[0:00] Romans chapter 5 is where we are this morning. I titled this sermon, I'm always jealous of pastors who have these clever titles.
[0:14] ! I'm not that creative. So I thought I'd try to get creative with this one. So I titled this one, Jesus is the one-upper. Jesus is the one-upper.
[0:26] He knows what I'm talking about. The guys who, you know, you tell them something and they always one-up you. Man, I just had a really bad night. Oh yeah, well I didn't sleep for two days.
[0:39] You know, that kind of thing. Well, our text this morning, Jesus is the one-upper. We've got a big text with a big topic and a lot to cover.
[0:53] So I'm going to pray and then we'll dig in. Father, we are so thankful for Your Son, Jesus Christ.
[1:04] We are so thankful for the grace and the mercy that You have shown us. And God, I pray this morning that we are more aware of that grace and mercy this morning.
[1:15] That You make Yourself known to us even more. God, I pray that the words that are spoken here will be Your words.
[1:26] I pray, God, that I don't preach and teach from my talent, but I preach and teach this morning through the power of the Holy Spirit. God, if there is any error in what I say, I pray that nobody remembers.
[1:41] Not for my glory, but for Your glory, so that I do not stray anybody away from Your truth. I pray, God, that Your Word would penetrate hearts this morning and that we would treasure Christ.
[1:56] That we could sing, give me Christ or else I die forever. Our lives would reflect those words. Amen. Pray this in Jesus' name.
[2:09] Amen. So, it's been four weeks since we've been in the book of Romans. So, what I want to do is give you guys a quick review. And then we'll dig into chapter 5, starting in verse 12.
[2:23] Romans chapter 1. This is a letter to the church in Rome. So, Paul writes this letter to Christians. Romans chapter 1, Paul lays out that everyone, Gentile specifically, are sinners.
[2:37] Everyone is guilty. In fact, he says in chapter 1, verse 20, so they are without excuse being that they are shown God's glory.
[2:51] They are guilty no matter who they are. They decide in chapter 1, as Paul is laying out the depravity of man, he says that they worship the creation instead of the Creator.
[3:10] Chapter 2, just so there's no judgment or just so there's no empty lines not filled out, Paul addresses the Jewish people in chapter 2 and says, Jewish people, you are just as guilty.
[3:24] You are just as depraved. So, we come to chapter 3. Chapter 3 is the culmination of 1 and 2. All are sinners.
[3:35] All are guilty. No one is righteous. No one can do good. That is chapter 3. So, we come to chapter 4. Chapter 4 is a glorious chapter where Paul lays out for the reader that justification through Christ Jesus is only by faith, not by works, not by religious activity, not by any good thing that you do.
[4:01] It is through faith alone. And it is a gift. It is a gift. So, in chapter 5, we get, and he starts out with verse 1, he says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[4:19] So, not only are we justified, but that justification now gives us peace with God. We are no longer enemies with God, but we are on His side. We are on His team. We are loved by Him, and He loves us.
[4:34] Later on in chapter 5, we rejoice in our sufferings. We rejoice because we know what's to come. And we know that it says in verse 3, suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.
[4:53] In other words, everything God does is for a purpose, is for our good, and justification is that motor that pushes.
[5:04] We can rejoice in no matter, in whatever situation, because we are justified. So, now we come to verse 12.
[5:16] We're reading a big chunk. So, let's start reading in verse 12. We're going all the way to the end of the chapter. Verse 21. It says, 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.
[5:35] 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.
[5:51] 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.
[6:06] 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.
[6:21] 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.
[6:35] 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.
[6:52] 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.
[7:12] Before we really dig in, I want to take a minute and speak to the men here at Christ's Family Church. The men who are members, men who are not members. Guys, if you notice, Paul speaks to Adam, or speaks of Adam and not Eve bringing sin into the world.
[7:30] Adam is held responsible. Adam is the one who calls, who God calls in chapter 3 after eating the fruit. Adam is the one who is blamed.
[7:42] Now of course, Paul is educated. We know this. We know he is a smart guy. And he knew that Eve ate of the fruit first. But what he has done is that he has shown the weight and the responsibility on the man's head.
[8:01] Now of course, this is not what the text is talking about here this morning, but we can draw this from our text. And I want to show you quickly this weight of responsibility for men leading your spouses, leading the women in your life.
[8:18] Men, we have an inescapable responsibility. There is no way out of it. No way around it. And when your wives and my wife fail, when they sin, when they lose faith, it is us who are held responsible.
[8:35] Adam is the one here being held responsible for bringing sin into the world. Young guys, are you ready to love your future wife this way?
[8:45] to take responsibility for her? To sacrifice for her? To lead her? To carry the weight of this responsibility? For me, one of the scariest verses in the Bible is in Ephesians chapter 6 or 5 where it says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church.
[9:08] That's scary because I fall so short. It leaves no room for getting out of it. Adam is the guilty one.
[9:21] Of course, Eve is guilty too, but Adam gets the honor and privilege of being the patriarch of sin. So before we jump in, I give that to you this morning.
[9:37] That's free. Men, you are responsible for your wives. Love them. Guys, if you're not married, get ready to love your future spouse.
[9:50] Know God's Word. Love God. Love Jesus. I want to begin this morning in our text by asking you a question.
[10:01] The question is, if you died today, I know what you're thinking, it's not that question. If you died today and immediately you were before God, immediately you were before God, you were at your judgment, who would you belong to?
[10:23] Would you claim citizenship with Jesus in His kingdom or would you be claimed by the sin of Adam? That's your question.
[10:34] Would you claim citizenship with Jesus in His kingdom or would you be claimed by the sin of Adam? See, in our text this morning, we find a comparison between Adam and Jesus with the end result being that we have assurance of our salvation because even death cannot keep God from fulfilling what He promises.
[10:59] So we have some similarities in the comparison between Adam and Jesus. The biggest is that both of them are what they call federal heads.
[11:12] Federal heads of mankind. Being that each one made decisions that either affected all of mankind or was done representing all of mankind.
[11:24] Kind of like the U.S. president sometimes will make a decision that affects all the citizens of the United States. Both men made profound impact on the world.
[11:38] The difference is is that one didn't obey God and the other did. So here is our layout this morning.
[11:49] Here's where we're kind of going. We're going to talk about Adam. Then we're going to talk about Jesus. We're going to talk about the law and grace. And I'm going to end with four concluding questions.
[12:01] Okay? So hang with me. That's like pretty much the whole Bible is what we're going to hit this morning. So, Adam, here we go. Adam, verse 12.
[12:13] Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread through all men because all sinned. Now as you know, Adam is that one man.
[12:25] Adam is the guy. Adam brought sin into the world. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. And the result of their action was sin entering the world.
[12:38] The world here means all people, all men, everyone who will ever live. So, how would you like to be known as the person or responsible for corrupting all mankind based on one decision?
[12:55] But that's the truth. Their decision was to worship themselves and not obey God. It started with them and it goes all the way through mankind, through every human being.
[13:14] Every person who has ever lived has been affected by Adam and Eve. Now some would say that Adam and Eve are just fictional characters of this story of creation.
[13:26] They're not real. Well, I'm here to say if you don't believe Genesis 1, 2, and 3, then you might as well not believe any part of the Bible. Adam and Eve are our great, great, great, great, great, great, and we can go on forever, grandparents.
[13:44] They are related to us and their blood has corrupted our blood. My great, great, grandparents moved from Italy to America.
[13:59] They were 100% Italian. So that makes me 25%, I think, Italian. Sin doesn't work that way though.
[14:09] Sin doesn't get less and less through the generations so now we're .00175 sinful. We are still 100% sinful. Things, in fact, are worse than they were.
[14:24] We deal with diseases and illnesses that Adam and Eve did not deal with because of sin. So because of one sin, of one choice by Adam and Eve, the most heinous, awful crimes that you can think of, Holocaust, genocide, murder, adultery, abortion, no matter what it is, are a result of that one choice.
[14:51] All are in effect of that one sin. That same sin, that desire that Adam and Eve had to disobey God, to crush the Creator and elevate themselves.
[15:05] back in the Garden of Eden is what affects us today. Thousands of years ago. For this day, we worship ourselves more than we worship the Creator.
[15:21] Flip back to Romans chapter 1 and I touched on this. Romans chapter 1, verse 24 and 25. Paul is laying out the depravity of man, laying out that all people are sinful.
[15:37] He says, therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever.
[15:54] is what we do. We worship the creature man made or not instead of the Creator. This is the legacy of Adam and Eve.
[16:09] Verse 12 tells us that Adam brought sin into the world and the result of this sin is death. So sin brings death into the world.
[16:22] And of course, there are two types of death. We have physical death where our time here on earth is over. We also have spiritual death. So physical death. Flip back to Genesis chapter 2.
[16:35] You might want to mark it. I know it's easy. First book in the Bible to find, but we're going to be back at least one other time. Genesis chapter 2.
[16:53] Verse 17 tells us. And God says to Adam, this is the curse after the fall. God says to Adam, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.
[17:09] Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you and you shall eat the plants of the field. Verse 19, by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.
[17:25] For out of it you are taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return. I'm sorry, that's chapter 3, not chapter 2. I apologize. I apologize. 2.
[17:38] 17 says, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. 3.
[17:48] 19. I just read. I apologize for that guys. 3. 3 repeats what I've just read. The God's command that if you eat of this plant you will die.
[18:01] There is a time when we die. It is a result of sin being brought into the world. There is a time and a place to die. Some people think that you guys have heard that song, there's a time to live and a time to die.
[18:16] I think it's the birds. I can't be for sure, but you guys can correct me later. Some people think that they wrote it. In fact, it's actually from Ecclesiastes chapter 3. It says, for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted.
[18:38] We are going to die at some point. Physical death is a result of sin. for the Christian, this is good news. For the Christian, this is comforting.
[18:52] Now, although there may be feelings that you may have about leaving your family and friends or not accomplishing this or that, it is good news because to die, as Paul says in Philippians, is gain.
[19:05] It is good because we see Christ. We will see Christ in all His glory. We will be in His presence. The Lamb who was slain for my sin will be before me.
[19:19] See, the pinnacle of the Christian life is not here on earth. The pinnacle of the Christian life is being in God's presence and worshiping Jesus forever.
[19:33] That's the pinnacle. So, if we believe all Scripture, if there is nothing that we have read and we say, no, that can't be so, then Christ is far better than anything this world has to offer.
[19:50] He is far better. He has accomplished more. And He deserves all our praise, all our worship, and we will be excited to be in heaven with Him.
[20:03] So, death will be a gain and dying will be a comfort. But for the unbeliever, death is scary. Death is the beginning of eternal despair.
[20:16] Death will be the beginning of eternal separation. Now, some people say that when you die, you just die. Your clock runs out, the batteries go dead, you're it.
[20:28] No, nothing. Well, when you die, you're going to be aware of where you are and what you're doing. It's not the end. It's not an empty, lifeless body in the ground.
[20:44] Remember the beggar named Lazarus and the rich man? I mentioned it like five or six weeks ago, so you probably don't unless you've read the story. A rich man walks by the gate.
[20:55] Lazarus begs for him, begs, begs, please give me something. And the man continues on. They both die.
[21:07] The rich man is in hell. In a place of torment and despair. And he begs Lazarus, begs Abraham to allow Lazarus to touch his finger to water and put it in his mouth.
[21:24] It is horrible where he's at. He is aware of where he is. But not only did sin bring physical death into the world, but it also brought spiritual death.
[21:38] Genesis 3 shows us what spiritual death looks like. Adam and Eve, the fall. Then God gives them, curses them. Women, labor pains will increase.
[21:53] Men, work will be hard, difficult. You're going to die. Physical death comes into the picture. And then we get to verse 22-24.
[22:04] 22-24 in chapter 3. That is correct, I promise. 3. 22-24. It says, Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.
[22:19] Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
[22:44] God pushes Adam and Eve out the garden of Eden. He separates them from him. It's a picture of spiritual death.
[22:56] Spiritual death is separation from God. God one sin brought death into the world. One sin brought physical death. Time on this earth and spiritual death separation from God.
[23:11] But there's good news. There's good news. While humans pursued the path of pride and self worship, God pursued the path of redemptive love.
[23:24] Good news. Verse 14 says in Romans chapter 5, the last phrase, it's like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
[23:41] Adam is a type of Christ. He is the patriarch of human race. No matter ethnicity, no matter what language, he is the corporate head of mankind, but he is only a type because his disobedience led to sin and death.
[23:56] There is another whose obedience affects mankind by giving those who believe a new citizenship, a new life. And this man, as we know, is Jesus the Savior.
[24:12] So let's talk about Jesus for a minute. Adam brought sin into the world. Jesus brings righteousness into the world.
[24:22] verse 15 through 17 is kind of where we're hovering this morning here talking about Jesus. Verse 15 says, But the free gift is not like the trespass.
[24:36] For if many died through one man's sin, 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.
[24:46] In other words, how much better is the grace of God by giving of the free gift through Jesus Christ? That's not a question. It is better.
[24:58] It may have sounded like a question, and I apologize. The trespass brought death into the picture, and Jesus erased death. Trespass brought death, suffering into the world, and Jesus erased.
[25:17] First nine words, the first sentence of verse 15 is glorious, and praise God, this is true, but the free gift is not like the trespass.
[25:29] Jesus didn't bring death, He didn't bring condemnation, He brought hope, life, and life everlasting. This is what Jesus brings. Verse 16 says, and the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation.
[25:50] But the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. Jesus didn't bring sin to the party. Adam brought sin to the party. Jesus brought righteousness, and that righteousness justifies.
[26:05] We are justified because of Jesus, not condemned. Adam, death, and condemnation. Jesus, life, and grace.
[26:19] Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation. Now, there's four words here in verse 16 that I want to make clear for everyone.
[26:35] And maybe as I read through it, you just didn't even think about it. Those four words but the free gift. This is nothing of your doing or my doing.
[26:47] This is nothing that we have deserved. Romans chapter 4, flip back to verse 4. Paul is digging into justification by faith alone, not by works.
[27:03] And he says in verse 4, now, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. But he just brings in a real life example. If you work, you get paid.
[27:16] Clear. You earned that money. But, the grace of God is not that way. It is a free gift. There is no earning.
[27:29] The gospel leaves no room for you or for me to boast in ourselves. We boast in Christ, absolutely, but we cannot boast in ourselves and what we have earned or done.
[27:42] This is a good thing. This is a joyous thing because, as I've shown, we're bloodline of Adam. We're related to Adam and our lives are contaminated because of Adam.
[27:57] We are sinners, have sinned, and will sin. We are dead without Christ. Lazarus, different Lazarus, the friend of Jesus who died, he needed Jesus to call him out.
[28:11] He was dead. He needed a free gift of life. It is a free gift from the creator who we choose not to worship, who do not worship.
[28:23] We choose to worship ourselves because of who we are. The free gift from the creator to his greatest creation, mankind created in his image, but who are spiritually dead.
[28:37] So the final summation, the final conclusion of these three verses is verse 17. It says, For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, Adam, 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.
[29:05] Much more, much better, much greater is the free gift. So we have free gift of grace, God's righteousness given to us, and over here we have what?
[29:23] Man's trespass, sin. God's free gift is going to win every time. That's what much more free gift wins every time.
[29:36] to those who will receive the abundance of grace and the free gift. Those who believe. Those who believe.
[29:47] So here in this verse, in verse 17, we have God's sovereignty over salvation. He has the gift to give. And man's responsibility for salvation, those who believe, those who have received the abundance of grace.
[30:02] righteousness. It is all through Jesus. Not you or me, but Jesus. He brings righteousness into the world so that we can be partakers of this gift.
[30:18] I think every sermon should have 2 Corinthians 5.21 in it. If you don't know it, for our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
[30:33] Jesus, who was man, but not blood of Adam. Jesus, whose life was not corrupted by sin, who knew no sin, never sin, sin had no bondage over Him.
[30:46] This Jesus, the Holy One, the righteous One, became sin for you and for me so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. The only way we become the righteousness of God is by His righteousness He brought into the world to be given to you and to me through free gift.
[31:06] That is the great exchange. That is what Jesus brings. He is our glorious Savior and He gives righteousness so that we can be justified. Jesus is also the second Adam.
[31:20] He is the second Adam. He is the Christ, the Savior. Adam was the first man. He is the patriarch of all mankind. Jesus is the God-man.
[31:32] He is the patriarch of the new mankind. He is the patriarch for His church, for those who repent and believe. Jesus came to accomplish what only He could accomplish.
[31:44] He came to save sinners. God. He is the God. Because we will always be enslaved to sin, to corruption. And what that deserves or what that is earned is condemnation.
[32:03] He came to live, die, and resurrect to create a way in which we can worship God again as we were created to do. He is the patriarch of worshipers of God, image bearers of God who bear the righteousness of Jesus.
[32:20] He is the second Adam and there will never be a third. The book of John, Jesus' last words, it is finished, meaning there is nothing else to be done.
[32:31] I have completed this. Adam's disobedience affected mankind. time, Jesus' obedience overcame his disobedience.
[32:44] Each made an impact, but one offers death while the other offers life. Adam offers condemnation. Jesus offers hope.
[32:55] Adam offers slavery. Jesus offers peace. Adam offers despair. Jesus offers joy. Adam offers failure.
[33:05] Jesus offers grace. Adam offers self-worship and idolatry. Jesus offers redeeming love.
[33:17] Adam offers eternal despair. Jesus offers life everlasting. This is Jesus. There was one act that led to all sinning and condemnation, but there is an act of righteousness that leads to justification as Jesus Christ on the glorious cross.
[33:44] Let me take a minute here. In verse 18, it says, therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men.
[33:58] salvation. That is a hot topic. I need to clarify something here. Paul, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, does not mean that all men will be saved. Okay?
[34:09] So we're on the same page. I just want to make this clear to you. This is not universal salvation for everyone. He has gone from in verse 12 talking about all mankind, universal mankind, verse 12, all men have been condemned because of the sin of Adam.
[34:32] And it transitions through verse 15 where he talks about many. Verse 17, those who receive. And then verse 18, meaning all types or all people.
[34:43] So he's not saying that all people will be saved. He's saying that the grace of God and salvation is open to any type of person. so Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, man or woman, black or white, African or German, English or Muslim, it does not matter.
[35:03] That is what Paul is saying here, not talking about a universal salvation. Although Jesus could do that if he wanted to.
[35:16] The problem is, is if this is what it's teaching, then he has already failed because we know people are in hell. Tricky.
[35:29] So now I want to talk about the law for a minute. Verse 20 and 21. The law increases grace. Now, verse 20, now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
[35:48] So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The law's purpose is to show us our sin, to reveal our idolatry and our pride.
[36:06] Go ahead two chapters to Romans chapter 7. Verse 7. Verse 7 says, What then shall we say?
[36:17] That the law is sin by no means. Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet.
[36:29] The law is to reveal sin, to show us sin. And the law increases the grace. Verse 20, back in chapter 5, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
[36:47] The law increases grace. We must treasure the law, know it, and obey it. Psalm 119. Flip to Psalm 119. The longest chapter in all of the Bible.
[37:04] I'm sure the author was going for that. Psalm 119. Listen to these words that David uses to describe how he feels about God's law and His precepts and His commandments.
[37:24] 119 verse 9, How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments.
[37:36] I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.
[37:47] In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word.
[38:01] Cherish, know, love, and obey God's word and the law. The crescendo, the final symbols together, is clanging together in verse 21.
[38:15] Back in Romans chapter 5. Verse 21 says, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[38:32] Clang those symbols together. this is it. What glorious good news. Jesus offers what we cannot do. His grace is sufficient.
[38:44] Jesus is the way. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He says, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. So, here's my four concluding points.
[39:00] Point number one, God takes sin seriously. Look at these words that Paul uses to describe sin. Death, trespass.
[39:14] He links condemnation. Verse 15, death. Verse 17, death. Verse 12, death. Verse 14, death. There is an effect to sin.
[39:27] There is a punishment for sin. God takes it seriously. In Acts chapter 5, we have the story of Ananias and Sapphira. You guys familiar with this? The disciples or the apostles have, the church has gathered and people had everything in common.
[39:44] They were giving of everything. And at the end of chapter 4, the writer Luke tells us that this man named Barnabas had sold everything he had. He sold his property and everything and gave it to the apostles.
[39:56] And previous to that, it said there was nobody in need. That's the church. That's what the church was doing at this time. Nobody had anything in need. Yeah, grammatically that's correct.
[40:07] Nobody had anything in need. There was no one in need at all. So in chapter 5, the writer starts out by saying, and there was a man and a woman named Ananias and Sapphira who sold their property and brought an offering, but they kept a little for themselves.
[40:23] If you know the story, you know that each one dies. Ananias just falls over. Peter, I think, says to Ananias, why have you done this?
[40:37] Falls over and dies. Sapphira, not knowing that her husband had died, comes in a couple hours later and the apostle says, is this everything?
[40:50] Have you given us all? And she says, well, yes, it is. And then she dies. The reason of the story is not to say, check out what the apostles did. The reason for the story is to say, sin is serious.
[41:03] God takes sin very serious. Second concluding point, our identity, our identity, individual identity, is found either in Adam or in Jesus.
[41:20] God is so I asked at the beginning, if you were to die today and immediately be before God, who would you belong to? Who would you belong to?
[41:33] Would you claim citizenship with Jesus and His kingdom or would you be claimed by the sin of Adam? There are only two options.
[41:44] Who do you belong to and what are you enslaved to? Sin or righteousness, condemnation or grace, death or life.
[41:56] Third concluding point, those who are victims of Adam's sin by birth are also guilty of personal sin of their own doing. There is no guilty by association.
[42:09] You're just guilty. There is no innocence until proven guilty. You're guilty. We all commit sin and no one is innocent of the curse. And finally, birth.
[42:23] Birth is both the cause and the cure for man's sin. Both the cause and the cure. We are born into sin through our blood, but we can also be born into a new life by being born again by the blood of Jesus.
[42:40] Read John chapter 3. So I will ask again, who do you belong to? It can't be both. You can't belong to Adam and to Jesus.
[42:54] See, once you're born again, your citizenship changes. You're no longer a citizen of the sinful world. You are now a citizen of heaven.
[43:07] You're no longer an enemy of God and a slave of sin. You are now a child of God, adopted as sons of the King. So do you know this King? Do you treasure Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith?
[43:22] Do you love Jesus? Do you hate sin or do you hate Jesus and love sin? Answer these questions this morning.
[43:33] Answer these questions. Here's the beauty of our text. Big, giant chunk. And there's a lot more in there, I promise.
[43:45] Here's the beauty of this text. What has been said up to this point in chapters 1 through 4 and in a little bit of 5? We can be justified bearing Jesus' righteousness.
[44:00] That we can have all our sins forgiven. All of this. And death cannot stop it from happening. That is the beauty of our text.
[44:11] God will come to fruition. Beauty of our text is even death cannot stop God from fulfilling what He promises.
[44:26] Even death cannot stop God because He has sent Jesus to live and to die for us.