It seems that in our world, doctrine has gotten a bad rap. Perhaps you’ve seen or heard people use a slogan like “Love unites, doctrine divides” or one of its relatives like “Service unites, doctrine divides” or “Justice divides, doctrine divides”. While those kinds of sayings might be appealing to many people, they are really rather silly if you think about it what, in essence, are each of those slogans? They each reflect a belief or a way of thinking so essentially they are doctrine – right?
Unfortunately, a lot of people have come to believe that Biblical doctrine is boring or that it really isn’t relevant to our lives. I know because I was once one of those people. And in some cases, I and some of my fellow pastors are at least partly to blame because we probably haven’t done a real good job of explaining why doctrine matters and showing how it is relevant to our lives.
But I would submit to you that within the body of Christ doctrine does matter because what we believe will determine how we live. That is not just true of Biblical doctrine either. Think about how doctrine matters in these other areas of our lives:
• Would you all agree that the doctrine of gravity matters? Just ask Jonathan Ponzo about that. And because all of us believe in that doctrine, we don’t go around jumping off tall buildings or go skydiving without a parachute because we know what the results will be.
• Would you agree that the doctrine of the second law of thermodynamics matters? Many of you probably don’t even know what I’m talking about here. But even if you don’t know what that law is, if you like a hot cup of coffee that doctrine matters. Since that particular doctrine means that the temperature of the coffee and the temperature of the air around it will eventually come to a point of equilibrium, it requires that if I like hot coffee I will either have to drink it in a very warm room or drink it quickly before it approaches room temperature.
• Would you agree that the doctrine of the laws of aerodynamics matters? Once again, some of you are probably thinking that you don’t even what that doctrine is. But guess what, if you’ve ever flown on an airplane you rely on that doctrine even if you don’t understand it because that is what keeps your plane in the air.
When it comes to God and the Bible, there is no doubt that doctrine matters. In its simplest terms, doctrine is merely what we believe about God. And that doctrine, that belief, will impact the way we operate in every area of our lives.
This morning, I’m going to engage in some rather deep doctrinal teaching, perhaps some of the most important doctrinal teaching in the entire Bible. I’m going to tackle a passage that many pastors, commentators and theologians have called the most difficult passage in the Bible. So it is going take us the next two weeks to study this passage and even then we aren’t going to be able to cover everything that we could learn from it.
With that in mind, turn to Romans 5 and follow along as I read verses 12-21. But before I start reading, let me briefly explain the structure of this passage. Paul begins his train of through in verse 12 and then he does as he often does and takes a moment to explain something in that verse before he picks up with his main train of through again in verse 18. If you’re using the ESV translation you can kind of see that since there is a dash between verses 12 and 13, but the problem is that the other dash that should be between verses 17 and 18 to properly set apart Paul’s parenthetical comments is missing for some reason.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
[There is the dash I mentioned. Also notice the word “so” that Paul will use again in verse 18 to show he has now picked up his main teaching again. Verses 13 – 17 that we’ll read now are Paul’s explanation of what he just wrote in verse 12 about death spreading to all men.]
for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
[Now in verse 18, we’ll pick up with Paul’s main teaching again. Notice the word “so” that ties it back to verse 12.]
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 5:12-21 ESV)
If you’re confused after reading through this passage, welcome to the club. As I mentioned earlier, even the best Bible scholars consider this to be one of the most difficult passages in the entire Bible. What makes this passage difficult, though, is not that it’s hard to understand Paul’s main idea here. The problem is that some of the logic that he uses to explain and support that premise can be rather confusing. But I’m confident that if we’ll keep the big picture in mind, we’ll be able to make sense of the important doctrinal teaching of Paul in this passage.
So let’s start with the big idea:
The cure for those who are in Jesus by faith
is much more powerful than
the curse for those who are in Adam by nature
In this passage, Paul draws a sharp contrast between two men – Adam and Jesus. And he also draws a sharp contrast between two kingdoms – the kingdom ushered in by Adam in which sin leads to judgment and condemnation and death because of one man’s disobedience and the kingdom ushered in by Jesus in which grace leads to justification and righteousness and life because of one man’s obedience.
And the clear implication here is that every single person will end up in one of those two kingdoms depending on whether or not he or she chooses to accept the gift God offers through faith in Jesus. That is why this message and the doctrine that it contains is so important for every single one of us.
This morning I’m going to tackle the first half of the contrast that Paul draws that is associated with Adam. It is by far the hardest part to understand fully and unfortunately it is also the negative part of that contrast. Although I’m going to do my best to keep the big idea of this passage before us this morning to remind us that what Jesus does for us is more than adequate to deal with the curse that comes with being in Adam, without the second half of the message next week, it will be real easy to leave here discouraged this morning and I don’t want any of us to do that. That is why I beg all of you to not miss the second part of this message next week.
This morning, we’ll be dealing primarily with verse 12 and then with Paul’s more detailed explanation of his teaching in that verse in verses 13 through 15. And when we do that we will discover…
Why being “in Adam” by nature is a curse:
1. God takes sin seriously…and so should we
Since Adam and Eve committed the very first sin, man has been trying to excuse his sin or to justify it or to minimize it. Isn’t that exactly what Adam did? When God confronted Adam about eating the forbidden fruit, Adam immediately blamed Eve and God:
The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
(Genesis 3:12 ESV)
First Adam blames Eve and then he blames God for giving her to Adam in the first place.
We obviously live in a culture that no longer takes sin seriously. We probably all know people who joke about the fact that they don’t mind going to hell because they’ll be able to have a big party there with all their friends. The idea that such an existence is even possible can only be formulated if one minimizes just how serious sin is.
Not only that, but as a culture, we have now come to the place where we openly flaunt and embrace that which God calls sin. Again that kind of behavior can only occur when we fail to see sin like God sees it and recognize just how serious it is.
Although Paul doesn’t directly say that God takes sin seriously in this passage, he certainly implies it when he describes the consequences of sin: judgment, condemnation, and ultimately death – not just physical death, but also spiritual death.
Until we come to the place where we realize just how serious sin is in God’s eyes, we will never even recognize that it puts us under a curse. And until we see that we are under a curse, it’s pretty unlikely that we’re going to understand we need to receive God’s gift that allows us to get out from under that curse.
2. I am not a sinner because I sin – I sin because I am a sinner
I’m going to spend most of my time on this idea this morning for two reasons. First, this is by far the most difficult concept to understand in this passage. Second, it is also the most important because it is going to be the foundation for understanding the cure for the curse that we’ll look at next week.
Let’s begin with verse 12:
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
Let’s follow the progression:
• Sin came into the world through one man. As we’ll see clearly in the rest of the passage, the “one man” Paul is referring to here is Adam. It’s important to notice here that Paul does not say that Adam originated sin – only that he introduced it into this world. We don’t have time to do a detailed study of the origin of sin, but we get some insight into that here:
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
(1 John 3:8 ESV)
Since the devil existed before Adam was created, it is clear that sin existed before the creation of this world. In a sense Adam was just an agent of Satan who introduced sin into this world on Satan’s behalf.
It is also important to note that the word “sin” is singular here – it is “sin” not “sins”. That makes it clear that Paul is writing here about Adam’s character, his sin nature, and not about his individual acts of sin.
• Death came into the world through that sin. God had warned Adam ahead of time of the consequences of eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
(Genesis 2:16-17 ESV)
Although Adam and Eve did not die immediately, which would have been completely just by the way, death did enter into the world with their sin – both physical death and spiritual death.
• Death spread to all men because all men sinned.
Now we’re getting to the really hard stuff. And before I share with you my understanding of what Paul means here, let me acknowledge that there are many Bible scholars much more knowledgeable than me who may disagree with my conclusions. But all I can do is share with you my best understanding of the text based on my study as guided by the Holy Spirit.
The question here is this:
Does death spread to all men because the one man Adam by his one act of sin affected the whole human race or
does death spread to all men because of their individual sins?
I know a lot of you think I’m really splitting hairs here. Many of you are probably tempted to ask what difference it makes. But the answer to that question is actually the key to this entire passage in many respects.
We get a clue to the answer to our question in verse 12 because the verb “sinned” in the phrase “all men sinned” is in the aorist tense which means it is referring to a one time action that occurred in the past. So that seems to suggest that Paul is not writing here about the current sin in our lives. Had Paul wanted to suggest that, it seems he would have used a present tense verb there.
But Paul is going to make the answer to that question even clearer in verses 13-14. Let’s look at those verses again:
for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
The concept of “transgression” is really important here. We came across that term earlier in Romans 4:
For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
(Romans 4:15 ESV)
When we looked at that verse, we discovered that the term “transgression” means “to step over a line”. Back in chapter 4 Paul was making the point that before God gave the law, there was no line established, so while there was sin, it was not yet possible for there to be transgression because God had not yet established the line to be crossed by giving the law. Here in chapter 5, he is extending that idea a bit further to help explain what he meant in verse 12 when he wrote that “death spread to all men because all sinned”.
Here’s how I would summarize Paul’s argument in verses 13-14: God gave Adam a specific command that he violated so Adam was guilty of a transgression that resulted in death reigning in his life. But from Adam to Moses, there was no law that defined specifically what sin was. While occasionally God would give a specific command to men like He had done with Adam, for the most part people sinned without breaking a specific command of God.
That is why their “sinning was not like the transgression of Adam”, who had crossed the line by violating a specific command of God. And yet, even though they had not committed a transgression, they, too, were under the reign of death.
Paul is not saying, nor am I suggesting in any way, that we are not all responsible for and guilty of our own individual sins or that we can somehow blame our sin on having the sin nature of Adam imputed to us. But what we do learn here is that death is experienced by all men not on the basis of their individual sins, but on the basis of having Adam’s sin imputed to them. Paul confirms that idea in another of his letters:
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
(1 Corinthians 15:22 ESV)
Paul is arguing here that it is our sin nature and not just our individual sins that cause us to be under a curse. Our deepest problem is that behind all our depravity and guilt and sinning there is a deep, mysterious connection with Adam whose sin became our sin and whose judgment became our judgment. I’ll be the first to confess that I certainly don’t understand this idea completely. But I still believe it because that is the clear teaching of Scripture here.
But what is clear is that because Adam’s sin nature is passed down to all of his descendants, every person ever born has the same fundamental sin problem regardless of race, or tribe, or language or ethnicity or culture. That is the universal curse faced by all men and therefore it needs a cure that is also universal and which crosses all boundaries.
This leads us to our third and final reason why being “in Adam” by nature is a curse. We’ve already hinted at this so we won’t need to spend too much time here.
3. I don't die because I sin; I die because sin is in me working death.
I am naturally under the reign of death not because of my sin, but rather because I am by nature a sinner and therefore sin was already within me working death even before I was born. We clearly see that is the case in these Old Testament passages:
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
(Psalm 51:5 ESV)
The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
(Psalm 58:3 ESV)
This idea that we have a sin nature even before we have the ability to know right from wrong is confirmed by or own observations. When a child dies in the womb or early in life before he or she even has the ability to reason and sin, it is because that child already has that sin nature within and that sin nature has already put him or her under the reign of death.
This is the same point Paul is making in this familiar passage in Ephesians:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
(Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV)
Every single one of us are by nature children of wrath because we are all born with a sin nature that is in us working death. So therefore, without the intervention of Jesus we are all spiritually dead now and on an inevitable path to physical death in the future and we can do nothing on our own to change that.
I’ve done the very best I can to try and explain to you an idea that is almost inexplicable. I hope that I’ve helped you to understand that because every single human being ever born is “in Adam” we are all under a curse that causes both physical and spiritual death. It is our identification with Adam, and not our own individual sins, that cause us to be under the reign of death.
But my guess is that even if you’ve followed me so far and understand this idea, you’re probably asking why this even matters.
Before I answer that question, let me remind you one more time of the main theme of this passage:
The cure for those who are in Jesus by faith
is much more powerful than
the curse for those who are in Adam by nature
What we’ve learned this morning about the curse we are under because we are all “in Adam” seems pretty hopeless and discouraging. But the good news, which we’ll examine in more detail next week is that if we are “in Jesus” by faith, then the cure He provides for this curse is not just powerful enough to overcome the curse – it is much more powerful than the curse as indicated by Paul’s frequent use of phrases like “much more” and “all the more”.
So again, I don’t want you to leave here this morning discouraged or hopeless because there is indeed great news that we’ll focus on more next week.
Why this matters
Paul reveals why this matters at the end of verse 14:
…Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come…
Here Paul reveals that the first man, Adam, was a type, or a picture of the one who was to come – Jesus – who is also called “the last Adam” by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.
As I’ve already pointed out, the main point of this text is to display the greatness of the work of Jesus in providing the cure for the curse we are all under. And the way Paul does that is by lining up the work of Adam beside the work of Jesus and pointing out the similarities and the differences. Next week we’ll look at those contrasts in much more detail, but in order to answer our question of why this matters, we need only focus briefly on the one similarity.
Adam is a type of Jesus because in both cases the action of one man is imputed or counted to those who are “in him.” Sin and death are imputed to every single person ever born because we are all “in Adam.” But for all who are “in Christ” righteousness and life have been imputed to them in order to overcome that curse.
So if Adam is going to be a type of Jesus, then it is necessary that the way man receives righteousness and life needs to correspond directly to the way that he first received sin and death.
So let’s suppose for a moment that sin entered the world and death spread to all men because of individual acts of sin. Wouldn’t the direct parallel also require that righteousness enter into the world and life spread through individual acts of righteousness? But that is exactly what Paul has been arguing against for the first four and a half chapters of his letter.
On the other hand, if every man is under the curse of sin because we inherit Adam’s sin nature because we are “in him”, apart from anything we have done, then wouldn’t the direct parallel be that those who are “in Jesus” through faith inherit His righteousness apart from anything they have done. That is exactly what Paul has been teaching over and over again up to this point and that is why we can say with great confidence that…
The cure for those who are in Jesus by faith
is much more powerful than
the curse for those who are in Adam by nature
My prayer is that this morning you now see why doctrine matters. Without understanding the nature of the curse we are all under by being “in Adam”, it becomes very difficult, if not impossible for us to find the right cure for that curse that comes only from being “in Jesus.”
