This morning marks almost 500 years since Martin Luther nailed ninety-five theses to the church door at the Castle Church of Wittenberg in order to discuss the matter of indulgences as John Tetzel had begun selling indulgences around the area which came with a promise that one could free someone from purgatory. Tetzel’s sale’s pitch had been, “As a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.” And, Luther, not able to square this action with Scripture nailed the theses into the door and, consequently, nailed shut any ability to be silent on his convictions. Luther would ultimately have to stand against the entire church, the pope, and the emperor.

What Luther would ultimately declare is that an individual is not justified before God by any works which he has done so as to achieve a righteous standing before God on his own merit but rather is justified by faith as God grants to the believer a gift of righteousness so as to be able to stand before him.

Coming to this point had been a long struggle for Luther, for he had struggled to please God through a life of good works as a monk and yet still proclaimed, “I felt that I was a sinner with an uneasy conscience before God.”¹ He knew he simply was not accomplishing his goal through his works. This produced such a growing hatred toward God’s righteousness and God himself, that Luther grew determined to understand what Paul was saying in Romans 1:16-17.

Reflecting on his meditation and study on this text, Luther tells us, “I drove myself mad, with a desperate disturbed conscience, persistently pounding upon Paul in this passage, thirsting most ardently to know what he meant.”.”² And finally God’s mercy came through and Luther began to understand that on is justified by attaining the righteous gift of God through faith.

But was Luther right? Is it really the case that we cannot simply do enough good works to merit our right standing before God? Is this doctrine of justification by faith true? Do we really need God’s righteousness? Are we really hopelessly sinful and in need of another to give us righteousness? And, therefore, is this day really a day worthy of remembering and celebrating?

I think it is a day to celebrate. And I think it is a right doctrine, not because Luther taught it but because the Scripture teaches it. In fact, this morning as we look at Romans 5:12-21, my hope is that through this text we’ll see just how hopeless we are on our own, our desperate condition, and what Christ has done so that we might be righteous before him. In addition, my hope this morning is not only that we will see that Luther’s doctrine does not come from him alone but from Scripture but also that we will see the miracle of salvation, for it is indeed a triumph of his grace.

Paul begins this section alerting to our desperate plot. He informs us that …

Since Adam’s sin in the garden sin death has reigned over the entire human race (5:12-14)

He writes in verse 12, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

In the garden, God creates the world and gives Adam rule over it. He is the king who has dominion. Yet as Adam sins, something more happens than simply that he disobeys (certainly nothing less than this). What occurs is that he surrenders his dominion to another power, another reign – death. Therefore, from the point of the fall, the cosmos is nothing less than enemy-occupied territory. Death reigns over the world, even over all of Adam’s descendants, who were are.

Therefore, even as Paul will mention in verse 14, death reigns over all of those who are born into the world, and the proof of it is all man’s sinfulness. We are sinful people because as we enter the world we are not neutral but in the grip of the reign of death; we are dead in our sins. And therefore we commit sin. This is exactly what Paul will later affirm in Ephesians 2:1-3, writing, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

The problem with mankind is that God’s promise to Adam was true. He had told Adam in Genesis 2:17, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Yet, when Adam eats of the fruit he does not die physically that day. Now, yes, he ultimately does, and this is the effect of his sin. However, he does die that day. He becomes dead in his sins, separated from God, and under the reign of another power – sin and death. And this corruption and this reign spreads to all so that all after Adam are under the same power, the same reign, and are dead in their sins, being corrupted from the point of Adam.

Again, this is why all men sin. But, someone might say, “Those without the law couldn’t have sinned, for they didn’t even have the law? And where there’s no law to transgress, there cannot be transgressions. Therefore, surely they weren’t under this condemnation that came to Adam, this reign of death.” However, Paul answers that indeed they did sin (in a different way, but they did not) and they were under this reign of death, the condemnation that came into the world because of Adam’s sin.

Paul, first clears up the issue of sin not being in the world until the law writing in 13a, “For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.” It’s not as if those before the law did not sin, and they were held responsible for their sin. The flood and Sodom are clear indicators that people between Adam and the law sinned and that they were judged because of their sin. In fact, Paul has already affirmed such, writing in Romans 2:12, “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.” However, Paul does then go on to point out that it is different. It is sin, but it is not the same kind of sin as Adam or those under the law commit, where they violate a revealed command of God. Thus, Paul writes, “but sin is not counted where there is no law.” However, they still were under the reign of death, proved by their sin. So, we read in verse 14, “Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.”

Therefore, it is clear that sin and death came into the world through one man, and because Adam was the head of the human race and our federal representative before God all after him are born sinful, corrupted, depraved, and under this reign of the enemy of death.

Thus, how can we ever have hope? This is the question that Luther was asking. He did not have to be convinced of his own sinfulness or inability to live in complete righteousness. He knew these things. He knew he wasn’t righteous. So, again, what is our hope? It is in the work of another who came, one whom Adam typified, namely, Jesus Christ.

Christ’s work is superior to the work of Adam (5:15-19)

Paul ends the previous section speaking of the fact that Adam was a type of one coming, that other one is Jesus Christ. Thus, he is spoken of as the second or last Adam. And Paul points out in these verses that Christ has come along and had an influence similar to Adam in that he affected all in him, but different that Adam in that it was superior.

Paul first points out in verse 15 that Christ’s work is superior to Adam’s in what they brought. He writes, “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.” Adam’s transgression brought death. Through his sin many died. However, Jesus brought grace through his work. Thus, we see the superiority of Christ’s work as Tom Schreiner points out, “It is one thing to blemish what is beautiful, but it is much harder to set straight what is already crooked.”.”³ Through Adam, men died, but through Christ men receive grace.

Also, Christ’s work is superior in the ultimate results of his work compared to Adam’s. Paul writes in verse 16, “And the free gift is not like the result f that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.”

Thus, again, Adam’s sin resulted condemnation, men stood condemned, dead in their sins and under death’s reign. However, Christ’s work resulted in men being justified. And, again, this shows superiority in that it had undone what Adam had done. Verse 17, then, is just an expansion of this condemnation. For how do we know that men stood condemned through Adam’s sin? Paul’s answer in verse 17 is that we see death reigning. And how do we know that men are justified in Christ? Paul’s answer in verse 17 is that we see them reigning through life.

Then, verses 18-19 are simply a restatement of what he has said thus far. He writes, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 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.”

Therefore, we needed someone to undo Adam’s work for us, and Christ has done it. And the “all men” refers to all men in Adam (i.e. the whole world) while the “all men” in relation to Christ means all men who have been united with him by faith (i.e. believers). Thus, Luther’s doctrine is right. We needed something greater than what we could do. We needed someone to be righteous for us and overcome the reign of sin and death in our life for us, and that’s what Jesus did.

But how can one man’s actions affect many? Well, this is difficult for us to understand, but it is common in Scripture for the head of a people to represent the whole. Thus, when David, as the king, sins, all of Israel is considered guilty and all are punished. He was their head. Adam, then is the natural head of the human race, and he is also the federal representative before God on behalf of the human race.

In the same way, then, as we think of Christ and our justification we need to think of this in terms of kingship, as Christ is our king. God anoints this king, as he did David. He’s led out to be tempted. He’s tempted as Adam was and Israel was. Yet, he is the obedient Son. So, when he’s being crucified, the sign above his head reading, “The King of the Jews” is right. And he is bearing the curse of the law for us. This is exactly what Isaiah 52:13-53:12 describes. And as the king is coming under the curse of the law, it means all under his rule are under condemnation and death. Therefore, when he is raised and he is declared to be the Son of God in power, it means that all under him are justified. That is why Paul had written in Romans 4:25, “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

He had undone the work of Adam through us and we receive his grace, righteousness, and life. So, where death had reigned, now life reigns in and through those who are in Christ.

Therefore, our salvation is not achieved through any of our works but is a triumph of grace over our dead and sinful hearts (5:20-21)

Do you then see how salvation is a work of Christ? We are held captive in sin and dead. This is how Ephesians 2 begins. And the solution does not begin with us. It cannot. We are under death’s reign. Rather, it begins with God, as Paul writes in Ephesians 2:4, “But God made us alive in Christ.”

Therefore, to think we can somehow obey the law so as to achieve righteousness is ridiculous. But why the law then? Paul writes in verses 20-21, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The law came in to increase sin, to show the seriousness of sin. And as sin increased, death’s reign showed itself powerful. However, all of this was simply setting the stage for grace to abound all the more so that grace might triumph and “reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Therefore, as we think of our salvation this morning, we should rejoice in the reality that our salvation, though it may look simple from the outside (i.e. like we simply decided to follow Christ and turn from our other hopes) actually reflects a miracle – the triumph of grace and life over death because of the work of Christ. Thus, if we are believers this morning, we are ever-present reminders in a world where death reigns that it has been conquered. And as we go forth and preach the gospel, we go with the power that can triumph over the reign of death in others as well. This is why we should rejoice and sing loudly as we sing the words of “Joy to the Word,” “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.”

Jesus, the second Adam has come and performed a superior work, and where sin and death abounded and reign, our very lives are evidence that grace and life are abounding all the more.

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:22-26). Amen. Lord, come quickly.

¹ Martin Luther, "Preface to the Latin Works." In D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Vol 54, 185.12-186.21 (Weimar: Bohlau, 1938). Quoted in The Christian Theology Reader, ed. Alister McGrath (Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell, 1995), 228.
² Ibid.
³ Thomas Schreiner, Romans: Baker Exegetical Comentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 284.

SALVATION: THE TRIUMPH OF GRACE AND LIFE