WWUTT 1236 The Free Gift is Not Like the Trespass? (Romans 5:15-16)

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Romans 5 .15 says, but the free gift given to us by God is not like the trespass committed by Adam in the

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Garden of Eden. That wasn't a gift. But Jesus Christ is, when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the Word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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Find all our videos and other ministry resources at www .utt .com.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in Romans, picking up where we left off last week.

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That puts us in Romans chapter 5, starting in verse 15, and I'll read through to the end of the chapter.

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The apostle Paul wrote to the church that was in Rome, but the free gift is not like the trespass.

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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. 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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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.

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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

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Lord. So we continue this teaching here on the doctrine of original sin.

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That first sin that was committed in the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve. They disobeyed

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God, they ate from the tree that God told them not to eat from, and that first sin, because it was the first, is why we refer to it as the original sin.

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And the doctrine of original sin is, Adam sinned in the garden, and as our federal head, he broke the covenant that God made with him, and so the consequences that are upon our federal head as a result of this sin that he committed against God is upon all of us as well.

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And none of us should think that we can point the finger back at Adam and say, well it was his fault, because the scripture illustrates that we are all participants with him in his sin when we sin.

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1 John 2 .16 says, all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the

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Father, but is from the world. Is not from our Father in heaven, but our Father here on earth, our

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Father Adam, who saw with his eyes, he desired it with his flesh, and in his pride, he partook of that which

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God told him not to eat. So we refer to this as the original sin, and that doctrine is the understanding that because Adam and Eve fell in the garden, all of mankind is fallen.

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And so we have the statement that was made in Romans 5 .12, which we looked at last week, therefore just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

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We have all sinned, just as the apostle Paul had said back in Romans 3 .23,

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all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And he continues to unpack that even here in Romans 5 .15,

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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. Now, Paul is being very careful here with his adverbs in who it is that he's describing.

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He doesn't use the word all, but he uses the word many, at least in the context of what he's explaining here.

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I'll come to that here in a moment. So verse 15 starts, but the free gift is not like the trespass.

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What free gift are we talking about? Well, he's going to explain that. He's contrasting the work of Christ with the work of Adam, or rather, yeah, we'll start with Christ, because that's who it is that gives us the free gift.

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The free gift that comes from Christ is not like the trespass that was committed by Adam.

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Adam had transgressed, and as a result of his transgression, as a result of breaking the covenant that God made with him as our federal head, then we all suffered the consequences of that, but we also partake in that in the sense that we all sin as Adam sinned, so we do.

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That is our natural state, our sin nature. It is in our nature to sin.

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We don't have a nature for righteousness. We have a nature for sin. But Adam didn't give us this, right?

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And Adam's trespass was not a gift, although it would have been a pretty twisted gift if it was.

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It wasn't like he handed us something and says, here you go, here's a curse. That was the result of the breaking of this covenant with God, and of course, this happens with Adam, and it sits upon Adam in that sense.

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As I had illustrated, it was either last week or the week before, if this had happened between Cain and Abel, Cain or Abel, it would not have been a consequence that would have fallen upon all of mankind, because they were not our federal head.

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Adam is our federal head. He represents all of mankind, since all of man is descended from Adam, so his breaking of the covenant is a consequence that falls upon all of us.

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It wasn't a gift. Adam didn't give us anything. He didn't extend to us, well, here, here's this rotten fruit that I have produced here in paradise where God had placed me.

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But what Christ gives to us, the righteousness he gives to us is a gift.

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He does give to us. Adam doesn't freely give anything. Christ graciously gives of himself, gave himself to die on the cross for our sins, and then all who believe in him receive the righteousness of God.

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And don't take the things that we're reading here in Romans 5 out of the context of the stuff that we've read so far.

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Remember the statement back in Romans 3, verses 21 and 22. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

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The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

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That's the free gift we're talking about. So Paul has already mentioned the free gift. And that comes by faith in Christ.

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I think that those two verses, Romans 3, verses 21 and 22, I think they get lost sitting between Romans 3, 23 through 26, which is such an important portion of Scripture.

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And I've shared with you and I've shared with my church, you should memorize that. You should memorize Romans 3, 23 through 26.

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But then we've also got the doctrine that lays out human depravity or the totality of our sin in Romans 3, verses 9 through 20.

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So I think between those two sections, Romans 3, 9 through 20 and 23 through 26, verses 21 and 22 kind of get lost.

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But those are still really, really important verses because they say that it is by faith we receive the righteousness of God.

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The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law and the prophets. They bear witness to it. They pointed us to the righteousness that was to come through the

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Son. But the righteousness is a gift that is given to us through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

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And there is no distinction. Jew and Greek have both fallen short of the glory of God.

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But we are both justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus to be received by faith.

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Paul has said that in chapter 3 and he's coming back to that again here in chapter 5. But the free gift, again verse 15,

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Romans 5, 15, but the free gift is not like the trespass. The gift of God is given to us in love.

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What Adam did was certainly not a gift of love. For if many died through one man's trespass, many died, okay?

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Why is it that the many died through one man's trespass? Why is it that all died through the one man's trespass?

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Well, like I said, Paul is picking his adverbs very carefully here. There is a reason why he states in Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

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And he's contrasting everybody but Christ, right? Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's glory, but Christ is the righteous one.

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And he gives us his righteousness that we receive by faith. So that's the contrast there. Here Paul uses the word many.

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Why? Because many died through one man's trespass.

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All of us have received a penalty of death, but Jesus, he did not.

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He was very man and very God. But the consequence of death as a result of sin did not rest upon him.

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He was righteous. He was perfect. So he was not under a curse of death.

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He willingly submitted himself to that, submitting to the will of the Father, taking upon himself our sin and then died in our place.

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He laid down his own life, but the curse of death was not upon him in the sense that when he was born, he was under that curse.

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He wasn't under the curse. He was, he was perfect. He was born in perfection.

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He was born in sinlessness because his conception did not come from the seed of Adam.

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His conception was the seed of the Holy Spirit. And so therefore he was without sin, even in his conception, he was perfect.

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He was the spotless lamb who came to take away the sin of the world. So many died.

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That would be everyone but Christ. Many died through the one man's trespass.

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Jesus did not die through that one man's trespass because Jesus was not conceived of the seed of Adam.

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He was conceived of the seed of the Holy Spirit. So many that's everyone but Jesus died through one man's trespass.

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Much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man,

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Jesus Christ, the one who is not numbered with the many. So that one man,

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Jesus Christ abounded for many, not everyone. Realize that the grace of God is not upon every single person.

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The grace of God, through the free gift of redemption that is given to him, is given for many, but it is not given for everybody.

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The doctrine of God's sovereign election is more thoroughly explained in the book of Romans than it is anywhere else in the

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Bible. This is really where we come to the fullness of understanding of God having chosen for himself from before the foundation of the world, an elect from sinful man, whom he would redeem by the giving of his son,

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Jesus Christ. Now how we receive that free gift of grace is by faith in the gospel of Christ when it is proclaimed to us.

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And as I've said to you before, we do not know everyone whom God has chosen. God knows that.

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That is knowledge that God has that we do not have. So we should not withhold the gospel from anybody.

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We must share it with everyone. This is why Paul states at the beginning of Titus, in Titus 1 .1,

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he says, an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect.

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Why does Paul do what he does in traveling the world the way that he did sharing the gospel?

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He did it for the sake of the faith of those whom God had elected to receive faith.

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And this is accomplished. God's work by his sovereign will was to be accomplished through the church that would go out sharing the gospel.

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Everyone who comes to be a Christian God had decreed from before the foundation of the world would be saved.

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And as we understand through the words, even of Christ, Matthew 20, verse 28, Mark 10, 45, even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

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He doesn't ransom everyone. He is a ransom for many. And so we have that stated here as well.

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The free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many.

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It is not a gift that is given to every single person. It's given to many, but it's not given to everyone.

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And it's a free gift in the sense that we do nothing to receive it.

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If we did anything to receive the grace of God, it would not be grace.

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As I remember R .C. Sproul saying, so you think that you have been saved by grace, but you did something to receive that grace, like you prayed a prayer or you were baptized or you did some sort of a work that therefore obligated

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God to have to give you his grace. If that would be the case, then it wouldn't be grace.

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It would be earned. And an earned gift is not a gracious gift.

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It is not a gift that is given in grace. It's given because you earned it, but we do nothing to earn this free gift or it wouldn't be a free gift.

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We would have had to have done something in order to receive that. We're making a payment here.

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I'm doing this now. Give me something in return. And so God bestows his grace upon you.

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But it wouldn't be free, wouldn't be a gift, and it wouldn't be grace. The free gift by the grace of that one man,

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Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And we go on to verse 16.

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And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, because once again, we're talking about a gift being given here, not a consequence as a result of the sin that Adam had committed in the

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Garden of Eden. So the free gift Jesus Christ gives to us by his grace, by his love for us, it is not because of it's not a consequence.

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It's not a consequence of you having done something. And now by that consequence, now Christ is going to give you the gift because then it wouldn't be a gift.

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It would be an earning. It wouldn't be a gift. But Christ gives a gift.

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So it is not like the consequence that is received as a result of Adam's sin. The free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin.

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These are different things we're talking about. One's a free gift and one's a result. They can't both be the same thing.

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What we receive as a result of Adam's sin is death. What we receive as a free gift because of Christ's sacrifice is grace, salvation, forgiveness of sins, fellowship with God.

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All of this wrapped up in the free gift that is extended to us by Christ. For the judgment, going on in verse 16, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation.

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The judgment following the one trespass brought condemnation. We are condemned before God because of sin and because of the consequence of that trespass.

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And it's a trespass because God made a commandment. He gave a commandment to Adam and Eve and they disobeyed it.

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So it is a trespassing against the law. The judgment following that one trespass brought condemnation.

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It brought condemnation to everybody. That is the statement that Paul made back in Romans chapter 3.

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But also in John 3 verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son and whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

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For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

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Now why is it that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world? Verse 18 explains why.

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Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the holy of the only son of God, holy son of God, only son of God.

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And again, why did the son of God not come into the world to condemn it? Because the world was already condemned.

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He did not need to come into the world to condemn the world. It was already under condemnation because it had sinned against God and rejected the son who was given by God.

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The world was under condemnation. That's what we receive as a result of the sin that Adam had committed in the garden of Eden.

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Everyone is under that condemnation. And it is only by faith in Christ that we receive forgiveness and the curse that is upon us as a result of that condemnation is lifted.

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But the free gift, so going on here in verse 16, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification, the free gift following many trespasses.

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So there was one trespass that was committed in the garden of Eden and it brought condemnation. There are many trespasses that have been committed since then.

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So we've done way worse than what Adam and Eve did in the garden. We've done far worse, far more sins, far more trespasses.

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And that just makes the free gift that has been given to us by God through his son all the more beautiful.

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The free gift following many trespasses brought justification, though we had sinned all the more since the garden of Eden, God still in his love and in his grace gave us justification, the forgiveness of sins because of what

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Christ did for us when he died on the cross. And having paid our debt by his blood, we receive that gift of righteousness by faith.

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And now God looks upon us as justified, not under condemnation, but now innocent because of the sacrifice of his son.

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That's the beauty of these passages that we've read here in Romans chapter five, verses 15 and 16.

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And it just keeps getting better as we continue on in our study of the book of Romans. Let's conclude with prayer.

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Heavenly father, we thank you so much for this free gift that has been given to us that we receive by faith, not by any work that we do, but the, the, even the condition of our hearts that were rebellious against you have been regenerated by the holy spirit so that we may hear something like the gospel and be convinced by it and mourn over our sin and love

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God through Jesus Christ. All of this happening by your work that is done in us.

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So may we take no credit for this, but understand a free gift has been given to us by God.

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Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins, rising again from the grave so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but we'll have everlasting life.

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May we continue to live with joy in our lives today. The world is a crazy place, all sorts of anger and hurt and heartbreak and frustration and grudges and all sorts of things bombarding us from all kinds of directions.

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But may we not be swayed by that. We walk with joy and thankfulness in the name of our

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Lord God and Jesus Christ, our savior, who has saved us with this free gift of righteousness.

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Help us to walk in that free gift today with joy in our hearts and life everlasting in Jesus name we pray.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to when we understand the text with pastor Gabe Hughes.

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