Resurrection Sunday 2026

Transcript

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Romans chapter 5. On this resurrection Sunday, we come to an incredibly clear and rich summary of the gospel, and it's really one of the clearest in all of Scripture. In Romans 5, verses 6 through 11, the Apostle Paul brings us to the very center of our faith, which is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners. If you really want to understand Christianity, if you want to understand your hope, your peace, your assurance, you really have to understand this passage. Paul answers three great questions here. He talks about who we are. He talks about what Christ has done, and then what that means now. And on this resurrection Sunday morning, we especially hear his triumphant declaration toward the end of this passage when he says, Much more we shall be saved by his life. So let's look, beginning in verse 6 of Romans chapter 5 this morning. It says, For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even die. But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you for your word. Lord, please open our minds and our hearts and allow your Spirit to give us understanding, to draw us closer to you, to mold us and shape us to be more like Christ, to be thankful more than we ever have been for salvation in Christ by his death, his burial, and his resurrection. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So Paul begins here and he talks about our condition. And our condition is that we are helpless, we are ungodly, and we are enemies of God. Paul doesn't begin with our worthiness, how wonderful we are, that God should want to save us because we're just fantastic people. It's not what he says. He speaks about our, quite frankly, our worthlessness. Verse 6, while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. He he describes us in three devastating ways in this passage. He he says that we are, first of all, we are weak. That's the Greek word asthenes, and it means powerless, without strength, without ability to save ourselves. We are powerless to do anything about our sinful condition. We have to rely on Christ. And then he describes us as ungodly. It's the Greek word asabase, and it means without fear and reverence for God, one who is morally corrupt before God. And then he calls us enemies down in verse 10. If while we were enemies, we were reconciled. That word is the word ektros, and it means we're an adversary, that we are not just sitting passively in opposition, but we are actively involved in opposing the things of God until and unless Christ saves us. And so it's really a doctrine that is familiar to many people. It's a doctrine that's called total depravity. And it doesn't mean, as I said, I think last week or the week before, total depravity doesn't mean that we are as bad as we could possibly be. But what it means is that sin has affected every part of us, and we are utterly unable to reconcile ourselves to God in our own strength. First of all, we have no desire to do so until and unless the Holy Spirit moves on our heart. And Paul is very emphatic here. He doesn't say that Christ died for the righteous. He doesn't say that Christ died for those who were already holy, but that he died for the ungodly. And he had to die for the ungodly. Why? Because there wasn't anyone else. Apart from Christ, there is no godly person. There may be people that are super nice. They may be benevolent. Maybe they're a wealthy person and they give lots of money away to help people who are in need. And that doesn't make them godly. The only thing that makes us godly is the righteousness of Christ. And so we have no ability in and of ourselves to do anything about our condition. Romans 3, 10 and 11. There is none who is righteous, no, not one. There is no one who seeks for God. We don't wake up one day and go, I'm gonna go find Christ. Told you before, it's why I struggle when I hear people say, Well, you know, so-and-so got saved. They were really searching for Christ. No, they weren't. The Bible says, no one seeks for God. And here's the crazy thing. Let me give you a Greek lesson on that phrase. It means no one seeks for God. It's that simple. Those words mean exactly what the English translation says. There is no one who does good, there is none righteous, no not one, no one seeks after God. All those no ones and nuns mean no one and none. It's a negative way to say everybody. Everybody is evil. Everybody is not seeking for God. John Calvin wrote that man is so entirely overwhelmed that no part is free from sin. Man is so entirely overwhelmed that no part is free from sin. There's not there's not good in my the end of my pinky, and the rest of me was corrupt. I was completely corrupted by sin in my flesh. And the amazing thing is, this is where the gospel begins. As we were studying apologetics in Sunday school, those of you who were there, you'll remember we talked about how when you share the gospel with someone, we have to begin with the need for salvation. So we got to talk about sin. And I know there are lots of people who want to, you know, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, and they want to dance around it and skirt the truth and not talk about sin. And there's a guy on TV that smiles a lot and down in Houston, Texas, who says, Oh, I don't preach on sin. How do you not preach on sin? The Bible says, We are all have sinned, all you, me, everybody. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No one escapes that except Christ, who is described as he who knew no sin. 2 Corinthians 5 21, also over in Hebrews chapter 1, chapter 5 as well. So we we we have to start there. We have to start that we were sinful, that we were evil, that we were vile people in the eyes of a perfectly holy God. Why? Because Christ died for the ungodly, he didn't wait for us to improve. We can't get ready to come to Christ. I've heard people say, oh, you know, I'm just, I couldn't come to church. Jesus wouldn't want me. I'm just so evil. I I gotta quit all this, that, and the other thing. No, that's not how salvation works. That is not how salvation works. We can't put ourselves in a position of being worthy of the life of the Son of God. We can't put ourselves in a position of being worthy of his death, of his burial, of his resurrection. We don't, as I said, I think last week, we don't get cleaned up to take a bath. We come to him in our filth. And he washes us with his blood and makes us whiter than snow. That's his job. We come to him as we are, and we throw ourselves on his mercy through faith and repentance. Verse 8. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Not after repentance, not after reform, not after we got made ourselves better. We stopped doing all those things. Not after we applied some religiosity to ourselves. That's what the Pharisees did. I don't and I don't, and I remember our Pharisee friend from Luke 18. God, I thank you. I'm not like other men. I don't do this and I don't do that, and I don't, I don't smoke, and I don't chew, and I don't kiss the women who do, and you know, all those things. And he was so impressed with himself. And God said, That man went away with nothing. But the one who said, God have mercy on me, a sinner, he went away justified, declared righteous in the eyes of God. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Paul's doubling down, right? He says in verse 6, while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. And then right down in verse 8, it says, But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Who's us? Ungodly. While we were in that condition, in that place, opposed, apart from at enemies, at enmity, fighting, warring against God, Christ died for us. He didn't die for the righteous because there weren't any. There were lots of self-righteous, which is ungodly in sinners in reality, but they thought they were righteous. And then we have the death of Christ. He he starts in talking about this concept. He he brings up the cross. Christ died for the ungodly, verse 6. He died for us in verse 8. This is a substitutionary atonement. Christ died in our place. He died the death we owed. The reality is that he bore the wrath that we deserve. Isaiah 53:5. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was wounded for our iniquities. And with his stripes we are healed spiritually. That's all talking about sin and spiritual things. That's no guarantee. Oh, by your wounds we are healed, and God's gonna got He's gotta heal you physically. It's not what that passage is even talking about. It's all spiritual. Sin, sin, sin is what it's dealing with. It's referred to in theological circles as the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ. It means it was demanded by the law of God that sin should be paid for through death. The wages of sin is death. Sin had to be paid for through death. We know that from all the way back in the garden when Adam and Eve fell, and it says that God had to kill an animal to use their skin so that they could cover themselves, because now they understood good and evil and they realized they were naked and they were ashamed. So God had to kill an animal for the skin to cover their sin. And so because we can't die for our own sins, he sent his son Jesus to die on behalf of every person who had ever and would ever put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Paul says, since therefore now we have been justified by his blood in verse 9. To be justified means to be declared righteous by God. Not because of anything in us, but because of Christ. We've been justified by who? By what? By his blood. There's nothing in us that declares us righteous. It is only the blood of Christ that makes us righteous. And that is a colloquialism that means the death of the sacrifice, the shedding of blood doesn't mean poke my finger, drip, okay, we're done. No, it's it's speaking of the absolute annihilation of that sacrifice, bleeding it completely out to death. Martin Luther called this the great exchange, our sin for his righteousness. And it's entirely by grace. We're getting ready next week, Lord willing, to look at a passage you guys hear all the time in Ephesians 2. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We are saved by grace, God's riches at Christ's expense. We get, as we already saw in chapter one of Ephesians, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms is ours in Christ Jesus. I didn't make that up. That's Ephesians 1:3. Okay, so here's the reality. Charles Spurgeon said, You stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before God as if he were you. At the cross, God treated his own son as if he lived our lives. And when we trust in him, he treats us as though we lived Christ's life. That is the great exchange. The cross accomplishes something objective and something final. God's wrath is satisfied. Isaiah 53:10, it was the will of the Father to crush his son. Our guilt is removed. We don't have to feel guilt over our sin in the past because it's been forgiven. We've been washed and made clean. We've been made new creations, and our righteousness is secured. We already saw that in chapter 1 of Ephesians as well, right? You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our inheritance. Then verse 9, he says, Much more than we shall be saved from him by the wrath of God. Paul doesn't stop at the cross because the resurrection of Christ, he says we are saved by his life in verse 10. This is the glory of what we celebrate today, Resurrection Sunday. If while we were still enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more than shall we be saved by his life. Much more than shall we be saved by his life. Notice the logic there. Paul says that Christ's death reconciled us, so surely his life, his resurrection, will save us. And it refers to the resurrection and the ongoing life of Christ, not just that one-time event. The resurrection proves that the work is finished. If you were to back up and look at the end of the previous chapter there in Romans, Romans 4, 25, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. The resurrection is God's declaration that the payment for our sin has been accepted. It's that simple. John Owen, the great Scottish reformer, he wrote, the resurrection is the great proof of the efficacy of Christ's death. If you don't know what efficacy means, that means effectiveness. That it accomplished something. The resurrection is the great proof of the efficacy of Christ's death. The fact that Jesus, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then he was just some other nut claiming to be the Messiah. But the fact that he rose from the dead proved one more time that he was exactly who he claimed to be. That he is the Son of God. 1 Corinthians 15, 17 says that if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Without the resurrection, we have no forgiveness. Why? Because he just died. Just like everybody else dies. But he didn't die like everybody else dies. He died and he came back. There is tremendously joyous news for us today, and that news is that he is risen. And because of that, we are justified. We are declared righteous by God because of the resurrection of Christ. And then the risen Christ is also, as I said earlier, interceding for us. Christ is not merely alive, he is reigning. Hebrews 7.25, he always lives to make intercession for them. Them would be his own. And where is he when he's making that intercession? Seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Reigning. See, we're not waiting for Jesus to come back to become the King of Kings. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. And so that means because He is already reigning, because He's already interceding on our behalf, that means our salvation is not fragile. It is secure. It is absolutely safe. It doesn't depend on your or my consistency, but on Christ's continual advocacy on our behalf. Let that sink in. It's not about our performance. Our performance is fruit of what has happened. But it is not what saves us or keeps us saved. I've been there, done that, been in a church. 17 years of my life that said, you sinned, you lose your salvation, you start over again. And my question was always, can you give me the list? If I stub my toe and say a cuss word, do I lose my salvation? Well, I wouldn't go that far, was the answer I would get back. And I would say, then what sins are they? What are the sins that are bad enough that I lose my salvation? I have to go get saved all over again. And I'm here to tell you in 17 years, and my wife spent longer than that in that church. We can testify that we know people who got saved over and over and over again in their minds. I don't serve a weak God. I serve a God who is able to keep me even when I'm stupid, even when I sin. He is able to keep me and to forgive me and to brush me off and to make me clean and sometimes bust my rear end and send me down the road. For my own good. He said, Christ not only acquired salvation, but he applies it. He didn't just get it for us, he's the one who applies it to our account. It's the very picture. I know you all hear this verse all the time. 2 Corinthians 5 21, on our behalf, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That is the picture of Christ saying, I'll take that sin, take my righteousness. It's applied to our account. Okay, simplest example I can give you, which is very simplistic and falls very short because there isn't one that really, on an earthly sense, compares. But imagine you're at Muncie's or Walmart or all The year, wherever you do your grocery shopping, and there's a person ahead of you in line, and they don't have the money to pay for your groceries, and you look at them and say, I got it. You look at the cashier and say, Here, I'll pay that. I'll take care of that debt. And they walk away with their groceries, paying nothing. Your money was applied to their debt, their account. Christ's righteousness was applied to our debt, our account. And our sin was placed on him on the cross. Because he bore the wrath of God for us. The risen Christ also secures that salvation. Paul says there are much more shall we be saved by his life. This points us toward a final salvation. Glorification is the word that we use. And when this life is over for us, either, either through physical death or through Christ's return, we will be with him in a new body that won't know pain. It won't fall down, Mary. It won't bruise. We won't need new knees and hips. We won't need false teeth. We won't need fill in the blank. We're not going to know pain. We're not going to know heartache, loss, because there's no more death, neither dying, Revelation tells us. We'll receive a glorified body, and there will be, Revelation tells us there's no more tears, there's no more sickness, there's no more pain, and there's no more death. God will wipe away all tears from our eyes. If Christ has already done the harder thing, dying for those who were his enemies, then the easier thing follows, which is bringing those who are reconciled to him to glory. That's the easy part for him. Philippians 1:6 says, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. He began the work, he will complete the work. He doesn't begin the work, and then we gotta, boy, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta. I gotta do this and that and the other thing. I gotta knock on enough doors, I gotta give away enough tracks, I gotta give away enough magazines and and and wear a little placard on my shirt and a tie and go ride my bike all over and annoy people. And no. That is not what Scripture tells us. Scripture says, He began it, he will complete it. I'm so grateful my salvation is not up to me. Mentioned a few weeks ago a song that I used to sing in the past called Were It Not for Grace. And the the chorus says, Were it not for grace, I can tell you where I'd be. Wandering down some pointless road to nowhere. With my salvation up to me. I know how that would go, the battles I would face, forever running, and losing the race, were it not for grace. Grace is all we can rely on, the grace of God, the grace of Christ applied to our lives, the grace of God that keeps us. This is a doctrine that people refer to as the perseverance of the saints. I heard R. C. Sproul say one time it should be called the perseverance of the Spirit, because it's really the Holy Spirit persevering in us. Not that we did something. But the result of that then in verse 11 is reconciliation and joy. Paul concludes, he says, more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received reconciliation. Reconciliation means the hostility is gone. It means that the relationship is restored, it means that we are brought near to God in Christ. We are no longer enemies, but children. Paul writes later in this same letter to the church in Rome that we've been given the spirit of adoption. We were the strangers, we were the sojourners, we were the foreigners, but we've been brought near in Christ. What is the result? The result of that is joy in God. Much more than that, or more than that, we also rejoice. When was the last time you just rejoiced that you're saved? Not because God met some need you have outside of that, not because, well, I didn't know how I was going to pay that bill and God provided, or I was going through this problem and God God took care of it, whatever it may be, but just thank you, God, that I'm saved. Thank you, God, that I'm not the man I used to be. That's what is the natural byproduct of genuine salvation. We are grateful, we rejoice in God for salvation in Jesus Christ. I'm not talking about we got to run up and down the aisles and act fools. But I'm saying, let's say you're, I don't know, my biggest struggle, driving down the highway. Where there's lots of people that have that ID 10T problem. Am I rejoicing in my salvation when I'm all alone? I'm glad I'm not them, I might say that. At least I know how to drive, I might say that. But when we're all alone, when nobody else is watching, are we rejoicing in our salvation? Do we thank God that we are born again? That we are not the person we used to be. That by his grace he called us to salvation. And Jesus said, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will lose none of them. That's the reality. I mean, it's not just joy in forgiveness, it's not just joy in heaven, but this is talking about joy in God Himself. That we are rejoicing in God, for who he is. Put aside what he's done just for who he is, because he is righteous, because he is gracious, because he is merciful, because he is holy, because he is just. The great American theologian Jonathan Edwards wrote, God is glorified not only by his glory's being seen, but by it being rejoiced in. God receives glory when we rejoice in his glory, in who he is. So what's the point? Well, that we have a living Savior, and because of that we have assurance. On this resurrection Sunday morning, I think the message is clear. You were weak, I was weak, we were ungodly, we were an enemy, but Christ died for us. Christ rose for you and me, and Christ lives for us. So we shall be saved by his life. It means that our justification is secure, our salvation is certain, our future is guaranteed because Christ is not dead, he is risen. So if you're in Christ this morning, rejoice. Because your salvation rests on a living Savior. If you're not in Christ, please listen. If you heard nothing else I've said this morning, please listen to this. The same Christ who died for sinners now lives and calls you to repentance and faith. He calls you to repentance and faith. Turn to him, trust in him, and rest in him. Let him be your salvation. Let us echo the words of Christ in Revelation 1 18. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore.