Romans 5:12-21... Super Abounding!

Have you ever been in a situation where things spiraled out of control? It’s a pretty helpless feeling when events are already in motion that you can’t stop.  You’re beyond the point of no return. 

Our passage has an element of that at the beginning but then introduces us to The One who totally reversed the narrative and brought legitimate hope!  This isn't merely a situation of barely having enough grace to restore balance, this is abundant, overwhelming grace. 

Transcript

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Have you ever been in a situation that has just spiraled out of control? It's a pretty helpless feeling when events are already in motion and you cannot stop what's happening. You're beyond the point of no return. On that happy note, welcome to Meet Me in the Word. I am so glad that you've joined us today. Our passage is Romans chapter 5, verses 12 through 21, and it gives us uh kind of a taste of that sensation and that feeling of being out of control. But then, then it introduces us to the one, the one who intervened and completely flipped that entire narrative. Go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to Romans chapter 5, again, verses 12 through 21, and we'll get into that together. But first, let's pray. Jesus, thank you for this good day that you have given us. God thank you that even when our lives either feel like or actually are out of control, you are able and you do intervene. God thank you for that. Be with us now. God, we're here to meet with you. Would you please meet with us? Amen. All right. Romans five, starting at verse twelve, it says this Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone's account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass, for if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many? Nor can the gift of a God be compared with the result of one man's sin. The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ? Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as reign sorry, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let's take a moment to pause and listen to what God has for us. You can pause this podcast if you'd like. All right, let's make a few observations and kind of slow this one down so we can take it in. This is kind of classic Paul writing, where there is just there's a whole bunch going on and he uses some really significant uh words along the way. And we spent a little bit of time unpacking a few of those last week. If you want to go back to last Thursday's podcast on uh Romans uh chapter five, uh it was I I believe six through or five through eleven. Uh that'll maybe help you out a little bit with understanding things like justification and and a few other concepts. Uh but we're just going to go ahead and and jump into it. Now, in those first couple of verses, verses 13 and 14, did you feel that, that sense of being out of control? And sometimes we go through that section so quickly that maybe we don't appreciate the the magnitude or the the, I guess, the gravity of it. But yeah, just like just as sin entered through the world or entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people because all sinned. And that that does, at least to me, that feels totally out of control. That is absolutely an uh a runaway train. It is it is taking off, and it feels like there is nothing that can actually stop it. And Paul then kind of moves into some like kind of logic-based uh teaching here. And remember, he is speaking or writing to a group of believers, uh, many of which, not all of them, but many of which did have those Jewish roots. And so the law meant so much to them. So he's speaking about the law and the way that the law introduces the idea of breaking the law, like there's not a way to break a rule if the rule doesn't exist, kind of thinking. So he's introducing that concept in this particular uh section, but then going further and saying, look, this was a problem well before that. So that's why he focuses in on Adam. So before Moses, Moses, the one who um who God used to introduce the covenant or the law to the people, so before all of that, uh sin reigned, it death reigned. Everybody has sinned and it's just there, and it does feel uh like like all of that that's going on. So 13 and 14 really kind of capture that sense of of just being out of control, this spiraling thing that's taking place. And then verse 15 hits, and and for you know, the the rest, basically, the rest of this chapter, Paul uses a variety of things to help us appreciate just the incredible nature of God's redeeming work through Jesus, and he does that in a few different ways. So we're gonna focus the rest of our time really here in between verses 15 through, I said 20, but 21 is where the chapter ends. So the first thing I wanted to notice is the abundance of God's grace in response to sin and death. And Paul uses abundant language to describe that. So I'm gonna pick it up here just in verse 15 and highlight a couple of things. So there's a phrase in uh in my translation, it's it's how much more, right? How much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ? Uh, and then again, how much more in verse 17, right? Halfway through, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace, right? So there's this problem. So this problem is a big problem, and Paul is acknowledging that, right? It's death has come to everybody, condemnation has come to everybody, but how much more, right? How much more is the response that God uh has brought about? And then there's a couple of other instances that use a different phrasing or different language here. Um, but the first one is overflow, and that's back in verse 15 once again, that came through the the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. And then it says it overflows to the many, right? So it came through, and you know, and via, I guess, Jesus Christ, but it just was so abundant that it that it just and you there's a picture there, right, of maybe a river that's breached its bank uh or or just like a fountain, just something that's just bursting forward and it's overflowing to the many, which is a be a beautiful picture when we're talking about grace. And then the one that is probably my favorite is actually in verse 20. And I'll just read that again for us. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace increased all the more. Now, where it says increased all the more, if you go back and and look at original language, the the word there that expresses that literally means where where sin abounded, grace superabounded. Like that's a really straight, straight across rendering of that idea. And I love that word superabounded. Uh, and it's just again testifying to this idea that that God's grace wasn't like it wasn't just enough, right? Like it wasn't like, oh, here's, you know, here's sin, and then here's here's grace. It's like, no, here's here's sin, right, at this level, and grace is just way, way above uh all that's there. And so there's just, it's not just hope, right? It's this emphatic response to the problem uh that humanity uh collectively uh was and and does experience uh until we surrender and give our lives over to Jesus. The next thing I would like to do just in handling this text is is to just point out contrast because I think it's so helpful for us to notice all these different things. So I'm gonna start again in verse 15, and I'm just gonna work my way down and highlight kind of the contrast between the problem and the solution. So in verse uh 15, again, the gift is not like the trespass, for if the many died by the trespass, so notice that word trespass, and then uh we'll contrast that, because I think Paul does that with the word grace, right? Many died by the trespass, but then on the other side of that, still in verse 15, uh, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ? So we get to contrast trespass and grace. And then we see it again here in verse 16, the word condemnation. Uh kind of partway through here, the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, which is awful. Uh, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. So we can see that contrast again. Condemnation, that's what sin brought. Uh, Jesus brought justification. And just a quick reminder: justification is that we're declared to be clean. We're declared to be uh like we're acquitted or just uh we're we're forgiven is that's kind of the idea there. We're we're we're good to go. Verse 17, for by the trespass of the one man, death. Death is that word on the problem side of things, and then we we see the other side of that towards the end of verse 17, life, right? God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. And then again, verse 18, trespass and condemnation, yet contrasted with righteous act, right, and then justification and life. Verse 19 contrasts disobedience, for just as through the disobedience of the one man we were made sinners, right? Two things we don't want to be, or do, I guess, so also the obedience, right, of the one man will um the many will be made righteous. And so we again see those contrasts coming through. I wanted to highlight those because I I think it's important, it was important to Paul to really emphasize the significance of the issue, the significance and the range of of the problem of sin and death that entered because of sin, and then the magnificent, overwhelming uh response that God had towards all of that. I hope that this is encouraging you. I wanted to ask you this. What picture comes to your mind when you think about what Paul is talking about in this passage? You know, a friend of mine, uh, we were looking at this passage, this was quite a long time ago, like 15 years ago, something like that. It was it was quite a while ago. And and we were looking at it in some kind of a Bible study that we were doing together, and she described it uh like an hourglass, but reversed, right? You know how an hourglass will funnel everything kind of into the middle and then release it out. And her point was like, well, no, Adam introduces this thing and it like it cones out rather rather than coning in on its way down, cones out, and then uh through Jesus, it like catches everything and funnels back in uh towards life. I think that was kind of a fun way of of thinking about it. Uh, and then you know, for me, uh certainly the picture of like uh a disease that's uh spread around, followed by the cure or the antidote that overcomes it, uh, certainly is appropriate. Maybe you have a different uh kind of image that came to your mind. And if you do, I would love to hear about it. You can uh just shoot me a little note uh or or however you want to do that, that's uh that'd be great. Finally, I want us to just reflect on this reality. Simply this condemnation doesn't get the last word. And I want you to carry that with you as you go about the rest of your day. Condemnation doesn't get the last word. And sometimes we feel like it does, but Jesus says, No, grace gets the last word. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you that you are bigger than everything that we ever face. Thank you that your grace and your act of obedience, Lord, your righteousness overcame and continues to overcome condemnation, death, and sin. God help us to walk in that victory today. Amen.