In the sermon 'Much More' by Jason Dohm, Romans 5 is explored, focusing on verses 15-17. The sermon contrasts the consequences of Adam's sin with the abundant grace provided through Jesus Christ. Adam, the first head of the physical race, introduced sin and death to humanity, leading to condemnation. Conversely, Jesus, as the head of the spiritual race, offers justification and righteousness through His sacrificial death. The sermon emphasizes the concept of 'Much More,' highlighting how the grace of Jesus not only counters but surpasses the devastation caused by Adam's sin. This grace results in believers being justified and reigning in life through Christ. The sermon encourages believers to embrace this spiritual transformation and the hope it brings.

Romans chapter 5, we're starting for context of our text, which will be 15, 16, 17. We'll start in Romans 5 in verse 6 and read through 17. For when we were still without strength. In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if When we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, But we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.

For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died much more, the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ. Abounded to many.

And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation. But the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Oh God, what words from heaven, what hope for the sinner, what beautiful truth that sets us free.

God bless this time now as we we ask you to clear our minds and let our minds be so in our hearts and be so captured by the truth that will be shared with us now. Bless our brother as he comes to lead us. Be glorified in the way that we stay focused and honor you in this time. In Christ's name. Amen.

The title of the sermon this morning is Much more. We're in a comparison of two things, but one of the things far exceeds the other. So there is a comparison, but the two-word phrase much more appears twice in our text this week and it will appear again next week. So anytime you see repetitions like that you're zeroing in on what this is about. This is about one thing far exceeding the other.

So we have much more, much more, much more. I think we have a bounding in this week's text and in next week's text. So this is what it's about. Last week, the title of the sermon was, One Man the Head of a Race. That man's name was Adam.

He was the first human being ever. As the first, God made him the head of our human race. We're all actually descendants of this head of the race. Today, Paul introduces the second head of a race, but this time it's a spiritual race. Adam's race is a physical race.

It's a genealogical line. It's a family tree, physically. But the only other race that there is, is a different spiritual race. And we're getting introduced by Paul to the head of that spiritual race who is the Lord Jesus Christ. As the head of the physical race of mankind, Adam brought sin into the world and death through sin.

That's almost the exact words of verse 12. And everything we're in this week and next week is an explanation of verse 12. Through one man sin entered the world and death entered through sin. And so Death spread to everyone because all sinned. That's verse 12.

So all died. The mortality rate on planet Earth is well established. And all still die because all sin. The corruption of the human nature that was not part of our original creation, Adam and Eve didn't have any inclination towards things that displease and dishonor the Lord. They were eager for the things that do please and do honor the Lord.

Why is it that all of us now find ourselves inclined in exactly the opposite directions in both instances? We find ourselves very slow, not eager for the things that honor and please the Lord, but often we find ourselves very eager for things that dishonor the Lord and displease the Lord. Why is that? Genesis chapter 3 tells us why that is. Sin came into the world and there was this corruption of human nature that happened in Adam and in Eve and so all of their descendants have inherited this nature that's inclined towards all the right things and inclined away from all the wrong things.

We have this corrupted human nature, and we inherited it from the head of our race, Adam. All of Adam's physical descendants suffer the consequences of the head of our race's sin. That's what you see in the world around you. We're suffering the consequences of the head of our race's Adam's sin. But now this second head of a race is introduced and the spiritual descendants of the head of this spiritual race reap the fruit of this head's obedience and it is much more and Paul says much more and he's going to say and much more it it's super abounds It goes beyond even the devastating destruction brought upon us by the head of our physical race.

We reaped the fruit of our physical head's disobedience, but in Jesus we can reap the fruit of our spiritual head's obedience as we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's much more. It abounds. Grace abounds. Let's pray.

God, thank you for this tax. Thank you for all that's come before it. It has been a sweet thing week by week to see Jesus Christ set before us again and again and again as our only hope. We haven't learned to forsake every other hope, to only hope in Jesus, I pray the day would be the day for us to give up on all those hopes that disappoint and to latch on to Jesus as our one and only hope. And we'll never disappoint.

I pray in Jesus name, Amen. So we have three verses. Just take them one at a time. Hopefully your Bibles are still open to Romans chapter 5 and follow along as I reread our Romans chapter 5, just verse 15. Then we'll look at it.

Romans 5, 15, Paul writes, But the free gift is not like the offense, For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many." In verse 15 we have the offense versus the gift. So if you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, gift fills in the blank. The offense versus the gift. Those are the things being compared. Here Paul compares the offense of the physical head, Adam, the first of our race, our representative in a physical genealogical family tree sense, and the free gift of the spiritual head.

Every human being has Adam as the physical head. When you were born into the world, who was the head of your race? Adam was the head of your race because you are part of this family tree. You are the latest leaf on the end of a limb, on the end of the trunk, that goes to the head of our race, Adam. And some, because of God's goodness, kindness, Mercy, some are brought into a spiritual race that has a very different head than the Lord Jesus Christ.

So this is the comparison between the offense of the physical head and the free gift of the spiritual head. Paul declares them to be not equal. Not equal. The free gift is not like the offense. Here's the comparison.

By the one man's offense, many died. By Adam's offense, Adam's sin, many died. Now in verse 12 it's called all, all sin and so all died. Sin came into the world by Adam and then all sinned and so all died. Now it's many.

Paul is not backtracking to say that it's not all, but the point is that the defining action of the one spread to many. So there's an exponential impact of that sin. So do you know your math? Do you remember your math? With adding, it takes a while to get to the big numbers.

2 plus 2 is 4, plus 2 is 6, plus 2 is 8, plus 2 is 10. How long is it going to take us to get to a million? A long time. How can I get there faster? Multiplying.

2 x 2 is 4. 4 x 4 is 16. 16 x 16 is 64. 64 x 64 is a lot. We're getting to a million faster.

I don't remember what it is. Janet can tell me. How do I get there a lot faster than that? Exponents. Which is what?

Multiplying the multiplying. You can get a million like that. One to many is communicating exponential impact. One man, one sin, not adding, not even multiplying, but exponential impact. The multiplying of the multiplying.

The one sin exploding into sin across the whole earth. But the grace of God, the undeserved, unearned favor of our God, and the gift by the grace of this one man Jesus Christ abounded to many. So again one affected many so again exponential impact getting to the big number not by addition or multiplication, but by exponential explosion. The grace of God abounded through the one man of the spiritual, through the head of the spiritual race, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why?

Because of undeserved, unearned favor. In fact, that doesn't really do it justice, does it? Does it do it justice to say it's unearned in an instance where what was actually earned is exactly the opposite? We do deserve and we have earned But that's not what God is giving. He's giving the exact opposite of what is deserved and has been earned So the grace is so good that it doesn't just cancel out what was earned and is deserved, but gives the polar opposite of what was earned and what is deserved.

This is what it means that God is full of grace. It means that the grace abounds. So here's the whole point of our text. But it's not the end of the sermon. So don't get your hopes up.

The grace, this undeserved, unearned favor, the grace did much more to and for the recipients of the gift, then the offense did to the recipients of the consequences of that offense. Are you with me? The grace did much more to and for the recipients of the gift than the offense did to the recipients of the consequences of that sin that Adam committed. The offense took The offense took away so much it brought devastation and destruction into the whole race. But the undeserved, unearned gift gave back more than the offense took away.

Think of all that the offense took away in sin entering the world, and death, and sickness, and sorrows, and conflict into the world. The sin took all that away, imposed all that on us. Jesus gives back more than was taken away. How can this be? Who could do that?

A God man. A God man could do that. Only a God man could do that. There's not another man in history that could do that. But Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.

I can't really unpack all of that for you. I don't know how to do it. I just know that the Bible teaches it, and I just know that that is an explanation for how this total devastation could be overthrown and more given back than was taken because of Jesus. What exactly is the offense? Not the offenses, plural, but the offense.

The act of the head of the race that brought sin into the world and death through sin. Those are the words of verse 12. And it's pointing back to Genesis chapter 3 when there was one command and Adam broke it and Eve broke it. Then what exactly is the gift? The act of the head of the spiritual race that conquered sin and death.

The head of the physical race brought in sin and death. The head of the spiritual race conquers sin and death and wins much more for the recipients than had been lost. No wonder they call it good news. No wonder they call it glad tidings. If all that was wiped away and all that destruction was brought in with this one sin, who could even conceive of one who could overwhelm that by bringing good?

So that we didn't just break even, But he sweeps us past break even into good that we can't even wrap our arms around. So the offense of the physical head, Adam, brought devastating consequences to every single one of his physical descendants. And you were born that. Everyone is born that. But the undeserved, unearned gift of the spiritual head gains back all that was lost and much more for every single one of his spiritual descendants.

They are both heads of a race. Adam the head of a physical race. Jesus Christ the head of a spiritual race. And Because they are heads, each of their descendants are tremendously impacted by their defining action. Adam's defining action is in Genesis 3.

Jesus' defining action is the cross, bleeding and dying for sinners on the cross. But Paul doesn't want you to think that they are equals. Adam is not the equal of Jesus Christ. Adam's defining act, bringing devastation and destruction into our race isn't the equal of Jesus' redeeming act on the cross. And the impact of Adam's act As far-reaching and devastating as it was, is not the equal of the impact of Jesus' work on the cross for his spiritual descendants.

No, the grace of God abounds. It overflows to the many spiritual descendants of the Lord Jesus Christ, restoring much more than was lost through the physical head. That's what this is about. Let's look at verse 16. Hopefully you are still there.

Re-read with me. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. So in verse 16 we have the judgment and condemnation versus justification. If you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, justification fills in the blank.

The judgment and condemnation versus justification. Verse 15, the comparison was between the offense and the gift. Here in verse 16, the comparison is between the condemnation from the one man's offense and the justification from the one man's gift. Again, talking about the heads of races. In Adam, judgment came from the one offense, resulting in condemnation.

God said, Do not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Adam ate and there was a judgment. An immediate judicial verdict was rendered by the judge. Guilty! In all the succeeding generations, the whole family tree that would follow of mankind proceeded under the curse with the corruption of nature, this spiritual death that had happened in the parents being passed to every descendant.

To every descendant. But in Christ, the free gift also resulted in an immediate judicial verdict. Not guilty! But not guilty doesn't go nearly far enough. Have we been defining justification?

A verdict of not guilty? A verdict of innocent, a verdict of you are righteous. It is a judicial declaration that I am righteous, perfectly righteous, because of the defining action of the head of my race. I am seeing you through the head of your spiritual race and so you are perfectly righteous. This is a verse that we reference frequently because it's such a concise and helpful summary of the Gospel.

2 Corinthians 521. Listen again to 2 Corinthians 521. For he made him, God the Father made who knew no sin, Jesus was totally sinless, he knew no sin, to be sin for us. That we might become the righteousness of God in Him. In Him is really the key phrase, in Christ.

Are you in Christ or out of Christ? If you're in Christ, you are part of His spiritual race. He is the head of your spiritual race, of this spiritual race, and He sees you in Him. His righteousness becomes your righteousness. But I'm not righteous.

But God's not counting it that way anymore because you're now part of His race and He's seeing you through the head of the race because of the defining act of the head of your spiritual race, the cross. So the physical head brought a judicial verdict of condemnation to every single one of his physical descendants. Guilty! But the spiritual head of this spiritual race brought a judicial verdict of not guilty. No, better.

Innocent, no. Best of all, you're perfectly righteous. Imagine this being the judicial declaration, the judicial verdict pronounced on you. You're perfectly righteous. But wait, I know me.

I know my history. How can I be counted righteous? Because of the defining act of the head of your spiritual race. It's not because of you. It's because of Him.

Jesus does more for his race than Adam did to his race. Adam brought this immediate judicial verdict guilty and all your descendants are going to be like you. Jesus brought down on his race as the head of his race an immediate judicial verdict to you're perfectly righteous. You're better than not guilty. You're better than innocent.

You're perfectly righteous. Because of the defining act of the head of your spiritual race, the cross. It is every sin debt erased. And, Jesus' righteousness put into the accounts of every single member of His race. It is the double cure from the hymn.

Remember we sing the hymn. Be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. This defining act of the head of the spiritual race of the people of God does more than just save from wrath. I mean, it would be enough, I suppose, if God's anger against you would be quenched, but Jesus' defining work doesn't just leave us there, it also makes us pure.

His righteousness becomes mine by faith. I'm not righteous, but the head of my spiritual race is righteous and it's accounted to me. It goes into my account as if I had been perfectly righteous. It's the double cure. It erases the debt and then fills my account with Jesus' righteousness.

It only took the one sin of the head of our physical race to bring our race under a sentence of condemnation. One sin, your race is now under the sentence of condemnation. Because you're a race in rebellion to the God who made you. But now, is it just one sin now? Have there been any sins since Adam?

Are you personally responsible for any sin? One? Thousands of thousands. If we're going to treat pride as a sin, self-sufficiency as a sin, anger as a sin, selfishness as a sin, because you know God says all those are sins, then we can't even number them. One sin Brought Adam's physical race into condemnation, but now we're not talking about one sin Talking about many many many we're not talking about adding sins or multiplying sins, we're talking about exponential impact again.

Of sins. So, condemnation only needed the one sin, But justification is going to have to clear them all. We can't be declared perfectly righteous unless there's someone who can clear them all. Jesus can clear them all. That's what's being said here.

One sin brought the condemnation, but the result of many sins is justification. He cleared them all. Oh, and we're actually still committing them. Are you done sinning? Lie to me and say that you are.

You're done being selfish, you're done being proud, you're done acting out of self-love almost all the time, You're done being angry, you're done lusting. If that's true, you're done living. Your moments are severely numbered. Verse 17. Our final verse.

Verse 17, our final verse. Paul says, for if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, Much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ." Here in this verse we have the reign of death versus the reign of the recipients of grace and righteousness. So if you're filling in blanks there's actually two. This time around grace fills in the first, righteousness fills in the second. The reign of death versus the reign of the recipients of grace and righteousness.

I think Paul gives us a surprise here. So far the comparisons have been contrasts between two opposites. In verse 15, it was the offense and the gift. The offense of the physical head of the race versus the gift of the spiritual head of the race. They are opposites.

In verse 16, it was these two opposite judicial verdicts. Condemnation. Justification. Guilty. You are righteous.

Here in verse 17, if Paul were to give us opposites again, it would be the reign of death and the reign of life. But that isn't what Paul gives us. It is the reign of death and the reign of those who receive the abundance of grace. It's people who reign. It's Jesus' in life through him.

By Adam's offense, death reigned through him. He brought sin into the world and death through sin and death reigned. And boy did it! Were people spiritually dead? And were they proving it?

And did they physically die? Death did reign spiritually and physically. But Jesus did much more. The grace of God abounded through Jesus. It overflowed through Jesus.

Jesus conquered death and then made His people kings and priests. All of us who trust in Christ have been made kings and priests to God. There is abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness to all of Jesus' spiritual descendants. And so we will reign through the great head of our race, the Lord Jesus Christ. We will reign.

Let me give you a text and a quote. I'll give you Revelation and I'll give you Matthew Henry. Let's turn to Revelation 22. Some people like to cut to the chase. Well, I'll take you to the last chapter of the Bible.

How do you like that? How's that for cutting to the chase? How does all this end? Let's go to the last chapter of the Bible. Where we will find both life and the people of God reigning through Christ.

I'm going to read Revelation 22, 1-5. Look for life and look for reigning. Revelation 22, and he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street and on the other side of the river was the tree of life which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. A gardener's dream, yielding its fruit Every month.

The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servant shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no light there, they need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light and they shall reign forever and ever. They shall reign Forever and ever.

Who? The people in the text. God, the Lamb, and His servants. Now listen to Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry says, Matthew Henry says, In and by the righteousness of Christ we have not only a charter of pardon, but a patent of honor.

A patent is an official document. In and by the righteousness of Christ we have not only a charter of pardon but a patent of honor. We are not only freed from our chains, but like Joseph advanced to the second chariot, and made unto our God kings and priests, not only pardoned but preferred. We are by Christ and His righteousness entitled to and instated in more and greater privileges than we lost by the offense of Adam." Oh, so sweet. You understand what he's saying about Joseph?

Think of Joseph. He was in prison. He interpreted Pharaoh's dream. So, Pharaoh set him free from prison. Is that all Pharaoh did?

No! He brought him into the second chariot, meaning he elevated him to the second in command over all of Egypt. Only one was greater than Pharaoh in Egypt. Only one was greater than Joseph in Egypt. It was Pharaoh himself.

He's saying This is what Jesus does for us. He does bring us out of prison. We're happy about that. He does more than that. He brings us into the second chariot.

And we reign through Him, with him. Those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness are more than pardoned. We are honored. We are more than let out of prison. We are exalted to the second How sweet.

Applications. All of us are born in Adam. You didn't get to pick your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents are the head of your race. If you're born on planet earth, you're born in Adam. There is a head of your physical race And he brought our whole race into sin and death.

But none of us have to die in Adam. We're all born in Adam. Not a single one of us has to die in Adam. In between, we can switch races. From Adam's physical race, with Adam as the head of our race, with our life being filled with all the sin and death come from being part of that race.

Christ can become the new head of our race. We can enter a spiritual race where His defining act defines me now. I am not defined by my old race and the sin and death that comes with it anymore, I am now defined by the defining act of the head of my race, Jesus Christ. It is the cross. It makes peace between me and God.

And there is an immediate judicial verdict. You are perfectly righteous because of this act of the head of your race. If you are in Christ, being seen by God through the head of your spiritual race. Don't let the implications of that ever get far from your thoughts. Almost all the trouble we get in is because our thoughts get far away from that.

So we just have to keep reading it and keep reading it. It's the central truth of the Bible. If you're doing much Bible reading, you're hitting it. It's what the Bible is about. Keep it in front of your eyes.

If you are still in Adam, Adam still ahead of your race, I beg you to trace these roads out to their ends. I just traced Christ's race to its end. You just heard it in Revelation 22. That's where that road goes. If you remain in Adam, where does the road go?

I beg you to trace it out. When the remedy, when the healing balm is so freely offered, what will it be for you to come to the end of your life, having been so freely offered the gift that brings you into a new race with a head whose defining act covers all of your sins, but you wouldn't have it. And it was Yours for the taking, freely offered to you. God, Pray that you would give us a sober-minded minute or two here to trace the roads out to where they take us. I thank you That we are not left without hope in Adam's race.

Dead in our sins without strength. That you have made a way for sinners to become a new creation, completely new, defined by the head of our race, the Lord Jesus Christ. How sweet the sound of those words to sinners. Pray that these would be sweet words as they hit our ear drums. Sweet sounds to us.

Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.