In the sermon titled 'In Adam's Fall, We Sinned All - Part 2', Pastor Steve Hopkins discusses the challenging doctrine of imputation as presented in Romans 5:12-14. The sermon elaborates on how sin and death entered the world through Adam's transgression, and how all humanity is considered guilty through this original sin. Pastor Hopkins explains the concept that Adam's sin is imputed to all his descendants, leading to universal condemnation and death, even for those who have not committed actual sin, such as infants. This imputation is contrasted with the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers, which leads to their justification. The sermon also references historical perspectives from theologians like R.C. Sproul, Martin Lloyd Jones, and Matthew Henry, emphasizing the theological complexity and difficulty in accepting these doctrines. The sermon concludes by reinforcing the contrast between Adam's disobedience and Christ's obedience, both of which have profound implications for humanity.

Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the Book of Romans. Good morning. Turn with me in your Bibles once again to the book of Romans, the fifth chapter. We will be, the Lord willing, going over these same passages of Scripture that we went over last week.

The text, I believe, warrants that. These are things that are very difficult to understand, possibly, and some believe that The 12th verse of Romans chapter 5 is one of the most, if not the most difficult passages in all of Scripture to understand and to accept and to embrace. It just really goes against our flesh. You know, the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter chapter 3 in verse 16 actually makes an admission about the Apostle Paul that he says many things that are difficult to understand. I find that very interesting coming from one apostle about another apostle.

But we have to remember that the apostle Paul went into the third heaven and heard things that he couldn't even express on the earth and couldn't bring back and speak on earth. But his wisdom is from the Holy Spirit and his word, as all the apostles, is the Word of the Living God. So with that in mind, let's stand and read once again Romans chapter 5 verses 12 through 14 together. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For unto the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we ask for your help once again as we seek to understand the passage before us and we trust God that you will, according to your word, provide the guidance of the Holy Spirit to them that ask. And we do ask, Lord, for the guidance of your spirit, the opening of our understanding this morning as we open your word.

For we do ask it in the name of Jesus, amen. Let's be seated. So once again, the title of this morning's sermon, the message is, In Adam's Fall, We Send All, Part 2. The passage, as I said, has been described by many and even theologians as one of the most difficult passages to understand in all of Scripture. So difficult is it to understand and to accept that in the 1960s, the great Dr.

Martin Lloyd Jones of Westminster Chapel in England, while expounding the troops of verses 12, 13, and 14, many in his congregation stood up and walked out. And I was listening to this message, and I wasn't aware of that. I had never heard anyone say that and I'm listening to the message and then when he gets to this certain point, you can almost hear a change in his voice. He's struck by this. And at one point he says, And I see that some have gotten up and gone out in despair." And then he said, but I'm not surprised.

He went on to say, he said, it's the most difficult thing I will ever ask you to do. And that is to accept, based upon what the apostle is teaching, accept the truth of this, accept the truth of it, even if you can't understand it, even if it is difficult to embrace. In our last session I began by quoting the New England Primmer, the 1777 New England Primmer, a little book that was used at the founding of this nation in part to teach children their ABCs along with their ABCs biblical doctrine. And the Primmer with the very first letter in the alphabet teaches the very concept that is so difficult for us to understand and grasp. First graders, as we would call them today, learned the letter A by teaching them a little rhyme and with it a very important doctrine, the doctrine of the imputation of the guilt of Adam's sin to all of his posterity.

With the letter A they learned, in Adam's fall we send all. In Adam's fall we send all. Same doctrine taught in our passage this morning in Romans 5 verse 12. The doctrine of the imputation of the guilt of one man's sin, Adam, to all his posterity, Christ of course being accepted, and death by sin. By one man, Adam, sin entered into the world and death by sin and all sinned in Adam sin look at the text and all sinned in Adam sin By one man sin entered into the world, death by sin.

For that all have sinned, so death passed upon all men." This is another way of reading it. The teaching here is that one sin of one man led to the condemnation of all men. That one sin committed by one man led to the condemnation of all men. And we don't like that concept. We don't like it that by the sin of one man, all men are constituted sinners.

We don't like that. We don't like it that, in the words of R.C. Sproul, that Adam's sin is reckoned and transferred, Imputed to the entire human race. We don't like that It sounds almost like it's unfair We don't like it that that all are condemned on account of what one man did. But as I said last week, in the same way, we are justified on account of what one man did.

Has everyone got that? We don't like it that we can all be condemned on account of what Adam did, but we seem to be okay with the fact that we are justified on account of what Christ did. We don't like it that by one man we've been brought into a state of condemnation. We don't like that. It goes against our flesh.

But we can kind of understand and accept that by one man we're brought into a state of justification. We don't like it that by one man and his sin we're brought into a state of condemnation. But we can kind of grasp and understand that by one man and what he did, those who believe on him are brought into a state of justification. These are difficult things to understand. The text before us teaches that sin entered into the world by one, Adam, and then on account of the sin of that one, man, death entered into the world, and death, which is the consequence of sin, passed upon all men, because all sinned in him when he sinned.

In Adam's fall we sinned all. We all sinned in Adam. And the proof that we all sinned in Adam is that we all die. In Adam all die. Paul says through the Corinthian church in 1st Corinthians 1522, in Adam all die.

Even infants in the womb and newborns who have never committed actual sin die, which we'll look at in more depth in a few minutes. The teaching of the Apostle in this passage is that we all sinned in Adam, and the way we all sinned in Adam was by imputation, was by imputation. And one of my children, when we were talking about all this, said, Dad, you need to give a really good definition of what it means to have something imputed to you. So imputed means counted Another way it's described as reckoned that something is reckoned to someone else If something is imputed to you, you're counted as being that. You're regarded as belonging to it.

Sproal uses the word transferred, transferred to you. One of the Commentaries that I look at says it's to be declared or put to the account of so when you think Imputation think of something being put to your account Whether it's the sin of Adam or the righteousness of Christ. Something being put to your account even when you weren't there. See it's really difficult to say, I wasn't there in the garden. I didn't actually eat of that fruit.

You weren't actually there on earth when Jesus kept the law perfectly in your place. His righteousness, His obedience is imputed to all those in Him. The sin of Adam is imputed to all those in Him, regarded as theirs, and they're treated that way. We are regarded as righteous even though we're not, and we're treated as righteous even though we're not on account of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, declared to our accounts. In the same way, we are declared sinners.

The sin of Adam is imputed to all his posterity. Adam being the representative head of us all, of the whole human race, his sin was imputed or reckoned to all his posterity. And the way we know that Paul is talking here about imputation, look at your Bibles, the way we know that in verse 12 he's talking about imputation, Notice what follows in verse 13 is a parenthesis Some Bibles will have a little dash there same thing Okay, here's a thought that the Apostle Paul is driving home And then from verses 12 13 14 15 16 and 17 into parentheses He makes his case and then he goes back and drives home the point in verse 18, which is what? By the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Ouch.

That's the hard one. And by the righteousness of one, what? Justification. Justification. And both by imputation.

Both by imputation. That's how we know what the Apostle Paul is talking about here. He labors the contrast between what Adam did and what that meant for the human race and what Christ did and what that affected for all those who believe. In a few verses on, which we already looked at, in verse 18, we see where Paul is going. By the offense of one, judgment came upon all.

By the righteousness of one, what comes upon those who believe in Christ's justification. That's imputation spelled out very clearly. There's no other interpretation of the passage before us that doesn't end up destroying the context and the analogy and the contrast between Adam and Christ. Every other, other than imputation, every other way that men try to explain this destroys what the Apostle is saying. It causes the analogy between Adam and Christ to to evaporate.

For instance, if we say, well, he's saying that we're all condemned because we have a sin nature. It causes the analogy to evaporate. Are we justified in Christ because we have a righteous nature? No, by imputation. Every other way it's explained.

Well, we didn't actually sin. We didn't eat the fruit. Isn't he just saying that it's because we all sinned once we got to earth? This is before anyone was on the face of the earth and before they even have a sin nature. All sinned in Adam.

All sinned in Adam. Adam's disobedience resulted in our condemnation. Christ's obedience results in our justification, both by imputation, both by what they did being declared to our accounts. The difficult part is not that second part about Christ's obedience being, you know, resulting in our justification, that the hard part is that first part. It's easy for us to understand and accept being regarded as righteous on account of the righteousness of another Christ, but that part about our being regarded as sinners on account of the sin of another.

That's the hard one. That's the hard part. We may not like it, but it's what the apostle is saying. On account of the disobedience of one Adam, all men are constituted sinners, regarded and treated as sinners, even before they've committed an actual sin. Even before they're born with a sin nature.

We sinned in Adam. In Adam's fall, we sinned all. We all died in Adam. In Adam, all die, as we read from 1 Corinthians 15 22. And death is universal, and death is the consequence of sin.

All men are condemned to die in account of the sin of Adam. We sinned in Adam, and the death sentence came upon us all as the consequence. Ouch. We don't like that. And Adam all die because an Adam all sinned by representation and imputation.

Adam being the head and representative of the race of man standing in our place, he sinned and we in him. By one man Adam sinned. Adam sinned, entered into the world, and death by sin. And we all sinned in Adam's sin. In Adam's fall we sinned all, proven by the fact that death, the consequence for sin, passed upon all.

Death is the proof. Think about this. So Christ didn't have a sin nature. Christ never actually sinned, but Christ died. And he could only die because our sins were imputed to him.

Again in verses 13 and 14, at least in the KJV, the parenthesis begins, everything between 13 and 17 are by way of explanation. Before Paul gets to the main point he's driving at in verse 18, which is the justification of sinners by the imputed righteousness of Christ to those who believe, first He lays down the imputation of the sin of Adam to all those who belong to Him. Again verse 18, by the offense of one, Adam's judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, Jesus' justification. Paul begins again by laying down the doctrine of the imputation of the guilt of one man, Adam, to all men, proven by the fact that death, the consequence for sin, passed upon all. Death reigned universally as the consequence for sin.

From the time of Adam to the time of Moses before the law of Moses was even given, death came even upon those who had never actually sinned like Adam did, which theologians down through the ages understand as a reference to babies in the womb and newborns. Infants who before the law was given, the law of Moses was given, never having committed actual sin, died. Proving the fact that sin was imputed to all of Adam's descendants because they all die their deaths Demonstrate that Adam's sin was imputed to them as well We don't like that, but that's what the Apostles teach him. The guilt of Adam's sin was imputed to us all. It was declared to the accounts of every one of us, even though we weren't there in the garden.

And we didn't actually break the law he broke. We sinned in the sin of Adam putatively. That is, we sinned in him by imputation. In the same way, again, Christ's righteousness is imputed to believers who weren't there when he walked the earth. We didn't actually keep the law of God perfectly, like Jesus did, but we're regarded and treated as though we had by imputation.

That's where the Apostle Paul is going. Christ is the representative of all those in him, just as Adam is the representative of all those in him. Adam's sin was imputed to his people, just as Christ's righteousness is imputed to His people. Everyone got that? Adam's sin imputed to all His people, human race, all those in Him, His people.

Christ's righteousness imputed to all those in him by faith to all his people. Adam's disobedience resulted in our condemnation. Christ's obedience resulted in our justification. Is it making sense? And both by imputation.

Both by imputation. By the disobedience of one, many are made sinners. That word means constituted sinners. And condemned in God's sight. So by the disobedience of one Adam, many were constituted sinners.

And condemned in God's sight. So by the obedience of one Christ, many were constituted, righteous, and justified in God's sight. That's what the apostle Paul is teaching. And probably one of those things that Peter said in 2 Peter 3, 16, it's difficult to understand some of the stuff he says, but we need to accept it anyways. That's what the apostle is driving at.

That's where he's going. Again, they're considered by many to be some of the most, if not the most difficult passages to understand in all of Scripture. In a few minutes, I want to recount to you from Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones' sermon back in the 1960s at Westminster Chapel in England. Exactly what he was saying, same kind of things I'm saying here in different words, when some in his congregation apparently couldn't take it any longer, couldn't bear the doctrine, just stood up and walked out of his church in his words in despair.

But before we go there again, what have we learned thus far? Sin came into the world by one man, Adam, death by sin, because we all sinned in Adam when he sinned, and as a consequence, death passed upon all mankind by imputation. And again, Christ dies because our sin is imputed to him who knew no sin and had no sin in nature. We all send an Adam putatively that is by imputation. Adam's guilt is our guilt by imputation, just as Christ's righteousness is our righteousness by imputation, reckoned to us, declared to our accounts, even though we didn't actually do what Christ did.

Just as Adam's sin and guilt is reckoned as our sin and guilt and declared to our account so Christ's righteousness is reckoned as our righteousness and declared to our accounts who believe on his name. The entire human race was involved in Adam's sin, we sinned in Him, and the guilt of this sin was imputed to us all. The sin of Adam is imputed to all those, again, who belong to Him, to all His people, just as the righteousness of Christ is imputed to all who belong to Him. Adam's sin counts for us. Jesus' righteousness counts for us in real simple language, both by imputation.

That's the doctrine the apostle Paul is driving home. Again, by way of explanation in verses 13 and 14, he says, from the time of Adam, even until the time of Moses, death reigned. Death was in the world, even before the law of Moses was given at Mount Sinai. And he's reasoning like this. So if there was death before the law was given by Moses from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, if death was already reigning, there must have been sin.

Because death is a consequence of sin, and sin is not imputed, as we read in verse 13, I think it is, where there is no law. So there must have been law for there to be the transgression of the law, which is called sin, and for there to be death. If there's death, there's sin. If there's sin, there's law. Death is the consequence of sin, and if there was sin, there must have been law because sin is not imputed where there is no law.

So, as a note in my Reformation Heritage Bible, commentary says, law, sin, and guilt existed. What law? Don't eat of that fruit. What sin? He ate of it, and we in him.

His guilt transferred to us, death coming upon all men. Some wanted to say, well, this is on account of the law of God that is written on the hearts of men. So, well, it's just talking about, you know, the law of God was written on our hearts. We've already kind of cleared it up. It's not in nature.

Otherwise we'd have to have, for it to follow in the analogy, we'd have to have the nature of righteousness in order to be declared right in the sight of God, justified in the sight of God. No. We've got that all cleared up. It's not the actual sin. We weren't actually there just like we weren't, we didn't actually eat of the fruit, we didn't actually do that, but it's imputed to us just like we didn't actually do what Christ did on earth, but his righteousness is imputed to us.

Okay? Well, others say, okay, well, maybe he's just talking about the violation of the law written on their hearts. And so, incur guilt. But that isn't what the Apostle Paul is talking about here. Men do violate the law that is written on their hearts, and they do incur guilt, but that's not what he's talking about here.

Paul is talking about the violation of one, the sin of one, the sin of Adam, of his transgression, of the singular command given him not to eat of the fruit of the tree, of the knowledge of good and evil, that's the issue. That's what was violated. And we send in him By imputation. We were all involved in it by representation and imputation in the same way that by Christ representing all those for whom he died and Christ imputing his righteousness to all those who believe on his name, we are justified in the sight of God. Adam, being the head of the race and representative of us all, his guilt was imputed, transferred to our accounts, declared to our accounts, and the consequence along with it, death and the consequence along with it.

That's why death passed upon all men. That's why death spread to all men. Death came upon the whole of humanity. Death reigned universally and death reigned universally as the consequence of sin even before the Law of Moses came in. Every member of Adam's race, every person who would ever be conceived by ordinary generation was involved in the sin of Adam.

The Reformation Bible commentary put out by Ligonier Ministries puts it like this, all mankind except Christ was involved in Adam in his sinning by virtue of amputation. He, Adam, represented us before the Lord in Eden and the guilt that he incurred was imputed to his descendants. It was declared or put to our accounts so that we are born guilty even before we commit any act of personal sin. All sinned in the sin of Adam. Ouch.

Or as the New England primer put it, first graders understood at the founding of this nation. In Adam's fall we all sinned. In Adam's fall we sinned all. When Adam fell the whole of humanity fell. When he sinned we all sinned.

He being our representative before God by virtue of imputation. Again the the apostle is teaching the imputation of the guilt of Adam's sin to all his posterity. And the way it all began was with one man. By one man, sin entered into the world. Sin didn't enter into the world, as I said last week, after, you know, through some process of billions of years of evolution, if that were the case, you'd have death before sin.

Rather than death being the consequence of sin. But death is the result of sin. One man's sin. Sin was introduced into the world 6, 000 years ago by one man, Adam, and death by sin. 6, 000 years ago, Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden when not being deceived.

He willingly transgressed the command of God, ate of the fruit of the tree that God said, don't eat, Don't eat of this. One command, one law to him. Thou shalt not eat of it. Genesis 2 17. And the consequence will be death, If you do.

Death was not in the world as a part of God's original creation. Death came as a result of Adam's sin. By one man sinning in and into the world, death by sin, death passed upon all men, because all sinned in Adam. Again, 1 Corinthians 15 and 22 says, in Adam all die. Death reigns universally as the consequence of the sin of Adam.

For that, for that, all have sinned. All have sinned in the sin of Adam. Someone asked me to define the word guilt. What does it mean when we say that his guilt, you know, is our guilt, his guilt is transferred to us. Guilt is that state that results from one's commission of an offense.

Guilt is a state. You're in the state of guilt when you commit an offense, when you actually commit an offense. Adam's guilt, when he committed that offense, is imputed to all his posterity. The guilt he incurred was imputed to every one of his descendants. Every one of us, Adam's guilt was declared, as we just read, or put to our accounts, so that every one of us are born guilty even before we commit any act of personal sin.

Now when we evangelize, what do we say? We tell people they're sinners. They're there in front of us. They've committed sin. They've been sinning since the day they were born, or very shortly maybe thereafter, violating known commands.

So we use the law to bring men to Christ, to show them that they're sinners, because they don't understand any of these things. So we show them, you're sinners. How am I a sinner? Well, here's the commandments. You know, have you broken any of these commandments?

Yeah, okay. And then they understand that they're sinners. When they go on to study the New Testament, they come to understand that their guilt was already there before they ever sinned and before they even had a sin nature. In the sin of Adam all sinned. For that which Adam did all in him did by imputation.

He being the representative of us all, Adam's sin was reckoned, imputed to us all, just as Christ's righteousness is reckoned or imputed to all who believe. Adam, if we read on at the end of verse 14, says, is the figure of him that was to come. So you see where he's going with this. He is the figure, he's the type of him who is to come. He's the figure or type of him who is to come.

And the one who is to come is Christ. Sin comes into the world by the sin of one man, death by sin, death comes upon all because all sinned in the sin of Adam, putatively by imputation, and Christ, Christ. This is the figure of Christ who is to come. The contrast is with Christ, who by His perfect obedience makes many to be righteous in the sight of God. Again, the reign of death from Adam to Moses was on account of the sin of Adam imputed to all his posterity.

And when we get to this part in verse 14, look at those words, even over them that had not sinned What? Death reigned even over them that had not sinned Like Adam did which was actual transgression Even over them Paul is referring here to infants who had not sinned after the likeness or similitude of Adam, who never committed actual sin And yet died. Last week I said in my studies I could, the first I could find to suggest this interpretation was John Gill, but I was wrong. Then I saw Matthew Henry held to that interpretation who was a little bit before Gill. And Calvin even speaks of others holding to that interpretation even before his time in the 1500s.

Matthew Henry explains it this way, quote, death reigned over those who had not sinned any actual sin that had not sinned after the similitude, that's the likeness, of Adam's sin in the same way Adam did, Adam's transgression, who had never sinned in their own persons as Adam did, which is to be understood of infants, that were never guilty of actual sin and yet died, listen to these words, because Adam's sin was imputed to them. I'll say the same thing that Martin Lloyd Jones said in the 1960s. I'm not the first person to stand up in a pulpit and say these things. This is the universal understanding of those in the church that the Reformed churches down through the ages since the Reformation. Gil, I quoted last week, put it this way, the Apostles reference here is to quote infants not yet guilty of actual sin, End quote.

Robert Haldane, Scottish theologian over 100 years later, late 1800s, who I referenced many times, considered to be a great expositor of the scriptures, writes, death comes upon all because we've all sinned being participators in Adam's offense. Death passes on all men because all men are sinners. That is all of the human race and not all merely who actually sin since then infants die. It proves that they are sinners. I said last week, you know, our Baptist confession teaches that elect infants dying in infancy are saved by God.

We don't know who the elect are, but we know that God is able to do that. Otherwise, we can't account right for John the Baptist being filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb. So, since then, infants die, it proves that they are sinners, end quote, Robert Haldane. The late Dr. R.C.

Sproul put it like this, quote, actual sin occurs when we violate the law of God. A baby in the crib, though he bears the weight of original sin, that is, he has a sin nature, does not bear the weight of the guilt of actual sin, because actual sin requires a conscious awareness of right and wrong and an actual violation of law, how then do we account for babies dying in infancy? It makes sense only in the way that Paul argues here, that death reigned from Adam to Moses before there was any law in the world, referring to the written law, there was still sin as a result of the imputation of Adam's sin." End quote. A note in this Bible, in my Reformation Heritage Study Bible says, in the case of infants dying in infancy, they have not committed personal transgression at all, yet death demonstrates guilt. The guilt of Adam's first sin imputed to them.

Anybody gonna walk out? Hope not. Death rained then and continues to rain as the universal consequence of Adam's sin. Death rained over those from Adam to Moses who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam's sin, which was actual sin. But every person ever conceived was involved in Adam's sin through imputation.

And I began this morning, I said that I was shocked as I was listening to that sermon by Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones on Romans 5, 12 through 14. And I had to roll the tape back at one point and say, I couldn't believe my ears. Did that happen? Did what I think happened just happen?

And it's kind of, actually people stood up and walked out on this teaching, the same thing I'm teaching here, the same thing that Sproul's teaching, same thing Matthew Henry's teaching, same thing John Gill's teaching, same thing Robert Haldane's teaching, same thing all the Reformers taught. What? They stood up and walked out? Yeah. Here's what preceded the text.

Death is always a part of the punishment of sin. Death therefore always presupposes guilt and condemnation. Death is universal even in the case of infants who have not committed any actual sin. But because death comes upon them, they therefore must be guilty of some particular sin. They haven't sinned in actions themselves, but they would never have died if they had not been guilty of some sin.

That's Paul's basic argument. Wherefore, is by one man sin entered into the world of death by sin, so death passed upon all men, because all sin. Death means we're guilty of sin. Even infants die, therefore infants are guilty of sin. Then he says, but you say they haven't committed an actual sin, what are they guilty of?

The teaching here is that Adam's sin is imputed to the whole of mankind. And that is the accepted norm, he says, in all reform teaching. At least all those, he says, who haven't become liberals or modernists in the modern time. They haven't drifted off course. The fact that death has come upon all is proof of the fact that all sin.

Death is the result of sin and all sin and all sin in Adam. It's to the offense of the one that many are dead. One offense of one brought death and condemnation upon all. It's that one sin of Adam that has brought death upon everybody. And there's only one explanation.

We were all in it. We all sinned by imputation. That's the Apostles argument, he says. The reign of death proves that we were all regarded by God judicially as sinners, and that is all due to Adam's sin. That's his argument, he says.

And then he goes on to say, you have borne with me well, as far as I can tell, but I've noticed that some have gone out in despair. And I'm not really surprised. It's the most difficult thing I think I shall ever ask you to do, that is to accept doctrine based upon just the clear rendering of scripture. But it's vital if we are to reap the glorious benefit of what the apostle Paul is going on to say. The parallel is with our Lord and His work, and it compels us to say what I have just said." End quote.

As we close, Adam is the federal head and representative of all mankind. When he sinned, we all sinned in him putatively, that is by imputation. So death came upon all. Before the law was given by God to Moses, were all sinners and liable to the punishment of sin, which is death. Even infants who have not personally sinned, because Adam's sin is our sin by imputation.

And Adam was the figure of him that was to come. Adam was the figure of Christ with regards to imputation. Adam broke the covenant of works as the representative head of the whole human race. His sin was imputed to us, but thank God, Christ fulfilled the covenant of works. He kept the law perfectly in our place, and He brought in the covenant of grace.

Christ is the representative of all those for whom He died, and His righteousness is imputed to all who believe on His name, who have put their trust in Him alone for their salvation and their justification before God. In Adam, all were constituted sinners, in Christ all who are in Him, united by faith, are declared righteous." Let's pray. Father, these are difficult things to understand. Even the Apostle Peter declared that there were things that Paul said that were very difficult to understand. God, I pray that you've given us understanding this morning, that you've opened up our understanding to understand these things and to accept these things, oh God.

I pray, God, that you would help us, Lord, in the week to come as we look over these things and maybe search them out further, Lord, to further solidify in our hearts an understanding of the things that we've been taught this day. For we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Amen.