Well, praise the Lord, I am glad to have an opportunity this evening to share this message. We are having just an online-only service here this evening, but Lord willing, we will be back together for in-person service next Sunday evening again. It has really been a beautiful weekend. I was so surprised yesterday when I woke up and saw all the snow. I think we have about three inches at our house. It was really pretty. There is something about the first snow that really lets you know the season has changed. The leaves changing color lets you know it’s fall, and the snow lets you know it’s winter. Here in a few months, the green grass will let you know spring has arrived.
Life is full of seasons and changes, and each season brings its benefits and its challenges. I feel like we have been on a bit of an adventure here the last few months. As we started out, I was not really sure just how things would go, but I felt pressed by the Spirit to take a season of time and spend it sharing with all our friends everything we had learned and found out, and also to give everyone who wanted it an opportunity. I have been very surprised, really, with how successful it has all been. We have been able to connect with saints and ministers and churches all around the world, and also here in our area. It seems like so many of us are arriving at a lot of the same conclusions.
The conclusion is that despite what we lost, despite having realized so much of our foundation was just the sinking sand, based on hoaxes and legends, despite having lost all of that, we still have Jesus. And Jesus is enough. You know, a lot of people, when they first reach out and talk to me, the first thing they say is something like this: “If William Branham was not the end-time messenger, then who was?” But you know, that is not the right question. There is a brother, he is a minister, he is the first one who ever told me he had doubts about the message. I was still of strong belief in the message at the time, but as he and I chatted, he asked me a question. He said, “If William Branham was not who we thought he was, then what would that mean?” And I told him, that would mean we are a long way down a wrong road. And that is the truth. They are a long way down a wrong road.
If you are asking the question, “Who is the end-time messenger, if not William Branham?” then you are still a long way down a wrong road. The only reason we even believe we needed an end-time messenger was because William Branham taught that to the people. That belief itself comes from William Branham. That was an interpretation of the Bible he preached. There is not actually anything in this book that explicitly says there will be an end-time messenger. That is just how William Branham and other preachers interpreted certain symbols in prophecy, and we were relying on God to have given them a correct understanding of the symbolism. But if they were not inspired of God, there is not really any basis on which to even believe there is an end-time messenger.
Outside of the message, the only other church that believes in an end-time messenger is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And truth be told, that is where William Branham got the idea. We know that is where he got it because we have the very books he read the idea out of. He took those books, which were about a man named Charles Russel, and he took the ideas, word for word, and just changed them to be about himself. So if William Branham was not the end-time messenger, then what is your basis to even believe there is a need for an end-time messenger? Because the Jehovah’s Witnesses said so? I hate to be plain, but I don’t believe the Jehovah’s Witnesses are of God, and their end-time messenger was a false prophet too.
So you have to go even further back. If you are still asking, “Who is the end-time prophet?” you are still a long way down that wrong road. You got to back up to the point where the wrong turn was made. The wrong turn was not made at the point that people decided we needed an end-time messenger. Those people who came up with that idea were already a long way down the wrong road themselves. You have to back up. You have to find the point where our fathers departed from the Bible. And I don’t mean our literal fathers, but our forefathers. Because it wasn’t my father who led my family into this stuff. Five generations of my family have been in this thing.
Where did your fathers make the wrong turn? In looking here in the book of Romans, I think we can clearly see the point where the wrong turn was taken. The wrong turn was taken at the point where people stopped believing Jesus was enough, where they stopped believing faith in Him and what He did on the cross was enough to save people from the wrath to come. That is where the wrong turn was made. You need to back up all the way there and get settled there before you strike off down the road again. That is what I am endeavoring to do for everyone listening. I am endeavoring to settle you in the fundamentals of the gospel, at the very point where the wrong turn was taken, so that you will be strengthened. So that there is a banner held up high, waving in the storm, pointing you to the spot you need to come back to.
This is where you need to come to. This is where the wrong turn was made. This is where you need to come to get redirected down the right path. It is back to a full faith in Christ alone for salvation, for escaping the wrath to come, and for the ultimate glorification of our bodies. Here in Romans, the fifth chapter, this is the very theme Paul is preaching on. We have been looking at that in the first 11 verses, but tonight we are coming to the 12th verse. As we do, Paul makes a little diversion away from the benefits and promises we have once we are justified by the blood of Christ. He takes a step back and looks at the broad sweep of the Bible, from Genesis up until the time of Christ. He offers a view here that is really, really important. Tonight we are going to analyze that. So let me read Romans 5, starting at verse 12.
Romans 5, King James Version: 12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. 15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. 20 Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let us pray.
This is an incredibly powerful teaching by the Apostle Paul. What he is doing here is examining the dynamics of how sin came into the world, and he is saying the exact same dynamics, in reverse, can remove sin from the world. He is offering a powerful explanation of how Christ’s sacrifice reverses what happened in the Garden of Eden, using the exact same sort of dynamics as the fall of man, only in reverse. Paul is showing us the common threads between how the fall of man occurred and how the redemption of man is occurring. He is also talking about the origin of sin.
But before we dive into Paul’s main point, there is something else I feel compelled to point out because the Bible will interpret itself if you read it. In analyzing how sin entered into the world, Paul is telling us several very clear things that the early church believed about what happened in the Garden of Eden. We are not going to talk about the Garden of Eden in this message, but I want to point out to you what Paul says here, and draw our attention to the fact that whatever we believe about the fall of man in the garden has to line up with what Paul is saying in these verses. Let me just read verse 12 again, and let me draw your attention to some points Paul is making about what happened in the Garden of Eden.
Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
Paul is very clear here: sin entered the world by one man’s actions, not by two, not by three, and not even by a woman’s actions, but by one man’s sin. If we
say sin came into the world by anything other than the actions of one man, and that man was Adam, we would be contradicting the Apostle Paul. Now I have heard people twist themselves into knots trying to explain this verse before, but sin came into the world by one man. Verse 13 makes clear to us that one man was Adam. Let me take this to 1 Corinthians too because Paul is consistent in how he talks about this in his other epistles.
1 Corinthians 15, King James Version: 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
As we read this letter to the Corinthians, we see Paul is saying the same thing he said to the Romans. This was a very important teaching of the Apostle Paul. He taught this to many different churches. He taught them how to look at what happened in the Garden of Eden. Death and sin are passed upon all men because of Adam’s sin. Everyone who ever died, it was because of Adam’s sin. Turning back to Romans 5, let me just read part of verse 12 again:
Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
By one man, sin entered into the world. By one man, sin entered into the world. When we look at Genesis, we have to let the Bible interpret itself. The Bible says, by one man, sin entered the world. Adam is the one who let sin into the world.
And there is something else interesting here in verse 14. Let me read that:
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Catch that part where it says, death reigned over the people who came after Adam, who sinned in a way that was not like Adam’s sin. They had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression. The sin they committed, there was something different about it from what Adam did. There is something unique about Adam’s sin. That is another observation we can make about how Paul and the early church viewed the fall of man. What happened there was unique in some sense, and the men who came after did not sin in the same manner.
Another point to consider is in verse 19. Let me read verse 19:
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
So notice, Paul calls Adam’s sin disobedience. Disobedience to God really was the true root of Adam’s sin. But yet there was something unique about the manner in which his disobedience was carried out. And the actual sin itself, at the heart, was disobedience—something he did inside of his inner being, something in his heart, something at a spiritual level even. Adam’s sin was not simply a sin of flesh; his sin was spiritual, a sin of the heart—disobedience. That was down.
And there is one last point I want to make here, on this topic of reflecting back on the fall of man. When Paul talks about sin entering the world back in verse 12, and again here in verse 19, we realize sin is not something that has a life of its own. Sin is not a lifeform. Sin is not a spirit, or a creature. Sin is a nature, sin is an action, sin is a state of being. Sin is something that is embedded into men and women. It is something that is part of us, and it takes Jesus Christ to set us free from it. And when Paul says, in verse 12, sin entered the world, he is not talking about a living creature entering the world. And it is even more clear there in verse 19.
You and I were made sinners because of Adam’s disobedience. You and I have a sinful nature because of Adam’s disobedience. Paul is talking about the sinful nature and fallen state of mankind. Sinful nature, fallen nature, entered the world through Adam. You and I have a sinful nature because of Adam. There is no other way to read verse 12 and verse 19, except to say our sinful nature comes from Adam. You might need to think about that some, but that is exactly what Paul is saying there. The sinful, fallen condition of mankind entered the world through Adam. And whatever we do in Genesis, as far as reading that, it has to line up with Paul’s views here, and elsewhere in the epistles, and without twisting ourselves into knots to explain it.
So those are some points to consider when looking at the fall of man. These are not the only things the New Testament tells us about the fall of man, but those here in the text we are looking at this evening, and I wanted to make sure I pointed that out to you. But as we move on, we realize Paul here in part is explaining how sin entered the world.
If we look out in the world today, we see it is full of problems—disease, poverty, conflicts, and wars, hate and murder. Not to say there is no good in the world; there is a lot of good in the world. But there is a plague of evil that brings turmoil. Why is it like that? How did it get this way? Because it has been this way a very, very long time. Get any history book you want. As far back as there is recorded history, there has been war, murder, death. It’s always been this way, as far back as most recorded history goes. It is only in the Bible that we can read about a time in man’s history when there was no sin in the world, and none of the turmoil that it brings. And Paul sums up in verse 12 why it is this way, why there is death in the world. It’s here because of Adam—something Adam did, something Adam brought—sin into the world and subjected us to death.
Let me just read starting at verse 12 again:
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Now, before he goes on talking about Adam’s similarity to Christ, Paul diverts to talk about the law again. And Paul talks about the law a lot. And let me make sure we follow Paul’s logic here regarding the law. If you remember from chapters 3 and 4, Paul has made the point that the purpose of the law was to show man how sinful they were, so they could understand the magnitude of their sin. And in verse 13, he is repeating that thought—the law is here to show us what sin is. But in verse 14, he points out that even before the law came to show men the nature of their sin, people were still subject to death. People were still dying from sin, even before the law came.
And if we jump down to verse 20, Paul wraps up his point about the law by saying:
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
The law was never meant to save people. And making the law part of the plan of salvation is the great error the Pharisees had made. The law never had anything to do with salvation. Our works never had anything to do with salvation. It was the error of the Pharisees. It is the error of all Pharisee-minded people still to this day. What makes someone a Pharisee? If you don’t believe Jesus is enough to save a person, and that you need to add something to it, then you are a Pharisee. That is Pharisee thinking. That is what made a Pharisee a Pharisee. They did not believe in the Messiah for salvation. They believed in the law, their works, their knowledge, their own merits for salvation. Paul has been making that point over and over in this book.
Now, the law does have value; the law has a purpose. The law is a schoolmaster. It is to teach us something. And specifically, it is to teach us about the nature of sin and our inability to save ourselves. The law is designed to teach us that we need a Savior. Paul told Timothy, the law is good if a man uses it lawfully. If you use it to point people to a Savior, then you have used it lawfully. If you use it in society to create laws to hold the evildoers accountable, you have used it lawfully. Paul tells us that. But if you for one second try to place the law into the equation for salvation, you have gone totally wrong. You are not using the law lawfully when you make it part of salvation.
The law came so that people could recognize sin clearly, to recognize the magnitude of their shortcoming, and to realize how impossible it was to earn salvation by works. The law brings clarity to the magnitude of our inability to live up to God’s standards. And the grace of God abounds in that situation. The more clearly we understand the depth of hopelessness without Christ, the greater we will appreciate and value the grace of God. The more we realize how lost we are without Christ, the bigger the grace of God becomes to us.
Notice also—and this is important—sin entered in. There was a point when there was no sin. There was a point when everything was good and perfect. And the point when things ceased to be good and perfect was when sin entered in. There was a point in time when everything was ideal. And as Paul explained in chapter 1, it was the entrance of sin that caused all the problems of the world. And we can follow Paul’s logic that through the removal of sin, all the world’s problems will also be resolved. And that is a day we look forward to, when Christ returns to earth and completes the redemption of all creation.
Now last of all, let me draw from these verses really the main point. We won’t dwell on it all that long, but let’s make sure we actually catch the main point that Paul is making here. Paul is setting up an analogy in these verses, and as we look over it, I will just summarize what the main point is here. Paul is saying that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us in the same manner that Adam’s sin is imputed to us.
I didn’t do anything to inherit Adam’s sinful nature. It was a gift to me from Adam—a really terrible, terrible gift. The worst gift someone could give you—a death sentence. I was born in sin, I was shaped in iniquity, I was born speaking lies. I had nothing to do with that; I was born that way. Adam’s sin is imputed to all men, through no fault of our own. That does not mean we have not sinned and fallen short ourselves. Of course we have, all have. But the fallen condition we are born with—that is not our fault. We are innocent in that. Adam’s sin is imputed to us.
But just like Adam’s sin is imputed to us because of nothing we did, so is Jesus Christ’s righteousness imputed to us because of nothing we did. Jesus is redeeming us using the same principle in which Adam doomed us. He is just doing it in reverse. That is a key part of what the new birth is all about. I was born to death from Adam, but I am born to life through Christ. My family tree is changed. I am adopted into a new family—and Paul is going to talk about that later. Just like fallen nature was imputed to me through my natural birth from Adam, righteousness is imputed to me through my new birth from Jesus Christ.
So let us read, starting at verse 15, and let’s see if we can catch that:
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
I think this is really a beautiful and powerful thing to understand. We got both our curse and our redemption from it, free of charge, you might say. Adam doomed us, and Christ rescued us.
And of course, I think you and I can perfectly understand why no one in the places we come from could ever explain these verses to us this way. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us in the same way the sin of Adam was imputed to us. It’s the same sort of mechanism. We get it for free. It is imputed to us because of what they did, not because of what we did. And of course, that cannot be taught in the places where we come from, because we did not believe sin was imputed to us through Adam in the places we came from. But it is a beautiful picture here Paul is painting. Through Adam, sinful fallen nature was imputed to us all. We were all made sinners, in verse 19, because of what Adam did. But through Jesus Christ, we are all made righteous because of what He did, as in verse 18. As in Adam, we all die, but in Jesus Christ, we are all made alive. Praise be to God.
I know this is a short little message, but it is a lot to think about, so think about it. And let me close here in prayer.