Romans 5:15
In Romans 5:15-19 Paul continues to give a
comparison between the first man, Adam, and Jesus. Where Adam failed, Jesus
succeeded. The Bible says, "But not as the
offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be
dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man,
Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so
is the gift: for the judgement was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is
of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned
by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of
righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore
as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men unto condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification
of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one many shall be made righteous."
Every time God does something for man, man
seems to mess it up; and then God comes along once again to fix it. God put
Adam in the Garden of Eden, an almost perfect environment. But Adam’s decision
to yield to temptation, resulted in death for all of us, and the sinful nature
that we all possess. Then centuries later, in a time of many miracles, God gave
to Moses the wonderful Ten Commandments and the rest of the law. It is a law
that was so perfect, man could become righteous, should he only keep the law.
But man has failed at that also. Adam was not the only one that sinned, "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God."
Then centuries after Moses, the Son of God
was sent into the world to die for our sins and to rise from the dead.
Salvation is now a free gift. We have all proved that we will not keep the law,
so God, out of His abundant mercy has made this a time of grace, and He has
given an invitation so that all who will may come and drink of the water of
life freely and find abundant mercy and forgiveness of sins. But once again
when this age of grace is over it will be shown that man has failed. Even
though this opportunity to go to heaven is freely offered to all by the grace
and kindness of God, Jesus said, "Narrow is
the way to life and few there be that find it, and broad is the way to
destruction, and many there be that go in thereat."
The first representative of the human race,
Adam, failed. But the last representative, Jesus, will not fail. One day Jesus
will transform the world, He will lock Satan in the bottomless pit, and He will
give all of His believers a sinless and perfect nature. What a wonderful day
that will be! Notice the results of Adam’s failure: death, sin, condemnation,
disobedience, and offences. In contrast to that, notice the results of what
Jesus did: life, a free gift, grace, justification, and righteousness. The
goodness of God is greater than the sinfulness of man. God has repaired the
damage that Adam and you and I have done, and the work of God has accomplished
more for the good of mankind than the work of sin could ever possibly destroy.
That is why verse 17 says "much more
they which receive abundance of grace."
If you are facing a difficult task, if one
of the many sorrows of life have come up against you, or if your own conscience
should attempt to rise up and condemn you remember Romans 5:17 and the
abundance of grace that is available to you from God. Once you have come to
Jesus for forgiveness of sins, the death that awaits you will be transformed
into eternal life. In the life that you now live you are able to overcome every
obstacle by learning to come to God and finding grace to help in time of need.
There will always be grace available because there is an "abundance of grace" as a result of what Jesus
did for us.
Romans 5:15 says that what Adam did was an
offence. What he did should not have been done. There are certain actions that
should not be done. There are standards. God has set the standards. It does not
matter what man says, it matters what God says. Some potential actions are
permitted by God, but others are not permitted. A wise person will make it the
goal of their life to understand the will of God for their behavior, and such a
person will attempt to align their own actions with the established will of
God. If you do something that is against God’s way, then you commit an offence.
Every action has a reaction. The problem with committing an offence against God
is that the eventual results will be negative and harmful.
The actions of a human are important. Every
deed that you do, every thought that you think, every motive that moves through
your being is important. There is right and wrong in the world because there is
a God, and it is important that you do the right thing. Adam did the wrong
thing. He committed an offence against God, and the entire human race is still
suffering the consequences. "Through the
offence of one, many are dead." Adam was a very important figure in
the history of the human race, not only because he was the first person, but
also because of the terrible sin that he committed, and because of the results
of his sin that has so negatively affected all the rest of the humans that have
ever lived on earth.
But thanks be to God that One who is
greater than Adam came, Jesus Christ, and by the grace of God, the effects of
Adam’s sin and the effects of your own sin can be annulled and annihilated and
done away with forever. But before Jesus came, God used Moses to bring the law
into the world. Romans 5:20-21 reminds us of the real purpose for which God
brought the law into the world. The next time that you see the movie, The Ten
Commandments; or the next time that you read about Moses and the giving of the
law in the book of Exodus; or the next time you think about those wonderful Ten
Commandments that God wrote with His own hand in the tablets of stone; perhaps
you will remember what Romans 5:20-21 says about what the real purpose for the
law was.
It says, "Moreover
the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound: That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ." This
is the supreme teaching for those who feel guilty because of their sins. If
someone has sinned greatly, it simply means that the greater will be the
forgiveness. With the gospel where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
This principle of God’s forgiveness is unlike anything that you will find in the
world. In the courtrooms of the world, the more crimes that you commit,
eventually will result in harsher punishments. The same thing is also true in
human relationships. The more that you fail will be the more that others will
remember your failures, will look down upon you, and will in some way take
revenge upon you. But this is not true with God. The greater that your sins
are, will simply result in you finding even much more grace when you come to Christ;
because where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. The purpose of the law
in all of this, was to increase on the conscience of humans how much they have
failed, so that they would then come to Jesus for forgiveness. When God gave
the law, He knew that humans would not keep it. God did not give the law as a
plan for making humans righteous. He gave the law so that sin would abound, and
thereby humans would have a greater chance of realizing that they need to come
to God for forgiveness. God is in the business of saving people and not of
condemning them.
And so we see that
God gave us the law in order to teach us a lesson: to teach us that we need a
Savior. Anyone who tries to keep the law of God will realize very quickly that
he fails easily and that he needs a Savior. Therefore, the law is our schoolmaster,
to bring us unto Christ. Do not make the mistake of mixing law and grace the
way that some people do. There is a distinct difference between law and grace.
The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
In spite of the fact that law does not
bring righteousness and law does not bring salvation, and in spite of the fact
that salvation is entirely by grace, and that where sin abounds, grace does
much more abound: there is not a license to sin, and there is not a freedom to
sin. Romans 6:1-2 says, "What shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we
that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" Paul is telling us
very clearly that once we have come to God for the forgiveness of our many sins
that our lifelong goal should then be to avoid sin, and to not fail in face of
temptation.
Paul introduces a new teaching here in Romans
6:2. He says something that he has not yet said in the book of Romans. He says
that we are "dead to sin." Paul
had mentioned death before. He reminded us in Romans Chapter 5 that the sin of
Adam brought death to all mankind, but that because of Jesus, instead of death,
we now have eternal life to look forward to. But now he expands on the
relationship between sin and death, and he goes into detail in Romans Chapter 6
to tell believers what the new relationship is between sin and death for them.
Romans 6:3-4 says, "Know
you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by
baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." There
are two kinds of baptism mentioned in the New Testament. There is spiritual
baptism and water baptism. Water baptism was introduced by John the Baptist.
John the Baptist was a Jewish, Old Testament prophet, who lived under the law,
and he made water baptism a part of his teachings. Those who participated in
his baptism were essentially fulfilling Old Testament law, because he was a
Jewish prophet. John the Baptist said, "I
baptize with water." Then John spoke of Jesus and said that Jesus
would baptize with the Holy Spirit. There is water baptism, and there is
spiritual baptism. Water baptism came from an Old Testament prophet and
spiritual baptism comes from Jesus.
Whenever the New Testament mentions baptism,
we have to try and decide from the context if it is talking about water baptism
or spiritual baptism. Water baptism for the most part is mentioned in the four
gospels and the book of Acts. Spiritual baptism is also mentioned in those 5
books of the New Testament, and then most of the references to baptism in the
rest of the New Testament are talking about spiritual baptism, and not water
baptism. Romans Chapter 6 is talking about spiritual baptism. Romans 6:3 means
that once we come to Christ, we become baptized into Christ. The principle
meaning of the word baptism in a spiritual sense is an identification with
someone or something. When you become baptized into Jesus Christ, you become
identified with Jesus. John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize with the
spirit. Once a person comes to Jesus in faith for the forgiveness of sins, that
person is given the Spirit of God. They become baptized by Jesus with the
Spirit. We will read later in Romans Chapter 8 where it says that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
The word baptism indicates cleansing. We
are cleansed from our sins when we come to Christ. The word baptism indicates
immersion. We are immersed into Christ and into the spirit of God when we come
to Christ. And the word baptism indicates identification. We are identified
with Christ and all that He accomplished when we come to Him. Romans Chapter 6
emphasizes this identification that we have with the death and the resurrected
life of Christ. And so Romans 6:4 says, "we are buried with him by baptism into death."
Jesus died for sins. Because we have come to Jesus, we are identified by God
with the death of Jesus. After Jesus rose from the dead, He now has a spiritual
body that was much different from the physical body that He had for 33 years
before His death and resurrection. Because we became identified with the death
of Jesus for our sins, we have all of the associated benefits of having our
sins forgiven, and we should realize that we are supposed to be identified with
His resurrection from the dead, which signifies a new and different kind of
life.
Romans 6:5-6 says, "For
if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also
in the likeness of His resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is
crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin." We who have come to Christ have gained a
great spiritual benefit, and this spiritual benefit is supposed to also result
in a very practical outcome. Jesus said, "You
shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." We are set
free from the guilt of sin and from the condemnation of sin, but God wants us
also to be set free from being servants to sin. We were servants to sin before
we came to Christ.
The death and resurrection of Christ is
symbolic of what will happen in a practical way in the lives of those who truly
have come to Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Romans 6:7-10 says, "For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be
dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that
Christ being raised from the dead, dies no more; death has no more dominion
over Him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he lives, he
lives unto God."
Because Jesus died for our sins, His death
is now counted as the only death that is the result of Adam’s sin. No one else
has to die if they enter into the spiritual life that Christ gives. Death for
them will not be an end to their existence, nor will it be a punishment; but it
will simply be leaving this life and entering the next life, which is far
better. As Paul said in his letter to the Philippians, "For
me to live is Christ, but to die is gain." God said to Adam in the
Garden of Eden, "If you disobey, you shall
surely die." Jesus died the death that is the penalty for sin, and
now those who believe in Jesus become identified by God with the death of
Jesus. Romans 6:6 says that, "our old man is
crucified with Him." The phrase "our
old man" refers to our sinful nature, it refers to the person that
we were before we came to Christ. God identifies that person that you were as
having died with Christ. You no longer are alive. A new person is now alive: a
person who has spiritual life and a relationship with God.
Paul said the same thing when he wrote to
the Galatians: "I have been crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ
lives in me; and the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of
God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
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Copyright; 2000 by Charles F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved