And I thought this week as I
was studying, this is such an important subject that we're
looking at this morning. I hate to say it that way, because
you don't want to put, you can't put one portion of God's word
above another. It's all God's word. It's all
important, or he wouldn't put it in his word. But this is an
important subject for us to understand. Federal headship. God sees all
mankind in two men, either in Adam or in Christ, the first
Adam or the second Adam. That's federal headship. Every
human being is seen either in Adam or in Christ. And whichever
one we're in, we are exactly like our head. We're either dead
in Adam or we're alive in Christ. And God's going to sentence us,
the sentence and judgment for us will be based on our head,
the actions of our head. We're either going to be guilty
in Adam or we're innocent in Christ. Federal headship. And
Adam is a type of Christ. Actually, he's an anti-type.
He's the opposite. He's everything. Christ is none. Adam was a first man. God made
him a living soul. He breathed into him the breath
of life. But Christ is the quickening spirit. He is life. Adam is made
of the earth. Christ is the Lord of Heaven.
We're made sinners in Adam. We're made righteous in Christ.
We have death in Adam. We have life in Christ. Adam
is the anti-type of Christ. And we're seeing him, one of
these two men, as Pharaoh headship. And that's what we're going to
see here in these verses this morning. Our lesson begins in verse 12
where Paul writes, 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 sin entered the world by
Adam. Satan was already in the world,
but sin came into the world of mankind through Adam because
of Adam's transgression. And death came because of sin. The wages of sin is death. And
sin brings spiritual death and physical death. You know the
story very well in the garden. God put Adam in the garden to
dress it, and He told Adam, you can eat of every tree of the
garden except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And in the day you eat thereof, dying thou shalt die. In the
day you eat thereof, Adam, you will instantly die spiritually,
and you'll begin dying physically. And that's exactly what happened.
Adam died spiritually the moment he took that fruit and ate it.
You think about Adam's Life. Before that moment, Adam walked
with God. He walked with God Almighty. After he ate that fruit, he's
hiding it from God over in the bushes. Adam used to be so intelligent. Now he thinks he can hide behind
some leaves and hide from the all-seeing eye of God. What could
make somebody so intelligent, so stupid? He died. Spiritually, he died. His understanding
died. He used to walk upright. Now
he's crouched over in the shade in fear. Adam used to be a loving
man, loved his wife. Now he hates her. He's willing
to throw her under the bus and have her bear all the blame for
his transgression. All those are signs of spiritual
deadness. He died spiritually. And every
human being is subject to physical death because of our federal
head. And we all have a dead spiritual nature because of Adam,
because of our federal head. And the reason that's so is Adam's
sin was charged, was imputed to everyone he represented, every
single human being. Hear this phrase in our text
in verse 12, for that all have sinned. The literal translation
of that is in whom all have sinned. When Adam sinned, God imputed
his sin, his transgression, his guilt to everyone he represented,
the whole human race, every one of us. When Adam sinned, we sinned. And we are just as guilty as
if we were in the garden and we took that fruit in willful
disobedience of God and ate it. We're just as guilty as if we
did it ourselves. Adam's sin was imputed to everyone
he represented. And Adam's nature was imparted
to everyone he represented. Can you deny you bear Adam's
likeness? Can you deny? I mean, any thinking
person, can they possibly deny they have Adam's nature? Can't
do it. We're sinners. You just you cannot
deny that. And the reason for that is Adam's
nature was imparted to everyone he represented. Adam's sin opened
the floodgate for every other sin because it gave us a fallen
sinful nature. Adam in a moment went from complete
holiness to total depravity, couldn't have fallen further.
And that sinful nature is the nature that's imparted to every
one of us, all of us, because Adam represented all of us. And
somebody will say, well, that's not fair. It's not fair. that
I'd be counted guilty for something that happened when I wasn't even
there. That's not fair. Well, read on. There's two sides to this coin
of federal headship. Just read on a minute before
you say that. Verse 13. Now, this is a parenthetical
statement that explains this phrase, for that all have sinned.
For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed
where there is no law. Now, sin was in the world. Long
before God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, before God gave all
the mosaic law to Moses, sin was in the world. God's rule
was still in the world. His law was written on the hearts
of men. King didn't need the Ten Commandments to know it was
wrong to kill his brother. He knew it was wrong to kill
his brother before the Ten Commandments were given. And this is a hypothetical
statement, really, to say that sin is not imputed where there
is no law. If there was no law, it's true. No sin would be charged
to anyone, but law was in the world. God put it in the hearts
of men. Where God is, there's rule. He's God. And the proof that
sin was in the world and the law was in the world is God's
judgment of sin. God's judgment of sin is death.
Look at verse 14. 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. Now even though the Ten Commandments weren't
given yet, people still died. And they died because they were
guilty. They were made guilty in Adam.
They were born guilty. They died because of God's judgment
against sin. And Paul says, even over them
that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.
What on earth is he talking about there? Babies who never committed a
conscious sin against God's rule, against God's law, still died. Why? They're guilty. Adam's guilt was imputed to them,
and they're guilty. They're conceived in sin, they're
shapen in iniquity, they're born dead in trespasses and sins.
Guilty in Adam. And that's a difficult thing
to say. Now, we love our babies. I remember when mine were babies.
Oh, my goodness sakes. And our baby's here. I said this
last Sunday. Jonah lives the life of a rock
star. I mean, here he comes in. Everybody
in the place is coming over to him. Wants to see him. Wants
to talk to him. Wants him to react to them. It's just because
we love our babies. Oh, my goodness, they're so cute
and wonderful. How we thank God for them. But
God doesn't see them like we see them. They're guilty. Guilty
in Adam. sin imputed to them, and that's
why some of them die. That's why there is such a thing
as an infant mortality rate. And I can't think of anything
that brings more grief when a child dies. We were talking about this
on the way over here this morning. Savannah's got a birthday coming
up, and we were talking about how it was 15 years ago. Janice
says, I feel a lot better today than I did 15 years ago. And
she was in the hospital, she turned blue. She couldn't handle
things and she spit up and did different things and turned blue
more than once. And they put her in the neonatal
intensive care. And we thought for a moment we
were coming home without her. For a few days we thought we'd
come home without her. And we were depressed. This is bad. How much worse when that child
dies? I just can't imagine more grief
than when a child dies, an infant. That's the reign of death that
sin brings. Sin allowed death to reign over
us. And it's a bloody, tyrannical,
cruel reign of a cruel dictator. It's the reign of death over
us. It's the bloody reign of terror that nobody can escape.
Because of sin. Because of Adam's sin being imputed
to us. Because of Adam's sin, who is
the type of Christ. He's the figure of him that's
to come. The anti-type of the Messiah. Now read on here in
verse 15, But not as the offense, so also as the free gift. For
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. Now as awful, terrible as the
results of Adam's sin are, they can't be compared to the greatness
of God's grace that we find in the second Adam, in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Grace is greater than all of
our sin. Grace can't even be compared
to Adam's sin. It's so much greater. Now, this
is federal headship. Everyone that Adam represented
is dead. Death reigns over them. But everyone
in Christ, everyone that Christ represented has life. Death doesn't
reign over them. Look over in 1 Corinthians 15.
I'll show you that. 1 Corinthians 15. Death in Adam. Life in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 21. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
died. Everyone he represented died.
Even so, in Christ shall all be made alive. Everyone that's
in Christ shall be made alive. There's life in Christ. We lost
everything through Adam, our federal head, the head of the
whole human race. But we receive everything. Believers
in Christ receive everything through grace because of Christ,
our federal head, the federal head of God's elect. We gain
everything the exact same way we lost everything through our
federal head. Adam lost everything, but Christ
restores more than we lost in Adam. The two cannot be compared.
Now, remember the person who said, well, that's not fair.
That's not fair that Adam's sin be imputed to me. I wasn't there.
Well, we weren't there when Christ died either, were we? That's
why I love representation. That's why I love federal headship.
Because if Adam hadn't fell, if he hadn't fallen, and he wasn't
our federal head, all of us would be required to stand on our own.
There would always be the possibility that we'd fall, that we'd sin
and that we'd fall and we'd be lost forever. There would be
no hope because we would have to stand or fall on our own. And I know myself well enough
to know this. I'd fall. I mean, I would go
to extremes to go to that tree and eat that fruit. I would fall. I'm sure as the world I would.
And all hope would be gone. But because Christ, because God
sees all men and one of two men, there's hope. There's hope for
sinners now. Adam's the representative of
the whole human race. That's you and that's me, all
of us. He represented us. But Christ, the second Adam,
He's the representative of sinners. He's the federal head for sinners. That's me. And that's you if
you know you're a sinner. Christ came to save sinners of
whom I'm chief. And the only hope for salvation
for sinners is in federal headship. That Christ will stand for me
as my substitute, as my federal head. What He did, I did. That's
my only hope. That's God's way. That's the
way Scripture teaches. And by God's grace, I love it.
That's what I love. Federal headship. Now verse 16, And now 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. Now the effect of Adam's sin,
it can't be compared to Christ's obedience. When Adam sinned,
his sin, his guilt was imputed to everyone he represented. And
his nature, his fallen nature was imparted to everyone he represented. And we all died. But when Christ,
the second Adam, when he came and he was obedient to every
job, every tittle of God's law, his righteousness, his obedience
was imputed to everyone he represented. And the obedience of Christ overcame
our guilt in Adam. And when Christ was obedient,
His nature is imparted to everyone He represented. Now that's so.
The nature of Christ is in the believer. And that nature overcomes
the nature of Adam that's in us. They war. They war against
each other, but that nature of Adam does not have dominion over
God's people because where Christ is, He rules. And His nature
is imparted to His people. I was talking to a man back this
summer And he told me, he made this statement. He said, you
can't tell me, you can't tell a believer that the nature of
Christ is not in me. You can't deny the nature of
Adam is in you. Well, if you're a believer, you
can't deny the nature of Christ is in you. Where does the love
for God's Word come? Where does the knowledge of your
sin come? Where does the desire to hear
more of Christ, to learn more of Christ, to read His Word,
to worship together with God's people. Where does that come
from? It doesn't come from Adam's nature. It comes from a new nature,
the nature of Christ that's imparted to you. His righteousness is
imputed to us, and His nature is imparted, His pitha. And I
tell you, Christ gives us more than we lost in Adam. Now, Adam
had a life, didn't he? But he could lose it. He was
always subject to lose that life if he disobeyed God. In Christ,
we're given life. And what's it called? Eternal
life. You cannot lose it. It's impossible. It's eternal
life. What'd our Lord say? No man can pluck them out of
my hand. Our life is hid with God in Christ. It's impossible to lose it. Adam,
he had a righteousness, but he could lose it at any moment.
The righteousness of Christ that's imputed to His people, it's impossible
for us to lose it. Utterly impossible. It's impossible
for us to get rid of the guilt that we have in Adam. I don't
know why you'd want to, but it would be impossible for you.
Once it's imputed to you, it's impossible to get rid of the
righteousness of Christ that God's imputed to you. Because
God imputed it to you. What He does is eternal. It's
forever. You can't lose that righteousness.
Adam had fellowship with God, and in a moment, he lost it. You cannot lose the fellowship
that you have with God in Christ. Once He's made you a son, you're
always a son. It's impossible to lose what
we have in Christ. See, Adam could lose everything
he had, because everything he had was based on his doing or
not doing. What we have in Christ is based
on who He is. It's not only based on what He
did, although it is, it's who He is. He can't fail. He's God. What we have in Christ
is based on a finished work. The work is done. It's over.
And you cannot lose it. What we lost in Adam can't be
compared to what we gain in the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam's one
sin plunges all of mankind into sin, into death, into separation
from God, and into all manner of sin. Christ's blood cleanses
every sin. Every one of them, original sin
and Adam, is put away under the blood. And all our own transgressions
are put away under the blood, washed away, cleansed forever.
The blood of Christ has gone deeper than the stain is gone.
It can't be compared. You cannot compare Adam to Christ. He's just a cheap imitation of
him that is to come. Now verse 17. Brought 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. Adam brought death on
all men. But Christ has overcome death. He's gotten the victory over
death, and He gives life as a free gift to everyone that's in Him. There's death in Adam, but there's
abundant life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over at John chapter
10. There's abundant life in Christ because of the abundance
of His mercy and grace. John 10, verse 10, the thief
cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I
am come that they might have life and that they might have
it more abundantly. The life that Christ gives as
a free gift of His grace is much more abundant than the life that
Adam had and the life that he lost. This is eternal life. You
see how over and over again Paul shows us the two cannot be compared,
Adam and Christ. Now sin reigns under death. And that's all sin can bring,
is death. Sin can't bring happiness. It
can't bring joy. It can't bring anything good
ever. All it can do is bring death.
Sin reigns under death. But Christ reigns. He must reign,
John said. And He reigns to life through
righteousness. The reign of Christ is the reign
of a loving, All powerful, all wise, king. And that's why death
doesn't have dominion over the believer anymore. Our bodies
will still die. But death doesn't have any power
to hold the believer. Every one of us is going to die,
unless Christ comes. Now, first, every one of us is
going to die. We're all going to gather together
and look at a body laid there in a casket. And that body is
dead. And it's dead because of sin.
Adam's sin that's imputed to us, his nature that's imparted
to us, the sin that's in our members. But you remember, when
that believer's laying there in that casket, he's not there. That's not death. Death didn't
have the power to hold him now. Christ overcame death and took
the sting of death away. And death is a friend to the
believer. It'll kill the body, yes, but
that's just fine. To be free from this body is
to be present with the Lord. It set us free to be present
with the Lord of glory. Now, these last verses have been
a parenthetical statement here that explain, like I said, this
phrase, for that all have sinned. Now, let's go back to verse 12
and read it, and then we'll read on without this parenthetical
statement. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin, So death passed upon all men for that all have
sinned. 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. You see, we're made free from
sin the exact same way we were made sinners, by representation,
by who our federal head is. Adam's sin made everyone he represented
guilty. God imputed his guilt to us,
and we're guilty. Christ's righteousness, though,
on the opposite hand, makes everyone he represented not guilty, justified. You see, we didn't do anything
to make ourselves sinners. We didn't do anything to make
ourselves guilty. Adam did that for us. He did a good job of
it. We're guilty. We were made sinners without
works, weren't we? didn't do anything by the same
way, didn't do anything to make themselves righteous. Christ,
our federal head, did that for us. We're made righteous without
our works, too, by imputation. See, that's federal headship,
and that's why I'm so thankful for it. You know the angels didn't
have a federal head, did they? The angels stand or fall on their
own. When Lucifer said, I'm going
to take the throne. And how many ever of the angels
that followed him, they all fell. And they stood, or they fell,
on their own. And every one of them that followed
Lucifer are cast into darkness, reserved in chains till the day
of judgment. That's why I'm thankful for feral headship, that we don't
have to stand on our own. Feral headship is my only hope
of salvation. I remember this illustration,
Henry used it from years ago, about the angels standing on
their own. He said the angels are like a
field of corn. All those stalks of corn planted
on a huge field. And it came time for the harvest
when those angels fell and a bunch of them were cut down. And those
stalks of corn, when they're harvested, are cut down one at
a time. And they say a third of the heavenly
host fell. A third of that field was cut
down. One stalk at a time. Each of
those stalks of corn stand or fall on their own. But Adam is
like a tree. Adam's the trunk. And everyone
in Adam comes from him. We're the branches. We're the
leaves. We're all the rest of the tree that comes from Adam.
And when Adam was cut down, he's the trunk of that tree that was
cut down. And when he fell, the rest of
the tree fell too. When the trunk died, all the
branches died. All the leaves died. All of us.
He's the tree that's cut down. And Christ is divine, isn't He?
And we're the branches. When He stood, we stood. When He was righteous, we're
righteous. He's seated at the Father's right
hand. And one day, we'll be with Him.
And right at this very moment, we're seated there with Him because
He's our federal head. God sees us as righteous, as
holy, His own Son. That's federal headship. And
if you know Christ, you love it. This makes me want to come
out of my shoes. I wish I could make that clear. In Christ our federal head, we're
as holy, as righteous as He is. That's the most astounding statement
a human being can make. Righteous because of Christ our
federal head. Now verse 19. For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous." When Adam fell, every one of us in
him became guilty. We fell too. When he died, we
died. And that scripture right there
says we were made sinners. We were made to look like sinners.
The door wasn't open to the possibility that we'd be sinners. We didn't
just look like a sinner. We were made a sinner, a real
life sinner through and through so that everything we do is sinful
because we were made sinners in our federal head. But even
so, by the same manner in Christ, everyone he represented is made
not guilty. That's more than just declared
not guilty. This is not just some sort of
legal paper shuffling. You know, my job, we, I have
to try to collect money from people that, you know, the company
money, they receive merchandise, they sign the invoice, say, yes,
I owe this money, I'll pay it. And then they decide they don't
want to pay it. And you'd be amazed how long a time in court
you can spend with the court saying, no, they don't know it
yet. They don't know it yet. They don't know it yet because
they're just shuffling papers. It's just a big shell game. And
for a while, for a long time, the court can say, nope, you
can't make them pay you that money yet. That's not the way
we're made righteous in Christ. We're made righteous. Actually, literally righteous. Not just pretend. Not just, well,
we're going to call you righteous even though you're not. We're
going to call you clean even though you're dirty. It's not
just you're going to be righteous someday. It's not legal mumbo
jumbo. It's not just, well, you're righteous
on a technicality, and then later, you know, you'll be righteous.
We're made righteous, as righteous as God himself. Made righteous
by God's grace. Now, verse 20. Moreover, the
law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. See, now we see what happened
after the Lord gave the law to Moses. Nothing changed, did it? Men still died. Nobody kept the
law. Nobody used that law and earned
a righteousness, did they? Because they were made sinners. It was impossible for them to
make themselves righteous through the law. The law was given, but
death still reigned because sin was still in the world. There's
still transgression of the law. Then why did God bother giving
the law? To make our sins more obvious. The law is like a mirror. God gave us the mirror to show
us how sinful we are. I remember when our girls had
chicken pox. They used to have pictures of
them when they had chicken pox sitting in the oatmeal bath,
you know, and they got all these chicken pox all over them. And
she'd get the mirror and she'd show them, you know, so they
could look at their face in the mirror to see these chicken pox
all over them. Well, that mirror didn't make
you sick. That mirror didn't make those spots come all over
your face. It just showed the disease. And that's what the
law does. It shows us the disease. It shows
us our sinful nature. It shows us the abundance of
sin that's in us. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. Oh, that's good news. Grace,
life in Christ, redemption in Him, just overflowed the dam
and covered us. Covered us with His grace. Covered
us with His blood. Made everything in Adam disappear. Covered all traces of Adam and
removed Adam's likeness from us. Covered in the blood of the
Lamb because of the overflowing abundance of God's free grace
that He gives to His people. I love Federal Headship. Now,
verse 21. That is, sin hath reigned unto
death. Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin reigns unto death. There is not a thought of a person
in this room that this body is going to live forever. Not a
single thought. We kind of put it to the back
of our mind. But every single person in this room knows one
day I'm going to die. Because death reigns. But just these bodies are going
to die. You're not going to die. Not if you know Christ. Not if
He's your federal head. Because in Him, grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life. You're made righteous in
Christ. It's impossible for you to die. Life reigns because of the righteousness
of Christ that's imputed to His people. And no believer in Christ
is ever going to die. You have eternal life. And one day, you're going to
appear with Him in glory, in a body freed from sin, all traces
of it removed, because God's grace reigns unto life in Christ. You have it now. One day you
have the perfection of it. You have the fulfillment of it
with you. Alright, well, Lord bless you.