The Adam Family

The Adam Family

Romans 5:12-21

http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/AdamFamily.html

What a strange family. They had it all, and gave it all away. A wonderful creation made by a wonderful Creator, but they chose to rebel and sin and go their own way. Dark and spooky, dressed in black! Hiding in the shadows.

We are part of this family! We continue in our heritage as we "Lurch" through life, still allowing sin to "Fester" within us. What a strange "Thing" is this family. Yes "It" is!

Paul answers some tough questions, such as:

• How is it possible for God to save all sinners who come to Him through ’one man’, Jesus Christ? You would think that each of us would require a substitute of our own. [The Federal Headship of Christ]

• Why do sin and death reign over all of us, from the womb, before we even choose to sin ourselves? All children are born with this propensity to sin. [The Federal Headship of Adam]

Understand a few general truths from this passage:

The word ’one’ is used 12 times in this passage...the emphasis is on the one...there’s something very urgent about this ’one’. It is of vital importance in some way. It is because we will be saved by ’one’ man, Jesus Christ. We all identify with Adam in our sin, and we can all identify with Jesus in our salvation.

The Federal Headship of Adam is the basis by which we can all be saved by the Federal Headship of Jesus Christ. Because we were all condemned by one we can all be saved by One. Critics say it isn’t fair that we all be condemned in Adam. It was not only fair, but it was wise and gracious for God to do it that way, because if we were all judged on an individual basis we would each require our own personal substitute and couldn’t all look to the same One for that. Jesus would have just died for Adam and the rest of us would be on our own. By the way, if you or I were in Eden back then we would have sinned just the same!

The word ’reign’ is used 5 times. vv. 14, 17, 21

Paul says that both Adam and Jesus ’reigned’ over kingdoms. Adam reigned over the old creation and Jesus over the new. Adam reigned over doomed humanity and Jesus over delivered humanity.

The phrase ’much more’ is repeated several times as well.

vv. 15, 17, 20

This phrase is always used in connection with grace. In Jesus we gained ’much more’ than we ever lost in Adam. Jesus not only undid all the damage Adam caused, He did ’much more’ for us by making us sons of God.

This whole passage is a contrast of Adam and Jesus [the last Adam]

1 Corinthians 15:22

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

1 Corinthians 15:45

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

1 Corinthians 15:47

The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

Sun Yung Moon declared himself the ’third Adam’. He had read about the first Adam and considered Christ the second Adam...but Christ is the ’LAST’ Adam! Ain’t gonna be no more!

There is no middle ground. You are either saved or lost, ruined or redeemed, under wrath or under love, a sinner or a saint...you are in Adam or in Christ!

Let’s look at what we lost in Adam and what we gained in Christ ’much more!’

3 things we can learn about the first Adam:

1. He was a real man.

v. 12 Many today say the first 3 chapters of the Bible are metaphor, figurative and symbolic. Even many Christians today try to marry the Bible to evolution and billions of years in order not to be laughed at and say there was no real Adam and Eve, it’s just a picture of our earliest ancestors and how we choose sin. [theistic evolution]

THERE HAD TO BE A REAL ADAM, YOUR SALVATION DEPENDS UPON IT!

According to our text, if one man, Adam, didn’t plunge us into sin, then one man, Jesus, couldn’t save us! The equation must be equal on both sides.

v. 19

Why do people deny the existence of Adam? To do away with the existence of God!

Evolution: Creation:

man evolving man devolving

man moving bottom to top man moving top to bottom

from darkness to light from light to darkness

If no Adam, then no fall, no sin, no need for a Savior or a God.

Evolution is a religion with no God.

Adam was as real as sin, a real man like Christ is real!