The gift that came by the grace of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:12-21)

The gift that came by the grace of Jesus Christ

 

 

[Romans 5:12-21]

 

 

I will give you an English test question.  What does the English word “present” mean?  What does it mean in Korean?  The word “present” can be either “the present” or “gift” in Korean.  When I think about these two meanings, I get a lesson to think of the present life as a gift.  When I heard the news that a co-worker whom I had been praying for two weeks ago fell asleep (died) in the Lord, I thought that I should value the time given to me every day and enjoy it in the Lord.  We should cherish every moment.  Today is a gift given to us, so we must live thinking of the present as a present.

 

Romans 5:15 speaks of “the gift.”  The Scripture says that we who believe in Jesus have received the gift.  What gift is the apostle Paul talking about?  I would like to think about this gift in four ways.

 

First, this gift is the grace of God.

 

Look at Romans 5:15 – “But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!”  This gift that God and Jesus have generously given is given to us even though we do not deserve it.  Why don't we deserve this gift?  The reason is that we were all under sin (3:9).  To explain further, we were ungodly (5:6), sinners (v. 8), and enemies of God (v. 10), so we did not deserve this gift from God.  If you and I were people who perfectly did good according to God's perfect standards, we would have been worthy of this gift from God.  However, there is no one who does good perfectly in this world (3:12).

 

Second, this gift of God's grace came through the grace of Jesus Christ.

 

What does this mean?  The word that this gift given by God's grace came through the grace of Jesus Christ means that Jesus Christ died on the cross (vv. 6, 8, 10), so this gift was given to you and me by grace.  In other words, this gift given to us was given by grace because “the one man,” Jesus Christ, obeyed Heavenly Father even to the death of the cross (v. 19).  Although we do not deserve this gift, our Heavenly Father let even His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in order to give this gift to you and me.  And Jesus, who wanted to give us this gift and was delighted to die on the cross voluntarily.  We who receive this gift must keep in mind that this is God's exclusive grace and Jesus Christ's exclusive grace.  And we must meditate again and again on how precious this gift is and why God allowed Jesus, his only begotten Son, to die on the cross in order to give us this gift.  We must think about how precious this gift is that Jesus gave us this gift until He gave up His precious life on the cross.  What we can say is that this gift given to us is the most valuable and precious gift that cannot be compared with anything in this world.  The gift that God gives us is the greatest gift that cannot be exchanged for anything else in the world.

 

Thirdly, this precious gift of the grace of Jesus Christ is not equal to Adam's transgression.

 

Look at Romans 5:15a – “But the gift is not like the trespass.  ….”  Paul writes a letter to the saints in Rome, and especially from Romans 5, that we have peace with God as a result of being justified through faith (v. 1), and have a confident hope of the glory of God (vv. 2, 5), and the moment we believed in Jesus, the love of God was poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (v. 5).  After that, he talks about God's poured out love from verses 6 to 11, and from verse 12, he contrasts the “one man,” the first Adam, with another “one man,” the last Adam, Jesus.  The one man spoken of in Romans 5:12 refers to Adam in Genesis.  Through Adam, sin entered the world, and death came through sin.  And in the end, because of Adam's disobedience (v. 19), sin was imputed to all people, and death came to all people (v. 12) because they all sinned.  Even before God gave the law to Moses, there was sin in the world, but when there was no law, sin was not taken into account (v. 13).  However, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned like the transgression of Adam (v. 14).  Ultimately, death came to all people through the sin of disobedience by one man, Adam.  Ultimately, because of the sin of one man, Adam, all people were in the path of ruin and misery (3:16) in the midst of God's wrath (1:18ff).  However, to those who had no choice but to perish forever without hope, God sent another “one man,” Jesus Christ, the last Adam, to this world at the right time.  Jesus, the last Adam, is not like the first Adam.  Although the first Adam disobeyed God's commandment, Jesus, the last Adam, obeyed God's will until He died on the cross (v. 19).  Also, even though because of the first Adam's sin, the judgment resulted in condemnation for all people (v. 16), Jesus, the last Adam, obeyed even to the point of death on the cross, so that those who believe in Jesus Christ may be justified (v. 16).  And although the first Adam's disobedience led to the death of all people, God gave us the greatest gift through the obedience of Jesus, the last Adam (v. 15).  What is the greatest gift of the grace of Jesus Christ?

 

Fourth, the greatest gift of the grace of Jesus Christ is eternal life.

 

Look at Romans 5:21 – “so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Although all people were brought to death because of the first Adam's transgression, because Jesus Christ, the last Adam, obeyed even unto death on the cross, eternal life is brought to us.  Now we have no more condemnation (8:1).  The reason is that we no longer belong to the first Adam, but to Jesus, the last Adam.  God justified us by giving us precious faith as a gift so that we could accept Jesus Christ as our Savior (vv. 16, 18).  All our sins have been forgiven.  God saw the righteousness of Jesus Christ and declared us righteous.  Now we have a sure and clear hope of gazing joyfully at God's glory (vv. 2, 5).  However, there is one thing we need to keep in mind here.  It is none other than that when we say that we will receive eternal life if we believe in Jesus, we must not think of eternal life as just eternal life in the next world.  Because eternal life is enjoyed in part even now in Jesus Christ.  The place where the word “eternal life” appears intensively is in the Gospel of John.  In Greek, "eternal life" means “ζωὴ” (life) “αἰώνιος” (eternal).  This word is a combination of the words “ζωὴ” (life) and “αἰώνιος” (eternal).  In other words, the word "eternal life" literally has two meanings (Internet): This means, firstly, "life that lasts forever" in terms of time, and secondly, it means "a divine life that is different from human life" in terms of quality.  Therefore, the word eternal life includes both the meaning of eternal life in time and the meaning of divine life enjoyed in God.  In particular, in the Gospel of John, the meaning of "eternal life" means "eternal blessings to be enjoyed in the next life," as in the Synoptic Gospels, but it also emphasizes the blessings enjoyed in the "now."  The Gospel of John says that those who believe in the Lord already have eternal life, and can enjoy that blessing in reality in the Lord.  What are the blessings of eternal life that we enjoy now?  They are the blessings of the life after given through intimate personal fellowship (John 17:3) through the eternal God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.  A representative example of this is participating in the divine nature of God.  In other words, the blessing of eternal life that we partially enjoy in Jesus Christ while living on this earth is to become like Jesus in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit.  Another blessing of eternal life that we partially enjoy today is love.  When we love God and love our neighbors with the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we taste the joy of heaven, at least partially.  Also, the blessing of eternal life is peace.  Although we live in a world without peace, those who believe in Jesus are at least partially enjoying the peace of God, the blessing of eternal life, while living on this earth.

 

This very blessing of eternal life is given as a gift by God to those who believe in Jesus.  Whoever believes in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confesses with his mouth that Jesus is Lord will be saved (Rom 10:9) and can enjoy this greatest gift, eternal life, not only in the world to come but also in this world.  It is said to be a true story that happened in America a long time ago.  This is the story of a young boy who touched the hearts of all citizens of America and challenged Christians even more.  The little boy's name was Ryan White (Internet).  When Ryan was 13 years old, he suffered from hemophilia and underwent an operation.  Through the negligence of adults through no fault of his own, the boy's life is now on the road to death.  However, even though he knew that he would soon die, he did not blame anyone and continued his school life so brightly.  On the contrary, he was very kind to others and was happy to comfort his concerned parents.  After that, Ryan lived for 5 years and eventually died at the age of 18.  The boy's last conversation with his father before his death was published in a Christian magazine:

 

‘Son, I am sorry.  There's nothing I can do for you now.  Please forgive this daddy

for not being able to give you any more presents.’

 

‘Dad, I have been given many presents, but no one has ever given me a gift like you.  

Dad gave me a ticket to go to heaven even after I die.  You introduced me to Jesus. 

Because of you, father, I went to church and believed in Jesus and received eternal

life as a gift.  There could be no greater gift than this.’

 

May we all receive this great gift that cannot be exchanged for anything in the world, the gift of eternal life.