The Nature of Man

As I preface this sermon today, we'll be delving into a subject that is not addressed that often, I don't know if ever just directly, with regard to the origin of sin in a way. It is about the nature of man. One of the observations that I have come to with regard to where we are in the church, the attendance for the United Church of God for Feast of Tabernacles' first Holy Day was down 5% from last year. The offering was 8% more than on the last day, the eighth day, of the feast. The attendance was down 2.5 or 4 from last year, and the offering was slightly more than last year. We are in a period of time in which, like in the news articles, people have become cynical and they doubt almost everything. And, of course, you have this parable in Matthew 25 about the ten virgins. Five are wise and five are foolish. I guess you'd say the irony of that is they're all doing the same thing. They all had lamps, they all arose, they met the bridegroom when the knock came on the door at the midnight hour, but five had oil in their lamps and five didn't. One of the things I talked about this and a lot of the ministers chimed in. In fact, they approached the subject first in class, the ministerial class, this Tuesday morning. That of one is a lack of respect for the ministry that has the respect for the ministry has crumbled over the past 20 years since the big division. It was already crumbling before then.

And to a large degree it was and is their fault. But on the other hand, we must not go from one ditch to the other. But I think it's more than that. Also, the ability to discern whether or not a sermon is teaching me anything or not teaching me anything. Basically, there are two different kinds of sermons, a homiletic in which you tell a story and then you have scriptures that will support whatever your point is. And of course, classes on speaking sometimes are called homiletics. Then there's what's called expository sermons in which you preach in the Bible, in the Word, teaching the Word of God.

It seems that some people cannot discern the difference between the two. You need both, but more importantly is to continue to have that desire, that first love, to continue learning and especially probing, searching the deep things of God, that you might come to a greater and deeper understanding, that you do not become dull of hearing, and that you are excited about the study of God's Word, and that you are eager to learn, and you don't take on the attitude that you have heard it all. Now, in a lot of cases, obviously, if you've been in the church, as so many of you have, 40-plus years, there will be a tremendous amount of repetition.

You've heard that, you've heard this, and so on it goes. But at the same time, a lot of what church members have is in the area of tradition, oral tradition, passed on. They haven't really delved into the scriptures, have not really studied and researched it out for themselves. And this, in view of the fact today that we have all of these marvelous tools, like I can sit there with the laptop, and I just have e-sword, not just have, but just take e-sword, for example, bring up the scripture, and bring up parallel on the right side of the page some 12 or 15 commentaries where I can look at Romans 5 and verse 12.

I can see what James and Fawcett Brown says, I can see what Meyers says, I can see what Vincent says, I can see what Barnes says, I can see what Expositor's Bible commentary says, and these are just a few. There's probably seven or eight more, just from that one. So this matter of not letting yourself become dull of hearing, as Paul warned the Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 5, at a time in which you ought to be teachers, you have become dull of hearing. And so I hope that doesn't happen to us, and that we do heed a wake-up call if there is a wake-up call for you.

So that's a preface. It's really not what the sermon is all together about. So here's the, I guess you would call an introduction to the sermon. I was eating my chicken tenders, not very biblical, but I was eating chicken tenders at the KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken, in Gilmer one day this week. When I heard this woman behind me, I glanced there as I sat down.

Some five or six people gathered around this table, and really they weren't eating.

She was delivering a lecture on the Bible, and basically it centered on why humankind needs a Savior. She was going to give a talk that evening on the topic. She had given talks before. She talked about the first time she ever gave her, I don't know if she called it testimony or witness or whatever it was. She might have even been a called pastor, I'm not sure. She said, it's all because of Adam and Eve. They sinned, and because of their sin, we are all sinners.

Now is that a true statement? I sense that some in God's church are confused on this issue on this matter with regard to what the world calls original sin. The notion of original sin has been around for centuries, and it's based on a misunderstanding of several scriptures, coupled with faulty logic. The so-called doctrine of original sin is used by the Catholic Church to justify the practice of infant baptism. So it's like we inherit sin from Adam and Eve, and here this child is born. This child is a sinner from his mother's womb, and so we've got to baptize this child in case the child dies. And of course, there are various stages in Catholic doctrine with regard to where you go before you are able to behold the beatific vision.

The principle scripture that is used to support this is found in Romans chapter 5 verse 12.

Paul makes a rather seemingly abrupt change, but really it's not that abrupt. What is the great overriding theme of the book of Romans? The great overriding theme. Now, there are many elements to the book of Romans. When I first came back here from Houston about three years ago, we had a couple of Sabbaths in which we focused on mastering the book of Romans. I gave handouts, and we studied that. The great overriding theme has to do with how a person is justified.

Is a person justified by the law, or is a person justified through faith in Jesus Christ?

And of course, the tendency is to jump one ditch to the other, and really, you have to repent of breaking God's immutable spiritual law and exercise faith in the sacrifice of Christ in order to be justified. So in Romans 5 verse 12, Paul writing here, "...wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, and death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Now I'm going to read from Expositor's Bible commentary. Expositor's Bible commentary is used quite often by our ministers and our writers, writing various articles and giving sermons and Bible studies. And it is a good source for historical information and sometimes some helpful insight into what is meant by the passage. Here's what Expositor's Bible commentary states.

We shall find the apostle teaching or rather stating, for he writes to those who know that mankind inherits from primal man tried and fallen, not only taint but guilt, not only moral hurt, but legal fault. So Expositor's Bible commentary says that really you inherit your nature from Adam and Eve. But that statement is in error. The scripture clearly states that death passed on to all men. Why? Because all have sinned. Now the succeeding verses that come after this can make it appear as if, once again, because Adam sinned, then the death penalty is on your head.

The death penalty is on our head because we have sinned after we reached what we commonly called accountability. God will not hold you responsible for someone else's sins. The scripture clearly states that death passed on all men because all have sinned. And God is not going to hold you responsible for somebody else's sins. Look at Ezekiel 14. Ezekiel 14, verse 14.

Ezekiel 14, verse 14.

Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, it's talking about God's judgment when it comes, they should deliver but their own life essences, life potential by their righteousness, says the Lord God. Then it goes on talking about various judgments if they come, and then you look at verse 20 where it is repeated.

Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the eternal God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter. They shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.

So the Bible obviously teaches individual and specific accountability.

Another well-known commentator, Albert Barnes, states the following. He writes, one of the things that he writes is that this verse is one of the most controversial verses of all times. He writes the following. He says, Romans 5, 12 through 21 has been usually regarded as the most difficult part of the New Testament. It is not the design of these notes to enter into a minute criticism of contested points like this. They who wish to see a full discussion of this passage may find it in the professionally or professedly, not professional, find it in the professedly critical commentaries, and especially in the commentaries of Tholuk and of Pastor Stuart on the Romans. The meaning of the passage in its general bearing is not difficult, and probably the whole passage would have been found far less difficult if it had not been attached to a philosophical theory on the subject of man's sins. And if a strenuous and indefatigable effort had not been made to prove that it teaches what it was never designed to teach, would Paul set forth a verse to try to show that you are a sinner because Adam and Eve sinned.

That you inherit from Adam and Eve. He writes further, the plain and obvious design of the passage is this, to show one of the benefits of the doctrine of justification by faith.

In these passages here, verses 12 through 21, Paul is using, I would say, three literary devices, comparison. When you compare, basically you're talking about how they're alike.

They're alike, and let's compare these various likenesses. Contrast. Contrast, you show how they differ one from another. And then parallelism, you show the parallels between one and the other.

For example, Adam, the first man, Jesus Christ, the second man. And what are the parallels and the contrast and the comparisons between the two? Sin entered the human realm.

Now, note that sin entered the human realm because of Adam and Eve's sin.

And Adam is often used in the generic sense, and so sometimes we might just say Adam, of course, Eve also sinned. So the first human parents, today is the day of blessing of little children set aside by tradition, a long tradition in the Church of God, to try to follow what the Jesus Christ taught the disciples to teach the Church. And we know the story very well of Adam and Eve's first two children, Cain and Abel. Cain, the firstborn. And apparently, I'm not turning there, but you might want to write it down. You've heard it a million times, and one way or the other. In Genesis chapter 4, where Eve says, I have gotten me a man from the Lord. Remember, in Genesis 3.15, God had promised a Messiah. He contrasted there in Genesis 3.15 that this evil one, the seed of the serpent, would bruise his heel. Satan inspired the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, but the seed of Christ, the Messiah, would bruise the head of Satan, would put him away. So Eve says, I've gotten me a man from the Lord. And perhaps Cain thought he was the Messiah. And when he brought a thank offering as opposed to a sin offering, God didn't accept it. And so the very first two children born of human parents, Cain and Abel, same parents.

One was unfaithful and fathered the line of Cain, which was largely responsible for the pre-flood world's sins and the flood coming upon the earth. And then, on the other hand, Abel, who is mentioned as one of the faithful, in Hebrews chapter 11. Paul is using these literary devices to show this. Barnes presents a technical explanation of that clause, that clause being, because all have sinned, and concludes that the English translation is correct. The translations, you look at various translations, are all over the place, but I'm going back now to Romans chapter 5. And once again, that clause, so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Here's what Barnes writes here. All have sinned. To sin is to transgress the law of God. Of course, that's very clear, 1 John 3.4. Sin is the transgression of the law. It means to transgress the law to do wrong. The apostle in this expression does not say that all have sinned in Adam, or that their nature has become corrupt. Of course, it is true that it has become corrupt, but was it due to inheritance? But which is not affirmed here, nor that sin of Adam is imputed to them, but simply that all people have sinned? He speaks evidently of the great universal fact that all people are sinners. He is not setting a metaphysical difficulty. Now that's what a lot of the so-called theologians have done. They set up a metaphysical difficulty. Now what does the word metaphysical mean? Metaphysical is a compound word consisting of meta in the Greek, which means after, and the word physical, which is that of the material world. So metaphysical means that which is beyond the material world. In other words, the spiritual world, the unseen world. So Paul is not trying to construct a metaphysical conundrum, nor does he speak of the condition of man as he comes into the world. He speaks as other men would.

He addresses himself to the common sense of the world and is discouraging of universal well-known facts. Here is the fact that all people experience calamity, condemnation, death.

How is this to be accounted for? The answer is all of sin.

This is a sufficient answer. It meets the case, and as his design cannot be shown to be to discuss a metaphysical question about the nature of man or about the character of infants, the passage should be interpreted according to his design and should not be presented to bear on that of which he says nothing and to which the passage evidently has no reference.

You know, you talk about this thing of infants, and are you going to baptize infants as if they had inherited sin from Adam and Eve? Some have postulated. They've talked about second resurrection, and some believe that aborted children will be resurrected.

That question was presented to the Doctrine Committee about two years ago.

We spent considerable time on it, but there is no clear Bible scripture.

The lady who presented it was, oh, please tell us that they will be, that aborted children will be resurrected. Well, I would like to think so, but the Bible is silent on the topic. It does not say one way or the other. Now, some might deduce, and I know the deductions that might not come about, not that I know everyone, to say, well, life begins at conception, which some dispute that, that it's a later time when they take the breath of life or whenever it is. But once again, the Bible doesn't say that. So, the Bible is silent on that with regard, will aborted children be resurrected? What about children that live for a week or a day and they die? Are they going to be resurrected as one day old or two months old? Well, that's hard to say.

Some say, well, the incubators are going to be filled, and who's going to take care of all these children? And then some say, well, they'll be resurrected, mature human beings like Adam and Eve.

Well, I don't know that, and neither do you. We can talk about it. But the Bible is clear on the teaching with regard to the fact that you are held accountable for sin when you reach that age in which you know right from wrong. It is called by some the age of accountability.

The Jews have a ceremony that they go through called Bar Mitzvah for the boys, and the first word for the girls. Girls also have a similar ceremony that they go through, and it's generally when they turn 13 years of age that they go through this ceremony in which they are passing from being a child into being accountable for their actions. And I would say, may God have mercy on all of those who have 13-year-olds and 16-year-olds.

If you think you've been tried by fire, well, just wait. 13 and 16, if you get through those ages unscathed, you've got a better chance. But anyhow, so it's not scriptural to baptize infants and try to justify it by saying it is because of original sin. If one were to use strict parallelism and state that all humans are sinners because of Adam, if you're going to have a parallel, then you would have to say that all humans inherit eternal life from Jesus Christ, the second Adam. If you're going to parallel, well, everybody's a sinner and inherit that from Adam, well, then Jesus Christ comes on the scene. Everybody would inherit eternal life because he is the second Adam. For parallelism to be perfect and complete, we would have to say we inherit eternal life from Jesus Christ with no action on our part. If we're going to say we're sinners because of no action on our part, then if it's strictly parallelism, we'd have to say, okay, we'll all inherit eternal life from Jesus Christ. And you see that parallelism breaks down. The Bible states that we must repent, exercise faith in the sacrifice of Christ, and be baptized in order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

If you want to hold Romans 5, we'll come back there from time to time. In Acts 2, a verse that we all should be able to quote, and hopefully we can, but let's read it.

In Acts 2, verse 38, he preached this great sermon on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was sent. He said, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Peter didn't put in this step. It is a summary scripture.

It is also necessary to have faith in the sacrifice of Christ because that's how a person is. That is a part of justification.

Because the wages of sin is death, and someone had to pay that penalty. Even though you repent of your sins and maybe you begin to obey perfectly, that would not pay for sins that are passed.

And so it required the death of the Son of God to pay for those sins.

For the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. See, it is a gift, but it is conditional. It's based on repentance, faith in Christ, baptism. You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. And if that were not the case, Christ would be the minister of sin. And Christ is not the minister of sin. You can look at Galatians chapter 2. Yes, a man is justified. And we'll use man for humankind. Men and women. In Galatians chapter 2, Galatians is a book all about how is a person justified. There's Judaizers who had crept in the congregation at Galatia, and they were teaching that in order to be justified, among other things, you had to be circumcised according to the law of Moses. But in Galatians 2 verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, even perfect obedience to the spiritual law would not pay for sins that are passed. But by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

But on the other hand, you have to repent as the succeeding verses 2 will say, but if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also have found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? No, God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. So if you just inherited eternal life with no conditions, then Christ would be the minister of sin, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So you see, strict parallelism breaks down. In Romans 5, 12, and the succeeding verses, Paul is contrasting what Adam did by introducing sin into the human realm. Now, once again, this introducing sin into the human realm. The first sinners, the one who introduced sin into the universe, was who? Satan the devil. Satan the devil. Ezekiel 28, 15 says the following, and you were perfect from the day that you were created until the time that iniquity was found in you, lawlessness. And Satan drew a third part of the angels who followed him in his rebellion in sin. So sin was introduced into the universe by Satan and those who followed him, and they became demons. Sin was introduced into the human realm by Adam and Eve. And once again, we use Adam as generic for both. So in Romans 5, 12, and succeeding verses, Paul is contrasting what Adam did by introducing sin in the human realm with what Christ did in providing justification for sin by his death on the stake. One brought sin. One brought life. Now I want to read this rather long passage here from Barnes. I usually don't do this, but read it and make a few comments. I find Barnes to be of the commentaries that are commonly known. When I find Barnes, Albert Barnes, Albert Barnes lived from 1798 to 1870, 72 years.

He was a Presbyterian minister. He pastored the first Presbyterian church in Philadelphia for 37 years. He revolted against strict Calvinism, that is, the Calvinistic doctrine of predetermined what is called predestination, that some are predestined to be saved and some are predestined to be lost. And of course, any of these commentaries. And on the one hand, they can nail it beautifully. Then in another section, they'll turn around and contradict what they said.

So all commentaries. I've said many times that we should be writing the commentaries, but who among us is going to write them? Because virtually everybody we have is wearing about three to five to ten hats. And so it's a little of this and a little of that if you're wearing ten hats. Like I checked out of Book of Bookures yesterday, and I had this little pitiful handful of stuff, she said that'd be $37.65. I said barely enough to keep a cat alive, and she broke down laughing. But uh... Barnes Wright, for in the account of the infliction of the penalty after the law was violated and God's own interpretation of it. Okay, this is Genesis 3.19. After Adam and Eve sinned, and God said, okay, because you have sinned, this is Genesis 3.19. Maybe we ought to turn there.

See, what did God tell Adam with regard to that? He spoke to Adam in what I would call almost the simplest of terms. It was not a great metaphysical treatise on what all of this means in the history of theology. This is Genesis 3.19. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return unto the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you art, and unto dust shall you return.

There's nothing about you have committed spiritual death. You'll not be in the second resurrection. There is no hope for you. You're going to get a fire, just saying, unto dust you shall return, and here's how you're going to make your living by the sweat of your brow. Of course, the fat cats on Wall Street have been able to circumvent that. So he continues, Barnes does. Now it is incredible that Adam should have understood this as referring to what has been called spiritual death and to eternal death, when neither in the threatening nor in the account of the infliction of the sentence is there the slightest recording reference to it. There's nothing about second death being placed in Gahinophira. People have done great injury in the cause of correct interpretation by carrying their notions of doctrinal subjects to the explanation of words and phrases in the Old Testament. They have usually described Adam as endowed with all the refinement and possessor of all the knowledge and adorned with all the metaphysical acumen and subtlety of a modern theologian. Adam was just a man. And I have this later in the notes, but it fits right here with regard to our view of people in the Bible. Our view of people in the Bible oftentimes is quite distorted. All men have basically the same nature. The nature of man from Adam to the present time has not changed, and we are all subject to the various things that come upon us. Now James writes in James 5 with regard to Elijah, I think it's verse 19, where he says that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as you are. Now here he puts it in the positive vein. Elijah was a man subject to like passions as you are, yet he prayed and God closed the heavens for three years. Now on the other hand, as was brought out in a sermon recently, that after the showdown on Mount Carmel, in which the showdown between Elijah and 450 priests at Baal, that God with fire after Elijah asked him to came down with fire and destroyed the whole altar, the offering, the water in the trough around the altar. And then Jezebel heard about it, and she said, I'm going to kill Elijah, and Elijah fled for his life. He even got out there, woe is me, I just want to die. I mean, men are subject to like passions as we are. There's only been one person that lived in the flesh who are not subject to like passions, though tried in every sense as we are, and subject to like passions as we are. They have deemed him qualified, listen to this, they have deemed him qualified in the very infancy of the world to understand and discuss questions which, under all the light of Christian revelation, still perplex and embarrass the human mind. We just don't know some of these things, but we know enough of the trunk of the tree.

After these accounts of the endowments of Adam, which occupies a large space in the books of theology, one is surprised in opening the Bible to find out how unlike all this is, the simple statement in Genesis. And the wonder cannot be suppressed. People should describe the obvious infancy of the races as superior to its highest advancement, or that the first man just waking up upon a world of wonders, imperfectly acquainted with law and moral relations, and the effects of transgressions should be represented and endowed with knowledge which, four thousand years afterward, it required the advent of the Son of God to communicate. See, Adam was created. God instructed him, don't eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because when you eat of it, you bring the death penalty upon your head. Adam was created morally illiterate. He had no past training or education. He continues, the account in Moses is simple. Created man was told not to violate a simple law on pain of death. He did it, and God announced to him that the sentence would be inflicted and that he should return to the dust from where he was taken. What else this might involve, what other consequences sin might introduce, might be the subject of future developments and relations and revelations. It is absurd, words of Barnes, it is absurd to suppose that all the consequences of the violation of law can be foreseen or must necessarily be foreseen in order to make the law and the penalty just. It is sufficient that the law be known, that its violation be forbidden, and what the consequences of the violation will be must be left in part of future developments. Even we, we know not half the results of violating the law of God. The murderer knows not the results fully of taking a man's life. He breaks a just law and exposes himself to the numerous unseen woes which may flow from it. I think it, I wonder at times, even with, first of all with Adam, if Adam really understood what the consequences in the total sense would be of him disobeying God. I wonder with some of the leaders in the Church of God over the years if they knew the total consequences and fallout that would result from their actions. Would they have done what they did? I wonder.

Now if your heart is not right and you think that you are doing great wonders and liberating people from the law of God, then maybe that's another matter. See, there's no liberation from the word of God and from the law of God. You may think you are free from the law of God, but no one is ever free from the law of God. Oh, they may break it a million times, but they will be held accountable.

As I mentioned earlier, for the most part, we don't have a correct view of nearly every character in the Bible. We either overestimate or underestimate their righteousness or lack thereof.

So with this background, let's read the rest of Romans chapter 5. So let's begin there in verse 13 and make some comments, and then we'll have some summary and concluding comments tying much of this together. Romans 5.13 I ate my brunch too late.

But for until the law sin was in the world, while sin entered the universe when Satan sinned, as we mentioned from Ezekiel 28.15. Sin entered the human realm when Adam sinned.

This shows that the immutable spiritual law of God was in effect. How could God judge the angels if the law were not in effect? How could he judge the pre-flood world if the law were not in effect?

Remember Genesis 6? The thoughts and intent of the heart of man was continually upon evil.

He couldn't judge the world if the law were not in effect. Now, the codified law, that is the law, the statutes and judgments given at Sinai, of course, had not been given.

So we continue here. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. And that's speaking of the codified law.

If you, you may, it would be they in that sense, in this sense, broke the the law, not understanding the consequences thereof, that it leads to the second death. There will be a lot of people, I'm very convinced, in the second resurrection, who died as a result of what we call Noah's flood. And a lot of people since then. But once you have been convicted and you understand and you know you are accountable and you are responsible.

Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them, that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Their sin didn't cause sin to enter the universe, over humankind to be cut off from the tree of life for a long period of time, who is the figure of him that was to come. He's the figure. He is the first. He did certain things that resulted in certain things. Now, he who is to come, Jesus Christ, by contrast, did something quite different. But not as the offense, in contrast to the sin of Adam, so also is the gift.

For it is through the offense of one, many be dead. Now, the King James translators there, where it says, free gift, oftentimes they add things that are not in the original.

It is free, but with conditions, as we read from Acts 2.38. For if through the offense of one, many be dead, why are they dead? Because all have sinned. Much more, the grace, the divine favor of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man. Remember John chapter 1, where it says that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift, for the judgment was by one to condemnation. But the gift is of many offenses and a justification. Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world. For if by one man's offense death reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Now the word righteousness in the Greek, the Greek word that is translated righteousness, some places it's translated righteousness and some places translated justification. A lot of people get the idea of just reading sometimes righteousness that is talking about Jesus Christ's righteousness is imputed to you without like in an inherited sense. The gift of righteousness or justification shall reign in life by one.

Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men. You see, judgment came as in italics, not in the original. Therefore, as by the offense of one upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one. Once again, the free gift came, is in italics, upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Why were they made sinners? Because all have sinned. So by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. Now, what is this obedience? Once again, you can read this verse and say, well, because Jesus Christ obeyed, then I made righteous just because of his obedience.

It's a part of it. Here's what the answer is. Because Jesus Christ obeyed perfectly, he became the Savior of the whole world. If he had not obeyed perfectly, he could not have been the Savior. So through his obedience unto death on the stake, and his resurrection and ascendance to heaven, and sending the Holy Spirit, we can be justified and receive the down payment, the earnest of the Spirit, on eternal life. Because he fulfilled his mission by perfectly obeying what his mission was, we can be made righteous. It is not saying that because Jesus Christ obeyed, that is imputed to us. Because he obeyed, he could use the word qualified overcame to become our Savior. We still have to repent, exercise faith, and all of that.

Moreover, the law entered, so here, evidently talking about the codified law, that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

And once again, you can see the difficulty in reading Paul's writing. But if you keep in mind this one great thing that I told you up front, what is the principal theme of the book of Romans?

It is, how is a person justified?

That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace, divine favor, reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? The grace be abound? Paul knew that as he went through that, and he used that comparison, contrast, parallelism, that some would get the idea that he's saying that the law is done away with, and you're just... Christ did it all. And immediately he says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? The grace be abound? God forbid.

How shall we then, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Know you not that as so many of us, as we're baptized unto Jesus Christ, were baptized unto his death, raised the newness of life to lead and live the sinless life.

But I know some, whoa, you mean we can be perfect? Well, you know what I mean.

So, God did not create Adam and Eve in a sinful state. If that were the case, these are very important summary points, and we'll have about 25 minutes of them.

Adam and Eve were not created in a sinful state. Why? How can you conclude that?

If that were the case, God would be responsible for sin. And then, if we inherited sin from Adam and Eve, then God would be unfair.

And he's not unfair. We're sinners because we have sinned, as Romans 5, 12 says. God created Adam and Eve in a neutral state. They were created morally illiterate, not knowing good and evil. How could they know good and evil?

I mean, they weren't superhuman. I assume they had better than, quote, what we call average intelligence. I don't know. Maybe they had average intelligence. How much time did God spend with them, instructing them before Adam, before Eve took her walk in the garden? I don't know.

A lot of people speculated that they were created on the sixth day. She took her stroll the next day, one day later, on the Sabbath day. But the Scripture doesn't say for sure how long it was after they were created, and they were given the instruction.

They suddenly appeared on the scene as grown adults, no prior training or education.

God gave them what we call free will. That is, the ability to choose. They could choose to obey God, or they could choose for themselves what is good and what is evil.

God instructed them to look to Him for the knowledge of good and evil.

God told them that in the day that they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that they would die. They would begin to die. God gave them the discipline.

The discipline means the set of instructions, the rules that they were to go by. In rearing our children, we're to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That word nurture in the Greek is paeidia, which means to set forth the discipline, the instruction, the rules, and then to give them the consequences of breaking the rules.

That's what God did.

He made them accountable for their actions.

One of the main things that we have failed to do is to teach our children properly accountability in the greater spiritual sense. We're not just playing church. We're here for a great reason.

Humans were created as physio-chemical beings made from the dust of the earth.

Of course, there's a lot of electricity in that chemistry that makes up our being. Since we were created with free will, we are subject to sin and death.

That's the way that we were created. You look at Romans chapter 8.

Romans chapter 8. Verse 19, For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.

For the creature was made subject to vanity. That is, temporarily, was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope.

Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

So we were created subject to temporarily. And we're subject to falling for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Not that we have to go that way, but we were created subject to it. God also set another tree in the Garden of Eden that we know very well, the tree of life, which symbolizes the Holy Spirit. So the lesson was clear that if they did not partake of the tree of life, they would die. God had already created the angelic realm, and they were given free will as well.

Now we go to Hebrews chapter 1. We begin to get into some of the most interesting, and to me the depth of what we have just plunged, if you really understand it, how marvelous that is. In Hebrews chapter 1, God created the angels as spirit beings. They were not, they were not, they were not, and never will be, born sons and daughters of God. This is Hebrews 1 verse 4. Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance, that is Jesus Christ, obtained a more excellent name than they. See, we are going to be, and I'm quoting here from Romans 8-17, which says, Inheritors of God enjoint heirs with Jesus Christ. For under which of the angels said he at any time? Which of the angels said he at any time? You are my son, this day have I begotten you. Can I owe you? Of course, the Father begot Jesus Christ, and he also brought him to birth, raised him from the dead, and so he will with us. He begets us, and he brings us to birth at the resurrection. It's Romans 8-11. And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings in the first begotten in the world, he says, and let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels, he said, who makes his angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the sun, he says, your throne, O God, is for ever and ever a scepter of righteousness, is the scepter of your kingdom. Now, the purpose of angels, verses 13 and 14. But to which of the angels said he at any time? Sit you on my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. He never did, and he never will. Are not they all? Are they not all? Ministering spirits sent forth and minister to them, who shall be heirs of salvation. The archangel Lucifer was created perfect until a nicotine was found in him. However, since he had free will, he was subject to sin. Now we come to the most amazing understanding, as far as I'm concerned, of all time. That is God's plan for having a family consisting of spirit-born sons and daughters. How would you go about that plan? You created the angels' spirit beings. They're not born beings.

They are spirit beings, but you want a family from your bowels, from your being. We know how it happens in the human realm, but God ordained and set forth this plan for the spiritual realm that parallels to a large degree the physical realm. So the Father and the Word had to develop a plan that would enable created beings made of the dust to the ground so that they could be engendered with the Spirit of God and born into the family of God at the resurrection.

Now, how would you do that? What would you do? And you want them to voluntarily choose to serve you, to worship you, to love you, to be a part of your family, to be loyal, to be faithful, and we could go on. This plan was developed before the world began. As previously mentioned, God created humans subject to sin and death. He knew they would sin and need a Redeemer to buy them back from sin and death.

So let's look at two or three scriptures that verifies that. Look at Revelation 13.8. Revelation 13.8. Speaking of the beast system, The beast, all that dwell upon the earth, shall worship him, that is the beast. It's Revelation 13.8. Whose names are not written in the book of the life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. Now we go to John. Of course, John writes Revelation. Now we go to the Gospel of John, chapter 17. Chapter 17 is this great prayer that Jesus prayed the night that he was betrayed and taken by the authorities.

The mock trial before the Jews and eventually turned over the Romans to be crucified. And in this prayer in John 17.5, he says, And now, O Father, glorify you me with your own self, with the glory which I had with you before the world began. Now you look at verse 24. Verse 24. Father, I will that also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you have loved me before the foundation of the world.

So God and the Word developed a plan that would remove man's sin problem. That plan required the Word to give up his glory, take on the form of a man, and die for the sins of the world. Now we go to Philippians, chapter 2. These are four of the most important verses in the whole Bible with regard to understanding the nature of God and Jesus Christ. It has to do with many of the aspects of Christology. In Ephesians 2, verse 6. I said it's Philippians 2, verse 6. Who being in the form of God, this is the Word, the one who became Jesus Christ, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery, a thing to be seized, to be equal with God.

Why? Because he was already on the God plane. He thought it not robbery, subsisting, or being. So we look at each one of these key words here. Who being has to do with existence. Who being, who was existing in the form of God thought it not a thing to be seized. Why was it not a thing to be seized? Because he was on the God plane to be equal. He was on the whole Isis to be equal with God. He was already on the God plane. So he didn't have to seize that. He was there. Restore unto me the glory I had with you before the world began.

We've already read. But made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man. So he gave up his glory, not its divinity.

He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the stake. Wherefore, God has also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, things in heaven, things in earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. See, God will not dwell with sin, so upon repentance and faith in the sacrifice of Jesus, in baptism we can be viewed as sinless, removing the sins as far as the east is from the west, and forgetting those sins.

We recently had a sermonette here, a very fine one, I believe, Walter Crane, in which he talked about forgetting. Sometimes I get the cranes mixed up, but anyhow, I think it was... I'm telling you, I don't get them mixed up when I see them face to face, but who said what?

That's what I get. Who said what? So then, upon repentance and faith in baptism, God will give us the earnest of the Spirit, the down payment on eternal life. How would you like to have been able to hear the Father and the Word develop this great family plan?

If you could have been there and heard how they worked this out. I mean, this is really incredible stuff. This plan was developed because God is loved and deeply desires to have a family relationship to share this eternal being with humankind. The Bible speaks of many mysteries. To me, the greatest mystery is how spirit can be joined to flesh and upon resurrection become a glorious, radiant spirit being. These little ones have that potential. All of us have that potential. Every human being has that potential.

Everyone that has been or will be are living presently. Adam and Eve's sin were cut off from the tree of life, and humankind was cut off from the tree of life until the only begotten Son lived a perfect life.

This is how, through his obedience, it talked about earlier from Romans 5, he lived a perfect life. He was crucified. He was resurrected, ascended back to heaven, and sent us the Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the Father. It's one of the elements of Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost. This paved the way for the New Covenant. Christ instituted the symbols of the New Covenant. The bread which we break is symbolic of the broken body of Jesus.

The wine which we drink symbolizes the blood that Jesus Christ shed.

Both a whole sacrifice for the remission of sin.

And on the day of Pentecost, about 53 days later, the New Covenant Church began.

Pentecost 31 A.D. The Church of God. The church that you have been called to now.

So great a calling has not been available to very many people through the centuries, and yet even the millennia. But now you have been called at a critical, crucial, pivotal time in human history, both in the secular world and in the Church of God.

When it really is now to it, none of the churches of God are really growing.

Maybe God is not calling people now. Maybe the great harvest is to come later.

But whatever the case, blessed is that servant whom I shall find so doing. That's what Christ says in Matthew 24.

That it is not the time to be slack in anything. In fact, as Paul writes in Romans 13, so much more as you see the day approaching.

So I hope and pray that we're all thankful for what God has called us to. Today we've gotten a little bit of a glimpse of humankind, about sin, about how it originated, why the death penalty is on our head, how it can be paid for, how God worked out the great plan of salvation that we have been called to.

So brethren, as we examine these words of life, we should be struck with the wonder of God's great plan of salvation.

God does things the way he does things. Why? We have two more passages of scripture to read.

Romans 11 verse 25 will begin. This question so often would come up in the classes that I taught at Ambassador, fundamentals of theology especially. You know, why does God do things the way he does things?

Why couldn't he have done this, that, or the other?

All of these things that people like Bill Maher or some of the ones who claim to be so erudite and educated, the intellectuals like Hawking and others, they don't even give the Bible a chance, and it requires far more faith to believe what they believe than the simple words of the Bible. This is Romans 11.25, for I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest we should be wise in our own conceits, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the nations be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, that's Jesus Christ, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. God doesn't have to explain why he does things the way he does things.

For, as you in times past have not believed, God yet now have obtained mercy through their unbelief. Even so have we these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, why, that he might have mercy upon all. Why did he have to do it that way? I don't know.

I know what Paul continues to write here, and what we must accept.

Accept, O the deaf to the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgment in his ways past finding out.

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor, or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompended unto him again?

For of him, through him, and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen.

So why does God do things the way he does things? That answers that question. Ephesians chapter 3 now. Ephesians chapter 3, beginning of verse 14.

Once again, a great summary.

This is, in essence, a psalm or a prayer. Ephesians 3 and verse 14.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with the might of his spirit and the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, and to him the glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.