Morning Sermon - 11th October 2026 - Adam, Covenant Breaking, and the Need for a Saviour

Now we turn in God's word to Romans chapter five, please, Romans chapter five, and we're going to break into the chapter at verse 12.

And we're going to read to verse 21, which is the end of the chapter.

Romans chapter five and verse 12, this is God's word.

Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given but sin is not counted where there is no law.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam who was a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass for if many died through one man's trespass much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin.

For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

For if because of one man's trespass death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men so one act of righteousness leads justification and life for all men.

For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be righteous.

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Amen.

Now why should anybody really be interested in a saviour or in salvation itself if they didn't believe there was anything that they needed to be saved from.

It would seem utterly pointless if you're not a sinner well why do you really need saved then?

Imagine a medical setting, a patient visits a GP after the examination.

The doctor says you urgently need a demanding course of treatment or even radical surgery if you're to be cured.

Some patients reply, Well no I don't need that.

I just want a second opinion.

There's nothing seriously wrong with me.

I'm fine.

Most doctors have met people in denial about their true condition.

And all around us there are people in denial about their spiritual health.

The Bible goes further, they're not merely sick, they're spiritually dead.

That's what the Bible says.

And yet in evangelism we present the gospel to many who feel no sense of need whatsoever.

They say, well, why should I want a savior?

There's nothing for which I really need to be saved from.

I'm as good as anybody else and there are things that yes, I can perhaps improve upon, but I don't need a savior and I certainly don't need salvation.

And that's a very common response.

A lack of spiritual need is probably one of the greatest obstacles, perhaps the greatest obstacle to people receiving the gospel and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

They simply do not feel they need the savior or the message that the church proclaims.

And we know of course that in their spiritual deadness only the Holy Spirit can give a real sense of need and open their eyes to what's wrong and show them the solution God has provided in Jesus Christ.

It's a work of grace and we can't bring anyone to conversion.

We present the message as faithfully as we can.

We seek to avoid unnecessary offense but ultimately our God can convict a sinner.

It's only our God can convict a sinner and bring him to salvation.

Every conversion we need to take on board is a miracle and the greatest miracle of all, someone who was dead is made alive.

And in our series that we've been looking at on Sunday mornings exploring the wonder of salvation, we have been considering the personal work of the Lord Jesus Christ and we've been thinking particularly of the person, the Savior God that God the Father gave in His only Son.

Now we turn to ask a question this morning.

Well, why is a Savior needed?

Why is a Savior needed?

And we're thinking about the tragic state of the unrepentant.

The tragic state of the unrepentant, and we need to understand this regarding our own spiritual condition and also as we seek to spread the gospel.

And we must know what's wrong with those to whom we're actually taking the message to.

And a superficial view of the problem produces a superficial answer, and that certainly isn't the answer of the gospel that is found in the Scriptures.

So to understand the tragic state of the unrepentant, there are three things that we need to get into your minds and that we need to be clear about.

First of all, we need to examine covenant breaking by Adam.

Then secondly we need to think about covenant union with Adam.

And then thirdly we need to think about covenant breaking by humans.

And these are three essential elements that we need to understand to see the tragic condition, the tragic position, that tragic position that the unsaved are actually in.

So let's first of all examine covenant breaking by Adam.

Covenant breaking by Adam and you must begin at the beginning.

Literally we start at the beginning of human history in the Garden Of Eden and we have to realize this is not a myth or a legend but this is history as presented by the book of Genesis and what was the basic relationship between God and Adam and Eve in the Garden Of Eden at the dawn of history.

What was their relationship like?

Well when we view Eden in the light of Scripture as a whole, we see that the relationship was a covenant often called a covenant of works.

And it's vital that we repeatedly return to this covenant relationship so that we grasp exactly exactly what the Lord was doing in Eden and how human history unfolded from that point.

Now if you take the time to read the first three chapters of the book of Genesis, you'll not find that word covenant of course.

As a result some folks say, well there was really no covenant in the Garden Of Eden because it's not mentioned.

Yet when we examine the record carefully, the essential elements of covenant are clearly presented.

The absence of the word doesn't mean the absence of the reality.

And what lies at the heart of the covenant?

Well in simplest terms God gives Himself to His people to be their God in a loving bond.

And Scripture repeatedly uses that analogy of human marriage, a bond of love between those joined in covenant.

So it was between God and man.

And God lavished rich blessings in Adam and Eve, they lacked nothing, yet far greater than the gifts themselves was the fact that God was giving Himself, Not that He just gave them gifts, that He looked after them, but He was giving Himself to them.

And God's not like an over busy parent who substitutes presents for presents.

He gives blessings, and above all else, gives himself.

And in the...

And in Eden there was a a personal loving fellowship between God and the first human beings.

And that fellowship characterized life and characterized life, a life that was wonderful, a life that was perfect.

And in Genesis chapter three and verse eight, we have got that wonderful picture.

The Lord God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And that's the image there of perfect communion.

And it may well be that Adam and Eve saw a visible form.

Most likely the Son of God, the person...

Second person of the Trinity before His incarnation walking and speaking and enjoying fellowship with Him.

And that's covenant life, God walking with His people in loving fellowship.

And there could be no greater privilege.

And Adam and Eve saw the Lord face to face, spoke with him, enjoyed fellowship with him and God gave Himself in the covenant to them.

A response was required.

That response was loving obedience.

And the Lord poured out His love and in return they were to love Him and that love was to show itself in obedience.

Amazingly, God's requirements were summed up in a single prohibition.

Didn't need a big book of a command set out to Adam and Eve and present them to them, but just one simple statement.

They were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Their response to that command would reveal whether they loved the Lord as they should.

The consequence of disobedience was grave.

We're told, In the day you eat of it, God said, you shall surely die.

And not merely die physically, but die spiritually.

Separation from God.

And that everything they needed and yet despite God's good gifts and the privilege of covenant fellowship, Adam succumbed to temptation.

Satan spoke through the serpent as his mouthpiece and temptation came mediated through Eve, and Adam capitulated.

He ate the fruit, we're told that in Genesis three:six.

Immediately the world changed.

Every relationship was altered.

Their relationship to each other was fractured.

Adam blamed Eve, the woman you gave me.

That's what he says to God and we're still in that implication of blaming Eve.

He was really trying to shift the blame onto God Himself.

And that's what sinners always do, not me, someone else's fault.

And even the relationship with creation was twisted.

There were thorns and thistles and painful toil to draw living from the ground suddenly became a reality.

And at the root of it all the covenant was broken.

The loving bond between God and His people was fractured and Adam and Eve could do nothing to restore it.

They had taken that fatal step.

And every relationship was now twisted.

The bond between God and man had been ruptured.

The fundamental sin in Eden was covenant breaking, putting self in God's place.

And Adam effectively said, Well, I've got something to work out here.

I've got something to decide.

Is Satan right or is God right?

I'll decide.

And he put himself in God's place and that's what every sinner does.

Even if the words are never spoken the heart says I want to be my own God.

And Adam and Eve broke the beautiful bond of fellowship and that fatal step was taken and to understand the tragic state of the unrepentant, to understand your own heart this morning if you're not saved, you've got to take yourself back to the Garden of Eden and like Adam, you are a covenant breaker.

But then secondly, let's examine covenant union with Adam, covenant union with Adam.

Why should Adam's actions concern us?

They happened so many years ago.

And you may well be asking yourself, well, what effect does this really have on me today?

Well, significance of Adam's fall for us lies in the position that he actually occupied in the Garden of Eden.

The Bible shows that Adam acted not merely as a private individual.

He was also a representative of all his descendants, and the entire human race was represented by Adam.

And in the covenant of Eden, he stood as the covenant head of humanity.

And what he did or failed to do affects everyone he represents.

Now let me give you an imperfect analogy to help you understand one that I've used before.

The actions of a government implicated citizens when a government declares war, the whole nation is involved.

No one can say, Well, I didn't decide that.

We're all in it together.

And in a far deeper sense, Adam represented the whole human race and whatever he did involved all his descendants.

And the threatened penalty was death and quickly becomes clear that death entered the world not for Adam and Eve alone, but for everyone.

And why did we die?

Or why do we die?

Well, death is not merely a feature of evolution.

It has come because of what our representative did.

We're told in Hebrews chapter nine and verse 27, it declares there, It's appointed for man to die once, and that's true of every one of us.

And the New Testament makes that link very explicitly.

In first Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 22.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

It says, in Adam all die.

And this is not merely that we we all follow Adam's example and bring forth death on ourselves.

Adam represented us.

And there's a spiritual covenantal solidarity between Adam and every one of his descendants.

We are in Adam, and the consequence is that we all die.

We are all covenant breakers in Adam.

He's the head.

We're his people.

His breaking of the covenant affects each and every one of us.

And that's precisely why we read from Romans chapter five and verses 12 to 21 because Paul expounds this.

He works out in detail the links between Adam and us and then between Christ and us.

And because of his disobedience, Adam brought death to all who are in him and that is every human being born in an ordinary way.

And later, of course, God willing, we were gonna see the corresponding truth, what the Lord Jesus Christ does in the covenant of grace that affects all of us who are in Him.

This is the great hope.

This is the great light before the light comes the darkness.

So we have to look at the darkness.

First of all, Martin Luther when he preached the gospel said the best thing to do is to preach the law, is to preach covenant breaking because then you're telling people where they're at and where they need to go to.

And that's what we're doing this morning.

Because we're in Adam, we share the consequences of what he did, death in all its senses, death of the body, spiritual death, separation from God, eternal death and a lost sinner's hell for all eternity.

And all of that is ours because of what our representative did in Eden.

And praise the Lord, that's what Christ has done or Christ...

That's how Christ brings salvation for us.

That's what Christ has done.

He brings salvation to all who are in him.

And yet we mustn't rush ahead to see what Christ will do.

We must first see what's wrong with us and why this world that you and I live in is such a terrible mess and has been such a terrible mess from the time of the fall.

We're united in Adam in the broken covenant and we're all in the same plight and death comes to all because we're in Christ.

Adam represents us and what he did affects us all.

And Paul tells us in Romans five that death entered the world through one man and because of the sin of one man all are affected.

And this is also why it's important to insist on the historicity of the Bible.

Adam is not a mythological figure borrowed from other cultures.

Unless Adam was a real man who did certain things in a real garden, then Paul writes, What we say about human sin collapses into absolute and utter fiction.

The Bible at every point treats Adam as a historical figure just as the Lord Jesus Christ is a historical figure.

We're dealing with history and what actually happened, what you would have seen and heard had you been standing there in the Garden Of Eden, you would have seen covenant breaking.

You would see this covenant union with Adam and you would see how the fall came around and how profoundly important it is that you see yourself aligned with Adam in this union with Adam, this covenant breaking with Adam.

And then thirdly and finally, let's examine covenant breaking by humans.

Covenant breaking by humans and let's bring this right home to yourselves.

We have seen the connection in the broken covenant with Adam.

When God passed a sentence in Genesis chapter three, the whole human race was in view.

The consequences of Adam's disobedience implicated all of us.

We die.

We live in a world of thorns and thistles and painful struggle.

And these things affect not only Adam and Eve, but the entire human race down through the centuries.

And that means you and me.

And Paul spells out the result of our union with Adam in Romans chapter five verse 12.

He says there in verse 12, if if you look at the verse it says, therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all have sinned.

And he points us to that single historical event so many millennia ago.

Every human being is constituted a sinner because of covenantal union with Adam.

And that's how God decreed it would be.

And so it was in Adam we die.

We inherit from our forefather Adam a fallen human nature.

We're born into the world as sinners and that's our inheritance.

Paul says in Romans chapter five and verse 18, he says there in verse 18, if you if you look along, he says, therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

From one...

From our our first moments we stand under the condemnation of a holy God.

We're all implicated.

The shorter catechism makes this very clear.

All mankind descending from Adam by ordinary generation sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression.

And Jesus is the great exception.

He didn't descend from Adam by ordinary generation.

And that's exactly what Paul argues at length in Romans chapter five and what first Corinthians chapter 15 verse 22 affirms in Adam all die.

1 Corinthians 15:22

We are we are dead men.

Dead men and women walking.

We may be physically vigorous and full of health but spiritually we're dead.

Appearances deceived.

In our sin we are separated from God.

We have no fellowship with him.

And the picture of Adam and Eve walking in the garden in the cool of the day is inconceivable for sinners.

A holy God and unholy sinners do not walk together in fellowship.

It's absolutely impossible.

And we read in Romans chapter five and verse 19, For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

We're constituted sinners in God's sight.

And as we're born into this world, there's only one verdict that fits our condition and it's guilty.

And we stand before God, the judge of the guilty deserving his wrath and curse, and that's our terrible state because of our union with Adam.

We can't change ourselves anymore that an Ethiopian can change his skin or a leopard changes his spots.

Left to ourselves that's how we remain for all eternity.

We're born sinful people with a corrupt nature and King David understood this.

This is why he wrote in Psalm 51 and verse five and sin did my mother conceive me.

He's not primarily accusing his mother.

He's acknowledging that from the first moment of his existence he was a sinner in need of God's grace.

And that sinful root, the corrupt nature gives rise to our particular sinful actions whatever form they actually take.

They differ for each of us, but they are...

They all spring from our sinful nature, and we we sin because we are sinners, and we often reserve the order...

We we reverse the order, and we we we think because sinners...

We're sinners because we sin.

No.

It's not.

The truth is we are sinners born in sin, and then we sin.

We're not compelled to sin against our will.

We we sin willingly, and we are free agents responsible for our actions, and we're held accountable for that.

We're guilty in God's sight.

And the sovereign God had every right to establish that covenantal arrangement in Eden with all the consequences that flowed from it.

And yet this is a wonderful truth, and we shall want to explore it a bit more, but the same principle of representation that implicates all of us in Adam's sin also opens the door for great hope, does it not?

In Christ the covenant head, covenant head of the covenant of grace, that same principle provides what?

Salvation for all who trust in Him.

And if we're inclined to protest, well it's not fair that Adam represents us.

I didn't want Adam to represent us.

Well then the same consistency requires us to say, well it's not fair that Christ represented sinners like me that I should receive salvation through what he did.

It's the same principle, covenant representation.

And we need to be clear as as the scriptures have shown about the tragic state of the unrepentant.

It's rooted at the very beginning of human history, covenant breaking by Adam, disobeying God, rupturing the loving covenant that had been made.

Because he represents us and because of our covenant union with him, we are all in that same tragic state.

We're all guilty before God.

We're covenant breakers who deserve the judgment and condemnation of God.

Sin entered the world through Adam, and death through sin is part of us, and so death has spread to all of us.

So we come this morning, and you might say to me, well this is a very hard word.

Well this is the condition that you're in.

And you know, you might say to me, well that's very hard telling me of my tragic condition.

Well, only reason I'm telling you about your tragic condition is because I love you and and I'm concerned about your soul.

It would be a sad thing if I didn't tell you, and I would admonish you this morning if you have not yet trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, that you would come to him because you are implicated.

You're implicated in sin through Adam today if you're not saved, and your only hope is Jesus Christ.

He is our great representative, and it's to him that we turn, and it's to him that we look, and it's to him that we cast ourselves upon.

And today I would admonish you to cry to him for mercy and trust in him as the only savior of covenant breakers.

And don't delay because it's appointed for man to die once, and after that comes the judgment.

And at this moment, you're still within reach of that grace.

And I say come to Christ and live.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we just thank you for these moments together.

We thank you for being with us today, and we just simply plead that you would write this word upon hearts and draw sinners to yourself.

For we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.