God’s Gracious Gift

Romans 5:12-19

Brothers and sisters, I think that football is one of the greatest sports to ever be played. I’m not talking about the worldwide football, but I’m talking about American football. Now, why would I say that American football is one of the greatest sports ever played? Well, for one, football is exciting. You have these big hits, these long runs, these long passes, and a lot of other people would agree with me that football is exciting. About 125 million watched the Super Bowl this year. But football isn’t just exciting. Football is also very calculated. You have offense versus defense. What specific play are you going to run at this specific point in time against this specific opponent? Football isn’t just about being bigger or stronger than the other person. It’s also about being smarter. But I think the thing that makes football so great is the fact that it’s a team sport. And now, I know there are many other team sports out there, but to me, I don’t know, it seems that in football, everybody has a job and everybody has to do that job in order for the team to succeed. Because if one man doesn’t do his job, then the whole team fails. If one man is penalized, then the whole team is penalized. The Apostle Paul, in our reading this morning, kind of gets to that concept. In our New Testament reading, Paul is writing to the Romans. Now, who are the Romans? Well, obviously, the Romans were believers living in Rome. Now, at first, this doesn’t really tell us much about who these people are. But when Paul is writing this letter around 57 AD, Rome was the city. Everything was happening in Rome. Imagine Rome back then was a lot kind of like our Washington DC, but imagine if Washington DC was more like New York or Los Angeles, because everything was happening in Rome. Government, business, everybody was living there. And so the people who Paul was writing to, they were living in the big city. Now, how did this church come into existence? We don’t really know. All we have are some educated guesses. And one guess is that Jews living in Rome came to Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost. And they saw those miracles with the tongues of fire and the disciples speaking many languages. And those Jews became Christians. And then they went back to Rome, and they started a church. And now Paul, Paul had never been to Rome. And so he was writing this letter to his church to kind of touch base with them. And he wrote Romans as like, “Here is Christianity.” Now, the benefit for us is we now have the book of Romans that just says, “Here is Christianity.” And so if you haven’t read Romans, I would highly recommend it because there are so many truths in it that are applicable to us today. Now, in the section that we read for today, Paul is talking about the unrighteousness of man versus the righteousness of God. And Paul, he starts from the beginning. He says, “Just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and this way death came to all people because all have sinned.” Because of the sin of one man, we are all sinners. And we might hear that, and we think, “Well, how was that fair? I wasn’t there back then. I didn’t sin.” And I agree with you, it doesn’t sound fair. But I know that we can’t do too much complaining because we are just like Adam. We are sinners. David gets it right when he writes in the Psalms, “Surely I was sinful from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. We came into this world spiritually undead.” Original sin is a state of being and not an action. We continually rebel against God. We do it all the time. We do it so often we can’t even count our sins. We fail to show love to our neighbor. We fail to show love to our God. And from sin comes death. Not just a physical death, but a death of all kinds. A spiritual death, eternal death, separation from God, kind of death. And there’s no gray area in death. You’re either dead or you’re alive. And what can a dead person do? Because of Adam’s sin, we are spiritually dead. We don’t just sin, but we are sinners. Because of spiritual death, there is nothing that we can do in order to gain salvation for ourselves. There is a church body that claims that you can accept Jesus into your heart and that you can choose to have faith in Jesus, but a spiritually dead person can do nothing. One of the biggest results of sin that we see in our lives is a physical death. Now, there are so many emotions that come into play when a physical death happens, and I know that all of us in here have some experience with a physical death. Whether that be death of a friend, the death of a loved one, or maybe even the death of a spouse. Everyone who lives on this earth will eventually die. Now, a lot of times when people read through the Old Testament, they skim past the parts where it’s just a bunch of family lines. And it’s understandable because it just over and over again, so-and-so was father of so-and-so. But in Genesis 5, we have just that. And please allow me to read selected verses from Genesis 5. “Altogether, Keenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died. Altogether, Mahalal lived a total of 895 years, and then he died. All together, Jared lived a total of 962 years, and then he died.” The phrase that’s repeated, “and then he died,” reminds us that death draws near. See, I will live X amount of years, and then I will die. You will live X amount of years, and then you will die. We will die because we inherited a sinful condition from our first parents, Adam and Eve, who rebelled against God. And when they rebelled against God, they died, and so did all of their descendants. But from our sins, we are not punished because we are given a gift. But the gift is not like the trespass, for if the many died by the trespass of one man, how much more to God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many? Jesus is 100% man and 100% God. Now, at first, it’s hard for us to understand, but we need to remember that we need to let the Bible tell us about who Jesus is and not human reason. And so even though Jesus was 100% man, he did not sin. He was not sinful from the time that he was conceived. He actively lived a perfect life, and from him living a perfect life, we are showered with his grace, and we are made clean. Even though Jesus lived a perfect life, even though that he was tempted just like you and me, and just like how all deserve condemnation because of the one man, the gift that Jesus gives justification in life is for all. God’s grace overflows to us. Even though we are dead in our sins, God gives us this gift. God shows us undeserved love. We do not deserve this gift, but God gives it to us freely. Because of Jesus’ acts, God shows love to us. And God showed his love to us by sending his son to die for us. Jesus took on our punishment, and then he died. Jesus defeated death for us, and by his resurrection, we do not need to fear death. We are given eternal life. Christ died for all people. He didn’t die for just some, but for all people. The gift that Jesus gives is far greater than the trespass. The gift that Jesus gives is far greater than our trespasses. We are sinners, and we know that. But God’s grace far surpasses all of our sins. We do not need to fear death because whoever believes in Jesus as their Savior will never die, meaning that when we die a physical death, we are given eternal spiritual life. Because of God’s gracious gift, we live. So brothers and sisters, live like you know this to be true. Love your neighbor and love your God. We do this not to be redeemed, but because we are redeemed. Because of Jesus’ gift, we are able to go out in joy knowing that his gift is greater than our trespasses. We are saved by grace through faith. Nurture this faith. Faith that Jesus’ gift overflows to us. So brothers and sisters, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all have sinned. We are sinners who deserve to be punished. But the gift is not like the trespass. The one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. We are not punished for our sins. We are given eternal life. All of this because of what Jesus has done for us. The gift is greater than the trespass. Amen.