SERMON NOTES

DEATH IN ADAM, LIFE IN CHRIST: AN ANALOGY 

Living Springs Baptist Church
 David R. Hethorn, Pastor

Rom. 5:12-21

So far in our studies we have seen how Paul with brilliant design and divine logic has showed how every class and race of man is depraved and justly condemned, and with that same logic has shown how that by the righteousness of Christ, men are justified before God. And that justification places no condition upon man nor is it attainable for men or else it would not be of grace. This grace is bestowed upon whosoever he wills and thus those who received this grace believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

This morning we come again to that divine logic in the form of an analogy between death in Adam and life in Christ. 

Notice, again our text starts with “wherefore”, “on this account,” or consequently.  Paul (v.6) already pointed out that we were without strength and that the love of God for us preceded our birth into this world. And Christ died in the fulness of time for our redemption and we are filled with hope, the love of God and joy. Now Paul draws a comparison between our fall in Adam and our redemption in Christ and how much greater our position is in Christ then it was in Adam.  

1. The Analogy between Adam and Christ.

1. The fact of it, v.12.

1. Sin, in the world of men is not the result of Satan’s fall and influence. This is an important point in doctrine. It is this verse that instructs us on not just the origin of sin but even the right and proper positions of authority in the home and the Lord’s church. This is why the Scripture tells us that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is her husband. The fall was the result of Adam’s disobedience, not Eve’s. Satan did tempt Eve and Eve was deceived and was found in the transgression, but it was not Eve that brought sin into the world. Eve had not yet been created when God gave the command to Adam “not to eat” of the tree. But Adam sinned in direct disobedience to the command of God not because of deception. Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat. 1Ti 2:10-14 But (which becomes women professing godliness) with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. 
2. The effect of Adams disobedience brought death upon himself for God said, for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. But it didn’t end there, he brought this death upon the whole of mankind. Sin entered the world of mankind and because men sinned God’s cursed the earth. The earth was not cursed because it sinned, but it was cursed because of man’s sin. It was cursed for the good of man, that he should labor for all that he has rather than sit in idleness. Gen 3:17-19  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
3. Adams’s death was immediate and two-fold. 

-spiritual death which was evidenced because they hid themselves from the presence of God and the acknowledgement of their nakedness. They knew immediately that their relationship with God had changed, and not for the good. When the Lord Jesus came to walk with them in the garden, they hid themselves and were afraid. When they were confronted by God, the judgement was immediate, both promises and cursing’s were pronounced upon all the parties, the serpent, Eve and Adam and the ground for the sake of Adam. 

- Physical death; it is apparent that Adam and Eve in the original creation were designed to have an eternal existence for there was the tree of life which had fruit they could eat and live forever. Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. But Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, and lived long lives, but they died, and so every man also dies at the appointed time; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

2. The Facts proven. 13-17 is parenthetical to prove and show that even without law men were guilty, under just condemnation and that Christ provided a righteousness for his people manifested in the death of his Son. 

a. Because all men are born sinful. It is the state and nature of men. One does not become a sinner or sinful after birth. The Bible speaks of nothing concerning the age of accountability. This idea is a tradition of men and particularly the Catholics and Protestants. [Let me answer the questions you are now asking…What about children that die in infancy? The Arminian teaches that faith and repentance are necessary to salvation; That it produces salvation. These must of necessity of doctrine teach an age of accountability. Since infants, idiots and others are unable to exercise faith and repentance until they have gained some cognizance and knowledge, can’t exercise faith. Else all infants, idiots, and those deprived of mental impotence are lost. The Baptist that believe in particular redemption says, that faith and repentance are the fruit or evidence of salvation (and they are right). I believe that children, even still in the womb God is able to regenerate them and they, in whatever way God has intended, have some form of understanding in it. PROOF>Luk 1:15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. Luk 1:41-44 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Now, is it possible that as a babe in the womb that J/B had a greater sense of who Christ was than as an adult? John the Baptist said as an adult, Jn. 1:33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.  2Ti 3:15  And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. There is my answer.] You are not a sinner because you sin, but you sin because you are a sinner. The idea of an innocent baby does not really exist. The scriptures declares that they come from the womb speaking lies. Now you might not be very happy with me about that, but your argument is not with me but God. We are not sinners when we are born but we are sinners in our conception. Ps. 51:5 Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 

b. Because all men die. Ecc. 9:3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. Ecc. 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 

c. Because Adam’s sin was not imputed but all men die regardless, v.13, 14. The law was given to Adam, Thou shalt not eat…” But Adams sin was not put to the account of or imputed to those who were born of Adam. From Adam to Moses men did not violate the expressed command of God as Adam therefore, this sin was not imputed to them nor any sin. Nevertheless, death reigned because all men are sinners. A written law is not necessary for God to judge a man because he is a sinner, who’s guilt is evident. Though God had not spoken from heaven and gave commandments to men, man nevertheless violated the very law of God written in their heart. So vile they became that God destroyed mankind with the flood. But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord.

d. Because Adam was the covenant head of all his offspring. Who [Adam] is the figure of him that was to come [Christ]. There is a typology or Analogy between Christ and Adam. 1Co 15:45-47  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. This speaks of Christ in his humanity. And out of Christ came a seed, a people, a posterity called by his name, the children of God; as Adam had a people, a posterity called by his name, the sons of men.
 There are many ways in which we can compare Adam with Christ in a typical way, but I believe the thrust of the Apostle’s argument is to show that Adam, as the covenant head of all man. What Adam did by his direct disobedience, plunged all his posterity into deep and unrecoverable depravity. All of mankind was in the loins of Adam, all men fell in Adam. All men are emersed in the depravity of Adam by that fall. 

1. The Points of Comparison, v.15-19. Now there are many, not understanding grace, that teach that we have the “many who are dead” and how they are going to be the many who are saved. Rather, imagine a white-board with a line drawn down the middle.  On the one side are those who are in Adam, who died in Adam and remain in Adam, fleshly. On the other side is Christ and those who are in Christ Jesus, the justified ones. And with this in your minds we will compare what is in Adam with that which is in Christ.
2. Points of difference between Adam and Christ in the Analogy. 15-16.

1. We get more through Christ than we lost through Adam. The “offense” refers to Adam’s fall from his happy and holy estate. The “free gift” is in reference to the righteousness of Christ, which justifies men from their sin. In Adam all fell but in Christ we have received the gift of grace, even our salvation. 
2. Adam conveyed to all his posterity sin, condemnation with corporal and spiritual death; whereas Christ conveyed to all his posterity grace and this grace superabounded to them and made them righteous. The first Adam was without sin and became a sinner by disobedience. The Second Adam was without sin and became sin for us by His obedience. 

While condemnation came upon all of Adam’s posterity, justification came upon all of Christ’s posterity. The offense of Adam did not and could not hinder the grace of God. 

1. Paul gives a further distinction and explanation between effects of Adam’s sin and Christ Righteousness in v. 17.  We have judgement, that is the sentence of condemnation was because of a singular sin. Adam only committed one sin, there was only one offense. By this one sin all men are under just judgment, but the condemnation here is not God’s judiciary declaration which had already been delivered but rather the guilt of man’s sin, which is imputed to all men to condemnation thus all men died from Adam to Moses. They are all guilty of sin for this is the nature they were born with.

The gift of grace or Righteousness and Justification is of many offenses. That is, Christ did not die for just one offense, but rather for all the imputed guilt and all of the offenses, the sins and iniquity of those who are in him and this grace did superabound unto us. This grace was rich in detail; it is a “righteousness” not only rich in a complete justification of the guilty, condemned sinner; but rich in the amplitude of the ground which it covers, leaving no one sin of any of the justified uncanceled, but making him, though loaded with the guilt of myriads of offenses, “the righteousness of God in Christ.” Eph 2:4-5 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;). 

1. Our final restoration is greater than Adam’s creation. Adam had great glory and wonderful fellowship with the WORD in the garden of Eden. Adam was upright in all things; you could not ask for a more perfect environment to be in. Yet in that original happy and holy state that Adam was created in is not to be compared to the glory we have in our resurrection. 1Jn_3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear [it did not appear in Adam] what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as  he is. I Cor. 15:46- 53.  Joh 17:22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: This glory is not a shared glory in the eternal God-head nor is it the glory that is His alone as the Mediator, but it is the glory God gave to Christ, in his work in conquering sin and death and our enemies, in taking possession of all the world, and gospel glory as the bride of Christ. The queen always shares in her king’s glory. 

1. Where the analogy holds, v.18-19.

Paul ends this argument with the following conclusion, a summary of what he has said parenthetically. 

1. It holds in death. One man sinned (Adam) and because of his unrighteousness, the result was that he and all his posterity are condemned with him. Notice the text says, all men to condemnation. There is no exception, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, there is none righteous, no, not one. So it is with all men in Adam. Rom 2:5  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. 
2. It holds in life. By one man (Christ) and his righteousness and the free gift (which is the gift of grace). Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life… The all men here are those who have received the gift of grace, upon which we have received justification of life. The righteousness of Christ being freely imputed without works, as it is to all the men that belong to the second Adam, to all his seed and offspring, is their justification of life, or what adjudges and entitles them to eternal life. The sentence of justification was conceived in the mind of God from eternity, when his elect were ordained unto eternal life, on the foot of his Son's righteousness; this passed on Christ at his resurrection from the dead, and on all his people as considered in him, when they, in consequence of it, were quickened together with him;(and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins) and this passes upon the conscience of a sinner at believing, when he may, as he should, reckon himself alive unto God, and is what gives him a right and title to everlasting life and glory (J. Gill). Act 13:39  And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. 1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 
3. It holds in guilt, v.19. Adam sinned therefore all the world became guilty before God and under just condemnation. All men were made sinner by Adam’s disobedience. Adam’s posterity were not sinners as accounted as sinners nor were they proved to be sinners, nor did they become sinners by imputation, but rather they were actual sinners by practice. The proof, as we have seen in is Rom. 1. The many who “were made” of Adam’s posterity is a different verb form than the many who “shall be made” in relation to Christ. The “were made” or that were constituted sinners is an aorist, passive, indicative. Another words, these, without any effort on their part and without any relationship to time, in other words, they did not become sinners at some point in time, they simply were constituted sinners. That was when Adam sinned. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world… 
4. It holds in that the many by one man shall be made or constituted righteous.

The first Adam disobeyed, the second Adam obeyed. The seed of Adam all died, but the seed of Christ all have justification of life, or that which leads to eternal life. The “shall many be made,” here is a future passive indicative. Meaning that without any effort on the part of these who are of the seed of Christ, they will be and are continuously manifested as righteous throughout all time until the day of Judgement. Yes, justification as a judicial, internal act of God was from everlasting, yet in time it is being manifested in the hearts of God’s children when they believe. In Adam all men died, that is the state of their being, no change at all. But all that are in Christ are still being manifested as a select and distinct people from those who are dead in Adam. Yet still future is our final state of immortality as purely righteous people. No sin tainted flesh or mind…But just think of stepping on shore-And finding it Heaven! Of touching a hand-And finding it God's! Of breathing new air-And finding it celestial! Of waking up in glory-And finding it home!

1.   The purpose of the Law, 20-21.

There is a purpose in the law. God said in chapter 7 that it is holy, just and good. Since death reigned from Adam to Moses to what purpose serves the law?

1. The law entered that sin might abound. 
1. The law was added, not because sin did not exist, but rather showing that all men were just as guilty as Adam in disobeying the direct commandments of God. The “offence” mentioned four times already, that is the offence of Adam is what is meant in this verse. As one commentator puts it, “All our multitudinous breaches of the law are nothing but that one first offense, lodged mysteriously in the bosom of every child of Adam as an offending principal, and multiplying itself into myriads of particular offenses in the life of each.” What was one act of disobedience in the head [Adam]has been converted into a vital and virulent principle of disobedience in all the members of the human family, whose every act of willful rebellion proclaims itself the child of the original transgression.” Sin abounded or multiplied beyond comprehension as the Law manifested the holiness of God. We will spend more time with this in chapter 7.
2. The law gave occasion for our sin nature to show itself by outward disobedience like Adam. The Law cause our flesh to invoke its natural hatred and antagonism to God and stimulated even more disobedience. For we, in our flesh are not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Rom 7:8  But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence… (lust).
2. God’s reigning grace superabounded more then all our sins.
1. Death reigned supreme because of sin, but God’s grace reigns supreme in the heart and life of the believer.

• It reigns through righteousness, the righteousness of Christ as the Mediator of the eternal covenant. 2Pe 1:1  Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: 
• It reigns in us as God’s redeemed ones who have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 
• It reigns in us because of the new man created in holiness and true righteousness. Tit 3:3-5 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.  2Co 3:7-9 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
1. The saved are put above Adam in his original creation.

• Adam, though in a perfect environment was able to fall, in Christ we have perfect union with Him and have in the new man a sinless nature and we cannot fall.
• Adam was clothed with his own glory in the garden, but we are now and shall be clothed with the righteousness of Christ when in new and glorified bodies.
• Adam was made lower than the Angles and all men, but those in Christ, we are the zenith of God’s creation, the highest order of beings in all of creation, and will be set above the Angles. This is evidenced because he never intended to rescue the angles that fell, never provided for their salvation.

Conclusion:

Joh 10:27-28  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 

1Jn 2:25  And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. 

1Jn 5:11-13  And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.