If you’ve got a Bible, go with me to Romans chapter five, and we’re going to tackle what is an ocean of text. One of the difficult things about preaching through books of the Bible is you inevitably come to places that probably most people in ministry don’t want to necessarily touch. It’s just that way. And so, unless you do expository preaching, verse by verse, what you end up getting is your pastor’s favorite topics or the culturally relevant thought of the day. And so, the challenge is that forced men to do that, we’re going to see some of those here today in Romans chapter five because when you look in Romans 5:12-21 which rounds out chapter five. What you’ll find, if you read enough, you’re going to find that most theologians are going to consider this probably the deepest, most difficult, most complex set of verses in the entire epistle. Now that’s saying something we’re dealing with the Pacific Ocean of doctrine when we read through Romans as we study it. And these verses are complicated. They’re complex, and it’s important that we understand these because, again, I’ve been saying this for months now, before we make it into sanctification, we’re going to have to get this down into our toes. And there’s one less pillar in justification that you can’t miss, and the Holy Spirit put it here right where He wanted it. And it is, in fact, one of these things that that Peter said about Paul, that he wrote that some things that were difficult, very hard to understand, and some people get it twisted. We want to cut it straight. We want to orthotomeo. We want to cut straight the text of Scripture. Rightly divide it. We need to do that.
And so, for us to do that, I’m going to do it a little bit different. If you’re new, it’s not normally like this but this is going to be about as teachy as it gets through the text as we go through this. The thing about these verses that leads me to this title. I’m sure you’ll see the title of the message is “Foundational Identity” part 1 (Romans 5:12-14). It’s going to take at least three to get through verse 21 and this week we’re going to do, what is it? 12 through 14. I hope I know where I’m preaching. It’s on here somewhere. And when we say, “foundational identity”, I mean “foundation” to you knowing who you are and why and that you’re not guessing. You’re not making it up. Okay, it’s not that you’re trying to have good vibes or, you know, goosebumps or something like that, but that you can actually point to the text of God’s Word and say, “This is how the Bible describes who I am in Jesus Christ.” That’s how important this is. You are an alien in a foreign land, Christian. I don’t know if you know that you are, and if you’re not, you’re not born again because we have been born into another kingdom and are now living as sojourners, as aliens, as strangers. That’s how the Bible describes it. And the one thing you have to have if you’re going to sojourn correctly is your ID. You’re going to need to know this is who I am and be able to look back at it so you don’t get you confused with the old you or someone else around you, namely the culture. That is called a pre-statement homiletically. You’re welcome.
Let me start in Isaiah 55:8-9. I’m just going to read you two verses, and then we’re going to read verses that are in Romans. And when we go to Romans, we’re not going to do what we normally do. I’m going to cross reference as I go through these verses in Romans, but we’re going to leave Romans up the whole time so a lot different. But before we do that, let me set the stage with these two passages. This is God speaking, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts…” That is an understatement because if you just take that at face value, you could think, “Oh, my thoughts aren’t your thoughts, aren’t your thoughts either, and your thoughts aren’t my thoughts. That’s not that big a deal.” But there is such a massive disparity between the thoughts of the creature and the thoughts of the Almighty, omniscient Creator, that God goes to great lengths who describe this. “…Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.” So, what is He saying? “Look, I’m not you, and you’re not Me.” And without that fundamental understanding, you’re going to get it wrong, and you’re going to put yourself in a position of dictating who the Creator is and what the Creator should do based upon the brain that fits inside your tiny, tiny, tiny, little head. I don’t care what size you have, right? His thoughts aren’t your thoughts. His ways aren’t your ways. In fact, He illustrates it this way, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth…” Now these heavens are not talking about cumulus clouds. This is not talking about the edge of outer space. This is the heavens of the outer space, the interstellar space, we’d call it, further than the James Webb telescope can view right now, quintillion of miles. People say, “Where does it end?” Look it does not end. It is an infinite display of an infinite Creator. And He’s saying as high as the high can get, and it’s further, it’s never ending. “Listen, that’s how much higher I am than you.” “…So are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” That should humble us. That should push us down to a place where we say, “God, I’m here to receive Your Word. I want to know it in its proper context with its authorial intent. I don’t just want to know what it says. I want to know what it means by what it says and how it applies in the finished person and work of Jesus Christ.” That is a true disciple. And that is how someone is sanctified in truth, His Word is truth. That sounds like what you want for dinner? You’re at the right menu.
Here we go, Romans 5:12-14. I’m just going to read through it, and then we’ll go back and take it moment by moment. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given. But sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the One who was to come.” That is a mouthful. Let’s take it moment by moment.
Let’s go back to verse number 12 and let me just say what I’m going to do, so that you know kind of, kind of know what’s going on. And what I’m going to do is I’m going to take it word by word, almost, and we’re just going to leave the text up. So, when I cross reference something, we’re not going to bring it on the screens because it’s just for efficiency. I want us to stay in the moment of this text. That’s how complicated it can get. Romans 5:12. Here’s the first word. “Therefore”, what is it there for? Very important, what did we just talk about? We just talked about reconciliation. He’s coming out of through Jesus Christ, by whom we’ve received the reconciliation. And so, we taught reconciliation last week. If you missed it, you can go back and go on the app, go on the website and you can listen to it. But this is what he’s saying. You’ve been reconciled to God through the finished work of Jesus Christ. And so, what inevitably comes in someone who thinks deeply enough is this: “How is it possible that something that one man did over 2000 years ago somehow changes my very identity and standing with my Maker?” Now, again, he’s gotten deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper, and this is where you can drown in it. In other words, here’s a good quote, “How could what one man did at one time in history have such an absolute effect on mankind?” How is that possible? Now, in human beings, you may not think that is possible, and generally it isn’t, but it is possible in God and in His economy, that’s what we’re going to understand. How did one man cause my reconciliation? So, what he’s going to point out is there was one man who caused the need for your reconciliation. Thus, we’ll understand through the man who gave us the need for the reconciliation, his name was Adam, how we get the reconciliation through the last Adam, which is Jesus Christ. So therefore, we see that each time.
I’m gonna back out of that a little bit and go on to the next, “Therefore, just as sin…” Now when we say “sin”. “Hamartia”, the Greek word, literally means “to miss the mark”. It means to miss the mark by falling short. If you are had a bow and arrow, and you shot an arrow and the arrow fell short of the target, we would say that is hamartia. That is falling short. Your arrow fell short. The mark, in this case, is God’s perfect standard of holiness, and the arrow in this case is you firing one of those little toy ones. Remember, used to get at Woolworth or Woolco or Kmart. Everybody else who’s old knows exactly what I’m talking about, except the fact is that the holiness of God is behind a distant star. That light hasn’t arrived yet. Yeah, we missed the mark. That’s what this is talking about. And I want you to understand something. This word “sin”, right here, is not plural, but singular. It’s singular. It’s not saying “Therefore, just as sins came into the world…”, no, no. This is talking about sin in its. General scope and context. So don’t think specific sins. Don’t think you know the 10 Commandments. Don’t think that. Think sin in any iteration, which is what missing the mark of God. That’s Romans 3:23, right? “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” That’s what this is talking about.
“Therefore, just as sin…” You see that? Now, look, we’ll keep going through it. Let me back this out. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world…” Now, then I want to note this, “Came into”. Now, it does not say that sin originated in the world, okay? It says it “Came into.” Adam’s sin was not the first sin. That was just when sin came into the world because the original sin was the sin that Lucifer committed among the angels. Now, this is very important. You’ll see this as this all ties together. It’s very important that you get this there was, there was a being created by God as an individual, as all angels were created as individuals because there’s no procreation. I’ll cover that later. Every Angel created as an individual and without parent, God did it directly. Okay? So, no lineage at all. And by that sin, that sin came and created temptation, and that’s what was originally occurring in in the garden. Jesus said it this way to the Pharisees, those who were following their father, the devil, in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil. And your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” So, what we see that is, when it came into the world, we know who brought it. It came into the world, originated, in that sense, in the world by Lucifer. But the origination took place we don’t know whe, but sometimes before the garden very important.
Now, let me back out of that and keep going. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world, (here’s the statement) through one man…” Now, who are we talking about, we’re talking about Adam in Genesis, okay, sin came into the world through one man. Now it’s very important that you see that it says “one man”. It does not say “one man or woman”. It does not say “one couple”, why? Because sin is not passed down generationally through the woman. It just isn’t. Women, take a deep breath and be happy about that. I suppose all your kids’ problems are your husband’s fault, and you’re like, “Praise God, Pastor, I always knew it.” Well, their sin nature does come through the man. It came through a man. Why? Because Adam was this. He was our representative of human beings. He was the first human being made thus. He was our, what the theologians call our “federal head”. He was our representative of humanity. And in his sin, when he sinned, all, listen, all of his lineage would thus be born tainted by his transgression. Do you understand that? It’s very common to have that understanding, if one person in a nation, a leader in a nation, makes a decision, “We’re going to war” or “We’re causing this to happen.” Everybody else who’s under that federal head ends up following suit. Lineage is no different. That’s what happened. That’s why it says “One man”, you understand, that’s why Adam was responsible. Adam was responsible because when God said the commandment, what was it? “You can eat of every tree of the garden, right? Except for this one. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You will not eat of this because in the day you eat of it, what? You’ll die.” He gave that commandment to Adam. Adam then gave that commandment to Eve. How do we know? Eve had not been created when Adam received that commandment. And there’s a little bit of a hint to it because when Eve later quotes it to the serpent, she misquotes it with probably something that Adam added into that. I wouldn’t doubt that at all or maybe it was just inferred. His headship means it’s us. Look at Genesis. Well, you don’t look. You can look at it if you want to. We’re leaving Romans up. This is Genesis 2:15-16. “The Lord God took the man, (just the man, woman was not made yet) and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.’’ He tells him that. But at the temptation, what happens? The serpent comes and does not talk to Adam. The serpent comes and talks to Eve. Let me read you this. This is next chapter, Genesis three. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” Now, he knows what he’s doing. He’s twisting it. “And the woman said to the serpent, (now listen to her), ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, quote, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” It’s as if Adam went, “Look, don’t eat that. Okay, you know what? Don’t even touch it. Let’s just stay away from it.” I’m not saying he said that. I’m saying I could imagine that happen in a marriage. “Don’t buy it, don’t even shop.” Verse four says, “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open. You’ll be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman (only the woman) saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.” Now, why is Adam the culpable? Number one, he was made the federal head. He is the leader of all mankind. He didn’t just represent man. He didn’t represent himself. He represented mankind because he was the first and all who would come after him would be basically patterned after him and his relationship whether he was alive or whether he was dead. We’ll see that in a moment. But why was Eve not held responsible? Well, she wasn’t the federal head. God did not make that command to her. She was, in fact, deceived. Adam, in fact, was not. Did you know there was a difference in the transgression? The woman was deceived and Adam wasn’t. Adam did it with whole knowledge of what he was doing, and he chose his selfish centeredness, his wife, over what God had commanded him. Let me read you this. This is 1 Timothy 2:13-14. It’s very clear, “For Adam was formed first then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” Adam was responsible for it. He wasn’t even tricked. He made a clear decision.
Here we go back Romans 5:12. Let me get rid of these so we can start somewhat clean. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin…” “Death through sin”. Why is that? Because the wages of sin is death. What? Yes, it’s the wage. It’s what sin pays. It always has. He was he was told that. He was warned that. And then 6:23, right of Romans, “The wages of sin is death”. That’s why it came into the world. Death through sin. There was no death before sin came in. Now I want you to think about this. Okay? Adam got a death penalty for how many sins? One. Now we read Isaiah 55 and I’m going to have to have you lean on that now, okay? How holy is God? He’s holy. Holy. Holy. We cannot imagine Him in our feeble brains. We have to let the Word tell us how holy God is. So, to transgress against Him is to fall short of perfection. God is perfect. Now I want to ask you a question: have you ever heard of someone committing a certain crime, and you thought this, “They ought to kill them.” Be honest. You can’t throw a dead cat at the news these days and not come to that conclusion. Don’t throw dead cats. Right? But have you ever thought of this? Wow, that’s really not worthy of death. What? Let me ask you this. What if there was on the news a man got arrested for Jay walking and they killed him? You would say, “That’s terrible.” Why? Because our standard of justice, our standard of righteousness, is altogether different than God’s standard of holiness. One transgression. One. See in our natural minds which are not His, His supernatural mind, in our thoughts and our ways which are not His, we sit down here and we judge God and we say this, “That’s not fair. That’s not loving”. Or somebody say, “Well, my God’s not like that.” Well, your God’s not the God of the Bible. ONE SIN. One sin and death came in. The wages of sin is death. And when death came in, it came threefold, okay? Number one, it came spiritually. God told Adam, in the day you eat of it, you’re gonna die. Now, did Adam fall over dead physically that day? No, he did not. No, it was 930 years later, I believe, right? He did not fall over dead but he died spiritually. The second death is what physically. And the third death is what? Eternally. He died spiritually. He died physically, and unless something changed, he would die eternally and be in conscious torment thereof. “Death through sin”.
Let me back this off again. We’ll keep doing this. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to (who?) all men…” “Death spread to all men.” How then did “Death spread to all men”? It’s very simple. It was through procreation. It was through procreation. It was through the man and the woman having sexual relationships which are ordained by God in the covenant of marriage. And thus, a child would come forth and they would not be formed. Think about this directly by God Himself as the angels were any more than Eve was. Now, was God the creator of every life? Yes, absolutely. Is He the immediate Creator cause? No, He’s not. God set it up this way. You’ll see why. When God made woman, how did He do it? He took a rib out of Adam and created her from him. And every child born since Adam, save one, has come from the procreative miracle, but the natural response to sexuality and that passed along the nature of Adam. That’s what happened. So, when it said death spread, that’s what that means. And that means through procreation, anyone who has a physical body, who was born of an earthly father will one day what? They’re going to die. They’re going to die. Now that’s a tough question but it’s a true answer. Now, this is radical. Why? Because we’re not like the angels. And I’m drawing something here. You’re going to see it. We’re not like the angels. I’ll say it again. They were created individually. They have no federal head. They have no representative of their race, if you will, because they were individually created by God on the day He met them. So, when the angels fell, when Lucifer led the rebellion, the Bible is very clear, a third of the angelic host fell with him. They followed him. And thus there can be no redemption for the angels. Why? Because there can be no representative to stand in their place, take their punishment, expunge their guilt, and give them any holiness. They can never get it back. So, what seems to be a tremendous lack of fairness is actually the most loving thing God could ever do, and allow lineage to be what human beings would have who were made in His image. Thus, one day, there could be someone who would step into the place of mankind and do what Adam didn’t do. So, people could not be Adam anymore but actually be in Jesus Christ. Now we know angels don’t reproduce because they certainly don’t marry. Matthew 22:30, Jesus says, “For in the resurrection, (speaking about human beings who are saved), they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven.” In other words, there’s nothing procreative in the angels. They’re all individually created by God. That’s easy to understand but they have no lineage. They have no heritage. They have no racial head.
Let me reverse this again, back to Romans 5:12, “Therefore just a sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. And so, death spread to all men, because all sinned.” “All sinned”. Now this is very tough for you to hear. I’m warning you this word “sinned” in the original language is in what’s called the aorist tense. That means it’s not talking about a multitude of sins. It’s not talking about your personal sin. This is talking about Adam’s sin. That Greek tense is once for all. Are you with me now? That might be hard to hear but listen to me, we, in our mother’s womb even, bear the guilt of the sin of our forefather, Adam. I told you; this is tough. How do we know that? Because every single person who’s ever born is going to die. This word “sinned”, Greek aorist tense, indicating that at one point in time all men sinned. That, of course, was the time that Adam first sinned. He became mankind’s sin. His sin became mankind’s sin rather, because all mankind were okay? Ready? Buckle up. Were in his loins. All mankind was in his “loins”. Now you’re like, “Alright, Steve needs more coffee”. No, this is a biblical term. It was a Hebrew word that was used. It literally means the “hips”. But it was referring to the procreative part in a man where the semen is kept and they are understanding what was they called that “hips”. That all the lineage of human beings who would all come were somehow in the loins of Adam, even the “innocent”. Now I say “innocent”. You’re like, “Wait a minute, but you just said that there are no innocent. Everybody carries the guilt.” That’s right. But not think about this. Not everybody who dies has ever committed a sin. Is that true? You should nod your head. It’s true. Little kids have not committed sins. Guys, little innocent babies, they die. Why do they die? We know why they die. Sin. Sin brought death because there was no death before sin. And so, you’re saying, wait the baby, he has the guilt of sin. Yes, sin from it’s forefather, Adam, passed down father to father to father to father to father to father. Now I don’t have time to go into this, but if your question in your heart is, “Well, do those little babies go to heaven?” Yes, they do. And I don’t have time to explain it to you but I’ll get to it someday. Innocent death. Why? Because sin brings death, and that’s how they can actually die. If they were not guilty, they could not die. Hebrews 7:9-10 will give ySu an example of this, okay? It’s just an example of something that, with the Bible says “in the loins of…” Start verse nine, or I’m going to read verse nine. It says this, “One might even say that Levi…” Levi, okay? “The priest. “…That Levi himself who received tithes (right? As a priest), he received the tithes in Israel, paid tithes through Abraham.” Remember? I hope you know the story Abraham came out and Melchizedek the priest who had to be the pre–incarnate Christ, a picture of Jesus. He meets him, and then Abraham gives him a tenth of all the spoils. What it’s saying is Levi paid tithes before he was even born. Now, how is that possible? Verse 10 says, “For he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.” In other words, he was in the place of the procreative power, and that’s how he got credit for tithes that Abraham paid it’s the exact same federal headship. This is how it works. You say, “I don’t know it’s pretty complicated.” I warned you but I don’t want to gloss over this. I don’t want to treat you like 10 year olds and just talk about things that are happy clunky. You know, we’ll get some felt puppets up here. This is the meat, guys, this is hard to understand. It’s hard to grasp. Why? Because only God’s mind can truly grasp it. It is ours to receive it by faith and say, “God, is that your Word? I take you today, your Word.” “…That it spread to all men, because all sinned.” Adam did not just sin as a man. He sinned as mankind. And the issue, that’s to bear here in Romans 5:12-21 is very simple. It is representative headship. And if we miss it, we miss it. We’ll miss our identity because this is the bad news.
But what do you know about the Bible that always precedes the good news, and the good news is always better than the bad news. 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 says, “For, as by a man came death, (that’s Adam) by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead (that’s Jesus). For, as in Adam, listen, as in Adam, all die. So also in Christ…” Oops. Let me go back. Go back. Could you go back to 12 for me? Olivia, I messed it up. “…So also in Christ, shall all be made alive.” That’s “the all” of who He would redeem. We know that’s not all of mankind because men definitely go to hell. Now here’s the counter statement of that. This is the complimentary statement in understanding chapter five in Romans. Jesus didn’t just die as a man. He died as mankind. In other words, Jesus is the new federal head. There are now two. Right? So, there are only two kinds of people. There are people who are in Adam, in his lineage, and there are people who’ve been taken out of that lineage and put into Christ, and He is now the federal head, and you get everything that He earned in a sinless. Well, first, a virgin birth, He did not have an earthly father, a sinless life of righteousness, a substitutionary, atoning death at glorious resurrection. Whoa! This then becomes my new identity. Now you can go to ancestry.com and find all the sinners who came before you. Some of y’all are like, “I don’t need to do to do that. I got enough just at Thanksgiving.” But if you want to know who you really are, this is who you really are if you’re in Christ. Adam is no longer your federal head, you no longer bear that mark. It’s been washed clean, and you’ve been taken out of darkness and brought into His marvelous light. You’ve been removed from that family and adopted it into this one, reconciled to God, justified by grace through faith, and now you have a standing in righteousness of a new federal head. And as you begin to walk in sanctification, this will change your life. Because you’ll be able to say this, “I’m still tempted with the members of the flesh. I got it, but that’s not who I am. I am this.” And you won’t be into positive thinking. You’ll be on biblical, rock-hard foundation. It’s a game changer. It’s a game changer. He died for us. That’s why it says at first. Let me read you this, 1 Peter 1:23, “Since you have been born again (listen) not of perishable seed…” Come on, what’s it referring to? It’s referring to the seed of the man. Because you were born of perishable seed. Why was it perishable? Because of sin. Brought in death. We did that. “…But of imperishable seed through the living and abiding word of God.” When the Lord plants the Word of God in you, that is what regeneration comes out of. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. So, the Word goes in, faith springs up, and that is a regenerated creature. That is a new identity, no longer in Adam.
Here we go. Let’s go to verse 13. Please, Olivia, thank you. He goes on. It speeds up from here, not really. “For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given…” How do we know? Well, it’s very easy to know. Let me read you Genesis 6:5-7. This is before the law. Okay? “For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given…” Was it? You bet it was. “The Lord God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (That’s bad) And the Lord regretted (this is anthropomorphic language) the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So, the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man who I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’” That is God with a heart broken. What did He do? He drowned everybody except one family. He essentially started over. But here’s the catch, yes, it existed. Absolutely. It was indeed, before the law was given. But it made it through the flood, didn’t it? You bet it did. It made it through Noah, and in God’s timing, He was setting the course right. Now that had to do with some angelic beings. We won’t cover that detail here. That’s outside the scope of Romans five but God, in His wisdom, was handling some very important housekeeping to preserve the human race so that Messiah could one day come be the federal head and redeem mankind.
Okay, back into 13. Let me take that off. Here we go. “For sin was indeed in the world before the law was given, but sin (watch this), sin is not counted where there is no law.” Now people read this and they get confused. “Well, wait a minute, if sin isn’t counted when there’s no law, then why did He flood the earth? They were innocent. They didn’t know the law that didn’t come until Mount Sinai and the commandment was given.” No, no, no, no, no. The Bible assumes what? You’re going to read the whole thing. He’s talking about the law that’s written on their heart, because they did have that. He’s referencing Romans 2:14-15. Look at I’ll read you 14 and 15, “For when the Gentiles who do not have the law (okay?), by nature, do what the law requires. They are a law to themselves. Even though they do not have the law, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” That’s what was happening. There was no law yet given but there was a law in the heart. God put it there. That’s basic Romans chapter two. There was no law.
Let’s see verse 14 now. “Yet…” Okay, so there’s no law yet. Look at this. “…Death reigned…” “Death reigned.” Did you know that death reigns? Did you know that death reigns? You say, “No, it’s been conquered.” Well, it’s been conquered but it’s not yet been removed. Is it? No, because people die. I did a funeral yesterday. Yep, it’s still around. There it is. And you know what you see in Genesis chapter five, you see that Adam died, and then you see a list of guys that died, all the names in the lineage, died, died, died, died. In fact, Genesis 5:5 says, “Thus, all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died.” Hebrews 9:27 says, “And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes the judgment every single person until Jesus returns, the church on the earth.” Every single person who lives long enough will eventually die. I know people that think they’re smart. They say, “Well, what about Enoch? What about Elijah?” Hey, there are two witnesses in Revelations. You draw the conclusions. I’m just letting you know God’s Word will stand.
Let me go back to verse 14 here again and remove this. “Yet death reigned (what?) from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was (what?) not like the transgression of Adam…” It’s not the exact sin as forbidden. It was only a single thing. But it goes further and says this “…Of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.” A type, how? Listen to me, fully human. Now He’s Jesus, fully God, but fully human. He had to be fully human. Why? Because He was going to represent mankind. So, He had to be a human being. He had to be fully God. Because only God could bear the wrath of God and survive. He had no sin. So, He took ours, and therefore He could die in our stead. And He did what the first Adam could not do, and did not do. He took all the temptation. You think about the temptation of Jesus. It took place, He had been fasting 40 days, He was thirsty 40 days, and He was in a desert. Adam underwent a temptation from who? His wife and he was in a lush garden, probably running around naked, enjoying the temperature. And he couldn’t bear up under it. But the last Adam comes and does so much more than the first Adam could ever do, and His headship, His representation, and endured that and bore something and bought something for us that He was a fulfillment of the type of. That’s why He’s called the last Adam. Again, 1 Corinthians 15, “For, as by a man came death by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For, as in Adam, all die, so also in Christ, all shall be made alive.” In other words, if you’re going to be made alive, you have to get out of Adam. How do you do it? You put your trust in Adam number two. You leave that family, that’s called repentance, and you come to this family, and that’s called faith. That’s basic conversion. Man hears the gospel and the Holy Spirit, if he regenerates him, he’s raised from the dead. He sees the kingdom and He wants to enter it. He repents of his sin because he sees himself for who He really is. The Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit has brought that conviction and he repents. And he sees his Savior for who He really is. He sees Jesus as beautiful. He sees Christ as glorious. That’s what people who go into that tank and in waters of baptism all over the earth, that’s what they’re actually saying, is this, “I was dead and I was brought to life, not because of what I did, but I was in Christ. He is my new federal head.” So, in Him are all made alive. Thus, new creation requires new headship. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “And therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is (what?) he’s a new creation. The old has passed away (that’s in Adam). Behold the new has come.” The new what? The new lineage, the new headship, the new family, the new identity. If you’re understanding this, and gosh, I hope you are. I feel like I’ve said too much. I didn’t want to say too little. Fortunately, we record it. And second service is always a better sermon. And because I got to practice. Nah, I’m just kidding.
KEYWORDS
Justification, Isaiah, Romans, Federal Head, Representative, Adam, Jesus, Foundational Identity, Sanctification, Sin, Death, Sinned, Adam, Federal Headship, Reconciliation, Law, Transgression, New Creation, Repentance, Faith, Repentance, Conversion, Jesus Christ, Gospel, Innocent, Angel, Lucifer, Temptation, Online Sermon, Bible Church, Orthotomeo, Hamartia, Aorist Tense, Loins, Hips, First Adam, Second Adam, Last Adam, Family
SPEAKER
Steve LeBlanc