Introduction
In Psalm 2:8 God the Father says to God the Son, “I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” In Psalm 110:1, the Father says to the Son, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” In 1 Corinthians 15:22-26 Paul echoes this saying, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. . . . For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” As we read earlier from Philippians 2:9-11, “God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” And in Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Did you know that because all of this is true you can just do certain things now and God will greatly bless it? Like ordinary acts of faithfulness can be used in great ways to do great things. For instance, I know of a man from Texas, a surfer from Corpus Christi who decided to take the gospel to Papua New Guinea. Everyone said he was crazy at the time, because it was a hostile land full of cannibal heathens who raped and murdered at will. In fact, the missionary agency that this guy was partnered up with made him sign a form saying they didn’t have to attempt to bring his body home if he was killed on the mission field, as they told him he likely would be. But full of faith and resolve, about 50 years ago, this brother went and advanced the gospel there. In fact, he went and saw such success that he started his own mission agency that has recruited many over the years to go and do likewise. And in God’s providence I saw this weekend that Papua New Guinea voted this year to amend its constitution to declare itself a Christian nation.
And because Christ is King we can just do things like that now. It makes me think of a documentary I saw about making Christian Schools; it’s called, Gerinimo, Amen! In other words, just say a little prayer and go for it. We can be true Christians who fight sin and live for Christ, even taking great risks. We can start, have, and multiply Christian families. We can start, have, and multiply Christian churches. We can start, have, and multiply Christian schools and businesses. We can even start, or reform and recover, have, and multiply Christian nations. After all, what is a nation but a group of people united by shared loves, laws, and culture—and the gospel impacts all of those.
As I just read, the nations have been given to Christ… And now He has called us—we who are rightly under His rule and reign by grace—to go and get them. To baptize them, to disciple them, and to teach them to observe all that He has commanded—to know and to keep His Law. But that seems quite baffling to most because most, even many of us don’t know and keep His Law. We act as though we are still slaves of sin, when really we have been made slaves of Christ, who have been set free from sin’s bondage and enabled to live righteously in Christ. We may not always act like it, but God’s Word is clear, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have been made new. We are children of God who have been blessed to be a blessing.
And you see, that’s just the point. All of this actually ties back to God’s promises to Abraham and Adam. God promised Adam and Eve a Savior who would succeed where Adam failed. And God promised Abraham that the promised Savior would come through his line, and that He would bless Him, and through Him all the families and all the nations of the earth would be blessed—blessed to be a blessing. And then, as we have seen in Romans, we, like Abraham, are justified by faith. And now we are children of Abraham through whom the nations are blessed.
When Adam fell, the world fell with him. Sin entered, death reigned, and all of creation groaned under the weight of that curse. But the story did not end in the garden. From the beginning, God purposed that another Man would come—the true and better Adam—who would do what the first Adam failed to do, who would not grasp at divinity but would humble Himself in obedience, and by His faithfulness restore man to God and God’s reign to man. This would come in and through the line of Abraham and the faith of Abraham. That’s the story Paul is telling in Romans, especially Romans 4 and 5. It’s not just about how individuals are forgiven, but about how families and nations are being blessed, and about how the world is being made new. Christ’s obedience is undoing and overdoing Adam’s disobedience. His grace doesn’t merely balance the scales—it tips them forever toward life. And that means the world you woke up in this morning is not ruled by sin and death, but by grace and life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that’s what we’re going to see in God’s Word today. So look with me at Romans 5:18-21.
Context
So far in Romans, Paul has been unveiling the great covenantal story that defines all of human history. He has shown that all people, Jew and Gentile alike, stand guilty in Adam—condemned covenantally, not merely individually. The Law exposes this guilt but cannot heal it; it reveals the depth of our covenant breach and drives us to the only faithful Covenant Head, Jesus Christ. From the beginning, God has been forming a covenant family by grace through faith—Abraham believed and was justified, and all who share that faith are counted as his children and heirs of the promise. We too are justified by grace alone through faith in Christ alone. But that justification and that faith do not stay alone, they bare fruit that transfers and transforms, turning this world upside down for Jesus. And that brings us to our passage today.
Romans 5:18-21
Our passage begins in verse 18 with Paul saying, “Therefore.” Therefore in light of Christ leading His people into what Adam was supposed to, and so much more… consequently then, “as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” As we saw last week, Adam’s one trespass was actually a host of trespasses—it was a breaking of the Covenant of Creation, the Covenant of Life. Though it’s true that he broke God’s command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that one sin was the fruit of his unbelief, his not trusting and obeying God’s Word, and along with that his failure to be the prophet, priest, and king that God called him to be. So his trespass includes his eating the forbidden fruit, but also failing to be the covenant head he was created to be, as well as the husband he was to be. And all of that led the whole of humanity into sin, condemnation, and death.
But here Paul gives a comparison that flips this on it’s head. As Adam led humanity into sin, condemnation, and death, so Jesus is leading a new humanity into righteousness, justification, and life. And like Adam, Paul says Jesus does this through one act… But like Adam this one act includes a great deal. Just as Adam’s one trespass was a breaking of the Covenant of Creation, so Jesus’ one act of righteousness was a keeping of the Covenant of Redemption. Paul has already said in Romans 4:24 that Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. So Jesus’ one act of righteousness doesn’t merely mean His life or His death, but the whole of His righteous, obedient, God-glorifying life; along with His sacrificial, wrath-absorbing, obedient death; His death-defeating, justifying resurrection; and His victorious, glorious ascension to the right hand of the Father where He rules, reigns, and ever intercedes for His people whom He has redeemed. In other words, just as Adam’s one trespass includes his failures as a covenant head, as a husband and our prophet, priest, and king, so Jesus’ one act of righteousness includes His success as our covenant head, as our Husband, Prophet, Priest, and King. And His success leads to justification and life, or justification onto life for all men. He has redeemed us out of sin, death, and condemnation.
The idea is that in Christ we are not only made righteous before God, we are not only justified by faith through the person and work of Jesus, but we are also made alive in Christ and are now able to walk in newness of life in Christ. We are redeemed by the person and work of Jesus, and justified through union with Him; in Christ we are counted just and righteous and therefore we are made right with God so that we can be in proper relationship with God, and this is what life is here. As Jesus said in John 17:3, eternal life is knowing God the Father and God the Son—that is being in right covenant communion, in loving fellowship with the triune God. Truly knowing God and being truly known by God is at the heart of what eternal life—that is true genuine life—is. And when we are justified in Christ this is what we have. Because of Adam and because we are like Adam we were dead in our trespasses, but, as Ephesians 2:5 says, God made us alive together with Christ.
As Paul puts it later in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Those who are looking to Jesus by faith are no longer under the power of sin, condemnation, and death. We are in the righteousness, the justification, and life of Jesus. And that means, as Paul goes on to say in Romans 8:4, by the Spirit the righteous requirement of the law is now fulfilled in and through us. That is, not only are we counted righteous in Christ, but we are enabled to live a righteous life for Christ. Because we now have right covenant communion and fellowship with the triune God, because we now have true eternal life in Christ, out of an overflow of that life we can now live a righteous life for God’s glory. As Romans 6:11 says, we are now dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Just as Adam’s fall led to total depravity for all who are in him, for the old humanity, so does the person and work of Christ lead to total righteousness for all who are in Him, for the new humanity. That means, if you are a Christian, you can and you should stop giving in to sin. Stop giving in to anger. Stop giving in to lust. Stop giving in to anxiety, bitterness, gossip, and slander. That’s not who you are. So stop! Repent, and follow Christ.
Notice what verse 19 says, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” All men in verse 18 is the many in verse 19. This is not all men without exception, but all men without distinction. Men and women, boys and girls from every nation and generation. No matter who you are, no matter where you’re from, no matter how old you are, and no matter what you’ve done, if you’re in Adam all there is for you is sin, death, and condemnation; but if you’re in Christ by faith all there is for you is righteousness, justification, and life. Paul says in Adam we were made sinners… That is, were, as in past tense. Just like Romans 3:23, where Paul said, “For all have sinned…” We sinned in Adam. We were made sinners in Adam. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Fall short, as in present tense and on going. We sinned in Adam and now we are sinners in Adam.
But again Paul flips this on its head and says that in Christ the many—those who look to Him by grace alone through faith alone—will be made righteous. To be sure, as Paul has already told us, like Abraham, our faith is counted to us as righteousness. The moment we have true faith we are justified in Christ because His righteousness is accredited to us. The one man’s, that is, the one true God-man’s obedience—His passive and active obedience, all that He is, all that He has, all that He has done, is doing, and will do—has accomplished and is accomplishing our righteousness. In Christ there is no condemnation because we are already legally righteous before God. But by God’s grace in and through the Spirit of Christ we are being practically made righteous day by day. In Adam we were made sinners and our identity as sinners showed itself in and through a life of sin. But now in Christ we were made righteous, and our identity in Christ shows itself in a life of righteousness. This is actually what Paul does again and again in the New Testament, he calls us to be who we are in Christ, to live out the righteousness we have inherently in Christ. And it’s good and right for Paul to do this because the obedience of Christ not only makes us righteous legally before God, but it remakes us practically righteous so that we are able to live for the glory of God.
This doesn’t mean that we’re perfect in this life. This is not perfection, but a change of direction. We are righteous in Christ, and we will be righteous in Christ, because day by day we are being made righteous in Christ. No doubt, on the final Day we will be fully and finally made perfect. But until then we still need the Law and the like to lead us in practical righteousness. Which is where Paul goes next. In verse 20 he says, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more…” Paul seems to have in mind the Law given to Moses, but the principle is the same no matter what Law he has in mind.
God gave laws to Adam and Noah long before Moses. In fact, as Paul has already said in Romans 1 and 2, His Law has always been discernible in and through His creation and our conscience because it flows from His nature and character. But when the Law was written down, especially on tablets of stone, it increased the trespass, meaning it increased the weight of sin and the guilt of sin because what’s right and what’s wrong was made all the more clear and weighty in and through the Law clearly given.
The Law increases the trespass in the sense that it clearly identifies sin. This doesn’t mean that we don’t still try to suppress the Truth in our unrighteousness, just that it makes it a little harder to do so. Let me show you what I mean. If you go back to Genesis and analyze what Adam was called to do, you could summarize his duty well by saying that he was called to love God and love His neighbor, especially his closest neighbor, his wife. With Noah it was similar, but he was given a bit more as God called him and all of humanity not to murder, and that if they did murder they would answer for it with their life. Then when God gives the Law to Moses, not only does He unpack the first and second greatest commandments a bit with the 10 Commandments—the Moral Law, and not only does He formally lay out the Ceremonial Law that in some sense was established after Adam’s sin, but He gives case Law through the Judicial Law. He lays out the application of the Moral Law in the life of a nation. So, for instance, the 6th commandment to not murder is explained and applied in a host of different ways, not just the black and white way it was to Noah. And, though we don’t just copy and paste the Judicial Law into our life today, we do unpack and apply the Moral Law today in light of God’s Judicial Law… Even our Reformed Confessions and Catechisms do this.
In The Westminster Larger Catechism for instance, question 135 asks, “What are the duties required in the sixth commandment? (Answer) The duties required in the sixth commandment are all manner of careful efforts and lawful endeavors to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices which tend to the unjust taking away of anyone’s life. This includes: • the just defense of lives against violence; • patiently bearing the hand of God, with quietness of mind and cheerfulness of spirit; • sober use of food, drink, medicine, sleep, labor, and recreations; • charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, and kindness; • peaceable, mild and courteous speeches and behavior; • forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and returning good for evil; • and comforting and supporting the distressed and protecting and defending the innocent.” I mean, you could build the laws of a nation on that question and answer… With that in mind, we can see that the Law increases the trespass in that it shows that our trespasses are more and worse than we thought. It’s not enough to not be a murderer, you must also protect life, and the like. And it’s not enough to merely do this physically, even our thoughts and emotions matter here. We must be just holistically. And the Law is what helps us clearly see and identify all of this. It identifies our sin and shows us that our sin is wrong… that it’s a trespass against almighty God. Sin is a going and a doing of what we ought not to do where we ought not to go. We were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and we shouldn’t be going and doing anything but that. All else is sin, it’s a trespass against God.
Now when we were in Adam we seemed to always be drawn to go where we shouldn’t and do what we shouldn’t. And even in Christ that temptation is still there. As Paul says in Romans 7:21, “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” The Law can often increase the trespass because the old man wants to go against it. And we identify such things as normal, as a part of what it means to be human. We act as though it is only right to be broken and tempted to rebel. But it isn’t. It may be a normal occurrence in fallen humanity, but it is not what humanity was meant to be like. To be truly human is to not be imperfect, sinful, and broken, but to be Christ-like, righteous, and God-glorifying. In that sense Jesus is the only true human who has ever lived. But He lived, died, rose again, and reigns on high to lead us to be a part of His true and new humanity.
No doubt, we are broken, we are imperfect sinners, and the Law increasingly shows us that we are far worse than we thought, but notice what the last part of verse 20 says, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” We don’t sit and soak and sour in our sins. We don’t stop at the fact that we are sinners. Our sin does not get the last word. Grace abounds! As that great gospel puritan Richard Sibbes put it, “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.” Our sin is no match for the mercy and grace of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ. As R. J. Rushdoony said, “The triumph of grace renders the results of sin insignificant by comparison… Christ’s obedience makes His people righteous or just before God, and it remakes their nature to be a people of justice.” That is, to be a people of righteousness. And that’s where Paul goes next.
After telling us that sin does not get the last say, but grace abounded all the more, in verse 21 he says, “so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” To be sure, the Law does not save us. It is a tutor that shows us our sin and leads us to our Savior, but our Savior leads us back to the Law to live a life of righteousness for His glory. Under the broken Covenant in Adam sin, Satan, and death reigned over us. But because Jesus perfectly kept the Covenant of Redemption, and brought us into the Covenant of Grace, we are no longer in Adam, and therefore no longer under the rule and reign of sin, Satan, and death… We are under the reign of grace. We are under the reign of King Jesus.
When Adam broke covenant with God, he essentially handed the keys of the kingdom over to death and the devil. But remember what Jesus says in Matthew 12:29, “how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.” And you see, this is what Jesus did. He came to bind the strong man and plunder his house. He came to take the keys of the Kingdom back, and to redeem a people for Himself, a new humanity that would not stay bound by sin and Satan and death, but who would be set free, and empowered by the Spirit to walk in that freedom.
When the Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, the war wasn’t instantly over. The enemy still fought fiercely for almost a year. Battles raged, lives were lost, and cities were destroyed—but the decisive victory had already been won. From that moment on, Nazi Germany was doomed. The strong man had been bound; his empire was collapsing, even if it hadn’t yet surrendered. That’s what Christ did at the cross. He landed on enemy soil, struck the decisive blow, and bound the strong man. The world may still feel like a battlefield, but the war’s outcome is no longer in question. Every act of faith, every righteous deed, every Christian home and church planted in this world is like another liberated town under the reign of King Jesus.
Jesus is our true and better Adam, our new and better King, who transfers us into a new and better Kingdom. As Colossians 1:13 says, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son.” This is what God has done by the Spirit. As Paul goes on to say in Colossians 2:13-15, “you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him (that is with Christ), having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.” He disarmed sin, death, and Satan, He bound the strong man in and through the person and work of Christ. You are no longer under his reign. You are no longer under the reign of sin. You are under the reign of Christ, of grace, so that grace might reign through righteousness in and through you.
When Satan, the great accuser accuses you and tries to lead you into the pit of doubt and despair, remember what Martin Luther said. “When the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: ‘I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!’” But I would add, where He is there you are also. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6). You’re already there. Because you are united to Christ by faith you are already seated with Him in the heavenly places. You already reign with Him. You are no longer under the rule and reign of sin, but under grace, grace that abounds and out does sin in every way… And that has changed everything. So when Satan tempts you towards any sin remind him that you are not under his reign. Your under the reign of Christ, the victorious King who has bound him. Tell Satan, sin, and the temptations of the flesh and the world to buzz off. You belong to Jesus!
You see, the idea here is that those of us who look to Christ by faith, those of us who hate our sin, who love Jesus, and trust that the person and work of Christ is our only hope of salvation, that those of us who are in right covenant communion, in right fellowship with God should actually live like it, because by God’s grace we can. Grace is meant to reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is, the eternal life that we already have in Christ is meant to effect and transform our entire lives, and the ripple effects of our lives are meant to effect and transform the entire world. We have been transferred from the reign of sin to the gracious reign of King Jesus. And along with that we have been transformed from those whose identity was in Adam and in sin, to those whose identity is in Christ and in righteousness. And as we live out who we are the rule and reign of Christ is advanced in and through us.
Remember what Jesus said eternal life is. As I mentioned earlier, in His High priestly prayer to the Father in John 17:3, He said, “this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Right knowledge, right covenant communion, right fellowship with God is what eternal life is. And we have this now, and will have it to an infinitely greater degree in the age to come. But we advance this reality now as we seek to cover the earth with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And we do that as we seek to bring every area of life into joyful submission to the Lordship of Christ. Eternal life is knowing God and being known by God, and the main thrust of our mission is to know God and make Him known—to cover the earth with knowledge of Him.
Our faithfulness will lead to the salvation of God’s elect. But you see, this isn’t merely about evangelism. In Adam, sin reigns and death spreads; in Christ, grace reigns and life abounds—true life in every aspect of the word. God is renewing His covenant world through the obedience of His Son. Christ’s righteousness doesn’t merely cancel Adam’s failure—it creates a new humanity, a new covenant people, who share His life, His Spirit, and His reign. The broken communion of Eden is being restored in the Church, the new creation, where grace now rules through righteousness unto eternal life. The reign of Christ is being advanced in and through us as we take every thought and every area of life captive for King Jesus. We are to lead this world out of sin and death, out of bondage to Satan as we live life as it is meant to be lived in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. As we go about out lives as individuals, as family members, as church members, as citizens, as members of society and the like under the reign of grace, grace abounds in and through us, which turns this world upside down for Jesus.
Conclusion
So what does it mean, practically, to live under the reign of grace—to do, in Christ, what Adam failed to do? It means we now live as prophets, priests, and kings under our true and better King.
As prophets, we speak God’s Word into every corner of life. We declare His Truth in our homes, in our workplaces, in our community, and to the nations. No sphere is neutral; every square inch belongs to Christ. But before we speak the Truth to others we must be sure to speak it and apply it to ourselves. We must hear and heed God’s Word. We must stop living as though we are under the reign of sin. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are children of God under the grace of God. Therefore, we must live like it. We must repent and submit to God’s Word.
As priests, we intercede for the world. We offer up our prayers, our worship, our labors, and our very lives as living sacrifices, that the fragrance of Christ would fill our homes, our church, and our city. We represent God to the people, and the people to God. So we pray for the world, and represent Jesus to the world. We stand in the gap, and live and love in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ.
As kings, we exercise dominion under Christ’s lordship. We build families marked by covenant faithfulness and joyful obedience—homes where fathers lead, mothers nurture, and children grow in the fear and admonition of the Lord. We build churches that disciple the nations. We build businesses and schools and communities that reflect the righteousness, justice, and beauty of our God. We live and vote in line with God’s Word and God’s ways. We take all things captive for King Jesus.
This is what it means to live under grace—it’s to live as free men and women who now reign in life through Christ. We labor, not in vain, but in victory. The curse has been reversed; the Kingdom is advancing; and the glory of the Lord will cover Terrell, Kaufman County, Texas, and the nations, as the waters cover the sea.
When Adam fell, thorns covered the ground, and work became toil. But in Christ, the garden begins to grow again. Every act of obedience, every covenant household, every faithful church is a seed planted in the soil of the new creation. Where sin reigned in death, grace now reigns through righteousness. As we live, work, build, and worship under the reign of grace, we are cultivating Eden restored—the world made new through Christ.
So, beloved, take heart. The reign of sin is broken. The reign of grace has come. In Christ we can just do things now. Therefore, live boldly, build faithfully, speak truthfully, and love joyfully. For the risen Christ reigns, and we reign with Him. His grace abounds, and His grace is amazing. Amen!