Death In Adam Series

Eternal Security

Death in Adam

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

In this message we're going to explore the actual theological basis for our confidence and certainty of eternal life. By the end, I'm confident that we will all understand just how God has guaranteed our Salvation.

I've entitled this message: Death in Adam – and the next message in this series: Life in Christ and the verse we're going to use as our heading is 1 Corinthians 15:21:

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

To explore the theme of 'Death in Adam - life in Christ', we must go to the book of Romans - chapter 5 in particular.

Now we know that we're saved by the atoning blood of Christ and when we accepted Christ as our Saviour, we accepted the message by simple faith. Becoming like a little child is the only way we were accepted by God.

But we know that as we grow in Christ, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation leads us into fresh aspects and a deepening understanding of just what is involved in the death of Christ.

You probably hadn't heard of Romans chapter 5 when you first became a Christian, but it's only by understanding this passage that you and I will really understand just what God has done to both justify us and to permanently guarantee our salvation.

Romans 5 contains the account of how sin came into the world and tells us why we, as a race, suffer the consequences of the act of disobedience committed by Adam in the Garden of Eden so long ago.

Let's pick it up from verse 12 and reading through to verse 21

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned--- For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive Gods abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

So you can see immediately that a clear parallel has been set up between Adam and Christ. And it's the nature of this parallel that explains the means by which God justifies the sinner and brings us into a perfect and eternal relationship with Himself.

As believers we know that our salvation is brought about by our union with Christ - but for us to really understand how this is done, Paul must first explain the nature of our union with Adam.

Why? Because he's going to demonstrate that our previous relationship with Adam is the same as our present relationship with Christ. If we understand the one, we'll understand the other!

In fact, the story of the entire human race can only be understood in terms of our relationship to Adam just as the story of redemption can only be fully understood in terms of our relationship to Christ.

If we want to feel totally secure in the finality of our Salvation - and truly understand how nothing can possibly affect our standing in Christ, we're going to have to appreciate the true meaning of Substitution and Imputation.

Our discussion of the passage we've just read will enable us to do so.

So, let's begin.

The first thing we notice is that Paul presents two men - Adam and Christ. Each performed a single act that produced a single result - and that result is experienced by every member in their respective race.

Adam's act was one of disobedience in the Garden of Eden. God expressly forbade him to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - and he did it anyway!

The result of that disobedience was death because the Bible says in Romans 6:23 that: the wages of sin is death.

By contrast, Christ's act was one of total obedience to the Father. The Bible says in Philippians 2:8:

..being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And the result of Christ's obedience was not death - but glory:

Phil 2:9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name

Now by the same method by which we died in Adam- we now live in Christ!