Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ

Intro

“There are two types of people in this world.” I’m sure we’ve all heard this statement before at some point in our lives. What’s interesting about it is that there seem to be so many different kinds of two different types of people.

Some of the more clever examples I came across.

There are two types of people in this world:

The dead and the not dead yet.

Those who leave a mark and those who leave a stain.

Those who put the toilet paper on the roll the right way, and those who put it on the wrong way. (You can argue about that one on the way home.)

Now the reason why there are so many kinds of “two different types of people” is because these are all oversimplifications.

But the scriptures actually teach us that there are actually only two different types of people. And this is not an oversimplification, and it applies to absolutely everyone.

Which takes us to our passage this morning.

Scripture Reading

Romans 5:12–21 ESV

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. 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. 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. 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. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 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. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Exegesis

Context

Over the last few weeks in our study of the book of Romans we have been talking about salvation by faith. Because of Jesus work on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, your sin, and my sin has been atoned for (paid for). And it is only through faith that we can receive forgiveness from our sins, peace with God, and eternal life. This is salvation by faith.

If we are in Christ by faith, we have received reconciliation with God. Jesus accomplished this for us. And in our passage this morning, Jesus who saved us, is contrasted with another man. We read in Romans 5:12.

Sin and death through Adam (vv. 12-14a)

Romans 5:12 (ESV)

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.

The man referred to here is Adam, the first man, and his story is primarily given to us in Genesis 1-5. The story of Adam and his fall into sin begins the grand narrative of the entire Bible.

I am sure you are familiar with the story. God created the first man Adam and his wife Eve, and gave them a very clear commandment:

Adam’s sin

That clear commandment that God gave the first man was this, we read in Genesis 2:16-17:

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

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 that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

God gave Adam just one commandment. But, in Genesis 3, we see Adam and his wife Eve directly break it.

Genesis 3:1–6 ESV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘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.’ ” 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 opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired 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.

In spite of God’s clear command and warning, both Adam and Eve ate from the tree when they were tempted by the serpent.

When verse 12 of our passage says that “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin,” this is the man. And this is the action by which sin and death was brought into the world. Adam’s disobedience brought sin and death to all mankind.

Now there is one thing I want you to make note of before we continue our study of this passage.

1. Dependant on a real, historical, Adam

Paul, in writing this passage, assumes the existence of a real, historical Adam. His entire point rests on Adam being the real father of all the living, just as the first chapters of Genesis tell us.

This is a contentious issue within the church nowadays. Many Christians, and those exploring Christianity, eventually have to come to terms with the fact that what we read in some portions of the Bible, especially in the first few chapters of Genesis, often does not reflect what is popularly believed in our culture.

This is something that Christians have to wrestle with nowadays, but it was also something that Christians had to wrestle with when the book of Romans was written.

Both the elite of Rome, and the common people, held to numerous beliefs and myths about the beginning of the world. There were also many competing schools of philosophy that had their own creation stories. The account of the creation and fall of mankind that we find in Genesis was believed exclusively by Jews and Christians who were a minority in the Roman Empire at this time.

Even though I believe there is lots of very compelling evidence for the historicity of the Bible and the Genesis account of creation, these Biblical truths can only be received by faith. Hebrews 11:3 tells us:

Hebrews 11:3 ESV

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Jesus on the Genesis Account

The New Testament writers, and Jesus himself, believed in the truth and historicity of the Old Testament. This includes the creation account we find in the first chapters of Genesis, and the creation and fall of Adam.

I want to give you just two examples of Jesus demonstrating his belief in the truth and authority of the early chapters of Genesis:

When Jesus is asked about divorce by the pharisees in Matthew 19, he responds by quoting from Genesis 2:

Matthew 19:4–5 (ESV)

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Also, in his condemnation of the scribes and pharisees in Matthew 23, he pronounces this grave judgment on them in verse 35. That,

Matthew 23:35 (ESV)

On you may come the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah.

Because of their treachery, on them would come the judgment for the murder of Abel, this is Adam’s son that we read about in Genesis 4.

It is clear that Jesus believed in the truth and the authority of the Old Testament, and this includes the creation account in Genesis.

If we are to believe in Jesus, then we must believe what he believed. If he is truly the Son of God full of grace and truth as John says in his Gospel, then we must receive our truth from him.

Why it matters

Why does this matter?

The great majority of attacks on the Christian faith nowadays are not on doctrines like the trinity, or the deity of Christ, or even the atonement. Most of the attacks on the Christian faith are aimed squarely at our anthropology - our doctrine of mankind.

Think about the Biblical beliefs that Christians are most encouraged to change or abandon. What we believe about: man’s origins, the value of human life, homosexuality, transgenderism, marriage, male and female roles and relationships, and last but not least; the universal sinfulness of mankind.

These Christian beliefs about the nature of man are founded early on in the book of Genesis.

No matter how much the world would want us to, faithful Christians cannot unhitch from the old testament.

The doctrine of the universal sinfulness of man is utterly dependant on a real, historical Adam. And this historical Adam’s very real sin, lead to all the sin we have experienced through history. And this matters because Jesus came into history to undo the sin of Adam, as we will see in a moment.

Paul, in writing this passage, assumes the existence of a real, historical Adam.

Sin and death entered into the world through Adam

Adam existed, and through his sin, his rebellion against the direct command of God, death entered the world.

And from Adam, sin and death spread to all of mankind who came after him.

As our passage says in Romans 5:12-13,

Romans 5:12–13 ESV

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.

Sin and death before the law

Now, when it says in verse 13, “for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.” Paul does not mean that mankind was innocent without the law given to Moses, but rather that they were ignorant.

First of all, it says right in the passage that “sin was in the world before the law was given”. That’s clear enough. But in the book of Genesis we also see many examples of God punishing the wicked for their sin before the giving of the law in Exodus.

Think of the flood of Noah, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or the plagues on Pharoah and the Egyptians. These were all punishments for wickedness that occurred before God gave the law to Moses.

As verse 14 of our passage tells us,

Romans 5:14 (ESV)

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam.

Death reigned for the roughly two and a half thousand years between Adam and Moses, to whom the law was given.

Even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam.

The transgression of Adam, his eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, was sin that was in direct disobedience to a clear command of God.

Those who lived before Moses did not have a clear command from God like Adam had. But there was still a moral order built by God into his creation, and written on the hearts of man.

If you remember when we looked at Romans 2, verses 14 and 15 tell us that,

Romans 2:14–15 ESV

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, 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

Though they were without a clear command of God, mankind still committed evil. They still sinned, and death reigned because Adam brought sin and death into the world.

The covenant headship of Adam (v. 14b)

If we look back at our passage, the second half of verse 14 tells us something unusual. I’ll read the whole verse:

Romans 5:14 (ESV)

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.

Now what does that mean, that Adam was a “type of the one who was to come”?

Clearly, the one who was to come was Jesus. But how is Adam a type of Jesus?

Typology and Headship

Throughout the Old Testament there are people, things and events that foreshadow what Jesus accomplishes in the New Testament. This is known as typology. We don’t have time to look at the many examples throughout the scriptures, but this passage is one of the clearest examples of it.

Adam was a type of Christ in that as the first man, he was the head of all humans who would come after him. Just as Adam was the head of all humanity, Jesus is the head of all those who receive salvation in him by faith.

We see this same concept in 1 Corinthians 15, where Jesus is referred to as the “Second Adam.”

Verse 45 of that passage says, “‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” And it goes on to say in verses 47-49:

1 Corinthians 15:47–49 ESV

The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Adam was a type of Christ in that he was the head of all humanity. Adam was the head of those born of the flesh. But Christ is the head of those born again, born of the spirit, as John 3 tells us.

Jesus is the head of a new humanity.

Where Adam Failed, Christ Prevailed

Though Adam was a type of Christ, Jesus was not like Adam.

As the saying goes, “Where Adam failed, Christ prevailed.”

Adam sinned, but Jesus did not.

Hebrews 4:15 says of Jesus,

Hebrews 4:15 ESV

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

And 2 Corinthians 5:21 says,

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Where Adam failed, Christ prevailed.

We will see these two heads of humanity contrasted with each other five times through verses 15-19 of our passage. We will go through these quickly.

Adam contrasted with Christ (vv 15-19)

The first contrast we see is in verse 15.

1. v. 15 - Death/Abounding Grace

Romans 5:15 ESV

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.

The free gift that is referred to here is the righteousness through faith that Paul has been building on over the last few chapters.

And here he says that the free gift is not like the trespass. And this is how they are different:

Adam instead of giving an inheritance to his descendants, gave to them a debt. What Adam left his descendants was death. His sin took away life from humanity.

But Christ gives an inheritance to those who are in him. The inheritance of grace and eternal life given by Christ is abounding!

In the free gift of Salvation by faith, Christ gives us is much more than was ever taken away by the sin of Adam . - Christ is greater!

2. v. 16 - Condemnation/Justification

In Verse 16 we see the second contrast.

Romans 5:16 ESV

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.

Adam through his one sin, brought condemnation (guilt) to all humanity because of their sin.

But Christ through the free gift, brought justification, a declaration of innocence before God.

Through the free gift Christ gives justification for those who are in him. - Christ is greater!

3. v. 17 - Reign of death/ Reign of the Living

The third contrast is in verse 17.

Romans 5:17 ESV

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.

Adam through his trespass, his sin, brought about the rule and reign of death. That all humanity would be under it’s tyranny.

But Christ through the free gift, brings about the end of the reign of death, so that those who receive the free gift will reign in life.

Through the free gift, of salvation by faith, those who are in Christ will rule with him in eternal life - Christ is greater!

4. v. 18 - Condemnation/Justification

The fourth contrast in verse 18 says,

Romans 5:18 ESV

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

Adam, as the head of all humanity brought about the condemnation of all humanity through his unrighteousness.

But Jesus, as the head of the new humanity brought the justification of those who are in him through his righteous obedience in going to the cross.

Christ is greater!

5. v. 19 - Made sinners/Made righteous

And the fifth and final contrast is in verse 19.

Romans 5:19 ESV

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.

Now I’m going to pause here for a second. Going through these last few verses, and especially this one you might think: “How is that fair? That Adam’s sin makes me a sinner, that I receive judgment and condemnation because of it?”

First of all the sinful nature of humanity is a fact. As one person said, it’s “Empirically Provable”.

I got a front row seat to the sinful nature of humanity as a young dad. Most of the kids in our youth group know this example. My son when he was 18 months old would see his friends playing with a toy, and he would want it. But he wouldn’t merely covet the toy. He would stomp up to his friends, raise his hand, and say in the most threatening voice that he could manage, “Ow, Ow, Ow!” Now, I didn’t teach him that, to hit your friends, when you want something they have, He didn’t learn that from me. Maybe my wife taught him that. Nobody had to teach him that. You don’t have to teach children covetousness, or violence. You don’t have to teach them evil. They just do it out of their own nature.

We have a sin nature, and it’s demonstrated as soon as we are capable of doing evil.

We inherited this sin nature from Adam. We see it here in verse 19. “By the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,” This is the doctrine of Original sin.

Secondly, even though we have inherited a sin nature from Adam, there is not one person who inherits the sin of Adam who does not add to it themselves.

You and I do everything to prove our sinful nature in our sinful thoughts, actions, and motives.

It is entirely fair for us to be judged for our sin.

But I’ll tell you what’s not fair. That though all of us were made sinners, by Christ’s obedience many are made righteous. - Christ is Greater!

Application

Two types of people in this world.

See there are two types of people in this world, those who are in Adam and those who are in Christ.

Everyone who is a descendant of Adam (which is everyone) is in Adam. And if they are in Adam then they are in sin.

Everything in these last five verses that is caused by Adam’s sin applies to them.

Sin, condemnation, and death are all theirs in Adam, and their ultimate end is eternal destruction in hell.

But everything changes for those who are in Christ.

Christ, who was born of the Holy Spirit to a virgin; not receiving original sin from Adam, but being a second Adam; has become the head of a new humanity.

Everything in these last five verses that has been given by Christ applies to them.

Grace abounding, justification, reigning in life, righteousness, and eternal life in the presence of God are all theirs in Christ!

How one passes from being under the headship of Adam to the headship of Christ is through receiving the free gift of salvation through faith.

Repent of your sins, believe in the lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Passing from condemnation to salvation, death to life, Adam to Christ!

Our passage ends with verses 20-21.

The Law to those in Adam vs. Christ (vv. 20-21)

Romans 5:20–21 ESV

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Were going to look at the functions of the law in detail when we study Romans 7. But one of functions of the Law of God is that is a mirror - revealing our sin. That is what is meant here when verse 20 says, “the law came in to increase the trespass.”

It makes known the morality of God so that sin is not done in ignorance.

But remember that there are two types of people in the world: Those who are in Adam and those who are in Christ.

For those who are in Adam, the law does nothing but expose and condemn their sin. In doing this it demonstrates their wickedness and shows their need for a saviour.

But for those who are in Christ, the law no longer condemns them. Yes it still exposes sin, but because they have received the free gift, the law instead points us to the riches of God’s grace. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more!”

I know what it’s like to feel guilt about what you may have done in the past. Some Christians struggle daily with deep grief and shame at what they did in their lives before Christ, or even when they were younger in the faith.

If this is you, I want you to know that if you are in Christ, if you’ve received the free gift: the law no longer condemns you.

As Romans 8:1-2 says,

Romans 8:1–2 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

You are no longer in Adam, you are in Christ. And as 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us,

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Don’t hang on to that guilt and shame any longer. Leave it behind. If you have received the gift of salvation by faith in Christ, you are no longer in Adam, and you are no longer condemned. When your former sins come to mind, praise God for his immeasurable mercy and grace. You are in Christ, and through the second and greater Adam you have received mercy, grace, and life abounding! What more could we ever ask for?

Conclusion

There are two types of people in this world:

Those who are in Adam, and those who are in Christ. The most important question one can ask is which one are you?