Paul tells us in Romans that “all men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (3:23) It is only by God’s grace, by a faith of believing in Jesus Christ, that we are accepted as righteous.  In chapter 5 we are told what happens after a person is saved from his sins.  In other words, “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1) Not only that but we will be able to “rejoice in our sufferings.” (3)  That’s because “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (5)

              Today’s passage is a summary of all that Paul has said up until now.  Verse 12 starts out with “Therefore” which means that what Paul has said up until now on is based upon what he has already said about man being born in sin, and that man is to be destroyed because of the wrath of God upon man’s sins.  However, by the abundant grace of God, He prepared a way of salvation by His Son, Jesus Christ.  By believing in His Son, we are made righteous.  Today’s passage tells us how great God’s grace is.  Today let’s look at three aspects of God’s grace.

I.                By one man death came to all men. (vs. 12-14)

First let’s look at the greatness of Adam’s sin.  Let’s look at verses 12-14.

This tells us about the great effect Adam’s sin had on all mankind.  By the sin of one man, Adam, sin came into the world, and because of the sin, “death came to all men.” (12)  It became a problem for all mankind.  Adam is a representative of all mankind.  Because Adam sinned, we, all mankind, sin.  This is the original sin.  The Bible teaches over and over again that because Adam sinned, sin came into the entire world, and it spread to all men.  This is expressed five times in verses 15-19 as “many died by the trespass of the one man.” (15)  Adam’s sin is related to each of our individual’s sin.  Another way of saying it is because of Adam, all men sin.  The Bible says that we have sinned from the time we are in our mother’s womb.

A large part of our situation or environment has nothing to do with our will, but was given to us.  For example, we aren’t Japanese because we wanted to be, but from the time we were born we are Japanese.  We aren’t born in a rich family or a poor family because we chose to be, it is just where we were born.  Such situations or environment was not decided by us.  It just happened that way.  In the same way, we didn’t choose to be born with sin. We were just born that way. This is the meaning of verse 12.  When the first man Adam sinned by not obeying God, all of man became fallen and sin entered all men.  All of men have the same fate as Adam.

If Japan won the world cup, we’d all be yelling, “We won!” even though we didn’t play in the games.  That is because the eleven men who played represent Japan.  Their victory is all of Japan’s victory.  In the same way Adam represents all of mankind.  His sin is all of our sin.

In the spiritual realm it is important to understand this concept of represenativeness. On one side of the coin is that by one man’s sin all men die.  On the other side is that by one man’s obedience, all men can be saved.  Therefore, the representative of man is very important.  When we look at Israel’s history, Israel was blessed the most when she had outstanding leaders.  In other words, when leaders like David who honored God and followed God were kings, then the condition of the country became good.  However, when the King didn’t follow God’s will, the condition of the country became bad.

This can be said about all of history too.  This can be said about the family too.  When the head of the family stands on the Word of God, prays, and spiritually stands straight, then that family is full of God’s grace, but when the leader is not, the family tends to fall apart.  The Church is the same.  When the Pastor stands up straight in front of God, prays, follows God’s word, and faithfully serves the Church, and then the church is blessed.  But if not the church is not blessed.  The key is the Pastor.  This is true of the leaders in a company, leaders in the community, leaders of the nation, and leaders of all institutions of society.  The leader determines whether something stands or falls.  Therefore, we need to pray for our leaders.  Please pray for me.

The first man, Adam, was the representative of all mankind.  Adam sinned so “sin entered the world”. (12) There is no exception. We all have the original sin within us, so even if we are not committing some huge sin, we are all sinners and should die.

II.              How much more is God’s grace than sin (vs.14-21)

God had mercy on such man.  This is the grace of Jesus Christ.  Let’s look at verse 14.  Here it says, “Adam, who is a pattern of one to come.” “One to come” (14) refers to Jesus Christ.  Here Paul is explaining the greatness of God’s grace by using the image of Christ as the second Adam and comparing Christ and Adam.  In other words, just as through the sin of Adam all mankind fell into sin, through Jesus Christ salvation was made possible to all mankind.  Through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, all that believe in Him are saved.

However, there is a huge difference between the first and second Adam. The difference is that the grace of the second Adam, Jesus Christ is overflowing.  Look at verses 15 to 17.

Here Paul stresses that the grace of Jesus Christ is overflowing.

Vs. 15    “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.”  

Vs. 17 “How much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift righteousness.”

Vs. 20    “grace increased all the more”

                            This shows that compared with Adam, God’s grace is so much bigger.  That can be seen in the words, “How much more”. (15, 17)

                            “Many died” (15) by the sin of Adam, but “How much more did God’s grace and gift that came by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to many.” (17) Also “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.  It is like light.  When light shines, the dark is set free.  No matter how much control death has, if you believe in Jesus Christ, the darkness will disappear.  That is because after 3 days Jesus rose from the grave and now lives.  “How much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (17)  “How much more” is used when describing the greatness of salvation.  It was used in verses 8 and 10 too.  Isn’t this wonderful!  By our sins we were enemies with God, but by the blood of Jesus we have been made righteous.  “We were reconciled to him” (10) and saved through his life and can boldly come before God.  God’s grace is greater than this.  Also here it tells us that the first man, Adam, committed only “one sin and brought condemnation” (16) to all men.  But God’s Son, Jesus Christ, by the work of the cross, washed and purified not only Adam’s sin or the original sin, but all the daily sins that we commit, and saves us from all our sins.  How huge a grace!  All of our sins are put on the cross of Jesus.  Christ died in our place.  He was our atonement.  As a result not only our past sins, but our present sins and the future sins that we may commit are forgiven.  This is the difference between “one sin” and “many trespasses” in verse 16.  God’s grace is that huge!  “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.” (15)  Overflowing is one characteristic of God’s grace.

              Ephesians 1:7

              Ephesians 3:20

              God’s grace is bigger than we can ever imagine!

              Psalms 23:5, 6

                            In John 2 at the marriage feast at Cana, Jesus turned about 100 liters of water into wine.  It was not just wine, but the best tasting wine.

                            Also in John 6 Jesus fed a crowd of 5,000 men plus women and children with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish until they were full.  There were even 12 baskets of leftovers.  This is God’s grace.  God’s grace is huge.  It’s overflowing.

III.            The gift that came by the grace of Jesus Christ (vs. 15-21)

The third point is to believe in Jesus Christ.  Look at verses 15 to 21 one more time.  Here Paul is comparing the second Adam, Jesus, with the first Adam.  He tells us about the greatness of God’s grace and at the same time how we can receive this grace.  That is by believing in Jesus Christ.  In the case of Adam, because Adam sinned, sin entered all humans automatically.  God’s gift of grace through Jesus Christ is not automatic.  God’s grace is for al people, but is not automatic like Adam’s.  We have to receive it.  It’s by faith.  That’s what is meant by “gift”. (15)  It is a gift from God.  No matter how wonderful a present there is we have to receive it in order to have it as our own.  God’s gift of grace is the same.  It is for all people, but to make it your own, you have to receive it.  In other words, Adam was our representative so his sin automatically became a part of all mankind.  However, the gift from Jesus is received by believing in Him.

John 1:12

Those who accept and believe in Christ become the children of God.  A person can be saved only by the cross.  There is no other way.  It is by the grace of God, a gift from God.  All we have to do is believe.  Those who believe are saved.  However, those who do not believe are condemned as sinners.  That is because they did not believe in or accept God’s present.

When the Israelites were in the desert, they were bit by poisonous snakes.  God told Moses to make a snake and put it on a pole.  Those who were bitten were to look at the snake on the pole and they were saved.  That was a very easy thing to do.  All they had to do was to look up.  There was nothing difficult to do, just look at the snake and they were saved.

Also God told Noah to make an ark and go into the ark. To go inside the ark was an easy thing.  There was nothing difficult about it.

Even so a lot of people don’t do such easy things.  Man thinks that you can’t be saved so easily and makes it more difficult.  Therefore, people tend to choose religions that make salvation a difficult thing to obtain.  However, salvation is not difficult.  You only need to accept the gift of God’s grace.

Can you make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life? Do you believe that Jesus Christ can lead you to heaven?  Neither our affluence, success, nor possessions can lead us to heaven.  There is nothing we can do to be saved.  We can only believe.  It is only by believing in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and three day later rose again and completed the work of salvation that we can be saved.  There is nothing less.  There is nothing more.  We can enter heaven only by the grace of God.

John 3:16

Please believe in and receive Jesus Christ, God’s gift of grace.  Then you will be able to say too, “My cup overflows.  The grace that God pours out upon me is so huge!”