Scripture: Topics: Romans Bible Study
Okay, you are at The Door tonight in Lobelville, Tennessee. We're going to be doing our study on the book of Romans. Once again, I am Michael Pearl.
The book of Romans is the most exciting book in the Bible to me. I guess I can quote most all of it. Maybe miss a little bit here and there, but I've taught it so many times. Never tried to memorize it, but it just comes to mind because the importance of the verses. This is episode eight.
Paul wrote the book of Romans in 57 or 58 AD from Corinth to the city of Rome.
The Bible is our guide. Not just anything that's called a Bible, but the King James authorized version, which is the word of God to English speaking people. The scripture says, "And from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation." And then it says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished under all good works." 1Timothy 3:15
Notice that he said thou hast known the holy scriptures, Paul speaking to Timothy. Then he says to Timothy, the holy scriptures that you've known were given by inspiration of God. So the child knew the holy scriptures. He did not have the originals. The scriptures that Timothy had had gone into Babylon and come back 400 years earlier with a different form of the Hebrew text. So it was a copy and, in a sense, a translation of the Hebrew text, but Paul called it holy scriptures and said that it was given by inspiration. All scripture, all that is called scripture. All that is in fact scripture is given by inspiration and the scripture he knew is given by inspiration. So Timothy had the inspired word of God and had heard it from his youth.
Now we also read, Jesus said unto them, "Did you never read in the scriptures?" Matthew 21:42 So he's talking to the Pharisees and rebuking them for their lack of knowledge, indicating that he thought they should have read the scriptures because they're available to them to read.
The Bible says "The words of the Lord are pure words is a silver tried and furnace of fire purified seven times. Thou shall keep them, oh, Lord, thou shall preserve them from this generation forever." Psalm 12:6-7 So the words of God have been purified seven times and are preserved from the moment that passage was written in about 1000 AD, 1000 BC to the present from generation forever.
Now we're talking about the fruit of justification by faith in Christ. That's what Romans chapter 5 is all about. It talks about the extent to which God has gone and is willing to go for those that he loves. We have those seven much mores and more overs in this chapter. We're going to see more of those tonight. Seven of them in all, okay. He talks about us being saved from the wrath by his blood. Then it says we'll be saved from sin and death by his life.
So the more overs are as such. Not only so, but we glory in tribulation, much more we shall be saved from wrath, much more saved by his life. Not only so we joy in God. Much more we receive the gift of grace. It abounds unto many. Much more we shall reign in life and more over grace succeeds, sin and reigns unto eternal life. Now we've covered those first three. We'll deal with the latter four tonight.
So we're continuing now in chapter five, verse 13. "For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law." Now, the reason he's making that point, that until the law sin was in the world, is because he's going to make the point in the next verses down that God did not impute that sin to them and their personal sin was not the reason they died.
So he says sin was in fact in the world from Adam to Moses, that's a 2,500 year span. Sin was in the world. Here, a few examples of that.
Genesis 4:7, "If thou doest well, shall thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at that door. And unto thee shall be his desire and thou shall rule over him." So he speaks of sin lying at the door of Cain.
Then in Genesis 6:5, he said, he "...saw the wickedness of man was great..." That every thought was only evil continually. So certainly there was sin in the world. Otherwise, God would not have destroyed it in the days of Noah. Nor would he have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So there was plenty of sin to go around.
Genesis 18:20 The Lord said, "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous."
Genesis 20:9, "Thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom, a great sin." This is what Abimilec said to Abraham who said, she's just my sister and almost caused the man Abimilec the king to take her to be his wife.
Genesis 31:36 "What is my trespass? What is my sin?" Jacob says to Laban. They understood sin very well with no law, no Bible, no precept. They understood it. We learned that in chapter one. Why?
Genesis 50:17 "So shall you saying to Joseph, forgive, I pray the now the trespass of thy brethren and their sin, for they did unto thee evil."
Now we come to the next phrase, "For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law." That is, we understood the word impute. We've already looked at that. That means to place it to one's account, to charge them with it, to reckon it to be theirs. It's a word that's used in accounting or in banking.
So he said the sin was there, but God didn't charge it to them. God didn't put it on their account. He didn't hold them responsible for that sin. In one respect, in one regard.
Romans chapter seven speaks of this. Paul said, "But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was dead." That is sin didn't have power to put him to death when there was no law. "For I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died." Romans 7:8-9So Paul, we're going to come to that later when we get to chapter seven, deal with it in more detail. Paul is just saying that as a child, as a young person who didn't know the law, did not understand what his duty was before God, that he was alive.He didn't have a sense of condemnation. He felt like he was all right before God. But when the commandment came and he started trying to be a good boy, then he realized he was a sinner. Then it caused him to die in his relationship with God.
Romans 2:11”There's no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law." So we're talking about sin not being imputed where there is no law. We studied that already when we were in chapter two.
Then Romans 4:15, we looked at this passage as well, "Because the law worketh wrath; for where no law is, there is no transgression." Now you could come onto someone's property and kill their squirrels in Tennessee, and it not be a transgression unless they had up a sign that says no hunting. Now in Texas, it's different. In Texas, you just don't go on someone else's property and shoot their squirrels. But in Tennessee, people just go anywhere and everywhere to hunt, unless someone warns them off and warns them not to. Once that sign goes up and you pass the boundary, then you become a transgressor, a trespasser. It's what we call posting it. When you post it, you put up a sign on a post that says, keep out, don't kill my squirrels. So when God put up a sign and says, thou shall not sin. Then when anyone did sin, they became a transgressor. Where there is no law, there's no transgression.
Romans 7:13, "But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful."
Now, we had a passage while ago, showing that sin was in the world. Look at this closely. "...that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." So it was in fact sin. In other words, it was a sin when Cain killed Abel. It was a sin in Sodom. It was a sin, even for Abraham, when he lied. Just a white lie, but he lied about his wife. It was a sin, but when the commandment came, then that sin became chargeable. At that point, it became exceeding sinful.
James 4:17 "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and do with it not, to him it is sin." So the passage is saying to us that a prerequisite for it being sin is that you are supposed to know that you shouldn't do it. Now, a parent that would spank a child for doing something he'd never been told not to do and that was not in spirit contrary to the rules in life of the family would be out of order. A child should understand what they've done wrong so that, when they do, they become trespassers before their disciplined for it.
John 15:22, "If I had not come..." Jesus said. "If I had not come and spoken under them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin." Notice the assumption there that there was sin there. No cloak for their sin. The assumption was that their sin was there, but it was cloaked until he came and spoke to them. When he spoke to them, he removed the cloak. So now they in fact have sin where previously they didn't. You say, how was that? Well, these guys he spoke to were keepers of the law. In other words, they didn't commit adultery, but Jesus said this to them. Not only are you not to commit adultery, but if you look on a woman to lust after her, you commit adultery where they're already in your heart. That turned a light on in their soul. Suddenly, now they're not only responsible for not committing adultery. They're also responsible for not lusting. They knew they weren't supposed to murder, but he tells them that they hate, then they also committed murder in their hearts. So this caused them to have no cloak for these shades of gray sin in their life. He stripped it away.
Genesis 4:15, "The Lord said unto him, therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a markup on Cain, lest any finding him should kill him." Have you ever wondered why Cain was not judged for his sin? I mean, Cain killed every living child on the face of the earth it seems like. Killed his brother. So here he was first born, kills the second born and committed an ugly murder. God didn't judge him for it. In fact, God defended him, not for what he did, but he said, if anybody messes with Cain, I'm going to put a mark on him. Then I'm going to bring judgment on them, seven times the judgment that they bring on Cain. So why would God exempt, the Bible calls it wink at, the sin of Cain? Because there were no laws that said, you shall not murder your brother. There was no understanding yet. That hadn't developed. Full consciousness hadn't developed. Cain was like a consciousness of a six or seven year old. He just wasn't responsible for his actions. So God exempted him from judgment. So sin is not imputed where there is no law. That won't be true later on when the conscience of man is fully developed through his philosophy and his religion, and ultimately the giving of the law.
If sin is not imputed where there is no law, you might ask, does that mean that those who have never heard the law are exempt from punishment for their sin? In other words, what about the people in India who've never heard the truth? If sin is not imputed where there's no law, wouldn't we be better off not to tell them because then many of them would become lost. Well, if you didn't have Romans chapter one and two, you might think that, but you remember what chapter one and two.
Each person is judged according to one's understanding of truth.
So truth does come to each individual sufficient to make them accountable. We dealt with that in chapter one and two. So it says in Romans 2:14-15 "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature of the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves. Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another."
You see, the indicator, the sign that a person in fact has law written in his heart is when he accuses someone else of wrongdoing. When he says you ought not do that, or when he excuses the actions of another person. Says, well, that's understandable. That's permissible. He is assuming some standard by which this individual's actions are being judged and he accuses or he excuses. That act of accusing and excusing is a sign that people understand right from wrong. Therefore, you become accountable in the degree that you know right from wrong. We dealt with that in chapter one and two.
Romans 1:18 again, "The wrath of God has revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth." So truth must be held in order for judgment to fall.
We come to verse 14. “Nevertheless” Now that nevertheless is bouncing off of verse 13, which said, "For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless..." Even though that's true, that sin is not imputed where there's no law, “Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses.” In other words, he seems to be raising the issue of how then did death reign if sin is not imputed where there's no law? Why did they die if God wasn't holding them accountable for their sin? Sin was in the world from Adam to Moses, but not imputed so as to incur the death penalty, which is going to be the context. Though there was 2,500 years from Adam to Moses, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses suggesting a source other than personal sin. He's preparing the groundwork to build his major argument. That groundwork requires you to understand that sin is not imputed where there's no law. So here's a problem. How then, and why then did those die during that 2,500 years if sin was not imputed to them. You see that? He's created that, and the answer to that is going to be significant.
So this death that rained for 2,500 years, we discussed that last week or last time, last message. Adam's death is physical, not spiritual. I'm going to point this out to you again, because this is so critical in Bible doctrine. This is one of the most universal misunderstood doctrines, the concept of spiritual death. There are even Christians who go so far as to teach that we don't have a human spirit anymore, that it died, and that until the holy spirit comes in, then we're not completely human yet. That's when the holy spirit comes in. Now we're back complete again. We have body, soul, and now we have a spirit again. So they teach that we live strictly on our soul. There's no division of soul and spirit. There's no such thing. Theology, we studied trichotomy dichotomy. There was all these discussions about which was true. Trichotomy, are we three parts, or dichotomy, are we two parts? Theology can get kind of screwy in the head, get you running around in circles.
Better to just say, what does the Bible teach? The Bible teaches clearly, if you take up and look up every time the word spirit appears, and every time the word soul appears, you'll find that animals and humans are souls and their spirits. There's no such thing as a dead spirit unless the person's dead. We'll see that in a passage of scripture in a moment.
Romans 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man's sin entered the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men." This passing of death, we looked at that about three lessons ago. This passing of death up on all men is physical death.
Romans 5:15"For if through the offense of one, many, be dead." That's the death that Adam incurred.
Romans 5:15 "For if by one man's offense death reigned by one. That as sin has reigned unto death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life." So what is the opposite of this reigning death? It's eternal life. There's nothing in here about death reigning. So we receive the spirit of God and come into a state of life. You never find a passage like that. That would be the formula you'd expect to find if that doctrine were true. You'd expect to find that the introduction of the holy spirit is essential to the restoration of spiritual life, but you don't find any such teaching, that death is physical. Unto eternal life is the counterpart to death.
Ephesians 2:5-6, "Even when we were dead in sins." This is the passage, most people will quote. "You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” As you see there, we were dead in sins. That means spiritually dead. I've heard that a thousand times, probably said it a few times in my early years. "For when we were dead in sins, had quickened us together with Christ." Now when was Christ quickened? At his resurrection. Quickened us together with Christ. We know from Roman six, we'll get into next week, that that is our experience, experiencing his resurrection to get new life. “Quickened together with Christ, by grace you are saved”, and has raised us up together.
Now, when was Christ raised up? At his ascension, his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. “Raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Now he speaks of all of these as past tense because we'll have to get into that more next week to explain it, but God sees us as having righteousness imputed into us as being perfectly righteous when we're not.
God sees us as dead to sin, when in our experience, we're not. God sees us as buried with Christ, raised with Christ, ascended with Christ, and now seated on the right hand of God. All those are past tense facts when we entered into the Lord, Jesus Christ. Won't go into that in any detail now. Next week. So this resurrection that he speaks of, that's a response to the death we incurred is a physical resurrection. We're dead in sins is cured by the resurrection, not receiving the spirit. The death incurred through Adam is cured by the coming of Christ, not the new birth. There's nothing in the Bible that indicates the death is eradicated by being born again.
In fact, 1 Corinthians 15:21-23, "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." So the cure for the death incurred in Adam is a resurrection. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ." What's the tense of that next word? Verb, “shall,” future tense. “All be made alive.” So the cure to the death being incurred in Adam is to be made alive. When? "But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming." So when is the death problem cured? At the second coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ when we get our glorified bodies. So no Christian is cured in practice of the death incurred in Adam. If that were the case, we wouldn't be dying, and we die. Why? Death is still reigning on this earth, but God sees it as not reigning at all. He sees us as having life reigning in us and us reigning in life.
1 Corinthians 15:25-26, "For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." So that means Satan will be destroyed first. Antichrist to be destroyed before death is. All the devils and demons will be destroyed. All lies, all hypocrisy, all evil and wickedness will be destroyed. There'll be one living enemy left, and that living enemy is death. And God will then put death to death. Now, how do you do that?
Revelation 20:14 says, “and death hell were casting the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Now you know we always look at that is the sinners experiencing a second death. He died the first time and went to the grave. He dies the second time and goes to hell. But I want you to look at another side of that. When death dies, that's the death of death. That's the second death. When death dies, that's the second death.
In Adam all died. We talked about this. Dead appears 319 times in the Bible. Die, many, many more. Not once does it speak of spiritual death. Look at these passages about the human spirit.
1 Chronicles 5:26 "The God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, King of Assyria and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser, King of Assyria, and he carried them away." Now notice the spirit of these heathen kings were stirred up. You'll find dozens of Old Testament passages, where God works in the spirit and through the spirit of heathen.
2 Chronicles 36:22 "Now in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia.”
Job 32:8 “But there is a spirit in man:" Not regenerated, man. Just man in general." And the inspiration of the almighty giveth them understanding.
Ezekiel 13:3 “Thus saith the Lord God, Woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing." So a foolish lying, false prophet follows his own spirit.
James 2:26 "For as the body without the spirit is dead." Here's the clincher. "So faith without works is dead also." As the body without the spirit is dead. You see, if you had a dead spirit, you'd have a dead body. You can't have a dead spirit in a live body. When the Spirit's dead, the man's dead, and it's the death of the body that puts the spirit to death.
Romans 5:13 -14 "For until the law sin was in the world, but sin not imputed. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him to come." Not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Now, what was his transgression? What is it we didn't sin in the same manner?
Here it is, Genesis 2:16. "And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden though mayest eat freely. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Now that is a commandment not to eat the tree or what? You will die.
Now, when Cain sinned, he didn't do it under a law like that, a law that said, if you killed your brother, you'll die. That's why he didn't die. So we had to account for his death in some other way. Then why is it? That's the question. Why is it that they died if sin was not imputed? Because they didn't sin after the similitude. You see, sin can exist where there's no law, but it cannot be imputed as sin. Yet the law of conscience renders one responsible. This is summing up what we've shared. Only Adam sinned under penalty of death. All future sins committed against conscience are punishable, but are not the source of physical death. See that last phrase, all future sins committed against conscience are punishable. That is the sins after Adam, committed by everyone since Adam.
All of our sins are punishable, but are not the source of physical death because we have never committed a sin under a law that says, if you do, you shall die. In fact, we were born dead. We were born with the sentence of death upon us. The fetus has the sentence of death upon him, and the fetus didn't do anything to merit that. That is the big question he's answering. Why do we all die? Why is there death and suffering in the world? People ask, why do good people die as if death was coming on people for doing something bad.
If you understood clearly that good people, bad people, dumb people, smart people, ignorant and innocent people and bad people all die alike and has nothing to do with how any of us have lived. Nothing to do with any act we've ever committed or not committed. It's something imputed to us when Adam sinned. We're going to see that. "Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." So this is the crux of where we're coming to tonight. Who is the figure? Adam is the figure of him who was to come. Do you know what a figure is? It's a little image. It is to give you a type, a picture, something by which you can understand the bigger issue. He's a figure of him that was to come.
So Adam is the figure of Christ. He's going to show us how they're alike and how they're different. The first Adam and the last Adam compared and contrasted.
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." So here we see, they both have something in common.
They're both an Adam, a first Adam and a last Adam. They also have something different. One was a living soul. The other was a quickening spirit. Quickening is to make alive. So Adam was alive. He was a living soul.
By the way, there are no living people who are not living souls, all living people are living souls, was made a quickening spirit. How be it that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural. And afterwards that which is spiritual. In other words, it was the natural man, Adam, that was first. And after that, it's the spiritual man in Christ that comes later.
So Adam did not cease to be a living soul. Now the first Adam and the last Adam, a living soul and a quickening spirit. The first man is of the earth, earthy like soil, like bark, like decay, like sand and gravel, like all the ingredients that are in the soil, which is what you're made up of. All the things in your body come right out of the ground.
1 Corinthians 15:47"The first man is the earth earthy. The second man ..." Now we found Jesus was the second, was the last Adam. First Adam, last and there won't be any more Adams. So he'd be the last Adam, but he's called here the second man. Why the second man? Because it wasn't until Jesus, we had a really whole man after Adam. Now Jesus, the second man, but the first person to get saved was the third man, fourth man, fifth man, sixth man. So that many more men made complete and made whole in Jesus Christ. So he is the second man, and he's the Lord from heaven, "As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly such, are they also that are heavenly. As we borne the image of the earthly, we should also bear the image of the heavenly."
So God has us in this progression from earthy to heavenly, from natural to spiritual. So the first Adam was a living soul and he was also the first man, and Jesus is the second man. The first man is earthy and Jesus is the Lord from heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:21-23 "For since man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For in Adam all died." So here's that comparison again. So they're alike in that both of them committed an act that affected the many. "In Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." They're different in the outcome. They're alike in that what they did affected the many. They're different in that what the first man did made us all die. What the second man did made us alive.
So the first Adam and the last Adam, he all died and all are made alive. So as in Adam all died. So here we have Adam and in his loins or all his posterity. By one man, Adam, all in the loins of Adam. And when Adam died, his posterity all died.
Now I've given that illustration before. Let me remind you of it again. A king does something that is treasonous and unacceptable to the people and they have him banished from England to Australia in the Outback, back in the early 1800s. So here he is in a place living with savages and his wife is there with him, and he has children.
Now his children, who would've been princes and potentially kings, are born in banishment. They're born separated from the throne. And when they grow up, they will share exactly what their father inherited for them. They'll never be kings and princes.
So when Adam sinned, he took his entire posterity with him into separation from God. So the death that occurred upon Adam was in his body.
You know, scientists are working right now to create longevity and they're dealing with the micro condral and little tail on the cells and how to keep them longer and keep them from getting too short. My tail's getting real short. So they're trying to find out what they can do to turn that screw that causes us to keep regenerating.
Until you're about 30 years old, you keep regenerating, and then about 30, you start dying and you spend the rest of your life dying until you get 62, 70, 72. That's about it for most people. 80, you're really fortunate. So they want to figure out what is it? It's like there's this little time clock that just says, okay, time to quit. Like a flower grows up and dies and wilts. You know, there was a time when whatever that is was turned off, that killing part, and something was turned on that kept us regenerating.
Adam was in a natural body, just like yours is natural. It could bleed, it could get thirsty. Adam could have fallen and broken his bones. He wasn't a Superman. He was a natural man that was first is natural earthy. And yet Adam would not have died because he was eating from the fruit of the tree of the tree of life, which would cause him to live forever. So there was something he had to take in, some nutrient, some herb that triggered a response in the body that made him never die. Well, when Adam sinned and God shut him off from that tree of life, we're shut off from it too. You see, God didn't do something to us to make us die. He didn't turn some screw. He shut us off from the herb that would regenerate the body and keep it alive forever. So we naturally inherited that death when Adam sinned and was separated from God. It's a physical event or a result of the one act of the one man, when he sinned. That throws some new light on it, doesn't it?
Even so in Christ shall all be made alive. So one man, Jesus Christ, one man obeys and all are counted as righteous because all are in Jesus Christ will come to that. Next time, all baptized into one body.
Now here's a critical passage, a little illustration God has given us to help us understand this, in the book of Hebrews chapter seven, verse nine. Hebrews 7:9 "And as I may say so, Levi also who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham." Now Levi was at one of Abraham's sons, but the Levi he's referring to is some 400 and something years after Abraham, after the initial Levi. This is the sons of Levi of Levi, of Levi, of Levi, Levi, Levi. This is way down the line.
So the tribe of Levi, one 13th of the nation of Israel received tithes, but they didn't pay tithes. So the question is shouldn't they be paying tithes too? It's like people working with IRS don't have to pay taxes because they know the way around it. And the rest of us do. Doesn't seem fair. He said, well, the Levits have already paid tithes. They paid them 400 years ago. You mean the people right now collecting tithes weren't even alive 400 years ago, and you're saying they paid tithes 400 years ago? Yeah, how'd they do it? In the loins of their father. When Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedec, all his descendants paid tithes. Hmm, that's very strange. Scientists have to think about that.
So Abraham met Melchisedec after slaughtering the Kings of Sodom. I mean the kings who came against Sodom and Gomorrah. So Abraham met Melchisedec and paid tithes to him. 400 years later, Levi comes along, becomes the priestly line. And he says, Levi paid tithes back there to Melchisedec because he was in the loins of Abraham. You see that illustration. Now that's going to be pertinent to the rest of our understanding. It's because here's Adam and 6,000 years later, I am born. That's me. See right there? The big strong guy. I was in the loins of Adam when he sinned. So death passed up on all when Adam sinned, because he separated me from the source of life. I'm doing this as simply as I can with redundancy and repeating because I want you to get it. I want you to remember it.
Now we're coming to the comparison of Adam in Christ. Christ and Adam are alike in that one acted alone, and the one act affected their posterity by imputation. The consequences of their acts created a reign. Look at it again.
One acted alone. Adam acted, Jesus acted. The one act affected their posterity by imputation. The one act of Adam was to sin. It affected the posterity. All were made sinners. Adam died, all died. Jesus Christ committed one act. He obeyed God. His righteousness is imputed to all those that believe. So one man is righteous. All are counted as righteous, all are made righteous in him. Then the consequence of their act created a reign. Adam's reign was a reign of death. Christ reign is a reign of grace and life. We'll see that in the scriptures.
Now there's a comparison by contrast in these several verses as well. In other words, they're alike in their differences. It's kind of hard passage to understand, but I've broken it down for you where you will.
Comparison by Contrast
Christ and Adam are different in the nature and the degree of the consequences, in the nature and the degree of the consequences, Romans 5:15 "but not as the offense, so also as the free gift." Wrap your tongue around that one. The reason that reads like that is because it's following the Greek idiom. That's the way they would've said it. The words are in the same order and the same words and everything translate into English.
Now, if you want it made simple for you, you can get any kind of perversion you want and they'll make it simple by ruling out some of the possibilities and getting rid of some of the shades of meaning. But if you want the words that God spoke, translated directly into English, this is the translation that does that. It's clear enough if you have fifth grade education. It took me to about the eighth to get it, but most of you get it by the fifth.
So what's he saying? Not like the offense is the gift. Look at the passage. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. Not like the offense is the gift, is what he's saying. The offense is not like the gift. The free gift and the offense differ is what he say. Again, in the next passage, "and not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift." What's he say? Not like the sin is the gift. The sin and the gift differ. Okay, here they are together.
15 “But not as the offense, so also is their free gift.”
16 “And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift.”
Neither the offence not the one sinning is like the free gift.
Why are these two passages? Because one of them talks about the offense and the other one talks about the one sinning. Notice what's common. The way you do this is the way I did it. You sit down and you take a pencil and you draw lines and connect all the same ideas in each passage and see how it lays. But not as ... notice in this verse 16, and not as the offense, it was by one that ... not as the offense, so also as the gift. Notice the free gift in green in verse 15 and the gift in verse 16. So those are the same. You not make any difference there.
So there's something different. It was by one that sinned in verse 16. Is by one offense in verse 15. So neither the offense nor the one sending is like the free gift is what he's saying. Neither the offense, nor the one sinning, neither what Adam did, nor the one doing it is like Christ. There's a way in which it's different. You follow that? Now. I thought about making that a little easier, yet still breaking it down, but I think you get it that way.
Romans 5:15 "But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead." Now the two words in yellow, the two phrases in yellow are what's different. Not like. "Not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For through the offense of one many be dead, much more." That's the key. "The grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." Here's how they're different. What Christ did is much more. The grace of God is much more. The gift is much more than the offense and the gift abounds, whereas the offense doesn't. In other words, in degree, what Christ did is significantly greater than what Adam did in degree and in the effect. If you think sin is great, he said, I want to tell you something. They're different in this regard. They're not alike. They're not alike. It's not equal, not no parity that Adam did something and it caused us sin.Christ did something, made us right. He said, no, there's no parity there because what Christ did is so much more and so much more abounding than what Adam did. In other words, the cure is far greater than the disease.
It's like if a man who's nearly blind were to get his eyes put out, and the company that was responsible for it gave him some artificial eyes that you couldn't tell the difference of. Not only could he see, but he could take pictures with him, do his computer work and have telephoto vision, looking out in a great distance and do a little laser burning occasionally. So he didn't just get cured, but he got much, much more back than what he lost. Now, I did that for the kids and some of you dumb adults. So what Jesus did is so much greater in what it can do in our lives, even than what Adam did. That's the point he's making. So the free gift is aboundingly more than the offense.
Romans 5:16"And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation." Notice the one, he doesn't say one what, one who. A judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many. Notice the one and the many. He's contrasting the one against the many, Many offenses unto justification of life.
So we come back to this. Once again, many offenses. Notice verse 17, much more and verse 17 abundance. So again, he's talking about how much what Christ did so far exceeds what Adam did, but the free gift is of many offenses. So what I'm seeing in this passage, for the judgment was by one sin, one act, one offense. The judgment was by one offense to condemnation. The free gift is of many offenses under justification. So Christ didn't just die for that one sin. He died for many, many, many, many, many offenses of many, many, many people, and put it all away in his one death burial and resurrection. “For by one man's offense, death reigned by one, much more they would receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ.” So judgment was by one offense. The free gift is of many offenses. “Reign in life by one Jesus Christ.” So judgment was by one offense. The free gift is of many offenses.
So let’s read the whole thing again. Romans 5:16-17 "And not as it was by one that sinned. So is the free gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation, the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense, death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and a gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ." So here we have our first Adam and our last Adam. Sin of one, righteousness of one. Condemnation in Adam, justification of life in Christ. Death reigns through Adam. Grace reigns through Christ.
Adam made us a living soul. Jesus was a quickening spirit. Adam was the first man. Jesus is second man. Adam was earthy. Jesus is the Lord from heaven. In Adam all died. In Christ all are made alive. The sin of one or the righteousness of one. The condemnation or justification of life. Death reigns, grace reigns. Now that's a contrast, isn't it? I'll tell you. I know which side I want. Don't you? Offense of one now and the righteousness of one. I don't know why anybody would want to get on the works train. Get back on the left side of this column here, trying to make your own way to heaven when Jesus has provided all of this. Offense of one, righteousness of one. Judgment, free gift. I'll take the free gift. Condemnation, justification of life. What Jesus did is so much more than what Adam did.
So don't want to hear any whining or complaining and telling me, oh, I'm such a poor sinner. I'm so broken. Sins got a hold of me. Listen, much more grace has abounded. As sin reigned unto death, much more grace reigns unto eternal life.
Romans 5:19-20 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners." Now we see that passage in a different light, many were made sinners. Not many committed acts of sin, just as in Christ, we were made to be righteous, in Adam were made to be sinners. This is an imputed state of being a sinner. “For by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous.” This righteousness he's talking about is not your daily acts of doing good. That's never counted as anything that's going to get you to heaven, anything of any quality at all. That righteousness is a total and complete free gift, aboundingly available to you, freely given to you, "...obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
So here it is again, here's our long list and we add to it: made sinners, made righteous.
Adam made us sinners in God's eyes. Jesus made us righteous in God's eyes. Now let me ask you, did I commit any of the right acts that's righteousness of God in me? Did I keep any of those? No, I didn't. I didn't commit the sin Adam committed either, but we've already explained how we inherited the consequences and were made outcast, ceased to be princes and kings, made paupers, made sinners by the one act of father Adam.
Romans 5:21 “That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Now isn't that a good one right there? "...as sin has reigned under death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life." That's not your righteousness. “Unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Notice the death unto eternal life again, contrast. That's not spiritual death.
Sin reigns unto death -- Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
Corruptible, -- Incorruptible.
Natural -- Spiritual.
Dishonor -- Glory
Weakness -- Power.
Mortal -- Immortality.
Slave to sin -- Free from sin.
So here we are sin reigns unto death, grace reigns through righteousness and eternal life. I'm picking up several passages that I'm not going to take time to show you. Pulling out some more contrasts throughout the new Testament. I could give you a list of four or five pages, but this is just finish out this page. I had some space. Corruptible, incorruptible. In Adam, we're corruptible. In Christ, were incorruptible. Natural, spiritual. Dishonor, glory. Weakness, power. Mortal, immortality. Slave to sin and free from sin. We'll see that next week. Dead in sin, and we'll see this in chapter six and seven, and dead to sin. So what a contrast.
Finally, these have been the much mores, the more overs, the not only so, but also. In selling us on this great gospel, telling us the abundance of what God has provided in Jesus Christ. So it is for those that believe. If you believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ, then all of this assures you go from the left hand column to the right hand column if you believe. We shall be saved by his life, saved by his life. So we were saved from wrath through his death, but as he ever liveth to make intercession for us, we are now at present being saved by his life.
All right, that's all of chapter five and we'll commence chapter six, which is going to be a very critical portion next week. Good night.