This is the second Sunday in Lent, and we are on the road to Easter.  I want us to walk that road in the company of Paul and take a look at some passages from the New Testament book of Romans.

Paul is one of the great thinkers of Christian history.  He encourages us to think hard about what we really believe.  As we approach Easter we are confronted with issues of sin and grace, an undeserved death upon a cross, and the mystery of a life that burst out of a tomb on Easter Morning.

So I’d encourage you as we travel down this Roman road with Paul to engage the gray matter.  The themes that he struggles with are not the easiest to grasp, but as we seek to understand the subjects he writes about I believe we can find it an enriching journey. Romans 5:12-19 deals with the problem of sin and the answer God provides to its consequence.

Sin is deep and is a deeply disturbing problem embedded in all of us.

It touches us all.  It hurts us all.  It messes up all of our lives.

 It frustrates us.  It confuses us.  It cheapens us.

We deny it.  We excuse it.  We get around it.  We joke about it.  We make light of it.  

We quantify it.  We say ‘this is a bad sin’, or ‘this is a not so bad sin’,

and we even see a little bit of sinning as ‘not a bad thing at all’.

But Paul treats sin with a deathly seriousness.  One time he calls himself “The chief of all sinners.”  With Paul it is really personal.  He saw how sin had totally messed up his life.  How sin had kept him from seeing both himself and God as they really were and had led him to kick against the very thing that could save him.

Paul was once the great persecutor of the church.  He’d held the coats when the first Christian Martyr, Stephen, was stoned to death for his belief in Jesus.  Paul was a clever guy, a religious guy, a righteous guy, but because of sin his life became a mess, and for most of his life he was far from God.

How did sin get a hold on him and how did he end up in such a mess?  How does it get to us and get a hold on us?  Where does it all start?  These are the kinds of questions Paul wrestles with in Romans 5.  For an answer, he goes right back to the beginning of time as he knew it and to the story of Adam and the very first sin of all, recorded in the book of Genesis.

Why Adam?  F.F. Bruce in his commentary writes, “To Paul, Adam was more than a historical individual, the first man; he was also what his name means in Hebrew – ‘humanity’.  The whole of humanity is viewed as having existed at first in Adam… Adam is mankind.”  By looking to the experience of Adam, Paul looked into the depths of his own soul.

Genesis chapter three, the passage about temptation in the Garden of Eden, tells us that sin came from not taking God at God’s Word.  That temptation came in two ways: Firstly, in the form of the serpent’s question, “Did God really say that you shouldn’t do this?”  Secondly, by way of a doubt about the rightness of God’s way – “Oh, God’s only saying that because if you taste that fruit then you’ll be like God, and He’s afraid of that!”

A lot of the messes we get ourselves into are because firstly we don’t really think that what we are doing is a wrong thing, and secondly because we think we know better.  Such actions are a part of our humanity.  Not a good part.  A bad part.  We are indeed worthy heirs to Adam!

The consequence of sin is more than just a passing irritation.  Genesis teaches that sin results in death.  It’s a simple equation.  Sin separates from God.  Separation from God results in death.  Paul puts it this way in verse 5:  “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, so death spread to all… because all have sinned.”

These are not good verses to dwell on if you’re having a bad hair day.  It’s almost tempting to say to God, “Well, thank you so very much.  From the moment I was born it was with a big “L” for “Loser” hovering over me.  Conceived in sin, born into sin, here I am condemned to living a sin-compromised existence, never becoming all that I can be, and then I die.  Great life, huh!”

So that’s it?  Well, yes and no.  I’ve got Good News and Bad News.  This sermon has the title “Sin and Grace.”  The Bad News is yes, that’s it.  That’s life.  You’re born, you get by, and you die.  And if you want some more bad news then open up your Bible and read about how after your miserable life there comes a judgment when you’ll have to answer for every single mess up you made.

The Good News?  It doesn’t have to be that way.  The Gospel News?  It doesn’t have to be that way.  The News that can change peoples lives?  It doesn’t have to be that way! The key verse in this passage is Romans 5:17:  “If because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”

Eugene Petersen’s “The Message” puts it like this:  “If one man’s sin put crowds of people at the dead end abyss of separation from God, just think what God’s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do!”

Jesus gave Paul the one thing that nothing else could.  Life worth living.  Life free from sin.  Life no longer lived within the boundaries of birth and death but lived with eternal purpose.  What made it all the more awesome was that it came as a free gift as he reached out in the faith of Jesus Christ to God.

That’s what lies behind what he writes here, of how through the first Adam all were condemned, through a Second Adam, through Jesus Christ, all are justified.  God's grace is abundantly flowing out from the cross, and God's power is radiating from the empty tomb, and it is real… it is here to be received and believed upon and made a part of us.

We are sinners.  It's one thing we are all very good at.  We are not as aware of the consequences of sin as we should be.  It is a deathly disease that has no cure other than the grace of God.  Till it is dealt with we have little to live for and even less to look forward to.

Paul tells us he had tried.  He tried all the avenues.  The way of authority.  He was the head honcho in the Hebrew lynch mob.  The way of prestige.  He was a scholar, schooled in the best learning institutions of his time.  The way of religion.  He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a big man in the Pharisee clan.  But it all turned out to be a dead end.  Only the amazing Grace of Jesus Christ could save him.

Only the Grace of Jesus Christ can save us.  Christ has done for us on the Cross what we can not do for ourselves.  Our good works can’t save us.  It doesn’t matter who our friends are, how much we own, how much influence we have in this world, what church we belong to, where we are born, what nationality we are, how great anybody around may hope that we are….none of these can erase the stain of sin upon our lives.

Only the Grace of Jesus Christ can save us.  Praise God it is an amazing Grace, an overflowing Grace, an extravagant Grace, a forgiving Grace, an abundant Grace.  It is a Grace that comes to us with a price tag attached that declares, “This is a Free Gift.”  It is a ‘Free Gift’ not because it really isn’t worth that much, but because all the power, prestige, and money in the world could never purchase it.  It is a Grace therefore that has to be received.

Only the Grace of Jesus Christ can save us.  In this passage from Romans, Paul invites us to “receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness."  As we walk down the road towards Easter, it is for us to ask Jesus Christ to be in our hearts every step of the way. 

Where I find hope is in Paul’s words.  That through the grace of God we are able to "exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ."  That this life, life in the now, your life, my life, with its daily temptations, its daily struggles, its daily sins, and its daily victories does not have to be lived out under a dominion that declares its useless.  It has no purpose, it has no meaning, it has no future, but it can be lived under the dominion of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of every moment and every action and every opportunity.