Sermon Tone Analysis

Roscoe and Bubba were killing time one day when they discovered an abandoned well.

Roscoe asked, /"So, how deep do you think it is?"/ Bubba leaned over the edge of the well and spit, and they listened for it to hit bottom.

When no sound emerged from the well, Bubba threw a rock in and listened for a splash.

Nothing.

Now really curious as to the well’s depth, Roscoe began searching around for something larger to throw in.

He found a cross tie in the weeds, drug it over to the well and heaved it over side.

Both men leaned over and listened for a sound, but they never heard the cross tie hit bottom.

While leaning over the well, the two men were surprised to see a goat suddenly run up to the edge of the well, jump up on the edge and then jump down into the well.

They stood there slack-jawed in amazement.

A little while later a local farmer arrived on the scene and asked if the men had seen his goat.

Roscoe said, /"Sir, you are not going to believe this, but just a little while ago a goat ran to the edge of this well and jumped in."/

The farmer said, /"Nah, that could not have been my goat.

My goat was tethered to a big ‘ol cross tie!"/

Often our Christian experience is like the episode of Roscoe and Bubba.

Our lives are occupied with meaningless activities that lead us into trouble.

The text in Romans 5:17 asks the question, /"How much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life."/

Have you experienced the overflow of grace in your life?

Is the gift of righteousness reigning in you?

Many believers operate from a sin management philosophy.

They live in guilt and shame because they fail to live up to the standard of holiness associated with following Christ.

Their faith becomes a never-ending effort to reduce the bad stuff in their life instead of reigning in life in Christ.

We wind up attempting to manage our sin (so that it doesn’t get out of control) rather than victoriously reigning over life in Christ.

Like a football team in a prevent defense, we live trying not to lose a game instead of pressing on to the victory that has been promised.

The first half of Romans 5 describes our union with Christ, and in the closing verses of the chapter and the first part of chapter six we discover principles for transferring the spiritual reality of eternal life to reigning with a new heart on a daily basis.

!

I. RECOGNIZE THE PAYMENT (Rom.

5:12-21)

#. to reign with a new heart, we must first recognize the payment that Christ made not just for sin, but for our new heart

* /"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—”/ (Romans 5:12, NIV)

* /“But the gift is not like the trespass.

For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!”/ (Romans 5:15, NIV)

#. v. 15 mentions the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ

#.

God did not merely redeem us from sin; He transformed our heart

#. before grace, sin and wickedness reigned in our hearts

* /“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”/

(John 3:19, NIV)

#. after grace, Jesus and righteousness reign in our hearts!

* /“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”/

(Romans 5:17, NIV)

#. how is it possible for God to save sinners in the person of Jesus Christ?

#. we understand that somehow Christ took our place on the cross, but how was such a substitution possible?

#. the Apostle Paul answers that question in vv.

12-21

#. these verses are the heart of the letter—and the heart of Paul’s theology of justification

#. first, note the repetition of the little word one

#. it is used eleven times

#. that must mean it’s important

#. it is!

#. the key idea here is our identification with Adam in our humanity, and our identification with Christ in our faith

#. second, note the repetition of the word reign

#. it is used five times

#. that must mean it’s important

#. it is!

#.

Paul saw two men—Adam and Christ—each of them reigning

#.

Adam was given dominion over the old creation, he sinned, and he lost his kingdom, and incurred condemnation and judgement

#.

Christ came as the King over a new creation (2 Cor.

5:17), and by His obedience on the cross, He brought in righteousness and justification

#. lastly, note that the phrase much more

#. it is repeated five times

#. that must mean it’s important

#. it is!

#.

Paul’s point is that in Jesus Christ the Christian has gained much more than we ever lost in Adam

!! A. CHRIST DIED THAT WE MIGHT RECEIVE THE OVERFLOW OF GRACE

#.

Romans 5:15-21 is a study in contrasts

#. the Christian’s peace with God was recovered the same way it was lost—by the actions of one man

#.

Jesus Christ appeared as the ‘second Adam’ to gain, through obedience, what Adam lost through disobedience

#. in this passage there are five contrasts between Adam and Jesus

#. 1st, Paul contrasts the Sin of Adam with the Gift of Christ (vv.

12-15)

#. as a result of Adam’s sin physical death and spiritual death came to all men

#. as a result of Jesus’ sinlessness the gift of righteousness is available to all men who will believe upon His name

#. 2nd, Paul contrasts the Timing of Adam’s Condemnation with the Timing of the Gift of Christ’s Righteousness (v.

16)

#.

God’s judgment of Adam followed after only one sin and brought condemnation

#.

God’s judgement of sin in Christ after His one great act of redemption brought justification

#. when Adam sinned, he was declared unrighteous and condemned

#. when a sinner trusts Christ, he is justified—declared righteous in Christ

#. 3rd Paul contrasts the Reign of Death with the Reign of Life (v.

17)

#. after Adam sinned, death reigned in his world and all of his descendants died—quite a legacy in a manner of speaking

* ILLUS.

Read the “Book of the Generations of Adam” in Genesis 5, and note the solemn repetition of the phrase /“and he died.”/

#. after Jesus died, life reigns in the lives of all who believe in their hearts that He is risen from the dead and confess with their mouths the Jesus is Lord

#. because life reigns in us, we can reign over life

* /“If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?”/

(Romans 5:17, The Message)

#. 4th, Paul contrasts the One Trespass of Adam with the One Act of Righteousness of Christ (vv.

18-19)

#. let me give a note of warning here—in understanding these two verses, context is everything

#. take them out of context and you’ve just justified Universalism—the doctrine that just as Adam’s disobedience caused all to die, Christ’s obedience will cause all to live; all were lost, but all have been found

#. the most obvious fault of using vv.

18-19 as a proof-text for Universalism is v. 17 where Paul asserts that only those who receive God’s provision of grace reign in life

#.

so what is the Apostle saying in these two verses?

#. both death and life were the result of one act: One an act of sin, the other an act of righteousness

#. all who are in Adam are sinners and are under condemnation—that’s all men

#. all who are in Christ are righteous and are under grace—that’s the many

#.

5th, Paul contrasts Law with Grace (vv.

20-21)

#. the Law (i.e. the moral and ethical commandments given to the Hebrews) actually increased our knowledge of sinful behavior

#. listen to how the Apostle explains this in Romans 7 (again, I’ll use The Message)

* /“But I can hear you say, “If the law code was as bad as all that, it’s no better than sin itself.”

That’s certainly not true.

The law code had a perfectly legitimate function.

Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork.

Apart from the succinct, surgical command, “You shall not covet,” I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.

Don’t you remember how it was?

I do, perfectly well.

The law code started out as an excellent piece of work.