Peace be with you, brothers and sisters.

Out of all the speakers in the conference, I was asked to speak about by grace alone, because they know that I need the grace of the Lord the most. I was also asked to share with you at this hour, as they know that you need the most grace at this hour.

Let us bow our heads and pray.

Lord, we praise you, because you are the God who needs nothing, but instead you poured out yourself and poured grace onto us. Lord, we pray that you would give us grace, as your children on and off the stage all need it, especially at four thirty in the afternoon.

Lord, we need you to keep us diligent, keep our hearts from fainting, keep the message we hear in our hearts, and unite them with the new heart that you have given us. Lord, we thank you and praise you. May you be with each of us, both on and off the stage.

We pray in the precious, holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen!

Let us read two verses, Romans 5:20-21.

“Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Amen!   

The title of my message today is Grace Reigns.

There is hill about sixty miles away from my hometown. I have a countryman from the Tang Dynasty (about 700 AD), he wrote this classic poem on his way to the north: “Ahead, I see no ancient sages, nor behind, those sages yet unborn. While, on and on, heaven and earth shall roll, alone I stand, tears a-falling, forlorn.” This poem mentions two people, one in the past, another coming in future. If you do not see these two, you will live a hopeless life of wandering and solitude.

I want to use Romans 5 and the gospel to interpret Chen Zi’ang’s classic poem. His lament is rare in the Chinese culture. He is filled with what we modern people called “ultimate concern” for the universe, history, and life. But the question is, who does he really want to meet? Who is this person that could satisfy the historic purpose of the infinite universe? He can bring purpose to the author’s life and wipe away his tears of loneliness and sorrow. So who on earth could that person be?

In Romans 5 Paul answered Chen Zi’ang’s question. According to Paul’s answer, I made a few changes to Chen Zi’ang’s famous poem: “Ahead, I see no Adam, nor behind, I see no Christ. While, on and on, heaven and earth shall roll, alone I stand, tears a-falling, forlorn.” At the 500th anniversary of Reformation, I praise the Lord, because his gospel has come to China, to us.

The cross of Jesus has rescued us from the despair and hopelessness of an infinite heaven and universe. We have not only seen people of the past like Martin Luther and John Cavin. Though they died, through the faith that God granted them, they still speak to us today. We get to see John Piper and Paul Tripp while they are still alive.

Most importantly, we have seen Christ and his cross in Golgotha. He split open the rock for us with his blood. With his blood he leads us into the Holy of the Holy in all of the universe, into the presence of God the Father, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Through the Apostle John, he leads us to see the future of the whole world and the final one who is to come and sit on the throne, which is himself, our Lord Jesus, the lamb who was slain.

Now Adam has passed, Christ will come again; reflecting on the infinite of heaven and earth, believers in Christ shall rise up and worship, our tears have been turned into tears of joy. Therefore, Paul says that what reigns over us today is no longer death but life, not Adam’s sin but Christ’s righteousness. The Law is no longer the king, but grace. Amen!

Next, I will do two things. First, to meet the ones from the past. Second, meet the One who is to come.

Who are the ones from the past? Martin Luther and John Calvin. I will use their interpretation of Romans 5:20-21 to demonstrate how the gospel of by grace alone was rediscovered by the Reformers. Then I will ask the Lord to show us through these two verses the One who is to come. Who is the One to come? It is Christ, the Son of the living God. Amen!

First, I will make two points: first, in Romans 5 Paul repeatedly contrasts Adam with Christ; second, as Luther and Calvin interprets Romans, they both quoted Augustine extensively. This demonstrates that the gospel is not only rediscovered, it is also ancient, never ceasing.

In the repeated contrasts between Adam and Christ, Paul raises two opposite principles. In the original text, to reign means to govern and wield power. Paul is asking us through the contrast: who reigns in our lives, or what is governing us? In verses 14, 17 and 21, three times Paul says what reigns in Adam.

In verse 14, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses. In verse 17, death reigned through that one man Adam. In verse 21, sin reigned in death. Both Luther and Calvin pointed out that as Paul makes his contrast in this passage, his word choice was pretty casual and his structure is not very organized.

Is death the one who reigns or is it sin? Paul uses these two words interchangeably. As he emphasizes that, in a human society after Adam’s fall, man is no longer his own master but is governed by his sin. Once man sinned, he can no longer stay away from it; once he did it, he cannot stop doing it, because what reigns now is not your will and intention, but the power of sin and its fruit, which is death.

Verse 13 says, “Sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.” Luther quoted Augustine and says directly, that the Law cannot take away sin. Sin is too crafty for the Law to take hold of it. Are you crafty? I am also crafty, and that’s why I asked you this question first. Sin is so heavy that the Law cannot carry it.

I can carry my wife on my back, but my wife cannot carry me.

I often think this is why the wife should obey the husband, not the other way around, because the husband is too heavy for the wife to carry. Have you ever seen someone hauling a truck with a bicycle? The Law cannot haul our sin.

Paul is saying, “The purpose of the Law is not to carry away sin; it simply cannot. The purpose of the Law is to reveal sin.” Paul says, “Since Adam we sinners have lost everything; we deserve nothing except.”

From this perspective, death reigned from Adam to Moses. Luther explains this does not mean that death no longer reigns after Moses. Death will naturally reign till the end of this old world. But before Moses, mankind did not know the reason why death reigned in their lives, or even this tragic reality. In other words, before the Law was given to the Israelites, not only did death reign, people were kept in the dark. Without the Law, there was no way to know sin and its power and the miserable conditions under sin’s reign. People were ignorant of their miserable conditions, which is even more pitiful.

The Law reveals sin to men. After Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai, the Israelites discovered the fact that death reigned in sinners. This discovery did not change the fact that death reigns; but this discovery made sinners aware of sin and their hopelessness, which brought them into a more conscientious misery.

Just now Pastor Fang Xiaojun quoted the third question of the Heidelberg Catechism, “from the Law of God we know our misery.” Then Paul begins the contrast: sin reigns, grace reigns, death reigns, righteousness reigns. Calvin comments that although Paul’s contrasts are not logically tight, but you have to focus on Paul’s main point, “What we lost in Adam, we regain in Christ.” Not only that, what we regain outweighs what we lost, as verse 15 says, the free gift is not like the trespass. Paul uses two words to describe the grace of Christ. Here I call them royal grace and abundant grace. Royal grace is vast, we thank the Lord for his abundant grace.

This demonstrates that, first, grace comes from the king; second, grace is greater than even all of our sin. What is grace? Grace is the reward from the superior to the inferior. There is no grace between those who are equal; there are only responsibility and rights between equals.

Absolute inequality leads to absolute grace; inequality means the inferior has no right to demand, the superior has no responsibility to give. We have no right to demand, and God has no responsibility to give except death. This is the premise before we can understand grace.

After Paul clarifies the gospel of grace, he uses Romans 11:35 to explain the meaning of royal grace. He says, “Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” Grace means you have to recognize that the one who grants you grace is the king. If Christ is not the king who reigns over you and has the right to demand you of anything, the cross of Christ would not be considered grace. You also must recognize that the one who forgives you is the one who has the right to destroy you; the one who judges you is the one who can throw you into hell. If Christ does not have the right to destroy you, then his forgiveness could not be considered as forgiveness. This is the first reason why trespasses cannot surpass free grace, because grace comes from the king. The king can judge or show mercy; his grace outweighs his judgment.

Let us take an example from the secular world: amnesty is greater than verdicts. Forgiving someone and judging someone seem contradictory; one says to kill him, the other says not to kill him. If you hold both documents at hand, the amnesty to forgive is more effective than the verdict to kill. This is what royal grace means; this is why free grace is not like trespasses.

Forgiveness comes from the king, the command to forgive could even come before the command to judge. In the Water Margin, one of the four classic Chinese novels, there is a man named Chai Jin whose Family holds a death-exemption medal bestowed by the emperor. If he commits a crime punishable by death, he can take out this medal and he would be exonerated. That is to say, there is an amnesty granted to the descendants of this Family even before they commit any crime, and this amnesty is more effective than any judgment.

Friends, I read the Water Margin when I was a child, and my most ridiculous, unrealistic daydream was to have a death-exemption medal someday. So that whatever felonies I commit in future, I would be protected my whole life long. Have you had any daydreams? The gospel of Jesus Christ is more real than your most ridiculous daydream.

When I got married I was not yet a believer, I had an agreement with my wife that if she ever felt that I treated her well and thus deserved her lifelong kindness, she would give me a death-exemption medal. If I get in trouble and she gets angry at me, I can pull out this death-exemption medal and she would have to forego the right to judge and punish me; she would have to forgive me. And vice versa.

You know what happened after that?

One time we got into a huge fight, almost to a point of getting a divorce, at that time I still had in my hand two death-exemption medals from her, and she had three medals from me.

Our death-exemption certificates are all worthless papers, because they are not issued by the King who was nailed to the cross. They are issued by ourselves. At the time I did not know sin reigns over us, death reigns over us. Sinners are not able to preemptively forgive the offenses and harms from others. Praise the Lord!

It was in that year, shortly after our own death-exemption medals lost effect, Christ’s death-exemption came to us. Christ’s cross fulfilled my childhood daydream. Halleluiah!

The Law is the verdict, grace is the death-exemption medal; the Law cannot take away sin because sin existed before the Law. Therefore, Luther summarizes that the Law cannot give us life. But not only that. You might say, I understand all this; but Paul says, “the law came in to increase the trespass”, how is that possible?

Luther quotes Augustine again, saying, “Because the Law will reveal that those who think they could fulfill the Law by their own efforts will be more enslaved by the chains of sin.” Why? There is a kind of rope; the more you try to escape from it, the tighter it gets. The crown on the Monkey King’s brow (from another classical Chinese novel Journey to the West) is a perfect example of this ethical shackles. Pastor Tim Keller probably has not read the Journey to the West, so he used a different metaphor called the ethical straitjacket, because the Jews did not know why the Law was given.

Luther gives another example: if a doctor comes to visit a patient and gave him a prognoses that says he’s terminally ill, there is no treatment, we can say that the doctor’s presence actually increased the patient’s hopelessness and despair, thereby aggravating his condition.

Sometimes the patient hates the doctor because he had to deliver the worst possible news; even the doctor himself is regarded as bad news.

Remember the woman in the Gospel of Luke, who had a discharge of blood? She had spent all her savings on physicians, only to find her condition getting worse. Those who try to cure themselves by keeping the Law are like the woman who had a discharge of blood. They could not believe that simply by touching Jesus, even touching the fringe of his garment, they could be cured. Because any ethical cure, any spiritual status, are in essence a gift resulting from the grace of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Luther gave another example: the secular philosophers seek truth; but their vigorous pursuits actually lead human into a more desperate situation. This is the result of all the efforts by the twentieth century philosophers. Some ask, what are the great thinkers of human history? Great philosophers are those who seriously contradict each other.

Calvin also quotes Augustine, saying, it is easy to understand that the law came to increase trespass, because when lust is forbidden by the Law, it is activated. Men fight to do things that are forbidden, and it’s just their natural inclination.

Calvin gives another metaphor to help us understand why the Law not only fails to remove sin, but actually increases sin. He argues that Paul reveals to us God must let men recognize that sin reigns in them and death results from the corruption of their king. Men without the Law is like a sinking ship; while they are doomed for destruction, they could still survive for a while. Maybe before the ship goes down, they could still get one more divorce, marry for one more time, and then take a second mortgage for another house.

Therefore, Calvin says to demonstrate the greatness of salvation that is beyond all human expectations, the Lord waited until the last moment when the water swallows them and they are sinking into despair. Therefore, the Law was given so that those who have already been judged will be condemned again.

The third reason why the Law increases trespass is that the Jews did not know why the Law was given. Sadly, five hundred years after the Reformation, many Christians in the church today still do not know why the Law was given.nSome say, legalism kept coming back in the past five hundred years. Just now Pastor Fang Xiaojun mentioned that in the contemporary culture, legalism could return in the form of religious individualization, internalization of faith, or moral religiosity.

Legalism takes the Law, or certain external, visible attempts to obey the Law in our lives, to serve as evidence, method, and qualifications of being saved from the sinking ship. They do not understand that justification by the Law is the exact reason why the ship of humanity is sinking and sinking at an accelerated speed. We do not understand that justification by the Law is more evil, more detestable to God than any specific violation of the Law, because it directly contradicts the reason why the Law was given.

So what is the reason the Law was given? As Paul puts it, it is to imprison everyone under sin to increase the trespass, so that God may have mercy on all.

Although we are familiar with Calvin’s three uses of the Law, in his words the sole purpose giving the Law is to cut off our hope of self-justification. It’s like cutting off alcohol for the drunkard or tobacco for a chain smoker. In this sense, the purpose of the Law and the purpose of the gospel are exactly the same. The common goal for the Law and the gospel is to cut off all hope of justification outside of the cross of Jesus Christ. It frees our value, identity and dignity from the Law. We will no longer rely on our own behaviors.

The Law reveals our addiction, brothers and sisters. What are we addicted in? Sin means we are addicted to declaring ourselves righteous, addicted to moral self-reliance, addicted to distinguishing ourselves by being a good person. Are you addicted? Addicted to mediocre self-evaluation.

Moralism makes us addicted to our own righteousness; only the gospel can cut off our addiction to moralism. This is not to deny the goodness of the Law and ethics, but to snatch the goodness of the Law and ethics back from our impure, sinful nature and shameful self-evaluation. It forbids us to use our own name to take away any merit that could only be attributed to Jesus. Amen.

Next, Paul describes a condition that directly contradicts the reign of sin and death; that is the reign of grace.

Verse 21 is the last contrast between Adam and Christ in chapter five. Death reigns through Adam’s sin, grace reigns through Christ’s righteousness.

Luther reminds us that Paul made a distinction between grace and the gift of grace. Luther says, the gift in Paul’s words is the righteousness given to us. Because of the work of Christ and God’s pleasure with Christ, he graciously gave us his righteousness. It takes work to remove sin; with work comes gifts. Christ’s work produces the gift, which is able to remove sin. The reason why the Law could remove sin is because the Law itself does not have anything to give to man. Only Christ’s righteousness can granted to those who believe in him.

Verse 21 says, this gift is eternal life. Thus, the gospel of Christ signifies a new kind of reign: in contrast to “death reigns”, you may call this “eternal life reigns”; in contrast to “sin reigns”, you may call it “righteousness reigns”. Both Calvin and Luther again pointed out that Paul is not confined by strict logical correspondence; he directly calls it “grace reigns”. Grace becomes the way Christ reigns.

Yes, your God reigns, Christ has power over this planet. Before Jesus Christ comes back again on that formidable day, grace is the way Christ the King reigns in this evil world and leads his church. It is a primary principle, a new Law and a new covenant; this is what grace reigns means. In the Reformation, this principle is called “by grace alone.”

Luther quoted Augustine saying, verse 20 is the last verse of chapter five, which is the turning point of the entire book. For the rest of Romans Paul describes only those who live under grace; this means he’s only describing us. That is to say, starting from 6:1, the principle of “grace reigns” is portrayed as “under grace,” as opposed to “under law.”

6:12 says, the consequence of living under grace is that sin can no longer reign in our body. Grace requires us to cast away the power of sin, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. At the same time graces promises us that even though sin still exists, for those of us who live under grace, sin no longer reigns. Grace means that God gave us a death-exemption medal.

Because Lord Jesus died for us, we all are exempt from death in future. “Grace reigns” demonstrated the promise of the gospel itself, the power of the gospel, and the primary principle of Christian life. For Christians, grace becomes the motivation for life and the governing principle.

For example, Paul urges Timothy, “my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus”. Paul is not saying, you are too weak, you are despised for your youth, so be strengthened by the Law. He is not saying that. Because Paul knows that one can only be strengthened by grace; without grace one can only be hardened.

In Acts chapter 13, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas. The two spoke with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. They did not say, you should continue in the Law of God, because the secret of sanctification is not to striving to obey the Law, but rather to abide in the grace of God.

Just now Preacher Yang Xibo shared with us that gratitude is now the only acceptable, legal motivation for sanctification. Any other ethical motivations are evil, as they all will lead us away from the cross of Jesus Christ to obey the Law. Gratitude has to be, must be, and will definitely be the consequence of continuing in the grace of God. This is what grace reigns means.

It is not that the Law outweighs grace; it is that grace now motivates us and helps us live a holy life. The Law is the steering wheel, and grace is the gas pedal. In a car without gas, even with the best techniques, you can only pretend to be driving. The essence of moralism is pretending to be driving; some people have been doing that for decades.

Although sanctification is lifelong battle between the flesh and the Spirit, although Christians will fall seven times, weep a hundred times, and sin a thousand times, grace means that from now on a true believer can be called “conqueror” because he has a death-exemption medal forged by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Amen!

Dear brothers and sisters, my summary is, the world after the cross of Jesus is a world where grace reigns. Grace reigns not only in justification but also in sanctification. Now what is sanctification? It is to walk with a death-exemption medal on the death row for the gospel. Amen!

On February 18, 1546, at three o’clock in the morning, Martin Luther passed away. His last words were, “We are beggars. This is true.” Grace reigns not only means that the one who gives us grace must be a king, but it also means that the one who receives grace must be a beggar.

We can define a “beggar” as someone who admits that he lives only at the mercy of other people. Isn’t this the definition of a Christian, my brothers and sisters? To believe in Jesus means that morally we have to admit that we are beggars. This is the same from the moment of baptism to the moment of death. This is the same for newly baptized converts and pastors. Amen!

Only a beggar can be totally governed by grace, only a beggar will totally accept the authority of grace. A beggar completely entrusts his destiny and his next meal to other people’s behaviors. The same goes for us. We entrust our souls and eternal destiny to the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified. Amen!

A gospel of grace reigns means that between our personal behavior and our final salvation, as one theologian says, there is no unbreakable, irreversible causal relationship. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord that there is no necessary causal relationship between our behaviors and our future, final destiny! Amen!

Otherwise, who can be saved? Who can get away from Adam of the past and see the coming Christ? Only the gospel of grace reigns can lead to this type of worldview, that when someone curses me it is God who sent him to curse me. Amen! Ever though someone may curse me out of evil motivations, he is still one of God’s instrument to fulfill the good work of the gospel. Amen! It ultimately leads to my justification, sanctification and glorification.

Maybe my disease, my failure, and my helplessness do come from Satan’s attacks, but even Satan could be sent by God. Modern Christians would say this with a more moderate theological term, this is “allowed by God.” Amen!

This abundant, royal grace can be so great that all of the sufferings, adversities and helplessness in our lives can be opportunities for grace to descend upon us. Amen! Because grace reigns, grace is not only the way God saves me and forgives me, it is also the way God trains and reigns in me.

Dear brothers and sisters, grace does not only remove our sin, it also transforms our circumstances. When we are at the end of our rope, it grants us a death-exemption medal. Amen!

Grace reigns means that except for the grace of Christ, there is nothing substantial in my life, because everything else in my life is for the purpose of leading me to his grace.

Grace means that suffering and sin are no longer final. Except the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is nothing in my life that has ultimate purpose. Amen!

As Paul Tripp says, grace reigns means refusing human independence and autonomy.

If we take saving grace as an intellectual property, what would moralism be? Our greed not only wants to reap all the benefits of this intellectual property, we also want to claim the right to this intellectual property as my own. Even though all the core technologies come from abroad and the major parts are purchased from overseas, we still claim salvation as a self-made domestic product.

However, grace reigns means that we must seek righteousness outside of ourselves. Brothers and sisters, let this group of Chinese believers, like Martin Luther five hundred years ago, bravely admit that we are beggars. Amen! We admit that we pastors and preachers are a group of useless servants. Amen! Brothers, admit that ever since we believed in the Lord, we daily offend our God in thought, word, and deeds. Amen! Dear sisters, admit how good you are at rejecting and resisting grace while you show off your beauty, piety, gifts and the fruit of your service.

Let us admit together.

Admit that we are always afraid of people finding out how corrupt, impure and full of failure we are. We always want people to know that we piously love the Lord.

Dear brothers and sisters, come, for the revival of Christ’s church, for the spread of the gospel all over China, for the formation of more churches where grace reigns and please God and revive the gospel, , for the service in this dark age, let us seek a righteousness that is outside ourselves, seek the righteousness in the Calvary of Lord Jesus Christ Let us commemorate the great Reformation with a great repentance. Amen! Turn all of our wealth and our hope to the suffering servant and the king on the cross. Amen! He removed our sin, he took away the chastisement, he makes grace the governing principle in our lives, surely he has borne our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.

Let us bow our heads and pray.

Lord, crush us, so that we would know we are not beams but reeds, we are not fine gold but jars of clay. Lord, heal us, so that we can grow in grace and be strengthened in grace. Lord, train us, so that we can become doorkeepers for the key to heaven, and boldly proclaim the gospel of grace reigns in every city and every village in China. Lord, help us so that we can declare that sin and death no longer reign this world.

Lord, may you use the mouths of these mortal men to open or shut the gates of heaven to the lost souls.

Lord Jesus, let us say before you, Lord Jesus, come!

Dear brothers and sisters, let us say together, Amen! Halleluiah! Amen!