Two Men

OK, I'm going to talk more and more just to give you a little review of kind of where we're headed. The first third of the course is designed to show us to some degree our identification with Adam, the guy that we all came from. And the fact that there's there are certain things associated with being from Adam. that actually are not all that terrific. And so therefore, Courtney said one time, he said, well, what we want to do is make the class so sick of themselves so that when we present Christ, they'll really go for him. So we're continuing on the first third of the class, which is talking more and more about Adam and sin and what he brings to the table.

And even though we're all individual persons, we're totally animated by who we are identified with as a non-believer. A non-believer has no choice to be good or bad. He's evil all the time because he's an atom. An atom is sinful. I'm going to talk about why sin showed up. The believer does have an option in the sense of who controls him, but a non-believer doesn't.

He's an atom and he can be As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, what's the name of the tree we come from in the garden? What's the tree that Adam wasn't supposed to eat? The knowledge of good and evil. So our whole moral basis is good and evil, right? The trouble with most Christians is that when they get saved, they think, well, I'm just going to take a little trip from those evil branches over to the good ones. And so then that means that I'm a Christian.

Well, that doesn't mean you're a Christian at all. You're still in the tree. The tree of life is the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's no contrast between good and evil in Christ. It's holiness, which is a whole different thing. So we think of goodness as spirituality. It's not. You're still in the same tree. That's why there are two trees talked about in the garden, and that's why the Lord Jesus identified himself as the tree of life. The source of life is different. So, today we're going to talk about sin, S-I-N.

And if you've spent any time studying the book of Romans, which is Christianity 101, I don't know if you've ever noticed, but up until Romans 5.12, Whenever you see the word sin, it's always plural, sins, and it always refers to the acts that a person does. These sins are things that fall short of the mark. We would say they're bad things, not necessarily, but they're things that we all commit. Now, once you get to 512, the word changes from sins to sin. And from now on you're going to notice if you do study Romans, you're going to notice that the reference now from 5.12 forward is S-I-N.

It's singular and in the Greek it has a definite article in front of it which in English would be THE SIN. So what do you think THE SIN is? Is it the one big dirty dog sin that you've committed or what would it be? Yeah, it's the sin nature. What's really cool about what the Lord did is that he resolved the issue of the offense committed against him by the sins all believers committed, but he also took care of the source and so that's what we're talking about is the source of sin. And so in order for sins to be committed it has to have a source and the source is the sin nature. So how did the sin nature get here? How did it get here? First question is how did the sin nature enter the world?

And the reference is Romans 5.12. How did it show up? Federal Express, right? It came via the man. By one man, sin entered the world. Now, this one guy brings it. We've talked about why this one man, Adam, is so important. Why is he so important? Especially when it comes to this issue. Because what's true of him is true of everybody that comes from him. He's the representative man.

He's the head of the race. You know, we talked the first week about the principles in Genesis that like begets like, right? Birds beget birds. Cows beget cows. You never saw a flying cow except on TV. And what you are, what animals are, what trees are, what creation The parts of creation that have the capacity given by God to reproduce themselves, always reproduce themselves in kind. That same principle holds true spiritually.

If you're a sinner, then your father was a sinner, and so was his father, all the way back to our friend Adam. So Adam, because he is the first one who sinned, then everybody from him is going to come with whatever he has, which is a sin nature. And it enters the world through him. By one man, this thing, sin, the sin nature, entered the world. That's how it got here.

So it's his fault, right? What do you think? The old man would like to believe it's his fault. What's that? The old man would like to believe it's his fault. Sure. The old man thinks in his own mind, boy, you know, if I'd have been Adam, that wouldn't have happened that way. Yeah, it would have. So, when Adam sinned against God, he was condemned to death, right? What's death mean? He was dead to God. Adam being our unsaved head in life, Does the same hold true for you? We're talking about you before you were believers.

Yes or no? How many say yes? How many say no? How many too chicken to raise their hand? The answer is yes. Adam, again, is the head of the human race. He took all of humanity into the position of death when he sinned. All of them. 1 Corinthians 5.22 says, in Adam all die. Not just Republicans. All die. All die in Adam. You see this link now between being in somebody, being in a federal head, Adam, You're in him, and if you're in him, what? You're all dead. You're all separated from God. Everybody who comes from Adam. Yeah. What did I write? What did I do? I'm sorry. Thank you. First Corinthians 15 22. Yeah. And Adam all die. Okay.

So if you came from Adam, which everybody did, nobody escaped, you have his life and therefore, by nature, I think I got this one right, Ephesians 2.3 says, by nature, you're what? You're the children of wrath. That's who you are. So far, the news isn't real good. And the news is that way because of where you came from.

Now I know you're Americans, and I know you've all read the Constitution, and I know you all think you're unique. And I know you all think that the philosophy that we all live by is that we're all individual human beings, and that we come to this existence And we all have the opportunity to be saved or not saved. And if we do enough good things, God's going to recognize them and he's going to say, OK, you can come to heaven. And if you don't do enough good things, he's going to say, well, you didn't quite cut it.

You're going to go to hell. Isn't that how you think? That's a little different than what this says. That you're born condemned, you're born lost, you're born in Adam and you die, you're born dead. That's really the truth. You're born separated from God. Most non-believers think this.

Well, I live on the yellow line, right? And maybe I'm going to slide over to the oncoming traffic, which is dangerous, or I'm going to slide over to the flow of traffic in the direction I'm heading. But my life is somewhere left or right of the yellow line. My buddy said, this is hell, and this is the best it's ever going to be. We're born dead. And if you leave this planet without believing in the person and work of Christ, you just stay where you are. Right? Separated from God.

Now, take a look at the verse 13 to 17 in Romans 5. 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 is a parenthesis. And it's important, I think, to point that out. And the parenthesis says, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them who had not sinned after the similitude, or in the same way Adam sinned, Adam's transgression, who was the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many are dead, much more the grace of God. And the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

I'm not going to finish it. The point is here, why do you think God did not impute sin before there was a law? Because that's what it says. It says, for until the law was in the world, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed where there is no law. So you've got to be thinking, man, not only am I stuck with Adam, but then God sends the law and now I'm really in trouble. God did not impute sin before there was a law.

Can you tell me why? What's that? What did the law do? It gave us a standard and it made your actions transgressions. When you see the word transgressions, what a transgression is is a violation of a specific statute. There was only one law until Moses. Do you know what the law was? One law. You know what it was?

Don't eat of this tree. If you do, you'll die. That was it. Right? Can you give me any other laws? Where God said, don't do this, and if you do it, there's a consequence, and if you don't do it, I will bless you? No. But here's the problem. God is not imputing sin. So what's imputation mean? Credit? To cut off? Think about that. If I'm going to impute something or God's going to impute something to you, what's he going to do? He's going to put it to your account, right?

So you can say, well, gee, you know, up until the time of Moses, these guys are sinning, but God never holds them responsible for their acts, right? Isn't that what it says? It says that what they're doing, God isn't saying, oh, you did You know, these five things wrong, and I'm going to hold you accountable for them. He didn't do that, did he? So what the verse says, the verse says, look, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed when there is no law. So you can sin like crazy and never have it charged to your account. Big problem. Nevertheless, that's kind of a scary word, nevertheless. Death reigned from Adam to Moses. How come? How come death reigned from Adam to Moses? If sins are not imputed to mankind because there is no law, how come they're dying?

What's that? Why? Because they have sin natures. Because they're all sons of Adam. So it isn't what you do, it's who you are that matters. Do you see that? I'm not excusing your behavior, but the real issue is who you are, not what you do. Because what you do actually is based on what? Who you are. Let's see. So you could say that the sins that were committed between Adam and Moses did not bring about the sentence of death on humanity, right?

What about the flood? God looked over the whole world and he saw that the deeds of man's heart were evil only continually. That's all he saw. And he repented that he even created man. So what's the problem here? Is it the sins that they're committing? What's he looking at? He's looking at the heart of man. He's not looking at their deeds. Their deeds are obviously evil.

And they're only evil continually. And so he's going to wipe out the whole race. But he keeps Noah and his family around. What's the problem with Noah? What's the problem with him intrinsically? That's right. So guess what he's got? He's got a sin nature. And guess what his sons have? Sin natures. And guess what all of their children are going to have from then on? Sin natures.

So, was that an exercise in futility on God's part? Why do you think he did the flood? God saw that Noah was a righteous man. How did he get to be righteous? He was one of those guys that lived all the time on the good side of the tree. How did he get to be righteous? He believed God. That's how.

So, in verse 14, It says, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses. The next question is, what does death reign mean? Again, it's tough for you guys as Americans to understand this thing about reigning. You all think you're free. You all think that you get to choose. But this verse says, death reigned. What does reigning mean? has control. You don't view yourself as having something controlling you, do you? My example of living on the yellow line, the whole mentality is that I'm in control. I'm the one that decides.

But the Word of God says that death is the reigning principle. In other words, separation from God is an absolute reigning principle that every human being that shows up on this planet has, lives under, is involved in, saturated in, it can't escape. cannot escape. It's a reigning principle.

Tonight, when you turn on the news at five o'clock, what are you watching? You're watching death reigning. Everybody's going to vote on Tuesday. You know what we're voting on? Some more reigning death. That's really what's going on. Television is the medium through which death functions. Death is not inactive. We view death as something that isn't moving. Death is a reigning principle in which all of this world lives in, functions. Turn on your tube, you're watching death. You're watching an entire creation function separated from God. That's what you're watching.

Unlike Adam and unlike Israel after Moses, those who live between the two had no positive outward divine law, the breaking of which would have been a direct transgression and a threatening of death before them. The problem was they died. Why did they die? Again, why did every human being except for one, die between Adam and Moses. Is it because they didn't trust God?

No, because death is now the principle that everybody has control. They can't help themselves. They're born into this environment where death is king. And it doesn't matter whether they trust or not. They're born dead and they're born into this reigning principle. Well, certain people were quote-unquote saved. There's no question about that.

But the point here is that anybody who came from the Adam line shows up dead. And they die physically. And the reason they die physically is because they're born in sin. They come from and have this sin nature. Now God has declared and does declare some righteous before him. The problem is that they still die. They still physically die.

And so it's a reigning universal principle that all in Adam are dead. Now some, because of faith, are declared righteous, but it doesn't relieve them. See, the Old Testament saints, the ones that are saved, still come from Adam, don't they? You sure? We'll talk more about that in a few weeks to come. But they still come from Adam, so they still die. Like Abraham was accounted righteous.

How many years before the law was given? 400 years, right? Did he die? Sure he did. Why did he die? Because he has a sin nature. Notice in the end of verse 14, it says, Adam's transgression who is the figure of him that was to come. What does that figure of him to come tell us about Adam and Christ? What does that little phrase tell us? We've talked about it, but we haven't really backed it up biblically, but now we can. What does that phrase tell us? The figure of him that was to come. Does it mean that Adam is a type of Christ being himself a progenitor of a race? That's right. That's exactly what it means. That's exactly right. That's perfect. That Adam and Christ are unique men in that they are heads of races. See that?

And so Adam was the figure of him to come. So who's the prototype? Who's the prototype? Adam or Christ? Christ is. Christ is the model man. Right? But both of these guys are Heads of races. And so what's going to happen is, it's going to turn out to be, where do you come from? Whose line do you come from? Do you come from Adam? Or do you come from Christ? That's really going to be the issue.

And so he sets it up here. Paul sets it up here by saying, look, Adam is a type of him that was to come. In other words, he was the head of the human race. And there's another guy coming. who is going to be ahead of a human race of beings. And his criteria and credentials are going to be totally different. He doesn't say that yet, but what he's doing, he's setting up these two men.

You see that? And the two men are the most important men in history. Is that complicated? I know that when When you start into Romans 5.12 and on, and Paul begins to present this, the doctrine of the two men, we don't ever think that way, do we?

Do you think about, well, I'm from this man or from that man? You know that these men are really heads of races and whatever is true of the head of my race is going to be true of me. And before God, it matters which man I'm aligned with. We think of ourselves as specific personal individuals who we would say, yeah, we came from Adam, but Christ came and I was saved.

But I never think about the fact that what is God going to do about this problem, as though God has problems, the problem he has about the sinner? How is he going to fix that issue? Because he could save me, like he did the Old Testament saints, but never sever me from my father Adam. And if he doesn't do that, what happens? I'm always going to be a sinner. Right? Because my father was a sinner.

So he comes up with a remedy through Christ that involves the changing of men. In order to set that premise up, though, he's got to introduce the two men first and explain what they both bring to the table. Okay? In Adam, all die. Sin came into the world through this one man. And that sin nature was so pervasive that it caused death to reign. And everybody died even before there was a law. And what he's trying to say is, look, the law doesn't help you. The law is not there for you to be accounted righteous through because it's been given to a man who is intrinsically sinful. And we're going to find out at the end of this chapter that rather than the law fixing anything, it made it worse.

So Adam is declared a type of one who is to come. And that one, obviously, is Christ. So if an Adam all die, go back to 1 Corinthians 15.22. 1 Corinthians 15.22, for as an Adam all die. There's the type. Look at the rest of the verse. Even so, in Christ shall all be made alive. See the contrast? Two men, right? Now, go down to verse 47. The first man is of the earth. Who is that? Earthy. Who is that guy? Our pal Adam, right?

The second man is the Lord from heaven. You see the contrast? One man is from the earth, the other man is from heaven. Two men. Verse 49, And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. And I'm jumping ahead by showing you those verses a little bit, but the point is there are two men And those two men are the only two men that really matter.

They're federal heads, they're representative men of their respective races. And both of them have things that they bring to the table that are different, but they're identical in the sense that they are representative men. This word you hear me use the term federal head and I should explain what the word federal means. Federal means that is a word that indicates that the action of one is for all that he represents.

The consequences of the actions of the head accrue or inure to the benefit of the heirs. In real estate we have this little phrase at the end of a contract that says that that this contract enures to the benefits, the errors, the successes, or the signs of the parties. What that means is that if I sign a contract and I get hit by a bus, John's got to fulfill it, or Donna does, because it goes down my line. The fact that I die or the fact that I'm incapacitated doesn't kill the contract.

Well, what the actions of Adam enure to the benefit of the heirs of Adam." All of us. The actions of Christ anewer to the benefit of all those that come from him. See that? So the federal head means is that what the head does anewers to those who come from him. That's all the federal head means. Any questions there? Okay.

Back to Romans 5. 15. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. Now what he's going to do over the next few verses is begin to contrast what Adam does and what Christ does. The offense obviously is Adam, the free gift is what Christ brings. Now watch the contrast. For if through the offense of one many are dead, How many is many? All. Much more, the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto the many. So, how is the offense of one unlike the gift of the other? Because there's a difference here. There's a difference here. What's the difference?

Somebody else with a, other than a King James version, read 15. Might make it clear. I have a new King James. Okay. Yeah, that's good. But the free gift is not like the offering, for if by the one man's offering men die, much more the grace of God and gift of the grace of the one man. Okay. Anybody want to tackle one of the differences? There's actually two or three here. What's the difference?

One sin by Adam does what? What does it result in? Death, condemnation, right? How about, what did the many sins do for the second man? Well, maybe we'll go at it this way. What Adam did, and the accrual of Adam's behavior to all of mankind, was it gracious? But the principle holds, right?

And so, he brings sin condemnation with him, right? So, if that's what Adam brings to the table, Then how is God going to respond to that, or how should he respond to it? What would he do? He would condemn it, wouldn't he? Because it's sin. And so he does condemn it, but what does Christ bring to the table? He brings this thing called grace. He brings grace, even though condemnation is brought by, as a result of Adam's behavior.

So what, let's talk a minute about grace. What is grace? We're studying grace on Tuesday. I'll give you the definition we're working on now. It's the unlimited and unmerited blessings from God based solely on the adequate work of Jesus Christ. Grace is the unmerited and unlimited blessing from God based on the totally adequate work of Christ.

Now, see how the other man plays in? What happens here? The Lord Jesus Christ brings grace to the table. Why does He bring grace? Because of His totally adequate work. It satisfies God. And in John chapter 1, it says, The law came by Moses, but what did Jesus Christ bring? Remember? You guys are better students than that. Grace and truth. The thing that the Lord Jesus brings to the table is grace and truth. Adam doesn't bring that to the table. Christ does.

So there's a huge difference in what they bring. And what happens is in verse 16, and not as it was by the one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification." That's kind of a complicated verse, but maybe simplify it this way.

Adam brings one sin to the table, and all men are sinners because of that. But when you get to the table, there's sins piled up to as far as you can go. And the Lord Jesus Christ takes all of those sins and He pays the penalty for them. So that's why the verse says, the many sins on Christ result in what?

What's the verse say? Because both men have to deal with sin, don't they? One brings it and the other one has to deal with it. The one who dealt with it, when he deals with it, what happens? According to the verse. Justification. There is no justification unless the second man deals with the sin issue.

You see that? So, the verse says, and now as it was by the one that sinned, that's our friend Adam, so is the gift. So the gift is not like the one that Adam brought, not the sin. It's different. For the judgment was by one to condemnation. So judgment came upon all men because of one sin.

But, the free gift, by the way, what is the gift? More than that. What is the gift? Forgiveness. The gift is salvation. That's what the gift is. But the free gift is of many offenses under justification. What are these many offenses? These are the sins of all men of all time, past, present and future. Christ brings to the table atonement for those sins. That's what he brings.

And therefore, it leads on to justification. What's the word justification mean? Those of you who were in the class last term, what does justification mean? That's righteousness. Justification means that you were declared righteous. In other words, God just said, you're righteous. Just a declaration. Doesn't mean you are righteous. It means that he declared you to be so. And because of the work of Christ on the cross, he can say, you're righteous. I justify you. I'm sorry. It doesn't mean that you are, but if he says that you are. What I meant was that it doesn't mean that you are in and of yourself. You only are because He declares you to be so. That's what justification means. Let's take Abraham was declared righteous because of his faith. Was there any change in Abraham? He still comes from Adam, still a sinner, but because he believed God, God declares him righteous.

He says, look, you have free standing before me. I now accept you based on the work of my son and the fact you believe. But there's nothing intrinsic about you that makes you righteous. It's all based on the merit of what my son did, not you. Now, that will change when we get on the other side of the cross and start talking about our standing in Christ. There's a difference in our righteousness and Abraham's. We're not going to grab that today.

He's not justified until he believes. That's right. The sins are paid for. But he's not forgiven until he believes. He's not declared righteous until he believes. And again, a lot of this, as we work through the issue of these two men, when we hopefully get to the point where you see what God is doing, is he's going to move you from an identity standpoint out of Adam and into Christ. Once that transaction takes place, then there's a whole bunch of things that are intrinsically true of you, that aren't intrinsically true of a man like Abraham, who was declared righteous, who was justified by God. He didn't go through an intrinsic change. We do. And that's why the doctrine of the two men become really important, I think. Now, let's just look for a minute at the issue of the much mores.

If there are four of them in this chapter, and if you go back and look at verse 9 and 10, Watch how they work. Much more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when you were enemies you were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, you shall be saved by his life.

The reason I want to point out these much more has to do with the issue of grace. Is grace the kind of thing that I have a need I have a need for 50 bucks. So I ask God to meet my need and he gives me 50 bucks. Is that grace? Why not? Does grace just meet the need? How many think it does? Oh, we've got a lot of chickens today. How many think it doesn't? And why doesn't it? Because it's always more than the need. It's always more than the need.

As we talked about on Tuesday, if I need $50, what does Grace give me? $500. If I write a check for $50, my account goes up by $500. And I use Grace. How do I use Grace? How do I use it? Because I can use it. How do I use it? God extends his grace to me, what do I do?

Take it. You take it. You say thank you and you take it. And when you take it, what do you find out? There's way more than you took. The more you take, the more there is. You see that? And it's exponentially. It isn't 50 bucks for 50 bucks. I need this little bit, and bang, there's always much more. That's what these much mores refer to when we're talking about the need that Adam creates by his sin, and God's provision for those sins and that issue is always responded with much more. So, the grace of God goes way beyond the need. Now a lot of times we think, no, not really, it's just enough. It's way more than you need.

If you look at verse 15, but not as the offense, so also the free gift. That's why the contrast is that the offense and the free gift are not the same. For if through the offense of one many are dead, much more by grace, or much more, the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has what? The grace of God just adequately met my need here. Is that what the verse says? That grace abounded. It abounded.

That's what much more needs. It means, verse 17, for if by one man's offense, Death reign by one. One guy sins, federal head of a race, death reigns. Much more. There's a much more. They who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. So much more. What does Christ bring to the table? Much more. He brings grace. The much more here in verse 17 is you receive abundance, not just enough, abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. What's the gift of righteousness? What is the gift of righteousness? In Adam, all die. When Adam died, what happened to him in terms of his relationship to God? He died. He separated. He had none. So what is righteousness if it's the opposite of that?

We have a right standing. We have a relationship. We are now accepted in the Beloved. We now, according to verse, if you go back up to verse 2 of chapter 5, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. That word in which we stand, that we permanently stand there. You know, George Bush was in town yesterday.

How many of you had access to him? Really? Clinton was here this week. How many had access to him? Right? How many of you have access to the mayor? Or to the governor? How many of you have access? You don't have any, do you? Maybe some of you do. But this verse says you have access to who? The God of the universe.

And this isn't that you sit in the outer room and you've got to get your act cleaned up and everything's got to be perfect before you come in. On Thursday night, we're studying Hebrews. And what we're finding out in Hebrews is that God has, through the work of Christ, taken us into the very presence of a holy God, and that's our home.

And we're to stay there. You don't go in, talk a little bit, and leave. No. When we get to chapter 10 in Hebrews, we're going to find out that we're to go in and stay there. We have access. When one man brought death, which was separation, no access at all. Because of the work of Christ, we have righteousness. We have access.

We have the ability, and not only the ability, but the responsibility to enter into and fellowship with the God of the universe. Pretty cool, huh? And you don't have to go through any intermediary to get there. other than the other man who is Christ. You don't have to go through all of these spiritual push-ups in order to have access.

You have it now because that's what the other federal head brought to the table. He brought access. He brought righteousness. You see that? So it's kind of cool when you contrast what one man brings and the other man brings the much more's really do count. Because you get a lot more from the second cup.

And the last question, which we'll answer next week, which was, why is it important to see that God has changed his name? I'm going to ask that next week, first time, first question. Dear Father, how we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our very life. We thank you for your grace that so abundantly comes towards us in your dear Son, the Lord Jesus, and we pray in his name. Amen.