Welcome, my name is Andrew, I am the Youth and Life Group coordinator here at St Matt's. In both these ministries we seek to have God’s word at its centre for I believe that God’s word is clear, that is that we are all able to read and understand God’s word for ourselves. I made the mistake in planning for this talk to read some commentaries. I’m not against commentaries, but I do think they sometimes muddy the waters. One started this section we are looking at saying:
Romans 5:12-21 is one the most difficult and controversial passages to interpret in all of Pauline literature.[1]Now I went to a public school near Campbelltown, and I thought today’s passage is clear. I thought verse 19 is the key point of this whole passage. This says:
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.In this passage, we have two people Adam and Jesus, and by their one action, it has affected all people. This passage has a whole bunch of contrasting ideas and we may get muddled in them.
But before we do I am going to pray and ask God to help us understand this text and to wrestle with the deep truths it is showing. Because this section is for you, no exception. This passage deals with all people, for all time, which includes you and includes me. And this passage has eternal consequences for everyone.
Thank you, Father, for making yourself known to us, showing us the way of salvation through faith in your Son. We ask you now to teach us through your word, so that we may be ready to serve you, for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen[2].
Choices
In 1992 Francis Fukuyama wrote a book called the End of History[3]. This cause lots of discussion in various academic circles and was talked about for years. He said that history is marked by a succession of great ideas that cultures buys into. Society will be going one way and then there will be a great idea and this will change everything, and then society will then go in that direction. Fukuyama said in 1992 we have reached the last great idea. We have made it, there will be no more great ideas from now. We have evolved. We have arrived. And so everyone wants to know, what is this last great idea that we have discovered? His answer is Western Liberal Democracy[4].Now don’t get me wrong, I love that we are a democratic nation. And while we as Canberrans may argue the finer points of the Hare-Clark system, in general, having a democracy means we can collectively all choose our leader and representative. That the person at the top, regardless if we personally like them or not, was put there by people’s votes, and not because of who their parents were, or who had the biggest army. In this country, we all get to have a say as to who we want to be our representative (who in turn pick our leader).
So when someone from our culture come to a text like this, we may feel like it is a bit unfair. For in this text we have two representatives for everyone and we did not get to choose either of them. And because of these two representatives and their actions it has affected everyone on this entire planet.
Today we are going to look at both these representatives, their actions and see what this means for us.
For those who want a breakup it is:
The sin of AdamThe gift of JesusYour choice
The Sin of Adam
In this passage, Paul puts people into two and only two families[5]. There are those who are in Adam and those who are in Christ.Paul kinda gets sidetracked in his argument in verses 13 and 14 and goes on a bit about Adam before resuming his main argument in verse 15.
This may sound harsh, but everyone dies because Adam brought sin into this world. You, your mum, everyone you love and everyone you don’t, are all going to die and this is because of Adam’s disobedience.
David says in Psalm 51
Surely I was sinful at birth,You may think this unfair. Why do people die because of Adam’s sin? I didn’t choose him as my representative, this seems unfair. However, we need to remember that it was God who elected Adam as our representative. What would have been a better system? Would Scott Morrison be a better representative for us? Representative government doesn’t seem to be doing so great in America, I mean just look at the last two guys who have been in charge.
sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (Ps 51:5)
Could you have chosen better than God? And, God didn’t just choose Adam He made Him to be our representative[6].
What are your thoughts about God and His character and wisdom? Do you know a better elector than God who could choose someone as your representative? God made Adam with the ability not to sin, but once Adam did sin all humanity inherited the state of not being able to not sin[7]. Because of Adam’s sin it has condemned everyone.
And this is how life works. When you think a little deeper about our circumstances and our choices, how much of it are we really in control? Did you choose your job, or did your boss employ you? I never wanted to live in Canberra. I mean it's winter now, who chooses this? I wanted to work in Sydney. When I finished uni I applied for about 100 jobs in Sydney, and no one would hire me. That wasn’t my choice.
You didn’t choose your family, location of birth, what school you went to when you were young. Our family, upbringing, culture, crisis of circumstances all shape us dramatically and we had no say in that.
Just look back along the timeline of your own life and your parents and grandparents. Just two generations of choices have been made that affect you now. How many of your parents or grandparents chose to move for a job, or got caught up in a war, or accidentally met their partner, all to end up with you. And you had no say over any that.
Just going back 60 years in my family history there were a whole bunch of decisions that I was not in control of.
World War 2 happened. Malta had been bombed by the Germans and Australia wanted a cheap labour force. Under the White Australian Policy, my Dad came out here on a boat when he was a kid. He didn’t even have much say over that and I definitely didn’t, and yet these choices have affected me.
In life, we inherit a whole bunch of circumstances and traits and behaviours from our ancestors, and Paul says this goes right back to the top. We are all part of the one family. And what overwhelming traits does this family have? Disobedience, disconnection and death. That is how you know if you are in Adam. Because of Adam’s disobedience, death now rules. Because of Adam’s sin he and everyone else is disconnected from God.
And the extent of sin is self-evident, although some really try hard to not believe it. I have asked people who say they think the man of the street is essentially good - if they have locked their car. For in locking your car you are literally saying you do not trust the man on the street.
A hundred years ago some theologians were denying original sin, of which G. K. Chesterton says:
Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved… they essentially deny human sin, which they can see in the street.[8]He goes on to say that if you see someone who enjoys skinning a cat, the atheist says this proves his denial of God, the Christian says this shows man lack of union with Christ but these new theologians think a highly rational solution is to deny the cat.
Sin is everywhere, we all have this family trait for we are all ruled by death. It is in our nature. If you don’t think Adam’s actions affect you then try this: be good and don’t die[9].
But because of God’s grace and free gift to humanity, there is another representative who again we did not choose. If we are upset about the unfairness of Adam as our representative, to be consistent, we should be upset about the unfairness of Jesus as our representative. Both were chosen by God and not us.
So again, what does this say about God and His character and wisdom? God the Father provided Jesus who was the perfect man, who was provided as a gift, for us, to recuse us from our disobedience, disconnection and death.
Yes we are affected by Adam, but we can also be affected by the gift of Jesus.
The Gift of Jesus
Both Adam and Jesus are similar in that we see how one man’s actions affect many other people. Adam’s disobedience has sent out a ripple effect throughout all of history and we too have been displaced by his waves. However, the gift of Jesus has also sent out its own waves, but so much greater. Jesus does not just cancel out what Adam has done. Jesus doesn’t just flatten the water to be still, Jesus has completely overpowered and wiped out Adam’s effect. He is like a tsunami against a small splash in a pond.
Notice in this passage how much more Jesus, the gift is better than Adam. Adam can not be compared to the abundant provisions of grace we have in Jesus. We will just step through verses 15, 16 and 17 we see the great overflow, the result and the reign of this gift over sin[10].
Overflow
In Verse 15 we see a little of the model or framework of how this representative argument works.But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! (Rom 5:15)
Adam’s action of sin means that many die, but the grace of Jesus overflows to the many.
What family are you in? Who is at the top of your family tree? The one with the Adam at the top glass, or the one with Jesus as the top glass?
Result
In verse 16 we see the result of both Adam and Jesus’ actions.Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. (Rom 5:16)Adam brought condemnation, Jesus brings justification. Adam broke God’s command to not eat from that one tree, and in breaking this rule, he was a lawbreaker and stood condemned before the lawmaker.
If you seal something, you are a robber or a thief. If you kill someone you are a murderer. If you tell a lie you are a liar. And in breaking these rules or law there is a punishment. A judgment. If someone does these things they should be found guilty. The opposite to this is to being found innocent, to be found in the right. And in Jesus we see that He comes to make us right, for us to appear justified and not condemned before God. This is a much harder task for Jesus to pull off, as the truth is, we should be condemned. We have all fallen short of God’s standards and broken his rules. But because of the gift of Jesus is that He deals with our many sins and makes us justified before God. Adam’s actions brings condemnation, Jesus actions brings justification.
Which family are you in? The condemned one or the justified one? Are you anxiously preparing your defence for when you go to meet the judge? Are you anxiously already trying to put in your community service hours thinking that will offset your coming punishment? Or are you fine, sleeping easy, knowing you are innocent, knowing that someone has already argued your case, and paid your debt for you?
Do you have anxiety or peace based on who your representative is?
Reign
Verse 17 continues with the effect of sin.For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! (Rom 5:17)The result of sin is condemnation and death, the result of God’s grace is justification and life. We see that under Adam he brought in death to rule over us. But under Jesus, He made us right and brought in life to rule over us.
They say the top two fears people have is public speaking and then death. Death is a great enemy that rules over us all. We take vaccines to be saved from death, we put on seatbelts, we look both ways before crossing the road because we do not want to die. Death tells us there is an end, a finality to who we are, so we try and consume and enjoy ourselves for this brief time before this ruler of death comes to us.
But not so with the Christian. Because of Jesus, who defeated death and rose again, we have an assurance that death is not the final enemy for us. Instead, we have life. Life now and everlasting life later. This is the free gift given to us in Jesus. We have no fear of death, and we have hope for the future. We can have joy even in suffering. We have peace with God and each other. We are no longer disconnected from God, no longer His enemy by now we are adopted into His family. This is an identity shifting. This changes us.
And Paul summarises this again in verses 18 and 19
Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Rom 5:18-19)As one act of sin resulted in condemnation for all, so Jesus’ right act resulted in justification and life for all people. Through the disobedience of one person, all were made sinners, through the obedience of one person many were made right with God.
Universalism
Now, as an aside, verse 18 has been used to argue for universalism[11]. That is, to say that everyone goes to heaven because the passage says Jesus’ act affected “all people”. It’s what it says.But if you have read a bit more of your Bible you might feel a bit of tension with this idea. And like most ideas that kinda feel a bit off Biblically, this position can easily be debunked by reading the bits before and after it.
A classic bad example of this what Rob Bell did in his book Love Wins[12]. He does this a few times, but I’ll just focus on one example.
Bell looks at the vision in Revelations 21 with the new city. This is the vision of the new heaven and earth. With this new city, the gates are never shut, which means that people can come and enter as they please. Rob Bell asked these questions about the gates:
Can God bring proper, lasting justice, banishing certain actions—and the people who do them—from the new creation while at the same time allowing and waiting and hoping for the possibility of the reconciliation of those very same people? Keeping the gates, in essence, open? Will everyone eventually be reconciled to God or will there be those who cling to their version of their story, insisting on their right to be their own little god ruling their own little miserable kingdom?These are nice questions. Bell hopes that even after death, some will let go of their own version of their story and repent and turn back and come into the city with the open gates. But Bell has forgotten that Revelation 20 comes before Revelation 21. He just had to read the previous chapter where people are judged and some are thrown into the lake of fire. Only after that is the vision of the city with the gates that are never shut appears. The city comes after the judgement, after the sifting and the sorting.
In our passage with verse 18 we just need to read verse 15 or 17 or 19. Twice in this section, Paul has said that Jesus’ actions were for the “the many” (Rom 5:15, 19) and in verse 17 all who enjoy the effects of Jesus actions are “those who receive” Him. Just cast your mind back to Romans 1-3 Paul makes it abundantly clear that he is not a Universalist, except to say, that all people apart from Jesus are universally condemned before God. The scope of “all” in both parts of verse 18 is “distinguished in the context”[13]. He was merely showing the type or model or framework of how one person’s actions affect many in both Adam and Jesus, and I think Paul clarifies this point further in verse 19.
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous.
Your choice
Paul wraps this section up by repeating again how much better Jesus is. When the law was introduced, there were more lawbreakers. There was more sin, but Jesus’ grace increased all the more over those many sins. The gift of Jesus is better. Death’s reigned come from Adam; but in Jesus, grace reigns. Those in Jesus are right with God and have eternal life.Gospel
This passage is all about the Good News of Christianity. In Christian circles, we talk about “the Gospel” and may not really know what that means. We have just recently surveyed a whole bunch of you to see if you can say the Gospel. I don’t know the results for the church, but when we surveyed the youth, about half, 24 of 48 teens said the Gospel has something to do with Jesus, sin, the cross and His resurrection. Is that good or bad? Are you a half full or half empty person? Half our teens know the Gospel, this is great. Half our teens don’t know the Gospel. We have some work to do. What would you say the Gospel is?There are many ways to say the Gospel message and here in this passage we see the simple message that in Adam all die, but all those in Jesus will live[14]. God considers people to be part of one of two families. Those in Adam are under condemnation and death and those in Jesus are considered right with God and have life.
In our circles, we like to say that we aren’t saved by works, but I think verse 19 say the opposite. We are saved by works, it just not our own works. Because of Adam’s disobedience, we are all made sinners, but because of Jesus’ work, because of His obedience, many are right with God.
You are not in this passage today. This passage is all about Adam’s actions and Jesus’ actions the effect that has on us. The Gospel is that we can be made right before God, not because of anything we can do, but because of what Jesus can do. Jesus’ actions have undone Adam’s actions. Nowhere in this passage is us, except to notice that Jesus is a gift, that we need to accept or receive.
Choose
Francis Fukuyama was wrong. Western Liberal Democracy isn’t the bee’s knees. There is something so much better when the real End of History comes.Jesus is going to come back and judge the world, and we are either going to be found in Adam or in Jesus. Either we will stand condemned, or if we take God’s gift, we will be seen to be right before God.
There are many things that have affected us in this life which we did not choose. But there is a free gift we can take. We can be a product of our choices, and we have the freedom to choose[15].
Jesus is so much better. Choose life with Him because otherwise, it is death with Adam.
For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Cor 15:21-22)
Heavenly Father, thank you for your gift of Jesus who has overcome the effects of sin. We thank you that because of his obedience we can be seen as right and have eternal life with you. May our choices be evident to others, help us to live and speak for you in whatever we do. Amen.
[1] Thomas R Schreiner (1998), Romans (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament)
[2] Sunday Service, prayer book
[3] I remember first hearing about this from a Tony Campolo talk when I was probably in high school
[4] The End of History and the Last Man
[5] I got this family language from The world divided (The second 321 video)
[6] Timothy Keller (2014), Romans 1-7 for You
[7] This is an Augustine idea, I took from R. C. Sproul (2009), Romans (St. Andrew's Expository Commentary)
[8] Orthodoxy
[9] I think this is something Mark Driscoll had said
[10] John McArthur (2016), Through Christ, Life sees five comparisons: effectiveness, extent (covers many sins), efficacy (brings life, not death), essence (obedience not disobedience) and energy (or power in that the law couldn’t stop it)
[11] This may seem like I dwelled too much and too hard on this topic for this passage, but it had come out of a few personal conversations I have had in the previous weeks.
[12] I wasn’t a fan of this book, this bit I took from my book review on this blog
[13] Pretorius, M. (2006). Justification as it relates to Adam and Christ within the new covenant. Conspectus, 43-64., p. 53
[14] Cutting to saying and explain the Gospel and then moving to a choice was something John Piper (2007) did, more in the audio/video than in the text, The Fatal Disobedience of Adam and the Triumphant Obedience of Christ
[15] Someone did question me afterwards on how I stressed this choice. Paul in Romans 10 asks how will people believe in Good News if no one tells them? And yet in Romans 8 Paul also is comfortable in saying that those who believe were foreknown and predestined. I take this to mean that people need to hear the Good News so they can choose to believe it when they are told it. I also think that God uses the normal speaking of the Good News as a means to save the people who He foreknew and predestined.
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