Or, Our Representatives and Their Reigns Romans 5:12-17 May 15, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

Some things benefit by being balanced. Some are ruined by it. A balanced diet does the body good, but we don’t try to balance time spent breathing with time spent holding our breath.

Relationships have a kind of balance, and the connection between self and tribe is a constant pull. For example, is worship as an assembly or your worship as an individual more important? Does the whole body matter or each part? What do you prioritize? What’s the balance? What happens when it’s out of balance?

Is there any more relentless mass media message today than promoting one’s self? As if we were really having problems with that. We may get caught up in the group excitement of being the 11th man for few hours, but we drive out of the parking lot thinking about numero uno.

Such an atomized culture makes a passage such as Romans 5:12-21 foreign, if not disagreeable. As a church we have tried to correct course, considering our families as units rather than as platforms for personal fulfillment. We’ve worked to stress the goodness of being a church, an assembly of worshipers rather than only a gathering of whatever Christians showed up. Yet even among us, we’re still faster to distance ourselves from the ones we’re connected to, especially when they do something (we think is) stupid.

Of course there is no gospel if there is no shared relationship to a representative. Each man must believe, no dad can believe on behalf of his son, but what we believe is in the work of another that counts for us. Justification occurs when God credits the work of Christ to those connected to Christ. We are reconciled to God through our representative. This is the only way of salvation and it turns out, a representative problem is why we needed salvation.

It’s interesting that Paul didn’t start with this part of our fallen condition. He’s written (what for us are) chapters on the sinfulness and self-righteousness of men. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, all without exception, each and every one. There is none righteous, no not one. A culture can be given over, but we think about that in terms of a majority of individuals given over. And that is partially true, but not entirely true.

In Romans 5:12-21 Paul nails the comfort door shut, and us inside the comfort as we are in Christ. Our peace with God, our rejoicing in God, our hope in His glory, our hope through trials, our certainty of God’s love depend on the work of one applied to the work of many. It wasn’t a group project, it was the work of one for the group. Christ’s righteousness counts for His group. This is good news, but it also not new. One man’s sin is imputed to all who are born. We sin and we deserve death because we were already guilty in Adam.

If we want the peace of having been justified by faith, we should recognize the pattern. For as much sin, death, and condemnation as there was, there is much more grace. Death reigned, but we reign in life by grace. following our Head (Ephesians 5:23).

Imputed Death (verses 12-14)

Verse 12 begins an argument that Paul doesn’t exactly finish, though he does explain it. He answers the comparison eventually, but adds a parenthesis to clarify his conclusion (the KJV actually puts a parenthesis around verses 13-17).

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— (Romans 5:12, ESV)

He does not give evidence for his assertion, his assertion is the evidence. Sin entered the world in one act in Genesis 3. This was not the first sin, it was the first sin among men. The one man is Adam, named in verse 14.

Sin brought—and birthed, so to speak—death. The order is signifi[...]