How One Man's Sin Produce Death for All Man

Romans 5:12-1`7 Doctrine of Hamartiology and Thanatology

THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN IN THE HUMAN FAMILY

Charles e Whisnant, Teacher

　

Romans 5:12 Therefore *, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because * all sinned -- (NASB: Lockman)

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned

Therefore -

AS By One (5618) (hosper) is a conjunction which introduces a comparison. The main point in Romans 5:12-21 is the comparison between Adam and Christ, explaining how Adam on one hand was the means of bringing in sin and death, while Christ on the other hand was the One who brought in justification and life

One man - Although not name in this verse, this is clearly Adam. As Barber discusses above, in Genesis 2:16,17, God gave one command to eat from every tree in the Garden except the Tree of Knowledge, for if he ate of this tree he would surely die.

Man (444) (anthropos) is a generic name for human beings in general. Anthropos is distinguished from aner, which refers to the male sex. Anthropos on the other hand signifies a member of the human race, without reference either to sex or nationality.

the) SIN ENTERED THE WORLD AND DEATH THROUGH SIN AND SO DEATH SPREAD TO ALL MEN: he (definite article) hamartia (sin) eis ton kosmon eiselthen (3SAAI) kai dia tes hamartias ho thanatos: (Ro 6:23; Ge 2:17; 3:19-24; Ezek 18:4; 1Cor 15:21; Jas 1:15; Rev 20:14,15)

This passage is often referred to when one seeks to explain the doctrine you may have heard described as original sin. Original sin is a term used to describe our inheritance of a sinful nature from Adam. The sinful nature originated with Adam and is passed down from parent to child. We are by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:3).

The Sin (266) (hamartia) is the Greek word hamartia [word study] which originally conveyed the idea of missing the mark (as when hunting with a bow and arrow and not hitting the target - see this literal use of the most common Hebrew word for "sin" - Jdg 20:16!) and then came to mean missing or falling short of any goal, standard, or purpose.

In the theological sense as used most often in Scripture the word sin describes one's thoughts, words or deeds which so often miss the ultimate purpose that God would intend them to have (i.e., they "miss" His will). Stated another way, our thoughts, words and/or deeds fall short of God’s perfect standard of holiness. Now here is where the definition of Sin as used in Romans 5-8 can become a bit confusing.

Entered (1525) (eiserchomai from eis = into, a preposition of motion into any place or thing + erchomai = come) literally means to come into and so to enter into. is in the aorist tense and the indicative mood which signifies that at a certain point in time sin "went in the world's front door (by means of Adam's sin)" Sin is personified as an evil that invaded the perfect Garden setting. Adam sinned, and at that point in time, the consequence of his sin was immediate for at that moment, the "deadly virus" named the sin entered into the world and spread to "infect" the entire human race.

World (2889) (kosmos] related to kosmeo = to arrange or put in order from komeo = tend, take care of) according to W E Vine means "a harmonious arrangement or order," then, "adornment, decoration," came to denote "the world, or the universe, as that which is divinely arranged." What a tragic irony that the sin and its corrupting, destructive effects entered into a place of such "harmonious arrangement and order"! is often thus used to denote human beings--the race, the human family. is the same word used in John 3:16 where God so loved the world, the sinful human family composed of sinners.

Death (2288) (thanatos) indicates the opposite of life and the absence of life and in the NT is seen as the consequence and punishment of sin. Death speaks of separation, physically of the soul from the body and spiritually of the soul from God. Note that death does not signify either annihilation or extinction. Here in Romans 5:12 Paul speaks not of death in general but "the death", in a sense personifying death as using sin as its point of entry into the world. Before the sin there was no the death.

Passed (1330) (dierchomai from dia = through + erchomai = go) means literally to go through or to pass throughout. It speaks of complete movement in a particular direction. To spread means to to send or be sent out in all directions, as for example a highly contagious deadly virus disseminating and spreading completely through an entire population. Paul uses this verb to describe the veritable diffusion of sin and death among mankind. His phrase "upon all men" emphasizes that the diffusion is universal in scope.

All (3956) (pas) means all without exception. It includes the idea of the whole (of humanity in this context).

Sinned (264) (hamartano) means to miss the mark and so to miss God's will and purpose for one's life. The aorist tense is constative (summary) aorist which in simple terms means that at one point in time all men sinned. To what point in time does Paul refer? It was the time when Adam first sinned. His sin became mankind’s sin, because all mankind were in his loins, so to speak.

　

All (3956) (pas) means all without exception. It includes the idea of the whole (of humanity in this context).

Sinned (264) (hamartano) means to miss the mark and so to miss God's will and purpose for one's life. The aorist tense is constative (summary) aorist which in simple terms means that at one point in time all men sinned. To what point in time does Paul refer? It was the time when Adam first sinned. His sin became mankind’s sin, because all mankind were in his loins, so to speak.

Now the question that comes to mind is why?

How did death come to be the reigning monarch of the world?

We are looking then at the influence of one man so that he dominates a whole flow of human beings by his one act. Because of Adam's sin, all men are condemned. Because of Christ's obedience, all men are offered pardon.

Now let's begin by looking at Adam and the reign of death.

　

Now the first point: Sin entered the world through one man.

That's what it says in verse 12, "As by one man sin entered into the world."

It does not say that Adam originated sin. Sin had already originated prior to Adam. For the Bible says the devil sinneth from the beginning.

Satan made the product; Adam just introduced it into the marketplace. First John 3:8:

Now would you notice it says in verse 12 that by one man sin entered the world, not sins.

1. SIN AS AN ACT.

2. SIN AS A STATE.

3. SIN AS A PRINCIPLE.

4. SIN IN ESSENCE.

God made us as a procreating race so that what we are is passed on to who we bear.

And you have Adam and Eve, as well, sinners with a corrupting defiling principle in them. And when they procreate, they will procreate sinners and more sinners and more sinners and more sinners and here we are. And it all started when Adam sinned.

The world of mankind was corrupted.

John Donne was right when he wrote, "No man is an island entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod is washed away, Europe is less, as well as if a promontory were or a manor of thy friends. Every man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."

When Adam sinned he was the whole human race. He was mankind sinning. And in his loins was the seed that would bring forth every human life, every human life.

When he was polluted, it guaranteed that everybody born out of his loins would be polluted. In fact, the pollution intensifies through history and Paul says in 2 Timothy that evil men get worse and worse. Instead of evolution, it's devolution, it gets worse and worse, it's degenerating, it's breaking down. The whole of mankind was in the loins of Adam. And all human history is encapsulated in Genesis chapter 3.

Now the Jews understood this concept of what we call corporate personality. (which I have never heard of before)

The Jew never thought of himself as an isolated individual.

He didn't see himself that way. He thought himself a part of a tribe, a part of a family, a part of a nation. And in the Old Testament God treated people as whole units.

So Paul presents Adam acting as mankind.

That is, by the way, what his name means, mankind. He is the solid mass of humanity. By the way, I believe he was all the humanity there was then, he and his wife who is seen as one with Him for they two had become (What?) one flesh. And he introduces rebellion and evil into the human stream.

So his is the act of humanity. He is not acting as a man, he is acting as man. And so he's the cause of all men becoming sinners. And that is why 1 Corinthians 15:22 says this, "In Adam all die." In Adam all die. All men inherit corruption from Adam. We were there, as it were. As God views it we were there and we might as well have been there because we have inherited, as Augustine used to say, it is the seminal (influential, groundbreaking,) transmission of the sin principle

Principle number two — death entered the world through sin.

"In the day you eat you shall surely (What?) die."

So when the corrupting principle came, so did its penal (the prescribing the punishment of offenders under the legal system) consequence.

Death came as the penalty for sin. Death then is the unfailing fruit of the poison that entered Adam's heart. And solidarity and guilt involve solidarity and penalty. Sin and death will never be separated. And that's why Hebrews 9:27 says, "It is appointed unto men once to die." Adam died, so everybody who comes out of Adam's loins is going to die. The sin principle, its penal consequence is there.

Now notice again that it keeps using the word "sin."

It says that by one man sin entered the world, and the second principle, death by sin.

Death comes not because you commit sins, but because you bear in you a sin principle, a corrupt nature.

We are always trying to live longer! But 55 million will die this year.

Now what kind of death is it?

And I'll give you a little thanatology here. Never heard of that term: Do you know what it is?

Thanatology is the scientific study of death. It investigates the mechanisms and forensic aspects of death, such as bodily changes that accompany death and the post-mortem period, as well as wider psychological and social aspects related to death. It is primarily an interdisciplinary study offered as a course of study at numerous colleges and universities.

First, spiritual death.

When Adam sinned did he die on the spot physically? Did he die eternally? No. He just died spiritually. What does that mean? Separation. Death is separation. Physical death is separation from the living. Spiritual death is separation from the living God. Eternal death is eternal separation from the living God and the living who are living in the presence of the living God.

A third principle — death spread to all men because — all sinned.

Here's the difficult part. And here's where you get back into the solidarity concept. It says there in verse 12, "Death passed on all men."

Death passed on all men. Death came to all men. Nobody escapes. A very important theological truth, everybody dies because everybody sins because everybody has a sin principle because Adam sinned and introduced the whole thing and passed it on. And just like we got eyes and ears and noses and arms and legs, we got sin from him. But then we could have just left it there and we would have been so easily satisfied, I think, but then he adds that thing at the end of verse 12, "For all have sinned."

a fourth point. And this sums it up. History proves this to be true.

History proves it to be true. Sin came through one man, death came through sin, death spread to all men and history proves it to be true. Verse 13: "For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there's no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." And we'll stop there

Romans 14:10

Amplified: For Christ died and lived again for this very purpose, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

NLT: So why do you condemn another Christian? Why do you look down on another Christian? Remember, each of us will stand personally before the judgment seat of God.)

Phillips: Why, then, criticise your brother's actions, why try to make him look small? We shall all be judged one day, not by each other's standards or even our own, but by the standard of Christ

Wuest: But as for you, why are you judging your brother? Or, as for you also, why are you treating your brother with contempt? For we all shall stand before the judgment seat of God.

Young's Literal: And thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or again, thou, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand at the tribunal of the Christ

We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ....

BUT YOU, WHY DO YOU JUDGE YOUR BROTHER: _{Su de ti krineis ton adelphon sou}:

THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST

The Judgment Seat of Christ: 2Corinthians 5:10- the notes are on another doc.

Related Resource: A W Pink's chapter _{God's Sovereignty and Human Responsibility}

_{http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Sovereignty/sov_08.htm}

Middletown Bible - The Law of Love (Romans 14:1-15:3) - For further help in understanding how to live so as to not cause a brother to stumble, see their paper entitled, "_{Guidance: 67 Biblical Tests to Use in Deciding Upon a Course of Action." have this list on another dox.}

_{http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/christia/67tests.htm}

But (de) - Godet "The but contrasts the incompetent judgment of a brother, with the judgment of this one Lord." (_{Romans 14:1-15:13 Directions Regarding a Difference of View)
http://archive.org/stream/commentarypaulrom02gode#page/325/mode/1up}

Guzik commenting on Paul's question Why do you judge your brother says - Probably, the use of both judge and show contempt is meant to have application to both the "strict" and the "free" individuals. (Ed: Some like A T Robertson favor this is directed to "the conduct of the weak brother in Ro 14:3"). In either case, the attitude is wrong because we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The strict Christian found it easy to judge his brother, writing him off as an unspiritual meat-eater-compromiser. The free Christian found it easy to show contempt against his brother, regarding him as a uptight-legalistic-goody-good. Essentially, Paul’s answer is "Stop worrying about your brother. You have enough to answer for before Jesus." (_{Romans 14 - David Guzik Commentary on the Bible) http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/guz/view.cgi?bk=ro&ch=14}

You (su) - first in the sentence for emphasis and "in contrast to the Lord" (Vincent). Denney says "You, in contrast with the one Lord and Judge of all. In face of our common responsibility to Him, how dare we judge each other?" The phrase, "your brother" is "another reason for not judging: it is inconsistent with a recognition of the brotherhood of believers. (_{Romans 14 - The Expositor's Greek Testament)}

It is, "But as for you (in contrast to the Lord) why do you, (the weaker brother) judge your brother (your Christian brother)?" (Wuest's word studies from the Greek New Testament)

John Stott - Despising and judging fellow Christians (the same two verbs are used as in verse 3), ‘the smile of disdainful contempt’ and ‘the frown of condemnatory judgment’, are both now shown up to be totally anomalous attitudes. Why? Not only because God has accepted them, because Christ has died and risen to be our common Lord, but also because they and we are related to one another in the strongest possible way, by family ties. Whether we are thinking of the weak, with all their tedious doubts and fears, or of the strong, with all their brash assurances and freedoms, they are our brothers and sisters. When we remember this, our attitude to them becomes at once less critical and impatient, more generous and tender.

(_{Romans- God's Good News for the World -Bible Speaks Today) http://www.amazon.com/Romans-World-Bible-Speaks-Today/dp/0830816925}

Judge (_{2919) (krino) primarily signifies to distinguish, separate or discriminate and then, to distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, without necessarily passing an adverse sentence, though this is usually involved. It means to sift out and analyze evidence. It is present tense indicating that they were continually passing judgment. Passing judgment, by implication also usually conveys the idea of condemning.}

We have no right to judge and condemn one another because the Judge is the Lord. Each believer will have enough to do in keeping his own account right without interfering with others’ accounts!

Referring to the conduct of the "weak" brother in Ro 14:3. Believers are not judges of other believers, whether weaker or stronger because we will all be judged by God (1Co 3:10-15; 2Co 5:10). However balance this truth with the fact that the church needs to keep its own fellowship pure while at the same time refraining from assuming God's role as Judge (1Cor 5:9-13). Thus the command not to judge one another does not mean we are to condone immorality and wickedness, etc, within the church. We must beware of falling into this trap for if known sin is allowed to persist, it will not lie dormant but will propagate, even as leaven spreads throughout the loaf (1Co 5:7) and ultimately will even corrupt good morals (1Cor 15:33).

We need to recall what the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees who wanted to stone an adulterous woman...

He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. (John 8:7)

ASSIDUOUSLY AVOID JUDGING OTHER'S MOTIVES

One of the most sinister aspects of judging a brother or sister is judging their motives. When we do so we are saying in essence that we are omniscient and capable of reading their minds and discerning what has transpired in their life that might be impacting their words and deeds. This type of judgment is a slippery slope (cp Dt 32:35 "in due time their foot will slip") and is to be avoided at all costs. Seeking to please Christ and keeping a "Bema Seat Mentality" will help us avoid "motive" judgments. It also helps to remember that even our motives for doing "motive checks" on others will be accurately assessed (1Co 4:5, cp 1Th 2:4)

Let the world condemn him if it will, but simply because we are intimately related in Christ let us get alongside our brother and love him or at least overlook his failures without seeking to condemn him for his faults. Let no man judge another because one day, in the light of the judgment we have passed on others, every one of us must stand before the judgment seat of Christ (Mt 7:2). Silence (forbearance) the censorious tongue is good advice for those who desire to walk worthy of their calling (Ep 4:1-3). Cast the burdens of the misjudged motive and the misunderstood action at the feet of the Lord and leave them there until that day when He shall vindicate, for vengeance is His and He will repay (Ro 12:19, He 10:30, Dt 32:35, 43, Ps 94:1, 2, Nah 1:2-3, Lev 19:18, cp Pr 24:17-18).

Paul is saying "Silence that critical tongue, for we must appear before the Bema of Christ. Stop judging another, which has become the practice of so many lives, because Christ the righteous Judge is at the door (Jas 5:9) We must remember that the one we are judging is our brother not our enemy. (Ro 14:3)

That we shall all be judged has been amply foretold in both the old and new testaments...Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. (Ecclesiastes 11:9)

The LORD...is coming, or He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness. (Psalm 96:13) (_{Spurgeon's note)}

_{http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tod/view.cgi?book=ps&chapter=096&verse=013}

(This verse is painful to read for Jesus promised) "that every careless (argos from a = without + ergon = work = literally "not working words"!) word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment.' (Mt 12:36)

Under these circumstances (the religious leaders were plotting against Jesus trying to catch Him in something He might say), after so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all," Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. (Luke 12:1-2)

There is no room in the family of God for one group to pass judgment on another. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus settled the issue:

Do not judge (_{present imperative with a negative can be paraphrased = "Stop doing this" - it was going on) lest you be judged." (Mt 7:1, one of the most inappropriately quoted text in the Bible! Why? Because they stop here - the context tells us more about "judging".).}

As noted Jesus' warning about not judging has far too often been taken out of context and used by many to say that we are never to disapprove of anything another person does. What Jesus actually said in context was...

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then (this is critical, not before but after the log removal) you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Furthermore how would we be able to follow through on Jesus' charge He gives a few verses later declaring "You will know them by their fruits" (Mt 7:16 -- speaking of false teachers)?

And so believers are called to be "fruit inspectors" but this assessment is still in the context of first being "log removers"! What Jesus is prohibiting in Matthew 7:1 is harsh and censorious criticism, not insight based on Biblical truth and the indwelling Spirit of Truth (cp 1Th 5:21, 22, Ro 12:9 1Jn 4:1).

OR YOU AGAIN, WHY DO YOU REGARD YOUR BROTHER WITH CONTEMPT: e kai su ti exoutheneis (2SPAI) ton adelphon sou: (Ro 14:3,4; Luke 23:11; Acts 4:11)

Earlier Paul had declared that "The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions

Denney - This is addressed to the strong and free thinking, as the first question is to the weak and scrupulous Christian. Censoriousness and contempt are never anything but sins, not to be practised but shunned, and that all the more when we remember that we shall all stand at one bar. God is the universal Judge.

Regard with contempt (_{1848) (exoutheneo from ek = an intensifier + outhenéo = bring to naught) means to treat someone or something as of no account and so to despise then based on the judgment that they are worthless or of no value. It means to show by one’s attitude or manner of treatment that the brother has no merit or worth!}

11x in 11v - Luke 18:9; 23:11; Acts 4:11; Rom 14:3, 10; 1 Cor 1:28; 6:4; 16:11; 2 Cor 10:10; Gal 4:14; 1Thess 5:20. NAS = contemptible(1), despise(3), despised(1), no account(1), regard with contempt(1), regard...with contempt(1), rejected(1), treating...with contempt(1), viewed with contempt(1).

Stop trying to take God's place. You, the weak, why do you judge your brother? And you, the strong, why do you look down on your brother? It is wrong. You are trying to take Christ's place when you do that. But remember that all of us, men and women alike, all brothers and sisters in one body of Christ, must individually stand before God's judgment seat.

FOR WE SHALL ALL STAND BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF GOD: pantes gar parasthsometha (1PPFMI) to bemati tou theou:

(Ro 2:16; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Matthew 25:31,32; John 5:22; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 1Corinthians 4:5; 2Corinthians 5:10; Jude 1:14,15; Revelation 20:11-15)

Christ's Righteousness

The Communication of Christ's Righteousness

It was God's grace which provided this righteousness for us. Hence it is called "the righteousness of God" (Rom. 1:17; 3:21; 10:3; Phil. 3:9). Christ lived it. So it is called "the righteousness of . . . Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:1). The gospel declares its saving properties. So it is what we might appropriately call "gospel righteousness." In the preaching of the gospel the Holy Spirit is present to create faith in this righteousness. Hence it is called "the righteousness of faith" (Rom. 1: 17; 3:22; 4:11; 9:30; Phil. 3:9).

The righteousness of faith is not a quality seen by us or felt by us. It is not to be confused with the Spirit's work of regeneration and sanctification in our hearts. The righteousness which is of faith is nothing but the righteous deeds of incarnate God. It is called "the righteousness of faith" because faith embraces it, saying, "Mine are Christ's living, doing, and speaking, His suffering and dying; mine as much as if I had lived, done, spoken, and suffered, and died as He did. . . . 

Therefore, everything that Christ has is ours, graciously bestowed on us unworthy men out of God's sheer mercy, although we have rather deserved wrath and condemnation, and hell also. . . . This is an infinite righteousness and one that swallows up all sins in a moment, for it is impossible that sin should exist in Christ. On the contrary, he who trusts in Christ exists in Christ; he is one with Christ, having the same righteousness as He." — Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol.31, pp.349-358.

This righteousness of Christ which justifies and saves the believing sinner unto life eternal always remains with and in the Person of Christ.

    . . . the righteousness is still "in Him"; not "in us," even then when we are made partakers of the benefit of it, even as the wing and feathers still abide in the hen when the chickens are covered, kept, and warmed thereby. —John Bunyan, Justification by an Imputed Righteousness (Swengel, Penn.: Reiner Publications). 

Again Bunyan says:
    The righteousness by which we stand just before God from the curse was performed by the person of Christ. . . . This righteousness is inherent only in Him. —Ibid.
    Indeed this is one of the greatest mysteries in the world—namely, that a righteousness that resides with a person in heaven should justify me, a sinner, on earth. —Ibid. 

Once we grasp that the saving righteousness of Jesus consists in the works and deeds of Jesus which were performed for us 2,000 years ago, it becomes plain why Paul teaches that the righteousness which is of faith is imputed (see Rom. 4). Says Buchanan:

    This righteousness, — being the merit of a work, and not a mere quality of character, — may become ours by being imputed to us, but cannot be communicated by being infused; and must ever continue to belong primarily and, in one important respect, exclusively to Him by Whom alone that work was accomplished . . . The merit of one may be reckoned, or put down to the account of another; but how can the merit of any work be infused, as a personal property, as holiness may unquestionably be? —James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification, pp.334-335. 

There is, through the work of the Holy Spirit, an impartation of "essential righteousness" — that is, the attributes of God's character. The believer thereby becomes progressively more and more like Christ in character. Yet this inwrought holiness must not be confused with "the righteousness of faith." Paul can exhort believers to perfect holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1), but nowhere does he exhort them to perfect the righteousness which is theirs by faith. This righteousness is already infinitely perfect. It is a garment already woven and ready to be worn by all who will submit to it.

GOD IS ALL WISDOM AND HE IS GOD IN SALVATION, IN SUFFERING AND IN SAINTS
ROMANS 9:25-28
Charles e. Whisnant, Pastor/Teacher, Blogger, Landscaper, Lumberjack, Painter, Granddad, Tie Designer.

Pedagogy and education are secondary in the worship service. The category is this: supernatural encounter with the living God as the preacher worships over the Word and draws the people into an experience of God almighty through his proclamation. That is the category. And if you try to just replace that category with a lecture category, then her argument is going to make sense. All we are trying to do here is improve people’s understanding of some theological truths. Well, that is just not the main point of preaching. The first aim of preaching is not education, but encounter.  John Piper.
 
     
ROMANS 9:25-28

9:25 As he also says in Hosea:“I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved,  ‘My beloved.’” 9:26 “And in the very place  where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” 9:27 And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children   of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, 9:28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.” https://net.bible.org/#!bible/Romans+9:25
Albert Einstein’s wife was asked the question, “Do you understand the theory of relativity?” She responded immediately, “No, but I know Albert, and he can be trusted.” This brilliant response by Meliva Einstein provides a tremendous principle for accurate biblical interpretation. There are some portions of Scripture that are so deep that we can’t understand them fully in this life. As finite beings we just can’t understand the infinite.1 However, we know God, and He can be trusted.

1.God’s choice is a matter of His character and 2.  His authority. Now we will see a final great truth . . .]
3. God’s Choice Is A Matter Of His Program (9:24-29)

We often question God's plan.  Does God change His plans just because Israel does not believe.
    Samuel question God:  1 Samuel 16, 28:15-20
“What’s the point of all these Old Testament quotes?”
Paul establish the acceptability of the Gentiles and that the call does not included all Israel.

1A      Hosea:  vs. 2:23 Paul's point is that the call of the Gentiles shold not have come as a surprise to     the Jews.  God was not permanently casting away the people of Israel. Hosea 1:9 Israel will be     scattered to the ends of the earth.

    God directed Hosea to give his children symbolic names: one son Lo-Ammi (not my people)     Gomer's second son, his name symbolized the rejection of Israel. A daughter Lo-Ruhamah (not-    loved or means "not pited" or "not having obtained mercy," signifying that Israel will not find     mercy when the impending judgment falls.

    God has called the Gentiles to faith and left Israel with a remnant in the earth. 
    First Peter 2:10 same verse. Here Peter words could apply to both Jews before they met their     Messiah and pagan Gentiles before the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

    Vs. 25   "Beloved"  means to love, unconditionally, not sentimental or emotional but the act of     God will with the intended goal of the recipient's highest good irrespective of whether it is     received or returned.

    Vs. 26  Hosea talks about the Jews, and Paul talkes about the Gentiles I know. But when the Holy Spirit quotes verses from the OT in the NT, He can rightfully apply thelm as he wishes.

    Isaiah: vs. 27 quote from Isaiah 10:22-23  A small piece will be saved, one a few will be saved.
    Vs. 28 is from Isaiah 10:23. The Lord will excute His word upon the earth. Finishing it fully     and without delay    .  Amos 5:11-12. Few excape.

    Vs. 29 Only a small group will be saved. God planned it all

3A    What does God require of us to have a relationship with Him?
    Faith. 
 

Regeneration How and When

SALVATION: REGENERATION: THE NEW BIRTH: CONVERSION; EFFECTUAL CALLING

THE CHRISTIAN IS BORN AGAIN

Romans 9 and Selected Verses

Charles e Whisnant, Pastor/Teacher/Theologian,

Reading Abraham Kuyper this morning he gives a description of salvation: He said a child knows nothing of his own existences, as a child, nor of the first period of his life, from his own observation. If he were to tell you his history from his own recollections, he would began with the time he could remember. ( My own first recollection)I was walking with my dad to the church holding his hand when I was about 5 years old.) ) But being informed by others of his early life he can go back of his recollections and speak of his parents, family, time, and place, how he grew up, etc. So there is a differences between the two accounts. 

 

So there is a difference between what I believed happen when I was saved and what really did happen. When I was saved (as I have dated) I was personally ignorant of the implanting of the new life, I only remember that I needed to be saved, which I believe led me to faith and repentance as far as I knew those terms back in 1954 when I was seven. Well as I was getting order I was not satisfied with this, I wanted to know just how did I become saved. Was it that I raised my hands? Was it that I went to the alter? Was it that I prayed and quoted John 3:16? Was I just persuaded by the preaching? Where was the starting point of my salvation I wondered as I got older.. So I have spend a life time just learning what really happen when I was saved.,

I must say then that the first act of salvation for me was wholly passive and unconscious. Generally that is the case with those who are children, and in most cases adults as well. 

 

So the question ask is this: “WHAT HAD GOD WROUGHT IN THE SOUL THAT BRINGS ABOUT SALVATION TO HIM? I am not sure that I knew that for years after I went forward at Williamsroad Baptist Church in Roanoke Virginia the same time that Winston Hall did.

Quoting Kuyper: 

 

But this subjective representation, more or less incomplete, can not satisfy us now. It was to be expected that the supporters of "free will" would abuse it, by inferring that the origin and first activities of the work of salvation spring from man himself. A sinner, hearing the Word, is deeply impressed; persuaded by its threats and promises, he repents, arises, and accepts the Savior. Hence there is nothing more than a mere moral persuasion, obscuring the glorious origin of the new life. To resist this repulsive deforming of the truth, Maccovius, already in the days of the Synod of Dort, abandoned this more or less critical method to make regeneration the starting-point. He followed this order: 

"Knowledge of sin, redemption in Christ, regeneration, and only then faith." And this was consistent with the development of the Reformed doctrine. For as soon as the subjective method was abandoned, it became necessary in answer to the question, "What has God wrought in the soul?" to return to the first implanting of life. And then it became evident that God did not begin by leading the sinner to repentance, for repentance must be preceded by conviction of sin; nor by bringing him under the hearing of the word, for this requires an opened ear. Hence the first conscious and comparatively cooperative act of man is always preceded by the original act of God, planting in him the first principle of a new life, under which act man is wholly passive and unconscious.

 

Thus God worked in my heart, spirit, soul , as a child creating a new life without my knowledge, while later the work God brought into my heart the knowledge of regeneration with my full knowledge and consent.

REGENERATION, THE NEW BIRTH:

….the first effect of the power of God in the heart in regeneration is to give the heart a Divine or sense; to cause it to have a relish of the loveliness and sweetness of the supreme excellency of the Divine nature. Said Jonathan Edwards

In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” JOHN 3:3 

 

Regeneration is a New Testament concept that grew, it seems, out of a parabolic picture-phrase that Jesus used to show Nicodemus the inwardness and depth of the change that even religious Jews must undergo if they were ever to see and enter the kingdom of God, and so have eternal life (John 3:3-15). Jesus pictured the change as being “born again.”

The concept is of God renovating the heart, the core of a person’s being, by implanting a new principle of desire, purpose, and action, a dispositional dynamic that finds expression in positive response to the gospel and its Christ. Jesus’ phrase “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5) harks back to Ezekiel 36:25-27, where God is pictured as symbolically cleansing persons from sin’s pollution (by water) and bestowing a “new heart” by putting his Spirit within them. Because this is so explicit, Jesus chides Nicodemus, “Israel’s teacher,” for not understanding how new birth happens (John 3:9-10). Jesus’ point throughout is that there is no exercise of faith in himself as the supernatural Savior, no repentance, and no true discipleship apart from this new birth.

Elsewhere John teaches that belief in the Incarnation and Atonement, with faith and love, holiness and righteousness, is the fruit and proof that one is born of God (1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4). It thus appears that as there is no conversion without new birth, so there is no new birth without conversion.
Though infant regeneration can be a reality when God so purposes (Luke 1:15, 41-44), the ordinary context of new birth is one of effectual calling—that is, confrontation with the gospel and illumination as to its truth and significance as a message from God to oneself. Regeneration is always the decisive element in effectual calling.

Regeneration is monergistic: that is, entirely the work of God the Holy Spirit. It raises the elect among the spiritually dead to new life in Christ (Eph. 2:1-10). Regeneration is a transition from spiritual death to spiritual life, and conscious, intentional, active faith in Christ is its immediate fruit, not its immediate cause. Regeneration is the work of what Augustine called “prevenient” grace, the grace that precedes our outgoings of heart toward God.
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Romans 9 Notes

The Rejection of the Jews and the Inclusion of the Gentiles as God’s people:  Will the Promises of Romans 8 Stand? How do you answer the question of the Jews?

Romans 9-11

Charles e. Whisnant, Pastor/Teacher, Student of the Word

Rivers of Joy Baptist Church, Minford, Ohio

February 10. 2013

It’s my hope by the time we get through  Romans chapter nine that it will end your love affair with human autonomy and the ultimate self-determination of your free will.  I pray that your worldview will simply not be able to stand against the scriptures, especially Romans 9.  And I pray that Romans 9 will  be the beginning of a lifelong passion to see and savor the supremacy of God in absolutely everything.

But what I am learning is this; even in this week of study Romans nine.  What I felt this week was what John Piper said he experienced:

“I began to see a God so majestic and so free and so absolutely sovereign that my analysis merged into worship and the Lord said in effect, “I will not simply be analyzed, I will be adored. I will not simply be pondered, I will be proclaimed.  My sovereignty is not simply to be scrutinized, it is to be heralded. It is not grist for the mill of controversy; it is gospel for sinners who know that their only hope is the sovereign triumph of God’s grace over their rebellious will.”

Jonathan Edwards’ Testimony to God’s Absolute Sovereignty:

What the main purpose  of Romans 9 is not about:

Now with that said, I might have given the impression that Romans 9 is a treatise on the sovereignty of God. It is not. In reality the truth is Romans nine is an explanation for why the word of God has not failed even though God’s chosen people, Israel, as a whole, are not turning to Christ and being saved.  The sovereignty of God’s grace is brought in as the final ground of God’s faithfulness in spite of Israel’s failure, and therefore as the deepest foundation for the precious promises of Romans 9.  For if God is not faithful to His word, we can’t count on Romans 8 either.

Now what is this chapter dealing with:  Of course there are several opinions about what Romans 9 is dealing with: I will give six opinions:

WHAT IS THE VIEW I TAKE FROM ROMANS 9-11

Paul takes up the matter at the beginning of chapter one and goes on dealing with it in the other two chapters. Jones believes that Paul takes up where he left off in chapter eight.   What Paul has been dealing with is the doctrine of final perseverance of the believer. 

Then in 8:31-39 our security is based upon the immutability of God’s counsel, the guarantee that anything God has purposed must of necessity be carried out.

Then we come to Romans 9.  What about the whole case of the Jews, Paul? If you say that God starts a thing he always completes’ it, you say that when something is the purpose of God nothing can frustrated it. But if your preaching of the Christian gospel, as you call it,  then God’s purpose has gone very seriously astray, because the fact is that the vast majority of the Jews are not Christians, they are not in what you call the kingdom of God, which consists chiefly of Gentile believers. So, then, where is the purpose of God? Where is the immutability of His counsel? That was the objection.

WILL THE PROMISE OF ROMANS 8 STAND? IS THE ISSUE IN ROMANS 9.

Will God stand by His commitments, sealed with the blood of His Son?  Will He work all things together for our good?  Will the predestined be called and the called by justified and the justified be glorified?  Will He give us all things with Him?  Will nothing separate us from the love of  God? Is really now no condemnation, and will there be none tomorrow?  Piper.

Here is what Romans 9 does. It shows that the word of God’s covenant with Israel has not failed, because it is grounded in God’s sovereign, electing mercy.  Therefore the promises to the true Israel and the promises of Romans 8 will stand.  That is the gospel of Romans 9.  The promises purchased by the blood and death of Christ will be performed by the sovereign power of God.

In 9:1-29, he shows that Jewish rejection was not a failure of God’s promise to Abraham to save his seed, for the promises was meant only for Abraham’s “spiritual” descendants whom God had “chosen” unto salvation.  These elect Jews, (who, in Paul’s day were but a small portion of Israel) along with elect Gentiles, were being called by God and saved as he had promised they would be and just as the prophets had foretold. It would come to pass.

In 9:30-10:21, Paul shows that the immediate cause of the rejection of Israel and of the salvation of the Gentiles was the different manner in which the two groups were resounding to the Gospel: the Jews were stumbling at Christ whereas the Gentiles were believing in Him. 

The Jews had misunderstood and were misusing the Law.  Instead of seeing their own sinfulness by contrasting their conducted with the Law’s holy requirements and turning to God for mercy and pardon, they were trying to establish a righteousness of their own by keeping its commands.

They were looking to the Law, and not to the Gospel, for salvation and thus were perishing!

In 11:36, Paul explains that Israel’s rejection is neither total (some Jews were being saved) nor final (the time will come when God will show mercy to the nation at large and so all Israel will be saved.)

1A       The ultimate or eternal reason for the rejection of the greater part of Israel and the calling of the Gentiles to salvation is God’s sovereign election: 9:1-29

2A       The immediate cause of Israel’s rejection and of the Gentiles’ salvation was the different manner in which they were responding to the gospel. 9:30-10:21