Which Side of the Cross Lesson 4 week 1

So lesson four. Alright. So what did we say here? Romans 5, 12-21 is what we've been reading. 12-21. Let's go ahead and just read through that. I know you've probably read it on your own as you've worked through these questions, but for those of us that maybe didn't get a chance to work through it all, it might be nice to just get the text in our minds as we start to look at some of these questions. So let's start with verse 12 and read through 21. Anybody long-winded and wants to read?

That guy? Alright, I'll do it. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned, in the likeness of the offense of Adam. who is a type of him who is 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. 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 of 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 though the one man's disobedience, the many, were made sinners, even so through the disobedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. The law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Alright, so there's quite a bit going on here, right? There's definitely some comparing and contrasting, as Vern talks about often times in the approach to studying the Bible. We will compare and contrast, because that's what the author of, specifically in this case, Paul, compares and contrasts two men in very distinct ways. So, we've got some origin stuff that we need to talk about. I'll definitely acknowledge... that there's a lot of repetition going on here. There's repetition in the verses that we just read. Repetition. And, you know, Mike mentioned this to me, he said, you know, some of the stuff that you're going to cover today is stuff that we've covered already in the past, and that's okay.

Two things as a teacher, and Paul even knew this as he was writing here, you've got to say things differently and say the same things in different ways for it to stick. And one of the things I learned early on is that repetition is really the key to learning. So you say it once, you say it twice, you say it three times, maybe all in different ways, and finally it starts to stick. For those of us that don't have the photographic memory, repetition is very important. Also, repetition, just like in the scripture, brings emphasis to stuff.

If we as teachers are choosing to repeat things, there's an emphasis there that we want to make sure that you guys are getting, and that we ourselves are getting even as teachers. There's going to be some of this that we cover today that we may have talked about already. Some of you may not have been in those classes, so there's that as well. But, let's start with question one, realizing that some of this will be a review. In other ways, maybe it's going to be new and just from a different angle. So, question one.

How did the sin nature enter the world? Adam and Eve's sin. Okay. Is it Adam and Eve? That's interesting. I just haven't heard anybody say that in a while. Is it Adam and Eve? Is that how sin entered the world? I never thought about that. Did Eve have anything to do with sin entering the world? Eve was deceived, but Adam willfully disobeyed God's direct command.

Yep. So, just to be a little bit nit-picky, that's okay. It was through Adam, right? It was through Adam. Because we need, what we're going to see is we need a representative over all. Okay? Eve sinned, to be fair. But it wasn't through Eve that sin entered the world. Does that make sense? And it says that. Look at verse 12. Therefore justice through what?

One man. Sin entered the world. So that's a new phrase that maybe we haven't used in the class just yet. But it's through one man sin entered in the world. What about the person that thinks of you don't become a sinner until you carry out your first sin? There's those that say that. Right? So, innocent until you... and you will sin, but you're counted innocent until the point where you sin. Is that scripturally okay? Why not?

Because we're born in the sin. We have a sin nature at birth. Right. So, we've got the sin and then we've got sins. Right? Two different things. What is the sin? Sin nature. That's the sin nature. Right? And what is sin? Yeah, acts of sin. Or whatever that might be. Right?

So, for the person that believes that you don't become a sinner until you encounter your first sin, what are they missing out on? What are they not recognizing? Yeah, they don't recognize that they have a sin nature because of who they are in Adam, right? And they're recognizing that sins are like trespasses, but we're going to find out, in order to understand how sins function, we also need to understand where are we in relationship to the law, because there's something interesting that happens. in the verses to follow here that says something about how sin is handled during certain periods of time. But the point here being that you don't become a sinner once you sin, you are born into the sin nature.

Is everybody okay with that? Does that make sense? Alright, number two. When Adam sinned against God, he was condemned to death, dead to God. Adam, being your unsaved head and life, does the same hold for you. Why? So when he sinned, he was condemned. Of course, we know that Adam was operating under a law. Right? A single law. A single rule. Of which could bring a transgression. And that transgression would result in a consequence. And what was the consequence? Death. That's right. So the question is, Adam, being your unsaved head and life, does the same hold true for you? No. You mean today? Does the consequences of what Adam brought upon himself, do those consequences also apply to you? Yes.

Yeah, they do. Exactly right. But we have another choice. That's right. We do have another choice. So we've got the term representative. representative man. Have you guys heard that term before? Or federal. We'll talk about that a little bit later. Federal head.

So without understanding these concepts, you will always misunderstand the concept of sin. And therefore, if you misunderstand the concept of sin, you're going to misunderstand the concept of salvation too, right? It's going to be probably more of a workspace thing. Because if sin is a personal issue to you, then salvation is probably going to be a personal issue to you as well. It's like, this is what you did, now what can you do to get out of it?

But we recognize that there's a representative man, and that's what this entire passage that we just read is all about. So Adam is the head of the human race, and he took all of humanity into the position of death, right? That's where he took us. That's where we stand without Christ. You're right, Wanda, we have a choice. But it's very important to go back and recognize where we were, and also where those who do not believe continue to exist. They are in Adam. Let's look up 1 Corinthians 15, 22. Someone grab that one. And someone else grab Ephesians 2, 3. Whenever you got 1 Corinthians 15, 22, go for it, someone. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. Death. All die. Now, real quick, before we go on to the next, what does death mean? Separation. Okay, it means separation.

Now, I've always taught this truth as having three different aspects to it. There's three different ways that the condemnation of that sin are carried out through separation. So, we're separated in three different ways. Okay, the first one is we're separated from God, right? spiritually.

The second one is we're separated from our body physically. What do you think the third one is? Truth? No, not yet. We're separated from God spiritually, we're separated from our body physically, and we're separated from God eternally. There's an eternal separation. So this is where people stand. Right?

That's what 1 Corinthians 15.22 says, in Adam all die. And by that, death, all die, we mean separated from God spiritually, eventually separated from the body, and then ultimately separated from God eternally. Is that okay? Is that jibing with you? Alright, cool.

So what about Ephesians 2.3?

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh that were mine, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Alright, so not only do we get in Adam a big heap of death, we also get a title. Children of Wrath. What does that mean? Children of wrath? Is that what you think of your unbelieving friends? Children of wrath? When was the last time you greeted them that way? I'm just saying, that's what the Bible says, children of wrath. So, God's a holy God, right? And because of His holiness, there is a righteous standard.

And that righteous standard has been defiled through the one man. And as a result of us being placed into the representative man of Adam, we carry out that unrighteousness. And therefore, because he is holy and he can't allow sin to go unpunished, he calls those who are in a sin state In the sin nature, in Adam, he calls them children of wrath because that is the only thing that he has for them. That's the only thing that can amount to a holy and righteous response to the sin that they are placed in.

Does that make sense? It also means there's consequences and it's not going to be like, you know, in Islam, Allah can be bought off, so to speak. You can sweep something under the rug. You just have to be willing to die in a certain way, at a certain level, and you can have past sins or past transgressions overlooked, and you can basically jump the queue. And so, in that way, yeah, it exists. That's what jihad is for. It gets you straight into the gate, and you get to skip all the things that preceded you prior to having done that.

So, yeah, that's not the case in biblical Christianity. God is not bought for a price with anything that we can do. So, by nature, children of wrath. So the question, we feel like we're good with the question. Adam being your unsaved head in life, does this same hold true for you? Yes. Why? I think we've got that. Any questions about number two? I'm moving through this this morning. No? Alright. I thought number three was a doozy of a question. And the answer, man... Let's see where we go with this one.

Notice that verses 13 to 17 is a parenthesis. Why do you think God did not impute sin before there was law? Alright, so we got a lot going on here. First of all, we need to understand some terms. So, let's read that verse one more time. Verse 13. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. What's your first response to some of that stuff?

I'm going to get rid of this because we need more room. Alright, so we got this word, impute. Let's just get that one defined first because that will probably help us get a clearer understanding of the rest of it. Do you guys have another word? What's that? Reckoned. Reckoned? I didn't see that one. Anyone else? Taken into account. Ooh, I like that one. taken into account. So, the New English Translation, that was good.

For before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law. And then, let's see, maybe the English Standard. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Sin is not counted? What does that mean? God didn't put it through an account because there was no specific law.

But they still died. So let's get a time period up here. We now know what that means. Is everybody good with imputed? So taken into account, put into an account. It's an accounting term, right? You need a ledger. right? And you need the goods and the bads and you need some governing body of law in order to make a ledger useful, right? So, righteous deed, unrighteous deed. So there's this kind of thinking about how a person is measured in comparison to the law. And we know that the sin nature does what to this ledger?

Well, this is the bad over here, so it just completely fills this thing up. Right? I mean that you're in a state of unrighteousness or lawlessness or transgression is what it'll end up being, but we'll talk about that. All right. So we know what the word impute means taken into account. It's an accounting term. Um, but then we have, we need to get a sense of time. Okay.

So here we've got Adam, And then we've got, and this timeline becomes a little bit more clear because in verse 14 it says, never left death reign from Adam until Moses. So let's just use that as the timeline. So we'll go here to Moses. Alright, now what's going on in between Adam and Moses?

Sin. Yeah. Death reign. Yep, there's sin. There's death. What about here? Now let's talk about from the fall forward. So did Adam have a law? Just one. Did Moses have a law? Yeah. How many? 613. 613 or so, yeah? A hundred and thirteen. Six hundred and thirteen. Six hundred and thirteen. One. I should have just moved over to that board, huh? Get a big old timeline out. So, here we have the one law in Adam, of course, as a federal head, we'll call him that, we'll just say head. Is Moses a head? Federal head of the human race in any way, shape, or form? So right here we have what? Noah, Abraham, Isaac, etc., right? Was there sin in death? Yeah, I mean, think about the flood. Sodom and Gomorrah.

We've got a lot of wrath being dealt, but there's no law. Right? There's no law governing them. So what does that mean about, again, going back, we're trying to understand verse 13, for until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. So, right here, it's not accounted, or taken into account, is what you said, I think was your translation. Alright.

So, in the time of Adam, You still have sin, and now you have death. Same thing over here for Moses, right? Still sin and death. But what's the difference between what Paul is talking about on this side and this side and not in the middle? You mentioned it already, but I'm just looking at trying to get it from a different perspective.

So the term that comes up in the Bible is transgression, right? So there is a transgression, sin, there's death, and there's transgression. I can't spell on a board. Is there transgression here? No. The absence of law is the absence of transgression. There's still sin, but there's not transgression. Isn't it? How do you differentiate between sin and transgression? Transgression is based on a ledger, the law. So, honor. Honor your mother and father. Either check or no go. So, that is a transgression because there is a law governing that.

Now, transgression is still sin. Okay? Transgression is still sin. However, where there is no law, there is no transgression, there is only sin. That's what he's trying to make clear here. But he goes on to say in verse 14, nevertheless, death still reigned from this time. So the consequences of sin are still in effect. But there is no law.

Because what the law does is it increases something. And what does it increase? Sin. Yeah. It increases the sin. And what's the counterpart to that? Where sin increases, all the more grace abounds. I just wanted to read this couple of verses in Genesis 6 about the flood. Let's see, 6, 5. The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

So did that fall under transgressions? I mean that's wickedness and evil. Yeah, wickedness and evil are related to the term lawlessness. And meaning lawless. And so, yeah, let me see where I've got it written down here. Let's look at 1 John 3, 4. So I can read it whenever I got it. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. Yeah, so that word that shows up in 1 John there, the lawlessness, is the same concept that you read in Genesis there.

And the word in the Greek is anomia, but it just means a refusal to control your will. I'm out of control. My will is completely out of control. And so that word there is definitely related to sin. It's what results from sin, this lawlessness, this refusal to control yourself.

Does that help? Looking at verse 13 in the brackets again, It says, until the law, sin was in the world. So that's an important thing. Sin was in the world before the law. How would you elaborate on that? Where sin was in the world? Maybe that's what you're saying is that it was in the world, but it wasn't being counted as a transgression.

That's right. That's how I would explain it. So, in law, in this case, it's talking about this law. Right? Mosaic Law. It's capital L. Double check it. No mas. The Law. It's got the V in front of it. No. Yeah. It's translated that way, but it's not there. There's the sin, but... Not The Law. So even in the Yeah, so in the English it says the law, but in the Greek it's not the law.

But we take it because he's talking about Adam until Moses in terms of the... yeah, this whole context of this verse has to do with the Mosaic law. So, until the law, which is this, there was what? There was sin? Right? That's what he's saying. for until the lost sin was in the world. Does that make sense? Well, but they didn't know that they were sinning, did they? Ah, did they know? Let's look at... I mean, they didn't know it was... They didn't know it was a transgression. The question is, did they know they were sinning against God?

What do you think? Yes. Prove it. How do you prove it? There's a verse in there somewhere. If I had my computer I could find it. Alright, let's go to Romans 1. Still in the context of Romans. So Paul would have already laid this clarity out. Verse 18. And I'll read for us, so chapter 1, Romans verse 18, and I'll just read until I feel like we got the answer.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, so now we have a timetable for this truth, For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse.

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and the foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged, and here's the key part, they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed animals, and crawling creatures. So what did man do with the knowledge of the Creator? His invisible attributes, His power?

They did a great exchange, didn't they? That's what I've called it. And ultimately that great exchange was, I'll exchange the creator, worshipping the creator, for worshipping the creature. Instead of the one who makes and designs, I'll take the one that is made and designed, and I'll worship that. Meaning myself, meaning the creation of the world, the natural world, even down to the creatures that inhabit it. The Great Exchange.

When we teach the kids this in Sunday School downstairs, there's this concept here. In the first few verses of what I just read, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, verse 18, I tell the kids that man is created with a jack-in-the-box that pops up and convicts you of the truth of who God is. It says that he's evident to them in the creation that he made. He's telling you about his invisible attributes to the world around you. And this jack-in-the-box pops up and you immediately shove that jack-in-the-box back in and you suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

And you get so used to shutting this thing that eventually it's like something that's going on in the background and you're not even thinking about it anymore. But when it first happens, it's like, whoa! It's right in my face. But then you just shove that thing back in there and it pops back up. Well, then you start holding it. Sometimes you get tired and it pops back up. But eventually you learn how to just make this a part of your life, right?

So the unbeliever continues to operate in suppression of truth even up until the point that they die and have not believed, right? It's a lot of work for them to have to shut the Lord down like that. I mean, they're working really hard, an unbeliever. They really are. Without the text of the scripture even in front of them, they're still working hard because God's invisible attributes and His eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen and they've got to shut it down. It's a lot of work.

So what was the question we were answering? Who asked that last question? I did. But I forgot. Do we answer it? No, I said, did they really know they were sinning before the law? Now do you have an answer? I do. Thank you. Yeah, they did. So that whole Sodom and Gomorrah incident, the flood incident, they knew that there was sin. They absolutely did. The Bible says they knew. But they weren't sinning against, there wasn't transgression because there wasn't a law.

Alright. I saw him in the morgue. If it wasn't Sandy, where did the bodies go? Right. Oh, for sure. I'm just going to run through my notes here. Alright. I mean, is that... Is this helpful? Do you understand a little bit better? Maybe what Paul is trying to say here? Any thoughts or questions, concerns?

So if sin isn't imputed to them, and I understand that, how is God looking at those folks? His wrath is upon them, they're going to die, I guess. But he's not putting it to their account. So then what? Eventually, what? Well, there's still a consequence of sin, so there's still the separation in these three parts. there's just not the consequences of breaking the law. So, let's take a law in the 613. I don't know, Verne talks about not eating certain types of fish. Or, you know, shellfish, or what not. There's that kind of thing. And under the law, I mean, of course you've got the ten, but there's a lot of others.

You could be a believer, right? Break the law, and suffer the consequences of that transgression, which could mean that you're stoned to death. as a believer, in what you know of, just like how he looked to Abraham, he looked to the Lord in faith and was counted to him as righteousness, you can have believers in that same capacity here that broke the law and still were not separated from God eternally. But there are consequences to them breaking that law. I mean, the consequences are Enormous, right? There's all kinds of things that we see that those transgressions bring about. When we're thinking about salvation and sin over here, on the other side of the cross, are we thinking in terms of transgression and law anymore?

No. We're not. That's why we're not stoning you for eating red lobster on Saturday. Well, why did the 613 laws, was that just something they kept adding onto the... I don't want to get us sidetracked here. Yeah, sidetracking the law is the issue, and if you don't, you know, if that's new, then just hold on one second. Vern has a PowerPoint where he has all 613 on one slide. I mean, it's like Texas is this small on the slide. But yeah, there's an entire slide that he has.

So the 613 laws are, where do we start to see the law given? Where do we first see law? Moses, that's right. And what's the book of the Bible that lays down the majority? Exodus leading into Leviticus, right? So if you scour those books of the Old Testament, you will accumulate 613 laws, of which 10 were the Ten Commandments. We know the ten, right?

But there's also a lot more that governed Israel. And what was the point of governing Israel that way? The point was to set them apart, to show the rest of the world's stage how God governed Israel. Does that make sense? Alright. The other thing is, those laws were like a school of arms for leaders, knowing that he did Jesus, right? That's right, yeah. So what does Paul call the law? I can't remember. Is it The schoolmaster? Yeah, the schoolmaster. It's literally like the teacher taking the child by the hand and taking them to what they need to be shown.

In some of our teaching of the law, we often refer to the law as a mirror. It reflects who you truly are and that you're marred with sin. and there's no way that you could ever amount to the perfection of what the law demands, and so the law is a mirror that reflects that sinful state. You can't escape it.

Alright, let's look at question number four. Why does the word say that death reigned from Adam to Moses? Because there wasn't salvation during that period? Hmm. Well, let's ask that question based on what you just said. Was there salvation during the period of Adam to Moses? So, was anybody saved in this period of time? Yeah. Huh? Yeah. Absolutely. Noah?

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc., right? They were believers. Specifically, you know, you talk about Abraham having been credited righteousness. Now, did he have the gospel message? Meaning, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus? No. No. What did he have? Belief and trust in God. He had this, remember this thing? And he did not make that great exchange.

So he did have faith in the invisible attributes, eternal power of God. So that was what preceded, he had faith in God in that way prior to God revealing himself additionally, personally. But then God goes on to reveal himself personally through the Abrahamic Covenant. and making a number of promises to him, of which Abraham did what with? Believed. Believed. And God said, I will credit you righteousness based on your belief.

Now, their salvation was in what they had during that age, or that stewardship. Some say dispensation, I like the term stewardship. He believed what he had, and we know that the gospel is progressively revealed further and further as you move into time, and eventually when we get to this side of the cross, we have the full story. So, first of all, there was salvation from Adam to Moses, but why did death reign?

Now the word reign here is a term that It has an absolute authority over all its subjects. It's a kingly, a sovereign reign. It carries quite a bit of weight in the way that it's used. It's not like another word that Paul uses in chapter 6 about having power over. That's a different Greek word. But here, the word is having that sovereign type of rule over.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever encountered a society, or you probably haven't traveled the world, maybe you guys, but let's ask you. Have you ever been to a society or a country where you didn't see a cemetery? Cemetery. Have you ever seen a bunch of first century survivors gathered around hanging out together, still claiming that they've seen it all and been through it all.

The point is that death is absolutely reigning from this time until this time. And it continues to reign because of the presence of sin. And that's his point there. Why does the word say that death reigned? It's also telling us that it wasn't like... I mean, he's also reminding us that just because there wasn't transgression and that there weren't certain laws being broken, the consequences of sin and all of its ugliness were still functioning during this period. So it's a contrast to the not taking into account, but death still reigned. So don't think these guys got off easier just because they didn't have transgressions being taken into account. Death still reigned and there was still wrath being poured out on these guys. Children of wrath, remember?

I don't know if I can read that next week. Is that my first bell? Yeah. Alright. What's the next question? Oh yeah. The phrase, is the figure of him to come, tells us what about Adam and Christ? Well, okay, first of all, there's two men. So this is at the end of verse 14, right? Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned, in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come." How is Adam a type of one who is to come, and who's the one to come? He's the federal head of a race, and Christ will be the federal head.

Okay. Is that what you're thinking? That's what I'm thinking. Is the one to come like Adam in this way? In a sense, but just the opposite. Right. So here we have still, federal head. Right? And representative man. So when we're talking about Adam as a type of the one to come, We're talking specifically about this portion of Adam, the man of Adam, right? That's what we're saying. He's a federal head in the same way. And we need that! It's going to be very important to this doctrine of the two men that's being established here, okay?

So, I know I'm not going to be able to get into it fully, but let's see if we can get a couple things out in terms of contrast. So what if we start looking at here Adam being declared as a type of the one who is to come, that is a Christ, and what is Christ referred to other than in relationship to this name? What is he called? If we have here this being the first Adam, Christ as the second Adam.

And that's only because of this, right? Also the last. Is it second or just last? I think it's just last. Thank you. Last atom. And it's only in this way. Right? In a sense, like John was saying, if we call these effects, the effects or the results of, there are also effects and results of Christ as well, right? I don't like the word effects. It's a better word. Results. Consequences. Is that right? Would it apply to what Christ is going to do for us over here? These are the consequences of Christ's sacrifice?

Say that. Alright, so, let's fill in one. What does Paul say about Adam? What's the first thing he says here? This is about Christ. But, the free gift is not like the transgression. So here we've got a free gift. Here, we'll just add to the list, transgression. And what was the transgression, specifically for Adam? Disobedience to the law. And the law?

Don't eat. Don't eat. He said, eh, I'd like to be God. I'm going to try it out. Same thing Satan did. Deceived by the same mentality. That whole, I think I should be the creator. I should obtain all of those attributes. And I think I can if I just partake. So we've got a free gift and a transgression.

Those are what's being compared in verse 15 in the first portion. And we'll talk about the results of those moving forward next week. We'll pick up in mid-stride on number five, question five. Any questions, thoughts before we close in prayer? All right, let's pray.

Father, we do thank you so much for the truth of of your love for us and the fact that we do have the hope of what Christ brought in the federal headship. And Lord, we thank you for the grace that we now live under and all the consequences of what Christ bore on the cross in order to give us and the gift, as it's called in scripture, the free gift of salvation. And Lord, we thank you that Because of who you are and what you've done, we can stand before you knowing that we are loved, we are family, and all that Christ is, we are in Him. And we thank you for the process of being transformed and conformed into your image, and we pray that we be mindful of that process through the week as we walk by faith in what we know of your truth. Again, thank you for your love and for your grace. It's in your name we pray. Amen.