ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
tain things from him: sin, death, and judgment. Every man who has not been washed in the blood of Christ is "in Adam," no matter who he is. And "in Adam all die" (I Cor. 15:22). No matter whether he be high or low, Chinese or American. cultured or uncouth, rich or poor, educated or ignorant; if a man is not washed in the blood of Christ, he is "in Adam." He may be kind and ethical. but that does not save him. In Adam we all have received sin and death and judgment. What a heritage! "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (verse 12). "In Adam," the federal head of the race, we inherited sin, death, and judgment. But in Christ, the Head of the Church ( Eph. 1:22, 23), we re- ceived righteousness, life, and glory. Could any contrast be more striking? And every believer, the moment he is regen- erated by the Holy Spirit of God, is heir to these three treas- ures: righteousness, life, glory. He is taken out of "the first Adam," and is placed "in Christ." "For since by man came death, by man (the Man, Christ Jesus) came also the resur- rection from the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Cor. 15: 21, 22). In verses 13 and 14 Paul mentions briefly what he has already made clear in the opening chapters of the epistle, that before the law was given by Moses, men were judged by the law of conscience which was written in their hearts. Sin was in the world all the while, from the fall of Adam; in other words, "death," like a tyrant, "reigned from Adam to Moses.'' Whatever the form in which sin manifested itself. the guilty world stood condemned before a holy God. And only by faith .in "him that was to come," the second Adam, even the Lord Jesus, were sinners saved, from Adam to Christ. Likewise, only by faith in Him, who has now come and suffered and died and risen again, has anyone been saved since Calvary. The striking contrast between our heritage in Christ and our heritage in Adam will grip us more forcefully perhaps if we note how Sin and Death, Righteousness and Life are [Page 87
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