The sermon explores the doctrine of original sin and the nature of man as portrayed in Romans 5. It emphasizes the spread of death through sin and the reign of death in the human race. The passage also highlights the gift of grace and the abounding nature of God's grace in comparison to sin. Adam is presented as a representative type, and the concept of federal headship is explained. The sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding our sin nature and the need for repentance. It concludes with the assurance of salvation through the abounding grace of God.

Please open your Bibles to Romans 5 and find verse 12, Romans 5, 12. This is the inerrant, all sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God, verse 12. 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 when 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 is 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. Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men Resulting in condemnation even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death even so, grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for putting these words in front of us that we might learn more about our nature, who we are, the state of the whole world, either in Adam or Christ. Lord, that you would show us your glory. We thank you for these marvelous declarations of your grace and your gifts towards sinners. Amen.

Please be seated. So as we return here to Romans after having a season of some topical messages, we find ourselves back in chapter 5 verse 12. We've covered up to this point. And just to remind us briefly of where we've been In the message of chapters one through four Is twofold first condemnation that all men are under condemnation Secular men pagan men Religious people moral people are all under condemnation without Jesus Christ, but God justifies sinners. That's the message of chapters one through four, And so he has left no stone unturned to explain the lostness of mankind.

And he brings one charge after another, even to moral men, to declare our hopelessness without Jesus Christ. And now in chapter five, the apostle, he's addressing believers, he's been addressing both believers and unbelievers, but now he's zeroing in on believers. And of course, if you remember in verse one of chapter five, you have this word therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ And so the apostle now begins to explain the treasures of justification, just how good it is to be justified, how helpful it is to be justified. And he says we have peace with God, We have access by faith into this grace. We stand in grace.

We rejoice in hope. Even our tribulations don't destroy us because they make us stronger when we're justified. And we've received the reconciliation. So this is the message from verse 1 to verse 11 in chapter 5 and so Paul continues to explain the doctrine of salvation. But here, he really focuses in on the nature of man.

And we'll cover a number of subjects in these verses. It's actually an astoundingly rich doctrinal section that covers some of the greatest doctrines of the Christian faith. Beginning with the doctrine of original sin. Beginning with the whole idea of representative types, that Adam is a type and Jesus Christ is a type. There's the whole disclosure of the reign of death because of Adam's sin.

This also just brings us back to something that maybe is just implicit in the text and that is the historicity of Genesis. Talking about real people like Adam and Jesus Christ also a real man. And, but if you look here, look for the words death and sin, but also grace, grace abounding over and over again. The words gift and the words grace appear in this section. This is the heart of the section.

And so Let's dive into this section. As we do, as is so clear, the doctrine of sin is here. The doctrine of the total depravity of man is here. This is called biblical anthropology. What does the Bible say about man and the nature of man, the state of man, all of that is loaded heavy into this passage of Scripture.

So you're dealing with these great categories that the great confessions of faith build out in tremendous detail. Our Baptist confession walks through each one of these doctrinal categories in some level of detail because the church is really meant to stand on the foundation of sound doctrine. And the doctrine is proclaimed here, particularly of biblical anthropology. Anthropos, man, the study of man, that's what biblical anthropology is. Well, as you can see, it's broken up in your outline in front of you into three main sections, and the first section is really focusing on the spread of death.

That's verses 12 through 14, the spread of death. Verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. Therefore, you see this word therefore. This is a comparison.

Therefore, just as, so a comparison is being made. As through one man, all sin, just as through all one man, sin entered in the world, then death reigned. So you have this comparison that he's bringing to us. And he's really addressing the pervasiveness of sin in the human race and the resulting death. This is the spread of death through the sin of one man.

This is the doctrine of original sin that there's a spiritually genetic defect in every man. You're aware of genetic aberrations that cause various diseases, but here there's a spiritual genetic defect and it is sin that is resident in every person. If you look at verse 14, 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." So death reigned from Adam to Moses. That was 2,500 years. And so this is the reign of death in the world.

And he says here that even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam. In other words, Adam sinned in a particular way. He disobeyed God and he ate of what was forbidden. What this is saying is that though you didn't do that same sin, you didn't sin just exactly like Adam, his, the poison of his sin enters the soul of every human being that is born into the world. And so this is the reign of death in the human race.

It's very important to understand the implications of this. We often so misunderstand sin. We often so misunderstand our imperfections. We have this idea that sin is some imperfection that we must overcome. And if we would just get a little bit better at not sinning, then we would be better.

And, but if we would just simply work on our imperfections, then that would make us acceptable to God. But That's not how the Bible speaks of our problem. Of course, there are sins that are a problem. But that's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about sin, not sins.

He's not talking about particular sins that you want to have mastery over, and you should have mastery over. After all, the next chapter we turn the page, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. Yeah, we are, we are, we ought to be working on our sins, but our greatest problem isn't even our sins.

Our greatest problem is our sin. Sin is not just something that you have to work on to get better, to be acceptable to God. The Lord would have us repent of our sins. Our confession says to repent of particular sins particularly. That's how we should deal with remaining sin.

But remaining sin is actually the smallest part of our problem. The greatest problem that we have is that we have sin. We have indwelling, original sin. We have a spiritual genetic defect in our souls, and every man and woman carries it. We have a sin nature, and of course this is the doctrine of total depravity.

There's a contrary doctrine called Pelagianism, And Pelagius promoted this idea, he believed that original sin did not pollute human nature. And so man was not fallen completely. And then an outgrowth, the doctrine of semi-Pelagianism, which says that man is good enough to take the first step toward God. And then after God sees man's sincerity, then he saves him. That's semi-Pelagianism.

It's one of the most popular ideas that people have about salvation. But of course the Bible speaks that man is utterly deprived. He has this sin nature and there's only one way to overcome that sin nature. Also notice Adam was a representative. Do you see the words there?

According to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. So Adam, Adam is a type, that means a pattern. Adam is a pattern of all men that would follow after him. And in the New Testament uses this word type here in this passage. It's the word, it's a Greek word, tupos, and it means pattern.

And it's actually a picture of a process of impressing an image on a coin. You know, if you would put an image and impress it on the metal of a coin and outward pop the image of Caesar and the date of the coin. A pattern, a pattern is pressed into mankind. And so Adam is the pattern. Now this also takes us to what is called the doctrine of representative headship or federal headship where God deals with men according to representatives and here you have Adam as a representative and then you have Jesus Christ as a representative And God deals with men according to his covenant to representatives.

And so sin started in the first person and then was passed on to all the rest. That's the whole doctrine of federal representation. And look at verse 18, therefore as through one man's offense judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation. So that's Adam. Adam's sin resulted in the condemnation of all men.

But look at the second phrase in verse 18. Even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men. So this is the doctrine of federal headship. It's something that you should have a clear understanding. In fact, this is actually a principle that God has established in every relationship.

For example, fathers are representative heads before God in the Bible. The husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church. A husband is a federal head over his wife. And that's why you see this pattern in the Bible where God holds men accountable. For example, it was Eve that ate the forbidden fruit, wasn't it?

But who was held accountable for it? God said, Adam, where are you? He did not say, Eve, where are you? Adam was the federal representative of humanity. And that's why God has placed men in the role and the responsibility of leadership.

You see this with Abraham and Sarah. Do you remember there's this almost comical situation where Sarah lied? She said, I did not laugh. And then God goes to Abraham and says, and holds him accountable for his wife's behavior. This is the whole idea of federal headship.

And so in this, you see the universality of death. The moment that anyone is born, they are in the process of dying. It is appointed to men once to die. Death spread to all men. And This is true for all of us.

We all will die. And it's just so important that we understand this. You know, so many of you are parents. And you need to recognize that it was you that passed on the great genetic defect that would send your children to hell. And it's upon you to teach them the ways of God when you sit in the house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

The Puritans used to talk about this in really devastating terms. Philip Dodridge, he says it like this, he says, our children have derived from us tainted blood, a forfeited inheritance, and then he says, how tenderly should we love them, how much we should exert ourselves to prevent their ruin. This is the task of all parents, is to prevent the ruin of their children by making their homes a little piece of heaven, by bringing the word of God, by preaching the gospel, every part of the gospel from Genesis to Revelation, to show them the beauty and the glory of the kingdom of God every day. And parents have a distinctive responsibility because they passed on the poison pill to their children. John Flavel said, Should I bring the plague into my family and live to see all my poor children lie dying by the walls of my house?

Why did I not direct them? I would be a savage criminal if I did not teach them." So this is the whole idea of original sin and that places responsibilities on all of us. And as a result, all are sinners. All sin in different ways, but all have the same poison pill, the same genetic defect in their souls. He says in verse 13, "'For until the law, sin was in the world.'" So sin was in the world between the fall and Moses.

Sin was in the world. But then he says, but sin is not imputed when there is no law and What he's saying is that yes there there there was sin from Adam to Moses There was The law written on man's heart as the Bible says but it what hadn't been codified yet in the Ten Commandments but the heart of those Ten Commandments was was in the heart of man the God wrote it on their hearts but it hadn't been codified with the distinctive clarity as it was in the Ten Commandments. And so while there wasn't a law written on tablets of stone, there was a law written in the heart. Sin was in the world. And it says that the language here really indicates that the law was added alongside of sin.

Sin was already there. And the law, when Moses codified it, increased our knowledge of sin. Now, this is going to be developed in a lot more detail when we get to Romans, Chapter seven. So We'll leave the detail for then. But our confession, the Baptist Confession of 1689 on chapter 19 on the fall of man says, "'God gave to Adam a universal law of obedience written in his heart and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And then in the second paragraph the same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in ten commandments and written on two tables, the four first containing our duty toward God and the other six our duty toward man. So the law of God was written in the heart of man from the very beginning but then codified in the Ten Commandments. But all of this just indicates all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And all have the genetic defect. Whenever you meet anyone, you know something about them that they might not even know.

That they have original sin. And it isn't just that they do bad things and they sin, that is their problem. Their sins are not their greatest problem. It's their sin, their original sin. That's what needs to be dealt with first, and that's why the preaching of the gospel is so critical.

Well, so in 12 through 14 you have this clarity about man, about that man has fallen. But in verse 15, you learn about this gift of grace. Now, Verses 15 through 19 are so interesting because there are so many words that are repeated. The word gift is repeated six times in five verses. The word grace is repeated three times in five verses.

That's the heart of this. So while man is desperately fallen and is hopeless before God because of his spiritual genetic defect. God has extended a gift. It's the gift of the grace of God. This is such a wonderful section, verse 15, 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. But in this section, in verses 15 through 19, the word gift and grace saturate the section. And it's such a wonderful section. Do you remember when Jesus Christ was talking to the woman at the well? You know, she'd been married.

She got married over and over again and now she's living with a man. And Jesus says to her, if you knew the gift of God, if you knew the gift of God. In St. Corinthians 9 15, Paul says that this gift is so marvelous it's hard to describe. He says, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

Paul says to the Ephesian church, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. So this idea of A gift of grace is the heart of this whole section. Verse 15, much more, he says, much more the grace of one man abounded to many. This word abounded, This has to do with super abounding grace.

And notice the breadth of the gift. Too many, too many. Not to all, but it's limited to those who repent and are converted. It's to the many. And then notice the practical nature of the gift in verse 17.

The gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. In other words, the believer is reigning in righteousness. He's been covered with the robe of righteousness and that righteousness gives him victory. That's what reigning, to reign is to have victory. It's to have some level of mastery in control and this is this is what the gift of righteousness does.

You are covered over with the robe of righteousness that Jesus gives to you. And he sees the believer as righteous. Like the song says, when he looks at me, he sees not what I used to be, but he sees Jesus. That's the gift of righteousness. You know, we've talked about this a couple of times.

I hope that we're seeing the joy in the writing of the Apostle Paul. I hope we're seeing how much God himself wants to cheer the hearts of his children by declaring them righteous, by lifting all of their burdens from them, by giving, verse 17, the gift of righteousness, which will reign in life through Jesus Christ. And then verse 18, this judicial action that we've talked about of justification, justification of life being made righteous. And so this is the gift of grace. And when the gift of grace is given, It's forever received.

It's not something that can be lost. You cannot lose the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You cannot lose salvation by grace alone. You know in Galatians the Apostle Paul talks about those who have fallen from grace. Does that mean that you can lose your salvation?

Well no not at all because what the Apostle Paul is talking about, falling from grace, has nothing to do with salvation. It has to do with falling back into thinking that you can be acceptable to God by keeping the law. You've fallen back into the law. You've fallen from that kind of grace. You haven't fallen out of salvation, but you've become very confused.

The Apostle Paul says to the Galatians, who's bewitched you? You've you have fallen into the law. So you have this this beautiful expression of the grace of God but when we get to verse 20 and 21 we see just this super abundance of grace. You know, the apostle doesn't want to just say that we stand in grace. He wants to keep talking about grace.

Paul can't stop talking about grace. And so he talks about grace abounding in verse 20. This is the super abundance of grace. We just sang a song about grace being greater than all of our sin. That's what he's talking about.

Verse 20, Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It's very interesting Romans 520 where it says grace abounded much more. This is called John Bunyan's verse.

John Bunyan's verse. Grace abounded much more. And, you know, John Bunyan, of course, you know, one of the most famous Christian authors writing Pilgrim's Progress and lots of other things, he really struggled with assurance of salvation. But it was this verse that helped him tremendously. But notice verse 20, the law entered that the offense might abound.

So that means that the law reveals our sin. The law is a schoolmaster that teaches us to turn to Jesus Christ. The law teaches us what our transgressions are because we need it because our conscience has been dulled, our consciences have been defiled growing up in this world. And so we need a better law And the law is a schoolmaster. And the law shows us where the lines are.

And so it's very helpful. The law is good. That's what Paul said to Timothy. He said the law is good as long as one uses it lawfully. And but so the bringing of the law made our sins more even more clear but the abundance of grace abounds and this grace is abundant where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

John Newton wrote a book called grace abounding to the chiefs of centers. We talked about this briefly at men's Bible study. And he wrote this book when he was in prison for during a 12 year sentence. And that book is, it's a reflection of his whole life. It's like his autobiography.

And I was able to read it this week, but this book really focuses on Romans 520 and 1 Timothy 1.15, where the apostle Paul says, I'm the chief of sinners. Grace abounding to the chief of sinners. That's his whole idea. And frankly, I was thinking about this all week and I thought, I should just preach a sermon on assurance of salvation in this church. Because John Bunyan struggled with assurance, especially before he was converted, but also after he was converted.

But it was only the message of abounding grace. And he would turn toward the Lord, and then he would think it was impossible to be held by grace. He would feel the grace of God and then he wouldn't feel it. He would embrace substitutionary atonement and then he would sense that he lost it and he would just be constantly up and down and doubting his salvation. And in this book, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, he walks you through all these gyrations.

And I'm reading the book, I'm thinking, John, It's true, just take the first promise that you embraced, but he couldn't take it. He just kept feeling so inadequate, and he felt that he had committed the unpardonable sin. He felt that he just could not be a Christian and he was tormented.