Last summer I needed to renew my driver’s license.  Which is something that terrifies me because I dread taking the written test.  For the most part I know the answers.  But I just freeze up.  Am I alone in this?  Anyone here like taking that test?

So I was procrastinating - waiting to see if I would get a letter from DMV saying that, because I’m such a good driver, that I could renew my license by mail - without taking the test.  But, time went on.  No letter came.  So I went down to DMV.  Got a book and starting studying.  All the time hoping that a letter would come.

Finally I couldn’t wait any longer.  I went down to DMV.  I’m standing in line reading the book - trying to memorize stuff.  My gut is tightening up.   I’m thinking of all things I’m not going to be able to do once they yank my license.

When I get up to the window and give the girl my information - she takes it - asks me for my renewal fee - and says, “Thank you.”  I said - kind of fearfully - “Don’t I have to take a test?”  Turns out that DMV never updated our old address and the letter - saying that I didn’t have to take the test - the letter went to our old home. 

Bad News.  Good News.  What a difference between the two.  I walked out of DMV a whole lot happier than when I went in.

This morning I’d like to share three verses with you - Romans 5:15-17.  If you have your Sermon Notes - you’ll find the verses written out there.  I’d like us to read these out loud together and then we’ll come back and talk about them.  The emphasis of these verses is that there’s bad news and good news for us. 

Romans 5 - starting at verse 15:  “But the free gift is not like the transgression.  For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus   Christ, abound to the many.  The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.  For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

Which would you like first?  The bad news?  Or, the good news?  Of course if you’re looking at your Sermon Notes you’ll realize it doesn’t really matter.

THE BAD NEWS is summed up in verse 17 - these words  “by the transgression of the one, death reigned.”  The bad news is that death reigns.  Say that with me, “Death reigns.”

We understand this because of the world we live in.  The Middle East is at war.  That’s nothing new.  When has there ever been a time when people haven’t been killing each other?  Or, forget the rest of the world.  What about right here in Merced?  Violence is a way of life.  If not physical - then emotional - mental.  The things we do to each other.  The things we do to ourselves.  Are you tracking with me?  When God’s word says, “death reigns” - we don’t have to look very far to see that something is terribly wrong. 

Three truths we need to know about the reign of death.

First:  Everyone of us is born into it.

Verse 17 says, “through the transgression of the one, death reigned.”   That one is Adam.

The account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is familiar to us.  Man was created to enjoy an intimate relationship with God - an abundant  life of opportunity - a deep communion with others - and the freedom to glorify God with our lives.  Adam was placed in a beautiful garden that supplied all of his physical needs.

In that garden God gave one restriction that Adam was to obey.  We’ve memorized this.  “Adam, don’t eat the - what?  fruit.”  Stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  But, Adam rebelled against God with his eyes wide open - knowing exactly what he was doing - a deliberate act of disobedience.  The result is that sin has entered our experience and so death reigns.

In our bathroom we have a mirror that’s directly across from the mirrors on the closet door.  So as I look in one mirror I can see myself in the other mirror behind me.  Have you ever done this?  Looking at your image in one mirror and out of the corner of your eye - looking at the other mirror - you can see a progression of images that stretches into eternity.  Adam was the first mirror - but each one of us - and every man, woman, and child, that has ever lived is in that progression down through history - participating with Adam in sin.

Paul writes about us in Romans 3, “There is none righteous, not even one.  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:10,23)

Anyone ever take a class called Beginning Sin 101?  Along the way there might have been experiences or people that have helped us develop and refine our ability to sin - to get better at it.  But, if we’re honest with ourselves we have to agree with Paul.  No one teaches us how to sin.  We’re born with sin.  There’s a universality of sin.  Because sin is universal - death is universal - death reigns.

Second truth we need to know about the reign of death.  We’re all bound by it.  

There are two certainties in life.  Death and what?  taxes.  You can cheat on your taxes (which I am not recommending).  But you can’t cheat death.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, “The sting of death is sin.” (1 Corinthians 15:56)  Once sin - like a bee - once sin puts its stinger into us the result will be death - physical death and eternal separation from God.  Death is the punishment for breaking God’s command.  We all live with this death sentence hanging over our heads.  Sin and death flow in our race - in us.

Putting this more practically.  How many of you have ever been to a funeral service?  We’ve all been there.  When someone talks about death that’s usually what we think about - physical death.  But Paul is not just talking about a funeral service at the end of our lives.  Life is joy - vitality - love - excitement - peace - fulfillment - living to the fullest possibility of who we are.  The reign of death is the absence of life - emptiness - loneliness - depression - restlessness - never finding fulfillment.

These are the core issues of our hearts today - what drives men to suicide - to children killing children - to wars - to all of the horrible things we think about ourselves and the terrible things we do to each other.  Death drives us to fear and uncertainty.  Death tempts us to think of our lives as futile and meaningless.  Death leads the wealthiest and greatest of mankind to look upon their lives with despair.  Even the most righteous among us struggle with this.

The account of Adam and Eve in Genesis holds our attention because every day we relive it in our lives - the failure - the casting out - the longing to return to paradise.  We despair because there’s nothing we can do to return.  We’re bound by death.

Third truth about the reign of death.  Death reigns whether we acknowledge it or not.

A pastor decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon so he placed four worms into four separate cans.  The first worm was put into a container of alcohol.  The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke.  The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup.  The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.   

At the end of the sermon, the pastor reported that the first worm - in alcohol - was dead.  The second worm - in the cigarette smoke - was dead.  The third worm - in the chocolate syrup - was dead.  The fourth worm - in the good clean soil - was alive.  So the pastor asked the congregation, “What can you learn from this demonstration?” 

A little old woman in the back stood up and said, “As long as you drink, smoke, and eat chocolate, you won’t have worms!”

Mankind looks at our situation and concludes that the answer is for us to work harder at trying to be good - more humane towards each other.  But the conclusion is wrong.  Isn’t it?  Thousands of years of human history and you’d think we’d have gotten somewhere.  God’s word is specific.  The bad news is - because of sin - we’re ruled over by death.

Charles Spurgeon - the great preacher - shared in one of his sermons - about spending some time down in a hut in Italy.  When he went into the hut he noticed that the floor was very dirty - dirtier than any floor he’d ever seen in his life.  After he had lived there a day or two he couldn’t stand it any longer so he hired a cleaning lady to clean the floor.  This woman scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed.  But, the more she scrubbed the floor the dirtier it got.  Finally Spurgeon got down and investigated what was going on.  He discovered that there wasn’t any floor.  There was nothing but dirt. (1)

With all of our philosophies and peace treaties and self-help programs and religious ideals and politically correct intentions and laws and everything else man - and each one of us has tried - when we get down to the bottom of things - we cannot get past sin and death.  Even if we choose to ignore the truth, God is honest with us.  The bad news is that we live in sin - death reigns.  There’s nothing you or I or anyone else can do about it.

Except God.  And that’s THE GOOD NEWS.  Paul writes - in verse 17 - “much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”  The good news is that those who receive Jesus as their Savior live in His reign of life.  Say this with me, “His reign is life.”

Three truths we need to understand about Jesus’ reign of life.

First:  Jesus’ reign of life is much more than death.  Say this with me, “It is much more than death.”

Verse 15 says, “For if by the transgression of the one - if because of Adam’s sin - the many died - which is that we all are under the reign of death - much more did the grace of God and gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”  In contrast to Adam’s sin which leads the many - us - to death - is the death of Jesus Christ - which opens up the possibility for the many - us - to life.

Jesus takes the sins of the world - our sins - pays the penalty for them - death in our place - endures the ridicule of mankind and the hatred of Satan and his hoards on the cross - is put to death - and forever buried - dispatched by the people - the religious and political leadership of that day - as we would if we would have been there.  And yet - innocently enduring the worst of this world - He did not stay dead. 

1 Corinthians 15 says, “The sting of death is sin...but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:56,57)

Jesus has triumphed over death - obliterated its authority and power forever.  The life He offers us is greater than the reign of death.

Second truth:  Jesus’ reign of life is undeserved.  Say this with me, “It’s undeserved.”   Verse 15 says that it comes because of the “grace of God.”   

God comes to the prophet Hosea and commands Hosea to marry a prostitute and have children by her.  Hosea goes and marries Gomer - has 3 children by her - and then she abandons him and the family for another man.

Few pains in life go deeper than being on the wrong side of adultery.  Gomer must have broken Hosea’s heart.  She humiliated him.  She shamed him.  The one that he’s trusted with the deepest intimacies of his heart has made him the public joke of the town.  And yet, he loves her. 

In the midst of all this - God - shockingly - tells Hosea - Hosea 3:1 - “Go again, love her again, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods.”  And so, Hosea goes and pays money - 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley - to buy back his wife who’s now working as a prostitute.  Can you imagine doing this? (Hosea 3:1,2)

All that is picture of God’s love for the people of Israel that have prostituted themselves with other gods.  Such is God’s grace towards us who are dead in our sins.  We who have lived in disobedience.  We who have been unfaithful - even living in spiritual adultery - living captive to the reign of death..

That’s God’s grace - the expression of His love.  We deserve death.  We’re born into it.  We’re victims of it.  It reigns over us regardless of if we choose to acknowledge it or not.  But God gives to us what we do not deserve - what we could never earn - His love - His grace - His Son who dies on a cross in our place - paying our penalty for our sins - taking our death sentence upon Himself - to offer us life - a restored relationship with God.  

Regardless of the greatness of our sin - the frequency of our sin - the depth of the disaster that we have made of our lives - or the arrogance we feel in our own self-righteousness - God offers us His abundant grace and loving acceptance - now - and again and again and again - to live in the greatness of life in the resurrected Jesus Christ.

Third truth:  Jesus’ reign of life is a free gift.  Say that with me, “It’s a free gift.”  No strings attached.  No fine print.  No legalese. 

Have you heard this?  “It’s not the gift, it’s the - what?  thought that counts.”

I read recently about two brothers who put a lot of thought into the giving of a pair of pants that they gave back and forth to each other every Christmas.

First - the pants were tied to a car wheel and run over snow and ice, then removed from the wheel, wrapped in a lovely box, and presented at Christmas.

When the other brother got them the next Christmas, he placed those same pants in a form where wet cement was poured and allowed to dry.  They were presented that year along with a sledge hammer.

So the next year they were placed in the framing of a small tool shed, and the entire shed had to be ripped apart in order to get to the pants. 

The next year, the same sorry, miserable pants sat in the front seat of a car which was demolished and compressed into a flattened piece of metal.  It took a tractor and crowbars to get to that same pair of pants.

It wasn’t the gift.  It was the fun and joy of giving it. (2)

With Jesus - its not just the thought that counts - God’s undeserved love and grace - but it’s the incredibleness of the gift. 

Verse 15 says that “the free gift is not like the transgression.”  Unlike the transgression - sin and so death - we’re not born into it.  We’re not victims of it.  It doesn’t impose itself on us - forcing us to accept its power over our lives. 

In verse 17 Paul writes that “those who receive” the gift “will reign in life through...Jesus Christ.”  Receiving means to accept the gift.  If the gift if going to be of any value to us we need to take it to ourselves.  To accept God’s gracious offer of life through Jesus.  The gift requires choice - to live within the reign of life instead of death. 

The bottom line is this:  Jesus offers us life - abundant - empowered - resurrected life.  Sin and death lose their hold on us when we give our lives to Jesus Christ.  If you’ve never repented of your sin and trusted Him with your life - you need to.

Death reigns.  Jesus reigns.  Both are true whether we acknowledge them or not.  But, God is honest with us.  They do exist.  And so this morning each of us has a choice.  Bad news or good news?  Death or life?  Which will represent your life?

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