The Legacy of Adam, Part 3

I’ve Romans chapter 5 and I have
identified this section as verses 5, 12 through 17. But all we’ve looked at for the
last two weeks entirely is verse twelve only, but it is a unit
and by God’s grace, we will complete this section even today. As I indicated several weeks
ago, one author considered this one of the most important passages
in Scripture, notably verse 12, which he said is likely one of
the most crucial passages to understand in all of the Bible. What the passage does, as we
have seen, is begin to set up a contrast, and it’s a contrast
between Adam and Christ, if you haven’t been here. Where Paul
begins a comparison in verse 12 that he never really completes,
he does, in essence, complete it piecemeal as he goes through
this section, but he doesn’t ever hit it point by point throughout. If you look at verse twelve of
give you that example where he says, therefore, just as through
one man sin entered into the world and death through sin and
so death spread to all men because all sin. Now, you would expect
that even in the next verse, or at least eventually there
would be something like this. So also through one man. Pardon
me, through one man, righteousness entered into the world and life
through righteousness, and so life spread to all men. Well,
as I said, the contrast is there all the way down through verse
19. The contrast is is there and
very capably put forward. Paul just doesn’t follow conventional
argumentation by laying them side by side immediately. Consider
this when he says through one man. We would expect that to
be the contrast to what Adam is pictured there, and Paul does
identify another man. In verse 15, he says, by the
grace of the one man, Jesus Christ in verse 17, he says through
the one the one man. Jesus Christ in verse 19, he
says it again through the obedience of the one pointing to the opposite
side of the contrast, Jesus Christ through one man righteousness. That’s what we would expect,
because through one man sin entered into the world and the opposite
of that would be righteousness. We would expect to find that
in this passage as well, if not immediately, eventually. And
we do. In verse 17, Paul talks about
the gift of righteousness. In verse 18, through one act
of righteousness. In verse 19, the many will be
made righteous. And in verse 21, that the grace
that grace might reign through righteousness. Well, the rest
of it is there as well. When Paul mentions that death
spread through sin, we would expect to find and life spread
through righteousness. And we do find that. We do find
that in verse 17, that we will reign in this in life, we will
reign together with Christ in life. And so the argument, the
contrast is there and it’s there in full through the course of
this passage. It just isn’t there in conventional
terms. Immediately following after Paul’s
contrast that he sets up in verse 12. If you would go back to verse
12, we’ll take that as our starting point today, we’re not going
to make it anywhere past verse 17, and if I don’t get moving,
we won’t make it that far. Verse 12, if you would. Therefore,
just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through
sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin. For until
the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed 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 was 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. And 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 the gift of righteousness
will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. We considered
in verse 12 that man had originally been created in God’s image,
but did not last long in that condition. We hearken back to
Thomas Boston’s fourfold nature of the human condition, and we
found man to be in his original condition, innocent, what he
calls primitive integrity. But that didn’t last long, and
eventually sin entered into the world, original sin set in, and
the status of being totally depraved or totally unable, that would
be the second condition in which man is found, and there are others,
but those are the two in focus this morning. Begun recovery
or conversion would be the third state. Consummate happiness would
be the fourth condition, that being in glory. What we looked
at was that God created man free of sin, free of a sin nature.
His purpose was to glorify God and enjoy God. But as we discovered,
Adam and Eve didn’t last long in that condition. And that’s
exactly what Paul points to here in verse 12, when he says through
one man, sin entered the world. That one man was Adam. The sin
was his partaking of the fruit that God had clearly forbidden.
A clear command of God transgressed and invaded into the world was
this concept, this idea, this principle of sin, sinfulness.
Really, through one man, sin entered into the world. The doctrine
of original sin unfolds before us here in verse 12 and We saw clearly from verse three
that the fall was catastrophic. The curse that was announced
to Adam and Eve there in Genesis chapter three was complete. It
was overwhelming. And as a result of that, that
sin, that The consequence of that sin reaches down even to
our continuing day. It touched everyone that’s ever
been born. It continues to touch everyone
that’s ever been born. All men are born as sinners,
but they’re also born dying. That’s where we left off last
Lord’s Day, the cursing of Adam and Eve wasn’t just the cursing
of Adam and Eve because they were our representatives. And
as our representative, his act was our act, and therefore his
consequence was our consequence as well. As such, we, that is
humanity, walked out of the garden, as we discovered last week, first
and foremost, inherently sinful. That’s where our sin nature came
from. We were born going astray. We were born in a sinful condition. We saw secondly, that we, as
a result of the fall in the garden, we are temporally vexed. That’s
where all the difficulties of life come from. The weeds in
the garden, the pain in childbirth, the sweat of the brow, all of
that comes from the fact that God cursed humanity that day. But there was a third. Just a devastating effect of
the fall, and that was physical death. We looked at this and
saw that that wasn’t part of God’s original design, that he
had threatened Adam with death and that sure as God is true,
God came through with physical death. That’s the day that Adam
began to die. That’s when the clock was set
in motion. God said to Adam, until you return
to the ground, you’re going to work. Because from it you were
taken for your dust and to dust you shall return, giving Adam
a definitive pronunciation of a death penalty. Adam would die. One pastor I didn’t quote last
Lord’s Day that I would point to this morning, he said the
great fact in the apostles mind was that God regards and treats
all men from the first moment of their existence as out of
fellowship with himself, as having forfeited his favor. Instead of entering into communion
with them the moment they are born, as he did with Adam and
forming in them by his spirit, his own moral image, he regards
them as out of favor and withholds the influences of the spirit.
Well, that points to something entirely different than what
Paul is talking about here in this physical death. And we saw,
lastly, that there was a fourth consequent, a fourth element
of this curse, and that is that mankind, from his exit of the
garden, is totally depraved. He is spiritually dead. We’ll
consider that in greater detail later, but I want to return back
to the context again to verse 12. So that you can consider
Paul’s point as we begin to move forward. What Paul has done thus
far is present to us the fact that universal death was in process. Universal death had come into
the world by sin. It was an invasion of sin into
the world. Sin did not exist as a principle
outside of Adam and Eve. prior to their fall, but now
that sin has invaded, there is a process underway. And the progress
or the process of this universal death is what was laid out before
us in verse 12. Through one man, sin entered
into the world. The process isn’t finished. Death
came through sin, death followed on the heels of sin, and so death
through the course of this process spread to all men. But Paul wants
to turn the corner here, and he wants to present to us the
proof of universal death. The proof. He’s given us the
process. This is the proof beginning in
verse 13. How do we know that this is true?
How do we know that all men have been tainted by the sin of Adam?
Verse 13 is that answer. Paul says, for until the loss,
sin was in the world. See, at verse 13, Paul begins
a very lengthy parenthesis. Remember, he set up this contrast. We saw the first part of it in
verse 12. We expect we expect rather the
second part of that in verse 13, but we don’t get it. It’s
a parenthesis. It’s a it’s a it’s a side discussion, if you will. But it’s not unimportant. He
begins this parenthesis, which really interrupts the completion
of this comparison that he had already begun. And he enters into this very important
discussion. That this death that he speaks
of came upon all men, every person ever born, not even because of
their own sins, although those are there. A number of commentators spent
a great deal of time trying to say that we don’t die because
of actual sin. We don’t die because of actual
sin, but sin does breed death and sin. Actual sin is there
and present and sin does have consequences. Both are true.
But the death that came upon all men was due to Adam’s sin,
not necessarily our own. We could have if we could have
lived a life of innocence and righteousness, we still would
have died tainted by the sin of Adam. The fact that we were
tainted by the sin of Adam makes it very dubious that we could
have ever made it a single day without sinning, much less an
entire life. And so this objection pops up
in Paul’s mind. Paul has the foresight to consider
what others might be thinking as he’s laying out this chief
doctrine. What about this time before Moses? What about this period of time
when there was no law, when God had not given even so much as
the Ten Commandments, much less the entirety of the Mosaic law? What about that, Paul? Paul proceeds
to deal with that little section, that question, that challenge,
and this word for points back, not just to the very end of verse
12, but really to the entirety of that discussion. It introduces
new evidence for us on the universality of death. The death is spread
to all men. All men are sinners. And here
comes his truth. As one observed at first sight,
this seems this reasoning seems to give argumentation for just
the opposite of what is needed. It seems to prove not that all
sin, but that however much men might sin, they have not the
least full guilt of sin. This really This is really what
Paul aims at proving. There is an undercurrent all
through this passage showing how there was something else
at work besides the guilt of individuals. In other words,
what he’s saying is we walked out of the garden far more than
just with a guilty conscience, having Adam as our representative. We gained also the effect of
Adam’s fall. Not just a predisposition to
sin, but the punishment that came with it, that is death. So in a sense. What Paul is arguing here is
that prior to God giving the law to Moses by way of the Ten
Commandments, there was no law. And an argument could be made.
We hadn’t been told. No one told us that what we were
doing was wrong or sinful. No one told us not to commit
adultery. No one told us not to steal.
No one told Cain not to murder. And in a sense, we’re all just
a bunch of innocents running around living as we ought, but
transgressing nothing. Well, such an argument would
be ludicrous. Everybody knows that from reading
the account of Cain, that Cain sinned. He sinned in his heart
against God to begin with. Paul pointed to this already,
this principle. In Romans 2, 14, he said, even
Gentiles who do not have God’s written law show that they know
his law when they instinctively obey it. even without having heard it.
This demonstrates that God’s law is written in their hearts
for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or
tell them that they are doing right. But really and truly,
God’s law was in the world. It was in the world even then
before it had ever been uttered to Moses. It was operative, people
were accountable, and God held them accountable. One pastor said it this way,
once once sin had gained an entrance into the human family, death
followed. The sentence on Adam was executed
upon his descendants, even though until the law was given, there
was no positive commandment for them to transgress as there was
for Adam. So there was this principle of
law that was out there and men were offending. They were transgressing
that law. Paul’s first point here, actually
point two in a string of three, was that even though God’s moral
law had not been formally communicated, sin as a principle was indeed
already operative in the world. You don’t need me to tell you
this. Cain didn’t have the Ten Commandments, but Cain was proven
to be stingy. His heart wasn’t right in his
offering. God judged him. Because of that,
he became angry and ultimately he became murderous. That was
sin. That was a transgression against
God’s law, even though it never was stated. And Cain died. There were others who died, sometimes
in huge masses of people. Turn, if you would, to Genesis
six, once again, we were there last Lord’s Day, but turn again,
if you would. The question is simple, the question
is simple, do we die now only because we sin or was there truly
a penalty that was issued to Adam that affects us? And in
essence, the answer is yes, but first and foremost, the answer
is absolutely that we were tainted with the consequence of death
by the sin of Adam. And as a result of that, we walk
out sinning. We walk out reaping the consequence
of Adam’s sin at every turn. Look at Genesis six. How bad
was this transgression against God’s holy law? Then the people
began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them.
The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted
as their wives. So far, kind of so good. I’ve always bristled that Samson,
who his way of dating was to say, get her, for she looks good
to me, not the way that you want to go about life. Look at verse
three, then the Lord said, my spirit will not put up with humans
for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh in the
future. Their normal lifespan will be
no more than 120 years. And so God saw kind of the course
of life and he saw how base and how just utterly simplistic mankind
was. But it gets worse. In those days
and for some time after giant nephelites lives on the earth,
For whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they
gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors
of ancient times. The Lord observed the extent
of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they
thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord
was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth.
It broke his heart. And the Lord said, I will wipe
out this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes,
I will destroy every living thing, all the people, the large animals,
the small animals that scurry along the ground, even the birds
of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.
God’s law had been transgressed. There was a right and wrong. The Tower of Babel, Genesis 11
tells us that Genesis 16, Abraham and Sarai. They knew that they
were doing wrong and they knew that they transgressed when they
introduced Hagar of all people into their precious husband wife
relationship. Sodom and Gomorrah. was a living,
breathing transgression of God’s holy law. Joseph’s brothers knew
that they were doing wrong and God denounced it as such. Genesis 37 from from Adam all
the way to Moses. Sin was in the world. But Paul pauses. And he brings
up an obvious argument. For until the law, sin was in
the world for until, you know, Moses came onto the scene, sin
was operating in the world. But there’s a conundrum here.
And he introduces it when he says, but sin is not imputed
where there is no law. How can we have sin if we have
no law? We’ve already begun to answer
the question, there was law in the world. As one said, this statement enunciates
a general principle on which Paul is insistent that since
sin is a transgression of law, it is apparent that there can
be no sin if there is no law. So how can we say that there
was sin from Adam until Moses if no law had been uttered? Paul
doesn’t mean he goes on to say that sin is not registered in
the sense of being charged to men’s account because he held
people accountable, right? He wiped out almost the entirety
of the whole world, Noah’s family excluded. That’s accountability. Paul isn’t saying that the absence
of written law did away with all responsibility for humans
because God held them accountable. As I said, Paul had already set
forth the principle that even the Gentiles. Had the law written
in their hearts, they knew what was right, they knew what was
wrong to the point of being without excuse. It’s a funny thing. The only way that we know sin
is by the law, which is transgressed. There was not law given thus
far, so how is it that sin can be said to be in the world? It
doesn’t make sense, humanly speaking. In essence, Paul says it’s axiomatic.
Everyone knows it. It’s the law of sin, if you will. It’s the law of law and sin,
if you will. You can’t have sin where there
is no law. And yet. Paul says in verse 14,
here’s another conundrum. We have another problem. We can’t
have sin if there is no law. And we certainly can’t have death It’s a strong contrast that Paul
introduces here is nevertheless. That’s what people think. There’s
no such thing as sin, if there is no law, yet people were dying
and that’s a problem. And it wasn’t just sinful people,
wasn’t just Cain, Adam and Eve died. Seth died. Countless scores of other people
whose sin certainly wasn’t recorded in scripture died. between Adam
and Moses. The result of the prevalence
of death reigning over all mankind, that sin was taking its toll
on mankind, the sin of Adam was taking its toll, death, the result
was taking its toll, that people were concurrently sinning against
the law of God. One pastor said it this way,
one commentator, It is true that all men are sinners, either in
the sense of being actual transgressors or having a depraved nature,
and consequently they are exposed to death. But the specific assertion
of verse twelve is that by one man death passed on all men.
So the point is, we don’t need to
argue over whether we’re dying Simply because Adam sinned and
that death spread to all men or. We don’t have to ignore the
fact that the simple principle was in the world that we were
accountable to God, that. We, too, were experiencing what
was brought into the world, sin and death through sin. Adam died,
Eve died, great masses of people died. And here comes another little
important tidbit. Tidbit called death, death was in the world,
and that’s interesting, isn’t it? It’s interesting because
death, as we learned last week from the testimony of scripture
itself, death is a direct result of sin. Nothing more, nothing
less. And so even though no law had
been given in the world. What that proves is that sin
was in the world and the law was in the world and death was
operative in the world. And what that proves is that
God’s law was in an operative in the world. It proves it. People
died. People died because sin was in
the world and they sinned and people died because they sinned
against the law of God, even if it was only revealed in their
hearts that ultimately speaking, even if they had walked a perfect
life, They were walking dead men in Adam. When Adam sinned,
they sinned. Look at verse 14 once again.
Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those
who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam. The likeness
of the offense of Adam was explicit warning against sin. They. brought the death penalty on
themselves. But that death penalty was all
already issued to all of humanity. This is an absolutely overwhelming
and devastating pronouncement. That we walked out of the garden
sinful and dying. We already have the death sentence.
And we already walk out with a sin nature calling down the
wrath of God upon our heads. This law, one said, was that
was death as punishment for wanton transgressors applied indeed. But the dominant fact in the
sin of Adam was that he acted in spite of a positive command.
God had told him not to eat of that fruit. And you say that
the sin of all of those between Adam and Moses was a sin of a
different kind. It was still sin. It was still
action against their the light of their conscience. Romans 118, if you think back
in your mind to that explicit passage. where Paul said the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. We looked and we saw that every
person knows that there is a God. Every person knows that there
is a holy God against whom they transgress, because that which
is known about God is evident within them, for God made it
evident to them. For since the creation of the
world is invisible, attributes of eternal power and divine nature
have been clearly seen being understood through what has been
made so that they are without excuse. The sin and the likeness
of the offense of Adam was that Adam sinned against the clearly
revealed command, thou shalt not eat. Remember. Adam disregarded
that. Others from Adam to Moses didn’t
have that benefit of a direct revelation of a set of do’s and
don’ts. Adam did. He sinned. But they
also sinned. Just because they didn’t have
the list didn’t mean they got a free ride. God held them accountable
too. He held them first and foremost
accountable to Adam’s sentence. And he held them accountable
for their own sin. They had a conscience. They have the law of God written
in their heart and they still sin. What Paul is saying here is that
death proves that there was sin in operation in the world and
sin in operation in the world proves that law was in the world. Look, if you would. And essentially
a transitional statement that Paul makes at the end of verse
fourteen. Where he says, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until
Moses, even those over those who had not sinned in the likeness
of the offensive Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. Now, some of us have done great
studies on types. Some of us, you know, that was
one of my criticisms of some of The Puritans, as they want
to read in all kinds of types that were never really designed
as types in the first place, they basically begin to allegorize
scripture. A type, as one described it,
denotes a mark made by striking, and so whether it was a stamp
or what have you, it was an impression made by something else. And from
that, we get words like form or figure or pattern or example,
all of those come from this little word, a type. But it had a, as you know, a
very specialized use in scripture, because it refers to a type in
the sense of a person or a thing prefiguring a person or thing
in the future. What Paul is saying here was
that Adam was a type of Christ. Adam, in his universal effectiveness
in the ruin of humanity, was a type of Christ in the sense
that he prefigured Christ in Christ’s universal effectiveness
for salvation. He was the first Adam. Christ,
in Paul’s understanding, was the second Adam. Adam was the
first man of the counterpart, the type of Christ. As one said,
Adams transgression provided a parallel or an analogy, you
could say it the same way. It’s this contrast that we’ve
been considering the whole time. And in a sense, this is the capstone
of that contrast. But he brings it to light that
there is this. This type, this similarity between
the two individuals, Adam and Christ. And a type here is an
interesting thing. A type is a thing like another. It represents another thing to
come, another person like it. Adam was that to Christ. Adam
was in many degrees like Jesus. Not exactly, but similar. He had a similar role. He had
a similar effect. What Paul wants to guard against
is making them the same, and that’s where verses 15 and following
begin to separate out this contrast that had begun. Paul doesn’t
want us to lump in Adam together with Christ, not entirely. He
wants to stand them in bold relief. And there are some senses where
they are very much different from one another. And that’s
Paul’s focus as we close out these verses. The first of all,
The first contrast that he clarifies, beginning in verse 15, is that
these two, this first Adam and the second Adam, who is Christ,
are dissimilar in the quality of the effect. Look at verse
15. Where he says 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 gifts by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounds
to the many. Now, some people get hung up
on those words, many. Why didn’t he say all? Because
he had already said all. We know that. That Paul means
all people died, we know that death spread to all men, he said
it explicitly a number of times already, and we’ll say it again.
But he’s using language that he’s guarding against having
to be forced to say the same thing that all that had to happen
is for Jesus to come into the world. Much more did the grace
of God and the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to
all. None of us would say it. It’s
not true. Paul’s guarding against that
ahead of time, and he’s saying, look, a great many people were
affected by the fall of Adam and a great many people will
be blessed by the righteous act of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
two things are very different. The two representatives are very
different. As one said, the statement of
the dissimilarity between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift is
not supported by an appeal to the infinitely superior effectiveness
of the latter. Much more here rests on the fact
that what stands over against the sin of Adam is nothing less
than the grace of God. And that’s where you begin. What
Paul is saying here is so simple. But only a preacher can confound
it. He basically just says, look,
By one man, by one man’s transgression, many died. Look at how much better. Look at how dissimilar these
two representatives are, because the second one brings not transgression
and not sin and not death. He brings the grace of God and
the gifts, ultimately the gift of God’s righteousness. Another said it this way, the
free gift is not on the same scale as the effect of Adam’s
sin, even though the action of the one sinner, the sentence
and condemnation was passed, the free gift bestowed after
many repetitions of sin, countless measures of sin, truckloads in
life and eons and eons of sin in the world. is what Christ
responded to and what Christ dealt with. The gift here that
he speaks of is the gift of justification by faith, which is offered in
Christ. In other words, what he says
is the scope of Christ’s ministry is so far greater that ultimately
it can’t even be compared to what Adam did. Adam sinned and
he tainted the entire human race. Christ came and in one act of
righteousness introduced salvation and the righteousness of Christ
to all who believe in him. It is like flipping on the floodlight
in a pitch black cave. It’s profound. It’s profound. There’s a second dissimilarity.
In this contrast that Paul has painted, not only is the free
gift unlike the transgression, as he says in verse 15, but the
gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. Now,
we’ve already seen a hint of that, but in this particular
case, it’s dissimilar in the result bestowed. And that is
so simple, it’s already been dealt with and lies carefully
on the surface. Look at verse 16, 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. This contrast issues forth. Two
sides of a coin and on one side of a coin, you have this very
simple case, one man, one sin, one consequence, and it’s ugly. Condemnation on the flip side
of the coin, on the other hand, Paul says the free gift arose
from any transgressions resulting in justification. You see, Paul
doesn’t consider it a worthless venture to reiterate his point. He says the two, even though
they’re similar, similar enough for me to set up this contrast,
they’re not the same, not even close. The reiteration here is
not mere repetition. There are distinguishing features,
there are things that set them apart, and what he gives here
is the distinctive features of God’s magnanimous grace that
is given to us. As one commentator said, the
point of this verse is that the sentence of condemnation which
passed to all men because of the cause and the sin of Adam
was for one offense. Whereas we are justified by Christ
out of many offenses. Christ much more than Christ
does much more than remove the guilt and evils, which are the
consequences of the sin of Adam. We’ll see what those blessings
are in just about 30 seconds. Paul reasons in verse 17, he
gives us the reason for his statement. For if by the transgression of
the one death reigned through the one, that’s all that’s all
we got from Adam. What is Adam’s legacy? That’s
what we’ve been studying. What is Adam’s legacy? Death. Not even so much sin. Sin brought
death and death spread to all men. The poll says once again, much
more. The sin abounded, grace super abounded. Much more, those
who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness
will reign in life through the one Christ Jesus. It isn’t just
life. It isn’t just that life begins
to reign, that life has been restored and that we just merely
enjoy life, we reign in life. It’s powerful language. One said
the judgment was the consequence of one, but of one misdeed. But the gift was God’s answer
to a numberless multitude misdeeds accumulated from all the sins
of the centuries. But get this, the reign of death,
the powerful, destructive sway it exercises over the affairs
of human beings. In the case of believers, the
reign of death is not simply replaced by the reign of life. But it is arranged so inexpressibly
glorious that those who participate in it will themselves be kings
and queens. Did you get what he suggests?
It’s not merely. That we receive an abundance
of grace that has meaning, it’s not merely that we receive the
gift of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. And it’s those who
receive those things who will reign in life. It’s not that
life flourishes as a general principle and we merely step
into it. We will be reigning in life. Eternal life. Through the one
Jesus Christ, and in that sense, there’s no comparison to what
Adam did, Adam indeed brought a terrific, horrific fall on
all mankind. But what Jesus restores through
his gift of righteousness because of our faith in him is so far
beyond comparison that Paul stammers at words. Through one man, sin
entered into the world, death came into the world. And death reigned, death held
sway, But on the other side, it says that in no uncertain
terms, life. Not simply that life reigns,
but that the subjects, those who believe in Jesus Christ reign,
pointing to the dominion that we will enjoy together with Christ
for eternity. Paul had set up a contrast. He
set up a contrast between Adam and Christ, he introduced us
to the contrast in verse 12. And throughout these verses,
he has upheld his end of the bargain in returning the balance
of that contrast, just as through one man sinner entered into the
world, so did righteousness through one man. Just as death spread
through sin, so did life through righteousness. And so death spread
to all men and righteousness. Doesn’t spread to all men. Not
naturally. Not automatically. But life,
eternal life, spreads to those who place their faith in that
Christ, in that second Adam, in the one who came in righteousness
and suffered and died on the cross. Let’s bow before him and
thank him for that gift of his son, our Lord Jesus. Our merciful
God, we humble ourselves before you. And we thank you and praise
you for the gift who is our Lord Jesus. We thank you that he calls
us to faith and calls us to repentance. And we thank you that he has
more than restored super abundantly beyond what Adam destroyed by
his sin and what death took in process. God, if there are any
in this room who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. Let them
see that they do not have to wallow. In the condemnation that Adam
brought. But they can enjoy the justification that Jesus offers
merely by faith. In Jesus name that we pray all
of these things. Amen. We will take your bulletins,
and as we close, let’s stand together and sing In the Cross
Alone, I Glory. In the cross alone, I glory. Recognition laying down. Greatest treasures count as worthless. Standing next to heaven’s crown. Standing next to heaven’s crown. In the cross alone I glory, ever
reaching for the prize, pressing on and laying hold of that for
which my Savior died, that for which my Savior died. In the cross alone I glory, Nothing
of my own to give, Only that which Christ has offered, For
my soul that I may live, For my soul that I may live. In the cross alone I glory, holding
fast the word of life, toiling not in vain but being poured
out as a sacrifice, poured out as a sacrifice. Never will I seek the glory that
was never meant for me. Always heavenward reflecting,
all to Jesus to receive, all to Jesus to receive. In the cross alone I glory Nothing
of my own to give Only that which Christ has offered For my soul
that I may live For my soul that I may live You are dismissed. Yeah, you know what? It was like, you know, like… Thank you. Thank you.