Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.gracespringfield.com/sermons/43167/our-solidarity-with-adam-and-christ/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Let us go, please, to the 5th of Romans. I do think I recall telling you that this portion coming up, that we will now be considering in verses 12 through 21, constitutes the most perplexing passage in the entire epistle, with the possible exception of some portions of chapters 8 and 9, dealing with the election of the individual and the election of Israel.

[0:29] They are rather difficult to handle. But there is, in this particular portion of Romans, a very intricate, intertwined concept, or dual concepts, if you will, that are inseparably connected together, yet they must be kept distinct because they certainly are distinct.

[0:50] Yet, at the same time, neither has real meaning or value without the other. They are related. You cannot separate them, but neither can you confuse them or confound them, because then you will have chaos as a result of investigation rather than any kind of order.

[1:07] And to just briefly reiterate what I mean, for example, as you deal with this portion, there are two men, Adam and Christ, that are presented. There are two deeds, an act of transgression and an act of righteousness.

[1:20] There are two lives, physical life and spiritual life. There are two deaths, physical death and spiritual death. There are two condemnations. The corporate condemnation that is linked to Adam, with whom we have our solidarity, and there is the individual condemnation that is linked to my own sin that has nothing to do with Adam.

[1:39] And then there are two justifications. One is the removal of Adam's transgression or a universal redemption. The other is the removal of personal sin and guilt that takes place when you come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

[1:55] Now, we have all of these pairs, these various parallels that run throughout this particular chapter, or the last half of this chapter.

[2:05] And you must keep in mind which is which and which the Apostle Paul is talking about, because if you commingle them or get them twisted, then you've lost the whole case and you cannot begin to understand it.

[2:19] So, what our task is, is to try and intricately unravel these various pairs, because Paul has in many cases just kind of sandwiched them together.

[2:30] They are all found here in this. So, as we go through, we have to kind of sort and sift and say, this belongs with this and this belongs with that. I think one of the reasons he has done that is because they are inseparable.

[2:41] They are incapable of really being divided, but they must be understood each in its own light. In the first 11 verses of Romans 5, we have the fact of redemption and all of the personal spiritual benefits that issue therefrom.

[2:57] You'll recall we likened that to the spiritual cornucopia that God has provided for all who are recipients of salvation on the basis of justification by faith.

[3:09] Justification by faith opens up a whole new world. It is as though God has thrown the doors to his vault open, and we are able to partake of all of the things that are mentioned that follow from justification by faith.

[3:24] But, then when you come to verse 12, it is as though the apostle is saying, now I want you to understand, what is the basis for all that I have shared with you in these first 11 verses?

[3:37] Because there is something that makes the first 11 verses available and possible. There is a base. There is an underlying thing that supports all of that that makes it possible.

[3:48] What is it? It is as though he says, now I'm going to take it from the top, and I'm going to spell it out for you as to what it is that makes it all available. Where did it begin? How did it all start? That there was even a need for justification by faith must have had a beginning somewhere.

[4:03] How did it all start? It all started in verse 12. Therefore, he is reading back in time for the basis of what he has said in 1 through 11.

[4:14] This is the whole gamut. It began with one man, just as through one man. This man is unmistakably identified, I think, in verse 14 as Adam, the progenitor of the human race.

[4:29] We must very dogmatically insist upon the historicity of Adam. We cannot give any quarter in this area at all.

[4:41] I realize that there are those who would deny the historicity of this man. That is, that there ever was such a person as our first parent, a literal flesh and blood homo sapien by the name of Adam, who was taken from the earth.

[4:58] There are those who would deny that and refer us to the primeval ooze, the gulp of whatever it was that came up from wherever it came that became this, that became that, that became something else.

[5:11] But we cannot have any truck with that at all because the historicity of Adam is germane to the Christian faith. The historicity of Adam and its reality or unreality, if you will, is directly connected to the integrity and the intelligence of Jesus Christ.

[5:32] For he recognized that when he said, have you not read that he who made them in the beginning made them male and female? And he goes on to assert the individual personality and historical identity of our first parent, Adam.

[5:46] Now, if there was, in fact, no Adam, then, to put it very bluntly, that makes Jesus Christ look like an uninformed fool because he thought there was, he said there was, and his whole premise would be wrong, and then so would everything else that followed.

[6:00] We insist upon this. We do not see the kind of latitude that some feel is there in the early chapters of Genesis whereby, as one person put it, I don't see any big deal.

[6:14] What's wrong with creation and evolution? I mean, after all, why can't we take them both? Well, we cannot take them both. Neither can we take a theistic evolution that says, well, maybe God chose to create the first man by millions and millions of years to evolve from this or that, and maybe God was behind the whole thing, and we still have a creator in a sense, and we still have evolution in a sense, and maybe they can live together and kind of peacefully coexist.

[6:44] This is the position to which some, unhappily, some noted theologians came to in the latter part of the 19th century because they reasoned that science and evolution was presenting a very formidable case, and it was starting to look bad for Christianity.

[7:05] So what are we going to do if we're going to make it an either-or thing? And after all, these scientists have dug up these bones, and they have this, and they have that, and these are dark days for Christianity. How can we ameliorate this thing?

[7:19] So they came to the conclusion, why not both? Why not maybe God created that first little amoeba, and it became a man, and you ended up with a hodgepodge that is neither creation nor science, that is referred to as theistic evolution, and for my part, it's worse and more damaging than just flat-out evolution.

[7:39] We just have to go with what the scriptures say, and I think we can do so with good scientific basis, but it is not our intent to get into that now. One man. Sin entered into the world.

[7:51] Well, it had to come from somewhere to enter, because sin cannot be divorced from personality. Sin doesn't just float around someplace in the atmosphere looking for somewhere to land.

[8:02] Sin is connected with intelligence. Sin has to have personality to exist. Sin has no existence, and it has no meaning apart from an intelligent mind. And the first intelligent mind that sinned was Lucifer.

[8:18] And in due time, Lucifer morally infected our first parents with the sin principle, and the results that followed, of course, were alienation from God, death, and so on.

[8:30] Sin entered into the world via Adam, and death, that is the predictable result, death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

[8:43] And the all men is inclusive of everyone who is born of a man and a woman. Which, of course, excludes our Lord Jesus Christ, who was not born of a man and a woman, but was born of a woman whose womb was impregnated by the supernatural agency of the Spirit of God, thereby bypassing the contamination that would have been contributed from an earthly father.

[9:11] Jesus Christ, therefore, was born totally human, yet he was the God-man. He was not corrupted nor tainted by the moral blight of sin, as were all who have succeeded Adam since that time.

[9:25] We are told that all sinned, and I would add a couple of words to that, if I may, to clarify it. And I think it would not be doing an injustice to the text to read it, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned in Adam.

[9:43] This is the great issue that we have been hammering on throughout this text. That is the issue of solidarity. This means that Adam sinned, and we send in Adam. And immediately we are repulsed at that.

[9:56] We say, wait a minute, I wasn't around then. Adam lived thousands of years ago. How do you get my sin involved in Adam? I didn't have anything to do with Adam's sin. But you were in Adam.

[10:08] Like it or not, you are a member of the Adamic race that goes with the territory of being a human being, and there is no way you can avoid that.

[10:20] We are locked into that. We are part and parcel of what our first parent was. We were in Adam. Potentially, and some would even suggest physically, we were in Adam.

[10:37] Four, contained in the body of Adam, if you will, in his reproductive organs. Lay the seed, or the potential seed, generations removed for every living human being that was ever to walk upon the face of the earth.

[10:56] We sinned in Adam. In the same way that Levi sinned while he was yet in the loins of Abraham. Or Levi rather, paid tithes, we are told in Hebrews 7, when he was in the loins of Abraham.

[11:08] This means that when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, the king of Salem, in Genesis 17, Levi, who was the grandson, or great-grandson, I don't remember which, who wasn't even born yet because Adam, Abraham didn't even have a son yet, much less grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

[11:27] Yet Levi was in the loins of his father Abraham. And he did in solidarity and corporately what Abraham did. He paid tithes while yet in the loins of Abraham.

[11:38] We sinned while we were in the loins of Adam. Now, if you think that's unfair, if you do not like being branded, and you do not like being made a part of Adam's sin because you feel you really had nothing to do with it, you were kind of like an innocent bystander who wasn't even standing by at the time, then you must realize that the opposite of that is true also.

[12:02] Through no work or effort of your own, you sinned in Adam. Likewise, through no work and effort of your own, you were justified from Adam's transgression in Christ.

[12:14] So you are not a loser in that sense. God has not given you the short end of the deal that you had nothing to do with, and boy, you really got a bum rap on this. No, that isn't true.

[12:25] That isn't true. God, in his grace, has redeemed you from Adam's transgression, so that if the time comes that there is a penalty to be paid for your sin, it will not be for Adam's sin.

[12:40] It will be for yours. Each of us must give an account of himself to God. For the believer in Jesus Christ, his sins are paid for, not only corporately, but individually, past, present, future.

[12:53] All sin is paid for. Christ died for our sin. If the death of Christ took care of your sin, he suffered the punishment for your sin.

[13:05] When you believed in him as your personal Savior, the finished work of Christ in a personal, individual way was imputed to your account, and all of the punishment that Christ bore, he bore for you in your place, so God has no punishment left.

[13:19] There is nothing more that God can do to you as regards sin. He already did it to Christ. You may look at me and see sin.

[13:31] God can't. God cannot. You may see all kinds of false shortcomings, wrong deeds, sin, wrong attitudes, nastiness, orneriness, and everything else. But God sees no sin in me that is chargeable to me.

[13:45] He has already charged it to Jesus Christ. That's a glorious, glorious truth. That deals with our positional liberty. One of the facts that Paul will be talking about throughout this passage.

[13:55] Then he goes on to say, in verse 13, For until law, and we've chosen to leave the definite article out, it isn't really there in the original, until law, sin was in the world.

[14:11] But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Now, what is that saying? Well, what it is saying is this. Man does not need specific laws to violate in order to commit sin.

[14:32] He sins because he is wrong, self-willed, and rebellious by nature. Isn't that neat?

[14:42] We do not have to know, we do not have to have known laws to violate in order to sin. We can do it without that.

[14:55] Why is that? How is that? It is because we have a wrong nature. Man is born wrong. He is born a rebel.

[15:07] Born redeemed. Born redeemed. But not delivered from that Adamic nature, which ultimately, by the way, will result in his physical death.

[15:18] Not his spiritual death, but his physical death. Our physical death comes as a result of our Adamic nature. Our spiritual death will come as a result of our own personal volitional sin.

[15:32] And that's an entirely different thing, but both are spelled out here in Romans 5. What this means. Sin committed out of an Adamic nature that does not violate a specific command of God is not imputed or added to the account of the one who did it.

[15:51] Now, that's a wonderful thing. God has not imputed to the account of the individual his sin where there is no law.

[16:01] Paul says, where there are no specific laws, where the will of God is not revealed as to what is right and wrong, and an individual's sins, what Paul is saying is, God doesn't keep books there.

[16:15] That's what he's saying. God doesn't keep books there. What is he after? He's after willful, volitional sin. Intentional sin. I know this is wrong, and I'm going to do it anyway.

[16:26] That's the thing that will rack you up. We've often heard the expression, ignorance is no excuse, but God says it is. Now, I've never yet found a highway patrolman that will accept my ignorance as an excuse.

[16:42] But God does. And God does not charge sin to the account of the person where there is no law. That's a wonderful, gracious thing on his part. And this is related to Adam's transgression, which has been removed for every man.

[16:58] Nevertheless, now, even though that's true, Paul says in verse 14, even though that's true, death reigned. Death reigned. This may involve spiritual death, but I think principally he's talking about physical death here, because this is tied in with Adam's sin.

[17:13] And please keep in mind that it is the sin nature and the Adamic nature and Adam's sin that principally, not exclusively, but principally is connected with physical death.

[17:27] It is our own volitional sin and rebellion against God, not Adam's, mine, that results in spiritual death. Even though this is true, even though sin is not imputed when there is no law, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, a span of about 2,500 years.

[17:52] And if you want to know how death reigns, just go out of here and, well, I'll tell you, you don't have to go very far. Get right out here on Cedar Hills and go right down the road there and cross over Shrine Road and get on to Ballantyne Pike and go up Ballantyne Pike until you come up to the top of the hill and just stop there and look right over on the left.

[18:18] And you see a little, no longer used graveyard. There's death reigning right there. Every time you see a tombstone, it's placed over someone where death is reigning.

[18:34] Physically, death reigns. And because we are all children of Adam, we are all destined to die physically unless Jesus Christ comes first. And death will reign physically.

[18:48] Death is referred to in Scripture as the last enemy that shall be destroyed. It's already potentially vanquished because Christ has come back from the dead, but only potentially vanquished.

[19:01] Death still has the final say in this life until Christ comes and reverses that. Death reigns. The word reign means death maintains a kingly sway.

[19:12] It sees the sovereignty. Death rules as an unchallenged despot. Death is enthroned and nobody challenges it.

[19:22] Of course, our Lord Jesus Christ challenged it when he ruined all the funerals that he ever attended. He just can't have a good funeral without a corpse and he always made them get up and walk. And the time is coming when he's going to do that again, only on a mass scale.

[19:36] But in the meanwhile, death is reigning and death is an unchallenged despot. You know, you can take, you can take all of the best medical minds and all of the knowledge and all of the expertise that is available and couple it with all of the wealth that you can lay your hands on.

[19:59] And death still reigns, doesn't it? You can hook people up to machines and you can provide them this and that and around the clock this and you can fly in the specialist from Vienna and you can do this, but it makes no difference if you're a king like the Shah of Iran and had solid gold fixtures for your bathroom plumbing and your private airplane.

[20:23] Death reigns. And you're not going to change it. Death reigns. This is really a blessing in disguise.

[20:35] Now, I don't want to be morbid, but physical death can be one of the most wonderful assets that God has given to men because physical death is an object lesson or illustration of another death that is unseen, of an intangible death.

[20:59] It is an illustration of spiritual death because, you see, the closest we can come to illustrating spiritual death is physical death. You can't really illustrate spiritual death, but physical death you can because there you see the remains.

[21:15] You look at the corpse. This is a place where somebody you knew used to dwell, but they vacated it. The real person that you knew in that body is absent from it.

[21:29] The real person is separated from that body. And that separation we call death. It is a picture of another separation, the separation of the soul or the spirit from the God who made it.

[21:47] So, in a real sense, physical death is an enemy and at the same time it is a friend. It warns us of something else, of another realm.

[21:59] Let us move on, if we may. He says that death reigned even from, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam's offense.

[22:09] What was Adam's offense? Adam's offense was transgression. A transgression is a trespass. The difference between transgression and trespass or sin is in a transgression or in a trespass there is a line that is drawn and you know where the line is and you know you're not supposed to step over and you do it anyway.

[22:30] That's transgression. Also, that link to the word trespass, you know what a sign means when you see a sign that's posted on a piece of property that says no trespassing.

[22:40] And what that sign is saying is there's a line drawn and if you cross over the line you violate the law and the law is spelled out here it is specifically stated that where this ends and where my property begins you're trespassing.

[22:54] God says I have a will. I have made my will known. When you cross that will and you know you're crossing it that's transgression. That's trespass.

[23:05] Now trespass is also a sin but a sin is not necessarily a trespass. one is that for which you are engaged knowingly and intelligently and deliberately and volitionally and frankly friends this is the way most of us sin.

[23:23] Most of us do what we do that is wrong with the full knowledge that it is wrong at the time. And we do it anyway don't we?

[23:34] Most of us do. Can we pride ourselves in the fact that most of the sins we commit are out of intelligence not out of ignorance? Guess it ought not to be pride maybe a base for shame but then he speaks of Adam as being a type of him who was to come.

[23:52] That is in many ways Adam is a type of Christ and of course in many ways he is very dissimilar from our Lord but both are the head of a race and both are the first in their order and both have died physically both have been made alive spiritually and there are numerous other things that we could relate but let us move on to verse 15.

[24:15] But the free gift the free gift is defined in 324 as being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.

[24:31] It is safe to say that is synonymous with the free gift of 515. Now Paul says the free gift is not like the transgression. We've got two different contributors here and they contributed two different things.

[24:45] The free gift is contributed by Jesus Christ the redemption that he effected. The transgression is contributed by Adam the first man. Now Paul says I want you to know that in some respects they are similar but in some respects they are vastly different.

[25:03] And in this case the free gift is not like the transgression. In other words that which was provided by Christ is not like that which was provided by Adam. For if by the transgression of the one Adam the many died that's all of us much more.

[25:24] This is the a fortiori argument that we've looked at that Paul uses in verse 9 in verse 10 in our verse in 15 and also in 17.

[25:34] And it is a literary tool in the Greek actually the a fortiori is Latin but what it means is if the former is true if the former is thus and so how much greater is the latter?

[25:54] If A is so B is even more so. If we are talking in terms of an amount we would say if this is this much how much more is this?

[26:07] The second is based upon the first. If the premise is true the result is even greater. And if by the transgression of the one the many died much more how much more super abundantly more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound to the many.

[26:33] What he is saying is Jesus Christ is a far superior performer to Adam. What Adam accomplished in a negative way Christ has superseded and super abounded so much more in a positive way.

[26:51] it means that Jesus Christ would not be outdone by what Adam did in his act. As Adam has taken us down down down this far so Christ has raised us up up up this far how far seated with him in the heavenlies that's how far he has raised us.

[27:17] He has done Adam one better more than one better he's gone far above and beyond compensating for what Adam did in the fall and so much for that but in verse 16 and the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned well how was it through the one who sinned Paul said well on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation did you see that the judgment arose from one transgression and the result was condemnation how many transgressions did Adam have to commit just one why because one was an infraction of the will of God one was all it took for Adam to register disobedience he didn't have to do a whole lot of wrong things all he had to do was one thing that God told him not to do and he did it how many times do you have to steal to be a thief you do not qualify for the title thief after you have stolen ten things one will do that makes you a thief is there anybody here who has never stolen anything ever anybody is there anybody who has how many lies do you have to tell to be a liar is there anybody here who has never told one lie ever

[28:51] I never realized I'm speaking to a congregation of thieves and liars but I am and you know who's speaking to you a thief and a liar how about that you look so sweet that I won't turn my back on you after you've told me what you are the beautiful thing about this is Adam committed one transgression the result was condemnation but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification you see Adam sinned condemnation came in death passed upon all for all have sinned in Adam therefore all are condemned how many of us are condemned the whole the totality of the human race is under this condemnation everybody nobody escapes nobody escapes

[29:58] Paul says all the world may become guilty before God all have sinned and come short of the glory of God where did that all come from one transgression because one transgression reshaped and remolded the nature of our first parent and it changed him from an innocent being into a rebel and everyone born after him is a rebel sin has filtered down and infected the whole of the human race now for a question that ought to just blow your mind do you have any idea how many transgressions have been committed by men since Adam and women since Adam when there are billions of people alive on the face of the earth today and I don't know exactly how many sins are the quota of each of us but it would be appreciable

[31:00] I imagine and all of the billions of people who have lived in the past one listen one act one act of Adam resulted in all of that but but one act of Jesus Christ completely reversed it think of that Adam started out of a state of innocency transgressed and everything came crashing down with him Jesus Christ started out of a state of innocency and sinlessness and was made sin for us and in the one death that he died in the one act of obedience that he performed to the father on the cross he reversed the whole thing turned it all around paid for everybody's sins of all ages of all times forever isn't that glorious which was the greater work can you see why

[32:00] Paul says much more much more he lacks vocabulary to express the much more that is involved and so do I beautiful glorious concept for if verse 17 by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ now I see verses 15 and 16 as corporate applying to the totality of humanity this is where I have obtained the idea and I trust it is a thoroughly scriptural one of a universal redemption in the death of Christ he redeemed everybody not just believers but everybody this is a universal application of the redemptive work of Christ

[33:09] I am confident this is what Paul meant when he said as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive I cannot take the first all to mean everybody and the second all to mean Christians I think this is what John meant when he defined two different classes of people and saying that Christ is the propitiation for our sins well we don't have any problem with that Christ is the propitiation of our sins that was written by a believer to believers Christ is the propitiation for our sins but then he goes on to muddy the waters and say and not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world now what can you do with that except take it to mean everybody and in John 12 32 Jesus explaining the manner of his death said and I if I be lifted up from the earth

[34:10] I will draw all men unto me and most of our evangelical friends say well all men means Jews and Gentiles and Germans and Japanese and Irish and Dutch and whatnot but I think that complicates the text how much simpler to just allow it to say what it says and if I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto me I think that's what he did in John 1 we are told that our Lord Jesus Christ is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world and ladies that's a generic expression it means every member of mankind that comes into the world how does he do that I think when you come into the world when you are born into the world you are born with a spiritual light you are born redeemed

[35:14] Adamic nature but Adam's transgression so far as the penalty is concerned is removed we are born with an Adamic nature but we are born with a redeemed soul by virtue of the finished work of Christ I would like to point out however that this is what I am saying now is not to be confused with universal salvation which is a heretical teaching that has infiltrated just about every major and minor religious group that there is and universal salvation means that eventually everybody is going to make it because Christ died for everyone and they cite the verses that I have given you as proof texts and this is what the verses are saying Christ died for everyone therefore eventually everybody is going to heaven no it doesn't say that it does say

[36:15] Christ died for everyone but it doesn't say eventually everyone is going to heaven it does say that the death that Christ died provided the potential for every man woman and child to be redeemed we are redeemed universally we are redeemed corporately but verse 17 and as I pointed out to you at the beginning this is part of the difficulty of the text he has woven these two concepts together our solidarity in Adam our solidarity in Christ the two deaths the two lives the two condemnations the two regenerations many of these they're just intertwined here and we've got to reach in and pick them out verse 17 for if by the transgression of the the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness now here is something to be received what did you do to receive the work of

[37:18] Christ that did away with Adam's transgression what did you do to receive that you didn't do anything you didn't do anything actively when you send in Adam you were just a member of the human race that's all you didn't do anything when Christ redeemed you corporately as a member of the human race lifting Adam's curse you didn't do anything for that but here in verse 17 there's something to be done this is not a universal redemption he's talking about in 17 it's individual it's personal and it has to do with those who receive now if there is something you can receive then there is something you can reject if the action that is called for is an exercising of your will in a positive way then there has to be an option for you you can go in a negative way and some do that but there is something here to be done and when you receive and this by the way the verb is in the active voice and it means that you do the action you do the receiving this isn't something that is laid on you it is something that you take a lot of difference between me walking up to you and taking this pin and stuffing it in your shirt pocket like that and walking off there's a difference between that and me holding it out for you to take you either take it or you don't there's a difference in the one case you did not so much receive the pin as somebody placing the pin upon you in the other case you reached out and took it you were active you were involved in it

[39:05] I think that's what Paul is talking about in verse 17 there is something to be received and notice what it is well what would you expect whatever it is that God has to give is always of such value that no mere human being could ever pay a price if he were to put a tag on it so it has to be a gift God doesn't have anything for sale he never has had anything for sale everything that God has he has to give you and here it is the gift of righteousness that something now if God is going to give you a gift of righteousness how righteous would that righteousness be it would be just as righteous as he is righteous for God gives in accordance with himself and his own nature what this means is that those who receive this gift of righteousness for which there is no aid those who receive this gift get something from

[40:11] God that is really satisfaction guaranteed no exchanges no refunds but satisfaction is guaranteed and it is a gift and it's the most wonderful gift you could ever get because it doesn't make any difference what size you wear or what your favorite colors are or what you have need of or don't have need of you have need of this and the robe of righteousness that God has to give you that was purchased by Jesus Christ will fit you perfectly and nobody else and when you have that that is the basis of reigning in life I think that's tied in with the John 10 10 and Jesus saying I am come that men might have life and have it more abundantly this reigning in life means that you have a handle on life life is not taking you you are taking life it has to do with an ability to appreciate and enjoy the provision that

[41:14] God has made it has to do with a perspective and understanding the plan and program of God and how you fit into it all of these things begin with this personal redemption you don't really know anything as you ought to know until you know Christ the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and what that means is the expression the fear of God means to put God in his proper place in your life that's what it means to fear God doesn't mean to be afraid of him and the writer of Proverbs is saying when you give God the proper when living begins for you and everything will issue out from that that is point A that's the starting block if you don't start there you haven't even started reigning in life through the one

[42:17] Jesus Christ this again is the exclusivity of the means of redemption it is through Christ and no other way it is mentioned in verse 15 it is the grace of the one man Jesus Christ it is mentioned again in verse 21 so then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men for as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners even so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous and I have reduced this to mean in my own thinking in my own theology buy it if you want leave it if you don't but to me it presents fewer problems than anything else I think what Paul is saying here basically is this when a human being is born on the face of this earth and comes into life as we know it he is born in a state of redemption because as the disobedience of

[43:28] Adam was placed to the account of the human race the obedience of Christ has also been placed to the account of the human race canceling out the transgression of Adam and its results therefore when a baby is born it is born with an Adamic nature and give it time it will demonstrate that but it is born redeemed having been provided for under the finished work of Christ the blood of the cross as has everybody else and that baby will never be separated from God for Adam's sin never never if something happens to the baby it's in the presence of Christ it has been cared for spiritually under the death of Christ but when that baby reaches an age that is not defined in the Bible that we call the age of accountability which is not mentioned in the Bible but it is a time wherein the individual becomes responsible to

[44:31] God I think the reason that no specific age is given is because it differs with the individual you cannot put a specific age on that God knows and when that child reaches the place where they understand right from wrong as a moral responsibility before their creator it is at that time when they transgress they become a sinner in word and thought and deed and when they do that do you know what they do they do the same thing that Adam did when he willfully disobeyed God knowing better he died God said in the day that you eat you shall surely die and Adam died his death consisted of separation from

[45:31] God he died spiritually and when a child reaches the age of accountability be it six or sixteen or whatever and they cross over that unseen line whereby they know volitionally right from wrong and they choose to go the wrong way they die right then spiritually now you can't tell it by looking at them I'm quite confident that they do not know it and walk around and say they did something wrong oh I just died spiritually nobody knows that but they do and what then is their need their need is then to be saved to be delivered to be born again I think this is exactly what Paul was talking about in Romans chapter seven and verse nine when he said I was once alive apart from the law I think we can safely forget about physical life here

[46:32] Paul is not saying apart from the law I was physically alive he's talking about spiritual life and he says I was once alive spiritually apart from the law but my problem is when the commandment came when I understood the law when I knew right from wrong and the fact that a holy God was behind that law and I violated it when the commandment came sin became alive the nature and the propensity and the potential for sin was born in me as a baby as a child of Adam and when I got to the place of where I was able to exercise my will and the opportunity was presented that nature that was there was so easy to flare up and it flared up and I sinned and I died spiritually and when did he get saved on the road to

[47:34] Damascus or some very short time thereafter within the next three days probably so he was born alive but he died and through the new birth he was made alive again never to die again so we've got spiritual death and we've got physical death and they are both found in this passage now let's hasten on and we'll conclude the chapter for as through the one man's disobedience atoms the many were made sinners even so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous now if all that Paul says here is true then where does the law come in because he has stated in verse 12 about death spread to all men because all sin for until the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no law he has earlier laid the case of justification by faith apart from the works of the law so it is well to be thought that the average

[48:42] Jew who might be reading this epistle here Paul is seemingly downgrading the law and he is saying that justification is by faith apart from the works of the law shall no faith be justified and it is as though somebody crops up and says well Paul if what you're saying is true if justification is by faith if we are not saved by keeping the law if we are not saved by doing good things and obeying all the rules and regulations then what good is the law what's the purpose of having the law what are you doing Paul you're just kicking the law out and saying forget about the law the law can't save you so it's of no no no wait a moment there's nothing wrong with the law if a man use it lawfully if you use the law the way God intended that the law be that the transgression might increase that means the law came in that there might be more sin can you fathom that that's what it's saying really that's what it's saying because the more sin there is the more identifiable it is the law came in to reveal the sinfulness of sin the law came in to shine a divine flashlight if you will or flood lights upon man's sin the law doesn't make man sin except that it tells man what sin is and what he can do and can't do and when the law tells a man what he can't do that's what he wants to do he's agitated and provoked by the law there isn't a three year old anywhere who doesn't want to do what mommy says not to do more than they want to do anything else in the world that's just their nature that's just born in them something never becomes so attractive or desirable as that which you tell me

[50:41] I cannot have someone has said the grass is always greener on the other side but it still has to be mowed when lust is checked by the restraint of law it is at the same time all the more stimulated prohibitions engender infractions the law provokes and stimulates men to violate it not because there's anything wrong with the law but because of the nature of man you see that's the way we're constituted in other words what I'm saying is law does not put into man something that wasn't already there all the law does is reveal what is there it doesn't make us do things it reveals what is in the heart the law is a divine diagnostic device it is a tool of moral diagnosis and the law looks into the human heart you know what it says sick sick sick that's what it is sin sin sin and when once we start believing that we come to despair and emotional spiritual distress and when you do that's great because then you're in a position to be helped it is not till you come to the end of yourself that you'll be willing to come to

[52:11] Christ that's the way it is with most of us Dr. Barnhouse used the illustration of the mirror you'll recall and it's probably the best one I've ever heard at the expense of being repetitive I want to share it again with you he talked about the little seven year old boy who went into the bathroom climbed up on the stool and looked into the mirror and the mirror revealed that his face was dirty the mirror didn't make his face dirty the mirror didn't add to the dirt but it revealed the dirt and the to bring us to Christ if you're suffering from a fever you've got a high temperature and you take a thermometer and you stick it in and the thermometer says 103.4 what's the problem oh boy my head is swimming dizzy and I'm breaking out in perspiration and chilling at the same time and I feel nauseated and the thermometer says

[53:30] I got 104 temperature what's my problem what's wrong with you the problem is this lousy thermometer no no that's not the problem that thermometer is really your friend tells you how big a trouble you're in it reveals what's going on the law reveals the sinfulness of sin the law says you fail here you fall short here you're condemned here you're wrong here you're wrong sin sin guilty guilty guilty guilty really depressing but when you come to Christ do you know what effect the law has on you after you've come to Christ the law has done its work the law had its day with you and it's over with it's finished because when the law brings you to Christ the law then has no more hold or jurisdiction over you it has served its purpose you are not under law but under grace that's right only saints can reign in grace sinners don't know anything about reigning in grace this is for saints the law is necessary and the law will do its job on you but when the law is finished and you have come to

[54:45] Christ you are not under the law you are under grace that's a glorious concept the law came in that the transgression might increase but where sin increased grace abounded all the more two words that are used here in the Greek and what one means is the idea that the transgression increased but where sin increased grace super abounded did much more than increase it overflowed a superfluity here there is just no limit to the grace that is available it did more than cancel out the sin that was increasing consequently to the end that as sin reigned in death even so grace might reign isn't that beautiful that grace might reign grace be enthroned on your life through righteousness to temporary life through

[55:46] Jesus Christ our Lord or how about ten years life or how about God saving you and say I'm going to give you six months probation and see how you're doing and if you're shaped up by then it'll continue on otherwise you're going to be back where you started from it's eternal life isn't it and that means bless God that the ultimate realization and fruition of that is taken entirely out of your hands and you and I cannot mess it up it means that your salvation is inseparably linked to the integrity of God and not to your performance you didn't get in on the basis of your performance and you aren't kept in on the basis of your performance and you will not be delivered in the end on the basis of your performance but on the basis of the grace of our God it's all locked up with him can you then just relax and enjoy your salvation and realize that God is the one who has to do with this and not you you are a participant only in the sense that you are a beneficiary and a recipient of what he's provided but it's not contingent upon you someone said well you have to pay your fair share you don't have a fair share you don't have any share in this redemption at all

[57:11] Christ did it all he didn't do 95% of it leave 5% for you to do someone said well that's not too much we ought to be willing to do 5% friends you can't do 5% you can't do 1 tenth of 1% as affecting your redemption because to the extent that you make any contribution at all to your salvation is to the same extent that you are in great peril better it removed from our hands entirely and placed in the hands of our God someone said well what about that verse of scripture back in the Psalms that David prayed and said restore unto me restore unto me my salvation fellow says you better read it again he read it again he says oh restore unto me the joy of my salvation he says no read it again restore unto me the joy of thy salvation it isn't even yours it's his he gave it to you and you share with

[58:13] Christ in it and with every other believer in it but it's not contingent upon you and I don't want it to be because that way I can't mess it up isn't that wonderful God fixed salvation in such a way that I can't mess it up because if I could mess it up I would mess it up but I can't that too is part of the grace package questions or comments you may have that's the fifth of Romans anybody yes Sandy death still reigned at least physical death reigned over those who had not sinned after the manner of Adam's transgression who didn't sin the way Adam did they still died physically now one thing you must understand too about the death of Christ even though it took place in a point of history approximately 2,000 years ago the application of the finished work of Christ is made to all of mankind in all times regardless of when they lived so please do not think well my the poor people who lived on this earth before Christ died

[59:32] I guess they're just out of luck they're just too bad for them no it isn't the death of Christ is something that did take place in a space time situation but God does not apply it that way it is applied to all men of all times because for that matter Christ was the lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world the way God keeps books spiritual death men are justified the same way that Abraham was justified by faith and men died spiritually and they died physically and spiritually before Christ the same way they do today there are thousands today that are going to die that same way spiritually and they'll die physically while they are in the state of spiritual death just as they did then somebody else yes well sweetie pie that is a what if question and I am not capable of answering what if questions

[60:47]  I have wondered myself some what if questions what if Adam had not sinned well if Adam had not sinned Adam and Eve I suppose would have had children the question is how long would there have been people in that environment without sinning as long as Adam had the potential and God created him so that he had the potential I think that it was inevitable that he would exercise that will so I can't give a good children ask the hardest questions I can't give a good answer to that when Adam sinned we sinned in him we didn't sin in Adam until Adam sinned when he sinned