Eternal Life – Romans 5:20-21
Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Welcome back to Delving into the Scriptures! Today we will wrap up Romans 5, which with these two verses gives us an excellent summary of the message of Romans so far. Next time we move into Romans 6 – Sin…
The first thing we note is we are back on the law. The law entered that we might recognise sin for what it is. Sin wasn’t created by the law – just exposed. Just as when we shine a light on an object the light doesn’t create it – it is just the tool for revelation. So the law entered to reveal to us the things we were already doing.
And think about this some more, when sin ‘abounded’ it means it ‘grew’, or ‘grew abundantly’. In reality, our knowledge of sin had to grow to the point that we recognise there is nothing we can do about it on our own. We are stuck, drowning, incapable of saving ourselves. It is the law shining the light on our sin that brings us to this point – that is, the knowlege that we are stuck in our sins, with no way out!
And it was this revelation of sin that brings us to ‘grace through righteousness’ – for despite our sin, God’s grace is greater. And it is through this grace that the righteousness of God is imputed to us, which leads us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So lets break it down a little more – these verses are really a great summary of the message of the gospel!
Law - The law entered the scene that we might recognise our sin – it was always there, it has just shed light upon it
Sin - with the light of the law upon us, it becomes pretty obvious pretty fast that there is not much we can do about it – we are stuck in our sins! Powerless, there is nothing we can do of ourselves.
Death - The final outcome if Sin – not just physical death, but eternal death and separation from God.
Grace - Gods eternal grace to us – because He loves us. What does grace mean? The shortest definition I think is ‘unmerited favor’ – so we have God’s unmerited favor on our lives. I think that’s awesome, because I know for sure I don’t deserve it! (see sin, law 
)
Righteousness - not ours, but God’s righteousness imputed to us through Jesus when we beleive in Him.
Eternal Life – the outcome of us beleiving in God, and God’s righteousness being sent our way.
Jesus Christ our Lord – The whole reason we are still here – and where we are today – because He took our sins upon Himself – that we might be declared Righteous before God. The complete definition of love and grace!
I pray that all of us will gain more revelation of this into our lives – first, the revelation of where we are without God (stuck in our sins and rapidly on the path to death), and where we can be with Jesus in our lives (free of our sins and declared righteous before God!). If you ever need a quick reminder of the key points of the Gospel, here it is!
God, I pray You will continue to teach us Your Word, teach us and give us revelation so that we might not just know and understand, but act upon that and live in Your grace! In Jesus Name. Amen.