A while back I needed to renew my driver’s license.  Which is something that terrifies me because I dread taking the written test.  For the most part I know the answers.  But I just seize up.  Am I alone in this?  Anyone like taking that test?

So I was procrastinating - waiting to see if I would get a letter from DMV saying that, because I’m such a good driver—which is mostly true - despite what some people may think - I was hoping I’d get a letter saying that I could renew my license by mail - without taking the test.  But, time went on.  No letter came.  So I went down to DMV.  Got a book and starting studying.  All the time hoping that a letter would come.

Finally I couldn’t wait any longer.  I went down to DMV.  I’m standing in line reading the book - trying to memorize stuff.  My gut is tightening up.   I’m thinking of all things I’m not going to be able to do once they yank my license.

When I get up to the window and give the girl my information - she takes it - asks me for my renewal fee - and says, “Thank you.”  I said - kind of fearfully - “Don’t I have to take a test?”  Turns out that DMV never updated our old address and the letter - saying that I didn’t have to take the test - the letter went to our old home. 

Bad News.  Good News.  There is a huge difference between the two.  Yes?  I walked out of DMV a whole lot happier than when I went in.

On your Message Notes you’ll find Romans 5:15-17 - which we would like to read out loud together and then come back and unpack what Paul is teaching here.

Romans 5 - starting at verse 15:  “But the free gift is not like the trespass.  For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.  And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin.  For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.  For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”

That all is mouthful.  Isn’t it?  What all that boils down to is Good News and Bad News.

Which would you like first?  The bad news?  Or, the good news?  Of course if you’re looking at your Message Notes you’ll realize it doesn’t really matter.   

THE BAD NEWS in verse 15 to 17 is summed up in verse 17 - these words  “because of one man’s trespass, death reigned.”  The bad news is that death reigned through Adam. 

We understand this because of the world we live in.  The Middle East is at war - or trying to be.  That’s nothing new.  There’s a war in Afghanistan.   Pick just about any place in the world and something bad is going on. When has there ever been a time when people haven’t been abusing or killing each other?

Or, forget the rest of the world.  What about right here in Merced?   There are some really great things about living in Merced.  Being able to come out here is just one of them.  But let’s be real - for many violence is a way of life.  If not physical - then emotional - mental.  The things we do to each other.  The things we do to ourselves.  Are we tracking?

When God’s word says, “death reigns” - we don’t have to look very far to see that something is terribly wrong. 

Three truths we need to know about the reign of death.

First:  Everyone of us is born into it.

Verse 17 says, “because of one man’s trespass, death reigned.”   That one man is Adam.

The account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is familiar to us.  Man was created to enjoy an intimate relationship with God - an abundant  life of opportunity - a deep communion with others - and the freedom to glorify God with our lives.  Adam was placed in a beautiful garden that supplied all of his physical needs.

In that garden God gave one restriction that Adam was to obey.  We’ve memorized this.  “Adam, don’t eat the - what?  fruit.”  Stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  But, Adam rebelled against God with his eyes wide open - knowing exactly what he was doing - a deliberate act of disobedience.  The result is that sin has entered our experience and so death reigns.

Our sin gives authority and power to death.

How many of you spend much time looking at yourself in the mirror?  Its okay.  Maybe that’s a personal question.  But - let’s be honest - we all do.

In our bathroom we have a mirror that’s directly across from the mirrors on the closet door.  So - standing between the mirrors - as I’m looking in one mirror I can see myself in the other mirror behind me.  Have you ever done this?  Pretty cool.

Looking at our image in one mirror and out of the corner of our eye - looking at the other mirror - there’s a progression of images that stretches into eternity.  A progression of images all based on the first original image.

Adam was first - the original image - that sinned.  But each one of us - and every man, woman, and child, that has ever lived is in that progression down through history - participating with Adam in sin - following the pattern.

Paul writes about us in Romans 3 - verses 10 and 23:  “There is none righteous, not even one.  For all - that means all of us - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:10,23 NASB)

Anyone ever take a class called Beginning Sin 101?  Along the way there might have been experiences or people that have helped us develop and refine our ability - our skills at sinning - to get better at it.  But, if we’re honest with ourselves we have to agree with Paul.  No one teaches us how to sin.  We’re born with sin.  There’s a universality of sin.

Grab this:  Because sin is universal - death is universal - death reigns.  Everyone of us is born into the reign of death.

Second truth we need to know about the reign of death.  We’re all bound by it.

There are two certainties in life.  Death and what?  taxes.  You can cheat on your taxes (which I am not recommending).  But you can’t cheat death.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:56:  “The sting of death is sin.”

Paul’s illustration:  A bee stings us and that has its own kind of pain. 

Sin is a self-inflicted wound - toxic - fatal.  Sin is our stinging ourselves.  The result will be death - physical death and eternal separation from God. 

Death is the punishment for breaking God’s command.  We all live with this death sentence hanging over our heads.  Sin and death flow in our race - in us.

Putting that more practically.  How many of you have ever been to a funeral service?  We’ve all been there.  We need to be careful.  When Paul is writing about death he’s not writing about a funeral service at the end of our lives.  He’s making a comparison.

Life is joy - vitality - love - excitement - peace - fulfillment - living to the fullest possibility of who we are - who God has created us and called us to be.  The reign of death is the absence of life - emptiness - loneliness - depression - restlessness - misery - never finding fulfillment.

These are the core issues of our hearts today - what drives people to suicide - to children killing children - to wars - to all of the horrible things we think about ourselves and the terrible things we do to each other. 

Death drives us to fear and uncertainty.  Death tempts us to think of our lives as futile and meaningless.  Death leads the wealthiest and greatest of mankind to look upon their lives with despair.

Death reigns in disease and poverty and failure and divorce and broken homes and addictions and defeat and on and on and on.

At times all of us struggle with this.

The account of Adam and Eve in Genesis holds our attention because every day we relive it in our lives - the failure - the casting out - the longing to return to paradise.  We despair because there’s nothing we - in and of ourselves - nothing we can do to return.  We’re bound by death.

Third truth about the reign of death.  Death reigns whether we acknowledge it or not.

Maybe you’ve heard about this?  A pastor decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon so he placed four worms into four separate cans.  The first worm was put into a container of alcohol.  The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke.  The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup.  The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.   

At the end of the sermon, the pastor reported that the first worm - in alcohol - was dead.  The second worm - in the cigarette smoke - was dead.  The third worm - in the chocolate syrup - was dead.  The fourth worm - in the good clean soil - was alive.

So the pastor asked the congregation, “What can we conclude from this demonstration?”
 

A little old woman in the back stood up and said, “As long as you drink, smoke, and eat chocolate, you won’t have worms!”

Humanity looks at our situation and concludes that the answer is for us to work harder at trying to be good - more humane towards each other.  We can do this.  Which is a conclusion that prompts the question:  How’s that going for us?

There are occasional bright spots.  But let’s be honest - way too often we’ve messed up pretty bad.  Thousands of years of human history and we’d think we’d have gotten somewhere.

God’s word is specific.  The bad news is - because of sin - we’re ruled over by death.

Charles Spurgeon - the great preacher - shared in one of his sermons - about spending some time down in a hut in Italy.  When he went into the hut he noticed that the floor was very dirty - dirtier than any floor he’d ever seen in his life.

After he had lived there a day or two he couldn’t stand it any longer so he hired a cleaning lady to clean the floor.  This woman scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed.  But, the more she scrubbed the floor the dirtier it got.

Finally Spurgeon got down on his own at floor level and investigated what was going on.  He discovered that there wasn’t any floor.  There was nothing but dirt. (1)

With all of our philosophies and peace treaties and self-help programs and religious ideals and politically correct intentions and laws and everything else man - and each one of us has tried - when we get down to the bottom of things - conclude what we want - bottom line:  we cannot get past our own sin and death.

Even if we choose to ignore the truth, God is honest with us.  The bad news is that we live in sin - death reigns.  There’s nothing you or I or anyone else can do about it.

Except God.

That’s THE GOOD NEWS.  Paul writes - in verse 17 - “much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” 

Put simply - Life reigns through Jesus. 

Three truths we need to know about the reign of life.

First:  Life is more than death.

Paul writes in verse 15:  “For if many died through one man’s trespass - meaning because of Adam’s sin we are all under the reign of death - much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.”

In contrast to Adam’s sin which leads the many - us - to death - is the death of Jesus Christ - which opens up the possibility for the many - us - to life.

Jesus takes the sins of the world - our sins - pays the penalty for them - death in our place - endures the ridicule of mankind and the hatred of Satan and his hoards on the cross - is put to death - and forever buried - dispatched by the people - the religious and political leadership of that day - as we would have if we would have been there.  And yet - innocently enduring the worst of this world - He did not stay dead. 

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:  “The sting of death is sin…  Then Paul goes on:  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:56,57)

Jesus has triumphed over death - obliterated its authority and power forever.  The life He offers us is greater than the reign of death.  It is victorious over death.

Paul writes - comparing death and life - Paul uses the words “much more.”  Whatever death is life is much more.

The phrase in Greek has the idea of much more in value - much more in time - much more in content - exceedingly more - whatever way we slice it - with whatever perspective we may view it - with whatever needs we may come to it - as disastrous and terminal as death is - life is to the extreme the opposite.

Jesus said that He came to give us life in abundance - superlative life - life above and beyond anything we can process today.  (John 10:10)

Who “gets” Hell?  Who here really understands the depth of it?  Who here “gets” Heaven?  The heights of it?  What it means to live abundantly with God?  I don’t.  Not until I get there - to Heaven.  And even then - it’ll take eternity and I still probably won’t get it.  I can be slow learner.

Whatever death is  - the life God offers us in Jesus is much more.

Second truth about the reign of life:  Life comes by grace.  The life God offers us is totally undeserved.

God comes to the prophet Hosea and commands Hosea to marry a prostitute and have children by her.  We know how this goes.

Hosea goes and marries Gomer - has 3 children by her - and then she abandons him and the family for another man.  Harsh reality.  Few pains in life go deeper than being on the wrong side of adultery.

In the midst of all this - God - shockingly - tells Hosea - Hosea 3:1 - “Go again, love her again, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods.”  And so, Hosea goes and pays money - 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley - to buy back his wife who’s now working as a prostitute.  (Hosea 3:1,2)

When you think about Hosea doing that doesn’t it rock your boat just a tad?  Gomer must have broken Hosea’s heart.  Humiliated him.  Shamed him.  The one that he’s trusted with the deepest intimacies of his heart has made him the public joke of the town.  And yet, he loves her.  Goes and buys his beloved wife back from the bondage of her sin.  

All that is picture of what?  God’s love for the people of Israel that have prostituted themselves with other gods.  Such is God’s grace towards us who are dead in our sins.  We who have lived in disobedience.  We who have been unfaithful - even living in spiritual adultery - living captive to the reign of death..

That’s God’s grace - the expression of His love.  We deserve death.  We’re born into it.  We’re victims of it.  It reigns over us regardless of if we choose to acknowledge it or not.  But God gives to us what we do not deserve - what we could never earn - His love - His grace - His Son who dies on a cross in our place - paying our penalty for our sins - taking our death sentence upon Himself - to offer us life - a restored relationship with God.  

Regardless of the greatness of our sin - the frequency of our sin - the depth of the disaster that we have made of our lives - or the arrogance we feel in our own self-righteousness - God offers us His abundant grace and loving acceptance - now - and again and again and again - to live in the greatness of life in the resurrected Jesus Christ.

Third truth about the reign of life through Jesus - that life is a gift.

Have you heard this?  “It’s not the gift, it’s the - what?  thought that counts.”

A while back I read about two brothers who put a lot of thought into the giving of a pair of pants that they gave back and forth to each other every Christmas.

First - the pants were tied to a car wheel and run over snow and ice, then removed from the wheel, wrapped in a lovely box, and presented at Christmas.

When the other brother got them the next Christmas, he placed those same pants in a form where wet cement was poured and allowed to dry.  They were presented that year along with a sledge hammer.

So the next year they were placed in the framing of a small tool shed, and the entire shed had to be ripped apart in order to get to the pants. 

The next year, the same sorry, miserable pants sat in the front seat of a car which was demolished and compressed into a flattened piece of metal.  It took a tractor and crowbars to get to that same pair of pants.

It wasn’t the gift.  It was the fun and joy of giving it. (2)

That’s what Paul means that God’s gift is freely given.  God gives without reservation.  Lavishly - without holding anything back.  The giving is not because of what God gets from us.  But God - by His undeserved love and grace giving what is incredible - beyond comprehension - the gift of life in Jesus.  His gift wrapped in the body and blood of Jesus offered joyously - freely - to each one of us.

Paul writes - in verse 17 - that the gift is the “free gift of righteousness.”  Righteousness means being made right with God.  God restoring our relationship with Him.  Making it new so there’s nothing between us.  No issues where we have an unresolved conflict between us and God.

We need to think about the hugeness of that.  God freely supplying everything we need to be made right with Him.

God doesn’t have some kind of spiritual bucket list that He goes down checking off what we’ve accomplished in getting right with Him.  The gift is not up to us.  We don’t deserve it.  Never could.  We can’t earn it.  We can’t work for it.  Cleaning ourselves up before God will accept us.  We’re the one’s making lists.  Not God.

The gift contains everything we need to be made right with God.  We don’t need to look farther.  To the Koran or the Vedas or some other religion or philosophy or teaching.

Everything we need to know about salvation and being set free from the power of sin and the bondage to our sins and the consequences of our sin - the end point of eternal separation from God and eternal conscious punishment.  Everything we need in order to be removed from under the authority of Satan and his kingdom and to be placed into God’s kingdom under God’s authority.  Its all there in the gift.

The gift comes with the power of the Holy Spirit - with everything we need to do life - to live out the life that God has created us and called us to.  Life with meaning and purpose that counts for today and eternity - even sharing the Gospel with others.  Life together in the Church.  God working in us and through us to restore our homes - our marriages - our relationships with others.

The gift comes with God supplying what we need - whatever that is - comfort - forgiveness - wisdom - joy - strength - physical - spiritual - God supplying what we need in the midst of life’s crud.  God Himself going through the drama of life with us.  God even blessing us so that we can share with others as they go through their own drama.

Bad news and good news.  Death or life.

Thinking that through - what could the reign of life be like for you?

Paul writes in verse 15 that “the free gift is not like the trespass.”  Adam’s epic failure that got us into all this.  Unlike the trespass - sin and so death - we’re not born into the gift - the reign of life.  We’re not victims of it.  It doesn’t impose itself on us - forcing us to accept its power over our lives. 

In verse 17 Paul writes that “those who receive” the gift “will reign in life through...Jesus Christ.”  Receiving means accepting - literally - seizing it - reaching out and grabbing the gift. 

God puts the gift on the table.  Its given.  Freely.  With all that God offers to us.  It sits there whether we pick it up or not. 

If the gift if going to be of any value to us we need to receive it to ourselves.  To accept God’s gracious offer of life through Jesus.  The gift requires choice - to live within the reign of life instead of death. 

That is astounding to think about.  Isn’t it?  Based on what we see going on the world around us.  Maybe even in our own lives.  Maybe even a little hard to believe.  That God would offer us so much - something so radically different - so freely.  No fine print.  No strings attached.  Just receive the gift.

What could the reign of life be like for you?  Question:  Have you received God’s gift?

The bottom line is this:  God in Jesus offers us life - abundant - empowered - resurrected life.  Sin and death lose their hold on us when we give our lives to Jesus Christ.

God gives us the opportunity to turn from our sin - to turn from death - to turn from trying to live life by our own bucket list - to repent of all that and to trust God with our lives.  To receive what He freely offers us in Jesus the Savior.

Thinking through death and life - here’s another question:  What could the reign of life be like for those around you?

How many people do we know who are living under the reign of death?  Whether they choose to acknowledge it or not.

We need to keep coming back to the reality that we’re not end users of the gift.  If we’ve received God’s gift - if we have life in Jesus - if we’re living in His reign of life - we need to share that gift with others.

Death reigns.  Jesus reigns.  Both are true whether we acknowledge them or not.  But, God is honest with us.  They do exist.  God’s offer is on the table.  Each of us has a choice.  Bad news or good news?  Death or life?

Which reigns over you?

___________________

1. Stedman, Ray, “To Reign in Life” - sermon on Romans 5:12-21

2. Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations & Quotes

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.