The Life of Christ
Romans 5:12-21
July 5, 2020
Peter Yoo
Sermon Script
For the past several weeks, we’ve been looking at what our Lord Jesus Christ says to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. But for the next four weeks, Lord-willing, our passages will be focused on something different. We’ll focus not so much on churches themselves, but on Jesus Christ, the Savior and the head of his church. And this morning we will be looking at the life of Christ, the next week we will be looking at the death of Christ, then the resurrection of Christ, and finally the ascension of Christ. So that’s the plan for the next four weeks: the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ our Lord. And this morning’s focus again will be on the life of Christ.
It’s not something most believers focus on too much. If you ask most believers today, “what is the gospel?” they’ll probably answer, “Jesus died for my sins.” And this is true, they’re not wrong. Jesus died for my sins and he has forgiven me of my sins. And yes, Jesus Christ died for your sins and he has forgiven you all your sins. Just as he declared the sinful woman forgiven of all of her sins, so does he declare you forgiven of all your sins. Even your deepest and worst sins, you are forgiven in Jesus Christ. And this is so uplifting and comforting to know.
But this morning, I tell you that Jesus dying for your sins is not the whole gospel. Jesus dying for your sins is not the entire good news. In fact, Jesus dying for your sins is but a part of the good news that we believe as Christians. And our text this morning tells us this very simple point: without the life of Christ, there is no hope. Without the life of Christ, there is no hope.
Which brings us to today’s passage. Our brother, the apostle Paul, brings our attention to something interesting. He compares Jesus Christ to Adam. And he contrasts these two. And if I can be so simple, through Adam came sin, and through sin came death. But through Jesus Christ came righteousness, and through righteousness came life. Sounds simple enough, but I encourage us this morning to think deeply about what this means.
First, let’s begin with Adam. God created all things out of nothing. But his crowning jewel of all the things he created, the greatest of all of his creation was man. It wasn’t the birds of the air, as amazing as they might seem. It wasn’t the plants of the earth, as complex and mysterious as they are. It wasn’t deep sea creatures, which I am absolutely fascinated by. No. The pinnacle of God’s creation was man. This is because God made man in his image. God formed man from the dust of the ground and God made man to be like him. Not the birds, not the plants, not the deep sea creatures, God only made man to be like him.
And God entered into a covenant relationship with Adam. And if I can be so simple again, this covenant basically says, “Obey me and live, disobey me and die.” “Obey me and live, disobey me and die.” God essentially said to Adam, “Adam, if you obey me, you will earn eternal life. You will be with me forever. And those after you will be with me forever. But if you disobey me, you will surely die and those after you will surely die.” This is what we call the Covenant of Works.
This might sound harsh and extreme, but let’s remember a few things. One, our God is holy. We must also be holy to enter into his presence and live. Adam was to be holy to enter into God’s presence and live. Two, Adam was able to obey God perfectly. This was not an impossible task for Adam. Three, the purpose of this covenant is not malicious. The purpose of this covenant was so that Adam would prove himself to be righteous before God, he would prove himself to be worthy before God, and then he would earn eternal life for himself and those after him.
But we unfortunately know what happens. Adam sinned against God. Adam rebelled against God. He rejected God. A creature of the dust of the ground rebelled against the righteous, just, and holy God. And Adam represented all those after him, and so all of us who have come from Adam have sinned in Adam. Like a teacher who flunks the entire class because of the one student who cheated, all of us are bearing the weight of his sin to this day.
And before we begin to hate Adam for what he did, I encourage us to stop for a moment and think. As one pastor beautifully put it, the only reason why you exist, the only reason why I exist, the only reason why any of us exist at all is for God. We belong to God. Every breath must be directed towards God. Every thought must be aimed towards God. Every moment we’re awake and every moment we’re asleep is for God. Our whole lives are belong God.
But brothers and sisters, if we’re honest, we don’t live that way, do we? All of us have rejected God as Lord and we want to be lords of our own lives. Our thoughts are not always God-centered. More often than not, they’re man-centered. The decisions we make are not necessarily with God in mind. Our actions are not always made with God in mind. And so we too have rejected God, not just Adam. So it’s true that through Adam came sin, through sin came death. But it’s also true that each of us have sinned against God as well and we too deserve death. This is what Paul means in verse 14 when he says that death reigned over all people, even if your sin was not like Adam’s sin specifically.
But verse 14 ends with a bit of a cliff hanger. Paul talks about something called a “type” of the one who was to come. What does that mean? What’s a “type?” It simply means that Adam was not final. It means that sin and death is not the end. It means that Adam pointed to someone greater. Adam ultimately pointed to the one who was to come. Adam ultimately pointed to Jesus Christ.
So now, let’s go from Adam to Jesus Christ. Why even mention all of the above? What’s so important about the Covenant of Works, this idea of “Obey me and live, disobey me and die”? What’s the big deal about Adam needing to earn perfect righteousness to earn eternal life? What’s so important?
I’ll start explaining what I mean by way of analogies. It’s one thing to have your student loans forgiven. But it’s another thing to be given a million dollars positively credited to your bank account. It’s one thing to be released from the penalty box in hockey. But it’s another thing to have a player on your team score all the winning points for you. I got that illustration from one of my professors. And it’s one thing to no longer be on bad terms with your parents or spouse after a big fight. But it’s another thing to be incredibly loved and absolutely cherished by them.
The death of Christ may forgive sins, but it’s the life of Christ that gives you eternal life. When our Lord Jesus Christ was on this earth, he wasn’t doing random miracles for no good reason. He was earning righteousness. His purpose on this fading earth was not to just live a good life and have other people follow him. He was earning righteousness. He took on human flesh, lived on this earth, and he obeyed God’s Law perfectly. And he did it all so that he would end up giving you his perfect record so that you would be saved.
The two book illustration that we’ve heard over and over again captures this idea so perfectly. There are two books, a black book and a white book. The black book has your name on its cover and the white book has Jesus’ name on its cover. And when God opened up the black book with your name on the cover, it would have recorded all of your deeds. Good deeds that you did, but it also recorded all of your sin. And it’s as if God saw your sinful record and he said, “Who is this sinful person? This person deserves to die!” And when God opened up the white book with Jesus’ name on the cover, it would have recorded all of the good deeds that Jesus did. And it’s as if God saw his Son’s perfect record without sin, and he said, “This is my Son, whom I love, in him I am well-pleased. This person deserves to live. This person deserves to be with me forever.” And it’s as if God took the covers, ripped them off, switched them, resealed them with new bindings. And so, when God opens the book with Jesus’ name on the cover, he sees all of your sin and wickedness. And it’s as if he said, “Who is this sinful person? This person deserves to die!” This is the death of Christ. But when God opens the book with your name on the cover, he sees his Son’s perfect record, all the things that he delights in. And it’s as if God said, “I love this person. This person deserves to live. This person deserves to be with me forever.”
Brothers and sisters, do you see the problem? The illustration I just mentioned isn’t the Covenant of Works! The Covenant of Works is “Obey me and live, disobey me and die.” And yet, Jesus obeyed God perfectly and he died. We disobeyed God constantly and we live! It’s all backwards! This is the love of Christ. He lived perfectly on this earth and he gave you his perfect record so that you could have eternal life. He was the lamb without blemish, and yet he was punished as if he was a sinner.
This beautiful, perfect record of Jesus Christ is what Paul calls in Romans 5 the “free gift.” The “free gift.” Brothers and sisters, Jesus’ perfect life is his gift to you. His removal of your sin from you is his gift to you. He lived a perfect life on earth so that he might give it to you as a free gift. This gift cost him his life, but his gift of salvation and eternal life is given to you by grace. Not one of us deserve it. If there is any of us who believe that we deserve God’s love, I encourage you to think twice. There is no Christian who believes they did anything to deserve God’s love. And yet, Christians are thankful that they have God’s love given to them as a free gift anyway.
We can see why the “free gift” of God is so much more different than the sin of Adam. The effect of Adam’s sin is eternal death for mankind. But the effect of Christ’s perfect life on earth is eternal life for his church. The effect of Adam’s sin brings forth judgment on all mankind. But the effect of Christ’s perfect life gives you eternal life in the new heavens and the new earth. And Paul describes Christ’s free gift to you as the free gift of righteousness and as an abundance, an abundance of grace.
Paul describes this free gift so personally and intimately in verses 15-17. And this makes sense, doesn’t it? Why? Acts 8 tells us that Paul approved of the execution of Christians. Paul would ravage the church. Paul would personally go from house to house, dragging Christian men and women from their homes and throwing them into prison. And after Paul has done all of these horrible things to God’s people, God still showed him mercy. God still showed him love and compassion. God gave Paul, even Paul, the free gift of Christ’s righteousness so that he might have eternal life. And what is his response to having Christ’s righteousness? Anything that he was once proud of, any grounds that he might have had for boasting in himself, he considered it as rubbish, worthless in his eyes, compared to knowing Christ and his righteousness (Phil. 3:4-9). And so for Paul, he can’t stop talking about this free gift that he has received. And he can’t stop describing Christ’s righteousness in such personal terms.
Brothers and sisters, what does Christ’s righteousness mean to you? When is the last time we gave thanks to God, not only for the death of Christ but also for the life of Christ? It may be the case that we don’t think about Christ’s righteousness all too often. But this morning, God’s Word encourages every Christian, every saint, every believer in Jesus Christ that Christ’s pure and perfect life was given to a sinful and wretched guy like Paul. A guy who did unspeakable things to Jesus’ people. And yet Jesus gave him the free gift of his righteousness. The free gift of Christ’s righteousness is given to you dear saints, despite what you’ve done against him.
God declares all people as guilty sinners in Adam. But God declares all Christians to be righteous in Jesus Christ. This is what Paul is saying the last verses, isn’t he? That the only reason why God declares you righteous is because of Jesus. Not because of anything you’ve done to earn his favor. Remember, even your good works recorded in your book were done away with. All you have now is the righteousness of Christ that is given to you as a free gift. The love that God has for his Son is the exact love that God has for you. And the moment God stops loving his Son, is the moment he will stop loving you. Which I hope can be words of comfort and assurance this morning, because guess what? God will never stop loving his Son. And this means that God will never stop loving you. All this is because God sees you as if you were his Son.
Brothers and sisters, it’s discouraging to think about our sins, isn’t it? We don’t like to think about our particular sins for too long. We generally don’t like being guilty of a particular sin or feeling shame about what we’ve done. And so we might move to other things. Sometimes what happens is that we think about other people’s sins. And sometimes we compare ourselves to other people, possibly even comparing our righteousness to others’ righteousness. But I encourage you this morning to not think this way. Every person, both believers and non-believers, without exception, every person needs the gospel of Jesus Christ every day. We all need the righteousness of Christ to be saved. Without it, there is no hope. None of us are good enough to earn God’s favor. Only Christ was perfect. And even he’s patient toward us in our weakness. And so I encourage us this morning that if anyone is struggling with their worth before God, remind them that we too could not earn favor with God. And yet our favor with God comes from Christ’s righteousness, which he gives to us as a free gift.
Brothers and sisters, I also encourage us to love the righteousness of Christ. I encourage us this morning to love the commandments that Christ obeyed perfectly. Christ loved the commandments of God and so should we. Jesus tells us that if we love him, we will keep his commandments (John 14:15). Not by our own strength. Our natural inclination, the natural bent of our hearts is to love what we want to love and not what God loves. But let us pray that God’s Spirit in us would change our hearts in such a way that we would begin to love his Law. That slowly but surely, we begin to love what Christ loves. Christ loves righteousness and holiness. I hope and pray that as a church, we would altogether slowly but surely love the righteousness and life of Christ more and more.
Lastly, brothers and sisters, I remind you that our Lord Jesus Christ is coming soon. And one day, you will sense a great change of heart. Because there will no longer be a wrestle between loving God’s righteousness and loving our righteousness. When Christ returns and takes us home, all of us will be permanently enjoying the benefits of his righteousness. You have a seat at the King’s table right now because Jesus Christ has earned it for you. And we can be assured that we are now as accepted by God as we will ever be. We cannot be more accepted in heaven as we already are right now in Jesus Christ. But in the new heavens and new earth, we will enjoy being accepted by God. Soon, we enjoy the righteousness of Christ. And even better, we will soon see our Jesus face-to-face. His love for us will be clearer than ever before. Our hearts will be warmed, And his embrace will be warmer. Brothers and sisters, let us look to Christ, our Savior with eyes of faith, for his return. Let us live this life with thankfulness for the righteousness of Christ. Because now that we have the free gift of his righteousness, we have hope.
Soli Deo Gloria