are certain
now that everybody dies.
That's how sure
you can be.
It's as if Paul
is kind of
putting his arm
around us
and lifting our chins
and saying,
listen,
anxious saint,
have another look
at Jesus.
Have another look
at the cross.
Have another look
at the magnitude
of his obedience.
Have another look
at the significance
of his resurrection.
Take courage.
Don't despair.
There is a day coming,
isn't there?
Where because
of our connection
with Adam,
we will die.
And where will
our hope be
on that day?
It will be
that Jesus Christ's
resurrection
is even more powerful.
So don't despair.
There's a sense
in which don't
overthink your sin.
Repent of your sin.
Bring it to the one
who loves to forgive.
Don't hedge your bets.
Don't try
and build heaven now.
Instead,
look to the life
ahead of you.
This is the life
of Christ himself
because confidence
comes from understanding
the significance
of Jesus.
Look at him.
Tell your doubts.
Listen,
doubting hearts say.
Do you know
that God
in human flesh
died
and rose again?
Did you know
there's an empty grave?
Take courage.
Live for Jesus
because he will
take us home.
Let me pray
as we close.
Amen.
Let's do this.
Let's have just a few moments of quiet and we can pray in our own hearts.
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that because of Jesus, we are not who we were, but we're now your sons and daughters.
We are united to Jesus Christ and to his life.
We're no longer identified by Adam and his sin and death.
And help us, we pray, to take courage that as sure as we are now that people die because of Adam's sin,
we can be that sure that we will live because of Jesus' resurrection.
I'll keep our eyes fixed on him.
Pray especially this morning, maybe for people in this room,
for whom death doesn't feel like a far off thing, but maybe a close by thing.
Give them great courage and confidence in Jesus' resurrection.
Maybe for others in the room who have been hedging their bets.
Please, Lord, fix our eyes on what Jesus has promised to us,
this eternal home that will be ours through him.
And help us to live in the light of that now, we pray.
In his name and for your glory.
Amen.