 Good. All right. So the recording has been turned on. We can get our class started. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the class today. Thank you for connecting to the class. We are going to spend two hours this morning studying, continuing in our study on the book of Romans. We will be starting with Romans chapter five and then I think we will have time to also cover chapter six today. Both very, very exciting chapters. All right. So let's pray and we will get started. I'd like to request somebody to pray, Manu. Can you please lead us in prayer and then we can start. Yes, sir. Father, what I thank you. Father, what I pray to you, Lord Jesus, we all come before you, Lord. Father, what help us, Lord Jesus, whatever that is going to teach us. Father, what help us, Lord Jesus, for this prayer to give your wisdom, Lord Jesus, to understand. Thank you, Lord Jesus. I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right. Thank you. So we started Romans chapter five last week. We had looked at the first five verses, Romans chapter five, verses one through five. So just for, you know, just to quickly refresh, we will read the first five verses once again. And then we will start off from verse six. So I'll go forward from verse six. Could somebody read then for us. Romans chapter five, verses one through five, just to quickly refresh our minds. Sir Salaited. Yes. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through whom also we have access by faith into his faith in which we stand and rejoice in hope of glory of God. And not only that, but we also go in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces preserving perseverance and perseverance, character and character hope. Now, hope does not disappoint it because the love of God has been pure out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Thank you. So we looked at these verses last week. So, you know, Paul is continuing from, you know, what he has already spoken earlier, which we saw in Romans four where Paul says, look, we are justified by faith. That is towards the end of Romans three. And then he continues in Romans four that we are justified by faith. And he points to Abraham as a father of faith and shows, you know, how Abraham was justified by faith even before the law was given. And so he concludes Romans four concludes with the understanding that, you know, how we are justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ because of what Jesus did on the cross, and Jesus was raised up for our justification. So then he continues on, you know, so that's Romans five verse the first five verses that we being justified by faith. Because we're justified by faith what has happened, we have peace with God, and we are in a good relationship with God. We are standing in a place of grace. And we also have joy in hope of the glory of God that, you know, there's glorious things up ahead. And so we have the joy. And because of that, he says, verse three, we can, you know, we can glory in tribulations. So even though we have, we may face difficulties, we may have tribulations, we can glory, we can still, you know, boast, we can hold our head up high. Even in difficulties because we know that as we go through difficulties, tribulation produces perseverance or endurance. And as we develop endurance, what happens, it develops our character and character makes us people full of hope. That means we have this expectation in our hearts and this hope can never be disappointed because we are people have experienced the love of God. The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So we are people who know and who have experienced the love of God. And that's why we are people full of hope. So having said, shared this with us, Paul now turns his attention to the redemption that Christ has obtained for us. That's verses six through 11. And then from verses 12 to the end of the chapter, he talks about what has been made available to us through the cross of Jesus Christ. So let's read verses six through 11 where Paul is focusing now on the cross, on the redemption that Jesus obtained. And on what Jesus did for us on the cross. So could somebody read verses six through 11 please? Romans chapter five verses six through 11 please. Siddharth, do you want to read that for us? So I'm just having my breakfast. Oh, okay, no problem. Dave, do you want to read that for us? Romans chapter five verses six through 11. Or is your mic not okay? I think I'll just read it. You see at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for righteousness through for good man. Someone might possibly day to die. But God demonstrated his own love for us in this. What we were still sinners Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? For if when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son. How much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life? Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the consolation. Thank you. All right. So in these verses verses six through 11 of Romans five. Paul is talk point looking focusing on Christ's death for us. And he's, you know, so, you know, he's finished talking about justification by faith and how because we've been justified by faith, we enjoy these things even though we are going through difficulties. We've understood the love of God. And now he's focusing on the cross, the cross of Jesus. So he says, you know, this is verse six. When we were without strength, we were powerless. Without strength, we had nothing. Christ in due time Christ died for the ungodly. One emphasize three things here one. We were without strength. So that was our past state without strength while we were without strength. Keep that in mind because later on he's going to talk to us about us being rulers. So there's a contrast that's being built up. In the past, we were without strength. But later on is in the same chapter is going to tell us we are now in a place of strength we are reigning in life. So he says, when we were without strength, we were weak, we were powerless and as it shows us later we were subject. We were in slavery to so many things sin and death. So that was our condition. So while we were in that kind of a state we were without strength. The second thing I want to point out is in due time or at the right time Christ died at the right time Christ died. We are looking at verse six at the right time Christ died. Now if you look at the whole picture Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. Christ died on the cross about 4,000 years later. 4,000 years. That's a long time. It wasn't 400 years later. Just 4,000 years later Christ died. And we wonder, you know, why did it take so long? 4,000 years. Why? When you think about it, if Adam and Eve sinned and if God had the solution, the next day Christ should have come and died. Only two people to save. Only two people to redeem Adam and Eve. But God waited 4,000 years. That means for 4,000 years people were facing everything. All these things, the consequences of the fall. So many people came. So many people were born and sinned. But God waited 4,000 years. And yet the scripture is saying at the right time Christ died. That means this 4,000 years for our minds is such a long time. But for God, it's the right time. We may not understand everything. Some things we can say is that over these 4,000 years, he revealed certain aspects of himself. He brought the nation of Israel into being. And he gave them the law and the covenants and all of those things. We can say all of that. But when you look at the bottom line, that means the main thing that needed to happen, which is Christ died for the ungodly. In our minds, we think, hey, there are only two ungodly people, Adam and Eve, might as well finish the work right then. Why wait 4,000 years? The scripture is saying at the right time Christ died. So we don't understand everything about the timing of God. We may not understand, we don't understand. But we just trust it is the right time. At the right time, God does what he needs to do. Same thing about the coming of Christ, the return of Christ. People say, well, it's been 2,000 years since Christ was crucified and ascended into heaven, 2,000 years. That's a long time. When is Jesus going to come? The Apostle Paul wrote, Christ is coming back. John in his book of Revelation writes about all the things that are going to happen. So we say, when is God going to do it? Well, you can only say one thing at the right time. God will do it. For us, it may seem like, hey, it's such a long time. Why is it being so delayed? So many things are going on in the world. Well, the same thing he said about the 4,000 years from Adam to the crucifixion. But for God, it's the right time. So we rest in that. So at the right time, Christ died, verse 6, for the ungodly, for people who didn't deserve it. So he contrasts in verse 7. You know, he says, even for a good person, a blameless person, people wouldn't give their lives. Maybe for some very noble person, maybe some people may die. That's verse 7. So we say generally, even if there's another good person, nobody's going to go and give their lives for that person. But maybe in some cases, for a very, very noble person, some people may die. But he says in verse 8, this is what God did. While we were sinners. While we were without strength. While we were ungodly. God demonstrated his love for us. That means he says, look, this is not about you. It's not about whether you are good, you're blameless. It's not about whether you are noble, you're worthy. I know you are without strength. I know you are ungodly. I know you are sinners. But I love you so much. I'm going to show you that I love you. And that's how I'm going to do it. We're saying, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So the apostle Paul is saying, look, God demonstrated his love for us. And while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were still sinners. And this is the love that we have experienced poured in our hearts back in verse 5. This love, we did experience this love. This love has been poured into our hearts and we know it. And here's the evidence, the proof that God demonstrated his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You know, sometimes you and I, you know, may have at times, Oh, does God really love me? Does God really love me? And we tend to, you know, determine and speaking in human terms, that humanly speaking, we tend to judge God's love for us by, you know, nice things that happen. Oh, today I was so blessed today. This prayer was answered. This miracle happened. I had this opportunity or the, you know, whatever good things happen in our lives. We use that to gauge, you know, how much God loves us. But that's actually a wrong thing to do, right? What we must do is look at the cross. Every time you want to know how much God loves you, you look at the cross. See, God, I thank you. That's how much you love me. You gave Jesus for me while I was without strength, while I was ungodly, while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. Right? So we always look to the cross. That's God's demonstration of love for you and me. Now, thank God for all the nice things that may happen in life. You know, you may receive this blessing. This good thing may happen. This opportunity may come. Somebody may bless you like this. All those, okay, wonderful. But there's something much greater than that. It's the cross. Look at the cross. Every time you want to be reminded of God's love for you. Right? And verse nine, so he says, now look, what happened? Christ died for us. Christ died for us. What is the result? Verse nine, right? So we have been justified by his blood. And so we will be saved from wrath or from judgment through him. So because Christ died for us, we are justified through his blood, through what he did, and we are saved from eternal wrath. We will not be judged by God. That eternal judgment, we are saved from that through him. Verse 11, so while we were enemies. So look at the past. The past was we were without strength. The past was we were ungodly, we were sinners. Now we're adding to that list. We were enemies. But what has happened now? We are reconciled to God. Verse 10. And because we're reconciled, we will also be saved. He's talking about that eternal judgment. We are going to be saved from that because of what he did for us. And verse 11, we rejoice in God through Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. That means right now this present tense we are reconciled to God. So what's he saying here? Basically in verses 6 through 11, he's telling us Christ died for us. So that Christ died for us, me people who were without strength. We were ungodly. We were sinners. We were enemies with God. But Christ died for us. So that now we are justified. We are reconciled to God and we are saved from eternal judgment. You're going to be saved from eternal judgment. So the cross, he's telling us about the cross. This is what has happened. Okay. You're with me so far? Then he goes forward. So from verse 12, he tells us something more that has happened because of the cross. Right. And from verse 12 onwards, the apostle Paul is bringing to our understanding something very interesting. Something you don't find anywhere else in the New Testament. There is only a glimpse of what he writes here versus 12 to 21. There's only a glimpse of that in 1 Corinthians 15 and we will look at that a little later. But versus 12 to 21 is something very, very unique. You don't find it anywhere else. So we call this truth. Or rather, he introduces this truth, which we refer to as identification. And what he says is every human person is affected by one man, Adam. Adam, what happened to the one affected the many, the rest of the human race? Therefore, similarly, what happened to the other one man, Jesus Christ, is also available for the rest of the human race. A very interesting truth that the apostle Paul brings out and you don't find it anywhere else. He never writes about this anywhere else other than, like I mentioned, a little bit of it he touches in 1 Corinthians 15. So this passage is very unique. And then he builds on this in Romans chapter six to talk about how this affects the believer today. Right. But let's read from verse 12 Romans chapter five. We'll go worse. We'll go, you know, worse by worse, because, you know, ideally it'll be good to read the whole till verse 21. But let's just read the worst powers. Romans chapter five, verse 12, somebody read verse 12, please. Sin came into the world, true one man, and he's seen proud death with it. As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has seen. So he's saying, sin came into this world through one man, Adam, first Adam, sin came in, and death came through sin. So the wages of sin is death. So because of sin, death also came. So God did not bring sin into this world. God did not cause death in this world. So between sin and death are all the problems, sickness, disease, demonic oppression, everything, right? Sin is the starting point, death is the biggest ending, the final conclusion. Between sin and death, everything else is in between. Sin came into this world through one man, death also came. Along with it came all the other things. But he says, and death spread to all because all have sinned. So the sin that came in through one man affected everybody. And all the consequences of sin including death spread on, spread to everybody. One man affected the whole human race. Okay. Verse 13, somebody could read verse 13, please. Until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not input when there is no law. Okay. So imputed or accounted. So sin was in the world, but people very didn't realize it, you know, or only when you, when there's law, when, when you say, okay, this is right, this is wrong. People recognize, oh, this is wrong. This is right. So he says, sin was in the world. But sin could not be held against people until the law came. So sin could not be held against people, imputed, meaning held against somebody until the law came. That means there was sin already. So what Paul is saying is even before the law came, when people realized they were actually sinning and these sins were being held against them before the law came. There was already sin. So it's not like sin came into existence after the law. No, even before the law, sin was there. But the fact is now after the law came in, it could be accounted or it could be held against people. You know, people now realized, okay, I'm breaking the law. Verse 14, let's go on. Yeah. Somebody else, verse 14. The death train from Adam to Moses. Over those who had not sinned, according to the likeness of the transmission of Adam. Who was the type of him? Who was to come? So Romans 514. It says, even though, you know, so the law came in, you know, at Moses' time. It says, yet death was there, even before Moses. Death rained from Adam to Moses. Let me see. The law came only through Moses. So that's the time people realized, oh, sin has held against me because I have broken the law. But he says sin was already there. And not only was sin already there, death was already there. Death rained from Adam all the way to Moses. That means sin and the consequences of sin. Everything that came in because of sin was on people from the time of Adam. Even over those who had not sinned, according to the likeness of the transmission of Adam. I mean, even though they did not sin the way Adam sinned. He was given one explicit command and he disobeyed. But so sin came in because of that disobedience and death came in because of that. And what he's saying, what Paul is telling us is sin passed on everybody and death passed on everybody. Even before the law, even without the law, and even though people didn't sin the way Adam sinned. Adam had a very specific word, a command from God. Don't eat of this tree, he ate, he sinned. Now we don't have that kind of a command from God, don't eat of that tree. But yet we have sinned. Even though our sin is not like Adam's, yet we are all sinned and death has rained over all of us. Even before the law, without the law, over everyone. And then he makes a statement here, end of verse 14, sorry, about Adam. Adam is a type of him who was to come. So he's saying, okay, something more I want to tell you. Adam is a type, somebody else is going to come. Who is the reality? So Adam is only, you know, you would say like the type meaning a shadow or an example. But Jesus, and of course he's referring to Jesus of the one who was to come. He is the real man. Adam, the first man, was only a shadow. The real man, Jesus Christ, was only a shadow of the real man. And we will see in 1 Corinthians 15, like I mentioned, he refers to Jesus as the second man or the last Adam. He refers to Jesus in similar terms. But he's saying here in verse 14, Adam was a type of him who was to come. He's pointing to somebody who was bigger and greater than him type. So there is, he's saying, look, there is some resemblance here. What is the resemblance? That what came through this one man affected many in the same way. What came through or what comes through the second man affects many. That's the resemblance he's going to point out in this chapter. This first man, Adam, sin came through him. Death came. He passed on everybody. Even those before the law passed on everybody. Jew and Gentile. But this man is only a type of the second. And just like what came through this man affected everybody. What comes through this man affects everybody. That's what he's going to tell us. So let's read verse 15. Verse 15, please. Verse 15. Oh yeah, romance. But the free gift is not like the offense. Or if by the woman's offense, many died. Much more the grace of God and the gift and the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. Abound. Many. Okay, so now he's saying, okay, the first man was a type of the second man. Adam, Jesus. So he says verse 15. Now he's drawing the contrast. Very, very important. But the free gift is not like the offense. So this man, Adam, the first man. He offense, he brought offense or trespass or sin. But the second man, the last Adam, the second man, he brings the free gift. First man brought offense. Second man, Jesus brings free gift. And he says, the free gift is very different. It's not like the offense. The offense, verse 15, by one man's offense, it brought death. This man, the gift brings the grace of God, which is abounded to many. First man, sin brought death. Second man, free gift brings grace, the grace of God. First man, sinned. Sin passed to everyone. And death passed to everyone. Second man, free gift is available to everyone. And the grace of God is available to everyone. He says, abounded to many. Are you understanding? Okay. So the rest of the verse is contrasting this. Adam, Jesus. First man, second man. Okay. Verse 16, verse 16. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned for the judgment which came from one offense result in condemnation. But the free gift which came from many offenses result in justification. So again, it's contrast. Through one man, there was offense, brought death. Then verse 16, he says, judgment came. So we were under condemnation. So there was judgment, condemnation. Jesus, free gift, the grace of God. And now he says in verse 16, the end of verse 16, the free gift, which came in spite of many offenses, though there was much sin, it results in justification. So through Adam, there comes judgment and condemnation. Through Jesus, there comes justification. So we can actually make a list in contrasting what comes through Adam and what comes through Jesus. So verse 16, he says, through Jesus, there is justification. Through Adam, there is condemnation. Okay. Then verse 17. Somebody read verse 17, please. For if by the one man's offense death range through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Very interesting. So now he says, verse 17, one man's offense. Adam, it brought death to everybody. Okay. Adam sent offense. It brought death to everybody. And it brought judgment and condemnation on everybody. Right. But he is playing on the word rain. Rain means death ruled on everybody. That's verse 17. For by the one man's offense, death ruled, rained over everyone. That means because of Adam, we were brought in subjection. We were made slaves to everything that came as a result of sin. Like I said, sin is the beginning. Death is the final ending in between sin and death is everything that has come into the world because of sin, which is sickness, disease, decay, corruption, everything. So Paul is saying verse 17, for by one man, by one man's offense, death ruled over everyone. So we became subject. We became slaves to the consequences of that sin. So death ruled. So when he says death ruled, it also means like Satan ruled over us. Satan had dominion over us. Sin, sickness, Satan, death ruled over everyone through one man's offense. But then he says, but what happened through Jesus? Through Jesus, his free gift, we receive the grace of God. We receive justification. He says, but those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, that is justification, what will happen? Verse 17, we reign in life through Jesus Christ. We reign. So he's saying what has come to us through Jesus, the grace of God and the righteousness of God puts us in a position to rule. We reign in life. Adam, because of a sin, put us in a place of judgment, condemnation and subjection. He became slaves to everything that came after sin, which is sickness, Satan and death. We became slaves to it because it rained over us. But Jesus came through his free gift. He gave us abundance of grace. He gave us the gift of righteousness. And because of that, we now rule. We are not slaves, we are rulers. So very important, through what Christ did on the cross, we rule over everything. Adam made us slaves too. Adam made us slaves to sin, everything between sin and death, that is sickness, disease, Satan, all of that. He made us slaves, but Jesus makes us rulers over those things. We reign in life. So in this life, because of Jesus, you and I have mastery or have dominion over everything Adam made us slaves to. Are you understanding this? Because verse 17 is so powerful. It's very powerful. This is what Jesus did. Adam made us slaves, Jesus made us rulers. Adam made us subject to sin, Satan and death. Jesus made us rulers over sin, Satan and death. So we have dominion. We have authority because we have received abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. Okay. Let's go on. Verse 18. Somebody could read verse 18, please. Therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. Even so, through one man's righteousness act, free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. Okay. So he's repeating the same things again and again. He's saying, I really want you to get it. I really want you to get it. Through one man's offense, Adam, judgment came. We were all condemned. He already told this earlier. He's repeating it again. It says, through one man's righteous act, that is Jesus, the free gift was given and it resulted in justification of life resulting in this righteousness which brings us life. Saying once again, see, this is the difference between Adam and Jesus. Verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteousness. Righteous. One man, Adam sinned. Many were made sinners. One man, Jesus. He was obedient to the Father and so all of us in Christ are made righteous. Verse 20 and 21. Last two verses, please. Lo was introduced in order to increase wrongdoing, but... Go ahead. Finish it. Verse 20 and 21. Lo was introduced in order to increase wrongdoing, but where sin increased, God's grace increased much more. So then just as sin ruled by means of death, so also God's grace ruled by the means of righteousness leading us to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So again, he's saying, okay, so here's the conclusion. What happened? The law was given only to highlight this. That means what sin and death was doing, it was already doing sin and death was already doing whatever they were doing. But the law only highlighted, only showed people that there is sin and that is the consequence of sin. So, so he's saying, you know, basically in a nice way, he's saying, look, the law is not the main thing. Sin and death came in even before the law. So, but where there was, so where there was a lot of sin, he says, there was more grace. Verse 21, where there was much sin, grace abounded. And sin rained, but grace also rains, resulting in righteousness. The essence is this. Yes, sin and death rain, but God's free gift of grace and righteousness through Jesus Christ gives us all eternal life, gives us the life of God. So the end result is God's grace and God's work through Jesus is overpowering. It's superseding what happened because of sin and death through Adam. But this, this passage here, Romans five is such a powerful passage, you know, especially when we read from verse 12 to 21. You know, in a very, very, very concise way, all is telling us the story of redemption. He's saying, Adam, this is what happened because of his sin. Jesus, this is what happened because of his death on the cross. Adam, one man sinned. Death came, judgment, condemnation, Jesus, obedient to the Father, free gift, the grace of God, the gift of righteousness, eternal life came through the cross. So this is what has happened. Adam made us slaves. Jesus makes us rulers. We receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. We reign in life. So I want you to embrace this truth that because of Jesus and because of the grace of God and the gift of righteousness, you are going to rule in life. So you need to think of yourself like that. I rule in life. I have dominion. I have mastery. I have authority over everything that came in because of sin and that is an expression of death in this world. You have authority in dominion over it because you have received abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. So take some time to think about it. We'll go for a break and when we come back from the break, we will just look at a few verses from 1 Corinthians 15 where that's the only other place where Paul kind of mentions the similar truth over there. So we'll look at that and then we'll go on with Romans 6. So let's take a quick break and come back in 10 minutes please. Thank you.