"HUMPTY DUMPTY - UPDATED"

Romans 5:12-21
Bob Bonner
January 15, 1995

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall!

All the king's horses

And all the king's men,

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Although that is one of the most famous of nursery rhymes, no one knows who wrote it or from whence it came. I don't know how many of you picture what I picture when I hear that nursery rhyme, but when I hear it, I see this big egg-like figure sitting on a wall one moment, then the next moment, it lies in pieces on the ground. Do any of you have a similar picture in your minds? 

Isn't it interesting, that nothing in that rhyme indicates that the author had an egg-like figure in mind. So, I would like to suggest another picture as to what the author had in mind when he wrote of Humpty Dumpty. Humpty was not an egg, but rather, Humpty represents the Fall of Mankind. Mankind sat on a wall, and due to sin, fell and no one since has been able to put us back together again, that is until Jesus Christ came along.

Our passage of study this morning, Romans 5:12-21 deals with this very scene. It pictures one man, Adam who represented all mankind sitting upon a wall of innocence. This Adam fell to such a great depth, that no one was able to deliver Adam or mankind until a second Adam, Jesus Christ came and offered to put all of us back together again.

In the first three chapters of Romans, Paul explains this fall and the resulting judgment against all mankind. Then, in Romans 3:21-5:21, Paul has been explaining life beyond the Fall for those who put their trust in Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord. Paul discusses the subject of justification, and how God made it possible for us to be not just forgiven, but permanently made right and fully pleasing and approved before God. Never again do we have to fear God's wrath or rejection. Furthermore, we will see Paul begin to bring up information about how Jesus Christ enables us and prepares us to live life right here and now, in the midst of a hostile world, filled with injustices and abuse.

As we look at our passage this morning, there is an underlying question that prompted Paul to write these words. And that question is, "How could what one man did, Adam, at one time in history have such an absolutely detrimental effect on all mankind?" In order to answer that question, Paul chooses to compare and contrast another man, sometimes called "The Second Adam", Jesus Christ to the first Adam.

But before we look more closely at our verses, for the sake of our visitors, let me remind you of the immediate context of Romans 5:1-11. As I concluded last week, I showed you how chapter 5 thus far, could be outlined around the three uses of the term "rejoice" or "exult". One of the marks of a true follower of Jesus Christ is that that person has every reason to be a rejoicer! No matter what happens, we have cause for rejoicing. 

The three kinds of rejoicing described in Romans 5 represent three levels of spiritual maturity or growth in the believer's life. These three levels of rejoicing are based upon our understanding of what Christ has done for us. Each level of rejoicing progressively sets the foundation for the next level of rejoicing. In other words, our ability to rejoice in each of these areas increases with our maturity and understanding in the previous levels.

The first reason for our rejoicing is given in verses 1-2 and it dealt with our rejoicing in our "hope of the glory of God." That refers to our new position in Christ as believers. As Christians, we are no longer enemies, but friends with God. We are at peace with God, and hence, we have free and welcomed access into His presence any time we want. In addition, we have God's promise that one day, we will be with Him in heaven, conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. All our bad habits, addictions, tendencies to carry around bitterness etc, will be done away with once and for all. We will become satisfied citizens of heaven with a mission or responsibilities to fulfill. 

The second level of rejoicing is seen in the midst of life's tragedies, pressures, disappointments and pain that all goes along with living in a fallen world that is hostile toward God. We read about this ability to rejoice in our sufferings in verses 3-10. Once we realize our lives here on earth or only temporary, and our eternal lives are already taken care of, we look at our difficulties here and now from a different perspective. We see that God is using the present day pressures of the daily grind of life to cause us to grow up in Christ and make us steady, trustworthy veterans of the faith. He is making us into mature people, who can be there for less mature people when they are struggling and need some one to look to for encouragement. The veteran of the faith, is someone who has learned over time through difficult circumstances, that he must depend upon the Lord and His strength to live a fulfilled life here and now. Bottom line, this more mature believer has learned to rejoice in one's difficulties, because we know that in the end, they will only produce something good in our lives.

The third cause for our rejoicing, we saw last time, in verse 11. This rejoicing takes place as a result of understanding more fully all the practical ramification of Jesus Christ's work on the cross, on our behalf. We marvel at what He accomplished and become so grateful for what He has done for us, that we can't help but rejoice in our great and glorious God, as verse 11 puts it. For through Jesus Christ, He has reconciled us to Himself. He has made it possible not only for us to spend eternity with the Lord, but to be changed right here and now for good and to get them most out of life right now.

And notice, that the key to all of this rejoicing has been through Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. It is only through Jesus Christ that we can really get a clearer picture of who God is like. When we see and know the love of Jesus, we see and know the heart of God. Furthermore, when we see the works of Jesus Christ, we rejoice in the works of God Himself.

And now, from verse 12 to the end of this chapter, Paul is going to show us the greatness of Jesus Christ's works on our behalf, by comparing and contrasting Jesus works with the works of Adam. Understanding this greatness of Jesus Christ in comparison to Adam only fosters further praise in our hearts toward God for what He has done for us.

Our section of scripture that we are about to look at, falls into three identifiable sections. In verses 12-14, Paul shows us what every human being is "in Adam". Then, in verses 15-17, we see the potential a person has in this life, when they put their trust in Jesus Christ. Then, in verses 18-21, Paul summarizes with some points about being in Adam and being in Christ.

I want to warn you about this passage before we begin looking at it. This passage is one of the most challenging and difficult passages in all of scripture. In some ways, it has so much information in it, that one could fall into the trap of looking at all of the details, but lose sight of the overall point of what this section is trying to teach. So, our goal this morning is look at some of the particulars without losing sight of the bigger picture. There most likely will be many questions raised in your minds this morning that we will not be able to cover. Hence, I will leave it up to you and your curious minds to dig up those answers to your various rabbit trail questions that are bound to be stirred up by this section.

Let's begin looking at the condition in which every human being is born, "in Adam." verse 12 reads, " 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--" 

Both the NIV and NASB end this verse with a dash here which indicates that this is an incomplete sentence. I do not agree with either of these two translations. I believe that verse 12 is a complete thought in and of itself, which is further explained in verse 13. Let me show you why.

Notice that Paul starts out by saying, "Therefore, just as..." When ever you begin a sentence with a "just as", in order to complete the thought or the comparison, you must have an "even so" or a "so also" later in the sentence. If you have both of those parts, then you have a complete thought or a completed comparison. In the original text, it has an "even so" or a "so also" (kai outws), but for some reason, the translators of these two versions don't translate it, so we'll correct it.

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, [so also through one man] death spread to all men, because all sinned."

Notice that the word here is "sin" not "sins". The reason that this term is singular, is because Paul is not referring to a specific act of disobedience or rebellion against God, but rather, here this term refers to a driving force in the human life, a chronic tendency to do evil that is imposing itself on mankind. This term describes something of our human nature or that part of us that controls how we think, feel and react to life's various situations. In the next couple of chapters, Paul will call this "sin" or this chronic tendency within each of us, "the flesh".

Paul further explains to us here, that through one man, Adam, who had this sin or fleshly nature, he passed this sin nature onto all of his descendants, the world, meaning all other human beings. Similar to a mother who maybe addicted to heroin, gets pregnant and the baby is born addicted to or controlled by heroin. We do not just inherit our physical attributes from Adam, but also our very spiritual natures find their origin in him as well. We received a sin nature from Adam.

Just an aside here. This verse is not saying that sin originated with Adam. The force of sin originated with Satan and then entered the human race through Adam.

But the results of Adam's action didn't just stop with this driving force of sin or this desire to rebel against God entering all of our lives. The ultimate result of it was death. And by death, Paul does not just mean a physical death, but that all of us were born spiritually dead. We were born totally incapable of on our own having a personal intimate relationship with God. The spirit of God no longer was living in Adam's spirit nor ours from that moment on. And because we were spiritually dead, according to Ephesians 2:1-2, we were totally helpless, like a dead man, to do anything to change our spiritual condition before God. We were lost, doomed to be damned. We were hopelessly separated from God with no way of ever regaining our relationship with God our Creator and Father. Even if we could or really desired to have a personal relationship with God, we could not, unless someone outside of us did something to help us, like bring us back to spiritual life.

Now, at this point, if we are really thinking about what Paul is saying here, our sense of fairness should be crying out, "Foul". You should be screaming, "Wait a minute! This doesn't sound fair to me! God is punishing us for Adam's sin! Why should Adam's rebellion against God be pinned on anyone else but Adam? He did it, not me. He caused my situation of being spiritually dead. Why should I be blamed or be held responsible for his actions?" People who argue this way are revealing how little they understand the very nature of our humanity. We think of ourselves as individuals quite separate from other people. Our modern tendency is toward the "me---me---me" of our own individualism. We want to reject the concept that we are all tied together. It is every man for himself. But that is not how God created us.

Although God does deal with us as individuals, He also shows us that our very identity, our very common corporate nature as the human race can not be ignored. Understanding our human nature is key to understanding who we are as individuals. The ancient Jews understood full well the truth of individuality and our corporate identity or that my very identity is wrapped up in our heritage. They never thought of themselves as isolated personalities or a mass of separate individuals. They saw themselves as Jews by nature, who have the same bloodline as their fellow Jews, who in turn, were linked to their relatives of their past. What they are today, is partly built upon their parental heritage.

Even the Hebrew name for "Adam" literal means "mankind". Adam, to them, was not just a mere individual or representative of mankind, he was mankind. Whatever would become of mankind, it started off with what Adam chose to become. What ever Adam did, mankind, including all of the individual human beings to be born in the future, would somehow have participated in or be personally responsible for "in Adam." Although it is true, that Adam was a real human being, an individual, it is equally true, according to our passage that we were a part of Adam.

It was on the basis of this corporate racial identity of the Jews that God frequently punished or blessed an entire tribe, city or nation, because of what a few or even just one of its Jewish members would do. For instance: if you remember reading about Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis 18, Abraham, on the basis of this principle of corporate identity, asked God to have mercy on and preserve those two sinfully corrupt cities if God found only ten righteous people living in them. And if you remember, God agreed that He would. He would save the whole city on the basis of a few good people.

Likewise, this principle of human racial identity, could work against the human race. God could choose to discipline a whole nation for a few rebellious individuals, and He did. You may remember in the book of Joshua, God holding all of Israel accountable for the actions of one man, Achan. If you remember, Achan violated God's order not to take any of the booty for oneself from the battle of Jericho. Achan thought that he could get away with keeping just a few articles for himself. The whole nation paid dearly for Achan's rebellion the next time he went to war with a little village called Ai. They were beaten and lost many lives. When they went back to God and asked Him why He had allowed them to be defeated when they should have one easily, he directed them to Achan's sin. Eventually, God put Achan and his family to death because of that one man's disobedience.

The point being, we are not so individualistic that we are islands unto ourselves. What we do as parents will be passed on to our kids, both good and bad. Based upon their choices, they can benefit from the good and they can find freedom from the bad. 

Our text in Romans makes this truth of corporate identity or of understanding who we are going back to our identity with Adam, even more clear in the last few words of verse 12.  You see the last three words, "...because all sinned." That verb tense is in the past tense that describes that somehow, even though we weren't even born yet, we were inextricably tied to Adam and participants in his failure, whether we like it or not. We actually are responsible for sinning with Adam when Adam sinned. 

If you will, all mankind rested in the loins of Adam and were considered participants with him in His fall from grace. Furthermore, we likewise were judged to receive the same penalty he received, which was death.

Although, at first, this may appear to be unfair, there really is a good side to this as we will see more clearly explained later this morning. And that is this: Just as we were lost because of one man, Adam, because he was our racial head, we now can be saved by one man, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, a new racial head. But this salvation is not automatic. It is a matter of the individual's choice. God will not force Himself on anyone.

If we were totally individualistic, and not a part of Adam's descendants, and were somehow like the fallen angels who rebelled with Satan against God, we would be judged as they were judged. And they were judged individually with no one else to represent them or be a savior. There was no representative to take their place on a cross, like Jesus Christ has done for us. 

Since we have our nature tied to the first Adam's nature, we can also have our nature reborn or changed by becoming part of a second Adam's nature, Jesus Christ nature, when we trust Him as our savior and Lord. But we are getting ahead of ourselves, and I simply want you to get a feel of where Paul is taking us. 

Let's look at verse 13. Paul says, "for until the Law [that's the 10 and God's instruction for moral and upright living] sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law." This term "imputed" means to "charged to one's personal account." In other words, since the Law, or "The Ten Commandments" came long after Adam, those who never heard of the Law, were not going to be held accountable as individuals for violating it. They still sinned and they still died, but in comparison to when there is a known law and one knowingly violates it, it won't in comparison seem to be counted against them. 

But, as Paul will go on to say, the end result of sin, "death" still will take place. Let's read verse 14, "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, (Moses representing the chronological mark in history for when the Law came).”

But then Paul goes even one step further. He says, "...even (death came to those or ) over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.” In other words, the people who lived between Adam and Moses who didn't even sin like Adam did, they are still subject to death.

But what does Paul mean when he says that "death reigned?" To "reign" means to be in total control. When we sin a type of death takes control of our lives. It reigns. For example: person doesn't have any real hope that they can break a sinful habit or an addiction that has controlled their lives for years. People feel enslaved by compulsive, self destructive, ruinous behavior. They my want to and try to stop, but it is only a matter of time before they fall again. Ever since the Fall, even though we may have been alive physically, death reigned in our hearts.

"Death reigning" is also used to describe the absence of life, not just the cessation of life. Death refers to emptiness, loneliness, misery, depression, boredom and restlessness, etc. Because we were separated from God, although physically alive, death reigned. We live lives wrapped up in anguish and fear. Life itself seems to be barren.  There is nothing lasting to look forward to. You may be looking forward to marriage....then what? You may be looking forward to retirement...then what? What are you going to do once you are there? We are not looking forward with any specific purpose in mind. That is a form of death reigning. It is an emptiness of purpose

But the good news is, we don't have to stay that way. Look at the end of verse 14 which says, "Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come." Paul is just hinting here at something which He will start explaining in a moment. He is saying that there is another nature that we can be associated with, a "type or pattern of human being like Adam" who came after Adam that we can identify with, should we choose to, and that is Jesus Christ. Adam is a kind of picture of Christ, and yet there is a great difference between the two.

Now, before we look at these next verses, which deals with this great difference of Who we are in Christ, as contrasted against who we are in Adam, I want us to start building on this chart that contrasts the difference between what happened to us in Adam and what happens to us in Christ. What we have seen so far in verses 12-14 is what were the results of us being born in Adam. We have seen:

ADAM CHRIST verse 12 Sin (cause) Death (affect)   Because Sin reigned “all sinned” verses 12,. 18   verse 14 Death reigned (all died)

Now, let's look at who we are in Christ, as it is spelled out for us in verses 15-17. Paul writes, "But the free gift is not like the transgression."

 What is this "gift" that Paul is talking about? It's the gift that every human being is looking for. It was mentioned first back in Romans 3:24, and up to this point, it is the only other place this term "gift" is used. Paul says there that it is the gift of being justified or made fully approved and accepted by God, on the basis of Christ's work on our behalf. 

That which every person wants more than anything else, is to know that they have value and worth. As we have said several times in the past few weeks, most people try to find their value and worth in the approval of other people. We can actually become addicted to the approval of our parents, coaches, spouses, teachers, friends, etc. But God, the ultimate one says, "When I approve of you or fully accept you, you are approved, regardless of what others think."

And when we have God's total acceptance of us, we don't need anybody else's approval. We may want it, but we don't need it. And there is a big difference in that.

Paul tells us here that this gift of God's approval or welcoming home is not like the "transgression". The term "transgression" is different than "sin." One can sin deliberately or accidently out of ignorance. But a "transgression" refers to the attitude or the action of deliberately doing what we know is wrong.

So, Paul is about to tell us how Adam, and his deliberate act of disobedience, is different from Christ's free gift of justification.

"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. And 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."

Now thems a lot of words. What do they mean? Maybe this chart will help. These verses are saying that:

In ADAM In CHRIST verse 15 transgression many died free gift---- many live Implied here, but stated in verse 21 one--- many one--- many verse 16 no sin --- one sin after many sins--- free gift--- justification

Verse 17 continues, "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.” 

verse 17 Death reigns Life reigns, in Christ for the ones who receive Him

By "life reigns", the scriptures mean that life takes on a richness, fulfillment, excitement and a supernatural power that enables one to conquer habits and sinful patterns that we have tried to break for years. Regardless of the pressures or heartaches, when a person realizes who they are in Christ, there will always be purpose and meaning to their living. And there will be realized in their lives a supernatural enablement to do things or to conquer things in their lives that up to this point, they could not do by themselves.

But is it possible for Christians to still experience a death like existence even though they are saved? Yes, as we will look at that more in depth when we get to Romans 6. But for now, Paul is telling us that we have the power, in Christ to reign in life, and conquer habits and addictions. But if we choose to, we can ignore God's directions and His gift of power to do what is right and go on to choose sin's allurements and hence, experience this same kind of death, even though we are saved.

The bottom line of this contrast between what happened to us in Adam and what happens to us in Christ, is that what we lost in Adam after the Fall, we have regained in Jesus, plus much more, as we will see later.

In verses 18-21, Paul concludes this section by summarizing some of the points he had already brought up. He writes, "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." Understand that justification for all men, is only received by all men when the individuals trust Christ. It is not automatic for all people 

Verse 19, "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous." Notice, we are not just declared righteous right now by God. But Paul says you were made righteous, therefore you are righteous right now. As far as God is concerned you are holy.   

Some people mistakenly view the future tense, "will be made righteous" to mean that we will only be made righteous at a future date in heaven. But that is not Paul's intent when one looks more closely at the context. His point is that the many people who put their trust in Christ today and in the future, as soon as they do, they will go from being in Adam to being in Christ, and at that moment, will be made righteous and hence, totally acceptable and fully pleasing to God. There will be nothing we can do to improve or lessen our status before God based on our successes or failure. Our approval and acceptance before God will always rest upon what Jesus did for us.

Furthermore, when a person comes to Christ and understands who they are in Christ and seeks to follow the Lord, they can't help but live a more righteous or holy or moral life.  This change has to happen, because that is the nature of being made righteous. Just as it is the nature of a fish to swim, he can't help but swim. He either swims or dies. Similarly, if one's nature has been made righteous, they will live righteously. Their life will begin to show changes, not changes that are forced upon them by a set of rules or does and don'ts. But changes that come from having been changed or made a new creation when Jesus came to live in them.

If a person's life does begin to show signs of a new life, it can only mean one of two things: It means that either the person is ignorant as to who they are or what has happened to them, now that Christ has entered their lives, or this person is not saved.

In verses 20-21, Paul briefly deals with the place of the Law in this matter. "And the Law came in that the transgression might increase;..." In other words, the Law wasn't given to stop sin, but to reveal that willful sin will continue no matter how hard the person "in Adam" tried not to sin. Why would God give us the Law to reveal our own sinfulness to us? Does He simply enjoy making us feel guilty? No, that's not it at all. God gave us the Law to force us to see our own wrongness so that we would be convinced of our need for a savior, someone who could transform our lives and help us become the person that both we and God wants us to become.

Paul continues, "...but where sin increased, [our knowledge of it in our own lives] grace [God's forgiveness and complete approval and acceptance of us in Christ] abounded all the more, that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Again, we have a contrast here. As sin increased, it would even magnify more the contrast of one whose life has been truly changed because Jesus has invaded their being. In turn, this will cause others to praise God for the work He has done in this persons life.

A couple of conclusions to consider in the days ahead as you reflect upon Paul's words in this. The first is you cannot help being in Adam; but you can help staying in Adam. You don't have to keep on living an empty life. You can experience a new beginning. In fact, this is why Jesus insisted in John 3:7, that "You must be born again" if you are ever going to truly be transformed from the inside out, and be assured of passing from spiritual death in to spiritual life with the end result that you can spend eternity with the one who loves you the most, the very one who created you, Jesus Christ.

A second conclusion that can be draw from this contrast is that that which characterized Christ's life was His total dependence upon God the Father. In contrast to this, was Adam, who lived his life independently of God. He chose to believe Satan's lies that he didn't need to depend upon the Lord. It led to his ruin. 

Your identity, how you see yourself and the power you depend upon to live life a certain way, all find its origin in your nature either being aligned either with Jesus Christ or with Adam. Who you understand yourself to be will determine the way you live. If you picture yourself to be an out of control sinner still in Adam, you will live in defeat. But if you see yourself as a child of God, in Christ, with Him living His life through you, you will see yourself as a saint and live confidently.

With whom are you aligned or identified? Are you aligned with Adam who depends solely upon himself and lives his life as though God doesn't really exist? Or do you are you aligned with Jesus, Who lived His life dependent upon the Father and the Father's will. Your life must be identified with either Adam or Christ. With whom do you identify? 

God has given us a tremendous solution to "Humpty Dumpty's" dilemma, hasn't He. When we discovered our brokenness and failure and inadequacy to live life as God hoped we would, when we discovered our helplessness to get back up on the wall in one piece, God sent us Jesus.

Someone else penned this words, to what I call, "Humpty Dumpty--Updated". He writes:

 "Jesus Christ came to our wall

 Jesus Christ died for our fall.

 So that regardless of death

 And in spite of our sin,

 Through grace, He puts us together again."

[Swindoll taped sermon on Romans 5:12-21.]

If you want to experience the new birth and be transferred from living in Adam to living in Christ, it is simple. All one has to do is admit to the truth that you are presently in Adam, that you are a sinner who has maybe known about God, but for the most part, you have lived as though he doesn't exist or have a real role to play in your life. After admitting that to God, simply, by faith, ask Jesus Christ to come into your life as your savior and Lord, to control your life and make you person He wants you to be...and he will do it. From that point on, you are in Christ. You are born again. And from this point forward, all you need to do is get into His word and discover what your rights and privileges are as a child of God and to get to know Him.

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