Romans
7
We have, in our study, reached Romans 5:3 where Paul says we can boast about our sufferings because our character is being formed. As far as a Christian is concerned, trials work for him and not against him. Romans 5:3-5 in the NIV Bible read “ … we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.”
The King James version famously states, “Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience and experience, hope.” The word ‘tribulation’ is interesting. It’s from the Latin ‘tribulum’, which is a heavy piece of timber with spikes in it, used for threshing grain. The ‘tribulum’ is drawn over the grain and it separated the wheat from the chaff. As Warren Wiersbe says, “As we go through tribulations and depend on God’s grace, the trials only purify us and help us to get rid of the chaff.”
Tribulation here is pressure and affliction. It comes because of a righteous walk and must be endured. This is not the affliction resulting from our sin. This is the affliction that results from our not sinning, e.g. Abram’s anxiety for the backslider, Lot, and the battle he fought to save him or the heart cry of Abram for Sodom and Gomorrah. How true the words of Acts 14:22 (AV): “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” It is through faith and patience that we receive the promises, and Abram is a great role model for ‘stick ability’, enduring to the end.
One reason why a Christian can rejoice in suffering is because he knows it is not meaningless. Part of God’s purposes is to produce character in His children. The man of quality is the tested man.
Romans 5:6-8 in NIV read, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Amazing! God’s love is lavished on us in spite of our undesirable character. We were neither righteous nor good. Christ died for us sinners who had no use for Him. What amazing love!
The Message Paraphrase arranges Romans 5:9 this way “Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of His Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of His resurrection life!”
How marvellous are the words “But God” in Romans 5:8. “But God – when we were helpless, hopeless, clueless – demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
When we deserved nothing but wrath, God bestowed on us nothing but grace. If you’re a Christian, why not just lift up your heart in thanksgiving to God right now. Let it dawn on you what’s happened to you. You’ve been ‘justified by His blood,’ you’ve been made guiltless and Christ’s perfect righteousness has been added to your account. Through Jesus Christ you have now received reconciliation and been put on friendly terms with God. Isn’t that something worth rejoicing about? When the Father looks at a justified person, He sees that person clothed in the perfection of the Son of God.
In Romans 5:12 Paul makes a transition from discussing ‘sins’ to discussing ‘sin’ – from the fruit to the root. He is talking about something endemic in the nature of man, not his misdeeds. Men since Adam are born as sinners. Sin has infected humanity and man could not stop the spread of it. It has infected the whole human race. Luther declared, “There are but two men, Adam and Christ, and all other men hang at their girdles.”
1Corinthians 15:45-49 expresses the truth this way: “The first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam, a life giving spirit. ---- The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
What does this mean? We are Adam’s offspring, fashioned of his clay, partakers of his flesh and blood. Adam, the first man, is the representative man of the old creation: he is our federal head as sinners.
Christ, the second man, is the representative man of the new creation. He is our federal head as saints.
Adam not only sinned himself, but sinned on behalf of all his posterity. We were in his loins when he fell, and we fell in him.
The law had been disgraced by disobedience; Jesus came to grace it with complete and thorough obedience. Jesus fulfilled the law for us: we were in His loins when He accomplished its every jot and tittle.
By a series of contrasts, Paul demonstrates the quality, strength, adequacy of grace in Christ. God’s act of grace is out of all proportion to Adam’s wrongdoing.
Let’s keep it simple.
There are only two men - the first Adam, the last Adam
There are only two acts – disobedience and obedience
There only two results - sin and death transmitted to, God’s grace transmitted to
the whole human race - all who will receive the free gift.
There are only two races - the old man, the new man.
There are further contrasts. Adam was placed in a perfect environment, the Garden of Eden, but chose to disobey.
Christ entered an imperfect world, surrounded by hatred and ugliness, but He chose to obey. “I am come to do your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7). By His obedience Christ fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the Law.
The two races are eternal races. We choose the race to which we will belong. There is a gift of justifying righteousness that is freely given to any sinner who puts their faith in Christ Jesus. It’s great how the Message paraphrases Romans 5:18: “Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life!”