My father’s father came from Scotland. Very little about him is known, and when my sister wanted to do some ancestral searching on a visit to the United Kingdom by going to Scotland my dad was fervently opposed to the idea. There were rumors about his dad having stowed away from Scotland as a boy … I don’t know. Nothing more about my grandfather was discussed. To me it really does not matter, yet to others, ancestral history is important. Our son-in-law, Roy, has a family tree that goes back to 1440. For us as a race there is another more important family tree that spreads backwards to Genesis chapter 1.
1) We have worked our way through the first three chapters of Genesis. Maybe for some of us, we were shocked and surprised at what was unpacked. Most note-worthy is the truth that all human beings, whoever we are and wherever we come from, whatever are language and color of skin and whatever our culture … come from Adam and Eve. Their descendants are Noah, his wife, three sons and three daughters-in-law. From our first parents the race grew numerically but also in depravity to where God brought about a universal flood, destroying all life apart for four man and four women (one family) as well as all animals apart from those protected in the ark. From these four couples, all the nations, cultures, colors and languages come. All humans are one race … the human race.
Ac 17:26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
To look at and consider any person or people superior or inferior to others is a sin. Like it or not … we are originally one family!
2) Then we need to grasp that Adam is our representative father. He is the head of the race. He is not just head of his wife and head of his family … he is the head of the race. As our representative head, whatever he did in the Garden, he did on our behalf. When God gave him the Probationary Command, whatever he did with it, he did on our behalf. If he obeyed it he would have obeyed it for us. If he disobeyed it he would disobeyed it for us. Adam stood as our representative head. Roy our son-in-law pointed out to me this morning before our 6am prayer meeting that Adam was under a Covenant of Works. If he obeyed the Probationary Command, he would have lived. There would have been no sin. What he would do, he would do for you and me in that Garden.
3) When Adam sinned, he sinned for us.
Ro 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.
Adam is that one man … but it is not that because he sinned we sin. Rather because he sinned and failed the Probationary Command (failed the Covenant of Works), he failed for us. We were as it were in Adam when he failed. We were in Adam when he sinned. When he sinned we sinned even though we were not yet born. Adam is our substitute father, not only did he sin on our behalf, it is as if we sinned personally when he sinned.
4) This is where the imputation of Adam’s sin comes in. he was righteous, pure and innocent before the fall. When he disobeyed God he became a sinner. Now remember, as a race we were in him when he sinned, therefore, each time he impregnated his wife Eve, the baby was born with a sinful nature. His sinful disposition was transferred to the child. His sin is our sin and the same damaged that was done between him and God is the damage we find ourselves in from birth until we experience Jesus’s redemptive work by grace through faith. What is particularly important is the fact that we as humans are one race and every nation of people within this race finds themselves in the exact same predicament … lost in sin.
5) The tragedy of what happened results in all people serving and following God’s enemy, the devil. Being born with a sinful nature, our basic bias is towards sin. Paul writes …
(1) We are all sinners:
Ro 3:22… There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
(2) We all serve the enemy of God:
Eph 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
6) The situation is extremely gloomy if we failed to understand the Messianic Promise of:
Ge 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
God promised a Savior … one who would come from the woman to do what Adam failed to do. He would live the righteous life. He would fulfil all commandments perfectly, doing everything His Father required of Him. The reason he is able to do this is because He is actually God Himself. He came to earth, born of a virgin without the help of a human father. The Holy Spirit ensured that in some miraculous way Mary fell pregnant. In this way there was no transfer of human sin to the child. And so Messiah was born like man but without sin.
7) Like Adam, He too was our representative. He substituted for us. It’s not so much that the righteous life He lived, we lived, but that His righteous life is credited to our account. In Adam all humans are sinners because we were in him when he sinned. In Christ all believers are made saints because He credits His righteousness to our account.
8) Remember He chose a people to be holy and blameless in His sight? He substituted for each of these chosen souls at Calvary. He died our death. He paid our sin price. He suffered the wrath due us. What He did at Calvary He did for us. And the merits of His sacrificial work are applied to every believer! Therefore, as He rose from the dead victoriously, so we too shall rise victoriously. As He ascended into heaven, so we too shall ascend into heaven. As Adam substituted for us in rebellion causing spiritual death, Jesus substituted for us in obedience gaining spiritual life.
9) Today we have confidence and assurance of eternal security.
Ro 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
Ro 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Father, Your mercies are new every morning. Your love is so sweet every day. Your salvation is so precious … yet Your promise of eternal life are so meaningful and precious that we worship and adore You Lord Jesus for turning our lot around and securing a home in Your heaven for us. Amen.