Creflo Dollar - The Gift of Righteousness vs. The Curse of Sin - Part 1
Now, look at Romans chapter 5, verse 12-21 in the NLT. Romans chapter 5, verse 12-21 in the NLT. All right. "When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death," do you understand that When God made man, man was never supposed to die? He made man immortal. He was not, man was not, Adam and Eve were not made mortal beings. They were made never to die. They were supposed to live forever. "But when Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned".
Have you noticed in the Old Testament, people would live 500 years? It took hundreds, I'd say thousands of years to work out eternity from the body. That's why Adam and Eve didn't have no natural clothing. They didn't put nothing on their body until they sinned and they lost the glory. They were naked of natural clothing, but they were covered with their natural coat, which was the glory that was going to be responsible for immortality that was lost when one man sinned and death came on one man, and eternity went from eternity to a thousand years to 800 and some years to 500 and some years, and then here's what people don't understand, the Bible says you're gonna live a minimum of 70 years, and more if you like, and you think that's a blessing. That's a part of the curse that occurred in the garden. Seventy years? From 800 to 70? Do your math.
I would love for y'all to have to put up with me for 800 years, that'd be something else. I told your great, great, great, great, great, whatever, I lost count of the greats. Adam's sin brought death. That wasn't supposed to be a part of our existence. "So death spread to everyone, for everyone's sinned". Now what's this: "Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. People said even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin," why? "Because there was not yet any law to break". You can't cause something wrong if there's not anything prohibiting it. So that's one of the reasons the law came in, to curb sin. It was getting crazy out there. They said, "We got to do something". You got giants coming out here and angels coming out here having sex with women and they producing giants, and you got brother killing brother, and then you got them building the tower trying to reach the heaven with the tower, there all kinds of stuff going on.
So you can't call something sin without a law. So they've been sinning since Adam failed, but there was no law to curb sin. "Still, everyone died, from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, of a representation of Christ, who was yet to come. But there is a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ". My goodness. Sixteen. "And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the results of that of man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins".
'Cause, you see, it wasn't you, it was Adam that started this, and it was Jesus that ended it. And you keep trying to put yourself in the middle of all that. "For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who received it will live in triumph," all who receive it will, all who receive it. See, our problem is we won't receive it. We receive the law based teaching in religion. We receive rules keeping, some of us are more concerned about rules than we are people. Remember, with the woman that was caught in the act of adultery? They were more concerned about what rule was broken than concerned about this lady.
And that's what the church has become. We're more concerned about rules and doctrine than we do people. We don't care about people no more. We care more about who keeping the rule and who ain't keeping the rule. You ain't got to clap. "They all have triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ". You can't do it except through the man. Eighteen. "Yes, Adams one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and a new life for everyone". All you got to choose. You go choose Adam, and you get condemnation for everybody who choose Adam. Choose Jesus, and he'll make everything right for everyone. So far ain't no list of the stuff you got to do to qualify except choose who you gonna choose.
Verse 19. "Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made, made, made, made, made". Not "became," but "made". Not, "You did something to make it," but, "made righteous". Verse 20. "God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were". Whoa. He said, "God gave you the law so you can see how sinful you are. You didn't have nothing to break, so you didn't know how bad you were. So let's give 'em the law so you can see how sinful you are. You a mess".
And the problem with that is the church religion today still trying to give you laws, and you still looking at the law is trying to show you how sinful you are. You still looking at how sinful you are, so you've developed a sin consciousness, and that proves that you have not switched sides over here to God, because instead of having a God consciousness, you're more conscious of sin and how big of a mess you are and less conscious of you've been made righteous and you have a new creation. So you keep going and hearing how bad you are. You keep doing it. Honey, why don't you leave there? "My grandmama went to this church, her mama went to this church, and bless God, I'm going to this church". And you're gonna live all your life in bondage, because here's one thing I know about people who keep the law. You can't go around here acting like you don't do no wrong, because if you keep the law, the law was made for you to do something wrong. "But as people sinned," look what happens, "as they sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more and more abundant".
Twenty-one. "So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death," just like sin did, "God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord". This seems like an easy decision. This seems like an easy decision, except we done bought religion. We done bought traditional, law-based, rule-keeping religion. And instead of caring and loving people out of our hearts, we checking the rules. And by the way, you checking the very rules you break. Is everybody still on the bus? All right, here we go. There is a difference between sin and the sinner. We do not become a sinner again just because we commit a sin. I've never been this straightforward before. This is cool. It's liberating. I've always had to go over that sentence and not quite say it.
I'll say it again. We do not become a sinner again just because we committed a sin. What Jesus did on the cross is stronger than that. This is about our nature. Jesus dealt with the sin and the sinner. This is about our nature. Go to Romans chapter 6, verse 5, King James. Verse 5-7. All right, I'm assuming you speak English, 'cause we're gonna read some English. Are you there? You ready? "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this," here's what you gotta know: "that our old man," look at there, "old man". What happened to your old man? It was crucified with Christ, and that old man is also the body of sin. And what happened to the body of sin? It was destroyed. "That henceforth we should not serve sin".
Look at the sentence. He defines sin as the body of sin and the old man. Sin, here, is a noun. Person, place, or thing. Sin is a noun. This is not a verb. He didn't say, "Your old man was crucified, the body of sin was destroyed, and now you won't be sinning no more". What he says is: "You're not gonna serve the old man because the old man is responsible for your sinning, but if the old man has been destroyed, and if the old man has been crucified, then you don't have to serve the old man". Verse 7, "For he that is dead is freed from," watch this: "the old man". You're free from the old man. We keep looking at this as a verb, sinning, what you're doing wrong, and not the one that was responsible for sinning: the old man. You don't have the old man no more.
Now that you're born again, you don't have to worry about sinning because the new creation doesn't produce sinning. It was the old man that produced sinning. And you were captured by the old man, that was your nature. Listen, a mule is a mule. You can raise him like a race horse, you can cut his hair like a race horse, you can talk to him like a race horse, but as soon as you put him behind the gates and they blow their whistle or hit the gun, that joker gonna start acting like a mule and not gonna run not one bit. He gonna be looking for something to eat because that is his nature.
And so, likewise, the nature of somebody who sins is the sinner, glory to God. And the sinner in you, glory to God, is no longer in you. That sinful man has been destroyed. That old man has been crucified. You don't have to serve the old man no more because he ain't there to be served no more. He has passed away. Someone said, "Well, what do you do with that knowledge"? Well, go to verse 1, there's only one place in Romans chapter 6 where sin is used as a verb, and that's verse 15. Every time you see sin in Romans 6, it's a noun. It's talking about the man of sin, the old man. Now watch this: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue", I'm gonna translate and define sin so you see what I'm saying.
"Shall we continue in the old man, that grace may abound"? You know how we read that? "What shall we say then? Shall we continue sinning? Shall we continue to do sinful acts"? Man, what are you talking about? See, we're always dealing with the fruit instead of the very root. We're dealing with the cheaper, instead of the deeper. If you hit the thing where the root is, the fruit gonna stop. Take care of the old man, and the old behavior gonna eventually leave, 'cause he ain't there no more. You got a new creation who's after God, who is perfect and holy and flawless, and eventually your belief in that new creation in you is gonna eventually start training that old software, and it's gonna start producing holy and righteous things, because you believe you have a new creation and you believe you're righteous. But some of you still think the devil is living on the inside of you still.
Listen, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in the old man, that grace may abound"? or "increase"? Now watch Paul. "God forbid". Now watch this: "How shall we," Paul looked at this sentence and says, "Okay, no, God forbid, but how are we gonna do that? How shall we? How shall we, who are dead and separated from the old man, how shall we live any longer therein the old man"? Paul was like saying, "What you're saying can't happen no more because that which was responsible for that behavior, we're dead to it. We are separated from it. We have a new nature now".
All nature has passed away, new nature has come. I will not continue to allow a old nature that I have been dead to continue to hunt and rule my life. I have a new creation, glory to God, created after God, and made in the image of God. And when I start believing that I have a new creation and having confidence that I have a new creation, then when I behave in sinful behavior, I have to now credit that to my soul that has yet to be renewed. And what it should say to you is if you start acting crazy one day, what you should say is, "Oh, I need to get in the Word. I need to renew my mind because that's not me, that's not my nature. I don't do that no more. I used to cuss you out in three seconds but I got a new creation, so I need to, I need", what's that? "I need a telephone, I need to update. I need to update the software. I need to update", it's the renewing of your mind.
The renewing of your mind is why you can be dead to the sinful man and still act in sin action. Woo, I'm tired. I mean, you're trying to crack open centuries of religious beliefs. Now, let me get back to my point though. Do you understand all that? I mean, I want you to read, look at verse 15, the only place where the action of sin is used as a verb. Verse 15. "What then? shall we sin," action. That's not a noun. Now, "Shall we sin," action. Okay, 48 times in the book of Romans it's used as a noun. Only eight times in the book of Romans, only eight times it's used as a verb. "What then? shall we sin," sinning, action, "because we're not under the law, but under grace"?
That's the only time. The rest of the time, you have to remind yourself when you're reading is you got to meditate and you gotta say, "Wait a minute, that's a noun. The sin man. The sin man. The sin man. He's been destroyed, I'm dead to him. I'm dead to him. I'm alive to the new creation. I'm alive to the new creation, right now". In the same way, we couldn't become righteous by works. Could you become righteous by works? No. The Old Testament said in order to be righteous, you had to do right. In the New Covenant, you're righteous because of your faith in Jesus Christ.
So in the same way that we couldn't become righteous by works, we don't lose our righteousness by works. We didn't become righteous by works, we don't lose it by works. You didn't become righteous by your works, you don't lose it by your works. Your work is not a factor. It wasn't a factor in you getting righteous, and it's not gonna be a factor in you losing your righteousness. It's a matter of faith in the redemptive work of Jesus. Committing a sin doesn't make you partly righteous... unrighteous, excuse me. Committing a sin doesn't make you partly unrighteous. Now, listen to this. I had to write this on a note card, I couldn't forget this. So we believe that we are still the new creation, even if we make a mistake.