Sin Entered the World through Adam
RO54-01

The Narrow Gate

Grace

So, the entrance into eternal life is by the narrow gate of grace, and the path to heaven is on the very restricted road – the narrow road, and the straight road of the death of Christ on the cross in behalf of sinners. He is the way. This path, of course, excludes all human works and all human good. Therefore Ephesians 2:9 says, "Not of works, lest any man should boast."

So, the gate and the road leading to heaven are narrow and small and very constricted. But on the other hand, the gate on the road leading to the lake of fire is wide, accommodating most of humanity with its religious systems. The road to eternal death in hell accommodates all salvation by religious rituals, whether it is by circumcision; by water baptism; by taking the Lord's Supper; by observing holy days; or, whatever. The broad road to hell accommodates all religious systems by ritual. It accommodates all the cults which have perverted Christianity at key points – the cult groups: Christian Science; Jehovah's Witnesses; the Mormons; Scientism; and, Theosophy. The whole gamut of the cults is leading people to help.

Never never make the mistake of thinking that some of the folks in these systems are going to go to heaven. Very rarely would that be true, if ever at all. If they are true devotees (true believers of the system), they will not go to heaven. The very thing that they are taught is compatible with the broad road to the destruction of hell, because they are basically systems which have perverted the person of Christ into a human being with outstanding super qualities. They have perverted salvation from grace to a works system. They have completely distorted biblical salvation.

The broad road accommodates, of course, the religions of the world, which are pure inventions of human thinking. Somebody comes along (a Buddha comes along), and he comes up with a philosophy that impresses man, and a religious system develops around him. That religious system has behind it the hand of Satan, and it is designed to lead people into hell. So, the broad road accommodates all the religions of the world. Never think for one moment that the religions of the world are simply another way of approaching God and getting to heaven. They are not.

Of course, the broad road accommodates all the emotional oriented, feeling type of person: the person who wants to feel his way to God; and, the person who wants to be emotional in his religious experience. That broad way accommodates that group.

So, the way to eternal death in hell has to be a broad highway, because most of humanity is on it, and it must accommodate a fantastic number of religious perversions and viewpoints. The small gate and the narrow way leading to heaven must accommodate only a minimum number of humanity. "Narrow is the gate, and small is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it." Aren't you fortunate? "Few there be that find it."

From other doctrines we know that the few who find it only find it because Almighty God reaches His hand down from heaven, and taps you on the shoulder, and says, "I'm going to enable you to believe. You're going to be in My family." And until He reaches down and taps you on the shoulder, you are out of that "few" category. He has tapped you. You are on that narrow road. You have entered through the narrow gate. Indeed, you did have to make a decision of your will. You had to accept the gift that was offered. But in the inscrutable sovereignty and grace of God, He enabled you to do the accepting. Otherwise, you never would have.

Who is on the narrow road, therefore? Well, the people who are on the narrow road are folks like yourself who have abandoned all human efforts to gain merit with God for salvation. The people who are on the narrow road are those who have accepted a completed salvation by trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior – a salvation to which they're not going to add any ritual, and to which they're not going to add any efforts on their own to maintain it. The people who are on the narrow road are those who have been reconciled to God by faith. So, they're justified forever – saved in perpetuity. Those on this road are those who are no longer in Adam, the place of death, but those who are in Christ, and in Christ by the grace of God alone.

This passage is another way of declaring the integrity of God as the source of all blessings and of all prosperity. God's way, because of God's integrity, is a narrow way entered by a narrow gate.

During World War II, a saying developed in the South Pacific among the Marines who were on Guadalcanal. After the disastrous attack on Pearl Harbor, the tide of war began changing at a little island in the British chain of islands called the Solomon Islands. The long march to Japan in World War II began on August 7th. 1942, when the 1st Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal. The landing was a fortuitous event for the Marines because it caught the Japanese completely by surprise, and within 24 hours, Henderson Field was secured. These were the days when amphibious warfare was new to the Corps. The doctrines relative to an amphibious attack had only been recently written, and the manuals had only been recently printed. Now, this was the first actual operational use of these principles of amphibious landing on an enemy-held beach, to move inland; to establish a beachhead; and, to secure an island for the airfield and for aircraft to make a hop, island-by-island, across the Pacific to attacking the Japanese home islands.

Bushido Warriors

This is an old satanic deceit, as you well know – the idea of deified man. And it results from the rejection of doctrine as the final authority concerning salvation. Our study in Romans 1 has already told us how when people are negative toward the Word of God, they go down by gradual steps to where they begin worshiping man. They begin worshiping an image of humanity. And Romans 1 explains to us exactly how we come to a deified human being – how we come to a person who becomes god.

Mormonism

So, it is common for the Mormon missionaries, who ride around town on their bicycles, to tell you: "As God once was, we are. As God now is, we may become." That's a wonderful thought: "As God once was (a human being), we are now. As God now is (a deity) we may become." That's heady stuff. And many a person has been won to Mormonism by that deified humanity concept.

This explains, of course, the morality of Mormonism. Mormons believe they have to behave themselves. Mormons believe they have to obey and honor the divine institutions. That's why morality is so great among them. That's why they are so great on biblical principles relative to government. You can almost always trust a Mormon to vote for the right person politically. He has an understanding of the role of government, because he understands what is good and what is beneficial for humanity. And to him, that's very important, because if he moves in the wrong direction, he's going to be doomed for eternity.

Well the fierce-to-the-death resistance of the Japanese, with air, sea and ground attacks, by people who thought they were going to become gods if they died in that resistance, turned the Marines' easy victory into a literal inferno within the next few days on Guadalcanal. Therefore, out of that inferno holocaust experience, a saying became popularized in the South Pacific about Marines who had been on Guadalcanal, and later on those who were in the other island attacks, about a Marine who approaches heaven and meets St. Peter at the gate. This saying was scribbled on the sides of the tanks. It was scribbled on trucks, and scribbled here and there. It almost became sort of a watchword. It was to the effect that this Marine, standing at the gates of heaven before St. Peter, would say, "Another Marine reporting, sir. I've served my time in hell."

That is satanic, human-viewpoint logic about salvation by human efforts and sufferings. And it was indeed no better than the Japanese Bushido view, or the Mormon view today, of deified humanity. The idea that a human being is going to serve by some efforts of his own, and by some suffering of his own, is going to meet the demands of the integrity of God and of divine justice. Indeed, this saying would be fitting to inscribe, if any place, over the broad gate that Matthew speaks of that leads to the lake of fire. This indeed would be a fitting saying. It would exactly state what human beings think: "I've served my time in hell." The truth of the matter is that the hell of Guadalcanal was, for most Marines, but prelude to the eternal hell of the lake of fire.

I was struck recently by the fact that Matthew 7:13-14, which declare this narrow road concept, is followed very closely by verses 21-23, which explain what's going to happen with people who do not understand verses 13-14. These are people who actually think, that when they're on the broad road for eternal hell, are on the road heading for heaven: "Not everyone that says unto Me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of My Father Who is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and in Your name have cast out demons, and in Your name have done many wonderful works?' Then I will profess unto them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work iniquity.'"

Charismatics

So, the mass of humanity indeed walks the spacious road to serve their eternity in hell. And the cause for this delusion is explained to us in the verses which immediately follow: verses 24-27. Why can people be so deluded – thinking that they are going to heaven, when they are walking on a road that's heading straight for hell? That's unbelievable. Yet the delusion is quite possible.

Some of us have had the experience of traveling cross-country, and finding ourselves on the road that we thought was going one place, only to discover we're going in the wrong direction. Sometimes we're 180 degrees wrong, going in a totally different wrong direction. That becomes very embarrassing. And we say, "Now, how did that happen? I can't believe this. How could I be going in the wrong direction? I was so sure I was right. How can you get so twisted up?"

Well, it's easy in the normal realm of things, but it's disastrous if it happens in eternal matters. And it is happening. The reason for it starts at verse 24: "Therefore, whosoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock" – "Hearing these sayings of Mine." What is the Lord referring to? Bible doctrine – the instruction of divine viewpoint concerning how to go to heaven. And it describes the security of those who have built their house (their life) upon the rock of doctrine.

Verse 26, however, says, "And everyone that here hears these sayings of Mine and does not do them shall be like unto a foolish man who built his house upon the sand with the consequent destruction that came to him." You will notice that both of these people began with: "hearing these sayings of Mine." Both of them have access to the information of the Word of God. And Romans has made it clear that all the world (every human being), in one way or another, has access to understanding concerning the God who is out there, and what He expects of us. But the result is either negative or positive toward that information – the information of doctrine.

So, the people who are on the broad road that is leading to hell are the people who have never gotten Romans straight in their minds – particularly the area of Romans that we're in now. They simply have not gotten this area of justification clear in their understanding. They have never been exposed to it; they've been indifferent to it; or, they've been negative to it. And in one way or another, their thinking has led them away from the road to heaven, and has put them on the road to hell.

Romans 5:12, that we have been looking at, introduces an explanation of how it is that all sinners can be on the narrow road, and can enter through the narrow gate of grace, and arrive at heaven simply through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That's the problem. Verse 12 is trying to explain to us how what Christ did can enable you to walk on the road that is narrow, but certain in its destiny of eternal blessing.

Adam and Christ

Federal Headship

Justification of sinners on the ground of the absolute righteousness of Jesus Christ is therefore illustrated here by a reference to condemnation of sinners for the sin of Adam. How can what one man do have such an effect on all of us? Well, he said, "I'll illustrate this. I'll explain this. I'll show you what happened to all of us because of one man, Adam. Then you'll understand how we can have a justification in perpetuity by something that one man, Jesus Christ, did. As we are condemned on account of what Adam did, he is saying, we are justified on account of what Christ did.

Sin Entered the World

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." The next words are: "And so." First of all, the word "and" is the conjunction "kai," which indicates a connection. The word "so" is "houtos." "Houtos" is an adverb meaning "thus" or "so." This phrase introduces a universal condition of mankind because of Adam's disobedience. As Adam brought sin on all men, he brought death on all men.

Therefore, we would translate "kai houtos" as "consequently," or "hence it happens." It is going to introduce something that took place. Do not translate it as "so also." Sometimes you find that in translations, and that is bad, because it suggests that Paul is teaching that as Adam died because he sinned, so also we die because we sin. That is not true. That is not the comparison. He's not saying that as Adam died, because he sinned, so we die because we have personal acts of sin. "So also" suggests that's what he's teaching, and that isn't what he's saying. Paul is teaching the connection between Adam's sin and the death of us all. In the wisdom and providence and dealing of God, there is a connection between Adam's sin and you being a candidate for business for the mortician. There's a connection. It isn't just that you are guilty of personal sins, which is true. The problem of death is because of something that Adam did.

So, the translation "and so" indicates the idea of consequence, and that is a proper translation: "All were involved in Adam's sin, and so all are involved in his death." That's the idea: "All were involved in Adam's sin, and so ('houtos kai') all are involved in his death." This does not introduce a conclusion of a comparison which was begun previously by the word "as," incidentally. In verse 12, it says, "As by one man." This comparison is between Adam and Christ. "And so" connects Adam with his posterity. We don't have a conclusion for verse 12. Verse 12 begins the comparison, and it says, "As by one man, ...," but it never tells us what the end of it is, because Paul interrupts himself in verses 13-17. Then he gets back to verses 18-19, and he does give us a conclusion. We'll get to that a little more later, but we don't want you to think that we have any finish in verse 12. It is just a statement of a condition, and he doesn't draw any conclusions from that at this point. The conclusion comes later.

Death

Life and Death

Romans 5:13-14 are going to explain verse 12, and you will notice that verse 14 is very clearly speaking about physical death. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses; even over them that had not sinned after the pattern of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that is to come."

Verse 14 says that death reigned even before there were rules for people to break. Adam's death was the result of breaking a rule, and then there were no rules until the Mosaic Law came along. Yet, death was there. Everybody is under death, even those who aren't breaking specific rules of God. What kind of death is he talking about there? Physical death, obviously.

What this death did, he says, "Is to pass upon all men." The word "pass" is the Greek word "dierchomai." "Dierchomai" means "to pass through." Here it connotes the idea of "to spread." It is aorist. At the point when Adam sinned, suddenly death spread from him. It is active voice. Death did the spreading. It is indicative – a statement of fact. And it says, "It spread upon." That's the preposition "eis," which indicates direction: "It spread in the direction of all men." The word "all" is "pas." And the word "men" is "anthropos." "Anthropos" is the generic word for humanity (mankind). It is not the word for a male person. There is a different Greek word ("aner") for that. That is a male person. That is men as male creatures. But when it says, "Anthropos," it means men and women. It means all humanity – mankind.

So, here is a condition. Adam did something that violated a specific rule that God gave him, and the consequence was physical, spiritual, and eternal death to all mankind who were to be born from him.

They All Sinned

Sin

That was not so with Adam. Adam was very definitive; very deliberate; very unemotional; and, very logical about this. With that fantastic computer-like mind of his, he made a decision that directed the action of his will. It was a choice of negative volition by active, deliberate choice. "Hamartano" is active voice, and it is specifically directed toward Adam. It's indicative. It's a statement of fact.

So, what do we mean by "all have sinned?" Well, perhaps today, about all I can get to is to tell you what it does not mean. So, let's clarify those points first, then we can get to what it really does mean.

We don't Die because of our Personal Sins

That is not what this is teaching. We know that because, as we told you, this "hamartano" is aorist tense. And aorist tense speaks about a point action in time. That's the significance of aorist. It's an historical event at a point in time. And it indicates (because it's aorist) a once-and-for-all event in time. So, such an event is mankind sinning as a whole. Now, when can that be? Obviously, that cannot be personal sins. Such an event is mankind sinning in Adam.

This idea that you die because of your personal sins would be inconsistent with the whole point of this passage of Romans 5:12-21. This passage is trying to show us that the cause of death is Adam's sin – not ours. And verses 13-14 are going to make that particularly clear – that people were dying who could not have sinned themselves, because they were babies, for example. And yet they were dying. So, obviously, it isn't your personal sins that cause you to die. Otherwise, babies (who cannot sin) would not be dying. Also, this would destroy the analogy between Adam and Christ. And it would make Paul teach indeed that all die through personal sins as all lived through personal righteousness.

Well, if we could grow up without sinning, we would live. We would have personal righteousness. And that destroys the analogy because the analogy says, "As in Adam (because of something he did), we all die; so, in Christ (because of something He and He alone did), we live. And that is an important analogy, because it just wipes clear all the people who are on the broad road to destruction. It wipes clear all their religious viewpoints. It just wipes off the map all their rituals for salvation, and all of their human good concepts. It just wipes everything off, because it's all dependent on what Adam does or what Christ does. Bingo, that's all. The rest of us are out of it. We're out of it. And you must remember that. You must learn that. God says, "You're out of it when it comes to salvation. You're just a beneficiary."

Death is wider than personal transgressions. Babies die, as we say, before they personally sin. So, death is wider than that. So, that view is wrong.

We Die because of Something Adam Did

That is not the meaning of this word "hamartano." That's called mediate imputation. That's something coming to you through a mediate realm. It's not the sin of Adam directly that's the ground, but it is something that he passes on to you – a disease he gives you, and that becomes the ground for your condemnation. But the Bible says, "No." It is true that with your old sin nature, you could not enter heaven. But this passage is not telling us that you die because you have an old sin nature. This passage is telling us that you die because of something Adam did, not because of something he gave to you, though that is true. All who were born from him had to be born after his kind. He was a sinner, and that is the kind of children he's going to have.

The previous phrase, "sin entered into the world," would then mean that men became depraved, and that's not enough: "And so sin entered into the world – men became depraved." That is not enough to explain the meaning of this word "hamartano." Verses 13-14, again, prove that all men sinned in Adam, but it cannot prove that all have a sin nature. When Paul says, "I'm going to explain what I said in verse 12," and then he goes on to explain it in verses 13-14 (you may just read it), he's not saying in verses 13-14 that everybody is dying because they have an old sin nature. He's just saying that everybody is dying because of something that Adam did. Also, it undermines the basic truth of salvation being built on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, apart from what the sinner is, even as one is a sinner due to what Adam is apart from himself. This comparison is important. What the Bible is saying here is that you are under the judgment of death in Adam apart from what you are. You are under the salvation of God in Christ apart from what you are. That comparison must not be violated in any way. That's the whole point of this analogy.

That's why very often you will read commentaries, and this section is simply entitled "Adam and Christ," and it is a good title. Or it'll say "The Analogy between Adam and Christ." Those two names together are a constant comparison one to the other. And any interpretation of what it means "so all have sinned" must not violate that comparison.

If you say that it is your sin nature, then it is something about yourself that's involved. And then you must go over to salvation, and you say, "Well, what is it about myself that's involved? And zingo, you've got baptismal regeneration; the Lord's Supper; circumcision; good works; and, the whole bit, and that's what Paul is being very careful to exclude. It's a narrow road, and grace has no room for anything else than what is apart from ourselves. The analogy between Adam and Christ points out that Adam's sin is distinguished from our personal sins and from our old sin nature (which we got from him) as being the ground of our condemnation. Therefore, our own righteousness cannot be the ground of our justification.

It's also inconsistent. This idea that your sin nature is the reason you die physically is just inconsistent with Romans 5:15-19, which declare that Adam's sin is the ground of our condemnation.

Each Person Sins for Himself

So, it is not true to say that Adam sinned for you; that is, you sinned when Adam sinned. When Adam sinned, Adam sinned. That's all – not you, or anyone else. And when Eve sinned, Adam did not sin – only Eve sin. Had Adam gone first and sinned, it would have been a problem for Eve. And had she refused to eat the fruit, that really would have been a problem. But she could not have been accused of sinning. I won't go into the solutions for all that. I'll let you work out what would have happened in that case. It's kind of a pointless discussion, but it is kind of interesting to think of what would have happened if it had gone the other way around, or if Adam had said, "Uh uh, Eve. I'm going to find myself another girl. I don't care how far I have to look, or where I have to go. But I'm not going to join you in this mess," because he knew it was a mess.

We are not saying that you actually sinned in Adam. It's senseless to say that an individual personally sinned thousands of years before he was even a personality, and before he even existed as an individual. Again, this interpretation contradicts, as we shall see, Romans 5:12-21. The main point of that is that for the offense of one man, Adam, the judgment of death came upon all – not for the offenses of all of us did death come upon us, but for the offenses of this man, death came upon us. Again, it would give a problem for the analogy here between Adam and Christ. It would make obedience of Jesus Christ strictly our acts in Him, which is not true. It would be our acts of obedience in Christ that would save us. Then you can see where we are again. We're back to that broad road of destruction.

The true meaning is something entirely different and something very marvelous. And the thing that is so great about what these words actually mean is that they suddenly make clear to us how much more we have gained than Adam ever had. Can you believe it – that in spite of what has happened to us; what we are; and, what we have become, we, in Christ, have become so fantastically much more than Adam ever could have been in the Garden of Eden had he never sinned. It is all bound up in the real biblical interpretation of the words "for all have sinned." And we'll go into that next time.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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