Trespass to Triumph

Text:

Romans 5:18–21 (ESV)

¹⁸ Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. ¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, ²¹ so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Introduction:

Several weeks ago Mission Impossible 8 was released to the public. If you haven’t had a chance to see it, don’t worry—I’m not giving spoilers, at least not many. I will say this, it is possibly the most impossible of missions ever. 3 hours of Ethan Hunt dealing with the most unbelievable set of tasks, with every possible obstacle hurled at him at every turn. 

The good guys are after him, trying to stop him. 

The bad guys are after him; trying to stop him; 

His friends are after him, trying to stop him or save him. 

Even the internet is after him, trying to stop him! 

 It’s what makes the franchise what it is.

The reason I bring it up is that in just about every single installment and certainly in this most recent one (dare I say last one) what “one man” does or doesn’t do impacts everyone on the planet. It’s made more evident to this one man that everything happening in this story is directly connected to everything he’s done before. It’s this one man’s fault this is happening, now it’s up to one man to fix it. Whatever happens, the fate of the entire world—all 8.2 billion people—humanity's very existence, is decided by one man.

This is of course where this pop-culture reference utterly falls apart in the context of setting up my sermon. As we’ve been learning over the past several sermons Adam isn’t given the chance to fix his mistake. He isn’t given an impossible mission to choose to accept and undo the impact of his transgression. No, there had to be someone else; a second Adam.

Chapter 5 of Romans has been explaining to us how it’s possible that God can justify the ungodly by faith, apart from the Law. Verse 1 starts by telling us that because of justification by faith, we can have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 11 it says that we rejoice in God, through Jesus through whom we have reconciliation. And at the end of our text today—our last versus of this series—we see Grace reigning through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Again, all this is because the believer has been justified by faith. 

Our verses today give us a final summary of how it’s possible for us to experience peace with God, rejoice in him, and experience grace reigning through righteousness that all leads to eternal life. Here is a spoiler—it’s all because of one man’s self-sacrificing, obedience to lay down his life for his friends. 

I have three points 1) All From One and One For All, 2) The Law and Lawlessness 3) Trespass to Triumph

Pray

1. All From One and One For All

¹⁸ “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. ¹⁹ 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.”

Argument

Throughout this section vs 12-21 the phrase “one man” is used 9 times. Now it’s a comparative/contrastive set of examples. In most of the uses the “one man” is referring to Adam. But in several the “one man” is Jesus. Adam’s disobedience or unrighteousness is being contrasted with Jesus’ righteous obedience. Each of these “one men” are responsible for something that affects all mankind. 

Philip and Daniel both did great work explaining how these things work, so I won’t go into it in the detail that they both did. However our text today is Paul's summarizing his whole point. So at a high level I’ll address again how we are either in Adam or in Christ and then clarify a few specific ideas. 

Everyone who has ever lived after Adam is “in Adam” by default under two conditions

1. you under him as his biological offspring and 
2. under him as the Federal head of mankind.

God made a covenant or an agreement with Adam that we refer to as the Covenant of Works. The covenant was that if Adam obeyed God’s commandment he would live, but if he disobeyed he would die. Adam disobeyed God’s command and in so doing he trespassed or voided the Covenant of Works. As a result he and all mankind who are in him, have trespassed and been condemned. This is the first half of what verses 18 and 19 tell us. 

“...as one trespass led to condemnation for all men…”

“...by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners…”

While it may seem like 19 is just repeating 18, there are actually two different ideas being communicated that are important to Paul’s assertion that we can be/are justified by faith..

First, is that because of “one trespass, all are condemned.” This is legal language. All are guilty of Adam’s trespass. Adam was under condemnation for his trespass and so are all people. This is how death reigned.

Second, “by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners…”. Because we are sinners, we sin. Some people want to say that because we sin, ergo we are sinners; but the horse in this proverbial “cart before the horse scenario” is the fact that we choose to sin because we are sinners. This speaks to a perpetual inclination towards disobedience for all men.

So there are two conditions that must be solved for man to have peace with God and be justified by faith— condemnation for Adam’s trespass or “original guilt” and having a sinful nature or “original sin”.

That’s us in Adam.

We started the point explaining how we are in Adam, which the first half of verses 18 and 19 address, but I have not yet explained the good part—the basis for our justification by faith. 

That comes in the second half of each verse:

“...So one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men”

“...by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous”

It should be clear that this reference to the “one man” is Jesus Christ. Adam’s trespass and disobedience brought guilt and sin; Jesus’s act of righteousness and obedience brought justification, life, and a change of disposition: righteousness. 

Here are three supporting passages to help fill out how Christ’s righteousness and obedience is applied to us.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Philippians 2:8–9 (ESV)

⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

Hebrews 2:9–11 (ESV)

⁹ But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 

¹⁰ For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. ¹¹ For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

Through Jesus' act of humility to lay aside his glory, his obedience to the Father’s will to die on a cross he is able to offer a new and better way. 

In John 3 he tells Nicodemus:

John 3:17–20 (ESV)

¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

Where Adam failed. Jesus succeed.

Where Adam transgressed. Jesus was righteous.

Where Adam disobeyed, Jesus obeyed and earned the right to offer righteousness by faith to all who would believe.

Clarification

There are two phrases that could leave some folks unsettled in these passages, that I’ll address before we transition into the next point. They are:

• “justification and life for all men” from verse 18 and
• “many will be made righteous” from verse 19. 

These two phrases could be misconstrued to believe that Justification, Life, and Righteousness have been automatically applied to everyone through Jesus. This is false. To help make this point I give you this quote from John Owen’s commentary on Romans:

“When we ask the question: Is it Pauline to posit universal salvation? the answer must be decisively negative (2 Thess 1:8,9). Hence we cannot interpret the main clause in verse 18 in the sense of inclusive universalism, and it is consistent with sound canons of interpretation to assume a restrictive implication. What the apostle is interested in showing is not the numerical extent of those who are parallel that obtains between the way of condemnation and the way of justification. It is the modus operandi that is in view. All who are condemned, and this includes the whole human race, are condemned because of the one trespass of Adam; all who are justified are justified because of the righteousness of Christ.” John Owen; The Epistle to the Romans

Application

For the believer: The application for the Christian from this point is that we have peace with God. And we are to rejoice in God for that reconciliation we have through Christ Jesus.

For the unbeliever: you still in Adam and you will not be spared from the wrath of God that is coming against the condemned sinners who do not believe in the name of the only Son of God. 

John’s words to Nicodemus make a good segue for us to our next point. Those who are in the darkness 

“For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”

1. The Law and Lawlessness

 ²⁰ Now the law came in to increase the trespass, 

Argument

Here Paul connects us back to the Law that he references in verses 13:

Romans 5:13-14 (ESV)

¹³ 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.

There is a fascinating thread given there and tied off in verse 20:

• sin couldn’t be counted where there was no law
• death reigned (before the law), even though the sin being committed was not the same transgression as Adam’s
• The Law came to increase the trespass. 

Let’s look at each statement in turn.

1. sin couldn’t be counted where there was no law

First off, what Law are we talking about here. 

In the Trinity Confession of Faith chapter 21 it says this about the Law:

“God gave Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart and a particular command not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. By this, God bound him and all his future generations to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience. God promised life upon the fulfilling of it, threatened earth upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it.” 

“The same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall, and it was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in ten commandments and written in two tables.”

This is consistent with what we have already seen in the Roman’s about the law.

Romans 2:14–15 (ESV)

¹⁴ For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. ¹⁵ They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 

This is what Jesus was talking about when he said that everyone who does what is wicked doesn’t walk in the light lest their wickedness be exposed. 

So, clearly there was a law that existed between the time of Adam and Moses, who was given the Law of God on stone tables—what we call the Ten Commandments. This is what we call the Moral Law and it is what we believe is written on the hearts of all men. 

2. death reigned (before the law), even though the sin being committed was not the same transgression as Adam’s

The law that Adam broke was “to love the Lord with all his heart, mind and strength”; the command he broke was to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 

So even though there wasn’t a “written” and people weren’t committing the same transgression as Adam committed, death reigned. This reinforces the point that we sin because we are in Adam—in his sin, of his kind, predisposed to disobedience. 

I may have never had the opportunity to eat from the tree of knowledge but I know that I have doubted God, his word, and his intentions. I’ve also been guilty at times of not taking responsibility for my sin, blame shifting, and lying. These aren’t even commandments, but they are the disposition of the first man and woman. More than likely I wouldn’t make it any longer than Adam. 

If you want to argue that we are born good and my sin is just a condition of my surroundings and circumstances, just observe two infants interacting; more than likely you’ll witness coveting, theft, and anger within 5 minutes.

3. The Law came to increase the trespass.

So we’ve already established that the Law is known in our hearts, that sin reigned without it being written and distributed to all people, so then why did God give it to Moses.

He gave the Law to expose us to ourselves. The term increase carrys the idea of multiplication. This is exponential exposure.

I’m going to cheat and jump ahead a few chapters. It’ll be 13 years til we get to chapter 7 anyway:

Paul says:

Romans 7:7–8 (ESV)

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.” ⁸ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.

Again in Galations:

Galatians 3:19, 22–24 (ESV)

¹⁹ Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 

²² But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 

²³ Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. ²⁴ So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

There’s our phrase for Chapter 5 of Romans again; justified by faith. And again:

Galatians 2:16 (ESV)

¹⁶ yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Application

What our good heavenly Father wanted for us was to give us a way to see how needy we are. To put an objective measure by which we can realize that our best hope and our most content existence is to repent from our sin, from the condition Adam put us in.

Live holy, yes! But don’t live holier than thou!

III. Trespass to Triumph

 ^20b but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, ²¹ so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Looking ahead again: 

Romans 6:6–8 (ESV)

⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For one who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

Believer! 

You who trust the truth of Scripture and trust the apostles teaching, who Trust in Jesus to have justified you and made you righteous—verse 20 doesn’t say that death no longer reigns. As Daniel reminded us a couple weeks ago; death is the last enemy that God defeats. We still live with death. 

Verse 20 tells us that grace now reigns as well through righteousness leading us to eternal life. We aren’t living eternal life now, physical death is ahead of us now, but grace is reigning in righteousness right now. 

Jesus is on his throne, he’s gone to prepare a place for us. And we are reigning now with him. One who has died has been set free from sin. Have you been baptized? Are you alive in Christ?

Through the one man you are righteous! 

Ephesians 4:17–24 (ESV)

^“17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. ¹⁹ They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

Believer, don’t become callous, don’t give in to the former desires of the body of sin and death. 

Equally, don’t turn to another gospel. Don’t go and add restrictions and special observances. Don’t create a rule of life for yourself that flirts with legalism, asceticism, or create an idol in a certain way of living.

^“20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— ²¹ assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²² to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³ and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

The mission you have chosen to accept is to put off the old man and keep him off! Put on the new man. 

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (ESV)

¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, ¹⁸ as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

 

Unbeliever, I have only one more exhortation for you. God showed his love for us in that while you were still condemned in Adam, a sinner by nature and by practice, enslaved under death, guarded by the Law, reminded of you need, Jesus died for you. 

Would you die for you?! Jesus is the love of God to sinners! He died for sinners caught in sin. Are you in your sin, are you in Adam—repent and believe—be baptized into the death and life of Jesus Christ.

 

Pray