Alright 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 death by sin and
so death passed upon all men and 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,
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. I 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. 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
3 Jew or Gentile there's there's none that understand. There's
none that do us good. There's universal corruption In chapter
5 we have universal corruption, but we also have universal redemption
if you were represented by the man he's talking about and 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'll 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, and human
reasoning, and human logic, it really don't seem to be that
great of offense. I gotta be bold here. 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 weren't any 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, Eve's 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 is better.
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 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, and the tribe of Levi was made priest,
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 in
Adam. And I've said it. You know, when
you're young, sometimes you're afraid to say things. I do blame Adam. But I can't put my sin off on
Adam, because I'm just like him after he failed. Adam was not
a natural man. He fell into sin. That was this. It's called original sin. It's
called the fall. Why? Because there's only been
one of them. You and I don't come into the world and then
fall. We are conceived fallen. Now you get the difference. A
lot of people are preaching this age of accountability and nobody
really knows when it is, but you're really basically okay
until you get so old to understand so much, then you fall. You don't
fall. If you fall on your own, you're
a goner. The angels fell on their own. And they had no representative. They perished forever. And how
proud are we sinful men? How many of us mourn over the
spirits of the angels? Hmm? Why do we not pray for him? Now if you do, now a lot of people
pray to him maybe. Why ain't you praying for him?
Because we know there ain't no hope for him. There ain't no
hope for him. And who are us proud human fleshly
creatures? These are spirit beings, but
they can still be tormented. Ellen, I don't know how that's
so. But God Almighty, these, remember the demon says, are
you come to torment us before our time? They're going to suffer.
Suffer, I don't know what that will be. And you people believe Jesus just
died for certain people. You ain't got a lick of care
for an angel woman, do you? Why, because you think just because
you're human, you're superior. Scripture says humanity is lower
than the angels. Now does it not? Lower. Christ didn't become an angel.
He even went lower and became human flesh. That boggles my
mind. Yes, in Adam it is hopeless,
but gospel representation is never, ever, ever one-sided.
It's never a counterfeit coin. It always has both sides. Representation in Adam and representation
in Christ. Gospel representation has a substitute
who also represents many, and he represents all for whom he
is the substitute. That's the meaning of this here.
Those for whom he died is not all without exception, because
if that's true, all without exception must be saved. But all that he
represented will be saved. because all that he represented,
he was also their substitute. He could have represented us
as a great teacher, but that wasn't enough. God's holy wrath
and condemnation against sin had to be dealt with, and he
did it in Christ. Therefore, original thought again,
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. 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 thank God because of this representative
substitute where sin abounded, grace did superabound. that as
sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life. And again, I say this is not
a shout out to Jesus. This is a declaration that he
is the one who brings it all to pass by Jesus Christ, our
Lord. I don't care how sinful you are. If Jesus Christ died for you,
there's hope for you. Well, preacher, you just don't
know how sinful I am. No, you don't know how sinful
you are. No, I don't know either. But none of us knows how sinful
we are in God's sight. Because sin was punished when
God looked upon his adorable, precious, lovely son when he
hung on that tree, and God the Father, when he seen our sins,
those for whom he died, seeing those sins in his body on that
tree, God the Father turned his back on the Son. And I'm glad. Aren't you? And you see, we'll preach about
this, but deal with what Paul says here. Don't try to go to
some other passage and explain this away. Deal with it for what
it says. And if Christ represented me,
if he is my substitute, if he reconciled me, he will make sure
I receive that reconciliation. And having received that reconciliation,
he'll make sure I continually rejoice in it. What did you preach,
Joe? We worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we got no confidence in the
flesh. Yes, representation by Adam is
hopeless. It is disheartening, but God's
way of representation declares true hope. There is a second
representative. Do you reject Adam as your representative? Then you reject Christ likewise,
because you can't have one without the other. Well, preacher, I
still, I believe in God, but I don't believe all that. You're
gonna believe what God says, or you are a liar. And men, God
Almighty will deal with you at the point of your rebellion.
Not of something over here in the left field or right field.
Just like the one fella told, the one preacher, he said, well,
he said, I've been baptized two or three times, but I ain't never
gonna be baptized again. Well, you don't have to be baptized
to be saved. But if you make that a point
of contention with God, God'll make sure you go in that water.
Because we don't ever tell God what we ain't gonna do. Well,
I'll never be a member of that church. Right there's your point
of contention. Right there's your point of rebellion.
Right there's your point of hate. Well, I'll never give money to
support that gospel. That's gonna be the one thing
God's gonna have to break you down on. You got all kinds of other
things, but when you try to tell God what you will or will not
do, if you're one of his, that's the very thing he's gonna confront
you about. So again, I said, do you reject
Adam as your representative? Then you reject Christ likewise.
Are you convinced that Adam represented you? When you look back and see
how Adam was, and we read in this Bible how his descendants
was, can you relate to that? Can you? A lot of people can't.
Well, I ain't never been that bad. No, I'm that bad. Apart from God's grace, If I'd
have been in Israel, I'd have been worshiping the hushed hand
myself. That brazen serpent, which God had ordained, but he
didn't ordain for it to carry it around with him for years
and start burning incense to it. Hezekiah comes along and
grinds it to powder and puts it in water. Now, here, swallow
your God. Swallow your God. Are you convinced Adam represented
you? I mean, you're convinced of it.
then you have hope that Christ represented you as well. Because
it's not just about, well, I believe in that truth, preacher. No, I'm talking about you can
taste it. You can experience it, so much
so that later on, as we will see, you will still cry out even
after you've received the atonement, received the reconciliation,
you're still forced out to cry, oh, wretched man that I am. It's always a who. Don't look
to anything else but that who. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Aren't you glad for that? Yeah,
that'd brighten your day if you really believe him. If you really
believe him. Father, comfort us. Comfort us
in all that we Say and do, and not in those things themselves,
but in our Lord Jesus Christ. Will we fall miserably, Lord?
Strengthen us by the truth of thy son and the preaching of
his gospel, in Christ's name, amen.