Good Friday Service

Romans 5:12-21 (Click scripture reference for audio access)

"Federal Representation"  •  4.6.12  •  Good Friday Service, Calvary Christian Fellowship

Intro.

- This section of Romans closes out Paul's teaching on the subject of justification by faith. He has taught us that all men are condemned, but that all men have the opportunity to be justified.

- How is that possible? How can that be? He answers that thoroughly in this final section of chapter 5 with a treatise on the two men that all men are defined by, Adam and Jesus.

- I do not believe it to be a coincidence that God has brought us here to this point on this evening, as this section defines what it is we commemorate: The death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

- We'll go through this section and observe it like this:

I. The Two Representatives (v.12-14)

II. The Two Results (v.15-19)

III. The Two Reigns (v.20, 21)

Text

I. The Two Representatives (v.12-14)

•  Romans 5:12  :  "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—":  Through one man, sin entered the world. Imagine that. Without being named, but clearly intended, Adam's sin came into the world like a foreign invader, a virus uncontained.

- Paul is telling us that humanity was represented by Adam, who was our champion, our federal representative. It's akin to when our "team" wins or loses. We often ask, "Did WE win!?"

- God made Adam to be the one whose actions would define existence on Earth.

- His action, his sin against God's express command, affected every man and woman who has come into being since, all thoroughly and completely infected with the sin virus.  

- When sin came into the world, death came in as a naturally occuring byproduct. Death had not been part of the original creation. Adam's sin brought it into our world, into our life experience.

- God said that in the day that he sinned, he would surely die, and with sin a part of his heart and experience, that was true. He began a process that would lead to death from that day on!

- But it didn't stop there. The fall of man was terrible in it's consequence, death, and terrible in it's scope, being that it spread to all men everywhere.

- When you follow the effects of sin through Genesis 3 and onward, you see very quickly that the effects of sin were immediately deadly.

After Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden, Adam's son murders his brother in a fit of  jealousy, his grandson becomes a murderer on account of a man's insult toward him!

- Then comes Genesis 5, where everyone who lives to any age dies! Sin flourished and death flourished right along with it.

- Before long, the world became so violent and depraved, Adam's descendants had to be judged and destroyed in a flood!

- That is the biblical declaration of humanity's story! One man sinned on behalf of all men and all men followed suit, sinning and dying!

- You might say, "It's not fair! I want to represent myself! I didn't choose Adam." That's true, but he failed and then you failed! I'm pretty sure you don't want to represent yourself!

•  Romans 5:13,14 : "(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 was to come." : Verse 13 begins a large parenthesis, answering the obvious question regarding sin and the law.

- Before the Mosaic law, sin existed, but was not accounted to men, however they died nonetheless! Death is a result, not of law, but of sin and death, reigned from Adam to Moses.

- It overcame every man regardless of the type of sin that they were involved in. Some had not sinned in the same way as Adam. What did Paul mean?

- Adam was in special relationship to God. He walked with God in the cool of the day and had a specific relationship to God based on a law that he was given.

- Technically, Adam's one law was that he was to abstain from eating from one tree of the garden, a tree that God separated from the others.

- It was a tree that revealed God's sovereignty over His creation, as well as His sovereignty over man's life. This was one law which God allowed to be a measure of Adam's love and fidelity.

- When Adam broke that law, he broke relationship with God and disobeyed or transgressed a directly understood mandate, the word "transgression" referring to going over a boundary line.

- He knew what he was doing and from the smallest seed of rebellion, the largest crop was produced! This sets Adam up as a type, or a pre-figurement in Paul's thinking regarding Jesus.

- How is Adam a type? Adam was a federal representative. He stood as our champion and he failed! Now, in the same way, Jesus fulfills the type by standing as a new representative.

- Jesus stands as a new federal representative, a new champion. He is the last Adam. What had been forced upon us in the first Adam, will be offered to us in the last Adam.

II. The Two Results (v.15-19)

•  Romans 5:15-17  :  "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.)" : Adam may be a type of Christ, but salvation, rightouesness is not like the offense, the sin.

- The NLT puts it like this: "There is a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift!"

- One man's offense brought death into the world. Paul "a fortiori" argument is that If a fallen man can produce death by His offense, what can the grace of God do through the Son of God?

- Jesus brought, or represented a gift of grace, which Paul says, abounded to many! The word is used of a flower that is come to full bloom!

- Paul continues with the contrast. Sin brought death, judgement, condemnation, but the Lord's grace brought justification! Under Adam, all are condemned. Under Christ, all are justified.

- Therefore, there is a death sentence that reigns over those who are merely represented by Adam, but life, eternal life through Jesus Christ!

•  Romans 5:18,19 : "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."  : Now, we come back to the completion of Paul's thought from verse 12.

- In the same way that Adam's sin was universally damning, Jesus righteous act, brought a free gift to all men! Paul is not teaching universalism.

- Understand this: Paul is saying that any person on earth has the same opportunity to receive this gracious gift by believing in Christ. Jesus has made it available.

- His death on the cross is universally known, but not universally applied by faith. The Cross is an invitation that man has been given forever by God, calling them to receive this grace!

- One man's disobedience produced catastrophic events. In the same way, one man's obedience changed it all!

- At the first tree, Adam refused to obey God. He refused God's will in paradise. At the second tree, Jesus obeyed God's command, even though He knew the suffering it would entail.

- The cross, even for God, knowing all that He knew, was nearly too much for Him. But His words, at the greatest moment of His suffering were, not my will, but yours be done!

- When Jesus hung on a Roman cross, nails pierced through His hands, crown of thorns plunged into HIs head, back flayed open by a Roman scourge, Jesus was obeying His Father!

- In Adam, you were made sinners, because He wouldn't obey God's one command. Christ obeyed all 613 laws, and became obedient to the point of death!

- When Christ died on the Cross, He stood as a representative. When you believe upon Christ, theologically speaking, it's as if you were on that Cross with Him!

- He died representing you! Your belief in Him enters you into His representation!

III. The Two Reigns (v.20, 21)

•  Romans 5:20,21 : "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." : When the law was brought into the world, that offense from Adam was made even worse! The law was given to show sin in a greater light.

- Why would God do that? Why would He expose sin? So that we would reach out for a Savior!

- He gave the law so that He could paint us into a corner. Law made the offense of Adam, already alive in us through Adam, abound. The offense abounded, flowered to full bloom in our lives!

- As a result, all who are represented by Adam can expect death to reign over their lives. In fact, one might say that death defines them. They are counting down the days to their demise!

- What would God do? Sin abounded, so God allowed His own grace, performed by Jesus, to abound much more. Literally, law made sin superabound, but grace abounded beyond that!

- Sin was great and the weight of that sin was crushing. That doesn't change. God responded by providing a stronger Savior, who could take that weight upon His shoulders!

- God's grace is greater than sin. The blood of our righteous Savior is of more value than the sin that brought death! God wins!

- When sin reigned, death was the expectation. It reigned and you defined yourself by that. Now, as a Christian, you define yourself by the reign of eternal life that you have now!

- You are one who has been given the standing of righteousness through Christ. Think about what Paul is saying here.

- Adam's representation could only bring death and even had he never failed, he could only pass on a life like his, one of innocence.

- Through Adam, you would have only been innocent, subjects, citizens of God's world. That would have made earth a paradise, and God the Creator, but still separate.

- Through Christ, you are not just innocent, but you are given great righteousness, giving you access into the very heaven that God dwells in, not treated as subjects, but sons and daughters!

- That is the life that God is giving to those whose eyes are fixed upon the Christ of the Cross!

Conclusion

- In the Garden of Eden, Adam failed to obey God. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus succeeded in obeying God. When He died, He did so representing all who would ever believe!

- Good Friday is the day that we commemorate Christ's death, prayerfully understanding, that it is the day that we died as well! We died in Christ! By faith, we were counted by God in that day!

- You once had no choice. Adam was your representative by birth and by practice.  Today, the choice stands open before all. Will it be Adam or Jesus? Choose wisely!