Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. All right, if you wish to follow
along, turn to Romans chapter 5 again. Romans chapter 5. I want to read verse 12 to the
end of the chapter. Romans 5 verse 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. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless,
death reigned 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. But 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. But, or for, sorry, for, if by
one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which
receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. 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. For, as by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound, and we had best thank God for that. That,
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, in this message this Sunday
morning, and of course, thank God, God willing, myself, Paul,
and Joe will get a break next Sunday, but in my dealing with
this passage, I will not deal with every verse in our text
yet. But I do not want to rush through
this. So there will be more messages
on these verses, 12 through 21. At least one more, but maybe
more than that. What I want to try to deal with
mainly this morning is Paul's original thought. The original
thought, as you can see, starts in verse 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, and
then our translators have put in what we call the parentheses.
This is Paul explaining what he's just said, and giving some
information concerning what he's going on to say. The original
thought then continues in verse 18. You see it? That's where
the 17, that's where the end of the parentheses is at. 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
and the justification of life. And of course, he continues down
through verse 21. What I'm going to deal with then
this morning is the original thought. Now in his letter, Paul
here has unabashedly introduced the gospel truth of substitution
in chapter five, verses six through 11. I mean, it is unabashed substitution. And let me just try to summarize
this. Everyone whom Jesus Christ died for, he died in their place. He died as their substitute.
Everyone that he died for, he reconciled them to God when he
died for them. And not only did he die, but
he was buried and he rose again and was ascended back to the
Father's right hand. He now lives to make sure that
everyone that he reconciled by his death, they shall be saved
by his life. And not only will they be saved,
they won't just wake up in glory, they will actually come to receive
the reconciliation or atonement as we have it here in the KJV.
So again, I say, in his letter, Paul has unabashedly introduced
the gospel truth of substitution with gospel substitution. It is not true of all substitution. Not true of all substitution,
but concerning gospel substitution, that is, Jesus Christ standing
as the substitute for a particular people. With gospel substitution
always comes representation. They are, and it's probably not
the best illustration, but it's the best I've got, they are like
the two sides of one coin. If you ever get a coin and it
has the stamp on one side and it doesn't have the stamp on
the other side, then it is a counterfeit. Gospel substitution goes hand
in hand with representation. But now listen to me now. This
is not, that is even Paul's original phrase, thought rather, verse
12 and then 18 through 21, this is not about origination. It is about representation. Most, sadly, it's sad to have
to say, I fear that most who are taught from the Bible, and
most who even probably profess to be Christians, think that
what Paul does in verses 12 all the way through 21, original
thought and parentheses, is explain to us where sin came from in
this world. Now do you understand what I'm
saying here? But he's not just talking about where sin came
from in this world. Sin existed before Adam fell. Eve was in the transgression
and had sin, but we did not fall in Eve. So you see what I'm,
the point I'm trying, this is, most people read this, okay,
all this sin problem started with Adam. And then they go over,
they say a few fluffy words about the rest of it, and they pass
right on by it. And it's sad. Because what men
are passing by is the very hope of a man or a woman's soul. The angels sinned. Now when they
sinned, I do not know. The book does not tell us definitively. And I say this for the sake of
argument. If there was a gap, if there
was a creation before the Adamic creation that God destroyed,
maybe he did destroy it because of the fall of Satan. I do not
know. The first few verses in Genesis
allow for that, but they do not dogmatically teach that. Now
do you understand what I'm saying? So therefore I can't argue with
a man left or right, because it doesn't say that, although
the words can be allowed to be used that way. But nevertheless,
the serpent who, and I can explain all this, the serpent who is
said to be Satan, had already sinned and fallen, and was in
the garden with Adam and Eve before they sinned. So this ain't
about origination, and men read it. Wherefore, as by one man's
sin entered into the world. Well, that's where sin came from.
No, it's not. No, it's not. God does not tell us where sin
came from, but he exposes all who had it in them. Satan, fallen
angels, Eve, Adam. And think about this. This is
not origination. Again, I say it's representation. And that, as I hope you can probably
gather, you've gathered, this is my title and my subject, representation. Angels, a myriad of angels fell
with Satan and became, I suppose that's an okay word, and became,
therefore, called demonic. They are but spirits, but they
are created spirits, fallen or unfallen, elect or otherwise. All of the angels are God Almighty's
creation, and some in that original myriad of angels fail when Satan
fail. And our Lord said, I observe
Satan fall from heaven like lightning. When that happened, I do not
know. But it was before God created
man and woman and they ate of the fruit. It's before that.
Maybe it happened sometime before, after the Adamic creation. I do not know. But God does not
allow us to delve into such things because it's not about where
sin started. It's about being represented
by someone. And in Paul's context, there
are only, in all of the billions of humans that have existed since
Adam and Eve, only two men have been representatives. As the
parentheses lets us know, Paul clearly marks the one man whereby
the fall and condemnation came. Adam, doesn't he? He marks a
man who gave a law that clearly defined what sin is. Tells us
the right things to do and the things not to do. That's Moses. But then he also talks of Jesus
Christ in the parentheses. So there is no confusion here. as to who this is. As he's writing,
the Spirit of God has him write the words of verse 12. And I
don't know how Greeks set up, but I believe God Almighty protected
this word for us. And it is the inspired word of
God. And the Spirit of God moves him to then put in this, what
we have in English as a parentheses, clear delineation as to who and
whom he's talking about. So again, remember, if all you
think about is if for sin started, you're missing something here. I mean, you're missing, if you
don't, if God doesn't open our hearts and our minds and our
eyes spiritually and our ears spiritually to lay hold of this
truth, we are missing the only hope of a fallen son and daughter
of Adam. So, in our text, then, he says
wherefore. Chapter five, the first word
in verse 12. The word wherefore is a little
different from therefore. Therefore refers only back to
what he's also said. That's what a therefore is. Now
there may be some exceptions when they translated this because
back in the old English, they may not have seen or cared about
the delineation. But wherefore is more inclusive.
It's not just, it is based upon what I've already said, but there
is a conclusion to all of this, and the conclusion is vital. Wherefore, the word wherefore
here means simply accordingly or based upon this. Paul now
is moved, and I say moved. Paul is here moved by the Spirit
of God. And he's moved by the spirit
of God to write down exactly what God in his wisdom knew we
needed to know. Nothing more, so that nothing
in the issue is clouded. But nothing less, so that we're
not left without hope in this world. Because if all we had
was the truth of the one man's representation, Adam, we have
no hope. Being represented by Adam is
a hopeless situation. Because it's already failed,
we've already failed under condemnation. Not in danger of condemnation,
and I know some folks don't like this because they don't really
believe in representation, they believe this is origination.
No, this is representation, and many, And I will deal with this
more later, but I'll throw it out there for you to chew on.
The many and the all that Adam represented are the same number.
And the many and the all that Christ represented are the same
number. But the many and the all that
Adam represented and the many and the all that Christ represented
are not the same number. They're just not the same number.
Total universal corruption, Paul is already exposed in chapter
three. Jew or Gentile, there's none
that understand, there's none that do us good. There's universal
corruption. In chapter five, we have universal
corruption. But we also have universal redemption. If you were represented by the
man he's talking about. And thus we read, and it's a
little difficult in English, it's almost a contradiction in
the English, and it is on the top. I mean, just going to verse
15, but not as the offense so also is the free gift. Do you
see that little, that confounded me for years. Because it's like
he's talking out both sides of his mouth, right? And he says
it again, where is it? Oh, verse 16, and not as it was
by one that sinned, so is the gift. You see the conundrum you've
got here in your mind. But he's saying, it's the old
phrase, it's the same, but it's different. That's what that phrase
means. It's the only possible explanation
to what the phrase can mean. You see? So now, maybe I've give
you just enough morsel to look forward to the next time when
we deal with what's actually in the parentheses. Three things,
consider this, about verse 12. By one man, and we of course
know in the parentheses, that's Adam. There is no doubt about
that. So we're not going into trying to prove that. It don't
have to be proved, you just believe it. By one man, sin entered into
the world. but not by Satan and not by Eve. Because this one man represented
the world. All of his descendants, even
though later they would be split up into what we call different
races. Now we are all a member of the human race. And mankind
has made his distinctions of races by the color of your skin. That is just not so. We're all,
being represented by Adam, members of the same race. God may have
divided humanity up later into different ethnicities, but we're
all still of the same race. There is no superiority here. We're all under a federal head
in Adam, and we read what happened to us in Adam. All of us, and
it's a lot of them, many, You see it, many. So by one man centered
into the world. This is not about the devil,
this is not about the woman. This is about the one man called
Adam. Second thought, by one man, again
it's Adam. By one man, death entered into
the world. Not by Satan and not by Eve. You see it? Here's the third
thing. In this one man's one offensive
act against God, chapter five, verse 18, look what it says.
Therefore, as by the offense, not offenses, it was one singular
offense. And in human eyes, in human reasoning,
in human logic, it really don't seem to be that great of offense. I gotta be bold. Adam didn't
rape his wife Eve. Did he? He didn't go down to
the local Walmart and hold it up with a gun. There were no
Walmarts. There were no guns. As one preacher said, he had
no women to mess around with, no cigarettes not to smoke, and
no liquor not to drink. Now did he? One thing, don't
eat of that tree. And he still willingly, knowingly,
with his eyes opened, eaves were not. She was deceived, he was
not deceived. And our problem is he represented
us, not Eve. Now, you females take a little
hope in that. You're not the problem. The male
is the problem. The male is the problem. And
one male. One male. I'm not your problem,
though many have tried to make me out to be their problem. I'm
not the problem. Now, I am a problem to me, but
I'm not really your problem. If I am your problem, you got
deeper fish to find. I'm just telling you. By one
man, do you see it? And also, death passed upon all
that Adam represented. Because, or that is, for that,
that's the word for that, is because all sinned in their representative. Do you see it? Wherefore as by
one man sin entered into the world and death by sin So death
passed not is passing That is true of physical death, and I've
heard people preach. I've heard them years ago. Well.
This is talking about physical death No, it is not I am alive
before you this morning. You are alive before me this
morning. Physical death has not passed upon us. We are living. Now we might say we're dying,
but if you're dying, you're still not dead. And anybody that don't
see the difference before that has evidently put blinders on
when they went into a mortuary and viewed a body, a corpse. Wherefore as by one man sin entered
into the world and death by seeing so that death passed It's already
passed Everyone after Adam was conceived in sin Shapen in iniquity
brought forth birth speaking lies for all death, so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Original fault,
therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all
men to condemnation. Because we all are a member of
Adam's race. We all are represented by Adam. Therefore, as by the offense
One judgment came upon all men to condemnation. And also the
other verse. Okay, verse 19. For as by one
man's disobedience, many were made sinners. And they didn't
even all exist yet. You see it? They didn't even
all exist yet, were made sinners. We will, God willing, we'll look
at this some later. We're made sinners. It doesn't
say we're imputed Adam's sin. God does not impute what is not
real. God does not, remember we looked
at imputation. What it really means is to inventory. And God doesn't inventory a zero
and says, oh, well I'll make that a five. That is deceitful. That is unjust balances. God's
balance, God's scales are balanced equally. Zero all the way. Zero
all the way. For as by woman's disobedience,
many were what? Made sinners. And remember, we'll
look at this in more detail later, but just remember the parentheses. For until the law, sin was in
the world. The law didn't make sin sin.
The law just come to expose sin for what it is. For until the
law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there
is no law. Now we say, well, but Adam had
one law. But then you're jumping away
from the context and trying to prove your own thought does matter.
Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses. So what law in
particular is he talking about there? The law of Moses. So God
never imputed any man's sin to him or her. until the law of
Moses was given. But death still reigned. All
that Adam represented fell into condemnation. Judgment had already
been passed by a holy, sovereign, immaculate, immutable God. As Paul said here not too long
ago, the law is like that x-ray where you go through that, what
is it called, the tube you go into? What is it? MRI, something
like that. It can expose the problem, but
it cannot cure the problem. All it can do is bring the problem
out in the open, but it can't fix it. It is impossible for
it to fix it. That's what the law did. The
law came along and exposed the problem, but the problem already
existed. Death was already a reality.
Even physical death was reality. But this ain't about physical
death, this is about spiritual death. God warned Adam, he told
him, in the day that thou eatest thereof, in the day thou shalt
surely die. And he did, though he lived hundreds
of years physically after that. But he died spiritually. And
it manifested itself, and rather than him falling on his face
and crying out for his creator in God to forgive him what he
did, what he tried to do? Cover his own nakedness. And
then when he heard God coming along, he went and he hid. He ran away from God rather than
running to God. And that is the state into which
all of us fail in our representative. By nature, we now always run
away from God rather than running to God. Oh, we'll create a god
of our own imagination and run to him. But we won't run to our
creator. So that's the proof. all in Adam, all who are of Adam,
all represented by Adam, and there are many, and all Adam
represented are included, they all sinned when Adam sinned.
Chapter five, verse 12. Why? Because he's our representative. We were in his loins. We're in
his loins. Just like the writer of Hebrews
says about Levi. who, when he was born and then
was made priest in the tribe of Levi, they received tithes.
But the apostle Paul in Hebrew says, but he paid tithes. How
did he pay tithes? In Abraham. And he paid tithes
to Melchizedek. Why? Because it was in his loins. Abraham represented him. This
is not, again, this is not just some fancy term that theologians
have played out there. This is, God defines this. We were literally in Adam's loins
when he existed thousands of years ago. And when he sinned,
we sinned. We sinned. Therefore they all,
all that Adam represented have spiritual death passed upon them
already, verse 12. And all are under condemnation,
verse 18. All were made sinners. This is hopeless in Adam. This
is hopeless. But thank God there was a second
representative. who existed even before the first
representative did. That representative was the creator
that created Adam. That representative was the voice
of God, for he is the word of God, that walked in the cool
of the day and said, not for information, but to expose Adam
to himself, wherefore art thou? Forcing him to confess or at
least begin confessing what had happened. This is hopeless and
adamant.