Why Did Adam's Sin Affect All of Us? Romans 5:10-14

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, here we go again, and let's just come right back to Romans chapter 5, where we left off in our last program. And again, we always like to welcome our television audience, and how we appreciate your letters and your phone calls of encouragement. I've often stated, you know, we take no income for what we do, at least we haven't so far. I hope we never have to. But the best compensation we can get are these letters of encouragement, and as I mentioned in the last program, we're getting, I think, as many from commenting on the book of Romans. And as one lady said last night, now this doesn't puff me up. People who know me know that I have no ego whatsoever, but these comments just sort of fire me up and keep me going. But a lady said last night again, she said, you know, Les, until I started hearing you teach, I didn't know that I knew so little. Get what she said? She said, I just didn't know that I knew so little. And well, to me, you know, that just means everything. So we trust that even those of you in television, that if you're learning things and you're hearing things you've never comprehended before, drop us a note, because we just love to hear about it. All right, I'm going to go right on into the Scripture. And starting with Romans chapter 5, let's come back to verse 10 for just a moment, where it says, for if, when we were enemies. People just don't realize that until we become a believer, we're enemies of God. Oh, they say, I'm not an enemy, I don't have any problem with God. Oh no, turn over to Romans chapter 8. Now we'll be there in a few months, hopefully. But for now, let's just jump ahead to Romans chapter 8 and come down to verse 6, for to be carnally. Now the word carnal means fleshly, for to be carnally minded is death. In other words, that's the end result, a spiritual death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Now look at verse 7, because the carnal mind, in other words, the unsaved, unregenerate person, the carnal mind is, what's the next word? Enmity. Now how much difference between enemy and enmity? Nothing that I know of, it's just a different form, but it's the same word, all right? So because the carnal mind is enmity, or it's an enemy of God, and it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Now I don't like to broadcast that to the world, because I'm afraid they'll get the idea, see, no wonder I do what I do. Well that's right, they're not subject to God's law. I'm amazed that our society holds together as well as it does, because they're not subject to the laws of God, they're enemies, and you can bring it into the secular realm. The Russian government, hopefully, can't come over and do anything to me. Why? Because I'm not a citizen, I'm not under their control, and so consequently I can do whatever I want to do so far as Russian law is concerned, because I'm not under their control. Now it's the same way spiritually with lost people. They're not under God's control, actually, they're enemies, they're aliens, and we better get it straight, because until we come back and come God's way, that's exactly the way He looks at the mass river of humanity. They're enemies of God, all right, but God doesn't stop loving His enemies, you know. God still keeps pouring out His grace upon them and offering of their salvation. So He says in Romans 5, verse 10, "...for if when we were enemies we were reconciled." It's one of the crucial terms in Paul's letters, that the work of the cross now has made reconciliation not just possible, but available to the whole human race. And so if we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled. Now He's talking to you and I as believers. We shall be saved by His, not His death now, but by His what? His life, see. And so the whole thing comes together. He had to die, He had to shed His blood in the payment for our sin, but He didn't stay in the grave. He arose victorious, the Scripture says, over sin and death and hell, and since He was victorious, we are. And so that's been imputed to our account. So now we not only have salvation for this life, but we have salvation for all eternity. We have already within us eternal life. Now, see, that's why believers over the ages have been able to go to a martyr's death with no fear, no trepidation. I've often wondered, how did these people stand there at the stake and they piled a brush around them? And I imagine it was just to cause mental anguish, just thinking about what was coming. But you don't hear any accounts of how they screamed and they yelled and they begged for mercy. No, usually they were singing hymns, and ere the flames would take them, they would offer a prayer of one sort or another. Now, that's the amazing reality of people who have eternal life. They can burn the flesh, they can take this life, but they can't touch my eternal life or yours, see. And this is what Paul is admonishing us to understand, that now by virtue of the work of the cross, yes, we're justified, we're declared just as if we've never sinned, but we also have eternal life. All right, read on. Verse 11, "...and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, the world is bent on happiness. Everybody wants to be happy. Very few people talk about joy, and you know what the difference is? Happiness is the result of our material surroundings. Joy is a spiritual attribute. That's the big difference. And see, that's why Paul hardly ever uses the word happy, because that's merely a material circumstance. But he can say over and over, like in Philippians, rejoice. And again I say rejoice. See that's the other word from the root word joy, and that is a spiritual attribute. When we have eternal life, regardless of whether we're happy or not, we have that joy that is unspeakable. And that's why believers don't necessarily have to enjoy a lot of the world's goods. Believers can be happy in poverty as well as in wealth, because joy is a spiritual thing, whereas happiness is only material. All right, so now then we not only so, but we enjoy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. And again, I always have to stop at these words, because every one of them are so doctrinally heavy. Justification? It's a tremendous doctrinal term that the run -of-the-mill, I'm afraid, Christians know nothing of. Eternal life is a doctrinal term. It's something that can never be taken from us, ever. And now we come to this big word atonement. Now as it's used in the Old Testament, unfortunately, and I don't know how in the world it happened, it was not the appropriate word for the Day of Atonement back in Israel's history, because even though the high priest did everything exactly right, and even though he offered the blood of the sacrifice on the Holy of Holies and on the mercy seat, yet it never took away a single sin. It was just simply a stopgap waiting for the coming of Christ. So the word atonement was a misnomer. It should have been a word that had to do with covering, or as you've often heard me say a sweeping under the rug, and that's actually what God was doing with the sins of the Old Testament believer. He just sort of swept them under the rug until the true atonement was finalized when the blood of Christ was shed. Then all that stuff under the rug, yes, it was atoned for, it was taken away, and they were forgiven. Now for you and I then under Paul's gospel, oh, the minute we believe, we immediately experience the fullness of atonement and break the word into the three syllables that it makes, at-one-ment. And that's the best definition of atonement that I can find, that as soon as we believe we are an at-one-ment with God Himself. Why? Because we'll write back like He was in Adam, and we have once again reconciliation, which is another one of those big words. We're reconciled to God, we're in full fellowship with Him, we're His, we're a joint heir, And all these good things have happened simply because we believe the gospel. Now I'm not taking away other ramifications of the Christian experience. The only reason I do not mention the local church more than I do is because there are so many local churches that I wouldn't want anybody to even try to get anything from because they're going to be misled, and they're not going to be fed from the Word. But I'm not saying they all are. My, I remember years ago a young couple left our area of the world, and they went down to Dallas, and as they were preparing to leave, and they were just newly converted, I think it was through our class, and I gave them this little bit of advice. Now Dallas is huge. There are hundreds of churches. Don't just go to whatever denomination you happen to be in. Look around, shop, visit. I said, in a city that size you're bound to find a church that preaches and teaches the Word pretty much as I do. And oh, you know, it wasn't but three months, and they wrote the sweetest letter that that's exactly what they had done, but they had found a church, not in their denomination, but who he says, just like you taught us, teach the Word, we have fellowship, and they have a passion for lost souls. So when I refrain from pushing the local church, it's not because I am against the local church. It's just because I have to be so careful that people would be admonished to go and get involved in a church that's true to the Book. And a lot of them, of course, tonight are not, and I can't help that, and I'm not criticizing any one group in particular, because I found you can find good ones in various denominations. And so consequently, I just tell people of whatever background, look, just simply look until you find one that teaches the Word as you feel it should be taught. All right, so the Word atonement again. We have been made at one with God Himself as a result of that shed blood, the work of the cross. All right, now then we come down into verse 12, and Paul is going to bridge some information here that nowhere else in Scripture can be found. Jesus never mentioned it, and I'm sure the reason He didn't is because He was going to wait for the revelations given to this apostle to do it. Jesus never taught, as I'm aware of, the ramifications of Adam, his sin, and how it carries over into the whole human race. Now naturally, He certainly taught that all were sinners, I'm not saying that, but to tie it back into Adam like Paul does, no. Nowhere else that I know of in the Old Testament is it taught. But here it comes, and now it's laid out as plain as day, wherefore, see? Verse 12, "...wherefore, as by one man," not one woman, don't you lay the blame on Eve, it's Adam's fault, "...by one man sin entered into the world." Now at this word sin in Romans, unless the setting just totally violates it, but whenever you see this word sin in the singular, I want you to immediately put in there the old sin nature, or old Adam, because, see, there's a big difference between sin and sins again. That's just like what I put on the board before. Sin is that factory that's within us. Sin is that fallen nature that we inherited from Adam. Sins, plural, are the acts that are promoted by old Adam. Now I'll make that clear. In other words, we are a sinner by virtue of being the offspring of Adam. Then as a sinner we commit sins, plural. But all right, here you see in verse 12 it's S-I-N, singular. So "...as by one man the old sin nature came on the scene." And that sin nature can think nothing but contrary to the revealed will of God. And that's what makes the human race enemies of God. They're contrary to Him. Remember I gave the illustration several weeks ago of a gentleman who may have been able to train and have this beautiful horse, who just seemingly was always under his total control. But all of a sudden somebody slipped up behind him with a couple cattle prods, and he lost control. Remember that? All right, that's what people can do with that old Adam. They can train him, and they can inhibit him, and they can dress him up, and they can make him look pretty good. But then the law, the Word of God comes along, and it's the cattle prod. Remember I used that? And then all of a sudden people lose control of their old sin nature, because it is the enemy of God. All right, now let's read on. "...So wherefore, as by one man Adam sin, the old Adamic nature, entered the world, and what came with it? Death." Death. Now, I suppose there are theologians that would disagree with me, but I do not feel that anything died back there in the Garden of Eden until Adam sinned. Now, that's my own conviction, that nothing died, even in the animal world, until Adam sinned. Now, the reason I feel that way is because, you see, everything ate of that which grew naturally, if you remember. They ate of the herbs, and the fruits, and the grasses, so consequently nothing lost its life in order to support another species. So I stand on the premise that until Adam sinned, nothing died. Death was an unknown entity, but as soon as Adam sinned, and the curse fell not just on Adam and Eve, but on the whole creation, everything came under the curse. I sometimes wonder if maybe the whole universe isn't. I haven't really come to a complete conclusion. Sometimes I think it has, and sometimes I think, well, maybe not, but whatever. The curse fell on everything, and with the curse came death. Now, you remember when we were back in Genesis, I even tie that into good science. The laws of thermodynamics. The first law of thermodynamics says that nothing is being created or destroyed, right? The second law of thermodynamics says what? Everything is dying, and degenerating, and going into a less usable state. Now, I feel again that the first law was apropos until Adam sinned, but the moment he sinned and death entered, the second law of thermodynamics came into play, and everything now dies, corrupts, and degenerates. All right, so by one man, Adam, sin, and death, now reading on in the middle of the verse, and so death passed upon how many? All. Every one of us, if the Lord tarries, are going to die physically. We hope that we're close enough to the end now that most of us are going to live to hear the trumpet call. I'm a firm believer in that, and I honestly feel that unless something takes me ahead of time, then I'm going to be alive when that old trumpet sounds, and again, getting back to the family that we had dinner with in Denver. Now, this fellow, of course, he came out of, and he'll be listening to the tapes. He buys them just as soon as we're getting ready, so Jim, here you go. He said, you know, he said, I've got 28 men working for me, and he says, I tell them almost every morning. Now, fellows, he said, one of these days you're going to see old Jim's pickup standing at a spot stoplight in Denver, and it's empty. And he said, don't bother looking for me, because I'm out of here. Well, you know, things like that just thrill me to death, because, see, Jim came from a background of none of this knowledge, and oh, I could spend the next 30 minutes just telling you the events that he could share with us, just coming from those tapes with his men and what have you. But whatever. Death has passed upon the whole human race, the whole creation. Everything now faces death. Now, again, I'm close to nature. I'm a farmer and a rancher, and I'm out there amongst all these things that live and die constantly. But, you know, I find that even in the insect world, they may not have brains enough to have it all figured out, but does anything and everything try to avoid death? Why the fly on the wall the minute you try to swat him. What does he do? He escapes. For what? His life. See? In the same way, no matter where you go through nature, everything is trying to maintain life. They all hate death. I found that even in the animal kingdom. They hate death. I'm a cattleman, and I'm not ashamed of it, but I can have a critter die, and out there in the pasture and the rest of the herd, they have some kind of a hateful reaction to that dead animal. Everything hates death. And why shouldn't we? I don't know of anybody that treasures death. Now, I've even had my dear old grandmother, for example, who's 96 years old, and I can still see her sit in that rocking chair and crochet, and she'd say, oh, I wish the Lord would come. But as soon as her heart would flutter a little bit, what would she say? Call the doctor. See? And that's just a perfect example. Oh, I know, people that are racked with pain and so forth, maybe they're looking forward to it. But on the whole, again, under normal circumstances, we all hate death. And it's as it should be. It's part of the curse. It's part of the fall of Adam that we should detest death. All right, let's go on. Verse 13, now finishing verse 12, and so death passed upon all men, and consequently in fitting with Romans 3, 23, all men have sinned. Everyone's a sinner, because it started with Adam. Now, I've had people, you know, well, why in the world did God do that? Why did He let Adam sin? Well, you see, it was in the sovereign workings of God that man should be left with that alternative. Otherwise, you see, there would be no choice. There would be no exercise of the will. If Satan would not have been permitted to come into the garden, and if sin hadn't entered, then you see the human race would have been without choice. It would have been like robots. But we're not robots. We are a created being given a choice. We can reject or accept God's tremendous offer of salvation. All right, now then, verse 13 is a little parenthesis, and it's kind of hard to explain, but I'll try. For until the law, in other words, from Adam to Moses, which would be about 2 ,500 years, for until the law, sin or Adamic natures was in the world. The pre-flood people had the old sin nature. The people between the flood and the giving of the law, they had a sin nature. They were no different than we are. And so sin is not imputed when there is no law. Now, that's really not as tough as it sounds, and the best example I always give of that is if you've been used to going through an intersection, maybe out on the edge of town or maybe out in the countryside where there has not been an electric stop sign, and it's been more or less first there, first served, there's no law that was broken when you went through that intersection without stopping. But traffic increased, maybe there had been a fatality or two, so the powers that be finally put in a stoplight. But you go on through that intersection like you always did, and now what happens? Well the cop is going to pull you over and say, hey, you broke the law. Well I always used to go through that intersection. Well, that's true, but now there's a stop sign, and that makes all the difference in the world. Now, it's exactly what we have here. Now remember, there was no formal system of worship even before the law. But once the law was given, that changes everything, and now people are to behold the law. And so until then, God could not impute their individual acts of transgression because they were not, per se, breaking a law. Now they had conscience. We saw that back in Romans chapter 2, and conscience was written in the hearts of everyone even up before the law was given. So anyway, all Paul is saying is that until the law was given, God didn't impute all of their acts of disobedience because they were not, per se, breaking a law, even though they were going contrary to conscience. All right? So sin is not imputed when there is no law. Verse 14, nevertheless, see, so don't just chalk it off, oh well, they had it pretty good. Oh no, they were just as responsible as we are. Nevertheless, death, what's the next word? Reign. Now again, throughout the book of Romans, I'm going to keep those two in front of you. When you see the word sin, I want you to think of the old sin nature, the old Adam. And when you see the word reign, think of a king on his throne. And so what we're going to have now, as soon as Adam fell, death reigned like a king. Death reigned like a king because it was tied with sin. All right? So death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. All right, what does that mean? Well, what was Adam's sin? Just a simple act of disobedience by eating what God said not to eat. Well now, did all the millions of people that lived between Adam and Moses, were they guilty of eating a forbidden fruit? No, they didn't commit the same sin that Adam did. But in actuality, they were still disobedient to other things that God had put even within their content. Let me take you back. I've got two minutes. Take you back to where I'm referring to all the time. Go back to chapter 2, because I'm sure most people have forgotten what I taught two chapters ago. Romans, chapter 2, and come down to verse 14. Now, you ought to remember Paul is referring to the fact that the Jews have had the law for 1,500 years. So he's going to go to those who didn't have the law, which were the Gentiles. And so now he says, For when the Gentiles who have not the law, that is the law of Moses, do by nature, naturally, the things contained in the law, these Gentiles having the law, or having not the law, are law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts their what? Their conscience. So even though they didn't have the Ten Commandments, Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, and thou shalt not commit adultery, did those people have a moral system? Yes. Sure they did. Based on what? Conscience. You know, I've given the illustration on the program a long time ago. We've had missionary friends come up from the jungles of South America, out of the Amazon, where there are still Indians running around with their loincloths. They still hunt with blowguns and spears. They're uncivilized. They think nothing of murdering people. But within their own tribal community, those uncivilized people have a moral code that would put America to shame. Where do they get it? Conscience. See? And so when the Scripture says that even though they did not have the law, yet they were guilty of sin just as much as anyone else. 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, OK, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK, 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.