WWUTT 1238 Grace Abounded All the More? (Romans 5:19-21)

Romans 5:18-19 and the Difference Between Adam and Christ

Romans 5 .20 says where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. This isn't permission for you to go sin, but rather as the law reveals to you your sin, it makes the grace of God all the more beautiful when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing and if this is ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you Becky. We come back to our study of Romans chapter 5 and we just have a couple of verses to finish up here. So I'm going to start reading where we left off yesterday, verse 18 and we'll go to the end of the chapter.

Therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So in verse 18, which we looked at yesterday, we read as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. This is not advocating universalism or the idea that every single person goes to heaven, but this is one of those verses that is beloved by universalists.

They love to take this one out of context and say, see, look, it even says right here, one act of righteousness, Christ, leads to justification and life for all men. But remember I said to you on Monday that Paul chooses his adverbs very carefully here, and when you read this in context with what we just read in verse 17, here's what we understand.

Everyone who is born of Adam receives condemnation, but everyone who is born again of Christ receives justification and life. So it's not saying that everybody goes to heaven. Everyone is justified. Everyone gets life.

It's saying that everyone in Adam dies. Everyone in Christ is alive. That's the context. Got to be careful with that. And then we see a use of adverbs change when we get to verse 19. So you got to catch the shift in the language there.

What is Paul trying to communicate? So in verse 19, for as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. There we have the use of many again. So we've gone from many, which we had in verse 15.

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, Jesus Christ abounded for many. Then we shifted to all in verse 18, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men.

So one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men. And then verse 19, for as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. We return to many again. So by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.

Why many? Why have we gone from all to many? Because remember verse 18, once again, all is everyone born of Adam or all born of Adam are in condemnation, but all born again in Christ receive justification.

Everyone. There isn't a single person who was born again in Christ who doesn't get justification. Everyone who is born again, who repents of sin, who puts faith in Christ, who follows him, who worships him as God.

This person receives justification and eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, everybody. Everybody in Adam dies. Everybody in Christ lives. Then we go back to 19 and we shift back to many for as by the one man's disobedience, a reference to Adam, Adam was the one who disobeyed.

The many were made sinners, many meaning everybody, but Jesus, Jesus, who is a man. He is the word made flesh and dwelt among us. Christ himself was sinless. He was not born of the seed of Adam. And so therefore there was no sin in him from his conception.

He is the spotless lamb who came to take away the sin of the world, whereas from your conception, you are born into sinfulness by the one man's disobedience. By Adam's disobedience, the many were made sinners.

That's everybody but Jesus, many. So by the one man's obedience, by Christ's obedience, the many will be made righteous and that being everyone who was born again in Christ. So be careful with the, with the use of the adverbs here.

There's people that want to twist this stuff. They want to take it out of context. They want to make it mean something that it doesn't actually mean. But what we've been exploring here is we've been going over Romans chapter five, particularly in verse 12 is we're seeing the contrast between Adam as our federal head when we are born and Christ who is our federal head when we are born again, as in Adam all die.

So in Christ, all will be made alive. Paul mentions that in another place. Actually I just quoted to you first Corinthians 15, 22 for as in Adam all die. So also in Christ shall all be made alive. Skipping down a little bit further in verse 45, thus it is written.

The first man, Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust.

The second man is from heaven as was the man of dust. So also are those who are of the dust and as is the man of heaven. So also are those who are of heaven, just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

So there you have in first Corinthians 15, that contrast there between Adam and Christ. We are born in Adam to condemnation. We are born again in Christ to justification. In Adam, we receive death. In Christ, we receive life.

Adam is the federal head of every single human being who is born. But when you are born again, Christ becomes your federal head and everything that the father has promised to Christ is promised to us.

We are fellow heirs of the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. For as by the one man's disobedience, verse 19, the many were made sinners. So by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.

Justification, Sanctification, and the Imputed Righteousness of Christ

So we've been talking about justification. Here we're talking about sanctification. We are justified before God, meaning that we're declared innocent. Our sins are not held against us. They've been paid for by Christ, but we are also being sanctified.

Everyone whom Christ justifies, he also sanctifies. Paul saying to the Philippians in Philippians chapter one, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

So we have this work that is being accomplished in us through Jesus Christ, our Lord, by faith. And this is being made holy. We're being made more like Jesus. Paul will come back to this again in Romans 8, 29, that we're being shaped into the image of the son.

We're not only declared righteous, but we're being grown in righteousness, that which we could not do before we came to Christ. Now we can do in Christ, namely, keep the law, obey God and desire to obey God.

See, before we were we were justified, before we were regenerated and came to love God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we hated God. We were rebelling against God. We could not keep his law. Paul will say this as well in Romans.

That's also coming up in chapter eight, where we who are in the flesh cannot please God. So when we were in such a state that we were rebellious from the heart against God, we could do nothing to please him.

Even the good things that you did before you became a Christian were not pleasing to God. Like you're walking around, not murdering people. It's not like God is going, ah, what a good servant of mine.

He doesn't love Jesus yet, but he's a good guy because he's not killing anybody. Yeah, you're keeping the sixth commandment. At least you think you are. Until you read in Matthew, chapter five, Jesus say you ever hated somebody, you ever called them names.

Yeah. Guess what? You're a murderer at heart. It's the same. You've done the same in your heart as a person who who murders another. This is the contempt that you have for other people. So you've broken the sixth commandment.

And the purpose of the law was to reveal to us, was to expose to us that sin that was inherently within us because we were born into condemnation, having been born under the federal headship of Adam. That's where Paul goes next when we get to verse 20.

So he's talking about through the obedience of Christ, many will be made righteous. There is a righteousness that has been imputed to us so that now we may live and walk in a way that is pleasing unto the Lord.

So by his obedience, by Christ's obedience, we're made righteous. Now you're probably familiar with an expression or a term in theology that is referred to as Christ's active and his passive obedience.

Now oftentimes this is talked about in this way, that Jesus' active obedience was his sinless life and his passive obedience was his atoning death. But that's not really accurate because everything in Christ's life was his active and his passive obedience.

It was a lifelong work. So it's best to understand active and passive obedience in this way. Everything that Christ did to fulfill God's will, submitting in obedience to God's will, obeying, keeping the law in every way, living in his life sinlessly.

That was his active obedience. And then taking the penalty for our sin upon himself, though he did not deserve the penalty, but this was also in submission to God's will. And then he bored the penalty for our sins.

That was his passive obedience. So all of these things culminate in the cross. Both his passive obedience that led to suffering and his active obedience, which was his submission to the will of God. So what we receive when we believe in Christ by faith, we have his righteousness imputed to us.

Both his active and his passive obedience bound up into the righteousness that we receive. We have the fact that Christ bore our penalty in himself with his death on the cross. And so that's been imputed to us.

We're declared righteous. And also what he accomplished in his life, keeping God's law, submitting to his will in everything, even unto his death, that's been imputed to us as well. And so when we live our lives, we are to live as Jesus did.

And this is part of that imputation that we receive. If we do not walk as he walked, then we're probably demonstrating that we're not saved. If you are in Christ, you will live your life as he did. If you're not in Christ, you will show no fruit of that transformation that has happened.

1 John 2 and the Evidence of Knowing Christ

Consider these words in 1 John 2, starting in verse 1. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Let me say that again.

That's verse 3. So verse 2 is another one of those that tends to get taken out of context and used as a universalist verse. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Now it's talking about everyone in the world who will come to Christ, not just the people in that generation who believed in him, but the whole world of men who would come to faith in him. Generations to come would be cleansed by the blood of Christ.

He's the propitiation for their sins as well. Everyone who comes to faith in him. So verse 3 is where it says, this is how we know that we've come to know him. So it's not just saying everybody is saved, but only those who are in Christ and walk in his way.

Verse 3. And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. How do we know that you have the imputed righteousness of Christ? Because you desire to keep the law of God and walk in his commandments.

Jesus said to his disciples in John 14, 15, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments. So we know that we have come to know him. If we keep his commandments, whoever says I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar.

And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected. By this, we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

So we will demonstrate that we have received the righteousness of Christ when we live as he lived, when we, like Christ, desire to do the will of God, to submit to God's will, to obey his commandments.

Now the righteousness, the justification that we have received by faith in Christ, that is not our work. We've already established that. Going back to the first verse in Romans 5, 1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a work that God has done in our hearts, not a work that we do. But we don't do justification. We're also not the ones who accomplish our sanctification. Christ justifies us, and he also sanctifies us.

Now I'm not going to expound on that too much more because I want to finish up Romans 5, but Paul does when we get to Romans 7. So we'll talk about that more there. In the meantime, verse 20, now the law came in to increase the trespass.

But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So the law came in to increase the trespass. We became all the more knowledgeable and understanding of our sin when we looked in the law. Paul talked about this in Romans 3, and that's also something else that comes up again in Romans 7.

This is Romans 3, verses 19 and 20 again. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So what did the law accomplish for us but to reveal to us our sinfulness from the heart?

It was straight down to the heart, down to our core, since we are by our nature sinners having been born in the line of Adam. This is our nature, the same nature that Adam had. So we have, rebellious against God, wanting to go our own way, disobeying the law.

The law came in to increase the trespass. Like you probably knew before you became a Christian that you were a bad person. It's a pretty common thing in our society to hear someone say, hey, nobody's perfect.

Like I make mistakes, you make mistakes, I've sinned, you've sinned. People who don't fear God will say things like that. So you may have known before you came to Christ you weren't perfect, you had done wrong, you had made mistakes, but when you looked in the law, you became all the more knowledgeable of that sin.

You may not have known exactly the extent of your sin or the specifics of your sin, but when you looked in the law, suddenly you understood. But there's another aspect to this as well. This is a little more complicated, I'll try to simplify it as best as I can.

But when we understand that the law increased the trespass, there are certain things that at certain times were sin according to the law that aren't sin anymore. Let me give you an example of this because that will probably help you understand it.

So in Genesis chapter 9, after God had destroyed the world in a flood, Noah and his family had gotten off the ark, Noah built an altar and made a sacrifice unto God. God said to Noah in Genesis 9 3, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.

And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. So every animal, every living creature was food for man, according to God in Genesis 9 3. But then when you get to Leviticus 11, there are certain foods that God said were not clean.

Previously in Genesis 9, everything was clean. But when Israel is called out of slavery and they're about to be given the promised land, there are certain animals that God says are not clean for them.

And this had to do with ceremonial cleanliness. Eventually we get to like Mark 7 and Acts chapter 10. And Paul will talk about this later on in Romans 14, where those foods that had previously been declared unclean, Christ made clean again.

So there was a time in which for ceremonial purposes to to reveal in a type and a shadow sort of a sense, the fact that people were unclean and we needed a high priest who was clean to go in and to atone for our sins.

The high priest would do this in the holy of holies. Christ is our high priest now. OK, so to help us understand this concept or well, not to help us understand it, but rather as a type or a shadow of the great high priest who was to come, then we had this ceremonial law that was given and the trespasses increased until Christ comes and fulfills it.

And then grace increases all the more. Does that make sense? I probably could spend more time explaining that, but I hope that that was simple enough that maybe you get what I'm talking about. Those things like the ceremonial laws or even clean and unclean animals in Leviticus 11, those things no longer apply.

The ceremonial law was fulfilled in Christ, but that law was given to increase the trespass that we could see our uncleanness in the presence of a holy God. And Christ would come and fulfill that. And the grace of God abounds all the more in in Christ being our great high priest.

And now we have access into the holy of holies through him who has gone in on our behalf. Grace abounded all the more. This is another verse that gets taken out of context. And there was one time when I even said to a pastor friend of mine, we were disagreeing on a particular teacher.

And I said, this teacher is wrong. What they are teaching is is like borderline heresy. And he was very defensive of this teacher. I even remember the teacher. But, you know, that would kind of distract from the point.

But anyway, he said he said, well, sure, this teacher is wrong, but sin increased so that grace could abound all the more. And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, brother, do you mean to tell me that we should applaud the fact that this teacher is wrong so we could show her more grace?

That's absurd. That's not what that verse means at all. But that's another way this verse gets taken out of context. Like it's OK if that person sinned. It's so that I can exercise more grace. That's not what that verse means.

It means that we have really sinned. And the law shows us just how much we've sinned. In fact, as you grow in sanctification, you're going to grow all the more in knowledge of just how unworthy you are and how righteous Christ is.

And it's going to make you appreciate the grace of God that has been poured out to us in Jesus Christ all the more as we grow in sanctification. We become all the more aware of the gap that separates us and God and still not able to wrap our minds around that until we walk into glory.

And then we will see him as he is, because we will be made to be like him, as it says in First John, chapter three. So so it is the law increases the trespass where sin increased. Grace abounded all the more.

That was verse 20. And I still have one more verse so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign in through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. As long as you live, you will continue that journey of righteousness and sanctification, battling with temptations of the flesh, battling with temptations that come at us from the world, battling with the spiritual forces and principalities that we cannot see.

All of these things will be a constant struggle until that day that we walk into eternity with our Lord Christ. But it's all leading to that wonderful, eternal reward that we have in Christ Jesus. As sin reigned in death, sin reigns over our members.

When we were in death, having been born in the line of Adam, grace also might reign through righteousness. We're in righteousness now, born again in Christ, the grace of God poured into our hearts. And so we live by grace, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, that we may grow in sanctification and all of this until the day of Christ's return.

Amen. Kind of rushed the ending there, but I hope you got it. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness constantly. Help us to understand what it means to live by grace and live in righteousness today.

In Jesus' name, amen.

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