If you have a Bible like to follow along as I read, we're in Romans chapter five today, verses 12 to 21. And I will say that these are some of the most challenging verses to to follow and to understand. And so pray that the Lord will give us clarity, give me clarity and give us clarity of understanding. But Romans, the first 11 verses were wonderful, wonderful passage that teach us about the love of God. And so these next verses give us more of a behind the scenes way that God works and has worked through two men, through Adam and through Jesus Christ. So let's begin now reading in verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense, for if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned, for the judgment which came from the one offense resulted in condemnation. But the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the word of God, living, abiding, Active, powerful, inerrant, and life-giving word. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word, and this section in Romans, Lord, is challenging to us, and we ask God that you give us the ability to think your thoughts after you. Teach us by the Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, as I said, the first part of Romans chapter 5 reminds us that God has demonstrated his love for us by the fact that he sent Jesus Christ into the world to die for us. And that love is highlighted when we realize that he died for us when we were ungodly, when we were sinful, when we were his enemies. And that's amazing. It's amazing love. It's amazing truth. It's the central truth of the Bible. And so Jesus Christ, who is very God of very God, became man through a true man, the body and soul. To so he could die in my place to pay for the sins that I committed against him. And so this is a wonderful truth, but it's a truth that we so easily in the church take for granted. It's also a truth that we don't fully understand. But this passage today will help us, I believe, to gain a better understanding. Most of us, ever since we can remember growing up, if we grew up in church especially, we heard and we knew and we believed that Jesus died for my sins. He became a substitute for us, but how is that possible? How is it possible that Jesus could pay for my sins? How was it that his death had anything to do with me? Well, Paul explains how and why he could be our substitute in this passage. He does so by way of a comparison and contrast between two men, Adam and Jesus Christ, between sin and grace. Verse 20, really gives us the theme here for this passage, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. The good news is that whatever we lost through the sin of Adam and through our sin, through the fall, is more than made up for in the grace that comes to us through Jesus Christ. Sin has abounded, but grace has super abounded. So God's grace, as we sing, is greater than all our sin. His grace is greater than your sin. Do you believe that this morning? Verse 21 tells us that those sin reign in death, even so grace reigns through Christ. So that's the message today. Grace reigns. Grace rules. Sin abounds, but grace rules. It has dominion. It dominates. It prevails over sin through our Lord Jesus Christ. So grace is meant to rule in your life and in my life. Sinclair Ferguson said there is more grace in Jesus Christ than there is sin in my life. There's more grace in Jesus Christ than there is sin in my life. And before we look at how grace abounds over sin, we want to look at some of the ways in which sin has abounded in the world. So two points this morning, how sin has abounded and how grace has abounded. There are four different words in this passage, four different Greek words that are all referring to sin. One of the words is sin, at least English translation is sin. And so we'll try to define some of these terms as we go along. But sin has abounded in this world. How so? Well, first of all, according to our text, sin has abounded through the act of one man. threw one man's sin into the world. That man was Adam, the very first man, the very first human being. Now Eve actually sinned before Adam did. And yet it's Adam who is charged with the responsibility of bringing sin into the world. Why is Adam to blame and not Eve? Well, because Adam was uniquely chosen to be the representative, or what theologians call the federal head of the human race. It's a representation, and Adam was our representative. Well, verse 14 says, you see, Adam is a type of him who was to come. Jesus Christ is a representative of his people. in order to save them. And so Adam is a representative of humanity. And of course he was given a test. God gave him a command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the serpent tempted Eve, she ate, she gave fruit to Adam, and he ate. So he failed, and it resulted in the failure of the human race. There's a solidarity, you see, between Adam and the rest of mankind. And this is something that we don't often think about. In the early days of our own country, there was a book that almost all of the children, school-aged children, would use as they learned the alphabet, as they learned how to read and write, and so on. And it was called the New England Primer, published in 1688. And so they had a little phrase. To learn the alphabet, they had a phrase for each letter of the alphabet. And for A, the phrase went like this. And so all, you can imagine all the little children, you know, in the colonial days in the United States, before it was the United States, they're reading this and memorizing it. In Adam's fall, we send all. In Adam's fall, we send all. And that's a deep theological truth that's taught in our passage. Paul said in verse 12, that death, thus death spread to all men because all sin. And so when he says, because all sinned, it really means because they all sinned in Adam's transgression. We all sinned in Adam. And so here's that word sin. The Greek is harmartia, and it means to miss the mark, it means to wander from the way, it means to violate God's law, whether in thought or in deed. And so when Adam, you see, he violated the divine law that God had given, we sin in him or in him. And there's different theories of what that means or how we can explain that we were in Adam when he sinned. Augustine said we were in Adam seminally. Biologically, if you will, we were there. But representationally, representatively, we certainly sinned with him. We certainly sinned in him. And some would argue, well, that's not fair, is it? I wasn't there. I didn't do that. Adam did it. Why should I be blamed for what Adam did? Consider, first of all, that this was God's doing. This is God. Do we really want to say, do you really want to say that God is not fair? Do you want to question God? Do you want to go down that road? Well, do we want to accuse him of injustice? Consider this, that Adam was the perfect man. First of all, he had no sinful inclinations, as you and I do. You think you would do better? You already have a nature bent toward evil. And Adam came into the world without that, and yet he sinned. He was the perfect man, and God chose him to represent us all. So you and I, you could not have represented humanity any better. than Adam. And another thought is that if we object to this representation of Adam, of the human race, then we would also have to object to Jesus representing us to bring salvation. So if you think representation is a bad thing, well, you probably won't like the government of our country either because we have a representative form of government. We elect people, and we don't always agree with what even the ones we voted for, even if they get in to a position in government, we don't always agree with what they do. But there are representatives, and so like it or not, we're left with them to represent us. So thankfully, God was willing for Jesus to represent us, and there's more about that in the second point. So, sin abounded by the single act of one man. This is repeated. In so many ways throughout this passage, verse 15 says, by one man's offense, many died. And that word offense, it means a false step. And so by one false step in Adam, we all stumbled and fell. And then verse 19, by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. There's another word for sin, disobedience. And that word in the Greek, means literally to hear amiss. It's a refusal to hear, to heed, hence to obey. Disobedience says, I don't care what you say, God, I'm not even paying attention. I will do what I choose to do. That's disobedience. That's what Adam did. He knew the command. He knew what God said to not do, to not eat of the fruit, but he did it. Anyway, he disobeyed and then there's transgression verse 14 speaks of the transgression of Adam so that's the fourth term now that is related to sin and That word means to go over it means to violate it means to breach God's law So God had given him that law that command and Adam transgressed the commandment of God And when he did, we were counted guilty along with Adam before we were ever born. And that's just the way it is. We may not like it. We may not understand it. But the truth is that sin abounded by one man because he was the chosen representative of us all. But another way in which sin abounded, according to this passage is that it resulted in death. Verse 12, death came through sin. It spread to all men. None of us are immune to it. We just haven't arrived there yet. Death is a consequence of sin. It wasn't originally in the creation, a part of creation, Even though it's an eternal plan of God, it's a punishment on the human race for our rebellion. It's part of the curse that God has placed on the entire human race and on the earth. So sin abounded in that it resulted in death. Sin also, how else does it abound? Well, it abounded when the law entered. And I won't go into every detail of this, we don't have time. It says in verse 20, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. How is it that the law made sin abound? Well, there are a number of ways to look at that. The law stirs up sinful desires. If you put a sign up that says, don't touch, we want to touch what we're commanded not to touch. And so that's one thing. It stirs up corruption in us when we hear it. Children don't like to be told what to do and what not to do. We see that their corruption rise up. So sin abounds when the law is proclaimed. And it does so by revealing the offensiveness. Not only stirs up the corruption in us, but it reveals the offensiveness of sin. Now, before the law of Moses, before the Ten Commandments and other laws, man certainly knew what was right and wrong. It was built into their consciences. And yet, when the law came, it made things much more clear. And, you know, it's like when you get to be my age and you're blurry-eyed, you put your glasses on, and it sure makes things a whole lot clearer. When the law comes, we see sin much more clearly. And it's like a light, too. When it shines, when the light of God's law shines into our hearts, we see a lot more sin and a lot more evil there than we realized was there. That's why we, at least once a month, we read the Ten Commandments together in our congregation. And that's why the law is a helpful thing. The law doesn't make us sinful, but it displays our sinfulness in its bright light. And I couldn't help but think of this illustration. Let's just say that you see some evidence that in your kitchen you might have a cockroach issue. Occasionally, you might see one, right? You see one scurry across the floor, you see some evidence that they've been there. And that bothers you a little, but not too much. But let's say you get up in the middle of the night for a drink of water. And you walk into the kitchen, you flip that bright overhead light on, and suddenly you see a couple of dozen scurrying for cover. That's disgusting. That is a problem. And that is going to require you to do something about it. Now before, when you just saw one maybe occasionally, you didn't think anything needed to be done. And so you and I, you see, we know we're sinners. No one, everyone will say, well, I know I'm not perfect. And you know, I might have a, you know, one or two sins. But when the light of God's law with the work of the Holy Spirit, with it, shines on our lives, we discover a whole lot more sin than we thought was there. We're a lot worse than we thought we were. And you say, well, why do we have to do that? Why do we have to go through that? Because until we see the reality of our sins, we're not going to appreciate nor appropriate the remedy for those sins. So our sins were always there, but the law kind of makes them abound in the ways that we were just discussing. And another way in which sin abounded in the world is it resulted in judgment and eternal condemnation. Verse 18 says, judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation. Jesus said this, he said, go through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leads to destruction. And many there are who go in through it." So sin has abounded in this way, that on account of our sin, we all stand condemned. We all deserve judgment. By nature, we're all on that broad road to destruction. That's how we start out. We're on that road. We're walking with everybody else. And the only way We can, you know, change. It's a turn, to turn around. We call that repent. Turn around and enter life through the narrow gate and get on that narrow path which is coming through Jesus Christ and then following him. So has sin abounded in your life? If you're honest, you will say yes. Have sinful desires dominated you even sometimes after you're a Christian and controlled you? Well, it seems that way, doesn't it? Has sin brought heartache and misery into your life, whether it's your own sin or the sin of others? Maybe it's a child who has sinned and brought heartache to your soul. But here's another question. Has sin burdened you? such that you feel the heavy weight of its guilt. Well, then you're ready to hear the second point, the good news, how grace abounds more than sin. Verse 20, where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, not just more, but much more. And so what is grace? It's God's goodwill, his favor, His kindness is mercy to those who are sinful and undeserving. This grace has abounded much, much more than sin has abounded. Now, sin has abounded quite a bit. It's so much that you cannot go anywhere in the world to escape it. People have thought, I can escape sin and temptation in my own life if I just go off and be a hermit and live out in the middle of nowhere. And we kind of live out in the middle of nowhere. And it doesn't do anything to your sinful nature, okay? And so this is what, you know, sin abounds. There's no place in your life that you cannot find that sin has affected you. You and I are thoroughly, in every part, affected by sin. And yet grace has abounded much more than sin. Doesn't seem like it, does it? How so? Well, first of all, grace has abounded much more than sin through One man, Jesus Christ. Just like sin abounded through one man, grace abounds through one man, Jesus Christ. It was through the one man, Adam, that we got into this mess. But it's through the one man, Jesus Christ, that we not only get out of this mess, we get to a better place even than Adam and Eve were in before they sinned. In verses 12 to 14, Paul had been talking about the first man, Adam, but now in verse 15, he begins to talk about the other man. For if by the one man's offense, many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ abounded to many. I love these superlative terms, you know, abounded and much more. God is lavish with his grace. an abundance of grace comes to us. Grace not only undoes the penalty of death, it brings life. It brings abundant life. It brings eternal life to all who trust in that one man, the God-man, Jesus Christ. If you and I want to overcome sin and its effects in our lives, then we only need to look to one place, to one person, And see, one man has been made the fountain of life. Have you come to drink from that fountain? One man has been made the savior of the world. Have you trusted in Jesus as your savior? We hear people talk about if you trust Jesus as your personal savior, it means not just a vague and general trust, but a personal individual. I put my faith in Jesus. I receive you, Jesus, as my Lord and my savior. Have you done that? Well, salvation can only be received, as Paul said here, as a gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. It doesn't come anywhere else or through anyone else. So if you have received Jesus Christ, then the question is, are you continuing to look to Christ to daily overcome sin? So his death on the cross was far more far reaching than we could ever imagine. It was far more powerful than, I mean, Adam, by one sin, he plunged the whole human race into misery, destruction, judgment, chaos. We could go on and on. That's pretty powerful. Just one act and the impact it had. But the one act of Jesus Christ is far greater, far more powerful, far more wonderful. His death is a solution to the death brought into the world by Adam. You know, Adam's life resulted in death, but Jesus' death resulted in life for those who trust him. Verse 16 says the free gift resulted in justification. And we've talked, of course, a lot about justification already. That means we're no longer, if we trust in him, no longer are we condemned. Instead of condemnation, we're justified. We're acquitted. of Adam's guilt, of our own guilt. And we're given a righteous standing instead. And we didn't deserve it. We didn't gain it. Christ gained it for us. Did you know that Adam and Eve had a righteous standing before God, before they sinned? Did you know that they had righteousness? They were created with righteousness. But it was a righteousness that was mutable. It was subject to change. And it did change. But the righteousness that the believer has in Jesus Christ, once he declares you righteous by faith and imputes his righteousness to you, that righteousness cannot be lost. It cannot be sinned away, as Adam's righteousness was. Verse 17 says, much more those who receive abundance of grace And that the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. So Adam's sin, it allowed death to reign over mankind. It does reign over mankind. And so picture death as this powerful king who says, I'm going to rule everyone in the world. And death did rule all people. We all die. And death comes not only to us physically, but first of all, spiritually. That's when God said, you know, the day you eat of this tree, you will surely die. Well, they didn't die physically that day, but that moment, the very moment they disobeyed God, they died spiritually. And that led to physical death. And that leads to eternal death. But those who receive the abundance of grace by Jesus Christ will reign over death. Remember, Grace rains rains over all things it rains over sin. It rains over death So, how does that happen? What does it mean will rain in life? Well, it means right now we can rain spiritually over sin over Satan over temptation over the world No Christian needs to be defeated by sin. Now, all Christians are going to be defeated. We're not going to live a life of perfection in this world. But we don't need to live a defeated life because grace reigns. Are you a child of God through faith in Jesus? Yes. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. And Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. your heavenly Father. You are a child of the King. Jesus said, all authority has been given to me in heaven on earth. In other words, he's saying, I reign. I rule over all things. Now, if Jesus rules you, that means that that grace, his grace, rules and reigns now in your life over sin. These are things that we'll see in the next chapter in Romans 6 that we need to reckon to be so in our lives. We need to count and these things to be true, that right now Jesus Christ is reigning over me and therefore over sin. Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. Where sin rules, Christ now rules much more. Romans 6 says, sin shall not have dominion over you because you're not under law anymore, you're under grace. You're not under law's condemnation, but under the grace of Jesus Christ. So do you believe this? This morning you say, I want to believe it, but my experience won't let me. I know I'm supposed to reign over sin, but sin always seems to get the best of me. Verse 17 says that those who receive abundance of grace will reign. So here's the thing. If you have received Jesus Christ, you have already received grace. And you stand in grace. And you have, as we saw earlier in chapter 5, you have access into this grace. And Hebrews talks about, you know, that come with boldness to the throne of grace. And so we have access to that, but you and I need to daily seek, fervently seek, an abundant supply of grace. And I would say this, Jesus does not force feed you with his grace. You have to sit down at the table and feed yourself. All right. The table has been set. You know, Psalm 23, 5, you prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. All right. Well, who's going to who's going to defeat who? Well, the table, if you if you will, metaphorically, we could look at as a table set with the means of grace. Lots of things we could say, but faithful attendance in worship, the word and sacrament, fellowship, personal Bible study, personal individual secret prayer, as Jesus talks about in Matthew six, family worship, and just simply abiding in Christ. Because apart from me, Jesus said, you can do nothing. So we have to feed upon Jesus and his grace daily. And if we do that, we will reign over sin. But we will also reign over death. Because even though we still will die physically, like all others, unless the Lord returns, we will triumph over death at his return. We'll be resurrected on the last day and we will live with Christ forever. We'll have a new and glorified body fit for heaven and eternal joys. The opposite is true, of course, for those who do not believe. But 1 Corinthians 15 says the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will all be changed. So This is what we have to look forward to. We will reign, we will triumph because of Christ's triumph over death. So we will triumph over death. To conclude this whole section, just a little recap before we go. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said this. He said the whole story of the human race can be summed up in terms of what has happened because of Adam, And what has happened and will yet happen because of Jesus Christ. You say, what's going on in the history of the world? This is it. What has happened because of Adam? We see that very plainly. But what has happened and will yet happen because of Jesus Christ. So Adam, again, was appointed to be the representative head of the human race. We did not elect him to represent us. God did. He failed, and as a result, we fail. The world became full of sin and death. So you and I were born in sin, because we were born in Adam. And as a sinner, we're spiritually dead. We're subject to death, even eternal death, but God. But God chose another representative for sinful humanity. We didn't elect him either to represent us. God did. And we know about him. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life. He laid down his life, having lived a perfect life, to offer himself as a sacrifice for those he represents. So he's a perfect representative. Where Adam failed, Jesus succeeded. You say, Adam sure made a mess of things, didn't he? He made a mess of my life. If it weren't for Adam, my life wouldn't be such a mess. That's true. That's true. So what are you going to do about it? Are you just left to what Adam did? No, what Adam did and what you have done does not have to affect your eternal destiny, nor your quality of life here on Earth. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam. You'll be saved from sin's penalty. You'll begin being saved from sin's power. You'll be saved from that sin that Adam brought into this world. So Jesus Christ, as it were, is the reverse Adam. He reverses the curse. He reverses sin's penalty and power for all who trust in him. So don't sit around complaining about Adam's sin and how because of him you ended up in the predicament you're in. Accept it. Accept that because of Adam and because of your own actions, You're guilty. You sin. You deserve judgment. And it's a lot worse than you probably thought. But also accept the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. It's offered freely, this gift of eternal life. Do you want it or not? It came through one man, Jesus Christ. Do you want him or not? All of human history hinges upon the personal work of Jesus Christ and your personal history and destiny hinges upon whether you turn to Jesus or remain an Adam. You're going to be an Adam for all eternity? And if you are, that's hell. Or you can be in Christ by believing in him. You know, we live in a victimization culture. We want to blame others for all our problems in life. And it's common for children, young children, teenage children and, yes, adult children to blame their parents for all the problems they have in life. It's a very popular thing today. Well, we might as well go all the way back to Adam and just blame him, right? Because he's the original parent. Let's blame Adam. Well, Adam tried to blame Eve. It didn't do him much good. And the fact is, we're all born in sin and God will not accept us in this condition. Something has to be done. And well, he has done something about it. We can be born again. We must be born again, Jesus said, if we would enter into the kingdom, enter the family of God, or we'll die in our sins. There's no other option. So blaming your parents, your upbringing, blaming your environment, blaming Adam, won't help at all. It's what everyone's doing today. They're virtue signaling on the one hand, but then they're blaming everybody else for their problems. Some people want to blame God, but I assure you that will get you nowhere. Just a faster ticket out of here to a bad place. But what I will say and what you need to see and what I need to see is that while everyone was looking for someone to blame, Jesus came along quietly and Without a lot of fanfare, really, he came and took the blame. He had no blame. He had no sin. But he said, I'll take the blame for all my sheep. And it became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Are you in Christ? And you have His righteousness. You have His reign over sin. You have His grace which abounds over sin and death and even hell. And I would ask you today, do you know Jesus? Do you really know Him? Have you really turned to Jesus from the heart and said, yes, Jesus, I want you to reign over me. I want you to save me from my sins. The Bible says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Will you pray with me? Father, I pray today that all of us will see sin as we should see it, that it has abounded. But more than that, that we would see grace, grace in the person and work of Jesus Christ that is super abounded. And so, Lord, I pray today for anyone here today who is not certain that they know Jesus, who is hesitant to put their full trust in Him because they love their lives. They want to go their own way. Help them to see, Lord, that that way will only end in misery, more misery, and death. And I pray, Lord, that today, if someone wants to know Jesus Christ, that they will pray even now while they're sitting in their seats and say, Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I deserve judgment. I am to blame. And yes, Adam too, but I am guilty. Jesus Christ, you paid my penalty on the cross. Will you come and save my soul and take over my life and change me from within? In your name I pray, amen. If you would take your hymnals and Number 465 is Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord.