Bible Guys Classics: Romans 5 Part 2

Today. Man, I'm excited. I don't know about you, but today's a big one because we're actually talking about Adam's apples. No, no, Kyle, we're not talking about Adams apples. We're talking about how Adam ate the fruit, which, by the way, we don't know what it was, Adam aple, and and how that is connected to Jesus as the second Adam. So yeah, that's that's the topic. So hey, he's Kyle and I'm Chris, and today we are the Bible. Guys. All right, guys, I'm excited about today because you know, over the last few months we've actually been getting into the Babylon some Babylon b articles, which is sat want to. Make sure news news. This is important news. We've got a special one today. And let me just throw this in. I always say this. These are one of my favorite segments because it is really sophisticated humor and because I live in church world. It's whoever writes this, uh lives in church world. Yeah, and you'll like just want because this story is actually based in Akron, Ohio. So oh that's great. It's like forty minutes before I grew up. Yeah, so we're gonna read this and uh, and it's actually fitting because you know, we encourage people to get into Bible reading plans, you know, encourage people to read the Bible in a year. And so the title of today's article is local man crushing Bible in a year plan after switching to Jesus' storybook Bible. All right, this is Akron, Ohio. Ever since changing over to the Jesus Storybook Bible, local man Dan Smith has been totally dominating his Bible in a year plan. Three chapters of Genesis, no problem, he says, watch me knock this out in thirty seconds. This new Bible is incredible. After never making the two week mark in previous attempts to read the Bible in a year, mister Smith has thus far remained right on schedule. Then, he says this, My five year old niece was kind enough to loan me her copy to get started, and it's been a total game changer, said mister Smith. Honestly, I've never un to stoo. The stories so well my entire life. Plus the pictures are so good they really keep me going. Mister Smith has proudly posted his reading schedule on the refrigerator and cross each day off once he's finished, I'm really proud of him. Sticky to this, said Missus Smith. Some days the readings are an entire page. I've had aspirations to do one of those plans, but honestly, I'm not sure I'm ready to take on the Jesus Storybook Bible in just one year. I'll probably start with this is cheesy, she's saying. I'll probably start with Baby's Hug a Bible and see how that goes. Yeah. At publishing time, mister Smith had gotten so engrossed in one of the Old Testa stories that he accidentally read three weeks ahead of schedule. It was so funny. So this is fun This is funny because the Jesus Storybook Bible is a book made for kids. Yeah. So, actually, I want to give a plug to this. I want something funny. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, that's why this article is not fundy to me. Okay, I was literally trying to figure out why is this funny? Yes, and it's because you have to that are article is only funny if you already know what the Jesus so to. Give a plug for the daily because I do think we have obviously a lot of parents who watch this. If you have kids, let's say, under the age of ten, great Bible to have, and even for adults. And here's the thing that's really cool about the storybook Bible is it is like one page at a time telling the stories from the Old Testament all the way through the New Testament. But I think that's really cool about it that you like a lot. I think actually is for one, the illustrations and it are incredible. But then also the way all the stories wrap up is it connects to Jesus. So even thousands of years before Jesus, the way that each story ends, so Esther, Tom David, all these crucial figures, it points to Jesus and sort of redeeming act that Jesus was to bring about. But I can understand now because you haven't read it, that you're. Like, what, I wasn't even laughing at the. Jesus storybook Bible. Okay, well yeah, so you really have to be immersed in. Church culturch culture. Yes, yeah, but again I would just throw a little plug out there for parents make sure to get that it's actually a very very good Bible. Yeah, well, that's cool. You could read through it in a year and probably a week. So yeah, and you said, I love how you said, Chris, I think you'd really like it. I think you would great illustrations, pictures, the story is written. Dude, I'm a huge fan. Where was you at? I'm a huge fan? Man. That's great. Well, hey, today we're going to transition from there by saying this that, uh, we would love for you to interact with us on YouTube like comment and subscribe. If you're already receiving emails of our podcast, the chances are that means you've already subscribed, right, so you're you're receiving those emails. But if you're not receiving emails, that means that you probably try to find us every week you have to go to you know, your you know whatever. Cast or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but if you actually subscribe directly with us the. Bible guys dot com. It will then it'll come from us to you, which we would love. You go on that website, you hit subscribe, and next thing, you know, will be some of you daily emails. It's great. Yep, it's great. So today we're talking about Romans chapter five. Uh, we're completing the second half of the chapter and in this particular case, we're not talking about Adam's apple, which, by the way, I think it's interesting how a medical term is called Adam's apple and it's really based out of biblical stories that Adam took a bite of the apple, which, by the way, it's always bothered me that you know it wasn't an apple, right, What did you not know that it actually says it actually says they ate. Of the fruit. Yeah, So for all we know, we're gonna get to heaven, it's going to be the magical fruit that is unknown. Oh, it could be like it's not a peach, it's not a pair, it's like a orange, prickly, hairy who knows something it could be. It could be something that we don't even know of. But it said of the fruit, yeah, didn't say apple. Yeah. So anyway, I just think that's interesting. So if you do disagree with Chris posting the coms kidding, you mean the Bible, Chris, it. Was a literal apple eating. However, many thousand years ago. Okay, here we go. Let's get into verse twelve. Right here, it says when Adam sinned, Sin entered the world, Adam sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given, but it was not counted a sin because there was not yet any law to break. Still, everyone died from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God as Adam did. Now, Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who has yet to come. But there is a great difference between adam sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam brought death to many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man sin. For Adam sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death. Through this one man, Jesus Christ. Yes, Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but christ one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and a new life to everyone. So you see Paul's repeating himself a bunch here. He's trying to make sure we get the point here. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were, and I love that it was given so people could see how sinful they were. But as people sin more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant. So just a sin ruled over all people and brought them to death. Now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So again there's a lot of redundancies here, but I think it's for emphasis, right. I mean, Paul's saying this to emphasize these very important truths. Yeah, and we do the same thing when we talk today. Yep. So if I were to say, you know, to you man, you kill it, I mean you just crushed it. You slated, dude. I'm telling you, it was so unbelievable. You were incredible. Right, it's the same thing. So and actually, you know, it may seem redundant at times, but actually the nuances in his wording actually bring about just a slightly different aspect in some cases. Let's start at the beginning, because it's this idea that Adam is the uh, he's the second atom, right, Jesus is the second atom. I love that. And by the way, he's referred to later on in some of Paul's writings as the second atom. And I think that that is so unbelievably cool. A lot of people don't realize that Jesus is called the second atom, and Paul's making the contrast. But let's keep in mind though, too. Let's remember the big picture, the reason why Paul is talking about Adam in this case, he'd already talked about Abraham, right, he'd already talked about the Law, he'd already talked about Jesus, and so he's piecing all of this together. Well, the purpose of this is basically, he's here's what he's saying. He's saying, I mean, did you ever wonder he doesn't explain himself, but we know what this means. He says, still, everyone died from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even those who do not disobey in explicit commandment of God as Adam did. So he doesn't unpack that, like why did he say, let's talk about all the human beings that died from Abraham to Moses. And it's because, remember we're talking about the law, and the law was given through Moses. So here's what he's saying. He's saying, humanity started with Adam, and then Adam sinned, and then everybody became sinners. And he says, now, if you're so hype about the law and how you have to obey the law to get to heaven, he's saying, what happened to all the people who died before the law? That's what he's saying. He's saying, there are literally thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, who knows of people who died between that timeline and what happened to them, And that's what he's saying. And so he's saying that you know, they're looking for to you know, what Jesus is going to bring, but everybody is given sin through Adam, and everybody's given righteousness through Jesus. And he says, just as one act brought this, one act brought that, just as one person led to this, one person leads to that. I think it's really cool. Yeah, And one of the things I always think of whenever I think of when I'm explaining, like even the Gospel to other people, I always think of, like, we're a picture of like a bridge, right, us being imperfect sinners. I think a lot of people, even those we aren't Christians, can wrap their head around the fact that they've missed the mark here and there. Right, So we're imperfect, we have a perfect God. And then this in this story we have we have the example of Adam and Jesus, Jesus being the bridge, and it's so important to have the bridge like that link there or else we're we're kind of hopeless. Have you ever been like I'm sure you probably visited, like I know your your daughter actually lives in the west side of Florida, But have you ever been a saying Abelt Island by any chance? Okay, so it's beautiful, like gulf side, beautiful island over there, and my life and I were just there actually in August, just a few months back for our anniversary. So we stayed for a couple of days. When we were down there in Santa bal Island, beautiful, dude, like it just like like paradise, not quite Hawaii, but it has that like just just beautiful, lot a lot to look at, sceneries, amazing all that stuff. By the way, nothing's quite like what right, yeah. So so but still at least you're facing that same way with the with the sunset, sunrise, all that stuff. My wife and I was beautiful, like loved our time there. Well. Then the next month that hurricane I can remember the name of hurricane whatever it was that came through there there September. So hurricane hits and going to Santa bal Island. The only way you can get onto Santa Island and exit or enter Sanda Islands through these massive bridges. So one is in Naples, kind of around Naples area. One the top of it's in Saint Petersburg or no, Saint Thomas, Saint Thomas and is you know, the hurricane hit Saint Thomas and and and did some damage there. And so it's pretty wild because like we I, me and Chris and I have pictures of us like cross and videos of us crossing over the bridge because it's just beautiful. I mean, you're surrounded by blue water and it's just amazing. And the crazy thing is when that hurricane, it actually knocked down the bridge on both sides, Like so people that owned homes, if you were somebody who was commuting in and out of work, there was no access over to your location. They had to take boats and it was just it's crazy. But it just made me think about like when I saw that, and you know, I just thought about the fact that like that bridge is literally the link to that place, and all of a sudden, as soon as you remove that link, you don't have access to that paradise. Really, it just made me feel for those people. But also when I think about our faith, Jesus is that link. He is that bridge between us and God and therefore there's no condemnation in Christ. And we see this story this bridge of Adam, who is who had sin in his life, and it's kind of, you know, took humanity going backwards. Ever since then, we're we're kind of moving east of Eden, is what they say, right, Like from the beginning of time humanity with Adam sin we've been moving, you know, outside of Eden, and then Jesus comes to essentially right those wrongs. He essentially becomes the bridge between Adam or he's making that bridge and also giving us a bridge between us and God. So anyways, I. Just love this, and I think if you are somebod who shares your faith or you're thinking about sharing your faith, think about that that bridge illustration. Yeah, and so let's remember that, Paul. What he's trying to do is he's trying to take all of the Jewish readers and listeners, readers of his letter right, listeners of the reading of it, trying to get all of their Bible knowledge. And he's trying to say, do you understand that my theology is supported by the scriptures that you love, and it's supported by the stories that you know and the characters that you revere, And do you understand that Jesus Christ aligns with every single Old Testament character. He aligns with Moses, he has his part with the Law, he has his part with Abraham's Promise, he has his part with King David and the Dividic Covenant. He has his part with every single part of humanity, and not only that, but even our righteousness and how we respond to God through all of those phases and what that means for us right now. So he's bringing all of that together, and I love how when he talks about how the law was given to show us of our sin verse twenty. You're talking about, yeah, verse twenty, for. The law was given so that all the people can see how sinful they were. And it's so interesting because here we are twenty twenty three, and if you ask somebody how to get to heaven, people just don't know about the Bible. All they really know about the Bible is, well, I just know that there's a bunch of thou shouts and notts in the Bible, right and if we obey, then you know, God is pleased. And when we disobey or rebel or willfully sin, God is not pleased. So when you say how do you get to heaven? People say, well, I try my very best to be a good person. I've tried really hard to obey the ten commandments. I remember I saw a message one time by Francis Chan and since then I've quoted it like at least a dozen times where he says, it's so funny how people hold up the Ten Commandments as like the highest bar and they said, oh, the ten Commandments, you know, like never mind the six hundred thirteen precepts, right, the ten Commandments that were written on the stone. If I just keep the ten Commandments, he says. He says, the Ten Commandments are the lowest common denominator of human behavior. He's like, think about it. He's like, try not to kill anybody today. And he's like, don't do that. Don't take things that aren't that don't belong to you, right, you know, don't. Sleep neighbors, don't sleep. With your neighbor's wife. Can you can you try not to do that today? If you could? And he says, he says, so he goes. Instead of the Ten Commandments being super high, he said, God has given them as super low and they're the lowest bar, right, he says, and somehow humanity has managed to slither underneath them, to show ourselves into everybody else that we're not good enough. I just think that that is an incredible perspective, because, after all, it's not. Francis Shanner says that it's the Bible, because you know, Paul says it right here that the law was given not so that you will understand how good you are or that you can attain it obtain it. Right. And by the way, we didn't even mention the verse yesterday, but it says the easiest way to not have to break the law is for no law to be given, is right. You know when I saw that verse, you know what I actually thought, I'm going to quote a Bible verse to the next cop that pulls me over. Right, Yeah, hey, the easiest way to have to break the laws for if there was no law, that wouldn't have broken. Yeah, you know, why did you put that sign up here that says go thirty five miles. That's true. It's true in the schools well, and it makes you think even I think even as parenting, when you think about like the rules like you can align you could line up so many rules at your household to where like it's impossible to ever be innocent right as a child or in life. You know, you go to a workplace and they can have all that you show up at this time, you dress this way, whatever, and it's like it just feels like it's a futile effort because you'll never And I think that's what is like. The law is there to remind you how far away from perfect you are. You know. It's like you want to be perfect. No, you're not even close. And then even the way he follows up, it's like, this is the good news of it, right, So, hey, bad news, you'll never line up. The good news is, but as people have said, more and more, God's wonderful grace becomes more and more abundant. So as you get further and further away, that just means his grace is stronger and stronger, which is a really beautiful contrast right there too. So I told this like a year ago, but I'm gonna I'm gonna quick reference it again. One time, my father in law came in from Ohio and he brought this big old bobcat thing, you know, and he scraped my lawn and we planted new lawn, and he threw down some seeds and some hay grass, thanks man. And it turns out that the hay had like a grassy weed in it. Yeah. So there was all these weeds that came up and they were so different than my grass. My grass was like dark green and small. And these weeds were like lime, fluorescent green, and they were like three times as tall, and it was awful. And so I went in to the store, to the you know, the green store, and I said, I need a and I pulled both. I pulled them and I said, here, look at these, and I said, I need a weed killer. Now. I went in thinking that I would be walking out with a weed killer. And so if the weeds are our sin, right, and the law is the weed killer, right, I went in there thinking like, hey, just give me, give me something to eradicate the unwanted weeds in my grass. He says, listen, that's a grassy weed. So anything I give you to kill the weed will kill your grass, he said. So you have two choices. Either start over and scrape everything else and replant, he said, Or take this fertilizer and throw it down and make your grass grow taller and the weeds will grow twice as quick. And what it's going to do is this fertilizer is going to make the weeds pronounced, and they're going to be twice as tall. And when they get to these twice as tall, then you can grab them and pull them by the root, he says, and then that way you get the whole thing. Well, I was on my hands and knees for three days. Wow. They were like, let me think, let me add up how many weeds there were. Let me carry the two There were ten million weeds. Pulled my hand. Wow, that's impressive. But my point is this is I just remember thinking, as I was on my hands and knees for three days, I was thinking, this is the law. People actually think that, you know, the law is gonna scort, schurtsquirt eradicate all the unwanted weed sins in my life. But actually the law is not a weed killer. It's a fertilizer. It's a fertilizer. It pronounces our sin, It makes them, it makes them exposing, it spotlights the sin. That's what the law is meant to do. And so Paul is building his theological case and he's saying, like, you understand that not only did Jesus give us righteousness and but the law never saved us. And then he basically ties it all the way back to Adam and he says, Adam said it in motion. There's the problem. Jesus, by one man, has set the solution. It's poetry, is what it is. Dude. That's good. That's a really good uh illustration there for that. So honestly, I think that's a great way. I mean, that's a great takeaway that for that episode. Just thinking about the fact that when we look at our sin and we look at our lives, we look at the mistakes we've made, we look at all those things. The fact that Jesus came and he filled the place, he filled the void that Adam had, and that's ultimately it's all about Jesus. It's about him. It's about him paying the price for our sins and our mistakes. Yeah, I would just say to our listeners if you want to take something away when it comes to the bad things in your life, all the sins that you want to eliminate, it's not about trying harder. It's not about like, oh, I need to obey, I need to obey. I need to be better, I need to be better. It's not about that. It's about saying I don't have the power to be perfect. So therefore I'm going to pray to the one. I'm going to lean on God and ask him to give me the strength and the supernatural ability to change my heart, to change my desire, to change my actions, to change everything the course of my life. And so it is actually not you know, trying harder, it's actually surrendering. That's good, you know, it's a great takeaway. Yep. So that's a good place end. And we will see you hopefully tomorrow on the Bible. Guys, see tomorrow