Sunday Sermon: Alive in Christ (Romans 5:15-17)

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You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an

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Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series.

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Here is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Recently, my family and I went out of town. We were on vacation.

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And in my place, one of our other pastors preached, Pastor Chris O 'Neill.

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So here he is teaching on Romans 5, verses 12 through 14.

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We begin with Pastor Chris reading our text. 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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But 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, abounded for many. 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.

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For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man,

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Jesus Christ. You may be seated. Let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the magnificent promise of our salvation and new life in Jesus Christ.

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And we are grateful for your holy word, which records your work through history, from creation to Christ, to your establishment of your church.

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We are grateful that you are still bringing the dead to life through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and his work as our representative, the head of your church, the king of your people.

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God, we pray that you would continue to establish your people right here in this church, in this very building and beyond, as you build and establish your people, make us after the image of our savior,

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Jesus Christ, mold us and shape us into the people that you would have us be, the people of King Jesus.

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As we open your word today, I pray that we would take joy in all that you have accomplished in making us, your children, the people of Christ.

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And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Well, every

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Sunday morning when we gather, we have the privilege to be in the presence of the

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Holy Spirit and to hear the gospel proclaimed, to hear the good news of Christ crucified and Jesus risen.

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But in this church, of course, we preach scripture and we preach it verse by verse. And not every part of scripture gives us a direct and clear explanation of just exactly what that good news is and what it means.

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But this one does. This passage is a direct proclamation of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Now Romans 5, 15 through 17 doesn't actually describe Jesus' death to atone for sin.

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It doesn't specifically mention his resurrection. It doesn't expound on the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, that doctrine that tells us how

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Jesus took our place when he died on the cross and suffered the punishment that we deserved for our sin.

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All of that is part of the background that leads into this passage. But this passage doesn't specifically describe those things.

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In some ways, Romans 5, 15 through 17 is addressing something that's even more essential or even more basic than that.

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Gospel is a very simple message. The message of Christ crucified and Christ risen, the message of faith in King Jesus is very simple.

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It's easy to understand. A child can understand it. But this message in Romans 5, 15 through 17, in some senses, is even more basic than describing how

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Jesus died on a cross, how he rose, how he ascended to heaven. The death and resurrection of Christ, the atonement for your sin, which you receive by faith, is the how of your salvation.

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It's how Jesus accomplished it. It's what he did to procure it, to purchase it for you.

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If you've listened to our sermons here at Providence in these past several weeks and months, we've heard that message taught very clearly.

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But now these few verses in Romans 5, even though they don't directly describe the how of our salvation, they proclaim the what of our salvation.

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It's very simple. Christ is king.

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That's the simple reality of your salvation, is simply that God saved you and Jesus made you belong to him.

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That's what this passage is all about. If you have received him by faith, then

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Jesus is your king. That's the gospel. Christ is king.

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But more importantly than that, if you have received him by faith, he is your king.

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Last week, Pastor Hughes preached the preceding three verses. We read all the way through, verse 12 through 17 this morning.

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And in those three previous verses, Pastor Hughes helped us to understand last week the depth and the implications of Adam's sin and the consequences for everyone who descended from Adam.

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You were born from Adam. That's how you were brought into this world.

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We are born from Adam so that every single one of us, without exception, universally, we all share his nature.

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You know, a tree can't be planted and then decide that it's a cat. You were born of Adam.

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You can't decide otherwise. You were born under the curse. Adam was your father, and so you share his nature.

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The apple doesn't fall so far from the tree, and every sun you can see glimpses of the father, and when you were born, you were born with Adam as your father.

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You shared his nature. You shared his absolute slavery to sin. You shared the consequences of death.

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You shared in his sin, and as soon as you had the opportunity in your life to actually carry out that sin that was in your nature, you did.

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That's where you were born. But in the gospel, we are born again in Christ in a new birth, just like the consequences of Adam's sin are universal and absolute for everyone who is born of Adam, the consequences of Jesus' work are all the more universal and all the more absolute for everyone who is born again in Jesus.

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That's why Jesus said, you must be born again. You are born in Adam.

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You share his nature. You share his curse. When you are born again in Christ, you are renewed into his nature, and you share in his righteousness.

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That's Romans 5, 15 through 17. It's simple. It's just a few short verses, but it's packed with so much meaning and depth, and when we understand it, then we'll find out that that phrase you've heard before, you've sang before, that phrase,

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Christ is King, the name King Jesus, it's not just a title. It is your salvation.

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You are saved because Christ is your King. He is your

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Savior, and he is your King. Now, we're going to unpack this passage this morning, and we're going to address it in two parts.

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First, we're going to address the truth of Jesus' work that this passage teaches to us, and then we're going to go back and we're going to try to apply, to understand how it is that this truth is not only an abstract reality, but it's a treasure to us.

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So first, we want to understand the reality, and then we want to see how it is applied to our own hearts, minds, and lives.

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So first, we want to understand the content of these three verses, the theological, historical, covenantal reality about the relationship with God and man that is taught in these verses.

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These verses set out a contrast and a parallel between Adam and Christ.

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There's a contrast, and there's a parallel. They serve a role that's similar, but they mean something very different for us.

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Between Adam's trespass and Jesus' free gift, we see each of Adam and Christ has an important role, again, that is in parallel, but they're different.

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We want to understand that parallel and that difference, how each one defines our relationship to the

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Creator in different ways. Later on, we'll come back around and then we'll understand how that reality shapes our thoughts and actions and what it means for the nature of our salvation and our life in Christ.

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But first, we want to understand conceptually this distinction between Adam and Christ that the

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Apostle Paul is teaching us here in Romans 5, because that distinction ultimately defines everything about who we are and how we stand before God.

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So we've heard already last week in verses 12 through 14 where Adam stood before God after his original sin.

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We've heard how the consequences of his sin were not just for Adam personally, but for all of his descendants, universally and completely.

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It's summarized again here in this passage, verse 15 through 17. Those consequences are summarized again in verse 15 when it says, many died through one man's trespass.

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And then again in verse 16, the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation.

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And verse 17 repeats the consequences of that condemnation. Death reigned through that one man.

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It reigned. It was powerful, inescapable. It was the authority, the dominant, absolute authority, and it was universal.

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So this is one of those doctrines of the Bible that sometimes upsets people. Death through one man.

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They'll say it's not fair that we shouldn't have to deal with the consequences of somebody else's sin. I'm not Adam.

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But I would tell you that there's nothing unusual about this concept at all.

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There's nothing unfair about it either. And I want to help us see that today.

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In fact, this concept is as natural as anything in the world. It's really, it's how the world works.

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And it's clearly taught by scripture. It's unavoidable in scripture itself. It couldn't be any clearer than it is here in Romans 5, 15 through 17.

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So this doctrine, where death came into the world through one man,

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Adam stood as our representative. He acted on our behalf. We share the consequences of his sin.

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We share his sin and the consequences of his sin. Theologians have given a name to this doctrine.

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It might be helpful to understand that name. And I think it is actually helpful to understand that name.

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So I'm going to tell you this doctrine is called federal headship. You've heard that word before, federal.

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We'll explain a little bit of that this morning. It's called federal headship. And what it means is very simply that we have a representative who acts on our behalf, who acts for us.

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Now we have representatives all the time. People act for you on your behalf all the time.

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This is a very familiar concept. As a matter of fact, if you're married and your spouse signs a contract, guess what?

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That contract can be binding on you too. Your spouse will act on your behalf.

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Now if you're a father and you go out to the casino and you gamble away all of your money and you lose your home, now you're homeless.

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Guess who else is homeless? Your wife and your children. They suffer right along with you.

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They get to share the consequences of your actions. So those are some simple everyday examples of representation, somebody acting on your behalf that are familiar to us, undeniable.

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The nature of it. You can't be born into the world without somebody acting on your behalf.

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Your parents acted on your behalf to birth you. But federal headship actually has an even more direct application than that.

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You might notice federal headship or federalism. Where do we more commonly hear that word?

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Talking about the United States. We have what we call a system of federalism. So it's the same name.

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We're very familiar with that concept in the United States where it refers to and describes the relationship between our national government, that's higher, and then the states that have their own authority but it's lower.

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So historically there were similar relationships that were established between suzerains and vassals.

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So a suzerain was just a greater king, a high king. And the king's vassal was then a lesser king who ruled beneath the greater king.

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So the suzerain, that greater king, that high king would enter a covenant with a vassal king, the lower king.

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And the vassal was a king who represented people under him too. But that vassal would form, the greater king, the high king would form a covenant with the lesser king or the vassal and the vassal's obedience or disobedience would bind all the people under him in covenant for better or for worse, whether that is reward or punishment.

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If that vassal king violated the covenant, then he violated it on behalf of all of his people and the punishment fell on all of those people.

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But if that vassal king was faithful to the covenant with the high king, then that vassal king would earn rewards and the benevolence of the high king on behalf of all the people of that nation.

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So we're very familiar with this in our system of government in the United States, also in different ways.

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In the United States, most of our representatives are elected, most of them, although they have a lot of people who work for them who also act on our behalf in different ways who aren't elected, they're appointed or they're hired in different ways.

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But most of our officials, a lot of our officials are elected and we vote for them, we vote them in.

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And then when they act, they act on our behalf and guess what, their actions bind us. They're binding on us.

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Now you might say, well, that's okay because we elected them. And sure, most of us will agree that our system of elections and our voting rights give some kind of legitimacy to our representatives.

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But for example, when a senator dies or retires early, the president appoints a replacement.

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And guess what? That replacement can act on your behalf too. And that's even though nobody has ever voted for or against that person, it's a different means of that person taking an office, but they still get to represent you.

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And that senator's actions are just as binding on you. Moreover, how many of you can ever remember a time when the guy who got elected was not the guy you voted for?

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Ever happened to any of you? Yeah, that happens sometimes, doesn't it?

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Well guess what? Too bad. That person still gets to act on your behalf and represents you.

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Now, how many of you have ever voted for somebody, and that was the person you voted, and praise the

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Lord, that person got elected, and then that person did things you didn't like, represented you in ways that you didn't appreciate.

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Well guess what? Their actions still bind you. They still act on your behalf.

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So we have representatives by different means, by election, by appointment, and historically, of course, there were kings who became representatives and gained that authority to act on the people's behalf because of their birth, or even because of conquest.

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So there are different ways of attaining that role of representative, but it's not a foreign concept, it's not an unusual concept.

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And despite all the different ways, representation itself is not unfamiliar.

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It's necessary, essential to the way in which we live. It's just that we debate about which means of appointing, electing, or being born into an office of representation is most legitimate.

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People have had those debates throughout history. How do we put somebody into those positions?

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What's most legitimate? What's the most perfect way to find a representative? Well I put it to you that election isn't perfect because not everybody votes for the same person.

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And the people we elect don't always represent us the way we expected or wanted anyway.

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None of the means that are available to us as human beings to appoint a representative is perfectly fair because we are not

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God. But guess who is God? God is

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God! God is God. So you know what the best, most perfectly fair means of appointing a representative actually is?

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It's if God picks your representative. That's how you know it's absolutely fair. Elections, never absolutely fair.

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Never absolutely perfect. But if God picks the representative and he says,

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I am choosing from all the people I could create, I could appoint, I am choosing the one who is most suited and most perfect to act as the representative in this time, and he picks it, that's the most legitimate means.

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That's the most perfect means. It's the fairest means. It's fairer than election. It's fairer than appointment.

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It's fairer than hereditary inheritance. Who appointed

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Adam to be your representative? God did. So our representative in Adam was as fair as God is fair.

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That's how fair it was. Our elected president is as fair as elections are fair.

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Our appointed representative head in Adam is as fair as God is fair, as perfect as God is perfect, as just as God is just.

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And that means that our condemnation for Adam's sin is as just and as fair as God is just and fair.

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So Adam was our representative. Adam was our representative, as we heard last week, under the covenant that God made with him, which we call the covenant of works.

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Its terms were very simple. Do this and live or reject

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God's authority and surely die. Obey and live, disobey, die.

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Adam had either glory or death before him.

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Do this and live or reject God and die. But Romans 5 says the free gift of Jesus Christ is different.

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In Adam, because Adam chose sin, he sinned before God.

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He had every ability to choose either glory or death and he earned death for himself and for us.

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But Romans 5 says the free gift of Jesus Christ is different. Adam stood before God as our representative under the terms of the covenant of works and he broke the terms and his trespass brought death.

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But Jesus was not born of Adam. Jesus was not born of Adam.

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He was born of the Holy Spirit. If you ever wonder why that's important, why it's important that Jesus was born of a virgin, this is why.

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Because everyone who was born of Adam shares in his sin and his nature and his death.

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Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit and he stood before God under the same terms as Adam.

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He had either glory or death before him. And he did what Adam could not do.

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He obeyed the covenant perfectly. And not only that, he suffered the penalty of Adam's disobedience so that the punishment for Adam's sin was satisfied.

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Now, if Jesus had acted only for himself, then by obeying the covenant with his father perfectly, then he would have earned eternal life as a reward for himself, just like Adam would have done if he had obeyed the covenant.

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But if he had acted for himself alone, then he would not have needed to die. Because unlike Adam and unlike you and me, he never violated the covenant.

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But Jesus was not acting only for himself. That is why he laid his life down in sacrifice, because he was not acting only for himself.

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Just like Adam, he was acting as a representative, as a representative.

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And for everyone he represented as a federal head, that's that concept, representation.

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For everyone he represented, he acted on their behalf when he perfectly obeyed the law of God.

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And he acted on their behalf when he suffered death for violation of the covenant.

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So he satisfied the punishment for violating the covenant and he earned the reward for keeping the covenant.

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And in so doing, he made possible a new covenant, a new covenant.

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He satisfied the demands of the old covenant by suffering the penalty of violating it and by satisfying its demands, and he made a new covenant, which allows you to enter into his people, to become represented by him, to join in his righteousness.

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And how? By faith. Not by anything that you do, simply by receiving it with open arms, in faith.

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Each of our three verses in Romans 5 proves this is exactly what Jesus did. In verse 15, it says, just like many died through Adam, many have received grace through Jesus Christ.

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And verse 16 says that just like the judgment following the one man Adam's sin brought condemnation, so too the one man

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Jesus' work brought justification. And verse 17 says just like death reigned through Adam, life reigns through Jesus Christ.

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People, your king is either Adam or Jesus. You were born in Adam.

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That's what it takes to be in Adam. That's what it takes for Adam to be your king.

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It's your natural state. You're born into it. You have birthright citizenship into the kingdom of Adam.

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Congratulations. But you must be born again in Christ.

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But this time, when you're born again, it's not through a mother's womb.

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You're born in the spirit. You are regenerated. Regenerated just means born again.

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You are regenerated into new life and spiritually born again into the kingdom of Christ.

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And it's all by his grace. There is nothing that you did to earn your new birth in the spirit any more than there was anything you did to choose to be born.

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It's all Jesus because he chose to stand in your place. And that's why in all of these verses, it's described as the free gift.

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The new covenant that Jesus establishes with you is a free gift.

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You do nothing for it. You do nothing to attain it. You simply receive it.

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It's grounded not in what you do. It's grounded in what Jesus did. It's a free gift.

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Now let's take a step back and think about what this means. We've seen the truth of what

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Jesus did. Standing as your representative, being the righteousness that you could not be, taking you out of the kingdom of Adam and bringing you into the kingdom of Christ.

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Now let's look at what this means for us. And to do that, we can break down these three verses and take a closer look at the contrast between what it means to be under King Adam and under King Jesus.

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Three things. It means that you are free from sin. It means that you are free from death, the consequence of sin.

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It means you are free to live. Freedom from sin.

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Freedom from death. And freedom unto life. Verse 15 says the free gift is not like the trespass.

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Now we've just spent most of our time so far in this sermon discussing the very close parallel between Adam and Christ.

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Seeing that each one stands as a federal head, as a representative. And so it's interesting, isn't it, that this verse tells us repeatedly that the free gift is not like the trespass.

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There's a distinction. We also see that there's a great similarity.

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There's a tremendous, unavoidable, undeniable parallel. So what is it about the free gift that is not like the trespass?

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Well, it's because the free gift is greater than the trespass. It's infinitely greater than the trespass.

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Jesus' righteousness is more than the opposite counterbalance against Adam's sin.

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That's why it's not like the trespass. It's a difference in degree.

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It is far greater than the trespass. The very next words in verse 15 tell us that for as much as we are all born under the curse, we're all enslaved to sin under Adam, much more does the grace of God abound to many through Jesus Christ.

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See, it's a difference in degree. Now, most of you were here last week, so you've heard about the weight of sin.

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You've heard that sin is universal. It is absolute. It applies to everyone who is under Adam, which is all of us.

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And the consequences mean the eternal wrath of God against sin. It's death. It's absolute.

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Well, this verse is telling you that for all the weight of Adam's sin, the grace of God and Jesus Christ is infinitely greater.

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As heavy as your burdens were under sin, the weight of grace that frees you is infinitely more.

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Imagine a seesaw. What does a seesaw do? A seesaw has a little point in the middle, and then you put weight on either side.

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So imagine a seesaw. More weight on this side, it tips this way. Weight on the other side, it tips that way.

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So, you know, kids go back and forth, up and down. It's fun. It's a seesaw. Imagine a seesaw.

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What happens when you have equal weights on either side of the seesaw? And the kids aren't jumping up and down.

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They're just kind of sitting, right? And so you've got weights on both sides.

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They're equal. It evens out. It's flat. Now, flat is where Adam started.

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He stood in the middle. On one side was righteousness and life. On the other side was sin and death.

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Adam had the ability. He had the capacity in his soul to tip the weight in either one direction or the other.

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And when he sinned, he tipped that seesaw irrevocably towards sin, and down we all went with him.

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And that is where we lived. At the bottom of the wrong side of the seesaw.

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Now, if Jesus' work was just the equal and opposite reaction to correct and repair the injury that Adam had done, where does that bring us?

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It brings us right back to flat. To the middle.

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But Jesus' work didn't just restore us to the status quo of Eden. We didn't just go back to Eden with Jesus.

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Jesus raised us, not just back to Eden. He raised us to heaven. He took us all the way.

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So we don't have equal weights on a seesaw. What happens, by the way, what happens when you're on one side of the seesaw and in one instantaneous moment the force of infinite weight comes down on the other side?

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What happens is you rise up on wings like eagles. You soar.

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It's not a seesaw anymore, it's a catapult. It's a catapult to heaven. That's why the free gift is not like the trespass.

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The trespass was one sin, but the infinite grace of God is greater than all our sins.

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So what should you take from this? What you should take from this is you are a long way from Adam, if you have trusted in Christ.

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You are free from sin itself. You are free from its weight.

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You've been launched through the stratosphere away from the weight of your sin.

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That weight is gone. You shouldn't feel it anymore. If you do start to feel it, what should you do?

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You ought to throw it down at the foot of the cross and turn to Jesus Christ in faith.

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Because the weight and the power of his salvation is infinitely greater than all the power of your sin.

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You are not an Adam anymore. By faith in Christ, you are no longer a part of that old, decrepit, decaying kingdom.

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You are in the kingdom of Christ. You are under the representation of King Jesus.

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There is no in between. If the Son has set you free, then you are free indeed.

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And there is no more fear of death, no more condemnation, no more slavery for you. You are free.

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You're free from Adam. You're free from his sin. You're free from death as the consequence of his sin.

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You are free. And you're free not only from sin itself, but in being free from that kingdom of Adam, from the power of sin, you're also free from its consequences.

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That's what verse 16 says. The free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. What's that result?

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It's death. It's the consequence of sin. It's death, the judgment of condemnation, the wrath of God.

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Well, that is no longer yours to bear anymore because Jesus bore it.

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Yes, sin is wretched. We don't want anything to do with sin.

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We repent of our sin. It's heinous to us, but it doesn't scare us like it did before because we know that Jesus has paid for it.

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We know that his forgiveness belongs to us, is promised to us.

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The trespass demanded justice, but the free gift brings justification. It's so important here to treasure these words of verse 16.

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The free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

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The free gift followed many trespasses. When Jesus chose to give you that gift, he knew every sin you had committed.

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He knew every sin you would ever commit, but the free gift was given to you following many trespasses.

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It doesn't matter how you have sinned. It doesn't matter how many times, how many ways.

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It doesn't matter how severe, how rebellious, how shameful. God's grace is still greater.

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God's grace is always greater. God's grace is greater than all of our sins rolled up, combined.

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God's grace is greater than all our sin. And that's how you know you never need to fear again.

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You don't need to doubt him. When you doubt, when you doubt whether God's grace is sufficient for your sin, you're not just being humble.

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You're doubting God. You're doubting the sufficiency of Christ. That's not humility.

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It's foolishness. And you don't need to be weighed down by that foolishness. You ought to trust that Jesus' grace is sufficient.

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And when you do, it changes everything about how you see your life in Christ. It changes everything about how you see your own sin because your sin is still wretched to you because you remember your enslavement to it.

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And you're grateful for the work of Christ in rescuing you from it. But you don't need to fear anymore.

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You don't need to doubt. When you sin, you don't have to wonder whether this time is the last straw because now, oh,

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I've just taken it too far for Jesus. The free gift is greater than many trespasses.

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It's greater than all the trespasses. You have forgiveness in Christ Jesus.

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It is yours, which means you respond differently to your sin. You don't hide it.

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You don't fear it. You don't become ashamed and weighted down by it.

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You confess it and know that you are forgiven because you have a Father who forgives, because you have a

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Savior who paid the penalty for that sin too, willingly.

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So confess your sin and be forgiven. The life of a

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Christian isn't a sinless life. It's a forgiven life.

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And that doesn't mean we go on sinning. It means we go on repenting.

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And it's our joy to repent. We're not afraid to repent. We're not afraid to confess.

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What marks the Christian life? Yes, we grow in grace. Praise God we grow in grace.

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Praise God we are not now where we were 10 years ago and hopefully with our brothers and sisters here in this church and the people that God has placed in your life, we help each other to see how

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God is working out His purposes in our lives and bringing us closer and closer to Heaven as we go on.

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There's growth in the Christian life, but we don't lead sinless lives.

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We continue to sin. We continue to struggle against sin. But what marks the

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Christian life above all is that we also continue to repent and we glory in the forgiveness.

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You are free indeed from your sin, from its consequences, and you are free indeed to live a life unto

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Christ. Verse 17 says that in Adam sin and death reigned. It was the authority.

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Sin and death were the authority over you. They had absolute authority over you.

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But then comes the free gift and it says, as much as death reigned before, much more does life reign in you now.

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It says those who receive the free gift of grace reign in life through the one man,

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Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't just release you from the kingdom of Adam to go your own way and inevitably fall in your own way.

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Jesus didn't release you from the kingdom of Adam. He claimed you for His own kingdom.

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So how certain was your death in Adam?

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What's the old saying, nothing is certain except death and taxes? Yeah, well, your eternal life in Christ is more certain than that.

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As sure as you were that you would die someday, you should be more sure that you live in Christ.

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Believe it. Don't think it's prideful to believe it either. When you believe that and you treasure it in your heart, you're not being prideful in yourself.

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You are glorying in the sufficiency of Christ. So embrace that truth.

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Your life in Christ is sure. Embrace it and let the truth of it transform you.

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If God was willing to save you when you were a sinner, then how much more willing will He be to keep you now that His Son has made you a saint?

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This doctrine of representation, this doctrine of federal headship, it shouldn't be scary.

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In fact, it's the essence of the gospel. We don't have a gospel without it.

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We're dead in Adam. Our only hope is to be alive in Christ. Moreover, it's a beautiful doctrine.

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I said this is one of those things in the Bible that people don't like. We ought to love it.

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This is a lovely doctrine because what it means ultimately is that for as much as death is natural, universal, and absolute for everyone born in Adam, eternal life is infinitely more natural and more absolute for everyone who is born in the

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Spirit. That's what this doctrine means. It's a treasure. It's a great treasure for us.

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And it gives us incredible, impossible assurance. It's not assurance that comes from anything in you.

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It comes from King Jesus because He chose to be your

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King. He made you His subject. He chose to be your representative who acted on your behalf to bring you blessings that He earned for you.

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You are saved because you're His. He earned them already.

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This is the essence of the gospel that you ought to preach to yourself every day.

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Jesus paid it all. That's what this means. Jesus paid it all. Your confidence is never in you.

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It's not in you. It's in Him. That's why we say if the

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Son has set you free, then you are free indeed. He bought you. He claimed you.

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You're His. And now your confidence comes not from your own ability to keep yourself.

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It's from your King's power and authority to keep that which is His own.

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You are His own. If you have trusted in Him to save you, then your salvation is complete, absolute, irrevocable forever.

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Amen. You've been listening to the preaching of Pastor Gabriel Hughes, a presentation of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

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For more information about our church, visit our website at providencecasagrande .com.

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On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, thanking you for listening. Join us again