Romans 5:12-21 - Who are you?

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.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

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.

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.

Amen.

I want to start this morning with a simple question.

It's a profound question, but a simple one.

Who are you?

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.

Amen.

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.

Amen.

Amen.