Pastor Steve Hopkins of Burnet Bible Church delivers a sermon on Romans 5:18-19, focusing on the concepts of condemnation through Adam's disobedience and justification through Christ's righteousness. He explains that Adam and Christ serve as federal heads, representing all humanity and all believers, respectively. Adam's sin led to the condemnation of all humans, while Christ's obedience results in the justification of all believers. This transformation is described as a process of representation and imputation, where Christ's righteousness is attributed to believers. Hopkins emphasizes that Christ's redemptive work is immeasurably greater than Adam's offense, offering eternal life and justification to those who have faith in Jesus. The sermon highlights the importance of understanding these theological concepts and encourages believers to reflect on the glory of Christ's work and the horror of life without Him.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the Book of Romans. If you would turn with me in your Bibles once again to the book of Romans chapter 5 or continuing to work through chapter 5. We'll be picking up with verses 18 and 19 this morning. And if you would stand with me for the reading of the word of the Lord beginning with verse 18.

Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Let's pray. Father, We need your help once again. We do not dare to open your word, presuming to comprehend the least portion of the truths contained in your word apart from divine assistance.

We need your help, Lord. And so we ask that you might be pleased once again to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask and to open the understanding of our hearts and minds to understand your word and conform us, Lord, thereby more to the image of your Son. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's be seated.

So when we picked up with verse 12 a few weeks back, I said that we were launching into what many believe to be one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, passages in all of Scripture to exposit and to understand. What I want to do this morning, Lord willing, is to tie it all altogether, because that's exactly what the apostle Paul is doing as we pick up with verses 18 and 19 of Romans chapter 5. Verses 18 and 19 are a summary of everything Paul has been saying since verse 12. And if you have your Bibles open, and I hope you do, to Romans 5. Look again, and I'll remind you once again that after verse 12, and this in your Bibles may be a dash, maybe a bracket, in the King James Version, In the authorized version, it is a set of parentheses.

It begins with verse 13, and then you'll notice that the parentheses end with verse 17. So everything that we've been studying from verses 13 to verse 17 have been an explanation of verse 12. And now having explained verse 12 more fully in verses 13 through 17, the brackets close, the parentheses close. And Paul then goes to his summary of everything that he's just been saying. And that summary is this in a nutshell, because we're going to review and then work our way back up to 18 to really look at it in more of its fullness.

But this is it in a nutshell. All in Adam are condemned on account of his offense. All in Christ are justified on account of His righteousness, His obedience. Because of Adam's disobedience, all who are in Him, which of course is the whole human race, are constituted or regarded as sinners. Because of Christ's obedience, all who are in Him, united to Him and in Him by faith, are constituted or regarded righteous." So let's go back briefly and just walk through His teaching, verse 12, and moving up to verse 18 to get really the impact of it again in verse 12 We learned that it was by one man Adam that sin entered into the world of mankind and death which is the universal consequence of sin followed death by sin and so death spread upon all men Because all men sinned in Adam and Adam's fall we send all Adam being the the representative head of all of us of the human race when he fell We fell in him And the proof that His sin was regarded by God as our sin is that death, the universal consequence of sin, passed upon all men.

And before we go forward, in case there are any who are Still struggling with or having a hard time with with grasping this concept of an entire class or entire group of people being regarded as and treated as their representative head, consider something with me for a moment. Consider, if you will, how the same is true of every one of us living in the United States today. We are a nation of a people, we are a nation of people who have a federal head. I don't wanna get into everything about the federal government here, but we're going to just focus on the person who can execute laws and execute wars. We have a federal head.

We may not be happy with the things that he does, but he's still our federal head. That's his office. We have a president. And when our federal head or head of the federal government does something, We who are represented internationally by him are all in certain circumstances at least regarded as having done what he did. And in circumstances we are all treated as though we had all done what he alone has done.

Let me give you an example. If the President of the United States tomorrow were to order a military strike on Russia. We would as a nation be regarded as if we had all done it. He being our representative head and we'd all be treated as though what he did, we all did. Think about it.

The Russian Federation would respond not by singling out the President for retaliation – We're going to retaliate against him because he did this, no, not by imputing his action to him alone, not by regarding the military strike as being an act of his alone, but by imputing his one act to the entire country. The Russians would regard his act as our act, and they would treat all the people in this country as though we had done what our president did and if they declared war, it would not be on our federal head alone but upon all the people of the United States. The president is our federal head. And what he does, a foreign power would regard us all as having done and the entire nation would be treated as though it were our act. In a similar way, just helping to understand Adam being the federal head of the human race, not appointed by men by the way, but appointed by God and ordained of God to that office to be our representative.

When he sinned we were all regarded as having sinned in him. All those Adam represents are regarded as having done what he did. Are you with me? And thus the sentence of death that the head of the human race merited because of what he did came upon all those he represented, which is every one of us. Paul begins to explain in greater detail beginning in verse 13 where you may remember that set of parentheses begin and after his detailed explanation ends with verse 17 the parentheses will end and he'll pick up with his summary in verses 18 and 19.

We'll do the same thing after we finish our review. So again, backing up, in verse 12, we came to understand that by one man, Adam sent Adam, by one man, Adam, sin entered into the world of mankind, and death by sin, which is the consequence of sin, and death, which is the consequence of sin, came upon all of us as a result of Adam's sin, because we all sinned in him. Adam being the representative head of us all, his sin was imputed to us, His sin was regarded as our sin. And so the entire race of man was put into the category of sinners regarded as sinners and treated accordingly. And thus the sentence of death he incurred, we all incurred.

Because of Adam's disobedience, all those he represented were regarded as sinners and treated as sinners even though we weren't there in the garden. And remember I said a couple of weeks ago, same thing is true with Christ. His righteousness is imputed to his people even though we weren't there on the earth when he walked on the earth and kept the law perfectly that we couldn't keep at all. He kept it perfectly in our place. These are by representation and imputation.

Because of Adam's disobedience, all those he represented regarded as sinners and treated as sinners even though we weren't there in the garden. And then in verse 13 and 14, By way of explanation, we found that before the law of Moses came in, sin was obviously in the world, proven by the fact that death, the universal consequence of sin, was in the world, and reigned, death reigned over all those in the world, even from Adam to Moses before the law was given, death reigned over even over them who had not sinned like Adam did, death reigned even over those who had not sinned against a verbally revealed law like Adam did, even children in the womb and newborns who have never consciously and willfully rebelled against a verbally revealed command died, the guilt of Adam's sin being imputed to them as well. And we need to not forget that what Paul says at the end of verse 14, very, very important, he just briefly hits this and then he comes back. This is where the Apostle has been taking us and what he's intending to emphasize, and it's this, that Adam was a figure or a type of him that was to come.

Adam was a type or figure, look at the end of verse 14, who is the figure of him that was to come. Adam's the type, the one who was to come is Christ. He's a type or a figure of Christ. And the whole of the argument the apostle is intending to drive home to the reader is that men, please get this, are justified in the sight of God, declared just in the sight of God, regarded as righteous in the sight of God on the ground of the righteousness of Christ, imputed to them even as they are condemned on account of the sin of Adam imputed to them, even before we ever came into the world and committed an actual sin. Both of these are by representation and imputation.

Even as all those in Adam are condemned on account of what he did, so all those in Christ are justified on account of what he did. Is that clear? Is this clear? Okay, good. So, even as by the offense of one, Adam, all who belong to Him are condemned, and by the way, remain in that condemned state unless justified in Christ.

Even as by the offense of one Adam, all who belong to him are condemned, so as by the righteousness of one Jesus Christ, all who belong to him are justified." You understand this, you're one of Adam's progeny of his posterity, you belong to the human race of which he is the head. You belong to him. He's your federal head. You're condemned in him. You remain condemned in Him unless justified in Christ.

Now, all those who belong to Christ are justified, declared just in the sight of God. And of course, that's by faith. Then in verse 15, as we went on in the past weeks, the apostle goes on with his detailed explanation of verse 12, and he says, but not as the offense, not as the offense, so also as a free gift. And we looked at this in detail a couple of weeks ago. Simply put, the free gift is not as the offense.

The free gift of saving grace by which we are justified in God's sight, the free gift of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the accounts of believers, is not like the offense of Adam, in a way, he's saying. In what way? In this way. It's greater. Immeasurably greater.

Immeasurably greater is what Christ did resulting in our redemption than what Adam did resulting in our condemnation. Think about the immeasurable greatness of what Christ did and the result. The grace obtained for us by Christ, think about it, cancelled, cancelled the sin and the condemnation brought upon us by Adam. Immeasurably greater is what Christ did resulting in our redemption than what Adam did resulting in our condemnation. By the one sin of Adam, death came into the world, death passed upon all men because all men sinned in Adam, he being our federal head and representative, but much more, verse 15, much much more the grace of God and the saving grace which came by one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

Yes, to the offense of one, that's Adam, many died, but immeasurably greater is what Jesus did and what resulted. For if through the offense of the one many be dead, " second sentence in verse 15, much more, much, much more, by the obedience of one, Jesus Christ, the grace of God, and the gift of Christ's righteousness, which come to us by grace, has abounded, being imputed or declared to the accounts of all those who are in Christ by faith. I said in our last session on this a couple of weeks ago that some people get hung up on the word many, which is used twice in verse 15. Many be dead and abounded unto many. But what we have to understand about this is that the many that be dead, look at the text, are all those who are in Adam.

And all those he represented upon whom death came. And the second many in the passage are all those in Jesus Christ, to whom the grace of God and the gift by grace abounded. The point Paul is making concerns the contrast between Adam and what he did and Christ and what he did, and the result and the result. Immeasurably greater is what Jesus did and what resulted than what Adam did and what resulted Christ brought justification and righteousness and life eternal to sinners who were ruined Who were ruined in Adam And that's every one of us And every one of us who believes has been brought justification and righteousness in life eternal by Christ and what He did. Calvin comments here, Christ is much more powerful to save than Adam was to destroy." And as a result, and we briefly touched on this a couple of weeks ago, much more blessed are we who are in Christ than Adam was even before the fall.

Right? Those who were here a couple weeks ago, remember I cited 1 Corinthians 15, 49, which tells us that one day we're going to bear the image of the Lord of heaven. Adam didn't have that promise. He didn't have that promise in the covenant of works. After resurrection, we will be raised not to be just like Adam was in his state of innocence before the fall, but in the likeness of Christ.

When we see him, John says in 1 John 3 2, we shall be like him. Amen? And then we looked at verse 16 where we read, so the free gift is not as it was by the one that sinned. The one that sinned was Adam. His single sin was imputed to us, yes, but the free gift of saving grace that comes upon us, comes to us by Christ covers far more than just the one sin of Adam imputed to us.

Everybody understand that? Christ's righteousness covers all our actual sins as well. Not just the sin of Adam imputed to us, but every actual sin that we have committed. We are justified by Christ from all our sins, and all our sins are many. There are many offenses.

For the judgment, that is the sentence of death that came upon all those in Adam was by one, that's one offense, and by that one offense judgment unto condemnation came upon all. The sentence of death came upon all as the result of the one sin of Adam leading to condemnation for all those in him but the free gift of saving grace and justification that comes to God's people through Christ on account of what he did his obedience is of many offenses covers a lot of stuff Saves from far more than just the condemnation of the one sin of Adam imputed to us. The free gift of Christ's righteousness by which we're justified in God's sight covers more than the guilt of Adam's one sin that was imputed to us, it covers that, but it also makes satisfaction for all the offenses committed by those who are in Christ, and they are many. The judgment was by one, resulting in the condemnation of all those in Adam, but Jesus' obedience covers all the many sins of those in him, of all his people. We're all condemned in Adam, we all sinned in Adam, death came upon us all as a result, his one act of disobedience being the cause, but in Christ on account of his obedience, our innumerable offenses were put away.

Feast on it. The many offenses of those who believe on Jesus are blotted out by the free gift of Christ's righteousness imputed to his people by faith being justified in God's sight on account of what Jesus did. On the day I said this a couple weeks ago that we first believe we were given the gift of salvation we were We were clothed in Christ's perfect righteousness, and death no longer reigned over us, for we have been given life in Christ. Not only the guilt we incurred through Adam's sin and puter to us has been removed, but all our actual sins. Our many acts of sin and rebellion against our blessed Lord are removed by the grace of justification through God's free gift of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us the moment we believed on His name.

The moment we first trusted Christ alone for our salvation. The contrast again is between Adam and Christ. Adam was the figure or type of him who was to come. And Christ, between Adam and what he did and what followed, in Christ and what he did and what followed. In Adam, all are what?

And in Christ, all are what? In Adam, all are? Condemned. In Christ, all are? Justified.

Those are the polar opposites. The opposite of justification is condemnation. The opposite of condemnation is justification. Where justification, condemnation no longer is. To be justified is to be no longer condemned.

Justification in Christ means no more condemnation for those in Adam, and that's good news for modern man. Those who are clothed in Christ's righteousness no longer need to dread condemnation. We were declared righteous the moment we trusted Christ alone for our justification in God's sight. Again, I said, and I think it was in our last session, now we can boldly approach the eternal throne. Charles Wesley wrote the hymn, "'Bold I approach the eternal throne, "'and claim the crown through Christ my own.

Adam's offense resulted in condemnation and death for all those in him. Christ's obedience resulted in justification in life for all those in him. Is everybody getting this? I'm trying to be repetitive intentionally. I want Peyton and Mandy and Job and Carissa and Whoever else is old enough to, I want them to be able to understand somewhat of this.

It's hard to understand. Through Christ and His obedience, through Adam and his offense, judgment, condemnation, sentence of death came upon all those in Him. That's every one of us. Through Christ and his obedience came justification, righteousness, and life eternal upon all those in him. We who are in Christ by faith are reigning with Christ now.

That's what we learned in verse 17. We're reigning right now in the state of justification in eternal life if your faith is in Christ. Think about that. You're reigning right now in life in a kingdom that has no end, for all eternity, nothing can take it from you, nothing can interrupt it, Nothing anyone else does, nothing you do, can interrupt that. You're reigning with Christ now in a state of justification before God and eternal life.

What could possibly shake us? Even the prospect of death shouldn't move us. By Adam's disobedience, death reigned over all men, but by Christ's obedience, death has been defeated for the believer. The second death we will never taste of. The second death in hell, apart from the mercies and love of God, we'll never taste of.

The second death in hell apart from the mercies and love of God will never taste of. The second death under the wrath and judgment of God we will never taste of. We're reigning now in life eternally through him. We reign now in Christ sharing again in a kingdom that shall never end. Verse 17 says, for if by one man's offense death reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

And if you'll notice, if you're still looking at your Bibles, here the parentheses that began with verse 13 end. And with it, the Apostles' explanation of verse 12 ends. And Paul returns to the original argument in verse 12 to tie it all together in two sentences in verses 18 and 19 and look what he says verse 18 Therefore that is look considering everything that I've just said everything I've been telling you as By the offense of one that is just as it was by the one sin of one man Adam that judgment came upon all men to condemnation, the judicial sentence of death passed upon all those in Adam and all he represented, even so by the righteousness of one. That is, by the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ, the free gift, free gift of Christ's righteousness came upon all men, that is upon all men who are in him by faith, not everybody in the whole world, resulting in our justification before God, even the justification of everlasting life. I encourage you, I want to encourage you all to take some time and sit down some time.

You know, we have so many distractions. These things that distract us, you know, these things distract us. Everything's just there's so much distraction. We have very little time to just sit down and really consider the gravity of things like we are hearing this morning. Take some time, sit down, and ponder the glory of it all and the horror of it all.

The glory of it and how what Christ did affected you personally and eternally. And in the horror that was once your past life, apart from Christ, in the grip of death, without hope in the world, dead in trespasses and sins, headed for an eternity Where the wrath of God would be poured upon you forever and ever Sit and consider it and give God the glory do his name Look at verse 18 and notice something here. Notice how verse 18 speaks to the way in which we are treated and the way that we are treated on account of what Christ has done for us. We're treated, it doesn't use the word treated, but that's what it's talking about. As by the offense of one, judgment came upon all to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift that came upon all to justification of life." Look at how the two groups are treated.

Focus on this way in which we are treated on account of what Christ has done for us. It's such an important concept to understand, because think about it. If you're in Christ by faith in His blood, trusting in no work or merit of your own, you're at this very moment being treated, yes regarded, which we're going to look at in verse 19, but you're being treated by God as though you had never sinned against Him. You're being treated by God As though you'd never sinned against them. You're in a state now of justification before God where He looks upon you as righteous.

In Adam you were treated one way, by the righteousness of Jesus Christ you're being treated another way. We who are in Christ are treated as though we kept the law like Jesus did, but we didn't, but we're treated as though we had. We're accepted in God's sight on account of what Christ did. Christ, you've heard me talk about his active obedience and his passive obedience. Remember, children look at me.

The active obedience of Christ, okay, is like The things He did in keeping the law perfectly in our place, the passive obedience of Christ, His death for our sins. That's what makes up what we call Christ's righteousness. What constitutes His righteousness is His keeping of the law, His active obedience, and His passive obedience in dying for our sins and paying the penalty for our sins. Christ's active and passive obedience has been imputed, declared to the account of every believer so that we are regarded as being righteous though we are not inherently righteous. We're looked upon as though we had kept the law perfectly though we've broken the law in every point.

Christ's active obedience and keeping the law in our place and His passive obedience and dying for our sins has covered everything. Do you see that? Does everyone see that? It's covered everything. Covers it all.

You see, because the law requires that you die. That Jesus died. And the law requires that you keep God's law perfectly, but you and I messed up in every point. You see? His, by what Christ did in keeping the law in our place, and his passive obedience and dying for our sins, covered everything.

And think about this, Christ was willingly treated in a way he didn't deserve to be treated. He never sinned, but he bore our sins and our guilt and was treated on the cross like we deserve to be treated for all eternity. While we, on account of his righteousness, imputed to us by faith, are treated in a way we never, ever, ever deserve to be treated. Because of Adam's sin imputed to us before we were born and because of all our actual sins which he's committed since birth deserve to be under God's wrath right now and for all eternity. But because of Christ's obedience in life and in death, we who are in him by faith are treated as though we had no association with Adam at all in his sin and guilt, and the consequences of his sin.

Think about it. We're treated as though we weren't associated with him and his sin at all. Not by the imputation of His guilt, not by the conveyance of His corrupted nature to us, not by any actual sin or transgression that flows from that. That's the way we are treated who are in Christ. Because of the one offense of one, Adam, judgment came upon all men who are in Adam, and because of the obedience of one, Jesus Christ, the free gift of God, saving grace, and a declaration of being just in God's sight came upon all those who are in him.

On account of the offense of Adam, all in him are treated one way. On the account of the righteousness of Christ, all in him are treated another way. All are condemned in Adam, all are justified in Christ. Children, can you get that one? Let's see if you can get this one.

Everybody's condemned in Adam. Adam's the first man, right? We all came from Adam. Y'all understand that? Yeah, we're all condemned in him.

We're all justified during Christ by faith. Got that? I think you understand that? Yeah, that one's clear? Okay, good.

And then with verse 19, as we end, Paul wraps it all up, just in case anybody hasn't grasped it yet, he lays it all out very plainly, for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners." Look at that word just a minute. So, by the obedience of one Jesus Christ shall many be made righteous. That word made in verse 19 means made in the sense of being declared, look at the word, or put in the place or category of something. It can also mean constituted as something. It doesn't mean made in the sense of something that you created, you know.

It's the same word if you want to look at Luke chapter 12 and verse 14, same word used in Luke 12, 14 where Jesus says to the man who's having this dispute with his brother over their inheritance, remember that? And Jesus looks at him and the guy's saying, hey, judge between us, tell my brother to Give me my part of the inheritance." And Jesus says, man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? In other words, who put me in the place of a judge to settle your civil disputes? In the same way, in our text here this afternoon, it's saying, as by one man's disobedience many were put into the place or category of sinners So by the obedience of one Jesus Christ many were put in the place or category of the righteous Amen By the imputation of the sin of Adam, all who belong to him are our constituted sinners. Even so, by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, all who belong to him, in him, by faith, are constituted righteous.

We were constituted sinners, we were regarded sinners, and we were treated as sinners on account of Adam's disobedience and were constituted righteous, regarded as righteous, treated as righteous on account of Christ's obedience. We were declared sinners in Adam and we're declared righteous in Christ. Declared sinners in Adam, declared righteous in Christ. Christ has provided, think about it, He provided a righteousness for His people that we could not provide for ourselves. He did it all.

We here in Adam were treated as sinners in Adam even before we actually sinned. We here in Christ are treated as righteous even though we didn't keep the law perfectly, justified to the full, and looked upon as, remember from Eric's teaching earlier, looked upon as Christ, holy, blameless, harmless, undefiled. That's the way we are looked upon in Christ. That's the way we are looked upon in Christ. That's the way we are looked upon by God who are in Christ by faith.

Can you think of anything more wonderful? To be declared righteous on account of the righteousness of another, even God's own Son, to be put in the category of the righteous on account of the obedience of another, The Son of God. It's too amazing. No wonder the angels of heaven break forth and rejoicing every time a sinner comes to repentance. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your Word, Lord. We thank you God for the truth of your word. We thank you for the truth of your word made known to us. We thank you God that the ruin that we all experienced was brought upon us by Adam and his one sin was in the end of the story. I thank you Father that you sent our Lord Jesus into the world and he willingly came and fulfilled all righteousness in our place, obeyed the law perfectly that we couldn't keep in any point perfectly, and went to the cross and bore our sins and bore our punishment and died in our place.

Thank you God that on account of Christ and what he did, that you regard us as righteous and you treat us as righteous and you justify us in your sight. We thank you God that even the faith to believe and a heart to repent come from you We've not had to rely upon our own flesh for anything Its salvation is all of you God And we give you all the praise and honor and glory for that today. And God, we also ask, Lord, that you might be pleased, O God, to give cause for the angels of heaven to rejoice this morning as you grant repentance and faith to helpless sinners in this place. Our hearts desire God is that every soul in this place, every member of the congregation and all of our children, Lord will all be saved and justified in your sight through faith in Christ. We ask, Lord, that you might do that work, God.

And Lord, we ask that You would be glorified now as we turn our thoughts to the Lord's table, as we examine ourselves, as we prepare to eat of that bread and drink of that cup, showing Christ's death for us until his return. Help us, Lord, to feed upon Christ spiritually. Give us grace in this time, Lord, to be conformed more to the image of Jesus. Help us, Lord, that there be none who eats and drinks unworthily, not discerning the Lord's body, not truly a believer in Christ, not truly trusting in His sacrifice for their sins. Help us Lord to be serious in this time and help us Lord to be grateful and thankful in this time And help us to be joyful in this time as we consider the great gift of justification Through the righteousness of Christ imputed to us who believe.

For it's in Jesus' name we pray these things, amen.