Preached by Pastor Edward Donnelly at the Southeastern Family Conference (Bryan College, 2001), this opening address in a four-part series on union with Christ establishes Christ as the Last Adam -- the covenant head of a new humanity -- using Thomas Goodwin's vivid image of all mankind hanging at the belt of either Adam or Christ. Donnelly expounds Romans 5:12-21 to show that the Fall and salvation operate by the same federal logic: as all die in Adam through representative union, so all in Christ are made alive through his representative obedience, death, and resurrection. He defines saving faith as 'believing into' Christ -- not a distant transactional assent but a total transfer of identity and allegiance to a new covenant head, accomplished by the Holy Spirit as the bond of union. The new relationship with God is entirely through Christ, illustrated by Paul's compound 'sun-' verbs and by quotations from Goodwin, Sinclair Ferguson, Robert Dabney, Luther, and Calvin. The sermon closes with a searching evangelistic appeal, using the Hiroshima bombing as an illustration of hopeless doom, urging those still in Adam to cry to God for mercy and to believe into the Lord Jesus Christ.
Primary Texts
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Romans 5:12-21Paul's exposition of Adam and Christ as the two representative covenant heads of humanity, establishing the federal basis for both condemnation and justification
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1 Corinthians 15:22'As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive' -- the keynote statement of the two-Adam structure and the ground of the believer's certain hope
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2 Corinthians 5:17'If anyone is in Christ, a new creation' -- the primary text for the section on the radically new relationship with God that union with Christ creates
Introduction: The Scope and Neglect of Union with Christ0:00
The Last Adam: Christ as Covenant Head of a New Humanity11:14
The Great Transfer: Entering Union with Christ by Faith25:25
The New Relationship: All God's Dealings Now Through Christ37:50
Assurance: The Certainty of Life in Christ Mirrors the Certainty of Death in Adam46:04
The Hopeless Alternative: An Evangelistic Appeal to Those Still in Adam50:07
Key Quotes
“Because these two between them had all the rest of the sons of men hanging at their girdle.”
“in Adam we disobeyed in Adam we sinned in Adam we fell in Adam we were judged in Adam we died and so in Christ we obeyed in Christ we lived a perfect life in Christ we paid for sin in Christ we were raised from the dead in Christ we are taken to heaven in Christ we live forever”
“we are hanging onto christ body and soul for time and for eternity we have cast in our lot with christ we've transferred our allegiance to christ our identity is in christ we are inside him he is our all”
“Believing into Christ. Believing upon Christ. Believing in Christ. The idea is one of movement and entrance and change and transfer and commitment.”
“Each gracious affection. Is a feeble reflex. Of the same affection. Existing in its glorious perfection. In our Redeemer's heart.”
“Bears witness to the certainty of life. Thank God that there are no exceptions. Because if there are no exceptions here. There are no exceptions here.”
“You are a member of a doomed race.”
“Believe into the Lord. Jesus Christ. That's what I'm asking you to do. That's what I'm telling you to do. Believe into the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Applications
All listeners
Union with Christ is not a peripheral doctrine but 'the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation' (John Murray) and 'the heart of evangelical theology' (Sinclair Ferguson). Believers should make it central to their self-understanding, their language with one another, and their approach to God.
Every person alive is either in Adam or in Christ -- there is no third category. Preachers and counselors must frame every conversation about the human condition and the gospel from this binary, not from degrees of moral performance.
Understanding solidarity with Adam explains why all human moral effort fails to solve the fundamental problem. The problem is not primarily behavioral but federal -- what is needed is not better performance but a new covenant head.
Believers should not rest in abstract knowledge of election; assurance is grounded in the actual exercise of faith. Union with Christ begins at the moment of believing, not at the decree of election, and so faith is the conscious evidence of the Spirit's work.
Saving faith is not mental assent to propositions about Christ's past work but a total transfer of person, allegiance, and identity to Christ. Pastors must preach this fullness of faith and refuse to accept a thin, transactional version as conversion.
The gap between cultural religious profession (74% personal commitment claims in 1993 Gallup) and genuine saving faith should prompt serious self-examination: Is my faith the kind that involves movement into Christ, or merely intellectual agreement with facts about him?
Every blessing a believer receives -- answered prayer, forgiveness, sanctification, comfort in suffering -- comes through Christ and from Christ's hands. Believers should cultivate an explicitly Christ-centered awareness in daily life, refusing to approach God except through the Mediator.
The believer's desire for the growth of God's kingdom in prayer is itself a gift of union with Christ -- a reflection of Christ's own intercession. This should give courage in prayer even when one's desires feel feeble, for they originate in the Mediator whom the Father always hears.
Believers can and should find active assurance in the fact of death: just as death is universal and admits no exception for those in Adam, so life is universal and admits no exception for those in Christ. Funerals and cemeteries are reminders of the certainty of resurrection, not merely occasions for grief.
Those outside of Christ must understand that no religious effort -- Bible reading, prayer, church attendance, charitable giving, moral improvement -- can change their standing before God while they remain in Adam. The only remedy is to cry to God to transfer them by grace into Christ.
Parents should impress on their children that Christianity is not a lifestyle option or a family religious add-on, but a question of which race and which covenant head they belong to -- with eternal consequences. The teenagers in the room are either in Adam or in Christ, and no middle ground exists.
The unconverted should be urged to pray specifically: 'Oh God, I was born in Adam and I am still in Adam because I have never believed in Christ. I cannot get myself out of Adam. Take me out -- change me, unite me to your Son.' Only God's power can effect this transfer; no self-improvement can.
A full transcript is available on the
tab. 235 paragraphs, roughly 63 minutes.
Machine transcription
Introduction: The Scope and Neglect of Union with Christ
The following sermon was delivered at the Southeastern Family Conference, which was held at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, in July 2001. The preacher is Pastor Edward Donnelly from the Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland.
It is normal on an occasion such as this for the speaker to express pleasure at being present at the gathering. And as I do so on behalf of my wife and myself, I want to assure you that on our part, this is no mere formality or piece of politeness. Because we come here to meet with many of our dearest and closest friends in Christ to a spot on this earth where we have had some of our most memorable experiences of the grace of God and we come to anticipate the fellowship of you all and on my part the unusual pleasure of being ministered to and fed by my colleagues who will preach the word also. Please pray for us all as we minister to you this week. Please turn with me now in the scriptures to the fifth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans. We shall read from verse 12 to the end of the chapter.
Romans chapter 5 verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sin, until, for until the law Overall Scripture ! 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 was a type of him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the affordable gift. 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 amen so reads the word of God the theme of the four addresses which I hope to give our evening sessions throughout this conference is as you know union with Christ that is a theme
which is particularly prominent in scripture and especially in the new testament the scholars as so often are divided they're divided for example on how often Paul uses phrases like in Christ or in him the low figure I have said is the low figure of God the low figure of God the low figure of sin is a hundred and fifty and the high two hundred but Paul uses those phrases very many times indeed for example in the first fourteen verses of Ephesians chapter one he tells us no fewer than eleven times that we as believers are in Christ so to be in Christ is a central emphasis of new testament teaching John Murray describes union with Christ as the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation professor Murray is not given to wild exaggerated overstatement Dr. Sinclair Ferguson describes union with Christ as the heart of evangelical theology so brethren and sisters we are going to be talking about the heart of evangelical theology
I would like to that I think every of us are in Christ as we are in Christ as in all of the creatures we are not wasting our time as we spend four evenings on this theme and because it is such an important subject we're not surprised to find that the concept is vast and all embracing it begins in eternity past before creation for Paul assures us in Ephesians 1 for that God the Father can also do this which is a step towards the salvation of the world no matter what you do and they all will follow God the Father can also do this which is a step towards the salvation of the world no matter what you do will follow the salvation of the world no matter what you do and they all will follow it so it's not just a three-child together these are seven people that have trained in this conversation so that you have to be a law of both worlds in that way that is important for us to understand why there is no change and we should have been a law of both worlds chose us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world. There is union with Christ before creation. And it stretches on into eternity future, into heaven, where we shall continue to be in Christ. And we will be always with the Lord. And union with Christ not only begins and stretches on into eternity, but it enters time and space and history and transforms them as the Son comes to earth for those united to Him in the covenant of redemption.
As He lives and dies and rises and ascends on their behalf. And as the Spirit works in the heart, so that by faith we enter into union with the Savior, we experience it for ourselves.
Union with Christ governs our relationships with one another in the church.
Union with Christ should affect every word and every action.
Union with Christ offers us encouragement in life and hope in death. As we shall see, union with Christ includes in itself all the blessings of salvation.
It is so basic that it is often used in the New Testament as a synonym for a Christian or a believer.
If you begin to read, for example, Ephesians or Philippians or Colossians, see how Paul describes the Christians, the faithful in Christ Jesus, the saints in Christ Jesus, the brethren in Christ.
And yet for such a vital topic, it has been strangely neglected in our day.
There are few reliable books on the subject. We don't often talk among ourselves of union with Christ. We don't tend to think of ourselves as united to Christ. And if that's the case, we don't tend to think of ourselves as united to Christ.
And if that's the case, it's my prayer that these evening addresses may help to establish it in our Christian awareness.
I must begin by disappointing some of you.
I will not be giving you in these evenings a thorough, logical, comprehensive analysis of this doctrine. I would like to be able to. I simply don't have that type of mindset. I couldn't do it and make it interesting.
There are others who have done it, and you can consult their tapes and books. I have to do it in my own way. And so we'll be leaving much out. But what I want to do in these four evenings is to look with you at four vital aspects of union with Christ.
And this evening our subject is believing into Christ. Believing into Christ. We're going to see how we consciously enter into union with Christ.
The Last Adam: Christ as Covenant Head of a New Humanity
And we begin by considering who is this Christ into whom we believe. And our first heading is the last Adam.
The last Adam. Who is Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus Christ?
He is the eternal Son of God. He is the Savior of the world.
He is the Messiah of Israel. He is all of these things. But we're going to focus this evening on two little phrases used by Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We don't need to refer to the chapter because we'll be working more from Romans 5.
But in verse 45 of that chapter, Paul refers to Christ as, the last Adam.
And in verse 47, as the second man. We want to think as we begin this evening of Christ as the last Adam.
And I want to try to approach it by going back to an illustration that I used briefly when I was with you two years ago. It is in a sense a ridiculous illustration. We'll be working it hard this evening. And tomorrow evening, God willing.
It is one that I have found helpful. I ask you to picture two enormous men. Two immense figures. Two giants.
And each one of those giants is wearing a huge, wide leather belt around his waist.
And you remember how we saw that on each belt are millions upon millions of little hooks.
And on each hook hangs a human being. And all the human beings who have ever lived or who are living now or who will ever live as long as this world lasts, all the human beings are hanging from a hook on the belt of one or other of these gigantic figures. The name of one is Adam.
The name of the other is Christ.
You may think that that is a silly illustration taken from some superficial, flaky book of instant pastor's helps.
It actually comes from a sober, worthy Puritan divine called Thomas Goodwin. Goodwin. 1600-1600. 1880.
I thought that each evening I would give you a special of the day, as it were. Restaurants have specials. And we're going to have a theologian of the day. A different theologian each evening.
And I'm going to try to bring to you one succinct statement from the theologian of the day. So that if you don't remember anything else, you'll take away something worthwhile. Our theologian of the day is Thomas Goodwin. And in volume four of his collected works, he has a treatise entitled Christ Set Forth.
And in that treatise, he is commenting on this phrase of Paul, the last Adam. This isn't the piece of the day yet. I'll introduce it by reading a little bit of Goodwin. Goodwin says, Adam was reckoned as a common public person, not standing singly or alone for himself, but alone for himself.
But in the book, but as representing all mankind to come of him. Paul speaks of them, Goodwin says, Adam and Christ, as if there had never been any more men in the world, nor were ever to be for time to come, except these two. Two men. Only two men in the whole world.
And why, asks Goodwin. And here's the phrase. Here's what I want you to take away. Because these two between them had all the rest of the sons of men hanging at their girdle.
There's the illustration. These two between them, Adam and Christ, had all the rest of the sons of men hanging at their girdle. We're either on Adam's belt or we're on Christ's belt. There's no other place.
There's no other option. This is covenant theology.
This is Goodwin explaining, this is Paul explaining rather, that God deals with human beings by means of a representative, by means of a covenant head. And there are only two covenant heads, Adam and Christ. And you and I are represented before God either by Adam or by Christ.
And we can only understand our need and our problem as lost sinners by realizing that we were born hanging from Adam's belt.
And we can only understand and rejoice in salvation by realizing that it means being brought from Adam and placed in Christ.
And that is what Paul is expounding in the passage we read from Romans 5. And the key phrase here is the little phrase one man. One man. Everything that Adam did is counted as being the action of every one of his people.
All that Adam was is counted as being the character of every one of his people. And everything that Christ did is counted as being the action of every one of his people. And all that Christ was and is is counted by God as being the character of every one of his people.
Paul shows us that all mankind is involved in sin and death. Why is that so? He says it is not just because of our individual sins and our personal wrongdoing. The problem is much more fundamental than that.
It is because of the action of our covenant head.
And no fewer than six times in eight verses he emphasizes that point with tremendous force. Verse 12 Through one man sinned, sin entered the world. Verse 15 By one man's offense many died. Verse 16 The judgment came from one offense.
Verse 17 By one man's offense death reigned. Verse 18 Through one man's offense judgment came to all men. Verse 19 By one man's disobedience many died. Verse 20 By one man's offense one man's offense one man's offense there is no missing the point.
Here is clear and tremendous stress. It is not a coincidence that every human being has sinned.
It is not a statistical fluke that every human being has sinned. It hasn't just happened that we all by accident have failed God's examination it is because of our covenant relationship with Adam. As the shorter catechism puts it we sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression. The giant fell and everyone hanging on his belt fell when he fell.
And yet there is salvation.
There is a gospel. There is everything. There is everlasting life. There is good news for sinners.
How does that salvation come?
Paul here shows brilliant biblical insight.
His opponents were arguing that salvation comes by works.
Salvation comes by our good efforts and our loving deeds and our obedience. His opponents were saying God sets millions and millions of exams and we all have to sit in examination and we all have to do our best and if we do well enough we will pass the exam Paul says is that how we fell how did we fall through the one man how are we saved through the one man we're saved the same way we fell do you see the simplicity of it and the symmetry and the perfection and the beauty God knows the end from the beginning God works it all out in the purposes of his covenant we fell through one man we're saved through one man we fell in the first Adam we're saved through the last Adam he says in verse 14 of Romans 5 Adam is the type of him who was to come there's another giant there's another great figure there's another belt there's another representative
and so again he stresses at verse 15 the gift by the grace of the one man here's the phrase again but how gloriously different Jesus Christ abounded to many verse 17 we will reign in life through the one verse 18 through the one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men verse 19 by the one man's disobedience many will be made righteous here is the simplicity of the gospel in Adam we disobeyed in Adam we sinned in Adam we fell in Adam we were judged in Adam we died and so in Christ we obeyed in Christ we lived a perfect life in Christ we paid for sin in Christ we were raised from the dead in Christ we are taken to heaven in Christ we live forever all that he is is counted as ours all that he suffered is counted as ours all that he suffered is counted as ours all that he did is counted as ours these two between them says Goodwin had all the rest of the sons of men hanging at their girdle or as Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15 22 here it's stated perfectly of course
for as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made righteous alive so friends I hope that now we're we're understanding what Paul means when he describes Jesus as the last Adam the second man he is the head of a new humanity he is the leader if you like of a new species of a different race who will be dealt with by God on an entirely different basis on an entirely different basis and towards a totally different destiny here is the saviour in whom we are called to believe not just a nice man not just a wonderful teacher not just a passive victim but the head of a new people union with Christ means becoming part of a new race becoming part of God's new people becoming part of God's new beginning for the human race joined to the second man
The Great Transfer: Entering Union with Christ by Faith
and notice the precision of Paul's language not the second Adam but thank God the last Adam the last Adam the final Adam the last Adam let's look secondly at the great transfer the great transfer salvation then simply and I hope this is simple enough even for the children to understand this picture salvation is simply being unhooked from Adam's belt and hooked onto Christ's belt so that we're not in Adam anymore we're now in Christ we move to a new covenant head we move into an entirely new category of being salvation is union with Christ is union with Christ and you will see it once that a transaction of such magnitude must be the work of God Himself here is almighty dealing here is something supernatural and transcendent changing us on an absolutely fundamental and everlasting level
the scripture tells us that this is the particular work of the third person of the Godhead God the holy Son of God spirit the old theologians refer to the spirit as the bond of union first corinthians 12 13 for by one spirit we were all baptized into one body we were all unhooked from adam and we were all hooked into christ the spirit of god works in the elect he implants new life as the catechism says he applies to us the redemption purchased by christ by working faith in us and thereby uniting us to christ in our effectual calling he brings us out of adam into christ and what is the evidence of the spirit's work the spirit's work is invisible we can't see it it's like the wind we can't discern it how can we see the evidence you of the spirit's work the evidence of the spirit's work is the exercise
of faith when we ourselves believe into christ and receive him it is true that we were chosen in christ in eternity it is true that in a sense god the father saw us in christ as he hung on the cross at calvary and died and rose on our behalf but but we must be emphatic that we do not enter into this union until we believe in christ paul could tell the ephesians in chapter one that they had been chosen in christ before the foundation of the world and yet he could say in chapter two verse three we were by nature children of wrath and he could say in verse 12 at that time you were by nature children of wrath and you were by nature children of wrath and you were by nature without christ they'd been chosen before eternity before time but until they believed they were children of wrath they were without christ he emphasizes it in in what is almost a throwaway phrase if we can say that of scripture in romans 16 7 in his greetings he says greet
andronicus and junia my kinsmen who also were in christ before me there it is paul knew that he'd been set apart from his mother's womb that he'd been chosen before the universe was but he can say of two of his relations they were in christ when i wasn't in christ and they were in christ because they believed and he wasn't in christ because he hadn't yet believed and so we enter christ by the enabling of the spirit granting us repentance and faith by believing in him
we are hooked onto christ's belt the picture is one of total identification of absolute commitment we depend on christ and it was only this afternoon that i realized that the word depend in its original latin roots actually means to hang from we actually in depending on christ we are hanging upon christ holding on christ as a drowning man holds to a life belt or a rope as someone who's fallen over a mountain hangs onto the rope we are hanging onto christ body and soul for time and for eternity we have cast in our lot with christ we've transferred our allegiance to christ our identity is in christ we are inside him he is our all all all , all in all when the disciples believed in christ what did they do they left everything and they committed themselves and they bore mockery and abuse and most of them went to the very death it's commitment commitment of all that we are
to all that he is and receiving and resting upon him alone for salvation the great transfer out of adam into christ now we may not realize when first we believe the extent of the commitment involved it's rather like when when we get married we don't realize what we're promising you young man don't realize what the woman you plan to marry is going to demand of you instead of allowing you to to spend your hard-earned money on sets of puritan theology this woman is probably going to want to fritter it away things like food and clothing but we learn what commitment means as the years pass that's the deal for better or for worse i'm for jesus i'm in jesus he is my all in all union
with christ and friends is this not the case? it's not very different tragically different from the feeble anemic version of faith which is peddled in so many evangelical churches today the idea that long ago at calvary in some way that i don't really understand christ paid for my sins and all i have to do is to believe that he paid for my sins and to agree with that and to assent that this was done on my behalf and write down my name and that is what believing in christ means and i am saved i believe that long ago he was punished in my place and that's it like a distant relative who would make a payment into a bank for your debts the bank manager would ring you up and say mister so-and-so i have good news for you Your great aunt has made a payment into our bank to settle your debts. All you have to do is to come down and to sign the release and the money will be paid. You come and you sign the release. The money's paid and you send your aunt a thank you note and that's all there is to it.
Impersonal, long distance transaction. Christ's funds are transferred to our account. All we have to do is believe that he made the payment and his funds are transferred to our account and it is now ours. And that's saving faith.
The 1993 Gallup poll tells us that 74% of the population of the United States claims to have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. I don't want to criticize your nation, but there's something wrong with a poll or there's something wrong with a commitment. There's something wrong with a commitment. Saving faith is so very different in the Bible.
Luther used to say that religion. Consists in the pronouns. The son of God who loved me. The Lord is my shepherd.
I'd like to say that religion consists also in the prepositions.
Believing into Christ. Believing upon Christ. Believing in Christ. The idea is one of movement and entrance and change and transfer and commitment.
Come to me, he said. He doesn't say just. Don't just. Pick up the phone as it were and listen to the transfer that I have made into your account.
Come to me. Receive me. Trust me. Eat my flesh and drink my blood.
Follow me.
We won't have time this week to look at all the analogies of union with Christ in the New Testament. But you know them. They stress this intimacy. He is the cornerstone and we are the stones.
He is the vine. We are the branches. There's closeness. Isn't there?
He is the head of the body. And we are the members of the body. There's a living link. He is the husband.
And we are the wife. There is intimacy. There is intercourse. There is union.
There is loving oneness and wholehearted commitment. Surely here we get a sense that being a Christian is being caught up by divine power. And transferred into a new and everlasting relationship. A union of intimacy and loyalty.
So that Paul could describe himself as a man in.
That's what we're talking about. When we're talking about believing into Christ. That's what we mean. Into Christ.
The last Adam. The great transfer. Let's look thirdly at the new. The new relationship.
The New Relationship: All God's Dealings Now Through Christ
The new relationship.
We can understand now why Paul can say in 2 Corinthians 5.17. Therefore. Therefore.
If anyone is in Christ.
A new creation.
Old things have passed away.
Adam.
All things have become new.
The new relationship.
All God's dealings with you. All God's dealings with you. Are always and entirely through Christ. Always.
He never deals with you. In any other way. Than through his son. He never sees you.
Than through his son. He never listens to you. Than through his son. He never blesses you than through his son.
He never chastens you. Than through his son. All his dealings. All his dealings.
Are through Christ. Always. Always. From now on.
Forevermore. If any man is in Christ. A new creation. All things have become new.
And Paul. I was going to say plunders his dictionary. But he actually makes up a number of words. He has a whole set of favorite compound Greek verbs.
He prefixes these verbs with a little Greek prefix. S-U-M. Or S-Y-M. In English.
Which means together with. To express the union.
Here are some of the verbs. Some of the verbs. That Paul uses. He says we suffer with him.
We are crucified with him. We die with him. We are buried with him. We are made alive with him.
We are raised with him. We grow together with him. We take on the same form as him. We are glorified with him.
We live with him. We sit with him. We reign with him.
Isn't that marvelous? With him. With him. When the giant moves.
We move.
When the giant steps forward. We step forward. We are on his belt. And he can do nothing but we do it with him.
We are seen in him.
He says to the Corinthians. We are enriched in everything. By him. He says he is our wisdom.
Not just. That he gives us wisdom. Or provides wisdom for us. Or is the source of wisdom.
He is our wisdom. He is our righteousness. He is our sanctification. He is our redemption.
Listen to Sinclair Ferguson. The blessings of redemption. Ought not to be viewed. As merely having Christ.
As their ultimate causal source. But as being our. Owners. Only by direct participation.
In Christ.
It's not just that these. These blessings are sitting somewhere. And Christ gives us the key. They're in him.
They're embodied in him. And we only receive them. In him.
So intimately are we joined to Christ.
That Paul can shock us.
By telling us that to use our bodies. For free. To be a part of the church. To be a part of the church.
To be a part of the church. To be a part of the church. To be a part of the church. To be a part of the church.
For fornication.
Is to take the members of Christ. And make them the members. Of a harlot. There's union for you.
The union. Is so intimate and close.
Our prayers are answered. Only because we're joined to Christ. And they're offered through Christ. Robert Dabney has a wonderful.
Few paragraphs on this. In his systematic theology. Let me just give you a flavor. Dabney says of our prayers.
Each gracious affection. Is a feeble reflex. Of the same affection. Existing in its glorious perfection.
In our Redeemer's heart. As when we see a mimic sun. In a pool of water. On the earth's surface.
We know that it is only there. Because the sun shines in its strength. In heaven. People don't write systematic theologies.
Like this. Nowadays. Dabney says you see a little sun in a puddle. It's only there.
Because there's a great sun shining in the heavens. And our prayers are like that little sun in the puddle. They only exist. They only come into being.
Because there is a great Savior. And these are the reflections of his longings. And his holy desires. And that's what it is to pray in Christ.
Dabney says. Does the believer have a genuine. And spiritual. Aspiration.
For the growth of Zion.
Let him take courage. That desire. Is only born in his breast. Because it existed before.
In the breast of his head. That mediator. Whom the father. Heareth always.
This stresses for us brothers and sisters. The absolutely fundamental. Christ. The Christ centeredness.
Of our Christian lives.
Martin Luther said. I will have nothing to do. With an absolute God. He meant that he would never seek to approach God.
Apart from Christ.
And that's what we have to understand. We don't deal. With an absolute God. We never have any dealings.
Any longer. With an absolute God. Our only dealings are with the God and Father. Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And through him. And by him.
These blessings that you and I receive. Each day. We receive them. From our saviors hands.
Calvin says.
Since we have been made one with him.
He shares with us. All that he has received from the father.
Since we have been made one with him. He shares. With us.
Our saviour gives us these blessings. By his spirit. From his own hands. And we are to go to him for them.
We are to seek him. And to live in him.
To realize that truly in him. We live and move. And have our being.
We are one with Christ. One in the tomb. One when he rose. One when he triumphed over his foes.
One when in heaven he took his seat. While seraphs sang all hell's defeat. With him our head. We stand or fall.
Our life. Our surety. Our all. Believing into Christ.
What security.
What assurance. This provides for us.
Assurance: The Certainty of Life in Christ Mirrors the Certainty of Death in Adam
That's the whole point of Paul's discussion. In Romans 5. He's just been dealing with the effects of justification. We have peace with God.
We stand in grace. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Now he wants to confirm that. To bring home to our hearts.
That salvation. Is certain. And final.
How does this great theologian. Convince us. That salvation. And life.
Are certain and final.
He does it by assuring us. That damnation and death.
Are certain. And final. That's what the second half of Romans 5 is about. What is the universal.
Fact. Of human existence. Death.
Death because we're in Adam. Are there any exceptions to death. No. Is there any possibility.
Of escaping death. No. None. Why.
Because we're in Adam.
But then the reverse must be true. What is the great outstanding reality. Of being in Christ. That is life.
Are there any exceptions. To receiving life. No. None.
Is there any possibility. Of missing. Out. On life.
No. None. As in Adam. All die.
Even so in Christ. Can all be made alive. Shall all be made alive.
This is marvelous.
We can look at death.
And be encouraged by it. And be strengthened by it. And laughingly shout. Oh death.
Where is your victory.
What does every coffin say.
You must. Share. The experience. Of your covenant head.
What does every funeral procession say. You must. Share. The experience.
Of your covenant head. There is. No alternative. So you as a Christian.
What does every coffin and every death say to you.
We must share the experience. Of our covenant head. And we have a new covenant head.
And we can walk through a cemetery. And we can look at every tombstone. And our hearts can leap with joy and gladness. And we can say as in Adam.
All die. Even so in Christ. Shall all be made alive. You see the genius of this apostle.
Under the inspiration of the spirit. As he enlists. The last enemy. In the cause of Christ.
And the peace of mind. And the assurance. Thank God for the certainty of death. Because the certainty of death.
Bears witness to the certainty of life. Thank God that there are no exceptions. Because if there are no exceptions here. There are no exceptions here.
This is the great transfer. This is the glorious. New relationship. Into which union with Christ.
Has brought us. Is it any wonder. That Christians sing. We were in Adam.
But now. We are in Christ. We have been unhooked from Adam's belt. And we have been hooked on to Christ's belt.
Forever. And where he goes. We go.
The Hopeless Alternative: An Evangelistic Appeal to Those Still in Adam
And that brings us lastly and fourthly. To the hopeless alternative.
To the hopeless alternative.
And this is not theory.
But in a gathering of this size.
I am afraid. That it is probably fact.
There are bound to be some here this evening. And you are not a Christian.
You are not in Christ.
You have never believed. In him. You have never received him.
My friend. Can you not see. How hopeless.
Your situation is. How utterly. Tragic. And despairing.
Your situation is. We are not talking about a minor matter here.
This is not a trivial lifestyle choice.
This is not an optional extra. A little religious add-on. That the parents. Of some of you teenagers.
Have decided to go in for. And you haven't. But it doesn't matter much.
This is a question of. What people you belong to. What race you belong to. We could almost say.
What species. You belong to.
What is the basic fact about you. What is the bottom line. If you are not a Christian. It is not your personality.
It is not your age. It is not your education.
It is not the good things you do.
It is not your faults. It is not your sins. It is this.
You are in Adam.
You are in Adam. You are hooked onto Adam's belt. And all God's dealings with you. Are through Adam.
And that is the only way. God deals with you. And he never deals with you. To the smallest degree.
In any other way. Than through Adam. And that means sin. And death.
And condemnation. And hell. And everlasting torment. If you are not a Christian.
You are a member of a doomed race.
And you must see that. All your efforts to please God. Are futile. Because you are in Adam.
And all your so called good works. Are pointless.
Because you are in Adam. It doesn't matter. How much you read your Bible. It doesn't matter how much you pray.
It doesn't matter how often you go to church. Or how much you give. Or how good you try to be. You are in Adam.
You are in Adam. And God only deals with you. Through Adam. And as long as you are in Adam.
There is no hope. It doesn't matter what you do. Salvation by works is of total irrelevance. You are in Adam.
No matter what you try to do. To please God. There is no hope. On the 6th of August 1945.
On the 6th of August 1945. On the 6th of August 1945. On the 6th of August 1945. On the 6th of August 1945.
An aircraft went into the skies. The TB-29 carrying strange cargo. The TB-29 carrying strange cargo. The TB-29 carrying strange cargo.
The TB-29 carrying strange cargo. The name of the aircraft. The name of the aircraft. The name of the aircraft.
Was the And it was carrying a uranium bomb.
The Allied Commanders had tried to assess the cost of invading and capturing mainland japan they realized what they were up against the japanese had 10 000 suicide planes loaded and waiting two and a quarter million soldiers were waiting in the beach behind them were four million reservists and behind them a citizen militia of 28 million all resolved to fight to the last man and woman and the last inch conservative estimates given to the allies were that the allies would lose a million soldiers and japanese casualties would be between 10 and 20 million so the allied high command to avoid that loss decided to take out a city of a quarter of a million people in the hope that that would stop the war and save life and on the 4th of august they dropped 700 000 leaflets over hiroshima almost three leaflets for every man woman and child and those leaflets said we're going to obliterate this city get out the people didn't listen and on the 6th of august
the enola gay took to the air and on that day a hundred thousand people were killed and another hundred thousand people a few days later and if you had been in hiroshima on the 6th of august you were doomed you were doomed it didn't matter what you did you could ring up your aunt in america and get her to speak to her congressman but you were doomed you could put on a pair of levi's and a baseball cap and go out and wave in the street you could put the stars and stripes over your house you could shout i love america but you're doomed because you're in hiroshima and as long as you were in hiroshima you were doomed you were doomed no matter what you did and as long as you're in adam you're doomed doesn't matter what you did doesn't matter what you do do you realize that you fellows and girls who aren't
christians you're doomed there's no and nothing nothing you can do will make any difference as long as you're in adam that giant is going down and if you're in him you're going down you're going down going down into the pit going down into hell there is a solemn division among us this evening we read comics when we were children or watched star trek and we were familiar with people of different races the little martians with their big green heads and things sprouting and mr spock with his pointy ears from vulcan they were different races there are different races here sitting beside each other some of you are in adam
and some of you are in christ i'm in the same family brothers and sisters moms and dads and children and some are in christ and some are in adam and if you're in adam there is only one thing you can do and i urge you to do it and that is cry to god to have mercy on you you can never get free of adam never you can't do it yourself don't think you'll do it you'll not do it say to god oh god i realized that i was born in adam and i'm still in adam because i've never believed in christ
and i can't get myself out of adam but if i don't i'm doomed oh god take me out of adam change me make me a different person help me to feel this make me afraid make me anxious tonight don't let me go out of here and fool around with my friends and and forget about these things that's the most important thing you've got to get out of adam you've got to get into christ
and only god can take you only god's power can move you dear children dear young people ask god to do it and then you'll begin to feel anxious you'll begin to feel that you wish you were in christ the way your your mother and your father's in christ that's god working that's god's holy spirit even now perhaps the lord jesus is is seeming more important to you than you are to your parents and your children you. You're saying, I didn't realize before how important it is that I'm in Christ and I don't think I am in Christ and I want to be in Christ. And as God works in you, then you turn away from Adam and turn away from sin and say to yourself, I want to be finished with that. And Lord Jesus, I'm calling to you and I trust you and I depend on you and you're the one I'm going to love and you're the one I'm going to follow and you're the one I'm going to depend on. I pray that you'll do that now. He is so kind and gracious and willing and God is so powerful. God can take you out of
Adam before you leave this room and he can bring you into Christ. What a difference from death to life, from heaven, from hell to heaven. Believe into the Lord. Jesus Christ. That's what I'm asking you to do. That's what I'm telling you to do. Believe into the Lord Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes into him shall not perish but have everlasting life. The Bible tells us that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner. Repent dear friends. Let us pray with all our hearts as we sit here that here in this room God
the Holy Spirit will change people and bring them by faith out of Adam and join them to his son forever. Amen. Let us bow in prayer.
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Passages Expounded
Romans 5:12-21
Paul's exposition of Adam and Christ as the two representative covenant heads of humanity, establishing the federal basis for both condemnation and justification
1 Corinthians 15:22
'As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive' -- the keynote statement of the two-Adam structure and the ground of the believer's certain hope
2 Corinthians 5:17
'If anyone is in Christ, a new creation' -- the primary text for the section on the radically new relationship with God that union with Christ creates
Texts Expounded
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The main passage read and expounded throughout; Paul's parallel between Adam and Christ as the two covenant heads of humanity
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'Adam is the type of him who was to come' -- the pivotal proof-text that Adam foreshadows Christ as the second covenant representative
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'The gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded to many' -- the free-gift counterpart to Adam's offense
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'We will reign in life through the one' -- Christ's representative reign bringing life mirrors Adam's representative offense bringing death
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'Through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men' -- the symmetry of condemnation and justification through the two representative heads
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'By one man's obedience many will be made righteous' -- Christ's active obedience imputed to his people
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'As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive' -- quoted as the perfect summary of the two-Adam structure and used to ground the certainty of the believer's life
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'If anyone is in Christ, a new creation; old things have passed away, all things have become new' -- the primary text for the new relationship section