The Guilt and the Gift: From Dying to Eating on a Tree
This is an exegetical sermon on Romans 5:18-19 titled, The Guilt and the Gift: From Dying to Eating on a Tree and looks at how Jesus has given us His righteousness and we have given Him our sin. This sermon was originally preached by Pastor Duane Smets on Sunday, September 3rd in San Diego, CA. Audio unavailable.
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::The Resolved:: Sunday, September 3, 2006
Duane Matthew Smets (elder)
Romans 5:18-19
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.
The Guilt and the Gift
“From eating to dying on a tree”
romans 5:18-19
Introduction
Read text and pray.
Father God. We come here today to worship you. We worship because you are a loving, worthy and wonderful God and because worshipping is what we were made to do. Worship…we are unsatisfied or unfulfilled in life if we are not worshipping you. We worship by singing, by preaching and studying, by coming before a table of bread and wine to confess, to receive grace, and to repent and believe. We worship you by loving each other and the people we live life with and we worship by spreading your fame in our words and deeds and in giving of out of the fruit of our work. As we come to study the these words we just read I pray that you would help us understand them and leave having a deeper sense of understanding of who you really are and how awesome the gospel really is…give us joy. Our desire as humans is to be happy. Enthrall us with you today as we seek you in your Word. In Christ’s name, Amen.
There seem to be two experiences in life. One is the discovery of new things and one is the rediscovery of things you already know in some way. Two Fridays ago I turned 28 and three months ago I had my five year wedding anniversary. My wife Amy and I started dating about three and half years before got married so we have known each other for just about nine years. When we first met I had to keep telling myself not to like this girl too much because if I did it wouldn’t work out. But the truth is from the very beginning I was so into her. And there was a whole season of discovery with us where we getting to know each other and falling in love. So meeting Amy was one of those discovery experiences of new things. Now, anyone who has been with someone for awhile knows that it isn’t like that forever. And one of the things that happen, which isn’t an entirely bad thing is that things or people that you are around a lot become familiar. But then there is the opportunity for rediscovery. This last week I have had the best time with my wife rediscovering how awesome and fun and funny and deep and smart and wise and beautiful she is. I think it is about the tenth or eleventh time in our relationship that I have fallen in love with her. In rediscovery you see and learn new things and often realize a whole other aspect or depth of something that you didn’t know was there.
As I was studying and thinking about this text today and preparing my sermon I couldn’t help but think of that. As we move through studying Romans, we learn little bits of new things here and there and often there are things that take us to familiar things we have already learned but open up a new depth. The other thing is that each week there are different people here. I don’t think we have ever had the exact same group. And each of us is at completely different places in our gospel journeys and how much we’ve been here for our study of Romans or not. Some are not quite sure about the gospel it teaches and that is okay and good, we like that. Others may have already embraced the gospel and have or are realizing the importance of being a part of church that studies the bible and doesn’t just try to entertain you. And that is good too. So as we approach the text today here is my challenge, look for the gospel and either discover it for the first time or rediscover it. Strive for your joy. Gospel means good news and I think what is here is really good. We just need to see it.
Okay. So we are in this section of Romans where Paul, the human author, is making some comparisons between the first man Adam and the person of Jesus Christ. Three weeks ago I preached a whole sermon just on who Adam was. My whole point then was to help us know the story of Adam so when Paul talks about him we would know all about what he is talking about.
The week after that we dealt more in depth with the words in verses 12-14. My main point then was that Adam’s story is our story. And that it is not just that we have all repeated his act of doing wrong in our own stories where we have done things we know are wrong and hurt ourselves or other people but that we were really there with him. His story resonates with us because it is the story our soul knows. when we look around at the world we see evil and pain and war and suffering and when people hurt us we know there is something wrong and when we look internally we know that we are the problem and that all of us as the human race collectively have some wrong bad thing that is part of who we are that comes from something long before we were born.
In my sermon I said that is because we are from Adam. That he is our historical and spiritual father, a representative or head of the whole human race. And when he screwed up we all did and have ever since. That’s tough. And if you are uneasy about that you are not alone. That is why we looked at different reasons and perspective of how this could or could not be true. If you weren’t here then you can download the sermon and wrestle with it. But I re-emphasize it here today because our verses today assume that you have already been convinced of that truth and are building upon that idea. So today when we talk about Adam, we are also always talking about each of us individually who from the womb have had an inheritance of corruption and sin that we grow up with and in as humans.
Last week Justin preached over at the bay looking at verses 15-17. And his main point was a happy one and that is that Jesus Christ is far greater than Adam. Beginning with verse fifteen and continuing through our verses today Paul is comparing Christ to Adam and showing how in every way Jesus is far superior and sufficient to undo all that was done in Adam and even do more than that. And the point is joy! …that there is a quality of life where happiness more and more reigns for those who put Christ as the continual destination in the pursuit of joy.
In this week’s text Paul adds some more vocabulary and a couple new ideas in order to explain the greatness of Jesus Christ in comparison to Adam. So we are going to look more into the comparison here and then also talk about these two phrases “the one” and “the many.”
Two steps of comparison
1. A trespass/disobedience to a free gift/obedience
So first the two main points of comparison. I was looking at this whole section from 5:12-21 and try and dissect the logic of it all and how each thing is connected and with the help of some dead people who wrote some good books I realized that what Paul is doing is simply saying Christ is everything and he is better and he is just elaborating and building on this. so it is not so much as you read through this section a this caused this which caused this and then thus but there is are “acts” sort of speak, like a play or a TV show, and each progressing act is adding to the picture of what is going on and you find out a little more information.
So here is the first act in our verses. There are two main words Paul uses to describe it. On Adam’s part, which is also our part, there is “trespass “and “disobedience.” At the beginning of verse 18 we read, “One trespass led to condemnation for all” and at the beginning of verse 19 we read, “By one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.” So act I on Adam’s part is trespass and disobedience.
What are these things? Trespass is a crossing over a line. It acknowledges that there are boundaries. That there are certain things that are okay for people to think, feel, and do and there are certain things that are not. whatever those things are may vary from person to person and situation to situation but the point here is that in Adam we trespassed and have all trespassed ever since. Adam trespassed by crossing over the line or boundary around this one tree which he knew he should not eat of. And like our first trespass crossing over and eating of that tree we have been doing it ever since as the human race. No person in this room could ever say that they have never done something they know they should not do. We are all guilty. James 4:17 says, “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” we have all violated the boundary of the internal ought.
what disobedience adds is a personal element. it adds that the violation of the “ought” is a personal trespass. A crossing not over just a line into someone’s property but the crossing of a person. disobedience is the failure to follow the command or request or direction of a person. our disobedience in adam was when God told us not to eat of the tree and we did. he personally asked us not to do something that he knew would hurt us and end up bad for us if we did but we disobeyed and have been doing so ever since every time we know the good we ought to do and feel and we don’t do it. the christian perspective is that we all have an internal sense of right and wrong and that that sense comes from God and when we violate it we grieve his being and that is why we feel guilty and bad because we know deep down we have not only usually hurt people in our wrong doing but that we have done something the cosmic order of the universe has kindly instructed our souls against.
these are the things we have from adam and the things we have been replicating. what oughts do we find ourselves ignoring today?… we have to begin to see ourselves as trespassers and disobedient people if we are ever going to grasp the beauty and the glory of the gospel. trespass and disobedience. paul brings this out to say look at christ. Look how he is better. Look how the gospel changes things. Look what God has done and offers to people like us who are from Adam. He gives us Christ, who is a free gift of obedience. Adam is trespass and disobedience Christ is a free gift and is obedience.
Now, the words “free gift” is not in our verses today but let me show you where I get them. Look at up a few verses earlier to the beginning of verse 15, we read, “but the free gift is not like the trespass.” So the comparison is between the trespass and the free gift there in verse 15. But now look at verse 18, where we are today, “therefore, as one trespass (so we got the trespass again) led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” So here it appears that the counterpart of trespass has changed from gift to righteousness.
What I want to show you is that it is the same…that the one act of righteousness is the free gift. First what does “righteousness” mean? We hear the word a lot in Romans… it means rightness, perfection, a moral quality of complete purity. And our verse refers to “one act of righteousness.”
So what is this one act? Well, the point this who comparison section is to show that Christ is greater. And we have been learning in Romans that the greatest act of Jesus Christ is his dying on the cross. So it seems simple that Jesus’ death on the cross must be that one act of righteousness…right?
But think about it with me. At which point of dying? Just the act to breathe his last breath. Or the act to be allowed to be led to the cross and nailed to it. Or the act of Jesus making a decision to go ahead and travel to Jerusalem knowing full well that he will get crucified if he goes there. Or the act of Jesus even coming into the world as a baby just so that he could die. So which act are we talking about? Here is the key, there are several verses like it, but I’ll just give you one. Jesus says in mark 10:45 “the son of man came…to give his life as a ransom for many.” so for Jesus, every act of his whole life from being a baby to the end of his life at 33 years old are all collectively the one act of him dying for us. Jesus one act of righteousness includes both all the obedient acts of his life climaxing in his death.
If we see all of Jesus’ obedient life as being about his death and that the whole story is one act of righteousness then we can see how Paul also calls this a gift because Jesus was given from God for us. But how does Jesus become for us? This is the second comparison…how Adam affects us and how Christ effects us.
2) A condemnation to justification
So the second comparison, the one of effect…Paul uses the word “lead” to describe this effect. “Trespass led to condemnation” and “the one act…leads to justification and life.” And the effects, what each of the comparisons “lead” to are words caught up in the courtroom picture.
Paul keeps reminding us that there is a trial going on by using words like judgment, condemnation, and justification. They are all courtroom words. And in this trial Adam’s act, ours is on trial and is judged by the Lord of heaven and it is given a sentence. The verdict is guilty and the sentence is condemnation.
The word condemnation used to be translated by the old king James as “damnation.” It is a curse and a sentence. there is this story in john 8 where this woman is caught in the act of adultery and this angry mob of men, maybe even her husband with them, they drag her out in front of everyone and throw her, probably naked, and throw her in the dirt and want to stone her to death but first they confront Jesus so that they could find fault in him for not upholding the law. What Jesus does is amazing. He says okay, whoever is without sin throw the first stone. and slowly the angry group begins to die down and one by one they walk away until just Jesus and the woman are left and then Jesus looks at her, who is probably crying and covering her head on the ground in fear and Jesus says this, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” And she answers “no one Lord.” And then Jesus replies “neither do I condemn you, go and from now on sin no more.”
Jesus acknowledges here that everyone is worthy of condemnation, he understood that we are all from Adam, that no one is without sin. But he came into the world as gift to change things and offer us a way out of our condemnation.
Condemnation or damnation is a guilty sentence and the carrying out of the punishment. In Adam we have been condemned in that we continue to sin and that we carry with us death. but in Jesus there is righteousness which”leads to justification and life.”
So justification and life. Justification a big word. We hear it a bunch in Romans. It is the opposite of a sentence of condemnation; it is a declaring of not guilty in the courtroom of heaven and it comes through putting faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus secures it for us by taking condemnation on the cross as though he were guilty when he wasn’t. and his work of the cross can be ours because he is a second Adam, obedient throughout his whole life, the first person ever since Adam, and thus he is qualified to be our human representative and bring change for us. That is justification, where we are declared just instead of condemned.
But it does not end there. There is life. Jesus life is given for our lives. Look at the last part of verse 19, where it says, “By the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” That “be made righteous” is life. Jesus obedient life becomes our source of new righteous life. Like the woman caught in adultery, we discover that deep inside we are really screwed up, we are from Adam, sinners. But then Jesus declares us not condemned because of him and then we call him our Lord and discover ourselves having new desires, where we are not so inclined toward sin. His obedient life begins to overflow into and out of our life.
I was talking to Jake here on the phone yesterday and explaining to him how I study so much for my sermon and then I try to break it down and help make it easier to understand for you all. And this idea here is a tough one to explain. As I was talking to Jake about my sermon he asked me if I what I was saying was that the text was teaching that Jesus is our righteous example to follow then for our life? What I said was this…it is more than that Jesus is our example like he is this guy who lived a good life that we can point to and pattern ourselves after and start wearing WWJD bracelets to help us do that. it is we will begin to discover ourselves acting out of a true desire and love for God and people and that is because Jesus righteousness is playing itself out in our lives because we have embraced him. Theologians call this Christ’s “active righteousness” where all his righteous acts are given to us.
That Jesus’ righteous act is given to us and becomes played out in every act that we do which represents a true love and enjoyment of God and the people he has made. We can do no righteousness, we are in Adam, but if we receive Christ he begins to change us and act through us. Paul says it this way in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Okay. I wrote this and then I began to think about it a little more because it is a weird idea. How is it that a person’s life from almost two-thousand years ago able to live and act through me? I can’t quite understand it all but here is what I think happens. I think there are times when we realize that we have a problem that life sucks and we suck and we need something and at some point we come to think Christ might be something good for us. We hear the gospel preached and something clicks for us and we are overwhelmed that God loves us and gives us Christ and he is beautiful to us and we are filled with thanks and desire for him. Then we see all of life and people differently. life then becomes full of meaning and purpose because it is all wrapped up in this divine story of wonder and redemption and we start seeing people in light of that and loving them, really loving them. There are a lot of nice people. You can be nice without Jesus. You can understand social interactions; have a place for your heart for your family and friends, but something greater comes in the gospel. We feel compassion for people we wouldn’t normally, we find forgiveness for those who hurt us, we care about God, and we are encapsulated with wonder and glory and convinced that life in pursuit of Jesus is what satisfies. And when those things start to happen I think we are experiencing is Christ living in us…our being made righteous.
Okay. That might describe how it happens, maybe. I’m not sure. It’s not like that all the time for me for sure. But I get glimpses and experiences of that here and there and I know that it is not natural for me. Adam is natural to me. To live for myself and to constantly be frustrated with my life and always want to be somewhere where I am not. But there are times when I become intoxicated with adoration for Christ and feel completely undone at the realization that God loves me. What I do know is that I long for more of that. And the question is how you get it. How does justification and life, being made righteous, happen for us?
The one and the many
Let’s look for a few minutes at these phrase “the one” and the “many.” Let’s go all the way back up to verse fifteen. “Many died through one man’s trespass” there is grace by the “one man Jesus Christ” which abounds “for many.” Back down to verse 18, there is “one trespass” which led to condemnation “for all (or many)” and there is “life for all (or many). And in verse 19 there is “the one man’s disobedience” the “many made sinner” and “the one man’s obedience” and “the many made righteous.” So we see all through the text these two phrases the one and the many the one and the many the one and the many.
Now there is an apparent contradiction here. I say apparent because I have yet to find a real contradiction in the bible. twice this last week, two different friends unknown to each other told me that they have sincere doubts about whether there is anything to Christianity at all because if any really reads the bible they will find that it is full of contradictions. And the conclusion is that what it says and teaches cannot therefore really be true.
the thing which is often forgot is that the bible was written over a period of 1500 years by 40 different authors and the last book was written nearly 2000 years ago. So we can’t take today’s categories and culture and science and demand that this ancient book conform itself to our expectations. All “contradictions” I have ever been presented with tend to fizzle with a little time given to study.
So here is an apparent contradiction for you today. Let me try and draw it out for you. There are two main figures in these verses the one man Adam and the one man Christ. The one man Adam is the head or representative of the whole human race and we have learned that in Adam all of humanity became corrupt and that is why we are all individually sinful as humans and that why there is evil and death in the world.
Now Paul is writing to say how Jesus Christ is another one man, a representative for the whole human race. Jesus can be another one man because he was obedient his entire life (because he was God) and that he died an eternal spiritual and physical death in humanity’s place and now there is righteousness, sentence cleared and new life like before Adam. And the end of verse 18 says this is for “all men.”
So here is the question or the “contradiction” if you will. Adam’s act affected everyone without exception so then does Christ affect everyone without exception? Does what Christ did mean that everyone who has ever lived will now be saved and no one will ever experience eternal condemnation? Is the comparison between Adam and Christ straight across? All for all?
Here is the problem. For five chapters of the book Paul has been telling us again and again to put our faith in Jesus Christ and then we receive the benefits of his person and work. If what Christ did is completely equal to what Adam did then it should affect us all regardless of whether or not we put our faith in Jesus Christ. So the question is what does Paul mean when he says that Jesus one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men and that man will be made righteous?
Here is the key I believe. Where the apparent contradiction is solved. You have to read carefully. Look at verse 17. “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.” Did you hear that phrase, “those who receive?” “Those who receive” Jesus Christ are the ones who get the free gift of righteousness.
So when Paul says that the “one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all” what I believe he is saying is it is for all who receive Jesus. There is a receiving involved. And some receive and some don’t. Jesus came and lived a life and died a death and rose again for a particular group of people and those people are those who put their faith in him. Justification is not automatic. There must be a personal embracing and pursuit of Jesus Christ by faith. Like the chapter began in verse one by saying, “we have been justified by faith.”
The Bible’s goal is that we would become convinced that what we need is salvation from the wrath of God to come. That we would recognize our own sinfulness as humans both because we are from Adam and because we commit individual sin and have corrupt hearts. Romans strains for us to become firmly gripped with a conviction that Jesus Christ is sufficient to undo all that has come from Adam and to give us life and peace and joy in Jesus. Again and again we are told to put faith in Jesus. To receive Jesus. The way we connect to God is through believing in Jesus. We must see Jesus for who he is, understand his beauty and glory, and pursue him with all our might.
Conclusion
Here is my conclusion. The gospel is for Christians. Yes, if you are not a Christian I hope that something today may have given you a reason for hope and joy and helped you understand yourself and this world a little better. But everything from beginning to end is about the gospel. We need Jesus over and over and over again.
We need to repent over and over again of going off on our own way, thinking we can figure out and handle life on our own. No. We will make a mess and will not end up happy. We need the life of Christ. We need the righteousness of Christ that leads to justification and life. We can’t obey, but Christ can. That is the beauty of the gospel. I get to give God all my garbage and I get all his glory.
Here is application. Pursue Christ with every bone and fiber in your body. Re-visit the gospel and let it soak you with its truth. Find love and grace and forgiveness once again. Let’s open our hearts and our arms to people. Especially the people who are difficult for us to love or even like. Look for Jesus; he seems to love imparting himself to us as we read about him in his word. We are so stupid and blind and dumb we need the bible so that God can use to say see what you are feeling and what I am talking about. This happened once before here and here. This is what I want to teach you about the gospel.
There are times, sometimes few and far between, but times when I really do experience, I mean feel certain truths. Feel like I am learning something or growing or have a sense of what is real. And when it feels like this huge really significant and complicated thing but when I try to tell other people about it, it just feels really simple. This last week I came to believe in the gospel again. And it came to me like this. God loves me. It is simple. Love God love people. Adore Christ. Pursue the gospel.
Let’s pray.
