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The River ChurchSermons

Righteousness

Through One Man

Josh Combs · Sunday, 29 June 2025 · Romans 5:12-21 · 36:45 · 5,129 words

Romans S10 · 5:12-21 Goodrich

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

Adam's rebellion introduced sin, shame, blame, and death into the world, and death has ruled over all people. The sermon then contrasts Adam’s trespass with the free gift of grace through Jesus Christ, the last Adam, whose obedience brings justification and life. Turning to communion, the message calls listeners to remember Christ’s broken body and shed blood as the basis for the new covenant’s forgiveness. The listener is urged to examine their heart, confess sins, and turn to Christ for forgiveness.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

adam 46 eat 28 adam's 12 tree 22 shame 17 trespass 15 blame 9 cross 24 serpent 8 genesis 13 number 17 garden 11

Topics

Sin 15 Atonement & Sacrifice 4 Grace 3 Condemnation 3 Righteousness 1 Justification 1 The Law 1

Scripture referenced 29

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 5 1:18 Romans 5 1:41 Genesis 2:15 2:34 Romans 5:1 3:30 Romans 4 10:10 1 Corinthians 15 11:44 Romans 4:14 12:14 Romans 5 13:21 Romans 5 13:46 Romans 5:14 13:49 Romans 5:15 14:22 Romans 5:16 14:31 Romans 5:15 14:49 Romans 5:19 14:53 Romans 5:15 15:24 Romans 5:16 15:27 Romans 5:16 16:04 Romans 5:17 16:09 Romans 5:14 16:41 Romans 5:15 17:15 Romans 5:15 17:23 Romans 5:15 17:29 Romans 5:17 17:45 Romans 5:19 18:13 Matthew 26 25:04 Romans 5:18 25:22 Matthew 26 26:16 Matthew 26:26 26:31 1 Corinthians 15 28:11

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:43. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

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Open your Bibles this morning to the book of Romans, Romans chapter number 5.

We'll pick up in verse number 12.

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Romans chapter 5, verse number 12.

Paul says,

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin,

and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

I want you to hold your spot.

Romans chapter 5, verse number 12.

And go back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis.

Genesis chapter number 2.

And we're going to look at that story of Adam and sin coming into the world and death because of sin.

Genesis chapter number 2.

Now, when we turn to Genesis, it's important that we understand that the Bible here in Genesis is recording history.

This is not mythology.

It is not Christian fairy tales.

It is not Christian fairy tales.

This is proof.

This is history.

So Genesis chapter number 2.

God has created Adam.

And Adam, the name Adam in Hebrew literally means man or mankind, humanity.

Verse number 15.

So Genesis 2, 15.

The Bible says,

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,

You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil,

you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

So God takes Adam and he places him in this beautiful garden.

He's surrounded by all of these incredible fruit trees that he can eat of, that he can enjoy,

that will provide food for him.

But God says in the middle of the garden, there is a tree called the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Don't eat of it.

He says, Adam, in the day you eat of it, you will surely die.

God says this is going.

Let's jump forward to Genesis chapter number three, Genesis three, verse one.

Bible says now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden.

But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden.

Now Eve adds here, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said,

to the woman, you will not surely die.

For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes

and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

And she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate.

And the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked.

They sewed fig leaves together and made them.

And they made themselves loincloths.

God had said, eat all of these trees.

They're for your pleasure.

They're for your enjoyment.

He was alone.

He made Eve a partner fit for him.

So here they are in perfect harmony, in love.

God is fellowshipping with them.

They have a beautiful home.

And then the serpent comes in.

And the serpent says, hey, what's the rules here?

I'm paraphrasing, of course.

What are the rules here concerning the trees?

What can you eat?

What can't you eat?

Eve says,

well, we can eat all these things.

But that one over there, we can't eat of it.

And she adds the command.

We can't touch it because God has said that if we do that,

we will surely die.

And the serpent says, no, you won't.

And this temptation happens.

This offer is given.

This contradiction.

God has said this.

The serpent says this.

Eve takes and she eats.

The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy that she believed Satan's lie.

She believed that Satan was telling her the truth.

Paul says in 1 Timothy,

that Adam didn't.

He didn't believe the lie.

And he openly rebelled against God.

And so in Romans chapter number 5,

which we'll go back to in a moment,

Paul says, sin came into the world.

What is sin?

Sin is rebellion against God.

God says this and we say, no, I'm going to do this.

God says, don't do that.

And we go, that's the very thing I want to do.

Now, I know you're gonna have a hard time believing this,

but I was kind of a stubborn child growing up

and I have not grown out of it.

I'll be honest with you.

The very thing that someone tells me not to do,

I want to do that.

Like, don't touch that.

And you're like, really?

What if I just like, I need to know what it feels like.

I didn't before you put a sign up, but now I need to, right?

Wet paint, do not touch.

You're like, wow, I could probably make that look better.

You know, it's just this inner rebel.

I jokingly tell people that's why I had to become a boss

so I could make the rules, right?

Because I just grew up, I just, I wanted to do

what someone told me not to do.

And I would figure out all these clever ways to do it.

Well, that's just the human condition.

Adam is told, don't eat of the tree of knowledge

of good and evil.

And we don't know how much time passes,

but it seems to be not very much.

And they are already eating of the tree of knowledge

of good and evil.

And Adam knows what he's doing.

He's rebelling.

Well, instantly in verse seven,

the Bible says their eyes are open.

They realize they are naked.

They realize they are exposed.

And immediately introduced, not just because of,

of eating the tree or the fruit,

introduced because of sin, we now have shame.

They try to cover that shame up.

There are many folks, many men who carry burdens of shame,

shame of the past, shame of secret sin,

shame of a divorce, shame of what they did

or shame of what was done to them.

We'll carry lots of shame.

They try to cover it up.

Adam, the Bible says in verse seven,

they sewed fig leaves together.

They made themselves loincloths.

They're doing whatever they can to cover up.

And then God comes.

God comes and they hide.

They hide from God.

Verse nine, the Lord called to the man and said to him,

where are you?

He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden.

I was afraid because I was naked.

I hid myself.

And God said, who told you you were naked?

Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

So shame is introduced because of sin.

And now we have blame because of sin.

So Adam responds, the woman whom you gave to be with me,

she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.

This is just free.

Never blame your wife.

Just want to throw that out there.

Even if she's completely at fault, never blame your wife.

It will not go well for you.

So what does he do here?

He blames God and he blames the woman.

So now Eve is thrust into the spotlight of shame and blame.

And she says, the devil made me do it.

So sin introduces shame, introduces blame,

separates a husband and wife.

It's a catastrophe.

It says, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin.

So immediately they began to die.

Now they didn't physically die immediately,

but they spiritually died in a moment,

which meant they were immediately separated from God.

And Romans says, death spread to all men because all have sinned.

In the very next chapter, Genesis chapter four,

we find the story of Adam and Eve's sons, Cain and Abel.

And in that,

super tragic story,

we see Cain growing jealous and angry against his brother Abel and killing Abel.

You have to imagine the grief that Adam and Eve are feeling.

You have to imagine thinking about Romans,

the grief that Adam is feeling,

knowing that it is his rebellion against God that led humanity into sin.

And what was a ramification of sin?

It was death.

Where did death come?

Death came with a separation from God.

And now it was a physical death.

Now he is,

he is burying his son because sin has spread and death has spread and all people have sinned.

Now let's go back to Romans five,

verse number 13.

Paul says,

for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given,

but sin is not counted where there is no law.

He says,

the law came in and it shined even greater spotlight on the sinfulness of mankind.

So sin has always been in the world since Adam's fall.

Yet death reigned from Adam,

even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam.

Just pause there.

Paul would later say this in first Corinthians 15.

He said in Adam,

all die.

Here's the idea.

Adam is representative of us all.

And Adam is the ancient ancestor we have.

So it's been passed down to us.

So we are sinners by a inheritance.

What we've inherited from our genetics,

from our ancestors.

And we're sinners by,

And that always leads to death.

So the Bible says in verse 14,

a very sobering line.

It says,

meaning no one could escape the authority,

the reign of death.

Anybody here get really motivated one time and open their Bible and say,

I'm going to read from Genesis to Revelation this year.

Anybody do that before you get real motivated.

I'm going to read the Bible.

And then you get to these parts of the Bible where it's so-and-so begat,

so-and-so and so-and-so begat,

so-and-so you ever get to these genealogies in the Bible.

And then what happens?

You give up,

right?

Because those are hard.

Those,

those are difficult passages.

So-and-so begat,

so-and-so.

And this guy had a really difficult name to pronounce.

And so he was mad at his parents for naming him that.

And so he named his son that it's something that you can't even come close to

And then that son not to be outdone by his father decided I'm going to name my

son something that no one on earth will ever be able to pronounce.

Right?

These names are really challenging,

but we see a genealogy in Genesis chapter five and the story for all of those

folks kind of illustrating what Paul says from Adam to Moses,

The end of their story is,

and he died kind of depressing,

but that's the end of the story for every person.

Now let's look at Romans chapter five,

last phrase of verse 14.

The Bible says,

who was a type of the one who was to come.

So it's this glimmer of hope.

It's this idea that one human wrecked humanity.

Could one man rescue humanity?

This was the first guy and he ruined everything.

Could there be a new beginning,

Well,

look at verse 15.

Paul begins to lay out this contrast.

He says,

but the free gift is not like the trespass.

And he repeats that again in verse 16.

The free gift is not like the result of that one man's,

So he says there is the trespass of Adam,

Adam's rebellion against God.

And then he says,

there is this free gift.

Well,

first let's look at the trespass as it's described in verse 15,

down to verse 19.

In verse number 15,

Paul says,

for if many died through one man's trespass.

So human history is filled with disease,

all of these terrible things,

and all of these things.

So death started with Adam's rebellion.

And we can say,

knowing from our own personal experience,

but also from history,

verse 15 is true.

Many died.

what also happened because of Adam's trespass?

The Bible says,

for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation.

the condemnation is the,

not just the guilt,

but the sentence because of the,

the crime,

the judgment God had to say,

you send you.

I said,

don't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil,

but you decided to eat of it.

So what was the condemnation?

Separation from God kicked out of the garden.

They used to eat all these wonderful,

beautiful fruit trees.

Now they're going to go out and have to fight thorns and thistles to grow their food.

So verse 16,

you have judgment and condemnation because of the trespass.

you have that phrase again,

Verse number 18,

you have the condemnation of,

of all men.

So it led to the condemnation for all people.

Verse number 19,

one man's disobedience.

So Adam's disobedience as a representative of us,

many were made sinners.

So this is the results.

This is the,

the fallout of Adam's trespass,

but that glimmer of hope at the end of verse 14,

who was a type of the one to come type of the one to come the free gift.

You're going to see,

see in here,

as we read through this,

you're going to see this idea of grace.

Grace is an unearned favor.

It's an unearned gift.

It's something that is given to you or to me that we did not deserve,

that we did not work for,

that we did not earn on our own strength.

It's a gift of God.

It's a gift of kindness.

So back to verse 15,

the free gift is not like the trespass.

Well,

the trespass came through Adam.

The free gift comes through one man.

Verse 15 says his grace abounded to many.

Verse number 16,

whereas the trespass brought judgment and condemnation,

the free gift brings justification.

It makes us right with God.

the trespass of Adam brought death.

So death reigned,

but now through the free gift,

we can have life through practice.

Adam's trespass brought condemnation.

Verse number 18,

the free gift of God,

one act of righteousness leads to justification.

many were made sinners by what Adam did.

So by one man's obedience,

the many will be made righteous.

So what Adam did made sin global,

common understanding by every person.

But what Jesus has done is made a way for us to be made right.

Here's what we all understanding, understand.

We all know what it's like to be in the family of Adam.

We all know what it's like to be human.

We could all sit today and we can talk and be like,

hey, the fall, what happened in Genesis three,

how has that affected you?

You could say, well, I had a loved one that I really cared for.

They passed away or sickness or disease.

Or early on, we talked about shame.

You could say, yeah, I felt a lot of shame,

embarrassment of my family or my dad or my grandfather,

my mother and my family situation.

Or, you know what?

I felt like I needed to blame,

we all understand we've all been uniquely impacted by the fall

and what it means to be part of the family of Adam.

But Jesus comes and Jesus invites us into a different family,

a different family.

Every human is born into this family, right?

We could say, and sorry for the really ridiculous thing here.

We are all born into the Adams family.

Okay.

Someone snapped.

Someone had to, didn't they?

But we must be born again into Jesus.

There was a man Jesus met with.

His name was Nicodemus and he met him in John chapter number three.

And Jesus says to Nicodemus, you must be born again.

And so he thinks I'm an old man.

How am I going to go back into my mother's womb?

This makes no sense.

Jesus is talking about a spiritual rebirth.

You see, because Jesus was different than Adam, right?

The free gift is not like the trespass, but Adam was this human beginning.

We need a new spiritual beginning.

So what did Adam do?

Adam took from the tree, but Jesus was nailed to a tree.

Adam rejected God, the father.

He said, you know what?

This, this is not enough.

I want what you've told me.

I can't have Jesus at the cross said into your hands, father, I commit my spirit.

Adam, he led humanity into sin and death, but Jesus, the Bible says became sin and died

so that we could have eternal life.

Adam, what did Adam do?

Adam brought shame, but Jesus on the cross, I want you to hear this, took your shame.

Adam submitted to Satan, but at the cross, Jesus crushed the head of the serpent.

So we have two families, one that we're all born into, but one that says, I can forgive

you.

I can adopt you.

I can make you new.

Paul would celebrate this.

He says, those who are in Christ have become a new creation.

The old has passed.

The new has come.

One brings death.

One offers life.

See, that's what Jesus did at the cross.

Jesus came and he lived the perfect life, the life that no one, including Adam, ever lived.

Adam and all his descendants rebelled and sinned against God.

What did Jesus come?

Jesus lived the perfect life.

He was sinless and he went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.

And the Bible says Jesus was buried, but Jesus did not stay dead.

Jesus rose from the dead.

And Jesus extends to us an invitation into his family.

See, we know this nature.

We know what this family is like.

This is a dysfunctional disaster.

We know what it's like to be part of Adam's descendants.

Jesus says, I will welcome you into my family and I will forgive your sin.

I will make you brand new and I will give you my nature.

I will transform you and change you.

From the inside out.

There's only two families.

See, religion is still part of Adam's family.

We're going to try to cover up.

We're going to try to look the part.

You know what religion often is?

Religion is just very fancy fig leaves.

I'm going to pretend I've got it all together.

I'm going to do all these good deeds and hopefully my good deeds will kind of cover up.

Man, I'm kind of a mess inside.

But I'll do a bunch of charity and I'll sing a bunch of songs and I'll preach a bunch of sermons.

And I'll do all of these different things and hopefully that will bury and cover up who I really am at the core.

This is what Jesus says.

Jesus said, I will transform you from the inside out.

I will take out this heart of stone that you have and I will give you a new heart.

I will make you new.

And the way to be part of the family of God is to come to that cross and to realize that Jesus is dying in your place and my place.

He's dying not for his sins but for our sins.

It's to come to the cross and say, Jesus, you are Lord of my life.

Romans says it this way.

If we confess with our mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts.

If we confess with our heart that Jesus was raised from the dead, we will be saved.

That's the guarantee from God.

It's the only way to be saved.

Otherwise, we're stuck in this family, the family of Adam.

That's full of death and destruction, shame and blame.

Jesus says, I will welcome you into my family.

This is why I came to the cross, to offer you forgiveness of your sins.

Which family are you part of?

We all know what it's like to be part of Adam's family.

The only way to be made new is to come to Jesus.

You can leave Romans and I want you to turn to the left.

The gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 26.

And while you're turning there, I want to read just one phrase for you again from Romans.

Romans chapter 5 verse 18.

Paul says, so one act, one act, Adam rebelled against God.

He took of the fruit and he ate.

There was one act that was done.

This was done on our behalf.

And we all would have done the same thing in the garden, rebelled against God.

But there was one act that made a way for you and I to be saved.

And it was Jesus's work on the cross.

We're going to end.

The sermon and our gathering today by taking communion together, taking the Lord's supper.

And I want to show you in Matthew 26, something that the Lord just kind of showed me that it's

just fascinating to think about.

It's Jesus on the night he would be betrayed.

And the next morning he would go to the cross.

Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing, it broke it and gave it

to the disciples and said, take, eat.

This is my body.

Now, it wasn't the literal body of Jesus.

Jesus is going to use symbol of bread and symbol in that case of wine to talk about

what he's going to do on the cross.

But I want you to see the words that Jesus uses there.

He says, take and eat.

You see, Adam's trespass in the garden was that he took from the tree of knowledge of

good and evil, and he ate.

Now, Jesus is sitting and he says to his disciples, I didn't come to be served, but to serve and

to give my life.

He's a ransom for many.

And so what does Jesus hold out?

He holds out fellowship with him.

He holds out new life through him.

And he says, take and eat.

In a moment, we're going to partake of the Lord's Supper, communion or the Eucharist,

different names for it.

And what this is, is this is a time for Christians to remember that one act that made a way for

us to be saved.

The one act that was done that provided a way for you to receive the forgiveness of

your sins and the hope of eternal life.

See, it's not one act that you could do.

Or that I could do.

It's the one act that Jesus Christ, as Paul would call him in 1 Corinthians 15, he would

call him the last Adam.

Sometimes he's called the second Adam, meaning this was the first guy.

He messed it all up.

But Jesus is the one man who came and made a way for us to be saved, made a way for us

to have a new beginning, made a way for us to be forgiven of our sins and be made right

before God.

So communion is opportunity to remember what Jesus did on the cross.

There's two elements.

There's just a small little cracker and a small little amount of juice.

Cracker is symbolic.

It's not the literal body of Jesus or the real body of Jesus.

It's a symbol of the broken body of Jesus.

It's for us to remember that his nails, that his hands were pierced by nails, that he was

beaten with whips and mocked and a crown of thorns was crushed upon his head.

The juice is a way for us to remember the blood of Jesus that was shed to pay the penalty

for our sins.

That inaugurated the new life.

The new covenant.

That's what these elements are.

Now, there was a church in the beginning of Christianity in the city of Corinth, and they

made a mess of communion and the Lord's Supper.

So Paul writes to them and he gives them some warnings.

He said, this is a really sacred time.

It's not the elements that we're to fear.

It's not like if you don't eat the whole cracker, you have to like hang on to it or save it

for a thousand years.

Like, it's not the element that is sacred.

It's what's being done.

It's what's being remembered.

And so Paul says to that church, he says, you're to do this with the utmost respect

for it.

He said, because there are some that are not doing it with respect.

And so they've gotten sick and even some have died because that's how sacred the cross is

to God.

It is where his only begotten son paid for our sin.

Paul says, you take the bread, take the cup.

And as often as you do that, there isn't a schedule.

The Bible gives us, it says, as often as you do it, you do it in the right way.

You do it in remembrance of Jesus.

And you do something else.

Paul says, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Christians are people that preach the death of Jesus as the substitute for our death,

that Jesus died in our place, that he died for our sins.

We remember that one act that paid.

So here's what we're going to do.

We're going to have the guys come in just a second, pass out the elements.

If you are not comfortable taking it, just pass the.

The tray be on you.

It's okay.

Maybe you're not a Christian.

Maybe you're not a follower of Jesus.

I'm so happy you're here.

I would encourage you right now.

You can call out to Jesus to be saved.

You can repent of your sins and believe in Jesus and be born again, become part of the

family of God, or you can just pass the tray.

So guys, why don't you come pass those out?

Once you receive the little cups, just hold on to them for a moment.

I'm going to read some scripture for us and encourage just kind of a time of reflection

and a time to think.

What Jesus did for us so long ago.

So guys, you can pass those out as you receive it.

Just hold it.

I'm not even trying to be silly.

If you spill it, it's not an automatic.

You're going to hell.

Okay.

I just hold on to it again.

It's not the elements that are sacred.

It's what we're remembering that is sacred.

Heard a phrase several years ago called sanctified imagination.

I'm a real visual person.

And so I like to like visualize things.

And one of the ways that I do that is I think about going to the cross, especially during

times of difficulty in my life.

And I remember sharing with a friend that I, I would visualize going to the cross.

I'd close my eyes.

I think about being at the cross and I would come with just my hands and I would place

them at the base of the cross and there were Jesus's bloodstained feet and the nail piercing

his feet.

And I would just be there and I would find just safety and I would find comfort there

knowing Jesus didn't stay on the cross that Jesus rose from the dead, but I would come

to the cross in my mind in that moment.

And my friend said to me, he goes, Oh, he goes, I've painted that.

I said, what?

And a few weeks later, a painting showed up at my house and it was a painting of exactly

what I had visualized for years.

I have it hanging in my study.

So here's what I want to encourage you to do.

Maybe just to close your eyes for a few moments and to go to the cross.

And I'm just going to read some scripture and hope that you'll take a moment to think

about the cross of Jesus.

Prophet Isaiah says of Jesus, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and a

man acquainted with grief.

And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised.

We esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

Yet he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

And with his wounds, we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray and we've turned everyone to his own way.

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

In the quietness of this moment, I hope that you'll come to the cross.

Examine your own heart.

Maybe there's some sin in your life you need to turn from.

Confess to the Lord.

Bring to the cross and realize that in Jesus, your sin has been nailed to the cross.

God has offered you full, complete, total.

Bread is symbolic of Jesus' broken body.

The cup is symbolic of his blood that brought us the new covenant.

Reflect for a moment and when you're ready, I encourage you to partake of both elements.