Triumphant! (Romans 5:18-21)

Death has a way of haunting every plan we make, and we’re remarkably creative at pretending we can keep it at arm’s length. We start with a strange American story that makes the point in concrete and lumber: Sarah Winchester spends decades building a sprawling mansion because she believes nonstop construction will keep a curse and death away. It’s haunting, tragic, and familiar, because we all have our own versions of endless building, endless motion, and endless coping.

From there, we open Romans 5 and follow Paul’s clear argument about sin and death. Adam is not just a historical figure, he is the head of a fallen humanity where death reigns like a king. Jesus Christ is the “second Adam,” the head of a redeemed humanity where grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life. We talk about why it feels unfair to be connected to Adam, why the gospel is just as bold in offering Christ’s righteousness as a gift, and how bad readings of the passage fuel universalism or reduce Jesus to merely another man.

Then we tackle one of the most surprising lines in the Bible: the law comes in so transgression increases. With relatable examples like stop signs and speed limits, we explore how rules expose the rebel heart, and why that sets the stage for the best news of all: where sin piles up, grace hyper-abounds. If you’re wrestling with guilt, fear of judgment, or the feeling that you’ve exhausted God’s patience, this conversation aims straight at the heart of Christian hope, biblical grace, and salvation by faith. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

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Transcript

Death Reigns In Adam

Sarah Winchester And The Curse

The Lie That You Can Cheat Death

How Adam’s Sin Spreads To All

A Baseball Story About Denial

Two Adams And Two Humanities

Universalism And Arianism Tested

Why The Law Makes Sin Multiply

Grace Is Never Withdrawn Or Empty

Grace Reigns To Eternal Life

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Paul concludes this section by writing in verse 21: as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord in Adam. The king that reigns is death. In Jesus Christ, the king that reigns is life. Adam was a thief, and God excluded him from paradise. The second Adam hung beside a thief, and he said to him, Today you shall be with me in paradise. Because of Oliver Winchester's invention, the first true repeating rifle, named after himself, the Winchester Rifle, the Union Army was given a huge advantage, and they became enormously wealthy beyond belief. Four years after they were married, they had a little girl named Annie, but the baby died soon after. And Sarah was so shattered that she withdrew within herself and nearly lost her mind. Several years later, William himself developed tuberculosis and passed away. An heir to this vast fortune, yet overwhelmed by grief, she didn't know what to do or where to turn. A friend suggested that she meet with a spiritist, a medium who could contact the dead. She met with a medium, and during their seance, the medium said, Your husband is here. He says there is a curse on your family which took his life and that of your child. It's a curse that resulted from the thousands of lives that died because of his invention. You must make amends. Leave New Haven, move west. The spirit of your husband will tell you when to stop. You must build a home for yourself and for the spirits who've fallen from this invention. You can never stop building the house. If you continue building, you will live. If you stop, you will die. Sarah Winchester obeyed and moved. She finally stopped at San Jose, bought over a hundred acres, and began to build an estate. She would meet every morning with the foreman and they would go over new plans. Railway cars would bring in building supplies 24 hours a day. For 36 years, the sound of building never stopped. She was bound and determined to live and avoid the curse. Rooms were added upon rooms in what became a very strange home. Doors opened to walls, hallways doubled back on themselves, staircases led to nowhere, towers and peaks were built. The house became a vast, expensive maze designed to avoid death. She believed the message that as long as she continued building, she would stay alive. But if she didn't, she would die. On September 4th, 1922, following a seance with her medium, she went to her bedroom and died. She had bought the lie that it's possible to cheat death. And she found out the truth. The first lie ever communicated by the underworld to humanity was the lie. Thou shalt not surely die. You can cheat death. You can live forever, just like you are. Have off with this nonsense of God and sin and judgment and hell. You can cheat it and win. We're talking about the philosophies that men have come up with to avoid the subject altogether. Fatalism, skepticism, hedonism, evolutionism, universalism, to name a few. The Bible says there are ways that seem right to men, but the end thereof is what? Death. We began to understand God's explanation for sin and death, and I want to repeat that Christianity is the only explanation for universal sin and universal death, and it is the only solution for both of them. I want you to turn again and look with me as Paul describes the effects of Adam's sin on all of humanity, verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin. And so death, like an epidemic, spread to all men, because all sinned. That's not fair. My friend, it is no more or less fair for you to be associated with Adam's sin as it is for you to be associated by faith with Christ's sinlessness, his righteousness imputed to your account, independently of your works. The truth is, whether we want to admit it or not, we have inherited the nature of Adam, and we all act like him. Every one of us act like Father Adam, do we not? We have the same penchant for sinning. We're all a lot like John J. McGraw. You ever heard of John Jay McGraw? Would you like to hear about John Jay McGraw? All right, I'll tell you anyway. John J. McGraw was the third baseman for the old Baltimore Orioles, and he would go on to manage the New York Giants. He was the man responsible for the decision to install a third base umpire during games. If you know anything about baseball, you know the rule of tagging up. If there's a ball hit in the air to the outfield, the runners have to stay on base and tag up before they can run. Now they can run after the ball is caught if they think they can make it to the next base. But if you begin to run first before the ball is caught, the outfielder can throw it to the base you left and you'll be automatically out, and that's called tagging up. And if you're on third base, it's it's a pretty important time. In fact, they try to drive the ball as far out into the outfield as they can so the man can tag up on third base, and as soon as it's caught, he can run for home and score. Well, John J. McGraw played third base, and he had the habit of hooking his finger around the belt of the runner who had tagged up. He'd stand real close to the runner and he'd just hook his finger over the belt, and when the ball was caught and the runner took off, just for a split second, he pulled back, and the runner lost his sense of timing, and it threw him off. And many times the outfielder had just that split second to get a head start. Of course, everybody violently protested John J. McGraw, and John Jay McGraw protested his innocence. How dare anybody say that he was doing that? This was before television cameras and slow motion and instant replays. And it went on for game after game after game until finally one game. A long time ago, the runner who had tagged up on third base unbuckled his belt. As soon as the outfielder caught the ball, he took off for home, and John J. McGraw was left standing holding the runner's belt. Thus instituted third base umpires from that point forward. Isn't that classic humanity? Me? Sin? I violently protest the thought that you would say that I sin, and all the while we have belts of sin dangling from our bodies. We're drenched with it. Protest all we want. And Paul, without any apology, declares, all have sinned. Now having revealed our connection to Adam, that we have in him, the head of our race, sinned, Paul will now begin a series of contrasts from verse 15 all the way to the end of the chapter, and he will contrast the first Adam with the second Adam, Jesus Christ. I'm just going to summarize the rest of the chapter instead of taking six sermons to deal with six verses. Are you okay with that? Well, I'm going to do that too anyway. All right. I want to summarize these contrasts so that you can grasp in your mind. Adam and Jesus Christ are contrasted as heads of two races. The first Adam began the fallen race of mankind. The second Adam, Jesus Christ, began a new race of redeemed mankind. Adam bred a race of sinners. Christ breeds, as it were, by faith, a race of saints. That's a word for the living. I want to stop here very briefly because throughout the centuries, men have taken this paragraph, this chapter, and they have sullied it and they have twisted it and come up with several false doctrines. One is the false teaching of universalism. They would say that since we're told that all humanity is fallen in Adam, then all humanity is going to be saved. So everybody's going to heaven. This is the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, we hear about. Yes, everybody has inherited this sin nature, but because of Jesus, this perfect one, we are, if we say we at least acknowledge him, or even if we don't, we believe in some being, everybody's gonna get there, wherever that is. I'll simply answer that by saying, yes, we are all condemned, but only those who receive the gift are justified. Look at verse 17. For if by the transgression of the one, Adam, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. Another false doctrine that is twisted from this paragraph is Arianism. Arianism is a view that teaches that because Adam is contrasted with Christ, then Christ is just another man. It seems to be clear here. He's referred to as a man. Let's set aside the other scriptures that reveal to us he is God and man, God enrobed in flesh. But here they would say, the Arianists would say, that he's simply another man who became divine through his obedient life. The false doctrine of Arianism, after its founder, Arius, was condemned by the early church. It has surfaced over the centuries, it has repackaged itself, and modern-day Mormonism, which is simply Arianism, developed further. Mormonism takes a casual glance at chapter 5, and they will declare that Adam got it wrong by disobeying God, and Jesus, another man, got it right by obeying God, and he was elevated to his own status of divinity that we too can reach by being obedient as well. What about the verse by Paul that says he, speaking of Jesus Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation? Isn't that a statement that he has been procreated? They believe that Elohim and his many wives procreated many sons. Jesus, Lucifer, all of them brothers. He is the firstborn of all creation. Seems to be clear. He had a beginning. Well, the Greek word for firstborn, Prototychas, simply can refer to the birth of a firstborn child. I can use Protocos in reference to the firstborn of our twin sons, Benjamin. He was firstborn, and two very long minutes later, his brother Seth became the secondborn, and since then has never been happy with second place. But I could say the first one was one born first among others who would be born. But it could also mean something else. This is the same Greek word that means rank, first in rank, first in prominence. Jesus Christ is the prominent one over all of creation. And that would be consistent with a record of Scripture. In fact, in that same chapter in Colossians, we're told that Jesus Christ is actually the creating agent of all of creation. But he is prominent. He is sovereign. Prototicos could mean that. As the head of two races, they are similar, but they are very different. Are they not? Adam was created out of dust. Jesus Christ had no beginning. All mankind is fallen through Adam's sin. Believing mankind is redeemed through Christ's sinlessness. Another mankind is lost in Adam, it is saved in Christ. Look at verse 15. He writes, but the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. Another, we are called sinners because of Adam, but because of Christ we're called saints. Still again, we have inherited death through Adam, and we through Christ inherit eternal life by faith in Him. Look at verse 18. He writes, so then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. Even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men. For just as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. Paul now moves to the climax of his logical progression in verse 20. Wonderful verse. And the law came in that the transgression might increase. Isn't that wonderful? What does that mean? The law came in that the transgression might increase. Well, in my neighborhood, which is now completed, they've finished building on the last lot. We live out there by 1010 and 401. And they finished that little subdivision, and we live in a cul-de-sac. We were one of the first that had built out there. And now that they've finished, they've started finishing some things in the neighborhood of one of the things they've done is they've put up street signs. If you were to go to my house, I'd tell you to go to the dead end of one street, and it's just an easy right and kind of flow that way anyway, and then you go to the next dead end and you turn right, you just sort of naturally turn right, and then our house is up on the left. Now they put two stop signs at the ends of those, right at the dead ends. Two at dead ends, they put two stop signs. Why did they put those two stop signs there? They put them there to reveal that I am a sinner. That's why. Now when I come home, I've got this extra challenge, these ridiculous stop signs where no one's out there. I used to be able to just turn right and not even slow down and then just go and turn right and go home. These signs are messengers from Satan to buffet me to bits. See, I didn't see those signs go up and immediately think, oh boy, I've got a wonderful opportunity now to reveal that my heart loves to keep the law. You'd like to know if I stop, don't you? I knew I'd be preaching this, so I've been stopping somewhat regularly. It was on Kildare Farm Road the other day. They changed one section of it just past Kerry Parkway from 45 miles an hour to 35 miles an hour. This is a five-lane highway. And they've gone from 45 to 35. Some liberal from New England probably came up with that idea. I don't mean to offend 80% of you, by the way, when I say that. When I saw that new sign, I can't believe it. Did I say, oh, how wonderful. Now I get an opportunity to show that I'm a law-abiding citizen. No, I'm thinking, I wonder if they'll grandfather me in since I lived here before they changed the speed limit. Have you ever thought, how much can I exceed the speed limit without being pulled over? How many? I'll wait. How many of you have ever been riding down the street and there's a patrol car stuck behind the bushes and you instinctively hit the brakes? I am a sinner speaking to a multitude of sins. The law, and the more there is of it, simply reveals we're transgressors, and the more of it, the more we sin. So, with the coming of the law, it simply increased the transgression. That's Paul's point. We have unconsciously discovered that truth. More laws mean we can break more laws. Because at our heart we are like Adam. And Adam, have you ever thought about this? Had one rule to keep. One. That was it. One rule. He could eat from any tree of the garden but one, and he couldn't stand it. You put ten pieces of candy in front of a child, and you set one over here, and you say, look, you can have any one of these ten, but you can't have that one. That child immediately salivates like Pavlov's dog for that one piece of candy. Why? Because that's forbidden. I'm not supposed to have that. And the nature of man says, I want what I'm not supposed to have. And so where the law abounds, Paul says sin just it piles up. But the good news is he goes on in verse 20 to say, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Those words there are very important to understand. Increased. My translation reads, abounded, which is a good translation. They are two different Greek words. Some simply say increased and increased. Those are two different words. Paul wrote, where sin increased. Planadza. That's a numerical word that means one on top of the other. You sin and you just pile up more and more and more sins. You know what you're gonna do this week? You're gonna want to follow after Jesus Christ, but you're gonna depend on his grace. Why? Because you're gonna pile more and more sins on top of one another. Those unkind thoughts, the things you don't do, you should do, the things you shouldn't think, and you think and plan and you still plan. All of that just piles up. But here's what he's saying: even though sin piles up, grace abounds. That word is parasuo, which means to multiply, but in front of that word is the little Greek prefix, hyper. I love that. Hyper. Parasuo. You never thought hyper was a biblical word, did you? You ever been around a hyperactive child? Maybe you live with a hyperactive child, but they never stop unless they're asleep. They continually go. It's like the throttle is stuck in fifth gear. You could paraphrase Paul's idea this way where sin piled up, grace was hyperactive. It never stops, it just keeps increasing, and the sin piles up, and grace is still greater. It piles on top of that. You can't shut it down. There are two statements that I want to make from that passage, two observations. Number one, the grace of God we learn is never withdrawn because of sin. Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. We don't operate that way, do we? When someone hurts us, we withdraw from them, don't we? We withhold kindness, we stop talking to them. We avoid them. We hurt God because of sin. And this wonderful truth is he doesn't withdraw from us. He doesn't stop talking to us, he doesn't avoid us. As a matter of fact, when Adam sinned, do you remember? He and Eve hid, and what did God do? God came calling. Adam, where are you? For the believer, grace is never withdrawn because of sin. No matter what law you've broken, no matter how many times you've broken it, the grace of God is not withdrawn. This truth is so incredible that people immediately thought Paul was condoning sin. He was telling people they could just go and sin. If the grace of God Is that magnificent? Well, let's just sin all the more. And a heresy grew out of the early church that followed that rule of living. Paul will address that in the next verse, and we'll get to it later, but that isn't what he's condoning. But the truth is so incredible, it's so unbelievable, that even though I sin and I sin again and I sin again and I sin again, grace is still higher. God does not withdraw it. Second thing is the grace of God will never run out because of sin. One author said we tend to think of God having a bucket full of grace and it's like water. And you sin and you start a little fire and he sloshes a little water out and puts it out. And you sin a little more and he dips into the bucket and he sloshes some more out. And then your brothers and sisters and Christ sin, and we have little bonfires, and he he reaches into the bucket and he's constantly putting out the fires until finally the bucket's empty. I'm sorry. There's no more grace. Paul is teaching the inhuman divine characteristic of God's grace, that it is not water in a bucket, it is the Niagara Falls. And that is an amazing attraction of Christianity. No other system of belief in the world would ever suggest something this ludicrous. No, you make amends. But grace. Only God could have created something like that. Have you ever thought about the fact that most of Christianity isn't very attractive to the world? James Montgomery boys provoked my thinking on this. And it's true. And I began to think about it. Holiness. Hey, world, would you like to pursue a holy life? Oh, yeah, that's what I really want. Self-sacrifice, servanthood, repentance, spiritual discipline. These will never be billboards, and the world drives by and sees that, and they think, oh, that's what I've been missing, a little servanthood in my life. I've been wanting to live for somebody else besides me. No. But grace, grace, is something that the world can't quite figure out, but it's attractive. Paul concludes this section by writing in verse 21 as we have divided it, that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In Adam, the king that reigns is death. In Jesus Christ, the King that reigns is life in him. Adam. Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, took of that tree and he began to die. We partake of the one who hung on a tree and we begin to live. Adam was a thief. He was a thief. He took something that did not belong to him. He was a thief and God excluded him from paradise. The second Adam hung beside a thief. And he said to him, Today you shall be with me in paradise. That is the amazing, marvelous grace of our God.