Death Rules
Romans 5:12-19
[Thanks to Timothy Peck, SermonCentral.com, for his contributions to this message.]
INTRO: Did you watch the Super Bowl last week? Did your team win? There’s been a lot of talk in the media this week about the Super Bowl, most of it about how impressive the New England Patriots are. But there has been another major theme – about who fromt he Eagles gets the blame for losing the game. Virtually all of it focused on the Eagles quarterback, Donovan McNabb. Every news person, sports commentator, writer, that I heard or read has gone on and on about how McNabb blew it, didn’t come through, failed in this biggest of games. This despite the fact that he threw for 357 yards and 3 touchdowns – he still received all the blame. It was all his fault. His teammates defended him – one in particular came out and said McNabb was very ill, and no one knew it. But McNabb responded to that by saying, no, I was fine. He accepted the blame. He was willing to shoulder responsibility. Pretty impressive.
Today, I’d like to introduce you to another man who shoulders a lot of blame, and he deserves it. As I do, I’d like you to think about this question: Who, besides yourself, is most to blame for your life’s problems? Who, besides you, can be blamed for the messed up parts of your life?
Turn with me to the Book of Romans, chapter 5, where we will meet someone who has a lot of blame to shoulder.
Read Romans 5:12
A. Sin entered the world through Adam
Our text begins, “just as sin entered the world through one man.” Sin came about because of one man. Who is that one man? Adam. Scripture puts the blame for human sin squarely on Adam. According to the Bible, Adam and his wife Eve were the first two human beings in human history. In the Garden of Eden, God told them clearly not to eat the fruit of a certain tree – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Adam disobeyed God’s command and ate the fruit. In some mysterious way Adam’s disobedience against God allowed sin and its power into his life, his world, and into the human race.
B. Death followed sin into the world
Verse 12 in our text goes on to say “and death through sin,” meaning that death also entered the world, because of sin. Adam let sin in, and sin brought death along behind it. The great commentator Cranfield wrote, “Death followed sin like a shadow, going wherever sin traveled.” The Bible is very clear about this: Sin always leads to death. They go hand in hand. Sin kills. If it wasn’t for sin, there would be no death. Think about that for a moment. One chapter later, Paul would say it this way: Romans 6:23a
“For the wages of sin is death,” Romans 6:23
The death that entered the world includes physical death (our physical mortality), spiritual death (separation from God), and eventual eternal death (eternal separation from God’s presence and love).
So often we think, or are told, that something God considers sin is what we need in order to have life. Maybe your boyfriend is encouraging you to have sex or your friends are pressuring you to. You think this is what you need for a good life, but the result will be death – something will die.
Have you ever known someone who has given in to bitterness or selfishness, and watch them “die?”
C. Death spread to everyone, because everyone sinned.
Our text [Romans 5:12] goes on to say, “and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” Once death was in the world, in Adam, it spread from Adam to everyone. “All men” means “all people,” as in “all mankind.” You’ve probably noticed that men aren’t the only ones who die…
Adam’s sin brought death to everyone, because his sin spread to everyone.
You see, once sin entered into the world, it was like a virus that spread. I read recently about an entire national forest in Oregon that had 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. [Tim Peck, SermonCentral.com].
In verses 13-14 [Romans 5:13-14] he even points out that this sin spread to people before the 10 commandments (The Law) was given by God to Moses.
And once we were all infected with sin, we inherited death.
How did this happen? How did we ‘catch’ the sin disease and resulting death from Adam? Well, our text says it happened because “all sinned.”
This means that we all sin. All people have chosen the way of Adam, and as a result death has ruled over us.
Don’t believe me? There is a simple test you can take to determine if you have been infected with sin. Here it is: Did you lie this week? Have impure thoughts? Have you done or said anything this week that falls short of God’s moral standard? Have you been selfish, even for a moment? Kids, have you disobeyed or disrespected your parents, teachers, etc.? If so, that’s a sure sign that you have the disease.
But it also means that all of us somehow are considered to have sinned with Adam.
Somehow Adam was the representative for the entire human race when he was in the garden. Adam was like a guard posted at the door of the human race, appointed to keep sin and death out. But instead of keeping it out, Adam opened the door, and it flooded in like a virus, bringing death in its wake.
Because of Adam’s sin, every human being who’s been born since then has been born with a sin nature. In other words, we don’t become sinners when we sin, but we sin because we are sinners. We have an inherent bent toward rebelling against our creator.
All have sinned, and so all die.
Try as we might, we can’t beat death ourselves. We invest tons in plastic surgery and things like cryogenics hoping to some how hold off death, but it doesn’t work.
Every day we read about terrible, horrible things happening in places like Iraq. There are a lot of brave people over there, risking and often sacrificing their lives. It doesn’t sound like a very safe place to be. But even in a place like Iraq the death rate is the same as it is here. It’s 100%. Everyone dies, because everyone sins.
D. This explains a lot
Well, I don’t know about you, but for me this explains a lot. This helps explain a lot of stuff, like disasters. The Scriptures say that not just humans are infected with sin, but even creation is infected by it. The reason that tsunamis and blizzards and earthquakes and tornados sometimes have devastating consequences is not because God is cruel or out of control. It is because sin is at work, leading to death. The fact that sin infects all of us, and death does too explains why the people in your life die, sometimes suddenly. It explains why there have been cruel people in your life and why relationships so often fail. It even explains why work is so hard! Sin, and its shadow death run rampant, dominating our lives.
The sin and death we got from Adam has a huge impact on our lives. And it doesn’t just effect you, it effects everyone you know.
I. Because of Adam, death rules us
We all die because of Adam. Because of Adam’s sin, death rules in our lives. Congratulations, you’re dead. Not “mostly dead.” You start your journey in life dead, headed for death.
Transition: Well that’s a cheery thought! What hope is there? This can be pretty depressing, driving you to despair. Maybe after hearing all this, you feel a little bit like Siggy, in the film What About Bob? Siggy is the son of a prominent psychiatrist, played by Richard Dreyfuss, and he’s a little focused on the inevitability of death. [show What About Bob clip]
What can we do about this? Anything? If Adam got us into this mess, who will get us out? Why all this emphasis on death, anyway? Well, it’s important for us to grasp the depth of our situation so we can appreciate the gift we are given. That’s right – you are about to receive a gift, and it is the remedy for your death fixation. What Paul is going to tell us is that just as one man, Adam, made this mess, one man, Jesus Christ, cleans it up. It all begins with a gift. Notice this as I read Romans 5:15.
A. God gives us a free gift in Jesus Christ
Here Paul contrasts the trespass of Adam and the gift of God. Many died because of one man’s trespass, but God gives a gift in Jesus Christ that cleans up the mess Adam made, and that you and I make as we live sin-dominated lives.
The gift spoken of here is the forgiveness of your sin, the removal of sin, the status of righteousness before God that you have because of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, gave his life in place of yours. He took your sin upon himself and suffered the consequences for it. God accepts his blood in place of yours. He didn’t have to, but he wanted to. It was his gift to you.
Virtually every gift we receive is expected, or obligated. For instance, how many of you were really shocked that you got Christmas gifts this year?
This gift is truly a gift. It was given freely to you, without you earning or deserving it.
This is a very costly gift – the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. It took an incredibly significant act – God’s own Son giving up his life – to make up for what Adam did. The principle here is that is takes much more effort to clean up a mess than it does to create one. If you have or work with children, you know what I mean…
This is all it took to bring sin and death into the human race: [bite apple]
This is all it took to undo the effects of sin and death: [show image of Christ on the cross]
B. This gift brings approval before God
How does it undo the effects of sin and death?
Read Romans 5:16.
Christ’s death makes it possible for us to stand before God, approved. Read Romans 5:18-19.
C. Life rules in those who receive this gift
The result of this is life, the opposite of death.
Read Romans 5:17.
Death rules us, reigns in us, because of Adam. But now life is given to us in Jesus Christ. If you receive that gift – acknowledge your need for it and accept it for yourself – you have life. Your spirit comes alive, it is no longer dead. You gain eternal life, which is a quality of life marked by the presence of God. And physical death no longer has any sting to it, because you gain everlasting life with God.
Life rules in us through Jesus Christ.
And note the emphasis on “How much more” – the impact of death through Adam is big. But “how muich more” is the life we gain through Christ.
II. Because of Christ, life can rule in us
We can live because of Christ’s death. Because of God’s gift to us in Christ, we can live.
MI. We are dead in Adam but can live in Christ
