Romans 5 — Robert F. Adcock

Romans 5 and the Two Adams

Let us look in Romans 5. We'll finish Romans 5 tonight, at least one aspect of it anyway. We're going to refer to some passages in the book of Genesis in connection with this, but we'll read first of all Romans 5, commencing at verse 12, down through the remainder of the chapter.

Verse 12, Romans 5. "...Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have 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 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. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift.

For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift of God, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift, for the judgment was by one to condemnation.

But 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 of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, and so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Creation in the Image of God

Now, I'm going to ask you to turn to the book of Genesis, and I think that it would be good to read just a few verses. In Genesis 1, let's read from verse 24 of Genesis 1, and God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And now in the 2nd chapter of Genesis, verse 8,. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And now verse 18,. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him, and help me for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought him unto Adam to see what he would call them.

And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found and help me for him.

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh, and said, Thereof, and the rib which the Lord God hath taken from a man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man lead his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.

The Fall and the Entrance of Sin

Now in chapter 3, I'm reading this with purpose, and I think you will see it in just a moment. Chapter 3, verse 1,. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said unto the woman, Yea, God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall neither eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye thereof in your eyes shall be open, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 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 unto her husband with her, and he did eat.

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Now verse 14,. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field, and upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrows and thy conception.

In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 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 thou shalt return.'. Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothes, and the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil, now lest he put forth his hand, and take also the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.

Prayer for Understanding and Righteousness

Shall we look to the Lord in a word of prayer? Our Heavenly Father, tonight our thoughts from thy holy word are to find for ourselves that which would fulfill in our own hearts that which we need to sustain and strengthen us in our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

God grant that what we have read will prove to be profitable to each one of us. May each one of us in a greater measure appreciate your wonderful righteousness, appreciate the wonderful position of being justified and counted righteous in the presence of God, and to understand more clearly that this wonderful righteousness can only be found in a wonderful person, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen. Now, in this passage that we've read tonight, I hope that you are acquainted with it, and in case in days past you've been inclined to blame someone else for your situation in life and the fact that sometimes you do things that you can't account for and you wonder why you do them, tonight I think we've pinpointed the source of your problem.

Humanity in Adam and the Need for Christ

It's because of your identification with a man, and that man is Adam. How often have you heard this when someone looks at some little toddler and he begins to express himself in a way that's not complementary to the human race, and someone says, The little Adam.

You see Adam in him. You see Adam expressing himself, speaking, and accurately so, of what we are by nature, members of Adam's race. That's exactly what we have said before here tonight. Two men, what we are in Adam and what we can be in Christ.

I've read for you, you read it with me from the book of Genesis, exactly what took place. Man created in the image and likeness of God, dwelling in a situation that was sublime. It was everything that we seek for today, and you can read this and search it out for yourself, but he had everything that you are working for today.

He had security in every sense of the word. He didn't waver with his hand, God fed him, God nourished him in that garden. God had created him, man, in his image, in his likeness, and it doesn't necessarily mean physical likeness.

In fact, it doesn't mean physical likeness, but it means that man in the likeness and image of God had a capacity for fellowship and communion with God. He was possessed with a spirit that God had implanted in his humanity.

And he could appreciate God, he could love God, and he could express love through his own life. This made him uniquely different from all of the other things that God had created, the animal life, the bird life, and so forth.

Man was different. He was God-like, God said he was, and in that wonderful situation he didn't have to have any worries about an energy crisis. There was just the right temperature in that garden where he lived.

Day and night, no one had to touch the thermostat. Everything there was perfect. The food, the best you could get. Couldn't make any complaints about anything there because God provided it. You say, why would a person ever leave something like that?

Why would a person ever make a choice that would jeopardize a situation like that? I've been striving, I've been working all my life for a situation like that. I'm thinking about one day retiring. I'm thinking about one day I'm going to find that little cottage, that little place somewhere where I can just live, be secure.

The check comes in every month, and I've got everything that I need. And then I'm just going to sit down and just rest a little and take it easy. Well, Adam beat you to it. He had it, and he surrendered it all.

You know, if you had that today and you didn't have God's provision for that peace with God that we mentioned last week, you still wouldn't be happy. There'd be a vacuum within that heart of yours, because God created you in a certain way so that the only thing that would ever satisfy that heart of yours and this heart of mine was himself.

And he's given us someone, a person, that can truly satisfy the longings of the human heart. But you have to appropriate it, you have to want it, you have to yield and submit to his way, and then the happiness and the joy is yours.

But Adam had it all. I don't know exactly what Adam looked like in that garden. I'm convinced of this when he left that garden when he was driven out a remarkable change took place. Living in that garden, created in the image and likeness of God, never having labored with his hands, there were no calluses on his hands, everything provided, one day because of those subtle endeavors of Satan to tempt and deceive Eve, she eats of that forbidden fruit, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and rebellion has found its way into the hearts of men and women because Adam joined, and he did it with his eyes wide open.

And having done this, God says, lest they continue to eat of the fruit of the tree of life which could preserve and sustain life forever but in a sinful state, he says, we'll have to drive them out. We'll have to prevent them from eating of the fruit of that tree.

It was available to them up until that point, but now it's forbidden. You know, when you get to the last book in the Bible, Revelation 22, that tree is found again, the tree of life, in the midst of the city of Jerusalem, and its leaves are for the healing of the nation.

Well, you know they had access to that tree, but because of sin they lost it all. God drove them out. And the reason I say that a remarkable change took place. Have you ever seen someone go out into the countryside, the wilds, and ruck it for a while?

You see some fellow and he says, I'm going off on a fishing trip or a hunting trip, and he goes and stays about a week, ten days, two weeks. He doesn't shave, and he just lives it and rucks it out, and when you see him you hardly recognize him.

Who is this fellow? Well, just think of someone. He didn't have an axe. He didn't have any of the implements of modern-day man. He didn't have a gun. He didn't have anything. He went out and he had to suffer the heat of the sun by day and the cold of the night.

He had to battle the elements, the soil that now he would have to tend and earn his own bread by the sweat of his face. Everything was going to be hostile toward him. He was going to live in a hostile environment, all because of sin.

Do you think that changed him? I believe it did. I believe a remarkable change took place. All of the beauty and the freshness and the flower of youth that had been seen in his face before was gone, and suddenly you see a tired, haggard old man and a woman that are just doing everything that they can to keep body and soul together.

It's all because of sin. Bearing the image and the likeness of God, they sacrificed all of this because they listened to that subtle voice that said, eat of that tree that God has forbidden you to eat, God.

You'll be like God, and it'll bring you happiness. How many have believed that lie? How many have made a choice in life and said, I'll listen to that subtle voice, the voice of the deceiver, and it'll bring me happiness?

And have discovered to their own hurt that it doesn't bring happiness. It really inflicts hurt upon the individual, and a change is wrought in the life of that individual. The marks of sin are upon so many people in the world today because they've listened to that subtle voice, the voice of Satan that says, I'll make you happy, and he asks you to disobey God in the face of divine directive, asks you to follow him, and he'll bring you happiness.

And what a change is wrought in the physical image of men and women today because of sin in their lives. You know, if we were to stop at that point and say, you know, it's just a hopeless situation, say it all into there, and that was all the information that you had, that man, and you recognize that you're a member of the human race, and because of your identification with Adam as the federal head of mankind that you are part of this whole system that seems so futile, and that ultimately you will die just as he does, and through the course of your life struggle, struggle, struggle.

You know, you could look at him and you could say in a rather hateful sort of way, man, what did you do the day that you acted in disobedience to the divine directive that was given to you in that garden?

Look where he brought us to! Look how far down we've come since that day. You know, the axiom of the world today is that we are climbing higher and higher and higher, and that we're going to achieve utopia one day.

But the Bible doesn't say that. You read the Word of God, and if you look at history itself, it tells you that we're going down step by step, and some have even said today, now we're on the roller coaster and we're headed for the bottom.

We're not getting back. We haven't improved life's situation, per se. Oh, we have technological advancement, we've made things more comfortable, but we've compounded our problems. There's never been a day in the history of man where he's been faced with more problems than we have today, and no one around to solve them.

No man on the scene today can solve the problems that we're faced with. And it all stems from this one thing, sin. Rebellion against a directive from God not to eat of the fruit of that tree. Well, if we left it there, we'd still be pointing our finger at poor Adam and saying, it's your fault, it's your fault, it's your fault, you've just done us an injustice!

Look what you've brought upon all of us! You know, God would be just if he did leave us there, but he didn't choose to do that. Did you notice that Adam and Eve were provided with some clothing, that some skin from innocent animals were provided for them to cover their nakedness?

At the very moment that he cast them out of that paradise, he provided for them something that would shelter them, in a sense, from all of that hostile environment. The blood of an innocent victim was slain to provide for them a covering that God himself had provided.

Redemption Through the Second Adam

Well, that's just a picture and a sense of what God has done in the person of his son. And God, the very moment that that man and that woman were cast out of that garden, there was initiated a plan that had been formed from the eternal ages past.

A wonderful divine plan was again set in motion, and it would ultimately find its conclusion in the day that we had that announcement from heaven that, My beloved Son has come into this world to provide for you a way of righteousness, a way that is pleasing to me, whereby you might have restored to you the divine image that was lost by the first Adam there in the garden.

What we lost in the first Adam can only be regained in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one that can restore that divine likeness to a poor, fallen humanity. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world by Adam, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all hath sin.

You can't help it that you're a sinner. The fact that the word of God calls you a sinner, you can't help that. You could face it back, historically speaking, and say it's Adam's fault. Okay, blame it on Adam.

But what are you doing about the provision that's made by God when he says, For by one man's disobedience, Adam's disobedience, many were made sinners, you and I are characterized as being sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

What does the Lord Jesus Christ say when you hear from the earth? You know, it's happiness and joy to me to do the will of him that sent me. Divine obedience, submission to the will of God, was paramount in the life of Jesus Christ.

He ever sought to do the will of the Father, and it was the will of the Father that he might undo, in a sense, all of the damage that was done by Adam and Eve in that garden. And so he sends his beloved son into the world to accomplish on our behalf that which we could never do for ourselves.

We couldn't have came to his righteousness. It's beyond our reach. We're sinners, we're defiled. Everything that we touch we defile, and it's only by his divine grace and the giving to us of his righteousness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and our faith in that sacrifice that we can have restored the divine image.

New Creation and Spiritual Life in Christ

You know, how do you reflect the glory of God in your own personal life? The word of God says, those that are in Christ Jesus are new creations. We are new people, in a sense. We're living in a new dimension.

The word of God mentions in 1 Corinthians 2 at least four classes of people. The natural man, that when he hears about things spiritual, he says they're foolishness, they have no real meaning to him. And we have mentioned the spiritual man who has spiritual discernment.

He understands these things. To him, they have meaning, they have value. And then we have the carnal man, and we have babes in Christ. Well, in Adam, we're natural men. In Christ, we can be new creatures.

We can be men that possess spiritual power enveloped by the Spirit of God, all because of our identification and our relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Whereas by one man, condemnation comes upon the world.

Through the other man, our Lord Jesus Christ blesses, and men and women can be new creatures in Christ Jesus. Someone may raise the question about that interim of time in between the day that Adam and Eve left that garden and the day that Jesus Christ appeared upon the scene.

So what about all of those things that transpired in between? Well, we have mentioned here from the time of Adam up to the time of Moses and the beginning of the law, and we're told that death reigned as a king.

Men died. Everything that God had said would happen did happen. Men died. They're still dying. They have the mark of Adam upon them. They have the curse of Adam upon them. Everything in this earth is defiled, because God said it would be defiled.

God said that death would reign as a king, and it did reign as a king. Its power was never really throttled until Jesus Christ took his place upon the cross, and he died. He died personally for you and me, so that death would never have the power, be able to exercise the power over a human life that it had up until that day.

Men no longer need to live in the dread of dying and going out into eternity without God. Today, men and women with fresh assurance in their souls because of believing God and accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior can have life, and they are spiritually alive.

They are no longer dead spiritually, but they are alive in Christ. Well, during that interim of time, from Adam to Moses, death reigned as a king. And you know, there wasn't any specific law that said that there were certain prohibitions and you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do that.

Death still reigns. And with the giving of the law, we find that sin could be brought to life for just exactly what it was, because we've already studied in the Book of Romans that the law served that specific purpose of exposing, helping men to see just how dreadful sin really is, and exposing sin in the individual life, and showing us that we could never measure up to that divine standard of righteousness.

But death still reigns. Men die. You know, it's with a wonderful, wonderful expression of hope that we can say tonight that men and women that are in Jesus Christ our Lord are alive, that because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you and I live in the power of an endless life.

You say, I can't see it. You look like anyone else to me, and when we look face to face, we say, you're getting older and you're going to be sick and ultimately going to die if the Lord doesn't come. Well, that's because you don't have spiritual discernment.

If you fail to see that in the life of a believer, there's something there that's eternal because Christ is there, and Paul announced it because he said, you know, I am crucified with Christ, but nevertheless I live.

Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Christ lives in me. He lives within the heart of every believer. So we possess eternal life. We are fitted for eternity. God wants us to be conformed to the image of his Son.

The Hope of Seeing Christ and Becoming Like Him

He wants us to reflect the glory of his Son. And you know, no woman, no man has ever creamed their bodies, dressed in regal attire, adorned their bodies with jewels and everything else that you have that are counted as costly and of value to men and women as far as making them attractive outwardly, can compare with what we will one day be when we see him.

You know what it says in 1 John 3? It says, When we see him, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And you know, time and time again, perhaps in our Christian experience, we've reflected upon what Jesus Christ really looks like.

We've never been satisfied. We don't know exactly what he looks like, physically speaking. We don't know. We know some wonderful things about him. We know that in his person, and he's the only one that it was ever perfectly displayed, you could see the image and the likeness of a likeness God displayed in the person of his beloved Son.

One day I'm going to see him, and I'm going to see all of the beauty that's in the person of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Wonder, wonder, I'm going to be just like him. When I see him, I'll be like him because I'll see him as he is.

You know, if I wanted to make a real recommendation to anyone here tonight that seeks after true beauty that will last forever, I couldn't make the one recommendation. It would have to be, be more Christ-like.

Be more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Ultimately, you will be like him as a belief. All of that identification with Adam, all that was lost, all that has been regained in the person of the Savior, is something that we should aspire to, something that we could seek after.

If we could endeavor to make our lives conformed more to the likeness of the beauty of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, one man's disobedience brought us all that to a level that we're not too apt to applaud ourselves about what we are in Adam, because we're ashamed of it too often, and we recognize that there's nothing to boast about as far as being in Adam.

The natural man, foolishness, vanity, despises of God, and that whole list of things that are mentioned in the earlier chapter, telling us the length to which men will do when their own motivation, the only motivation that they have, is that old man Adam.

But when we are new creatures in Christ Jesus, then we can be conformed to his likeness. Then we can get a taste of glory, this side of glory. We can see what it's going to be like later on when we're in his presence with the likeness, and serve him with supreme joy all the days of our lives.

Rejecting Self-Made Gods

You know, looking upon this and thinking about men hopelessly lost and without Christ, it reminds me of something that's going on in the world today. If men fail to respond to what this passage teaches us concerning what we are by nature, identified with Adam and refusing to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ as the Savior sent us, men will endeavor to create a God in their own image, and in their likeness they'll bring God down, they'll deify man, and they'll make for themselves their own God to suit their own purposes, and one that pleases them.

What a tragedy! And do it all in the name of serving the living God. What a tragedy! It seems so simple to say, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be a new creature in Christ Jesus.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be able to shake off the shackles that bind you as a poor sinner in Adam, and release you to new freedom in our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the choice is still out.

We can be confronted with proof. It can hit us. It can knock us down. It can run over us, and we can still refuse to obey. The men and women that are wise in the world today are those who respond and say, You know, I looked in the mirror the other day, the mirror of my life, and I didn't like what I saw.

I was displeased, and I could see there what I am in Adam. I could see there what I am by nature, and I didn't like it. And I've discovered that I can be something different by trusting Jesus Christ as my Savior.

I understand that this all can be changed, and I can be a new creature in Christ Jesus. The divine image can be restored. Then I can enter into that new dimension of living that we've been talking about.

And then I can go on to serve with purpose and gladness in my heart the true and the living God, and do it with an eternal reward waiting me one day when I shall see him as he is, and I'll be like him for all eternity.

Why wouldn't a man respond to an offer like that? There can only be one reason. The same one that deceived Eve in that garden is still around, and he's still deceived. Still telling men and women, Just as long as the outward appearance is all right, forget the rest.

How are you getting along in the world today? You say, I'm doing pretty good. You looked in the mirror later. Yeah, I looked in there, and I liked what I saw. You looked pretty good. I tell you what, look in there about a hundred years from now and see what you see.

Take a look a hundred years from now, and what will you see? You say, that's silly, because I'll be dead. Exactly. A hundred years from now, there's not likely to be anybody in this room living. Thou, Lord, do not come.

That carcass of yours will be out in the cemetery somewhere. Death has reigned as a king. The only person that can break the power of spiritual death over an individual life and restore the divine image and the likeness of God to you as an individual is the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world to save you and me. You know, it's with great joy in my heart tonight that I tell you I know Christ is my Savior. You say, you don't look any different than me.

You look just like I've seen you all of your life, if you've known me, and a few do. And I don't see much change in your physical appearance. You're getting older. That's true. But if you know a person, and you know them intimately, and they know Jesus Christ, soon you discover something in that person that's different.

You know, you begin to see Christ in that life. My, oh my, he makes a difference. I've seen Christ in your lives, many of you. I know you personally, and I've seen Christ in your life, and I thank God for it.

The divine image has been restored, and you're going to be like him for all eternity. What we lost in Adam can be regained in Christ. I invite anyone here tonight who's never made a decision for Jesus Christ, you're in Adam.

You bear all of the resemblance of his fall and his condemnation upon your person. God hasn't left you there without hope. He's provided for you a Savior, and that Savior is Jesus Christ our Lord. Receive him, and you'll be a new creature in Christ Jesus, shall we pray.

Prayer for Salvation and Eternal Hope

Our Heavenly Father, tonight we think upon all that transpired today that Adam and Eve made that decision, and we know that was a sad day, and we know from our own personal experience how sad it is to be despondent and to have no joy within one's soul.

We just thank you for the day that you revealed to us that your Beloved Son could bring joy and peace to our hearts. Your Beloved Son, the one that shed his own precious blood to pay for our sin and its penalty.

You revealed him to us, and we personally have accepted him as our Savior. Oh, our God, what a glad day, and we thank you for it. We thank thee for what we are right now in our Lord Jesus. We thank thee for what we're going to be in him one day.

Oh, to be changed into his perfect likeness. Oh, to be with him and to be like him forever. How comforting these words are to our hearts tonight. Oh, God, we pray if there's any person in this room that has never received Jesus Christ as Savior, may the Spirit of God strike home to their hearts the need and the conviction that will bring them to a place of decision for our Savior.

We ask this in his name, for his praise and glory. Amen. I thought O .C. was going to lead us in verses and hymns. If you're here tonight and you're not saved and you'd like to come and talk further about this, we'll be at the front.

And if you've never made a public confession of Jesus Christ as your Savior, come forward while we're singing and publicly declare that you have personally received the Lord Jesus as your Savior. And we'll stand and sing number 251, a couple of verses.

The first and the last verse, perhaps, is number 251, there is life in the Lord.