with me to the book of Romans. Today we are beginning a look at the last half of the chapter, a chapter that deals with our justification, first its blessings and now its basis. How is it that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ could be for all men? Why is it that he does not have to die for each person individually? The answer to that question is found in these verses that we're going to read today. We're going to focus on verse 12, but to set the stage for it, let me
read verses 12 through 21. You follow along, please, in your copy of the Word of God. Therefore, justice through one man, sin entered into the world, and death through sin. So death spread to all men, because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam's offense, who is a type of him who was to come. But the
free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For on the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation. But on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions,
resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. So then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, Even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men.
For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one the many would be made righteous. And the law came in that the transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. That as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The purpose of these verses that we've read is to show the solidarity of the human race, to contrast the first Adam with Jesus Christ, who is called elsewhere in the New Testament the last Adam. to reveal that through Adam's sin, we all sinned. And that through Christ's obedient sacrifice at Calvary, all are potentially made righteous. Verse 12 says, just as through one man sin entered into the world, who is that one man? Adam, right.
and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned in Adam. Those last two words I inserted because that's the meaning of it. All sinned in Adam. The argument of this paragraph rests upon an important principle. It is the principle of headship. What that means is that Adam, by virtue of his creation, was the head of the human race. He was the first man, and when he sinned, all of us who have descended from him sinned in him. We were literally in
his body when he sinned. Now the theological significance of our text is destroyed if it could be proved that Adam was not a literal man, the special creation of God. It is popular in some circles these days to think of Adam as a myth or legend, or as only a symbol that should be interpreted allegorically to see the moral behind Adam. If that be the case, then the principle of his representing all men in his sin is undermined. And this passage of the word of God is nonsense.
Therefore, before we get to the real thrust of what Paul is saying in these verses 12 through 21, I'd like for us to consider today what the Bible says about the historicity of Adam. That is, he was a historical figure. That he literally was created, he lived, and he died. This deals with the matter of origins and creation. And I recognize that there are those who feel that that is a subject for scientists and not theologians. However, I agree with the logic of Dr. Alfred
Rawinkle, a Lutheran theologian. As he writes in his preface to the book The Wonders of Creation, a magnificent book, he says, All who examine the work of creation in this manner of necessity must enter the field which the scientist commonly claims for his own exclusive domain. And because of that, for many this will eliminate me as competent
to discuss this subject. I am a theologian and not a professional scientist, and for many it is taken for granted that what a theologian, and especially a fundamental theologian, has to say on this subject is inconsequential. Dr. Ray Winkle goes on to say, In reply to these objections, I would like to say that the problem concerning the origin of the universe is beyond the possibility of human observation and experimentation.
and therefore outside the scope of science. This knowledge can be attained only through revelation and accepted by faith. The question of creation is therefore a question of theology and not of science. Our society today has been mesmerized. The intellectual establishment has been led like a blind animal with a ring in its nose by pseudoscientists,
who claim that evolution is a proven fact. This hypnosis has affected philosophers, scientists, educators, and theologians by the thousands, who have adopted this unproven, unscientific theory as a basis for their thinking, writing, and teaching. A few of them have attempted a compromise with the Bible by conjuring up a concept called theistic evolution, which says, in essence, though it takes a number of forms, that God is the originator, God is the creator, but he chose
to produce man by the process of evolution. While intellectually tempting to some, it is theological suicide to accept that, and it destroys the authority and trustworthiness of God and the Bible. Those are some broad statements. But I affirm to you that if evolution is true, and if Adam was not in fact a special creation and the first man, representing all mankind, And the passage that we're going to study in the next week or so is absolutely without meaning. My basic proposition
is that God created man in his own image. If you will take the outline from your worship folder, you'll find that statement broken down into three parts. The God created. God created man. And God created man in his image. Let's think about the first part of that statement, that God created, and to do that, I'd like for you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. The Bible begins with a simple yet profound statement that simply says, in the beginning, God created the heavens
and the earth. There is no argument for the existence of God that is merely assumed. And it says that in that which characterized the beginning, that God created the heavens and the earth. There are three gaps which no evolutionist has ever bridged, or will be able to bridge. The first gap is the gap between nothing and something. It's the problem of origins. The theory of evolution cannot bridge that gap as to where something
began. The origin of matter. A second gap that an evolutionist cannot bridge is that between inanimate matter and living matter. That is the mystery of life. The spark of life, where did it come from? And how do we explain by that theory, or by any theory, how life began? A third gap is that of the one that exists between animals and man. The third evolution has not been able to bridge that gap. It involves the uniqueness
of man. He is different than animals. And though there are animals that are intelligent, and there are animals that have a structure similar to that of mankind's, there is a wide gap. that exists between the animal kingdom and mankind. And that gap has not been bridged by the theory of evolution. It's fun to look at the pictures that somebody thought up that supposedly bridges the gap, but we must remember that those pictures
are just the imagination of a man. Those structures, in fossil form or any other form, have never been discovered. You would almost think that a cave had been discovered somewhere. Some guy a long time ago drew all those pictures so that we today would know how everybody looked back in those days. It was simply the imagination of an artist constructing what the theory of evolution thinks is the bridge between man and animal. That's never been proven scientifically.
The Bible, however, clearly and simply bridges all three of these gaps. It does not do it in a scientific way. It simply makes statements of revelation. One must accept what the Bible says by faith, just as one must accept the theory of evolution by faith. The scientific evidence can be used to prove, quote, unquote, both theories. I am convinced, as a creationist, that the evidence clearly points toward the fact, I will call it, of creation. But that's not our main subject
today. If you're interested in that subject, I would encourage you to get a tape that we have available in our bookstore on the matter of creation, which was delivered here this last summer by Ron Carlson. And you will be, I think, impressed with the details that this 20th century apologist for the Christian faith brings to bear upon this subject. But let me just show you. quickly how the Bible bridges these three gaps that have not been bridged by the theory of evolution.
What about the gap between nothing and matter? Well, the Bible simply says that God spoke and matter suddenly existed. And as Hebrews 11 .3 says, we take that by faith. The Hebrew word for create In Genesis chapter 1 is a word that means to create something out of nothing. There are other words for create that have to do with taking what exists and reforming it. But God clearly says, it could not be more clear, that in the beginning he created the heavens and the
earth out of nothing. And he explains later here that it was accomplished by the act of his will. What about the bridge between inanimate, non -living matter and that matter which lives? Well, again, in this chapter, Genesis chapter 1, we have that bridge crossed. God spoke and that which is alive came to be in verse 20. God said, Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth in the open
expanse of the heavens. And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. And God saw that it was good and blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas. And let the birds multiply on the earth. And on that fifth day, God bridged that gap between that which did not live and that
which is said to be animate. And then the third gap, that between the animal kingdom and humankind. Again, Genesis chapter 1 bridges that gap. In verse 26, God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male
and female, he created them. So how is that gap bridged between the animals and man? special act of God fashioning man in his image. Now, when did this occur? That's not a matter primarily related to what we're talking about today. There are equally godly men on different positions regarding the timing of all of this. I would simply say that there is no reason that I have discovered in my reading to think that it has
to be more than a few thousand years ago. In fact, it seems to me that those arguments that are positioning themselves for long ages are based upon man's observations and conclusions out of attempt to compromise with scientific theories. And we must remember that man's observations and conclusions are limited. by his finite intellect. And therefore we need not worry about compromising the eternal and changing word of God with what man thinks at any given point. Is this an obscurantist
position? Is this fundamentalist ignorance? Is this intellectual suicide, as some people say? I would affirm to you that everything that I've said thus far in the message is compatible with the true scientific facts that we have. It must be admitted that as one approaches the facts, whatever his position, he approaches it with bias. The facts that we have point well to the theory or the fact of creation that God created. But let me pass from that to a more specific
subject, that God created man. In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7, it says, Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. There are those who say, oh, you're a creationist. Well, which account do you believe? The account in chapter 1 or the account in chapter 2? And my response to that is yes. I believe both accounts because, in fact, what we have here are supplemental accounts.
In chapter 1, there is the broad stroke of what God did. In chapter 2, he goes back to fill in the details. Chapter 2 very simply supplements what is said in chapter 1. There is no contradiction between the two, as some scholars seem to suppose. Furthermore, the language here clearly indicates that Adam was not the result of a long process of upward progression in the species. He is not the result of natural selection or the survival of the fittest. but rather it simply states that
he was made by a special act of creation. God took simple elements of his creation. He calls it dust. And out of those simple elements, he fashioned a body. And then God breathed into the nostrils of that body. The breath of life, and it says man became a living being. God did not do that with any of the animals. He spoke and they simply were. But man is distinct. He is unique. God breathed into man his own breath or spirit, same Hebrew word, of life. God created
man. And let's complete the sentence by saying God created man in his image, his own image. That doesn't mean that God has a body and he looks like you and me. What it means is that just as God is a triunity, so man is a trinity. He is a tripart being of body, soul, and spirit. The body is his world conscious part. By which he relates to his environment. And he has senses that God has built into the healthy body of sight and taste and touch and so on. So he can relate
to the world around him. The soul is his self -conscious aspect. It's that part of us that is aware of what's going on. The intellect. The will. The emotions. The ego. And the spirit is that God -conscious part of man by which man is able to relate to the personal creator and worship him. That's part of what it means, at least, when it says that man is created in God's image. A tree is not created in God's image. Created by God, but not in God's image. It has
a body. But it doesn't have a soul or spirit. A dog is created by God, but a dog isn't created in God's image. A dog has a body. And the Bible says it has a soul. That is, it has a certain sense of its own existence. A dog can learn tricks and unlearn them. It can obey and disobey. But all of that is built into its soulish part. An animal dies. The body is still there, but the animal is dead. Part of the animal is gone. That's
its soulish aspect. Man, however, has a body, a soul, on a higher plane than even an animal, and a spirit. the very core of his being. When a man dies, his body is left. That's the material part. But the immaterial, the soul and the spirit, which are mysteriously united, by which the Bible does distinguish, that immaterial part of him leaves the body. That's what death is. I had a funeral Friday. And as some of the folks came
in, they said, that doesn't look like him. I've rarely heard anybody say it does look like the one we knew. And why is that? Because when the immaterial part leaves the body, it changes in its appearance even a little bit, because life is no longer there. It's the same body, but something is missing, and that something is the soul, spirit, the immaterial part. Man is not a spirit because he has a body, but he has a part of him that
is spiritual. Adam, the first man and the representative of all of us, was created body, soul, and spirit like God, and he was innocent. He was given authority to reign over God's creation, as verse 28 of Genesis 1 says, God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule. God wanted man to rule and to reign over his creation. Man was set up with a kingdom to reign over. He was the
masterpiece of God's earthly creation. This basic proposition that Adam existed, that he was body, soul, and spirit, that he was a special, created being of God is not an option for us to believe. It is essential and basic, I submit, to the Christian message. Let me give you three things that it's essential to. The historicity of Adam, that he actually lived was created and lived and died, as God has said in Genesis 1 and 2 and 3, is essential, number one, to the humanity of Jesus
Christ. Now those who doubt the historicity of Adam may not be thinking clearly regarding the ramifications of that teaching. Because you see, it touches the very humanity of Jesus Christ. Let me prove that by turning you to Luke chapter 3. We have Luke's genealogical record of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his genealogy, Luke traces the Lord Jesus' genealogy through Mary, most Bible scholars seem to believe. through the ancestry
all the way back to Adam, verse 38. We're going to skip all those long lists of names and go to verse 38, the conclusion of the list, and he says, the son of Enoch, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. You see, the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ is traced back through history to Adam. If Adam is a myth, or just a symbol to be interpreted allegorically, then how does that relate to the actual humanity of Jesus Christ? If Adam is a myth, then what does
that make Jesus? Related to a myth? Or is the Bible not accurate when it says what it says in Luke 3 .38? You see, whether Adam lived or not touches the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. One cannot doubt that Adam lived without in some way having to deal then with whether Jesus really lived and was he really human. Or is the Bible erroneous? And then this aspect or this fact rather of the historicity of Adam relates also
to the honesty. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew chapter 19 deals with the sticky subject of divorce. I'm going to select just one verse out of the context without doing damage to it, just to show you one of Jesus' statements as he teaches about divorce. In Matthew 19 verse 4, in response to some Pharisees who were testing him, He answered and said, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?
What is Jesus saying here? He is saying that the creation took place and that God created them male and female. In other words, he is underscoring the accuracy of the account of Genesis. It is interesting that the Lord Jesus Christ went out of his way to underscore and affirm the actual historical veracity of most of those things that modern -day scholars doubt. The historicity of Adam, the fall of man into sin, the worldwide flood, the scattering of the nations, the Tower
of Babel. Jonah and his experience. The Lord Jesus Christ went out of his way to affirm that these things were true. So when a person begins to doubt those things, he is placing doubt concerning the honesty and the truthfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, haven't you read that in the beginning God created them, male and female? And this fact of the historicity of Adam also affects the accuracy of other New Testament writers. The Apostle Paul, for example, in Romans 5, makes
no sense whatsoever if Adam did not live. How can we relate Adam as the head of the human race if in fact he's a symbol or myth? Paul is ridiculous in that point if Adam did not live. Let me show you another passage where Paul relates to Adam. And the passage is based upon what he says concerning Adam and Eve in 1 Timothy chapter 2. Some of you love this text. He deals here with the public worship of the church and particularly to the role of men and women. in relation to the public
assembly of the believers. Is this just to be culturally written out of the Word of God? Absolutely not. There are things in the New Testament that are cultural, but always, listen, always below that there is a basic principle that does not change with the change of cultures. And we see that, for example, right here. He's talking about the men are to pray, lifting up their holy hands,
pure motives. He talks about women being modest in their dress, in their appearance, that they're to receive instruction with submissiveness, not to allow women to teach or exercise authority over men, but to remain quiet. He's talking here about the public assembly of the church. There are people who take these things out of context.
and extremes in both directions. It's not my purpose to talk about that specifically today, but to simply show you that he's saying some things here to the church, and then he says the reason for it in verse 13. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And so he's saying the reason I give you these instructions is because Adam was first created and then Eve. And that's why you should do these things. Now, is Paul inaccurate in saying that Adam was created
and then Eve? Then why should we obey his commands here? You see how it begins to crumble and fall apart once we begin to doubt something like this in the Word of God? God created man in his own image. To deny that and to deny the historicity of Adam is to impugn the integrity of the Bible and the God of the Bible. It is a very serious step away from orthodox Christianity. And I don't care where one might hear it, in the classroom or in the pulpit or in a personal conversation.
It is nonetheless a small, but perhaps not so small, first step toward false teaching. Now let's go back to Romans chapter 5 and look at verse 12 again. And with the background that we've tried to paint, let's see what the apostle says. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned. And again I say, it means all sinned in Adam. Now what happened to Adam and to us? What is
this talk here about sin? You will recall that God established a test for man's faith, dependence, and obedience. God said, you may eat of all of the trees of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, lest you surely die. You see, God wanted man to know good and evil by revelation and by faith, not by personal experience. You know the record. Eve was deceived, but Adam chose in rebellion
to eat the fruit. That test, that tree, its fruit symbolized man's creaturehood and his dependence upon God. Man rejected that when he ate of the fruit. And when God said, you shall surely die, he reiterated when he said to Adam, you are made of dust, and to dust you shall return. And then in Genesis chapter 5, you have the record. Adam lived so many years, and he begot Seth, and he lived so many other years, and he died. And then Seth's record. He lived so many years, he begot,
he lived, and he died. And you trace it right through Genesis chapter 5, which some people call the Bible's obituary. And time after time it says he died. He died. He died. Why? Because of Adam's sin. Listen to this. People die not because of personal sin, but because of Adam's sin. That is what is said here. That's part of the argument and we'll get to it more fully next week. Why do babies die? What sin has a baby committed that he should die? A baby is innocent
of transgression, of breaking the law. Unable to comprehend it. And yet babies die. Why? Because of Adam's sin. Death is passed down from generation to generation because of what Adam did. Not in his second act of disobedience, or his fifth, or his tenth, but because of that first act of disobedience. In declaring his independence from God. Why is it that mentally, Handicapped people die because of Adam's sin. And you say, well, that dirty guy, Adam. And you begin to blame
it all on him. But folks, let me tell you something. If every one of us was put into the Garden of Eden and given the same test, every one of us would make the same choice that Adam did. Sin is a condition. It is also a choice. People act sinfully because they are sinners. If a man were only an evolved animal, then he could not be held morally responsible or accountable for his sin. Animals are not held accountable to God because they disobeyed. Mankind is. Every man
is. Death passed upon all men, for all have sinned in Adam. Today, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are still in death and in Adam. Your need is to be born out of that family by the new birth, by trusting Jesus Christ and being born into the family of God. eternal life. Has that happened to you? You say, well, I'm working toward it. Then I feel sorry for you because you'll never get there if you're
working for it. If you've been with us very long in Romans, you know that it's not by works that we're saved, but it's by God's grace alone. All we can do is reach out and by faith receive God's gift of righteousness and eternal life. which he's provided for us through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. You see, Jesus Christ was preserved from Adam's sin. That's why the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is so doctrinally fundamental
and essential. He did not inherit sin from Adam because there was no male seed as a part of his conception. And the Holy Spirit, Protected. That embryo. Within Mary's womb. So that Mary's sin. Was not passed on. To Christ. When he was born he was called that holy one. And he was. No sin. Fully human. But without sin. And it was as a man. and as God, that he went to the cross and died in your place and mine, and provided for
us to be saved from our sin and our death. If you've never trusted him, I hope you'll do it today. Most of us here, though, have done that, I would think. I'd like to close with a couple of applications that strike us as well as those who may be here without Christ. Regarding sin, First of all, sin bears tragic consequences. Sin is a destroyer. Look at what it did to God's creation, which again and again God saw it was
good. It's good. It's good. And God rested on this seventh day because those six days of creation were perfect. And yet sin entered into that creation and destroyed it. Man who was created to reign over his own kingdom lost his rule. He began to die. Civilization began to fall apart as evil took deeper and deeper root in man. Sin destroys. It not only destroys in a historical sense, it
destroys still today in a personal sense. There are some Christians who have the idea that they can play around with sin and live in it and not be hurt by it. How tragically wrong that is. Sin destroys. It destroys your peace with God, your peace of God. It destroys your joy. Sin will rob you of your reward when you stand before Christ. It will cause you to waste life. It will cause you to miss life's most fulfilling moments in the will of God. Sin destroys. And there are
some of you here today playing with it. You think it's fun and it's pleasurable. And you are ignorant of the fact that it's like a cancer. It's eating away at your inner man. I pray, God, that you will come to Jesus Christ in repentance and confession today. So that that sin can be cleansed from your life and forgiven and God can begin a healing work to make you whole. Then a second lesson that we learn from our text today is that sin affects others. There's not a one of us who lives
to himself only. When we sin, we affect those around us. We affect our roommates. our fellow students, our families, our church, so that we're not only destroying ourselves, we're destroying people around us. Don't you think that that bitterness and that anger that you harbor in your heart is not dragging others down? You just honestly look around you and see the deterioration in others because of the kind of attitudes that you're harboring within. Sin affects others.
I don't think this was ever more graphically illustrated to me than in something that happened several years ago. A young boy, I don't know how old he was, but just a little tight, was given up by his parents. They didn't want him anymore. He was in the way, so they rejected him. There was a family that brought him into
their home. and cared for him. And I'm sure they did their best to try to raise him, but that little boy never got over that rejection, that terrible sin his parents committed against him of not loving him. As he grew to be pre -teen and early teen, he got involved in rock music and in drugs. And finally, in the worship of Satan. One evening he went into his room. He turned on his psychedelic lights, turned up his rock music, opened the Satanic Bible, which he
had a copy of, apparently read from it. Put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. I was called for his funeral. I'd never met him or the family before. They needed somebody. So I went down, and there in the funeral home was this 18 -year -old boy, senior in high school, lying on a casket in death. wearing blue jeans and a black leather jacket. Across his chest and his hands was his guitar. There wasn't a
lot of hope in that situation. As people tried to blame God, I had a good time blaming the devil and sin for the whole mess. Then we got out to the cemetery. And the casket was left there by itself after the committal. I can still remember that metallic blue casket. We were walking away back to the cars, and suddenly out from the crowd ran a woman. It was the mother that had rejected him 15 or so years before. She ran to the casket, put her arms around it, and beat on it, calling
out his name. And I thought to myself, dear lady, don't you know that it's a few years too late.