Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 3.99 → restored 4.44
Use the player's Original switch to compare.How Diffio restores old speech recordings
This, gentlemen, is the third week of sessions on the study of the Epistle to the He- uh, to the Romans. Let me tell you now what my strategy is, insofar as there is one. Though this is the third week, and after that we have only one more week of sessions on Romans, I propose to devote this week entirely to the chapters five twelve to eight thirty nine. uh We began them last week. Uh, I want to continue them in more detail this week.
Uh, on the next, uh, uh, group of of sessions in a fortnight's time, God's willing, I propose to devote two of them to discussing chapters nine, ten, and eleven, and two of them to give a few, uh, broad comments on the final chapters of the book from twelve onwards to the end. But today I concentrate again on what is the second part of Romans, chapter five twelve to, uh, eight thirty nine. And I do so for two reasons, because it is an exceedingly, eh, practical part of the Word of God, and particularly chapter six.
On the other hand, chapter six is notorious for all the many false and to, uh, and and uh, inaccurate interpretations of what it is saying. And therefore, I hope that we shall spend time patiently trying to understand what chapter six is saying, because it rate- relates to the practical matters of our sanctification. Now, I've suggested in the layout that chapter, uh, that that these first two sections of Romans, the first two parts of Romans, deal with the two basic reasons why we need to be saved.
The first one was we need to be saved because we stand under God's wrath as not only sinners, but guilty sinners. And having proved that we are guilty, that all have had sufficient evidence and have sinned against the light of that evidence, and therefore are guilty in view of that, then chapters three uh through five tell us about the great salvation God has, how that we can be made right with God and justified apart from the law through the propitiation that is in Christ Jesus.
And the result of that salvation is, uh, among, uh, uh, when it comes to its climax, we shall be saved from the wrath of God. We've noticed in part study the coherence of the argument, therefore, in that part of Romans. We need to be saved because in our sins we are exposed to the wrath of God. Salvation, justification by faith through Jesus Christ, our propitiatory sacrifice, brings us to the glorious conclusion and utter certainty that we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. Then we notice our our last session that, uh, excuse me, where are we?
There we are. The second section has to do not with the wrath of God, it has to do with that second reason why we need to be saved, the wreckage of Adam's sin. That is the wreckage that it caused and has caused, increasing all down the centuries. And therefore, if you like a neat phrase, whereas part one was concerned with justification, part two is going to be concerned with what is popularly called sanctification. In using that term, I do so with caution because we shall find, when we come to, uh, chapter six that a great part of our sanctification still depends on our being justified in its legal sense.
But let that, uh, uh, simple, uh, uh, contrast help us in now coming to grips with the main arguments of part, uh, two of the Epistle to the Romans. We noticed, of course, that if it begins with the wreckage of Adam's sin, the section ends once more with a tremendous sense of triumph based in the love of God, that, uh, uh, creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption brought on by Adam's sin. And we who already have the first fruits of the Spirit within us, we shall receive our adoption, that is the redemption of our bodies, the wreckage put right, and we brought to glory and conformed to the image of God's Son.
And assured once more, as we come to the end, the triumphal end, that the love of God is such and has been so demonstrated in the giving of his Son for us, that we can be utterly sure that nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We notice the repeated, uh, pattern, the climax on each occasion in the love of God and its sense of utter certainty. And we notice a- a- again in this second major part of Romans, the coherence of its argument.
It isn't other- in other words, it isn't just a collection of, um, happy verses, you'll see. It is a coherent argument. Here, we looked at it briefly last time, let us try to get hold of it again now. Here are the major arguments of the, uh, uh, uh, the second part. Five: twelve to twenty one, the root and ruin, the the root of our ruin and of our recovery.
Whereas through Adam we were ruined in Christ we are restored. Six one to fourteen then deals with the legal basis of sanctification. We stressed it last week, I want to stress it again this week. It is the key to understanding what Romans six is actually talking about. For many people wish at this point to go off and consider the practical work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and that is exceedingly important. And they get a little bit impatient at this stage with Paul for bringing in the matter of justification, when now they were so really hoping that he would talk about sanctification.
But, uh, uh, in the second major argument of this part of Romans, Paul is talking about the legal basis of sanctification. He who has died has been justified from sin. Then, in the third major argument of this part of Romans. Paul interjects a paragraph that points out to us that though there is now no penalty for those that are in Christ Jesus, there are practical consequences of sinning.
And that is a something that sometimes gets overlooked. When we emphasize the fact that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, once justified, justified for all times, accepted of God and sure of God's he- heaven. We sometimes overlook the fact that while there's no penalty, there are consequences of sinning. Then we come on to the function of the law in this context, and once more to a highly debated, uh, question.
Who is Paul talking about in Romans seven when he presents such a miserable account, uh, of people who want to do good and never succeed in doing it? Notice, however, we shall have to notice the place in the order of the argumentation. This discussion of the law's inability to sanctify. Here is the second part's equivalent of what in the first part was a demonstration that the law has no power to justify us.
We cannot be justified by the works of the law. Now, in the second part, we're being reminded that we cannot be sanctified by simply doing the works of the law. It is true, according to chapter eight of course, that the righteous requirement of the law is meant to be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. But that righteous requirement of the law being fulfilled is altogether dependent, not on our simple un- un- uh- uh- uh- unhelped, unaided attempts to keep the law.
The law as law cannot sanctify you. It is the Holy Spirit's living power within that can bring about such a state that the righteous demand of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And hence, uh, chapter eight, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the secret of sanctification, and the far-reaching implications of the work of the spirit within us, eventually conforming us to the very image of God's son, that we may be glorified together with him.
So that is the, they are the major arguments, at least as I see them, in this part of Romans, and it's our job now to get down to some of the detail. Let's look briefly, therefore, at the, uh, uh, first paragraph, the first argument from chapter five, verse uh twelve to the end. This is a passage that's going to talk to us about the fall of the human race and the consequent wreckage. It's relevant gent- it's relevance, gentlemen, to the question of sanctification is this. You can tell me that I can be, uh, justified, that's the se- that the part one of the epistle, through faith in Christ.
If you're concerned about my being sanctified and wanting to make me holy, you better have a thoroughgoing, realistic analysis of what's wrong with me. If you haven't got a realistic analysis of what's wrong with me, and you think I'm a nice rosy red apple with just one or two specks here and there that could easily be cut out by s- skillful use of a knife, and then I should become, uh, what I always was generally, a nice rosy red apple. Then you will be sorely disappointed.
We must, if we're going to talk about sanctification and helping people to to realize sanctification in their lives, we must have an adequate concept of what's wrong with this. And as it comes to me personally, you may, uh, uh, feel aggrieved by all my shortcomings, difficult, angular personality, and goodness knows what else. I want to tell you, gentlemen, that a good deal of it's my fault, but it isn't all my fault. Do please bear that in mind. I, you see, had some delightful parents. They were believers. I owe them a debt I shouldn't, can never repay them.
But like the rest of us, you know, they weren't perfect. And sometimes the way they treated us, their children, wasn't perfect either, and stored up all sorts of resentments like kids get in their hearts, you see. And then if all the rest of you had been perfect saints, life would have been easier for me. The trouble with me is you. Because you're a lot of funny lot, you know, when when all is said and done. You too are not perfect. And it's not just you assembled here today, but this whole world.
Please, if you're going to put me right, do understand what, what it is that's wrong with me. And here beg- g- begins the story. It goes back to this one man, Adam, verse twelve, through therefore as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin. Sin was the channel that allowed death to enter, and so death passed unto all men, for that all have sinned. Now, as I pointed out on our last, uh, uh, previous sessions, there is a translational question here in the end of that, uh, verse.
Should you translate it all sinned when Adam sinned, that is, or all have sinned, each one personally since then? Serious expositors, uh, find themselves in disagreement over it. Reformed theologians in particular want to translate it that all sinned when Adam sinned. That all were somehow involved in his sin, and hence all die. They have different ways, uh, of explaining how that could be true.
The older version was that we were in the loins of our father, a Adam, as the scripture would put it, we were all in in Adam, DNA and all, when he's in, and that he passed on to us this now imperfect, uh, set of DNA and cells and what have you. But because of that, when he sinned and we were in him then, we sinned when he sinned. Other reformed theologians say, no, that couldn't possibly be true.
What, uh, happened, they explain now by bringing in the concept of federal headship. Adam was the head of the race. Therefore, all the race are involved with the, uh, sin of Adam. If you want an analogy, when Hitler declared war on, uh, the rest of the world, then all who were Germans, because they were under Hitler, were guilty with him.
They declared war when he declared war. And therefore, when it came to the towards the end of the war, though international law suggested, and the Geneva Convention suggested, that no army should go and destroy innocent people, the Allies, uh, authorized the mass bombing of Leipzig, uh, a- and uh, the other city, deliberately killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Why?
Because they were Germans, that's why. They were in the enemy camp. And federal headship suggests that when we were born into this world, we were born into what got for, as far as God was concerned, was an enemy camp. And we must be treated as enemies. Unless by repentance and faith, we cut ourselves off, so to speak, we stand aside from that enemy camp. I find those explanations very difficult myself.
I prefer, I think, that the first one was nearer the truth. And theref- uh, to think that, yes, the An- uh, uh, Allies bombed Germany, bombed Leipzig and Dresden, and killed comparatively innocent citizens just because they were Germans and on the German side. I think it's very difficult to consider God doing the same thing. And condemning people to his judgment just because they are born into this fallen world and fallen race.
I know I have not answered the theologians' ideas. We haven't the time to do it. I do point out to you that serious, God-fearing theologians differ on this matter, and you gentlemen should, are responsible to think it through for yourselves. What I think the wor- how I think the word should be translated is this: so death passed unto all men, for that all have sinned. The argument against that view, or one of the arguments, is as follows. Uh, little babies die.
It would be cruel and wrong, surely, to suggest they die because they have sinned. When does a child of two days old have to sin? You'll see. And so people say that this is an impossible translation, so death passed on to all men, for that all have sinned. Little babies don't sin, yet they die. My answer to that must be that Paul is talking about here about responsible people who have grown to that stage of responsibility that when they do wrong, they, uh, they often know it is wrong.
The little babies, imbeciles, and such-like people are a special case that he doesn't stop to talk about here. But with the end of verse twelve, Paul now inserts a parenthesis. He has said in verse twelve, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and as a con- and as a consequence, death passed to all people. But then he breaks off. He's begun a comparison, one man sinned and as a consequence all died.
But he doesn't draw the other side of the comparison until he comes to verse eighteen. So then, as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation, restating the first part of the comparison, and then in verse eighteen, second half, the com- the second side of the comparison made, even so through the one act of righteousness and the free gift, the free gift came unto all men to justification by faith. But for the moment, from verse thirteen onwards, we have a com- a a a a parenthesis, because he wants to explain certain things.
So death passed unto all, for that all have sinned. Verse thirteen, he now begins to explain how he can say that. For until the law, that is the law of Moses, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. The word imputed is, uh, not a good translation. I don't know what your translations have. It means it's not reckoned out. You'll see dangerous driving is always a bad thing.
And therefore the authorities have imposed a regulation. Thou shalt not drive over thirty miles an hour within the built up area. Now there's a ro- law. And if you break that law, the, the ch- the charge of dangerous driving can be brought against you, because now your sin can be brought out and measured exactly and, uh, defined, and you are convicted under a law. Whereas when there is no law, you can't, uh, uh, be convicted of having, uh, broken the law if there's no law.
So what about all those who lived, uh, long before the law of Moses was given, and people to whom no external law was given by revelation of God? It doesn't mean they didn't sin, of course they all sinned during that period, but you couldn't compute, you couldn't reckon it out when there was no law. Nevertheless, people died. Verse fourteen, in spite of there being no laws that could compute exactly their sin, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression.
And that means, Adam, when he sinned, it wasn't just a sin, it was a positive transgression and disobedience. Adam did have a law, and the law said, thou shalt not eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was an explicitly given law. He did have a law, and his sin took the form of transgressing a published law. Now, if there isn't a law, you can't transgress against it, can you?
These many thousands of people sinned, but not after the similitude of Adam, because they didn't have a revealed law, yet they sinned. They weren't like, like Adam's sin, they weren't transgressions of a deliberate, a deliberate transgression of a law externally promulgated in the way that God promulgated the law of Moses on Mount Sinai. So while they're different from Adam?
And it's very difficult for me to think that Paul really believed that when Adam sinned, they sinned, because if when Adam sinned, if they sinned at the same time, they must have sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, not hope. If they sinned when Adam sinned, it must be true that they transgressed when Adam transgressed. Here it says they didn't sin after the same manner as Adam. You'll notice that. They sinned. They didn't have a explicit revealed law. Nevertheless, death reigned over them as a result of Adam's sin.
And I conclude, therefore, that while you cannot say that people are guilty of Adam's sin because they are descended from him, people inherit a nature that was ruined in part by Adam's sin. I would sum up my, what I'm thinking by verse nineteen, as through one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. They were constituted sinners. Or, as the old theologians would say, sinners by nature.
We inherited a fallen, sinful nature as a result of Adam's disobedience. And in the same way, even so, through the obedience of the one that is Christ, shall the many be constituted righteous. Now let us sum up the argument thus far and see its importance. If it was true that because the race was in Adam when he transgressed and sinned, and because I was in Adam at the time, you see, I am to be charged with the guilt.
I'm involved in the guilt and deserve the penalty. If that's going to be charged to me, I deserve the penalty of Adam's sin. Well, now, how am I constituted righteous? Through the obedience of Christ. Yes? Am I to claim, ah, then I was a part of it, and I obeyed. When Christ obeyed, I obeyed. Really? Gentlemen, I shall have to ask you to examine your conscience as what you really believe. Do you really believe that when Christ obeyed, well, you obeyed as well, and your justification is partly due to the fact that you obeyed?
N- no, I think you'll not say that. At least I hope you won't. Through the one man's one act, we were constituted sinners. Through the great act of obedience of Christ at Calvary, we are constituted righteous. We are not guilty of Adam's sin. We were wrecked by it. We are not to be credited with Christ's obedience, but we are saved through it. And that brings us back to verse fourteen, where at the end, Paul makes the point that Adam is a figure, if you like, of him that was to come.
Meaning, there's a certain parallel between Adam and Christ. Adam, by his one act of disobedience, ruined the race. Christ, through his one act of obedience, saves all who are in him. You see the parallel. And Paul will express that parallel precisely in verses eighteen, nineteen, twenty, and twenty one. But, hmm, having said that Adam is a figure of him that is to come, in verses fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, Paul again pauses to introduce another idea, because he's afraid that you might get the wrong impression.
When he says that, uh, uh, um, uh, Adam was a figure of Christ, that therefore there's a, a straight equation, just like Adam sinned and ruined the race, Christ obeyed and saves all who, uh, trust him. You might think that both sides were in that sense equal, and that would be a wrong idea to get from the analogy. They're not equal, for on the side of Christ there is an exceeding great, uh, excess of benefit. Christ didn't just put right what Adam put wrong.
Christ has made possible a far more glorious state of affairs than even existed before Adam sinned. At which point we shout hallelujah in our hearts. Adam has done us a great disservice, of course he has, and a bewildering amount of sorrow and suffering and sin and all the ugly things com- connected with it. Christ has not only put it right, through his obedience we shall know a glory that is far in excess of the, of what Adam had even before he sinned.
And so Paul, uh, pauses in verses fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen to point out that this matter of the excess on the side of Christ. And first of all, he states the fact, not as the trespass, so also is the free gift. There's not a complete parallel between them. For if by the trespass of the one, the many died. On the side of Christ, there is a much more. Much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many.
You'll say the gift of God is far more, abundantly more than whatever Adam lost. Sixteen. And not as through one that sins, so is the gift. Once more stating the fact there's not an exact parallel between them. For the judgment came of one unto condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses unto justification. Ponder it, gentlemen. Adam only did one sin, one transgression, and the result was the horrific wreckage that we all know.
If that were the result of just one sin, then add up all the sins that you can think of in the whole of history. Yet the death of Christ is enough. Do you see, the free gift came of many trespasses unto justification? And at this moment, we needn't concern ourselves with all the sins in history. We can ask about our own sins. You gentlemen just done one sin, just like Adam? His one sin was enough to wreck the whole human race.
How many have you done? And can you compute, gentlemen, the ongoing effect of your sin? Here's a schoolmaster, and for the first, uh, uh, uh, fifty five years of his life as a school, uh, man, and the first thirty years of his teaching profession. He taught children evolution in the sense that there is no God, a creator, and destroyed the faith of many. fifty five, he gets converted, and he himself is saved.
What about the consequences for the many generations of children whose faith he destroyed? Oh, when will it be possible to, to adequately to compute the seriousness-ness of that man's sins? That's tremendous, isn't it? The judgment came, you see, of one sin, one trespass to condemnation. But the gift, but the free gift came of many trespasses unto justification.
The benefit, gentlemen, on the side of God. And finally, for if by the trespass of the one death reigned through the one, much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Delightful terms, aren't they? Through the trespass of the one, death reigned. Second time in this paragraph, the phrase occurs, Fourteen, death reigned. Now once more, seventeen, death reigned.
Like some enormous juggernaut, rolling irresistibly through the streets, and people who had happened to fall in the way of it get crushed. So this effect. Through the trespass of the one, death reigned, remorselessly, Irresistibly. Reign. reigned. Uh, but on the side of salvation, you'll not only be spared and forgiven, you'll not only have a kind of a life that is survival.
It is here said that, uh, we shall reign in life, like sovereign kings, and not like slaves under a master, that is death. To reign sovereignly through the one even Jesus Christ. That said, now in verse eighteen, he comes back to the point that there is a similarity between Adam on the one hand and Christ on the other.
And now it's safe to notice that similarity. Once you have, have been reminded, of course, that the benefit is all on the side of Christ ten million times. Now there is a similarity, and it's worth noticing. Verse eighteen: so then, as through the one trespass, the judgment came unto all to condemnation, even so through the one act of righteousness. Pray notice it, gentlemen. One act on the part of Adam, one act on the part of Christ. Through the one act of, uh, uh, you'll see the trespass, one act of disobedience, the trespass, judgment came unto all men to condemnation.
Even so, through the one act of righteousness, free gift came unto all men to justification of life. And the one act of righteousness was what, gentlemen? And when was that one act performed? Yes, I thought someone would be bold enough to speak. Marvelously good. But just let's check, uh, another scripture to show our interpretation is true to scripture. There are some people who see, that think that the whole of Christ's personal righteousness of his manhood throughout those years of his manhood, that he accumulated a lot of righteousness personally, and uh, that that personal righteousness of Christ brought out throughout the years of his life is somehow put to our account.
That is not what this verse is saying. This is first the talking about one act of righteousness. That brings us, uh, this free gift to justification of life. So let's look at Hebrews chapter ten And what the argument is. The early verses, the blood of bulls and goats couldn't take away sin. Therefore, in the Psalms, when Messiah comes, he speaks in the words of the Psalm, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body didst thou prepare me.
In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hadst no pleasure. Then said I, this is a quotation from the Psalm. Messiah has noticed that sacrifices of animals are, are, are no good. They don't do the job. So, having said that, Messiah then says, lo, I am come, in the role of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Messiah is now providing what the animal sacrifices could never provide. He's come to do that specific thing, what sacrifices couldn't do, he has come to do it, and to do the will of God.
So I come to do thy will, O God. And then the writer is at at pains to point out that you must read these statements in their context. This statement, I am come to do thy will, O God, follows immediately abou- uh uh it follows immediately what was said immediately before. His coming to do the will of God follows the observation, sacrifices and offerings, and whole burnt offerings and sacrifice for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein, the which are offered according to the law. Then he has said, at that point, lo, I am come to do thy will.
He takes away the first then, that he may establish the second. He takes away the old offerings, the first, that he may establish the second, the doing of the will of God. Well, in what respect did he do the will of God that removed the need for offerings? Verse ten: by the which will we have been sacrificed through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once forever. This is the great act of obedience that he came to do.
It was done once. Its results, of course, last eternally. By the one great act of obedience. And you will notice how the records of Gethsemane bear this out. For when it came to Gethsemane, and all that it would imply, our Lord represented it as a cup that was now being given to him. Full of the wrath of God and the judgment of God against sin.
And Christ had to face it. And the question was, would he take it and drink it? Or wouldn't he? Gentlemen, you should not read what he said as though it were an advertising gimmick. When he said, take this cup from me, he meant what he said. Read it in Mark's account, and you'll see how skillful was his prayer, though very brief.
Abba Father, said he, all things are possible, all things are within your power. Take away this cup from me. Heaven never heard a more skillful prayer. Abba Father. Notice the word of affection. By your love for me, Father. I plead you take away this cup. All things are within your power.
By your power I plead with you. Oh, but immediately saying. But in spite of that, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And when it became apparent that this was the Father's will and there was no removing of the cup, then he didn't just give in. No, no, gentlemen. He wasn't giving in to the inevitable. He prayed it with every fiber of his being.
Thy will be done. It has often been, uh, o- observed that Adam transgressed in a garden. There was the disobedience committed. It was in a garden that our Lord made his prayer positively, thy will be done, and fulfilled it at Calvary. How different he was from Peter, wasn't he?
Well, I wonder like old men wonder, you know. Uh-huh. Peter, the Last Supper, our Lord said, Peter, you're, you're, you're, you're, you'll die, man, Lord, said Pete. Well, well, it's almost comical, Lord. These others might perhaps. Oh no, I have no doubt about some of them. But uh, uh, uh, I would never, I would go to prison and to death for you. Oh, he was quite ready to suffer. No difficulty there at all. And as he came into the garden. Yes, when he records it in his own gospel, he's in his own epistle, he says, it's better, gentlemen, to suffer if the will of God so will.
When he talked to Christ, he said, Lord, if it's necessary, I would suffer and go to death. What kind of necessity was he thinking about? If it's necessary, what, and I can't get out of it, or I can't fight my way out. What kind of necessity was he thinking of? If it's necessary, I would be prepared to go to prison and death for you. When he got into the garden, he found it wasn't necessary, you know, ran off. Our Lord didn't come like that, dancing into the garden, saying, oh, the cross, yes, oh, I happy to go to the cross.
Of course not. The more sinless he was, the more he would be horrified at the prospect of being counted as sinful for us. By that one act, then, of obedience, and we come back to Romans chapter uh five, That is verse nineteen. and the final, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, comparison, the law came in beside that the trespass might abound.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, or did abound more exceedingly. What does it mean that the law came in that the trespass might abound? Well, possibly two things. If there's no law, no thirty mile an hour limit, no hidden, um, photography cameras, you see, or no policemen standing up beside thing with a gun, radar gun, whatever. If there's none of that, it looks as if very few folks drive, um, dangerously.
You bring in a law, it will show you that rather a lot of folks drive dangerously, even up the Malone Road. So I say. Ha ha. And another thing, the law coming in, as chapter seven remarks, the actual existence of a prohibition, you shall not do that, stirs a lot of people to go and do it. They're not going to be told by somebody else what they may and may not do, and they go and do the very thing to to try and assert their freedom. The law came in that sin might abound.
God wasn't an innocent when he gave Christ to die, you know. But he first exposed sin by his law, that the full extent of it might be seen. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, or abound more exceedingly. And if you can begin to think of the abounding of sin. Then even so, you have a poor yardstick by which to measure the exceeding abundance of the grace of God.
That as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The magnificence of grace. And that magnificence was nowhere shown more clearly than, of course, at Calvary. Where did sin abound? What would you cite as being on earth? The high watermark of human sin and rebellion against God. What would you cite?
The Holocaust or something? No, not if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God. When the very people that were his own, and the nation appointed by God to be the vehicle through which Messiah would come into the world, with the grace of God's presence in the tabernacle and the giving of the law and the priesthood, showed what lies at the root of the human heart, and they murdered the son of the creator of the universe, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
The doctrine of the fall, gentlemen, is a very good doctrine, and to be accepted, uh, uh, uh, with open arms. It does say that we're sinners, serious sinners. It will admit that it's not all our fault. But whereas we were ruined by the disobedience of the one, we should never perish simply because one man disobeyed. Whereas we were ruined by one, we can be saved by what one man did, and more and more and more to the benefit of salvation than the loss incurred through what Adam did.
Of course, it does depend on our turn, since all of us have sinned personally, that we shall repent of it and be reconciled to God and justified by his grace. Yeah? Now that statement of the grace of God and salvation by grace raises, of course, very big questions. And it is to the answering of those questions that Paul turns in chapter six following. And there we cease, gentlemen. We started just a second or two late this morning, and I've gone on a few minutes, Josie, to compensate for that fact.
I shall behave better in following sessions.
