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Subject 9 : Romans (Commentaries on the Book of Romans)
[Chapter 5-2] Through One Man (Romans 5:14)
(Romans 5:14)
“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
Sinners must have the knowledge of sin first of all
Today, I want to speak about the origin of sin. Do not think to yourself, “You speak of the same things everyday. Tell me about other things.” I want you to listen carefully. The gospel is the most precious thing. If a saint whose sins are blotted out does not repeatedly hear the gospel to remind him/her of it everyday, he/she will die. How can he/she live without hearing the gospel of the water and the Spirit? The only way he/she can live is by hearing the gospel. Let’s open the Bible and share the real meanings in it.
I thought, “What is most needed by sinners whose sins are not forgiven yet?” Then I came to know they needed the right knowledge of sin according to the word of God because they can only receive the forgiveness of sins when they know about sin. I believe that sinners need the knowledge of sin the most.
A human being sins so many times from the time he/she is born regardless of whether or not he/she wants to. He/she does not deeply think about the sin that dwells within him/her even though he/she is a sinner before God because he/she sins too many times as he/she grows up. To sin is as natural as an apple tree growing up, flowering and bearing apples with time. However, we must know that the wages of sin is death according to the law of God.
If one thinks and truly knows about the result of sin, he/she can be delivered from sin and God’s judgment, and receive all His spiritual blessings. So what is most needed by a sinner is to know about the sin and the result of it, and to learn the truth of the remission of sins, which God gave.
How did sin enter the world?
Why does a human being sin? Why do I sin? The Bible talks about this in Romans 5:12 saying, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” What entered the world through sin? Death. People tend to think that death merely means that of the flesh. However, death here implicates the meaning of being spiritually separated from God. It also implies hell and God’s judgment, along with the death of the flesh. Romans 5:12 shows us how human beings became sinners.
The Bible says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” The word of God is the truth. Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin.
We were born as the descendants of Adam. Then do we or don’t we have sin as the descendants of Adam? ─Yes, we have sin.─ Are we born sinful? ─Yes, because we are the descendants of Adam, who is our ancestor.─
Adam begot all humankind, however, Adam and Eve had sinned against God’s word under Satan’s deception when they were in the Garden of Eden. God told them not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but rather, to have eternal life by eating fruit from the tree of life.
But they were deceived by Satan and forsook God’s word and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve sinned by forsaking God’s word, which is the word of eternal life. After Adam and Eve sinned, Adam came to sleep with Eve, and all human beings came to born through Adam and Eve. We are their descendants. We did not only inherit their outward appearances, but also their sinful nature.
Therefore, the Bible says that a human being is a seed of sin. All the people of the world have inherited sin from Adam and Eve. The Bible says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” So all human beings are born sinful.
However, people do not know they are born sinners. They do not have the knowledge of sin even though they were born sinful. A tree begins to bud by its seed and brings forth fruit, but people think it is strange for them to sin because they do not know that they are born as seeds of sin. It is the same principle for an apple tree to think, ‘It is strange. Why do I have to bear apples?’
Thus, it is natural for a human being to sin. The thought that a human being can avoid sinning is completely false. It is natural for a human being who inherited sin to commit sins throughout his/her life and bear the fruits of sin, but he/she does not deeply think about being a sinner. What does God say? “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
We sin throughout our lives because we were born as sinners. Therefore, we deserve to be judged by God. You may think, ‘Isn’t it unjust for God to judge us when we have no choice but to have sin?’ However, after receiving the remission of sins, you will come to know that God planned to do so in order to make us His children.
We all are the descendants of one man, Adam
Then, how come human beings, who are descendants of one man, Adam, have different skin colors? Are their seeds different? Why are there white, yellow, and black people? Some people think that when God created man from the dust on the ground and burnt him, God made a white man by taking him out too early from the kiln, a yellow man by taking him out right on time and a black man by taking him out too late.
You may also wonder why there are black, white, and yellow races, though all human beings were given sin through one man. The Bible clearly states that God made Adam in the beginning, when He created the heavens and the earth. “Adam” means man. God created a man. Why are there different races in the world if God created one man, Adam, and all the peoples of the world were born through him? We may ask why, so here is the answer.
Scientists say that a pigment in the skin called melanin comes out of the skin to protect it from sunburn. When the earth moves around the sun, those who live in areas with a lot of sunlight become black, those who live in areas with minimal sunlight become white, and those who live in areas that have adequate sunlight become yellow. However, our ancestor is still one man, Adam.
Scientists announced that melanin automatically comes out of the skin and protects it from sunburn. So, I came to understand this from that time. I knew that human beings were descendants of Adam, but I did not know about melanin. We have not only inherited the flesh, but also sin because we are the descendants of one man, Adam.
Do you know sin? Let us investigate whether human beings are sinners or not from when they are born into this world. “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit” (Matthew 7:17-18). God says that false prophets bear only false fruit and can never bear good fruit. We are evil trees originally because we were born sinful, so we cannot help bearing evil fruit because we were born as bad trees.
We have inherited sin through one man. We are bad trees if compared to trees. A human being, who was born a sinner, cannot but commit sins even if he/she wants to lead a good life and tries not to sin, just as a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Do you understand? Human beings really want to live gentle, meek, and virtuous lives. However, a person who does not have the remission of sin and was born a sinner cannot live a righteous life. He/she cannot be good, even with endless efforts. Some alcoholics try not to drink so heavily, but in the end, they suffer from alcoholism and their families desert them in hospitals.
One day, I watched a program titled, “I want to know it” on TV. A man was confined in a mental hospital for 13 years. When a reporter asked him about his family, he said that they haven’t returned to bring him home even though he was a fully recovered alcoholic and his doctor assured of his recovery. He came to know from the reporter that his family prevented him from leaving the hospital by bribing his doctor. He was outraged. His family deserted him because they were so tired of him. The reporter said that the patients in the hospital could not help drinking regardless of their will and they drank heavily so many times that nobody could cope with them.
Why can’t a man control his drinking? He knows it is not good for his health and tries to quit; yet he repeatedly drinks. The reason for this is because he is an alcoholic already, but the original cause for this is that his mind is always empty. He drinks because he feels emptiness in his heart. One always feels pain and is unable to be good because he/she is with sin. So, he/she comes to be pessimistic and drinks again. He/she may think, ‘I do not know why I’m doing this. I shouldn’t be doing this.’ And the more he/she feels betrayed by himself/herself, the more he/she drinks heavily in self-abandonment.
One cannot quit drinking however hard one tries not to drink. So, one feels disillusioned and drinks more and eventually, he/she is deserted in a confined hospital. A human being’s speech and behavior are merely the expressions of his/her intrinsic nature. A human being is born a sinner and thus cannot help sinning, regardless of his/her will, throughout his/her life just as an apple tree buds, flowers and bears apples because it inherits an apple gene. People want to be good, but those who don’t have the remission of sins cannot be good because they don’t have the ability to be good. They think their sins aren’t grave, so they hide themselves, and it only becomes serious when their sins are revealed.
It is natural, instinctive and proper for a sinner to sin because he/she is born as a mass of sin and inherits it by nature. It is absolutely natural for a human being to sin because he/she is born with the genetics of sin, just as it is natural for a red pepper plant to bear red peppers and for a jujube tree to bear jujubes. A human being cannot avoid sinning because he/she is born as a sinner. How can a human being live without sinning when he/she is born with sin?
Man is born with twelve kinds of evil thoughts
Jesus said in Mark chapter 7 that a human being is born with 12 kinds of evils, namely, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. We are born with a desire to steal. The thought of theft is included in the heredity of sin. Do you steal? Everyone steals. If he/she does not steal, it is because there are people watching him/her. However, when there is nobody around him/her and there is a tempting object around, the sin of theft comes out and makes him/her commit a sin by stealing it.
So human beings have made ethics and rules that should be kept. Human beings have made their own rules that indicate that it is not right to do harm to others. Rules are needed when many people live together in a society. We must live according to social norms. However, we steal when we are alone, escaping another’s gaze.
There is none who does not steal. Everyone steals. A long time ago, I asked the congregation in a revival meeting to raise their hands if they have never sinned in their lives. A grandmother raised her hands and said, “I have never stolen anything.” So I asked her if she had ever taken anything on her way home. Then she was flustered at the unexpected question and replied, saying, “I once saw a young pumpkin on my way home. I thought it would be delicious so I looked around and found that nobody was there. I pulled it up, hid it in my underskirt, put it in bean paste pot stew and ate it.” She did not know that she committed a sin of theft.
However, God says it is a sin to take other’s possessions without permission. God commanded, “You shall not steal” in the Law of Moses. Everybody has an experience of stealing something. A human being is good at murder and theft whenever he/she gets the chance. He/she steals livestock, such as rabbits and chickens from other people’s homes. This is said to be theft. He/she even has no consciousness of sin even though he/she slays and steals. It is natural for him/her to do so because he/she inherited sin from the time of birth.
A human being inherited sin
A human being also inherited the sin of adultery from his/her parents. He/she is born with the lust of committing adultery. He/she is very certain to commit adultery when there aren’t any people are around. People like dark places such as cafés and saloons. Those places are very popular to sinners. Why? Those are good places to show the heredity of sin.
Even gentlemen like those places. They are good fathers at home and men of high social standings, but they go to dark places that are full of sin. They go to the places in which they can show their sinful natures and bear sinful fruit. They meet together in those places and soon become like old friends after drinking a glass of alcohol. They become very close as soon as they meet because they have the same sinful attributes as each other. “Do you have this too? I have this.” “So do I. You are my friend.” “How old are you?” “Age does not matter.” “Nice to meet you.”
Men show their inherent sins each other whenever they meet other sinners because they were born with the sinful attributes in the world. It is natural for them to sin. Why? Because they have sin in their hearts and were created to be like that by nature. It’s abnormal for them not to sin. However, they refrain themselves from living sinful lives when they live in a society because each society has its own social norms. So, they play the hypocrite and put on other facades, acting according to the social norms their societies established. People live like this and regard those who don’t as foolish and evil. A human being is inevitably born a sinner, as the Bible says, “Through one man sin entered the world” (Romans 5:12).
It’s right. A man may say, “I am not lewd. I am indifferent to a woman who wears a miniskirt.” Is he really indifferent? He may pretend to be indifferent when there are so many people around him, but cannot refrain from committing the sin of lewdness when there is no one around him.
A bad tree bears evil fruit just as a good tree cannot bear evil fruit, and vice versa. A human being must know that he/she is a sinner. If one knows one’s own sins, one can be saved from sin through Jesus. However he/she will be judged by God and go to hell if he/she pretends not to sin and tries to hide his/her sins without knowing his/her sins. Human beings are born as sinners. Therefore, they are corrupt trees that bear sinful fruits from the time of their births.
Therefore, those who develop their own sinful natures from their childhoods are good at sinning all their lives. Those who are late in developing their sinful natures begin to bear evil fruit even in the twilight years of their lives. There was a female minister in Taegu City, Korea. When she converted to Christianity in her youth, she pledged herself to remain single throughout her life in order to serve the Lord as a female minister. However, she broke her pledge and was married to a widower after turning 60 years old. She developed her sinful nature too late. She developed the heredity of adultery late.
Most people usually develop their sinful natures from their childhoods. These days, young people tend to develop their sinful natures from their childhoods. They feel a generation gap between them and the older generation. They are said to be the X-generation. By the way, we have learned from the word of God that we are born sinners and we are the beings who cannot but continue sinning all our lives. Do you admit it?
The law of leprosy
Second, God says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Sin causes a human being to be judged by God. So a sinner must know himself/herself and have the remission of sins. How can he/she know himself/herself? How can all his/her sins be forgiven before God?
God taught Moses and Aaron how to examine the leprosy in Leviticus chapter 13. In the Old Testament Age, there were many lepers. I do not know much about leprosy, but I saw many lepers when I was young. One of my friends was also affected by leprosy.
God told Moses and Aaron to examine the leprosy and isolate lepers from the camp of Israel. God taught them how to examine each of the lepers. “When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes on the skin of his body like a leprous sore, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests” (Leviticus 13:2). When the priest thought he had a skin disease after examining him, the priest isolated him for seven days. Then, the priest examined the skin again after seven days. When the sore did not spread out on the skin, the priest pronounced him as clean, saying, “You are clean. You may live in this camp.”
If the swelling on the skin was white, and it turned the hair white, and there was a spot of raw flesh in the swelling, it was leprosy, then the priest would have pronounced him as unclean. Leviticus 13:9-11 states, “When the leprous sore is on a person, then he shall be brought to the priest. And the priest shall examine him; and indeed if the swelling on the skin is white, and it has turned the hair white, and there is a spot of raw flesh in the swelling, it is an old leprosy on the skin of his body. The priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall not isolate him, for he is unclean.” The priest did not isolate him from the camp of Israel.
It is the same in our country. There are isolated villages for lepers in Korea such as Flower Village or Sorok Island. A long time ago, on my way home riding in the car, my wife teased me to look around ‘Flower Village’ when she happened to see the sign for it on a superhighway. Then I thought, ‘You do not know what ‘The Flower Village’ is.’ I said to her, “Honey, do you mean you want to visit ‘the town’?’ She said, “Yes.” However, she was astonished to hear that ‘Flower Village’ was a place where lepers lived and she never teased me to go to Flower Village again. Lepers are isolated from the society in isolated villages.
Here, what we have to pay attention to is that the priest pronounced someone was clean when the leprosy spread and covered all of his/her skin. Do you think this makes sense? The priest isolated the person when the leprosy spread just a little, and the priest told him to live in the camp of Israel when the plague of leprosy covered all his skin, from head to toe.
God told the priest how to classify leprosy. “And if leprosy breaks out all over the skin, and the leprosy covers all the skin of the one who has the sore, from his head to his foot, wherever the priest looks” (Leviticus 13:12). This was the way God told the priest to classify leprosy.
What the law of leprosy tells us….
It tells us this. People are born sinners with sinful attributes and sin all their lives, but some people only reveal a few of their sins. They sin with their hands once and with their feet the next and with their minds another time after long intervals, so they do not outwardly reveal their sins. Who would say it is serious when leprosy spreads on just one spot here and another small spot there? Nobody knows his/her syndrome of leprosy.
A human being is born a sinner because of the inheritance of sin. But he/she does not know that he/she is a sinner until he/she sins a countless number of times, though God pronounced him/her to be a sinner. He/she finally comes to know that he/she is a sinner in the world.
However, a person who thinks him/herself too virtuous, endures well and sins just a little does not know that he/she is a sinner. God told the priest to pronounce the person whose leprosy spread just a little to be unclean and to isolate him/her. Sinners are separated from God. Do you understand? God is holy. A person who thinks that he/she has sin as small as a whit cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Who can live in the Kingdom of Heaven? Only those whose sins spread over the entire body and realize that they are inevitable sinners can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. All their sins are forgiven by the faith in Jesus, and they will enter the Kingdom of Heaven to reign with God.
The Bible says that God pronounces the person whose sin spreads just a little to be unclean. God calls on the person who repeatedly sins, in spite of his/her will not to sin, and confesses that he/she is a whole sinner. Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13). God calls sinners and washes away all their sins. God has forgiven all their sins. God has already washed away their sins once and for all. Jesus took all their sins through His baptism, was judged on the Cross for them and made them righteous through His resurrection to take them to the Kingdom of Heaven.
We must know ourselves
We must know whether we are whole sinners or partial sinners. God pronounces a person to be clean when leprosy spreads all over the skin of the body. God made the law of leprosy like that. A person who knows that he/she is full of sin cannot but believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and receives the remission of sins when Jesus comes to him/her, saying that He washed away all his/her sins through His baptism and the Cross. However, a partial sinner who thinks that he/she is not full of sins casts ridicule on the gospel.
Would there be sin if Jesus had washed them all away? No. We can receive the remission of sins once and for all. Therefore, a sinner should know himself/herself. All his/her sins can be eliminated when he/she knows himself/herself. People are apt to take only their small sins to God. “Lord, I have sinned. I did not want to, but he made me do it. Please forgive me just for this case, and I will not sin anymore.” They take just small sins to God. Then God says, “You are unclean.”
A human being has no righteousness in front of God. “To be or not to be absolutely depends on You, God. I am a sinner and am destined to go to hell. Please do as You please, but God, be merciful on me and please save me. Please save me if You are God. Then I will believe in You and I will live according to Your will.” God saves a person who admits that he/she is full of sin.
A human inherited sin that has 12 kinds of evil thoughts
Let us take a look at Mark 7:20-23. “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” From within, out of the heart of a human being, proceed evil thoughts. A human being inherited sin natively. Do you understand? One has evil thoughts throughout life. There is no way for him/her to be delivered if all his/her sins are not forgiven once and for all.
A human being is born with these 12 kinds of evil thoughts: adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride and foolishness. So, he/she cannot but continue sinning all his/her life. A person whose sins are not forgiven lives sinfully even though he/she does not want to live like that. All things from a human being, such as thoughts and behaviors are sinful before God.
It is hypocritical for a sinner to be good. He/she only pretends to be virtuous. It is cheating God. A human being who is born sinful must know himself/herself to be saved. However if a person does not know himself/herself to be sinful, he/she feels distressed whenever he/she sins and says, “Ah, why do I do these things?” He/she is deceived by himself/herself.
A human being has evil thoughts. A man may think, ‘Why do I do evil thoughts? No, I shouldn’t have these thoughts. Why do I think unclean things? My teacher told me to do good.’ He thinks like that because he does not know why he does certain things. He feels distressed because of his stealing and committing adulteries because he does not know that he inherited sin. Murders, adulteries, fornications, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness come out of him incessantly and in turn. So, he hates himself and comes to be ashamed without knowing why.
We are masses of sin and bear 12 kinds of evil fruits throughout our whole lives because we are born sinners, who inherited sin from our common ancestor Adam. Blessed are those who know that they are sinners.
A human being seeks Jesus, the Savior who saves him/her from all his/her sins, when he/she knows he/she is an unreliable sinner. It is the only way to being blessed by God. However, a human being does not seek the Savior if he/she does not know himself/herself. A person who knows himself/herself well comes to deny him/herself, forsakes his/her efforts, quits depending on human beings, seeks Jesus Christ who is God, the Savior and the Prophet, and is forgiven by the grace of Jesus Christ.
Sinners need to know themselves because those who know themselves can be blessed before God. One who does not know oneself cannot be blessed. Therefore, sinners have to know themselves as they are. Do you understand? Have you ever done evil things before you receiving the remission of sins? If you have, do you know why? You did evil things against your will because you inherited sin.
As through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin
Death is inevitable to human beings because they have sin. A human being should seek Jesus and meet Him to be delivered from sin so that his/her sins can be blotted out. Then he/she can have everlasting life. Do you want to be delivered from all your sins?
“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:14-21).
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Here, who is the one man? Adam. Eve too came out of the one man, Adam. So the Bible says, ‘By one man.’ God made one man in the beginning and through the one man sin entered the world. There were two persons in the Garden of Eden in sight of us, but, in fact, there was one man in sight of God. All human races have spread by one man, Adam.
The words, “Through one man sin entered the world,” means that all the descendants of Adam became sinners because Adam had sinned. Death passed upon all humankind, because all have sinned. Death was sentenced to all human beings because of sin. God cannot forbear a person who is with sin.
God is omnipotent but cannot do two things: He can neither tell a lie nor let a person who has sin enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He executes His law as He promised. God certainly judges a person who has sin because God cannot tell a lie nor ignore the law He Himself established. All human beings have become sinners by one man, Adam, who fell and sinned in front of God. God’s judgment and death spread to all of humankind because they were made sinners and born as the descendants of one man, Adam. Death came to spread to all of them as such.
When God created man in the beginning, there was no death. There were not only the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but also the tree of life. God commanded Adam to eat the fruit from tree of life and live an eternal life. However, Adam was deceived by Satan and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God commanded him not to eat and challenged God by forsaking His word, so death spread to all the people of the world due to sin. Death entered the world through one man, Adam.
Why did God give man the law?
If sin had not entered the world through Adam, death could not have spread to all human beings. Why does a human die? He/she dies because of sin. Sin entered the world through one man, and so death spread to all people. Until the law, sin was in the world, but human beings did not have the knowledge of sin until there was the law.
The law of God came down to all people through Moses. Even in the time of Adam and Noah, there was sin, but God had not established the law until the age of Moses. However, the Bible says that there was sin in the hearts of all the people who lived at that time.
Let us take a look at Romans 5:13. “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” There was sin even when there was no law in the world. Therefore, all people had to die because they sinned before God. God gave them the law that consists of 613 kinds of commandments, which were to be kept before Him and among people, to give them the knowledge of sin. What did people come to know through the law of God? They felt that they were sinful in the sight of God and came to know they had sin. People realized that they couldn’t keep the law of God.
So, they came to know their sins. The descendants of Adam and Eve knew they were sinners and that God only should forgive their sins. But they forgot with time that they came to become sinners and had inherited sin from their ancestor Adam. At that time, they came to know that they were sinners when they sinned, but they didn’t know they were sinners when they didn’t sin. But they were wrong. These days, many people still think that they become sinners if they sin, and that they do not become sinners if they do not sin. In fact, all people are sinners regardless of whether they sin or not because they have inherited sin from their birth.
Human beings are inevitable sinners before they are delivered from sins. So God gave them His law for the knowledge of sin. A person who knows God through His law and admits the law knows that he/she is a grave sinner. A human being becomes a serious sinner as soon as he/she fully knows the law of God.
Death spread to all men through one man
Romans 5:13-14 states, “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come.”
God says that all people became sinners by one man and death spread to them through one man. Death spread to all of them through sin. It was because of one man. Who is this one man? Adam. We commonly know it. But, many people do not know it. Even many Christians do not know it. They separate sin into the original sin and actual sins and they think that their actual sins can be forgiven daily through the prayers of repentance. They do not know that the reason they are judged and go to hell is because of Adam.
The descendants of Adam have no relation with God because of their sins no matter how hard they try to be good. God judges all of them because they are the descendants of Adam, however hard they may try to live good lives. They will be cast into the eternal fire of hell because of their common ancestor Adam.
Adam is a type of Him who was to come
It is written that Adam is a type of Him who was to come. All people became sinners and death came to them through one man. However all of humankind is made righteous through one Man, Jesus Christ just as all people became sinners by one man, Adam. This is the law of God.
People made religions because they did not know the law of God. They say that they should do good deeds to be saved while they believe in Jesus. How widely it spreads in the world and how often they tell lies! They teach people, saying, “You should be good as Christians.” Our sins are never blotted out by works.
“Adam is a type of Him who was to come.” Who is the Man who was to come for our salvation from sins? He is Jesus Christ. Jesus was sent to the world and lawfully took away the sins of the world by His baptism once and for all to make us righteous and was crucified to save us from judgment.
Sin entered the world because Satan deceived Adam, a creature. Sin entered the world through Adam. However Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Creator, and the King of kings who is almighty, was sent in the likeness of men to save humankind from their sins once and for all. He blotted out the sins of the world once and for all. He took the sins of the world on Him though His baptism once and for all and paid the wages of the sins by being crucified.
A human being receives new life and has redemption if he/she believes that Jesus was sent to blot out all sins, however grave his/her sins may be. God planned and decided to create the heavens and the earth in order to make us His children. He came to the world and perfectly fulfilled His promise. So we certainly have no sin. God has never made a mistake. Adam was a type of Him who was to come. I do not understand why people rely on their own works. Our salvation absolutely depends on Jesus. Human beings became sinners through one man, Adam, and were redeemed through one Man, Jesus.
The only thing we should do is to believe the salvation of the remission of sins. It is the only thing we should do. We have nothing to do but rejoice in the fact that Jesus blotted out all our sins. By the way, why do you compel other people to zealously do good deeds? Can people be delivered from their sins through their works? No. Salvation depends on only the faith in the remission of sins.
The free gift is not like the offense
Romans 5:14-16 states, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.”
What do these passages mean? The Bible says, “But the free gift is not like the offense.” The free gift refers to God’s salvation. It means that all people who inherited sin through Adam were destined to go to hell, but their sins could be forgiven indiscriminately through the faith in Jesus, who blotted out all their sins. It also means that Jesus already blotted out all of our future sins.
A human being who is born as a descendant of Adam is a sinner even if he/she does not sin. Therefore, he/she cannot avoid going to hell even if he/she does not sin. Jesus came to the world and became our Savior. The free gift is that Jesus gave us excessive redemption to forgive the sins that people continue committing until the end of the world.
Therefore, the free gift of one Man is greater than one man’s offense. If one commits a sin of being against God, then the sin alone is serious enough to make him/her judged by God and go to hell. However, the gift of the Lord, who already blotted out all our sins and transgressions, is greater than one man’s offense.
It means that Jesus’ love and the gift of the remission of sins are greater than the offenses of all human beings. The Lord sufficiently blotted out all the sins of the world. The love of Jesus, who saved us, and the gift of salvation are so abundant and bigger than an offense committed by one man. The Lord already blotted out the sins of fighting against God even though we are against Him with our flesh. Now the Lord wants us to believe that He already blotted out the sins of the world all at once. That’s why He saved sinners from all their sins as the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world.
The theory, which says that our sins are blotted out when we believe in God, and not blotted out when we don’t believe in God, is untrue. God blotted out even the sins of unbelievers because He loves all the people of the world, yet people do not want to receive God’s love. Nobody is excluded from God’s love and salvation. The salvation of God comes to those who believe in the truth of the gospel, which states that Jesus blotted out all our sins.
We are such weak beings. God counts those who believe Jesus blotted out all sins to be without sin. We still have many weaknesses in our flesh even after all our sins are forgiven. Many times, we fight against God and even try to throw away His righteousness when we do not agree with His will. But God says, “I love you and I saved you. I already blotted out the sins that you have committed until right now.” “Oh! Is it true, Lord?” “Yes, I have blotted out all sins.” “Thank you, Lord. I praise You. I cannot help praising You because You loved me so much that You blotted out even the sin of denying You.”
Those who became sinners were made righteous and became the slaves of love. They yielded themselves to His love. They cannot help believing in Jesus because the Lord blotted out the sin of denying Him, even though they deny Him because of their weaknesses, just as Peter did. It makes them praise the Lord. So the Apostle Paul says that God’s salvation is greater than one man’s offense.
Jesus took away all the sins; the original sin that was inherited and the actual sins that are committed by our deeds to the end of the world. So, how great the love of God is! So, the Bible says implicatively, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
The righteous will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ
The sins of the world cannot be forgiven through the prayers of repentance. Believers come to have no sin and receive salvation from all sins because the Lord had already eliminated out even the sins that will be committed in the future. Romans 5:17 states, “For if by one man’s offence death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
We are blessed with the grace. Who are those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness? They are those who believe in the Lord and whose sins are forgiven by having faith in Him. We praise the Lord because we received the abundance of grace of the remission of sins. “Those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” We are kings who reign in life.
Only kings reign. We reign now. Who can fight against kings? We, who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, reign everyday. We reign today and we will reign tomorrow. Whoever shows kindness to us kings are blessed and can be kings with us. However, whoever does not believe in the gospel of the truth that kings preach will go to hell.
There have been many kings who were saved in the world and there have been many people who went to hell because they were against the kings. They should have been kind to the kings, but they weren’t. They could have been kings if they had the eyes and the heart of a truth seeker.
Do you reign? We brag with confidence of our being kings to the world. We announce that unbelievers will go to hell when they fight against us. Only kings can do this. We are real kings. Is there anyone who does not reign among the righteous? It is impudent for them not to reign as kings. A king has to reign as a king. “You have wrong thoughts. You will go to hell if you do not accept the truth.” A king has to behave as a king. A king must be dignified and give the command to believe the truth to sinners.
A king can and has to judge, command and sentence unbelievers to hell who are against God’s righteousness, however young the king may be. He/she has the power to sentence unbelievers to hell in front of God, but it does not mean that the king may abuse his/her power as he/she pleases. The Lord tells us to reign in the world. Therefore, let us reign and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
However, some of the righteous are too meek to use their power. The Lord will rebuke them when He comes again. “You gave up your faith. Why did you behave as a slave? I made you a king.” There are some people who act like slaves to the world. Does it make sense for a king to say, “sir,” to his subject like that? However, some of the righteous speak like that even though it does not make sense to. They beg for pardon on their knees to the world even after God delivers them from sin. A king should be kingly.
I proclaimed the independent kingliness against the world as soon as I became a king. I believed that I became a king and behaved in kingly way, though I was young.
By the obedience of One Man, Jesus Christ
Romans 5:18-19 states, “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
“As through one man’s offence judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation.” Here, condemnation means judgment. A person who is born as a descendant of Adam and who is not born again of the water and the Spirit, though he/she believes in Jesus, is judged. “Through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”
All people are made righteous by the one righteous act of Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary and was baptized in the Jordan River to bear all the sins of the world. He sacrificed His life by being crucified in their place to make them all righteous. By one Man’s obedience to the will of God the Father, many were made righteous.
Strictly speaking, are all the people of the world sinners, or are they righteous if we observe from the standpoint of faith? All of them are righteous. Some people get angry and fight against me when I say so by faith. In fact, there is none who has sin from God’s viewpoint. God sent His only begotten Son to the world and passed all the sins of the world onto Him and let Him be judged as the representative of all people.
People enter the Kingdom of Heaven or hell according to their faiths
God does not judge the world any more because He judged Jesus in the place of all people. However, some people believe this and others don’t, even though the Son of God took away all sins and blotted them out by His obedience to the will of God. Believers enter the Kingdom of Heaven by believing in God’s righteousness. God accounts them to be righteous and says, “You are righteous. You believe that I really blotted out all your sins. Come on. I have prepared the Kingdom of Heaven for you.” They enter the Kingdom of Heaven sufficiently.
But some people do not believe in Him and reject the gospel, saying, “God, is it true? I cannot believe it. Is it true? I do not really understand.” God will say, “Why do you make me angry? Believe in Me if you want to believe, but do not believe if you do not want to believe.” “Is the gospel of the water and the Spirit true, Lord?” “I saved you.” “I can’t believe it. I can believe as much as 90%, but I doubt the last 10%.”
Then God will say to them, “You do not believe it though I already saved you. Do according to your faith. I made up My mind to send those who have sin as the descendants of Adam to hell. I made the Kingdom of Heaven, too. Enter the Kingdom of Heaven if you want to, and go to hell if you want to be cast into the fire of hell.” It depends on their faiths whether they enter the Kingdom of Heaven or hell.
Do you believe that Jesus saved you from all your sins with His baptism and blood that was shed on the Cross? It depends on your faith. There is no midpoint between the Kingdom of Heaven and hell. There is no such thing as “No” in front of God. There is only “Yes.” God also never tells us “No.” God promised all things and fulfilled them all. He blotted out all the sins of sinners.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound
Let us take a look at Romans 5:20-21. “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Why did the law enter? To make the offense abound. Human beings have sin inevitably as the descendants of Adam by nature. But they didn’t know their sinful nature, and thus God gave human beings the law to give them the knowledge of sin because the law commands them what to do and what not to do, and it becomes a sin not to obey the law with their thoughts and deeds.
The law entered that the offense might abound. God gave us the law to make us know that we are grave sinners and are masses of sin. However, where sin abounded, grace bounded much more. This means that a person who is born with sin as a descendant of Adam, but thinks him/herself to be a minor sinner has nothing to do with the fact that Jesus saved him/her.
However, one who thinks he/she has many weaknesses and cannot live according to God’s word with the flesh gives thanks to the Lord who saved Him. The gospel that says the Lord took away the sins of the world all at once is a great gift to such a person. “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” The gift abounded, so grave sinners are made perfectly righteous. The minor sinners who think they are not full of sin will go to hell. Only grave sinners are made perfectly righteous.
So a person who knows that he/she is a grave sinner greatly praises the salvation of Jesus. There are few good-natured preachers among the gospel preachers in the world. “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” This does not mean that we may sin on purpose so that grace may abound much more.
The Apostle Paul says in Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Paul means, “We are saved if we just believe in God’s righteousness. The Lord already blotted out all our sins and abundantly saved sinners from all their sins. We are made righteous by believing with our hearts. We can be saved if we believe in what the Lord did. No matter how wicked we may be or how many times we may sin, we are made righteous without works by having faith in the truth.”
We become righteous by faith. How wicked are our deeds? How many times do we sin? How many shortcomings do we have if God, who is sinless, looks at our deeds? I cannot but praise the Lord. Romans 5:20-21 states, “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
God gave us eternal lives through Jesus Christ. The righteousness of the Lord made us reign with Him. I praise the Lord, who abundantly saved sinners from all their sins. Thank You, Lord.
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