with me to the book of Romans. Today we are beginning
a look at the last half of the chapter, a chapter
that deals with our justification, first its
blessings and now its basis. How is it that the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ could be for all
men? Why is it that he does not have to die for
each person individually? The answer to that
question is found in these verses that we're
going to read today. We're going to focus on
verse 12, but to set the stage for it, let me
read verses 12 through 21. You follow along,
please, in your copy of the Word of God. Therefore,
justice through one man, sin entered into the
world, and death through sin. So death spread
to all men, because all sinned. For until the
law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed
where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned
from Adam until Moses, even over those who had
not sinned in the likeness of Adam's offense,
who is a type of him who was to come. But the
free gift is not like the transgression. For
if by the transgression of the one the many died,
much more did the grace of God and the gift by
the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound
to the many. And the gift is not like that which
came through the one who sinned. For on the one
hand, the judgment arose from one transgression
resulting in condemnation. But on the other hand,
the free gift arose from many transgressions,
resulting in justification. For if by the transgression
of the one death reigned through the one, much
more those who receive the abundance of grace
and the gift of righteousness will reign in life
through the one Jesus Christ. So then, as through
one transgression there resulted condemnation
to all men, Even so, through one act of righteousness,
there resulted justification of life to all men.
For as through the one man's disobedience the
many were made sinners, even so through the obedience
of the one the many would be made righteous.
And the law came in that the transgression might
increase. But where sin increased, grace abounded
all the more. That as sin reigned in death, even
so grace might reign through righteousness to
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The
purpose of these verses that we've read is to
show the solidarity of the human race, to contrast
the first Adam with Jesus Christ, who is called
elsewhere in the New Testament the last Adam.
to reveal that through Adam's sin, we all sinned.
And that through Christ's obedient sacrifice
at Calvary, all are potentially made righteous.
Verse 12 says, just as through one man sin entered
into the world, who is that one man? Adam, right.
and death through sin, so death spread to all
men because all sinned in Adam. Those last two
words I inserted because that's the meaning of
it. All sinned in Adam. The argument of this
paragraph rests upon an important principle.
It is the principle of headship. What that means
is that Adam, by virtue of his creation, was
the head of the human race. He was the first
man, and when he sinned, all of us who have descended
from him sinned in him. We were literally in
his body when he sinned. Now the theological
significance of our text is destroyed if it could
be proved that Adam was not a literal man, the
special creation of God. It is popular in some
circles these days to think of Adam as a myth
or legend, or as only a symbol that should be
interpreted allegorically to see the moral behind
Adam. If that be the case, then the principle
of his representing all men in his sin is undermined.
And this passage of the word of God is nonsense.
Therefore, before we get to the real thrust of
what Paul is saying in these verses 12 through
21, I'd like for us to consider today what the
Bible says about the historicity of Adam. That
is, he was a historical figure. That he literally
was created, he lived, and he died. This deals
with the matter of origins and creation. And
I recognize that there are those who feel that
that is a subject for scientists and not theologians.
However, I agree with the logic of Dr. Alfred
Rawinkle, a Lutheran theologian. As he writes
in his preface to the book The Wonders of Creation,
a magnificent book, he says, All who examine
the work of creation in this manner of necessity
must enter the field which the scientist commonly
claims for his own exclusive domain. And because
of that, for many this will eliminate me as competent
to discuss this subject. I am a theologian and
not a professional scientist, and for many it
is taken for granted that what a theologian,
and especially a fundamental theologian, has
to say on this subject is inconsequential. Dr.
Ray Winkle goes on to say, In reply to these
objections, I would like to say that the problem
concerning the origin of the universe is beyond
the possibility of human observation and experimentation.
and therefore outside the scope of science. This
knowledge can be attained only through revelation
and accepted by faith. The question of creation
is therefore a question of theology and not of
science. Our society today has been mesmerized.
The intellectual establishment has been led like
a blind animal with a ring in its nose by pseudoscientists,
who claim that evolution is a proven fact. This
hypnosis has affected philosophers, scientists,
educators, and theologians by the thousands,
who have adopted this unproven, unscientific
theory as a basis for their thinking, writing,
and teaching. A few of them have attempted a
compromise with the Bible by conjuring up a concept
called theistic evolution, which says, in essence,
though it takes a number of forms, that God is
the originator, God is the creator, but he chose
to produce man by the process of evolution. While
intellectually tempting to some, it is theological
suicide to accept that, and it destroys the authority
and trustworthiness of God and the Bible. Those
are some broad statements. But I affirm to you
that if evolution is true, and if Adam was not
in fact a special creation and the first man,
representing all mankind, And the passage that
we're going to study in the next week or so is
absolutely without meaning. My basic proposition
is that God created man in his own image. If
you will take the outline from your worship folder,
you'll find that statement broken down into three
parts. The God created. God created man. And
God created man in his image. Let's think about
the first part of that statement, that God created,
and to do that, I'd like for you to turn with
me to Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. The Bible begins
with a simple yet profound statement that simply
says, in the beginning, God created the heavens
and the earth. There is no argument for the existence
of God that is merely assumed. And it says that
in that which characterized the beginning, that
God created the heavens and the earth. There
are three gaps which no evolutionist has ever
bridged, or will be able to bridge. The first
gap is the gap between nothing and something.
It's the problem of origins. The theory of evolution
cannot bridge that gap as to where something
began. The origin of matter. A second gap that
an evolutionist cannot bridge is that between
inanimate matter and living matter. That is the
mystery of life. The spark of life, where did
it come from? And how do we explain by that theory,
or by any theory, how life began? A third gap
is that of the one that exists between animals
and man. The third evolution has not been able
to bridge that gap. It involves the uniqueness
of man. He is different than animals. And though
there are animals that are intelligent, and there
are animals that have a structure similar to
that of mankind's, there is a wide gap. that
exists between the animal kingdom and mankind.
And that gap has not been bridged by the theory
of evolution. It's fun to look at the pictures
that somebody thought up that supposedly bridges
the gap, but we must remember that those pictures
are just the imagination of a man. Those structures,
in fossil form or any other form, have never
been discovered. You would almost think that
a cave had been discovered somewhere. Some guy
a long time ago drew all those pictures so that
we today would know how everybody looked back
in those days. It was simply the imagination
of an artist constructing what the theory of
evolution thinks is the bridge between man and
animal. That's never been proven scientifically.
The Bible, however, clearly and simply bridges
all three of these gaps. It does not do it in
a scientific way. It simply makes statements
of revelation. One must accept what the Bible
says by faith, just as one must accept the theory
of evolution by faith. The scientific evidence
can be used to prove, quote, unquote, both theories.
I am convinced, as a creationist, that the evidence
clearly points toward the fact, I will call it,
of creation. But that's not our main subject
today. If you're interested in that subject,
I would encourage you to get a tape that we have
available in our bookstore on the matter of creation,
which was delivered here this last summer by
Ron Carlson. And you will be, I think, impressed
with the details that this 20th century apologist
for the Christian faith brings to bear upon this
subject. But let me just show you. quickly how
the Bible bridges these three gaps that have
not been bridged by the theory of evolution.
What about the gap between nothing and matter?
Well, the Bible simply says that God spoke and
matter suddenly existed. And as Hebrews 11 .3
says, we take that by faith. The Hebrew word
for create In Genesis chapter 1 is a word that
means to create something out of nothing. There
are other words for create that have to do with
taking what exists and reforming it. But God
clearly says, it could not be more clear, that
in the beginning he created the heavens and the
earth out of nothing. And he explains later here
that it was accomplished by the act of his will.
What about the bridge between inanimate, non
-living matter and that matter which lives? Well,
again, in this chapter, Genesis chapter 1, we
have that bridge crossed. God spoke and that
which is alive came to be in verse 20. God said,
Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures
and let birds fly above the earth in the open
expanse of the heavens. And God created the great
sea monsters and every living creature that moves,
with which the waters swarmed after their kind,
and every winged bird after its kind. And God
saw that it was good and blessed them, saying,
Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters
of the seas. And let the birds multiply on the
earth. And on that fifth day, God bridged that
gap between that which did not live and that
which is said to be animate. And then the third
gap, that between the animal kingdom and humankind.
Again, Genesis chapter 1 bridges that gap. In
verse 26, God said, Let us make man in our image
according to our likeness. And let them rule
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of
the sky and over the cattle and over all the
earth and over every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth. And God created man in his own
image. In the image of God, he created him. Male
and female, he created them. So how is that gap
bridged between the animals and man? special
act of God fashioning man in his image. Now,
when did this occur? That's not a matter primarily
related to what we're talking about today. There
are equally godly men on different positions
regarding the timing of all of this. I would
simply say that there is no reason that I have
discovered in my reading to think that it has
to be more than a few thousand years ago. In
fact, it seems to me that those arguments that
are positioning themselves for long ages are
based upon man's observations and conclusions
out of attempt to compromise with scientific
theories. And we must remember that man's observations
and conclusions are limited. by his finite intellect.
And therefore we need not worry about compromising
the eternal and changing word of God with what
man thinks at any given point. Is this an obscurantist
position? Is this fundamentalist ignorance? Is
this intellectual suicide, as some people say?
I would affirm to you that everything that I've
said thus far in the message is compatible with
the true scientific facts that we have. It must
be admitted that as one approaches the facts,
whatever his position, he approaches it with
bias. The facts that we have point well to the
theory or the fact of creation that God created.
But let me pass from that to a more specific
subject, that God created man. In Genesis chapter
2 and verse 7, it says, Then the Lord God formed
man of dust from the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, and man became
a living being. There are those who say, oh,
you're a creationist. Well, which account do
you believe? The account in chapter 1 or the
account in chapter 2? And my response to that
is yes. I believe both accounts because, in fact,
what we have here are supplemental accounts.
In chapter 1, there is the broad stroke of what
God did. In chapter 2, he goes back to fill in
the details. Chapter 2 very simply supplements
what is said in chapter 1. There is no contradiction
between the two, as some scholars seem to suppose.
Furthermore, the language here clearly indicates
that Adam was not the result of a long process
of upward progression in the species. He is not
the result of natural selection or the survival
of the fittest. but rather it simply states that
he was made by a special act of creation. God
took simple elements of his creation. He calls
it dust. And out of those simple elements, he
fashioned a body. And then God breathed into
the nostrils of that body. The breath of life,
and it says man became a living being. God did
not do that with any of the animals. He spoke
and they simply were. But man is distinct. He
is unique. God breathed into man his own breath
or spirit, same Hebrew word, of life. God created
man. And let's complete the sentence by saying
God created man in his image, his own image.
That doesn't mean that God has a body and he
looks like you and me. What it means is that
just as God is a triunity, so man is a trinity.
He is a tripart being of body, soul, and spirit.
The body is his world conscious part. By which
he relates to his environment. And he has senses
that God has built into the healthy body of sight
and taste and touch and so on. So he can relate
to the world around him. The soul is his self
-conscious aspect. It's that part of us that
is aware of what's going on. The intellect. The
will. The emotions. The ego. And the spirit is
that God -conscious part of man by which man
is able to relate to the personal creator and
worship him. That's part of what it means, at
least, when it says that man is created in God's
image. A tree is not created in God's image.
Created by God, but not in God's image. It has
a body. But it doesn't have a soul or spirit.
A dog is created by God, but a dog isn't created
in God's image. A dog has a body. And the Bible
says it has a soul. That is, it has a certain
sense of its own existence. A dog can learn tricks
and unlearn them. It can obey and disobey. But
all of that is built into its soulish part. An
animal dies. The body is still there, but the
animal is dead. Part of the animal is gone. That's
its soulish aspect. Man, however, has a body,
a soul, on a higher plane than even an animal,
and a spirit. the very core of his being. When
a man dies, his body is left. That's the material
part. But the immaterial, the soul and the spirit,
which are mysteriously united, by which the Bible
does distinguish, that immaterial part of him
leaves the body. That's what death is. I had
a funeral Friday. And as some of the folks came
in, they said, that doesn't look like him. I've
rarely heard anybody say it does look like the
one we knew. And why is that? Because when the
immaterial part leaves the body, it changes in
its appearance even a little bit, because life
is no longer there. It's the same body, but something
is missing, and that something is the soul, spirit,
the immaterial part. Man is not a spirit because
he has a body, but he has a part of him that
is spiritual. Adam, the first man and the representative
of all of us, was created body, soul, and spirit
like God, and he was innocent. He was given authority
to reign over God's creation, as verse 28 of
Genesis 1 says, God blessed them. And God said
to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
earth and subdue it and rule. God wanted man
to rule and to reign over his creation. Man was
set up with a kingdom to reign over. He was the
masterpiece of God's earthly creation. This basic
proposition that Adam existed, that he was body,
soul, and spirit, that he was a special, created
being of God is not an option for us to believe.
It is essential and basic, I submit, to the Christian
message. Let me give you three things that it's
essential to. The historicity of Adam, that he
actually lived was created and lived and died,
as God has said in Genesis 1 and 2 and 3, is
essential, number one, to the humanity of Jesus
Christ. Now those who doubt the historicity of
Adam may not be thinking clearly regarding the
ramifications of that teaching. Because you see,
it touches the very humanity of Jesus Christ.
Let me prove that by turning you to Luke chapter
3. We have Luke's genealogical record of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In his genealogy, Luke traces
the Lord Jesus' genealogy through Mary, most
Bible scholars seem to believe. through the ancestry
all the way back to Adam, verse 38. We're going
to skip all those long lists of names and go
to verse 38, the conclusion of the list, and
he says, the son of Enoch, the son of Seth, the
son of Adam, the son of God. You see, the humanity
of our Lord Jesus Christ is traced back through
history to Adam. If Adam is a myth, or just a
symbol to be interpreted allegorically, then
how does that relate to the actual humanity of
Jesus Christ? If Adam is a myth, then what does
that make Jesus? Related to a myth? Or is the
Bible not accurate when it says what it says
in Luke 3 .38? You see, whether Adam lived or
not touches the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
One cannot doubt that Adam lived without in some
way having to deal then with whether Jesus really
lived and was he really human. Or is the Bible
erroneous? And then this aspect or this fact
rather of the historicity of Adam relates also
to the honesty. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew
chapter 19 deals with the sticky subject of divorce.
I'm going to select just one verse out of the
context without doing damage to it, just to show
you one of Jesus' statements as he teaches about
divorce. In Matthew 19 verse 4, in response to
some Pharisees who were testing him, He answered
and said, Have you not read that he who created
them from the beginning made them male and female?
What is Jesus saying here? He is saying that
the creation took place and that God created
them male and female. In other words, he is underscoring
the accuracy of the account of Genesis. It is
interesting that the Lord Jesus Christ went out
of his way to underscore and affirm the actual
historical veracity of most of those things that
modern -day scholars doubt. The historicity of
Adam, the fall of man into sin, the worldwide
flood, the scattering of the nations, the Tower
of Babel. Jonah and his experience. The Lord
Jesus Christ went out of his way to affirm that
these things were true. So when a person begins
to doubt those things, he is placing doubt concerning
the honesty and the truthfulness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Jesus said, haven't you read that
in the beginning God created them, male and female?
And this fact of the historicity of Adam also
affects the accuracy of other New Testament writers.
The Apostle Paul, for example, in Romans 5, makes
no sense whatsoever if Adam did not live. How
can we relate Adam as the head of the human race
if in fact he's a symbol or myth? Paul is ridiculous
in that point if Adam did not live. Let me show
you another passage where Paul relates to Adam.
And the passage is based upon what he says concerning
Adam and Eve in 1 Timothy chapter 2. Some of
you love this text. He deals here with the public
worship of the church and particularly to the
role of men and women. in relation to the public
assembly of the believers. Is this just to be
culturally written out of the Word of God? Absolutely
not. There are things in the New Testament that
are cultural, but always, listen, always below
that there is a basic principle that does not
change with the change of cultures. And we see
that, for example, right here. He's talking about
the men are to pray, lifting up their holy hands,
pure motives. He talks about women being modest
in their dress, in their appearance, that they're
to receive instruction with submissiveness, not
to allow women to teach or exercise authority
over men, but to remain quiet. He's talking here
about the public assembly of the church. There
are people who take these things out of context.
and extremes in both directions. It's not my
purpose to talk about that specifically today,
but to simply show you that he's saying some
things here to the church, and then he says the
reason for it in verse 13. For it was Adam who
was first created, and then Eve. And so he's
saying the reason I give you these instructions
is because Adam was first created and then Eve.
And that's why you should do these things. Now,
is Paul inaccurate in saying that Adam was created
and then Eve? Then why should we obey his commands
here? You see how it begins to crumble and fall
apart once we begin to doubt something like this
in the Word of God? God created man in his own
image. To deny that and to deny the historicity
of Adam is to impugn the integrity of the Bible
and the God of the Bible. It is a very serious
step away from orthodox Christianity. And I don't
care where one might hear it, in the classroom
or in the pulpit or in a personal conversation.
It is nonetheless a small, but perhaps not so
small, first step toward false teaching. Now
let's go back to Romans chapter 5 and look at
verse 12 again. And with the background that
we've tried to paint, let's see what the apostle
says. Therefore, just as through one man sin
entered into the world, and death through sin,
so death spread to all men, because all sinned.
And again I say, it means all sinned in Adam.
Now what happened to Adam and to us? What is
this talk here about sin? You will recall that
God established a test for man's faith, dependence,
and obedience. God said, you may eat of all of
the trees of the garden, but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat
of it, lest you surely die. You see, God wanted
man to know good and evil by revelation and by
faith, not by personal experience. You know the
record. Eve was deceived, but Adam chose in rebellion
to eat the fruit. That test, that tree, its fruit
symbolized man's creaturehood and his dependence
upon God. Man rejected that when he ate of the
fruit. And when God said, you shall surely die,
he reiterated when he said to Adam, you are made
of dust, and to dust you shall return. And then
in Genesis chapter 5, you have the record. Adam
lived so many years, and he begot Seth, and he
lived so many other years, and he died. And then
Seth's record. He lived so many years, he begot,
he lived, and he died. And you trace it right
through Genesis chapter 5, which some people
call the Bible's obituary. And time after time
it says he died. He died. He died. Why? Because
of Adam's sin. Listen to this. People die not
because of personal sin, but because of Adam's
sin. That is what is said here. That's part of
the argument and we'll get to it more fully next
week. Why do babies die? What sin has a baby
committed that he should die? A baby is innocent
of transgression, of breaking the law. Unable
to comprehend it. And yet babies die. Why? Because
of Adam's sin. Death is passed down from generation
to generation because of what Adam did. Not in
his second act of disobedience, or his fifth,
or his tenth, but because of that first act of
disobedience. In declaring his independence from
God. Why is it that mentally, Handicapped people
die because of Adam's sin. And you say, well,
that dirty guy, Adam. And you begin to blame
it all on him. But folks, let me tell you something.
If every one of us was put into the Garden of
Eden and given the same test, every one of us
would make the same choice that Adam did. Sin
is a condition. It is also a choice. People act
sinfully because they are sinners. If a man were
only an evolved animal, then he could not be
held morally responsible or accountable for his
sin. Animals are not held accountable to God
because they disobeyed. Mankind is. Every man
is. Death passed upon all men, for all have sinned
in Adam. Today, if you've never trusted Jesus
Christ as your Savior, you are still in death
and in Adam. Your need is to be born out of that
family by the new birth, by trusting Jesus Christ
and being born into the family of God. eternal
life. Has that happened to you? You say, well,
I'm working toward it. Then I feel sorry for
you because you'll never get there if you're
working for it. If you've been with us very long
in Romans, you know that it's not by works that
we're saved, but it's by God's grace alone. All
we can do is reach out and by faith receive God's
gift of righteousness and eternal life. which
he's provided for us through Jesus Christ's death
and resurrection. You see, Jesus Christ was preserved
from Adam's sin. That's why the virgin birth
of the Lord Jesus Christ is so doctrinally fundamental
and essential. He did not inherit sin from Adam
because there was no male seed as a part of his
conception. And the Holy Spirit, Protected. That
embryo. Within Mary's womb. So that Mary's sin.
Was not passed on. To Christ. When he was born
he was called that holy one. And he was. No sin.
Fully human. But without sin. And it was as a
man. and as God, that he went to the cross and
died in your place and mine, and provided for
us to be saved from our sin and our death. If
you've never trusted him, I hope you'll do it
today. Most of us here, though, have done that,
I would think. I'd like to close with a couple
of applications that strike us as well as those
who may be here without Christ. Regarding sin,
First of all, sin bears tragic consequences.
Sin is a destroyer. Look at what it did to God's
creation, which again and again God saw it was
good. It's good. It's good. And God rested on
this seventh day because those six days of creation
were perfect. And yet sin entered into that creation
and destroyed it. Man who was created to reign
over his own kingdom lost his rule. He began
to die. Civilization began to fall apart as evil
took deeper and deeper root in man. Sin destroys.
It not only destroys in a historical sense, it
destroys still today in a personal sense. There
are some Christians who have the idea that they
can play around with sin and live in it and not
be hurt by it. How tragically wrong that is.
Sin destroys. It destroys your peace with God,
your peace of God. It destroys your joy. Sin
will rob you of your reward when you stand before
Christ. It will cause you to waste life. It will
cause you to miss life's most fulfilling moments
in the will of God. Sin destroys. And there are
some of you here today playing with it. You think
it's fun and it's pleasurable. And you are ignorant
of the fact that it's like a cancer. It's eating
away at your inner man. I pray, God, that you
will come to Jesus Christ in repentance and confession
today. So that that sin can be cleansed from
your life and forgiven and God can begin a healing
work to make you whole. Then a second lesson
that we learn from our text today is that sin
affects others. There's not a one of us who lives
to himself only. When we sin, we affect those
around us. We affect our roommates. our fellow
students, our families, our church, so that we're
not only destroying ourselves, we're destroying
people around us. Don't you think that that bitterness
and that anger that you harbor in your heart
is not dragging others down? You just honestly
look around you and see the deterioration in
others because of the kind of attitudes that
you're harboring within. Sin affects others.
I don't think this was ever more graphically
illustrated to me than in something that happened
several years ago. A young boy, I don't know
how old he was, but just a little tight, was
given up by his parents. They didn't want him
anymore. He was in the way, so they rejected
him. There was a family that brought him into
their home. and cared for him. And I'm sure they
did their best to try to raise him, but that
little boy never got over that rejection, that
terrible sin his parents committed against him
of not loving him. As he grew to be pre -teen
and early teen, he got involved in rock music
and in drugs. And finally, in the worship of
Satan. One evening he went into his room. He
turned on his psychedelic lights, turned up his
rock music, opened the Satanic Bible, which he
had a copy of, apparently read from it. Put a
shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
I was called for his funeral. I'd never met him
or the family before. They needed somebody. So
I went down, and there in the funeral home was
this 18 -year -old boy, senior in high school,
lying on a casket in death. wearing blue jeans
and a black leather jacket. Across his chest
and his hands was his guitar. There wasn't a
lot of hope in that situation. As people tried
to blame God, I had a good time blaming the devil
and sin for the whole mess. Then we got out to
the cemetery. And the casket was left there by
itself after the committal. I can still remember
that metallic blue casket. We were walking away
back to the cars, and suddenly out from the crowd
ran a woman. It was the mother that had rejected
him 15 or so years before. She ran to the casket,
put her arms around it, and beat on it, calling
out his name. And I thought to myself, dear lady,
don't you know that it's a few years too late.