Sin/Death on Adam VS Righteous/Life in Christ (Rom 5:12-16), Part 3/4

If you’ve ever wondered whether God’s grace can really cover the full weight of your sin, Romans 5 answers with a shockingly strong phrase: “much more.” We follow Paul’s contrast between Adam and Christ and argue that Jesus doesn’t merely repair what was broken in Eden, He surpasses it. That theme drives everything we talk about: assurance of salvation, the finished work of Christ, and why the gospel isn’t God doing 90% while we scramble to supply the last 10%. 

We unpack why Christ first fulfills the law in perfect obedience, then dies as both expiation and propitiation. Those words matter because they clarify what the cross actually accomplishes: sin is removed, wrath is turned away, and our guilt is not left hanging in the air. When sin is imputed to Christ and carried into the grave, it stays buried. When Christ rises, His righteousness is credited to us, grounding justification and peace with God in what He has done, not in what we can maintain. 

That leads straight into the question people debate endlessly: can a true Christian lose salvation? We push the logic all the way through. If you must obey any part of God’s law to earn or keep salvation, what did Christ fail to obey that you now have to complete? Along the way, we address the “license to sin” accusation, talk about gratitude-driven holiness, and end with a practical biblical anchor: being sealed with the Holy Spirit as a mark of God’s ownership and protection, with a thought-provoking connection to Revelation’s language about marks and allegiance. 

If this conversation steadies your faith or challenges your assumptions, subscribe, share it with a friend who wrestles with assurance, and leave a review so more people can find it. What line of reasoning hits you the hardest?

Transcript

Christ’s Finished Work Explained

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Jesus Christ, the grace of God has overflowed with a power and fullness that that not only removes, it not only removes condemnation, but it secures eternal life and everlasting fellowship with God. So Christ first had to do one thing. He had to deal with the fulfilling of the law. A few things, actually. He had to deal with fulfilling the law by living a life that was perfect in obedience to God's law. Then he had to die to be our propitiation and to be our expiation. In other words, the expiation is the sacrifice for our sin. The propitiation is the one who turns away the wrath that is coming our way, diverting that wrath from us to him. And then by imputing our sin upon him, he dies, goes into the grave, our sin going with him into the grave. He comes out of the grave, leaving our sin in the grave, imputes the righteousness that he earned while he was on earth before the grave, and when he raises from the dead, that righteousness was imputed to us, and now we are sanctified, glorified, justified. All of those Ides, we have them all. He did it all.

SPEAKER_06 1:38

Past tense.

SPEAKER_05 1:40

He did it all. It's all over, it's all done. There is nothing a man can contribute to the work of Christ in any capacity. There is absolutely nothing that any man can contribute. Previous to, at the time of, or posthumous to the death and resurrection of Christ. There is nothing that a man has ever done that contributed to his own salvation. If he did, he absolutely, definitely does not have it. He doesn't have it.

Adam’s Ruin And Christ’s Gift

SPEAKER_05 2:17

The comparison between Adam and Christ now unfolds immediately with the contrast. The effects of Adam's offense and Christ's gift are not equal in kind or in measure. Christ is much better, much superior, superabound. Through one man's transgression, many be dead, showing the devastating reach of sin, and devastating it is. Yet the grace of God in Christ not only counters, but surpasses this effect. Look what he says here in verse 15. He says, He says, but not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense one of one many be dead, he says, listen to this. This is this is he says, much more. Much more the grace of God, much more the gift of grace, which is by one man. Jesus Christ has abounded to many. Too many. What Christ did didn't just counter what Adam had done, it surpasses in its effects. The much more, it just shows us the superabundance of God's grace. What is given through Christ is greater in efficacy and scope than that which was lost in Adam. The gift is rooted in grace and it flows from one man, just one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, not you, not your pastor or your Catholic priest or any priest of that matter, but through one man, Jesus Christ establishing a new headship that overcomes the ruin that was brought in by the first being Adam. So important. So important.

Can Salvation Be Lost?

SPEAKER_05 4:29

Sister Joni, what do you think?

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Uh specifically? On my verse.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

Pardon me?

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Were you uh being specific to a verse? Nope. Okay. Well, I think this is really, really good. And I I have to admit, like you, I didn't really get this many years ago. Actually, until I until I really met you. Like, I believe people could lose their salvation, but I didn't believe I could. Do you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 5:09

I do know what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

I knew that I couldn't lose my salvation, so I couldn't fathom how anybody else could.

unknown 5:16

Right.

SPEAKER_04 5:16

I get it. I get it.

SPEAKER_05 5:18

I really believe that a lot of people that say that don't believe that it's gonna be a problem they're gonna have.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

But when I say that I I don't believe it's a problem I'm gonna have because I love Jesus. I'm not gonna I'm not turning my back. He he saved my life.

SPEAKER_04 5:35

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

I'm not gonna turn my back on him. I know I won't. Like it's in it's in me, I won't.

SPEAKER_05 5:40

Right. Well, the thing about it is what you have to understand is like you said, you won't turn your back. You know you won't. But see, the thing about it is, a true believer can't.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

Right.

SPEAKER_05 5:50

They can't.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Right. And I'm saying I won't, but it's it's better, it's better said as I can't, because life was different.

SPEAKER_05 6:01

I did it. It would it would be just as it would be just as, I mean, imagine, you know, like like if if you were somebody living during the time between Adam and Moses, you know, you there is no way you could say, well, I know I'm gonna lose my sinlessness. I'm gonna, I know I'm gonna lose not sinlessness, I'm gonna I know I'm gonna lose my sin. How? And see, that's the thing. What Christ brought is something that makes it impossible. And he said that we are in his hands and we are in his father's hands. And so the in the point of that, the point of that is for to give Christians a well-founded, well-grounded, confident assurance that there is no way we can be stripped away and separated from his grace and mercy. Because if it is if it is in fact grace, it has nothing to do about the accumulation of deeds. A deed or many deeds, it doesn't matter. He has done something to take to remedy all of that. Last I checked, my sin is incapable of resurrection. Because if it is incapable of resurrection, then that means that some of my sins, some of the stink and stench of my sin, was still remaining on my Lord when he came out of that tomb. Who wants to say that? Not me. Nobody. Nobody. So verse 16.

One Offense Versus Many Sins

SPEAKER_05 7:44

Um, I'm sorry, did I skip? See, Meg, did you have something you wanted to say? Did I skip you? Go ahead. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_06 7:50

So when we when you got my head spit in. So when we think about it, Adam was the head of fallen men.

unknown 8:00

That's right.

SPEAKER_06 8:00

And the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of redeemed man. Now check this out. Adam, Adam's bride came from his side. The Lord Jesus Christ was pierced in his side, and out of his side came blood and water. And that was us, the bride, his bride. So our bride, him being the bride, we came out of his side, the church, the same. It's like everything was so intentional and so completely undone in a way that was so much greater than the first Adam.

SPEAKER_04 8:38

That's right.

SPEAKER_06 8:39

In every Wow.

SPEAKER_05 8:43

No, you're right. In every aspect. In every aspect. There is no way to be saved. There's no greater way to be saved but by Jesus Christ and Him alone.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

No way.

SPEAKER_05 8:55

No way. Verse 16. And not as it was by the one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to condemnation. But the free gift is of many offenses to justification. Another beautiful verse here. This is a this the judgment was by one to condemnation. But the free gift is of many offenses to justification. So what he's saying here is this that the judgment was by one offense. It was one singular offense that brought about prevalent, widespread, universal condemnation. But the free gift is the result that is overcome, or the the the but the free gift overcame a multiplicity of offenses. So you see you so you see here another way in which what Christ has done is so great. Paul here is eager to show that the work of Christ surpasses in every way the ruin that was that was introduced by Adam. The free gift differs fundamentally from the offense. Adam's one sin, one single sin resulted in condemnation. But what about Christ's work? What did it address? Not just one offense, but many offenses. And not just many offenses of one person, but many, but all of the offenses of all of those who he redeemed. All of them. One sin brought death to billions. And to multiply that number to a near or what we might think will be an infinite number, number too large a number, Christ took all those sins for his elect people. Like Sister Jess says, past, present, and future. He took them all. And he addresses them all. Many offenses were remedy for many countless numbers of souls. But in Adam's case, one sin. One act. So the grace of God it confronts a massively accumulated mountain of guilt. Massive mountain of guilt. The countless sins of God's people throughout every single generation, which nevertheless results in justification for them all. When these things lay hold of you, and we keep in mind, this sets the stage for all the things that a lot of people don't like to talk about in this Bible.

SPEAKER_07 12:31

So I was thinking like, like in our world, right? So if we you know commit a crime, we have to pay that sentence. And then you know we walk free. But like in God's courtroom, if you will, He Jesus paid for our sins, but not only that, we're declared righteous with his righteousness as if we never committed those sins at all. So I was just thinking about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:04

That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And see, and see, and Christ, in dealing with our sins, sister, he this is what this is what it is. He's like going, okay, you're not going to, you're, I'm, I'm going to deal not just with, I'm not, I'm not going to deal just with the sin or a particular sin. I'm going to go stand before the judge, and I'm going to deal with all of your sin. All of your sin. Even the ones that you don't think you committed, but I'm going to tell you you did. And I'm going to deal with all of that. I'm going to remove it all, and then you are going to come out of that courtroom guiltless. You're going to stand before God in the utmost purity of peace and reconciliation, having nothing to be held to your account at all. Nothing. And when you think about it, it's beyond the human understanding. To be forgiven, to be pardoned, to be ransomed, to be propitiated for, to be redeemed, to be substituted by one holier than you. Remember, scarcely for a righteous man or a good man will somebody die. But Christ died for us in that while we were yet ungodly and in our sins, he died for us. There is no scenario where the goodness of Christ does not superabound in every aspect of our redemptive life. He went way beyond. He went way beyond. Sister Mariah, and then Lisa.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Yeah,

No Stains Left After The Cross

SPEAKER_00 15:01

so what Sister Disciple said, she said that, you know, we could serve our time and then we could walk free, but not necessarily because what we were charged with, or whoever was charged with, it still stains them. And that record still follows them around. And it's never fully clean, whether you did your time or not, you know, and this is how they liken our liberty in Christ. They almost think that this just spills over into Christ and it still stains you, you know.

SPEAKER_05 15:36

I like it. I like it. See, this this is this is and this is how people end up with that perspective that a true Christian can lose their salvation. Because they think there's this resident, there's this resident sin that somehow still needs to be atoned for, but it doesn't require the blood of Christ to do so. It requires them. Them. But there are no stains left. There is no residue of sin left to be cleansed from us. None. And I can hear some of these people. I can hear it echoing. This dude, this man is saying this to people, this is heretical teeth. We need to obey. You see, I you know, this is what happens when you don't understand the clear word of God. What are you going to obey? Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that, you know, because they will be saying, oh, he's giving people a license to sin. No, what I want to know is if you have to obey any part of God's law for salvation, for salvation. If there's any law that needs to be obeyed for salvation, then that means there was something left that Christ Himself in his flesh did not obey. What was it that he forgot to take care of that requires me to finish the job? People can think that if they want to. That's not the God I have trust in. That's an idol. That's a false God. A God who requires you to do something that augments the work that Christ has done. That's a bold statement to be able to say, I am saved because of two things. The blood of Christ and my deeds after having come to faith. What kind of a Christian mind believes that? I'm not talking about a person who's just in day one of their Christianity and there's things to learn. We're talking about seasoned people who call themselves creatures, peddling this lie. And they do it with great joy. And they speak with a ferocious confidence. But they are fools. That's what they are. Liars. Thieves and robbers. Thieves and robbers. This contrast between Christ and Adam is amazing. Sister Lisa, go ahead.

SPEAKER_08 19:08

Well, I just wanted to add along the same lines as you and Mariah, that you were just saying, you know, when we are born again, we are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. We are made white. So if you can then later walk away, do they suppose that Christ puts their sin back on them again? I mean, was it forgiven or was it not forgiven? It's either forgiven or it's not. So if a person can walk away, then that would have sin that Christ then puts the sin back on the person, which which means Jesus, they're calling them Jesus is a liar. So there's so many things wrong with that, and people need to stop. I've never heard one born-again believer say that it's okay to go on sinning now that you have the grace of the Lord. That's not true faith. And and and neither is this faith that says, okay, now I'm saved, but I better do this to hang on to it so tightly. I mean, there is really we're in the sweet spot, you guys. Think about this. This is crazy. We just got to believe the Lord. He only opens the eyes, obviously, of I mean, we we know the road is narrow, and it's it's just beautiful that, you know, it it's just trust him. Just believe him. That's it. Believe what he says.

SPEAKER_05 20:35

Right. And see, and here's the thing, it it's like like in this situation, but what all with all of us here, I don't know what kind of a Christian who believes that believing what we believe makes you want to go out and sin, and yet we spend nearly two and a half to three hours a night together doing this. We're not at the we're not sitting during this time, we're not sitting around waiting to go to the club or whatever people, whatever sins that people are planning to go rob banks and all this kind of stuff. No, we sit here two and a half hours a night. This isn't what this isn't what I thought I would do, even as a Christian. I never thought for for if you if you would have told me that we would be having these kind of sessions on a nightly basis, unless I'm having day night, but generally speaking, we're gonna be here every night. And we long for it. I do and you do. This isn't what happens, this isn't what people think when they get saved. They want to figure out ways to glorify the Lord. They want to know what you do, what can you use me for, Lord? Send me. What's my calling? Let me figure this out. This is is that it is not that's not what it produces, it doesn't produce that. It produces the desire to be holy, like our Lord was. It is the desire to express thankfulness for the forgiveness and the pardon that we have received. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. We're going to go to the grave reminding ourselves of this. We are a holy nation. And so let them say what they want to say because they need some validation for their falsehood. And they need to feel that they are contributing to the Lord's work. So, like you said, Lisa, it's like did did Christ put something back, either He put something back on them or He never took everything off of them fully. He didn't finish it when He did it. He left something behind. Either way, there's something wrong with our Lord if a Christian who has been truly saved can lose salvation. It's an affront upon the tribunal of God. It's an affront. It's an attack. And it ought not to be countenanced, not even for a second, by any of us. Not even for a second. Adam's one sin resulted in condemnation. But Christ's work deals with all of the offenses. The grace of God confronts all of the guilt that men have. One sin brought condemnation. Innumerable sins are overcome through the gift of righteousness that we received by way of Christ, our Lord. And his work does not merely restore what Adam lost, but it overcomes a far greater problem. And where sin was multiplied, grace proved to be even more sufficient. In other words, the more sin that there was, the more grace that was available. The more sin that availed, the greater faith availed over that greater, that greater, those greater sin. Amen.

SPEAKER_04 24:45

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

That is taking the equation of God's grace and turning it backwards, which is what the enemy likes to do. Turn things around, turn things backwards, make it appeal to our flesh, but not to our spirits. So what we've got to do is continue to do what we're doing tonight, stay grounded in the word.

SPEAKER_04 25:15

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Because the attacks are going to continue to come. They are going to continue as we move forward.

SPEAKER_04 25:22

Amen, brother. Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Hello, sir. I have to totally agree with everything that was said. And you know, you know, I was lost, and I'm glad that I'm no longer in there. Um, because I don't know how someone can say that you can lose your salvation, but at the same time, that they say that they can never lose their salvation, but they they say that we can continue to sin. And I say you don't got the right Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 26:09

I know what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Having them being controlling and and having me sad and cry and and you know having making me to lock people that I really love. And I'm sorry, Melvin. And I'm glad that you're in here with us. And I'm sorry, Nathan, if you're still in here, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_04 26:41

Amen, sister. Amen. Hang in here as long as you want, too. Sister Meg, Megan then disciples.

SPEAKER_06 26:49

You

Why Grace Feels Hard To Grasp

SPEAKER_06 26:50

know, brother, I know you've been saved a long time, and so have I, and I know a lot of us probably have been on this journey for a while. But I think there's one thing that I still just struggle with too, and I it's the comprehension of the grace of God. I can't even comprehend. I I mean, I I read, and and when you hear Christians speak sometimes, it's like, do we really understand how deep his grace is and what it real what it really means? You know, like just like when it said in Romans 5 1, when we were reading, like through his righteousness, like we now have peace with God.

unknown 27:37

Right.

SPEAKER_06 27:37

That the debt's been settled, and that it it is truly by his grace that we have salvation.

SPEAKER_07 27:46

Right.

SPEAKER_06 27:47

And I think we say grace as a, you know, we say grace, but when we get to 20, we're gonna see, you know, where sin abounds, grace abounds so much more, and to even comprehend that, even in my own life or the life of other believers, it's mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_04 28:05

It is.

SPEAKER_05 28:06

I I really believe, at least for me anyway, that one of the reasons why it is so difficult to really embrace the magnitude of his grace and his forgiveness is that we don't understand the magnitude of our sin. See if we if we really if we really knew much about our sin, because because we genuinely love him based on the degree to which we understand our sin. So like like Christ said, who who has he who has been forgiven much will love much. Amen. And for knowing knowing what you have been forgiven for is tied to the level or the amount the love you have toward him. So what he is saying is that the reason why you don't understand me is because you don't understand you. Not you, but I mean, you know, all of us. And so this is this is the the essence of gratitude. And this is one of the reasons why I think there's this sin that we that we still struggle with and are mortifying, because I think God is using these this time between our between our salvation and our final death onto glorification, so that we can get a better insight into his goodness, into his character, partly through understanding the depths of our own sin. And so this is why it's so important for us to always engage in monitoring sin in our lives and and dying daily to this sin. And so this is a big this is a big deal. It's a really big deal, sister. So I know exactly what you're talking about. And so we we we get the luxury, the the blessedness of being able to begin to get a glimpse because that's all we get. We get just a glimpse into the significance of our sin. Think about it. Adam committed one violation, and look what it did. Look what just one single sin did when there was no law. When there was no law, there was just one command. Don't eat for that tree. That was it. One command. All of creation is yours, leave that tree alone. One sin plunged his entire posterity, the human race, into sin, death, and condemnation. One it is an infinite number of sin, numbers, number of sin that we commit in a day. And so the more we love him, the more we understand our sin more, the more we begin to see the sinfulness of our own sin, the more we see the goodness of his grace and his mercy and his peace and his compassion, his forbearance, his long-suffering, on and on and on and on. And that's what it's about. That's what it's about. Disciple and then Meg.

SPEAKER_07 31:48

Okay,

Sealed By The Spirit And Ownership

SPEAKER_07 31:49

so this was pertaining to when you were talking about like people saying that we can lose our salvation. And I'm wondering what part of sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise do they not get? What part of that Jesus he says he's the good shepherd, and he loses none of his sheep? So it's like insinuating, oh, he's the like they're saying he's the bad shepherd. And so I wanted to say something about that word sealed. And the Greek, it's I'm gonna try my best to sound this out. So it's Fragezo to seal, to set a seal upon, to mark with the seal, and then the topical lexicon, it says, in the Greco-Roman world, seal authenticated documents, protected property, and marked ownership. Wax or clay impressions bore the insignia of an authority. To tamper with the seal was to challenge that authority, just like these people out here doing. So then it says, Scripture adopts this imagery to speak of God's irrecovable acts of certifications, ownership, and safeguarding. That means nothing is coming out and nothing is coming in. We are sealed, point blank.

SPEAKER_05 33:06

Amen. So look let me tell you, let me tell let me add something to that. Now you mentioned there, and correctly so, all of that was correct. It says seal marks ownership, right? Correct. Okay, it it it marks ownership. Now in Revelation, as we're gonna see throughout that study, that there are those who receive the mark of the beast in their forehead or their hands. Many of you have heard me talk about this before. Most of mankind has manufactured this lie that this is some physical chip, tattoo, coronavirus, whatever it may be. All right? It's not. It's not. It is just as you say it is regarding the seal of God. It is a mark of ownership. The mark of ownership. And so the mark of the beast in your forehead simply means that you worship Satan after your inward man, your mind, your heart, your philosophical life, your psychological life. That's what it means. It means you worship Satan in what you think, what you desire, what you want to do. The carnal mind is that enity against God. That's the mark of the beast in your head, your forehead. Likewise, if you receive the mark of the beast in your hand, if you receive the mark of the beast in your hand, it means you worship the Satan at what you do, what you invent, what you create, what you support, what you lend your work effort to. But, disciples, going back to what you said about the seal of about the seal of God, which is the Holy Spirit, as you rightly and correctly stated, it's a mark of ownership, which is why in Revelation it says, but those who do not receive the mark, it tells you why they don't receive the mark. Why? Because they receive the seal, which is God's badge of ownership on his people, the Holy Spirit, the seal of God. It's not when you receive in your hand because you're not saved by works. You're saved by what's in here in your heart, the inward man. We worship from the heart. God changes the heart. But the seal of God we receive is what keeps us from receiving the bark of the beast. The Lord owns us, so they can't take us. They can't get us. And that's the beauty of it. And the greater part of Christianity is missing it. So I brought that up, sister, because I wanted to add that to what the line of thinking that you were you were already on, and hopefully that will add something to your arsenal. I mean your discussions with other people or you know, amongst your friends or whatever, or whoever, you know. But does that make sense? At least makes sense.

SPEAKER_07 36:16

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. I wrote that down with a quickness. I did not think of it like that that deeply. Thank you so much for that, brother.

SPEAKER_05 36:23

You're welcome, sir. You're welcome. Uh, Sister Lisa and then Meg.

Mark Of The Beast And Works Thinking

SPEAKER_08 36:29

Okay, so Brother Nathan put something in the chat that I had not even thought of. I want to hear your thoughts on it, brother Jonathan.

unknown 36:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 36:37

The mark of the beast in your hand. Could it be these people who believe they gotta work for their salvation? Since God has plainly