Three Aspects of Sin

Transcript

GR 1427
04/18/10
Three Aspects of Sin
Romans 5:20-21
Gil Rugh


We're studying Romans together and we're in chapter 5. Very significant and important theological section of the word of God and brings together in a very clear and unique way how sin came into the world and how God provided righteousness. Paul started out in Romans talking about our sin and it has brought condemnation. Then he moved to talk about the provision of righteousness, justification through faith in His Son. And we are concluding that section that began in chapter 3 verse 21 and runs through chapter 5 verse 21. And in the last part of chapter 5 beginning in verse 12 Paul has been drawing a comparison between Adam who was created in the Garden of Eden by God and Jesus Christ, and showing how Adam by one act of sin, transgressed against what God had told him brought sin to all men. And with sin death because the penalty for sin is death. So where you have sin present you have death; where you have death present you have the manifestation of the presence of sin. Now the comparison has been, we're told at the end of verse 14 that Adam was a type of Christ. There are points of comparison between Christ and Adam—Adam one man, Jesus Christ one man; Adam one act, rebellion, Jesus Christ one act, crucifixion. One result—death for Adam who sinned, brought death; Jesus Christ who by His death, crucifixion, brought life, righteousness and life. That's the comparison that has come down through verse 19 of Romans 5.

I want to take a moment and talk about the matter of sin because we've been talking in Romans 5:12-19 about one aspect of sin—imputed sin. We've noted that Adam acted as our representative so when he sinned he was acting on our behalf. His action is imputed to us. Now we didn't sin in Adam, we weren't in Adam and so sinned with him. Nor was it our personal act of sin. Rather this was an action of Adam as our representative that is imputed to us with its consequences. That's the comparison with Christ who acted as our representative, suffered and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin so that He could bring life. That righteousness of Christ is imputed to us who believe in Him.

So I want to talk about the three aspects of sin, or three divisions of sin in scripture, the first being imputed sin, the sin that is imputed to us by Adam's action, by virtue of his being our representative, acting on our behalf. His action brings sin to us and death to us. The second aspect of sin, since we've been talking about imputed sin, we won't say much more about that right now, but the second area of sin that we need to understand and see it as distinct from imputed sin is inherited sin. Inherited sin or what we often refer to as the sin nature. This is involved when Adam sinned he became a fallen being, he was corrupted by sin. And that corruption is passed on to all of his descendants, just like his humanity was passed on to all of his descendants. So every human being is a descendant of Adam and Eve, Adam being the representative head of the race so we focus on him. When he sinned, the corruption of sin that now became his is passed on to all subsequent descendants, which means every single one of us. So we talk about this as inherited sin or the sin nature. We are contaminated, corrupted by sin and thus we are from birth in a state of alienation from God and motivated to function contrary to His will and His character in all that we do.

I want to look at several passages of scripture with you on this whole area of inherited sin. Come back to Genesis 6. We are getting ready for the flood in the days of Noah in Genesis 6. Look at verse 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. Now note this next statement, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. So you see man is totally corrupted in his inner being, in his heart, his mind. His inner person is contaminated and corrupted by sin so all of his thoughts are corrupted, they are evil, they are contrary to God and His will and His purposes. That's in anticipation of the fact that God is going to send the flood upon the earth.

Turn over to Genesis 8:21. The flood that enveloped the world has occurred. The only survivors are Noah and his immediate family and yet we read here after Noah gets off the ark he offers a sacrifice to God, which is pleasing to Him. We are told in verse 21, the Lord smelled the soothing aroma and the Lord said to Himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man. Now note why, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. You see nothing has changed in the condition of man. Not too long before God had wiped out every living being on the face of the earth, the only ones left were Noah and his family, righteous people who were believers. You think, well we'll get rid of all the sinners in the world, only leave believers, that will solve the world's problems. But you see what has happened. The corrupted heart of man has come through the flood in Noah and his family. They have what we call a sin nature so the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. He is in rebellion against Me, determined to function contrary to My will and My character from his youth. That's what we call the contamination of sin. What happens is Noah and his children are going to have children, the problem is going to come up in his own family and there will be judgment there.

Come over to Psalm 51, very important verse that we want to pick up here. Verse 5, behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. That does not mean that his mother had committed adultery or fornication or was sexually immoral. The point here is I was born a sinner, I was conceived a sinner. Do you know why? Just like the humanity is passed on from parent to child, the corruption of sin that has infected humanity is passed on from parent to child. That's why you don't have to teach a child how to do bad things, you have to teach them how not to do bad things. They start out ready to have their own will, their own way and it grows because the contamination is there from the beginning, the corruption there, sin. They are separated from God and they are born in a state of rebellion against God, rebellion that will manifest itself as the years go by.

Look over in Psalm 58:3, the wicked are estranged from the womb. Those who speak lies go astray from birth. You see it's not a matter of environment that they're raised in. It's not even a matter of good parenting and bad parenting, it's not a matter of whether you are rich or poor, not a matter whether you're born in one part of the world or another part of the world. Everyone everywhere is born a sinner, is a sinner from the moment of conception. This has something to say about the beginning of life, which we can't talk about now. But it was from conception. They are sinners from the womb, they come out evil. You look at a baby and say, look at that innocent baby. God looks at it and says, look at that sinful baby. Because why? It is corrupted already. Why? Adam is its daddy, the ultimate Adam in the Garden of Eden and I could have been named Adam because we pass it on. Right? I inherited it, my children inherited it, my grandkids inherited it. I mean, I say, why in the world do they behave like that? They have their mother's genes. What other explanation could there be? Sin nature, from the womb, from birth. That's the contamination and corruption of sin.

Look at Ecclesiastes 9:3, there is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore the heart of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. You see that corruption of sin? They are full of evil. Who? The hearts of the sons of men. Full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead. Well, we know why—the wages of sin is death and they are full of evil. That's God's evaluation of us.

One more passage in the Old Testament, Jeremiah 17:9, the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick, sick with sin. Who can understand it? It is a center of corruption. Sounds like back in Genesis 6, doesn't it? Every thought of their heart is only evil continually. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. It's the most wicked thing you can think of, that you can find. The heart is more deceitful than all else and only God understands the true condition of the heart.

One passage in the New Testament, Ephesians 2. And we want to pick up the end of verse 3, the last statement here. Let me read the verse, among them all, too, we formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And note this, and were by nature children of wrath. By nature children of wrath. We were contaminated from conception with the sin of Adam and we not only received our humanity passed down from Adam, but we received the corruption that had infiltrated into Adam when he rebelled against God and became sinful by nature. We can understand a little bit of that. Sometimes in a family there is a gene that is lacking or not functioning right and that can be passed on to generations, one generation to another. It happens. Well this is what happened to sin, it came into the race and it is passed on.

So we have imputed sin where the action of Adam is directly imputed to us, credited to us. Then we have inherited sin which is the corruption and contamination of our very being, our very nature by sin, and thus its consequences.

There is a third area of sin that I want to mention, that is our personal acts of sin. So we have imputed sin, we have inherited sin, and the third area is personal acts of sin, the deeds of sin that we do. We lie, we steal, we commit immorality, we murder, and on we go. Those are a manifestation of the sin nature we have, but they are our own personal responsibility in committing sin. So even though I inherited a sin nature which makes me evil and guilty before God from birth, and that sin nature moves me to evil and rebellion against God in all that I do, I am still responsible for my decisions. And we see that, we choose not to do some things. I choose not to kill someone or on occasion I choose not to tell a lie, I choose not to steal something. So we make choices. We tell our children about the choices they make. When we talk about the sin nature, the inherited sin, the previous aspect of sin, that permeates all we do and corrupts all our decisions because all our personal acts are tainted by this. Even what would look good on the human level is not good in the sight of God. That's why in Romans 3 we saw there was none good, there is none who does righteousness, because whatever is not of faith is sin. Whatever is not done with the intention and desire to submit to God and bring Him glory is sin. So even the best acts of man are corrupted and tainted by his sinfulness. We talk about total depravity, that means our total being has been corrupted by sin, it doesn't mean we are all doing the worst things we could do. But everything we do is tainted by sin.

Now when we come to our personal acts of sin, these are decisions we make and they are our decisions and we are personally responsible for them. But they flow out of our depraved heart. Turn back to Mark 7. Now we could have gone back and looked at the passages we've just looked at in the previous section about inherited sin because in Genesis 6 where we're told that all the thoughts of men's hearts were only evil continually, they were doing all kinds of sinful things, if you read Genesis 6. When we read in Psalm 51 where David said that he was conceived in sin, he's talking in the context, the particular sin that is weighing on him is he has committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband. But he recognizes those particular acts, as awful as they were, just reflect what a corrupted being I am. So in Mark 7 Jesus clarifying to people. People think you do religious things and that makes you righteous. Or if you do wrong things, that corrupts you. Christ is making it clear here, the real corruption of a person comes from his heart. Now it's not what you eat or don't eat. We have religions who think you ought not to eat this food or eat this food, but that's not the problem. Look at verse 20, He was saying, Jesus speaking, that which proceeds out of a man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of man. That heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things, as Jeremiah 17:9 told us. Out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, the deeds of coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. These things proceed from within the man and defile the man. Our sinful activity, our sinful behavior comes out of our sinful nature, the contamination that corrupts us at the very core of our being. That's why attempts to deal with certain things, certain aspects of sin are futile. You have to deal with the core problem—the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. We have to deal with the center of man. That's why I John 3 says the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. The children of the devil are under the control of the devil and their sin nature, their inherited and corrupted nature. And they always function accordingly. The children of God have become partakers of the divine nature, Peter says, so now we manifest the character of God. Our conduct is shaped by our very being.

When you come over to Romans 1, the first major section of Romans that began in chapter 1 verse 18 talked about our sin, the condemnation that sin brought. It's talking about this third area of sin, personal acts of sin. We say, I don't like the idea I had sin imputed to me because of what Adam did. Furthermore, I don't think it's right that I got a sin nature. Then you have the third area, why do you keep sinning? Stop it. But see we do, we sin. And that's what Romans 1, the opening chapter, is talking about. Look at verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. It's their personal acts that God is addressing. They suppress the truth. I'm not responsible. Yes you are. I'm held accountable for my actions, my decisions. Even though I've been corrupted from birth, I'm still responsible personally for the decisions I make.

The rest of Romans 1 goes through these sinful actions and deeds that men commit. It comes out of verse 28, they have a depraved mind and they are controlled by that. Then you have the list of sins, we had a little summary in Mark 7 where we just looked, but then in verses 29-31 you have some examples of what they do. We talk about often in the teenage years children become rebellious as though that's a stage. That is coming to a point, they are moving toward adulthood where they can do and exercise their will and they sense that. And what is it then? They are disobedient to parents, they are insolent, arrogant, boastful. But then if we're honest we as parents modeled this for them as well as we are fallen beings.

You'll note verse 32 while we're in Romans 1, though they know the ordinance of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same but give approval to those who practice it. You see the emphasis on practice. That's their personal acts of sin.

Come over to Romans 5 and let me say a couple of things about this. In Romans 5 we're talking about imputed sin, the sinful action of Adam is imputed to us, directly credited to us, if you will. He acted as our representative. And the consequences of that, death. And in this consequence the specific penalty for imputed sin is physical death. That's the death that he focuses on here. Look at verse 14, nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses. He's talking about there the fact that people died between Adam and Moses, between the sin of Adam and the giving of the Mosaic Law, if you remember. People died physically and so the immediate death penalty for imputed sin is physical death. The immediate penalty for our inherited sin or sin nature is spiritual death. Remember physical death is separation of a person from his body, the body without the spirit is dead, James 2:26. Spiritual death is the separation of a person from God. And because of the contamination of sin, we are born in a state of alienation from God, separation from God. We're corrupted and contaminated by sin from birth. The penalty for our sin nature, our inherited sin is spiritual death, separation from God. Adam experienced this. The process of physical death set in immediately for him and he experienced spiritual death immediately. What did he do when God came in the evening? He went and hid himself. There is the sense of alienation, the sense of guilt that was there, sin nature.

Then the personal acts of sin. Now for Adam this is reversed the way we are talking about it because he had no sin nature and there was no one to impute sin to him so he starts out with his personal decision to commit an act of sin. And as a result of that the consequence of sin comes upon him and then he becomes a fallen being. His nature is corrupted and he experiences spiritual death.

There is another dimension here, and that is the second death or eternal death. Turn over to Revelation 20. We are going to be studying Revelation 19 together this evening and Armageddon. Revelation 20 brings us to the last judgment of scripture, the Great White Throne judgment and all unsaved people are brought to this judgment to stand before Christ to be sentenced to hell. And we read in verse 12, I saw the dead, the great and small standing before the throne and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life. Now note this, and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds, their works. All the judgments of scripture are judgments based on our actions, our deed, our works. No one is saved by his works, but all the judgments are based on our works. And that's true here. Our personal acts of sin become the foundation of this judgment. Verse 13, and they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds, their works. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire.

You see there are two sets of books here, there is the book of life and there is the book of works. You are judged out of the book of works, but if your name is not in the book of life you are going to hell. Everyone at the Great White Throne is going to be sentenced to hell, but they are judged on the basis of their works to see the degree of their punishment. I take it this ties together. We have physical death, we have spiritual death, we have the second death or eternal death. They are tied to our sin and the imputed sin of Adam brings to us physical death, the inherited sin and sin nature and our personal acts of sin brings spiritual death and ultimately eternal death.

All three aspects of sin, all three kinds of death, consequences of sin, are taken care of in the provision of Christ. So let's come back to Romans 5. The emphasis on this section not only on the one act of transgression of Adam that brought death, but the one act of Christ in obedience to the will and plan of God who in His grace through the death of Christ was providing righteousness for sinful men and thus life. So we had that emphasis in verse 15, if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by grace. We noted God's grace is His unmerited favor shown towards sinners by having His Son die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin so He could give the gift of salvation to men.

All right, we've talked about how sin got into the world and it affected all men in this context with the imputation of Adam's sin which is the focus here, even though that will include the others ultimately as well, the other aspects of sin. We see righteousness provided by Christ but you remember in the church at Rome there was a problem among Jews and Jews who professed to be believers and were part of the church at Rome who still thought the Mosaic Law had a role to play. Paul spent the first part of Romans showing that the Law could not bring salvation. Romans 3:20 concluded, by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight. Then we began chapter 3 verse 21, but now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested, the righteousness provided in Christ. That raises a question, what about the Law then? Why did God ever give the Mosaic Law in the first place? If it's not part of our salvation, unnecessary for salvation, what purpose did it serve?

So you pick up in Romans 5:20, the law came in so that the transgression would increase. The law never was God's plan for righteousness. By the works of the law no flesh will be justified, declared righteous in His sight. The Jews struggled with this. What do I do? What's the purpose of the Law? The law came in so that the transgression would increase. Now the law doesn't cause sin. Paul is going to talk about the law more extensively in Romans 7. But here you'll note, the law came in so that the transgression would increase. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. You know God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and talked about the light of the glory of the gospel shining into a heart. God's revelation and manifestation of Himself and His will and His truth is light. I think of it like this. If you go into a dark room there might be some bugs on the floor, but with the light not turned on you don't see the bugs. They are there but you don't see them. You turn on the light, you see the bugs. You say, turn off the light, it causes bugs. No, it reveals the bugs. That's what the law did. It revealed how sinful men really were. You'll note here it says, the law came in that the transgression would increase.

That word transgression, that's what Adam did. Remember in verse 14, between Adam and Moses there were those who didn't sin in the likeness of Adam's sin. Then we talk about verse 15, the free gift is not like the transgression, the transgression of Adam. For if by the transgression of the one the many died. And if you were here for our study there, remember the transgression. What did he do? He went against the law of God, Adam did. God gave Adam a law, a commandment, you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That's my law, my commandment to you. If you break it you will die. Adam ate of the tree, he transgressed that law, he went against it, he broke it. The consequence is death. Now between Adam and Moses you didn't have those kinds of specific laws given. Men still died because they were sinners, but they hadn't manifested their sin by breaking a specific commandment.

Verse 20, the law came in so that the transgression would increase. We had a taste of this in verse 16, through one who sinned judgment arose from one transgression. Still in verse 16, on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions to justification. How did you get to many transgressions? You know what happened? Adam had one law to obey, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He transgressed it. The Mosaic Law is given and as the Jews counted it there were 613 commandments or laws in the Mosaic Law. Now what happens? You not only have one law to be careful not to break, you have 613. What did that reveal? It revealed how sinful men really were because what did they do? They immediately broke the laws of God, the multiplied commandments. They transgressed again and again and again. In fact God was gracious, He made provision in the Mosaic Law because what was included in the Mosaic Law and all its commandments? Commandments regarding sacrifice. Why did you need sacrifices? Because people were going to break the laws. See, God knew the very character of man and what his actions would be.

So all the law did was come in so the transgression would increase. So not the sin would increase in and of itself because sin was pervasive. We read about it in Genesis 6 with the flood of Noah. I mean, what happened? Adam, his own family, you have one family, the original family on the earth. You have two brothers and one murders the other. Doesn't take long for sin to reach bottom. I mean, you murdered your own brother? How many of you are there in this world? And you murdered him? I mean, you see what happens.

So the laws come in and now things are clear, and the sin of man is seen to be so great. And you get an idea, the end of verse 16, from many transgressions, multiplied transgressions against what God had said and required.

To bring up what? The end of verse 20, where sin increased sin abounded all the more, it super abounded, overflowing. That picks up the end of verse 16, the free gift arose from many transgressions. And so we have this abundant. Verse 15, much more did the grace of God and the gift of grace abound to the many. Verse 17, those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. It's abounding. Adam sinned and one act of sin brought sin to all and brought the consequences to all. And then the law is given. Let's put it in perspective. The law wasn't given to enable men to become righteous. The law simply revealed how sinful he is. In fact the law is given because man is so sinful he needed restrictions and guidelines.

Come back to I Timothy 1. Paul is talking about people who want to teach the law. We have these people today who think they'll be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. You don't understand, the Ten Commandments are part of the Mosaic Law. They are a summary but there are over 600 commandments in the Mosaic Law. So even if you did keep the Ten you have a long way to go, you understand. The law never was given so men could keep it and become righteous.

There were people in the church at Ephesus that were Jews trying to say you have to keep the law. Paul left Timothy there to set things in order. I Timothy 1:3, he said he left them at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. Verse 6, for some men straying from these things have turned aside to fruitless discussions, wanting to be teachers of the law even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertion. We know the law is good, we'll get to this in Romans 7, if one uses it lawfully. Realizing the law is not made for a righteous person but for those who are lawless, rebellious, ungodly, sinners, unholy, profane, those who kill their fathers, mothers, murderers, immoral men, homosexuals, kidnappers, liars. You see the law is given because men are so sinful and so it was given to the nation Israel to guide their conduct, to restrain their conduct. Even as laws do today. We say, does that mean then that they were righteous? No, it meant that they had restraints. Just like we have laws. We can put a speed limit out here, if you don't put a speed limit I could go as fast as I wanted. Nobody would got 100 mph on 84th Street. But they make a law, didn't change your heart, but the law restrains you because there are certain punishments associated with the law. That doesn't change your character.

So the Mosaic Law didn't change any body's character, but it served to restrain conduct in Israel and keep them from going way off. It was like a tutor, schoolmaster, Galatians says, until Christ would come. Then it had served the purpose. But the law never was a way of sin.

Now understand, as you come back to Romans 5, you can't be saved by keeping the law. That was Paul's argument, we already read it in Romans 3:20, by the works of the law no flesh will be declared righteous in His sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. All the law does is clarify sin and reveal sin more fully. It never was a way of justification. Now if you can't be saved by keeping the law that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai, you can be sure you can't be saved by any of your works that we devise and think, well, by doing good, by doing things that would please God. You can't do it.

So where sin increased, Romans 5:20, grace abounded all the more. You know what we need? We need grace because we are sinners. We started out this way. We need grace and grace abounded all the more. So you look at all the sin committed, all the transgressions multiplied in the world down through history, and you understand the grace of God is so great that it takes all of that. And the penalty for those sins placed upon Christ and He pays the penalty. The one act took care of the many, of everyone.

Now why? Verse 21, so that as sin reigned in death, so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life. The contrast—sin reigned in death, grace reigns through righteousness in contrast to sin, to eternal life. Sin to death, righteousness to life; sin reigns in death. Look around, everyone dies. We talked about it. There are no 200-year-old people, no 150-year-old people. And if somebody gets to be 100 he is old, but he is dying, he is going to die. Sin reigns in death.

But you know what? Grace, God's intention in giving grace, so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He has provided for all as we saw through this section, for the many, for all. But in verse 15, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man abound to the many. We must respond and receive the gift of life so we can receive what Christ has provided for us.

We take it back now, where do we start? Come back to Romans 3:21 where this section began. Now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested. Now we have righteousness reigning to eternal life. Grace through righteousness to eternal life. Back in chapter 3 verse 21 it's apart from the Law the righteousness of God because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight. It's the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. There is no distinction, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So Christ came to make the provision for all but it's made applicable to you only through faith, for those who believe.

Romans 3:24 talks about being justified as a gift by His grace. We see that picked up at the end of chapter 5 again. Out of God's grace He gave the gift of His Son to provide salvation for us, whom God displayed as a propitiation in His blood through faith. So the end of verse 26, He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. You must believe. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. He is not only the God of Jews, He is the God of Gentiles. Verse 30, He will justify the Jews, the circumcised, by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. I mean, the picture is awesome. You have one man, one act of disobedience. He brought sin on all men, he acted as our representative, his action is imputed to us, credited, applied to us. And the result is death. But you have the one Man, Jesus Christ, and He came to act as our representative on our behalf. By His one act of obedience, dying on the cross, He provided life, righteousness for all men. So two heads.

Now that righteousness provided for all men is available to all men as a gift from God's grace. You must believe to have it applied to your account. That's the point that Paul has been developing. Our works don't play a part, it's faith, trusting in what God has done through His Son. That's the grace of God that has provided the gift that is available. There is no bartering here, there is no I'll trust Him and keep the Mosaic Law, I'll trust Him and keep the Ten Commandments; I'll trust Him and do this. You nullify it. Paul will develop this further as we move into Romans. But you had one work that is necessary for righteousness before God, you nullify grace. That means you are back to point 0 because you can't be saved by works. So you see you have to let go of everything that man says you must do, and do what God says you must do and that is believe in His Son. He who believes in the Son has life, he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

So that, verse 21, as sin reigned in death even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Two kings, two kingdoms. The provision that Christ has made for all our sin, the sin imputed to us, the sin we inherited, the sin we commit. All cared for in the abundant overflowing grace of God that has provided His Son so that through faith in Him we could have life.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the magnificence of your plan of salvation. Lord, thank you for laying it out for us clearly. Not that we understand the fullness of what you, the infinite God, have done for us. Lord, even the awfulness of our sin as clearly as it is set forth, yet very difficult for us to grasp the terribleness of sin, the awfulness of being separated from the living God and doomed to an eternal hell. Lord, we thank you for the overflowing, abundant grace that provided a Savior who will cleanse us from all sin, who provides for us the righteousness that comes from you so that we can be presented in your presence as those holy and blameless and without spot. We praise for your salvation and the precious Savior that we have. We pray in His name, amen.