“Are all people then saved through Christ just as they were lost through Adam? No. Only those are saved who through true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all his benefits.
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I want you to imagine that you have found a notebook. You open it up to find out whose it is, but it has no name on the inside cover. You scan its pages looking for some sign of its owner and as you do your eye catches words that are quite familiar. You read the name of your hometown and the name of the street on which you grew up. You choose one page at random and read about an incident that took place in your own life when you were in kindergarten. You keep flipping through the pages only to discover that your life is the subject of each and every page. You keep flipping until you come to the part of the story that covers what is happening in your life right now. You notice that the following pages of the story are already written. Would you keep reading?
Now the fact of the matter is that the story of your life is already written down in broad strokes for anyone to read. Everyone’s life is already written down in broad strokes for everyone to read. Your life and my life can be read in one of two notebooks. The first one is called ‘life in Adam,’ and the second one is called ‘life in Christ.’
The specifics of each ‘life in Adam’ are different but the plot is the same and they all end the same. The specifics of each ‘life in Christ are different but the plot is the same and they all end the same.
Your life, just like the life of every person alive, really does progress according to one of these two stories. You are either in Christ or you are in Adam. If you are in Adam, the plot of your life will end very badly. If you are in Christ, the plot of your life will end better than anyone alive today can imagine.
If you are living a plot progressing to death and wrath, you can switch plotlines. You do so by faith. You move from the story of Adam to the story of Christ by faith. That is the claim of this sermon: you move from the story of Adam to the story of Christ by faith.
We will see this in two points. First: you are either in Adam or in Christ. Second: you are grafted into Christ by faith. First, we will see that you either receive what Adam can do for you or what Christ can do for you. Second, we will see that if you want what Christ can do for you, you must receive it by faith.
First: you are either in Adam or in Christ. We’ve spent a good deal of time over the last few months examining what it means to be in Adam. We’ve seen that original sin spread to all Adam’s descendants, which includes you, me, and everyone else alive. We’ve seen that we can’t make sense of ourselves without using the category of sin. We’ve seen that our sin problem is such that we cannot put ourselves right. We fall woefully short of the glory of God. We’ve seen that we have a debt to pay to God and that we are unable to pay; rather our daily sin puts us daily deeper in debt.
This is the basic plot line of what it means to be in Adam. The story ends in death because, as Paul put it, “sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people, because all sinned.” The details of the story differ from one woman to the next and from one man to the next, but the plot is the same and it ends with God letting humanity have what it wants, which is, unbeknownst to it, is hell. Humanity wishes to have its own way and its own way leads to death.
As we’ve seen, everyone is born into that story. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”
We’ve seen that this is humanity by nature. It is humanity by nature because of Adam, but now Christ has come. He came to put right what Adam put wrong. The question is, ‘for whom?’ Adam put it wrong for all of us. Does Christ put it right for all of us?
The idea that Christ’s righteousness saved us all just as Adam’s sin condemned us all is what is known as Christian universalism. Christian universalism teaches that all will be saved by what Christ did just as all were condemned by what Adam did. Before you dismiss this form of universalism out of hand, please consider it. If what Adam did was bad enough to condemn everyone, isn’t what Christ did good enough to justify everyone? If you don’t need to believe in Adam’s sin to suffer its consequences, why do you need to believe in Jesus’ death to enjoy its consequences? After all, Paul did write, “just as one trespass [by Adam] resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act [by Jesus] resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”
Now that is as long as I can pretend that there is much merit to universalism. The questions I just asked had faulty assumptions. The passage I just quoted was given out of context. The primary warrant for universalism is the fact that some people want it to be true. It is found nowhere in Scripture, and, in fact, the denial of universalism is found everywhere in Scripture.
Everyone did indeed fall into sin as a result of Adam’s sin but not everyone is saved from sin as a result of Christ’s death. You are born into Adam; you must come to Jesus Christ. “For God loved this world condemned by Adam’s sin in this way: He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.”
No one can escape what it means to be in Adam. “The representation of all men in Adam is on the principle of their natural descent from him,” as George Bethune puts it. Are you a human? You were born with original sin thanks to Adam’s sin.
People can, however, and regularly do escape what it means to be in Christ. “Between us and the Lord Jesus Christ,” Bethune puts it, “there is no such natural or necessary connection. By his humanity he is our… brother but not our parent or, by birthright, our sponsor.”
So yes, you don’t need to believe in Adam’s sin and that it has to do with you to suffer for that sin. You receive the results of his sin by virtue of being a descendent of Adam. You do, however, need to believe in Christ’s death and that it has to do with you to benefit from that righteousness. You receive the results of that righteousness by faith.
All are born into Adam but not all come to Christ, which is why God’s word so regularly urges people to come to Christ; they have no share in Christ unless they come and so they must come.
God’s word calls men and women to leave the Adam storyline and join the Christ storyline. Universalism denies that there is any need to join the Christ storyline because Christ has made the story right for everyone. Jesus thinks otherwise. He told the parable of the sheep and the goats because he will, in fact, tell some people, “depart from me. I never knew you.” He told the parable of the sower because there are, in fact, listeners who will not hear, turn, and live. Paul included lists warning the churches about those who would not inherit the kingdom of God because some people will not inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus said you must be born again to inherit the kingdom of God because those who are not born again will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Universalism denies all of this in an attempt to be kinder and gentler, but universalism is not a kinder, gentler version of Christianity. What it does is take people kindly and gently by the hand and lead them to hell.
There are descriptions of hell in Scripture not because God is a sadist but because, like any loving parent, He cares enough to warn by laying out the consequences. “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” He asks. “Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?”
By virtue of being human, you are part of Adam. You are not part of the Son of God simply by virtue of his becoming human. You must have faith. That is our second point: you are grafted into Christ by faith.
You join the Christ storyline by faith and the word that the Catechism uses for this joining is ‘grafting.’ It uses this word because Paul uses the word in his letter to the Romans to describe the Gentiles joining the storyline of the promises of God. They were grafted into the vine.
Grafting is a horticultural technique. Please bring up the slide. What you see on the left is what is known as the scion. This is the portion that is to be grafted. What you see at the bottom of that second picture is what is known as the stock. This is what the scion is grafted into. The scion becomes part of the stock plant.
Now by nature of being in Adam you are part of a decaying, fruitless vine destined to be burned. You, can, however, be snipped off this Adam-vine and grafted into the healthy, fruitful Christ-vine. Christ describes himself saying, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”
Unless you are grafted into Christ, you will have no spiritual life in you, you will bear no fruit, and what happens to all dead branches will happen to you. The process you see here on the screen is the process that you must undergo. You must leave the Adam-vine and join the Christ-vine. You must leave the Adam storyline and join the Christ storyline.
The question that then arises is, ‘how?’ Perhaps you are listening this evening and you are well aware what life in Adam has gotten you. You probably wouldn’t say it aloud, but you know that sin is your master. You do what your sin tells you to do and you are coming to realize that you will receive what sin always receives. You know that you are a branch on a vine destined for burning and you want to be snipped off that lost cause and grafted into Christ so his life flows into you. You want to live. This can happen, but it can only happen by faith. “Only those are saved who through true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all his benefits,” as the Catechism puts it. You can only be cut off from what Adam’s sin gets you and receive what Christ’s righteousness gets you by means of faith. Salvation comes by faith.
This salvation by faith alone was the good news the early church preached. When Paul described his life’s work, he said, “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” Paul took pains to explain that, ‘in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith”… this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.’ Salvation by faith alone might be familiar to you but that doesn’t make it any less revolutionary or any less true.
Now if you aren’t that familiar with Christianity, you might be wondering, ‘what exactly is faith?’ If you are familiar with Christianity, you might be wondering, ‘what exactly is faith?’ That is a fair question which requires a thoughtful answer because if faith is what moves a soul from death in Adam to life in Christ, you want to make sure you have it.
Imagine that someone had a heart attack during one of our events in this facility. You have your cell phone on you, and you call 911. This dispatcher asks you if we have a defibrillator here. Now if you don’t know what a defibrillator is, you can’t possibly know whether or not we have one or not. You aren’t going to make up an answer to give to the dispatcher to save face. You are going to find out what a defibrillator is and if we have one because a life hangs in the balance. Now your life hangs in the balance in regard to this matter of faith. You need to know what faith in Christ is to know whether or not you have it. If you don’t know what faith is, don’t just assume you have it to save face. Your life hands in the balance.
So, what is faith? Well faith isn’t as easy to define as you might think; that is often the case with abstract nouns. Abstract nouns signify matters like freedom or courage. It is far easier to draw a picture of a concrete block than it is to draw a picture of freedom. It is easier to describe a Phillips screwdriver to your child than it is to describe your love for your child to your child. Matters like love, freedom, and faith are harder to define. This is one of the reasons why you might have a fuzzy understanding of faith even though you are quite familiar with Christianity.
Now as we will see in the next couple of weeks, Scripture itself gives some very helpful definitions and descriptions of faith. The church has a long history of explaining faith. We are not the first generation of Christians and we do a disservice to the past and ultimately to ourselves when we act as if we are. You aren’t the first person to wrestle with understanding the nature of faith.
JI Packer has a gift for making abstract ideas concrete. This theologian has made a career out of it. Our senior Catechism class wisely used his book Knowing God to explain to our high school students what it means to know God. Packer defines faith as a, “a belief-and-behavior commitment to Jesus Christ, the divine-human Lord.” He borrows this definition from Romans 10:9, ‘if you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’
Test yourself by Packer’s definition of faith. Do you have, “a belief-and-behavior commitment to Jesus Christ, the divine-human Lord”? To say that you are committed by belief to Jesus is to say that you believe that he is who he says he is. You believe that his life, death, and resurrection unfolded as the gospel accounts describe and that these are meaningful for you in the way the epistles describe. You believe this not simply because you grew up hearing this but because you yourself affirm this truth.
To say that you have a behavior commitment to Jesus is to say that Jesus is God Himself and is worthy of whatever he asks of you. Your life is no longer your own, but you belong body and soul in life and in death to your faithful savior Jesus Christ.
Now if you have this, “belief-and-behavior commitment to Jesus Christ, the divine-human Lord,” you can rest assured that you have faith in Christ. You can know that you have been cut off from the Adam-vine and grafted into the Christ-vine. You can know how your life story ends because it ends in eternal life.
Now if you do not have this faith, I urge you to recognize that you are not in Christ and that you are still in Adam and your life story will end how that story always end, which is in death. Put your faith in Christ for your own sake. We are talking about your soul here. Put your faith in Christ for his sake. He lived the life that you were to live, and he died the death that you deserve to die. He is worthy of your faith.
If you do have this faith, please recognize what is now yours. You now live under God’s smile. Listen to Romans 1:17, “The righteous will live by faith.”
You have righteousness. You are no longer to self-identify as merely a sinner. You are to self-identify as a sinner who is righteous before God and therefore has no reason to fear the final judgment. Listen to Romans 3:22, “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
You have peace with God. You made yourself God’s adversary by your sin. You offended Him grievously and continually. Now that you have faith in Christ, you have peace with God, which is good news because if there is anyone with whom you want to be at peace, it is God. Listen to Romans 5:1, “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
You have access to God’s grace. You were under wrath because of your sin. You had placed yourself under a curse. The spiritists are right to say that there are dark powers in this world. You have left that curse and are under grace. Listen to Romans 5:2, “we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”
You have salvation. Before you had faith in Christ, you were like those men and women in Noah’s day just going about their lives completely unaware that anything was about to happen. Now that you have faith, you are safely in the ark awaiting what will happen. You are saved from what is to come like Noah in that ark. Listen to Ephesians 2:8, “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.”
You have God’s promises. Before you used to live by what you could control about this life, which, as you know, is very little. Now you can live by God’s promises because He always keeps His promises for the sake of those who have faith. This is why Paul could tell the Corinthians, “we live by faith, not by sight.”
You have a fundamentally new identity. Perhaps you’ve found yourself wishing you could simply become someone new. Perhaps you want all that sin and foolishness done away with and to be someone else entirely and yet somehow yourself. Faith gives you this new identity. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Now this faith is an act of reception. You accept, you receive, what Jesus has done. Jesus died saying, “it is finished.” By faith you say, “yes it is,” and you take what is finished. You take your salvation.
Ultimately, all you can do for God is receive from Him. “What do you have that you did not receive?” as Paul put it, “and if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”
Take a step back and ask yourself, how could salvation be by anything other than faith? You can’t give God anything because everything is His. The best a man can do is to receive from God. Faith is this act of reception. “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever!”
Faith is where grace meets grace. “[G]race from the Savior’s side and a grace in the believer’s… soul, unite to bind in union close and sweet and vital, the sinner saved to the Savior of sinners,” as George Bethune puts it.
You have no choice in whether you are subject to what Adam has done. I imagine that you have tried in ten thousand ways to pretend that you don’t live in a fallen world with a corrupt heart. None of this pretending has changed the fact that you are part of the all who, “have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” The only way to change your situation is to receive what Christ has done. He did what you could not. What you can do is receive it. Amen.