That One Man Jesus Christ, Jeff Kliewer

Cornerstone Church iconCornerstone Church

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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org Romans 5:6-21

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Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer, and then open his word. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for the indescribable gift that we have in Jesus Christ.
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Thank you that we can celebrate this and remember by the body and blood, the bread and the cup, what you have done for us to secure our eternal redemption.
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You save us to the uttermost. And now Lord, as we open your word, we pray that you would encourage us in our walk with you, that you would strengthen us, that we would not forget the benefits we have of justification by faith.
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Help us to be strong and encourage us this morning, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
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Well, last week I had the privilege of leading a group of kids, and some older people as well, on a hike up Sunrise Mountain up in North Jersey.
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And the problem was we ended up starting the hike on the top of the mountain rather than starting at the bottom and hiking up to the top.
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Has anybody ever made that mistake before? The problem is as you begin to go down, and we were going across the
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Appalachian Ridge, but the Sunrise Mountain peak was the high point. So as you begin to go down, you don't realize how far you've gone before it's kind of too late.
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You can bite off more than you can chew. And in fact, I think I got a little bit chatty.
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One of the kids was asking me about some of my growing up stories. So I was telling about how me and my brothers built a fort in the attic, and I was going on and on like a grandpa, just talking and talking about the good old days.
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And before we knew it, I asked Abby how far we had gone because she had a watch that was tracking, and we were almost three and a half miles out, which is a problem because the heat of the day was approaching and we needed to go back uphill.
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So it became a grueling task. And so as we went, we began to quote
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Romans chapter five from last week's sermon to encourage one another to remain strong and to persevere through the trial.
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And what was that? Romans five, three and four, you remember? But suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint.
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So let's turn to Romans chapter five and think about this, that the
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Lord Jesus Christ has given us incredible gifts, benefits associated with being saved.
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Last week, we said that those gifts are three, according to Romans five, one and two.
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The first is peace with God, peace with God. There is no more hostility, no more wrath or anger against our sin because Christ has propitiated that wrath.
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There's no more war in his heart towards us. But there was a second benefit of being justified by faith and that is access to the throne of God.
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We can go right into the very presence of God and make requests before his throne. He welcomes us in at any point.
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And then thirdly, we were told that we have joy in hope, that Christians ought to be a joyful people, not moping around and feeling sorry for ourselves, but filled with the joy of the
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Lord and yet in this life, we will suffer. Now, our little hike, seven and a half miles in the mountains of North Jersey along the
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Appalachian Trail, there was some suffering involved with that. Someone turned their ankle, somebody else fell down and scraped their hand a little bit.
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These were minor difficulties, but you had to endure and build character and yet we persevered, right?
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But this life sometimes deals much more difficult blows than that. The death of a loved one, a debilitating disease, a disappointment at work or at school or some failure or some crushing situation that can steal your joy, leave you deflated and no longer celebrating salvation.
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This chapter in the Bible, as it was for us on the hike, ought to be for the rest of your life, a source of joy and hope even in the midst of suffering.
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The benefits that we have in Christ are so much deeper and better than what we realize.
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We're gonna pick up in verse six today and continue on with what we ought to think about justification by faith and how the benefits of peace and access and joy come to us through Christ.
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Very often we fall away from our first love, we backslide, we forget the benefits of salvation and at times like those, we lose our joy, we lose our peace, life becomes overwhelming, we lose sight of Christ.
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But when we read Romans chapter five and these five benefits, it gives us an overwhelming sense of joy.
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This is the source of joy. The first one is a love that the world has never seen, an otherworldly kind of love, verses six to eight.
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For while we were still weak, at the right time,
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Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.
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But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
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Christ died for us. So the first encouraging thought this morning is the love of God, which is greater far, greater by far than tongue or pen could ever tell.
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The love of God in the giving of the Son of God to die for our sins is unlike anything this world has ever seen.
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There are examples of love and heroism in this world. Verse seven tells us perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.
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There are soldiers in the room today. Some of you would have smothered a grenade for your brothers in arms.
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The Secret Service is a great example of people who are willing to die for another person.
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This country will deem certain people as being valuable to the nation and to our good as a nation.
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And the Secret Service is assigned to protect those who the country values and considers especially important.
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For example, a month and a half ago, there was an assassination attempt on President Trump. And I think none of us missed the fact that it was only the providence of God that spared his life.
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God saved him because by a miracle, he turned his head and tilted his head at just the second that a bullet went flying by.
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But think about the Secret Service in that moment, at least the ones who were on the ground. They rushed and covered
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President Trump. They were willing to take a bullet for him. They put their heads in front of the head of President Trump as the bullets were flying by, willing to die because in their line of work, they consider this life valuable and important.
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And imagine the chaos that would have erupted in the country had that assassination succeeded.
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There was a value assigned to President Trump in that case and they were willing to die, but now feel the force of verse eight.
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But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
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Christ died for us. A soldier would smother a grenade and a
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Secret Service member would take a bullet for someone that they value. Every mother in this room would lay down your life for one of your children in a heartbeat and so would the fathers.
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But this is a love unlike anything this world has ever seen. We have seen human love and the valuing of a life but the world has never seen one who would die for an enemy while they are in their rebellion.
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If there's any analogy in my story about President Trump, it's not to the value of the man protected, but to the hostility of the one who took the shot.
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If we're like anybody in that story, we are like the shooter on the tin roof, hostile, violent, and in the midst of our offense,
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Christ is willing to stand in for us. Do you see that? So in verse seven, it says for a righteous person, someone might be willing to die, but consider the love of God.
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I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the
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Nazarene and I wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean.
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How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song will ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my
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Savior's love for me. I was painting the house this last week and it seemed that all of the little creatures conspired against me.
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The bee stung me in the ear and on the elbow. The mosquito kept bugging around until I would crush it.
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And there was even a little biting fly that landed on my arm and I saw him and I crushed him. And I had no hesitation.
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I even took my shoe off and hit that bee against the wall. No hesitation because these little creatures are insignificant compared to a human life.
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Psalm chapter eight says, when I consider the heavens and the work of your hands, what is man that you are mindful of us?
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God is infinitely greater than the human creature, more so than we are greater than a mosquito or a bee or a fly.
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And yet we, without hesitation, would crush the bug or the bee.
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Yet God, looking at us while we are hostile towards him, biting at him, sinning against him, rebelling against the king of kings, in that moment of our hostility, he stood in and died for us.
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He could have crushed us like a bug and that's what we deserved. The first great reminder of Romans chapter five, verses six to 21.
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The first is the love of God. There's never been a love like this.
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You are loved with a love that's never been seen before in the history of the world.
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The love of God is infinitely greater than any human love and that's the love that surrounds you.
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Second, you have assurance of salvation if you believe in Christ.
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It says in verses nine to 11, since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
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For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, that phrase much more is repeated again and again in this passage because Romans five is the comparison and we'll get to the comparison with Adam and his act of rebellion with Christ and his act of obedience, but all of this is a comparison to draw out in our minds an appreciation of what
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God has done. And here when it says much more, verse 10, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?
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And I'm telling you, this passage is for your joy, that you would be a joyful Christian with hope, enduring suffering, with gladness because in verse 11, it says more than that, we also rejoice in God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
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This means that what God did in Christ, the death of Jesus on the cross, already paid the price of your sin.
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You were reconciled to God through the death of the son, by faith, you are united with Christ, his death stands in for yours.
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And the idea here is if the death penalty for your sin is already satisfied, it is certain that you will be saved.
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Anybody that tells you that you can lose your salvation is a liar.
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Your salvation was not secured by you, it was earned by Christ.
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Once and for all, and this is the point of this verse, look at verse nine, it says much more.
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If you're already reconciled, if God has already declared you righteous, finished all the wrath, then much more, verse nine, shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God?
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There is no wrath left. You will be saved in eternal glory on account of what
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Christ has already done. You can't lose your salvation. You also, having heard the word of truth, having believed, were marked in him with the promised
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Holy Spirit, who is a seal that guarantees your redemption until the redemption of all those who are
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God's possession. Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus, Philippians 1, 6.
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You see, the idea here is that what Christ has done finished the work.
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You cannot lose what he has done. Isn't that wonderful? So there's two great realities now to consider, and we move on to the third.
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The first is the love of God. Greater than anything in this world.
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The second is the surety of salvation. That believing he has already reconciled you in Christ, you can't lose it.
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And the third, and this is key, to remember where you came from.
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Remember where you were destined to go had Christ not interceded.
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Let's look at verses 12 to 14. It is about the reign of death, and here begins the comparison with Adam, who is a type of Christ.
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Verses 12 to 14 is where we were under the reign of death.
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Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
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For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given. But sin is not counted where there is no law.
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Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
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Remember where we were in that other man, Adam. This is the reign of death on account of sin coming into the world.
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In Genesis chapter two, what were Adam and Eve told? You must not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you will die.
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Sure enough, they disobeyed. And Adam, as the leader in that relationship, the head, remember he was made first, and Eve was taken from his rib.
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He was in the position of the head, the federal head. It's a very important concept in this verse.
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It says in verse 12, as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, that is through Adam, Adam's sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned.
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How is it that people died between Adam and Moses?
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God's law had not been given. They had the law of conscience, but the law had not been given through Moses.
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If they didn't have the law, how were they transgressors? How can we say that they were sinners if they didn't know any better?
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How do they know what's right and what's wrong? And to some people who don't know the difference between right and wrong get a free pass because they don't know any better.
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The evidence that all people are under the reign of death is the fact that 10 out of 10 people die.
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This is what the apostle is saying. Death shows that they likewise were sinful.
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John Gill is one of my favorite theologians and commentators. He summarizes these verses this way.
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Listen, all men were naturally and seminally in Adam as he was the common parent of mankind.
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He had all human nature in him. Because all mankind comes naturally and from the seed of the one man,
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Adam, all people inherit his nature. He's the natural seminal head of humanity.
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Humanity turns out like their father because they inherit from their father the same kind of nature.
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Some people say, well, I can't help but do it. That's just my nature.
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Would that be a good excuse for a demon? When the devil lies, he's the father of lies and he speaks his native language when he lies.
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It's just his nature to lie. Does that excuse the devil? Why would it excuse us? You see, the nature is inherited from Adam.
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But there's another point that many people miss here. This is a deep theological truth called the federal headship of Adam.
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John Gill goes on. He says, Adam was also the covenant head and representative of all his posterity so that they were in him both naturally and federally.
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This word federal headship refers to Adam as the covenant head of humanity.
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So all sinned in him and fell with him by his first transgression into condemnation and death.
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Adam was not only our parent and we inherited a nature from him, he was also the representative head of humanity.
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Every household with a marriage, with a father and a mother and children, this design of God for a family includes the headship of the man in the family.
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The man is the representative who ought to stand before God and be accountable as the head for his whole family.
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Now, not all men do that well, right? Certainly not. But the principle is there.
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He has headship in his home. How is it that the priesthood of the
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Levites was inferior to the priesthood of Melchizedek? Now, this is a little inside baseball.
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If you're not familiar, you can tune out for just a minute. But the answer to that is that Abraham was the federal head in that covenant of the
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Abrahamic covenant. Levi was in Abraham. And so when
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Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, Levi, under his federal head, was shown to be lesser than Melchizedek.
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Remember this from Genesis 14? Read it in Hebrews 7 if you want to learn more about it.
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But the point is there is a headship. And this is a big idea.
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Because when it says in verse 12, death spread to all men because all sinned, it's not referring to sins of commission which made them guilty.
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The little baby in the womb might die before seeing the light of day, but death shows that he still has sin.
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So it's not sins of commission in view here. Everyone is dying because the federal head in covenant with God rebelled and all of those under that headship are counted guilty as well.
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You cannot understand the imputation of Christ's righteousness without first understanding this.
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The guilt of Adam was imputed to his posterity, to all people.
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The guilt of Adam was imputed, but the glorious truth of the Bible is that there are three imputations in Scripture.
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The word impute simply means credit or account. The first imputation is the guilt of Adam to all mankind.
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But the second imputation is that sin and guilt imputed to Christ.
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2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us that in him we would become the righteousness of God.
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So our sin was put on Christ onto his account and he bore the weight of that.
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And the third imputation is his righteousness counted to us. Does it make sense?
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The sin of Adam was counted to all mankind.
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The sin of a believer is imputed to Christ's account and his righteousness is accounted to us.
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That's what verses 12 to 14 means. And here we're only looking at the problem, which is that all people are under this condemnation of death.
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And so look out at the world, 10 out of 10 people die. Knowing that, people begin to comfort themselves even by celebrating death.
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Abortion has become a sacred right even in this country, but it is the killing of a human life.
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The whole trans movement is a mutilating of the body so that a man or a woman would never be able to reproduce, produce life.
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Euthanasia is the killing of an older person or someone with a disease because life is not valued.
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Death seems to them to be something to be celebrated. All of the talk of climate change and how mankind is the problem, desiring to control the population and suppress population is the opposite of the life mandate, be fruitful and multiply.
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The world celebrates death. Without Christ, it's becoming a cult of death.
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Doesn't it make sense? Because all people are dying and they comfort themselves and even celebrate what looms large over them.
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This is the reign of death. And church, the point that should bring us joy is but for the grace of God, there go
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I. If it weren't for what comes next in the text, we would remain there.
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Very often we think we're owed something in this life. When the circumstances turn rough, we think, why is this happening to me?
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But the Bible teaches us to think this way. What I deserve is to be six feet underground, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
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And worse than that, this does not picture only physical death, but spiritual separation from God in a place called hell.
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That's where we deserve to go under the reign of death. So now the comparison and the contrasting with Adam and Christ becomes all the more beautiful as we move into verses 15 to 17.
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The free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man,
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Jesus Christ, I name my sermon, that one man, Jesus Christ, because of this verse.
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The glory, the spotlight is put on him. The free gift abounded for many.
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Verse 16, and the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin.
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For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification to be declared righteous.
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For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, there was that problem.
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Adam's sinfulness brought the reign of death, but halfway through verse 17, much more.
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In contrast to that, will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life?
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So the reign of life is contrasted with Adam's reign of death, and we reign in life through the one man,
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Jesus Christ. Did you guys know that this whole world was created by him and for him?
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This world is deceived into thinking that each individual human, creatures made in the image of God, are the masters of their own destiny and the center of their own worlds.
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But the truth of the matter is that people were made not for ourselves as such, but to glorify the son of God, and everybody will.
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Either in eternal judgment under the reign of death where God is shown to be just, or by obedience to Christ in faith, to be saved through the free gift of salvation.
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Ephesians 1 .6 talks about salvation as being to the praise of his glorious grace.
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The thought here is that the grace of Christ in saving people, contrasted with the sinfulness and the condemnation that comes from Adam, the gracious gift is something to be celebrated and remembered forever.
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It glorifies Christ as preeminent. Paul would say when he was preaching on Mars Hill to all these skeptical idol worshipers, he says, there's coming a day when
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God will judge the world by a man. That one man,
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Jesus Christ, and he proved it by resurrecting him from the dead. The world revolves around Jesus Christ.
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Everything is for his glory. And the gift of grace was to exalt him to the preeminent place,
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Colossians 1, 15 to 20. That all things were made by him and for him.
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Lastly, in verses 18 to 21, we have the cross.
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This final thought is that even as, in comparison, even as Adam's sinfulness wrecked all of us through one act of disobedience, he ate one apple or one piece of fruit.
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We don't know what kind of fruit it was. And by one act of disobedience, all of this death came into the world.
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All of the things that we endure, the worst kind of sufferings in this world came, thanks a lot,
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Adam, but there was one act of obedience by the one man,
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Jesus Christ, that did the opposite thing, but the results of it are just as pervasive.
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All of humanity dies in Adam. Now all who believe in Christ are made alive through this one act, verses 18 to 21.
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Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
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Now pause right there. Origin was one of the first universalists. People who believe that everybody is gonna be saved in the end, whether in this life or maybe in a second chance after this life, everybody's gonna be saved.
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And they point to this verse because there's a parallel, a comparison. All people die in Adam, and it says all have life in Christ, but you have to keep reading the context.
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The context of what is said here. It is not universalism. Go back to the concept of the federal head.
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As in the representative headship of Adam, everyone born from Adam is accounted guilty and condemned.
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In that same way, all men who have Christ as a federal head being justified through faith in him, united with him, all of these men, look at verse 19, are justified.
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For as by the one man's disobedience, the many, this is the idea here, that the result goes to many, they were made sinners.
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So by the one man's obedience, that's the cross. When Jesus prayed, not my will in the flesh, the desires to avoid suffering, but your will be done.
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And he obeyed and went to the cross through that obedience, the many will be made righteous.
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So who are the many? It's the believers. The law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
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Could the law of Moses save the people? No, it could only show that they were falling short of the glory of God.
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It couldn't save anyone. It only increased the trespass. So that, verse 21, as sin reigned in death, people kept dying from Moses all the way on, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our
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Lord. Now when we die, it is not death as it was in Adam.
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It is only stepping through a threshold into the eternal shore of a glorious life that never ends.
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Life has conquered death. The one act of righteousness on the cross has accomplished this for us.
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So church, these are the thoughts that will preserve you. One of the things that you hear people say is don't tell me how to think.
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Don't tell me what to do. If you allow this chapter of God's word,
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Romans 5, to tell you how to think, your heart will be guarded in the things it promised in verses one and two.
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Peace with God, access to God, and joyful, joyful hope through any storm, through any trial.
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This life is kind of like that hike that the kids went on this week. It's difficult.
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Sometimes it gets very difficult. But if you will train your mind to think about these five things, you might have to just read this chapter every day this week to train yourself to do this.
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But to think about the love of God. You are loved with an inexpressible love, something that far surpasses anything this world has ever seen.
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Think about the love that you were given. Think about the assurance that you have.
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Every other religion, think about this. Every other religion forces you to perform and hopefully do well enough to make it to heaven.
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God declares you righteous at the moment you believe. You already have that surety of heaven.
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Isn't that awesome? So you're not on the hamster wheel. You're free, you believe and you're saved, and now you don't try to earn from God, but in joyful obedience and worship, you offer him your best because you want to, because you're so grateful.
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The love of God, the assurance of salvation. Remembering the reign of death.
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Very often we think we deserve more because we forget where we came from. Remember, but for the grace of God, there go
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I. Remembering the reign of Adam's death. And then number four, the preeminence of Christ and his gracious gift.
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Contrast that with what Adam gave you and celebrate salvation, grace.
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And then finally, the cross. Just think about the cross. When you really feel like you can't take another step.
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When you think your ankle's gonna twist and your knee's gonna buckle and you're just gonna be a puddle on the ground.
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Think about the cross. Because Jesus was reduced to a puddle on the ground.
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He was poured out, his blood shed. And in that one act of obedience, he secured an eternal redemption.
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He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to him by faith. Amen. So let's close in a word of prayer.
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Father, we are so encouraged by Romans chapter five, the benefits of justification by faith.
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Father, teach us that justification by faith is not just a doctrine. Teach us that it is our peace with God.
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It is our access to the throne room. It is our joy and our hope.
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And Father, I pray for your people right now that they would remember Adam, compare and contrast the reign of death through one act of disobedience.
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And remember that one man, Jesus Christ, that we would never lose sight of him.
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That we would consider Christ, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the
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Father. Help us, Lord, to see Jesus Christ, to remember him crucified. And so,
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Lord, I pray for us as a church that we would be marked by joyful hope. Remind us of Romans five every day that we need it.
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I think about those kids calling back the answer. Suffering produces endurance.
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Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. We pray that this would be the kind of church that we are, filled with joyful hope.