Reading through Romans-The law illuminates sin

Romans 7:7 "What shall we say then? Is the law sin?"

"Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet.""

Is the law sin? If we follow his train of thought we can understand how someone could infer this. Paul insisted that we must die to the law if we will bear fruit to God. Someone must think, "Surely there is something wrong with the law!"

I would not have known sin except through the law: The law is like an x-ray machine; it reveals plainly what might have always been there, but was hidden before. You can't blame an x-ray for what it exposes.

For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." The law sets the "speed limit" so we know exactly if we are going too fast. We might never know that we are sinning in many areas (such as covetousness) if the law did not spell this out to us specifically.

Dear God, thank you for your law and the way it illuminates my sin.  Without it I would not know the depth of my need for my Savior!

Reading through Romans-Dead to the law!

Romans 7:1-6 "Know you not, brothers, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?  For the woman which has an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.  So then if, while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.  Why, my brothers, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God.  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit to death.  But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."

So long as a man continues under the law as a covenant, and seeks justification by his own obedience, he continues the slave of sin in some form. Nothing but the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, can make any sinner free from the law of sin and death.

Believers are delivered from that power of the law, which condemns for the sins committed by them. And they are delivered from that power of the law which stirs up and provokes the sin that dwells in them. Understand this not of the law as a rule, but as a covenant of works. In profession and privilege, we are under a covenant of grace, and not under a covenant of works; under the gospel of Christ, not under the law of Moses.

The difference is spoken of under the similitude or figure of being married to a new husband. The second marriage is to Christ. By death we are freed from obligation to the law as a covenant, as the wife is from her vows to her husband. In our believing powerfully and effectually, we are dead to the law, and have no more to do with it than the dead servant, who is freed from his master, has to do with his master's yoke. The day of our believing, is the day of being united to the Lord Jesus. We enter upon a life of dependence on him, and duty to him. Good works are from union with Christ; as the fruitfulness of the vine is the product of its being united to its roots; there is no fruit to God, till we are united to Christ.

The law, and the greatest efforts of one under the law, still in the flesh, under the power of corrupt principles, cannot set the heart right with regard to the love of God, overcome worldly lusts, or give truth and sincerity in the inward parts, or any thing that comes by the special sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. Nothing more than a formal obedience to the outward letter of any precept, can be performed by us, without the renewing, new-creating grace of the new covenant.

Dear Holy God, thank you for making me dead to the law through belief in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Reading through Romans-Slaves of God

Romans 6:19-23 "I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

All of us are by nature enslaved to sin – we don't rule sin; sin rules us.

Verse 20: "For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness." Notice, Paul lumps us all together in this. We were all once slaves of sin. Not some of us. All of us. That is, we were not neutral, self-determining creatures standing before sin and righteousness, able to make our sovereign choice. We were slaves to sin from the beginning. Sin was master; we were not. Our wills were in bondage to the allurements of sin. Because of our corruption – the distortion of our values – we saw sin as more attractive than righteousness. So we were free, Paul says, in regard to righteousness. That is, it had no power to sway us. Righteousness didn't look attractive or rewarding. And so its appeals were powerless. That's the first point, and Paul will confirm it in verse 22 when he speaks of being "freed from sin and enslaved to God."

God alone is the decisive deliverer from this slavery, and our part – which is real and crucial – is dependent on his.

The second point is that God alone is the decisive deliverer from this slavery, and our part – which is real and crucial – is dependent on his. You can see this in verse 22 when Paul says, "But having been freed from sin and enslaved to God . . ." Notice, ultimately we don't free ourselves; we have "been freed." And ultimately we don't make ourselves slaves of God, we have been "enslaved" to God. Behind these passive verbs, as we saw last week, is the work of God. This is what happens "under grace." When Christ is our righteousness by faith, the grace of God enters us mightily, and breaks the power of cancelled sin, and transforms us in the renewing of our minds, and writes the law upon our hearts, and gives us a new spirit, and inclines us to the Word of God, and causes us to see the beauty of Christ and his ways as the treasure of our lives.

Slavery in Romans 6:6, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22 does not imply mainly being forced against our will to do something. It mainly implies that our wills are enslaved. They are bound to do sin or bound to do righteousness because by nature we either see the rewards of sin or the beauty of righteousness as more attractive. So in both cases we do what we want most to do. (This is true, we will see, even though chapter 7 will reveal that we can have a divided will, sometimes doing what we don't want to do.) But we are bound to do it – enslaved to do it – because our hearts are either so corrupt or so renewed in Christ that we see sin or righteousness as compelling. We are either enslaved to sin or enslaved to God in that sense.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord: When you work for sin, your wages are death. When we serve God we get no pay - but He freely gives us the best benefit package imaginable.

Wages of sin: "Every sinner earns this by long, sore, and painful service. O! What pains do men take to get to hell! Early and late they toil at sin; and would not Divine justice be in their debt, if it did not pay them their due wages?" (Clarke)

Answering his question from Romans 6:15, Paul has made it clear: As believers, we have a change of ownership. The Christian is to fight against even occasional sin because we need to work for and under our new Master. It isn't appropriate for us to work for our old master.

Dear God, Thank you for saving me from my sin! I gladly accept you as my new master and consider myself a slave to you!

Reading through Romans-Living consistently with Freedom

Romans 6:16-17 "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered."

To whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves: Whatever you present yourself to obey, you become its slave. One way or another, we will serve somebody. The option to live our life without serving either sin or obedience isn't open to us.

Though you were slaves of sin: Paul puts it in the past tense because we have been freed from our slavery to sin. He also says that we have been set free by faith, which he describes as obedience from the heart. The faith is put in God's Word, which he describes as that form of doctrine. All in all, the point is clear: "You put your faith in God and His Word, and now you are set free. Now live every day consistent with that freedom."

As was seen earlier in Romans 6, we can be legally free and still choose to live like a prisoner. Paul has a simple command and encouragement for the Christian: be what you are.

The phrase that form of doctrine is part of a beautiful picture. The word form describes a mold used to shape molten metal. The idea is that God wants to shape us - first He melts us by the work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Then He pours us into His mold of truth - that form of doctrine and shapes us into His image.

Thank you Dear God for setting me free from sin and help me to live every day consistent with that freedom!

Reading through Romans-license to sin?

Romans 6:15 "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!"

Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Paul has convinced us that a lifestyle of habitual sin is not compatible with one whose life is changed by grace. But what about an occasional sin here and there? If we are under grace, not law, must we be so concerned about a little sin here and there?

Shall we sin: Again, the verb tense of the ancient Greek word sin is important (the aorist active tense). It indicates dabbling in sin, not a continual habitual sin described in the question of Romans 6:1.

Free forgiveness! What does that mean? Freedom to sin? Far from it. That were to return into the old slavery. To yield to sin is to be the servant or slave of sin with its consequence—death. Happily you have escaped from sin, and taken service with righteousness. You found that sin brought you no pay from your master but death. Now you are started upon a road that leads to sanctification and eternal life. This will be given you, not as wages, but as the free gift of God in Christ.

(15) The Apostle returns to a difficulty very similar to that which presented itself at the beginning of the chapter. The answer is couched under a slightly different metaphor. It is no longer death to the one, life to the other, but freedom from the one, service to the other. These are correlative terms. Freedom from sin implies service to God, just as freedom from God means service to sin. The same idea of service and freedom will be found worked out in John 8:32-34; John 8:36, and in Galatians 5:1.

Dear Holy and Loving God, Thank you for changing my heart from one that loves to serve myself (and sin) to one that is new in You and passionate to serve you!

Reading through Romans-Living under Grace!

Romans 6:13-14 "And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God: A person can be "officially" set free, yet still imprisoned. If a person lives in prison for years, and then is set free, they often still think and act like a prisoner. The habits of freedom aren't ingrained in their life yet. Here, Paul shows how to build the habits of freedom in the Christian life.

Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin: This is the first key to walking in the freedom Jesus Christ has won for us is. We are told to not present the parts of our body to the service of sin.

But present yourselves to God: This is the second key to walking in the freedom Jesus has won for us is. It isn't enough to take the weapons away from the service of sin. They must then be enlisted in the service of righteousness - and, as in any warfare, the side with superior weapons usually wins.

We present ourselves to God as being alive from the dead. This first has the idea that all connection with the previous life - the old man - must be done away with. That life is dead and gone. Secondly, it has the idea of obligation, because we owe everything to the One who has given us new life!

For you are not under law but under grace: This is the path, the means, by which we can live in this freedom. It will never happen in a legalistic, performance oriented Christian life. It will happen as we live not under law but under grace.

Law clearly defined God's standard, and shows us where we fall short of it. But it cannot give the freedom from sin that grace provides. Remember that grace reigns through righteousness (Romans 5:21). Grace, not law provides the freedom and the power to live over sin.

This shows again that a life lived truly under grace will be a righteous life. Grace is never a license to sin. "To treat being under grace as an excuse for sinning is a sign that one is not really under grace at all." (Bruce)

Not under law but under grace is another way to describe the radical change in the life of someone who is born again. For the Jewish person of Paul's day, living life under law was everything. The law was the way to God's approval and eternal life. Now, Paul shows that in light of the New Covenant, we are not under law but under grace. His work in our life has changed everything!

Paul has answered his question from Romans 6:1. Why don't we just continue in habitual sin so that grace may abound? Because when we are saved, when our sins are forgiven and God's grace is extended to us, we are radically changed. The old man is dead, and the new man lives.

In light of these remarkable changes, it is utterly incompatible for a new creation in Jesus to be comfortable in habitual sin. A state of sin can only be temporary for the Christian. As Spurgeon is credited with saying: "The grace that does not change my life will not save my soul."

John states the same idea in another way: Whoever abides in Him does not (habitually) sin. Whoever (habitually) sins has neither seen Him nor known Him … Whoever has been born of God does not (habitually) sin, for his seed remains in him; and he cannot (habitually) sin, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:6 and 9)

"God has so changed your nature by his grace that when you sin you shall be like a fish on dry land, you shall be out of your element, and long to get into a right state again. You cannot sin, for you love God. The sinner may drink sin down as the ox drinketh down water, but to you it shall be as the brine of the sea. You may become so foolish as to try the pleasures of the world, but they shall be no pleasures to you." (Spurgeon)

Dear Holy God, Thank you for setting me free to live a life under your grace and not the law!  

Reading through Romans-Dead to sin, Alive to God!

Romans 6:13-14 "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts."

Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin: Reckon is an accounting word. Paul tells us to account or to reckon the old man as forever dead. God never calls us "crucify" the old man, but instead to account him as already dead because of our identification with Jesus' death on the cross.

Reckon yourselves to be … alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord: The death to sin is only one side of the equation. The old man is gone, but the new man lives on (as described in Romans 6:4-5).

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body: This is something that can only be said to the Christian, to the one who has had the old man crucified with Christ and has been given a new man in Jesus. Only the person set free from sin can be told, "do not let sin reign."

The Christian is the one truly set free. The person who isn't converted yet is free to sin, but not free to stop sinning and live righteously, because of the tyranny of the old man.

In Jesus, we are truly set free and are offered the opportunity to obey the natural inclination of the new man - which wants to please God and honor Him.

Therefore do not let sin reign: The old man is dead, and there is new life -free from sin - in Jesus. Yet, many Christians never experience this freedom. Because of unbelief, self-reliance or ignorance, many Christians never live in the freedom Jesus paid for on the cross.

Dear God,  thank you, thank you for setting me free! For accounting me as free and making me alive with you through Christ!  I praise you for the new life you've given me and the opportunity to obey the "new man" in me.  You are truly a Holy and loving God!!!! 

Reading through Romans-Dead to sin!

Romans 6: 5-10 "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God."

The death of the old man is an established fact. It happened spiritually when we were identified with Jesus' death at our salvation.

The old man is the self patterned after Adam, that part of us deeply ingrained with a desire to rebel against God and His commands. The system of law is unable to deal with the old man, because it can only tell the old man what the righteous standard of God is. The law tries to reform the old man, to get him to "turn over a new leaf." But the system of grace understands that the old man can never be reformed. He must be put to death, and for the believer the old man dies with Jesus on the cross.  

The crucifixion of the old man is something that God did in us. None of us nailed the old man to the cross. Jesus did it, and we are told to account it as being done.

In place of the old man, God gives the believer a new man - a self that is instinctively obedient and pleasing to God; this aspect of our person is that which was raised with Christ in His resurrection.

The flesh is a problem in the battle against sin because it has been expertly trained in sinful habits by three sources. First, the old man, before he was crucified with Christ, trained and "imprinted" himself on the flesh. Second, the world system, in its spirit of rebellion against God, can have an continuing influence on the flesh. Finally, the devil seeks to tempt and influence the flesh towards sin.

That we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin: Our slavery to sin can only be broken by death. In the 1960 film Spartacus, Kirk Douglas played the escaped slave Spartacus, who led a brief but widespread slave rebellion in ancient Rome. At one point in the movie Spartacus says: "Death is the only freedom a slave knows. That's why he is not afraid of it." We are set free from sin because the old man has died with Jesus on the cross. Now a new man, a free man, lives.

This change in the life of the one who is born again was understood and predicted as a feature of God's New Covenant, where because of new hearts our innermost being wants to do God's will and be slaves to righteousness. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

Dear Holy and Loving God, thank you so much for crucifying the "old man" that was in me and replacing it with a "new man" that is a slave to your righteousness!  I am so grateful to no longer be a slave to sin!  Glory be to you!

Reading through Romans-Baptism into Christ

Romans 6:3-4 "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

As many of us as were baptized in Christ Jesus: The idea behind the ancient Greek word for baptized is "to immerse or overwhelm something." The Bible uses this idea of being baptized into something in several different ways. When a person is baptized in water, they are immersed or covered over with water. When they are baptized with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11, Acts 1:5) they are "immersed" or "covered over" with the Holy Spirit. When they are baptized with suffering (Mark 10:39), they are "immersed" or "covered over" with suffering. Here, Paul refers to being baptized - "immersed" or "covered over" in Christ Jesus.

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father: The believer's water baptism (or, being baptized into Christ) is a dramatization or "acting out" of the believer's "immersion" or identification with Jesus in His death and resurrection.

We were buried with Him … as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life: Paul also builds on the idea of going under the water as a picture of being buried, and coming up from the water as a picture of rising from the dead.

In this regard, baptism is important as an illustration of spiritual reality, but it does not make that reality come to pass. If someone has not spiritually died and risen with Jesus, all the baptisms in the world will not accomplish it for them.

But Paul's point is clear: something dramatic and life changing happened in the life of the believer. You can't die and rise again without it changing your life. The believer has a real (although spiritual) death and resurrection with Jesus Christ.

Dear God, I praise you and give my life to you!  I also gladly acted out a symbol of that experience by being baptized.  Praise to your death and resurrection in me!

Reading through Romans-Die to sin

Roman 6:1-2 "Should we live a life of sin so we can receive more grace?  Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul introduced the idea that where sin abounded, grace abounded much more (Romans 5:20). He now wonders if someone might take this truth to imply that it doesn't matter if a Christian lives a life of sin, because God will always overcome greater sin with greater grace.

The question still confronts us. Is the plan of grace "safe"? Won't people abuse grace? If God's salvation and approval are given on the basis of faith instead of works, won't we just say "I believe" and then live any way we please?

From a purely natural or secular viewpoint, grace is dangerous. This is why many people don't really teach or believe in grace and instead emphasize living by law. They believe that if you tell people that God saves and accepts them apart from what they deserve, then they will have no motivation to be obedient. In their opinion, you simply can't keep people on the straight and narrow without a threat from God hanging over their head. If they believe their position in Jesus is settled because of what Jesus did, then the motivation of holy living is gone.

Certainly not! For Paul, the idea that anyone might continue in sin that grace may abound is unthinkable. Certainly not is a strong phrase. It might also be translated, Perish the thought! Or, Away with the notion!

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Paul establishes an important principle. When we are born again, when we have believed on Jesus for our salvation, our relationship with sin is permanently changed. We have died to sin. Therefore, if we have died to sin, then we should not live any longer in it. It simply isn't fitting to live any longer in something you have died to.

At this point, Paul has much to explain about what exactly he means by died to sin, but the general point is clear - Christians have died to sin, and they should no longer live in it. Before, we were dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1); now we are dead to sin.

Dear God, thank you for saving me from sin and making me dead to sin.  Praise to you!

Reading through Romans-The glory of Grace

Romans 5:21-22 "But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

If grace super-abounds over sin, then we know that it is impossible to out-sin the grace of God. We can't sin more than God can forgive, but we can reject His grace and forgiveness.

As Paul stated before, sin reigned in death. But grace reigns also. The reign of grace is marked by righteousness and eternal life and is through Jesus.

Grace reigns through righteousness. Many people have the idea that where grace reigns, there will be a disregard for righteousness, and a casual attitude towards sin. But that isn't the reign of grace at all. Paul wrote in another letter what grace teaches us: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age (Titus 2:11-12). Grace reigns through righteousness, and grace teaches righteousness.

Even so grace might reign through righteousness: Wherever grace rules, God's righteous standard will be respected. The legalist's fear is that the reign of grace will provide wicked hearts with a license to sin, but Scripture doesn't share that fear. Grace does not accommodate sin, it faces it squarely and goes above sin in order to conquer it. Grace does not wink at unrighteousness, it confronts sin with the atonement at the cross and the victory won at the open tomb.

Grace is no friend to sin; it is its sworn enemy. "As heat is opposed to cold, and light to darkness, so grace is opposed to sin. Fire and water may as well agree in the same vessel as grace and sin in the same heart." (Thomas Benton Brooks)

Dear Holy God, Thank you for creating a new heart within me in which grace reigns and sin is hated.  Praise to your righteousness!

Reading through Romans-The law and sin

Romans 5:20 "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound."

Paul has shown us that the law does not justify us. Now he shows that in itself, the law doesn't even make us sinners - Adam did that. Then what purpose does the law serve? What good is it at all? Was the giving of the law God's failed experiment? No. There is a clear purpose for the law, and part of it is so that the offense might abound. The law makes man's sin clearer and greater by clearly contrasting it with God's holy standard.

The flaws in a precious stone abound when contrasted with a perfect stone, or when put against a contrasting backdrop. God's perfect law exposes our flaws, and makes our sin abound.

There is another way that the law makes sin abound. Because of the sinfulness of my heart, when I see a line drawn I want to cross over it. In this sense, the law makes sin abound because it draws many clear lines between right and wrong that my sinful heart wants to break. Therefore, the law makes me sin more - but not because there is anything wrong in the law, only because there is something deeply wrong in the human condition.

Dear Holy God, thank you for your precious law...even though it makes my sinfulness more evident!  I praise you and your law!

Reading through Romans-By one Man

Romans 5:19 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

Adam's disobedience makes mankind sinners. Jesus' obedience makes many righteous. Each representative communicates the effect of their work to their "followers."

Many were made sinners: Paul emphasizes the point again. At the root, we were made sinners by the work of Adam. Of course, we chose Adam when we personally sinned. But the principle remains that since another man made us sinners, we can be made righteous by the work of another man.

This is the only way for the work of Jesus to benefit us in any way. If every man must stand for himself, without the representation of either Adam or Jesus, then we will all perish. None would be saved, because each of us sins and falls short of the glory of God. Only a sinless person acting on our behalf can save us, and it is fair for Him to act on our behalf because another man put us in this mess by acting on our behalf.

The person who says, "I don't want to be represented by Adam or Jesus; I want to represent myself" doesn't understand two things. First, they don't understand that it really isn't up to us. We didn't make the rules, God did. We simply have to deal with it. Secondly, they don't understand that our personal righteousness before God is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). To God, our personal righteousness is an offensive counterfeit; so standing for yourself guarantees your damnation.

Dear God, I am sorry that I chose Adam when I sinned, but so grateful to have the opportunity to choose Jesus for my complete redemption!  Praise to you Lord!

Reading through Romans-One man, one sin

Romans 5:18 "Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life."

One man's offense … one Man's righteous act: From this passage, Adam and Jesus are sometimes known as the two men. Between them they represent of all humanity, and everyone is identified in either Adam or Jesus. We are born identified with Adam; we may be born again into identification with Jesus.

Someone may object: "But I never chose to have Adam represent me." Of course you did! You identified yourself with Adam with the first sin you ever committed. It is absolutely true that we were born into our identification with Adam, but we also choose it with our individual acts of sin.

Resulting in condemnation … resulting in justification: The outcome of this election - choosing Adam or Jesus - means everything. If we choose Adam we receive judgment and condemnation. If we choose Jesus we receive a free gift of God's grace and justification.

The free gift came to all men: Does this mean that all men are justified by the free gift? Without making a personal choice, every person received the curse of Adam's offense. Is it therefore true that every person, apart from their personal choice, will receive the benefits of Jesus' obedience? Not at all. First, Paul makes it clear that the free gift is not like the offense - they are not identical in their result or application. Second, over three verses Paul calls the work of Jesus a free gift, and he never uses those words to apply to the work of Adam. It is simply the nature of a gift that it must be received by faith. Finally, Paul clearly teaches throughout the New Testament that all are not saved.

The idea that all men are saved by the work of Jesus whether they know it or not is known as universalism. "If the doctrine of universalism is being taught here, Paul would be contradicting himself, for he has already pictured men as perishing because of sin." (Harrison)

Dear Holy God, I stand guilty before you and make the choice for the free gift of Your grace and justification!  Praise be to you!

Reading through Romans- Life through Jesus

Romans 5:16-17 "But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)"

But the free gift is not like the offense: Adam gave an offense that had consequences for the entire human race - as a result of Adam's offense, many died. Jesus gives a free gift that has consequences for the entire human race, but in a different way. Through the free gift of Jesus, the grace of God … abounded to many. Adam's work brought death but Jesus' work brings grace.

Paul describes the results of Adam's offense: Many died; judgment,resulting in condemnation, and death reigned over man. He also describes the results of Jesus' free gift: grace abounded to many, justification (because many offenses were laid on Jesus), receiving abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, and reigning in life.

Death reigned … righteousness will reign: We could say that both Adam and Jesus are kings, each instituting a reign. Under Adam, death reigned. Under Jesus, we can reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

It is staggering to think of how totally death has reigned under Adam. Everyone who is born dies - the mortality rate is 100%. No one survives. When a baby is born, it isn't a question of whether the baby will live or die - they will most certainly die; the only question is when. We think of this world as the land of the living, but it is really the land of the dying, and the billions of human bodies cast into the earth over the centuries proves this. But Paul says that the reign of life through Jesus is much more certain. The believer's reign in life through Jesus is more certain than death or taxes!

I praise you Dear God for my new life in Jesus!

Reading through Romans-Adam and sin

Romans 5:13-14 "(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come."

Until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law: We know that at the root of it all we are made sinners because of Adam and not because we break the law ourselves. We know this because sin and death were in the world before the Law was ever given.

Nevertheless death reigned: The total, merciless reign of death - even before the law was given at the time of Moses - proves that man was under sin before the law. Death reigned … even over those who had not sinned in the exact way Adam did, showing that the principle of sin was at work in every human.

Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come: Paul presents Adam as a type - a picture, a representation - of Jesus. Both Adam and Jesus were completely sinless men from the beginning, and both of them did things that had consequences for all mankind.

Dear Holy Father, I praise you for your plan for humanity.  I see your loving actions through both your perfect creation and your need for perfect lack of sin in us.  Praise be to your Holy Name!