TEXT: ROMANS 5:12-21
TITLE: ‘THE LEGACY”
INTRODUCTION: A. Two old friends bumped into one another on the street one day.
One of them looked forlorn, almost on the verge of tears. His friend
asked, "What has the world done to you, my old friend?"
The sad fellow said, "Let me tell you. Three weeks ago, my uncle
died and left me forty thousand dollars."
"That’s a lot of money."
"And, two weeks ago, a cousin I never even knew died, and
left me eighty-five thousand dollars."
"Sounds like you’ve been blessed...."
"You don’t understand!" he interrupted. "Last week my great-aunt
passed away. I inherited almost a quarter of a million."
Now the friend was really confused. "Then, why do you look so
sad?”
"This week... nothing!"
B. Our Scripture this morning deals with inheritances – or legacies – left
for us to receive.
1. One of Webster’s definitions: “anything handed down as from an
ancestor”
2. Paul talks about the legacies we receive from two people and an
institution.
C. Paul uses Adam and Jesus to teach us some very important lessons.
1. The issue in this passage is that only two perfect men have ever
existed: Adam and Jesus
2. Adam was created perfect but by the exercise of his free will sinned
3. Jesus existed in perfection, was born in perfection, and died in
perfection
4. Each one has impacted the human race greatly in very different but
related ways.
I. THE LEGACY FROM ADAM
A. Adam was a man of sin.
1. He decided that he would willfully disobey God’s command
2. The Garden of Eden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
3. Adam was created good. He became evil when he disobeyed.
--Only then did he know the difference
B. Because of Adam’s sin, all of creation was affected
1. When Adam fell, all of creation fell.
2. Before Adam’s sin, the world was a perfect place to live.
3. After Adam’s sin, the world became a fallen place to live.
C. Because of Adam’s sin, God imposed condemnation and consequences
1. Earning our living by the sweat of our brow
2. Instead of being able to partake of the tree of life, we know face physical and spiritual
death.
D. Because Adam is our ancestor, sin has been passed to all of us.
1. Just as we receive the tendency for the color of our eyes, the color of our hair, our
height, our build, and other physical attributes from our ancestors, so we receive the
tendency for sin from our ancestor Adam.
2. We are “born to be wild”
--unruly, disobedient, prideful, and cantankerous
3. Because Adam was disobedient, the propensity to sin is passed on to us.
4. You see, once sin entered into the world, it was like a virus that spread.
-- Read recently about an entire national forest in Oregon that has been infected by a
fungus (The Daily News [8/5/00], from PreachingToday.com). This fungus started as
a single microscopic spore, but it’s been weaving its way through this forest for about
2,400 years, killing tress as it grows.
Today this fungus has infected 2,200 acres of this national forest. Essentially the
fungus is a gigantic mushroom you can’t see from the ground, but it’s killed hundreds
of thousands of tress, all from a single spore. That’s similar to how Adam’s sin
opened the door for sin and death to spread like a fungus through the entire human
race.
II. THE LEGACY OF THE LAW
A. Paul touches on something here that he explains in fuller detail in Chapter 7 of Romans.
--the purpose and role of the law (which the Jews would have said, “What about the …?”
1. The phrase "came in" is a Greek theater term that describes the Law coming onto the
stage as a minor actor to enhance the scene.
2. Law does not remedy the sin problem. It aggravates it
--The tighter we make our laws, the more we look for loopholes.
B. The Law was never intended to provide salvation but to convince people of their need
for it.
1. God’s law shows us how sinful we really are.
2. The law is like a magnifying glass. A magnifying glass doe not increase the number
of dirty spots, but it does make them stand out more clearly and brings to light some
that the naked eye cannot see.
III. THE LEGACY FROM JESUS
A. Where Adam sinned, Jesus lived a perfect life.
--Heb. 4:15 tells us that He was “tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without
sin.”
B. Where Adam brought condemnation, Jesus brought justification.
1. II Corinthians 5:21, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2. Acts 13:39 – “Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you
could not be justified from by the law of Moses.”
C. Where Adam brought death to all who were descended from him, Jesus brought life to all
who would place their faith in Him.
--Jn. 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that all who
would believe on Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
D. Where Adam was disobedient to the Father’s will, Jesus was obedient the Father’s will.
--Phil. 2:8 – “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient to death – even death on a cross!”
CONCLUSION: A. Notice that both legacies involve a tree: One a tree in the Garden. The
other a tree formed into a cross on Golgotha.
B. Adam brought death, Jesus Christ brings Life.
--I Corinthians 15:22, "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be
made alive."
C. Several years ago, Eugene F. Suter, Jr. was a student at Yale
University. His father passed away and left him an inheritance of
$400,000.
Amazingly, Suter refused the inheritance. The trustees of the estate
insisted he take it, and even took him to court to force him to accept the
inheritance.
Judge William T. Collins reluctantly ruled that the young man had a
legal right to reject the $400,000. The judge’s order legally cut off the
22-year-old-student from all future interest in the family fortune.
D. 1 Peter 1:3-4 – Peter says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, in his great mercy He has given us new birth into a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an
inheritance that can never perish or spoil or fade kept in heaven for you."
E. Don’t face the legacy of death from Adam without the legacy of life from
Jesus the Christ.
