How Christ Alone Blows Away the Fatal Effects of Adam's Transgression
Posted on October 31, 2009 by Pastor Tom
I’m preaching on this text tomorrow. But for anyone interested in a verse by verse breakdown, here’s a message I did on the same text a year and a half ago. I hope this will fill in some of the blanks on some of its hard to understand parts.
PT
March 30, 2008 – Romans 5:12–21
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of a continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” English poet and pastor John Donne penned those words about 370 years ago. Ordained in 1615 after years in poverty he eventually became dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. His sermons attracted much attention. But the poems for which he is now famous were not published until 1633, two years after his death. “No man is an island” comes from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions.
Donne states that human beings are somehow interconnected. We are related to one another simply because we are part of the human race. Yet those famous words seem little more than the sentiment of a past age when you look around our society. “It’s all about me” seems to be our slogan. Advertisers have picked up on this. They accommodate by shouting “Its all about you.” Get personalized Easter Eggs for each one of your children. Decide which application you want or don’t want for your Facebook account. Get a personalized tattoo. Download ringtones of your favorite songs. And then there are the coffee shops. If a place only has one brand of coffee with cream and sugar, that’s not going to fit the “its all about me” world. We have to have at least four flavor choices along with Latte and Espresso options.
Now don’t get me wrong. I live in this “personalize it” world. I order a Tall Mild in a Grande Cup with three cream and three sugar when I go to Starbucks. But this individualistic world can lead us to believe that we all are islands. It can deceive us into thinking there is no community or collective responsibility. It can even creep in and distort our understanding of the Gospel with potentially fatal consequences.
If we believe that we’re all islands, the message of the Gospel changes. If we’re not connected to Adam; if we’re not stained by original sin; if we are essentially good, then the Gospel becomes Jesus came to save me from bad choices. Jesus came to unleash my full potential. Jesus only came to be an example I should follow. Such a Gospel requires no blood, no cross and no trust in someone other than us. But the Bible argues that somehow Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden affected all of us. Somehow we all sinned in that sin. Therefore, the devastating, universal, fatal effects of that sin must be dealt with if we are to be reconciled with God. That’s where the Biblical Gospel really becomes good news. The central truth I want you to see from the text today is Christ alone blows away Adam’s fatal, universally damaging transgression.
Through this Easter season we have been examining the Gospel. That’s what Easter is all about. We learned where we can find the Gospel – In Scripture Alone. Then we began answering the question “What is the Gospel?” So far we’ve discovered the answer is Justification Alone By Grace Alone Through Faith Alone I____ C___________ A___________.
The Gospel is good news because it announces the only way to be rescued from the penalty we deserved for our sin. God created everyone. He has Creator rights over us meaning He has the right to demand perfect obedience to His laws. His holy and pure nature requires Him to hate sin and punish it.
We are all sinners; we have all fallen short of the glory of God. We are lawbreakers living under the just wrath of God. The sentence pronounced upon mankind for our sin is guilty. But God, because of His great mercy reached out to provide a means to remedy this. We learned that when God justifies us he declares us righteous, clothes us with Christ’s righteousness and pronounces us not guilty forever. How could God do that without compromising His own justice? He put Christ Jesus forward as an atoning sacrifice by his blood. God poured out the wrath we deserved onto Jesus. So when a person receives Christ, God justifies them.
Then we can agree with Romans 8:1 – there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He declares us not guilty forever. We are saved from God’s wrath and punishment when God justifies us.
Then we learned that The Gospel is Justification alone by grace alone. It is not based on anything we have done to earn justification. We did not make God turn His eyes towards us because of our good works. God’s grace is His goodness to us who deserved only punishment.
Then we learned how the Gospel with all its blessing comes into our lives; through faith alone. God justifies us through saving faith alone and then we continue to live by faith once we’re saved through faith. But who and what do we put our faith in? Christ alone. That is the final phrase of the definition of the Gospel; in Christ alone. By the end of our time together we should see why we must put our faith in Christ alone; how Christ alone blows away the universally damaging consequences of Adam’s one transgression. Finally, we’ll consider how to respond to this monumental Biblical truth. Our text today is Romans 5:12–21.
The text we will study today is complex. Why does God include hard texts in the Bible? Perhaps its because it forces us to call out to Him for help in understanding them. If we could easily understand everything in the Bible, God wouldn’t be much of a God would he? So today we need to cry out to God to help us persevere through this text so we can grasp more fully the deep truths found here. Let’s ask for His help now.
Romans 5:12–21 (English Standard Version)
12 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— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 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.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Christ alone blows away Adam’s fatal universally damaging transgression.
First let’s define our terms. Christ alone means Jesus Christ’s life, suffering, death and resurrection. Adam’s fatal, universally damaging transgression occurred when he listened to the serpent and his wife Eve, and tasted the forbidden fruit. You know men how we like to point out that it was Eve who took the fruit so that somehow a woman is responsible for all the sin in the world. Look who God lays the responsibility upon; Adam. God commissioned him as head of the human race. God holds him responsible. Adam’s transgression or violation of God’s law caused all the trouble.
Paul begins our passage by explaining that. Verse 12. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man (Adam) and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” Then we’d expect Paul to complete the thought with a completing thought. Just as THIS, so THIS. But he stops. Verse 12 contains an incomplete sentence.
What’s going on? Well what has he just said at the end of verse 12? “So death spread to all men because all sinned.” All of us sinned in Adam. But wait a minute. We weren’t there. We didn’t taste that fruit. We didn’t receive the command to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Why should it matter what Adam did anyway? We need salvation and forgiveness from our sins, not his sin. What do you mean, all sinned Paul? Why would Adam’s transgression have anything to do with you and me?
It’s like Paul realized that what he’d just written might cause huge objections. So he stops to explain what he means. He’s just claimed that all sinned in Adam. We aren’t sure exactly what Paul means for he doesn’t explain the mechanics of how we all sinned. It could mean that Adam’s sin was the sin of the human race so that it spread to us. Or it could mean that in some real, profound, mysterious way we all sinned at that moment. John Piper puts it this way. “But the deepest problem is that behind all our depravity and all our guilt and all our sinning, there is a deep mysterious connection with Adam whose sin became our sin and whose judgment became our judgment.”
So Paul states death spread because all sinned. But Paul what proof do you have that all sinned – that all of us were somehow connected with that transgression in the garden? Verse 13 – “For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin was not counted where there is no law.” God’s formal law, including the 10 commandments, was given to Moses at Mount Sinai around say 1300 B.C. That was generations after Adam. But even though there was no formal to transgress or violate, people certainly sinned and lived under the consequences of sin. Sin existed but was not counted or taken into account or noticed as much.
Say you live out in the country on a road where no speed limit has ever been posted. Some drive safely. Others drive recklessly and at high speeds. But who’s to really say high speed driving is wrong? There’s no law. Then one day a county official comes along and puts up a sign – Maximum 80 kmh. Many people drove 80 or less before the sign. Others drove way faster endangering lives. Now even before the sign was posted, driving at excessive dangerous speeds was wrong. But now with a sign there, every time someone blows by at 120, they know they’re breaking the law. Sin is now counted or paid more close attention to. But that doesn’t mean sin did not exist before.
Paul says in verse 13 that sin existed in the world before the law; before there were any legal transgressions of God’s law. But what proof does he offer? Verse 14. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression.” People died between that time when Adam transgressed the first law and God gave Moses the law at Mount Sinai. What penalty did God warn Adam and Eve would come if they transgressed that one commandment – death! So even though people between Adam and Moses weren’t physically in the garden when the transgression occurred, they suffered the consequences of that sin in the garden. Infants and children who may never have committed a conscious sin still died between Adam and Moses. How could this be except that all humans sinned in some mysterious way with Adam in the garden? So even though the people between Adam and Moses did not sin by directly transgressing God’s law, they still were guilty because all sinned in Adam.
Now this pause to clarify “all sinned” is critical to understand the argument that follows and to correcting false gospels floating around in our world. If we are guilty before God only because of our individual sins, then if we stop sinning and do good, we are no longer guilty. The Gospel and our salvation begins to depend on us. If we say “through one man sin and death entered the world and then death spread to everybody because we all sinned individually, the comparison with Jesus would then be “through one man, Jesus Christ, righteousness and life entered the world and life spread to us all because we did righteous acts individually. So our salvation would then be based on our righteous acts or good deeds. If we don’t clearly see our link to Adam and the implications of his trespass on all of us, then we won’t clearly see the need to put our trust in Christ alone. If we think we’re islands and have nothing to do with Adam, we miss the need for the Gospel.
Paul then proceeds to explain the fatal, universal damage done by Adam’s sin and the amazing provision of God to undue that damage through Christ.
What were the fatal, universal effects of Adam’s one transgression?
1. The many died through Adam’s trespass (5:15). The curse of death spread to all human beings. All of Adam’s descendents suffer death because of this original sin except for Enoch and Elijah.
2. Adam’s one trespass brought judgment and a guilty verdict upon all (5:16). Verse 16 – For the judgment following one (just one) trespass brought condemnation. The divine guilty verdict is pronounced upon all human beings because of this one massive transgression. Adam brought upon all of us this sentence for his one willful act of disobedience.
3. Through Adam’s transgression, death reigns (5:17). Verse 17 – If because of one man’s trespass death reigns. Adam’s sin brought universal death.
4. Through Adam’s one trespass came condemnation for all men. (Verse 18). Again Paul takes us back to the universal guilty verdict pronounced on all of humankind.
5. By Adam’s disobedience the many were made sinners. (5:19).
Now prepare yourself. I’m going to do a 57 word sentence here but I’ll do it slowly to see if I can pull the effects of original sin on us. Because of Adam’s one transgression and because we are connected to Adam as a member of the human race and because somehow we all sinned in the sin of Adam, the curse of death hangs over us, we are under judgment and the sentence is guilty, death reigns, condemnation is upon us and we were made sinners. We don’t become sinners because we sin. We sin because we’re made sinners. That’s the bad news.
How does Christ alone blow away the fatal damage done by Adam’s transgression?
1) The many received God’s overflowing grace and free gift through Jesus Christ (5:15).
Verse 15 again – “For if many died through one man’s trespass, how much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.” Instead of death, Jesus brings overflowing grace and a free gift of life. Notice the word many at the end of verse 15. Don’t we sometimes conclude that there’s going to be five or ten of us in heaven and the rest of humanity will be in hell? After all, there are hardly any Christians around. That may be true here. But the many implies a lot. In fact, one Bible commentator argues it means majority. FF Bruce says “The many” can by no means denote a minority: on the contrary, it follows from these words, as Calvin put it, “that the grace of Christ belongs to a greater number than the condemnation contracted by the first man.” Have you ever thought that there will be more people in heaven than in hell? Calvin knew, indeed, of some who imagined Christians (the elect) as a minority, and who accordingly argued that Paul was here “merely debating a point. But Calvin reasoned “that if Adam’s fall had the effect of producing the ruin of many, the grace of God is much more powerful in benefitting many, since Christ is much more powerful to save than Adam was to ruin.” Do you see the “much more” in verse 15?
That’s why I chose the verb phrase “blows away” for what Christ does to the consequences of Adam’s sin. It’s not like Christ barely compensates and we’re just breaking even. God’s grace is blowing away the competition. On our prayer list this week, we read this from Dieter’s corner “Charles Colson writes this week in “Breakpoint”: while only 3000 copies of the “Jesus” film where sold in Egypt in 1996, 600 000 copies were sold in the year 2 000. Increasing numbers of Muslims celebrated Jesus’ resurrection with us this Easter: Recent converts from Islam: in Russia: 2 million, in Turkey: 35 000, in Algeria: 80 000, in Sudan: 5 million, in France: 10 000. All these new Christians face threats, persecution and family pressures. As the world becomes involved in a clash of civilizations, God continues to bring people into His kingdom from the very heart of Islam.” In Christ Alone, God blows away the fatal damage of Adam’s transgression with overflowing grace and an abounding free gift.
2) In spite of many trespasses, God’s free gift through Christ brought justification (5:16).
Verse 16 again – “And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.” Instead of condemnation or a guilty verdict, Jesus brings justification. Remember that happens when we become Christians. God declares us to be right in His sight and not guilty forever. So instead of eternal condemnation Christ brings us eternal pardon.
3) Through Jesus Christ, believer’s reign (5:17).
Now this is an entirely unexpected comparison. Paul begins verse 17 by stating, “If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned.” So we would expect the opposite to be “life reigned.” But what does he say? “Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” In other words, those who trust Christ receive the abundance of grace, the free gift of Christ’s righteousness AND the privilege of reigning in life through Jesus. So we are not only delivered from death’s reign as a tyrant over us, we ourselves get to reign enjoying life now and eternally with Christ. Notice the “much more.” Again Christ alone blows away the effects of Adam’s transgression.
4) Christ’s one act of righteousness leads to justification and life (5:18).
He finally gets back to completing the though he started in verse 12. “Therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” So again, instead of condemnation, Christ provides justification and life. But there better be some alarm bells going off. Doesn’t this verse teach universalism? Doesn’t it say all men will be justified?
Well first, we must go back to verse 17. There he says “those who RECEIVE the abundance of grace and free gift of righteousness.” So its not all people. The two alls in verse 18 cannot refer to the same people. The first all means all who are in Adam. That truly is the whole human race. But the second all means all who are in Christ. So only those who are in Christ, who trust in Christ benefit from his act of righteousness leading to justification.
5) By Jesus’ obedience, many will be made righteous (5:19).
Verse 19 – “For as by one man’s disobedience, the many were made sinners, by one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” In other words, because of Christ’s obedience to the Father, those who receive Him will have their legal status before God changed. Instead of standing condemned, we stand justified because of Christ.
So the entire point of this passage is to show that the work of Christ far outweighs in blessing what the work of Adam did in misery and loss. The obedience of Christ is parallel but vastly superior to the disobedience of Adam. Christ alone blows away the fatal, universal damage of Adam’s transgression.
Now what difference does this complex theology make for your and my life this week?
Well if you’re not a Christian, the fatal, universally damaging consequences of Adam’s transgress still hang over you. On top of that, there’s your own sins that deepen your guilt before God. But there is a simple, free and profound solution. Trust Christ alone. Put your personal trust in the only one who can remedy the fatal universal damage done by Adam’s transgression. Through Faith Justification by grace will flow into your life. Then begin the living the Christian life in a community of believers where you will be taught and encouraged.
For Christians, we must guard against thinking the Gospel is only for non-Christians. We must resist concluding that grace and the Gospel was just great when we became Christians. And we’ll sure need it when we die to get into heaven. But between now and then, we’re on our own. We must recognize we need the Gospel and good news every day in our lives. We require constant conversion from hypocrisy, self-trust and love. We need to continually trust Christ alone to fight our old sin nature.
The fact that Christ alone blows away the fatal consequences of Adam’s transgression relieves us of thinking our justification somehow depends on our faithfulness or our good works. So many religions enslave their adherents by preaching be good and its all good. But how do you know when you’re good enough? How much is good enough? Sometimes people will say “God looks at our hearts and sees our sincerity.” I don’t know about you, but if I’m really honest with myself, I don’t want God to look at my heart to see if there is enough goodness there to justify Him saving me. I would far rather trust Christ and His perfect life than my often shady one. This truth strips away arrogance or unhealthy self-importance.
Our church must be all about magnifying and glorifying Christ. It’s not about us. We learned that in our worship series. Worship is not about whether we liked the music or our favorite song was sung. It’s about using the opportunity to come together and glorify Christ. When we invite people to check out this community, our focus must not be on our greatness. We’re not inviting people to a club where the cool people hang out. We’re a community of sinners who have seen Christ alone reconcile us with God.
All our ministries need to glorify and magnify Christ. The power for ministry comes from Christ. I remember at one pastor’s conference John Piper saying “We’ve got to find a way to do ministry so that God gets the glory for it.” But so often we’re tempted to crave attention and want people to praise us. Maybe we could consider something like this in the ministry we’re involved in. Would someone observing our ministry be more likely to say “Isn’t he or she amazing in what they’re doing? OR “Isn’t it amazing what God is doing?”
This truth that Christ alone blows away the effects of Adam’s transgression frees us from confusion about the “right” savior or that there can be many saviors. Moses, Buddha, Confucias, Madonna, Oprah, Dr. Phil and the Dalai Lama all talk about the need to love each other. But none of them actually dealt with the devastating consequences of Adam’s transgression. If all we need is love, then many “saviors” can claim legitimacy. But if what we need is someone to overwhelm Adam’s transgression, Christ alone accomplished that. We can be boldly to share this truth in a world where the uniqueness of Christ is denied. We are equipped to answer the perennial question “What’s wrong with this world.” Answer – We all sinned in Adam’s sin which has led to fatal, universal damage.
At work – Ask the Lord to help you see difficult people in light of the reality of the fatal universal damage done by Adam’s sin. Ask the Lord to give you His eyes and the way He is using your work to demonstrate or reveal Christ alone as the solution to the world’s biggest problem.
If you’re retired, don’t write off your friends and neighbors that they’ll never change because their seniors. Use the fact of Adam’s transgression and its universal implications as a starting point of discussion. Then offer Christ alone as the solution.
In our marriages and family relationships, we must acknowledge we all struggle with some of Adam’s nature and the effects of his transgression within us. So we need to confess perfectionist expectations we place on our spouses and children. We must take your eyes off our imperfect spouses, kids, jobs, self and focus on Christ. Then look at how to magnify and honor Him in the imperfect situations around you. Spur each other on to magnify Christ in your home and all He has done.
Men – We must fight to embrace and take hold of that for what God accomplished for us in Christ Alone. Continue to receive the Gospel to fight those temptations of apathy, lust, questionable ethics and finding greatest satisfaction in something other than God.
Women consider what God has done for you in Christ Alone; though your spouse may not appreciate you or your kids take you for granted, rejoice in the overflowing abounding grace you have received in Christ alone. Though none of those attitudes exhibited toward you are right, revel in the uniqueness of Christ and God’s free gift to you.
This truth brings comfort to those who have family members wandering from the Lord. Remember their justification depends on Christ alone not on their works. Parents, Continue to trust Christ alone to give strength to overcome anger in parenting and frustration with children. Continue to trust Christ alone for strength to persevere against the oppression our young people face.
When life looks dark, remember Christ did not just remedy the fatal damage of Adam’s transgression. He overwhelmed it and provided an abundance grace and life instead of condemnation and death. If He can overwhelm the deepest problem in the history of humanity, He can see you through your troubles today.
John Dunne was right when he wrote “no man is an island.” But its much deeper than a connection simply because we’re human. We are connected by the universal impact of Adam’s transgression. Yet when we receive Christ, we become connected to a community of the forgiven under Jesus Christ.
Add the first comment...