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Granite Bay SDA Church

Jean Ross

The Second Adam

This was recorded at the Granite Bay Hilltop SDA Church, located in Granite Bay, California.

Hope you are blessed by the message and that it draws you closer to God.

I was standing in the back listening to our Sabbath school this morning.

Pastor Jeff was talking about Adam and the fall and mankind and the plan of redemption.

I thought wow that really segues well into what we'll be studying during our time here for our service today, we're talking about the second Adam.

And there's a key passage of scripture that we're going to be looking at, Romans chapter 5 verse 12 through 21.

We'll see how we do with time, but that's the goal, to try and get us through the end of the chapter.

Now a little background to Romans chapter 5, we starting midstream, we starting in verse 12.

Paul, the author of Romans, has already demonstrated that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And that everyone needs, don't miss this, a righteousness that cannot be obtained through the works of the law.

He has also shown us that our need of righteousness can only be met in Jesus, who lived, died, and rose again for our redemption and restoration.

Having thus established the doctrine of righteousness by faith, maybe something we can talk about later on, Paul now proceeds to highlight Christ as the second Adam.

We need a righteousness, that righteousness can only be found in Jesus.

Now Paul goes on to talk about the second Adam.

So here we go, Romans chapter 5, verse 12.

Therefore he says, just as 1 man's sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all because all have sinned.

Therefore just as through 1 man, he says, sin entered the world.

So Paul begins a comparison between the effects of Adam's transgression, his sin, and the effects of Christ's redemption.

So we go way back and we read the story in Genesis chapter 3, we have the story of the fall.

God said to Adam and Eve they could eat of all the fruit of the garden except the fruit of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil.

It was never God's will that man experience a knowledge of evil.

Nevertheless you know what happens they took of the fruit and they ate and here we have the statement in Genesis chapter 2 verse 16 this is the warning that God is giving to Adam and Eve and the Lord God commanded now notice the highlighted part this is a commandment from God right so when God says something and he tells you to do something that is a commandment we have the 10 Commandments but anything that God says for us to do is a commandment so the Lord God commanded man saying of every tree of the garden you may freely eat But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall die.

Obedience to God's commandments bring life.

Disobedience to God's commandments brings death.

Now some have wondered well it says in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.

Why didn't Adam and Eve die that very day when they ate the forbidden fruit?

I'm gonna pay the price of their transgression and give them another chance you see.

There was a death that occurred and we'll get to that a little bit in a spiritual sense, and we'll talk about that in just a minute, but their lives were extended for a probationary period of time for them to make a choice.

After all, they were deceived by the devil, right?

At least Eve was, although Adam chose Eve above God's commandments.

All right, so through Adam's sin, or through his transgression through 1 man, sin entered the world.

Satan came tempting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

When they gave in to Satan's temptation, not only did their sin, their transgression affect Adam, Eve, and their children, but it affected all of creation.

Matter of fact, we read here in Romans chapter 8, it says, for the creation was subject to futility, it's talking about all that God had made here on the earth, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope.

Now, the Him there is Christ, because of their sin.

The Bible says that Christ, or God, cursed the ground because of man's sake.

Because of creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God for we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now." So Adam's transgression had consequences not only for him and his descendants but even for the animals and for nature as a whole right?

Now you might be wondering well what did the animals do to suffer death and pain?

Well Adam was the 1 who was the representative of the whole world He was the 1 that was to present what the world was to be like.

God created it, He gave it to Adam, Adam was to take care of it, Adam gave it to the devil and the devil brings sin, suffering, death and rebellion.

Now What was the sign that was made as a symbol to the curse of sin upon nature?

Do you remember what God said when He spoke about the ground?

He said the ground will be cursed for your sake, it will bring forth what?

So thorns become a symbol of the curse of sin upon the earth, upon nature.

It's interesting that you read about the ram that took the place of Isaac when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac it says the ram was caught in the thicket by its horns It was in the thorn bush.

Jesus, when He hung upon the cross, He had a crown of thorns upon His head.

So through Christ's sacrifice, not only is man redeemed, but all creation is restored.

That's why we look forward to a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness.

So through Jesus all things are restored.

That spreads to the earth and then of course death upon the descendants of Adam because they are separated now from the tree of life.

Because of Adam's transgression all humanity lost access to the tree of life leading to death.

Genesis chapter 3 verse 22 says, then the Lord God said behold the man has become like 1 of us to no good and evil and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which it was taken so he drove him drove out the man and placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

The last thing you want is a sinner living eternally.

Look at all the pain and suffering that people can squeeze into their 1 life here on earth, their 70 years, 80 years or some even less, the pain and the suffering that they bring to others.

So God says, no, we're going to separate the tree of life from sinful man.

Now we believe that the tree of life, it's not a tree of life, It is the tree of life.

We also read about the tree of life in the book of Revelation, and it's in heaven.

And the redeemed are going to eat of the tree of life.

So sometime before the flood, the Garden of Eden was scooped up and taken to heaven.

After all, Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden.

The Garden of Eden was taken up to heaven, and that's going to be a place where we will gather at the tree of life again and we'll eat of that fruit with the redeemed in the world made new.

Alright so 3 aspects of death that came as a result of Adam's transgression.

The first is what we call spiritual death, then physical death and eternal death.

Romans chapter 8 verse 7 says, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

So when Adam and Eve were created in the beginning, their bent was to love and obedience, to honor God, to put others before themselves.

But after the fall, we see a change of attitude, a change of nature.

And it's manifest very early after the fall.

First thing Adam and Eve did is they ran and they hid from God.

And then when Jesus found them, God found them, He says, why were you hiding?

And they said, well, we ate of the fruit and so on.

The woman that you gave me, she gave me of the fruit, not of Eve.

Suddenly, just a little while before, Adam's thinking I can't live without Eve and now he's blaming Eve and Eve is blaming the serpent.

Why did you let the snake come in the garden?

That death came immediately, a change of heart.

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The Second Adam

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