The Transmission of the Sin Nature (3)

We on Wednesday evenings basically do doctrinal studies. We study what the Bible teaches about a particular doctrine and in recent weeks and not so recent weeks. This has gone back away about 25 or 26 studies. We've been seeing what the Bible teaches about man and sin. And as we've looked recently at what the Bible teaches about sin, we looked very thoroughly at Genesis 3 and the fall of man, the original sin of Adam and Eve, and then how that impacted the human race as a whole, how it's impacted all of us. And to kind of close out that part of our study before we go to get to just the last couple of three weeks, we've been diving a little deeper into how Adam and Eve sin affected us in the sense of how did we get our sin nature? How did that come to us? How did that happen? And so we've been looking to last, well actually last week and tonight and probably maybe one more week at Romans chapter 5. So open your Bible to Romans 5. The question we are considering is how does Adam's sin affect the human race? In other words, we are our sinners, the Bible teaches that clearly, plainly, but how is that connected to Adam's sin? What is it about Adam's sin that affected us and what's the connection? How did it affect us? That's really what we're looking at. Right now. We have a couple of times read this whole passage. I'm just going to pick the first and last verses out tonight and review those for you. First of all, Romans 5 verse 12. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, now that's Adam sin, enters the world, the human experience, human race through him, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. And in this way, death came to all people because all sinned. So there's something about Adam's sin that not only introduced sin and death, but that then affected all people. We all sin and we all die in a way that directly connects us back to Adam's sin and him introducing death into the human race. So that's really the statement of it, but how does that happen? If you'll skip down to verse 19. For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners. That's the key expression. It is through Adam's disobedience that we were actually made sinners. Okay, that key phrase there. We were made sinners. We're going to look at a couple of views of that tonight and what that means. But in some way, Adam sin polluted the whole human race. We were made sinners because of what happened to Adam. So he says, so also through the obedience of the one man that's Christ and his obedience to the cross, the many will be made righteous. There is, as we've seen in this whole passage, comparison and a contrast between what Adam did and what Christ did. There is a comparison between the two. One man introduces something. One man introduces something else. The contrast is in the scope of what they introduce and what it means for the human race. Adam's, of course, dragged down the human race into sin. Christ lifts us up in salvation to heaven. And so very different and yet similar in the sense that one man was responsible for all of this. So in asking that question, how did Adam sin affect the human race? How did it affect us? We've been looking at three views. And just very quickly remind you of the terminology and basically what they teach. One, the first view was the Pelagian view. Remember that was named for a monk, a British monk in the late 300s and 400s by the name of Pelagius whose views were condemned by the church as a whole in 431. A.D. Basically, Pelagius taught that we all come into the world innocent. We're not in any way tied to Adam sin. We all come into the world innocent. And we choose whether or not we will remain totally innocent and sinless through obedience or we may choose to sin. But he said it is possible for people to actually live a sinless life and never sin. And of course, that just doesn't stack up to what the Bible teaches about being sinners from the moment of conceptions we saw in Psalm 51. The heart being deceitful and wicked in Jeremiah 17. Jesus talking about where defiled from within our evil actions come from an evil heart. It's not the other way around. See, Pelagius would say if you choose to do evil, then you become a sinner. And Jesus said, no, no, you are a sinner first. It's in your heart. It's there. You have that nature. And that's what causes you to sin. So what Pelagius taught really is the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches. And then we saw there was kind of a twist on his view called the semi-Polagean view, which basically said, we come into this world not not innocent, but not sinners either. We come into this world weak and and needing some help. With natural inability. So God is willing to kind of help us and give us a little push and help us out. But really a lot of what that view teaches about salvation is still self effort and human goodness. So remember we saw that Pelagianism teaches that we come into this world alive and well, semi-Polageanism, we come into this world alive and sick. And the Bible teaches we come into this world dead and depraved. We're sinners. So very different, those first two views from what the Bible teaches. So for that reason we saw that most serious Bible students and those who really believe the Bible opt for one of two views as to how Satan or how Adam sin affected us, how it came to render us as sinners. And we looked at the first one last week and that is the representative headship view. And that is basically God. This view teaches that God made a covenant with Adam. Covenant of works, it's called. And Adam was appointed to represent the whole human race. And when Adam fell, his fall was applied to all of us. It was to use a Bible word reckoned to all of us or counted as our fall. His fall is counted as our fall because he is a representative of the human race. He is a representative head. Well, he sins. Then that's placed on our record. And we become sinners because of what Adam did. And we saw that that view is mostly most often tied to covenant theology and a covenant or a creationist view of the origin of the soul, both of which we dealt with last week. I don't want to get back into all of that. And while there are lots of wonderful believers who hold to both of those, we have seen that those are probably not the best way of looking at what the Bible teaches. The alternative to covenant theology is dispensational theology where we believe in a sharp distinction between Israel and the church. Covenant theology merges the two. Basically says the church inherits the Old Testament promises made to Israel. And dispensationalism believes. No, those promises. If you interpret the Bible plainly, literally, those promises are made to Israel. And they have to be fulfilled to Israel in the future and not the church. And that's what we would believe. So because of the tide, those two, we said, you know, representative headship probably not the best way of looking at this. So we basically last week just introduced this last view, which we're going to look at tonight. And that is often called the realistic headship view or the seminal headship view. And the seminal headship, the word seminal basically means in other words, like if you have a seminal thought, that means there is an original thought. But that thought is then passed down and influences and informs every other view that comes after it. The seminal thought or the seminal act is the beginning one. And so this view basically teaches that Adam Sin, the first sin actually because of his sin, something is passed down to us. We become sinners. It's not just that his sin is placed on our account and God views us as sinners because what Adam did, that's representative headship, it's not just that God views us as sinners. We actually become sinners because of Adam's sin. And that seems to be what verse 19 of Romans 5 is saying that just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners. We actually became sinners, not just that God viewed us that way. We actually become sinners. So we're made sinners because of what what Adam did. So in some way, Adam's sin actually made us sinners. We become sinners in this view because we actually inherited a sin nature from Adam. Adam's nature was changed the moment he sinned. His first act of disobedience changed his nature and that sinful nature has been passed down to us to every human being since then. So we participate not in his actual sin but in his nature. And that sinful nature has passed down to us. That's how Adam sin affected us. So you see representative headship basically says Adam sin, God looked at him and said, okay, I'm taking his sin and applying it to the whole human race. And I'm viewing the whole human race. I'm counting or reckoning the whole human race now as sinners. Seminole headship or realistic headship basically says, yes, Adam was the head of the human race but his sin was not just counted to our account in heaven. We actually became sinners because we inherited a fallen nature from Adam and that basically is the explanation of realistic or seminole headship. Okay, so let me stop there. See if you have any questions before we deal with some objections and responses. Randall. Well, Adam was forgiven of his sin because God made them cloaks, animal garments and clothed them and brought them back into a relationship with him. And so Adam was forgiven of his sin and his relationship with God was restored. So we would say, yes, he's in heaven. Jim, you mean the same Greek word, I'd have to look, I'd have to look. I really don't know off top of my head. Anybody have a Greek New Testament with you? Sorry, okay. Luke, so you bring in your Greek Testament with you. I'd have to check, Jim, I'm not really sure. But again, in that passage, you can't press the many and all. He's too far. He's basically making a comparison between what Adam's sin did to the whole human race and what Christ's death provides for the whole human race. Verse 17 says it has to be received. So that's the important thing, but Christ's death provides something for the whole human race. And that is the potential for salvation and forgiveness of sin. So when he uses the many, he's just referring to everybody. It's not like it's just a few of the all. The word many is just another way of saying the whole human race. There's a lot of us. There's many of us. Okay. But again, I think it would be the same word, but I'd really have to check to make sure. Okay. Other comments, questions? All right. Now those, and let me, let me say this. I know we're really splitting hairs here when we get between these two views because there are godly men on both of these sides. I've had professors in seminary who take both, both views. And so it's not like one is a heretic and should be banned from the church. It's not like that at all. These are just two different ways of seeing it. I really think the realistic or seminal headship view aligns better with biblical teaching, but people who believe the other are not really heretics. And so we're splitting hairs a little fine, but I think they're, I think they're pretty important hairs. So, so we are going to talk about this a little bit. Those, those who believe in representative headship have some objections that they often will give in their books in their writings, but there are responses to those. And so let's take a few minutes to look at some of those objections and responses. One objection is this. Seminal headship implies a division of the soul. In other words, there are those who teach that, okay. If you get your and remember, seminal headship basically goes along with the the tradition view of the origin of the soul that the soul is passed down through our parents, not created by God at the moment of conception, but it's passed down from our parents. Just like our body and material characteristics are the immaterial characteristics, soul spirit, personality, all that also passed down through our parents. And those who argue against that say, well, that implies a division of the soul. In other words, if, if I get my soul from my parents, doesn't that mean their souls are divided? Of course not. Of course not. That mean that at all. What we're talking about here is not division, but generation. You can generate something without your essence being divided. For instance, you get your body from your parents. Does that mean their bodies were divided? Of course not. This is all genetic. It has nothing to do with what you get from your parents being divided. So it's really a moot point. It's a kind of a crazy argument to believe that any of the characteristics we get from our parents would mean that there's had to be divided. We do get more than bodily characteristics from our parents, don't we? I think we would all agree with that. We do get personality traits from our parents. Those are passed down. We get other personality and other immaterial things from our parents. If you get personality traits from your parents, that doesn't mean your parents personality was divided, right? Or they would have a split personality, right? I know some of you are thinking, yes, what I did in my parents, I created a split personality in my parents. You may have, I don't know. But obviously personality traits are inherited from your parents. It doesn't mean their personalities were split. So this is not really a valid argument at all. But immaterial characteristics, like personality, emotion, will, all of those things, which don't have to do with the body necessarily, those are passed down through our parents. So if that's the case, then as we've seen before, so our sin nature can also be passed down through our parents. So it is possible and it does not involve any division of what of our parents, soul or nature or personality or whatever. So that argument we're just going to toss out to Wimpa. That's not a valid objection to this view. Question or comments there? Okay. All right. I think all of us could kind of identify things we've inherited from our parents. Not just physical characteristics remember too. Also mental and emotional and personality traits and so forth. So we can inherit a sinful nature or the soul or any immaterial characteristic without any division of our parents. Let me just quickly deal with this next one because it's not really that important. Some would say however that seminal headship contradicts consciousness. And what they're saying is if you who believe in seminal headship or realistic headship believe that we actually participated in Adam's sin, we have no consciousness of doing that. We have no consciousness of actually participating in Adam's sin, but we're not talking about consciousness and we're not actually talking about a literal participation in his sin. We're talking about a participation in his nature, not in his actual sin, but in his nature. There was one well known theologian a few generations ago, William G. T. Shed who wrote a three volume theology which I have in my library who took the view that we actually participated in his sin that we were in some sense in the loins of Adam when he sinned and so we actually participated in his sin. And so this argument basically is against Shed, but most who believe in in the view we're talking about here don't believe that we participated in his sin, we participate in his nature because of Adam's sin, we inherit a sinful nature. So this argument doesn't really, it's not a good objection either. Okay, we move on to the third one. There are those who say well seminal headship would also involve responsibility for Adam's other sins as well. Basically they're saying if we're responsible for Adam's first sin, if that's applied to us, then why not his other sins? In fact, why not the sins of everybody who's ever lived before us? And that's the objection some raise to this view, but it really misses the whole point. Again, the point is not that we participate in Adam's sin or in any other sin. We are not judged because of Adam's sin. We are judged because we are sinners. We didn't participate in his sin, we inherit a sinful nature. And that's what this view teaches, that we inherit a sinful nature from Adam. That's what affects us. It's the sinful nature. I am not responsible, I will not answer to God for Adam's sin. I will not answer to God for anybody else's sin. I am guilty before God, not because of anybody else's sin. I didn't participate in their sin. I do, however, answer to God because I have a sinful nature, which renders me a sinner and thus makes sure that I'm going to do sinful actions indeed. That's the point in this view, is that I inherit a sinful nature from Adam. That's what makes me a sinner. Let me just mention this last one before I open it up for any other questions. This is an objection that a lot of people level against this seminal headship view. That is that seminal headship implicates Christ. What they say is that if we inherit a sinful nature, then you're saying Christ also inherit a sinful nature, right? No, no, no. That would be true if it were not for one very important biblical doctrine. What is that? The Virgin Birth. Actually, more precisely, the Virgin Conception. Jesus, because Conception is really what determines what's passed down to us, not the actual birth nine months later. But it's a conception when Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary. It was not by the normal process. Remember, when we looked at this, when we looked at the origin of the soul, anytime the normal process of conception happens, a new person comes into existence. A new soul comes into existence. Well, that's not true of Jesus. His soul and all of his immaterial parts had existed forever already in eternity past. And so Jesus could not come into the world through the normal means of procreation. So he was already in existence as a soul, as a being, as a personality, as emotion, will, mind, everything already existed. The only thing that happened in the incarnation was he took on a human body. And so it was the physical characteristics that he got from Mary. And supernaturally, miraculously, God places the person, Jesus Christ, whose mind, emotion, will, nature, everything has already existed forever, places him into Mary's womb so that he will receive human body. So no, we're not implicating Christ. We're not saying, well, since we receive a simple nature, he would receive a simple nature also. No, he already had his nature and it was perfect. He was God. He didn't receive a nature at all except for a group of human attributes called a body. Okay, that's what the incarnation was about. Okay, does that make sense? You have any questions there? Exactly. Yes. He was already God before he ever came as a baby in Mary's womb. He was already God for eternity past. He was God the Son. He was just united to a human body in the incarnation. So he became human with a human body. So there was no painting of Christ through the normal process of a new soul coming into existence, which inherits a simple nature, passed out from the parents. No, that didn't happen in Jesus' case because of the virgin conception. Okay, very critical doctrine. So none of these objections really, really stand up. Luke, I think in what most theologians that I have read on this who take the Seminoleicic view would say is that Adam's nature was changed as a result of his disobedience and sin. So he actually did have a simple nature from that point on. Now, Adam is unlike any of the rest of us because Adam was created perfect. None of us were created. We came into being through our parents, through the natural process of procreation. So we're unlike Adam. Adam was created perfect. So when he sinned, his nature changed. That's unlike any other human being in history. But I think you're onto something there. I think he did. He did actually have a simple nature, but it was changed in him. Okay, good question. Okay, there's something else that enters into this whole discussion and it's the biblical doctrine of imputation. And so I want to take a few moments before we finish this whole, how do we get our sin nature type of study. I want to take a few minutes to talk about this biblical doctrine of imputation. Now, what do we mean? It's a to impute is a good Bible word, but it's not one we use a lot in our vocabulary, right? So probably we need to think first of all what we're talking about here to impute means to reckon. That's another good Bible word to reckon something to someone's account, almost like a legal reckoning. They ought to count something on one's account, if you will, record book, if you will, in heaven to put something on someone's account. That's what imputation means. Now, there are two kinds of imputation in the Bible. This is where we need to start. Two kinds of imputation. One is called one party imputation. The other is guess what? Two party imputation. Wow, isn't this brilliant stuff. Now, one party imputation basically means only one person's involved. Let me give you a good biblical example of it when David writes Psalm 32 after his sin with Bathsheba. And he has confessed that sin Psalm 51 and he's recounting it. He says this. He said, blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered, blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them. That's the idea of imputation. And it means the Lord does not put my sin on my account in heaven. And my record book in heaven shows that I've got sin against me that I'm going to be judged for. And see, David is writing this from the perspective of having been forgiven and cleansed. And he says, once you're forgiven and cleansed, the sin is no longer on your record. So it's no longer imputed to you. So this is one party imputation. My own sin placed on my record. It's just me. There's not two people involved here. Now, two party imputation means to reckon or count to someone that which should be forgiven. And the truth in reality is not his or hers. Something that is not naturally not normally mine, but it is treated as mine. It is counted as mine. It is placed on my record in heaven as though it were mine. It's not mine comes from somebody else. That's two party imputation. And that's a very key biblical doctrine. But sometimes it's taken too far. What you will often hear is this that Adam's sin is imputed to us. Our sin was imputed to Christ and Christ's righteousness is then imputed to us. That's what you often hear. That that Adam's sin was imputed to us. It was reckoned to ours. That's basically the federal headship view. Adam's sin was placed on my account in heaven. So when Adam's sins, God sees me as being responsible for that sin. And then we often hear that our sin was imputed to Christ. And then we often hear that Christ's righteousness was imputed to us. I'm not sure we're going to have time to finish this. So let me just basically say only one of those is true in the Bible. And it's the last one. Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. But if you study it carefully, the Bible never actually says that Adam's sin was imputed and put on our account. Basically says in Romans 5 that Adam's sin made us what? We're sinners. In other words, we became sinners. We inherited a sinful nature because of Adam's sin. It's not like his sin was placed on my account in heaven and I'm responsible for Adam's sin. Nor does the Bible clearly say that my sin was imputed to Christ. Now Christ took my place and bore the punishment for my sin. But the Bible never really says that my sin was actually placed on Jesus' record so that he becomes now a sinner. No, but it is true that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. It's placed on our account. Now with that in mind, let's look at those a little bit more carefully. Adam's sin is not imputed to us. The Bible never really says that. In Romans 5, the parallelism is between Christ and Adam. One man brought the problem into the human race, meaning that we all became sinners. The other man Christ brings the solution. And that is salvation through his death on the cross. So I am not counted or reckoned a sinner because of Adam's sin. I become a sinner because of Adam's sin. There's a key difference there. And the only way I can become a sinner is if I inherit a sinful nature. That's what happened. So the Bible never really says that God looked at Adam's sin and said, okay, I'm placing Adam's sin on John's record in heaven. No, the Bible says because of Adam's sin, I became a sinner. I inherited a sin nature. I was conceived as a sinner. That's because of Adam's sin. There's a key difference there. Now here's the one that trips up a lot of folks. Our sin is not imputed to Christ. That concept of imputation or reckoning or counting is not really described in that way. Christ's death is not really described in that way. The one that comes closest to it and the verse it's often used is 2 Corinthians 5, 21. I'm going to put it on the screen. I want you to look at it carefully. God made him that's Christ who had no sin to be sin for us. And that expression is what many say, okay, see, my sin was imputed to Christ. Well, if you look at basically any translation that you have, you'll find either a footnote or a marginal note that says that can also be translated. He was made a sin offering. And that's what it means. It doesn't mean that Jesus became a sinner that he actually took my sin in the sense that it changed his nature and he became a sinner. He took my place is what happened and he took God's punishment for my sin on the cross. And so he was made a sin offering like in the Old Testament, the offering became a substitute for the center. So Jesus became a sin offering for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So Christ was not made a sinner. He did not, my sin was not imputed to him and placed on his account so that now God sees him as a sinner. God sees him as a substitute. Not as a sinner, a substitute who paid for your sin and my sin. Again, that's a kind of a fine distinction, but I think a pretty key one to safeguard the person of Christ. So the Bible really doesn't say that Adam sin was imputed to us or reckoned our account, but it does say we were made sinners because of Adam sin. The Bible doesn't really say my sin was imputed to Christ in the sense that he now becomes a sinner with sin on his record book in heaven. No, it does say he became my substitute, a sin offering for me. But now the way the Bible does use the word impute literally is that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. That's justification. When you trust Jesus as your Savior, God does make a legal change in the record books in heaven. And that is that Christ's righteousness is imputed to you. It is placed on your record book. Now my sin was not placed on Jesus record book. God's punishment was poured out on him as a substitute for my sin. But when I trust Jesus Christ's righteousness is placed on my account in heaven, his righteousness is imputed to me. And to show you that clearly, I don't have these verses on the screen. So calls there's several of them. Look over Romans four. We've been in Romans five. Look back at Romans four. Verse six. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. And then he quotes the very passage we looked at earlier about sin and righteousness. And so on 32. He's talking here about justification that God credits Christ's righteousness to our counts. So that's the example he uses. I looked at at verse eight. Blessed is the one who sinned. The Lord will never count against them. And the verse 11. And he Abraham in this case, he received circumcision as a sign. A seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still on circumcised. So then he is the father of all who believe, but have not been circumcised in order that righteousness might be credited. There's our word credited to them. Christ's righteousness is imputed or credited to our account. The number is 22. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness. The words it was credited to him. We're not written for him alone, but also for us to whom God will credit. See this word is found all through Romans four. It's the word impute or to credit or to reckon. Okay, also for us to whom God will credit righteousness for those of us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. So his righteousness is placed on our count and is reckoned as our righteousness. It is imputed to us. That's the only biblical use of the word impute or imputation. So that really supports the view that we've just been looking at that Adam did not act as a representative head and his sin is placed on my account. No, no, Adam sinned. His nature was changed and everybody since him was born a center. We inherited a sinful nature. His sin was not imputed us. We inherited a sinful nature. And my sin was not imputed to Christ thus making him a center in God's eyes. My sin was taken away by Christ because he became my substitute and died a substitutionary death in the sense he took God's punishment. But when I trust Jesus as my savior when you trusted Christ as your savior. Yes, Christ righteousness is placed on our account in heaven. My sin was already there. That was my sin. But the righteousness that goes on that account in heaven is Christ. It is imputed us. It's credited to us. It's counted as ours. What a wonderful, wonderful truth that God declares us righteous, justifies us credits Christ righteousness to our count because of his death for us and our faith in him. So unlike Pallegis, we cannot be good enough to get to heaven on our own. And it's not just that we need a little help from God. We need a substitute who took his punishment for our sin so that his righteousness could be placed on our account in heaven. That's what justifications all about. Yeah, that's a whole different concept. The sins of the fathers are are meted out or judged down to the third or fourth generation. And it doesn't say that they become the sins of the children. It says they are judged or meet it out to the sins of the third or fourth generation. And what that's talking about is that in the outworking of human life, we tend to follow the patterns of life that we've learned from our parents. And so when when they have set such an example and ingrained in our hearts and minds, such a pattern of sinfulness, we have a tendency to follow that even down to the third or fourth generation. It's hard to break and only the grace of God can break it. So when God judges to the third or fourth generation, it's not because little Johnny down here has been judged for his dad's sin. In fact, Ezekiel 18 says that doesn't happen. God never does that. We're not judged for our parents sin, but our parents sins have a tendency to be repeated in the next generation. The next generation, next generation. And so the judgment keeps going. And the only thing that can break that pattern is the grace of God through Christ. That's an excellent point, John. Well, yes. Now, yeah, you're right. That's what it means. Now, first Peter 2, 24, does say he himself bear our sins. I'm quoting from the King James, because that's what I memorized all verses in. He bear our sins and his own body on the tree being made sin for us. But to bear our sins doesn't mean that he actually, our sins are imputed to him. It means just like the Old Testament lamb bore our sins. Basically what's talking about, he bears the punishment for our sins. He takes our sins and bears our sins in the sense that it's as though they are his and he's being punished for them, but they're not, they don't become his. They're not imputed to him. So that's the sense in which he bears our sins. Yeah, great. Bill, that's a great question. What actually happens then is the fulfillment of everything God has done. Of everything God intends in salvation and that that's the process called glorification, which means that we are made perfect now. We will never be able to sin. Right. We will never be able to sin. There's no possibility of sin in heaven because the process of redemption is complete. And when we are glorified, we get a perfect body. We are in heaven. So there's no contamination of the sin nature or anything. So glorification kind of completes that process. Yeah, we have an advocate advocate defense lawyer first John to one of these are defense lawyer before the throne of God. Okay, I see other hands and I apologize. It's already five after a wana has let out and they're going to come after us. You know, if we don't want that. So we're going to have to go. If you do have other questions and I know some of you do. I'd love to talk with you in the lobby afterwards. We're going to have to close in prayer. Father, thank you for the fact that Jesus did become our sin offering. He did become our lamb, the lamb of God that took on him, the sin of the whole world and paid for it as our substitute. Thank you that because of that and our faith in Christ. His righteousness is placed on our account. And then you begin the process of making us righteous through sanctification process that will be completed when we stand before you in glory, glorified. Lord, what a wonderful plan of redemption you have made. Thank you for it in Jesus name. Amen.