beginning with verse 12 through
the end of this chapter. 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. For if by one man's offense death
reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace
and of 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. that his sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. I can't think of a passage of
scripture that helps us to understand the work of substitution of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the covenants of grace, the covenants of work,
or the covenant of works rather, than these verses that we've
just read. And I pray the Lord will bless
his word to each one of us here tonight as we look at these again. Now, last week, we saw that Christ
died, and he died for the ungodly, for sinners, and for those who
were his enemies. Think about that. We sang that
hymn just a minute ago that spoke about Christ dying upon the cross. He died not for his friends,
but for those who were his enemies, for sinners, for ungodly men
and women. Tonight, as we look at these
final verses in the chapter, I want us to ask and answer,
hopefully, three questions. Three questions. My first question
is this. How did Man become ungodly sinners
and enemies of God. Saying that Christ died for the
ungodly, how is it that man became an enemy, a sinner, and ungodly? Well, the apostle tells us this
all happened, doesn't he, by one sin of one man. by one sin of one man. Now, Adam lived, what, 600 years
after he committed that first sin, and I'm sure, like all fallen
men, he had hundreds, if not thousands of sins that he committed
after that first sin. But it is that first sin, that
first sin that he committed that makes or caused all men to become
sinful men and women. And what was his one sin? Well,
in these verses that we read, if you look in verse 12, it was
sin. Wherefore, as by one man sin,
he committed sin. If you look in verse 14, transgression. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression. What is the definition of sin
in 1 John? Sin is the transgression of the
law of God. And God gave Adam a law. We know that. We're not told
what that law was, other than he was not to eat of that one
tree. But that was a law that God had
given unto Adam. And sin is a transgression of
the law. Adam sinned, he transgressed
the law of God. And then also, if you look in
verse 19, or verse 15 rather, it is called an offense, but
not as the offense. So Adam's sin was transgression
and it was offense. He offended the law of God. He offended the justice of God.
And then if you look down in verse 19, it was disobedience. For as by one man's disobedience,
it was by his disobedience, he disobeyed God. Sometimes when we speak on this
subject, people say, well, I don't like that. I don't agree with
that, and I don't like it. What does his sin have to do
with me? What does his sin have to do
with others? Well, Again, in verse 12, the
apostle tells us that sin entered the world by one man, and with
sin, we know the wages of sin is death. With sin came death,
and death passed upon all men, showing that all men have sinned
in our head, in Adam. Now, all men were in Adam in
two different ways. We all know here this evening
that we are the seed of our father. Whoever your father was, you
are his seed. Well, Adam, and Adam was the
seed of all humanity, of all men. He's the head, he's the
father of the human race. And we were in him seminally. We were in his seed. But also,
secondly, he was a covenant head. He was a representative man.
And he represented all of his posterity, all of humanity. He represented us federally,
so we all sinned in him. We all fell in him in his first
transgression, and with that transgression, of course, came
condemnation. Did any, here's a question, not
one of the three, but here's another question, did any of
his posterity escape? Did any one of his posterity
escape? Of course not. Of course not.
None. The guilt of Adam's transgression
is imputed to each and every one. And Paul makes it clear
here that even babies, you know a baby may be born and may live
for an hour or two hours and pass away. A baby may perish
even in the womb. We know that. But if, think of
it, if death is the result of sin, then that must mean if babies
die, and they do, that they have inherited the guilt of Adam's
sin. They haven't sinned, as Paul
says here, after the similitude of Adam's transgression, no.
No, he knew what he was doing. He did it deliberately, disobeyed
God, disobeyed the command of God. Babies do not die of that
who die in infancy, but they do die because of sin. Now, that's for the first question,
how did men become ungodly sinners and enemies of God? By Adam's
transgression, by the first man, Adam's transgression. Second, how was Adam a figure
of him that was to come? If you notice in verse 14, we
read, Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over
them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression,
who, Adam, was a figure of him that was to come. In Hebrew,
in the Hebrew language, the word Adam is man. That's what, if
you were to look in your concordance and look up the word Adam and
see it in the Hebrew, it would be the word man. Man. Christ here is man of him who
was to come. Adam was a similitude. He was
a figure, a type. We use that word type most often.
He was a type, a picture, a shadow of him who was to come. And how was it or how is it that
Adam somehow figured or was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
there are several ways that are mentioned. Let me give us a few
of them. First of all, Adam we know was
made by God. God took dust of the ground and
made Adam, created Adam's body and breathed into him the breath
of life. So the Lord Jesus Christ, Adam
was created, as it said, from the virgin earth. The Lord Jesus
Christ, his body was created or made in the virgin Mary, the
virgin. And he is the seed of the woman. You know, that was the first
promise of a Savior, wasn't it? A Redeemer. that was given to
Adam, that the seed of the woman, not the seed of the man, the
seed of the woman, would bruise the head of the serpent, the
seed of the woman. And Christ was born of a virgin. He's the seed of the woman. Therefore,
and this is so important, the virgin birth of Christ, because
if he was not virgin born, If he was of the seed of a man like
Joseph, the husband of Mary, then he too was in that covenant
that God made with Adam. And when Adam sinned, his sin,
the guilt of his sin was imputed to all of his posterity, all
of his descendants, that would mean that Christ too would have
been guilty of sin. No, he was made the Holy Spirit. The angel told Mary, the Holy
Ghost shall come upon thee, shall overshadow thee, I believe it
is, and that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be
called the Son of God. Yes, as Adam was created from
the virgin earth, so Christ was created from the virgin Mary. His humanity, I should point
that out, his humanity. We don't use the term Mary, the
mother of God. The church, the believers have
never allowed that to be used because it just doesn't sound
good. Because God is eternal. Now, Christ, she is the mother
of his human body, yes, and soul, but we don't refer to her as
the mother of God. It's just not fitting. It's just
not fitting to call a woman, a human, I should say, the mother
of God who is eternal. It's just not fitting. Adam was created holy, he was
pure, and he was upright, and Adam was endowed with great wisdom. And I think it's very possible
in eternity we will come to realize just how intelligent and how
much wisdom Adam possessed. I pointed this out last Wednesday
night. We're looking at Moses and going into Egypt and dealing
with Pharaoh. But to think that the human race,
after being created in the image of God, has fallen so low that
man would worship a frog. That's just amazing, isn't it?
That man who was created in the image of God that the fall was
so great that man would come to worship a frog. And yet men
did and worshipped other creatures. How far has man fallen into sin? And no doubt that fall affected
his mind. We know when Adam, God brought
the animals before Adam and he named them and Didn't he just
give them the right name? Isn't a tiger a tiger? An elephant
an elephant? I mean, yes, he was endowed with
great wisdom created in the image of God and rulership also over
God's creation. Well, Christ, and see Adam as
a picture type of Christ, how holy is Christ? He's that holy
one that was born of God, pure, upright, and wise in all of his
offices as prophet. And we see that in the gospels,
don't we? Several times when they tried
to entrap him, when they would ask him, is it
lawful to pay tribute to Caesar? They thought they had him in
a boxed-in. Any way he answered, they were
going to find fault and be able to accuse him either to the civil
authority or the religious authority. And he very simply said, well,
show me a coin. Show me a coin. Whose image is
on that coin? Well, that's Caesar. Well, render
to Caesar the things that are Caesar. We're amazed at the wisdom that
God gave Solomon, aren't we? When those two women had one
living child and both of them claimed that child, that baby,
and Solomon said, well, part the child, cut the child, give
her, she says it's her baby, give her this half and she says
it's her, give her this. But Solomon's wisdom was given
unto him by God, we know that. And his wisdom doesn't even begin
to compare to the wisdom that Christ had. We know that because
of what Solomon ended up doing and marrying many wives. becoming
an idolater. We know that. But he has great
wisdom. Adam had great wisdom. That's
one way that he is a type of Christ. And as a king, Adam, he ruled
over everything. Didn't he? Yes. He was God's
vice regent. He ruled over all of God's creation
when he was first created. And God told him to do so. Christ, he rules over all of
creation. He's the king of kings. And though
we don't see all things put under his feet now, as the writer of
Hebrews says, but we know that he is reigning and ruling in
God's creation. God's given him, the God-man,
the power, the authority to reign. And, of course, Adam was a type
also in his marriage to Eve, a picture of Christ and his bride,
the church. Remember, Eve was taken out of
the side of Adam. And that's a lovely picture,
isn't it, of the relationship of husband and wife. It's often
pointed out that that she was not taken out of his foot. He's
not to trample upon her. She was not taken out of his
head, a bone in his head. No, she was taken out of his
side, close to his heart. And as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it. So Adam was a type of Christ
in that way. In Ephesians 5, Paul said that
Well, when Eve was brought to Adam, remember, he said, she's
my bone and flesh of my flesh. And the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul
said, is the same. We are members of his body, of
his flesh, and of his bones. And I'm sure that there are many
other ways that we could think of if we took the time to see
how Adam was a type of him who was to come. But mainly in these
verses, it is to show how that Adam was a covenant representative. He was a covenant representative
of all men. So Christ, he was a type of Christ
because Christ is a covenant representative of his people,
of his chosen people. A third question is, what do
we see in the comparison between these two covenant representatives. It's interesting, I have a number
of commentators, books over the years, and Matthew Poole is one
that, he didn't call his comments commentary, but annotations,
annotations. And I think he was maybe one
of the first of the English commentators, but he made this comment here
on verse 12. He said, this verse seems to
be lame. That's an unusual way to say
it, isn't it? This verse seems to be lame and
imperfect, for the explanation is warning in the comparison
for unto this. As by one man's sin entered into
the world, There should be added, so by Christ. But the explanation
on the second part of the comparison, we don't find until we come to
verse 18. From verse 13 through verse 17,
we have this long parentheses. And so I like to read this passage
many times. I'll read verse 12, and then
I'll skip down to verse 18. And that helps me. in reading
and comprehending what the Apostle Paul is telling us here. So let's
look down to verse 18. Therefore as by the offense of
one, now we know who that one was, that is Adam. That one offense,
the sin of Adam is imputed as this verse tells us under all
men. And what is the result? Condemnation. Condemnation. We all come into this world condemned
because of our sin. And the righteousness of one,
notice this, therefore as by the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, in the same way, In
the same way, by the righteousness of one. Now, who is this one?
It's not Adam. No, by Adam, condemnation came. But who is this one? Well, this
is Christ. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even so, by the righteousness of one. His righteousness. It's referred to as the righteousness
of God, isn't it? for many reasons, but we know
it is that righteousness, that obedience that he worked out
as a God-man, as a representative of his people, keeping the law,
satisfying God in every way by the righteousness of one, the
free gift. What is the free gift? Justification. Justification. The free gift
came upon all men under justification of life. The sin of Adam brought
the sentence of condemnation upon all men without exception. And we've studied before we got
here to chapter five, but in Romans chapter three, we pointed
out when Paul goes through that list of for all have sinned or
or there's non-righteous, he always, or several times he puts
in those words, no, not one. Because all of us think of somebody,
man just naturally does. Well, my grandmother, she was
a sweet old lady. I mean, she was, and she probably
was, but she was still not righteous. There's non-righteous, no, not
one. Not in herself, not in herself. And the sin of Adam brought the sentence
of condemnation upon all men without exception. And for God's elect, the sentence
of condemnation was the sentence of condemnation that should have
passed upon God's elect was executed. upon our surety upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. And by this, we're delivered
from that condemnation. The word all in the last part
of the verse refers either to the all that Christ represented
are all in the sense of Jew and Gentile, which is a usual way
of speaking because the Jews were of the opinion that only
the Jews were going to be saved. And of course, we know that God
has many among the Gentiles. And the all, it either refers
to all that Christ represented or all in the sense of both Jews
and Gentiles, all that Christ represented. Verse 18, for as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. And verse 19,
this is a summary here of what is really given in this passage.
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. That to me
is a summary of this whole passage. That as by Adam's sin all his
posterity are made sinners, constituted sinners, and so are brought under
a sentence of condemnation, even so In the like manner, by the
obedience of Christ, all his seed, all his seed are made righteous. All the seed of Adam come under the sentence of condemnation. All of Christ's seed, his spiritual
seed, those that are chosen in him, come under a sentence of
justification of life. And then verse 20, moreover the
law entered. Why did God give His law? Now
there's several reasons that we're told, but here we are told
that the offense might abound. That the offense, the law was
never given to give life. Why? Because man cannot keep
the law. You know, in chapter seven, he
will tell us the law is holy, the law is just, the law is good.
We know that has to be, it's God's law. It has to be holy,
just, and good. Problem, not in the law. The problem is with us. We have not the ability because
of our fault and to sin to keep that law perfectly. And that's
the way it must be kept. The law was never given to give
life. How many people are deceived
into believing you probably know some and live close to some and
work with some and their hope, their thought is, well, I try
to keep the Ten Commandments. I really do. I try to keep the
Ten Commandments. Well, first of all, trying, that's
not what the law says. The law says doing, doing, keeping
perfectly, absolutely. But it was never given to give
life because man, when the Ten Commandments was given, the law,
the covenant at Sinai, a covenant of works for the nation of Israel,
man was already a sinner and unable to keep God's law perfectly. The remainder of this verse is
often a source of comfort to me, but where sin abounded, And
I don't know about you, but I don't know of anywhere where sin abounds
any more than in my heart. I see it every time, every day.
It's with me all the time. And this has given me a lot of
comfort, this truth, this declaration where sin abounded. Yes, in me,
grace hath much more abounded. But this past week, Looking at
this passage again, I was thinking of this. Where did sin abound
the most? Could we not say that at the
cross, when all the sins of all of God's elect were charged upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, sin abounded. Didn't it? It abounded. Grace did much more abound. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. Yes, sin abounds in me and in
you, and you're aware of that if you're one of his children
tonight. But grace much more abounds. but also at the cross,
sin abounded. But grace, God's marvelous grace
in giving His Son We sang that hymn, how can it be? How can
it be that God should love a sinner like me? And love us so much
that he would give his son. And his son love us so much that
he was willing to be made sin for us. That we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. Well, in verse 21, we see that
the apostle pictures death and grace as two reigning monarchs,
two powerful beings. He personalizes death and grace,
that as sin hath reigned unto death, And it's powerful, it
has reigned over everyone. Every one born of man who has
come into this world, sin has reigned over. I was reading yesterday
the biographical sketch of William Gurnall. He wrote a book called
The Christian Complete Armor. And he had 10 children, him and
his wife had 10 children. They lived in the 1600s. When
he died, eight of his children were still living. That, to me,
was amazing, that eight out of the 10 were still living at that
time. Because death was so common in
infants. Death reigns, it reigns. But Paul says grace reigns too. Grace is a mighty monarch, but
it reigns through righteousness. It reigns never at the expense
of God's justice. It reigns through righteousness,
that is through God's law being satisfied by our substitute in
our place and in our stead. so that God might be gracious
unto us. For by grace are we saved through
faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. I pray
that the Lord would bless this word to all of us here tonight. And I encourage you to read over
these verses several times. And at first, it seems like Paul
could have maybe written this a little clearer. You know, it's not as, and not
as, he says in verse, and not as it was by one that sinned,
so is the gift. Couldn't he just say the gift
isn't like? No, he says, and not as it was
by one that sinned, so is the gift. And there are several of
those in that passage of scripture. And I pray the Lord will bless
His word to all of us here this evening.