"Where Did That Come From?"

For the past several weeks, we have been looking at a section of a letter in our Bibles, called the Book of Romans, that reveals God's response that provides us an opportunity for rescue and forgiveness from the universal and insurmountable problem of selfishness and sin. Now whether this is your first time reading this blog or you have been following along throughout the past several weeks, you may find yourself wresting with a question. And that question, if you were able to share it with us, might sound something like this: “Well Dave, I have seen you write that all humanity has a problem when it comes to God. I have seen you write that we are selfish and rebellious and do things that hurt God and other and that it is our selfishness and rebellion that creates this insurmountable problem that puts us at odds with God. But Dave, while I can see that there are times that I am selfish; and while I can understand how selfishness can cause someone to have a problem with God and others; I have a question that you have not seemed to answer so far: why am I selfish and rebellious? Where does this selfishness and rebellion come from?

Have you ever found yourself asking that question? Maybe you have found yourself asking that question after you have done something that hurt someone else. Have you ever wondered “where did that come from” after you responded to a situation or circumstance in a very harsh or selfish way that hurts others? Have you ever asked someone, whether it was your spouse; whether it was your child; whether it was a friend; whoever it was “where did that come from” after they responded to you in a very selfish and rebellious way? And have you ever noticed that you do not need to teach children how to be selfish? You have to teach children many different things, but you do not have to teach children how to be selfish and rebellious. Why is that? Why are we so selfish and rebellious? And where does this selfishness and rebellion that plagues that human condition come from?

This week I would like for us to spend our time together looking at another section of a letter in our Bibles called the Book of Romans. And as we look at this next section of this letter, we will see that Apostle Paul answer this question and reveal for us another timeless truth when it comes to how we can be rescued from the universal and insurmountable problem that we have with God. So let’s look at this section together, beginning in Romans 5:12:

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—

Paul begins this section of his letter to the members of a first century church located in Rome by explaining that through one man sin entered into the world. When Paul talks about sin here, he is not referring to individual acts of sin. Instead Paul is referring to the destructive and evil power of selfishness and rebellion that causes us to do things that hurt God and others. Paul’s point here is that selfishness and sin made its entrance into the world through a single human being; and that single human being was Adam.

We read of sins entrance into the world in the very first book of the Bible, called the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 2 we read that God formed man, whose name was Adam, from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. God then gave Adam a job to tend the garden and name the animals and just one command to follow; don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But, as Adam named all the animals, he did not find a helper suitable for him and we read the first time that God said that something was not good; it is not good for man to be alone. So God caused Adam to fall to sleep and took one of his ribs and formed Eve, the first woman. However, instead of fulfilling his responsibility to lovingly, lead, protect, and provide for his wife, Adam cowardly chose to allow Eve to lead their relationship. God gave His command to Adam, who was expected to lead the couple in following the commandment. The result of Adam’s cowardly and selfish rebellion was disobeying God’s command and the evil power of selfishness, sin, and rebellion entered the world.

Paul then reveals for us two timeless consequences that the entrance of the evil power of selfishness and rebellion had on all humanity. First, Paul explains that death entered the world as a consequence of the entrance of the evil power of selfishness and rebellion. The world death here refers to the natural and spiritual death that humanity experiences as a divine punishment for selfishness and rebellion. It is important for us to understand that, from a Biblical perspective, the word death conveys the concept of separation. As a result of sin’s entrance into the world we experience physical death, which is the separation of our soul from our body. But not only do we experience physical death as a result of sin; we also experience spiritual death, which is the separation of us from God. Now if we physically die while being spiritually dead, we experience eternal death, or eternal separation from God. The evil power of selfishness and rebellion which entered the world upon Adam’s act of selfishness and rebellion, results in a separation from God and the relationship with God that we were created to experience for all eternity.

Second, Paul explains that death spread to all men, because all men sinned. As a result of Adam’s act of selfishness and rebellion, sin began to move across the landscape of all humanity throughout all of history, because all of humanity followed in the footsteps of Adam. All humanity throughout history has willingly engaged in acts of commission and omission that are committed against God and others that flow from our selfish rebellion against God and the word of God. Now a natural question that arises here would be “but Adam and Eve did not have the Ten Commandments. As a matter of fact, the Ten Commandments did not even appear until hundreds of years later, so how could they have been said to sin. This is a great question that the Apostle Paul; answers in the very next verse, so let’s look at it together:

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 was to come.

Now to fully understand what Paul is communicating here, we first need to understand what the word imputed means. The word imputed, in the language that this letter was originally written in, is an accounting term that means to charge to one’s account. When Paul refers to the Law, he is referring to the first five books in our Bibles today, which the Jewish people referred to as the Law or Torah. Paul’s point in verse 13 is that while sin was present in the world, while selfishness and rebellion was alive and well in the time before the Law appeared on the scene, this selfishness and rebellion was not charged to one’s account.

However, in verse 14, Paul makes it abundantly clear that just because sin was not credited to the accounts of those who lived before the Law was given, that does not mean that they did not suffer the consequences for their selfishness and rebellion. Paul states that nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses. Now Moses was the person that God used to lead the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt. And Moses was the person who not only received the Ten Commandments from God; Moses was also the person who wrote the Law or the first five books in our Bibles today.

Paul here is revealing for us the reality that death reigned, or exercised authority, over all of humanity, even those who lived before the Law was given to the Jewish people. Death was large and in charge of the lives of all humanity after Adam’s first act of selfishness and rebellion. When Paul uses the phrase “even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam” this phrase literally means just like Adam. Paul’s point here is that even those who did not selfishly rebel against God in the exact same way as Adam, but still selfishly rebelled and rejected God, still experienced the separation from God that comes as a consequence to selfishness, sin and rebellion.

And it is in these verses that we find the answer to the question “where does this selfishness and rebellion come from?” And the answer to that question is this: Our selfishness and rebellion comes from Adam, who functions as our representative. As a result of Adam’s act of selfishness and rebellion, sin not only entered the world; sin totally corrupted the world. Sin totally corrupted the world because we bear the consequences of Adam’s selfishness. You see, prior to eating the forbidden fruit Adam was able to either sin or not sin. But as a result of his selfishness and rebellion to God, sin entered and corrupted the world, resulting in Adam being no longer able not to sin.

Now theologians, who spend their entire lives studying the Bible, refer to Adam's decision to eat the forbidden fruit original sin. They also call the consequences that we bear as a result of Adam’s selfish decision total depravity. In other words, like Adam, we are not able not to sin. We are like a bird with a broken wing: just as a bird with a broken wing was created to fly, we were created with the ability not to sin, but we are flawed and broken as a result of Adam’s sin. But that doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Now many of you know that I am a huge fan of Michigan football. And when I am watching a Michigan game, nothing frustrates me more than when we are driving toward the end zone for a score and the left tackle gets a penalty for a false start. Do you notice that when there is a penalty in a football game that the whole team is penalized, not just the left tackle. The whole team is credited with the left tackles offense. It is the same with sin; Adam’s sin is credited to our account and we suffer as a result of Adams’ sin. We see this concept throughout Scripture. We see this in the story of Achan, which we look at in the restart series; we see this in the life of Daniel.

It is also important to see that Paul clearly states in verse 12 that we face death not because of Adam’s sin; we face death because of our own sin. And because of this reality, we are in need of rescue because we reflect our original representative. You see, Adam served as our representative, and because of that we are credited with Adam’s sin. And ultimately, it is because of this principle of Adam as our representative that we can have hope that God would provide another representative, a second Adam that could represent us and live the life that we were created for in relationship with God and one another.

We see this reality revealed for us when Paul makes a most interesting statement about Adam to close verse 14. He states that Adam is a type of Him to come. The word type here refers to an archetype that serves as a model or type of someone or something in the future. And as the Apostle Paul continues in this section of this letter, we will discover a timeless truth that provides hope of the possibility of rescue as a result of this second Adam, this second representative. We will discover this timeless truth together tomorrow.