Consequence of Adam's sin

You're in less than seven. All right. I'm working really hard to do this right this time. By the way, I'm getting a lot of feedback off the Web about our class. So you're nationally known now. So when you speak up, others are going to hear you. You can't hear very well. They're trying to fix it with this thing here, which is a MP3 recorder. And last week they said it didn't work too well because I kept banging it with my glasses. They don't they don't know quite where to stick it on me. But it picks up your voice a lot better than the mic does. Yeah. And you might, if I forget, you might say to me, repeat the question so it gets on the tape. I'm so bad at remembering that. Okay. We're working our way through Romans chapter 5, 12 through 21. A couple of comments. How important do you think it is that we believers understand these principles? what 512 through 21 20 reveals to us.

How important is it? How important is it to know that you're there are two families and you're either associated with one or the other on a scale of one to 10, maybe a five, eight, four. How much? I think it's supremely important. Tell me why. Why is it so important? The perspective of how you look at the rest of the Bible. Here's the other reason. Let me give you a good practical example. If you walk into a Christian bookstore today, What are all the books about? Who are they about? Adam or Christ? Aren't they? Aren't they?

They're all about fixing up the guy from the old family. Right. And that that guy is. I mean, it's amazing to think that he's even fixable. But here there are. I mean, some of you probably like me are on that Christian book distributors catalog thing. It comes out about every month or so and it's this thick and it's got hundreds of books in it. Maybe you find one that understands this principle. Everything else they're selling is dealing only with the old man.

So how important is it? It's incredibly important because if we don't understand the doctrine of the two men, and that we are either from one or the other. No admix. If you don't understand that, who are you going to work on? You're going to work on the old man. You're going to try to make him or her become a good-looking Christian. What are you left with? And you're going to implement some sort of law system to carry that out.

That's why it's incredibly important for believers, and this is not super spirituality. This is basic stuff. When you are called by the Holy Spirit to place your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you do that, in essence, what happens to you positionally? You change families. That's what happens. That's why they call it born again. An overused term, but not understood. That's what it means.

So, how do you get in the family of Adam? You're born into it. How do you get in the family of Christ? New birth, right? Becoming a member of the family of Adam, everybody is. You just show up, right? What do you have to do to get into the family of Christ? Yeah, you've got to exercise faith. The family of Adam is for how many people? Everybody, right? But there's a limited number of those that are from the family of Christ, right? Not everybody is there. It's limited.

And as we've been studying, starting last week, there is a kingdom in the family of Adam, and it reigns over all of those that are in that family. What is the reigning principle of all those that are in Adam? Death. That's the reigning principle. No one, no one in Adam reigns outside death. Death means separation, you're separated from God, right? No one in Adam reigns outside of death. They're all in death. So if you don't know the doctrine of the two men, and you're trying to fix up Adam, where are you living? You're living in the reign of death, separation. So what chances do you have of making Adam be what you're hoping he's going to be? None. None.

So, in Adam is where we all were, in Christ is where we all are now. Now, in Christ, which we'll talk a little bit more today, if death reigns in Adam, who reigns in Christ? Who? Who reigns in Christ? Boy, you guys don't know that you're kings, do you? You do. We do. We reign in Christ. Grace is the reigning principle, but we're the kings. We reign. Isn't that interesting? So we'll talk some about that.

So I don't think there's anything more important than whose family you're in, and nothing as important to understand whose family you're in. And I think believers have forgotten this truth, as evidenced by what's on the bookshelves in Christian bookstores and watch Christian television, well, television that claims to be Christian, or radio programs or whatever. This principle isn't there. It just isn't there.

They talk about reformation and not new birth. They may call it new birth, but what really they're doing is reforming the old man. We're going to work through 518-21 today. What's going on in these verses is a contrast between these two men, and what they both bring to the table, and the consequences of the actions or behaviors of each man.

And so we learned last week that in verse 16, and not as it was of the one that sinned, so as the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. What we learned about last week was that There was one act of sin that resulted in condemnation. One act. But verse 17 says, For if by one man's offense death reigned by one. So one act, one single act caused condemnation for the whole race and the whole creation.

Much more, they who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life, by one Jesus Christ. Who's doing the reigning there? Those who have the gift. You and me. Now what's interesting is that one man brings one offense that requires condemnation. The second man, at the point in which there are literally billions and trillions of offenses, what does he do? What does he do?

Because If one act of sin created such condemnation, how about billions of them? Trillions of them? A number you can't even comprehend in terms of offenses and sin. What about all of those? Shouldn't the condemnation be exponentially that much greater? What did this other man do? Because it was through those that he comes into the equation. He doesn't commit them, but He takes them on Himself, and He pays for them.

And because of His doing that, verse 17 says, "...and the gift of righteousness shall reign." What is righteousness? The reason I ask the question is because I'm going to teach the kids that this morning, so I know more about it now than I did last week. What is righteousness?

What do you think it is? One of those 25 cent Christian words that nobody has a clue what it means, right? It's one of the attributes of God. It means that God is holy. He's good. That's all He is, is good. and he's free from any kind of tarnishment, sin, or anything in his person.

The Vines Dictionary, which I thought was interesting, used this definition. The character or quality of being right or just. And then it says it was formally spelled, and listen to this, this is really interesting, right-wise-ness. Instead of righteousness, they used to say right-wise-ness. which clearly expresses the meaning.

It is used to denote one of the attributes of God. So God not only has all knowledge, but He is rightly wise about it all. You see that? So when someone says, the Word of God says, through the One, we get the gift of righteousness. Most of us think, well, it means we've got right standing. Well, it does mean that. But what else did He bring? What else do you get in the family of Christ?

You get this thing called righteousness. Now, let's talk about that. I'm going to jump ahead in one of the questions. What's the difference between the Word of God saying in Galatians that Abraham was declared righteous by his faith and the righteousness you and I have, if there is any difference? Is there any difference? I can't see the frown on the tape. I kind of feel like there is a difference.

Only because I asked the question. No, because we have the righteousness of Christ. There you go. God's own righteousness. There you go. Abraham had righteousness as a gift from God, but it wasn't Christ. His own. It wasn't. That's good. Do you understand what she's saying? We have the right wiseness, the very righteousness that is attributable to God himself. It's one of his characteristics. We have that. Why? That's right.

In the family, we're in Christ. So whatever attributes, it's interesting, whatever attributes Christ has, guess who else has them? You do, and I do. And it's different than being, my standing over here and declaring Brian righteous. Different than that. Because what this is, is that God has taken Brian and put him in Christ his son and given him, as part of his very existence, the characteristics of Christ.

Righteousness. Isn't that cool? And that's one of the gifts that the man Christ, the federal head of his race, brings to the table. Righteousness. Now did God have the right to judge? have a judgment day on the whole human race in Eden? Do you have a right to do that? What do you think? Well, the answer is either yes or no. Come on, it can't be that tough. But you know, once you answer, I'm going to say, well, explain. The answer is, sure he did.

And if you read the Word of God, there's no doubt that the totality of the fall, and God made it really clear to Adam, did he not? When he said to Adam, look, if you sin, what's going to happen? You get to spend three weeks out of the garden and you get to come back. Right? No. You're going to be in time out. What did he say? If you sin, you're going to die. Okay? Now, which means that he is going to be separated from God. Spiritually separated. And he's going to be dead to God. And is that what happened? Absolutely, that's what happened. And whose fault was it? You got two, pick one. It's either Adam or God. It's Adam's fault.

So once you violate God's clear dictate, is God free to implement the consequences? Don't you find it interesting that even though we live under grace, there are consequences? It's interesting that God implements this thing called consequences, that there are results of your behavior, right? So, I don't think it's a question of whether God's right of His wisdom here or His love, He had the right to have a judgment day on the whole race in Eden. Why did He have the right to have a judgment day on the entire human race, which included you guys?

If you don't get the answer to this one, we're going to ratchet back three weeks and start over. Because Adam's our federal head. See that? In Adam, only the girls die. All die. So, this principle of a federal head is really, really important, because when it comes to condemnation, when God condemns Adam, He condemns the entire race. And rightfully so. Why? Why did you get condemned? He's your federal head, but why you personally? You did do the same thing. 5.12 says, By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and death passed upon all men. Why? Because all sinned in Adam.

And you say, well, that's not fair, I wasn't there. Well, if you want to discount that principle, then you have to discount the other side principle too, which is the Christ side. That whatever he did doesn't accrue to you because you weren't there. Do you see the principle? If you don't accept it on the Adam side, you certainly can't accept it on the Christ side. Does that make sense? So we put it this way, we failed in Adam. Now,

18. Therefore, as the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto the justification of life. Now that doesn't mean that all men are saved, right? But the opportunity was presented to all men, right?

So what does justification of life mean? What do you think? If we talk about justification, usually we're talking about death for sin, right? Isn't that kind of where we're going with that? But here it says justification of life. What does that mean? I'll put it this way.

If you only deal with the death side, what are you left with? In other words, if I say to you, Jesus died, paid the penalty on the cross for your sins, and that was the end of it, and so your sins are not paid for, but that's all. Now what? What are you? Where are you? You're still in death. Why?

Because you might have your sins paid for, but if that's where it ends, you have to have the life side too. Do you see that? Not the sin nature taken care of. And you don't live in the old family forgiven. Do you see that? In other words, you're not in this sort of floating around stage where your sins are forgiven but you don't have life. Because you've got to have life, don't you?

If you've been living and reigning in death, and your sins have been paid for, it's just like a non-believer today. Has God taken care of their sins? Yeah, paid the penalty for their sins. But what's the problem if they don't believe? They still stay associated with the condemned old man, and the sins are attached to that old man, even though they're paid for. Do you see that? So unless you have life, you're still in death. There's no middle ground. So justification of life means that you have to have the life side of the cross, the resurrection side, as much as you have to have the death side.

But I must say that most believers, don't they function based on the fact that, well, my sins are forgiven. You know, they don't understand Adam and Christ, the two men, the federal head. They just walk around thinking, well, I'm from the family of Adam and I have been forgiven. Boy, if that's it, guess what they'll never see? If that was all God did, you're not saved.

Because that's the same status as a non-believer. He's in the family of Adam and his sins have been paid for. Right? Isn't that the status? My buddy who lives across the street here in the White House? Who's not a believer? I ought to go knock on his door some days. Do you believe in Christ?

Because his sins have been paid for, but he's still an Adam. He does not have justification of life. And that's what Christ brings to the table. So it's not only the cancellation of guilt and the release from the penalty. but life and a standing in the risen Christ. That's offered to all men through Christ's act of righteousness at the cross. It's not only a cancellation of guilt, but it's life in the risen one. So those in Christ are taken out of their position of death, in Adam and given a place of life in Christ.

1 Corinthians 1.30, let's look at that for a second. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. The key is in Christ.

One of the reasons I love the positional truth is because position is a lot more important than action. Where you are means everything, way much more than what you do. You can't do what you're supposed to do unless you have the where you are in place. Does that make sense?

So in general, I think most Christians are focused upon the death of Christ, that He died for me. But for the growing believer, his life must be the focal point of his faith. Christ who is my life. Colossians 3 says, for ye died. Okay. The next part is, but your life, have this thing called life, is hid with Christ and God. Life is really, really important.

So explain how one righteous act can affect all men. We know how one sinful act affects all men, but how can one righteous act affect all men? We've said that out of many, trespasses laid upon Christ came what? It didn't say that out of many trespasses laid on Christ came judgment. It didn't say that, did it? What does it say?

A righteous act that makes justification possible. We know that all men acted or sinned in Adam, right? So if you receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ, then his actions are the same as your actions. That principle still holds true. Does that make sense? In other words, in Adam all die, and the reason he dies is because we all sinned in Adam. If you believe in the person and work of Christ, and now you're in Christ, then the Word of God specifically says that his actions are your actions.

Do you see that? Do you see how we're starting to get set up for Romans 6? We're starting to be set up for that. And how did God, in fact, carry that out? But that same principle holds true, that as Christ acted, if you're in Him, so did you. I'm getting a lot of blank stares. So, the free gift, then, has come to all those that are in Christ, just like the condemnation came to all those that are in Adam. So, and we've already kind of talked about this, in what sense are we the righteousness of God in Christ? We'll move on from that because we've really already answered that. Yeah. I have a question. Please.

When we're talking right now about Christ dying for us, Well, isn't that kind of secondary? Because really what he died for was to for God be OK with the same thing. And then we just kind of came in as a not as a bone. I don't know how to say it as a bonus.

Yeah. Like we got to do that because he was gracious to do that. But the real issue is really not Karen or any The real issue is that God needed to be okay with these sins had been committed against him and that needed to be taken care of first. And then because of the graciousness, then we get to partake in that. No, it's good. The work of Christ on the cross as our substitute paid the penalty for our sins is something he does alone. We're not included in that. And he does it in order to propitiate God himself, to pay the price.

Because we talked about that whatever God does, he does incur consequences for actions. And the consequence incurred for Adam's sin was condemnation. And so as we talked about a minute ago, Adam commits one transgression and there's condemnation on the whole race. By the time Christ shows up on the planet, there are trillions upon trillions of sins that his act of righteousness satisfies God about all of those transgressions, all of those sins. So God is now satisfied. But it goes back to the issue, okay, God is satisfied, well what about me? Unless God demonstrates His grace towards us, He can go off and do eternity satisfied.

And where are you? You're still dead. If He doesn't put you in a new family, you're still dead. Do you see that? If you don't get out of the condemned family, which is Adam's family, and get into the resurrected life of Christ family, where are you? You're still dead. Sin's forgiven, but you're dead. Do you see that?

Now that doesn't mean in the Old Testament, because of looking forward to the work of Christ, that he could say to a man, Like Abraham, who's in Adam, I declare you righteous. So what's the difference between Abraham and me? And you? Is Abraham alive to God? When God declared him righteous because of his faith, did God give him life?

Yeah. Yeah, he did. But guess what life he didn't get? That's right. God didn't put him in the family of Christ, resurrected life. He has life from God and he's declared righteous and he's a saint separated and he's going to live for all eternity outside of that place called hell, you know, on the earth. But he's not in Christ. Not in Christ.

You can't find any place in the Old Testament or in the Gospels where it talks about Old Testament saints being aligned with the resurrected Christ. Can't find it. But because of the work of propitiation and redemption of Christ on the cross, God can say to an Old Testament saint, I declare you righteous. I'm going to give you life.

It isn't the life of Christ, but you now have access to me and your sins are paid for. But it's not a resurrected Christ life. That's unique to those human beings who live between Pentecost and the rapture who believe in Christ. put back retroactively into Christ's death, into his burial and resurrection, Abraham was not. That's right, he was not. The benefits of that death are accrued to Abraham, but he wasn't positioned in Christ in the death, burial and resurrection, was he? Yeah. I'll give you a good example. The thief dying next to Christ. We call him the good and the bad thief. Don't you love that? They're both thieves. You know, he's not good. Dying on the cross and the Lord Jesus says, today you'll be with me in paradise. Where did he go? Was he in Christ? Did he have the resurrected life of Christ? What do you think? Couldn't have. Christ hasn't resurrected yet. Right?

So what happened to him? He went to this place called paradise. He was a saint. But how about our friend John the Baptist? He's the best example. What did the Lord Jesus say about John the Baptist? That he's the greatest man that ever lived on the earth. He's the greatest man ever, declared by Christ himself. This is the man. This is the greatest man that's ever been on the planet.

Right? So what did John the Baptist say about himself in relation to Christ? Who did he say he was? He said, I'm the friend of the bridegroom. Right? I'm the friend of the bridegroom. Who are you? Are you a friend of the bridegroom? You're the bride. Is that different? Well, in our society it might not be different. Shouldn't have gone there. We voted that down, didn't we?

The bride has a much different relationship than the friend of the bridegroom. because once the marriage takes place, there's a union of life. See that? The friend of the bridegroom gets invited, but he's not the one who's getting married. He's not the one who's going to become one with the groom. See that? That's the difference. Verse... Oops, wrong page.

Verse 19, for as by one man's disobedience, and by the way, 17, 18, 19 are kind of repetitious of 14 and 15 and 16. For by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. So what does it mean in the King James that says many were made sinners or to be set down as a sinner? in this context. What does that mean? One man's act means that many were made sinners.

This is not just an adjective. This means that they became something. They became these things called sinners. which meant they got what? They got this nice little thing that we all have called the sin nature. Which means that within us, we not only possess a sin nature, but we have a tendency and a nature to sin, but we are also one regarded by God as one who has actually committed sins. We've actually done that. We're set down as sinners. Why? Because we did sin. And we do sin. So, the emphasis here is upon the effect of a man's action. And it was produced by a federal head acting apart from the actions of those affected.

In the Lord Jesus Christ, that's true. When it says that the obedience of one shall many be made righteous, it's the act of Christ that allows many to be made righteous. If that act didn't take place, nobody gets to be righteous. You see that? We're not talking about how you got in here, we're just talking about the act of one, the act of Adam, inured and accrued to all those that came from him. The act of Christ, nobody comes from him yet, in a time-space sense until faith. And not every man is in Christ, so it only accrues to those that are in Christ. Am I right with that?

Now, what does the word obedience, or contrast obedience with disobedience? These words, obedience, is one of the great hallmark words of the legalists. They love this word, you know, because it seems to put all the focus on me doing something. But let's talk about what obedience really is. The word para-chaos for the one being disobedient, what do you think that means? If I say, Karen, you're being disobedient, and I'm using that word, what am I saying?

You say the same thing to your kids every day. You're not listening. That's what it means. You're not listening. That's what the word means. You're not paying attention or you're not listening to me. I go up to John all the time and I say, John, pair of chaos. It means you're mishearing or you're not hearing under. You're not submitting to what you're hearing.

That's what disobedience is. It's the essence and is a refusal to hearken to what God has said. That's really what it comes down to. Obedience, on the other hand, means that you are bowing the ear, you're submissively listening. The kid's a great example. You can tell with your child when you're putting something on them, whether they're submissively listening or not. And if they're submissively listening, they really don't have to change their action, do they? Once you know that they're listening submissively, it's okay. That's really what obedience is. So, the Lord's death on the cross was an act of submissively listening. Who was He listening to? He's listening to the Father. Didn't they work out this transaction in the Eternal Covenant? And he said, okay, okay.

He became obedient unto death, yea, even the death of the cross. He was, of course, always obedient to the Father, but it cannot be too strongly emphasized that his life, that this is talking about his life before the cross. The issue is, Active obedience here had to do with his being submissive even to the cross. And was there resistance in him about going to the cross?

The Garden of Gethsemane. You know, he wasn't cheerleading there. He didn't, I mean, but he, every time, he didn't want to go, but he said, your will be done. I am submissively listening to you. I'm going. Why? For the joy set before him. Isn't that something?

So, was the law, the Mosaic law, was it given either to the first Adam or the last Adam? Was it given to the first Adam? When? When did the first Adam get the law? Moses is not Adam. But Adam had a law, didn't he? He had one. Didn't he have one? Don't eat of this tree.

And we talked about that back in verse 13 or 14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the, King James says, similitude of Adam. It's transgression. In other words, even though all these people lived from Adam to Moses, they weren't breaking laws, but they were still dying. You see that? So the answer to the question is, the law was given to neither one of these guys, neither Adam or Christ. But if you look at verse 20, it says, Moreover the law entered, and the word entered there means it came in alongside. What did it come in alongside of? It's like the guy pulling up next to you in the Pontiac. It came in alongside. Alongside of what?

Death? Anybody else? Alongside the sin nature is probably the best way to describe it. So here's the man and Adam functioning and you get to Moses and here comes the law in along next to Moses and all the Jews' sin nature. So what did it do? What did that law come in next to him do? Helplessness. And what else does it do? It has this really interesting effect. What's that?

The law keeps us sinning. The law keeps us sinning. Well, I would even say it more aggressively than that. The best diagram that I know of in my mind, how many of you guys go camping? Lots of you do. And you have campfires, right? Let's say the campfire is the sin nature, right?

And it's time to go to bed and it's just kind of smoldering there. And somebody says, I want you to put that fire out because we're going to go to bed. So you pick up a little thing of white gas, which is the law, and you throw it on the fire. What happens to the fire?

Whammo! That's what the law does. That's what the law does. It comes in alongside, and as soon as it gives Adam a restriction, what does Adam say? Boom. Another good example. Those of you who have children or grandchildren that are toddlers, toddling up to the table, right? And here's the cookie. Don't touch the cookie! Guess what the kid's going to do? Grab the cookie. Why? Because you told him not to.

That's what the law does. The law comes in alongside and it's an external restriction on the sin nature. The problem is it doesn't ever do what those that were hoping it would do. It would control you. Plus, the law doesn't come with the ability or the life to carry out its dictates. It just gives you the command. You see that? It just says do this and don't do that. But it doesn't say, I'm going to help you. And we've supplied this extra energy, grace, or whatever you want to call it, to help you obey. Nope, the law doesn't come with that. What did Christ say his work in the world was? was to die. That was it, to die a sacrifice.

Questions 10 and 11 we probably covered pretty well. Now, notice in 20 it says, moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. There's the principle. Law comes in, offense abounds. So those of you who are legal, understand something. If you're abiding by a law, you don't have to tell me. I already know. Your offenses are abounding. But where sin did abound, grace did much more. And there's another one of those much mores. Grace did much more abound. So, how can that be? Here comes law. in alongside the sin nature, sin explodes. What does grace do? It super abounds, right?

If you go in the Old Testament and you look at all of the wonderfulness of Israel, whenever they had an encounter with God, what did they bring to the table? What did they bring to the table? You just said it. Weakness and sin. What did God bring to the table?

Grace. and the grace was always way more than they needed. Now you and I as believers, well put it this way, the work of the cross of Christ was to deal with the sins of the whole world, right? All of the sins. And so here comes the sin side, which are all the sins, that's man's side of the equation, here comes the Lord Jesus Christ on God's side, what does he bring? He brings not only the grace to satisfy God about the penalty for all of those sins, but it superabounds over that.

And when we get to Romans 6, we're going to start taking a look at what this superabounding really is. It's way more than the need. And that's the way grace is. Grace is always way more than you need. It isn't just enough. It's always a lot more. Now, we've got a few minutes and we can talk about it. Sin reigned. How is grace to reign now? I ask this question a lot. Do you really think of grace as a reigning principle?

Don't you think of grace as a commodity? You know, like barley, oats, wheat? Commodities. You know, we're going to the commodity exchange and we're going to barter and trade for commodities. Don't you think of grace the same way? I've got nine bushels of grace over here. What will you give me for it?

But grace here is described as a reigning principle. We all can talk fairly intelligently about death being a reigning principle. We all know about that, don't we? Because that's what we've lived in our whole existence here. But now, Christ comes with his act of righteousness, even where the law made sin abound, that God has intended for his new creation to live in this principle of grace, where grace is the reigning operating system.

Those of you who are computer savvy know what operating systems are. If you have Windows XP, that's how your machine runs, right? And what's this new one we're supposed to get, Vista or something? And it used to be, not so much anymore, it used to be that if you had a Mac, you couldn't cross the programs. They wouldn't run on one system or the other, right? Well, if you look at death and sin as an operating principle, and grace as an operating principle, the programs don't run on each one. So grace is this new operating principle that we're all to live in. Now can you imagine what that's like? If you live in this grace, you are not responsible for causing God to do a thing.

Right? How do you get your blessings in? Yeah, you already got them. Right? So how do you use this grace? It's been given to me. How do I use it? I just take it. I just take it. And as I take it, what do I discover? Yeah, and not only that, there's eons more there available to me than I ever suspended, expected.

What's the one act that a man uses to implement the grace in his life that he can't take credit for? The one thing. Faith. Because what does faith do? It takes God as His Word. See, so God lays out this whole grace agenda that's overabunding and He says to you, take some. You say, okay. That's my faith and not an operation that. OK, let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace, and how we thank you for the fact that we live right now in the operating system of grace. And Father, we know that we are to learn of grace moment by moment as we go through our lives, so we're dependent on you for that, but we look forward to growing in the knowledge and the grace of your dear Son, and we pray in His name. Amen.