You In Christ and Christ In You
Mike Doyle · Feb 8, 2009
You in Christ & Christ in You, No. 06
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492612345317

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

What does reigning in life mean? We talked about that. We'll talk some more about that today. I ask the question, what are the much mores? And when you go through these verses, Romans 5, 12-21, you see this phrase, much more. And the reason that I pointed it out is because it's one of those phrases in Paul's epistles that begin to describe what grace is. And when we graduate down the road in this class to where we focus in and study grace, you'll see, hopefully you'll get an idea of kind of how grace functions. In verse 9, if you go back a little bit, verse 9, much more than having been declared righteous, by means of his blood shall we be saved through or from the coming wrath.

What you discover with these much mores is that God has always done a lot more than was required. He just didn't do enough. What you discover about grace is that if you need, well to put it in practical terms, if you needed 5 pounds of grace you always got 200. That's the way grace functions. And that's really what the much mores have to do with.

We needed life, we got His life. We needed forgiveness for our sins. Not only did we get forgiven, but we got recreated. So I think that's the point of verse 15. For if by the trespass of one, which was Adam, death came to many, much more did the grace of God and the gift by grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound unto many. Much more. For if by the trespass of one death reigned as king through the one, much more. Those accepting the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness shall reign as kings in life through the one Jesus Christ.

It's not only that you have life, like I said, But it's that you have eternal life. It's different. It's way more than you needed. That's the point with a much horse. So are there any redeeming characteristics of the Adamic man created in the image and likeness of God which can be fixed up? You sure? It's hairstyle. Huh? It's hairstyle. Hairstyle. How about your winning personality?

I find it interesting that we will all agree and sort of chuckle that no, there isn't anything, but boy, why do we work so hard to do it anyway? Because we really do, don't we? You know? Because we see our faults. What's that? Because we see our faults. We see our faults. And you know what's interesting? I'm going to pick on you. I hope you're all right with that. When you say, When we see our faults, who's the our you're talking about? Me, everybody. You the old man in Adam or you the new man in Christ? Either way, either way, this one or that one, we're full of faults, we always will be.

The point that the identification class is trying to get across, and hopefully we will over time, is that as I am positioned in Christ, I don't have any faults. I don't have any. And so, rather than spend my time looking at what I think are my faults, because the my there is my old man, when I discover that I have been separated from him, then those faults belong to him. Do you understand my point? It's not that you're not responsible, but you don't have to dwell on the inadequacies of Adam.

Because we've been forgiven because of Christ's crucifixion. Well, we're going to find out week after next it's more than forgiveness. We have been forgiven, but it's more than that. We have much more grace than we suspected. We literally have the freedom to walk away from all that we know ourselves to be. from all of our history. We can walk right away from it. Kind of cool.

Don't you have to see how bad Adam is in you to understand? I think that's true. I absolutely do. Because I don't think you'll always be kind of keeping one toe in the water over there until you know how bad Adam is. I think God takes you through that.

He takes you to the point where You know there's nothing good in Adam. And that's the great Roman 7, verse 21. In me, that is in my flesh, my old man, my Adam, dwells not a single good thing. But he has to take you to that point. It's not that you dwell on that, but he has to take you to that point and understand that there's nothing good in Adam. You have to get to that point, that realization.

Otherwise you keep messing with him. There's something you'll find good in him. Well, it seems like part of the character of the sin nature, the nature of the sin nature, is that given the right set of circumstances or time or whatever, it will accomplish whatever needs to be done. To some degree it will. It thinks it can.

I'll give you a personal experience. I grew up in and have been enmeshed in my whole life in an alcoholic family. Both of my parents became members of Alcoholics Anonymous, and one of my brothers and three of my sisters are charter members of the local chapter. My parents weren't the first in our generation of people to be alcoholics. My grandparents were, and on we go. The amazing thing about the alcoholic mentality is this.

We're getting better. And the huge surprise to me, after I had been a Christian a while and began to learn these truths, it dawned on me, I don't have to get better, because I died. I can walk away. You see the point? I'm not trying to get better anymore. So this attempt to always be better is one of those merry-go-rounds that never stop. The thing is, you've got to get off the merry-go-round. of these little horses are going up and down and you're trying to fix them all, get off the merry-go-round.

And the old man has this incredible strength to survive. J.B. Stoney said, the old man will do anything but not do anything. See how subtle that is? it'll be religious, it'll pray, it'll do good sermons, it'll do good deeds, it'll do bad, it'll do whatever, as long as it can be doing. But if it's faced with doing nothing, then it won't do that. So there's not one single thing in the Adamic man that's worth spending any time to try to fix up.

So all those who are saving up your money to send your kids So why is it so important that we see that God has changed his man? Do you understand what I mean by the question? God has changed his man. What does that mean? Up until Christ, God dealt with the human race through who? Through Adam and all of his descendants, right?

But now, he doesn't have to anymore. Because there's a new man in town. There's a new sheriff in town. Who is it? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. So now God has changed his man. Why did he do it? If there's one thing the Old Testament proves, it's this premise. What is it? That Adam couldn't do it. The one thing the Old Testament proves to anybody who's an intelligent reader is that Adam couldn't do it. And there was a new king and the new king was so promising. And the next you know that it just came after King after King. That's right. New king, new man, new system.

Let's see. We'll start with Adam. Well, that didn't go so well. So we'll start over with Noah. I didn't go so well. So maybe we'll do a Tower of Babel thing. Well, it didn't go so well. So maybe we'll abandon all of humanity and cut it down to one nation. Well, that didn't go so well.

So God brings a whole new man onto the scene who's the Lord Jesus Christ and so now it's important for us to understand that he deals with us through this new man only and he deals with the whole human race that way now. Through this new man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's abandoned Adam. Oh no. Yeah, he has. Because now he has a new man. OK. Yeah.

Streaking on the lesson six. Everybody have less than six. I don't know. Anybody else need a lesson six? So my first question in Lesson 6, and we're talking about self and then more of Romans 5.12-21. The first question is, through what trespass it was unto all men to condemnation? What is the extent of the application of the principle of condemnation? How far did it go? To all of us. Every single human being, that's right.

1 Corinthians 15.22 says, In Adam, all die. If you just understood those four words, you would begin to understand the concept of identification. In Adam, all die. All. Well, nobody escaped. No, all die.

Ephesians 2.3. By nature, everybody is the child of wrath. We are the children of wrath. So if the Adamic nature is the source of sin in everyone, whether saved or unsaved, then Paul could say in 12, Wherefore by one man's sin, the principle of sin, entered into the world, and along with this sin came death. And then death passed upon all men. Why? Because everybody in Adam sinned. Remember we talked about that principle last week? You alright with that? Everybody not understand that principle? That's a good one.

So did God have the right to have a judgment day on the whole human race in Eden? What gave him the right to do that? Now only two people in Eden sin, how come he condemns the whole race? Because we all come from Adam. That's right. And don't forget that principle. You've got to hang on to that principle as we go forward, because that principle is going to hold true, especially when we start talking about Christ.

Was Adam's fall irrevocable? Yeah, it sure was. God made it very clear to Adam that if he should sin, he was certainly going to die. When you say the extent of the principle of condemnation, it was all mankind, but didn't it go through all creation? Yes, it did. Yes, it did. Understand Don's question? It was not only the man and all of his progeny that died.

What happened to the creation? The creation was subjected to vanity according to Romans 8. It fell too. Why would it fall? Because it was in man's care. Yeah, that's right. Adam had dominion over the creation, so everything that he had dominion over suffered because of his sin.

So, we live Have any of you been at Bellevue and I-25 looking west at about 7 o'clock in the morning? You ever been there? Where you look down over the mountains and I mean it's one of the most spectacular sights in Colorado. You're looking at death. Courtney and I have this discussion about scuba diving and going to Hawaii and stuff like that and we're down there just awed by what God does in the ocean. We're looking at death.

Well, Mike, along that way, I used to go with Camp Elam with my sons and we would go on this father and son pack trip. And there was a guy named Jack Todd who would he actually was more involved in his own thing. But one time he kind of related. He said, you know, I go out in the forest and you know what struck him?

One time was that, wait a minute, look at all these dead things out there. There's just one dead thing after another dead thing. The forest really is full of, because there's, unless it's really managed by some forest service, there's really all these trees that are dead and decaying. I see death out there. And I'm not sure if Jack totally understood the patient truth, but that just, whoa. So you look out in the forest and you see death out there. dark when you see it for the first time.

Every single thing is on the way to corruption. If you go down to your local Mercedes deal and spend $200,000 for that really super bummy Mercedes, it began to go to corruption when they mined the material that went into it. Most of us make our living on the fact that things wear out. Or deplete or something.

You cannot question God's right or his wisdom to have a trial in the Garden of Eden. He has the right to do it, because all mankind died that day in Adam. All of us did, in Adam. And so, the judgment on the whole race, because the judgment was on the head of our race. Furthermore, he knew, the other thing that God knew, I'm picturing in my mind this trial. Here's God, and here's Adam and Eve. Remember, we're having a trial.

And God knows, because He's God, that the creature would ever fail going forward. Every single offspring from Adam would fail. Every single one of them. And there was no sufficiency at all in the creature. He knew that. They didn't know that, but He knew it. And so, the only sufficiency was in the Creator Himself.

The third thing was that you and I would fail, as did Adam. I think most Christians understand that I mean, when I was first a Christian, I thought, boy, you know what? I wish I was Adam, because I would have done what he did. Yeah, I would have. Because I'm just like him. I would have done exactly the same thing. God desires that believers should be secure forever, and Adam was not secure. Was he secure in the garden? How safe was that environment? Turned out not to be too safe, did it? How safe are you in Christ?

Totally. The last part is, it was in his love that he held a judgment day. He judged us, he condemned us in our federal head. For what reason? That he might justify us in the person and work of the new federal head, the Lord Jesus. So the principles hold true with both men.

You see that? You alright with that? So what does the term justification of life mean? That's verse 18, right? Yes, verse 18. Therefore, as though one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so, through one man's righteous act, the three gifts came to all men, resulting in the justification of life. Now, what does the word justification mean?

Declared righteous. To be declared righteous, okay. So, if you look at Romans chapter 4, verse 7 and 8, look at 4, 7 and 8, it says that Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. You could say that's justification, right? He's justified.

If you look at 5.9, it says, much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath to come. declared saved or justified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and which puts us in a position where we are not going to have to face the wrath to come. The wrath being the week of Daniel or the great white throne judgment. We are not going to face that.

So we are justified from all things in Acts 13.39 but the problem with that is it leaves the believer If that's all there is, it leaves a believer without a positive standing.

Do you understand what I mean by that? In other words, if God says, I've justified you from all things, OK, what's next? In other words, if I'm just forgiven, if that's all there is, OK, how about the positive side? Is there anything positive going on here? You see where I'm going?

The justification of life. I not only have been freed up from the negative side, but now I have a positive side. I have a justification of life. That make sense? Not only the cancellation of guilt, the release of penalty, but life and standing in the risen Christ. I have that now. That's called the justification of life. You see that? Does that make any sense?

It's offered to all men through Christ's act at the cross, and it's way more than just the cancellation of guilt. I dare say lots of Christianity functions based on that one principle, the cancellation of guilt, right? But they don't function on justification of life. They don't know much about the life part.

In John 1.4, John says, in him was life.

Those in Christ are taken out of the position of death in Adam and given a place of life in Christ. That's what justification of life means. You alright with that? Say that again. Those in Christ are taken out of their position of death in Adam. Taken out of that position. In Adam all die. Okay? Taken out of that position in Adam and you are given a place of life in Christ. Justification of life. Okay? In general, Christians, like I say, focus on the death part. The death of Christ, he died for me. But for the growing believer, his life must be the focal point of faith. The resurrected life.

So explain how one righteous act affects all men. He says that in several places. 16 would say, or 17, for if by one man's offence death reigned, through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign. My question here is, how does the one righteous act, maybe set it up this way, one unrighteous act of Adam had a consequence, didn't it?

What's the consequence? and the whole creation goes into death. One righteous act by the other man, does that mean everybody gets saved? Why not? If they all fell, how come they all aren't saved? So what I'm after is, how does this righteous act affect man? How does God set it up? Because it's obvious that not every man is saved. Right? It's your choice, isn't it? It's your choice. Choice to do what? To believe or not to believe. There you go.

See, that's the thing. What the Righteous Act did, it went out to men and they had the opportunity to believe. See? So the righteousness goes to all men, but now that it's there and presented to them, you know, the way God does things is kind of cool. You've got to accept the gift. If you don't, you're staying out. So it wasn't that the one righteous act of Christ gave all men, or saved all men, but it gave them the opportunity to be safe. Is that alright with you? And that's how it is spread to all men. They have the opportunity.

Why do you think God would require faith on our part to get in on the deal? It's the only unmerited or non-meritorious act. Faith, and kind of a set up for the grace class, faith is the only thing a man can do that he can't take any credit for. You know why? Because faith itself has no value.

The value is in what you believe, not the fact that you believe. See, all the value of your salvation is in Christ and what he did. Your believing contributes not a single thing to it. So the value is in what you believe, not the fact that you believe. And it's important to stay on that premise because then you don't get a little arrogant about your salvation. He saved me. That's the way it is. It's by grace.

What does it mean to be set down as a sinner? In verse 19 it says, "...for by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many were made or set down." What do you think that means? It means that you not only possess the sinful nature or a tendency to sin, but you're regarded as one who has actually done the thing. You've actually sinned.

Verse 19 sums up the doctrine of the federal guilt by Adam's sin and sums up our justification by Christ. The whole emphasis is upon the fact that the effect, whether in the case of Adam or in the case of Christ, was produced by a federal head acting apart from any actions of those affected.

When Adam sinned, he was acting without consideration that it was going to affect anybody else, right? It was his act that did it. I was in him acting, but it was him. When Christ acted, he knew it was going to affect a lot of people, but he did it himself. There was a judgment held in Eden by the righteous God, the pronouncement is unto all men condemnation. So contrast Question six, contrast obedience with disobedience. Now this is kind of interesting stuff because when I say you need to obey me, what am I saying? You've got to do what I tell you to do, right? Is that how you view obedience?

The word is, if I have it, p-a-r-a-k-e-o-b-e-d-i-e-nce. K-O-E-E-S. And it doesn't mean to perform an action necessarily. What do you think it means? Come on, take a gamble. Big risk on Sunday morning. Is it obedience to God? Obedience to God. Well, what would you do? What would that obedience mean? Belief. Your faith, your belief. How would you contrast that with disobedience? Unbelief?

This word means, parakkoesis, which is disobedience, means to mishear. It means... To ignore? Well, just to mishear. In other words, you refuse to listen. Right. That's all it means. And then the word hupakkoes means submissive hearing. So, obedience means to hear, submissively. Disobedience means that I refuse to listen. Isn't that interesting? That's pretty subtle when you think about it. And any of you who have raised teenage sons, you know what this is about. Or daughters, yeah. Did you have a question? So, in essence, disobedience is just the refusal to hearken. or to hear, or to comply. That's all it is. Pretty subtle, huh? Obedience is bowing the ear to submissive listening. That's what that word means.

You kind of reminded me of several verses that talk about, God says, you know, hearing my word, you know, my word goes out, and the idea of hearing is kind of inherently and where to hear God's word. And it's interesting that the original faith comes by hearing.

Right. It's interesting that the. Actually, I also heard to hear under that word that was under the listen under to hear under. I can't. So what's interesting about that? As you're saying that, it seems like to listen under submissively requires context. they're saying. Right. Yeah. And I think one of the reasons that you listen under is because you know that God loves you and is doing things in love, right? And that you fall under that. I think that's right. I think that's absolutely right. The verse that I pulled out was one that pertains to the Lord, that He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So if you He bowed his ear, he became submissive, listening to his Father, even unto the death of the cross.

Because why? What's the motive? Because he loved the Father. When we studied John, what was the one thing, those of you who were in the John class, what's the one thing we discovered about the Lord Jesus' life? Why did he do everything he did? He wanted to obey the Father. He came to do the Father's will. He came submissively to do the Father's will. And never did he do his own will. Ever. Unless his will lined up with the Father. So he was always obedient in that sense.

Now to extrapolate it out, when you hear the word for a Christian, Using the definition that we use, when I say, or you hear somebody say, you need to be obedient as a believer, what are we really saying? It has to do with hearing submissively. You listen and submit yourself to the word. What's the word? Faith. The obedience of faith means that you read the word, you understand it, and you submit yourself to it. See that?

So it isn't that you do a bunch of spiritual push-ups, write big checks, you know, go to church four times a week. None of that. It's that you listen under and you're submissive to the Word of God and to Christ himself. You alright with that? Because, I mean, the legal guys will give you 4,000 things you need to do to obey. The only one thing you need to do is listen under, which is faith. It's really what it is. Yeah, I think about that. It almost seems like that. It's more command and order, isn't it?

Finding out who Christ is, and that's who you are. Obedience is, to me, or I always do the kind of converse, first down, why not confess? What's that confession? I'm not acting as who I am in Christ. So isn't it, I mean, the listening under is really, you know, I don't know, is knowing who you are in Christ and functioning in that way. Yeah. I think you're right.

On our Wednesday night group we're studying with John, we're in chapter 4. Chapter 4 talks about loving God, and if you love God it's demonstrable of the fact that you're in it. And I think that's what you're saying, that if we love one another, because we're in Christ and because that's the norm and the life to love one another. And John says, if you don't love your brother, guess what?

You're not there. I mean, he makes it really clear. And he lays out verse after verse. How do you know you're a believer is really what he's saying. How do you know? He says, well, you know, because you love the brother. you have the spirit that witnesses to you of the love of God. He said, if you don't have that, you ain't one of the guys. That's what he said. You're outside the loop, fellas.

Because it's perfectly normal for believers to love one another as God has loved us, not, oh, we get all warm and fuzzy about Roger. It's not that. It's that I love Roger the same way that Christ loves him. And he loves me back that way. Why? Because we have the life. And that's the way the life functions. We might have to grow up and understand what that is for it to work itself out. But John is making a very interesting point. That this love that is characteristic of the life we have must be demonstrable. It's got to be there. If it isn't there, fellas, you've got a problem. That's what he's saying.

And that's kind of what, you know, when you say obedience, it's almost like you're setting a metric or something you have to do, which negates grace. And I think this goes back to the fact that all the commands It's not an effort. It's not like Christ got up every morning and said, I'm going to do the Father's will. He just did it. He does it. That's who he is. And that's kind of the obedience. It's because that's who you are you do it. It's not an effort. It's like breathing. You do it because you do that.

And that's where, like I said, the obedience, when you say obedience, it's kind of like I was, immediately, it's like, oh, what do I have to do? You know, that's Adam's first response is, what do I have to do to do this? And that's the obedience, I think, is just listening under work, knowing who Christ is, and knowing who you are in Christ. And then the logical is, it just, you function that way.

Well, along with what Courtney's saying there, obedience from a world system is that I submit to somebody else's mandate. versus disobedience, which means I do my own, right? So there is an activity rather than a stand. You know what, as you guys were talking, you know what hit me?

What an incredible miracle it is that when the Holy Spirit comes to a non-believer and persuades them about their separation from God's grace and says to them, I'm presenting the Lord Jesus Christ to you as Savior, your personal Savior. Will you listen under? And a non-believer in Adam says, yes I will.

That's the miracle of all miracles. Well, it transforms you. If you have faith, you just become a transformed individual. The faith that you have at that particular moment, the result of that faith is the transformation. And that transformation process starts that second. and never changes. That's incredible to me.

Isn't that why I think, too, some white churches, in fact, mine, with so much emphasis on me, 1 John 1 and 9, say, I mean, with all you're doing when you're saying that yourself, this is addressed to our lay believers. It is for us to practice. And if we confess our sin to Him, or agree with God, agree with God on what He's doing, and what we've done was wrong and against him. Turn from that and go, stay and rest in Christ as we should. That was put there for it to keep us from being ourselves subjected. I think you're right about that because we as believers, the normative behavior pattern for us is to abide in Christ, to rest, to know what the peace of the past is understanding us about, and to behold the glory of the Lord and to grow in the knowledge and grace of God. That's normal for us, right? So here comes all the sin nature, and we sin, right? And right away, Adam's mentality takes over. I'm under the rock, you know?

And God says, wait a minute, nothing's changed. You've just lost fellowship, and here's the remedy to get right back into where you are. We don't... as little time to deal with Adam as possible. I'm going to convict you, the Spirit's going to convict you, as a new creature in Christ to restore you to fellowship. You know, you don't need to be woe-mean about anything.

That kind of thing. Streaking ahead here. So, it talks about that the law came in alongside, and so let's talk about that a little bit. Was the law given to either the first or the second Adam? Well, I drew him not to eat the fruit, that wasn't necessary. Was that a law? What's the law given to the first Adam? Mike, you're going to find the law here to be a lawyer. OK, let's talk about what law is the mosaic law, God's law.

It's six hundred and whatever it is, rules and regulations. Right. It covers everything from. your everyday life, your religious life, ceremonial life, everything. So it comes in. What's it there to do? Here's the basic principle of law. God says if you obey me, if you do what I tell you, which is a lot more than listen under, I will bless you. But if you don't do what I tell you, I'll curse you. Okay? That's the basic definition of law.

So the question is, was the law given to both Adam and Christ? Was the law given to the first Adam? It's a trick question. So the law came in alongside what? Adam? By the way, what nation got the law? Oh, you mean the Presbyterians didn't get it? How about the Republicans? They didn't get it either. How about the Persians? How about those guys in China? They didn't get the law? So it was only the Jews that got it.

Wasn't that a commitment to God's will to give it in regard to the needs of that person? He gave one law to one person, Adam. And that's why verse 13 says that everybody's dying, even though they don't die after the similarity that Adam died. Nobody's breaking the law from Adam to Moses, but they're still dying. How come? Abraham didn't break any laws, did he? Not that I know of, but he died. Noah didn't break any laws. had a few pops, but he didn't break any laws. He died. But it's because of Adam. We all died because of Adam.

That's right. Don't forget that principle. Hold on to that. So here comes the law. The law comes inside next to who? What? It comes in next to the sin nature. Now, you notice it says in 12, it says, by one man sin entered the world. and then down in 19 or 20 it says the law came in alongside. Guess what? Come in alongside and entered is the same word. So the law comes in. Here's good old sin nature functioning. And the law comes in right next to him and says, Hey, sin nature, how's it going?

I've got 625 rules for you. Here we go. And here, here, you know, I'll bless you if you can do them. And if you can't do them, Oh, by the way, I came from God, just so you know. if you can do it, God bless you, if you can't, I'm going to curse you. What does it cause Adam to do? Oh, hey, I'm glad you showed up. I didn't know what to do until you got here, but now that I know, everything's going to be cool. Right? So the Jews said, God, you just tell us what to do and we'll do it.

Isn't that what they said? How'd they do with it? Not so good. How come? Because it was in nature. Yeah, so what's the purpose of the law then? Is it to teach Adam to be good? It's to expose sin for what it really is. That's what it's there to do. When you look in the Old Testament, up until the time of Moses, there were a lot of guys that were kind of cruising around that really didn't understand sin. But when the law came, Boy, they began to understand it. The Jewish nation, their whole culture was trying to understand the law. I know a woman in Denver who's a lawyer who decided that she was really going to study the Mosaic Law, thinking in her mind that it was going to help her to live better. So with the study and the application of the law in your life, what does it cause you to do? Sin more, right?

The best example I know, how many of you are campers? How many of you have ever lit a fire outside? So when it comes time to go home at night, what do you put the fire out with? Water, sand. What if you decided, oh I've got a bucket of gasoline here, it's a liquid, we'll throw it outside. That's what the law does to the sin nature. It throws a bucket of gas on the fire. When you decide to put yourself under a law system, your sin nature just explodes.

How about every man is a law unto themselves? I mean, isn't there a law principle that operates in the nature of the old man? Absolutely. Absolutely. In Romans 1, 2, and 3, there were talks about men who aren't under the Mosaic Law, they're a law unto themselves.

So they got their own set of rules. And the cool thing about that is God says, OK, you got your own rules, how about we judge you based on your rules? OK, we'll do it that way. And so they have their own rules, and what happens? Even with their own rules, it inflames their sin nature. See that? And now the thing that becomes different is that not only are men sinners, but now they're transgressors, they're lawbreakers. You could say the law being given to neither Adam came in alongside sin, after sin had been around for 2,500 years.

Now the interesting thing about Israel is that they were vain and they were self-confident. And they thought if they could see God's standard and promise to obey it, that they could be more pleasing God. The problem is that they failed. And that's what we're going to find out. The reason that they failed was so that sin might abound.

Now, I'm thinking, wait a minute God, we're trying to snuff this sin out, yet you bring in a system that causes sin to abound? What's that all about? Why would you do that? Great idea. Isn't that verse 20? The law came in so transgression would increase, but we're sending grace about it all the time. That's right. So, in order to set this up properly for the grace to happen, question A, what did Christ say his work was in the world? His work in this world was? What did he come here to do? Seek and save that which was lost. And by doing what? By dying. The soul that sins at dawn.

So law came in alongside the sin nature and what did law, I've kind of been through all of these, accomplished regards to sin, it caused it to sin tremendously, it showed the weakness of the old man, it showed the weakness of the Adamic man, that he could not keep the law.

And the reason a man can't keep the law is very simple. The whole composite of the law, nowhere, it's like this legislation that they're trying to pass in Washington, nowhere in there is there a provision to keep it. You see that? The law said do this and live, don't do it and die, but there was no provision to do it. There was no grace given, no little, you know, 40 billion so that you can do it. There was none of that.

So what does grace superabound mean where sin abounded? Now look at God's premise. He's got a sin nature, doing pretty cool, gives him the law, sin explodes, but now with the explosion of sin, he brings in grace via the Lord Jesus Christ and his death. Where sin abounded, grace superabounded. Can you explain the difference between abounded and superabounded? Was grace just enough? Grace abounding means just endless. Yeah. It just continues on. It's a hooper or something. It means to abound beyond measure. It means to overflow.

It means It's hard to describe what grace is in a material environment. I'm going to read Lewis Barry Chafer's definition of grace. It may be concluded that the word grace, as used in the Bible in relation to divine salvation, represents the uncompromised, unrestricted, un-recompensed, which means no payback. loving favor of God towards sinners. It's an unearned blessing. It is a gratuity. God is absolutely untrammeled and unshackled in expressing his infinite love by his infinite grace.

So far we've got sin abounding, grace superabounding, and now we're going to talk a little bit about grace. A little bit, because we don't want to go too far because we're going to focus on it. Okay, I've got one question to go, and then next time we'll go to Lesson 7. Let's go.

Dear Father, how we thank you. These principles that we're learning, Father, about how you set things up, and how through these principles that you've established with the two men, and what you're going to do and have done about sin, is so important to us, Father, that we might enter into the fullness of it so that at the point at which we see the superabounding grace in you, dear son. You may rest in him, Father. Thank you. We pray in his precious name. Amen.