The Reign of Grace - Romans 5:15-21
INTRODUCTION:
Last Sunday we looked at the introduction to the second section of Romans chapter five which takes us to the end of the chapter. In verses 12-14 Paul introduces us to the reign of death and how death is universal based on the truth that Adam is an actual historical person. Through Adam sin entered the human realm when he disobeyed God’s one prohibition and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The result of this disobedience was death, which happened immediately spiritually. Adam was immediately separated from God and his spiritual nature became sinful. That sin nature he passed down to all his descendants which is the human race and we are born dead in our trespasses and sins, separated from God, mortal which means we are each subject to die physically and finally eternal separation from God in the lake of fire where we will face eternal torment for our sin. One man’s disobedience as the head or representative of the human race brought condemnation on the whole human race. We are condemned for Adam’s sin because we were in his loins at the time that he ate the forbidden fruit, we participated in his disobedience. But Paul ended his introduction by telling us that Adam is type of Him who was to come. The first Adam by one act of disobedience brought death to the whole human race, but the second Adam, Jesus Christ, by one act of obedience makes life, eternal life available to the whole human race.
This morning in the rest of this chapter Paul will contrast the first Adam’s one act of disobedience with the second Adam’s one act of obedience and we will be introduced to a new kingdom and the reign of grace. This passage can be broken up into three parts, the first part focuses on the gift of grace, the second part focuses on the gift of righteousness, and finally the third part on the reign of grace. Let’s pray and then turn to our passage for this morning.
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans 5. We are going to read the whole passage verses 12-21, but this morning we will only focus on verses 15-21. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
Romans 15:12-21,
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:12–21, NASB95)[1]
THE GIFT OF GRACE (Romans 5:15-17)
Paul begins his contrast of Adam and Jesus Christ by speaking of a free gift. These words translated “free gift” come from one word in Greek and the root of that word is the word for grace, this “free gift” is the gift of grace. Remember grace is God’s unmerited favor or kindness to undeserving sinners with no strings attached, so the gift of grace that Paul is talking about is truly a free gift. He begins by saying that this gift of grace is not like the transgression. The transgression he is speaking of is Adam’s act of disobedience when he ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A transgression is the violation of a law or command. God had commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but Adam violated that command. The Greek word translated “transgression” is the word for “trespass” and in Greek means a false step, a blunder, or a deviation from uprightness and truth. Adam deviated from uprightness and truth when he chose to disobey God’s command and eat from the one tree in the Garden of Eden that God had commanded him not to eat from. Paul says, that God’s gift of grace is not like this offence committed by Adam. This one transgression by one man, who was head and representative of the human race at that time, brought death to the many.
We have to understand how Paul uses the terms “many” and “all men” throughout this passage. He uses them to show the parallel between Adam and Christ, but he means differently when he uses those terms with Adam, then when he uses them with Christ. In other words, Paul is not teaching universal salvation, when he uses “many” and “all people” with Adam he is speaking of the whole human race, but when he uses those terms with Jesus Christ they either refer to the fact that what is offered is available to the whole human race, or more likely these terms refer to those who by faith have received God’s gift of grace. Paul has already taught that salvation is by faith through grace alone, that is not what he is teaching here, in this passage he is showing the parallel between Adam and Jesus Christ and how by one act of each they each affected the whole human race.
For if by one transgression by one man the many died, Paul writes much more the grace of God and the gift by grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. What is this gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, it is salvation and it is available to all because of the death of Jesus Christ, God’s grace is seen in sending His own Son to die on the cross in our place, suffering God’s wrath against sin in our place, He became our substitute and suffered the wrath and died the death that we deserved for our sin. Our Scripture reading this morning said that God made Jesus Christ who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21) This is God’s grace and the gift of grace that abounds to the many. Not only is sin paid for, but in Christ we are declared righteous by God.
Paul makes another contrast about this gift that abounds to the many. He writes that this gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. Again, he is talking about Adam and his sin, and he is calling it sin in this instance, not a transgression or a trespass. He goes on to tell us what the result of this sin was from a judicial sense, with God as the Judge. From this one transgression, this one violation of the command of God, the verdict was guilty, the result was condemnation, mankind was condemned and given the death sentence. But the gift is not like that, condemnation and death resulted from one transgression, since that time and since the time of the Law there have been many transgressions, many have violated the Law and many have violated God’s commands, many have sinned in the sense of Adam by transgressing God’s laws and commands. The gift of grace does not only cover the initial transgression that brought condemnation, but because it is abundant grace it arose to cover all of the transgressions from Adam’s and forward, sufficient to cover the transgressions of the whole human race past, present and future, and the result of this gift of grace is justification, we are declared righteous by God when we receive this gift of grace by faith in Jesus Christ, we have right standing before God clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. God’s unmerited favor to undeserving, condemned sinners. By faith the verdict is reversed from condemned to justified in God’s sight.
Paul moves from this judicial look at Adam’s transgression and the gift of grace offered through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection to looking at the result of Adam’s transgression and the result of the abundance of grace through Jesus Christ. Again, it is a contrast of death and life. Paul speaks of death reigning as a king over the human race because of the transgression of one, again speaking of Adam’s violation of God command to not eat from one tree in the garden, a single prohibition, but disobeying this prohibition brought death to reign through Adam as he passed his sin nature onto all of his descendants. Death was a tyrannical king putting his subjects into slavery their whole lives, and fear of him their whole lives because he always brought separation, grief, and misery. Much more Paul writes are those who receive by faith the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. God’s abundant grace and gift of righteousness bring us out of the realm of death and death is ended as we reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Death brings separation, Jesus Christ brings fellowship and life. Notice that life does not reign over us like death, it does not reign in us, but rather through Jesus Christ we reign in life in all the freedom that is in Christ and all the power that is ours through Christ, and this reigning in life will be eternal. Paul spoke of this in our Scripture reading this morning, how in Christ we are completely new creations, not bound by death, but reigning in new life through Christ. Paul wrote, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NASB95)[2] For those who have become new creatures in Christ, the reign and terror of death is ended because Christ has triumphed over it by His resurrection. The Author of Hebrews writes in chapter 2:14-15, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” (Hebrews 2:14–15, NASB95)[3] No longer are we held in slavery, no longer do we fear death because we have been freed from its power, it no longer reigns over us because we are new living creatures in Christ reigning in life through Him.
THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (Romans 18-19)
Paul began by using God’s gift of grace to contrast with the transgression of Adam. Then in verse 17 he spoke of the gift of righteousness, or justification that is ours the moment we place our faith in Christ for salvation. Having alluded to the gift of righteousness in verse 17 now in verses 18-19 he shows the contrast between the Adam’s transgression of God’s command, and the one act of Christ that brings righteousness or justification.
As if standing again in the courtroom before the Judge of all the earth, Paul again uses the judicial terms in this contrast. He again begins by speaking of the one transgression, the breaking of the command given to Adam by God, the one prohibition to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Through this one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, this all men refers to the entire human race, we were all condemned for this one transgression as we all inherited Adam’s sin nature which was the result of his disobedience. We looked at all this last week in verse 12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—” (Romans 5:12, NASB95)[4] Sin entered the world, the human realm through Adam, death through sin, death is the result of condemnation, and it spread to all men, the whole human race was condemned because Adam as head or representative of the human race we shared in his sin and inherited his sin nature. Paul then gives us the contrast, he writes, “…even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.” (Romans 5:18b, NASB95)[5] This one act of righteousness can refer to nothing else but the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross. This one act of righteousness satisfied God’s wrath against sin and made it possible for sinners to be forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection on their behalf. This forgiveness resulted in sinners being justified before God, being declared righteous. This is the justification of life, brought out of the realm of death and into the righteousness of Christ which is life. What is the source of all life? Jesus Christ, and if we are justified before God that justification is life, eternal life. If we are in right standing before God, then we have life in Jesus Christ. Can that life be taken away from us? Can we lose it or forfeit it? No because it is secure in Christ, once we are justified, we are no longer condemned, we have been cleared of all charges once and for all eternity.
Paul says it another way, “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19, NASB95)[6] Through one man sin entered the world, that act of disobedience changed the human race forever, every person ever born is born a sinner having inherited Adam’s sin nature. We do not become sinners when we sin, we are born sinners with an innate ability and tendency to sin. We are like this because of one man’s disobedience to God’s command. But because of one act of obedience the many are made righteous. They receive the gift of righteousness because of Christ’s act of obedience in going to the cross. Paul put it this way in Philippians 2:8 speaking of Jesus Christ, “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8, NASB95)[7] The plan of salvation was in place before creation, but at the point in history when Jesus Christ lived, He had to be obedient and carry out the will of His Father to make it possible for sinners to be declared righteous. Jesus Christ humbled Himself and became obedient to the will of God the Father and died paying the penalty for the sins of mankind so that those who in faith come to Jesus Christ they will be made righteous. We are sinners because we are born into Adam’s family, we are righteous when we are born again into God’s family.
THE REIGN OF GRACE (Romans 5:20-21)
As Paul begins to wrap up this contrast between Adam and Jesus Christ, he knew that his Jewish readers would ask about the Law of Moses. If salvation is by grace through faith in Christ because we are all sinners through Adam, what about the Law? So, Paul finishes this section speaking of the Law and grace. If we were to literally translate what Paul wrote in verse 20 it would say, “the Law came in beside…” Let me explain what that means. Grace was not an addition to God’s plan of salvation; grace was always a part of the plan. As you make your way through the Old Testament you will see grace from the beginning. God dealt with Adam and Eve in grace, He dealt with Noah in grace, He dealt with the patriarchs in grace, He dealt with the nation of Israel in grace. Grace was not a new concept in the New Testament; it was part of God’s plan from the beginning. God revealed the Law through Moses, not to replace His grace, but so man would see his need for God’s grace since it was impossible for man to keep the righteous standard of the Law. The Law was temporary, but God’s grace is eternal.
The Law came in beside so man might see his need for grace. The Law caused the transgression to increase. As man violated God’s Law the transgression increased, the sin in the likeness of Adam’s, the violation of God’s commands showing that man shared in Adam’s sin. But Paul writes that where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Sin could never increase enough to reach a point where grace could no longer be applied or where grace lacked. The grace of God will never be in lack but will always be abundantly more than the increase of sin. Sin will never out pace God’s super-abundant grace.
Sin is still in the world today and increasing, and sin reigns through death and in this we see death’s power, sin in death desires to see the complete destruction of those held by its power. But praise God that there is another kingdom that does not seek the destruction of its subjects. Paul writes that even though sin in death is reigning and ruling the hearts of sinful men, grace also is reigning through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The Christian is still tempted by sin and is subject to physical death, but this no longer holds him in fear, because he reigns in life, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death is no longer an unknown, but a stepping from this life into everlasting life in the kingdom and presence of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION:
This morning we have looked at the gift of grace, the gift of righteousness and the reign of grace. Paul has contrasted these with what we have in Adam which is sin, condemnation and death. This might be described as two races each with a head, Adam being the head of the human race and into this race we are all born without choice and because Adam is our head, we are all born sinners with an innate ability and tendency to sin. We are born condemned and our fate is death, we are born spiritually dead separated from God, we will die physically and be separated from this life and we will die eternally being forever separated from God and tormented forever in the lake of fire.
But there is a second race, the head of this race is Jesus Christ and He is spiritually alive because through His death He paid the penalty for sin and through His resurrection He conquered death. By agreeing with God that you are a sinner and by faith coming to Jesus Christ for salvation believing that He died for your sins and rose from the dead triumphing over death you will be come a part of Christ’s race, by His grace you will be made alive in Christ and you will be declared righteous in Christ by God the Father. No longer will death hold you in its grip, even physical death will just be stepping from this life into the presence of Jesus Christ and you will be with Him for all eternity.
My prayer is that each of you are in the spiritually alive race of Jesus Christ, if you are not you can be today.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.