Session 15 – Romans; Romans 5:15-21: Mark Lanier, 09/07/25

Romans 5:12-21 - The So What Question
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Bernard: [00:00:00] One of the biggest questions of life in terms of practical living is the so what question? When I'm in court and I've gotta make a presentation, by the way, that is, that's not me. But when, when I'm in court and I have to make a presentation to the jury, I'm trying a case, one of the things that I have to do is I have to answer the so what question?

You know, we're here, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Here's the case. So what. What I mean, what difference does it make to me [00:01:00] and that, so what question is not only important in the courtroom, studies tell us it's one of the most effective ways teachers can teach. It's one thing to say, here's a set of math problems and students have to learn the math problems.

But if teachers will answer the so what question and let them know if you know how to compute this, it will save you money here. If you can compute, you know, if you can understand the math behind hanging, uh, uh, um, um, area, so. Gracie, she wants me to, well, she's wants to wallpaper her nursery when her twins were coming and she only wanted to do two walls.

So I told Gracie, I said, do the math. Figure out how much wallpaper you need. That's easy math to do. You can do that. She did not do it well. She [00:02:00] over ordered. And that was a really good thing because she had next called and said to me, dad, how do I find someone in Boca who can hang wallpaper? I said, honey, why would you go outside of your father to hang wallpaper?

I can do this. And she said, can you really? I said, oh, honey. My dad taught me how to hang wallpaper. She said he did. I said, well, he, he did it a lot, and I watched, I said, but I, I can do this. She said, please. So I fly down there and, and I go to Home Depot and I get the tools that I need. I secretly watch a couple of YouTube videos to make sure I know what I'm doing and I clear everything out and I start hanging the wallpaper and I hang on those two walls that she had that she wanted me to hang it on.

And I'm telling you, I matched up the seams. I looked like a pro until she came in and I realized I'd hung everything upside down. And the [00:03:00] trees, the trees were upside down growing from the ceiling toward, so it was a good thing she had ordered twice as much as she needed. But if, if, if people can answer a so what question?

Students learn better. By the way, I was telling mom about that and she said, she started laughing. I said, why are you laughing? She said, your dad hung wallpaper upside down more times than I can count. So I truly did learn from my father how to do wallpaper. The so what question is even important in some matters of faith.

I mean, so, so what? We, we will learn better if we understand and answer some so what questions? Jesus died for our sins. We know that. So what, what are the implications? What does that mean to me today? [00:04:00] Well, you're going to live eternally with God. Great. Is that it? What's the So what I, I belong to God. I know that to be true, but I still think it's appropriate to say, so what, what difference does that make?

We can take that Martin Luther expression. Ah, uh, I'm justified by faith. Actually, it's Pauls, but Martin Luther big on that. But still. So what? What are the implications? What difference does that make to me? The so what question is not some novel, 21st century western civilization gimmick for speeches? The so what question has always been important because we can look at Romans, and in Romans five, chapter five through chapter eight, Paul is answering the so what questions.[00:05:00]

That's what he's doing. And so this entire section of Romans that we're in right now is one where Paul's addressing the so what from us, being saved by the cross of Christ through our faith. So what, what difference does it make? Paul spends four incredible chapters, 5, 6, 7, and eight discussing this, and he bookends these chapters.

With an overriding truth that helps us understand the so what. And that overriding truth is God loves you. And so we can look at the beginning of this section of Romans with Romans five, five, where Paul speaks of God's love having been poured into our hearts. Or we can look at the end of the book ends of [00:06:00] this section where it says God.

Paul says that nothing is gonna be able to separate us from the love of God, but this overriding truth that God loves you is present as an undergirding foundation to the so what questions that Paul addresses in this section of Romans. Now, if you go back. Though those many months and months and months ago to when we had the first and second classes in this study of Romans, I said in the second class that when you study.

An epistle, a letter in the New Testament, there are kind of in my mind, at least my approach and different scholars do this different ways and, and, and I, I don't even presume to, to a claim to be a scholar, but to b, to claim that this is the only way. But there are eight [00:07:00] things that make sense to me and are important to me when I am studying an epistle.

The historical context of the letter, the literary context, analyzing the text exegeting or, or explaining and understanding the paragraphs, looking at it through theology and a theological lens, a applying it. Mixing in a few others, but ongoing reflection, these are so whats even within the text itself?

We wanna ask the question all the time. So what, so what does this mean to me today? So what are the implications of this? What difference does it make? Paul answers the so what questions and in kind of an extension, we read his answers to his So what questions? And we need to ask, so [00:08:00] what about those with me and extend them further.

So what we've done so far is different things in different classes, but I would say over the last several weeks we've especially looked at textual analysis, paragraph exegesis. Theological analysis as we try to understand what Paul is writing about in these passages today. I want us to take a moment and look at the literary context.

I wanna understand and you say what? You'll get it. Hang on. But today we're gonna focus on that literary context as well as the others, and try to understand a little bit more of what Paul's saying through a different lens than just taking it word by word, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. It's an important way to get the [00:09:00] fullness of the lessons that are there.

So we're focusing specifically on Romans chapter five, verses 12 through 21. And those of you who are in my age group, or close to my age group, will remember roadmaps. Now, those of you who are too young, who've lived with GPS all your life. There used to be a time where we didn't have GPSI could. This, this did not exist when we were young and if you wanted to drive from here to the hub of the plains Lubbock, you, you need a map that tells you how all the roads connect.

And when you, well, there goes that wedding ring. [00:10:00] Whoops. It's cold up here. My fingers have shrunk. Um, it's it, you needed a map to tell you where you're going. Now here's the reason I say that. I always like to let you know how the class is being taught. So here's our class, our roadmap for class. I want to read this.

Through the lens literary cultural lens of ancient honor, shame culture. Paul's writing in a different cul to a different culture and in a different culture than we have here in America today. And so I want to read, in fact, in some ways it's much more akin to some Eastern cultures. Today than it is to ours.

But I want to talk about that. And then I wanna look at these passages, reading them through what I will call ancient imperial warfare language. Imperial, [00:11:00] because Rome was an empire ruled by a Caesar, a king, in essence, warfare because the language was relevant to the wars being waged by the Roman legions.

And that language is used by Paul and we need to understand and read it with that way. And then third, if we've got time, I want to cover also reading it through what I'll call the ancient Jewish Castic patterns. You say, I don't understand any of that language. That's okay. That's why class isn't over yet.

So let's start with reading it through the ancient honor shame culture in Paul's Day. The word honor team A. In the Greek, the word honor was the supreme social currency. People were concerned about honor and shame. They lived to [00:12:00] accumulate honor. They lived to avoid shame. It was a very honor driven shame.

Avoidance culture into which Paul's writing this letter in which Paul lives, it was honor and shame that determined your social standing. Social standing in Rome was affected by citizenship. It was affected by a number of different things, but all of those things were part of honor and shame. It determined where you sat when you went to the games.

When you went to the theater, you had positions and seats of honor, and you had positions in seats of lesser honor. And then finally you had, uh, seats for the folks with no honor. And if you sat in the wrong seat, it was a crime. [00:13:00] It was punished. Your honor, level of honor, your level of shame determined what economic opportunities you had, your economic opportunities, whether you would be part of a, an economic culture or part of an economic group, or part of a a.

All of those things were driven in part by your le level of honor and your level of shame. It determined political influence, whether or not you had a right to speak into the political process in Rome, only a citizen of Rome had a right to vote, and you could not be a citizen of Rome unless you had adequate honor to be such, or your family had had the honor and had it bestowed that way.

It wasn't. They [00:14:00] didn't have birthright citizenship in the sense of if you were born in Rome, you were a Roman citizen. Not at all. It was one that was given a right given to those people who were deemed honorable enough to have it.

Shame and honor would determine your family reputation for generations. Shame and honor would give you an ability to boast and your boasting. Your basis for your Honor would include boasting about your ancestry. If you go back and read Josephus, Josephus was a Jewish historian at the time of Paul. And Josephus became a friend to the Roman Emperor after the rebellion post Paul Rebellion.

Paul had died by then, but the Jewish [00:15:00] Rebellion was put down by Rome and Josephus was taken back to Rome and became friends with the emperor and began writing his histories from Rome. But in those histories, Josephus boasts about his ancestry. In essence, he's saying, pay attention to me because of who I've been a part of in my family, and it should give you reason to honor me and read what I'm saying.

Cicero, before Paul, Cicero would write to his son, he would write to others and say, look at me and how proud I am. Not only have I got family behind me, but look at what I've achieved.

And, and, and, and you read this stuff and you think, wow, a lot of bragging going on here. You know, don't break your arm, patting yourself on the back. Um, but, but that's the way it was. [00:16:00] That was part of credibility. You know, we had a guest preacher this morning, and pastor Jared did a magnificent job of introducing him.

And when he introduced him in the eight o'clock service, he said, here's some books. Here's the way. He's, he's, uh, touched my life. You know, here's the so what question answered why this man's worth listening to? And we heard it. The fellow didn't have to get up and brag on himself. He didn't have to get up and say, I'd like to tell you all these reasons.

You should pay attention to me. Instead, he could be humble because Pastor Jarret told us the reasons to listen to him. Well, if you think about it, back in Roman times it was very different. You bragged on yourself. You had boasting rights. If you had acquired a lot, if you had managed to make a lot of dore me as this [00:17:00] expression goes, you, that was something you could brag about.

The crowd you ran in was something that gave you honor or shame.

Now, if you took the Jews in that day, they not only had many of these same concerns, but they had more boasting rights than even the Romans. Certainly, they had the same boasting rights about place in society. Honor was important. Shame was important. You know, Jesus talked about the, the rulers of the synagogue, people who had their favorite seat, the synagogue, our favorite seat at a wedding.

And, and, and, and people. He, Jesus said, when you go into a wedding, don't just assume you're the position of honor that goes down to the front. Sit in the back. It's a whole lot better for someone to come up to you and say, no, no, no. You belong up here at the front than someone to come up to you and say, Hey, buddy.

I said, you don't have enough honor to be sitting up here. You need to go [00:18:00] back there. That same culture was there, and with Jews, the boasting rights were. Not only what they were within the confines of the Greco-Roman world, but they would boast that Abraham was their father, and Jesus talked about that.

That's ancestry of the Nth degree. They would boast that they had the words of God delivered to Moses the Torah, and they would boast about that. They would boast about circumcision. Unlike the uncircumcised Goam of the world, and they would boast about that as as a right, a ritual given to them by God to set them apart.

They would boast about temple worship and the covenant relationship with God. It denoted

all of this. And [00:19:00] so if you take these boasting rights in whichever form you want them, and you start reading Paul, you realize Paul has turned that world upside down because you don't boast in your achievements. You don't boast in your works. And in Romans 3 27, Paul said, what becomes of our boasting?

It's excluded. By what kind of law? A law of works. No. By the law of faith, we don't live where we boast by what we achieve. Even in the world of morality, our moral achievements, our faithfulness to God, that is not the reason we boast.

We don't boast in our ancestry in the sense that they did. Paul says in Romans four 16. This depends. This relationship with God depends on faith in order that the [00:20:00] promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only adherence of the law to all anybody who comes to God. It's not just the descendants of Abraham, it's ones who share the faith of Abraham.

Paul says, what we boast in are things like our tribulations that's upside down thinking Romans five, three. Not only that, we boast in our sufferings. I, I don't often take, um, issue is maybe not the right word, but but. And, and I've got dear friends who oversee translating the English standard version of the Bible.

And I love it and I use it and it's amazing. Um, but they have to make certain choices in certain places. [00:21:00] And so in this Romans five, they actually translate it. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. And rejoice is okay, but Kalama, the, the word is, is not just targeted to rejoice. That word means boast in its primary sense, and, and we should not lose the cultural reference Paul's making when he says, we boast in our sufferings.

We boast in God through Christ. That's Romans five 11. More than that. We also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received ju reconciliation. So let's look and we're just gonna read it fast without commentary, uh, not too fast. But let's look at the verses four today.

Romans five, starting with [00:22:00] verse 12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man. And death through sin. So sin comes into the world through one man, Adam. And when sin came into the world, death came in and death has spread to all men because all of sin issues in translating that, uh, have, have, uh, provoked ideas within Christendom for.

Almost 2000 years. Uh, but that was last class so you can go back and get it. Four. Sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sins not counted when there is no law yet. Death reigned from Adam to Moses. Even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one to come.

Death reigns. Even if, if the sin is not like Adam's deliberate sin, [00:23:00] uh, we typically as Protestants understand the idea of, um, an age of accountability. An age where you need to be accountable for who you are and what you know is right and wrong, and put your faith into Christ. But death happens before that.

Infants die.

And Paul's saying that that's because they're born into this world of Adam, where death reigns. And so th th they're not sinning like Adam did, but they're still death. And Paul says Adam was a type of the one to come, but the free gift. It's not like Adam's trespass if many died through one man's trespass.

Much more have the grace of God and [00:24:00] the free gift. By that grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. Now the word for grace, the word for grace, the way Paul uses it. Frequently, if not almost always is got some reference to, uh, the, the cross of Christ. That's the free gift God gave us. He died for us, that act, and I think that's true in this passage.

It's not true for like grace and peace to you and, and other uses, but the grace of God is the cross of Christ. That's the free gift. That's the grace. So the free gift is not like the trespass in the sense that many died through one man's trespass, but much more in quality, not quantity in quality has God's grace.

The cross of Christ transformed us. And so Paul says, and [00:25:00] the free gift is not like the result of that one man sin for the judgment following the trespass. Brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification for if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man much more will those who receive the abundance of grace.

The free gift of righteousness found in the cross of Christ. Much more. Will righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men. So one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by one man's disobedience.

The [00:26:00] many were made sinners. So by one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. If the law came in to increase the trespass to show it, but where sin increased grace abounded all the more, and it ends with so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now that's it. Paul here is addressing a so what question. And the shame honor system is upside down. If we read this through those lenses, we understand that we have a new reigning ruler who has established a new culture and a new identity. No longer are we part of the culture and [00:27:00] identity of the world.

We are part of the culture and identity of our reigning king, and it makes a difference because under the old situation, death reigned, we were slaves to futility, to mortality. We were spiritually separated from God. There's nothing to be done about that until Jesus dies and is resurrected. Now we have something new now instead of death.

Reigning on the throne is life. Life that gives us peace, life that gives us purpose life that is eternal adoption into the family. Did you see those words in the verses we were reading just now? Look back at verse 14, yet death rained. From [00:28:00] Adam to Moses. Death reigned that word bas. In the Greek is, is king.

Death was king. Nobody could get out from under the thumb of death. And that's true from Adam to Moses, and it's true from Moses on. Look at verse 17 where he said, because of one man's trespass, death reigned, he's using Imperial King language There death is king. Death reigned through that one man. And, but he says, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free grift of righteousness reign?

In life. Same king language, same [00:29:00] imperial, regal language. Look at verse uh, 5 21, so that as sin reigned in death, so you got death reigning, you've got sin reigning. But now contrary to that, grace also reigns. So we've got a ship, we can be under the kingship, the lordship, the thumb of death, or we can be under the thumb kingship, lordship of peaceful life.

And Paul is saying the so what question? The the So what question, what difference does it make that Jesus died for me and I'm saved by faith? It makes all the difference in the world. Now you have hope. Now you have power. Now you have purpose. Now you have security. You don't have to fret about some king's whims about some culture that will stomp on you.

You don't have to fret about [00:30:00] death. You have every reason in the world to live with a smile on your face. Joy in your heart.

And that's how we kind of read this through that ancient honor, shame culture. It's another lens through which we try to understand what we're reading. Let's go to roadmap stop number two, and that is reading through ancient imperial warfare language. Now, I don't know how many of you took Latin. Probably, I don't know, 99% of you did not.

Um, were there any other nerds other than Charles, Mickey and me who took Latin? A few. Yes. Hilda. Hmm. Alright. Even, oh, oh look, we got Latin out the wazoo over here. These, these people basically speak with verbs at the end of the sentence anyway. If you learned Latin. Or if you [00:31:00] didn't, you may be familiar with the term pox.

Romana pox is the Latin word for peace. Romana Rome. Rome sustained a period of what they called the peace of Rome that wasn't always very peaceful, but the peace of Rome, the px Romana Roman Peace was maintained through military superiority. And nobody ever forgot it. Roman soldier sees you on the street and can say to you, Hey, carry my bag for the next mile, and you did it or you suffered the consequences.

Roman soldier had certain rights and everybody paid attention and gave deference and regard to those soldiers. They were enforcing the peace. And what the Roman legions and, and the military would do is they would [00:32:00] conquer foreign lands and foreign peoples. Then they would occupy those lands and pacify them.

Same comes from the Latin word px. Peace pacify them, make them adhere to the Roman peace. But this is peace that is enforced by military might. The P Romana people lived under a constant awareness of Roman power. Now, this is not just true for Paul. This is true for everyone who's reading his letter to the Romans.

Everyone in the Mediterranean Roman empire world was acutely aware of the enforcing power of the Roman military Might. And to anybody who rebelled on an individual on a town or on a community or on a country level [00:33:00] rebellion was met with swift and brutal retaliation. Just look at the Jewish rebellion that happened shortly after the death of Paul and Rome comes in and destroys the temple.

They car off all of the temple goods. You go to Rome today, you can still see the arch where they've got the, the graphic relief of carrying the menorah out from the temple.

Paul uses language that has been informed by people who are acutely aware of this military, uh, foundation of their society. So if you go back and you look at some passages, look at Romans five 12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world, [00:34:00] a fin, um, a fin is a word that can be used in a lot of different ways to come in.

You can come into a room, aen, you can come into a lot of different places, a aen. But Aen was also invasion language. The Roman army would invade a country, a sefin, um, uh, other armies. The Greek armies from before would invade a sefin. This is invasion language. Sin invaded our world through one man.

Through the misdeed of Adam. The sin of Adam sin invaded planet earth.

That's some of Paul's language here that we don't wanna lose the flavor of. If you go just a couple of verses later to verse 14 where it says Death reigned, that [00:35:00] same word reigned that I said is imperial language. It's also imperial language about imperial authority. This is, this is where someone is put in charge after the invasion.

Sin invaded the world and death is put in charge. Death is enthroned. As ruler death becomes the imperial leader, the invasion happens and death reigns and death sits on the throne. And that's the predicament and that's the problem. And Paul's explaining this. Then he goes on to verses later to say, the free gift is not like the result of one man's sin for the judgment.

Following one, trespass brought condemnation crema. The Greek crema is a judicial verdict after a conquest. It's used [00:36:00] in, in, in other judicial context as well, but, but the idea in imperial warfare language usage. Is that after, uh, let's say this little berg hamlet over there, rebels against Rome. Rome invades Rome puts up an authority.

The authority gets to sit in judgment on the people. And when the judgment is pronounced because of sins, invasion, invasion and death sitting on the throne, the the pronouncement is condemnation. That's what's there. Paul continues it. In the next verse, he talks about if one man's because of one man's trespass, death reigned, they were the imperial authority.

Death is the imperial authority that gets to decree the judgment for everyone. That's not a good world. [00:37:00] And then he continues as by one man's disobedience. Many were made sinners. That word made sinners. Fascinating word in the Greek simi. It constitutes or appoints it installs an authority. We were installed, uh, constituted, appointed.

Sinners. So sin invades death sits on the throne, announces the judgment of condemnation and appoints us all as sinners designates us all as sinners. We all constitute sinners. We're all under the decree of that reigning death. But Paul says so by one man's obedience. Many will be made righteous, and he uses the same [00:38:00] word.

So through the obedience of Jesus, we will be appointed as righteous, we will constitute righteous.

Paul's saying sin invaded the world as a conquering force, establishing deaths reign over a conquered humanity. But in one. One decisive, triumphant battle. The war ended. Oh, there may still be some battles going on. We experienced that, but the war's over. We know who won. The war is over. It was just one decisive triumph.

The grace of God, the death of Christ. So as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, one act of righteousness leads to [00:39:00] justification and life, one act of righteousness. He continues for as by the one man's disobedience. Many were made sinners by the one man's obedience. Many will be made righteous.

Again, that word be made will be declared, will be appointed. That's what will happen. That will be our position. We are righteous. So the law came in and shows an increase in trespass 'cause now we realize just how bad we are. We can read the law, but where sin increased, you know, we, oh, Morrisey, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm even, and boy New Testament readers in the Old Testament, under the Old Testament law.

Think about it. Couldn't kill someone or murder someone, I should say New Testament law. Jesus says, don't even hate him.

I had a buddy once called me on the [00:40:00] phone and said, I'm reading Matthew, and he says, I'm going to hell. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, Jesus made it worse. And he said, before, I wasn't supposed to, uh, wasn't supposed to kill anybody. Now I'm not even supposed to hate him. He said four oh, one's supposed to commit adultery.

Now I'm not supposed to lust. He said, I'm going to hell. And he would be right if Christ did not died. Because once you start learning what the, the law really is, the character of God, then your sins all of a sudden get really pronounced. But Paul says, where sin increased grace abounded. And this word is like super abounded hoop.

There. Paris

Grace, the cross of Christ has super abounded. It covers everything. [00:41:00] We have a peace with God. There is a peace treaty. And the terms of that peace treaty are, we have been justified. That means we've been declared not guilty. We are not under condemnation. We have been reconciled. We have been put back into a relationship with God.

We have been given life, not just eternal life, but life now. A vitality, a purpose. And that that's part of this. So what, so what difference does it make? It means we have peace with God. He's no longer any kind of an enemy. He's our capital F Father. If you had a bad father, that's lowercase F. Erase it. He's a capital F.

Good father. Paul said it the start of this chapter, since we have been justified by faith, [00:42:00] we have peace with God. Not because we're good enough, not because we earn it, not because we keep it, but because Jesus Christ paid the price.

Amen. God. Amen to God. So listen, the so what? Stop living like you're at war with God. He's not angry with you. He doesn't dislike you. This whole thing's bookended by a love that you can't lose. He is holding you. Don't let the enemy get you deceived, that you're still at war with God. You are not at war with God anymore than Jesus Christ is.

If you are in Jesus. You are wrapped in him. Paul in Galatians says, when we're baptized into Christ, we put on Christ like a garment. This peace [00:43:00] treaty was signed by the blood of Jesus, and that's what we get if we read ancient. Imperial warfare language here. Now we've got just a minute of time. Well, we've got 10 minutes of time, but I wanna get to points for home so Dale doesn't have to email me on it.

So let's look briefly at reading through a, by the way, welcome back Dale and Care. It's good to have y'all back. Um, we, they are faithful to watch this on the internet, which means thank you to everybody who works from sound to everything else to make this work on the internet. Thank you guys. There are some Sundays where I only watch it on the internet, and I don't, that's a joke.

I'm here anyway. Now, Castic patterns. This is a Jewish mindset, but not just Jewish. It was an ancient mindset, but especially prominent in Judaism. There are some verses where Douglas Moo and others will find [00:44:00] chiasm written by Paul within the verses perhaps. Um, but this is Castic patterns is built off of this word chiasm, which is a fancy schmancy linguistic term that comes from the Greek letter key.

You say, well then why didn't a key has him? Because people don't pronounce this as key. Anybody who's been in a fraternity or a sorority pronounces it. Kai, chiro Sigma, not Kiro Sigma, um, Kai, whoever. I don't, I, I wasn't in a fraternity, so I don't know all those things, but they had 'em. Um, I had a friend who studied for his Greek final by driving up and down sorority row.

I did not think that was the right way to study. But the Greek letter Kai looks like our X and it. And, and the thing about an X, it's, it's, it's, it's got a mirror image built in within it, you know, where you [00:45:00] can do one side mimics the other side. That's what Chiasm is. It's a language mirror where you say something going one way and then you like reverse course and go back out, and you do it for a couple of different reasons.

There are a number of reasons, but the ancient ear was trained to listen for these patterns. So if we put a kai up there, I want to give you kind of a, one of the basics of chiasm is that middle point. Is where the writer puts emphasis today. We tend to put emphasis at the beginning or at the end, but in chiasm, they would emphasize what was in the middle.

So Paul sets up kind of a structure that I think for those listening would've been important to realize that sin came through Adam, and not only sin, but then death came through sin. [00:46:00] But then something happened. The cross came into the picture, grace came into the picture, and now all of a sudden we have life through grace instead of death through sin.

And that sin that came in through Adam is righteousness that has come in through Christ. And so you can see what's happening here is God has working a cosmic reversal, but it's not, let me go back. It's not equal on the two sides. This is so much greater than that was. So this cosmic reversal, it's not that God's fixing something that went wrong.

The grace the cross of Christ far exceeds what was lost. I mean, Adam lost his innocence. But Christ gives righteousness. Adam brought death. Christ brings eternal [00:47:00] life. There's that so much greater. Adam brought condemnation. Christ brings justification. You're okay. You're not guilty. Adam made many sinners.

Christ makes many righteous. And the so what on this is so important because we should consider our role in this world. Do you realize as a believer, if you are a Christian, if Jesus is your Lord and your savior, if you have put your faith and you trust in the righteousness of Christ on the cross, and you accept that he died for your sins, and you say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, I put my faith in Jesus Christ as the son of God.

If you are in that fellowship.

We are part of God's cosmic project to [00:48:00] restore creation through Christ. We don't just become a Christian so we can hold our nose and make it through this life. So we get to heaven one day. We are part of God's cosmic project. He doesn't just want us to call him teacher and Lord, we're Lord and teacher.

He flipped those in. John, we are, we are to f our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Not get me through Earth so I can get to heaven. Your will be done on earth. We're to pray it and we're to try to do it. Amen. There's not a Christian in here where I cannot say with 100% full biblical authority.

Absolute uncategorically true. [00:49:00] Your life has cosmic significance. The teaching of Paul is you're not just trying to be a good person. You are participating in God's restoration of all things, every act of love. Every act of justice, every act of mercy, every act of faithfulness is part of the divine chiasm that's reversing the curse.

Say, well, I can't wait for it to finish. Well, it finishes when God remakes heaven and earth.

But we're speaking prophetically to that when we fight for what's right in this world. Fight for compassion. Fight for love. Fight for truth. Fight for God's mercy. Fight to be a, a good [00:50:00] aroma for the Lord. This is all part of reading through ancient Jewish chiasm or castic patterns. So that's your roadmap.

That's where we've been. What does it mean? Well, yeah, it means when we study these letters periodically, we'll just be doing textual analysis and paragraph acts of Jesus, and we'll work word by word and sentence by sentence and structure by structure. But periodically we continue to pause and to look then at historical context or literary context, and hopefully we'll always try to apply and give ongoing reflection AKA points for home.

My friends, brothers and sisters, y'all, not some of y'all, all y'all.

We should never think that [00:51:00] we're living in an honor, shame world. We live in a grace security world.

Charles, Mickey and I go back to this hymn Every time I boast only in the cross of Christ. That's where we boast. That's our security. That's our boasting point. I don't want anybody to think Mark Lanier is something special. We don't need Barney Fifes. Some of you remember him. We, we need look. We have the grace of God, we have the cross of Christ and the security that comes from that cross.

We are among those who receive the abundance of grace, the free gift of righteousness. We are among those who get this abundant cross and [00:52:00] y'all, we need to let our identity come from that. Let's let our identity come from whose we are, not what we've done.

Point for home. Two,

we're not at war with God. We have peace with him. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So you go home, but, but when guilt, our fear attacks you, you remember. You are living under the reign, the kingship of the cross of Christ, of the grace of God. You are not living under death's, tyranny.

You need not fear death. You need not fear, sickness and illness. Look, the odds are, unless the Lord returns, all of us gonna die.

But we don't need to be afraid of that. [00:53:00] I'm not saying we don't grieve when we lose, lose loved ones. We absolutely do and rightly do. I'm not saying we don't get angry at death, but I am saying we don't grieve the way the world does and we're not afraid the way the world is. We need to act like citizens of God's kingdom, not like a refugee from his wrath.

Point for home. Three, I'd love us to take a lens and look back from being individuals with God to the cosmic significance of this. You know, Paul's 1, 1, 1, but then it's all, all, all. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all. So one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all.

So here's the deal. When your life feels [00:54:00] meaningless, remember, you're part of God's cosmic restoration project. How stinking cool is that?

Amen. I mean, come on, look at it. Individual to cosmic. One to all. When your problems seem overwhelming, remember you are on the winning side of this cosmic story. We've got so much to be thankful for the so what to the death of Christ abounds more than we can even begin to understand. And I hope I've given you a glimpse of that this morning.

Let me bless you in the name of Jesus and I'll see you. Oh, next week. Um, I've gotta make a quick run out of the country next week, but Pastor Jarrett's gonna be teaching in here. It's gonna be good. So you want to, I mean, he's not preaching, he's teaching. Watch him shift those gears. [00:55:00] It'll be good. Let me bless you.

Father, thank you so much for the cross of Christ. Lead us to the cross. That's where we take refuge. That's where we find purpose. That's where we find security. That's where we find love. That's where we find hope. That's where we find meaning. That sheds the light on our path. We dwell, Lord. Beneath our suffering Messiah, and we dance and walk in the Jesus of the empty tomb who indwells us.

Lord, don't let the enemy rob us of who we are in you. Thank you for that. In Jesus. Amen.