The Gift is Not Like the Trespass

Romans 5:12-21

At the beginning of our study in Romans, we looked at Romans 1:16-17: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed…”  One of the main things Paul was doing was explaining the gospel to the Romans.  The message of the gospel isn’t just the death of Jesus, His resurrection, and us receiving the gift He gave on the cross.  The gospel message is simple but it’s multi-faceted, like a diamond.  In Romans, Paul is showing us the many facets.

The word gospel means “good news.”  So, why is it, right after Romans 1:16-17, we go into what seems like bad news?  In Romans 1 Paul talks about God’s wrath being revealed against all ungodliness.  In chapter 2 he said, “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.”  In chapter 3 he said that none of us are good and none of us are righteous. 

I like to think of it this way.  Miriam has gone through a lot of health problems.  Many, many doctors haven’t been able to determine the cause of those complicated symptoms.  Recently, a couple of doctors did new tests that might reveal some of the underlying cause or causes.  We would be glad to get an explanation of what is causing all of this.  In a sense, we would be glad to get bad news, the knowledge of what is wrong.  If we know the cause (the bad news) then maybe there’s a chance for a solution.  Without knowing what’s wrong, there’s no way to find a solution.

Many people will acknowledge that they are broken and that society as a whole is broken.  Marriages are broken, racism still exists, individuals are given in to addictions…people are seeing a lot of symptoms around them and in their own lives but they’re not understanding the underlying cause.  From what the Bible says, the underlying cause is hearts that reject God.  Sin has separated us from God.  If people come to a place where they accept the bad news, then they can find the solution to their problem.  For some people, it’s a relief to hear the bad news.  It means the source of their symptoms have been identified.  They don’t have to guess at the cause.  That means there’s a chance for finding a solution.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— Romans 5:12

How is it possible that we have to pay a penalty for someone else’s crime?  Death is the penalty for sin.  Adam sinned so he deserved to die, not us, right?  Well, what the Bible just showed us is that death entered the world through sin.  Sin entered humanity by one man, Adam.  Therefore, we all face death because of Adam.

All of us were in the body of Adam.  I was in the body of my father before I was born.  I was in the body of my grandfather before my father was ever born.  In Hebrews 7 it says that Levi was in the body of his ancestor, Abraham.

Adam was God’s appointed representative for mankind.  Why was it this way?  Because God wanted it to be that way!  We don’t have a real clear understanding of why God made Adam to be our representative.  There are a lot of questions in the Bible that can be answered by understanding that God desired for things to be done in a certain way...just because that was His will.  For example, why did Jesus have to suffer and die on the cross?  In speaking of the Messiah, Isaiah wrote, “Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…” (Isaiah 53:10)

There are other places in the Bible that show God choosing a representative.  God chose Moses to represent the people of Israel.  He chose who would be priests to perform sacrifices in order to stand in the gap between God and the people.  He chose David to be king over Israel.  He appointed the husband to be the head of the wife.  He appoints governments to be His servant.  Paul talked about being appointed to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher.  God also appoints Christians to be His ambassadors in order to represent Himself to people on Earth who don’t know Him.  We don’t have many answers as to why God has appointed these particular people or institutions to carry out His will.  Apparently, in Genesis 3, we see that God chose Adam to be the representative of the human race.  Even though it may be hard to understand why God appointed certain people to certain tasks, we can still trust God and His understanding.  You don’t have to understand everything about a person before you can trust them.  I don’t understand everything about my wife, and yet I still trust her.  If God is all-powerful and all-knowing then how much more should I trust Him?

I think to be able to understand this verse we must understand who God is.  A lot of questions in the Bible could be clarified if we had a better understanding of the character of God and the way He relates to people.  God is completely fair.  In Romans 2:11 it says, “For God does not show favoritism.”  We also see verses that communicate more clearly about God’s justice and holiness.  We also see that God is relational.  He is also all-knowing.

God knew that Adam was going to sin.  He also knew that each one of us would sin as well.  He already planned a solution to our sin problem before Adam ever sinned.  “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1:4-5) 

…for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. —Romans 5:13-14

The Law, of which the 10 Commandments are a part, was not given until Exodus 20.  The story of Adam’s sin occurred much earlier, in Genesis 3.  Think about the people that existed in this time period.  All of these people experienced physical and spiritual death.  They couldn’t have been condemned by God due to their sin of lying, or stealing, or coveting.  The reason why they wouldn’t have had those sins taken “taken into account” was that God hadn’t given the commandments that said, “Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t covet.”  So, if death is the penalty for sin then why would the people in this period of time still experience death?  The reason why is because they were sinners.  Each of those people were born sinners.  In Psalm 51:5 David said, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”  He didn’t have to sin in order to be sinful.  He was sinful because he was a sinner.  He too was in the body of Adam, his ancestor.

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! —Romans 5:15

Jesus’ act of grace is more powerful than Adams’s act of disobedience.  Adam’s sin brought death to all humanity.  You could probably say that the effect of Adam’s sin was only one dimensional.  But the gift that Jesus gave has many dimensions to it.  One dimension is that He offered forgiveness to all humanity. Another dimension is that He offered to change the nature of every person, making us a “new creation”, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17.  Another aspect of Jesus’ gift is that we can have the very life of God.  He also offers us new spiritual power by the presence of the Holy Spirit.  This gift is like a diamond.  It’s multi-faceted.  There’s only one diamond, but there are many aspects to it.  The gift that Jesus gave on the cross is something that keeps giving and giving. 

Another aspect to the gospel is that it was given in order to be shared.  It reminds me of what Peter was preaching in Acts 2:39 when he said, “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”  Jesus shared a similar though in Matthew 13:31-32: “He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.’”  Inside that one seed was the genetic information to grow roots, a stem, branches, leaves, flowers, fruit and seed.  This seed would allow the tree to multiply. 

Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. —Romans 5:16

This chapter shows how Adam and his story is similar to Jesus and His story.  It also shows how they are different.  How are they alike?  It just took one man to bring condemnation, just like it only took one man to bring justification.  It just took one act to bring about condemnation, just like it only took one act to bring about justification. The condemnation affected many people, just as the justification affected many people.

What are the differences?  Verse 16 says that the results are different.  One brought condemnation and the other brought justification.  I think of it this way.  Which is easier, to knock a hole in a wall in this building, or to patch it up as if it never had a hole to start with?  Jesus not only patched up one hole, he patched up countless numbers of holes.  The gift is not like the trespass.  

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. —Romans 5:17

What else is different?  Death reigned through one.  Righteousness reigned through the other.  Which is better, trying to survive in poverty or thriving in wealth?  Sin may be attractive for a season but the end of it is bitter.  What is better, living with guilt or living with the knowledge that God has made you righteous in His eyes?  There are so many problems that people have in their relationships today.  There’s friction between husbands and wives, between parents and children, and even between races or ethnicities.  Hebrews 12:11 talks about the “peaceful fruit of righteousness.”  People who are not at peace with God can’t have true peace with one another.

Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. —Romans 5:18-19

Before I became a Christian I felt hopeless.  There were certain sins I thought I wouldn’t be able to stop.  My thinking was basically like this: “I might as well do it anyway because I’ll always be stuck doing it.  I’ll never change.”  It wasn’t until college that I learned that I didn’t have to be stuck in these sins.  I also learned that the Christian life wasn’t about avoiding sin.  It was about living life in a brand new identity that Jesus gave me.  He made me righteous in God’s eyes.  God saw me as He saw His own son...as blameless, even though I had sinned.  He didn’t ignore my sin.  He forgave my sin and gave me a brand new identity.  The problem we have is not just the sins we have committed.  The problem is our identity as well.  We’re all sinners.  We’re born into this problem.  The problems started before I was born.  Something outside of myself got me into this sinful nature.  Therefore, there has to be something outside of myself to solve this problem.  I have to totally rely on the mercy of someone else to come and rescue me.  The obedience of Jesus Christ brought about a chance for me to not only have my sins forgiven but also brought about a chance for me to have a brand new identity...to be righteous. 

The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. —Romans 5:20-21

 

Various translations state that the law “came alongside” the trespass, or that the law came to “aggravate the trespass”.  The law was never given to help people clean themselves up, making them more righteous in God’s eyes.  Rather, the law was given to expose sin and to demonstrate how sinful sin really is.  Paul stated later,

What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.—Romans 7:7-9

When I was a child, my mom would clean the house on Saturday mornings.  Before my parents got up I would play.  I remember playing in the living room with match box cars.  I would drive them on the carpet going around and around in circles.  I didn’t realize that I was stirring up dust out of the carpet.  The dust was all around me but I couldn’t see it.  The dust was still getting into my eyes and lungs even though I couldn’t see the dust.  My mom would open the curtains and light would shine into the room exposing all the dust.  The law is like the light that was let into the room.  There was nothing wrong with the sunlight.  That was a good thing.  The light showed the condition I was in.

So, the law had shone and it clarified how sinful sin really was.  Grace came in through the cross to clean up the mess.  If you’ve ever had children you know that it’s easier for them to make a mess than for you, as a parent, to clean it up.  It may take Max 5 minutes to destroy a room.  But it may take an hour to clean it up.  That’s the essence of the good news.  Someone is willing to clean up your mess and mine, even when we didn’t realize that we had a mess to start with.