Grace Reigns

 July 16 2023

Romans 5:12-21

         There are many ways that I become aware of my age, the list is growing everyday, but one of the more annoying ones is that when you go to the grocery store the background music is the same music that you used to listen to in high school. So, it has come to this, all the songs which remind me of my youth have now been declared to be good for nothing more than background music?! I mean it is rather sad if you think about it. Well, not only does the music of my youth become someone else’s oldies but groups are always remaking the music we used to listen to, and that too catches me off guard. My daughter sent me a link of the band, Fall Out Boy, who re-wrote, Billy Joel’s song, “We Didn’t Start The Fire”. The new version though still has the original chorus that goes, “We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world been turnin’…”. As I listened to those lyrics again I thought it sounds like Billy Joel and Saint Paul could share notes because what Paul writes here at the end of the fifth chapter of this letter to the church at Rome, Paul is telling his audience and us, that, no, we didn’t start the fire, you know this fire that has swept across all creation, the fire of sin and death. This fire has been burning not quite since the world’s been turnin’ but pretty close since it was, as Paul pointed out, Adam who had struck the match. And this fire of sin gave rise to death, and this death gave rise to more sin and the whole thing just took on a very evil life of its own. So, yes, we did not start this fire, it has been burning since the world was turning but this is not the end for Paul is going to let us in on what God has to say about just such a song.

         So, as Paul continues here at the end of this fifth chapter of his letter to this church at Rome, he begins with the period of time before God ever gave the law to the people of Israel. Was there sin from Adam until the law was given to Moses? Yes, sin was alive and well, it could be said that during this time sin was the king, the one in control. Yet the sinning that occurred in this time frame was not a transgression. A transgression is a deliberate crossing of a line which God has specifically said that we are not to cross. This is seen clearly in the life of Adam and Eve who were told not to eat of the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden of Eden but Adam and Eve chose to thumb their nose at God and they just got on making a little fruit salad for dinner.   

         So, yes, sin was in the world even before the law was given to Moses and the people of Israel but we have to wonder, just what affect will the law have on our world held captive in this swirling fire of sin and death? I mean, if you had been given the most perfect law, written down as the very words from heaven, wouldn’t you expect Paul here in this second paragraph of his writing about sin, that when the people of God obeyed the law they overcame their sin and the powers of death were at last defeated? But this is not what happened at all because what Paul writes about is how the transgression of Adam brought about judgment and after this judgment, there came condemnation. Now, in order for this judgment to be just, to be deserved, it just makes sense that this judgment was spelled out as being a real possibility when the people of God received the law from God. This is exactly what we find in the twenty-eighth chapter of  the book of Deuteronomy. There we find, first what we might call the good news, the blessings God promises to the people of Israel if they are obedient. And then comes the bad news, the curses that await the people of God if they disobey the laws that God had spelled out to them. The worst and final of these curses was the curse of exile where God would bring a nation against the people of Israel and God’s people would find themselves scattered among the nations. This is the promised judgment of God to his people and as we read in what we call, the Old Testament, the people of God did disobey God, quite horribly so. Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel were scattered among the nations by Assyria. The other two tribes, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin lived in what was known as being Judaea. As we read in the prophets, especially the prophet of Jeremiah, the Babylonian army did come against Judaea and the city of Jerusalem and the best and brightest were hauled off to Babylon. So, the judgment and condemnation that Paul writes of is found there in the historical fact of exile. It is this judgment and condemnation which always hung over God’s people that brought fear of punishment into their hearts so that what the law ended up doing is just adding power to the reign of evil, the sin and death that feed off of each other. Paul writes that the law came in along side of sin, as if it were an ally that was able to give sin even more power.

         Now it seems that when the course of history looks as bleak as it does according to Paul, you have to wonder what the answer is and what the answer is is that judgment and condemnation were not the end of the story. You see, what the giving of the law did was not just to point out the inability of God’s people to be obedient to the law but it was rather to point out something very profound about God and his love. Listen to how Jesus speaks about his Father’s love for his people, from the forty-fifth verse of the fifth chapter of Matthew, “For your Heavenly Father makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust”. You see, these terms, “evil”, and “good”, as well as “just”, and “unjust”, are terms that can only be understood through the law. What was discovered through the law is that God’s love is not dependent on anything that his people did. When they were obedient, following in the goodness of God, God loved them. And when they were evil, unjust people condemned to exile, God loved them. The love of God did not just love those who loved him in return, as we so want to have happen when we love on someone. And God did not just love those who were like him, because God is the total opposite of evil or unjust and even still, God still loves even those who are evil and unjust. God’s love, you see, is a holy love, a love quite different from the way we want to love people. When we set out to love we want to love on people who are very much like us, loving on people that we are fairly certain will love us in return if we love on them. The very common way to treat people is to be against our enemies and be all for those whom we know love us and who are on our side. But holy love is so radically different because God does not love anyone for what they do but God loves people for who they are, and that is that people are what God treasures. At the beginning of his journey with Moses and the people of Israel, God told the people of Israel that they were his treasured possession. That God considered his people his most treasured possession is the very foundation of his holy love. This is why we also find in the book of Deuteronomy in the thirtieth chapter that God tells his people that when they are in exile, very far from home, if from there they think upon the Lord their God, and they return to God, then God assures his people that he will have compassion on them. You see, when God’s people stopped and thought about the blessings and the curses, it was quite obvious that they deserved to be left in exile for what they had done could be considered a very certain death for them. Yet even so, this was not the end, for there beyond this certain death, there was God waiting for his people to turn around and allow God to receive them back to him, in an act of lavish compassion. The law came in and increased the sin within the lives of God’s people, but as Paul so rightly knows, where sin abounded in God’s people there was seen the overflowing, excessive, abundant, lavish welcome of God who greets his people with compassion all because he treasures them. Jesus knew that his disciples were treasures of infinite worth this is why on the night that he was betrayed, he prayed that his Heavenly Father keep watch over those he loved, and guard them, he asks, for they were greatly valued. Jesus states that where the very treasures of God are kept beyond harm is right there in the name of God, a name that speaks of God being a God of faithful, steadfast love. This is what Paul speaks of when he speaks of grace, or the favor, the very welcome of God. Jesus upon the cross took upon himself the condemnation of all people, receiving the very judgment of death so that through this one righteous act we might know that God desires a life with us beyond this death we deserve. We are justified in our belief in the resurrection because Jesus shed his blood for us so that we might know forever our unbelievable worth to God, that he considers us a treasure worth in exchange of the precious blood of his own dear Son. Through what Jesus has done for us we are welcomed to stand where Jesus stood, welcomed to come and be loved on just as our Heavenly Father has always loved the Son. This is God’s amazing grace. Here in the Father’s love we discover that we have come to be in the safest place for us to be, in his love where we are watched and guarded over because we are treasured by God. Yet, there is more, because Paul does not only speak of God’s amazing grace but he also speaks of the gift that is ours through the favor or welcome of the one we call Jesus. Jesus welcomes us, and he pours out on us the Holy Spirit, the living presence of God’s holy love. The Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts, this love which treasures people, loving people whether they respond with love or if they respond with contempt, loving on those who are so unlike us, loving people as being the very treasures of God. The Holy Spirit is the living presence of love which finds people beyond their certain death and through his love brings them to find life within their Father’s arms. Yes, the transgression of Adam’s death, brought judgment and condemnation, and yes, through this one transgression, death and its power controlled people but this is nothing compared to what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf because instead of death reigning over us we are able to reign in this life we have been given. You see, through Jesus, all of us have been welcomed into the very love of God, the love which the Son of God has always experienced is now ours to enjoy. And through our being welcomed by Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the living presence of the holy love of God has been poured out on us from the wonder of heaven. Now we can be absolutely certain that we are held safe in the arms of the Father and this is how we endure in a world dominated by sin and death. Yet, we do not merely endure because the Holy Spirit fills us to overflowing with the living presence of the holy love of God so that we are moved to go out to treasure the ones who are treasured by the one who treasures us. This holy love of God moves us to go to those suffering in a world dominated by sin and death and by our faith in the resurrection we bring hope of life beyond the most certain of endings. This is what it means for us to be people who reign in life. This is what John is speaking of when in the fifth chapter of his first letter he writes that those who are born of God overcome the world and the victory that overcomes this world is our faith, our faith in the resurrection. It is through the obedience of Jesus, this is how we now have faith in the resurrection from the dead, the overpowering of the very power of death. Sin may have reigned in death but as Paul teaches us it is this grace of God, his favor and welcome of us because he treasures us that we are now held in his love where death no longer has any control over us. God keeps us safe in his love, in his grace, so that the righteousness we claim by faith will now be found in our actions. This is when grace reigns over sin and death. Thus as Paul puts it, by one man’s disobedience the many become people who were firmly set in the ways of sin. The question then was how could those who are so immovable in their sin become people who could be found to be set firmly in righteousness? The answer is that it is the grace of God, his welcome of sinners which he claimed as his treasures, this reaching out in love by the very one the sinful scorned, this is what is able to move those so immovable in their sin.

         So, back and forth, Paul has gone, first speaking to the hell on earth that was unleashed through the transgression of Adam, and then speaking of the intervention of heaven, the welcome and favor of our Heavenly Father and the favor of Jesus who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit. All the law could do under the reign of death is to just bring forth judgment and condemnation. Condemnation as sinners and the certainty of death are what this world has to offer. And it seems as if Paul is asking the members of his church to consider which scenario they are living under when they judge people, condemning them as being nothing more than sinners? Isn’t it rather obvious that in doing so these so called believers in Jesus seem to be under the reign of death instead of reigning in life through the grace of God? It is our faith in the resurrection, this is how we are now declared righteous by God and this means that we believe that God desires a life with us beyond death, beyond judgment and condemnation. It is there beyond our judgment and our condemnation that we believe God in his grace stands with arms wide open welcoming us into his life. Grace, this is the very welcome of God, and if we are welcomed in then how can we not believe that God desires to welcome everyone in. Grace, this is what transforms a world, which is ablaze with the fire of sin and death. Grace, this is what brings forth faith in God’s claim that we are at last righteous in our relationship with him; sin stands defeated. Grace and this gift of righteousness, this is how we reign in life; death no longer has control over us. Grace is our victory. So, why would we want to judge and condemn others when this is the way of the defeated powers of sin and death? Why would we not want to live out the victory of life which reigns over sin and death? Why would we not want to instead live in the power and victory of grace which is ours because we are treasured by God?And God not only treasures us but he treasures all people so why would we not believe that if people knew their incredible worth to God that this would not transform them just as it has transformed us? This is what our faith in the resurrection demands that we believe for this very transformation from death to life awaits the whole world and everyone in it.  When we live out our faith in grace this is when we can say that we reign in life through resurrection power. Yes, sin and death seem oh, so strong but they are merely defeated powers whose reign has passed. Now, God calls us to live as people who know that grace reigns, righteousness reigns, life reigns, and resurrection reigns, for this is the life eternal which is ours in Jesus Christ. Praise be to God. Amen!