Let's go over to Romans chapter
5. The title of my message is Represented. I'm going to read verse 12 and then read verses
18 through 21, removing that parenthetical expression in verses
13 through 17. Verse 12 says, Wherefore, as
by one man, sin, entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for all have sinned, or in whom all sinned. Therefore, verse 18, 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 as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Father, we bless you and
thank you that we can read these words. And because you have given
us faith, believe that because of what Jesus Christ did, we
have life eternal. We have justification and righteousness,
not because of anything we did. but because of what he did. We're
thankful for the clear language of this chapter in scripture
that sets forth these terms of substitution and imputation and
representation so fully and clearly. Thank you, Father, for faith
to believe. We pray for those who are sick
and going through trials, for those who have lost loved ones
and have folks in the hospital. I pray for this Sharman Hill as her cancer is
returned to her brain. I pray for her, Lord. I pray
for the Crow family, the injury of these kinfolks of theirs,
and for Jonah Taylor for the loss
of his loved one, and for the Blanton family again who has
lost another family member. Father, we know that the life
and death of every creature is in your hands. And we dare not
try to enter into the wonder and the majesty of your workings
upon this earth. We do bow to you, knowing that
the judge of all the earth shall do right, that you speak in righteousness
and you do that which is right. And for this we praise you and
thank you. Father, we pray for ourselves now in this final hour
of this day that you might be pleased to again give us worship
as we consider the powerful, majestic words that are before
us. We pray this in Jesus Christ's name and for His glory. Amen. Now, as I've said, we've seen
in the last few weeks that verses 13 through 17 are a parenthetical
expression. It's in parentheses. And they
are designed to fully flesh out the meaning of the representation
and imputation declared in verse 12. Verses 13 through 17 explain
verse 12. But verse 12, as far as context
is, belongs with verse 18. So verse 12 and verse 18 are
the continuation of the thought that Paul is putting before us
here. And verse 18 and 19 are a final
declaration of Paul of what transpired in the Garden of Eden and what
transpired on the Cross of Calvary. One man said there are three
areas where people are totally ignorant of the Scriptures. One
is what really happened in the Garden of Eden. Secondly, what
happened on the Cross of Calvary. And thirdly, what happens to
a sinner when God saves him. People are ignorant of those
three things. Paul deals with two of them right here. what
happened in the Garden of Eden and what happened on the Cross
of Calvary. And these are very precise statements
concerning what our Federal Head, Adam, and our Federal Head, Jesus
Christ, did and what it did to us and for us. Adam, our Federal Head in humanity,
our representative before God, did something And that brought
something upon us. He did something and it was brought
upon us. What he did was disobey God. And when he did, we were held
accountable and guilty for that disobedience. And our spiritual
head, the Lord Jesus Christ, as our representative before
God, when he obeyed God, that was accounted as if we ourselves
had done it. So this is what representation
is. What Adam did in the Garden of Eden condemned the entire
human race. God looked to him as our representative
and accounted what he did as if we ourselves did it. That�s
the language in verse 12. God charged us, all of humanity,
with Adam�s And since you are part of humanity,
you were charged with that transgression also. You came into this world
guilty of sin. Guilty of sin. Some indeed balk
at this truth because they cannot abide being charged with a sin
that someone else, especially if they did not personally commit
it, it bothers them greatly to be charged with it. This attitude
reveals a true ignorance of human nature and the wisdom of God. Think about it. first concerning
the imputation of Adam's sin to the account of all that proceeded
from him, reveals the wisdom of God. Who was Adam? He was that one God created in
His own image. Now the full meaning of that,
I don't know. But I know this, whatever it
was enabled Adam to see the voice of God. For the voice of God walked in
the garden. A voice doesn't have feet. Jesus
Christ is the Word that was with God, the noise of God. And Adam was able to see and
talk with Him when He walked in the cool of the evening. He
had fellowship with Him. I don't understand the full ramifications
of it. He was created in God's image. He was almost like a trinity,
if you will, of body, soul, and mind. Man was. First concerning this imputation
of Adam's sin is this. Adam was the very best
of men. He was the very best of men. He was a man. who had never sinned. He was a man who was innocent. He was mutable. But until the
time he sinned, he had not yet mutated or disobeyed God. What could be expected of him
was obedience, I suppose, but he disobeyed. The best of men
The very best of humanity disobeyed God. What could be expected of everyone
that came from Him? Who by His acts were made spiritually
dead and rendered incapable of any good thing. Adam's progeny would prove capable
of every imaginable transgression because they are born blind to
all that is good. we fairly well expect and it's
reasonable to assume because it's clear in the Word of God
in our own experience that if a baby born into our families
lives long enough he or she will prove to be a
sinner. Now we know that when we hear them cry and take them
to our bosom and raise them up and clean them up and care for
them. We hear them cry. We don't think of it as lying. But Scripture declares that it
is. But God took the very best of
man and charged him with sin because
he sinned. The wisdom of God is this, we
cannot expect anything less of we who are born with Him with
the nature that He acquired. To charge Adam's sin to all that
He represented was both logical and reasonable and was an act
of an all-wise God. Secondly, though it may come
off as wrath in the imputation of Adam's sin because he was
driven from the Garden of Eden, but he did have the Gospel when
he went. Because he taught his boys about sacrifice, didn't
he? About approaching God with a blood sacrifice. So Adam left
the garden. I believe he left to save man.
He left with the gospel. But because he was a sinner,
because he was a sinner saved by grace, and because all that
flowed from him would be sinner, he doesn't belong in paradise
anymore. So he's driven out. And that may appear as if God
is angry with him, but remember just before that, God killed
two beasts and covered him before he sent him out into the world. Though it may appear as God's
wrath, in reality, the imputation of Adam's sin is a great mercy and great grace. If one man's sin brought all that he represented
into a state of condemnation, then the possibility arises that if ever one man is righteous, his righteousness could be charged
to those whom he represents. So is an act of grace for God
to impute Adam's sin to us? We might not think of it that
way. But it made sure that if ever one walked this earth who
was righteous before God, who was not born of Adam's seed and
not guilty of Adam's transgression, that person, his righteousness,
could also be accounted to whom he represented. Therefore, this
act of God imputing the deeds of one man to those he represents
flowers into the glory of God's grace. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, it says, judgment and condemnation came upon all he
represented, even so. When you see this as and even
so, it means in the same exact manner. Our Lord does an as and
a so in three or four verses out of these four. By the offense of one, judgment
and condemnation came upon all he represented. Even so, in the
same manner, by the righteousness of one, the gift of grace that
justifies comes upon all that one represents. And that is what
this passage says in verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment it came upon all men to condemnation, even
so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life. And we looked at the all and
the many. They represent all whom each one of these people
represent. Adam represents the entire human race, the entire
race of flesh. The last Adam The second man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, represents the spiritual man, all men who
would be made spiritual by new birth. He is our spiritual head,
our spiritual head. And verse 19 begins with the
word for, which means because. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, and we know that it is the many, the
many that were represented by him, so by the obedience of one
shall many be made righteous. It is the same as and so format. So the Lord is saying, just as
Adam's disobedience made many, all whom he represented sinners,
so in the same manner, by imputation, the obedience of Christ made
many, all he represented righteous. Now this is our salvation. Narrowed
down to the plainest and simplest form, you will find that you
are only in this picture, in the one, who represents you. You are not there. Your righteousness
is not considered. Even your sin is not considered. Before God there is only sin
and righteousness considered. And the sin that is considered
is your father Adam's sin. You are seen in him. And the
righteousness considered is Jesus Christ's righteousness. This
is our salvation. We could stop here and say no
more because we've covered all the bases. This is the gospel
in as succinct a manner as you can put it. This is imputation. One man said you cannot preach
the gospel unless you preach substitution, imputation, and
satisfaction. This is the imputation part of
the good news of God's grace. Here it is. I was born into this
world as a child of Adam. I came forth from the womb telling
lies. But those things did not make me a sinner before God.
What made me a sinner before God is that I came from the best
of men who could not but disobey God. And God counted me a sinner
because of that. If I had came into this world
and had some kind of miracle ability from the time I was born
to keep righteous To honor the law of God. To always love God
with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. To love my neighbor
as myself. To never covet what's not mine. To never covet my neighbor's
wife. To never do any of those things. If I was able to do that,
for my whole life, never once missing a lick, always righteous
upon the face of the earth, I would still be condemned before God.
You know why? Because my condemnation is in
Adam, not in me. and the good news is this I've
never done a righteous thing can't be righteous but if I could if I could be righteous all my
life God would not consider that whatsoever my righteousness is Jesus Christ
how plain how beautiful how How succinct, how just right down
to where the rubber hits the road this is, it ought to thrill
every child of God's heart to know that this is the way it
is. I know religion says you have to be this and you have
to be that. No! You're in Adam or you're in Christ. You were
born in Adam and that condemned you. And if you're reborn in
Jesus Christ, that makes you righteous and removes all condemnation.
And it has nothing to do with you. You weren't there in either
situation. This is how God views humanity
in one of those two men. Now having established this fact,
Paul returns us to the underlying theme that he's taught from chapter
1. The righteousness by which the believer is made righteous
is the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel from faith to faith.
Chapter 1 and verse 16 and 17. This righteousness is not produced
by us, and we had nothing to do with it being charged to us. Christ was made to be sin for
us, and you know sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. We had nothing to do with that. And this was
most certainly not by the Law of Moses, because when it came
along, we were already condemned sinners in Adam. The Law of Moses
doesn't condemn us. Our relationship to Adam does.
Look at verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. There is something about the
law that when it came in, sin suddenly
appeared worse than it had ever appeared before. It clearly was
what it was. That is what that says. Sin,
the law entered that sin might abound. It says it has entered. So this
tells me that I was already a condemned sinner before it got here. It
entered. It was not always there in the
beginning when Adam sinned. The Law of Moses was not there.
The Law of the Garden was, but the Law of Moses. And this is
what Paul is addressing here, the Law of Moses. Because remember,
he is talking about from chapter 3 verse 8, is this being under
the Law and being condemned by it. And by the works of the Law
shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. This Law entered
when? Well, let's look and see. The
Bible tells us when. Now the reason Paul uses this
language of entered because he has used
it before in this very same text. He said this, he says, �Whereas by one man
sin entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men for all sin in Adam.� Then in verse 14, �Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses, people died, from Adam to the
time of Moses before the law was ever given. Even over them
that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression,
it was a figure of him that was to come. Before Moses, there was no law
of Sinai. The only law that existed before
Moses was the one that went on in the garden. Thou shalt not
eat of the tree of the fruit. And yet, men died. Well, why in the world did God
give the law then? Something was already working. A law was
already in force, wasn't it? Why did God give the law? He
gave the law so we could see what sin really is. That's what
the Law does. It causes sin to abound. It doesn't mean that it causes
people to sin more, though generally speaking, if you go to the Law
of Righteousness, you're going to sin more. You're going to
sin worse and you're going to sin longer. But in Galatians
chapter 3, the same language is used in verse 17, And this
I say, that the covenant, which was confirmed before of God in
Christ, The law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul
that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance
be of the law, it is no more a promise, but God gave it to
Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law.
What is the purpose of the law? How does it serve? It was added
because of transgression. It was added because of transgressions
till the seed would come to whom the promise was made, and it
was ordained by angels in the hand of the mediator, and speaks
specifically of Moses in that incident. Why was the law added? If we were already condemned
in Adam, people died as proof of the fact that we were condemned
in Adam. Between Adam and Moses, even babies died. Why did God
give the law? What was the purpose of the law? Was it added? Did it enter so
that men might be, by it, achieve righteousness? Is that why it
was added? Well, it came too late for that
according to Galatians. They were already transgressors
and it came 430 years later. The law entered for one reason.
That the offense might abound. That's why it entered. That the
offense might abound. The law showed sin for what it
was. The law, in word, brought God
alongside the sinner's sin. It shed light on sin for its
true nature and character. It showed sin to be horrible
and awful and against Almighty God. Over in chapter 7 of Romans,
Paul said it this way in verse 12. He says, The law is holy. And the commandment is holy,
and it's just, and it's good. There's nothing wrong with the
law. It's a perfect representative. A perfect representative of the
character of justice. He says, Was then that which
was good made death unto me? Can I blame the law for my troubles?
No. God forbid. But sin, that it
might appear sin. working death in me by that which
is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. So they were doing all these
things and sinning all these sins and men were dying under
the condemnation of the law, but what they were doing was
not clearly defined, was it? So when they got to Mount Sinai,
the Lord called Moses up and kept him there forty days. And
while Moses was on Mount Sinai for those 40 days receiving the
law of God written in tables of stone by the finger of God,
down below the people were kind of making a hodgepodge of all
the rotten things people can do. They were creating an idol. They were worshipping it. They
were calling it Jehovah. They were having covered dish
suppers. They were playing baseball games. They was having all kinds
of fun at church on picnic day. What were they doing? They were
breaking every commandment of God. Wait a minute, there are
no commandments. He's writing them. Let's make a calf of gold. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. And when that came down, what
they were doing was seen as exceedingly sinful. They just come from a
nation where there's a God on every corner. They had cat gods,
and cow gods, and bull gods, and calf gods, and all kinds
of gods in Egypt. They had the sun god, Ra, all
of them. And now they're down here. They're
going to die under the condemnation of Adam's sin, if God don't save
them. The law comes along and says,
you see what you're doing here? This is exceedingly sinful. Thou
shalt not make any graven image of anything. I need to write
that. That's what they were doing.
So the law didn't make them do it. The law didn't cause them
to do it. The law didn't entice them to
do it. The law defined that what they were doing was exceedingly
sinful. That's why the law came. The
law came. So when we hear the law and read
the law of God, we can say, Oh my soul, there is no hope for
me. This points out everything I
do wrong. I do wrong. Now had it not come
along, I would have died anyway. Because I was already condemned
and had them. But now it's come along and really defined all
this stuff. for what it really is. That's
why the law was added. The law entered that the offense
might abound. The law confirmed that we are rightly condemned
in Adam. Therefore, it cannot be applied
to for righteousness because it only condemns. But the glory
is this, where sin abounded. That's what it says. Let's read it. Moreover, the
law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded. Grace did much more abound. Where Adam's sin lost man so
much, grace superabounded over and above that and gained much
more back for God's people. Where Adam's sin lost so much,
Christ's righteousness not only got back what was lost but accomplished
so much more. Now some will accuse those who
believe this that such language would lead men to sin. Are you
saying that where sin abounds, where sin is openly viewed for
what it is, where it abounds, grace does much more abound?
Well, that seems to me like saying maybe we ought to sin more so
grace could abound more. Seems reasonable. Well, I know
you folks got an understanding of the Spirit, and that seems
utter foolishness to you, but it's not utter foolishness to
men. Such ignorance seems to know no bounds. In fact, Paul
deals with that very same thing in the next chapter. Look at
chapter 6 and verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul knew that this
was going to be the response of natural humanity, these words.
They'll never get it. But the believer gets it. Whereas
the law points out how rotten and vile I am, shows me for what
I am, discloses me, discovers me, pulls the sheet back and
lets everybody see me warts and all. It sees that what I do is
not some little thing, some little white lie, some little mistake,
some little misstep, but a thing that's worthy of death, vile
and unclean. Where the law entered, sin abounded. But where sin abounded, as huge
and as monstrous as it seems, Christ's righteousness is much
more monstrous. It abounds. Every sin I have
ever and will ever commit does not exist in the mind of
God. I'm a pretty bad sinner preacher. If you're a child of God, it's
done. You may have broken every law
ever put on the books. You may be the ultimate in transgressors. But if Christ died in your room
instead, grace superabounds. all of those sins. Where sin
hath abounded, grace hath abounded more. What the believer lost in Adam
was something. We lost life. We became spiritually
dead. We lost all ability to transcend
or to move across that great gulf fixed. that separates us
and God. There was no ability for us to
communicate over that gulf. We were dead to it. It was dead to us. But what we
lost in Adam cannot be compared to what we
gained in Christ. We lost our life in Adam. We
died. You know what the Lord says about those who are in Christ? 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I'm going to quit here. I'm running
out of voice. I think you give me your sore throat. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. It must be 1 Corinthians chapter
3. Oh, that's chapter 4. I was right. Chapter 3. No, I
wasn't. We'll get there in a minute. Is that what it is? Oh, here
it is. 1 Corinthians 3. Look at verse
21. Therefore, he says, the Lord knows the thoughts
of men, of the wise, and they're just vanity. Therefore, let no
man glory in men. Look what this says. Now this
is so. You mark this down. This is yours. You can put this
down. If you want to, put a motto on your wall. So when you get
up in the morning, the first thing you look at, this would
be good to put down. All things are yours. What are we losing now? We lost
our life. We lost our spiritual life. Those are horrible things
to lose. We died. Well, what did we gain when Christ
died for us? Well, we gained the preacher. Paul and Apollos and Cephas.
Paul said, I'm yours. We gain the world. Look at this now. We gain life. There's no doubt about that.
But you know what else is yours? Death. Death is yours. And what else is yours? Things
present. Whatever's going on right now and everything that's
here. What else is yours? Things to come. Whatever's out
there, that's yours too. All are yours. And you're Christ's. And Christ is God's. Boy, I tell
you, that's a great little envelope right there. Everything is mine. It's mine. Mine. Just like them
seagulls on that little cartoon. Mine, mine, mine, mine. Mine.
And I am Christ's. And Christ is God. Where sin hath abounded, grace
did much more abound. The conclusion then is plain.
Upon all whom Adam represented by his act, death reigned. It ruled their life. Verse 14
says this. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses. And it says in verse 21, that
as sin hath reigned unto death, Adam's sin reigned unto death.
Being transgressors by imputation, nature, and practice, death hangs
over the sons of Adam as the only right punishment for their
condition. But as death reigns over all who are represented
by Adam, even so grace reigns through righteousness, righteousness
of Jesus Christ imputed unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. And that which distresses religious
men is that the Bible gives no value to their righteousness
at all. Glory belongs to God who purposed this grand scheme
that whereby one man's sin entered the world and death by sin. Even
so, by one man's righteousness, righteousness and justification
entered the world and life by that righteousness. For the one
who thinks he can establish a righteousness that God will accept, these words
hold no value whatsoever. But for the ruined sinner who
knows he died in Adam and has been exposed for what he is by
the law, for that ruined sinner who has no righteousness and
is hopelessly lost, what better thing to hear than this? It is
about one man. Sin entered the world. By one
man's disobedience, all whom he represented were counted as
sinners. But by one man's righteousness,
all who are represented by him are counted righteous before
God. Oh, preacher, that don't leave nothing for me to do. Hallelujah. You got it. You understand perfectly. That's perfect understanding
when you come to the place. That don't leave nothing for
me to do. Father, bless us for understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.