The Triumph of Grace

What can a huge elephant do to save itself if it falls into a fifty-foot deep pit? The answer is absolutely nothing. It cannot save itself, and eventually it will die because of its fall. When Adam committed his first sin of disobeying God by eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree, he fell into hell itself, and with him all his descendants. God says that we all sinned in that one sin of Adam and were condemned to spiritual, physical, and eternal death.

Just as the fallen elephant cannot save itself, even so fallen man cannot save himself. Man must die unless God in grace chooses to save him.

No fallen devil or man can defeat the purposes of the sovereign God. He alone triumphs by his grace and by his wrath. God triumphs by the outpouring of his wrath upon wicked sinners who refuse to receive the abounding grace and the free gift of righteousness.

Nothing can defeat God, whether man’s sin or death or the devil or the unbelieving, God-hating world. Our God is a warrior who fights and wins. He is stronger than all devils. Jesus himself said that he binds the strong one, the devil, and sets free his elect sinners.

By both his grace and wrath our God fights and wins. Paul declares, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness by faith from first to last, just as it is written, ‘The righteous will live by faith [or “the righteous by faith shall live”].’ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness’ (Rom. 1:17-18).

We cannot win if we are against God. Adam was the first to learn this truth: “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat it, you will surely die'” (Gen. 2:16-17). There is no escape from God.

Yet even now we have an opportunity to surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and be saved. In Romans 5:18-21 Paul summarizes his argument and celebrates the triumph of grace. Paul completes here what he did not finish earlier in this chapter. According to John Murray, had Paul completed verse 12, it would have read: ‘Therefore as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death passed on to all men, in that all sinned, even so through one man righteousness entered into the world and life through righteousness, and so life passed on to all men, in that all men in that all were accounted righteous.’¹ This ‘as/even so’ balance is now found in verses 18, 19, and 21.

What Adam did affected all his descendants and created a huge, cosmic problem. But, thank God, through Jesus Christ, the problem is solved.

The Great Cosmic Problem

1. Sin

The first aspect of our great cosmic problem is sin. This problem began with the fall of Adam. God commanded, “Do not do that,’ but Adam responded, in essence, “I am going to do what is forbidden. What are you going to do about it?’ Adam sinned against God deliberately. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it’ (Gen. 3:6). Through Adam’s first disobedience, sin entered the world and death through sin, because all sinned in that one sin of Adam.

After Adam’s fall, sin became a mighty king with laws, power, subjects, and kingdom. Sin still reigns by death among those who are the descendants of Adam, whether Jews or Gentiles (Rom. 5:21). The whole world is under the power, rule, and authority of sin (Rom. 3:9). Moreover, like that elephant, we cannot free ourselves from sin’s bondage because sin is a king who enslaves his people. No one is able to get out from the grip of King Sin. Man under sin is not free to sin. He is non posse non peccare (not able not to sin). He serves his King, Sin, as a slave.

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin’ (John 8:34). And Paul says, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. . . . Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?’ (Rom. 6:6, 16).

‘For as through the disobedience of one man, many are made [constituted] sinners'(v. 19). All the descendants of Adam are legally classified as sinners on the basis of the disobedience of one man. The basis is not their own many sins, but the first sin of the first man. This sin, and its accompanying guilt, is imputed to all his descendants. Yes, they are sinners themselves and because of their sin nature, they can only sin, which they do daily. But the ground of their classification as sinners is the first sin of the first man, Adam. In other words, in Adam all men stand before God judicially as sinners.

2. Condemnation

Another aspect of the big cosmic problem is condemnation. ‘Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation’ (v. 18). We saw earlier: ‘The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation’ (Rom. 5:16).

God has condemned Adam and all his descendants. Since Adam’s one sin made all his descendants sinners, God judged and condemned them. Every unbeliever stands before God as a condemned sinner. Every descendant of Adam, old or young, king or pauper, man or woman, slave or free, Jew or Gentile, is judged and condemned by God in Adam’s one sin. All are born as condemned slaves of sin. If we do not believe that, we cannot believe what we are going to say the solution is.

3. Death

Death is the third aspect of our great cosmic problem. We are born dead, and we are born with the sentence of death on us. Sin reigns by death (Rom. 3:21). Where King Sin goes, there goes also King Death. When sin entered the world, death also entered. We are told that death is a king (vv. 14, 17) who has a kingdom with laws and mighty power. Every sinner in sight is his subject. None can escape his icy grip. All are under the fear of death. Every day people live in the fear of death-not just physical but eternal death, to which every sinner is condemned.

God decreed that every sinner must die and stand before him in judgment. Man cannot live forever. His lifespan is but a handbreath. He lives seventy, or by reason of strength eighty, years; then he must die. Death is the wages he earned because of his sin, and death is paid to him without fail. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life’ (Rom. 6:23).

The words of God in Genesis 2 are still valid when people die: ‘dying, you will surely die.’ Listen to the refrain in Genesis 5: ‘and he died’ (viamoth). Even Methuselah died at age 969. Every sinner knows that he is worthy of death, yet he keeps on sinning. Paul says, “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them” (Rom. 1:32). He later asks, ‘What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death’ (Rom. 6:21).

The Law as Solution?

Paul’s readers in Rome, especially those of Jewish background, would ask at this point: “Is the law God has given us the solution that will save us?” The Jews were proud of the ceremonial, civil, and moral law of Moses. They treasured the law as God’s gift to man. The Jews viewed the Gentiles as unclean dogs, but themselves as clean because they possessed the law. They declared themselves righteous because they tried to keep the law of God.

The Pharisee of Luke 18 was very proud of his standing before God. Saul of Tarsus once declared himself to be perfect in regard to the righteousness of the law (Phil. 3:6). The question Paul faced from Christian Jews is this: ‘What then is the purpose of the law if it cannot save and if it is not necessary even to condemn us?’

‘The law was added so that the trespass might increase’ (v. 20). The law came in beside sin so that sin might increase. The law incites us to sin more; it works as a catalyst, not a reagent. This is one of a number of other purposes for the law. Paul makes a number of points throughout his epistles about what the law can and cannot do:

1. The law does not justify (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16).
2. The law is not necessary for God to condemn us (Rom. 5:14).
3. The law cannot impart life (Gal. 3:21).
4. The law was given to define sin, to make sin a legal offense (Gal. 3:19).
5. The law increases our knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20; 7:7).
6. The law brings wrath of God (Rom. 4:15).
7. The law produces death (Rom. 7:13).
8. The law reveals the utter vileness and horribleness and sinfulness of sin (Rom. 7:13).
9. The law reveals the deceitfulness of sin (Rom. 7:11).
10. The law cannot justify (Rom. 8:3).
11. The law reveals sin’s mighty and enslaving power (Rom. 6:14).

Yet I would say that the Holy Spirit uses the preaching of the law to bring deep conviction and knowledge of our sin. Our sin is the most serious problem we have and yet we have no idea of its extent. That is why we must go to churches where law is preached and sin revealed.

The law also leads us to Christ. Paul says, ‘The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith’ (Gal. 3:24). Elsewhere he writes, ‘Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes’ (Rom. 10:4).

Paul declares to the Jewish Christians that the law will not save anyone. But thank God, that is not the end of the story. Grace solves our problem.

The Greater, Divine Solution

1. Grace

If law cannot save us from the rule of sin and death, what can? Grace alone can save sinners who are fallen into the pit of hell with their father Adam. The grace of God reaches out from heaven in Jesus Christ to ungodly, helpless, sinful objects of God’s wrath. For God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Rom. 1:18).

Sin is king (Rom. 5:21) and death is king (Rom. 5:14, 17), but, thank God, grace is also king. Grace is not just equal in power to sin and death. There is no equal ultimacy of evil and good. Grace is infinitely greater than sin and death. Grace reigns over sin and death. The grace of God in Jesus Christ comes to our hell and takes us to heaven itself. This is the power of grace.

Grace comes to our hell to take us, not to where Adam was before his fall, but to sit at the right hand of Christ himself. Grace is king and reigns forever. It is the grace of God (v. 15); the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (v. 15); abounding grace (vv. 16-17); and even superabounding grace (v. 21). This superabounding grace of God takes the initiative to seek us and find us and save us from our hell and take us to heaven. This amazing grace is triumphant and saving grace, full of glorious, incomparable and unsearchable riches (Eph. 2:5-8).

This grace gives us the free gift of righteousness, which is our greatest need. We are unrighteous sinners condemned to death. We need not human righteousness, but divine righteousness. This grace flows to us, people of time, from eternity through the covenant of redemption in which the Father planned our salvation, the Son agreed to accomplish our redemption, and the Spirit of God agreed to apply this redemption to every elect sinner. This grace flows to us through the Seed of the woman, who crushed the ancient serpent’s head. Peter speaks of this grace flowing from eternity: ‘[Christ] was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake’ (1 Pet. 1:20). Paul, likewise, spoke of Jesus ‘who has saved us and called us to a holy life-not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought and immortality to light through the gospel’ (2 Tim. 1:9-10).

This grace is irresistible. It fights, even with God’s own people, and wins. This grace defeats our rebellion, stubbornness, and wickedness. In fact, if grace is not winning, it means we are not God’s sheep and do not belong to the elect. This irresistible grace saves the most wicked of sinners, like the wicked king Manasseh. It saved Saul of Tarsus, the self-righteous Pharisee, the ‘chief of sinners’ who went out to destroy Christianity like a beast breathing out slaughter and threatenings. The mighty grace of God conquered him and transformed him into an apostle and slave of Christ and a battle-scarred veteran of the cross.

Paul spoke of this work of grace in his life: ‘I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put any of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them’ (Acts 26:9-11). But grace won.

This grace redeemed the one with the legion of demons who wandered about restless, breaking his chains, naked, and crazy. Grace sought him and found him, and we read of him being clothed and sitting down in his right mind. Grace redeemed the thief on the cross, the prodigal, and the publican.

Grace redeems every elect sinner. When our heavenly Father draws, the sinner comes humbly, believingly, and with deep sorrow of repentance. Jesus declares, ‘All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. . . . No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day’ (John 6:37, 44).

I used to be a fisherman. Once the fish is hooked, it can do whatever it wants, but it eventually comes. Some fish got away, but no one gets away from God when he draws them. Jesus said, ‘I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself’ (John 12:32). What grace begins, it completes. Grace never fails.

Grace is necessarily irresistible. Someone once said, ‘For if grace were not irresistible, no one would ever be saved.’ Grace elects, predestinates, effectually calls, regenerates, and enables us to repent and believe. Grace adopts us into God’s family, makes us heirs with God and joint-heirs with Christ, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies us, and makes us super-conquerors.

2. Righteousness

From Adam we received sin; in Jesus Christ we receive righteousness. Sinners are naked and have no righteousness. Where can we get a righteousness that is unlike Adam’s defectible righteousness? We need an alien, indefectible righteousness-we need the righteousness of God.

Thank God that such a divine righteousness is revealed to us in the gospel of Christ! Paul proclaims, ‘For in the gospel a righteousness from God and of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last’ (Rom. 1:17). This righteousness is a gift received by faith. Paul also states, “But now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe’ (Rom. 3:21-22).

This righteousness is a free gift of grace (vv. 15, 17). It is based on one righteous deed done in obedience by Jesus Christ (vv. 18-19). That ‘one obedience’ refers to the death of the obedient Son. Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness. (PGM) He told John the Baptist, ‘It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness’ (Matt. 3:15). Elsewhere Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them’ (Matt. 5:17). Paul tells us, ‘But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons’ (Gal. 4:4-5). Paul uses the phrase hupo nomon to describe being born “under the rule or authority of the law.’ He came to fulfill all the law perfectly in our place.

We were under the law, which demanded that we obey every law and always do so perfectly. This was utterly impossible for children of Adam do. But Jesus Christ did it. Peter tells us, “You were redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.’ (1 Pet. 1:18-19). He is the innocent, obedient Son who died.

We must understand and glory in this, that “God [reconciled] the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them’ (2 Cor. 5:19). How can God not count our sins against us? On whose head did he put all our sins? The answer is that “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Cor. 5:21). The free gift of righteousness, therefore, has no basis in our good works, but is based entirely on the one act of righteousness of Jesus Christ alone (Rom. 5:18). It is based solely on the obedience of Jesus Christ in our behalf.

3. Justification

Adam gave the inheritance of condemnation to all his descendants. But Romans 5:18 tells us that through Christ we receive justification: “The result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men’ (v. 18). Those who receive this grace-gift of Christ’s righteousness are justified and their condemnation is canceled forever. Their sin and condemnation in Adam is effaced because of Christ’s obedience and righteousness, and all other sins are forgiven and blotted out as well. This is justification by God.

Paul tells us, ‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 8:1). What is the ground of this justification? ‘For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were [constituted] made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made [constituted] righteous’ (v. 19). On the basis of one man’s obedience, the court of heaven classifies us no longer as sinners but as righteous. We are righteous solely on the ground of the righteousness of Christ, not on the basis of any of our works, whether done on earth or in heaven. We have been taken out of the category of sinners and placed in the category of the righteous-out of the kingdom of darkness, death, and the devil, and into the kingdom of light and life in Christ. We are constituted righteous by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and declared righteous by God himself. Therefore, we truly are righteous. This is not speculation or fantasy. We are righteous, now and forever.

4. Life Eternal

Additionally, in place of eternal death, he has given us life eternal: ‘So that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring [unto] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (v. 21). In Adam we received sin, condemnation, and death; in the second Adam, Jesus Christ, we receive righteousness, justification, and eternal life. The righteousness of Christ leads to justification, and justification leads to eternal life.

This eternal life is not merely the extension of the sinner’s life in this world. It is God’s life. Someone said that eternal life is a quality of life. It is living by God’s life and living for God. If we have received eternal life, we will live for God.

We have this eternal life through Jesus Christ. There is only one way to heaven; it is through Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the only mediator, our propitiation and righteousness. The Hebrews writer tells us, ‘Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death’ (Heb. 2:14-15).

Jesus Christ ‘has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel’ (2 Tim. 1:10). It is tragic to see people running after everything in the world but not seeking God. Through Jesus Christ we find freedom from the devil and from death. Paul also says, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death. . . .When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. 15:26, 54-56).

Sin is no longer king for us. ‘Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts’ (Rom. 6:12). And not only is sin not our king, but death also is not. For us, grace reigns ‘through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (v. 21).

Jesus is our King and Lord. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, and he has made us kings. “For if by the trespass of the one man death reigned through the one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17). We who have received the abundance of grace and the gift of Christ’s righteousness are made kings by God. May we stop behaving like slaves of sin and start acting with dignity like the kings we are in Christ!

By the triumph of the grace of God, slaves of sin and death are made kings. In place of death we are given eternal life. So we live and reign in the sphere of life eternal over sin, death, the devil, the world, and angels. All things are ours in Jesus Christ.

Paul asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.’ We face and conquer all of these. Let us, therefore, stop all our murmuring, faultfinding, and envy! Let us instead wage battle as the kings we are and win. Paul continues, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 8:35-39).

Grace has triumphed. The elephant that fell into the fifty-foot-deep pit has been raised to live. We who fell with Adam into the pit of sin and condemnation and death have been raised to righteousness, justification, life eternal, and heaven itself where we are seated with Christ. All this comes to us by the mighty operation of grace.

¹ John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 199.