Living by Faith - Romans

Adam and Christ

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 16-64

Genre: Talk

Track: 016

Dictation Name: RR311H16

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Let us worship God. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, who in Thy grace and mercy sent Thy only begotten Son into the world that through Him we might live; give us grace day by day to live in gratitude, in thanksgiving, and in joy. Make us ever mindful that we have been called in Christ Jesus to be more than conquerors, to bring all things into captivity to Thy kingdom, and to make Thy word the governing word in our lives, in the lives of the nations, and in the lives of all institutions. Grant that in this blessed season we may rededicate ourselves to Thy purpose, and to be ever mindful that however much the ungodly rage, they shall not prevail. Bless us in Thy service, in Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is from Romans, the 5th chapter, verses 12-14. Romans 5:12-14, and our subject Adam and Christ. Adam and Christ. Romans 5:12-14.

“12 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:

13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.”

Over the years, one of the more common experiences I have as I travel around the country, is to have someone come up to me and say: “I could agree with your position, except for this or that passage.” And I have learned that it is useless to try to answer such people. First of all, they have usually not an answer that they want, but an argument, and a hallway or a doorway is no place for a serious discussion; moreover, they do not want to hear an answer, they have their own rebuttals prepared, and interrupt before you can say more than a sentence. And second, I usually find that although they say they could agree with me but for one text, I find on questioning that they have not read what I have written on the subject, nor do they intend to.

Now one of the passages that people bring up in this manner is Romans 5:12-14, which they say makes Biblical law an invalid position, which nullifies, ostensibly, theonomy. Well, Romans 5:12-14 is not an easy text, but one thing is clear; it precludes antinomianism. It does not allow us to think of the world as ever having been, or being, without Gods law.

Let us examine it closely. First, Paul in Romans 1:18-31 makes clear that all men know God and Gods law. As Paul says: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Now what Paul wrote in the first chapter and elsewhere he did not forget when he came to Romans 5. What Paul says in Romans 1 and elsewhere is simply, to know God is to know His righteousness and His law.

Paul then cites the violation of law, by ‘these men who suppress the truth’. And he is not talking about Hebrews, he is talking about the Greco Romans. This is clear in Romans 1:18, and verses 22-31.

Then second, 1 John 3:4 tells us ‘Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.’ or very literally, everyone who practices sin, hamartia, missing the mark, falling short, also does lawlessness, is antinomian. Anti-law. and the sin, Hamartia, missing the mark, is really lawlessness, Anomia.

Death is the penalty for sin, Paul tells us, in this passage. In verse 12 he says that death passed upon all men. This was true before the giving of the law, from Adam to Moses, and because death is the penalty for sin, obviously all men outside the verbal giving of the law knew the law, have sinned, are without excuse, and therefore they die.

Then third, Paul says in verse 13: “Sin is not imputed where there is no law.” but then he says: “Until the law, sin was in the world.” meaning before Moses, there was sin, because men still had the law and they died. As the scholars Sanday and Headlam noted and I quote: “Saint Paul would not say that the absence of written law did away with all responsibility, he has already laid down most distinctly the gentiles, though without such written law have law enough to be judged by, Romans 2:12-16. And Jews before the time of Moses were only in the position of Gentiles.”

In other words, there is no room here for antinomianism. For if their logic were correct, men should not have died before God gave the law to Moses on Sinai. And after that, only the Hebrews and others to whom the law might be taught should have suffered death.

The law obviously was in the world, even though it was not in its written, enscriptured form. The logic of these people would require them to be Pelagians of a radical sort. They would have to say that Adam broke Gods verbal command and died, but all his descendants should now be outside with the covenant and the law, and therefore should not die; because death is the penalty for the violation of the law. Adam would have in effect by his sin freed his posterity from Gods covenant at the price of his life. He would have given them freedom to be their own law in terms of Genesis 3:5, every man his own God, knowing or determining good and evil, right and wrong, law, for himself.

But then fourth, Paul here in this passage is not trying to eliminate law from a portion of history, before Moses and after Christ; but he is here trying to call attention to the transmission of sin by Adam to his posterity. The rebellion against God he is making clear, is now the nature of Adams seed. All who are born in the humanity of Adam are born with the continuing warfare in their being against God. They will sin, and they die. Their premise is that not God’s will be done, but: “My will be done.”

Now, Paul here is seeking to establish a significant and critical fact, namely, what Adam did had and has consequences for everyone born of Adam; so that Adams sin was not applicable to Adam alone. Adam sinned against God, everyone born of Adam is born as a part of the continuing warfare against God, and everyone who is born again of Jesus Christ, and is a member of the new humanity in Jesus Christ, now has a different nature; and therefore is at peace with God through Christ, and is concerned with doing the will of God, of honoring His covenant law, rather than breaking it.

In other words, Paul is here saying: “We have to establish the significance, in order to understand the Bible, of the work of the first Adam and the last Adam. That each is the Father of a humanity, and everyone born of them has a nature, a given nature, and everyone born of them has a different relationship to God, and to Gods law, and to Gods covenant.”

Thus, both the first and the last Adam determine the nature of the humanity which comes from them. Adam leads to a universal prevalence of sin and death. Men are not ignorant of Gods law, but at war against it. Therefore, as in verse 14 he makes clear, death reigned from Adam to Moses.

But then fifth he goes on to say, there is a difference before and after Adam. He says, “Sin is not imputed where there is no law.” the word imputed means to charge to one’s account. Obviously something is charged to the account of all men from Adam to Moses, because all of them died. Paul is here therefore stating a general premise: There is no crime if there is no law. But if all men from Adam to Moses are sentenced to death, we must assume there was a law; that men did sin before Moses, as he says: “Death reigned over them.” it reigned over them because they were sinners. Death reigned over all men outside the fold of Israel. Death reigns today over all men, because they are all sinners, and we are sinners in relationship to God and His covenant law.

However he says, “they did sin, but not after the similitude of Adams transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come.” Here again he is stressing the significance of Adam and Christ. There is a difference he says, between Adams sin and the sin of all other men. Why? It is not, he says, of the same character. They did not sin after the similitude, after the character of Adams sin. Adams sin was unique, because Adam like Christ, affects all those who are members of him, who are his seed, who are born of him; and therefore while our sin affects us and it can affect those around us, it doesn’t affect the whole human race. Adams sin affected the whole human race, and Christ’s righteousness, His atonement, affected all those who are members of the new humanity, the new creation which began with His resurrection.

In other words, Adam was the figure of Christ, the Federal head of the humanity; and Adams transgression or breach of the law was unique because its penalty affected all men. In this Paul says Adam was the figure of Christ, whose obedience and atonement affects all those who are members of His new humanity.

Thus Paul in this passage is not downgrading the law, his concern is the uniqueness of the two Adams, of the relationship to God and to Gods covenant law, and what it does to all who follow them. Both Adams, the first Adam in Christ, had a direct, verbal, personal relationship to God. Both were determinative in their lives for those who followed them.

As Cranfield has written concerning this verse and I quote: “The relevance of the reference to the law at this point lies in the fact that it is the law which makes manifest the full magnitude of the triumph of grace.” In other words, the written law makes all the more clear the meaning of sin which the Lord stresses in the Sermon on the Mount. Human death, Paul says, is the consequence of human sin; and as Sanday and Headlam said and I quote: “What Saint Paul wishes to bring out is that prior to the giving of the law, the fate of mankind to an extent and in a way which he does not define was directly traceable to Adams fall.”

This is very true, but all men in this era, Adam to Christ and after, have sinned. And as Paul stresses, they died as true heirs of Adam. Paul is here talking about man’s depravity, man’s total depravity which affects every aspect of his being. This was not a new doctrine with Paul. As far back as the 17th century, the great Baptist theologian John Gill demonstrated that not only did Paul echo here fully the Old Testament, but ancient Rabbinic teachings which Judaism later denied.

Thus the sin of Adam has legal consequences for all men in his humanity, as did the atoning death of Christ for all men in his humanity. Legally and biologically we are children of Adam. Legally and biologically we are now members of Christ and of His family, and therefore our biological destiny is the resurrection of the dead and the perfection of life in Christ eternally.

The unity in Adam and the unity in Christ. This is Paul’s concern. He tells us first in Adam we have an inheritance of death, of a sinful nature, of warfare against God, and we have inherited this as sons of Adam. Second he says that the death of Christ does precisely the reverse; it overpowers Adams sin by greater gifts, powers, and by dominion. And third, the death of the body is the first stage in the greater judgement of all who are in Adam, and the full deliverance of all who are in Christ.

Now, last week we saw what Paul had to say about glorying in tribulation, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. What Paul was saying was this: men very commonly have hope. They hope they are going to be a millionaire, they hope for this, they hope for that, they are full of hopes; but they are unrealistic hopes, they are hopes without roots, they are daydreams. But what God gives us is a very realistic hope. It comes through tribulation. The tribulation is a time of strain, of distress, of testing, of turmoil, because with tribulation we see the antithesis. We see the sword that divides, and Christ said: “I have come to divide families, loved ones, in terms of my truth, in terms of myself.” It puts us at odds with the world.

So with tribulation we begin to mature in Christ. We begin to see what the reality of this world and of people is like, and this gives us the hard way, of patience. A patience that gives us experience, because we see what people are, we understand what the world is; but we also know the hand of God as He guides us step by step through the tribulation and teaches us patience, and how to have the experience and to grow in terms of it. The result is a hope that maketh not ashamed, because it is based on God reality; it enables us to see the difference in the world, between the children of Adam and the people of Christ.

It brings us to a point of division, a point of conflict; but the point is also the point of growth, and therefore we are told that we can glory in this process, and this process is one in which we come to see the end of all things, and we see the victory, we see the futility of all those who are waging war against God, because God controls all things. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the very hairs of our head are all numbered, and the law is there. It is the barometer, it tells the humanity of Adam what they are, and no matter how much they hate it, how much they hold down the truth in unrighteousness, in injustice, in their hearts they know. It cries out in all their being, and therefore they cannot tolerate anyone around them who might by their very life be an indictment.

The ungodly are very intolerant of believers, but when we are among those who are in Christ, patience and experience born out of tribulation tell us where the family of Christ is, and where we belong. This is what this passage is about, it makes clear what the two humanities are. Paul has not voided the law, such an idea was not even remotely in his mind; it has been imposed upon passages like this by the antinomians who are going to do everything to destroy the difference, so that you cannot say: “By their fruits ye shall know them” as our Lord said, so that anybody can be a Christian because you don’t know what is in his heart; he could be the absolute stinker, the most unpleasant person,t he most evil person, but oh no, you cannot judge.

But our Lord said: “Judge righteous judgement.” “By their fruits shall ye know them.” What Paul undermined here was any belief that man in any area is, or any time of history, is capable of overcoming his inheritance in Adam. In Adam all are born to sin and die, neither man or society can be renewed on humanistic terms; the fact of depravity is there. Any valid sociology must begin with this fact. The humanity of Adam is born to sin and die, and you cannot make a good omelet with bad eggs. The politics of the welfare state and of socialism, of fascism, appeal to mans greed and the desire to steal from others legally. More than a few careers have been built in politics and elsewhere on the recognition of man’s depravity, and the necessity of gratifying it to succeed without God. And so they exploit this fact, they cater to it in order to use men, and all that can come out of any politics or education, or religion without a recognition of this fact that Paul here speaks of, the two humanities, is doomed.

To neglect the nature of man in politics is a deadly fact, and it invites great disasters. The sociology of justification by Gods sovereign grace will recognize fallen man’s depravity, and the need for justification and regeneration, in order to establish a good society. The law then provides the way of justice.

Paul thus gives no ground here or elsewhere to the antinomians, he cuts the ground out from under them. “If there were no law, there would be no sin, no death.” This is the logic of antinomianism, but they are not willing to pursue the logic to its conclusion. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God whose word is truth, we thank Thee that in Christ Jesus we are members of Thy new humanity, that Thou through all our tribulations are teaching us patience, and giving us experience concerning the nature of the world we live in, and of those with whom we have to do. That out of this might come a glorious hope, a hope that maketh not ashamed. We thank Thee that Thy judgement from Adam to Moses, Moses to Christ, and from Christ to the end of the world, is sin and death; that all who transgress Thy law are doomed to the consequences of their sin, but all who stand in Christ and grow are heirs of all things, and have an eternal glory in Him. Our God we thank Thee, in Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now, concerning our lesson? Yes.

[Audience Member] Can we turn to Galatians 5:18

[Rushdoony] Galatians 5:18 “But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” But then let us go down to 22 and 23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Now, to be under the law as Paul uses that term, means to be under indictment. You see. If we are under the law, we are under indictment for the death penalty. Now, because we are not under the law, because Christ has destroyed the penalty of death for us, the death penalty is now done away, we are no longer under indictment, so the law now is our way of life. The Holy Spirit was the giver of the law, we are now in the Spirit, and the Spirit leads us in what direction? Why, in obedience to the law. And therefore, envying’s, murders, drunkenness, revellings, idolatry, , fornication, adultery, uncleanness, lasciviousness, witchcraft, hatred, and so on, all these violations of the law are no longer a part of our lives. So the Spirit, the giver of the law, is now indwelling within us. The law according to the promise of the Old Testament, is now written in the tables of our hearts.

[Audience Member] What do the antinomians do with this? Do they use it literally?

[Rushdoony] They are determined to impose a division in scripture between law and grace.

[Audience Member] They use this passage.

[Rushdoony] Yes, they use this, just as they use the passage that I was talking about. I will be coming to this passage later, because when we come to what Paul says about love being the fulfilling of the law, putting it into force, we will see the implications of this.

Now, they are really Marcionites to a great degree, and I believe it is the next position paper which will deal with that; and they have a false doctrine of God. They believe that God has contraries within Him. Now, I have contraries in me, sometimes I know I have to get up and get to work, and other times I wish I could go back to sleep and forget about work. And that is just one mild contrary. We have things in us, which are, because we are not perfect, not in harmony one with the other. But there are no contraries in God, and His love, His wrath, His law, His grace, His justice, His mercy, are never in contradiction one with another; they are in perfect harmony. So to oppose one to another is to manifest a dualism, to say there are two Gods in effect, or two minds in God. Yes?

[Audience Member] I can understand why the truth of God is written on every man’s hearts, but you said that the law of God is written on every man’s heart, isn’t that something that is taught?

[Rushdoony] No, the truth of God cannot be separated from His law. It is the truth of God that He is God, and that He does not want us to violate the Ten Commandments. So that is written on the tables of our hearts, but men, Paul says, hold it down or suppress it, in unrighteousness. So we can’t say the truth of God, the knowledge of God, because Paul says they know God, but they hold that knowledge in unrighteousness. It includes everything about God, the things visible and invisible, Paul says, so they know.

Any other questions or comments?

I have never forgotten by the way, a story told by a missionary who went into Africa, this was years and years ago, to an area where they had not heard a missionary before, but he had learned that language from some of the peoples of that tribe who had gone to a small community a few hundred miles away, and so he had prepared himself. And when he spoke, obviously the Holy Spirit had prepared these people, because when he spoke one older woman turned to another and said: ‘You see, I told you there had to be a God like that.”

Any other questions or comments?

Well, if not, let us bow our heads now in prayer. Oh Lord our God, we rejoice that Thou art on the throne of all creation, and it is Thy will that shall be done; not the will of the ungodly, nor our will, but Thine. For in Thy wisdom Thou art all knowing and all perfect. We thank Thee that the experiences, the tribulations, which Thou dost put us through, and which Thou dost put our loved ones through are not of our choosing, for in our foolishness we would pamper ourselves and those whom we love. They are of Thine ordination, and of Thy holy and all-wise purpose. Give us grace each to undergo our tribulation, our experience; and grow in patience, and to know the hope that maketh not ashamed.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.