As we break into chapter 5 Paul has already highlighted the seriousness of sin as rebellion against God and its consequences which are death for all. He has shown that both Jew and Gentile can be saved by faith in Christ alone. And in (1-11)called the believers in Rome to live with suffering because they are assured of future glory and are restored and reconciled with God.

How would you define yourself? We live in a world that constantly categorises be it in terms of ethnic background – white European, Chinese, Afro-Caribbean, Asian. Gender; male or female, Sexuality; straight or gay, Class: upper, middle or working and so on. Here Paul shows us how the Bible and therefore God defines humanity, in contrasts to all the schemes dreamed up by sociologists it is a simple division into two: a united humanity with a common problem under Adam, and a new humanity united under a glorious Saviour in Christ.

1. A United Humanity with a common problem under Adam.
Paul begins (12)with a reminder of how sin entered into the world, it takes us back to Genesis 3, and of its consequences. Sin entered the world through one man - Adam - and it brings death both physical, as we see in Gen 5 where we see the repeated refrain "and then he died.", and spiritual as Adam and Eve are exiled from the Garden and more importantly put outside of relationship with God.

But we also see that sin and death having been invited into the world by Adam now enslave the world, they run riot. Their affects and reach are universal "and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned". Sin is universal, it is now part of our DNA, just as you may have inherited your parents eyes or nose or hair colour or temperament we inherit their sinfulness.

I guess we instinctively react against that don’t we? We tend to think of babies as innocent until corrupted but looks can be deceptive. You do not have to teach a child to lie, or to be selfish it comes naturally. In fact most of the hardest parts of parenting are trying to teach them not to be what they are by nature.

All of humanity is united under Adam in its sinfulness. That can be expressed in one of two ways. How would you define sin?

In (13-14)we see two different definitions of sin although both carry the same terrible consequences. The first is sin that was in the world before the law was given. Turn back to (1:18-23)the sin Paul is talking about is sin expressed in wrong worship, in worship of anything other than God. That is in essence what sin is, and man is guilty(1:20) because creation itself calls us to worship God. By nature Paul says we know there is a God and we should worship him it is just that we deny it and refuse to worship him and instead worship all sorts of other things - sport, career, money, beauty, fame.

The second definition of sin is transgression - breaking the law - as Adam did and as Israel did.

Those who have the law are judged by their keeping of it or breaking it, but those who don’t know the law are not judged by it but on whether they respond to what creation shouts out and worships God.

But do you notice that the consequences of both sins are the same. What is it? Death.

Adam stands as the figurehead of humanity united in sin, united in facing judgement and (16)condemnation, and united in death - both physical but also spiritual as we too will be exiled from God’s presence for all eternity.

Do you see our terrible predicament? Sin is in our DNA we cannot escape it anymore than we can escape ourselves. And the great irony is in how we try to solve that problem. We try to solve it by being very very good, by being moral, by keeping laws. But actually that just condemns us because it shows that we recognise something is wrong and must be done about it but we never do enough to make ourselves right.

2. A new humanity united under a glorious Saviour
Have you ever played Top Trumps? What is the idea behind the game? The cards have values on and you win by choosing the highest value possible so that you beat or trump your opponents card.

Having shown the desperate situation we are in by nature and trying to keep the law in our own strength Paul has painted the blackest of backgrounds, and it is against that pitch black background that he sets the wonder of what God has done in Christ. Jesus comes, this baby in a manger, to trump Adam. Just look at (15-17)it isn’t that Jesus comes and does just enough to scrape our salvation, it isn’t that he just about rescues us.

What is the repeated phrase in those verses? "how much more|" here is what Adam did and its consequences but look at how much more Christ achieves. Paul wants the Romans to be amazed and reassured by the surety of the salvation that is given us in Christ. Sin entered the world through one man Paul began in (12)and he ends that sentence in (18)"so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all"

Whereas under Adam we are united in our sin and face condemnation and death in Christ God’s grace overflows to many. The salvation he provides is sufficient to pay for many trespasses and cause God to declare those in Christ to be in a right relationship with him. Jesus death is sufficient to pay for all sin be it wrong worship or breaking the law, and it is a gift(15), we do not have to earn it.

Whereas under Adam we stand condemned as sinners under Christ we stand before God justified - made right with God and given life because of the obedience of one man - Jesus Christ.

It’s important that we understand this - Jesus is not just a good example to follow, he is righteous for us, he obeys for us, he keeps the law for us and he in his righteous act of offering himself on the cross in our place secures our forgiveness and eternal life. All of which is proven at his resurrection when it is shown that he has paid for sin secured our right standing with God and defeated death for those who will put their faith in him.

As we approach Christmas how can we not be amazed at what God did for us? God opens a way for us to move from humanity condemned under Adam to humanity redeemed under Christ. And there is nothing we need to do to earn it, we just have to accept his gift.

We should be amazed at God’s love for us when we were condemned and dead and the sheer scope and audacity of his plan to save us.

We need to be reassured. Our salvation is not about what we do, neither is our ongoing discipleship, it is about what Christ has done. We were justified, we are justified and we will be justified - it is a statement of relationship secured in Christ. His perfect record is credited to my account, tonight if I by faith I am in Christ part of his new humanity then I am right with God.

We should be humbled. Christ saves us when we cannot save ourselves, the gospel does not leave any room for pride.

But there is also a community aspect to this salvation. We are gathered into a new humanity united under Christ and the expression of that is the local church; sinners saved by grace gathered together.

We should be energised. The wonder of this salvation and the desperate nature of our natural position should cause us to tell others. Christmas is a great opportunity to tell others, there are 26 more sleeps, 26 more days until Christmas Day - 26 more ready opportunities to make people think about the wonder they will be celebrating.

Lighthouse