TWO MEN

All historians have a problem. What do they include and what do they exclude from their accounts of world history? There are just too many facts, so they must decide what’s significant and what’s not. For example, it would be historical for a man to spend his whole lifetime researching the average number of belt loops ever used on pants. But that would hardly be significant! Well, when we come to the Bible we find two men are significant in world history. We find the apostle Paul looking all the way back to the beginning and referring to Adam as “the first man’ (1 Corinthians 15:47).

That’s obvious to us because he is the first man to ever live. But then he shocks us. From there he scans across thousands of years, the lives of men like Alexander the Great and Aristotle are overlooked, and he fixes his eye on Jesus and calls Him “the second man. This raises an obvious question. If Jesus is not the second man to ever live why did Paul give Him that name?

Richard Gaffin writes: As Paul is looking at things in this passage, no one between them ‘counts. (p. 47 By Faith, Not By Sight) Douglas Moo explains: All people, Paul teaches, stand in relationship to one of two men, whose actions determine the eternal destiny of all who belong to them.

Either one ‘belongs to’ Adam and is under sentence of death because of his sin…or one belongs to Christ and is assured of eternal life because of his ‘righteous’ act…The actions of Adam and Christ, then, are similar in having ‘epochal’ significance.(Romans, p.314-315) We say certain movies have ‘epic battle scenes” by which we mean they have far reaching effects in the world. So Moo is saying these two men are “epic” due to the far reaching effects they have upon the world. 

Simply and yet staggeringly put, these two men have ‘epochal significance” because they have ‘everyone significance”! They are the representatives of two human races. One represents the old humanity of the old fallen creation. The other represents the new humanity of the new redeemed creation. And just as the actions of a representative in our country are counted to those whom he represents, even so the actions of these two representatives are counted to those whom they represent. The actions of the representative are counted as the actions of those represented. This is why they ‘count’ so much! So we could say these two men ‘count” for all men.

Therefore the only question that remains is to ask “what exactly has been counted to all men as a result of the actions of these two men?”

ALL MEN

Well, in Romans 5:18-19 we find the answer...FIRST, in 5:18-19 we see that all men are either counted condemned or justified. 5:18 speaks of either ‘condemnation to all men” or ‘justification of life to all men.” And 5:19 speaks of men as being either “appointed sinners” or “appointed righteous”. This one simple truth shatters religion! Every person you know is either 100% condemned as a sinner or 100% justified as righteous in the sight of God. Nobody is “pretty good”, or able to say “well nobody’s perfect. Nor is anyone in any religious process of becoming good enough. Everyone on this planet right now today is in a condemned or justified state. This is shock-ing! And it’s because the word justify’ means to declare right not to make right. It is a legal act not a surgical act. It happens outside of you not inside of you. It’s concerned with what God thinks about you not what you think about you. We know this because it’s contrasted here with condemnation.

For instance, when a judge condemns a man, does he make that man wicked? Absolutely not, he declares him to be wicked. In the same way then, when God justifies someone, He is not making them righteous, but declaring them to be righteous. In fact, justification is for ‘the ungodly” (Romans 4:5)! So this means that in God’s sight all men are either declared to be righteous or sinful. There is no ‘in between”. You are either fully accepted or rejected right

SECOND, we also see in 5:18-19 why all men are either counted condemned or justified, and it’s because all men are either connected to Adam’s transgression or to Christ’s righteousness. If the first truth shattered religion, this one grinds it to powder!

According to the Bible a man’s transgression leads to death (Genesis 2:17, Ezekiel 18:4, Romans 6:23) and a man’s righteousness leads to life (Luke 10:25-28, Romans 7:10, Romans 10:5). So if you are righteous you will live, but if you are sinful you will die. But notice what this verse does not say. It does not say that all men are either condemned or justified ‘through their own’ transgressions or righteous acts. Rather, it specifically says through one transgression” and ‘through the one man’s disobedience condemnation is counted to all men and the many are appointed sinners.

And on the other side ‘through one act of righteousness” and ‘through the obedience of the One’ justification is counted to all men and the many are appointed righteous! What this means is that your eternal destiny of death or life is not determined by your own sins or righteous acts! It is determined by the actions of another! So, you are either “in Adam” and you will get death, or you are “in Christ” and you will get life (1 Corinthians 15:22). This is the pride humbling, despair lifting gospel of Jesus Christ!

Now what is the implication of such good news? THERE’S S NO BOASTING Martyn Lloyd-Jones tells us Look at yourself in Adam; though you had done nothing you were declared a sinner. Look at yourself in Christ; and see that, though you have done nothing, you are declared to be righteous. That is the parallel. We must get rid of all thoughts of our actions. There is no boasting. We do nothing; all we are and have results from the obedience of the One-our Lord. (p.274, Romans, vol4)

That’s what I want you to do, look at yourself in all this to see where you are. Sometimes in a mall you’ll see the map that says “you are here”. Well where are you in all this? We have seen that there are these two men, and their actions determine the destinies of all men. Are you in Adam or in Christ? Are you justified or condemned? Are you believing, or are you working? Because the gospel comes to you as a message of salvation accomplished not a message for you to accomplish salvation. It comes proclaiming a deed already finished and done, that you might be finished and done with deeds. It announces the absolute irrelevance of your actions. It not only says that your deeds do not justify you, they don’t even condemn you!

As a matter of fact, all that was needed to condemn you or justify you occurred before you were ever born! You could even say it was finished before some religions ever started! Is this not what Jesus cried out upon the cross? “Jesus, knowing that all things had already been finished..said ‘It is finished!” (John 19:28-30) So don’t be hard of hearing, but listen to the Savior Himself! Was His life not perfect enough that you must add your goodness to it? Was His death not perfect enough that you must add your groaning’s to it? God Himself told us it was enough when He raised Him from the dead! He was raised for our justification, to prove that acceptance with God is found in Him (Romans 4:25). The resurrection was God’s “Amen” to the Lord’s words “it is finished”. Genesis says God rested from His works on the seventh day since creation was finished, and the gospel calls you to rest from your works in the day of Christ because redemption is finished! (John

Do you want assurance of salvation? You will never find it in yourself! A ship being tossed to and fro must toss its anchor outside of itself to find security, and so you must toss the anchor of your confidence outside of yourself into Christ alone. If not, you will forever be tossed about by fear and doubt. Why wait any longer? Believe the good news of the gospel! Get rid of all thoughts of your actions and get full of thoughts about His actions! Then you will get full of assurance! “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed” (Romans 10:11)