Video Transcript: Adam and Jesus
going to be focusing on Romans 5, verses 12 through 21. The slide is a little bit incorrect here, Romans 5, verses 12 through 21, Adam and Jesus. So let's read that great passage of Scripture together. When we think about the history of the world, sometimes one person and one action can make a huge impact. Not so long ago, just a few decades ago, many people all around the world, lived in terror of a disease called polio, it killed many people, it crippled, many others for life, polio was a horror. And then Jonas Salk discovered a vaccine for polio. And Polio is feared by almost no one today because nobody gets it, the disease has basically been eradicated from the world, one man, one action with a worldwide impact. It was said that when Albert Einstein came up with his equation, E equals MC squared 12 people in the world understood it. I don't know how they came up with that number Exactly. But almost I don't know if anybody's still understand that very well. But energy equals the mass of matter times the speed of light squared, a discovery made by one man, one idea, and 40 years later, the atom bomb, you can't go back. Now lots of countries know how to make those devastating weapons, because of one man and one discovery or equation. So we see the impact sometimes of what one person and one action can have on many, many others. In Romans five, the last part of the chapter, the apostle Paul talks about the impact of two men on the whole human race, Adam, and his act, and Jesus and his act, Adams act occurred in a beautiful garden, with every fruit available to him, including the fruit of the tree of life, by which he indeed could live forever. Only one fruit was forbidden, all the others were theirs for the choosing, including the tree of everlasting life. And they chose the one tree that was forbidden. When Jesus Christ was in another garden, the Garden of Gethsemane before him lay a choice, and before him laying out a choice of all the good fruits and all the happy things and all the blessings of God, but the choice of terror and horror, and take you all the sin of the world, and all the suffering and madness of the world upon himself. And he chose to do so one, man, one decision, and it has reverberations throughout the whole world, and all of history. And it is these two men. And these two acts, one an act of terrible sin, the other an act of great righteousness, that the apostle Paul reflects on in Romans five, verses 12 to 21. And he goes into these verses after talking about two worlds. He hasn't really mentioned Adam up to this point. But he talks about a whole world of sin, and a whole world that is under sin, and under death, and under condemnation, and whether the people are just rebelling wildly, or talking morally, but still living badly, or getting into religion in their various rituals. It's all a world and a realm and an age that is controlled by sin. And now, the apostle gets back to how it all began, and who it all came from. It is the realm ruled by Adam. But he's also talked about another realm, a realm where we're justified by faith and have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Where we have access, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, where things are different, and every thing in that realm is true because of the second man, the Lord Jesus Christ. One commentator on Scripture says that all of humanity is hanging at the belt of one man or the other of Adam, or of Christ. And so to understand what all of that means, let's look closely at Romans 5 verses 12 through 21. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned, for before the law was given sin was in the world, but sin is not taken into account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking the command as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass, for if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflowed to the many. Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin. The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if by the trespass of the one man death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous. The law was added, so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, Grace increased all the more, so that justice, sin reigned in death. So also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, This ends the reading of God's word, and God always blesses His Word, to those who listen. Scripture says, Just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. And in this way, death came to all men, because all sinned. That's a basic statement that all sin in Adam, it's not just a statement that Adam did something bad. And now people follow his example, or imitate him in doing something bad. It is a statement that when Adam sinned, we were sinning. In Him. His action was an action on behalf of all humanity, and involves all of humanity. There was a British monk named Pelagius, who held the idea that sin is just something people do when they choose as influenced by their environment. And he denied that people are guilty of Adam's sin, or are bound by Adam's sin. But that idea was declared and rightly declared a heresy by the church, because it goes deeper than that. And it says here, that all sinned. And it doesn't just mean that everybody does sin. That's very, very true. But it means that all sinned in the sin of Adam himself, because he was our representative. And he put us in the position in the status of being sinners. How does that work? Well, we're talking about two men, Adam and Christ. Adam was the head of all humanity, he was the representative of all humanity. And the first thing we need to understand is that we live in an individualistic age, where I'm me, you're you and nobody is involved in what anybody else does. So we think, and nobody should be able to blame and be blamed for what anybody else does. And nobody should be affected by what anybody else does. Let me just ask you, is that true? If you do bad stuff, are you the only one who's affected? We are interconnected. If we do good, it blesses somebody else. If we do bad, it hurts other people. And we can grouse and see, but each of us should be able to suffer only the consequences of our own actions, not anybody else's. It's not fair. Well whine all you want. But that's even a symptom of what's wrong with us, that we want to be on our own, that we want to be little islands that we want to be self contained. If we actually loved each other, and were involved in the sufferings and griefs of others. We wouldn't even be willing as Christ did to take some of their problems on ourselves. But instead, we don't want to be interconnected, but in God's plan, and in His way of creating things we are, God appointed Adam, as the head of the human race. We may not like it. We may not like what Adam did that involved us. But that's the way it is. Adam made a decision and he made it on behalf of everybody else. This collectiveness of humanity is something that we do need to reckon with in a family. If parents are bad parents and make lousy decisions. It has a devastating impact on their children and only by breaking from the behavior of their parents and not getting into the same ruts. Will those children be able to be blessed and succeed in life when it comes to a nation? If someone who is the head of government decides to go to war, you might be anti-war, but you're still at war, because you're part of the nation that your head got into this war. There are people now who say, this person is not my president. Sorry, he is. There are others who said of our previous president, that's not my president. Sorry, he was. And so decisions he made, are going to have impact, the things, the wars, they stay out of there keeping us out of those wars, the wars they get into, they got us into those wars, the choices they make on behalf of the government involve the people who are in that government. Those are just a few examples of the wider principle that humanity is interconnected. And that heads have an impact on those who are involved in it. And so Adam's rebellion against God was not just the rebellion by Adam himself. When he made that decision, all the people who were connected to him and under him as the head of the human race, all those who had come from him and from ease, they were positioned in rebellion against God, and they were poisoned. They themselves had this poison come into their nature. And that poison flowed to everybody who would be their descendants. So maybe that's the simplest way to think about it. Adam's action put us into a particular position of being at war with God, and of being a rebel against God, it positioned us that way. And it also had an impact on our personal nature, everybody who comes from Him, so that we've been poisoned by sin, and with that poison, comes death. So that's what Paul is saying about Adam. Not just that he did something wrong, and that we do too, although that's very true. And when we grouse about Adam, we'd be in a little better position to grouse about him. If we weren't chips off the old blockhead. We do the same things he did. And you can explain it as you wish. I think the explanation I'm giving is the one that is capturing Paul's meaning accurately, that Adam was our head, and that we are involved in his sin, because he represented us. But even if Pelagius was partly right, we wouldn't be in a very good position, because the fact is, we all do sin, personally, and by our actions as well. Adam is the head of all of humanity and his deadly deed had an impact on all humanity. You see that in the phrases that occur in these verses, sin entered the world, through one man, the many died by the trespass of the one man, the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation. The result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners. If you were not fond of that idea, or weren't getting it the first time, the apostle has repeated it again. And again and again. And again, just to help us realize Adam's deed was deadly. And it had a mighty impact and a terrible impact on all who are in Adam, all who are under Adam's headship. Now, when you hear this teaching, sometimes it's called original sin of Adam's sin being imputed or counted toward us of Adam's sin affecting our status, and poisoning our nature. There are some objections that come up. And denials of it. At first, before I even get into the aisles. I'll just say this. When certain denials come up, just realize that the devil is going to be attacking doctrines that are vital to our knowledge and realities that we have to reckon with. So one denial is simply this. Adam was not a real person, that'll kind of solve everything. won't it? If there was no Adam, how could he be the head of all humanity? And so you'll say, Well, Charles Darwin's theories kind of indicate that there was no original Human pair, Adam and Eve, or you'll hear, you know, genetic analysis has proven absolutely proven that there were not two parents to the whole human race. Well, now what does proven mean? It means that given the current assumptions, and the current inferences and the current state of scientific exploration, this is what scientists think at the moment. This is not something to overthrow the Word of God. When scientists hold a certain notion at a certain moment. Last time I checked, scientific notions develop, they change, they evolve. So we need to realize that I'm not trying to make light of science science is worth considering and listening to very carefully on a lot of things, but especially when science has anti Christian assumptions Coming in involving a particular set of ideas, but anytime even science, it sounds pretty sound if it's directly contradicting the Word of God, then you've got to decide what you believe. Do you believe God's truth when he says something? Or do you believe? Do you put a higher standard? On the latest findings? If you think that the latest scientific ideas have more believability than the Word of God, you have to be very wary of denying God's truth of denying what God says to be. So now there's another kind of denial. The first I guess you just have to, at some point, decide, Do you sometimes it's possible course that you're misinterpreting the Bible? But do you really think I just misinterpreted the passage I was reading? And that Paul believed there was no Adam? can you possibly read those verses? And think that Paul believe there was no Adam, when he was inspired by God to write those verses? can you possibly believe that Jesus thought there was no Adam, and he made him other than that, but anyway, we have the explicit statement of Jesus saying that in the beginning, God made the male and female he's, and he's quoting directly from Genesis one and two, Jesus. And Paul absolutely believed that Adam was real. Let me just say this, if you want to deny that Jesus, and Paul knew what they were talking about, it will be very difficult to remain a Christian. So but one objection is just denying the reality of Adam and Eve, and I'm not going to get into all the various theories of creation and how to interconnect scientific findings with creation, different Christians have some different ways of doing that. But I will say this, even if you think certain elements of the Genesis account are more symbolic, Adam and Eve, are not just symbols. One man's decision affected the whole world. That's the clear teaching of the New Testament. Another objection is this. Well, do we really need to know this? I mean, you just got talking about Adam and his headship of the human race and the collectiveness of the human race and how his decision affected everybody and man, when you start reading, Paul, that doctrine gets so deep, do we really need to know that stuff? It's not that important to know how Adam's decision affected us? Well, Paul thought it was important. And God thought it was important. He inspired it. So once again, you're denying God's wisdom, when you take chunks of Scripture that you find a little harder to understand or a little more difficult to accept and say, Well, you know, that's that part is not a big deal, I just hit the fast forward button, and get to the parts that are easy. And the parts that are fun. If you want to live on easy and fun, have at it. But then you're denying God's wisdom, because God believes that we also need to delve into hard and deep and unpleasant, like the fall of Adam, and what it meant for us. And then the third objection is simply this. You deny God's fairness, Adam's failure shouldn't bring death to us all. And we question whether God was fair in putting the whole human race under Adam and letting the whole human race be involved in Adam's decision. There was always a difficulty, of course, when we put ourselves on the judgment seat, and put God in the dock and say, God, I don't believe you've been fair with us in dealing with us this way. It is always a big mistake, to think when you're dealing with God that you're looking down at the defendant. And he's looking up at the judge. So just, you know, be aware of that attitude in the first place. But let us just reflect again, briefly on the passage we're looking at, we're looking at how people are lost in Adam, we're also looking at something else, how people are saved by one act of righteousness from one man, if you want to deny the power of one act by one man, you're cutting the ground of salvation right out from under your feet, because the ground of salvation is that you are made right with God, by the actions of your head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and by your faith in Him. And so, we do not want to destroy the very ground of our own status, standing with God and the fact that God accepts us. I don't always understand these things. Sometimes, various parts of the Bible bug me too. But then I have to attribute that maybe to my own lack of understanding or to my own lack of what real fairness means. I know this, that if I'm not saved by the one man, Christ Jesus, I am not saved. It is my involvement in him. That saves me so we need to know that God, if God if we're going to plead fairness with God, it's about time to pack it in right away. When we read on in this basket of Romans, you're going to hear the word gift grace gift gift Grace grace, you're not going to hear and God decided to give you what you deserve. If you want what you're deserve? Well, I have nothing more to say. Anyway, we need to realize that our objections have got to go to the side and Adam was real Adam had a major impact, and if if Adam is our only head we're sunk. And then we always also need to realize this is if Adam is the problem, Moses is not the solution. If the fall into sin was real, the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, and its details was not God's way of saving the world. Before the law was given sin was in the world. The law defines sin and says what it is and gives us various commands. But even when sin isn't labeled properly, and doesn't have the light of the law shining upon it, it is still sin. The law isn't there to account for it. And to chalk up each individual's sin and identify it sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned. From the time of Adam to the time of Moses. There's a long period between Adam and Moses. And during that time, the statistics on death were very impressive one out of one people died. And the statistics of sin were very impressive. They were all sinners, they didn't always know a law from God, as he had given a command to Adam, or as he gave commands to Moses, they had a conscience, they had certain ideas of what was right and wrong, but they didn't always have an express command from God, but they were still sinners. And they still died. death reigned. From the time of Adam, to the time of Moses, people died in the flood, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire from heaven. And Moses hadn't even showed up yet. So death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking the command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. And then a little later it said, the law was added, so that the trespass might increase. There was a great temptation when Jewish people heard of Adam and of, and then later of Jesus to say, but Moses is our head. Moses is the one who makes the difference and Paul says Oh, no he's not. In fact, his main purpose was, so that the trespass would increase when God made all those things explicit that he desired. And then Israel still sinned against those and will sent off in exile, it showed how bad sin is, how does the trespass or lawbreaking increase when law is given? Well, sometimes we parents see it, of course, we see it in ourselves, but we see it when we give a command to children, and say, Don't touch that. You get a little one and a half year old, I've seen a few of them around. And you say, don't touch that piece of equipment, now don't touch that. They cannot think of anything else for the next long time. And they're constantly going over to touch that thing. Because a law brings out the fact that we don't want to do what we're told. And then that's a very trivial example. But the fact is, that when law is given, it identifies and it makes sin worse by saying now we're not just kind of going against the inner conscience, we've got it, we've had it told it was nice and clear. And we're still doing wrong. That's one of the things that trespass increases when law is given. It shows us what to do, and we do wrong. But not only does it show us that we're doing wrong, so that we do it knowingly and with full knowledge. But we want to do it more, because somebody told us not to. So the law was added that the trespass might increase. And Paul here is again, emphasizing what he has been throughout Romans, if you're counting on the law to save you, not going to happen. The in the big picture, there are two men, not three or four, you're in Adam, or you're in Christ, and maybe you know it's a subset you're in Abraham, you know, as the man of faith, but you're either in Adam or you're in Christ, and Moses has a role in God's plan. But it's not the role of being your Savior, and the law that he gives is not the role of saving you. And then Paul gets into the gift. And then these verses notice how often the word gift or Grace appears. But the gift is not like the trespass. For instance, many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many, again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin, the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. What a gift it is, you might complain Well, boy, it sure wasn't very nice of for one sin to cause all that damage. But think about this. All those sins for centuries and centuries by millions and millions of people that have that occurred before Jesus came and after he came as well. And that gift of God doesn't come and or is not withdrawn because of all that sin, but it follows many, many, many, many, many trespasses. And then God decides to just give this gift of righteousness of a right covenant standing with him of being a member of his people through Jesus Christ. So the gift comes through the grace, the generosity, the favor of the one man Jesus, and it overflows to the many. And the gift follows the many trespasses and that gift of Christ brings justification, the standing of being right with God declared innocent and on a good standing with him. And if by the trespass of the one man death reigned, that one man again that that phrase death reigned. What a terrible phrase that comes twice. In this passage, we're looking at death reigned, Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones said, The world is a world of cemeteries. The world is a world of cemeteries death reigned through that one man, but then there comes that great phrase, how much more? How much more well, those who received God's abundant provision of grace, and of the gift there it is, again, grace and gift of righteousness reigned in life, through the one man, Jesus Christ. Death reigned. And so how would you expect it to be phrased? If you say on the one hand death reigned, then what's going to come on the other hand? Life reigned, but that's not quite what it says, does it? It says, those who receive God's abundant vision, in other words, not just that life reigns, but that we reign. We reign in life. And this is a wonderful statement of the Bible, because it's now how much more is not that through Jesus Christ, we get to go back to Eden, and get to go back to that wonderful status that God gave to Adam and Eve. That was a wonderful thing. God made Him in His own image and created him to rule over the birds and the beasts of the field, that in Christ, the Bible says, Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Do you not know that we will judge angels, the Bible says that we will those who overcome will reign with Him and sit on his throne will be a kingdom of priests, and we will reign on the earth. That's what the Bible says, And and so our reign in Christ is going to be even higher than the original position. And it was a lofty position that Adam held. But in Christ, we receive an even higher position than we originally would have. And it's not just a death isn't reigning over us anymore. We reign over doubt. And we reign over everything else, because Christ has conquered doubt, we sometimes don't understand, or really take in what the Bible is saying, We shall reign forever and ever. That's what the Bible says. And so we need to think of ourselves and of others, as princes and princesses in God's kingdom, to know that we are royalty and begin to live like it. To know that our brothers and sisters in Christ are royalty and begin to treat them and regard them that way. These are the great realities of the gospel of Jesus Christ, not just to say boy, I sure hope I get off the hook for my sins when I die. Yeah, justification is wonderful, and to be released from the guilt and the punishment of sin is wonderful. But the Bible doesn't just say that justification gives us the ability to get off the hook. It says, You reign in life forever and ever in glory, through the Lord Jesus Christ, so you receive and you reign through Christ. So again, just to quickly summarize, from online Bible, contrasting Adam and Christ Adam brought sin into the world, Christ gives people victory over sin. Many die because of Adam's sin. Many live because of Jesus' grace. Adam's sin resulted in condemnation and judgment. Jesus' death results in justification. Adam's disobedience brings sin to many Jesus' obedience brings righteousness to many. Adam's sin reigns in death. And in Christ, Grace reigns and we reign. So those are the two men we've got to deal with Adam, or Jesus, who do you belong to? I mean, all of us by birth, we're, we're in Adam, whether we want to be or not, you didn't get to choose your parents. And you didn't get to choose Adam. You just are in Adam, but you can be in Christ, and in his one act of righteousness, where he chose to go to the cross, and to exalt you to glory forever and ever. And I Corinthians 15, just a few verses from there that go right along with this theme of Adam and Christ, it says, Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man for as an Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. Adam's sin brought death to all but the resurrection of Jesus Christ. involves us. In his resurrection. It is written the first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam, a life giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural. And after that the spiritual, the first man was of the dust of the earth. The second man from heaven, as was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth, and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, Adam, so we shall bear the likeness of the man from heaven, Jesus Christ, the Bible says, when we see Him, we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, this is the how much more not just that you get to be back, like Adam before he fell, but that you get to be exalted, like the Son of God, who never fell, that he shares his glory with us, and His reign with us, we bear the likeness of the man from heaven, we will reign on the earth, but heaven will come to Earth. And there will be something heavenly about us, something godlike about us. As we partake of the divine nature, we're never going to become God, like Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the Bible says, we're going to bear the likeness of the man from heaven. And then he moves on. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men, for just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous. So justification gives us a certain status. But once you have that status, you get life. And I mean life, eternal life, in the sense that it lasts forever, but also eternal life in the sense that it is the life of eternity, the life of the God who is forever, the divine life, and justification, right standing with God is the basis for that, and brings us into that. You might look at that phrase life for all men, and there are some people who do and say, and that means that everybody is going to be saved, that everybody is going to live forever and have this glory. But that's not quite an accurate understanding of the phrase brings life for all men. Is the Bible teaching universalism? Here? Well, I sometimes remind you that we need to be mathematicians and realize that 18 comes after 17. So let's read 17 those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness. So you have to read verse 18, in light of verse 17, it speaking of those who receive God's provision of grace, and of the gift of righteousness. So when the Bible says life for all men it's referring to all who receive this gift of righteousness, and it's going to be a lot, let's not think that God's going to say just one or two here or there, there is a great generosity in these passages that tell us that God does have an overflowing abundance of salvation for tons of people unexpectedly through Jesus Christ. But it does apply to all who receive not just everybody in general, and it also refers to all kinds of people, you got to keep in mind that Paul has got some people in mind that he's speaking to the big division between Jewish people and non Jewish people. And God's dealing with the Jews. And all through this epistle, he's been saying, this is for all for the Jew first, but also for the Gentile. And he says that again, and again and again. And now he's saying it again, it's for all whether Jew or Gentile, as he says, in other passages also, for all whether you're slave or free, whether you're a big shot, or nobody, it's for all whether you're a man or a woman, the word man here is humanity, not just men as the male gender in particular, but he uses the word men in general. So all kinds of people and all who receive that's what it means that life comes to all men. So you do, you do need to receive that gift, to have a gift given you, and to despise it, and to cast it away, will not give you the benefits of the gift. And then the apostle finishes this great chapter by saying the law was added, so the trespass might increase. We've already considered that phrase, but where sin increased grace, increased all the more so that just as Sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness, to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace reigns in righteousness to bring eternal life. You need to be in Adam, or in Christ, either under the reign of sin and under the reign of death, or under the reign of righteousness and under the reign of life and when you're under the reign of righteousness and under the reign of life, you actually get to reign, you become one of those who reigns with Christ. Now I realize this isn't a very practical message. I didn't tell you, here's what you should go out and do tomorrow. And here's what you should think on Tuesday. I am simply telling you this is the way it is. There are the two humanities Adam and Christ. This is the most practical thing in the world, you need to know what realm you're part of. And when you're in the realm of Christ, you need to start thinking like it and living like it and rejoicing in the great dignity that you have in Christ, the great responsibility you have to carry on his reign in the world right now. Because it's not just that we're going to reign in the future. We're already agents of his reign right now. Jesus has already been exalted as king, you and I, as his followers are agents in this world that doesn't yet recognize his reign, but in which every knee will eventually bow and we want to carry that good news and be a sign of his reign right now. In the way our lives are transformed. So I guarantee you if you just wanted one or two pointers, I'm sorry to disappoint you. If you wanted to transform life, and a whole new world. If any man is in Christ, he has a new creation. Lord we thank you for the amazing and wonderful revelations in your word and even more so for what the person who is revealed our Lord Jesus Christ is mighty impact is saving work we we stand and get amazed Lord Jesus at all that you accomplished at the cross, and in your resurrection. And we ask Lord, that, though we've born the likeness of the man of the earth and the man of the dust that we may bear the likeness of the man from heaven, that we may reign in life with you, and that we may rejoice in you forever. Amen.