1.If God is good He would wish His creatures to be happy
2.If God is all powerful He would be able to make His creatures happy
3.His creatures are not happy
4.Therefore God is either not good or not all powerful or both
We have already argued that we need to face this problem not from the position of ignorance or unbelief but realistically in the full knowledge that God has revealed Himself clearly in :
1.Creation (Roms Chp 1)
2.Conscience (Roms Chp 2)
3.Covenant (Roms Chp 2+3)
4.Christ (Roms Chp 3+4)
When we do this we see that the very seed plot of Adams rebellion is germinating with the joy of Christ's salvation!
For the principle of:
1.Relationship has results
2.Connection brings consequences
Why should it be that our connection with Adam brings our death and condemnation
Why should it be that we all sinned in Adam
What difference do the actions of one man all of those years ago make to me?
"for that all have sinned"
Adam is our federal head - that needs an explanation in itself!
Adam is the representative man - but why? MPs are our representatives in parliament but the fact that they fiddle their taxes doesn't mean that we do!
All humanity was potential in Adam: "And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen2:7) - therefore corruption at the stage of Adam affects us all!
Our connection with Adam is not simply because he is like us - a representative man, or he is the chief or head man - federal head but our connection with Adam is very very real!
He is the representative man and the federal head because this connection is real!
There are 4 ways people have come into the world:
1.Adam by creation
2.Eve by formation
3.Christ by incarnation
4.All others by generation
God did not create you and I directly but indirectly
Our connection with Adam is real
"And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lifes; and man became a living soul" (Gen2:7)
Therefore corruption at the stage of Adam affects us all!
That which condemns the innocent to suffer because of his relationship to Adam also guarantees the:
1.justification of the unjust
2.life to the dead
3.salvation to the sinner
by virtue of his connection in faith to Christ:
1.Relationship with Christ's righteousness brings justification
2.Relationship with a Saviour brings Salvation
3.Relationship with the life of Christ brings life
Before we leave Adam and his suffering and move onto our relationship with Christ and His salvation perhaps there is one matter we should finish dealing with first
One barrier to be bridged
Bridging the barrier of brokenness
What about this problem of suffering
We have seen that within the seed plot of Adams sin there is germinating the joy of Christ's salvation but what about that argument that threatened to derail faith in Christ why did it point to such a wrong conclusion?
1.If God is good He would wish His creatures to be happy
2.If God is all powerful He would be able to make His creatures happy
3.His creatures are not happy
4.Therefore God is either not good or not all powerful or both
All of the most powerful lies are half truths
Even rat poison isn't 100 % poison, even rats aren't stupid enough to dine on poison
The best poisons are mixed with wholesome food - so we swallow it whole and the poison along with it!
There are at least 4 errors:
1.The Reason for unhappiness
2.The Responsibility for happiness
3.The Reality of Happiness
4.Our Receptiveness for Happiness
These issues are not entirely irrelevant to this section of Romans 5
The Reason for unhappiness:
The argument is superficial - doesn't go deep enough - it begins by asking: 'why isn't God doing something about the problem' instead of looking deeper and going further back and asking -
'why do we have the problem'
'where did the problem stem from?'
'why am I unhappy n the first place for God to make me happy.'
Mans Disaster - Sin
God did not make man unhappy - man made man unhappy
This is the subject of Rom 5:12-14
Our Relationship with Adam
We may feel that God has not cured our problem (although that is inaccurate)
But by the same token He has not caused the problem
The Responsibility for happiness:
The argument is based on unfounded and unsafe assumptions - the issue of responsibility - the question assumes that it is Gods responsibility to 'make His creatures happy' - in other words like some spoiled child we turn towards God and cry - well you made me, now you make me happy!
It assumes that happiness is what God does to me!
It is an argument founded on the autonomy of man - that is man is mature and grown up and we are going to make pronouncements on wither or not God exists but at the same time blames God for not treating us as robots!!!
Man's happiness becomes Gods responsibility if man has no personal responsibility for his own happiness
Man is not a robot!
Man's happiness becomes Gods responsibility if man has no personal responsibility for his own happiness
There may be some creatures for whom it is the case that their happiness is the sole responsibility of others
The earth worm is a simple creature - one long nerve running the length of its body, its happiness is really out with its own control - too much water in its environment it drowns, the wrong creatures spot it, it gets eaten by the bird or the mole, it doesn't even have much of a memory - just a few seconds and keeps running into trouble!
The happiness of the earth worm is not his responsibility but he is the victim and at the mercy of his environment and of powerful others
But is man the same as the earth worm?
This argument discerns no difference between the earth worm and man!!
We need to a get a right view of man before we tackle this problem of unhappiness!
The bible will give us the most realistic view of the greatness of man's problem as a sinner: Man's Disaster
The bible will also give us the most glorious view of the worth and potential of man:
Consider Man's Diginity:
Made in the image of God after His likeness (Gen1:27; 2:7; 3:8; 3:22)
Gods view of man (Psalm 8)
The sacrifice of Gods Son was to redeem man (John 3:16; Heb 2:9-18)
The picture the Bible paints of the relationship between God and man is not the same as the relationship between that of God and the earth worm!
God does treat man as the grown up he is!
I am not saying that man of himself can make himself happy but he can make himself very unhappy!
Our Receptiveness for Happiness:
The problem is unrealistic and assumes that man is looking for that happiness and is waiting expectantly to receive Gods happiness
Are we really sitting waiting to receive Gods happiness?
Surely everyone wants to be happy? Don't they?
Surely everyone wants to be free from:
i.Death
ii.Disease
iii.Disaster
iv.Damnation
v.Despair
vi.Discouragement
Don't they??
We do want to be happy don't we??
Are we not all just sitting waiting to be made happy??
Lets look at times when God has offered man freedom from the things that bring unhappiness:
- Death: John 11:41-54
The potential therefore lay in Christ to be the liberator for all men from the power of death and the grave!
Man's response: "Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death" (John 11:53)
They wanted to kill the life giver!
- Disease: John 5:2-5; 15-16; Luke 6:10-11
The potential for the ned of suffering and disease
"And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day" (Jo5:16)
Despair: Isa 53:4; Mk 5:3-5; 16-17
"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted"
Did we want one to take away our despair?
The one who was able to deal with all of our hopeless situations: the man of the Gaderenes, the woman with the issue of blood, Jarius daughter
"And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts." (Mk5:17)
- Disaster: Luke 6:46-49
God has prepared in Christ the perfect disaster contingency plan
But we still build on the sand!
- Damnation: John 3:19; Luke 23
The greatest tragedy is surely this that each of us can see how realistic this all is
If God were to move again in our day as He did in grace in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ man's response would be the same.
It would not matter what great and mighty works He would do and how much potential there was in Him to cure man of His unhappiness, should He refuse to go along with man and declare:
i.Homosexuality as a sin
ii.Gay marriage as an abomination and contrary to Gods created order
iii.Abortion as murder
iv.All religions do not lead to God
They would not have Him they would crucify Him again!
They would not receive His happiness!
The simple view that:
I want to be happy
God ought to make me happy
Is founded on a false premise:
That I am ready to receive Gods happiness!
Which leads me on to ask: what actually is happiness?
What am I actually looking for?
Is it happiness or is it something else?
The Reality of Happiness:
The argument fails to explain what it means by happiness - it fails to ask the question - 'what is happiness?' and assumes that perfect happiness is either the same as a problem free and hassle free existence or is gained by that means - ie. that happiness is in essence the same as prosperity!
It doesn't ask 'what is happiness?'
For when man was offered freedom from the things that make him miserable he didn't take them!
What is man looking for?
I would suggest that man is not primarily on search of real happiness but for something that he confuses with happiness.
Man was made in the image of God, after His likeness and animated by the breath of God
Man made like God and by God lacks only one thing - He is not God!
Herein lay Adams failure: "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen3:5)
Adam had everything he needed and nothing he did not want
Adam was perfectly happy but created in the uimage of God and for God and desired to be God!
This spirit still works today in man:
"For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1John 2:16)
Pride that pushes me above what I am
I desire happiness but a happiness of my own construction and my own imagination and in my own control
I want to be Lord over my own happiness
Man's happiness ultimately must come from something completely different
Not from happiness in being God but in a happiness in being with God!
The message of this book is that man failed by trying to exalt himself to be God
Grace triumphed when God humbled Himself to become man and subjected Himself to the taunts and the torture of the creature that I as mortal man might have the basis and the courage and the reason to subject myself, voluntarily to His will for my good and His Glory and my eternal joy and His eternal Glory
This is where we begun our studies in Romans all those weeks ago.
To summarise then what should this argument actually say:
1.Since God is good He desires His creatures to be happy
2.Since God is all powerful He is able to make His creatures happy
3.God does not impose happiness by power but rather offers it in grace
4.If man were good he would desire Gods happiness
5.If man were willing God would make him eternally happy
In Grace and in in Christ God Bridges the Barrier of Brokenness
4 Relationships:
1Relationship between man and sin
2Relationship between sin and death
3Relationship between me and Adam
4Relationship between Christ and myself
1Relationship between man and sin (5:12)
Connection has consequences
One man and one sin – sin enters
Sin is not simply a practice but sin is:
iSin as a motive (5:2)
iiSin as a man (5:6)
iiiSin as a monarch (5:12)
ivSin as a master (5:14)
vSin as a monster (5:23)
2Relationship between sin and death
Sin produces death
Sin is not a private matter of personal practices
Sin is viewed in scripture relative to God
“sin is lawlessness” and the law in view is Gods law
Sin is falling short of the Glory of God (Rom3:23)
Sin thus separates between me and God (Isa59:2)
Sin is not a private matter – it impacts on my relationship with God
Sin is not simply a practice
3Relationship between me and Adam
“for that all have sinned...”
Does this mean:
iThat all die because we have all committed sins? i.e. because we all repeat Adams disaster we all repeat Adams death?
iiBecause of Adams sin we all die and are affected by that one sin of Adam?
Notice:
iThe past tense of “all have sinned” - this is a sin in the past
iiNotice the parallelism and symmetry in v12:
A - “sin entered” - Adams Sin
B - “death by sin” - Adams Death
B - “death passed upon all” - My Death
A - “all have sinned” - My Sin
Is there not a missing step between B and B? What about the sin of all as the cause of the death of all?
The point is that it is not the sin of all that causes the death of all but the sin of Adam that guarantees the death of all.
Personal sin certainly confirms the diagnosis and at times accelerates the outcome:
i“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” (Gal 6:7-8)
Adam's sin brings Adams death but Adams sin also brings my death.
iiiDeath is present even where sin is not imputed (Rom 5:13-14) for death is the result of the presence of the principle of sin rather than the result of the practice of sin. So even in the absence of personally committed sin death still reigns – because death comes not from my sin but from Adams!
ivThese verses are the foundation stones which are being laid by the apostle to allow us an understanding of how it is we can receive the “reconciliation” that Christ has achieved for us at Calvary, as we will see the repetition of Adams sin in my life is no more required to bring about my death than is the repetition of Christ's atoning work in my life is required to bring about my salvation and eternal life. The reception of salvation and eternal life is based upon precisely the same principle as the reception of death and condemnation from Adam (Rom 5:18-19). We die first and foremost because we belong to Adam. We live because of our relationship to Christ (Rom 5:18-19).
Why is it that Adams sin should pass to me with its consequences?
iHe is the federal head of the human race – the representative man
iiAll human life was potential in Adam (Gen 2:7)
iiiCorruption of humanity spiritually is actually passed down to me today
So with this comes:
iDeath of the innocent
iiDeath of the unborn
iiiThe suffering of the child
Notice that in this section the apostle is not trying to explain away these problems he is taking them as accepted facts of life.
How often have we heard: 'well if there is a God why... do infants die...do the innocent suffer....did my...'
He is not trying to apologise for them on Gods behalf
He acknowledges the facts and features of this world and then asks the question: 'well what does this tell me about the way that the moral and spiritual laws of the universe operate?' Do they tell me anything?
Does this not tell me that: connection has consequences and that relationship brings results?
This spiritual law, fundamental to the way the universe operates is responsible for so much suffering and death but it is also the route by which my salvation comes!
For if guilt can be transferred by relationship so can Glory!
If sin can be transferred by relationship so too can salvation!
If condemnation can be transferred by relationship so too can justification!
If relationship with Adam brings death then relationship with Christ brings life!
Posts
