Good morning.
I think most of you know from the email that was sent out that we would be looking at Romans 5:12-21—ten verses from Romans 5. This is our continuing study in Romans.
Much of this has been shared with Pakistan, as Jack and I ministered to those dear brothers and sisters. I may take some liberties that may be somewhat different here among you, brothers and sisters. But let us begin by reading the Word.
Pardon me, let me say something about reading the Word. I repeat that most valuable advice given to me by Brother Kong years ago: read the Word. Read the Word over and over and over again. Read it before you read something else, and then the Word will become real to you; it will become life to you.
As a matter of fact, another thing I do—the environmentalists hate me for it—is I actually write the verses I read very often. There is some power to that. When you write it with your own hand and you see it, it makes a difference.
So I throw reams of paper away and destroy many trees, but nevertheless, it gets into me. I believe Jim shared this once in a ministry that was so precious about Ezra, the scribes. That is what they did: they wrote the Word, wrote it over and over. When you read it, first of all, and when you write, it gets into you.
I think you will never regret that advice that our dear brother gave to many of us young Christians years ago.
We will begin reading at verse 12, and we will read to verse 21. Now, you may notice as I read this a certain emphasis. That is intentional, by the way. That is meant to be there as I read it.
For this cause, even as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
For until law, sin was in the world; but sin is not put to account when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam until Moses, even upon those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of Him to come.
But shall not the act of favor be as the offense? For if by the offense of one the many have died, much rather has the grace of God, and the free gift in grace, which is by the one man Jesus Christ, abounded unto many.
And shall not, as by one that has sinned, be the gift? For the judgment was of one to condemnation, but the act of favor, of many offenses, unto justification.
For by the offense of the one, death reigned by the one; much rather shall those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life by the one, Jesus Christ.
So then, as it was by one offense towards all men to condemnation, so by one righteousness towards all men for justification of life.
For as indeed by the disobedience of the one man the many have been constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the One the many will be constituted righteous.
But law came in, in order that the offense may abound; but where sin abounded, grace has over-abounded, in order that, even as sin has reigned in the power of death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank You again for Your Word. Your Word is precious. You said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Word shall never pass away.” We are thankful for that.
We pray the Holy Spirit would take these words—these words spoken by the Holy Spirit into the apostle Paul’s heart, and left forever to us as a record of God’s ways and what You are doing. We pray these words will be made alive to us today.
We say again, in utter dependence, only You have the words of eternal life—no one else. But would You speak to us? Would You open those words to us? Would You also give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches?
When You do that, we believe something valuable—eternal—is accomplished. Therefore, we ask these things in the name of our precious Lord Jesus. Amen.
I think you know from the outline that has gone out that the subject today is in Adam or in Christ. Pretty simple title, but that is the whole explanation of these verses in Romans 5:12-21.
We see two things, and the gist of it all—the substance of it all—is that you are either in Adam or you are in Christ. That is God’s only solution for mankind.
These verses, Romans 5:12-21—only ten verses, by the way—are of monumental importance. Now, I do not say that lightly. Others have said that who are much more learned than I am, much more scholarly than I am. They have emphasized how strategic these ten verses are in the book of Romans.
They show the cause of the whole dilemma of man. What was the root cause? But they go further than that. They show God’s solution to those deficiencies of man—utter deficiencies. Then they go even further: they show how great those blessings are in the outcome.
So I have told you already. There is a short outline; it may help you. Forgive me for not breaking it down into verses as usual. The reason I did not do that was purposeful. These three thoughts are so interwoven that you cannot say verses one through three have to do with this, and verses three through seventeen have to do with that. It is all together: what it means to be in Adam or in Christ.
The first thing in the outline we are going to look at is two men. If you do not understand, in God’s economy, the importance of two men, you will never understand what God has done for us. If you do not understand this thought of two men, you will never understand the book of Romans.
It is the center of the presentation the apostle Paul made in that glorious gospel. I call this the commencement. Everything begins and ends with these two men. That is what commencement means.
The second thing I want us to look at today is two acts. Now, we could look at many acts, right? But we are going to look at only two acts because the apostle Paul, when he wrote this transitional section, considered only two acts of these two men.
If we are going to understand the Christian life, if we are going to live fully in the Christian life, you must not only understand the place and work of these two men, but you must understand the one act of each of these men that changed the entire world—changed everything.
So, the two acts: I call this the conduct. Now, notice, when you get into this, it is not looking at your conduct, all right? It is looking at the conduct of these two men.
Your conduct and my conduct were discussed in great detail up to this point, through verse 11 of chapter 5. Your conduct and my conduct were horrid. They ruined us. We were ruined. It shows the hopelessness of mankind. But here we go into something altogether different.
The third section we will consider is two outcomes. There are just two outcomes from these two men. Those two outcomes are the difference between heaven and hell. They are the difference between ruin and eternity. They are the difference, as we will get into, between death and life.
We have to understand these two outcomes. This is the consequence of what they did.
As we begin, I do not want you to take my word only that these ten verses are of supreme importance. I believe they are essential to understanding the Christian life. I believe they are essential for us coming into the reality of the Christian life.
But I want to tell you what one brother said. I thought it was the most profound thing I have ever read: Griffith Thomas. Now, if I have not told you this before—and I think I have—you ought to get Griffith Thomas’s book on Romans. You ought to get it.
If you want to study Romans more deeply than we can do in our short period together, get that book. You also might ought to consider getting Newell’s book, which is a verse-by-verse exposition. It is worthy of your time to get these two references and have them in your library.
But Griffith Thomas said this. He described the absolute importance of these ten verses:
Thus these verses give us the logical center of the epistle. They are the great central point to which everything that precedes it has converged and out of which everything that follows flows.
Quite a statement. Take his word for it. If I had to put it into my own words, I think this is the fundamental and foundational explanation of the Christian life in these ten verses.
It tells us most everything we know, compressed in these few verses. Paul captures the root cause of man’s condition, and he also explains God’s solution to solve that problem. He shows the absolute ruin of man, and he shows the height to which God brings us in Christ.
All of this has to do with source. All of it has to do with these two sources. Out of these two sources—Adam and Christ—everything has flowed to mankind that was ever meant to be: all the fullness.
So that is the importance of these verses. They tell us the cause and effect of man’s ruin, the consequences of man’s ruin, and the remedy to man’s ruin.
I spent the end of my career as an engineer—just overnight, the longer it goes. As a matter of fact, they are still calling me and asking me to work. I am not sure why they are doing that, and I am rather reluctant, by the way.
But I would go look at ruined structures. That was the end of my career: ruined structures. As a matter of fact, one of my young partners, a vice president, said to me, “I do not do”—and I cannot say the word in public—“old structures.” I will just use the word ruined. He used a much spicier word. He was so proud he did not do these ruined structures.
But that is all I did at the end. Why has this happened? That is what Romans 5:12-21 tells us. Why has this happened? How do you fix it? Can it be fixed?
I will never forget: I went on one job, and I told this man from South Carolina, whose retirement income was his parking garage, “It cannot be fixed. You need to tear it down.” I think it was the only time I ever told anybody that.
Of course, it could be fixed, but you would spend, as they say in the old expression, an arm and a leg, and it would not have been worth it to fix it. But thank God, everything that happened in Adam is fixed in Christ.
The last thing my clients always wanted to know—and they would always ask me—was, “How much does it cost?” Very often, before I had figured out what was wrong with it, they would say, “How much is it going to cost?”
Well, let me tell you: the cost that God paid in Christ was incalculable. Usually, I would scare them when I told them the cost. I would say, “It is going to cost you five hundred thousand dollars to fix this,” and they would quickly look to find another engineer’s name and number.
But, dear brothers and sisters, what happened between Adam’s ruin and Christ’s restoration involved an incalculable cost. That is what we see in Romans 5:12-21.
Well, you get the point. These words are very important. Another brother said, “This passage, therefore, is no mere episode or illustration, but that which really gives organic life to the entire epistle.” Notice those words—very strong words.
So it is important that we understand this. I would just say more simply, it is the very heart of the message—God’s gospel, which is the power to save.
That is the first thing in this introduction: I want you to think about the importance of these words. Do not ever forget it. Meditate on them over and over. Consider them over and over. They tell you, if you are a Christian, where you have been and what you have been brought into.
The second thing is that this is a spiritual transition from the utter hopelessness of man into the glory that was prepared for us in Christ Jesus. Utter hopelessness.
You cannot read the first chapters of Romans without discovering the utter hopelessness of man. I think of the first and second chapters: man is without excuse.
Man is without excuse. All have sinned, Romans 3:23, and fallen short of the glory of God. It is ruin. It is hopelessness. How can we be restored from such hopelessness? That is what these verses deal with.
It is the transition. Brother Darby said something I like very much. He said, “This epistle divides itself here, as to doctrine, into two distinct parts.” Up to Romans 5:11, sins have been treated of.
Now, if you do not understand what I am saying, sins in the plural are being dealt with. Man’s actions are being dealt with. We are no longer dealing with sins; we deal with the singular sin. The difference is man’s nature.
God could not settle with just forgiving our sins because, brothers and sisters, we would just continue to repeat those sins. There is something internally wrong with us. It is our nature.
What you are seeing in this chapter is the nature of those two men: the nature of Adam and the nature of Christ. In the end, that is the resolution of God—bringing us into a new nature, delivering us from our old nature.
Up to Romans 5:11, sins have been treated of; from this point, sin is in view. This is what we need to see when we read these ten verses.
Now, in Romans 6 through 8, we are going to go into something else. We are going to leave reconciliation. We are going to leave justification by faith, and we are going to go into sanctification. How do you live the Christian life? Is it possible to live the Christian life?
You know, I have always said it is impossible. It is—for you and me. But thank God it is not impossible for God. That is where we are headed.
So let us begin with two men—the commencement. Everything starts here. Look at Romans 5:12 again. There is this very important phrase: “For this cause.”
Now, I know we use many different versions of the Bible in here. Many of you, like me, are fans of the King James Version, and I think your King James Version says, “Wherefore.” Am I right? By memory? Good. That was a good memory for an old guy. You have got to admit that.
I think many of your Bibles—most probably the English Bibles—use “therefore.” If you are using the New American Standard Bible, it is “therefore.” But Darby chose to use “for this cause.”
We begin to see the whole cause of mankind’s ruin in this one verse. The whole explanation of what happened is embedded in one verse. It is a terrific verse. Listen to it:
For this cause, even as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and thus death passed upon all men.
Did you notice that sin is singular? When you go back to Romans 3:24-25, you will notice that it is plural; but here, you notice that it is singular. Sin entered into the world, and by sin, death. Something happened. It was a consequence.
Then it says, “And thus death passed to all.” That is a tremendous statement. It shows how what Adam did affected humanity—all of humanity—forever. Can you imagine that?
I know people have trouble with this. They think this is too broad. Maybe Paul, having been caught up to paradise and caught away in that third-heaven experience, overstated the case. But he realized that in this one man, Adam, humanity was ruined forever.
This is the sense of it: we inherited Adam’s nature. Have you ever heard the phrase, “The apple does not fall far from the tree”? You know what that means, right? It means you are kind of like your parents.
We, in fact, are like our spiritual parent, Adam. We have inherited his nature. The word is so strong: it has been imputed to us. What Adam is is what we are.
I will never forget dear old Marzy Brewington—one of the original five sisters. I remember when Jessica was born and she grew up. Marzy looked at Jessica and said, “It looks like you spit her out.” I do not think Jessica liked that.
But we are just like our father Adam. His nature has become our nature. This is what the Word means. In these two men, this nature has passed from our founding father, if you will, to become our very nature. That is what is wrong with us.
If you could sort of harness all your good side—if you think you have any—and begin to behave in a proper way, which, by the way, you cannot, then you could be good, which you cannot. Then you think, “Well, I am okay.” But you would begin to sin again, because the apple does not fall far from the tree.
You have heard the phrase, “He is a chip off the old block.” That is exactly what we are in Adam. Look at Adam—you see us. I never hear parents come to me and say, “Oh, the kid is acting up, screaming and yelling and crying,” and I always say, “Little Adam. There it is. Perfect demonstration of little Adam.”
Everything is made clear in this one verse. How did Paul capture that insight? How did he get that revelation? Christ has died for our sins, but now you have another problem. The problem is not what you do. The problem is who you are. Do you understand?
This is absolutely important. If you miss this, you miss all of what these ten verses are about. It is all about two men.
This whole chapter, the explanation, is about these two men: Adam and Christ. The first man, of course, is Adam. He is the commencement and the beginning of the ruin of human life. What he did passed to every man. You read that in these verses.
But then there is the second man. Thank God for that. God did not leave us with our ruined condition in Adam. Christ came, and in this second man is the resolution for all that has happened to humankind.
These two men—remember, stay with my two men. Do not forget that. Two men. What they did had such a supreme effect on mankind that it goes from the beginning of time through eternity. Just two men.
I think this is a rather amazing concept that Paul discovered when he was meditating on the Word of God. You know, in God’s eyes, everything has to do with these two men.
When God looks at the planet—and I think there are nearly eight billion people, if I have it right—He does not look at them and say, “Well, they are Pakistani, they are Indian, they are American, they are Chinese, they are African, or they are European.” He looks at two men.
He looks at eight billion people through the lens of these two men. That is all He sees. His question to us is: are you in Adam, or are you in Christ? That is the whole thing this chapter is dealing with.
This is what theologians have described as federal headship. I do not know if you have ever heard that. You cannot take your concordance and look up “federal headship,” but what it means is that these two had such an effect upon humanity, and will have such an effect upon humanity, that they are the heads of mankind.
Everything happens to us because of these two. That is federal headship. In other words, everything is imputed to you through these two men—Adam and Christ. This is the way God looks at the world.
We often make things so complicated. God looks at things very simply: are you in Adam, or are you in Christ?
I look back at the Garden of Eden. There were two people. It is pretty simple. At the beginning of creation, there were two trees: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life.
I think also of two gardens: the Garden of Eden and the Garden of Gethsemane. God’s solution came in that second garden, in that agony of Christ. In that first garden was the beginning of the ruin of mankind.
I have often told you this: there are really only two choices in life. I do not want to burst your bubble, but as I have gotten older, you really just have two choices. Do not make it so complicated. You can either choose Christ, or you can choose to live for yourself. That is the only two choices.
I remember what it says in Romans 12:1-2 about the mercies of God. We can be conformed to this world, or we can be transformed by the renewing of our mind. That is our second choice. If you read Romans 8:28, we can be conformed to the image of God’s Son. Only two choices.
I think even of Deuteronomy 30:19. This was the end of the Pentateuch, the last of Moses’ books. I love this verse:
I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you: life and death have I set before you, blessing and cursing. Choose then life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed.
There are only two choices. If you read these ten verses, you discover at the end there are two choices: death and life. That is the only choice you have in life, and if you make the right choice, you live forever.
I always had this thought in my heart as I studied the Word, about two things here repeated and repeated again. I was thrilled when I read what William R. Newell said. He described these ten verses as “the doctrine of the two men.”
I cannot tell you how excited I was. It was like Christmas when I was a child. The great doctrine of two men—this is what we see. This is what I have told you is federal headship.
We see this word that I read and emphasized as I read it: one man, over and over. It says that about both of these men. One man this; one man that.
It says in Romans 5:12, “one man,” talking about Adam. It says in Romans 5:15, “one man Jesus Christ.” It says in Romans 5:18, “the one man,” Adam.
If you look in verses 15 and 17, there is another emphasis: the one. Darby very brilliantly said that in Greek we miss the point. The emphasis is on the one.
There is Adam, the one. He was the one all the way from Adam until Christ came. Then there is this second one: the one man, Jesus Christ.
For if by the offense of the one the many have died, much rather has the grace of God, and the free gift in grace, which is by the one man Jesus Christ, abounded unto many.
For if by the offense of the one, death reigned by the one, much rather shall those who receive the abundance of grace and of the free gift of righteousness reign in life by the one Jesus Christ.
Did you notice that emphasis? The one Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate One.
I remember one of my many times—young men, listen to this carefully—when I embarrassed my lovely wife. We were out in Scottsdale, Arizona, with Thornton and Pat Stearns. We had the most precious fellowship. I loved Brother Stearns, and I loved Pat.
We were having breakfast one morning, a lovely breakfast, and right across from us two couples came and sat down. It was Wayne Gretzky. Now, do you know who Wayne Gretzky is?
Nobody in this room, hardly. He is the greatest hockey player that ever lived. As a matter of fact, they gave him a title. Wayne Gretzky is called “The Great One.” How would you like to have that title?
I mean, rather than be called the GOAT, Tom Brady would rather be called “The Great One.” I said, “Can I get his autograph?” Linda said, “Oh, no, no, you are embarrassing me. Stop that. Do not you go.”
So I figured she could be overruled. Thornton loved me, and he would let me. I said, “Thornton, can I get his autograph?” And he said, “No.” Linda was beaming, beaming at that moment. She had won another war.
We are looking now in this chapter at the Great One—the Great One, not Gretzky. He was just a hockey player. He beat this little biscuit around the ice, and he is famous for it.
The Great One is Christ Himself. This is the One who came. This is the One who changed everything. This is the One who made everything right. He took us from our ruined condition and took us into the glories that are ours in Christ Jesus.
Paul understood this. Paul understood this with clarity that few have understood. When he wrote that famous chapter in 1 Corinthians 15 on resurrection to the Corinthian church, he said:
For as in Adam all die, so also in the Christ all are made alive.
Brothers and sisters, he understood this. In 1 Corinthians 15:47-49, Paul described these two men this way:
The first man, out of the earth, made of dust; the second man, out of heaven.
Such as he made of dust, such also those made of dust; and such as the heavenly One, such also the heavenly ones.
And as we have borne the image of the one made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly One.
That is us. That was God’s solution. What revelation Paul had. Brother Stephen Kong always told us that image is inner likeness—it is nature. Likeness, when you look at those two words in Genesis, is outward likeness. It is the inner likeness that He changes.
We are not left in our ruined condition to bear the image of Adam. We are rescued in the Great One, in Christ Jesus, to bear the very nature of God’s beloved Son. That is the whole explanation of the Christian life.
When you look at 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, you see some remarkable things that Paul understood. Of Adam, he said: the first man, out of the earth, the natural man, the man made of dust.
But of Christ, he said: the last Adam. So you had the first Adam, and you have the last Adam. That is the good news of these ten verses. Thank God for that.
He is the second man. There was the first man—the failure, the one that ruined all humanity—and now, thank God, because of Christ, we have the second man. Only two people, remember? This is God’s way of looking and resolving.
He calls Christ the heavenly man. He calls Christ the heavenly One. He calls us to be made like the heavenly ones—to be like that One.
Well, I hope you begin to get the picture of these two men. What an enormous impact they made. When you look at Romans 5:12-18, you read this first verse and begin to discover the whole root cause is there.
Then there are verses 13 through 17. If you look in your Bible—and I do not know if all your versions have this—mine does, and the King James has it: verses 13 through 17 are a parenthesis.
Do you understand a parenthesis? You know, the little brackets. There is a whole big giant parenthesis. Matter of fact, most of this text is a parenthesis. Most of this text is explaining to us what this means between these two men.
It is enlarging to us. It is parenthetically telling us what was accomplished in these two men. This, to me, is the most important parenthesis ever written.
Never has there been, in human language—whatever the language—a parenthesis with such great impact as Romans 5:13-17. How we just need to see it.
Then, when you come to the end of that parenthesis, you go back to Romans 5:18:
So then, as it was by one offense towards all men to condemnation, so by one righteousness towards all men for justification of life.
For as indeed by the disobedience of the one man the many have been constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the One the many will be constituted righteous.
Remember, we were at “for this cause,” then there is a huge parenthesis. Recognize it when you study this. Then he goes back to his thought: “So then.”
What Adam did was so heinous, so infectious—can I borrow that word? You all used it through COVID—so infectious, it went to all men. It infected all men. That is how terrible his act was.
But, brothers and sisters, here we see at the end of this parenthesis: as it was by one offense toward all men to condemnation, so by one righteousness toward all men for justification of life.
I know most of you with the King James Version, it says “made sinners,” right? But we were constituted sinners. I like that word. I think it is better. Your nature was constituted through Adam.
Now what God is doing in this great recovery work is that you are being reconstituted. Do you understand what I am saying? In Christ Jesus, you are now able, because of His work, because of His death, because of His sacrifice, because of Him laying down His life, to take on a whole new nature.
This is what Romans 5:12-21 has to deal with. How marvelous it is. How wonderful it is.
Therefore, we can read what it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
I actually like the Darby version better: “If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation.” Is that not marvelous? A whole new creation. That first failed creation is gone, and by the work of Christ, there is a whole new creation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.
This is how humanity commences, and this is God’s solution for mankind: two men. That is it. Paul could not have explained it any clearer.
Then we read about two acts. This is their conduct. This is what they did. It is interesting to me, when I read this—and with my, as Linda would call it, warped mind, with my technical mind—I thought surely these two men, if you can even begin to compare Adam and Christ, did many things in their lifetime.
Genesis 5:5 says Adam lived 930 years. Can you imagine living 930 years? I pray to God I will not live 930 years. They have just redone my end-of-life outlook, and they said, “We think you will live to 93.” Well, he lived ten times longer than me.
Surely, he did many acts. How come it speaks about just one act? And when you think of Christ, and the way John the apostle ended his Gospel, he said Christ did so many things that if we took all those things and put them in books, it would fill all the books in the world.
Many acts. But here we are looking at one act. It is because these one acts are the issue before God. When He looks at these two, in the end, just like He sees only two men, He sees only two acts.
It is because of those acts that we are what we are. Do you understand? It is because of the act of Adam—the single act of Adam in the garden that day, when he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—that we inherit his human nature. And it is our nature.
It is because of what Christ did on the cross that ended the ruin of Adam, that we can believe in Him, be born again of the Spirit, and inherit a new nature.
You remember Peter said in his epistle that we become partakers of His nature. That is what it is. It does not just mean that you got a fresh start, that God took the big spiritual blackboard and erased all your sins and said, “Go for it. Now live for Me.” He did not do that.
The brilliance of God’s gospel is that He not only dealt with the past—looking back at past sins—but He dealt with the root cause. When He dealt with the root cause, when we come into Christ Jesus, we are partakers of the divine nature.
Now, be careful what you do with that verse. Do not ever think for a moment that you are divine. You will never be divine. But His life is in you. The Word of God makes it very clear: His life is in you. Is that not wonderful?
That is what happens out of these two acts: that reprehensible act of Adam. Even as by one man sin entered the world, it swept through all men and infected humanity.
We often talk about COVID. There are many facts about COVID, depending on whom you listen to—how many died. If you listen to the World Health Organization, I think they say fourteen million. That is horrible by any standard.
If you look at others, it is three million, seven million—there are all kinds of figures. I cannot imagine, in the modern age, that we have it so wrong with numbers. But then I remember when Mac was sharing on church history, he compared that to the Black Death.
If you look at one source on the Black Death in the 1300s, the plague, it says seventy-five to two hundred million people died. Can you imagine?
That seems like, if ever an infection passed to all men, the perfect illustration. Brothers and sisters, what happened in the garden did more than infect and kill a large part of Europe. It literally brought mankind to total and absolute ruin.
If ever there was a pandemic, it was the pandemic that came out of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when man was ruined and his nature was forever changed.
But if ever there was a solution, a grand solution, it was at the cross of Calvary where Christ died. That one act of obedience eclipsed forever that one act of disobedience.
This is the thing we see when we are looking at these two acts. Adam’s act was called Adam’s transgression. It is referred to in Romans 5:15, 18, and 20 as the offense. It is the reprehensible act.
When you look at Adam, you may wonder: he had the ultimate privilege, it seems. Can you imagine how this could have happened? He was created in the image and likeness of God. That would be enough, would you not think?
He was given this wife. I happen to believe—you may, Linda, I will be in trouble again—that Eve was the most beautiful woman that probably ever lived. You know why I believe that? Because God created Eve, took her out of Adam. Can you talk about the perfect wife? Yes, honey, you are the perfect wife.
He had paradise. He had a garden of paradise. He had everything he needed. He was not deprived of anything. He even had the command, “Rule over it.” He was king over this garden. He had everything a human being could want.
Then there was one exclusion. God said:
Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day you eat of that tree, you shall surely die.
That was the one thing. I know we are so warped in our old nature and thinking, we think how hard God was to deny the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Well, you see what happened.
Two choices were put before them. They could have taken of the tree of life, which is Christ, and they could have lived forever. But instead, in utter disobedience—
I am not so kind to Adam, a little more kind to Eve. The first deceiver shows up and says, “Did God really say this will happen to you? No, no, no, no, no. It cannot be that way. When you eat it, you are going to be like God.” Well, she was deceived. The New Testament makes it very clear: Eve was deceived. Adam disobeyed.
He comes along and she says, “Honey, eat the apple. Just like your red shirt, eat it.” And he did it. Because of that disobedience—the disobedience of Adam—mankind was ruined, and they had a whole new nature.
But thankfully, the act of Christ is called the act of favor. It is called grace. How marvelous. It is called obedience—the act of obedience. How marvelous, when you look at Christ’s act, how different these two acts are.
In Christ’s single act, the curse was erased. In Adam’s single act, the curse spread to all mankind.
I mentioned to you a little while ago about my work figuring out what was wrong with buildings. Everybody wanted to know the cost. That came first; that was really what was on their mind. They did not care so much, “How do I fix this?” They asked, “What is it going to cost?”
It cost God everything. Brother Daniel read that verse in 2 Corinthians about how He was made sin for us. Can you imagine? He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God.
Do not ever believe that in Christ that was a small solution. Can you imagine when it says in Isaiah 53:6 that the iniquity of the whole world was laid upon Him? Can you imagine?
Can you imagine, good doctor, when He was in that garden and He realized what was being called for? The sin of the whole world, of Adam’s race, of all mankind, would be transferred to Him.
We wonder, when we read of those agonies in the garden, when it says He began to sweat—sweat like drops of blood. What agony.
This is the two acts, how different they are. One act—Adam’s—ended in total death. But the greatest act in history ends in life. How marvelous.
Let us talk for a minute about the two outcomes. These are the consequences. What happens when you look at these two men, and specifically at their two acts? You have to understand their two results, their two consequences from these acts.
If you miss that, you are going to miss the whole point. What Paul ends with in this presentation is the outcome, and the outcomes, to me, are what is so significant at the end.
We read about the outcome of Adam passing to all the seed, passing to all mankind. Then we read about the act of Christ for all who believe. This is what is so precious and powerful.
In Adam’s outcome, Romans 5:12 says:
And thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Then, if you look further in this, it tells us in verse 17, “For if by the offense of the one, death reigned.” Understand that phrase: death reigned.
The commentators say this means death reigned as king. It is a stronger emphasis. It does not just mean, “Well, we all die.” We all know that. You know, life is hard. What is the old saying? “Life is hard, then you die.” Sorry, Sharon—she got so offended. Forgive me, please.
It is much worse than that. Death reigned as king is the emphasis in the original language. That is what it says. Several places in this passage, death reigned as king is the emphasis.
But thank the Lord, that is not the end of it. That is not the only thing where we read something reigning.
When you look in Romans 5:21, it says:
In order that, even as sin has reigned as king in the power of death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Is that not wonderful? Grace now reigns as king through eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the secret.
Let me read verse 17, in case you think I am making this up—that death reigns as king and life reigns as king are the two outcomes:
For if by the offense of the one, death reigned as king by the one, much rather shall those who receive the abundance of grace and free gift of righteousness reign in life by the one Jesus Christ.
That is the end. That is the glorious end. All the outcomes from Adam, all of the ruin that caused death to reign as king, are displaced and put away when Christ took upon Himself the sin of the whole world.
It says even more than that. There is a phrase in Romans 5 that Paul intentionally uses: “much more.” Of course, I am speaking to you in English and not in Greek, but it is the phrase “much more.”
The phrase “much more” occurs in four places in Romans 5. It occurs in verse 9: “much more.” It occurs in verse 10: “much more.” Then it also occurs in verses 15 and 17.
For if through the offense of the one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many.
Did you notice the emphasis? The emphasis is very important. “Much more the grace of God, and the gift of grace, which is by the one man Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many.”
And verse 17:
For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
That is the ultimate outcome. There could not be a more glorious outcome. There could not be a greater redemption. There could not be a more heavenly solution.
We have come from certain death—our destiny—to eternal life in Christ Jesus, all through that singular act on the cross, and all because He took all of it upon Himself. Then, in the mercy of God, we received from Him His divine nature.
This is Romans 5:12-21.
We often say, when we are saved, we get back to where Adam was. That is not right. That is poor theology. Adam was innocent. Adam had not eaten of the tree of life. Adam was not what God intended him to be. Do you understand?
We come to more than that. So Paul, in his wisdom and revelation, emphasized in this short chapter, “much more, much more, much more, much more.” He wanted us to get it.
Just so you understood it in the Greek version of the words, he said, “the abundance.” It is abundance that we receive. It is nothing compared to what we received in Adam.
Romans 5:20 says:
But law came in, in order that the offense may abound. But where sin abounded, grace over-abounded.
How marvelous. Here, brothers and sisters, these ten verses are the explanation of two men who changed the world. These ten verses are the acts of those two men, and because of those acts, all humanity is affected.
The question God has is: are you still just in Adam, or are you in Christ? That is the question.
If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation. Old things have passed away; all things have become new.
If you are born once, you die twice. Have you ever heard that phrase? If you are born only in Adam, you will die twice: eternal death, and death at the end of your life. Death reigns as king.
But if you are born twice, you will never die. Do you understand that? By the favor of God, you will never die.
Our dear sister Susanna—we just said goodbye to her—she is not dead. You never die. Those who receive the outcome, the consequence of Christ, and are in Christ Jesus, never die.
The ending phrase that Paul wants you to understand is that now, because of this act, life reigns as king.
This is Romans 5:12-21.
Lord, would You open our eyes? Our eyes are shut. We often do not even comprehend what You have done for us in Christ Jesus.
We are thankful. We heard from Mac this morning that You demonstrated Your love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, You died for us. We are thankful for that. How marvelous.
You took care of our past, our sins. But how much more marvelous this is: You have given us a whole new nature in Christ Jesus—His own nature.
We, who have lived under the ruin of our father eating of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in Christ Jesus eat now of the tree of life. How marvelous. Oh, beyond comprehension.
Open our eyes. Cause us to see. In Your precious name, amen.