Guilt is a nagging emotion that can ruin an otherwise good day. For example, after consuming a big bowl of chocolate ice cream, sometimes we feel remorseful. But it's nothing like the shame we feel after we've really blown it. That crushing weight of failure whispers, you'll never recover from this. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl reveals why guilt usually wins over grace in our lives.
and how we can break free from its stranglehold. In our study of Paul's letter to the Romans, let's discover this magnificent truth together. Where sin abounds, grace superabounds.
Well, we're in a section of Romans that is. Challenging to say the least, but It is neither confusing nor convoluted, it is just simply compressed. Just compressed. A lot of great thoughts surrounding A very simple principle that we're going to unfold today that will help you understand. Why we seem to live under such guilt.
and under such fear of death. I'll be reading from Romans 5, beginning at verse 12. Down through verse 20. Yeah. Romans 5:12.
Therefore, just as through one man, sin. entered into the world and death through sin, And so death spread to all men because All said. For until the law, sin was in the world, but Sin is not imputed. The word means charged to the account of another. But sin is not charged to the account of another when there is no law.
Nevertheless, Death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam. Who is a type? of him who was to come. 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 So then, As through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. Even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification. of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience The many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one The many will be made righteous.
The law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased. Grace abounded all the more.
So that as sin reigned in death, Even so, grace would reign through righteousness. to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook. by going to insight.org slash offer.
Chuck titled today's message, Guilt versus grace. Guilt and grace have been battling it out all throughout time. It's like it never goes away, and tragically, guilt usually wins over grace. I cannot figure it out, but I have found that more people would rather. This is true.
Would rather live under guilt than embrace. A grace lifestyle. I don't understand it. And to make matters worse, many love making other people feel as guilty about doing things as they could possibly make them, especially things they don't think that they ought to be doing. Take Mildred the Church gossip, for example.
Self-appointed monitor of the church's morals. She kept sticking her nose in other people's business. Several members did not approve of her curricular activities. But they feared her enough to maintain their silence. Mildred made a mistake, however, when she accused George.
A new member. Of being an alcoholic after she saw his old pickup parked in front of the town's only bar one afternoon. She emphatically told George and several others. that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing. George, a man of few words.
stared at her for a moment, and just turned and walked away. He didn't explain, defend, or deny. You said nothing.
However, later that evening, George quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred's house, walked home, and left it there all night. You gotta love George. Ha ha ha ha. Yeah. Now, I got a question.
How come the church is full of more mildreds and we don't have enough Georges? Why is it that we would love That kind of thing rather than want a free people to be All they can be under the grace of God. Where did all this get started? How did this guilt thing get kicked in? And especially in the ranks of the Christian.
Since when do we think we can somehow Uh manipulate people into believing in Jesus. Or by judgment and argument, think that we can attract them to Christ. I've never heard anybody say, Well, I lost an argument, so I just had to come to Christ. I was so embarrassed, I just had to believe in Jesus. It doesn't work like that.
It's like one theologian wrote: you may be able to compel people to maintain certain minimum standards by stressing duty. But the highest moral and spiritual achievements depend not upon a push. But a pull. People must be charmed into righteousness. Makes you think, doesn't it?
There's not an ounce of charm in Mildred. There's some charm in George. But he makes me nervous. Why? Because you don't understand the issue of guilt.
And sin. You've never really thought how Deeply entrenched you have been for far too long, and you don't have to live like that. Nor does it mean when you live with Christ, you live as you please.
So don't go there. That's chapters six and seven of Romans. It means for the first time in Your life under grace, you're able to do As Christ would have you do, and live a life. Free of guilt. How good is that?
So we have to go back. go way back. Romans 5, 12 takes us. Far back in time to a place called the Garden of Eden. You've heard of that.
That's where God placed the first man He created, and shortly thereafter placed the woman alongside him. And he made it clear to Adam and Eve that everything in the garden they were to enjoy. How gracious is that? But But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, don't eat of it. The day you eat of it, dying, you will die, literally.
Dying physically, that will kick in. You will die instantly spiritually. There will be a gap between your relationship with me. As soon as you eat. To make matters worse, you will open a sewage pipe That will pollute the stream of humanity the rest of time.
Don't eat. Don't take of the tree. You and I know that Adam ate, and as a result, theologians tell us he acted as our federal head. And because he ate and sinned, so we. Have the the same pollution in our system.
It's impossible to bring a child into this world free of sin. Because there's never been a parent. Free of sin. who came from parents. who were sinful.
All of this takes us to Romans 5 and verse 12.
However, before plunging into them, and really they are not as complicated as they may appear to be, let's kind of get a sort of an overview of where we have been and where we're going. See the first word in verse 1. and compare it to the first word in verse 12. Got your Bible open? Romans 5.1.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the first word, therefore. He's connecting it to the fourth chapter. We won't go there, but. The whole point of chapter five, verses one to 11.
These are the benefits of now that you have believed in Christ. We have peace with God, and with peace comes a large number of things: hope. Exulting in tribulation, exulting in God Himself. And the love of God has proven itself to us in sending His Son for us. What benefits come our way?
Verse. 12. Ah, that little connecting particle is saying there's a logic thought that's continuing on. This is no alien intrusion into the argument of Paul. This is all part of the thought.
It's as if there's no period. It's as if there are only commas and semicolons, taking you through all of chapter 5. All the benefits of verses 1 through 11, introducing us. to a problem much deeper. That keeps people from enjoying the benefits.
It also helps us understand how those benefits came to be ours in Christ.
So don't miss the two therefores. There's a second observation I want you to notice. There's a progression of thought in the verses in front of us. 12 through 21.
Some people like alliteration. It's a four-bit word for. The outlines starting with the same letter.
So here's one to put on for size. Humanity's ruin is in verses 12, 13, and 14. The ruin of humanity. The rescue is described in fifteen through nineteen. Humanity's rescue, 15 to 19.
And then the rain, R-E-I-G-N, the rain. Of the believer in grace is verses 20 and 21. The ruin leads to the rescue, which results in the rain.
Now we're ready. Let's dig in. Verse 12 introduces the entrance of sin and death. to begin with.
Now, you got to put your thinking caps on. I said it will come clear to you, but you can't drift and wander.
Okay, you got to concentrate.
So let's concentrate. Therefore, as through one man Sin entered into the world and death Through sin. Stop there. With the sin of Adam there was introduced into the world, and from then on, The problem of sin. Sin became king.
and the queen, death, reigned alongside the king. They're always connected. Like grace and peace are always connected, so sin and death. Where you see death, you find sin. Where you find sin, you locate death.
Sin and death came From Adam. When he sinned, we all have sinned. We all have sinned.
So it introduces sin and death. Read on. And death through sin. And so death spread to all men and women, boys, and girls. Because all sinned.
Remember what I said? Death and sin, always connected, like Siamese twins, connected at the hip. like king and queen reigning together, right alongside each other.
So, sin and death spread to all men. You can just feel the pollution as it runs through the system. Sin and death, sin and death. There's never been a person who hasn't sinned. There's never been one who won't die.
Oh Save a couple that were set aside. for another purpose, but you know. As one man said, the statistics on death are quite impressive. One out of one dies.
So if you sin, you die.
Okay, and it spread to all humanity. Let's go further. Until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not charged to our account where there is. No law.
Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned, in the likeness of the offense of Adam. What does that mean?
Now look again at the verses. Until the law, sin was in the world. How do we know that? Because people died. Wherever there is death, There is the presence of sin.
But with Moses came the law. What did that do? It specified sin. It spelled out what sin is. You shall not covet.
You shall not have any other God before you. You shall not use the Lord's name in vain. You shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not murder. All those commands and many others came with the writing of the law.
So there was a specificity given to sin, but until Moses came, there was just sin in general. We know that because death still reigned. Supreme. Remember, death is the queen. Sin is the king.
So it spread to all humanity, and guilt from sin by the law came along. When the law came, There came along guilt. I know now that this is wrong because God has written it, and I know by reading it that it's wrong.
Somebody gave me a little cartoon of Dennis the Menace. for one of the services this morning. On the fence, Dennis is straddling. It says, keep out. On the tree, it reads, No trespassing, private property.
Dennis says to his buddy Joey, Soon as you learn to read, Joey, the whole world's against you.
Soon as you learn to read the law, friend, it's all against you, and you suddenly know: oh, I am really under guilt. Because the law brings all of that. It's for a purpose to make anybody who thinks he isn't a sinner aware that he is. To cause any woman to realize that she who thinks she is so perfect, read the law and you'll realize how imperfect you are.
However, until the law came, there was no specificity. There was no detail given on what's right and what's wrong, but there was still sin. You got to think like Paul here, verse 14. Nevertheless, Death reigned from Adam until Moses. Even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam.
Even though we didn't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, still we sin, and therefore there is still the presence of sin.
However, with the coming of the law, guilt arose, and from then on it's a whole nother story. We'll get there next time.
Now we get to verse 15. Here's where it gets very interesting. We've looked at Adam. who introduced sin and death. Think of Adam on one side in the column of your mind and think of Christ on the other.
Put a vertical line in the middle and we'll draw some contrasts in 15, 16, and 17, and we'll do some comparing in 18 and 19. Look at the contrast between Adam, who introduced sin. In the fall, and Christ who introduced righteousness at the cross. Got him? Adam in the fall, transgression.
Christ on the cross. Righteousness.
Now look at 15. But the free gift is not like The transgression. The cross and what was provided is not at all like the fall and what resulted. For if by the transgression of the one, that's Adam, The many died. Much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus, abound to many.
You see it? This is contrasting the results. of the act. The results of the fall, verse 15 tells us, many died. As a matter of fact, it was the pollution that impacted all of humanity.
But as a result of the cross and the gift of eternal life, there are many who live on. because of one man.
Some of us are old enough to remember the speeches of Sir Winston Churchill in the dark dog days of the United Kingdom. He was the hope of the nation. As the blitzkrieg of the Nazis continued to plague London and other parts of the countryside around England. On one occasion in 1940, the Royal Air Force flew against the Luftwaffe. And turned them around and sent them the other way and won that battle.
And shortly thereafter, Churchill appeared before the House of Commons, August 1940. The record is there. He delivered a wonderful speech, and it was a line that lives in his legacy. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many. to so few.
If I could borrow from Churchill's thought and apply it to Adam and Christ. Never in the history of humanity was so much owed by so many to only one person. One person died. And all the world can benefit from the death of Christ. I say can, because not all have.
Jesus paid it all for us. And as a result, we have the opportunity to trust in Christ and to get the benefits that follow that trust.
So the contrast continues into verse 16. The gift, now we're back to Christ. He's starting on that side of the column. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. So the gift brought at the cross from Christ.
You read here. Is not like the one that sinned. For on the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression, resulting in condemnation. As a result of his fall, judgment flowed in the wake of sin and death. Condemnation flowed along with the pollution of humanity.
Now, look at the change, but on the other hand, The free gift arose from many transgressions. Resulting in justification. There's our word again. The sovereign act of God whereby He declares righteous the believing sinner while we are still in a sinning state. Still carrying around in our bodies the nature of sin.
However, the great benefit is that Christ declares us righteous in Himself. When we believe in him. And it breaks. That grip. of guilt and sin on us.
Hold on, we'll get to it in chapter 6. But the good news is when that grip is broken. We can now live above the drag and domination of sin's impulse. That's what the gift provides. It's by grace.
And what a wonderful way to live rather than under the guilt of condemnation or the condemnation of guilt. There's a third contrast. First was the contrast of results, verse 15. Then the contrast of the cause, verse 16.
Now the contrast of choice. Yeah. For if by the transgression of one, now you answer me, who is that referring to? Who is the one here? That's it.
Adam, by the transgression of Adam. Death reigned through the one. Much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in the life. through the one. We don't even have to answer here.
He tells us, Jesus Christ. Look closely at the verse. By the transgression of Adam, death reigned. Through him Remember, he's our federal head. Much more those who receive the abundance of grace and That gift of righteousness, being justified, will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.
Christ. I uh came across an interesting uh explanation of this and uh I found it in the message. written by Eugene Peterson. Listen to these words. Sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone.
But the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out. In detail. to Moses.
So death This huge abyss separating us from God. dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did. By disobeying a specific command of God, still had to experience this termination of life. This separation from God.
But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the one. Who will get us out of it? What a magnificent relief it is for us to see ourselves no longer in Adam and under the domination of a king and queen who ruled our lives long enough. We are now living under the authority of a new monarch. whose name is Jesus the Lord.
And he provides a way of life. called grace. The freedom of the guilt of the old life. is now ours to enjoy. Isn't that a relief?
We're no longer ruled by the sin of Adam. There's much more in this passage that Chuckswindahl wants to show us. He titled today's message, Guilt vs. Grace. If you're ready to learn more, Insight for Living has pulled together a collection of helpful study tools for this teaching series on Romans.
So take advantage of this special bundle. First, we'd like to send you the Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook for Romans. This spiral-bound resource comes in two volumes, and Volume 1 is available right now. Also, the bundle includes Chuck's entire commentary on Romans from the Living Insights Commentary Collection. And third, the bundle includes audio messages of every single sermon in Chuck's teaching series on Romans.
To check out this special bundle of resources, go to insight.org/slash offer. But that's not all. If you're looking for an uplifting book, something that fills your mind with soul-satisfying truth, We highly recommend a new book from Chuck. It's called looking in all the right directions. This exclusive book, available only through Insight for Living, features the final five sermons Chuck delivered to the congregation that he shepherded for more than 25 years.
To purchase a copy of Looking in All the Right Directions, just call us at 800-772-8888. And finally, we'd like to relay our profound thanks to our monthly companions. A monthly companion is part of our family of loyal monthly supporters, providing strength and stability to Insight for Living Ministries. and you can become a part of this family of friends right now by signing up online. By doing that, you'll ensure that Chuck's teaching continues on your station.
But here's the best part. You'll play a significant role in extending God's love to those who have never experienced His grace before. Plus, when you become a monthly companion, we're pleased to extend a special gift offer to you. You can find all the details at insight.org slash monthly companion. I'm Bill Meyer.
Join us when Shaksmundahl continues his uplifting message called Guilt versus grace. Tuesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Guilt vs. Grace, was copyrighted in 2007, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc.
All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
