Judgment and Grace

"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (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 them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 5:10-21). This passage may seem a bit complicated to some, but since it is so integral to the faith I would just like to put these things into a more detailed, but simplistic form. What we are reading about here is two men, two fathers of mankind, and what each of them represent to us, and why. Adam, our common earthly father, was disobedient to God's word, and thereby incurred the death penalty that God had promised him if he disobeyed (Gen. 2:17; Gen. 3:19).

The reason that death passed upon all of Adam's seed after him, is because everyone in the history and future of mankind was literally 'in' Adam, and thereby became a partaker both of what he did, and also what he incurred. The apostle Paul states this elsewhere in fact: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Cor. 15:22). It's that simple. We were all in Adam, so we all die because of his sin. In fact we are all born with sin because we were in Adam, and were partakers of his sin by being in him. What I'm saying is that our spirit and part of our flesh was literally in Adam's body. Again, Paul explains how this is so: "And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him" (Heb. 7:9,10). Levi was accounted as paying tithes to Melchisidec because he was literally in the loins of his great grandfather Abraham when he paid tithes to Melchisedec. By the same token my spirit and yours were literally in Adam, and our spirits were tainted with Adam's sin because we were in him. The spirit of a person, not their flesh, constitutes who they really are; and the spirit does not come from the mother, but rather from the father, even as the scriptures have clearly shown us here. Jesus made it clear that sin abides in a person's heart, or spirit, and proceeds from that element of the person (Mk. 7:18-23).That is literally how we were all born in sin. Jesus came to make the way for that process to be reversed and nullified, and to implement a way for us to escape the death sentence, and to inherit eternal life instead. That way could only be by means of us experiencing a new birth, and having a new father beside Adam. Jesus being God's only begotten Son, came here, became a man like us, and died in our place; taking away the death penalty from us by doing so, and establishing eternal life unto us by means of his resurrection from the dead.

It's very important to understand that Jesus was both a man, and he was God. If he had only been a man, that means he would have been born with sin as well, and he would have been in the same boat as the rest of us. He could have died, but he would have stayed dead. Beside that, he couldn't have been God's only begotten Son if he had been born only as a man. He would have needed the same new birth we needed, but he would have had no way to attain unto it. So he was born without sin, because he bypassed the part of an earthly father being involved in the process. That means that his spirit did not come from mankind, but rather his spirit was only HOLY SPIRIT! That means he was born as God, or as God's Son, the same as he was born as a man physically, seeing that part of the body is of the mother. The truth is that the child that was born in that stable was spiritually the very Son of God who was begotten by the Father before anything else was ever created, as the scriptures confirm (Col. 1:17,18). In fact spiritually speaking he was the one who created the heavens and the earth, as the scriptures also attest to (Jn. 1:3; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16). The scripture clearly says that Jesus was from heaven (Jn. 3:31; Jn. 8:23; I Cor. 15:47). The body of the man Jesus was the result of being conceived in, and born of his mother's womb. So he was truly a man physically, but he was unmixed God spiritually. Had Jesus come to earth only as the Son of God, and had no been "the son of man" also, he could not have paid the price for our sins, he could not have taken our place in death, he could not have redeemed us from sin; and he could not be "the one mediator between God and men" (I Tim. 2:5).

In order to represent us in all of these things he had to be a man, and again the apostle Paul clarified this for us: "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings... Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted" (Heb. 2:9,10,14-18). What we needed was to become partakers of this God-man's death AGAINST SIN, and also of his resurrection FROM the dead, unto eternal life. As Adam's death and ours, was because Adam DISOBEYED God; so Christ's death was because of his OBEDIENCE to God. Adam's sin and death was a destructive thing that DISCONNECTED us from God, and turned us all out of the way of eternal life. Likewise the death of Jesus was a very constructive act of RECONCILING us to God, and obtaining eternal life for us all. The key to our being made partakers of this reconciliation to God, is that we have to be IN CHRIST! That takes me back to 1 Corinthians 15:22 again: "For as IN Adam all die, even so IN Christ shall all be made alive." So even as we literally became sinners and died because we were physically and spiritually in Adam's body, so must we be literally be in Christ's body in order to be counted with his death that reconciled us; and with the reconciliation that he purchased for us. Likewise with his resurrection from the dead. In order for us to become literal partakers of his resurrection from the dead, we must literally be in his body that rose from the dead.

So then it becomes all-important as to HOW we get into his body. At the beginning of the chapter that our text passage is taken from, the apostle tells us simply. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). So it is clear that our sins are taken away by faith in the reality that Jesus was and is the Son of God, that he died for our sins, and that he rose again from the dead and is alive today as the Lord of heaven and earth. But let's look at this truth just a little closer and get some more detail of how that actually takes place by faith: "And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (I Cor. 6:11). Now in this verse we see that we are justified, as well as sanctified and washed, BY the Spirit of God; which Spirit Jesus said would be sent in his name (Jn. 14:26). What that means is that we receive God's Spirit by faith in Jesus, as Jesus told us we would: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.]" (Jn. 7:38,39). To this the apostle Paul also agreed: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3:13,14). So we see that it is by having the Spirit of God in our lives that we become partakers of the death and the resurrection of Christ, and of the reconciliation and eternal life that is found therein. What this means is that receiving the holy Ghost into our lives is what constitutes us experiencing a new birth, and also our taking on a new father, meaning Jesus Christ. Adam was the first man, and in reality Jesus was the second man. Both were our fathers, and as it turned out Adam was our father unto death, and Jesus is our father unto life.

Paul again explains: "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (I Cor. 15:45-49). So we see that it is receiving the Spirit of God that is the new birth whereby we gain a heavenly father. But what about the part about actually being IN the very body of Christ, even as we were IN the body of Adam? "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular" (I Cor. 12:27). That's great Paul, but HOW do we GET INTO that body? "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (I Cor. 12:13). OOOOOOHH! That's right, it is the baptism of the holy Ghost [not water], that puts anyone and everyone into the one body of Christ. That is the same baptism of the holy Ghost that both John the Baptist and Jesus said that Jesus would baptize with (Mk. 1:8; Acts 1:4,5). That is also the same baptism of the holy Ghost that first came from heaven, from Jesus, to his followers on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4). And that baptism that Jesus died and rose to provide us with, still comes with the same accompanying sign of "speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance," like it did in the beginning (Acts 2:4). Paul even gives us some more detail about how that this baptism of "living waters" puts us directly into both the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:3,4). Interestingly enough, this passage is only three verses after the end of our text passage, so it was part of the same discussion. This passage is NOT referring to any water baptism my friend, because Jesus did NOT die in order to provide us with water baptism. That baptism was already implemented before he died and rose.

The baptism that puts us into his death and his resurrection is the one that literally puts us INTO HIS BODY! Colossians 2:12 says the same thing that Romans 6:3,4 says, and it is NOT talking about water baptism. Water baptism pointed the way to the Spirit baptism, even as John the Baptist proclaimed. Galatians 3:27 tells us that through baptism we literally "put on Christ." Well, it HAS TO BE talking about the holy Ghost baptism, not water; because 2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us that "the Lord IS that Spirit." We 'put on Christ' when we are baptized BY CHRIST, with the Spirit OF Christ, INTO Christ! THEN we are in his body literally, because the "Spirit of LIFE" is the very life that is IN the body of Jesus Christ, as well as in the body of his Father (Rom. 8:2). Jesus said plainly, "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself" (Jn. 5:26). That life is the same life that he came to provide for us, as he stated in John 10:10. That divine, eternal life is the "the eternal Spirit," which is "the Spirit of life IN Christ Jesus," as we are told by the scriptures (Heb. 9:14; Rom. 8:2). When we are baptized with the holy Ghost, with the accompanying sign of speaking in tongues, we actually enter into the very body of Jesus Christ, as well as the body of his Father, as the scripture states (Eph. 4:6). Thereby we are partakers of his death, his resurrection, and everything that these things obtained for us; namely redemption and deliverance from sin, and the resurrection from the dead. Not only so, but thereby he also becomes our father, even as we were in our father Adam's body. For those who remain pure from sin, we will literally and physically raise from the dead when Jesus comes from heaven; because he rose from the dead physically, we are already in him, and we have not disconnected ourselves by remaining in sin. The beloved apostle told us these things plainly: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure"(I Jn. 3:2,3). Jesus is still a man because he has a glorified man's body, which is to say his body has been baptized with the holy Ghost, which is the 'glory' of God (Rom. 6:4; I Pet. 3:18).

If Jesus were not still a man, then he could not be "the one mediator between God and men, the MAN Christ Jesus." If he were not still a man then he would not be able to raise us from the dead as men, even as he rose from the dead as a man. If we die in holiness, or remain pure until his coming, we will, as John said, "be like him" when he appears. The apostle Paul capped that off with this statement of glorious hope: "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself" (Philip. 3:20,21). So when Jesus returns from heaven our bodies, dead or living, will be baptized with the holy Ghost, which is the very glory and eternal life substance of God. This could go on and on actually, but I believe the point has been sufficiently made. So our redemption and hope of eternal life is all about our being IN the body of Christ, even as our being born in sin unto death was all about us being literally in the body of Adam, our first father. No wonder God gave this short but powerful message to the man that he sent to introduce Jesus onto the scene: "I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost" (Mk. 1:8). Jesus died a grueling death, and rose from the dead gloriously, so that he could be the baptizer of the new covenant; and to bring many children into himself thereby. His baptism is the only baptism that God recognizes, and it is the only baptism that comes by faith in Jesus; and imparts eternal life into all who believe on him (Eph. 4:5). His baptism is the one that saves us from our sins, because he died and rose to to just that, and it is the baptism that came to us as the result of these things that gets the job done, as Peter explained: "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) BY THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST" (I Pet. 3:21). That should do it for now. Amen.