THE EFFECT OF JUSTIFICATION ON THE WORLD
"Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned." Romans 5v12
The use of the word "wherefore" by Paul always casts us back to what he has previously said. He is now going to develop the truth of what it means to be IN CHRIST (verse 10 "saved in his life") by comparing what we once were IN ADAM. He states the fact that we all know, that of universal death,. and says that this is because of universal sin. This situation came about according to the biblical record, through one man Adam, and indeed through one sin that he committed, and so all of us have inherited genetically the principle of sin leading to death. He goes on to compare and contrast this with the one obedient act of Christ, that has brought a reversal of the curse of Adam upon the world, and so much more. Later on he describes Adam as "a figure (type) of Him that was to come" so God is dealing with humanity on the basis of two federal heads, the one being Adam, the other being Christ. We are either in Adam or we are in Christ. In Adam we suffer all the curse and consequences of sin, in Christ we receive all the blessings that has come through Him. These verses are an exposition of these two federal heads, and in a great way helps us to understand our present position. We were all born under Adam, and as a result we were classed as sinners by God. The word he uses in chapter 5 and verse 19 is that we were "constituted sinners". God regarded all the progeny of Adam to be sinners. The story here is to how we can become in Christ in which position God classes us, constitutes us, as righteous.
It is difficult to understand the concept of IMPUTATION, but it is made easier when we understand that all of us were classed as sinners in Adam, one man, and all of us can be classed as righteous in one man Jesus Christ; so that if all the curse and consequence of sin was imputed to us under Adam so all the blessings of God can be imputed to us in Christ. In Adam we had no choice, we were born into Adam's race, we were born with a fallen nature, we were subject to death and all the dread consequences that sin has brought. Adam's sin was imputed to us, as we shall see, even before we were born because the entire human race were constituted sinners. The fact that we lived to prove what we were only clarifies the situation.
Now says Paul there has begun A NEW HUMANITY under the federal headship of Jesus Christ, and just as we suffered the consequences of belonging to Adam, we now receive the blessings of belonging to Christ. He expounds this clearly in 1st Corinthians 15v45-47 where he describes Jesus Christ as "THE LAST ADAM" and again as "THE SECOND MAN." Jesus Christ is the last Adam because there will be no other, he is the second man, man as God intended him to be. There is now a new humanity and this was achieved by Jesus Christ on the cross. Please refer to (Ephesians 2v13-15). Adam, in 1 Corinthians 15 was described as "a living soul", Jesus Christ is described as a "life giving spirit." As the second man He has ushered in a new order of humanity, the first humanity coming under the curse of sin, the second receiving all the blessings of salvation.
This is what is known as the doctrine of original sin, and at large it is rejected by the world, even by the religious world in places, yet it is the truth. We are loathe to accept that we are born in sin, with a sinful nature, we prefer to think there is some good in us, or even that there are some people good and others evil, it all depends whether you want to take God's estimate of the situation or the world's. In the end of the day it is only God's estimate that will matter and clearly that is what is being said here.
This is how God operates, He operates with humanity under two federal heads either Adam or Christ and we are classed by Him as being under one or the other. Ask yourself the question; why will God not save fallen angels? No sinning angel has been, or will ever be offered salvation; why? Because they have no federal head, they sinned personally and wilfully in the presence of God and must bear eternally the consequences of that. Human beings however born under a sinful head had no choice but to sin because they inherited a sinful nature and so God sees them differently and offers salvation under a new head Jesus Christ. So God offers salvation to every sinner by faith alone in Jesus Christ. The verses Romans 5v12-21 will explain all this in detail and it will be important for us to grasp the truth of this else we shall have difficulty understanding Romans chapters 6,7 & 8. If we can see humanity under two heads, receiving the cursings or blessings from each, we can understand the exposition of the later chapters as he unfolds all the blessings that come to us in Christ.
"Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."
This is the essence of the teaching here. Tomorrow d.v. we shall look at "sins" and "sin".
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