THE KING’S BUSINESS
248
disobedience of the first Adam. Or if he chooses,; he 'may, by persisting in dis obedience, and refusing to accept the gospel of God’s free grace, exclude himself from the glorious and blessed results of the work of the second Adam. We have in these verses (5:12-21) a corroboration of the actual historicity of the Genesis account of the fall. It would be very difficult for us to conceive of the Apostle Paul building so important an argument as is dealt with here on some thing which is merely fiction or an allegory. The Old Testament is “the book of the generations of Adam” (Genesis 5:1). The New Testament is “the book of the genera tion of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1). By nature every man is born into, and his name enrolled on the pages of “the book of the generations of Adam.” This book is characterized by disobedience and death; and closes with a curse (Malachi 4). Every man may by faith be born into, and have his name enrolled in . “the book of the generation of Jesus Christ,” which is char acterized by. life, obedience, and final bless ing (Revelation cc. 21, 22). We are in the book of Adam by nature; we enter the book of Jesus Christ by faith. “Lord, I care not for riches,, - ■ Neither silver nor gold; I would make sure of heaven, I would enter the fold; In the book of Thy kingdom, With its pages so fair, Tell me, Jesus, my Saviour, Is my name written there?”
(v. 19). It-is, therefore, the clear teaching of the Apostle Paul that in the fall of Adam the race fell. It is also the purpose of the apostle to show that no man need necessarily be lost because of the sin of Adam, so long as there is presented to him, in the good news of salvation, a remedy for the guilt incurred on the race through Adam’s sin. The one who is a sinner in Adam - may become righteous in Christ. “For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ. So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto a ir men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. For as through the one man’s dis obedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous” (5:17-19 R.V.). Man is here recognized as a free moral agent. Whether he remains under the guilt incurred by the sin of Adam, the natural representative head of the race, or whether he will become a partaker of the righteous ness of God which is offered in Christ, the spiritual representative Head of the race, is a matter each man must decide for him self. Whosoever will may, by relating him self to the second Adam, be freed from the guilt and condemnation incurred by the
\
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs