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