to live apart from God is death. And as we begin Lord's Day 5, we begin Part 2, Deliverance, Deliverance from Death. There are really the first few questions and answers are still detailing how we can't do it ourselves. But we're going to go into Lord's Day 6 as well and that certainly gets us into deliverance. Lord willing, we'll do a little bit of an overview, speed up, and then a slow down. And so we'll take into Lord's Day Six, question answers 12 through 18. They do have many connections and connecting points from who can't be our mediator to who can be our mediator. And then Lord willing, we'll do a slow down next week and take question answer 19 by itself. But for this evening, we'll do 12 through 18. And these are really all a little bit shorter question and answers, and so we can do them all together. And so I'll read the questions, let's together do the answers. Question and answer 12, page 205 in the forms and prayers. According to God's righteous judgment, we deserve punishment both now and in eternity. How then can we escape this punishment and return to God's favor? God requires that His justice be satisfied. Therefore, the claims of this justice must be paid in full, either by ourselves or by another. Can we make this payment ourselves? Certainly not. Actually, we increase our debt every day. Can another creature, any at all, pay this debt for us? No. To begin with, God will not punish any other creature for what a human is guilty of. Furthermore, no mere creature can bear the weight of God's eternal wrath against sin and deliver others from it. What kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for, then, One who is a true and righteous man, yet more powerful than all creatures. That is one who is also true God. And Lord's Day 6, question answer 16. Why must the mediator be a true and righteous man? Because God's justice requires that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin. but a sinner could never pay for others. Why must he also be true God? So that by the power of his divinity he might bear in his humanity the weight of God's wrath and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life. Then who is this mediator? true God and at the same time a true and righteous man, our Lord Jesus Christ who was given to us for our complete deliverance and righteousness. That is the catechism, the faithful summary of the word of God and the question and answer 18 is very much the pinnacle of all of those questions and answers. Let us turn now to our reading from God's word for this evening, Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five, and we will be looking together at verses 12 through 21 of Romans chapter five. Page 1,198. In most of the few Bibles after the Book of Acts, we have the Book of Romans, the longest of the Apostles' letters, and the letters are organized from longest to shortest, so Romans comes first. Romans 5, beginning at verse 12, reading to verse 21. Let us hear the word of God. 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. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, many might think of death as a natural thing and perhaps not even as the worst thing or might try to say that. After all, many people now believe in evolution and Carl Sagan, an atheistic scientist who died about 20 years ago, he once called death one of the secrets of evolution along with time. Now perhaps Carl Sagan called it a secret because death is still unpleasant even if we try to pretend it isn't. And that might be why he says secret but Christian scientists have pointed out that death is supposedly part of the engine room of evolution. But while death is, in some sense, the natural end of us in this sinful world, in our passage we are reminded on no uncertain terms that death was not part of the original, very good, natural, created order. Death is not how things were made to be. Instead, death is tied to sin, and the very entrance of death into this world is tied to sin, specifically one sin, this one sin of the one man, Adam, and the fall. And now there is the impact of death, the existence of death, but that is not how God made it to be. We live in a reign of death, but that's not how God made it, and that's not how God will finish all things. The grace of God is more powerful than death. Though death does reign right now, so much more powerful is God. And so that's our very theme this evening. God's grace is abundantly greater than the grip of sin and sin and death, which are so closely related. And so we'll look at sin staining or sin reigning, and then grace abounding, and then sin increasing, but grace super abounding. Sin has stained us. We are all in debt. because of our sins, and we are all increasing in our debt every day. Question and Answer 13 speaks to that, and that relates to what we sometimes call our actual sins, the sins that we personally commit. We personally increase our own debt every day. And scripture would speak about what Question and Answer 13 summarizes, would speak about our own committing of sin in many places, But here in Romans 5, we're actually not speaking about our own sins, even at the end of Romans 5, 12, when it says, all have sinned. Now usually we would read that and we would think about, we all commit sins, and that's true, and other passages speak about that, even earlier in Romans, in Romans 2 and 3, but here in Romans 5, we're being told something different. Notice that earlier in that verse, it says, sin came into the world through one man. And now, the one sin of the one man Adam is going to be repeatedly emphasized. Look in the middle of verse 14, the transgression of Adam. The middle of verse 15, the one man's trespass. The middle of verse 16, one man's sin. At the end of verse 16, one trespass. The beginning of verse 17, one man's trespass. And then, into verse 18, and here's where the apostle is really finishing his thought. So we have this even with this dashed line in our English text at the end of verse 12. The Apostle Paul starts this sentence in verse 12 and then he just doesn't finish. He starts it and then he doesn't finish his thought. And that's true in the English because it's true in the Greek. And he's giving some qualifiers, he's giving some clarifications but then he's really coming back and he's he's finishing his thought now in verse 18 and following and and here it's made especially clear one trespass verse 18 led to condemnation for all men and then again in verse 19 by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners. You see, we have all sinned. We all sin and increase our own debt, question answer 13, but we are also all sinners by nature from Adam and his one trespass. So we have not only question and answer 13, but also question and answer 16. Human nature has sinned and must pay for its sin. We are all stained with the sin that reigns. We are all under the grip of the penalty of sin. This is true from our conception because we are all in Adam and death. has reigned ever since the time of Adam, since the time of the first transgressions, since the time of the fall. And death is so much a part of this. While this passage is speaking about spiritual death, physical death is also in view such that the two are almost interchangeable as they're tied together here. Turls Hodge then once summarized it this way, how closely physical death and spiritual death are tied together in this passage. He says, quote, physical death is the most obvious part of the penalty against the evils of sin. And so we see that sin is closely related to spiritual deadness and sin is closely related to the reality that physical death, is now raining, is now everywhere. There was no death before the sin of Adam. There was no death before the fall. People of God, if someone finds death disturbing, it's because we should find death disturbing. I had a friend once and I still don't know the spiritual state of this friend and I still haven't had a chance to meet his wife but he was speaking about his wife who grew up in church and now struggles with believing in God and the specific reason he gave is that she really struggles with death, that death is all around us, the death of people, the death of animals. by God's grace, this passage came to my mind and I was immediately able to speak to him and say, death is not how it should be. Your wife should be disturbed by death. Death is not how God made it to be. Death is the result of man's sin. Death is the result of the fall. Death is part of the curse. I do not know if this planted seed will be watered or given increase, but this is the kind of thing that we can say as salt and light into this world when we struggle with and we are disturbed by death. We should be disturbed by death. We should not be evolutionists who stand up and say, well, death is the secret and it's just really helping us evolve further or whatever. Again, they are a little bit ashamed of it, which is perhaps why when I looked for the quote, I could find a cartoon character who said it. I couldn't find a real person. I kind of want to hide it behind the words of Thanos. And so there's a Marvel cartoon where Thanos talks about evolution and the engine of death. and Sagan calls it a secret, but the Christians, they're the ones who come out and say, yes, death is part of the very engine room of evolution, and there's all these people that are then maybe trying to see death in some kind of good way or whatever it is, but death is not good. Death came through man's sin. Death is disturbing, and it should be disturbing. The reign of death that we now see is not how things should be. Sin is how death and ugliness came into this very good creation, specifically the one sin of the one man, Adam. And the grip of sin on this earth and the grip of death is strong. but the grace of God is stronger than the power of sin and death. That takes us to our second point. Adam is a type of the one who is to come. We see that at the end of verse 14. So there's something that Adam does which points to, is a picture of what Christ will do. And we might think of, if we think of a type, we might think of something like a sandbox toy that is a mold and you can put wet sand into it and then you dump it over and what do you get? You get from the type, from the sandbox toy, from the mold, you get something which is like it but different. So they have similar designs, they have similar patterns. You can see that the one came from the other, but yet they're not exactly the same thing. And that's the kind of idea that this Greek word is getting at. They're not exactly the same, but there's something similar that they do. Namely, they represent others. our first point, right? It's the one man's sin by which we all have a sinful human nature. Adam is a representative. He's a mediator. He's a federal head is the phrase we sometimes use. And now the text is going to make it clear that Christ also is a mediator. a representative. Christ is also a, to use the language of the catechism, a mediator. But of course they're not exactly the same, they do very different things. And so where Adam is a representative and impacts us because of his disobedience, Christ impacts us through the gift, the gift of grace, and by his one act of righteousness in verse 18, and by his one man's obedience in verse 19. Well, Adam passes on the sinful nature of Christ, passes on the gift of grace by his perfect obedience, the obedience of Christ, which is demonstrated in his whole life, but especially in the one moment on the cross. So Philippians summarizes, Philippians 2.8 summarizes the obedience of Christ in this way. He was found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on the cross. And so if we think of one act of righteousness in verse 18, it's that one act which is the pinnacle of all the obedience of Jesus Christ. and so surely Christ is the mediator who is a deliverer mediator and so that's that's what all of these question answers really they are tied together and it's all of this about how we we need to be a saved either by ourselves or by another And we have this debt and we need someone else to step in and take it. We need a mediator. What kind of mediator are we looking for? One who's true man and true God. And it's all leading to question answer 18. That beautiful summary. Who is then that one mediator? Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given for our complete deliverance and righteousness. He is. the more powerful and the righteous representative. Our Lord Jesus Christ could and did accomplish all of this for our complete deliverance. And so there is a comparison between Adam and Christ. Adam is even a type of Christ. They are both representatives, but they are so different. What Christ does is so much more powerful than what Adam does. And it's different in what it does. It's different in whom it applies to. Now Adam represents all those who are tied to him. And so the text implies it's all those who have ever lived. And so death was raining even from Adam to Moses. Death began immediately with the fall and it's been continuing ever since. But whom does the representation of Christ apply to? Well, for the representation of Christ, there's a qualifier, even in our text, and it's in verse 17. There's no qualifier for the representation of Adam, because it's for all men. We're all under Adam, we're all born in Adam. But for the representation of Christ, there's something that qualifies it. It's for, and we see this in the middle of verse 17, it's for those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness. It's for those who receive it. The righteousness of Christ is for those who receive it. The representation of Adam is passed on in your birth. representation of Christ is given to those who receive it by faith. And so it's different in whom it applies to. It's different in what it does. We've really been speaking about that already because we speak about that throughout. But just look at the language of the text and how completely different the language is. Verse 16 and then repeated in verse 18. While Adam brings condemnation, Christ brings justification. While Adam brings the death reign, which we see in verse 14 and verse 17, Christ brings the gift to reign in life, which we see in verse 17. And then verse 19, while Adam made sinners, we are all sinful by nature in Adam. Through Christ, we can be made righteous. And then overarching all of this, the impact of what Adam has done is strong. It's described as a reign, a reign of death, the rule of death. And if we were to continue on to Romans 8 verse 22, it speaks about how all of creation groans. It's a rule of death which impacts certainly man but also the whole world. But where death is, the grace of God abounds and the grace of God is stronger. And that's a repeated emphasis of our text. The grace of God can abound. The grace of God is stronger, more powerful than the power of death. God can restore all those who believe and receive. Do you know your sinfulness? That in Adam you are spiritually dead and that by your own sins you only increase your debt. Know this. and repent, but know that there is grace through Christ. That all who then receive what he has done, who receive the gift, receive life by the abounding power of the work of Christ. Now let's come to our third point, sin increasing. And this really comes from verse 13 and verse 20, where we see language, especially in verse 20, the law came to increase the trespass. Now, what does this phrase mean? We can say that Romans 5, for example, up to this point has explained itself, but let's turn back to Romans chapter 3 to understand what this phrase means. The law came to increase the trespass? Romans 3 verse 20 can help us understand this. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. And so we put that together with Romans 5.20, the law came to increase the trespass. And taken together, we see plainly this, that where the law is, we more clearly see our inability to keep it. We more clearly see our guilt. the law increases the trespass, the law increases our debt because it shows us our debt. Apart from the law, we go on unaware. Apart from being confronted in our sins, we go on and suppress the truth and unrighteousness, and that's the language of Romans 1. The law came to increase the trespass to show our debt. to show the depth of our sinfulness. And so we see also in Romans 5 verse 13, sin is not counted where there is no law. And now we take what we've just seen about how the law increases our knowledge and we say this, where We have an increased knowledge where we know more. If we do not repent, we will be judged more severely. And here again, Romans 5, perhaps by itself is not showing us this clearly, but we think of the context of scripture and one of the clearest places that we see that principle, the principle of of there being a more severe counting where the law is present, where knowledge is present. We see this in the parable in Luke chapter 12. If you would turn with me to Luke chapter 12 verses 47 and 48. So the law comes and it shows us our guilt and it brings a certain counting with it. It brings a certain degree of greater condemnation with it. And so there's this parable about servants being ready. And there are two servants who did not, neither one did what should have been done. And then Jesus brings the parable to a conclusion in Luke 12, verses 47 and 48. And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required. And from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the much more. And so we take that biblical principle in the context of all of scripture and we see that sin was not counted to the same degree because there was not the same level of knowledge, there was not the same level of law revealing our sinfulness. But now, the law has come. And because the law itself cannot save us, because we are completely wicked in and of ourselves, when we have the law, all it does is increase. All it does is increase our debt. All it does is increase what will be counted against it. But that is not the end. We have one more point. Because where the law came to increase the trespasses, and where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. That takes us to our fourth point, grace superabounding. The language of verse 20, there at the end of verse 20, when the apostle says grace abounded all the more, the four words abounded all the more, and they're from one word in the Greek. And it's closely related to the word from the Greek for abounded in verse 15, and the Greek word behind abundance in verse 17. But in verse 20, the apostle has added a prefix before it. He's added the Greek uper, which is part of where we get the English word super, which is very, very close to it. Super, super abounding. Now, if we go to an English dictionary, the English word super abounding is now labeled as archaic, which is probably why the translators didn't use it, and that's probably okay, but we could almost write in parentheses in our Bibles besides abounded all the more, super abounding, because even though it's an archaic word, We know what it means because we know what super means. It means greater than abounding. It means powerfully abounding. This is the clearest language that the apostle could possibly use in the Greek to communicate the power of the grace of God. He's already using a strong word and now he's adding super to it. He could not speak in stronger language. I remember from when I was a boy, there was a Bernstein Bears book with all these comparisons and so it'd be like strong, stronger, strongest, long, longer, longest, and then for each part, you know, there'd be this little podium, and there's first, second, third, and third is good, but second is better, and first is best. Well, it's as though the apostle is using the strongest word that he can. He's using the word not strong, not stronger, but strongest. And that's what he says in verse 15 and 17. But now he gets to verse 20 and he's speaking about how when the law comes, it just exposes our guilt. It just makes It just increases the sin all the more. And so now what am I going to say? I'm not going to say strongest, but I'm going to say super strongest. I'm going to say super abounding. This is the power of the grace of God. The power of death reigns. It rules. It's over all of us. The power of the law if we open our eyes at all, exposes our own sinfulness, does it not? The power of the law, if our eyes are open, shows us we are sinners. We need a substitute. We need a righteous head. We are under Adam, and we are increasing in our sins all the more. And so we stand on our own, and we say, we're in this land of the rule of death. And I look at the law, and it only increases my knowledge that I deserve death. But the grace of God is abounding. It is super abounding and the power of death can say nothing to the grace of God and life which is purchased and won by Jesus Christ. The grace of God will bring complete reversal and more. The grace of God will bring full righteousness and the complete reign of life. And so into verse 21, it speaks again about sin, reigning, and death. But what does Jesus Christ bring? leading us to a reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life. Eden was very good. Eden was a place of paradise without death. But it wasn't a reign of complete righteousness. Adam and Eve were able to sin, and indeed they did sin. It was also a place where they had a task which was yet to be completed. Jesus Christ has the power to not only take this reign of death and stop it, but to not only bring us back to a state of very goodness, but to finish it, to finish the work, to bring eternal life and eternal righteousness without any more possibility of falling into sin. This is the power of God. It reverses death and more, and it saves our dead souls. People of God, in the end, no words can really express the greatness of the love and the grace of God. And so the apostle uses the strongest language he can, but even this language falls short So we might think of the song that we're about to sing soon, and the start of the third stanza of O Sacred Head Now Wounded. What language shall I borrow to thank thee, dearest friend, for this, thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end, for this which you have done to save me from my sins? What language can I borrow? What language can I use What's the strongest word I can use? It's still not enough. God's grace has the power over the grip of sin and death. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, we thank you that though we are all dead, And we are all under the representation of Adam. We are all born into sin in our sinful nature, but Lord, receiving the gift of faith, You bring us to one who is much greater. You bring us to Jesus Christ. And that then, swallows up who we are in Adam and makes us new and makes us those inheritors of eternal life. Lord God, what you have done is great, is better than great. It is what we cannot