The Better Adam

Romans 5:12–19

Intro

We’ve been talking about types, but I wanted to take some time to talk about antitypes

Type: comparing someone to Jesus (The bronze serpent )

Antitype: Comparing someone against Jesus (Jonah - Jonah ran away from those who were undeserving)

Also: Luke - Darth Vader

One of the reasons why I like types so much is because when we compare Jesus to someone else, we gain a better understanding and therefore better appreciation for who Jesus is and what he’s done

But one of the reasons why I like antitypes is because when we compare Jesus against someone else, our wonder for Jesus increases and we grow to love him and appreciate him more

In the Jonah story, we actually identify with Jonah more. We, like Jonah, would not want to see our enemies repent and be forgiven

So when we see that Jesus, unlike Jonah, loved his enemies, we gain an appreciation for what he’s done

(But we’re also the Ninevites)

I didn’t want to dwell too much on antitypes though, so I figured we’d explore one of the greatest antitypes in all the Bible, and that’s Adam

Intro

When I was in college, my friends and I decided to go to Joshua Tree national park

It’s a popular place, so if you don’t get a campsite, you won’t have a place to stay

Andrew was supposed to reserve a campsite ahead of time, but it wasn’t until we were on the road that we found out he didn’t

Speeding ticket - someone knocking on our tent - dirt bikes

One decision, even if it wasn’t your fault, can lead to a whole host of hurt

That’s what we’re going to be talking about today

Is it fair that, through Adam’s disobedience, we now inherit sin? No

But you know what else isn’t fair? That through Jesus’ obedience, sinners inherit righteousness

Romans 5:12

Adam, in a sense, opened the front door, and sin like a vapor came rushing in and filled every room of the house with its foul stench

Through Adam’s disobedience, sin entered the world

But a question might arise: how was Adam able to sin if sin wasn’t in the world yet?

Because the definition of sin isn’t “doing bad things,” the literal definition of sin is “missing the mark”

So Adam always had the ability to do bad things…

What he didn’t have was the desire to do bad things. Every time you sin, it is always in your own self interest. But we were not created to fulfill our own self interests, we were created to worship God

Illustration: Does this piece of paper have the ability to be creased? But it isn’t creased until an outside force comes in and bends it

And that is the reason why death entered the world when sin entered the world, because if sin is missing the mark, then anything that acts in a way that God didn’t design it to act is stained by sin

Animals: Bears killing humans misses the mark because bears weren’t originally designed to kill humans. We were supposed to have dominion over bears

Nature: Sunburns to Tsunamis

Sickness: As minor as a headache to something as extreme as cancer

Human rebellion against God

It all leads to death

So that’s the problem. The world and everything in it is disordered, it misses the mark

But here’s the good news: go ahead and look down at verse 15

Romans 5:15-17

Jesus is the antitype, he is the true and better Adam

What Christ “gives” contrasts with what Adam “did”

Adam disobeyed, Christ obeyed

Through Adam’s disobedience, he merited disorder and sin, but through Christ’s obedience, he merited restoration and eternal life

Look at verse 16

Condemnation = Penalty

Justification = To Acquit, to be declared innocent

And I’m tempted to just be done right there and say this is a short sermon, but there’s one more thing I want to point out. Go ahead and look down at v18

Romans 5:18-19

You might immediately think that Paul doesn’t add anything new here, you might think he’s just restating what he’s already said, but go ahead and look at v19 again

What’s interesting is that I actually don’t like the way the ESV translates this, because the ESV seems to imply that at the cross we were declared righteous, and that’s not necessarily the case

I actually like how the CSB translates this a little better, they say “For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous”

You see the subtle difference there? Justification is a one time thing, righteousness is not

We were not made righteous. Rather, we are being made righteous

What is the difference between righteousness and justification?

Justification = to be declared innocent

Righteous = to be put right

If you accepted what Jesus did on the cross and you declared him as lord of your life today and you died tomorrow, you would be saved

But if you think your justification is an excuse to not live righteously, then you’ve missed the whole point of what Jesus came to do

He did not come just so that you could be sucked up into heaven one day, he came that you might be made righteous from one degree of glory to another

This process of being made righteous is called the process of sanctification

Dirty clothes analogy

It’s important for us to recognize that you are not being made better, you are being restored

You know why? Because if you’re being made better, that’s primarily in your control. You make yourself better. But if you’re being restored, that is not primarily in your control, that is a yielding to what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life

Jesus’ work was not primarily one of teaching moral things or doing cool miracles, Jesus’ primary work was restoring what was distorted in the Garden

The true and better Adam came to fix what the original Adam messed up

NT Wright illustration

When Jesus yielded his spirit on the cross, he cried: “it is finished”

That same word for “finished” is seen in Genesis after God creates the world: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished”

NT Wright: “At the end of creation, on the sixth day, when God had finished His work of creation, He said “it is finished.” And now, at the end of the sixth day, the man Jesus Christ says “it is finished.” The work of rescuing creation has now been accomplished, the work of new creation can now begin.”

In the beginning, God created the world, He saw that the physical things He had created were good, and He said “it is finished”

When Jesus died on the cross, he saw the work that He had done, and the new creations we would become, and he uttered those same words: “it is finished.”

Living Righteously

So we’ve talked about how we have been justified and are being restored in the Spirit to be made righteous, but what does righteousness look like?

It looks like, day by day, more readily denying the things of the world and the desires of our flesh to worship God with our whole lives

Let’s think about the serpent’s temptation really quickly. Go ahead and turn to Genesis 3:1-6

The serpent tempted Eve with three things:

3 temptations

Temptation of physical pleasure: The tree was good for food

Temptation of envious pleasure: It was a delight to the eyes

Temptation of pride: It was to be desired to make one wise

We struggle with these sins as well

Physical pleasure: Gluttony, lust, sloth

Temptation of envious pleasure: Greed, envy

Pride: Pride, wrath

But I have good news for you: Satan isn’t creative. He runs it back, he follows the same script, and Jesus has given us the blueprint on how to defeat him. Go ahead and turn to Luke 4:1-13

Physical pleasure: The bread

Envious pleasure: Be caught be angels

Pride: The Kingdoms of the world

How do we combat these? Trust in Jesus who endured these temptations, not only in the wilderness, but in his entire life on earth. We believe in the book of Hebrews when it says (Hebrews 4:15) “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.”

So how do we combat these? With the spiritual disciplines

Physical pleasure: Fasting, charity

Envious pleasure: The Word, worship

Pride: Prayer, community

Conclusion

Let me close by saying this: see your true and better Adam whose blood justifies you and makes you righteous

He came to defeat death, conquer the power that sin has over you, and restore what he had created very good in the first place

In the book of Revelation, it says there will be a sea of glass. What does this mean? David Campbell gives us an answer

Do you think we’ll be able to walk on the sea of glass? Yes.

Who else do you know famously walked on water? Jesus

And in the story of Jesus walking on water, who does he call out to walk on water with him? Peter. Does Peter stay walking on water? No, he begins to sink

This shows that Jesus has complete dominion over creation, he dominates that water

And what Jesus came to do, is he came to restore what was lost. In this instance, our dominion over creation

Which is why he called Peter out on the water. But Peter began to sink, which shows that we do not yet have complete dominion over creation. His work of restoration has been started, but it’s still in progress

But one day it will be complete. One day there will be a sea of glass. We will walk on it, and we will never sink

Take hope in that work of restoration, and surrender to the Spirit as he does it in your life