ROMANS 5:15-18 GOD GAVE A DIFFERENT KIND OF GIFT2020 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Romans 5:15-18 God Gave A Different Kind Of Gift

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2020.

Well, because it is the Christmas season and we'll be celebrating Christmas this week, the subject of presents or gifts was on the mind. And as I was considering the gift that God has given to us as we celebrate, of course, Christmas, it's one of those times where we remember the gift that God has given to us and we take time to appreciate how great that gift is.

And this passage came to mind because Paul here is talking about the gift of God.

And he's contrasting it really with the offense of Adam, the gift of Jesus versus the offense of Adam. And he's comparing these two side by side to give us a better understanding of what it is that God has done for us and our need for this gift from God. And so this passage gives us great insight about the gift of God that is Jesus Christ. But as we talk about gifts and as we talk about gifts in the context of the Christmas season,

This gift that Paul is describing here and giving us insight to is really very different than what we mean or what we're thinking about when we think about gifts, especially here in this Christmas season. And so I've titled this message this morning, God Gave a Different Kind of Gift.

And I want to encourage you to consider the kind of gift that God has given. I want to encourage you to think about and think through the gift that the Lord has given to us and really the difference compared to what it is that we do, you know, as Christmas comes or as birthdays come or anniversaries come and we give gifts to one another. It

it doesn't really compare to the kind of gift that God has given to us. It's different than what we, you know, think about in the picture of Santa Claus and the giving of gifts in that way. It's different than the gifts that we would give to friends or the gifts that we would give to family. It's a whole different kind of gift than

that God has given. A whole different mindset, a whole different, you know, motivation. The background is different. It's completely different in so many ways. And so we're going to look at four ways that the gift of God is different and help us again understand and appreciate what it is that God has given to us. The first thing that we understand as we look at this passage, the first difference that we can see in verse 15 is that it's a gift that is not deserved.

One of the things that makes the gift of God different is this gift is not deserved and could never be deserved or earned by us. Looking at verse 15 again, it says, but the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense, many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

Here is Paul is talking about the gift. We're kind of jumping into the middle of the passage. So there's some context there that you can go back and read and get up to speed about. But Paul is talking about the doctrine of salvation by grace, establishing our need for salvation and establishing the reality and the truth of what God has done for us, that salvation is completely a gift of God by the grace of God to us.

And so the word grace is something that is on Paul's mind and he's talking about a lot in the book of Romans. Grace can be defined as undeserved kindness. It is kindness and goodness from God that, well, is not deserved. God does good things. God does kind things that we do not deserve. And that is the grace of God. And you can look at this really in two parts. There is the undeserved part and then there's the kindness part.

On the one hand, it's undeserved. If you go back just a few verses in Romans chapter 5 verse 12, Paul says, Here Paul is establishing the fact of how much we do not deserve the goodness of God or the gift of God. And it's attached back through our association with Adam.

Because we have descended from Adam as his descendants, we have inherited his sinful nature. And we have all sinned. And so he says it there in verse 12, because all sinned. We have all sinned and we have fallen short of the glory of God. And so we all find ourselves in this place of not deserving goodness from God.

None of us deserve God's kindness. None of us deserve anything from God except for judgment because all sin. Because of our failure to live up to the standard of perfection, we do not deserve goodness from God. And so the first part of grace is that undeserved part, but the second part is kindness. In spite of how much we do not deserve kindness,

God is kind toward us. Going back a few more verses in Romans chapter 5 verse 8, Paul tells us God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God demonstrates his love in the fact that although we did not deserve anything kind or good from him, he sent his only begotten son to die upon the cross for us. And so we have the kindness of God in

That is incredible, but it's even more incredible when you consider how undeserving we are. And so Paul is looking at this back and forth, looking at our undeservedness because of our descendancy from Adam in compared to the kindness of God and the love of God demonstrated through Jesus Christ. Now looking at verse 15 again, he says, but the free gift is not like the offense.

And so again, he's drawing a contrast here, looking at the gift versus the offense. And as you understand the offense, you understand, again, how undeserving we are. He says, if by one man's offense, many died. Again, this one man is Paul connecting us and all of humanity back to Adam. And we inherit from Adam this sinful nature. And therefore, we are by nature sinful.

under the curse of death because we have inherited this nature from Adam. Now, of course, hearing that a lot of people like, you know, I don't want to be attached to Adam. That's not fair that, you know, I inherited that from him. But we need to understand that Adam was our best representative there in the Garden of Eden. He was the best of the best. If anybody was going to, you know, go through the trial of the garden and come out victorious, it was going to be Adam.

If you or I were, you know, in their shoes in place of Adam and Eve, we would have failed also. And so Adam, our representative, failed in the garden and we have inherited from him that sinful nature. And so by this one man's offense, many died. We find ourselves under the curse of sin and death because of what took place there in the garden.

Now, we may not like that representation, but it's also representation that allows us then to have the gift of life because then Jesus becomes our new representative as we believe in him. And so the free gift is like the offense, but it's also unlike the offense. The free gift is like the offense in that Jesus represents us when he died upon the cross.

Just as Adam represented us there in the garden, Jesus represents us on the cross. And by faith in Jesus Christ, we get to have the reverse of the curse, the free gift that we do not deserve. In the garden, you would have done exactly what Adam did. But in contrast, there is no scenario where you would have done exactly what Jesus did.

There's no scenario where you would have lived a perfect life and died on behalf of humanity. There's no scenario where that would have happened. But you, in Adam's place, would have done exactly what Adam did. We are sinful. We are fallen. And we do not deserve God's goodness. And so Paul says, the free gift is not like the offense. Now, that word that he uses for free gift is

It's related to the word for grace. In the Greek, the word for grace is charis. It's probably pronounced a little bit differently, but that's good enough for us today. Charis. Now, the word for free gift is charis with just two letters added on. Ma. Charisma. That's free gift. It's attached to, it's a modified version of the word for grace. Just as grace means undeserved kindness, this free gift is a gift attached

that is an expression of kindness that is not deserved. It's a gift, a favor, which somebody receives without any merit of their own. It's not wages. Wages are what you earn, you get because of what you have done. But a gift is something that you receive, not deserving it, not earning it. And that is really the focus of the Apostle Paul. You can see grace, grace, grace here in verse 15.

He says in verse 15, much more the grace of God, undeserved kindness of God, and the gift, again, charis, charisma, the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. So three times he's got references to grace here in verse 15, really driving home the point. This gift from God is God's goodness towards us that we do not deserve. That's different than the kind of gifts that

that we're used to exchanging, giving and receiving here at Christmas time, again, birthdays, anniversaries. We may give people gifts that we think they don't deserve. We may give people gifts that we think, eh, it's a little bit better than they deserve. But we don't give gifts to those who are completely and utterly undeserving, right? It's like built into our Christmas scenario, right?

There's a list. Somebody checks it twice. Going to find out who's naughty or nice, right? Now, the ones who are naughty, those are not the ones who get the gifts. Those are the ones who get coal in the stocking, right? It's the ones who are nice who get the gifts. That's kind of the whole basis for our gift giving. And although that might be an exaggeration or a kind of a caricature, it bears resemblance to how we actually give gifts, right?

Just recently, I was heading out to my car at my home, and there in my driveway, I saw a little pile of dog poop. And as I saw that little pile of dog poop, I got to be honest, my first thought was not to go find the owner so that I could give them a gift. Well, if I was going to give them a gift, it was going to be that little pile of poop, maybe in a bag on fire so they could... No, I'm just kidding. But...

But I would want to pay back, right? Now, if that person allowed their dog to continue to poop in my driveway, that would become increasingly frustrating. They would be, in my mind, more and more undeserving of any kind of neighborly gift. They would be more and more undeserving of any kind of kindness or goodness from me. I would not be searching out that neighbor to give them a gift. That's not the way that we give gifts. We give gifts to...

those who in our estimation are deserving well or maybe they don't deserve you know quite that much but we give just like a little bit extra and we just count ourselves generous but you know the ones who are our enemies we don't give them gifts that's not our mentality that's not the way that we give gifts and yet this is what's remarkable about what God has done for us while we were enemies Christ died for us while we were enmity with God while we wanted nothing to do with God

While we were still in our sin, you know, not seeking after God, the Bible tells us there is none who seek after God. Without his prompting, without his work in our life, we do not seek out God. And yet, although we're undeserving, completely unworthy, God shows kindness to us.

Not just a little bit of kindness, but in verse 15 he says, Thomas Constable says, As he contrasts Adam and Christ,

the offense and the gift, it's not just a kind of an equal cancel each other out kind of thing. What God has done for us far exceeds what Adam ever had. That's how kind God has been to us.

even though we are undeserving. And so God has given us a different kind of gift, a gift that is not deserved, that we could never earn. And it's important for us to reflect on these things regularly because, well, we need to understand this, of course, initially to believe in Jesus and receive the

the offer of forgiveness, but we also need to hold on to this truth so that we don't go into an idea of legalism or count ourselves worthy in some way later on down the line in our Christian walk. We can, in our estimation, be like the Pharisees and think of ourselves righteous. But as we think about Christmas this year, as we consider the gift, let us be reminded that

of how much it is about God's grace. It's a gift that is not deserved. Well, going on into verse 16, we see another difference, and that is God has given this gift because of many offenses. The inspiration behind the gift, the motivation behind the gift, the cause of the gift is many offenses. Verse 16, and the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned,

For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation. But notice this. But the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. And so here again, he continues to talk about the gift. In verse 16, he says, And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. Now here he uses a different word for gift. This time it's not the word charisma. It's instead a different word that speaks of...

The best gifts. One commentator puts it this way, this term gift is a strong word denoting the best gifts and is chosen to highlight the gift of what Christ has done for the many. This focuses less on the undeserved part of it and more on the quality of the gift that is given.

God has given to us the best kind of gift. Have you ever experienced that where you receive the best gift? Perhaps at the Christmas gathering, right? Like everybody gets gifts, but everybody's looking at your gifts because it's like, oh, you got the best gift, right? You got the one that everybody wanted and their gifts are a little bit like less in their own eyes because they see what you got and it's like, oh, that's the best gift, right?

Well, this is what we have received from the Lord, the best gift, the best quality, the best kind. There's no greater gift than what Jesus has given to us in his birth, his life, his sacrifice on our behalf. Now, as he looks at the contrast here, again, he says, the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. And so he's really focused on the results here. The one who sinned, Adam, there in the garden,

It tells us here in verse 16, the judgment came from one offense and resulted in condemnation. So the result of Adam's gift to us was condemnation. That is judgment. That is deserving of wrath. That's what we receive from Adam. But in verse 16, it goes on to say, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.

And so again, you have this contrast, condemnation versus justification. Condemnation is the deserving of wrath, the deserving of judgment. And justification, well, you've heard it said, justified means that it's just as if I'd never sinned. Justification is that idea and that understanding that we stand before God and he relates to us as if we have never sinned, not even once. The free gift is

which came from many offenses, resulted in us being able to stand before God and receive from God and relate to God as if we had never sinned, not even one time. Now, as he talks about the free gift, again, he goes back to that word based on grace. That undeserved kindness of God to us resulted in justification, that we could stand before God and

As if we were completely righteous and holy. Even though we're undeserving, even though we've all failed and fallen short, we can have a relationship to God, access to God. We can receive from God as if we were as perfect as Jesus. And this is the free gift. Completely different results than what we receive from Adam. What we have in Christ is incredible. But it's interesting to note here in verse 16 that

He says, the free gift which came from many offenses. The free gift came from many offenses, much sin, much failure. The free gift came as a result of the level of failure in humanity. And that's substantial to think about. One commentator puts it this way, after thousands of years of history,

and billions of sins committed by multiplied millions of people, God still by his grace gave the human race the gift of justification through the death and resurrection of Christ. Sin upon sin upon sin abounds in our lives and abounds in all of humanity.

The multitude, many offenses is what Paul says. It is definitely a kind of like an oversimplification of the reality of the multitude of sin and offenses because of our sinful nature. But God seeing us in this condition, God seeing us in this condition of sin upon sin upon sin was motivated for God so loved the world.

Loving us, seeing our sinful condition, seeing our utter helplessness to change our situation because of our sinful nature, he provided the means of salvation himself. It's because of the many offenses. God never saves anyone because they're so good.

God only saves people. Like, you can think about it this way. This is a gift that's only for the naughty kids, right? This is a gift that's only for those who are sinful, only for those whose hearts and minds are corrupted by sin, only for those who have an issue of sin. It's because of the offenses that God gave the gift. And again, this is what stands out as so different as we consider these things. This is a different kind of gift, right?

Who on your Christmas list is there because of how many ways and times they've offended you, right? Like you keep the list of all offenses so that you can make sure to give them the best gift. That's not the way that we give gifts. When I'm extra ornery, when I'm, you know, extra offensive, I don't expect some extra good gift from my wife, right? I understand. I get what I deserve, right?

And so when I find coal in the stocking, Kim's never done that, but when I find coal in the stocking, I understand, hey, I deserve that. That's what I earned, right? That's the way that we give gifts, but that's not the way that God has given his gift. It's because of our offenses, because of our helplessness, because of our sinfulness, that God has given to us the best gift. And what is that gift? It's

Well, we're going to see that develop a little bit more in verse 17 for the third difference. Here's point number three this morning. It's a gift of relationship to God. It's a gift of relationship to God. Verse 17 says,

Here we see the gift of relationship to God is the gift that we have received from him. Now the contrast that Paul is looking at here in verse 17 is two types of reigns.

He says in verse 17, if by the one man's offense, death reigned through the one. So looking at Adam, looking at the issue of sin, there was the death that reigned over humanity. And we all are subject to, again, the curse of sin and death. And every person is under the reign of death as a result of our association with Adam, the sinful nature that we receive from Adam.

But in Christ, there can be a different kind of rain. In verse 17, again, he says, those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, they will reign in life. So there's a reign of death and there's a reign of life. In Adam, we experienced the reign of death. But in Christ, through the gift of God, we experienced the reign in life.

Now the gift here he describes as the gift of righteousness. The gift of righteousness, or you could also think about it, the gift of being declared righteous. To be right with God. Again, it's similar to being justified. That God declares us to be righteous, even though we still have a sinful nature.

and we still sin on a daily basis, even though we still fall short and still offend God and commit offenses toward God, we have the gift of righteousness. That is the righteousness of Jesus being added or imputed to your account. It's the granting of right relationship with God to you.

You can also look at that and understand that as you walk with God, as you relate to God, having his righteousness accounted to you, that God transforms us

And so there begins to be a righteousness in our behavior, not just a righteousness credited to our account. You have justification where you stand right before God and you have sanctification where God, as you walk with him, is transforming you into his image. And so you are becoming more righteous in your behavior as you walk with him, as you relate to God.

Pastor Warren Wiersbe puts it this way, our justification is the result of a living union with Christ. And this union ought to result in a new kind of life, a righteous life of obedience to God. Our union to Christ, our union with Christ transforms us and changes us and results in a righteous life. It's relationship with God that enables us to change.

Apart from this gift, we're powerless to change. Apart from Christ, we're trapped in our self-destructive behavior, trapped in our sin. And even though we might even recognize it and hate doing it, we're stuck in that pattern. We're stuck in the practice of sin that is destroying us. And we know it and we hate it and we wish we could change, but we can't change. We try real hard. It's relationship to God. It is this gift of relationship with God that

that enables us and empowers us to be able to live differently, to be transformed, to live in a righteous way. And so it's the gift of righteousness. It's the gift of life. Paul says here in verse 17, those who receive abundance of grace, let us not forget this gift is rooted in the kindness of God in spite of how undeserving we are.

In spite of how unworthy we are, he says, you will reign in life. You will have life and you're under a new reign now, not the reign of death, but the reign of life. And there's a new life spiritually in this life. There is eternal life that comes to us through this gift, the gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ.

But notice the connection here as we finish off verse 17. It says we will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. This gift of righteousness, this reign of life, it's through the one Jesus. That is, we never come to a point where we do not need the gift of God, where we do not need the connection to Jesus Christ. Our righteousness is

comes from our connection. It's through the one, Jesus Christ. It's through our faith in Jesus Christ. It's through our relationship with God because of what Christ has done for us that we have this righteous standing before God, that we will reign in life and we have this promise of eternity. Our connection to Jesus, we never go beyond that. It's not that we believe in Jesus and we're connected to him and then we go on our own now and we're, you know,

Completely independent. But it's through the one Jesus Christ that we will reign in life. It's our constant dependence upon him. It's our constant faith in him. It's our constant relationship with God through Jesus Christ. This is the gift of God. It's a relationship to God where you have access to God, where you get to know God, where you can hear from God, where you can receive from God, where you can walk with God. But it's not just the privilege that you get to

But it's also the importance of you need to maintain that connection. You need to, through Jesus Christ, have that relationship with God to experience the fullness of that gift of righteousness, to experience the fullness of that reign of life that has been given to you. Well, finally, this gift is different as we look at verse 18 because it's a gift available to every person. Verse 18 says this,

Therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so, through one man's righteous acts, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. Here again, Paul is reiterating some of the things he's been sharing, again, contrasting what we receive from Adam and the gift that comes to us from God through Jesus Christ, and

And here the thing I'll emphasize is that all men or all humanity. Through one man's offense, he says, judgment came to all. So through Adam, there's the judgment to all. Through Christ, there is the gift to all. Judgment came to all men. The result was condemnation. That is, every person, because we have descended from Adam, we have the sinful nature of

It's across the board. All humanity, without exception, is in this place of judgment resulting in condemnation. But the gift, the gift is also to all men. It's available to all humanity. Through one man's righteous act, because of what Jesus Christ has done for us, the free gift has been made available to us, to each and every one. That's different. This is not a gift for

Certain select few. It's not a gift for the best of the best. It's not a gift for some. It's a gift available to all humanity, regardless of past, regardless of race, regardless of background, regardless of, you know, sins committed. It's a gift available to every person. A free gift because of the grace of God. I always like Romans chapter 4, verse 16. There Paul tells us, therefore, it is of faith that

that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed. There as he's talking about salvation, he says, look, the way that God has designed it, he's designed it to be of faith so that it can be according to grace. He designed it to be of faith so that it could be undeserved kindness, that there wasn't some level of righteousness that we have to reach to receive this gift, but it's of faith. What we have to do is believe.

And that opportunity is available for anyone. The gift is accessible to anyone to have faith, to believe God at his word about what he has done for us upon the cross so that the promise can be sure to anyone. Salvation is available to anyone. This gift is available to all people because God designed it to be of faith so he could, by his grace, give any person righteousness, holiness,

holiness, the promise of life, access to God, again, much more than Adam ever had, is given to us by faith in Jesus Christ. And so this Christmas, it's a great opportunity for us to step back, reflect, and remember. As gifts are exchanged, nothing wrong with that. But let's be reminded of how different it is, the way that God gives, the gift that God has given to us,

He's given to us the gift that is not deserved. We don't earn it. We could never deserve it. In fact, it's because of our multitudes of failures that God has given us this gift. Right relationship with God, made available to each one by faith in Jesus Christ. What do we do with this information? Well, what do you do with any gift? You receive it. You accept it. You say, thank you.

And that is what is required for us to receive this gift. We receive it. We accept it. We say thank you. We believe God at his word. We open the gift and accept that Jesus Christ has died upon the cross on our behalf. And we turn our lives to live for him. By faith, we accept it. We say thank you.

whether we've never received it or whether we need to kind of come back to. You know, sometimes those gifts that we're given, they end up in a back corner of the closet, right? And for us as believers, that can happen. We kind of like try to live our religious life having forgotten about the gift. And maybe we need to kind of like pull it out of the closet, dust it off and be refreshed and renewed.

and our appreciation for what Christ has done for us. Receive the gift. Accept the goodness of God that you do not deserve. Live in that. Enjoy that. Explore the boundaries of the relationship with God that he has made available to you. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your goodness towards us. And understanding as Paul has been sharing over and over, Lord, we recognize that we do not deserve anything good from you.

And yet every good and perfect gift that we have ever received is from you because you're gracious towards us, because of your goodness and your love towards us. Lord, we're so grateful for what you have done. And Lord, we want to at this time receive all that you have for us. We want to accept and recognize, although we don't deserve it, Lord, you have given yourself, you have given your love, you have given the opportunity of life.

And so, Lord, we grasp hold of that now and we say thank you for what you've done for us. I pray that you would continue to grow us in our understanding and appreciation of your grace and goodness to us in the gift that you have given. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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