Why Adam's Sin Condemned You — Romans 5 Explained

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, and again, for all of you in the studio audience, let's just turn right back to Romans chapter 5, where we left off in our last program. And again, I skipped last month's program, or last week's, I guess, so this time we'll give you another shot of the books and the tapes that are available. And remember, for those of you out in television, that every past program all the way back to Genesis are available in VCR tapes. We've made them very nominal in cost. We trust that almost anyone can afford a set of them, and also everyone has been transcribed into printed form, so that if you like one or either, they are available. Another thing we like to make sure that people understand, if you write to us or if you contribute to us, you will not be on a mailing list of junk mail, believe me. We make no appeals through the mail. We make no mailings. The only time we have used our list is when we've had a seminar, such as out in Denver. We let all the Denver listeners just simply know that we had a seminar, no appeal for money, and the same way when we went up to Minnesota and various other places. We will let the folks know something like that. But for those of you who may be having some trepidations, and I know exactly how you feel, I had to do it myself. I had to write a couple ministries and just tell them, hey, take my name off your mailing list because every time I send you $100, you send me enough stuff that it used it all up for postage. Well, we do not do that, so feel free to write to us and you will not be getting a box full of appeals. Okay, now then, let's come right back into the subject at hand, and that is justification by faith and faith alone, and how the need for it all began back in the Garden when Adam fell and death came with sin. And so the human race now is faced with that dilemma that not only are we sinners, but we are also in a circumstance of death. Spiritual death has already taken place. We're born dead. Physically, every human being will approach it someday if the Lord cherishes. All right, I'm going to read the last three verses we taught then, or we go into verse 15. So beginning at verse 12, Paul comes to the conclusion, "...Wherefore, as by one man, Adam, sin, the old Adamic nature, entered into the world, and death came with sin. And so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned." The two become synonymous. And then to verse 13, we dealt with in our last program, "...For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned as a king from Adam to Moses at the giving of the law, even over them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." In other words, they were not faced with a tree and a forbidden fruit. But this Adam is the figure, or the type, or a picture of Him that was to come. Now we didn't get the comment on that last portion of the verse, so we'll touch on it now a moment. Adam, you see, is the first man, and Christ is the second man, or the second Adam. Now maybe we should pick that up in another reference. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, because I always want people to know that we don't just pull this out of the woodwork someplace, that hopefully what I teach I can back up with the Scriptures. And as we were just talking at break time, while you're in 1 Corinthians, you can back up to chapter 2 a minute first if you would. Go back to chapter 2, verse 13 and 14, because as we were discussing at break time, you know a lot of people just don't realize that until you become a believer, until you become a child of God by virtue of your salvation and your faith, this book is utterly impossible to comprehend. Oh, the unbeliever may be able to read some of the stories and some of the miracles and get something out of it, but when it comes to the basic deep things of Scripture, no one can understand them until they become a child of God. I've been blunt with some of my people. I know I had one gentleman who came to my class for three years, and I'm not one to take him by the nap of the neck and try to force him into a conversion experience, and every week I was just tickled to death that he was there. But he would tell me, he said, Les, he said, I just can't understand all this. And I said, well, when you become a believer you will. Now you can't do that with everybody, but with him it was just fine, see. And he finally did, and now of course he's just like a bad weed. He's just growing, and he can comprehend the Scriptures, see. But that's the way it is. All right, and that's Scriptural. That isn't just my own idea. Now if you've got 1 Corinthians chapter 2, no, yeah, I'm in the wrong place, 1 Corinthians chapter 2 at verse 13 and 14, where Paul makes that so plain, "...which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." And now look at the next verse, "...but the natural man, the unconverted, the unregenerated, the unsaved, the lost man, receiveth..." What's the next word? "...not." He receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him. He can't understand, neither can he know them. Why? Because they are spiritually discerned or understood. And so we have to be real patient. I think that's one of the attributes God has given me when I deal with unbelievers. I'm patient. I don't care if it takes three years for them to come to the place of understanding the gospel. I would hope it'd be quicker than that, but I'm still going to be patient with them because I realize where they're coming from, that they cannot comprehend these things until God opens their eyes and their hearts, and we leave that to His own good timing. All right, now then, that's just one lesson aside. Now if you'll come back with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we're going to see the other portion that deals with Adam the first man and Christ the second. In other words, what we have to understand is that as the first man Adam, even with that simple act of disobedience, of eating the forbidden fruit, the first man Adam plunged the whole human race into condemnation. Every human being, beginning with Cain, has been a fallen creature by virtue of Adam's act of rebellion. So Adam, as the federal head of the whole human race, plunged everybody into that place of condemnation. All right, but God didn't leave it there. Now He comes around, and He comes with the second man, the Christ, and He makes it possible for every degenerate son of Adam to become a regenerate son of God. It's that simple, and yet it's complex. All right, now here we are, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 45, and so it is written. "...the first man Adam was made a living soul," now that's way back in Genesis chapter 2, I think it is, where God breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul. "...the last Adam," now that's Jesus the Christ, "...the last Adam," now that word was made is italicized, so it's been added by the translators, unfortunately. I think it's better left out, "...the last Adam, a quickening," what, "...spirit." Now what does the word quickening mean here? Life-giving. When you quicken something, or as when God quickens something, it gives it life. Ephesians 2, verse 1, "...and you who were dead in trespasses and sin, he hath," what, "...quickened, he hath made us alive." All right, now bring it back again. "...the first Adam was made a living soul by virtue of creation, in perfect fellowship with his Maker. My the Lord could walk with him in the cool of the day, there was nothing between them." Perfect fellowship. And then the second Adam was brought on the scene as a life-giving spirit, in the person of course of the man Christ Jesus, the God-man. In fact, we always like to give these little asides when I teach, because I think it's these little things that people hang on to. I know we covered it when we were back in the Gospels, but someone at break time just asked, well, why are only Matthew, Mark, and Luke called the Synoptic Gospels and not John? Well, you see, the three Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke deal with Christ in His humanity. In other words, Matthew depicts Him as the what? The King, who would one day rule on David's throne as a human king. He came up through the genealogy of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and down that royal family of David. All right, now you come into the book of Luke, Mark would be the second one. He's depicted as the servant, and everything he does is showing him in willingness to be a servant. And again, from his human side. Then Luke depicts him, of course, as the Son of Man, and so constantly throughout that Gospel, again we see that human side of him. And then John comes along and depicts him as the Son of God in His deity. All right, so now then you can pick up little tidbits that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three give the account of His temptations in the wilderness. John doesn't. Why not? Because those temptations had an immediate effect upon the human side of Him, but they had no effect upon His deity side, so John leaves it out. His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He sweat drops of blood, as it were, and He agonized and He pleaded with the Twelve to pray with Him, Matthew, Mark, and Luke record it. John doesn't. Well, why? That was part of His human side, and not the deity side, so John can leave those things out. And so these things are what make such differences as you study your Scriptures, that yes, He was the God-Man. He was total God, He was total man, and they never crossed over. You know, you go back into His earthly ministry. There were times that the average person, when they got into the situation that Christ was in once in a while, He would have let the God side take over, but He never did. And so we always have to just take it by faith that He was deity, but He was also human. All right, now you bring this into the text here with Paul, as Adam was the first federal head of the human race, so Christ now becomes the culmination of all this, because we're not just dealing with the physical, we're dealing with the spiritual. Now read the next verse, "...howbeit," verse 46, "...howbeit that was not first, which is spiritual." Now, you remember when we were way back in the Old Testament, I would make this point constantly? Yeah, some of you are nodding your heads, and I'm glad you remember, that the rule of thumb all the way through Scripture, first the natural, then the spiritual, first Cain, then Abel, first Ishmael, and then Isaac, first Esau, and then Jacob, first King Saul, and then King David, all the way up through Scripture. Now here it comes again, first Adam, the natural, then the Christ, the spiritual. You see that? Now we've got one big set of circumstances still in the future. First will come the Antichrist, the natural, the human, and then will come the Christ, the spiritual. So you can't separate them all the way through Scripture. So Paul makes the point, "...howbeit that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural," referring to Adam, "...and afterward, that which is spiritual." In other words, all of us who began with the natural man, Adam. Now the reason we call him natural, of course, what did God create him out of? The dust of the earth. He's earthy. Christ didn't come from the dust of the earth. He's heavenly. He's a spiritual person. All right? Now I'll read on. "...the first man is of the earth," earthy, because that's what he was made of. "...the second man," see, that's what the Scripture calls him, "...the second man is the Lord from heaven." See how plain that is? Verse 8-48, "...as is the earthly," that is, the offspring of Adam, "...such are they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly," the spiritual realm now, "...such are they also that are heavenly." Now you remember all the way up through the Old Testament, especially when we began studying Israel, I pointed out that Israel were God's earthly people, and with all of their promises being earthly, they had no concept of dying and going to heaven. They only saw the grave, and many of them, of course, didn't believe in life hereafter, but those that did, they only saw a kingdom on this earth, which had been promised, of course, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the rest of them. But they never had a concept of dying and going up to heaven. They weren't supposed to. They were an earthly people. Now when we get to the church age, oh, what a difference, what a difference. Now we're not an earthly people. We are a heavenly people. Our citizenship, Paul says, is already in heaven. Colossians. My, I just turned the clock. Keep your hand in Corinthians. I don't think I'm through. No. Come back to Colossians. That would be to the right, wouldn't it? Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians. Chapter 1, because I have to show what I say, that we are already citizens in heaven. Oh, we're still tied to the old earth. We still work, boy, like I told Iris the other day, in this heat, when the Scripture says the sweat of the brow, boy, that's exactly what it is, isn't it? By the sweat of the brow. So we're still on the old planet, but our citizenship is in heaven. All right? Colossians chapter 1. Oh, I like the verse 12 and 13, giving thanks. Now this is Paul's prayer on behalf of the Colossi believers, and he says, I'm giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet, or has prepared us, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. And then verse 13, who, in reference to God the Father, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath, the past tense verb, and he hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Well, where's the kingdom tonight? It's up in heaven. It's where Christ is, see? And so this is why we are already citizens of glory, because that's where Christ is. Now one day when He comes and brings the kingdom back to earth, we're going to be with Him there, too. And then, of course, we'll be ruling and reigning with Him on the earth. All right, now then, let's come back to 1 Corinthians again, if you will, chapter 15. Now going on to verse 49. Verse 48 shows that things that are earthy are earthy. Things that are heavenly are heavenly. Now verse 49, and as we have borne the image of the earthy, of course we are, we're sons of Adam, we're flesh and blood, we're under the curse. It's around us everywhere we go, all right? And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the what? The heavenly. In other words, we're going to move from the natural state to the spiritual state. Now verse 50, Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. So what has to happen? We'll have to have a new body, stands to reason. We're going to have a whole new body, fashioned after Christ's body, especially after the resurrection. That's our hope, that one day we'll have that glorious body that won't be contained by walls or ceilings or space. And yet I think we're going to enjoy, what we think anyway, the pleasures of eating and enjoying some of these things. That'll all still be possible, because He ate, you remember out there on the shores of Galilee, and it says He ate just as plain as day. Oh, and now if you'll come back to Romans chapter 5, if you will, to verse 15. Now, the reason Paul has been laying all this out in front of us is, again, to establish a basic doctrine, especially for us as Gentiles. Now I think I mentioned in one of the other programs, I had a Jewish lady come and ask some questions at our seminar in Minneapolis, good questions, and I just made the young lady just elated with my answer, because her question was, she said, I'm a Jewish believer, but she said, I'm getting kind of worried. If the rapture should take place tonight, she said, because I'm a Jew, will I be left behind? Oh, let her know, let her know, you're a member of the body, see, because when we come into the member of body, it doesn't matter whether we're black and white, whether we're Oriental or European, it doesn't make any difference what we are, Jew or Gentile, we are all one in Christ, we're members of the body. And so if the rapture takes place, yes, Jewish believers are going to go along with us, as will people who may have come from other backgrounds, because we're all one in Christ. All right, so now then, coming into verse 15, "...so not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one," now remember what we're talking about, this is Adam, "...for if through the offense of one many," or the Scripture says other places, "...all be dead, much," what's the next word, "...more," see? So in reality, in reality, as many people as were born of Adam should be in glory. Isn't that right? Now understand me. In reality, according to what God has done, every human being who was ever born of Adam should one day be in glory, because there is none left out. But why won't they be? They have chosen not to be, see? They've chosen not to be, because the Scripture makes it plain that all have had their opportunity. I know that's hard to swallow, but God in His sovereignty understands, and that's what the Scripture has explained. All right, read on. "...for if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift." Now here again I'm going to come down on people who think they have to work for their salvation. You are flying in the face of this Book. If you can tell me that you have to do something for your salvation, it will not fit, because it's a gift. And what I know of gifts, you don't deserve them. You don't work for them. You don't merit them. It's something that someone has done for you out of the goodness of their heart. That's what God has done for the human race, out of the goodness of His heart. He has given it as a gift, and then people turn around and say, well, I'm going to work for it. He won't stand for it. All right? And the gift, reading on in verse 15, "...and the gift by grace, which is by one man." Now do you see how the Scripture goes back and forth with the terminology? In some places Christ is called God, over and over. Here Paul refers to Him as the man, see? Now that's not taking away from His deity. It's just simply going right along with His whole virgin birth, that He was born God in the flesh, but He was born human, and so the God-man, as I like to refer to Him. All right? So, "...the gift by grace, which is of one man, Jesus Christ, and it hath abounded unto many, and not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift." Now that's a double negative there, and it gets confusing. Maybe I can clarify. As I said a few moments ago, or at least in one of the programs this afternoon, we are not guilty sinners because we ate of a forbidden fruit, are we? We are not guilty in the similitude, as the Scripture says, of Adam's sin. That's what he did. We didn't. We didn't eat a forbidden tree. We didn't do anything to merit condemnation. We inherited it. We're sons of Adam. And we are immediately born into this world spiritually dead, spiritually destitute, spiritually an enemy, as we saw in the last program, of God. Now it's hard for me to explain, but that's God's business, and He doesn't make any mistakes. So we just have to take it by faith that this is the way God has set the whole thing in motion, that He created Adam innocent, sinless, perfect, but Adam fell. And God then decreed that everyone that came from Adam would be a fallen creature. But He did everything to bring that fallen creature back to his original state, if they would just believe. It's always been by faith, always. Adam was restored into fellowship by faith. Eve was restored into fellowship by faith. And so all the way up through the Old Testament, by faith. But all right. Now then, it says, not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. In other words, we did not go through what Adam did, neither did Christ go through what Adam did, but He superseded it. Everything that Adam accomplished to bring the human race into condemnation, God, through the person of Jesus Christ, has reconciled it. He's paid the debt. He has made everything possible. He has done everything possible to bring men back to Himself. All right? Now, let's just read on. I'm not going to finish the chapter like I thought. But not as it was by the one that sinned, so is the gift. But for the judgment was by how many? One. And who's the one again? Adam. And Adam caused everybody to be what? Condemned. But the free gift is of many offenses unto what? Justification. Oh, it's beyond our comprehension. That's why we have to take it by faith. There's no way you can understand it. I can't. I don't even pretend to. But I know the Book says it, and I believe it, and I can rest in it. I don't have to turn and toss in my bed at night wondering. Oh, I probably don't have time. But oh, I hear it over and over, where people who have actually been preaching the Word for a lifetime, and as they face the grim reaper, then they start wondering and worrying, where am I going to spend eternity? Have I done enough good? Have I done this? Am I going to make... That'd be awful. That'd be awful, because none of us can do enough to merit that. But we rest by faith on this finished work, and don't worry about where you're going to spend eternity if you've placed your faith in the Gospel. And that's the whole purpose of it, see? All right. So the free gift, that which we do not work for, is of many offenses. In other words, every one of us are guilty of a whole trainload of sin. But they've all been canceled. They've all been paid for by the work of the cross. Now, I know I've got people out there, you're probably shaking your heads as you sit and listen to me, but listen, this isn't my idea. This is what the Book says, and that's why I like them to put the Scripture on the screen. I'd rather you see the Scripture as me any day, and just read it as it's on the screen. That as the free gift is of many offenses unto what? Justification. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.