Much More About Our Justification

, invite you to turn in your Bibles to Romans 5. It's a blessing sometimes to go away and have an opportunity like that, but it's always a blessing to come back and to be with you again and to worship with you and to open up God's word to you, this morning. Romans chapter 5. we have been working through this chapter.

I've personally been wanting to go deeper in my understanding of the doctrine of justification. I feel like I am in kindergarten in terms of understanding the depth of this doctrine, and I've personally wanted to go on this journey, and I've wanted to take you with me as we just make another pass through a chapter, like Romans 5, and maybe even beyond that, we'll see how the Lord leads and just, try to glean all that we can and, and come to a fuller knowledge of the glories of the gospel.

And we've been looking at verses 1 through 11, and two weeks ago, we finished studying verse 11. And so this morning, we're going to pick up in verse 12, the beginning of the second half of Romans chapter 5.

And if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be much more, much more about Our justification. about 20 years ago, I've shared this with you guys before. I, I probably share this every few years, but about 20 years ago, my wife and I were attending a Sunday school class at a different church, not this one, and there was a guy in that class, who was close to, to our age, a little bit older. who at this particular time, we're all on a journey and have a lot of immaturities that we grow out of over time, but at this particular time in this guy's life, he was pretty impressed with himself.

And pretty impressed with his intellect and seemed to enjoy hearing himself talk. And at the end of this particular Sunday school class, a theological topic came up and as we were leaving the class, he began waxing eloquent to Donna and me about a finer point of, of theology and, and I was actually intrigued by what he was saying, but then there was a point where, how when you're talking to someone, it's like, what, this really ought to be ending. but it's, but it's going on and on.

does that ever happen?

and so I started thinking that but continued to listen attentively, but eventually he came to an end of, of his, dissertation on a particular topic. And when he was done in all sincerity, I just, I looked at him and I said, I appreciate that. I said, that's, that's an interesting thought. And his response has stuck with me to this day.

right after I said that, he said, oh, Milton, there's more. There's so much more. There's more where that came from. And the vibe I got was like, Milton, you're impressed by what I've just shared.

That's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the reservoir of wisdom that I have up here. And, but I, I've been grateful for that moment because ever since then, when I'm in a weird mood, and I want to act proud, and maybe I've shared something with someone, and they're like, wow, thank you for sharing that. I just, I don't know, sometimes I just feel like I, and I'll just say, oh, there's so much more. There's so much more.

that's just the tip of the iceberg. sometimes it's fun to say that just in jest. And honestly that's neither here nor there when it comes to the sermon for this morning, but I couldn't help but think of that encounter because Paul actually uses that exact language in this passage, and it's very interesting, but he's not trying to draw attention to himself. He's not impressed with himself, but he's trying to point us deeper into an understanding of the glories of our justification.

look at this in verse 9, much more, verse 10, much more, verse 15, much more, verse 17, much more. And in all of these cases, especially the first two, Paul is trying to point us, he's like, I know. What you guys believe and that's great. But there's much more and I want to point you to these additional things.

Look at verse 9, much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. He's like, I know you guys believe that you've been justified by, by the shed blood of Jesus, but I want you to know that if that's true, much more, let me point you to something. There's a future reality.

that you can therefore rejoice in, and just enter into the enjoyment of. And then in verse 10, he's like, I know that you believe the gospel and believing the gospel, you believe that, that when you were God's enemies, he reconciled you to himself through the death of his son. And if you believe that much more, and he points them to a greater, reality that emerges from that, if you believe that God reconciled you when you were his enemy through the death of Jesus, then much more now that you're his friend, what will the living glorified Christ not want to do or be able to do for you?

And as he comes into verse 12, that's still his desire.

He's like, there's more. and think about it, guys. in verses 1 through 11, we've been enjoying a sumptuous feast, have we not? and we, we've learned so much about justification.

It'd be very tempting at the end of verse 11 just to push ourselves away from the table and say, we are full. Thank you very much, Paul. We understand justification now. In fact, I've had people come up to me over the last few weeks and say, Pastor Milton, during the sermon, some Thing clicked.

I'm getting this whole gospel thing now, this whole justification thing now, and they're really excited about it. And, and it'd just be tempting at the end of verse 11 to say, we got it now. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Paul, for opening up the glories of our justification.

And Paul would say, whoa, wait a minute, there's more. There's so much more. And he wants to lead us into that in verses 12, and following. let me, before we, here's how we're going to break down the, the text today.

our paradigm is going to be 4 more thoughts or 4 deeper thoughts about our justification. We're going to go deep this morning. Just Paul's going to press on further. into places where we wouldn't even have thought that we needed to go, but he's going to go there and as we follow him, we're going to gain a better appreciation of the texture of our justification, and there's glorious stuff in this passage.

Now, let me, let me do two things before we get into these thoughts. First of all, let me remind you what our justification is when we come to God in brokenness as sinners and we see our bankruptcy and our need for a savior. when we place our faith in Jesus, God, at that moment of our conversion justifies us. And that justification is this.

Here's the definition of what God does. Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God, in which he decides to forever think of our sins as forgiven, and to think of Christ's righteousness as belonging to us, and he declares us to be righteous. In his sight. So we come to Him by faith, and God says, I am deciding right now to forever think of your sins as forgiven, Christ's righteousness belonging to you.

I will speak this, I decree this, and then not only that, but God then binds himself to this decision and decree and says that I will never feel another feeling or think another thought, or look at you in any way, or allow anything in your life that is not fully governed by this decision and decree that I have just made towards you. This is an amazing moment. Justification is largely something that takes place in the mind of God, and it goes to the issue of how God views us. And now that he views us in this way, it just opens up the bank of heaven to where now that he views us this way.

the gates of heaven are open and all the bounty and the goodness and the favor of God just comes issuing forth towards us. And again, in verses 1 through 11, we've learned a number of things about justification that I won't take the time to review, but we come to verse 12, and we're going to see some deeper thoughts that Paul wants to lead us into. And the final thing I want to do before we get to the first thought is to warn you. as we come into verse 12, you have to gird up the loins of your mind.

This is a difficult passage of scripture because of the the grammar, the way that Paul chooses to write this. in verse 12, he starts a sentence that he never finishes. So it's a half sentence and it goes begging for a, a completion, and his thoughts are very dense and And he'll go from one thing to the next, and we're not sure why he's going, where he's going, and, and he's setting up comparisons, and we think we know where he's going with the comparison, and then he doesn't go where we're thinking he's going to go.

And you just have to really just stretch this passage out and, and walk through it carefully in order to capture what Paul is saying.

And I still, I'm going to do the best I can with this this morning, but But I, I'm going to need to make many more passes through this. Listen to William Barclay and what he says about this passage. He says no passage of the New Testament has had such an influence on theology as this, and no passage is more difficult for the modern mind to understand. It is difficult because Paul expresses himself in such a difficult way.

We can see, for instance, that the first sentence never ends but breaks off in midair while Paul pursues another idea down a sideline. Still more, the passage is thinking and speaking in terms which were familiar to Jews and perfectly understandable to them, but which are unfamiliar to us. In our modern day society in our Western culture, we are really big on individualism. but the ancient mindset was much more community oriented, and they more embraced the solidarity of human beings with one another, and you're going to have to, the way Paul talks here, you're going to have to think beyond just individually.

There's a problem that we all have, and we have the problem as a part of a thing called the human race and because of our connection. with our ancestors leading all the way back to, Abraham. And so we're going to have to lay aside our Western mindset and just really go with Paul and try to understand what he's saying as he tries to take us deeper into the glories of our justification. All right.

You ready? here's the first thought that Paul wants to bring us into, and that is this regarding our justification. Our justification through Christ reverses the condemnation that came to us through Adam. Our justification through Christ, it, it does something very deep and very profound.

It, it begins to, to reverse something that is deeply embedded in our humanity. It's actually a problem that we had even before we were born, before we were conceived, we were actually born into this problem and our justification actually goes towards addressing that and reversing that problem that we were born into. Our justification is not just a reversal, as it were, of sinful choices we've made. Once we were old enough to make those kinds of choices before God and we made wrong choices, our justification doesn't just address that problem, but it actually addresses something that's more deeply embedded in who we are as human beings, as part of the human race, and as descendants of Adam.

And so it's something very profound is happening when God decrees that our sins are forgiven and that we are righteous with the righteousness of Jesus, and it goes back thousands of years. God is fixing something. That transcends multiple generations. Let's follow him beginning in verse 12.

Look what he says. Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. The idea is they sinned in Adam. So you look at the world as you see it, and you see that there's sin, there's evil.

There's wars between nations. There's horrible crimes that are committed. There's evil inside of you and evil desires that may shock you and surprise you as you catch yourself acting out on those things and, and great national evils that you observe also, such as the Holocaust. And it's like, where did that come from?

Where did sin come from? And what we learn in verse 12 is that sin entered the world through a man. And we all know from the context, he's going to give us the name of the man, and that is Adam, who is the first human being sin came into the world through this man, Adam. And then look at what he says.

you see death that is at work inside of you and those that you love and those that you care for. People die no matter where you go across the planet. There are monuments to death. They're called cemeteries that basically symbolize and visualize the rule in the reign of death over the entire planet, over the entire human race.

Where did death come from? Look at this. He says through one man sin entered into the world, and death entered the world through sin. This man Adam was the open door through which sin came into the world, and then sin provided the open door through which death came into the world, and the result is death spread to all men.

Because all sinned, and all the tenses here are the same. He doesn't say because all are sinning, because we commit individual acts of sin. That's not his focus at this point. Through one man's sin entered into the world.

Death through sin, death spread to all men because all sinned. And so he's referring to something that happened in the garden. Now most of the story. Adam and Eve were placed in the garden.

God said, Freely eat of all the trees of the garden, but the tree that's in the middle of the garden, do not eat. The day you eat of this tree, you will certainly die. Well, we know that after that was clearly communicated that Adam and Eve partook of the tree. Eve partook of the tree first, but Paul gives her a free pass, doesn't even mention her, and puts the responsibility squarely upon the man and puts the focus on him as the representative head of the human race.

Adam, in violation of the command of God, partook of the tree that God had said you are not to partake of. And when Adam did that, according to the teaching of Romans chapter 5, he did that act as a, the representative head of the human race. We were in him, in his loins, as it were, when he made that choice. So, as Mike said earlier in our service, we are participants in that decision.

In fact, the name Adam, the Hebrew word Adam, is the Hebrew word that can either be translated Adam or mankind. In the Old Testament, when a writer wants to refer to mankind in general, he says Adam. So Adam's name was mankind. That was his name.

And so when he sinned, mankind sinned in him, and the choice Adam made, even before we showed up on the scene got imputed to us. And when we were conceived and born and came into this world, we had a preexisting problem that we were born into. Death came through sin and death spread to all men, that includes us. Because all send in Adam.

You think about it. That like after Adam committed his sin and the fall occurred, let's say, 300 years later, I'm sure it would have happened that one of his descendants had conceived a child in her womb and the child died inside the womb. So that child never was able to be born or make a conscious choice between good and evil, and yet death obviously touched that child, or you have a child that is born and is 2 months old and it and it dies. That child never reached an age where the child can make a conscious choice between good and evil, but we all know as we observe the human condition.

That children die in the womb or in their infancy, and we would look at that and say there's a problem, and it's a problem that actually precedes someone growing up and reaching an age of accountability and making conscious choices between good and evil. It's something that they were born into. Paul actually wants to elaborate on this. This is why he suspends the sentence.

He, he wanted to get to the positive thing. but he suspends his thought and he won't get to the positive side of this comparison until verses 18 and 19, but he wants to help us to understand this. Look what he says in verse 13. He says, for until the law, until the Mosaic law came that we have recorded in our Old Testament, sin was indeed in the world.

It had come through Adam, and people were sinning. and making wrong choices, but he says sin is not imputed when there is no law. In other words, what he's saying is sin is not strictly accounted for and strictly charged to people's account when there is no law that's been specifically revealed against which they are sinning and by which their sins can be measured against. And so from Adam until Moses, there was no Mosaic law, and So sin was not being charged to people's account, the choices that they're making consciously, and yet undeniably sin was reigning in the human race from Adam to Moses.

Look at verse 14. Nevertheless, death was reigning from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come, speaking of Adam being a type of Christ. So how did Adam sin? He got clear revelation from God, a clear command and prohibition, and he violated that clear direction from God.

His descendants did not have such clear revelation up until the time of Moses. And so yes, they were sinning, but they're not sinning in exactly the clear cut same way that Adam was sinning against clear revelation from God. Nonetheless, death is reigning. In their lives just like it did in Adam's life after Adam had committed his sin in the garden.

And so there's a problem with the world. There's a problem with the human race, and it goes all the way back to the choice that Adam made. Paul just pounds this over and over again. Look at these negative assertions that he makes.

In verse 12, therefore, just as through one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned in Adam, verse 15, by the transgression of the one, the many died, verse 16, the judgment arose. From one transgression, resulting in condemnation. Verse 17, by the transgression of the one, that's Adam, death reigned through the one. Verse 18 through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men.

All are born in this state of condemnation. Verse 19, through the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. What a fateful choice this was for Adam in the garden to make the choice to partake of what God had prohibited. And as a result of that, we were born into this condition, into this fallen world with death at work and our members, and because Adam was the representative head of the human race, his name was mankind.

When he made that choice, that choice was imputed to us, and we are living with the consequences of that choice that was made in Adam. Well, Paul's not just wanting us to focus on that. He's heading somewhere and he completes his thought in verses 18 and 19. So look at the screen in verse 12, he says, Therefore, just as through one man's sin entered in the world, death through sin, death spread to all men, because all sin in Adam.

he comes back to that thought and rebuilds what he's saying, and he says it in two ways. He makes two passes here. He says in verse 18, so then, as through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men. Even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men.

Adam is the representative head of the human race. Jesus is the representative head of all those who believe in Him, a new race, as it were, begins with Jesus as its head. And Adam made a sinful choice, condemnation came to all men. Jesus, he says, through one act of righteousness, Which was yielding himself up on the cross that resulted in that choice in justification for all men.

And in that act of justification, God is reversing something that goes very deep into our humanity that transcends generations and goes all the way back to something that happened when Adam. Was in the garden. Think of the contrast. In fact, just look at verse 19, then I'll show you the contrast.

For as through one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. Even so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. You've got Adam in the garden. God says you shall not partake of the tree.

Adam disobeys God and partakes of the tree in violation of the command of God. The whole human race is plunged into condemnation and death. Jesus in the Gospels, we find Him in a garden, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Father actually comes to him with a cup and tells his Son, I want you to partake of this. Jesus looked in the cup and said, Oh Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass for me.

I do not want to partake of this. Let it pass. Let it pass. Let it pass.

3 times, 3 seasons, Jesus prayed in that garden, as it were, pleading for that to pass. But ultimately the verdict was this cannot pass from you. And so Jesus partook of that very bitter and awful cup of God's wrath and all of. The horror of the cross, he partook of what His Father commanded him to partake of, and in that act of righteousness, obedience to His Father, and showing love for mankind and giving himself over in death, that righteousness of Christ gets imputed to us.

Adam's sin was imputed to us. Christ's righteousness gets imputed to us, Paul says. And in so doing, it's an amazing reversal of something that goes all the way back to the very beginning of human history. Paul says, I want you to know that when God justified you, He was fixing more than just things you've done in your life and the decisions you've made that have been sinful and wrong.

He's, he's fixing something that's deeper and more profound and reversing the verdict. That was uttered essentially and decided upon thousands of years ago when Adam chose to disobey God and we being in his loins as it were, participated in that decision. By the way, real quick in verse 18, when he describes the one act of righteousness, I believe he's talking about the cross, but But it's a multidimensional act. for that cross to have had any value, Jesus had to have been perfectly righteous throughout his life, right?

And so all throughout his life, I think his whole life, as it were, was one complex act of righteousness that led all the way to the cross. And whenever he was tempted to sin, I'm sure there were a ton of things Jesus was thinking about. but one of the things is, I will choose to do what's right, so that when I lay my life down, my sacrifice for the sins of mankind will be accepted by my Heavenly Father. He was thinking of us in part, and seeking to love us and being sinless, and certainly he's sinless anyway, but, but this is a grace from Jesus.

It's all one multi-textured act of righteousness. That he offered up to the Father at the cross, and because of that, we get His righteousness imputed to us. There's a second thought that Paul wants to take us into, and that is that our justification is a gift that comes abounding to us from God the Father and Christ the Son. Paul wants us to know something of the attitude of God, I think, in what he says in verse 15, the tone in which God utters this decree of justification, and just the whole manner of it.

the word abound that we're going to see in verse 15, can, it has the idea of to come luxuriantly, to, to come richly, to come enthusiastically, to come at someone exuberantly. And he wants us to know that our justification, it's a gift that comes from God, exuberantly to us. Look at what he says in verse 15. He says, but the free gift, which is justification, the charisma.

Paul actually views our justification as a charisma from the Lord. But the free gift, the charisma is our justification and all that is embodied in that, and that comes to us as a result of our justification. He says, but the charisma or the free gift, it's not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, much more.

He says, did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. Adam sinned, death abounded to many, or death came to many, but he says, through the grace of Jesus Christ, the obedience of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, this gift that Paul is talking about in Romans 5, it comes abounding to us. As a result of his grace, it comes exuberantly. To us.

When God utters His verdict of justification, He does so aboundingly and exuberantly. A couple weeks ago I was summoned to the courthouse for jury duty and I had been called in July and I put it off and so I had to go on October 4th and I showed up and as the afternoon wore on, I ended up getting called to a case and so I was sitting in the room and the judge asked, is there any that are not able to to serve this week. We've got a weeklong trial. Can any of you not, are there any of you that are not able to serve for whatever reason?

A bunch of people raised their hands, so we started going through the room. And and was getting closer and closer to me. And, and I had two reasons that I couldn't serve. One of them was weaker than the other, but, and I thought I'm going to start with the weaker one, and if that doesn't work, I'm going to go with the stronger one.

So it got to me and I gave him my first reason that I was not able to serve that particular week. And, and I said that to him and then he put his head down. And I could tell he's, he's thinking like he's, this isn't a good enough reason to get out of jury duty. And so he was sitting there just thinking about what he was going to do, and I thought I'd better speak up and give my second reason before he makes a decision.

So I gave him the second reason, and then he reluctantly said, Well, I guess we can reschedule you. And that's all I needed, and I, I walked out before he changed his mind and, and I've already been rescheduled for January, but, but it wasn't. An exuberant decision. It was, it was a decision and it was authoritative, and I accepted it, but he delivered that verdict, as it were, reluctantly to me.

And I think, I think sometimes that we as believers can almost fall into a mindset where we think when God delivers the verdict of justification upon us, That we think maybe it's with some reluctance, we come to Jesus, everyone else is coming to him, and they're getting saved, and God's justifying them. And so, that this will happen to me and we come to God and God looks at us, and it's like, oh, it's you. And then, you're calling on the name of the Lord and God in heaven is like, well, I promised this, and a promise is a promise.

So what, you're justified.

Come on in. sometimes we, we can fall into that thinking that God delivers the verdict, but not aboundingly, and we also fall into the trap of believing that God abides by that verdict reluctantly, you come into God's presence and maybe you've messed up and, and God's like, he's ticked, he's angry, he's wrathful, but he's like, oh, but I justified this person just two years ago, and And I'm bound to that. And so yes, I'll forgive you because I have to because of this commitment that I made and that God abides by this verdict reluctantly.

Paul says, no, the idea that you need to have is that this justification, it comes abounding to you.

It comes to you exuberantly. richly, enthusiastically from God. It's the same attitude that we see in the story of the prodigal son, where the son has just been terrible, but he decides I'm going to return to my father, and he's returning to his father and his father sees him from a long way off. And his father does something very undignified in this day, and that is he pulls up his robes and runs for a man who was the owner of an estate to do such a thing was most undignified, but this, this dad is running to his son and greets his son and is hugging and kissing his son even before his son can begin the speech that he had rehearsed to give to his dad.

And then finally, the son begins to deliver his confession speech, but he can't even finish that before the dad is saying, slay the fatted calf. We're going to throw a party. The son of mine, who was dead is now alive again. And what we see is a picture of a father that is abounding in forgiveness, abounding in grace towards his son.

And Jesus tells us that story in part because he wants us to know his father. And he would say to us, essentially what Paul is saying, in part, and that is that when God justifies you, he's pleasured to justify you. He's exuberant about it. When you come to him in brokenness and confession, God just, he slams that gavel down and says justified, and he's eager and excited, and he is exuberant to do so.

In Ephesians 1:5, Paul says that God predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ into himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. He's like, God does this because he likes to do it. He does it because it pleases him. If, if you see the Father justifying a sinner, you, you would see a smile on his face.

He's enthusiastic and exuberant, and you would say, Father, why are you justifying this person in this way? He would say, because it pleases me to do so. It pleasures me to do so. Jesus says, anyone who comes to me, I'll never cast them out.

But what we're learning here is something even greater. Anyone who comes to him will be warmly received exuberantly by a Father who is eager to forgive broken sinners and to justify them. So guys, hold on to this. Justification is a gift that comes abounding to you from an eager, enthusiastic, and exuberant God who renders that verdict, and then that opens the floodgates of heaven to just begin to lavish all of His goodness and gifts upon you.

There's a 3rd thought that Paul wants to take us into in Romans 5, and that is that our justification arose from many transgressions being visited or inflicted upon Christ. Paul says, let me, let me explain something to you about how our justification came about, and that is that it arose or it emerged from many transgressions being inflicted. Upon Jesus Christ at the cross. Look at what he says in verse 16.

He says the gift, in other words, of justification and all the blessings that go along with that, the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For on the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation. But on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. Paul is not going the direction I would have expected him to go in this verse.

What we would expect is for him to say on the one hand, the judgment arose from the one transgression resulting in condemnation. We would expect him to say, but the condemnation arose from, oh I'm sorry, but the justification arose from one act of obedience, right? That's what we would expect and that actually would have been a true statement. But look at the contrast instead.

On the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression committed by one man, resulting in condemnation for the whole human race. But on the other hand, the free gift of our justification, this verdict, this decision that God renders towards us, when we come to him and brokenness and humility and confession, this free gift arose from many transgressions, resulting in justification. What is Paul saying here? What he's saying is this Adam, one man committed one sin in the garden.

Condemnation comes upon the entire human race. It comes upon billions of people. Jesus Christ on the cross. And being crucified, multiple transgressions were inflicted upon him.

You think about it, he was arrested. That's a transgression for the Son of God to be treated in that way, punched and slapped and mocked and ridiculed, blindfolded, spat upon. A crown of thorns upon his head beaten into his brow, and the Roman soldiers mocking, paying homage to Jesus Christ and tied around a stone and whipped again and again and again. What a profound transgression against the perfect and the spotless Son of God.

And then the The mob that was there, people were lying about him, falsely accusing him, and there was a mob there saying, Let his blood be on us and upon our children. Every person who screamed, Crucify him and let his blood be upon us and our children, every one of those people saying that was committing an act of transgression. He was nailed to a cross, crucified there. There were still insults being hurled against him.

There were so many thousands of transgressions being visited upon Jesus, just in the account of the gospels of his crucifixion. And then even beyond that, guys, the Bible tells us that our sins played a role in his death, right? The Bible tells us that he bore our sins in his body, and that Jesus was pierced from our transgressions. He was crushed from the weight of our iniquities.

All of the multiplied trillions of sins throughout the history of the world, basically focused upon Jesus and were placed upon him and crushed Him. On the cross. All of the sins that I committed that you committed, all of those were placed upon him, and they pierced him and crushed him upon the cross. Multiplied trillions of transgressions were inflicted upon Jesus, they were visited upon Him.

And what's the result? You would expect a deeper, more profound condemnation, right? But what, what, what's the result? Justification.

Righteousness, salvation. That's crazy. I love what John Stott says in his commentary. He says grace operates a different arithmetic.

And I tried to set this up on the screen to try to map out what Paul is saying. Look at this on the screen. One sin committed by one man, that's Adam. Equals condemnation for the multiplied billions of people on the planet.

So we would go, Wow, God takes sin seriously if this is the result of just one choice that one man made and the whole human race is plunged into darkness and into condemnation. And then you fast forward to Christ's crucifixion, you have many sins. We're talking the sins of the whole world, basically, many sins committed by many people, all of those visited upon one man at one point in time upon the cross, and what results? All heaven and earth waits for the resulting verdict from the Father.

Regarding such an amazing act, the worst moment in human history, with all the eyes of the universe upon us, man acted at his worst and crucified Jesus, the Son of God, all of our sins placed upon him. And, and what results? Here's the verdict. God says, as a result of this, I am now giving out righteousness.

And forgiveness To anyone who comes to my son and believes in him. That's That's amazing. One writer says this that one single misdeed should be answered by judgment. This is perfectly comprehensible that the accumulated sins and guilt of the ages should be answered by God's free gift.

This is the miracle of miracles utterly beyond human comprehension. it's God essentially. Takes the worst moment in human history and brings salvation out of it. What we learn here, by the way, is that God is powerful.

He's more powerful than evil. In fact, he makes evil to serve his purposes. And think of the encouragement. This is why Paul brings up trials earlier in Romans 5 in a chapter that's all about justification.

If God can take the full mass of all the sins of the world and and have them visited upon Christ and inflicted upon Him, and what comes out of that equation is righteousness and salvation for all, then what do you think God can do with the wrongs that are done against you? See, we're like, Oh Lord, thank you for this salvation. Then we're going through our life and then tomorrow at some point someone's going to wrong us and our whole world's going to fall apart. What good can possibly come from this?

Look, God's already taken all of the evil of the world, and that got lasered onto his son. His son was slain, and as a result, God now is doing the most unbelievable good through that. In fact, we call it the good news. God has stolen the headlines.

You think of when that person a few years ago shot those Amish children in that schoolhouse, I believe, in Pennsylvania. it was awful and heartrending in the first couple of days of the headlines were just about the atrocity and the evil as just the wicked story unfolded. But what happened about on day three and following? All the headlines were about grace and forgiveness, and can you believe what the Amish are doing?

They're, they're, they're loving this man's family. They're setting up a charity fund. for this man's family and attending his funeral and just they're just loving this woman, this man's wife and family in every way they can. They stole the headlines.

It was originally about all the evil that was done. But then it became all about grace and forgiveness, and what a tremendous amount of good was done as God was glorified through the grace and the forgiveness coming from the Amish community. And that's merely a small reenactment of what God already did with the cross. The headline on the day of Christ's crucifixion, just unbelievable evil, unbelievable evil, just awful.

And all of heaven and earth should have shuddered waiting for the verdict of God. What's going to happen to the human race as a result of this? All these, this is what he did to Adam. Adam just did one sin in the garden and look at the results.

And now look at this, all this, trillions of sins visited upon his son, the apple of his eye, and he's killed by us. What's the verdict? What's the father going to do? And the father speaks and says, here's what I'm going to do through this.

I'm giving salvation. Forgiveness, justification to all. Who will come to my son in brokenness and believe in him. This is just phenomenal.

Thank you, Paul, for leading us to this, this deeper glory of our justification that leads to our last truth regarding our justification, and that is that our justification contains an abundance from which we are to reign as kings. our justification contains an abundance from which we are to reign as kings. God had had an agenda in justifying you, folks, listen to me. God clothes you with a perfect royal garb of the righteousness of Jesus.

What do you dress that way for? Why would God come to you and put those clothes on you? if someone came up to you out of the blue and dressed you in this most amazing apparel, you'd be like, what's about to happen? What, what am I being dressed this way for?

It must be something really important. And so here God comes to you and dresses you in the perfect spotless righteousness of Jesus, this amazingly royal garb. What's going on? Why are you dressing me this way?

God says, I have a reason. And that's because I want you to reign as a king in your life. Romans 5:17, Paul says, for if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive this is us who believe in Jesus, those who receive the abundance of grace, and of the gift of the justification, we will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. God doesn't justify you just to justify you.

He justifies you so that you can live a life that can be described as reigning. And this word reign is the Greek word for king, simply put into a verb form. It means to reign as a king. God has justified you so that you can live a life that is characterized by reigning as a king.

A king lives in luxury. God wants you to live in luxury. A king has power to say yes to what he wants to say yes to and know what he wants to say no to. And God has justified you so that you have that power to say yes to righteousness, and no to sin.

He wants you to reign as a king. We see here that there's abundance inside of our justification, and this abundance serves as the treasury from which we reign as kings. And that's why we've learned from our brother Timothy Keller a few weeks ago that that if you want to reign as a king in your life, to where your lifestyle is being described as reigning, then you need to turn your life to towards your justification, feed on it, orient your life towards it, do commerce with your justification.

And you will find sanctification happening.

Guys, there's so much power in our justification. I love what Elise Fitzpatrick says. She says the ability to reign in life doesn't come from your list. We're good at lists, aren't we?

But you can make the best list. I got to do this as a husband, this as a wife, and, and whatever, and you have the most amazing list, but there's no power in the list. Your ability to reign in life doesn't come from your list. It comes from the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness.

Has anyone ever come up to you and said, Hey, how's your week gone? Have any of you ever said, what, by the grace of God, I rained this past week? I've never said that. In fact, that sounds brazen.

But God says, I justified you so that if you live your life just exulting in it, rejoicing in it, and living in the good of the abundance of it, I justify you so that you can live the lifestyle to where you can honestly say, by God's grace, I've reigned. I'm reigning as a king in my life. Aren't you glad that Paul decided to not end in verse 11, but to take us deeper? And to our justification, spend some time in these verses rejoicing in them.

And walking in the good of them each day. Let's pray together. We're going to take up an offering in a moment. We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give.

Let's pray together Lord, I pray that if there's any in this room who have never placed their trust in Christ for salvation. I know, Lord, that what's been described today regarding the world we live in, sin and death, that it has to fit with the way they see themselves and the world around them. These things are unavoidable to anyone that's a careful observer and that something deep and fundamental is wrong with the human race, and you have provided just an amazing A way to begin the reversal to that for those who put their trust in Jesus Christ.

I pray that today they would just come to Jesus and say, Jesus, I believe in you as my Lord, as my Savior.

I believe in you as my righteousness. I don't want my righteousness anymore. I want your perfect righteousness. And for all those of us who are believers, Lord, just help us.

Just, just touch our eyes, remove the scales from our eyes that we can see the glories of what we're talking about here. And that in seeing these things we would exult in them and catch ourselves being sanctified and reigning as kings as a result. You have so much more for us than what we've known. We ask Lord that you would take us there.

Through the glories of the cross. Thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord. You have abounded to us. Thank you for this small opportunity to abound back to you through our giving.

do much with what we give for the glory of Jesus. And all God's people said,