39 | Romans | Romans 5:12-14 | The Reign of Death

A Sermon on Original Sin

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INTRODUCTION

You’ll notice that the sermon title is a bit dark.

Our scripture reading this week and last is from v12-v17

In the order of the passage, this comes first.

Now, the title last week, for Easter, was “The Free Gift”

The focus was on v15-17.

You can see why I preached this a bit out of order.

Easter Sunday isn’t really the right day to preach a sermon called “The Reign of Death.”

That said, the reign is real!

And we can’t really understand the free gift by which the believer has been made to reign in life if we do not first explore the condition into which every one of us was born.

We were born with sin dwelling in us and death reigning over us.

What is the reign of death? Original Sin.

This morning is a doctrinal sermon, but it is a doctrine that:

… is clearly known by all people.

… is revealed clearly from this scripture.

This passage in Romans is not the only scripture that bears witness to original sin, but it is the scripture that tells us most clearly where it came from.

… is the context of our absolute need for rescue.

ILL: You know how every good rescue movie spends most of the narrative building the gravity of the situation of the disaster.

This sermon plays that role for us.

I’m setting the scene of the stage for us: for the absolute lostness, death apart from life in Christ alone.

The situation into which all of us were born is a world …

… ruled by sin and under the judgement of death.

Bob Dylan on his album, Saved I was blinded by the devil, Born already ruined, Stone-cold dead As I stepped out of the womb.

The setting of humanity’s condition is clear.

It isn’t only that we were born into a world with sin all around us.

We were born into a world in which we ourselves are the sinners.

The point is this:

In a world in which death reigns, not only over us, but in us …

… there is nothing in this world or in ourselves to rescue any human soul from the body of death.

As Paul himself cries in Romans 7:24

Romans 7:24 ESV

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

The clear need for an alien righteousness is the setting and background for the glory of the free gift.

PRAY

6:00

DEATH REIGNED

Read v14a.

Read v17a.

What does this sin at work in all of mankind look like?

What does it look like for death to reign?

Read Romans 3:10–18.

What does it look like to live in a world of sin?

The last verse, v18, is the most important.

It means to live in a world in which do not live with a real sense of the presence God our Maker and Lord.

It is to live without any fear of God.

It is to live in a ruled ruled by the sinful desires of the flesh …

… rather than the righteous glory of the Spirit of God.

8:00

Original sin brings all the descendants of Adam into the guilt and corrupt disposition of lawlessness.

We is meant by lawlessness?

It is to live with no fear of God before our eyes.

That is, whether the law has been revealed or not, two things are true:

1) We are guilty of Adam’s sin

2) We walk in the lawless way of Adam’s sin (even if the specifics of righteousness have not been fully revealed.)

What does it mean for death to reign?

All of humanity walks in rebellion against God.

No one seeks God.

Every man seeks his own glory to a triple demise—a three-fold death:

1) the robbing of God’s glory

2) the mistreatment of others for the sake of one’s own glory

3) the corruption of one’s own soul to collapse inward, where there is no glory, away from beholding that one eternal glory which is in God his Maker.

12:00

APPLY

For the remainder of our time, we will consider four aspects of the doctrine of Original Sin.

What does it mean that humanity has fallen from life in the light of the glory of God …

… to the darkness of death.

13:00

THE HEADSHIP OF ADAM

1 Corinthians 15:22 ESV

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

The context into which Jesus brings life is a world in plunged into death by Adam’s sin.

Adam is the father of humanity and every human.

When Adam sinned, all sinned in him.

This is what v12 means when it says that all sinned.

We will see this with increasing clarity as we work through the passage …

… but this is not saying that death spread which each person individually and personally sinned.

As though sin lay as a dormant possibility in the desires of mankind, only to arise in the death of each soul when he himself gives in to this sin.

No, sin came into the world, not through each individual sinner, but through one man.

So, death entered by this one man’s sin.

And death spread to all men because in Adam all sinned.

15:00

Let’s consider the circumstances of Adam’s sin.

Adam had an actual law given to him.

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.”

Adam turned away from this command to walk his own way in disobedience.

By his clear and direct disobedience to God’s command …

… by this trespass sin entered the world.

See the actual pronouncement of death —

Genesis 3:19 ESV

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

At the moment of his sin Adam began to die.

Again, the context:

Adam is given a clear command and he disobeys God.

God, faithful and true to his word, pronounces death upon Adam.

So, sure, we would expect Adam to die.

v14 - But what we find is that death reigned from Adam to Moses.

That is, death reigned before any further law was given.

How? Were any of these people trespassing any explicit command of God?

For what trespass were they judged? For what sin did they die?

They were under the judgement of death for the sin of the head of humanity, Adam.

APPLY

Adam is the head and representative of all of humanity.

That’s not the bad news.

The bad news is that Adam sinned …

19:00

SIN AND DEATH ENTERED BY ONE TRESPASS

This is the issue that v13-14 deals with

It isn’t that sin was not in the world.

Sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.

In order to adjudicate lawlessness, the law itself must be revealed.

So, without the law, sin is not counted.

Though the first chapters make it clear that no part of humanity is without excuse.

What is true of God is plainly known.

So, back to the argument Paul is making in our passage:

From Adam to Moses, the law had not been given, but that doesn’t mean that no one ever had any law before Moses.

No, Adam had a law, and he trespassed against this law.

By that one trespass, the judgment that was clearly warned in that law itself entered—that is, death.

In other words, the condemnation of death does not come by the many trespasses of each individual sinner …

… but by the one trespass of our representative head, Adam.

21:00

v14 asks the question: If the law has not yet been given, and so sin is not being counted, where does all this death come from?

Read v14.

If death was in the world before the law then sin was in the world before the law.

Sin was there, but it was not dealt with by a law.

They were still dying and under judgement because of the one trespass.

To be clear, they were still sinners …

… but their sin was not like the transgression of Adam.

That is, it was not a trespass against and explicit law with a clear warning of judgement.

But it was still, real and deadly sin.

They have no argument to say to the Lord, their judge, that they themselves are not sinners.

Romans 2:1 ESV

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

or

Romans 2:12 ESV

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

APPLY

Original sin

1. Adam is the representative head over all of humanity.

2. Sin and death entered by that one man’s trespass

24:00

SIN AND DEATH ARE UNIVERSAL

Augustine Nothing is better known than original sin for preaching; for understanding, nothing is more mysterious.

We know the reality of sin at work in all of humanity.

The doctrine of the reality evil in the world is the doctrine least in need of defense.

And yet, there is a mystery that confounds our understanding.

Why does death reign? Why is sin and death so pervasive?

It makes sense that sinners would not understand the origin and root of our sin.

Pascal It is astonishing, however, that the mystery furthest from our understanding is the transmission of sin, the one thing without which we can have no understanding of ourselves!

In other words, we are sinners, and we are dying.

How can we understand ourselves if we do not understand how we got this way?

Because there can be no doubt that nothing shocks our reason more than to say that the sin of the first man made guilty those who, so far from that source, seem incapable of having taken part in it.… Nevertheless without this most incomprehensible of all mysteries we are incomprehensible to ourselves.

This scripture explains to us who we are and how we got this way.

It is as we submit ourselves to the reality of original sin …

… that is the origin of sin and death’s entrance into our race

… that we come to understand who we are in a fallen world under the curse of death.

Within this gnarled chasm lie the twists and turns of our condition. So, humanity is more inconceivable without this mystery than this mystery is conceivable to humanity.

28:00

Scripture gives us the cause of the universality of sin and death clearly and surely.

We may not understand all of the manner of the origin of this sin nature and how it comes to us …

… but we can confess that it is true.

1689 London Baptist Confession 6:2 — By this sin our first parents fell from their original righteousness and communion with God. We fell in them, and through this, death came upon all. All became dead in sin4 and completely defiled in all the capabilities and parts of soul and body. 6:3 — By God’s appointment, they were the root and the representatives of the whole human race. Because of this, the guilt of their sin was accounted, and their corrupt nature passed on, to all their offspring who descended from them by ordinary procreation. Their descendants are now conceived in sin7 and are by nature children of wrath, the servants of sin, and partakers of death9 and all other miseries—spiritual, temporal, and eternal—unless the Lord Jesus sets them free.

In Adam, sin entered all of his descendants, by his one trespass.

Before any one of us were trespassers, we were sinners.

There are only a few things that you find absolutely everywhere on the planet, in every time, in ever place, in every culture, in every home and in every person.

ILL: Some have said that there are two certainties in life—death and taxes.

They are close.

There are only two certainties, sin and death.

Though some might say that taxes are just one example of sin. They certainly feel evil when you pay them.

31:00

Side Note:

Original sin is not original …

… but of our fallen nature in and since Adam’s trespass.

1689 London Baptist Confession 6:1 — God created humanity upright and perfect. He gave them a righteous law that would have led to life if they had kept it but threatened death if they broke it. Yet they did not remain for long in this position of honor.

APPLY

Original sin

1. Adam is the representative head over all of humanity.

2. Sin and death entered by that one man’s trespass

3. Sin and death are universal

33:00

SIN AND DEATH ARE TOTAL

This is known as total depravity

Original sin describes what is wrong.

Total depravity describes just how deep the wrong goes.

It isn’t that we are as bad as we possibly can be.

It is that there is no part of our selves that is untouched by sin.

There is no work of righteousness that springs from the heart of any man.

There are restraints so that we do not fall into absolute sin at every moment and in every way.

That is, there are restraints so that we are not as bad as we possibly can be.

Civil government and the fear of punishment.

The image of God which shows itself in human love, relationships and reason (however tainted by sin).

The reasonable sense of reward and pleasures for doing good.

But, sin, with it’s desires are still in there.

So, though we are not as bad as we possibly could be …

… because every aspect of our being

… our mind and our desires, our reason and our will

… are tainted by the corruption of sin

We are left with the total inability to do righteousness.

Love Constraining to Obedience (Pacific Gold) No strength of nature can suffice to serve the Lord aright

This is total depravity.

35:00

v14 demonstrates how sin touches us not only as external behaviors by which we transgress a law …

… but flow from our desire for sin

Concupiscence

You know Cupid — the mythological god of desire.

You can hear Cupid in there, in the word concupiscence.

Concupiscence is the Latin word for ardent or eager desire.

Total depravity is our ardent and eager desire for a world without God.

It is this natural desire for wickedness that Jesus is going at in the Sermon on the Mount.

You have people who think they are really impressive because they haven’t killed anyone.

But they hate their brothers!

Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 5 I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbour.

James 4:1–2 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

Your deeply broken behaviors spring from your have deeply broken passions.

James 4:1–2 ESV

You do not have, because you do not ask.

In other words, you will not turn to God, none seeks God, who alone can satisfy.

Our ardent and eager desire remains for a world without God.

And so, we remain depraved in sin and death.

39:00

What about Jesus?

Did the universality of sin and death come also to him?

Was Jesus also touched by original sin and total depravity?

What about concupiscence and Jesus?

Does Jesus in his humanity have an ardent and eager desire for godlessness?

This is why the doctrine of the incarnation and the virgin birth is so important.

Luke 1:35 ESV

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”

Jesus had no desire for sin.

When confronted by temptation, the temptation did not arise from his own evil desires as is the case with sinners.

For Jesus, the temptation came from outside of him, from the enemy alone.

And when tempted, there was nothing in Jesus for this temptation to take root.

His desire at all times was for the Father.

We see this when he is tempted by Satan, he responds that his food is the Word of God.

When responding to his disciples he says that his nourishment is to do the will of the Father.

Jesus was born with neither guilt nor corruption.

So, why did Jesus suffer in life?

Is it not unjust that Jesus would suffer decay in life and even unto death if he himself was without sin?

In taking on flesh, Jesus …

… who though he was utterly, thoroughly, without the stain of sin, suffered death because he was suffering our death.

He was suffering the reign of death so that we would reign in life (v17).

APPLY

Original sin

1. Adam is the representative head over all of humanity.

2. Sin and death entered by that one man’s trespass

3. Sin and death are universal

4. Sin and death are total

42:00

APPLY

The argument of the passage is that all who are in Adam die and all who are in Christ are made alive.

All who are in Adam have sinned in Adam and so die with him, whether they personally have the law or not.

Romans 5:6 ESV

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:10 ESV

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son

By understanding Original Sin we understand the depth of the words weak and sinners and enemies.

We understand the context of salvation.

Rock of Ages

Not the labors of my hands  can fulfill thy law's demands;  could my zeal no respite know,  could my tears forever flow,  all for sin could not atone;  thou must save, and thou alone.

Bob Dylan on his album, Saved Nobody to rescue me, Nobody would dare, I was going down for the last time, But by His mercy I've been spared. Not by works, But by faith in Him who called, For so long I've been hindered, For so long I've been stalled. I've been saved By the blood of the lamb, And I'm so glad. Yes, I'm so glad, I'm so glad, I just want to thank You, Lord

Rescue is what we need. you were dead in trespasses and sins

Not a mere new way to live, but death to life.

I’m so glad that the Lord God, (Ephesians 2:4–5) being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved

test

50:00

——— SAVED FOR LATER ———

‘ARE WE JUST FOLLOWING ADAM’S EXAMPLE?

Bavink According to semi-Pelagianism, the consequences of Adam’s fall consisted for him and his descendants, aside from death, primarily in the weakening of moral strength. Though there is actually no real original sin in the sense of guilt, there is a hereditary malady: as a result of Adam’s fall, humanity has become morally sick; the human will has been weakened and is inclined to evil.

There is an error that emerged early in church history.

Though it was quickly recognized as error …

… it has lingered beneath the surface of so much confusion and false doctrine.

The idea is that if the primary effect of original sin was to weaken our moral sense, then salvation would simply require a strengthening of the moral sense.

This is known semi-pelagianism.

If we could only strengthen our mind, our will and our reason against our eager desire for sin (our concupiscence) …

… we could overcome the effects of sin and so cast off death itself.

We still need God to give us some measure of grace …

… by which we ourselves, having been strengthened, climb out of the pit of sin and death.

The reasoning goes like this:

Adam was a sinner.

He wasn’t as much our representative as he was our example.

All who descend from him follow in his example.

What we need is a new example.

This is what Jesus provides.

Where violence and hatred once was the pattern of humanity …

… Jesus’ life, his teaching and even the love demonstrated by his death

… show us a new way to live.

So, Jesus’ life and death is grace …

… but it is merely a grace that gets us started on the path of salvation

… that we continue with many religious rites and moral behaviors.

You can see why the cry of the reformation is by grace alone!

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.

45:00

APPLY

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time

Moralism

The pressing point of this whole text isn’t that each individual needs to stop sinning.

The point is that each individual is dead because death entered by our father, Adam’s, one trespass:

Verse 15: “By the transgression of the one [Adam] the many died.”

Verse 16: “The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation.”

Verse 17: “By the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one.”

Verse 18: “Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men.”

Verse 19: “Through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.”

Our individual sins only serve to prove the justice of the condemnation, but they aren’t the problem itself.

This is the same logic as to why death permeated humanity even before the giving of the law.

Self-Righteousness

When we manage to overcome some sinful behavior, we tend to simultaneously become the greatest judge to condemn most harshly those who have not overcome.

By this we show ourselves to have fallen all the further from the glory of our God.

What does the Lord speak over sinners?

The reality of sin’s evil and damnation?

Yes! But he also calls out in mercy.

More than that, he, in Christ, give the free gift of grace.