The Original Sin

Tonight we're on lesson four, which is original sin. Last week we looked at the fall of man and Adam and Eve's first transgression, and we went through Genesis 2 step by step and kind of traced the steps, or the missteps, of Adam and Eve. Tonight when we talk about original sin, we're not actually talking about a specific sin. I want to clear up that misconception.

How many of you go to Walmart or to Publix and you're amazed at the cookie aisle? You want the cookie aisle? Yeah. You go and, for example, when you look at the Oreos, do you know how many types of Oreos they have at Walmart? It's amazing. They got the original, they got the double stuff, they got the chocolate cookies with the white cream, they got the white cookies with the chocolate cream, they have all different flavors. Exactly.

But for me, I like the original Oreos, right? The original ones are still my favorite. When we talk about original sin, we're not talking about a specific sin. We're actually talking about the state in which each one of us are born in as a result of Adam and Eve's first sin. Adam and Eve fell and, as they are the head of humanity, as Adam is the head of humanity, we are all fallen from birth and that's what original sin is about. It's not speaking about a specific sin, it's talking about the state that humanity is born in. So let's look at Bible point number one.

The doctrine of original sin — that's the first blank, original sin — tells us what the results of Adam's sin are for us. The origin of our sinful nature — nature is the second blank — is found in the sin of our first parents. Because Adam and Eve fell, we have inherited a sinful nature.

When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, our common human nature was corrupted.

Depravity, guilt, and penalty came to all humanity. Next week, Caleb is going to be teaching us about depravity. Depravity is the pollution that results from sin, how sin makes us dumb, how sin actually corrupts our minds and our wills, every part of our being. The following week, we're going to be looking at guilt, which is the objective result of sin, that we all are objects of God's wrath from birth. We're all born as condemned men and women. And then we'll look finally at the third week after that at the penalty of sin, how God punishes sin and how He is holy in doing so. So original sin, even though it's talking about the state or the condition that we're all born in, it necessarily entails depravity, it necessarily entails guilt and punishment.

Every human being is now born in a sinful state. That's the third blank.

We've talked about how sin is not just an action, right? It's not just an overt action. It's also a disposition or an attitude. And it's also a state, right? That we are born sinners and therefore we're guilty of all sin.

We are all born guilty and condemned before God. That's the fourth blank. We're born guilty and condemned before God. So the first blank is original. The second blank is nature. The third blank is state. And the fourth blank is guilty.

We're going to be looking predominantly tonight at Romans chapter five. This is one of those key passages that talks about man's original sin. And the good news is this: Romans five, even though it discusses in those few verses all the way through verse 20 or so more than anywhere else about original sin, original sin is not the subject of Romans five.

The subject of Romans five is the grace, the abundant grace of Jesus Christ. Where sin abounds, God's grace much more abounds. So as we study original sin, we think about the corruption or the depravity that we derive from it and we think about the guilt and the punishment. Let's not forget, working over and against that is the abundant grace of Jesus Christ. Right. And that is the hope of the gospel.

Romans 5:12 says this: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned." There's a lot in that verse. It says just as through one man. Who's that one man that he's speaking of here? Adam. Now Eve sinned too, right? But he speaks of man here because, as we'll see here in a little bit, Adam is the one who bears the most responsibility. He is the titular head of humanity, or the federal head of humanity. He was the head of his wife and he should have been, of course, the spiritual leader of his home. But in this case, through him, sin entered the world and death through sin. Pastor just quoted from Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death." Once sin entered the world, so did death, right? Both physical death and spiritual death. We've talked about how physical death is a separation of the body from the soul. But spiritual death is what Adam and Eve first experienced, and that's separation of the soul from God, right? They were no longer in union and at peace and experiencing the pleasure of God. They were now fearful and they hid themselves, remember? They discovered that they were naked and they were ashamed. So they were separated immediately from God. That's that spiritual death that separates every man from God until they find the Lord Jesus Christ, right?

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to some men?"

All men. "Because some sinned?" All sinned.

We are counted as sinners in Adam's transgression because we are rebels just like Adam, right? What was his sin? His sin was manifold. We talked about it last week. It started with Eve isolating herself from both God and from her covenant head. And then she's listening to the tempter and opening herself up to doubt. And then she begins to cast dispersion on God's character and adds to His commands, making Him seem more exacting and arbitrary even towards her. Then she believes Satan's testimony that you shall not surely die. And in doing so, she disbelieves God, right? And then we also see the pride of life. She wanted to be as God. We see the lust of the eye because she saw that the tree was good for food. It was pleasant to the eyes and desirable to make one wise. So Adam and Eve, they fell inwardly long before they actually took the bite of the forbidden fruit. Right?

And when that occurred, death came to us all, right? Spiritual death at that point because all sinned. So in Adam and Eve's sin, everything they did, we do, right?

And it's not just that we are traditionally counted as sinners apart from our own sin. It's that our nature has become corrupt. So as soon as we're born, we go about speaking lies, right? We go about stealing. You don't have to teach a kid to be bad, right? They are just bad naturally. That is because of Adam, right? Ephesians 2:3, it's on our handout here. It says, "Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature" — meaning who we are as individuals — "children of wrath just as the others." Apart from Christ, our nature deserves God's wrath. We're called children of wrath because we are sinners, right? And we have inherited Adam and Eve's depravity. We've inherited their guilt and we're deserving of punishment, okay?

The application is this. How does this drive us to God — that's the first blank — for salvation — the second blank? How does this drive us to God for salvation? The fact that we are born with this inherent depravity, with this inherent guilt, with this inherent punishment that's due to us, how does it drive us to God for salvation?

We can't do it on our own. Exactly right, Tori. You cannot change your sin nature, can you? We read in week one when we talked about the nature of sin that the leopard can't change its spots, right? We can't wash our own sins away from us. We can't outdo our good. We can't outrun the consequences of our sins. We can't try to stack up good to outdo the evil that we've done in life. It won't work because we're sinners. We're depraved, we're guilty, and we deserve punishment. So it drives us to God to throw ourselves at His mercy, right? That's where it leads us to. It leads us to look to Christ for salvation.

Bible point number two, Scripture teaches that Adam was a type of Christ. Type is the first blank. When we speak of type, what we mean is this. In the Old Testament, individuals, places, and events are often used to foreshadow and to speak of Christ beforehand. For example, we talk about the Passover lamb, right? The event of Passover was to deliver Israel out of Egypt, out of bondage, out of slavery, and into the Promised Land, right? And in the New Testament, when we get to the letters to the Corinthians, we find out that Christ is our Passover, right? He is the fulfillment. That Passover was pointing to Christ, right? I think about Moses. Moses was the great prophet of God who delivered the law — delivered it from God to man — and who delivered Israel out of bondage and out of slavery. But when we get to the New Testament, we find that there is a prophet greater than Moses, right? And that's Jesus Christ, who doesn't just give us the word. He is the Word of God, the embodiment of God's word, the Word of God made flesh, right? So we see these types in Scripture. And Adam was a type of Christ, not in that he would deliver us from our sins or be an example to follow,

but not in the sense of acting as a deliverer of his people or being an example to pattern our lives after. Adam was a type of Christ in that he was our representative and head.

Adam was the very beginning of humanity, was he not?

We all trace our descent from one common pair. That's Adam and Eve. We talked about this in our last unit when we talked about anthropology, right? We all descended from one common pair. He is the head of humanity in that sense. Who is the head of new humanity?

Christ, right? Christ is the head of a new race when we are born again. He is our elder brother. He is the one in whom we derive life, just as Adam is the one from whom we derive death, right?

What Adam did affected all of humanity. That's the third blank. The first blank is type. The second blank is representative. The third blank is head. What Adam did affected all — the fourth blank is all of humanity — who are said to be in him. In Adam, we are all corrupted. That's the fifth blank. And we all stand condemned. That's the sixth blank. Have "all" there three times. I want to get that across. There's no one who is outside of Adam. We are all born in Adam. In theology in the 1900s and also now into the 21st century, there was a great corruption among many theologians who denied the historical Adam and denied the historical fall. That was a myth. That was a way of trying to explain and rationalize sin and evil in this world. But we're not all born in Adam's sin because Adam wasn't a real person, right?

And that goes back even farther. You go back to Augustine's time around 400. There was a British man who came to Rome. His name was Pelagius. He denied original sin. He said we're all born morally neutral. And we have the power to never sin. And we have the power to follow after God. But we inevitably fall into sin because of all the bad examples around us.

And that's contrary to Scripture. We must hold fast to Scripture. Romans 5:14 says, "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."

Verse 14, it's talking about how from Adam all the way to Moses, we didn't have the written commandments, right?

Adam had a spoken word from God. If you eat of this fruit, in the day you eat it, you shall surely — what? — die. So he had a prohibition from the Lord right there in front of him. After Adam, they didn't have that. Now, as we studied in anthropology, we ended our study in anthropology with the law of God. And the Bible tells us that the work of the law is written in our hearts, right? That's what we call being made in the moral nature of God. And therefore, our conscience, in light of that moral writing on our hearts, either excuses us or accuses us accordingly, right? Well, from Adam to Moses, they did not have that prohibition, that spoken prohibition, even though they did have the written prohibition in their heart. It says, "Even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam." They did not sin in the same way that Adam did in respect to eating the forbidden fruit. They weren't in the garden, so they couldn't pluck that fruit, right? But nevertheless, they sinned, right? Everyone from Adam to Moses sinned. And not only did they sin, but they all — what? — died, right? Which is the merit of sin, the wages of sin is death. Because they all obtained or inherited that original sin of Adam, the depravity, the pollution, the penalty that's due to them for what they had done wrong.

Flip over on the back.

I want to read to you the passage at hand here, just to give you an overview of it. Romans 5:12 through 20.

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where 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 is a type of him who is to come." Saying, "Adam, as the head of fallen humanity, brings death to the world, and in like manner, Christ brings life to the world." And we're going to see that here. "But the free gift is not like the offense," verse 15, "for if by one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God, and the gift of grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many." Notice he says that where by one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift of grace abounded to many. Grace is always greater than our sin, praise God, right?

Where Adam was a finite being, Christ is infinite, right?

His righteousness is infinite, so He has more than enough righteousness to spread to every single person who will place their faith and trust in Him.

Verse 16, "And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned, for the judgment which came from the one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification." Through Christ, because of what He did for us on the cross, living a perfect life and dying in our place, He offers us the free gift of justification, to say, "You are right in the eyes of God. You're going to be treated as if you had never sinned, and as if you had perfectly obeyed, because we are being reckoned Christ's rewards." Christ's righteousness, Christ's merit is being imputed to us. Verse 17, "For if by 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." Through Jesus Christ, we have an abundance of grace and will reign in this life over sin. Verse 18, "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 may 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." What Paul's doing here, he's contrasting. He's contrasting Adam with Christ. Through Adam came sin, condemnation, judgment into this world, but through Christ comes a free gift of grace, comes justification, comes righteousness, comes life. Christ and Adam are linked in that sense. Christ is typified by Adam. Let's flip back over on the front.

The application is this: all people are either in Adam — that's the first blank — or in Christ — that's the second blank. Thomas Goodwin the Puritan said that there are only two people in this world. He says there's Adam and Christ and all the masses of individuals that we are just strands within their belts. We're all either attached, we're all held together, in either Adam or in Christ. Naturally we're all born in Adam, but it's only through faith that we're born again, that we're born from above, that we're born by Christ, by His Spirit, and we're remade in His image. So if we are in Christ, that guilt is gone. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That death, spiritual death, is gone, right? Even physical death we will conquer, right? Because we will rise again, right? And even depravity is in its twilight here in this earth. We will still struggle with the pollution of sin in this world, okay? But that's what Christ is doing by sanctifying us through His truth. "Your word is truth," right? And one day when we get to heaven that depravity will be banished, right? We will be glorified, we will be made perfectly complete in the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Bible point number three, Scripture says Adam's sin is imputed, reckoned, or charged — the first blank is charged. Imputed, reckoned, or charged all carry a similar meaning. Reckoned or charged to every member of the human race of which he is the head.

His sin is imputed to us all in the sense that we are all born rebels just like Adam.

We sinned in Adam and the guilt of Adam's first sin is imputed to us. Guilt is the second blank.

This is asserted in Scripture but not fully explained, okay? The Bible says that we are all in Adam but it doesn't really tell us the mechanics of that. And it's led to lots of speculation, right? There have been some who put forth that sin must be a physical principle, therefore it's passed on from the father to the children. But the Bible doesn't say that, right? And we shouldn't think that way. There's all kinds of speculation that we could go into. Theology books are full of them. We just have to trust Scripture, which asserts that we're all deemed to be guilty in Adam, and just be okay with not knowing how it works out, all right? Some things aren't revealed to us and we just have to trust God's Word. This is asserted in Scripture but not fully explained. Our finite minds can't grasp how we are responsible for a depraved nature that is inborn — that's the third blank, inborn — and yet condemnable. It's like I didn't ask for Adam to represent me. Did any of you vote for Adam?

No, but you did vote for his sin, right? As soon as you could. You said, "Yeah, I'm with him. I'm joining him." Even though you didn't originally elect him, so to speak. He was there before you were born. Sin is mysterious, not only in the fall of man, but in its transmission to humanity.

The last blank, the fourth blank, is transmission to humanity. We talked last week about the fall of man and we said that Adam and Eve, even though they were created upright,

they were created with a will and affections and a mind holy and set on Christ. They were made holy and without sin, they still had the power of contrary choice. That can kind of explain how they sinned, but it doesn't explain the logic or the reason why. Why would they do that? Why would they believe the lie? Why would they leave the garden and get banished from the garden? Why would they have to labor for the rest of their life by the sweat of their brow? Why would they choose that? Freedom of choice doesn't explain contrary choice. It doesn't explain why you do it. It's totally illogical, right? It's madness, actually, when you think about sin. That's really what it is. In the same way, the transmission of sin to all humanity is a bit of a mystery to us, right? Some things we don't know and we can't figure out the mechanics of it. God doesn't tell us the mechanics of it and with that we have to be content.

Look at Romans 5:16 through 17. "For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation." There is a real condemnation that comes upon all of humanity because we're all rebels in Adam, right? Verse 17, "For if by one man's offense death reigned through the one." Death reigns over natural man, does it not? Every man and every woman apart from Christ will die. They're already dead spiritually and they're going to die physically too, and they do not have the hope of the resurrection as Christians do, right? We're resurrected to eternal life. They're resurrected to eternal death, right?

The application is this. Be careful not to go beyond — that's the blank — beyond God's Word. 1 Corinthians 4:6 tells us this, that we're not to go beyond what is written, right? We're to trust God's testimony and embrace some things as mystery. There are some things we're never going to get our head around, like how God can be triune, how He's one God yet He's three in person, right? We'll never be able to grasp the idea that God is completely sovereign even over the will of man and yet man is totally free — and as free as freedom is absolute, there's no sovereignty. God's sovereignty and man's freedom work together, they're compatible, and we just can't grasp how both of those can be true, but Scripture declares it to be true and we have to leave some things as a mystery, right? If you try to start explaining some of these things, invariably you're going to go off on the deep end, you're going to end up in heresy before you know it.

Flip over on the back. I love the passage from Romans chapter 11 when he's talking about elect individuals and nations, Israel, and he's talking about these high things of God's

sovereignty. He says, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become His counselor? Who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?" He's quoting here Isaiah and quoting Job. "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever, amen." God is glorified when we trust Him without us actually fully understanding some things. Some things we're not meant to know, right?

Bible point number four, original sin is identified with Adam as he is the first representative — that's the first blank — representative of humanity. I got my voter guide in the mail today. I say the voter guide, I got the

sample ballot, you know, that shows me exactly what the ballot's going to look like. And so in about two weeks we're going to be voting, right? And some of us have already voted ahead of time, right? Way to go. And when we vote, we're voting for people to represent us, right?

Adam is the first representative of humanity. We didn't vote for him, but he represents us all. This public — that's the second blank — this public personality is often exemplified in Scripture by the designation of God's people with the names of the patriarchs. Doesn't God in the Old Testament call His people by names such as Israel? Well, wasn't that an individual's name? Jacob, didn't his name become Israel? But that's the name of an individual, and it's also the name of the people of God, right? Doesn't He do that with Judah, right? Doesn't He do that with Ephraim, right? God does this all throughout the Old Testament, identifying a group of people underneath one person's name as their head or representative, right? Even David — the city of David, you know, the city of Jerusalem. This explanation is sometimes referred to as federalism. That's the third blank. I wanted to point that out because you may come across that in a theological text and you're wondering, well, what is federalism? It's the idea that we have a representative head, right? Or direct imputation, because when Adam as our head and representative sinned, then the guilt of his sin was reckoned — that's the fourth blank, reckoned — to all of humanity. In Adam's fall, we all fall. Okay?

Romans 5:18 through 19 says, "Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation." Judgment comes and we're all condemned because of Adam. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners." His disobedience made us all sinners and we're all condemned, every single person. The last lesson that we do in our study of hamartiology is going to be on the salvation of infants. Okay? And so I'm not going to spill the beans on everything here, but do note that even infants die. We often think of infants as being innocent, right? Because they have a relative innocence. They don't have the capacity to actually commit a sin — just a little bitty baby — but they still die. Why? Because of this inherited pollution, depravity, guilt, and due punishment. And Adam is a representative head of all humanity, whether you're a hundred years old or whether you're a one-month-old, we are all under a death sentence, right? Because of Adam as our representative head. Flip over on the back.

Here are a few examples from the Old Testament. "The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not consider." He's referring — Isaiah is speaking for God — referring to the nation as Israel, right? Isaiah 2:5, "O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord." House of Jacob — again, he's referring to a group of people under one federal head, Jacob. Jeremiah 3:8, "Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, and I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister, Judah, did not fear, but went and played the harlot also." Here we have a twofer, right? We have Judah, the Jews of the southern kingdom, and Israel, the northern kingdom. Where I have that reversed —

Judah is the southern kingdom, Israel the northern kingdom, yes. But they're both referred to as the people of God, and both are referred to by individuals' names, Judah and Israel.

Then Jeremiah 31:18, "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself. You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained bull. Restore me, and I will return, for You are the Lord my God." Here we see repentance, and mercy, and grace being extended to the people of God.

The application for number four is this: is Christ's imputed righteousness fair?

As Christians, we put our trust in Jesus Christ our Lord, right? What are we singing? "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus's blood and righteousness. His blood was shed for me. His righteousness was merited for me, so therefore it's imputed to me." Is that fair? No, it's grace, right? So when we say it's not fair that Adam's sin is imputed to me, it's the way of God, right?

And you have to ask yourself, "Well, is it fair that you should be a recipient of Christ's grace?"

No, right? It's wholly by grace that we are saved, right?

Bible point number five, original sin is identified with Adam as he is the natural — that's the first blank — and physical head of humanity. As a progenitor or forefather — progenitor means the originator — or forefather of humanity, Adam and his offspring are one by virtue of their organic unity. What we mean by that is that Adam and all his posterity, all his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, were all considered as one whole. Even though we're individual parts, we're organic in the sense that we all make up humanity, okay? It can be said that all of humanity was in — that's the second blank — in Adam when he sinned. We all share in a common — the third blank — a common fallen nature and guilt. This fallen nature manifests itself in our personal transgressions, just as it did in Adam's, because we are humans and Adam was the first human and his nature was changed and became fallen when he sinned, and we are from Adam, so we are born with a fallen nature. Therefore, we're not fallen just because God says so. In other words, it's not that we're simply judicially declared to be condemned, it's that we are actually condemnable because we join in his sin, because we have a sinful nature, it's part of who we are. This fallen nature manifests itself in our personal transgressions, just as it did in Adam's. We're therefore not sinners because God merely declares, regards, or treats us as such. God regards us as sinners because we truly are sinners — that's the fourth blank, truly are sinners. This explanation is sometimes called realism — that's the sixth blank —

because in a very real sense, Adam's sin is our sin — that's the seventh blank. Adam's sin is our sin because of that. Look at 1 Corinthians 15:21 through 22. Now this is kind of a parallel passage to Romans chapter five. It says, "For since by man came death," then it says in verse 22, "For as in Adam all die." We're all considered to have been in Adam when Adam sinned.

Flip over to the back, I'm going to show you something that may help you understand this.

There's reference number five on the back from Hebrews chapter seven. In Hebrews chapter seven, the writer is declaring the superiority of the new covenant as compared to the old covenant, and the superiority of our high priest Christ Jesus as compared to the old priesthood, the Levitical priesthood. He talks about Melchizedek and how Melchizedek was a priest that didn't appear to have any lineage, right? Some people say he was an Old Testament appearance of Christ, and Abraham paid tithes to him. This existed a long time, 180 years or more before there was his grandson Levi, right? So a long time before then, and look what he says in Hebrews 7:9 through 10, "Even Levi who receives tithes paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak."

What he's saying is that 180 years before Levi was born, it could be said that Levi was in Abraham paying tithes to Melchizedek, "For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him." Again, we don't always understand how this works, right? But Scripture talks about a very real imputation, not just a judicial imputation, but a real imputation that comes because we are members of the human race and we have truly inherited this depravity from Adam and we truly participate in this depravity. No one can say, "Well, I'm just a sinner because of Adam. I haven't personally sinned," right? We all have sinned and dug holes that we can never dig ourselves out of.

Let's look back on the front. The application is this, based on Revelation 20:12, whose works are we accountable for? Whose works are we accountable for? Revelation 20:12 speaks about the great white throne judgment, right? And that we will all stand before God and that every person will be judged according to his — what? — his works, right? He's not going to say, "You're going to hell because of Adam." He's going to say, "You're going to hell because you're a liar, because you have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, because you have stolen, because you have transgressed My law, because you are a rebel, because you are a sinner apart from Christ," right? We're responsible and accountable for our own sins.

Bible point number six, Scripture uses the imputation of sin, guilt, and condemnation in Adam to point us to the last Adam — that's the first blank, last Adam — Jesus Christ — that's blanks two and three, Jesus Christ. United to Christ through faith, believers receive pardon, righteousness, restoration, and every blessing from God. So the first blank is last, the second blank is Jesus, the third blank is Christ, the fourth blank is pardon, and the fifth blank is blessing. We're all naturally in Adam, but we can be found in Christ Jesus, united to Christ through faith, where we can be said to be in Christ. And Christ can be said to be in us, right? Because His Holy Spirit interpenetrates us, right? We're surrounded by His Spirit, we're baptized into Christ, and He also lives within us, right? That's what we call union with Christ.

Look at 1 Corinthians 15:45 and 47. "And so it is written, the first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam — who's the last Adam? Jesus, right? "The last Adam became a life-giving spirit." He gives life. "The first man was of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven." Right?

Look at what Jesus says on the back. Let's look at John 6:53 through 58. Jesus is figuratively talking about union with Christ. He says, "Then Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh'" — which when He says eating My flesh and drinking My blood, He means trusting in Me, putting your faith and trust in Me — "'has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.'" If you trust in Christ, you abide in Christ Jesus, and Christ abides in you forever through His Holy Spirit, right? It can never be removed from you. You're sealed by His Holy Spirit. "'As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.'"

How can you be united to the Savior? That's the application. How can you be found in Christ Jesus? We're all inherently dead in Adam, condemned, depraved,

liable for punishment, but how can we be found in Christ Jesus?

Believe. Believe. Put our trust in Him, right? When we believe in Christ, we put our trust in Him. We are now in Christ forever, right? And He is in us. Kids, I want to give you one example of that to close. This may help you understand this a little bit because union with Christ can be kind of a big subject, okay? Let's say that your mom and your dad take you to a park that you've never been to, and this park looks like so much fun. They got merry-go-rounds, there's boardwalks, there's even an ice cream stand there, and you're all going to have a picnic there at this park, and you're just going to have a fun day. It's sunny and great, and so the first thing you do, your parents say, "Let's put out our blanket and let's have a picnic," and so you start getting your food out, and no sooner do you start getting your food on your blanket, the wind starts picking up. Florida weather changes like that, right? And all of a sudden, your food's blowing everywhere, and all of a sudden, it's getting a little bit cold, and all of a sudden, the sky goes from being sunny to being gray, and rain starts falling down. Your picnic is spoiled, and now you may not be able to play on the playground. You may not be able to get the ice cream, and it gets worse. It gets almost so dark that it's almost night, and you're kind of lost. You're not sure because you've never been to this park, but then let's say that you look up over in the distance, and you see a park ranger's cabin, and it has a light on inside. It's got a roof over it, so your parents say, "Let's go there," and so you go there, and the park ranger invites you in, right? And inside, are you getting wet anymore? No, you're not experiencing that. Are you cold anymore? No. Is the wind blowing away your food? No, not at all. You're in where it's safe, and you're in with the park ranger. He's going to make sure that you're all right until the storm passes, right? It's kind of a picture of what it means to be in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, He takes away all of our depravity, our sin, our guilt, the punishment that we should have borne. He bears it on the cross, and so He takes that away, and He invites us into His house, right? Where it's warm, and where He is there, and we know that if He's there, we're safe because we're in the Father's house, and Christ is our elder brother. That's a picture of what it means to be placing our trust in Christ Jesus, and so that is what depravity and original sin and judgment and condemnation should be pointing us to. We shouldn't focus so much on the fact of original sin as on its corollary and its solution in being united to Christ the Savior. Okay.