The Adam Family

Romans 5:12-21

What a strange family.  They had it all, and gave it all away.  A wonderful creation made by a wonderful Creator, but they chose to rebel and sin and go their own way.  Dark and spooky, dressed in black!  Hiding in the shadows.

We are part of this family!  We continue in our heritage as we "Lurch" through life, still allowing sin to "Fester" within us.  What a strange "Thing" is this family.  Yes "It" is!

Paul answers some tough questions, such as:

• How is it possible for God to save all sinners who come to Him through 'one man', Jesus Christ?  You would think that each of us would require a substitute of our own. [The Federal Headship of Christ]
• Why do sin and death reign over all of us, from the womb, before we even choose to sin ourselves?  All children are born with this propensity to sin. [The Federal Headship of Adam]

Understand a few general truths from this passage:

The word 'one' is used 12 times in this passage...the emphasis is on the one...there's something very urgent about this 'one'.  It is of vital importance in some way.  It is because we will be saved by 'one' man, Jesus Christ.  We all identify with Adam in our sin, and we can all identify with Jesus in our salvation. 

The Federal Headship of Adam is the basis by which we can all be saved by the Federal Headship of Jesus Christ.  Because we were all condemned by one we can all be saved by One.  Critics say it isn't fair that we all be condemned in Adam.  It was not only fair, but it was wise and gracious for God to do it that way, because if we were all judged on an individual basis we would each require our own personal substitute and couldn't all look to the same One for that.  Jesus would have just died for Adam and the rest of us would be on our own.  By the way, if you or I were in Eden back then we would have sinned just the same!

The word 'reign' is used 5 times.  vv. 14, 17, 21

Paul says that both Adam and Jesus 'reigned' over kingdoms.  Adam reigned over the old creation and Jesus over the new.  Adam reigned over doomed humanity and Jesus over delivered humanity.

The phrase 'much more' is repeated several times as well.

vv. 15, 17, 20

This phrase is always used in connection with grace.  In Jesus we gained 'much more' than we ever lost in Adam.  Jesus not only undid all the damage Adam caused, He did 'much more' for us by making us sons of God.

This whole passage is a contrast of Adam and Jesus [the last Adam]

1 Corinthians 15:22
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:45
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

1 Corinthians 15:47
The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

Sun Yung Moon declared himself the 'third Adam'.  He had read about the first Adam and considered Christ the second Adam...but Christ is the 'LAST' Adam!  Ain't gonna be no more!

There is no middle ground.  You are either lost or saved, ruined or redeemed, under wrath or under love, a sinner or a saint...you are in Adam or in Christ!

Let's look at what we lost in Adam and what we gained in Christ 'much more!'

3 things we can learn about the first Adam:

1.     He was a real man.

v. 12        Many today say the first 3 chapters of the Bible are metaphor, figurative and symbolic.  Even many Christians today try to marry the Bible to evolution and billions of years in order not to be laughed at and say there was no real Adam and Eve, it's just a picture of our earliest ancestors and how we choose sin.  [theistic evolution]

THERE HAD TO BE A REAL ADAM, YOUR SALVATION DEPENDS UPON IT!

According to our text, if one man, Adam, didn't plunge us into sin, then one man, Jesus, couldn't save us!  The equation must be equal on both sides.  Are they suggesting we have a ‘figurative’ Savior?

v. 19       

Why do people deny the existence of Adam?  To do away with the existence of God!

Evolution:                                               Creation:

man evolving                                          man devolving

man moving bottom to top                     man moving top to bottom

from darkness to light                             from light to darkness

If no Adam, then no fall, no sin, no need for a Savior or a God.

Evolution is a religion with no God.

Adam was as real as sin, a real man like Christ is real!

2.     He was a ruined man.

v. 12        'sin entered' - Satan tempted saying 'hath God said' just like the world does today...they doubt God's Word!  Then the devil got Eve to add to God's Word saying we can't eat the fruit or touch it!  Did God say they couldn't touch it?  No!  Every cult in the world starts by somebody adding to God's Word.  Then Lucifer flat out denied God's Word saying, ye shall not surely die!

Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned with his eyes wide open.  He knew he was disobeying, and that's why he gets credited with the fall...it's always the man's fault!  [In the garden, God came looking for Adam.]

3.     He was a representative.

How do we know we are all racially related to Adam?  Because we look and act like him.  The apple doesn't fall far from where Adam bit into it!  "There's no denying that child is yours" we say.

We inherit from our father:

• Death -- vv. 12-14 -- other than by rapture none of us are getting out of this world alive.  We all fight it, and we all will eventually lose.

ill.--captain of the football team is on the field with the officials before the game for the coin toss...he calls heads but it is tails, and the whole team loses the ball because of his decision.

ill.--my ancestors left England long ago, and so did I, not by choice, it was chosen for me by headship.  When they left England I left England because I was in them.

Hebrews 7:9-10
⁹ And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.
¹⁰ For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.

• Sin nature -- v. 12b -- 'ALL' have sinned.  This is why we have to teach kids to tell the truth, but not to lie, to share, but not to be selfish, to obey, but not to disobey, to control their temper, but not to lose it.  "We're trying to teach our kids to have a Wal-Mart fit when they don't get what they want"  [roll your eyes, go limp on the floor, and you know you won't get spanked because we're in public, then scream at the top of your lungs and I'll buy it for you so you will be quiet!]  Anything that is wrong comes naturally because of the sin nature.  We are not sinners because we commit sins...we commit sins because we are sinners!  The humanist hates this teaching because he wants to believe we all have a spark of divinity in us.

Downward spiral of sin:

v. 12        sin entered

v. 20        sin abounded

v. 21        sin reigned

Missionaries leave our soil for 4 or more years, and when they return to the US they remark on how much more sinful their homeland has become.

Just a few decades ago Clark Gable ended a movie with just one bad word and everyone gasped.  Look at us today, abounding in sin, sin reigning over us!

Alcohol:  a man takes a drink, the drink takes a drink, and the drink takes the man.

Pornography enters, it abounds, and then it reigns.

• Judgment -- v. 18a -- it hangs over the head of everyone who is ever born...it is appointed once to die, and after this the judgment.

We've seen a family portrait of the Adam Family.  Death reigns, sin abounds, and judgment is coming.  We get all of this thru Adam.  Next time we see a prettier picture of what we gain 'much more' in Christ.

Are you in Adam or in Christ?  We began in Adam by virtue of our birth...so we need a rebirth!