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I hope you brought your thinking cap today because you’re going to need it. You may hear some truth you’ve not heard before or you might question some things. This passage isn’t cotton candy or even chicken soup for the soul. We’ve got steak to chew through. Hopefully it’s sizzling, tender, and tasty so we can enjoy God’s Word together.
This is one of the most important doctrinal passages in God’s Word. Martyn Lloyd-Jones calls it “the heart and center of the epistle to the Romans.” We are going to see a comparison and contrast between two historical figures: Adam and Christ. You could call this “The Story of Two Men.”
Basically, what God is doing here is showing us how He designed redemption through these two figures, Adam and Christ, in bringing us justification by faith alone. In a nutshell, we didn’t become sinners just because we commit sins, we’re condemned because of someone else. In the same way, we don’t do deeds of righteousness to become justified. We’re justified because of someone else. Adam’s sin is the ground of our condemnation and Christ’s righteousness is the ground of our justification.
Every human being is either in Adam or in Christ. No matter who you are, where you live, what your skin color is, what your family background is, who your ancestors are, whether you’re from Germany, France, England, or Russia…you are either in Adam or in Christ. All human history is wrapped up in the story of these two men. You may be Hindu, Muslim, Southern Baptist, Reformed Baptist, Arminian Baptist, Catholic, Buddhist, atheist, or agnostic. It makes no difference. You are either in Adam or in Christ. As we’ll see, everyone starts out in Adam. The big question is, has God removed you out of Adam and joined you to His Son, Jesus Christ?
We’re going to work through this passage asking several key questions that only God can answer.
WHY WERE YOU BORN A SINNER?
Romans 5:12, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned–
Paul is clearly talking about Adam here. He believed Adam was a historical person. Christ believed Adam was a historical person. In Genesis 1 God created Adam and Eve in God’s image and likeness. In Genesis 2 God brings Eve to Adam for the first marriage. In Genesis 3 God puts Adam to the test. These are real people in a real garden created by God on day six in Genesis 1. We’re not going to be squishy about Genesis 1-3. God created everything is six literal days, including Adam and Eve.
Not everyone agrees. Some “Christian” evolutionists think God chose this couple out of 1000s of evolved humans in the middle east. Some think the whole story is a parable or allegory of man rejecting God. And yet, the Bible presents both Adam and Christ as historical figures. And in a very real sense, they stand or fall together. If you reject a literal Adam, all of Christianity crumbles. Three things happened in that garden.
- ADAM’S PROBATION IN THE GARDEN
Let’s look carefully at Romans 5:12. Getting this verse right is the key to the rest of the chapter. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world….” When God created Adam and Eve and put them in that garden, God was working out His plan. He put Adam on probation as our representative. God said, “You can eat of any tree you like, but just not this one – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” You might ask why God did this knowing Adam would fail the test. God did it this way for His own maximum glory and the glory of His Son. Flash forward several thousand years and you’ll see Christ will be most glorified when He comes as the second Adam and passes His test through His obedience to the Father.
- ADAM’S TEMPTATION BY SATAN
There’s Adam with his dear wife having lunch one day when suddenly Satan comes knocking. “Has God said? God knows you’ll be like Him. You’ll be wise. You won’t die. Go ahead, help yourself.” Satan’s aim was to destroy God’s beautiful creations made in God’s likeness. Satan hates image-bearing humans. So what did Adam do? There he stands, representing the entire human race. Did God tell him he was mankind’s representative? He well may have. But we stand here and yell, “Don’t do it, Adam! Adam, there are lots of other trees and lots of other fruit. Even if your beautiful wife has given it to you, don’t take it!” Sin makes fools of us all. True, Adam had lots of other trees, but that didn’t matter. Satan is shrewd and knows how to tempt us. Here’s little Bobby in the toddler nursery with 39 toys at his disposal, and Billy over there has one toy. Guess which toy Bobby wants?
- TWO MONSTERS ENTER THE HUMAN RACE
So Satan came knocking and here’s what happened: Adam opened the door and immediately two monsters, sin and death, shoved right in and took over. “Sin entered the world and death by sin” (Romans 5:12). Nothing has been the same since. Adam was there as the representative head of the human race, and when he sinned two things became true. First, His sin was our sin, “For all sinned.” That is not a continuous action verb; that happened at a point in time. “In Adam’s fall we sinned all.” Every human being has the guilt of Adam’s sin. Second, Adam’s spiritual nature immediately turned sinful and was passed on to all his offspring, right on down the line of humanity to you and me. You are conceived a guilty, dying sinner because of Adam’s sin. Psalm 51:5 says, “In sin my mother conceived me.” This is what we call original sin or inherited sin. We are born with the guilt of sin and a sinful nature, all because of Adam’s sin.
Our natural response is, “That’s not fair! I don’t like that. I didn’t elect Adam to represent me. I want to represent myself.” Always remember this truth: whatever God does is fair, whether we understand it or not. Plus, let me ask you a question, have you ever sinned? Of course you have, and that means you’re no better than Adam. “Yeah, but if I’d have been there, I wouldn’t have opened that door.” Really? Well, you weren’t there, and one mark of a true Christian is a humble spirit that willingly submits our little minds to God’s ways and Word.
Let me throw this in. There are several views of our connection to Adam. A man named Pelagius in the fourth century denied any connection to Adam except his example. Liberals today are Pelagianism. Others with the “realism” view say we were all there with Adam, in Adam’s loins. In a sense, that’s true. But the third view called Federalism, or the representative view, is biblical. It says Adam literally represented us and whatever he did gets passed on to us.
We have a representative government. We send men and women to Washington to vote for us, and how they vote affects all of us. When Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865, at the Appomattox Court House, the whole south surrendered. We all come from Adam and so we are born guilty of Adam’s sin, and we are born with Adam’s sin nature.
Now this is good. Why? Because God’s plan is to bring in another Representative. When Jesus came and obeyed, He represented us. Just as Adam’s sin was imputed to us even though we weren’t there, so Christ’s righteousness as our representative is imputed to us who trust in Him. That’s why God declares us righteous through our faith in Christ. And when Christ conquered sin and death on the cross, He did it for us!
WHY WILL YOU PROBABLY DIE?
Romans 5:13-14, for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Ever since Adam sinned, guess who dies? Everybody! Spurgeon said Adam’s sin had the power to turn the whole world into one vast cemetery. In Genesis 5 the genealogy reads monotonously, “and he died…and he died…and he died….” Everybody dies. The number of people who die daily is 160,000, almost two people every second. History is one long funeral parade. Generations come and go. The undertaker waits patiently for a sure thing. Unless the Lord comes back, all the voices in this room will be silenced to this world. Psalm 90:10 says we’ve got 70 or maybe 80 years, and then we fly away.
Romans 5:14 says death reigns – no one escapes! No amount of money can free you. Elon Musk had enough money to buy Twitter, but he doesn’t have enough money to buy his way out of death. No one does.
In verse 13, the law demands death. But verse 14 says people died before the law, and people die without law today. Between Adam and Moses there wasn’t a clear law like God gave Adam and Moses, but everybody still dies. Why? Because God counts people guilty because of Adam’s sin. If Adam wouldn’t have sinned, he wouldn’t have died. God would have somehow perfected him. But that wasn’t God’s plan. Adam did die, and so do we because we are cursed with original sin. We die because we are guilty in Adam and the wages (cost) of sin is death – spiritual, physical, and if we’re not saved, eternal death.
- WHAT ABOUT INFANTS?
What about infants? They don’t know about a law. They haven’t even personally sinned, yet untold millions of infants die in the womb, and after birth. Why? Because of Adam. They are conceived in the human race, and therefore guilty of Adam’s sin. Now, do infants and mentally incapable people go to heaven? First, be sure of this: infant baptism does not remove original sin. Nothing we do can erase original sin. But there’s good news.
John MacArthur wrote the book, Safe in the Arms of God, giving biblical hope to parents who lose their children as miscarriages, infants, or youngsters. Charles Spurgeon has an entire sermon entitled “Infant Salvation.” He notes infants don’t go to heaven because they are innocent. They must be saved the same way as we. Then he asserts that they are saved because God elected them, redeemed them, and regenerated them, just like us. And God does this because He is good, Jesus received children, and grace abounds over sin. He ends saying it is “a sweet belief to my own heart that more are saved than lost.” Many Reformed theologians believe there will ultimately be more saved people in heaven than lost people in the lake of fire. As we shall see, grace reigns over sin. There will be a vast host of people in glory which no man can count.
The point is this. Death marched into the human race on the heels of sin in the garden and hasn’t left yet, although both of these monsters have been dealt a death blow by Christ. And that’s the wonderful thing. Left to ourselves, we are stuck. We can’t remove our own guilt. We can’t buy our way out of death’s prison. Even the arrogant elitists at Davos who think they’re going to rule the world will succumb. But there is One who has come to reverse all this and more!
Hebrews 2:14-15, Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
HOW IS ADAM A TYPE OR FIGURE OF JESUS CHRIST?
Romans 5:14b, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Adam is important. Adam was a type of Christ. First Corinthians 15:22 says, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive.” God ordained Adam to represent the entire human race, and God ordained Christ to represent the new race of the redeemed. Picture a sea of the eight billion human beings in the world today, add however many have died since Genesis 4, all standing there in this vast sea of humanity. Standing in front of them all is this one solitary figure, Adam. He represented every one of us in that garden. We are all guilty and dying because we are Adam’s offspring.
Then picture another figure looming much larger, standing in front of a large portion of those human beings – that is Jesus Christ our Lord! He represents every believer regardless of human origin, race, nationality, or color of skin. He represents before God every believer of all ages for all eternity! This is why Adam is so important as a type of Christ.
Now Paul lays out five contrasts and comparisons between our two representatives. Got those thinking caps on and functioning? Let’s think together.
Vs. 15 – 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.
- Adam – Transgressed and many died.
- Christ – Much more grace brought about God’s gift in Christ to many.
Vs. 16 – 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.
- Adam – One transgression brought judgment and condemnation.
- Christ – The free gift from many transgressions brought justification.
What does this mean? Here’s a man with one match. He lights one tree on fire and the entire forest goes up in flames. Here comes another man who puts the entire fire out. Adam set us all on fire with one act of disobedience. Christ took the whole blazing forest and quenched it with his death and resurrection!
Vs. 17 – For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
- Adam – One transgression brought the tyranny of death.
- Christ – Abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness (justification) brings victorious, abundant life for believers, those who receive the gift of salvation.
Vs. 18 – So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.
- Adam – One transgression brought condemnation to all. Adam’s sin was imputed to each person’s account.
- Christ – One act of righteousness brought justification that brings life to all believers. Our sin was imputed to Christ and His righteousness was imputed to us. No wonder we preach the exclusivity of Christ. He is our only escape from the condemnation of Adam’s sin. That’s why Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Vs. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
- Adam – One man’s disobedience made many sinners.
- Christ – One Man’s obedience will make many righteous – those who receive Him by faith.
SO WHAT?
These are the facts of spiritual life. You are either in Adam or in Christ. Here is Adam with the effect of his sin in Genesis 3 penetrating down throughout all of history. No one escapes because no one is born outside of the human race. If you are in the human race, you are in Adam. It is absolutely essential to understand that fall into sin in Genesis 3.
And then there’s God’s amazing plan to bring people freely by grace into Christ, who gives us justification and life forever! When you run the video of history it looks like death is winning, doesn’t it? Death and hades go through the earth, scooping up corpses every day. Death is still reigning. But keep the video running. Not only did Christ destroy death through His resurrection, but you will see a huge emergence of human beings coming to life from fields, cemeteries, oceans, mountains, and valleys by the power of Christ. Christ has the final word. Christ represents us with His greater grace and gift of righteousness. We’ll conclude this passage next week.
Your eternity is determined by your connection to these two men. Are you still in Adam? Then you will die and face judgment and condemnation. But if you have received the free gift of righteousness in Christ by simple faith alone, you will reign with Him forever and ever.