Introduction

How many of you have ever been talked into camping for a weekend in a tent?  My family has talked me into it a couple of times.  I have a picture of a tent like the one I used to have. Off the top of my head, I could tell you a few things about the tent I used to have:

• It was made of canvass
• It was brown and blue
• It was a lot of work to set up
• It was cold at night and hot during the day and dirty all the time
• It leaked if it ever began to rain

Those are the things that come to mind when I remember my tent.  Now if I were to compare tent camping with camping in a luxury motorhome, it really brings to light how different my old tent is from a luxury RV.  (Just to be clear, I don’t own one of these…)  When you compare one thing to another, you are able to see more details of each individual thing.   Here are a few fact about this luxury motorhome:

• It is almost 40 feet long – way bigger than a tent… and you can stand up inside it
• It sleeps at least 4 people on beds comfortably, off the ground
• It has a kitchen and a bathroom and a refrigerator inside the camper (that are nicer than the ones in my house)
• It has running water… and even a hot water heater
• It is waterproof and it has a huge gas furnace… and 2 air conditioners

Put side-by-side, there is really no comparison.  The only similarity between a motorhome and my old tent is that they are both portable places to sleep in the woods.  But, the similarity begins and ends right there.  In every other way they are totally different from each other.  When I compare a tent to a motorhome, I can clearly see how inferior the tent is to the motorhome.  In fact, it is more inferior than I first thought by just thinking about the tent by itself.  It also is crystal clear to me that the experience in each shelter is totally different.

When you compare one thing to another, you are able to see more clearly the details of each individual thing.  In our scripture today, Paul is going to compare and contrast two very significant people in the Bible:  Adam and Jesus.

Review

In our Bible study over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at some very bad news.  The book of Romans, up to this point, has been primarily focused on why we need the gospel.  There was a problem and the gospel is the one and only solution to the problem.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve made up the entirety of mankind.  When Adam and Eve sinned, that meant that all of mankind sinned.  Two weeks ago, it was very clear in the scripture that death and sin always accompany one another.  The bad news is that Adam introduced sin to mankind and sin brought with it death… We need some good news.  We need the gospel!

Romans 1:16 says, “¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…”

Whereas in Adam we all die, in Christ we can all be made alive!  (1 Corinthians 15:22)  Romans 5 is making some comparisons between who we were naturally as a descendant of Adam and who we can be if we are reborn into the person of Christ.  When we compare Adam and Jesus, there are some similarities. (Just like there are some similarities between a tent and an RV)

• Both were men.
• Both represented mankind in some way
• Both did something on our behalf.

BUT… what they did was so RADICALLY different!  Compared next to each other, the vast superiority of the gift we were given in the person of Jesus Christ becomes all the more astounding.  This morning we will be unpacking the greatest gift that you or I could ever unwrap this Christmas season:  the gift of God’s abounding grace in the person of Jesus Christ!

In Christ, we have the gift of God’s grace

In verse 14, Paul calls Adam a type of Christ.  Verse 14 says that “Adam…was a type of the one who was to come.”   (The “one who was to come” is referring to Jesus.)  Paul no sooner makes that comparison of these two types than he feels like he needs to qualify his statement.  It’s like saying a Yugo and a Rolls Royce are both types of cars.  They are both types of cars, but they are so totally different from one another that it’s almost embarrassing to mention Yugo and Rolls Royce in the same sentence.

Adam and Christ are both types of men whose actions impacted enormous numbers of people, but the similarities between the two are superficial at best.  The massive differences that exists between Adam and Christ forces Paul to qualify his comparison of these two types.  Look at verse 15…

“But the free gift (God’s Grace through Jesus) is not like the trespass (The Fall of man).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.”

The first comparison in this series of comparisons clearly states that the free gift of grace through Christ and the transgression we inherited from Adam are completely opposite from one another.  The Greek word translated “free gift” often refers to a gift of God’s grace.  It could be translated “grace gift” and it carries with it the connotation of a favor someone receives without any merit of their own.

To illustrate this concept, I asked my kids: if money were no object, what is the absolute coolest gift you could ever imagine getting for Christmas.  They said a teleporter, a billion dollars and a lifetime membership to Disneyland.  Then I asked them who would be the most undeserving person to receive that gift.  They said, a bully.

So to describe the gift of God’s grace, it would be the like a bully receiving a teleporter, a billion dollars and a lifetime pass to Disneyland, just because he asked for it.  That would be riches beyond what the bully deserves.  We would look at that kid and say, “he doesn’t deserve that!… He’s mean and a bully…”  What we are really saying is that he’s a transgressor who is undeserving of a good gift.

Then I’m reminded that I’m a transgressor undeserving of God’s good gift of grace!  If we were to compare even the best of our good deeds to God’s righteousness,  it would become painfully obvious that we don’t deserve His grace but only His judgment.  Just like Adam, we are transgressors.  That word is unfamiliar to most people.  Transgression means to deviate from a path or to depart from the norm.  (Like stepping off an established trail)

God set Adam on a path where he could do anything he wanted to do except to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Adam began a legacy of transgression when he ignored God’s ONE command and ate the fruit God told him not to eat.  Adam departed from the path God had established for him and entered into a realm that had been forbidden by God.  That is the realm of sin.

Satan promised Adam and Eve that violating God’s one command would make them more like God.  In Genesis 3:4 Satan says to Eve, ““You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

• Instead of becoming more like God, as Satan had promised, they became separated from God.
• Instead of elevating man to an immortal god-like status, sin handed man over to mortality and spiritual death.
• Jesus said it best in John 8:44 when he called Satan a liar and the father of lies.

Adam’s one act secured our condemnation.  (thanks Adam) Adam’s not the only one who’s a transgressor.  Fallen mankind continues in Adam’s legacy of sin every day.  But unlike the secular Santa Claus, God does not wait for us to clean up our act and get on to the “nice list” before He extends His grace to all who would call upon Jesus as Savior and Lord

Just like we were all condemned in the sin of Adam, we can all be saved in the righteousness of Christ.  Look at verse 15b again, “…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.”

“Abounded” is not a big enough word to describe the extent of the gift we were given through Jesus.  We don’t have a big enough word to contain this truth in our language so I’ll do my best to describe to you what Paul is trying to communicate here.

God is perfectly righteous.  Sin is so offensive to God that just one sin would have been enough to keep all of mankind (Adam and all of his descendants) separated from Him for all of eternity.  The grace we receive from God through Jesus Christ didn’t only cover that one sin, but it cleanses every disciple of every sin they ever commit for every generation of believers.

A sin is any thought, word, deed, action or attitude that falls short of God’s standard of utter perfection and righteousness.  I figure I’ve sinned several times on the way here this morning. The late D. James Kennedy calculated that a “good person” (someone on the “nice” list) on average commits more than 75,000 sin in their lifetime.

This verse says that God’s grace is more than enough to cover both the original sin of Adam and every one of those thousands of sins every one of us commits.  It is not just grace that abounds to barely cover the one sin, but a grace that super-abounds to cover it all. It “Abounded!”

The fall of Adam had the effect of producing ruin for so many people.  But…the righteousness of Christ has far more power to save, than Adam had the power to destroy.  God’s grace is far greater than man’s sin.  God’s grace abounds….

Adam’s sin produced a one dimensional effect – it brought death to everyone.  But the effect of Christ’s redemption has benefits that are beyond measure.  Christ’s gift of grace not only cures spiritual death, but it gives a person the very life of God – Romans 8 says that God the Holy Spirit is living inside of them right now.  Death is static and empty whereas life is active and full.  Life abounds in the believer because God’s grace through His Son, Jesus, super-abounds to cover our sins.

The power of sin, which is death and separation from God, can be broken!  The night that Jesus was born, the angels appeared and sang, ““Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Christ came so that through Him we might be able to please God and have peace with God.  (that’s a good reason to celebrate Christmas!)

2 Timothy 1:10 says that Jesus has abolished death and brought life and immortality to all who believe in Him through the transforming power of the gospel.  Through Jesus, the power of death can be broken.  At the same time, the power of Christ for salvation cannot never be broken!  The effect of Christ’s salvation is so permanent that it cannot ever be reversed or broken.  You and I can overcome death by the saving work of Jesus Christ and the saving work of Jesus Christ can never be undone!  We have great assurance that once we are in Christ, we are in Him forever!

In Christ, we have the gift of eternal life

¹⁶ 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 (or salvation).

You could restate the verse like this:  The one sin (Fruit Eating) that was committed by one man (Adam) at one time (the Fall) introduced sin to mankind.  That one sin brought condemnation to all of mankind.  But the accumulated sin of all the ages – an amount of sin that is beyond our comprehension – was totally taken care of by God’s Son.

God totally and completely hates sin.  BUT… God’s love for sinners (like you and me) far surpasses his hatred for our sin.  God’s hatred for sin is so vast that He would condemn the entire human race because of Adam’s one sin, but his love for mankind is so much greater than his hatred of sin that he sent His Son to suffer under His wrath in our place.  2 Corinthians 5:19 puts it like this:  “…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

Jesus came to reconcile us to God and to give to us the gift of eternal life.  God was NOT reconciling the world to himself so that we could return to the world and enjoy sin without guilt.  That’s NOT why Jesus came.

Sin always brings death and Jesus came to deliver us from its grip.  Jesus reconciled us to the Father so that we could enjoy Him eternally.  He is the treasure of incomprehensible worth.  We are given life so that we can find our greatest joy in Him for the rest of eternity!

The only way that is possible is if Christ gives me one final gift – the gift of His righteousness

In Christ, we have the gift of righteousness

¹⁷ 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.

Neither Adam nor Eve sinned because they wanted to die.  They sinned because they thought that by eating of the tree, they might be more like God.  It was an act of pride and self-promotion.  Ironically, their sin produced the opposite effect.

• Instead of becoming more like God, they became more unlike God (because God is humble).
• Instead of becoming God’s equal, they became God’s enemy.

In Philippians, Paul paints picture of Jesus that demonstrates His utter humility.  In Philippians 2:6, Paul says that Jesus, “was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

Jesus, being God, did not engage in an act of self-promotion, but he humbled himself to the point of taking on the likeness of men.  Jesus was the creator.  John says that “All things were made through him.” (John 1:3)  Jesus, creator and God, took on the likeness of men.  What humility.  He was born a baby.  The most powerful power in the universe could not walk or eat or do anything at all without his teenage mother helping him out.

He was not born into a wealthy family.  He was not born in a proper hospital.  He was not a given an easy life.  He suffered and He gave and He served.  You Know why? Because He was acting in perfect harmony with the righteous character of a humble and generous and sacrificial God.

Jesus demonstrated to us God’s humble, extravagant generosity.

• Christ lived a righteous life and then gives His righteousness to us so that we might be able to enjoy Him for all of eternity.  2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
• Christ died on the cross to give us eternal life so that we might not just survive eternity, but so that we can have a life that abounds eternally.  He says in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
• Then Jesus overcame the grave to give us victory over sin.  1 Corinthians 15:57 says, “…thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We give to one another at Christmas because we serve a God who generously and sacrificially and graciously gives to us far beyond what we deserve!

Life Application

You are I might still struggle with sin – even if we are saved.  We know that in this fallen world we have to constantly put off our old selves and rely on the Lord for victory over what Ephesians calls our “corrupt and sinful desires.” (Eph. 4:22)

But the child of God is no longer a slave to sin.  Not only can we overcome sin, but verse 17 says we can, “reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”  In Christ we are no longer victims of sin but victors over sin.

Are you living in the new Life that’s available to you in Jesus Christ?

• For those of you who have never made a decision to follow Jesus, this Christmas would be the perfect time to reach out and receive God’s free gift of grace.  God’s word says that every person who calls upon the Name of the Lord will be saved.
  Salvation is God’s free gift to you.  AND salvation will change everything about who you are.
• For those of you who have made a decision to follow after Jesus, let me encourage you that there is no sin or trial or temptation that Christ can’t overcome.  Let Christ rule and reign in your heart in every difficult situation you might be facing right now.

Jesus made a way for us to have Peace with God.  Jesus enabled us to receive reconciliation and to open the gift of God’s unmerited favor because the gift of God’s abounding grace in the person of Jesus Christ.  God gives us this gift of His grace so that we can ultimately see Jesus shine forth.

With every gift you open this season, remember that, as believers, Jesus is our greatest treasure.  Look to Him this Christmas season.

• If you are not a believer, don’t leave his gift of grace on the shelf.
• If you are a believer, then unwrap the gift of His power and receive His victory in the difficulties you’ll face in life.

He’s the gift.  So let’s Rejoice in Him!

Teaching Outline

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… Romans 1:16a

In Christ, we have the gift of God’s grace – v. 14-15, Genesis 3:4, 2 Timothy 1:10

In Christ, we have the gift of eternal life – v. 16, 2 Corinthians 5:19

In Christ, we have the gift of righteousness – v. 17, Philippians 2:6, John 1:3, 2 Corinthians 5:21, John 10:10, 1 Corinthians 15:57

Application:

In Christ we are no longer victims of sin but victors over sin.

The gift of God’s abounding grace in the person of Jesus Christ