All right, let's be turning to
Romans chapter 5. Romans 5. In our text here, picking
up in verse 12 to the end of the chapter, we're given a comparison
of Adam and Christ. The first Adam and the last Adam,
and it's given to Compare the two as we are in Him. It's given to show us what we
are in Adam, and if we be in Christ, what we are in Him. This is the headship as a father. as a figure, a public figure. This is who we are in our representative
either Adam the first or Adam the last. Now we're going to
learn here what what how Adam fell what we are when Adam fell
and what was lost in him and then we see what what Christ
has done and accomplished, what is gained for his people in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll see that by the grace
of God, the relationship that we now have with the true and
living God is much greater in Christ, for Christ's sake. So the scriptures reveal to us
in the early chapters of Genesis that there's a lot more taught
to us than just the creation account. If all you see here
in the first few chapters is the account of creation, you're
missing what the Lord is teaching us as the basis of all our understanding
of this word. If this, what we learn here of
Adam in the fall, it is the basis, it's the foundation of what we
believe and how we understand these scriptures. It's often
said that if you do not understand the fall, you're going to be
wrong in it all. I think it said a little better
than that, wrong in the fall, wrong in it all, or something
like that. It's just that it's like having a rocket ship. If
you're aiming for a point up in the sky and you're just off
just a hair at the beginning, you're going to be a great ways
off when you're 1,000 miles out. And so it is that. The scriptures
here give us an account of how men became sinners, how men became
fallen, corrupt, ruined, defiled sinners. I remember when I was
in college and beginning to seek the Lord, there was a woman my
age who was in class with me, and she said, if there is a God,
why is this world like it is? Why are men so sinful and wicked? And I didn't know the answer
to that, but knowing this chapter now, and knowing what the Lord
reveals in Genesis 3, we see why this world is so full of
wicked people doing wicked things. There's so much corruption, so
much sin, so much horrible crimes going on because of what we are
by nature. It shows what we are. by nature. Therefore, in Romans
5, Paul gives us a comparison of Adam and Christ. And we're told that Adam, the
first Adam, is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 14
of Romans 5, it tells us that he's a figure, Adam is a figure,
of him who was to come. He's a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he represents all his seed. He is what we would call the
seminal head. From him, his seed we come forth. We are the way we are because
we are born of Adam's seed. God dealt with Adam as a public
figure, as a federal head. He is the father and the representative
of us all in Adam. All who are born of Adam, he
is our representative by nature. And that's because when he was
in the garden, We all were yet in Him. There wasn't another
son or daughter born to Adam and Eve. We were all yet in Adam's
loins. We were yet in Him, in His body. And so Paul declares here, In
verse 12, Romans 5, 12, wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. Now, we know that the devil,
that serpent, that dragon was in the world, but the dominion
was given by God to man. Man had dominion over this world. And so until he had sinned, sin
was not yet in the world. It wasn't in the man who had
dominion over all the world. Man was created upright. When
God made man, just as he made the other creation, God said,
it is good. He pronounced it good. We were
made upright, without sin. And so man wasn't corrupt, and
he enjoyed fellowship with God. He knew God. He spoke to the
Word of God that walked in the garden. And so he spoke to the
Word of God. He spoke to Christ, of whom he
was a figure before Christ became flesh and dwelt among us. But
there came a day when Adam transgressed the law that God had given him. God told him, do not eat that
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't eat it. And Adam transgressed that law.
He broke that law by doing that very thing, by eating that fruit. And if we're told when Eve ate
it, we're not told of anything. But when Adam ate that fruit,
Then the eyes of them both were opened, again signaling that
Adam is the head. He is the head of the body. And when he ate that fruit, the
eyes of he and his wife were opened. And they knew that they
were naked. They knew that they were naked.
Sin had entered into the world and death by sin. And so Adam
defiled himself by sin. And just as God told him, in
the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2.17, you'll surely die. And Adam died. He died spiritually. And that fellowship with God
was severed. And God became his enemy. When
he looked at God, he was afraid of God. He counted God as his
enemy. When the word of God came into
the garden in the cool of the day, he ran. He fled. He hid among the trees. God was
now his enemy. He was afraid of God. That relationship,
that fellowship was severed. There was no communion, no fellowship
anymore. So he died in that very day. Even so, in Adam, we all come
forth of that same corrupt seed, spiritually dead. God by nature
is our enemy. We don't know the true living
God. We don't seek the true and living God. We don't understand
the true and living God by nature. And so all in Adam, all in his
body, when he transgressed the law of God in his body, we all
became defiled, ruined in sin, and corrupt. So that all that
are born of Adam's corrupt seed are born just like him, spiritually
dead. Enmity against the true and living
God. born into darkness, born with a veil of flesh over our
hearts so that we don't understand or know the true and living God.
We're religious. We're idolaters. We worship the
false god of our imagination, the god we create, the god we
want to worship. That's who we worship by nature
until the Lord removes the veil of flesh, delivers us from darkness,
takes us out of the bondage that we're in by nature, and reveals
the light of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He is the light
of men. And so Paul tells us, in Adam
all die. We all come forth spiritually
dead. Dead. David testifies of man,
saying, I was shapen in iniquity. I was formed in my mother's womb
in sin, and in sin did my mother conceive me. And again, in another
psalm, he said, the wicked are estranged from the womb. They
go astray as soon as they be born speaking lies. You don't have to teach a child
to lie. They just do it. They just come out defending
themselves and putting the blame elsewhere. And so it's just in
us by nature to protect ourselves, to defend ourselves even when
we're wrong. Now, a parentheses in this text
in Romans 5, there's a parentheses added from verses 13 through
17. And it's given to show that the
sin of Adam was imputed to all. It was imputed to all through
that original transgression against the law of God. We all are guilty
of that transgression by nature. And since he's the federal and
public head of all that are in him, when he died, we died. His seed became infected and
corrupted and defiled with that same sin. In that same sin, he's
the seminal head, meaning that we're all born of that corrupt
seed. That's why we all come forth
of that corrupt seed. That's why Christ was not born
of man's seed. Joseph is not his father. Joseph's
seed is corrupt. It's sinful. It's defiled. He
was formed in the womb of Mary by the overshadowing of the Holy
ghost. He has no earthly father like
you and I do. He's not shapen, born of corrupt
seed. And therefore, we all die. Even infants die. Even infants
become diseased and die, even though they've not sinned as
we have. It's because we're all guilty
of that original sin in Adam. That's why there's death in the
world. We're all guilty of that. We're
defiled in that sin. And so it says in verses 13 and
14 in Romans 5, for until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there
is no law. That's the question. Well, how
is there death in the world when there was no law of Moses? Well,
Death reigned, verse 14, from Adam to Moses, even over them
that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression,
who is the figure of him that was to come. And so we all died
in Adam, even though we ourselves didn't come forth and put our
hand to that sin. Yet in Adam, we're all guilty
of it because we were all in his body. all guilty. He's our head and we come forth
of his seed by nature and therefore we come forth sinners by nature. Now the purpose of telling us
this is to shut us up to Christ. It's to seal us up to Christ. It's to turn us from our own
way, and thinking we can make a righteousness for ourselves,
to turn us to Christ, to hear Christ, to look to Christ, to
hear this word of salvation, lest we die in our sins, thinking
we're something when we're nothing. That's why he's telling us this.
It's to show us the excellency of Christ, the last Adam, over
that first Adam and what he did. because Christ overcomes even
the transgression of Adam. Christ even overcomes that transgression. Therefore, Paul says, going back
to this parenthesis in Romans 5, verse 15 through 17, not as
the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense
of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto
many. And not as it was by 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. Because of Adam's offense, sin
is in the world. We're all sinners. Well, likewise,
because of the righteousness and the faithfulness of one,
even Jesus Christ, many are made righteous. For if by one man's
offense, death reigned by one, much more. They which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one, Jesus Christ. So if we compare the two, Adam
the first and Adam the last, if we compare these two, Adam
was made a living soul, but Christ is a quickening spirit. He gives
life. He gives life. The first Adam
is of the earth, earthy. The second Adam, or the last
Adam, is the Lord of Heaven. The first Adam made all in him
sinners. The last Adam made all in him
righteousness. Accepted with God and perfect
righteousness. The first Adam in him is death. The last Adam in him is life. That's why Paul is showing us
this. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15. Paul is speaking of these
things there in 1 Corinthians 15. Let's look in verse 45 through
49. Verse 45, and so it is written,
the first man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam
was made a quickening, a life-giving spirit. How be it that was not
first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward
that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth,
earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. As our Lord said in John 3, 6,
that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born
of the spirit is spirit. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. And so, just as the first Adam
is earthy, natural, of the earth, so we come forth like him, of
the earth. having no spiritual life, no
light in us. But the second Adam is from heaven,
and he having accomplished our redemption, having reconciled
his people unto God, we are righteous in him, and he has established
us in the covenant of God's grace, that God may be gracious to us
and give us all the blessings of Christ, the last Adam, whom
he represented. whom he came and represented
then. And his people, therefore, are
born of that spiritual seed. This is why the scriptures speak
of a rebirth, a regeneration. We are of the generation of Adam.
We must be regenerated born again of the incorruptible seed of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is all bringing us
to see the new creation. Not something you and I create
and make and just massage and work in this flesh to get ourselves
saved, to work a righteousness for ourselves. We cannot do it. It's of the earth. It's earthy.
That which is of the flesh comes to naught. That which is of the
spirit the work of Christ. That is life. That is praise,
honor, and glory to God because it's his work brought in us,
taking us out of this death and this bondage that we're in by
nature and giving us life. We're going to bear the image
of the heavenly by his spirit. Being born again, regenerated
by the Spirit of God. And so this hope that is wrought
in us is one of a new life. Through the reconciliation of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who came and restored all that was lost
and ruined and defiled by Adam, he came and reconciled all things. He brings life and salvation,
peace and knowledge and understanding of the true and living God. We're
blessed with all spiritual blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so we hear him. And that picture where Adam the
first is of the earth, that's a picture. It's how every one
of us is born. We're born of the flesh. but
those in Christ are born again by the Spirit and bear that image
of the heavenly, conform to the image of Christ. It's his work
of grace in us. So this hope is declared to us
now at the end of the parentheses in verse 18, Romans 5, 18. Therefore, as by 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 justification of life. Being in Adam's loins when he
fell, we come forth corrupt sinners, ruined by the fall, born spiritually
dead. And in this regard, when our
Lord, right, we were in Adam when he sinned, well, when our
Lord came and obeyed the Father in perfect righteousness and
satisfied God's holy justice on the cross for his people,
all in him, All in him are righteous. Just as all in Adam all died,
all in Christ they all live. He is our righteousness. He accomplished
our righteousness. He pleased the Father well in
him. So all his seed in his body comes
forth alive, comes forth born again, born of that heavenly
image. And so we're all justified in
him, we're all born again, all these blessings come in the day
of grace by the giving of our Heavenly Father, by what Christ
has accomplished for us, having pleased the Father well in all
things. Paul adds this from 1 Corinthians
15, 21 and 22, since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead, by Christ. by Christ who came like unto
his brethren to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And he overcame death and rose
from the grave so that we in him overcome death and will rise
again. Even right now we rise again.
As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. And so this spiritual birth in
Christ, this is the first resurrection. We are born again. We are made
alive. We were spiritually dead, and
now we are resurrected unto newness of life by the resurrection power
that raised Christ from the dead. We too, brethren, are raised
again. We too are born again in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, that second death
hath no more power over us. We don't need to be afraid and
fearful. in Christ, looking to Him, resting
in Him, trusting Him, seeking Him, following Him, staying upon
Him, persevering in Him, being preserved by His Spirit and grace,
He is our salvation. And there need not be any more
fear of that death. Because that which is made in
us, when God shakes all things, that which is of the flesh will
be shaken and fall apart. But that which is made of Christ
cannot be shaken. It's eternal. And it shall not
crumble. It shall not fall. And you shall
stand before the throne of God, accepted of God, in perfect righteousness,
in the robe of the Lord Jesus Christ, in his righteousness,
for his blood's sake, for what he accomplished for us. Now these
truths are further built upon in the remaining verses. So looking
at verse 19, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made
sinners. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. And so these words, were made
and be made, they mean what they say. And what I mean by that
is, when Adam sinned, it wasn't to make us possible to be sinners. That now we're in some trial
period where it's possible for us to sin, that we have a free
will, and now we're on trial to see whether we're going to
be sinners or not sinners. No, we're all sinners. We were
made sin. We were made sinners. That's
why we sin. That's why we have the lust of
the flesh that we have, because that's what we are by nature
in Adam. And so we're born with a will
that's not free, but is bound in sin, bound in corruption.
We're in that prison. That's why when Christ comes,
it says the prison is open. The light shines forth and he
calls to the sinner in that prison. Come forth. Come into the light. Show yourselves. And we would
never do that in the flesh. We would never do that by nature
because we run from God, as Adam ran from God. We hide from God.
We don't want to come into the light lest we be reproved for
our sinful works. But in Christ, as new creatures,
we come into that light. We hear the voice of the Son
of God who calls us and we follow Him. We come out of that darkness
into the light of Christ and follow Him. And so in Adam, we
were made sinners. And as Christ said, ye will not
come to me that ye might have life. If he leaves us to our
strength, to our natural abilities, we will not come to him, just
like those Pharisees, that we might have life. but by his almighty
grace and power. But God, Ephesians 2, 4, for
his great love wherewith he loved us, delivered us out of that
bondage, out of the course of this world, out from under the
power of the prince of the air, delivered us from that death
and that body of the children of disobedience and the children
of wrath, and brought us into the kingdom of light, whereby
we receive the inheritance of the saints in light. All that
Christ has inherited is given to His body as His bride. All that is His, our Lord, our
King, our Savior, our all, is given to His bride. We are made
partakers with Him in His inheritance. not in that old husband, not
in Adam, which is the inheritance of eternal death, but that inheritance
in Christ, which is eternal life in Him. And so that's why he
tells us, we see it in Romans 8, we're told that the carnal
mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh, that is those that are only flesh in Adam, cannot please
God. In Romans 3, 10 through 12, as
it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good, no, not one. If we boast of a free will, we're
calling God a liar. Because that word right there
shuts us up to boasting in self and thinking that we have some
power ability to please God by our works. When God is telling
us, you cannot do it. The scripture hath concluded
all under sin that we might receive the promise by faith in Jesus
Christ. Because if there's some hope
that we have in his flesh, we're going to keep following that.
We're going to keep going after that. We're going to keep trying
and striving and laboring to work a righteousness for ourselves
rather than submit and bow to Christ and beg him for mercy
and salvation. So that's why he shows us this,
is to turn us from self, turn us from a vain confidence in
the flesh, to fly to Christ, to flee to him, to run to the
rock, our strong tower, to be hid in him, to come in his blood,
to be found in him. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, Paul said, but the righteousness which is
of Christ. to be with him that loved me and gave himself for
me, that I might have life in him and inheritance and know
the true and living God. This is why he does it. Verse
20, and he tells us this, moreover the law entered that the offense
might abound. So the law of Moses entered to
show just how great and how ruined we are in Adam, in that transgression. That's why the law entered, to
expose to us the exceeding sinfulness of sin. and the death that we
are and the death that we deserve because of what we are in Adam
and that transgression. So the law entered that the offense
might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And so it's to bring us to see,
to hear this good news, to know that in Christ Jesus, all who
believe him and come to the Father in him are justified from all
things that we could not justify ourselves with by the law. Colossians
1, 21 and 22, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, God's even talking about our
religious attempts by wicked works. They all came short of
the glory of God. Yet now hath he reconciled. Christ brought peace. He's the
son of peace. He's the prince of peace. He
brings peace to his people in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable in his sight and
unreprovable in his sight. And it's to reveal that his people
are regenerated. He's not just tweaking and just
reworking what we are in the flesh. No, he starts over. It's
a new creation. It's a completely new creation
in Christ Jesus. And you hath he quickened, made
alive, who are dead in trespasses and sins. We are new creatures
in him. It's to know that we are sanctified
by him. By the witch will, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. He is our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, our redemption, that according as it's written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And so this is to
make us to know, verse 21, Romans 5, 21, that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And so that which Adam cannot
do, Christ does. And all the blessings of that
new life are given to us by the Spirit of God, making us a new
creature whereby we hear Christ's voice. And we're turned from
death and wicked works and are given a desire to know Him and
to follow Him and to be found in Him, to be turned from the
passing momentary pleasures of this life, to be turned to Christ. to seek Him, to worship Him,
to serve Him, to love our brethren, and to bear fruits of righteousness
in Him. And so that's what the Lord has
shown us of what great salvation He's wrought for us in the Lord
Jesus Christ and works in us by His grace and power. Amen.