They were three young men who hopped on a bus in Detroit in the 1930s. And as they made their way up those three steps and onto the bus, they started walking towards the back, passing benches on both sides, seeing a man sitting by himself, with the intention of hurting this person. So they slowly walked by. Others went to this person, surrounded him, and began to mock him and to insult him. And they teased him. And throughout the entire time, the man just sat there silently. Just taking it all in. Eventually, this man, this stranger, he stood up. And to the surprise of these three thugs, he was much bigger than they had estimated from his seated position. Much bigger. And as he got up, before he walked off that bus, he pulled a business card from his pocket, gave it to the three young men, and then proceeded off. The bus takes off. Of course, all these young guys, they huddle around the card, wondering what was on it. And it had these three words, Joe Louis, boxer. Do you know who Joe Louis was? Joe Louis was one of the greatest boxers of all times. It was said that he had fists of brick, that he could actually knock out a horse. Now, I don't know if he ever did it, but that was the legend, that Joe Louis could knock out a horse with one punch. These guys, they were in the presence of greatness, yet they had the audacity to ridicule and to tease and to mock. Now, those of you who have been with us and going through the book of Romans, hopefully you see the connection between that story and the first part of Romans. Because you and I, we were like the three thugs. God created all things for us to enjoy Him and to enjoy the things that He created. And we pointed our finger at Him, and we rebelled against Him, both overtly and covertly. We said, God, we don't need you, we don't want you, we don't like you, we're gonna mock you, and we're gonna do away with you. Now, God, in His grace, has made a provision for us in our rebellion. Because the Bible says that the wrath of God is coming. You know, He's holding back from His anger, but that's only temporary. There will be a day when He will unleash His wrath and His anger against humanity for our rebellion against Him. But there's great news, there's wonderful news. You and I do not have to be on the receiving end of His wrath. Do you realize that? Do you know it? Do you believe it? Last week, Chris preached from Romans 5, where we read these words. For while we were still weak, At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. And I think for those of you who are Christians who have trusted Jesus, if I were to go around and ask you one-on-one, do you believe that you're gonna be saved from the wrath of God? Most of you would say, yes, I think so. I think I'll be saved because of Jesus, because of his work, because of his life, because of his death, because of his resurrection. But for some of us, there's always that question mark. There's always that question that arises, is this really true? Questions pop up like, how do I know that God will accept me into his presence when I die? How will I really know? How will I know this? How can I expect God to receive me with my ongoing struggle with sin? with the same consistent sin that seems to eat away at my soul. Will He really accept me? How can I be sure that my sins are forgiven through Christ? And I think when it comes to questioning our salvation, there are two groups in this room that are particularly prone to question their assurance. Children, and elderly. Children, because for those who have trusted Christ, they are just entering into the family of God, just entering into His kingdom. And for their little minds, they wonder, is this really enough? Don't I have to do more? Seniors, because they're close to ending their race, And as the tapes play in their minds of their life, and they have those reruns of things that they've done, things that they've regret, indiscretions, they wonder, is God really gonna receive me? Is he gonna receive me knowing all of these flaws? So this morning, I wanna help not only the children, and the elderly, but all of us remain confident and assured in what Christ has accomplished for us. So this morning, I'll be addressing this question, how you and I can be certain in our salvation. how you and I can be certain in our salvation. And to answer that question, we're gonna go to God's Word, the Bible, Romans 5, beginning with verse 12. Romans 5, beginning with verse 12, we'll be reading verses 12 through 21. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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. Let's pray. Father God, I pray in the name of Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit that during these next few minutes, you would take your word and take this message and change lives. God, for those who don't know you, I pray God that you would save them even while they're sitting in these seats. And God, for those who you have saved, I pray that they would walk away this morning with the renewed sense of confidence and assurance in what you have done for them in Christ. And it's in his name we pray, amen. So as we tackle this question on how to be certain in our salvation, I'm gonna have two points and then I'm gonna answer the question. Point number one, in Adam comes death. In Adam comes death. Where am I getting that? What do I mean? I'm getting that from verse 12. 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. Again, I believe Paul's major purpose in writing this section is to give the believer confidence and assurance in his or her salvation. It's for the child who every night prays, Jesus, if you're not in my heart, would you please come in tonight? Because somehow he or she thinks that previous prayers didn't count. Or it's for The prime timer, again, who's replaying the tapes, wondering if God will receive them into his presence. So in order to make his case that we can have confidence that through Jesus Christ, there's salvation from the wrath of God, Paul begins this passage by comparing two men, Adam and Jesus. And throughout this section and throughout this passage, you see the word one used 13 times, O-N-E, one in reference either to one of those two men. And if you look at your Bibles, you'll notice that after verse 12, there's a long dash. Some of your Bibles may have a parentheses beginning in verse 13. because Paul is going to say something so provocative in verse 12 that it's going to necessitate explanation and commentary. And then he's going to go back to his comparison in verse 18. So you've got verse 12 talking about Adam, commentary, from 13 to 17, then he goes back to his comparison between the two men, Adam and Jesus. And so, what do we learn about Adam, the first man mentioned in verse 12? What do we learn about this guy? First, we see that sin entered the world through Adam. Sin entered the world through Adam. Now, it's obvious that Paul here is going back to the garden. And many of you are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve in the garden, where God created Adam first. He placed him in this beautiful land. It was paradise because of the openness that he had with God, the fellowship that he had with God. God gave Adam the mandate to work the land, to cultivate it, to spread out the extremities, so that the whole world would be filled with God-glorifying people. And then he provided for Adam a wife by the name of Eve, and she was to be his helper in these endeavors. Yet God said one thing. He said, you can eat of any tree that you'd like except this one. Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet Adam in his disobedience chose to eat from that tree along with Eve. The question is, what was such the big deal? What's the big deal about eating from that tree of all the sins that he could have committed? He could have murdered his wife. He could have abused her. He could have lied, all sorts of things. He could have been lazy. said, no, I'm not going to follow through with your mandate. So God could have made any of these things the one stipulation as to not to break. Yet God said, no, you do not eat from this because if you eat from this, literally all hell will break loose. Now, what was the seriousness of Adam eating from that tree? Well, as D.A. Carson points out, this was far more than an innocent mistake. This was the de-godding of God. What Adam chose to do was the de-godding of God. Basically, he was telling God, You are not to be the sovereign. You're not to be the authority in my life. I'm gonna reduce you. I'm gonna put you in a box and put you in my pocket so that I can have autonomy and independence. I don't want you to reign over me, God. I'm gonna de-God you. And what was the result of de-Godding God? Death. Death was the result of de-Godding God. And I take that to mean both physical and spiritual death. When sin came into the world, first of all, it brought physical death. We often think of physical death as something natural. And we are seduced by the world into thinking that the natural progression is that you're born, You live and you die. And we take that to be the way things are supposed to be. And when it comes to death, that's just a natural phenomenon. There is nothing according to the Bible that's natural about death. Nothing. Remember when I was a boy, when people would die in our church, they would have funerals, not memorial services, they would have funerals. And the casket was placed in the middle, right in the middle of the church, right below the pulpit. And the casket was opened. And so everybody would come and you would visibly see this dead person right in front of your eyes. And I remember as a boy thinking to myself, something's wrong with this. This is not right. I just saw this person a week ago, or six months ago, or a year ago, and they were full of life and vigor. They were laughing and having joy. And now they're laying here and all I see is a shell. Death is not natural. It's not natural when you have a miscarriage. That's not natural. It's not natural when you have to bury an adult child. That's not natural. It's not natural when you see your spouse going through the downward spiral of dementia. or just on a more normal note, it's not natural for us when we see ourselves and we say, who am I looking at? Who is this person in the mirror? We recall in our minds when there is such activity and viability in our lives, and then for some of us, it's just gone. None of that is natural. So Adam's sin brought about physical death, but it brought more than that, it brought about spiritual death as well. In the garden before the fall, it was called paradise because of the fellowship that the first couple had with their God. It was a beautiful relationship. There was an openness and a trust. And from that relationship with their God, there just flowed naturally an openness between the first couple. Yet, what did sin do? It brought death to those relationships. Instead of enjoying God, Adam and Eve hid from God. And ultimately, they were removed from paradise and became, as Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 3 describes it, dead people walking. Now, what Paul says next is absolutely astounding. That's the purpose for this dash. Because what he's going to say is going to blow the minds of the original readers, and perhaps some of us today, that he's going to have to give some commentary to explain this comment. Again, verse 12 reads, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men. Why? And here's the provocative statement. Why? Because all sinned. All sinned. The argument that Paul's making goes like this. Sin, or the de-godding of God, came into the world through Adam. Spiritual and physical death came as a result. All of humanity is now plagued with death. Why? Because all sinned. Now, here's the question. Does Paul mean that we all sinned individually? and that brought upon ourselves sin? Is he talking about individual sin? Or is he suggesting in some way that our lives are so intertwined with Adam, so that when he sinned, you and I sinned? Which of the two? Is he talking about individual sin? Or is he talking about this union that we have with Adam? So in some mysterious way, You and I sinned, excuse me, when Adam sinned. I believe this verse is saying that it's the latter, that our lives were in union with Adam so that when he sinned, you and I sinned. And I know that's a tough pill to swallow, especially for some of us who have been raised in this country, raised in the West. We have no problem taking accountability for our sin. And the Bible does speak about that. For the wages of sin is death. You are responsible for your individual sin. But this is saying more than that. This is linking you and I with Adam. And that's tough for us to swallow. And he knows that, that's why he takes verses 13 and 14 to explain how this could be. So how does he validate that point? That those of us in Blacksburg, 2017, somehow we were united with Adam in the garden. Look at verse 13 and 14. 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." What's the argument here? Paul's argument is that there was a period of time between Adam and Moses, where sin was in the world." He's conceding that. He's saying between Adam and Moses, sin was in the world, but there was no formal law. And since there was no formal law, according to Romans 4.15, there was no transgression. There was no Ten Commandments between Adam and the Ten Commandments. And without formal law, how could somebody be proven guilty of a sin. Now, he's not saying that sin didn't exist. He's saying it did exist. But what he's saying, how could they be held accountable for that sin? The question that Paul's raising, though, is this. During that period of time, why was there universal death? Why is there universal death today? Why do infants die? What law has an infant broken? Have they broken the Mosaic law? Have they broken the law of conscience placed upon their heart? No, they have broken no law, yet they die. They have not broken overtly God's law the same way Adam did. And Paul's explanation is the reason for universal death is because as our representative, when Adam sinned, I sinned. And when Adam sinned, you sinned. His sin is imputed to me and to you. And as a result in Adam comes both physical and spiritual death. Now that's a lot. I mean, we could spend days just talking about that. That's a lot to take in. But the bigger question is why? If you're buying into that, the question is why? Why is he making such a provocative point at this point? He doesn't just make a comparison. If he was just going to make a comparison between Adam and Jesus, why all this ink? He would go straight to verse 18. But he's making what point? He's making this point. If our individual sin brought death, okay? If our individual sin brought death, then our individual righteousness would bring life. Do you follow that? He's arguing here that if it's only our individual sin that brings death. Again, he's making a comparison between the two men, Adam and Jesus. And so his argument is, if it's only about the individual sin on this side, then when it comes to Jesus, it's going to be about our individual righteousness and our ability to work for our righteousness and to work for salvation. It's just another way of driving home the point it's not about self-effort. It's not about self-improvement or self-achievement. It's about being right with God based on grace and on the work of Jesus Christ. And that's why so many of us are tripped up when it comes to assurance of salvation, because we cannot comprehend the idea that it's not about our works. And in so many ways and with so many angles, Paul's just driving that point home. It's not about your self-righteousness. It's not about your effort. It's about Jesus and His work. Which brings me to my second point. First point was, in Adam comes death. Second point, in Christ comes life. In Christ comes life. Again, Paul's making a comparison between Adam and Jesus Christ. We saw that in Adam comes death. Now Paul's going to lay out the superiority of Jesus Christ and how Jesus is greater than Adam. Again, the comparison began in verse 12. He had some commentary. Then he's going to complete the comparison in verse 18. Let's pick it up. 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." Again, Paul's point is to compare the two men. and to compare the imputed sin that came upon all of us at the garden because our life was intertwined, was in union with Adam. Now he's going to talk about the imputed righteousness that comes upon all who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So again, he's making this one-to-one correlation. We are imputed with Adam over here, in union with Adam, We have Christ's imputed righteousness given to us over here because we are in union with Jesus. Notice that if the one act of righteousness that puts us in a right standing relationship with God replaces all that was lost in the garden, everything. Everything that was lost in the garden gets cured with Jesus Christ. We often struggle with our assurance because somehow, again, we think it's about us and our behavior. And just to, again, drive this point home, Paul does this amazing comparison between the two men, Adam and Jesus. Let me share with you what he says. With Adam and Jesus, there were two acts. Adam's was a trespass in the garden. Christ was a righteous act on the cross. Both of these acts resulted in very different outcomes. Adam's act resulted in condemnation, guilt, and death. Christ's act resulted in justification, life, and kingship. Both Adam and Christ represent two different kingly models. Adam represents sin reigning through death. Christ represents grace reigning through righteousness. And lastly, both Adam and Christ represent two contrasting state of being. In Adam, people are condemned slaves. In Christ, people are justified and reigning in life. All of this belongs to you who have been declared righteous by Christ, which brings us to our question. How can you and I be certain in our salvation? How can you and I be confident that our union with Christ is going to save us? And the answer, based on all that we've seen, is to know who you are in Christ. to know in your minds, to know all who you are in Christ. One of the most common reasons we struggle in our assurance of salvation is that we don't know who we are in Christ. We're ignorant of the union that we have with Jesus. The point of this passage is to demonstrate that every one of us falls into two different camps. We like to divide ourselves into various categories. Rich-poor, male-female, black-white, blue-collar, white-collar. But the truth of the matter, the only two categories are those who are in Adam and those who are in Christ. All of us at one time were in Adam. His life of sin and death was imputed upon us. But for those of us here who are Christians, when God saved you, He imputed the righteousness of Christ to you, which made you right in the sight of God. Let me give you one illustration and we'll close. And I hope that this illustration just brings it all together for you. When my wife and I got married, we came together as one unit, as one flesh. There was solidarity between us. Now, we could talk all we wanted before we said, I do. But it wasn't till that point where we made a covenant with one another and said, I do, made a commitment to one another that we came together as a union. There was oneness there. And on that day when we said I do, both of us brought assets and liabilities to the marriage. Some more than others, and I'll let you decide who falls into which camp. I brought assets, she brought assets. We both brought liabilities. The day we said I do, her possessions became my possessions. My possessions became her possessions. My money became her money. Her money became my money. It wasn't much, but still, it was ours. Her debts became my debts. My debts became hers. My future became her future. And her future became mine. In other words, our lives, they were fused together as one. There was a union there. There was a solidarity. There was a oneness. For those of you who are Christians, when God saved you, He united the life of Christ to your life and you became united as one. And He signed that covenant union with His blood. And all of his assets became yours. And all of your liabilities became his. All of his grace became yours. All of his love became yours. And all of his righteousness became yours. It just, boom, one instant. You weren't righteous, now you are righteous. And on the flip side, all your liabilities went to Him. All the sin, all the things that you said, all the indiscretions. Children, those of you who have trusted Jesus, you do not have to ask Him into your heart every single night. He's yours. You're in union with Him. Everything that belongs to Him is now yours. Seniors, as you're reflecting on your life, as you know, it's quickly approaching probably for some of you in the next year, maybe five, maybe 10 that you're going to be with the Lord. And as you start reflecting in your life and start wondering, is He really going to receive me? When He really judges, all that I've done, is He gonna receive me? The answer is yes. Because if you've trusted Him, all of His liabilities cover over all those deficiencies. And all your deficiencies are taken upon Him, given to His Son at the cross. How can you be assured of your salvation? Know who you are in Christ.