03.04 The Justification of All Mankind
3 - God Will Have All Men Be Saved; Section 4 THE JUSTIFICATION OF ALL MANKIND
Paul says in Romans 5:19, "For just as by one man’s disobedience (failing to hear, heedlessness and carelessness) the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man’s obedience the many will be constituted righteous - made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him" (Amplified Bible). The word disobedience in this verse is from the Greek word PARAKOE which comes from a root meaning "to mishear; neglect to hear; inattention." It speaks of A HEARING AMISS, or a wrong hearing. The verse also speaks of Christ’s obedience, the word for obedience in Greek is HUPAKO meaning A SUBMISSIVE HEARKENING. If obedience is a right hearing and obedient action thereto, then disobedience is simply a wrong hearing, a hearing amiss, and then acting in kind. It means a hearing of a voice OTHER THAN GOD’S, a LISTENING TO THE WRONG VOICE and then acting upon what is suggested. Adam and Eve listened to the voice of a stranger, the voice of the bestial spirit of this world, as represented by the serpent, and found that sin was at the door, and death by sin.
It would not have been so tragic if Adam’s sin had affected himself alone, if all after him could have observed the horrible fruit of his sin and then kept themselves from the same ravaging despair; but the Scriptures faithfully point out the awful POWER OF DISOBEDIENCE, revealing that it was by ONE MAN’S DISOBEDIENCE that "the many" (that’s how the Greek says it) - ALL - WERE MADE SINNERS! As Adam fell, we fall each one, for Adam lives yet in his progeny. Because Adam had the principle of sin and death imposed as an actual feature of his biological life, his descendants also have inherited a life principle which involves a built-in death principle. The moment a child is conceived the nature of disobedience is in him and the power of death - so that in the same moment he is conceived he is a sinner by nature and also begins to die; he is dying ere he is born, and eventually the death principle wins out over the life principle and he does die. And, fallen in Adam, men prove he is in them, by walking just as he walked. Adam yet relives old Adam’s life in every unregenerated man, as Christ in us yet lives Christ’s life. With all emphasis I must declare that at the very most, the worst offender on earth, has committed a crime WHICH IS INHERENT IN HIS OWN NATURE, and the eye of the all-seeing God sees what even we, in most cases, cannot see, that the most wicked sinner on earth IS SIMPLY DOING THAT OVER WHICH HE REALLY HAS NO CONTROL. People tell me that "man has a choice," but I declare to you that when I came into this world some 47 years ago ADAM HAD ALREADY MADE MY CHOICE FOR ME! God didn’t ask me if I would prefer to be born a sinner or a saint. Adam answered that question for me in the dim and distant past! Never in my life did I have a "choice" until the blessed day when the Spirit of God came and illumined my mind, convicting me of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, taking the things of Christ and unveiling them to my astonished soul; then, and not until then, did I have a choice! It did not take me long, beloved friends, to make that choice!
Until the day God intervened and apprehended me sovereignly by His grace, I was in no way responsible for my actions, for, try as I might, I could never have been different than I was, and neither could you. If this is not the case then the apostle lied when he said, "And you He made alive, when you were dead, slain by your trespasses and sins in which at one time you walked HABITUALLY. You were following the course and fashion of this world - and were under the sway of the tendency of this present age - following the prince of the power of the air. You were obedient to him and UNDER HIS CONTROL, the demon spirit that still constantly works in the SONS OF DISOBEDIENCE... who go against the purposes of God. Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in passions of our flesh - our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature; obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind - our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings. WE WERE THEN BY NATURE THE CHILDREN OF WRATH ... like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:1-3, Amplified).
Men have, in their blood, been saturated with sin, with lawlessness, with nervous temperaments and diseases WHICH HAVE BEEN THE DIRECT CAUSE OF THEIR TRANSGRESSION. God in His great mercy knows this, and thus it is written, "And the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done" (Genesis 8:21). I do not hesitate to say that all the multiplied sins upon earth today ARE THE RESULT OF HEREDITARY WEAKNESSES - inherited from Adam! Ah, beloved, such is the unspeakable POWER OF DISOBEDIENCE, a power beyond the scope of human imagination. I now invite you to meditate deeply upon these inspired words penned nineteen centuries ago by the consecrated hand of the apostle Paul. "Well then, as one man’s trespass - one man’s false step and failing away - led to CONDEMNATION FOR A-L-L M-E-N, so one Man’s act of righteousness leads to ACQUITTAL AND RIGHT STANDING WITH GOD, AND LIFE FOR A-L-L M-E-N" (Romans 5:18, Amplified). Can we not see by these words what a mighty power there is in both obedience and disobedience?
Two persons, two acts, and two sentences affecting ALL MEN are brought before us in this passage. Adam’s act of disobedience and its race-wide, life-destroying result, bespeaks the universal tragedy that has befallen all men because of Adam. Christ’s act of obedience and its race-wide, life giving result, bespeaks the glorious hope and consolation we have for ALL MEN. Is it not strange that the negative side of this passage is usually believed without hesitation, while the positive side is strongly denied by nearly all Christians? In order to understand the effectiveness, the success, and the scope of the saving work of Jesus Christ set forth in this passage, it is only necessary to believe implicitly what it states. In the following arrangement the two parts of the passage are placed in parallel columns as an aid in comparing them: AS Through one trespass. The judgment came. Upon ALL MEN. To condemnation.
EVEN SO Through one righteous act. The free gift came. Upon ALL MEN. To justification of life.
How shall I describe the blessing that came to my own soul when Jesus Christ revealed to me that as potent as was the power of Adam’s disobedience, mightier yet is the power contained in the OBEDIENCE OF THE SON OF GOD. All the languages and dialects of earth do not contain words meaningful enough to describe the immensity of the all embracing work of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. I fully expect that I will be misunderstood in these things, but I am assured by the Lord Jesus that one day the truth of it will be common knowledge, and all Christians and all people will be forced to acknowledge it. I suppose that all the arguments and persuasions in the world will not convince some saints today of the incontrovertible truth of the words under consideration: "Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon ALL MEN to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon ALL MEN unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many (Greek: "the many" - all) were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many (Greek: "the many" - all) be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND" (Romans 5:18-20). The Amplified Bible renders verse 20: "But then Law came in, only to expand and increase the trespass. But where sin increased and abounded, GRACE HAS SURPASSED IT AND INCREASED THE MORE AND SUPERABOUNDED."
Grace did "much more" abound. More. MUCH MORE! My deepest prayer is that God may grant understanding to all who read these lines that you may see the wonderful significance of the word "more." You can never comprehend the greatness of God’s love, the majesty of the glories of His Kingdom in the bright ages yet to come, nor His purpose, unless your spirit can grasp this word "more." "More" is that which goes beyond the limits. A pound of beans is a set limit. I pay 53 cents for a pound package of beans. But if I find in my bag a pound and a half or two pounds, that is "more." It surpasses the limits of the 53 cents. I am amazed, delighted, happy, and a sense of well-being pervades me; someone has done MORE than required or paid for. It has a language all its own. That language of MORE THAN is what the Bible is teaching from the first verse in Genesis to the last verse in Revelation. That is what GOD IS AND DOES. That is what LOVE IS AND DOES. That is what GRACE IS AND DOES. That is what SALVATION IS AND DOES!
You see, it is as if a common deckhand in the line of duty, during a raging storm, is swept off a great ocean liner into the foaming sea. The rescue party goes to work fast and before long the deckhand stands on his feet, the crowd gathered around him. He has been unconscious. He feels his clothes, and they have been changed. He feels his head, but a new brass cord trimmed cap is upon it. The deckhands who were his fellows stand to salute him, and in astonishment he asks why. The captain comes to him and calls him mate and the vessel rolls on while he assumes his newly gained place of authority next to the captain of the ship. He fell off a deckhand, he is rescued a mate! This is the way grace works. This is the "much more" abounding grace in Jesus Christ!
MUCH MORE! "Where sin did abound, grace did MUCH MORE abound!" You cannot understand God nor His language apart from it. Nor can you really fellowship deeply with the Father in prayer unless you understand HIM as being "much more" than. Nor can you understand what His Kingdom is, nor how it shall develop, nor His plan and purpose for the ages to come, unless you understand what "much more" means. If your hope is merely something for you, and the rest of the "little flock" of saints, and not "much more," then it is not from the heart of God but is a product of self. Listen! "The love of God is broader than the measures of man’s mind; and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind." "Much more" is something for HIM - yes, ALL for Him! Much more means abundance - MORE THAN ENOUGH. No one will dispute that SIN abounded, or that it overflowed, spilling out of Eden’s fair garden and saturating the whole earth and all men. Abound means overflow - constantly filling and running over like a spring of water or an ocean wave. Ah, yes, sin overflowed, flowed all over, flooded the world, permeated the minds and temperaments and nature of all men everywhere, until the seed of Adam’s disobedience has grown and increased through six long milleniums in the field of the world and has now come to horrible fullness. Wicked men and seducers are waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. The grapes of wrath are not only ripe, but they are over-ripe, as the original implies in Revelation 14:15. The fullness of sin and death is such that no flesh could survive the desolation that lies ahead unless the Lord Himself were to cut the days short. We recognize this fact. Men in all walks of life recognize it. Men in high places recognize it. The hearts of men who know what the score is in this treacherous hour are failing them for fear, as they contemplate the things that are about to come upon the world in this generation. But what about the other seed that was cast into the earth, the second man, the last Adam, the OBEDIENT SON? Are we going to credit the disobedience of Adam with having more power and authority than the Christ? Are we going to infer that the law of sin and death has an even greater potential than the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? Are we going to believe that the law of sin and death has the power and ability to stretch forth its poisonous tentacles into every area of mankind, to the complete perversion of body, soul, and spirit, and then at the same time draw back in unbelief at the revelation of the Word concerning the law of the Spirit of life (more abundant) in Christ Jesus? Five times in Romans 5 does the apostle Paul use the expression "Much more" relative to the POWER OF THE GRACE OF GOD, IN CONTRAST TO THE SIN OF ADAM. Shall we not believe that there is a greater and MUCH MORE potential in the redeeming grace of Christ, than there is in the law of sin and death? Is there not a MUCH MORE effectual working of the grace of God through the last Adam, than there was of the power of disobedience through the first Adam? In other words, are we going to honor the power of Adam and Satan ABOVE THE REDEEMING POWER OF CHRIST? Shall not the Christ redeem and restore every man that Adam’s sin cursed, and make every one of them better men than Adam was? Is that not what MUCH MORE means?
"But God’s free gift is not at all to be compared to the trespass. His grace is out of proportion to the fall of man. For if many died through one man’s falling away - his lapse, his offense - MUCH MORE profusely did GOD’S GRACE and the free gift that comes through the undeserved favor of the one Man Jesus Christ, ABOUND and OVERFLOW to and for the benefit of many" (Romans 5:15, Amplified). It is interesting to observe that while all Churches will acknowledge that by one man, and his offense, death passed upon all men, yet they cannot accept the glorious fact that MUCH MORE the grace of God shall abound unto all men. That one man’s offense could cause such devastation of the human race does not provoke an argument, for the evidence is all around us. But when one Man, Christ Jesus, releases that GRACE, through His obedience to the will of God, then people find it hard to believe that this shall have the same coverage, abounding unto all men, and even MUCH MORE! Yes, there is also a MUCH MORE to be brought into account here. For the FREE GIFT is not the same as the offense, Paul says. For one act of disobedience brought judgment and condemnation. But by the time the FREE GIFT came on the scene, there wasn’t just one offense to take care of, but now it must cover MANY OFFENSES and a multitude of sins. Therefore, how much greater is this free gift, able to go beyond ALL SIN and gain the victory, until all shall receive of His life. Our problem seems to be simply this. We believe, oh, HOW we believe in the horrible manifestation of sin and death in Adam, because it is a matter of history in the past, and of fact in the present. But we reject the glorious outcome of the overwhelming grace of God in Christ because it is not too manifest in history, nor scarcely visible in this present day. Only a few have been affected thus far. Men will not believe until they see. But those apprehended to be the SONS OF GOD, though unknown by the world as yet, even now are believing what they cannot see, and indeed the whole creation groans for their manifestation, for the creation itself also SHALL BE DELIVERED FROM THE BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:19-21). If the life of God is not to overflow super-abundantly to the entire creation, then the manifestation of the Sons of God is TOTALLY WITHOUT PURPOSE, and all the teaching and preaching about it is a great farce and a wicked hoax. I do not hesitate to declare it. Who has not been distressed by the overflowing of evil and sorrow and death? But - where sin increased and abounded, grace has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded. In the same place where sin and evil overflowed, grace did - do we dare to say what the Scripture says here? Will not someone think that we are getting off into some heresy? Oh well, we will just happily sing it out - "where sin overflowed, grace did EXCEEDINGLY-MORE-THAN-OVERFLOW!" Where evil flooded, grace more than flooded. Grace equaled the overflow of sin, and THEN MORE. Grace overflowed where sin did, and then became permanent floods of mercy and redemption! If the Word of God does not teach this, then I know nothing of the Word. Oft times we have sung the little chorus:
"His love has no limit, His grace has no measure, His power has no boundaries known unto man, For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He gives, and gives, and gives again!" The limitation of God’s mercy, if it were possible, would be the condemnation of God Himself. If there are limits to His mercy, then the word of God, which says that "His mercy endures forever," is a lie. The limitation of God’s mercy is a trick of the devil, to discredit God and defeat His Gospel. The limitation of God’s mercy makes the disobedience of Adam more powerful and enduring than the OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST. I am glad for a Gospel that is coextensive with, and GREATER THAN, the devil’s work in spirit, soul and body. I am glad for a Gospel that is not limited to a man’s heartbeat, for our great High Priest is able to save them TO THE UTTERMOST that come unto God by Him, seeing He EVER LIVES to make intercession for them. I am glad for a Gospel that is not limited to one age, or to the three-score-and-ten years of man’s frail existence, but reaches out into the ages to come until GOD IS ALL IN ALL. I am so glad for a Gospel which tells me that God has made a way by which even His banished may return. The Lord Jesus, the Christ, said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw" - how many? "ALL men." "ALL MEN unto Myself!" (John 12:32). If that proclamation is not true, if He is not strong enough and gracious enough to draw every man on earth, and under the earth, and throughout the universe, unto Himself, then He told a lie.
If you say that sin abounds to an extent not equaled by grace, you again contradict the Word of God. If God could eventually be defeated in the purpose for which He created man, to be an "Habitation" for Himself, "in the Spirit," and if He were to abandon all effort, and permit man throughout the endlessness of eternity to be possessed by the devil, then He had better stop saying that He is God Almighty, Allwise and All-merciful. That would be failure and proof that the devil is stronger than the Christ, that sin exceeds grace, which we know is not true. You will have to tear your Bible all to pieces if you teach such doctrine.
"Well then, as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for ALL MEN, so one Man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and right standing with God, and life FOR ALL MEN" (Romans 5:18, Amplified). How final, how supreme, how absolute is this word! There is no appeal from it. There is no escaping it. There is no disregarding it. There is no discrediting it. God stands as His own witness to this act, and all mankind will eventually be forced to accept the truth of it and God will be glorified through it all!