Romans 5:12-14Adam’s sin started the entire cascade of sin in the Human race. We have a sin nature and are natural born sinners. The sins of disobedience to God’s revealed law were not counted prior to the giving of the law by revelation. However, the law written on hearts was violated and death reigned even though they impact of Adam’s sin was unique in the way it propagated. Adam could sin or not sin and it was not hard for Adam not to sin. Since Adam fell we sin. Apart from God’s move on their heart, an unbeliever will always sin because they choose to do that. We always choose according to our strongest inclination at the moment and we are sons and daughters of Adam.
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— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 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.
Romans 5:15-17So sin entered through one man’s sin (like the shattering of a plate of glass because of a flaw) and spread spiritual death throughout mankind. In contrast, Grace came after many trespasses and produced justification. We will reign in life through Christ as we receive Grace and the free gift of righteousness.
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 Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 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 Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:18-21So God shows us the problem (Adam) and the solution (Jesus). The only solution for a Holy God was provided for us by the Holy God. Sin increased from Adam to Moses. Then the Law was given and sin blossomed until Christ. No Grace reigns through righteousness leading to eternal life.
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.
Grace reigns? How does undeserved blessing reign over anything? Well the accuser comes against you with a viable charge. For example, “God your so called servant Dwight sinned yesterday. Actually he sinned more than once. In fact, I got bored and stopped counting. Anyhow, he deserves eternal punishment for his sins” and he has a legal and valid point apart from the Grace of God. By the Grace of God my sins, not in part but the whole, have been nailed to the Cross and I bear them no more. It is well with my soul. Grace reigns!
Romans 6:1-4
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:Think of how this doctrine has been opposed down through the centuries. Paul had to write an epistle to the Galatians telling them to stop trying to depart from this truth. Paul had to correct Peter because he was sliding back toward the ritual law. Not all of the early church fathers understood this doctrine. For example, around 200 AD a leader called Tertullian could be considered to be more Jewish than Christian in his understanding of justification. He seemed to think that God only gave the Gospel because we were so weak and that once we were following Jesus then all the law applied. Pelagious was a 5th Century monk whose name is now used by calling Pelagian all those who reject the necessary saving and enabling Grace of God and substitute their doctrine of salvation by works. We’ve spoken recently of Finney who was called Pelagian (I think that was a little unfair to Pelagious) and said that the doctrine of justification by double imputation was “impossible and absurd” (Lecture 36, Justification; Systematic Theology, Charles G. Finney). In our age many denominations now wonder if preaching a substitutionary atonement of Christ on the Cross shedding His blood for a lost and dieing world is just not “seeker sensitive”. Over and over again the Gospel has come to be viewed as a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence and so there is an attempt to remove the Chief Cornerstone.
There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this: that some people might misunderstand and misinterpret to mean that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding then it is not the gospel.
1 Peter 2:6-10Some folks have observed that a particular sequence is often repeated in a local church or denomination that is departing from the Gospel. The sequence is that at first we proclaim the Gospel, then we assume the Gospel, and then we deny the Gospel. In fact this observation could be made of the Children of Israel as they cycled from following God to not following God. The process can take generations but what we want to do is draw ourselves back constantly to a clear presentation of the Gospel. We want to be like Paul who urged that we would be “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:18-20).
For it stands in Scripture:
“ Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Paul wanted prayer so that he could open his mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel. He didn’t want to assume that the Romans would get it right. He wanted to spell it out in detail for them and subsequently for our benefit. We should start to panic when all we deal with at church is how to have a better life, how to deal with children, how to find fulfillment at work. It isn’t that these are not topics that the Body of Christ shouldn’t address. We should address these topics and we do have much to say about those topics. The problem is that they can’t displace the Gospel and the importance of the Gospel in our teaching. They are not the Gospel. Romans is a presentation of the Gospel and for a Christian it is your life and breath.
Romans 6:5Just in passing, remember that you will not be a disembodied spirit or angel strumming a harp on a cloud in the resurrection. You’ll have a resurrection body like His. Your body will be different but you will not be disembodied. This being united with Him in His death and being united with Him in a resurrection like His is also part of having our sins paid for on the Cross and being clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Romans 6:6-11Notice the level of identification that exists for us in Christ’s death. Our old self was crucified with Him, we are no longer servants of sin, we now live with Christ, and we will never die spiritually. You have a command here. You are commanded by God to consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Not only has a substitutionary atonement been made but your living is now different. You are alive to God in Christ Jesus as opposed to your previous condition of being dead in your trespasses and sins.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:12-14Paul is now transitioning into a discussion of sanctification. The “therefore” here is to link back to the command to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ. We are therefore in a struggle to keep ourselves away from sin and to present ourselves to God for His use. Sin doesn’t rule over us because we are under grace and our works are acceptable to God because we are alive to God in Christ Jesus. The works are not acceptable because they are perfect the works are acceptable because we are alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
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