Reversing The Curse . . . And Then Some! Series

Well, as we all well know, we have reached 2022. And we’ve had a couple tough years as a human race. I remember well in 2020 how many were claiming that was the worst year in recent memory—the worldwide pandemic had shut down much of the world, there was tremendous social unrest in the U.S. and other places. And of course, we were expecting much better by now. But the Pandemic rages on despite vaccines and all our best efforts, hospitals are overwhelmed, great political debates rage about vaccine and mask mandates. And more than that, there are some similarities to another famously bad year, 1939, when there was the fear that war was imminent in eastern Europe and it was already happening in the Asian Pacific. Back then it was Hitler’s Germany threatening to invade Poland, and there was also great diplomacy engaged in to attempt to prevent that possibility, and Japan’s Imperial ambitions were also already wreaking havoc in China and Southeast Asia. Today, Russia is threatening to invade the Ukraine, and China is engaged in a huge military build-up as they make it clear they have set their sights on Taiwan. And you wonder if we’ll ever learn the lessons from or past, or if we’ll just keep repeating the tragic errors that bring great suffering upon the human race again and again. More than that, you’re inclined to wonder how we got in this predicament, and how we might escape.

And that’s what we discuss this morning in Romans 5:12-21. It is essentially a tale of two men. You’re familiar with Dicken’s novel, A Tale of Two Cities. The predicament that the human race finds itself in is essentially a tale of two men—Adam and Christ. How did the human race end up in this continuing and never-ending state of affairs? Well, it all began with the actions, the choice of one single person, Adam, our common ancestor at the dawn of Creation. And how can we escape the consequences of his actions? Well, it all depends on whether we turn to and choose to follow one who in another context is called the Second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s the story and summary that we encounter in Romans 5:12-21. The Apostle Paul provides for us this answer to these most basic questions about our human existence. Our problem is that we follow Adam and his sin unto destruction and death. The solution is rather to follow Christ unto righteousness and life. And the message of this passage would be, of course, to follow Christ and gain life rather than Adam and the death that he offers.

Now, I want to warn you this morning. What the Bible teaches in this passage is not common knowledge. You will likely learn some things you didn’t know if you listen carefully this morning. The lessons contained in this passage are surprising, and for some of us, they might be disturbing. They are not what we would expect. However, I assure you, that this is the Word of God, and it is a section of Scripture that is often deliberately avoided by Christian teachers who are otherwise biblical. In fact, as I tried to look up a teaching on it on our Right Now Media website, I found that there were videos of teachings on every section of Romans with the exception of this one. Apparently, the teachings of this passage are a hot potato that expositors of the Word of God often want to avoid. So keep your ears open, because you will hear some things that even biblical Christian churches would avoid teaching as though it were the plague.

And the first surprising truth found in verse 12 is this: When Adam sinned, know that we all sinned and we all die because of Adam’s sin. When Adam sinned, we all sinned when Adam sinned, and death came upon all men, because we sinned when Adam sinned.

Now some of you may be wondering if you heard me right. Yes, this is the startling truth clearly and unmistakably taught by this passage. When Adam sinned, God counts it as though you sinned. We don’t die because of our sins alone. We first of all die because of Adam’s sin, and God holds each of us accountable for Adam’s sin.

Yep, I know you’ve got questions. Paul, beginning in verse 12, is now summarizing and giving an overview of everything he has taught about salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now he tells us of the radical difference Christ has made regarding the destiny of the human race. And toward that end, he tells us how things have been, how we got to where we are, and why sin and death characterize the lives of the whole human race. It’s because Adam sinned, and Adam’s sin is reckoned or imputed to each of us, and on account of his sin, we experience the consequence of both physical and spiritual death.