Romans 5 | Grace: Greater Than Our Sin

But as we've been studying through the book of Romans, that has been

the central theme, the gospel of Christ, which is the good news for salvation.

The interesting thing is we started studying that in the first few chapters.

It didn't sound like good news because Paul was painting

a very clear picture on our need for salvation.

And in order to do that, he has to first convince us that we need to be saved.

And the way he did that was by showing us our own sin.

And so the good news

didn't necessarily seem so good at the beginning,

because it seemed like it was a bunch of bad news about us.

But Paul turns a corner

and we start looking at the grace of God, which, through the grace of God,

by the grace of God we have salvation, which is the good news, the gospel.

So we get into it. Really?

In, in really powerful, ways.

In chapter five, six, seven and eight and so we're in chapter five today.

And so if you have a Bible

brought one with you, open it to chapter of Romans, chapter five.

There are times

when we read, especially the book of Romans,

that it feels like it sounds like it's difficult to understand.

And the reason is it was written

by this man called Paul, who had a brilliant mind.

Not only did he have such a brilliant mind.

His mind was so complex.

He was writing about an unknowable God who was completely other than that.

So you got a brilliant mind writing about the unknown and unknowable

God, really, who's completely other than us writing to a people

2000 years ago in a different part of the world,

who spoke a different language and had a different worldview.

And so you put all these things together.

It made sense to them.

Much more than that makes sense to us.

And so we have to do some unpacking to understand the depth of it all.

Now, I believe

that everything God wants to say is super plain and easy to understand.

But there are there are things

within the simple message of the gospel Christ and Him crucified.

There's a depth to it that we have to unpack a little bit.

And so to unpack it, I think we'll get close.

But to unpack chapter five,

I want to unpack it in three different sections.

And the way I want to unpack it for us is this.

We're going to start with verses 12 through 19.

And then we're going to go back to verses one through 11.

And then we're going to end with verses 20 and 21.

So that's how we'll unpack it. Okay. Now

to help us

understand chapter five, there's a principle

we have to, solidify in our minds, because if we miss this principle,

we're going to miss, really the thrust and the emphasis of chapter five.

And the principle we have to understand

is called the principle of the federal head.

Let me show you what that is.

The principle of federal head is this that the actions

of the representative impact all those under that representative.

So there's a representative that represents everybody underneath

that representative and the actions of that represent what happens.

That representative is going to affect everybody under it.

Do you understand. Okay.

So to help you really understand this, if any of you seen

the series, the Mockingjay series with Katniss Everdeen.

Yeah.

Okay, so that is a perfect example of a federal hit.

Katniss in the movie was the tribute for whom?

Her sister, prim.

And for the entire what district?

Which district? Nerds?

12. Okay, yeah, let's just give this year that.

So shall I say I'm teasing like you shall we love this.

That series.

It's fun to watch, but. But.

So she was the federal head.

Not just for prim hurt, the one she took, but for all of district 12.

So whatever happened to Katniss?

Happens to the entire district.

Does that make sense?

Okay, that's the principle of the federal head.

Whatever happens to the representative of all happens to all.

And we have to understand that principle, because what Paul will do in chapter

five is introduced to us two federal heads.

The first one will be the federal head of Adam,

who was the federal head of the human race.

And so whatever happens to Adam and his actions happens to the entire human race.

And what happened with Adam is he brought sin or brought sin

and death to all the human race, because he is our federal head.

You follow so far, the second federal federal head

that Paul will introduce us to is Jesus, who's the federal head of all the redeemed

who've been justified, made right with God through faith because of God's grace

and because of the justification of the federal head

of Jesus, brings life to all of us who believe.

So Adam, as the federal head of humanity, brought sin and death.

Jesus as the federal head of all those who will believe are justified brings life.

You follow?

Yeah.

And so Paul is going to explain this spiritual reality

through these two federal heads.

Adam and Jesus.

And so let's jump in verse 12.

So we're in the middle of the chapter

looking at these, this issue of federal heads.

It'll help us unpack the entire chapter.

Therefore, whenever there's a therefore you have to stop.

And that's what it's there for. So

therefore, in light of everything he's just said that we'll get to

just as sin entered the world through one man, the federal head of Adam, and death

through sin, because of the sin of the one man, the federal head of Adam.

And in this way, death came to all people because all sinned

through the federal head of Adam.

You follow so far.

Okay.

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.

Let's just keep going.

Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses.

Even over those who did not sin by breaking

the command, as did Adam, who was the pattern of the one to come.

Is this super crystal clear?

Okay, let me unpack this a little bit.

Okay.

So he's introduced us to the federal head of Adam,

the representative for all of mankind.

Adam sinned before God gave his law.

Like the Mosaic law.

Before he wrote anything down. Adam sinned.

God had put his law in Adam's heart

when he said, don't cross this line in the Garden of Eden.

Adam crossed that line even though there was no law written down.

So he was a law breaker. You follow.

And because of that, death entered the world.

The proof of sin is death.

And because death entered the world with Adam.

And people died even before the law was given.

It proves that everybody is a sinner

because death came from sin.

Adam's sin brought death effect, in fact,

that everybody ever before God ever made a command.

You follow.

This is exactly what God said would happen.

Adam, as our federal had brought sin to all of humanity,

and the proof of sin in all of humanity is death.

God told Adam in Genesis two,

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

For when you eat of it, you will certainly what die?

So God said before he ever wrote a law for anybody,

he gave Adam his law in his heart and said, don't you can go this far, Noah?

Adam trespass crossed the line and God said, why don't you do that?

Death.

Now, did Adam die right then?

No. Why?

Because he's the federal head for all of humanity.

So now death entered all of humanity.

You follow. It's exactly what God said would happen

because of Adam's sin.

As the federal head death entered all of humanity.

And the fact, again, the fact that every one of us is born into

sin is proved by the fact

that at this point, I know in America I haven't checked other countries yet,

but at this point mortality rate is just about 100%

for us, right?

For all of humanity,

the reason why there's deaths, because their sins and brought death.

And so ever before God ever even made a command.

The proof is that we're all born into sin.

Because guess what?

We're all going to die.

And so,

Adam, our federal head that brought sin and death.

Verses 15 1617

but the gift is not like the trespass.

For if many died by the trespass of the one man, Adam, our federal head,

how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man,

Jesus, our federal head of righteousness for overflow to the man he

nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man sin.

The judgment followed one man or 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?

Is that super crystal clear for you?

Is what I'm saying.

Like Paul, it's such a gift for him, and it's hard for us.

He just has these long run on sentences, just keeps putting commas and commas

and commas and.

But to unpack this, this is what he's saying.

It all has to do with the two federal heads.

It's saying Adam's sin brought death.

But God's grace abounds through Jesus.

Adam's sin as our federal head

brought condemnation to all of humanity.

But Jesus, as our federal head, brings the opportunity

for justification to be made right with God.

That because of Adam's sin, death reigns.

Everybody dies.

But because of Jesus as our federal head,

through faith, by God's grace, life now reigns.

Through one man came the trespass.

And through one man came the answer.

Verses 18 and 19.

Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people,

he is our federal head.

We're born into his stuff.

So also one righteous act resulted in justification and life

for all people who will believe through faith

not as a result of works, but just because of God's grace.

For just as through the

disobedience of the one man, Adam,

our federal head, and humanity, many were made sinners.

So also through the obedience of the one man, the federal head of Christ,

the many will be made right with God.

One trespass crossed the line

when God said, Adam, go this far no further.

He crossed the line.

Trespass as our federal head.

We're born into trespass.

And that's what Paul, that's what he went through.

Two chapters, two and a half chapters explaining to us.

He says, I don't care how much you cross the line this much or this much,

you cross the line

because you have as their federal head, Adam, who also crossed the line.

We've trespass.

And one act of righteousness, the work of Jesus on the cross.

As our federal head of being made right with God,

brings about justification to the many who will believe

through Adam all are made sinners

through faith by grace and Jesus.

Many are made right with God.

And so the question we have to to to answer for ourselves

is which federal head are you living under?

You were born under this one.

Through faith.

By God's grace, you can move to this one.

You follow.

And the movement from this one to

this one has nothing to do with what you do.

It's solely based on what Jesus has done.

Now we, through faith because of God's grace,

have the opportunity to move.

And if you've not moved yet,

I want to invite you to.

And because that is the possibility, because you can move there.

Now, Paul will give us three benefits of moving

from the federal head of Adam to the federal head of Jesus.

He gives us three benefits. Do you wanna know what they are?

Paul tells

us what they are in chapter and start in verse one.

So we're kind of reverse engineering this now that we understand

now we'll learn what the benefits are.

And then and so back to the beginning, the three benefits of moving

to the federal head of Jesus. Okay.

Verses one and two.

Therefore you got to ask what it went to.

Therefore everything you said in the first four chapters.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith

made right with God, through faith we have peace with God through our Lord

Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by the by faith into this grace

in which we now stand and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Let me unpack this for you. Three benefits.

The first benefit for those who have moved from the federal ahead of Adam

to the federal head of Jesus, the first benefit is that we have peace with God.

Now, God's justice

in his wrath against those who have trespassed

has to be leveled.

And God's justice towards us was satisfied

because Jesus paid the price of that

wrath on the cross.

And because that happened, and we've bought through

faith, have moved to the federal head of Jesus,

now we can have peace with God.

Now please be understand

this is not the peace of God.

This is peace with God.

And they are very different.

The peace with God is not the peace of God.

The peace of God is this.

Philippians four six and seven.

Do not be anxious about anything.

So all you professional warriors, this is your life.

Verse.

Don't be anxious about anything.

But in every situation, by prayer

and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace.

What of God, which transcends all understanding,

will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus?

So here's the problem.

Everybody wants the peace of God without first establishing peace with God

to understand.

And when we stand, said God, I need the peace of you.

But we haven't been made right with him.

You don't.

We don't get the peace of God without first having peace with God.

The peace of God is reserved for those

who have come to peace with God.

And we cannot have the peace of God

apart from Christ.

Ephesians two For he Himself is our.

What peace?

Who has made the two groups one and has destroyed

the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.

So the peace with God

before we choose

to change our allegiance to the federal head of Jesus, God

took the initiative to destroy the dividing wall between us.

And he said, I am taking the initiative to invite you

over through Christ on the cross to destroy the dividing wall.

Now there is no divide. You can come to me,

but until you come to me through Jesus,

you will never have peace with me.

It's not that we have some some charge against God,

but God in his righteousness

has a charge against lawbreakers,

and through faith, by grace and Jesus work on the cross,

he's taken the charge against our lawbreaking and put it on Jesus.

So now, through faith,

by his grace, I can have peace with God.

He's at peace with me.

And because I can have peace with God now,

I can experience the peace of God to understand.

And so many people

have desired the peace of God

and are clueless

about how to be have peace with God.

And that only comes through faith in Jesus.

By God's grace.

If you want the peace of God,

you must first be made right with God

through faith in Jesus.

Then there's a promise of peace of God.

You follow.

All right. Yes.

All right.

So that's the first benefit. Peace with God.

The second benefit is this

access into God's grace in which we stand.

This is what the first two verses say.

Through faith we have access into God's grace in which we now stand.

Now, this this one actually blows me away.

The idea that I can have access to God and the grace of God.

Grace is the undeserved and unmerited favor and blessing of God.

The fact that we have access into that grace

by faith it through faith is amazing.

Now, when Paul says, we have access now through faith in Jesus,

that word access necessitates an invitation.

You and I cannot go to

the father, have access to the father on our own.

We have to be invited into that, and we're invited into the access

to accessing God's grace through Jesus.

So through Christ, faith in Christ, I've been invited into the grace of God.

And Paul says that grace that undeserved merited favor.

And but I stand in that

through Jesus.

Please understand this

if you've accepted Jesus as your Savior, you've come to the father

through faith in the son.

Because of his grace, you now stand.

You stand in the very favor of Almighty God.

You don't have to earn it.

You've been invited.

You now stand in that.

And here's what's amazing about it.

That verb stand in Greek is a

is in the perfect tense, which means it's a continuing action.

You perpetually stand in the favor of God.

You don't go in and go out.

God, I was good, so I get your favor and blessing, but now it's bad.

So I go out and now I'm going to be good.

So I go back in and now I was bachelor. Goodbye.

You don't bounce in and out.

You perpetually stand in the favor of God through faith in Jesus,

because God's grace is so profound, not because our behavior is so good.

Thank you. Understand this.

This is for this part of the benefit of just being made right with God

through faith.

See, grace

isn't just the way we come to salvation.

Grace is our present.

Stand the continuing present, standing before God.

It's the beginning of the Christian life, and it's the sustaining

of the Christian life. Grace,

not behavior, not performance.

See, a lot of people think they begin to follow Jesus by grace

and then move to living by performance.

Well, I accepted Jesus alone,

but now I gotta really watch myself. Now.

And I feel like, man, sometimes I'm really good

and God is good to me and sometimes I'm not real good.

And you know, God's got a right to be upset.

And the moment we make that transition,

as if we come to God by grace

and then we have to live by performance.

The Bible says in Galatians five that we've fallen from grace.

That's a scary place to be.

Grace means.

That God's attitude toward

the Christ follower, the believer, the one who is made right with God

through faith, goes by grace means that God's attitude

towards me is favor because he sees me

through the eyes of joy.

Have you ever have you ever been

have someone in your life whose eyes lit up when they saw you?

Yeah, well,

how about a dog?

Okay, so some of you are like, no,

no, I mean, I married them, but now,

you know, it's like, think about a dog.

You know, like when you,

when a dog was just like, oh,

always. I didn't.

Right.

That's the attitude that God looks at the eyes of God looks at you with

because of being right with them through faith,

by God's grace, he looks at you like, oh.

Like I'm convinced.

I mean, God looks at me like, oh, girl.

That's grace.

It's this perpetual standing

that I stand before Almighty God, and he knows everything about me.

And yet he's still looks at me.

He's like, oh, Carl.

Yes. Can you imagine?

Yes. It's awesome.

Oh it's incredible.

Just so many people think, you know, like, well, yeah, he, you know, he,

you know, he saved me.

But I'm still kind of the, you know, the red headed, you know, in.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I should do likewise.

I didn't mean think of the redheads out there.

You know, you're all loved and beautiful and all that stuff.

Yeah.

You know, we feel so we're, you know, we're the, you know, the the bald in laws.

And I don't know what to say, you know what I'm saying?

Like, you know, I'm offended at myself. I just,

you know, like like we're second

and that's not it.

That's not grace, it's religion.

It's not grace.

See, we would all we've said.

No, no, I believe God loves me

because it kind of has to, you know, I mean, the Bible says he's love

and he's got to let me in because I'm leaving a son.

And. Yeah,

but sometimes you feel like you didn't like us.

Grace means God didn't.

He doesn't just love me. He likes me.

Yeah, yeah, grace means he doesn't just love you.

He likes you.

And so when he looks at you, it's like, oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Man, I like you.

Can you imagine having that type of relationship

with Almighty God?

You do?

Yeah.

The problem is, most people haven't realized it yet.

That's grace.

It's one of the benefits

of moving from the federal head of Adam to the federal head of Jesus.

We're invited into this grace,

invited into the faith

to stand firm in the favor

of God, who to stand there

with the twinkling eyes of God, looking at us like,

not because of what we've done,

but simply through faith.

Father, I believe in your son.

And he goes.

Man, I like you.

You know,

to understand.

This is the invitation. No.

To stand in the grace of God

means I don't have to prove anymore that I'm worthy of God's love.

To stand in the grace of God means the door of access to God

is permanently open.

To stand in the grace of God

means I am free from trying to keep a score sheet with God.

To prove that I'm good.

To stand in the grace of God means I spend more time praising

God for who he is than hating myself and hating my past.

To stand in the grace of God means I refuse to make resolutions and vows.

Don't let any teacher ever manipulate you into trying to prove how much you love

God, by making commitments that you already know you can't keep.

You stand in the favor of God by his grace, not by your vows

and not by your commitments and not by your devotion.

When I stand in the presence in the grace of God,

I expect his blessings, though I know I don't deserve his blessings.

That's grace.

When I stand in the grace of God, I testify to the goodness

of God at all times.

And when I stand in the grace of God,

I stand in the certainty of God's future favor.

Oh that's grace.

Oh don't the benefits

of being made right with God sound too good to be true.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Mr. reality

the first benefit I have peace with God.

The second I stand in the favor of God doing the third benefit.

Yeah, yeah.

It's not going to seem so fun.

But not only so,

but we also glory in our sufferings. We.

I heard some of you I saw on your fifth.

Go back to the other two.

We glory in our sufferings because.

Because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character

and character.

Hope.

Here's here's the truth, man.

The third benefit.

Is that we can glory in suffering.

Let me tell you why.

When Paul uses that word suffering, he's not talking about minor inconveniences.

You go to Sam's Club on a Saturday afternoon.

That's a minor inconvenience. There's no place to party.

They put the damn gas station in there.

And now you got to walk from Chuck-E-Cheese all the way over.

That's not what he's talking about.

He's talking about real pain.

Yeah, real suffering,

real trials, troubles and tribulations.

And he said, you can glory in those times. Why?

Because suffering produces perseverance.

Perseverance produces character.

Character produces hope.

And we're never disappointed by hope.

Hope is the certainty of God's

continued and future activity.

And when we're going through these different, really difficult times,

we need the certainty of God's continued and future activity, right?

Right, right.

That'll never disappoint.

Here's the truth everybody.

Experience is suffering.

Whether you're under the federal head of Adam

or the federal head of Jesus, we all experience suffering.

However,

those who are

justified experience benefit through it.

Those from the central heard of Adam just suffer.

You understand?

Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers who's ever graced

this planet, he said that just is just part of his quote.

He said the Christian should be willing to be tried.

Do you want to be carried to heaven on a featherbed?

Some of us be like, yeah,

actually, that's I mean, that's that's kind of why I did the whole Jesus thing.

So, you know, are you kidding me?

But think about a man.

Not not the Christ follower.

Not the disciple.

I should say mean, don't you?

In the part of you that just wants.

You know what I want.

I will slide into heaven with my hair on fire.

Like you know.

And I realize we don't pray for testing.

But if we want to develop character,

if we want to be people of hope that lasts.

This is the golden chain of the Christian's growth and maturity

through suffering.

Yeah. See,

we can glory in suffering

because it develops perseverance.

Literally. That word is patience develops patience.

Because when I'm in suffering, when I'm willing to wait,

because I know that God's working through it,

I can be patient.

And when I'm willing to wait because I know God's

working through, I'm patient in it.

It develops my character.

The literal word for character is experience.

It develops your experience.

Perseverance produces experience that's been tried through suffering.

So when I go into suffering

and I said, God, I know you're working in this, I'm going to be patient.

You experience

the fact that God is working in it

and developing a Christ like character

so that that experi ence of waiting through suffering produces hope

because God proves himself time and time

and time and time again

to understand.

Yeah, I'm

now let me just,

This is so important.

Not just for us, but it's really important for parents.

And I don't care if you're a parent.

I don't care how old your kids are.

We would all say that.

Not just us, but we want for our kids

to grow up

with great character, right?

Right.

And to be people of hope

that whatever they grow through, they're not going to get beat

right.

Like what they go through is not going to crush them.

We don't want that.

We have to be very careful,

especially with our kids,

that when they go through difficulty,

trials, troubles and pains,

we don't just want to rescue them out of it,

but we disciple them through it.

There's a vast and profound difference.

Parents, please pray over your kids every day.

Father, I ask for your mercy and grace over my kids.

Put a hedge around them, a fortress about them.

It's all biblical.

Protect them from the evil one who only seeks to steal, kill,

and destroy their present and their future.

I pray your watch over them, your mercy and grace on them.

Pray all of that.

But when they're going through it.

Discipled them through it.

Don't just try to rescue them out of it.

Because that's the only way they will grow up

to be people of character and have godly hope.

When parents

rescue their kids out of difficulty,

we stunt and destroy their discipleship

and ruin their character.

Do you understand?

I get it, it's so hard

as a daddy, as a mama, you're like, you know her?

But we've got to get to the point saying,

sweetie, listen, I know this is hard, and I know you're hurting and I love you.

And I'm going to suffer with you in this,

and we're going to work together.

Let's remember who God is.

Let's remember together what he's done in the past.

Let's remember how he has moved.

Let's remember.

Remember what the Bible says, that somehow God's working in this.

Remember what Scripture tells us that even Jesus went through difficulty.

Remember what Scripture says that that were never outside of his hand.

He doesn't sleep or slumber.

He knows what's going on and he will be.

Here's the thing it's okay for your kids not to be happy

so that they'll find their joy in the Lord.

It's okay for our kids to be sad

so they'll find their sustenance in Christ.

It's okay for our kids

to be alone, so they'll learn to draw

on the presence of Christ.

Discipled them through it.

Don't rob them of that character

that God is trying to build in him.

Okay.

I don't want emails and texts

about that at all, so just keep it to yourself.

All right?

Let me finish this up here.

Verse five.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out

into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to you.

Please understand.

We gain the hope of God

through the Holy Spirit that God has given to us.

The moment we accept Jesus as our Savior.

The result of all this is hope.

The Holy Spirit has been given to every person who receives Jesus as their Savior.

The Bible says, first Corinthians 1213. Galatians three two.

Galatians four six

that the moment you come to faith, the Holy Spirit has been implanted in you.

God has entered your life through the Holy Spirit,

and then we're given the permission in Luke 1113

to request the Holy Spirit come upon.

I, I did this on the first service, just on a kind of a spur.

I didn't know how I was going to do it.

The service.

But Jesus has told us he,

the Scripture has told us.

That if we fathers who are evil know how to give good gifts,

how much more does the Heavenly Father know how to give good,

good gifts to those who ask, especially the Holy Spirit, to those who seek

so God will get.

If you've been made right with God through faith.

The Holy Spirit's been placed in you, and the result of that

is eternal life.

But we've been told we can ask the father to

put the spirit on us, not just within us.

And all I have to do is ask,

and the proof that the Holy Spirit is in

you and upon you is not some crazy language.

And cackling like a chicken.

It's love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

and hope.

Many of us have trusted God

for salvation and the Holy Spirit lives within the scriptures.

Scripture is clear about that.

Few of us have said, father,

true Holy Spirit, come upon.

And we've been promised by the father that that will happen.

Yeah.

And so I'm going to give you the chance.

Did you maybe you've never done this before,

but to ask that the father places His Holy Spirit upon you

and that you're filled with the spirit?

Ephesians 518 says, be continually filled with the spirit.

And there are some times in our lives meant we just need

the presence of the Holy Spirit,

especially for hope.

And so if you have a relationship with Jesus, I'm

gonna invite you in this moment of prayer right now.

I'm not done preaching yet,

but I want to stop and give you the opportunity to do what

Scripture has said and invite the spirit upon your life.

Pray with me, father.

Thank you that you have promised us

and given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and promised the Holy

Spirit upon us.

Father, I know that you're

that the fruit of your spirit, the proof of your spirit is love,

joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self-control, and hope.

So, father,

hear these hearts, these who are yours,

who ask you for the presence of the Holy Spirit

in and upon their lives.

Do what you said you would do in Your Word. You.

You've tied your action to your word, and you've said you would do it.

And so here are these hearts.

I would just encourage you in this moment.

Any of you who have a relationship with Jesus.

To say, father, give me your Holy Spirit.

I want your Holy Spirit to come upon me.

Fill me with Your Holy Spirit.

Let me experience the fullness of the Spirit's presence in my life

the fullness of love,

joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.

The fullness of hope.

Don't say, father, I receive that right now.

Your spirit in me, your spirit upon me.

Father, thank you that you're faithful to your word.

In your name I pray, Amen. Amen.

I hope

because of the spirit God has given you.

Let me go through these last few verses.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless,

Christ died for the ungodly.

Very rarely would anyone die for a righteous person,

though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this.

I love this verse while we're still sinners, Christ died for us.

If God did all of this for us while we were denying him,

he set all this in action before we ever turned him,

if he would be this good to us.

Said all this in action before we turn,

how much better do you think he'll be after we have turned?

You understand?

I'm saying

the riches of heaven.

Since we have now been justified by his blood,

how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him?

For if while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him

through the death of his son, how much more have him been reconciled?

Shall we be saved through his life?

Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord

Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

It is all. Jesus has done it.

And if God loved us so much and did so much for us

before we ever turned to him, how much more?

Now that we have turned,

can we have comfort that we stand in the grace and favor of God?

He's so good

and he's been so good.

Now here's

the biggest deal of this whole thing.

The law was brought in so that trespass might increase, but here it is.

But where sin increased, grace.

Grace increased all the more

so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign

through the righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Here's what this means

God makes the rules

and God provides the solution.

God gave the law

so we would know what great law breakers we are

here.

Here's the idea if there's no speed limit posted

and I drive 80 miles an hour in a residential zone,

I still breaking the law.

I just don't know it.

But once the sign the 30 miles an hour is posted and I drive 80.

Now I know I'm a law breaker. You follow?

So what Paul is saying here is this

the only reason God gave us the law

is not so that we would break it and become a law breaker.

He gave us the law to prove to us we are already law breakers,

because death happened before the law

was ever given, proving that everybody lives in sin.

You understand?

Now, he gave us the law proving that we're law breakers.

Now, I know,

okay, but the big thing of this whole deal is verse

20, where sin increased, what grace increased, all the more.

See, here's what we think.

If I'm really, really bad, God gets really, really angry.

And if I'm not so bad, God isn't as angry.

And if I'm really good, maybe God blesses.

We would think that when my sin increases, so does God's anger.

That's not what the Bible says.

The Bible says, because I've been justified through what

Jesus did, and I have this perpetual standing of favor before God

when my sin increases, guess what his grace increases.

It's amazing.

Grace.

The truth is this that grace is greater than you.

Fill the bank in.

I stand

in the perpetual, the perpetual standing in God's favor,

that even when my sin increases, he looks at me like,

oh, cool.

Wow. Because his grace is more.

The fact is this that

I cannot allow sin, God's grace,

and neither can you.

When we've been justified through faith by God's grace,

we have this perpetual standing in the favor

of God.

Indicates that vindicated

and liberated. Him.

Grace is a thing that gives us something.

And grace is the thing that takes us somewhere

into the favor of God.

So in wrap back to the federal head.

We've been born under the federal head of Adam

and are separated from God's special

favor and grace, and bear wrath for sin.

But through

faith, by grace, we can live under the federal head

of Jesus and stand by faith

through faith in the favor of Almighty God.

And so here's the question.

Have you moved

from Adam to Jesus?

If you haven't, do you

not realize the benefits of doing so?

And the peril of not.

And I want to invite you into that.

And beginning to live under the reign of grace.

And you prove me.

God, you are a good God. The.

And you have been all good to us. You.

And there are some

this morning who are ready to move

from the headship of Adam to the headship of Jesus.

Thank you for hearing their prayers,

friends.

I would invite you in this moment.

If you've never done that, to do that now,

in simplicity of faith and the faith of a child

simply between you and God, say, God, I agree with you.

I am a trespasser.

I broken your rule.

And I repent of it.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah,

I accept the work

Jesus that you did on the cross

for my forgiveness.

And I accept you into my life.

And I choose you as my forgiver

and my leader. Oh.

Simple faith.

Those of you who have prayed that.

Welcome to the family.

God now looks at you

as you stand before him with excited, joyful eyes.

And he doesn't just love you, he likes you.

Welcome.

For some of you, you've prayed that prayer

and you've lived still as if you have to earn God's smile.

Yeah,

and I want to invite you into God's grace.

And for you, I would encourage you just to say something like this.

Father, thank you that you don't just love me.

You like me.

And thank you that I don't have to try

to be good enough to make you smile.

I trust you by faith.

And I receive all that your grace offers.

I thank you

that I can forever stand in your presence

with your favor

and with your smile.

Help me live in that liberation

and with that hope and joy. Oh!

Father, you are a good God,

and you've been so good to us through your son. So,

God, I pray that the truth of your word would resonate in us,

that you would protect it for being stolen from our hearts,

that we would feed.

Father, I pray

that NSU would raise up a people.

Who live under the reign of grace

through faith in your son.

By your grace,

in your name I pray. Amen.

Amen.

It's an I love you.

Thank you for going through Romans five with us.

Here's here's take this week and read Romans five again.

And then read Romans six and get ready for next week.

Be good.

Listen, some of you made some commitments.

Some of you made commitments.

And here's my ask.

I did in the first I forgot to do it this year.

So I was going to ask you to raise up your hand for these commitments.

You're amazing. I forgot that to do that.

And so here's, here's, here's my ask if you made some commitment,

I want to make sure that we're praying with you and for you specifically.

And so David is right over there. I'm right here.

Sarah is there, too.

Jeff is here like, we're around here, John, or right down

here, like, would you come and say, hey, I prayed one of those prayers

and just let us pray with you and confirm that,

like, don't be afraid of that.

You stand with the favor and smile of God on your life.

You got nothing to be afraid of.

You understand what I'm saying?

Yeah. Let's sing.