THE OBEDIENCE AND DISOBEDIENCE OF ONE - Robert Murray Mcchene

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”—Rom. v., 19.

1. THERE is an exact parallel between the way in which we are made sinners, and the way in which we are made righteous. This is obvious at the first reading of the text; and the more our eyes are opened to see the wondrous truths that are hidden here, the more we shall discover this, that all who are justified, are justified in the very same way as they were made sinners.

2. Unconverted men know neither of these truths. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.” lam persuaded that if those bf you who are carnal men, get a glimpse of the meaning of this verse to-day, you will think it consummate folly, although it be the whole counsel of God for the salvation of a sinner. If the Gospel pleased carnal men, it would not be the Gospel; it would prove itself to be false.

3. It is deeply important that you know both of these. -They are life to the soul. You must know the first, how you were made sinners, in order that you may lie down as a dead, condemned soul at the feet of Christ. You must know the second, how a sinner is made righteous, in order that you may have all joy and peace in believing. O that God the Holy Spirit may open all your eyes to-day, and mine !

I. The way in which we were made sinners: “By the disobedience of one.”

1. The one man. Our first father, Adam—the root and spring of the human race, and also the head and representative of us all ,

Perfect in body, perfect in soul, full of grace and truth, image of od, very good. It pleased God to deal with mankind from the very first in this way. As you heard lately, he did not deal with men as a field of corn, where every stalk stands upon its own root; but he dealt with man as with a tree, all the branches of which have but one root and stem. He seems to have dealt with the angels in the other way, each angel standing on its own root; but he dealt with mankind like a tree and its branches. So that if Adam stood, all stood; if he fell, all fell. Some may say: It is not just to deal this way with man: we were not consulted in this matter whether we would have Adam for our head or no. I answer: “Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” God has made us thus—the holy, wise, good, and gracious God. Whether you believe it or not, whether you like it or not, God has made man thus, and you cannot change it.

2. Disobedience: The eating the forbidden fruit. Only one sin. Some of you see little evil in one sin, or in a hundred sins; but here you see one sin cast Adam and all his children out of paradise. God did not wait till it was repeated. It appeared a small sin. The outward action was small, only stretching out the hand and taking an inviting fruit. Some of you think little of sins that make no great noise; such as breaking the Sabbath, drinking too much, speaking what is false, sitting down Christless at the Lord’s table; but see here, one small sin brought a world under the curse of God. God would rather a world should perish than one small sin go unpunished.

8. The consequence: “Many were made sinners.” I have said that it pleased God to deal with mankind as a tree. If you strike with the axe at the root of a tree, the whole tree falls, not only the stem, but the branches, and even the twigs upon the branches; and all the branches die and wither, and become fit for the burning. So it was when Adam fell. Satan laid the axe ::t the root of the tree; and when Adam fell, many fell along with him. All his branches fell that same day. One stroke brought all down. Even the branches most distant from Adam, even the tenderest twigs springing from these branches, fell, and withered, and died that day. (l.) Death passed upon oilmen. From that hour man became a dying thing, the seeds of dissolution were sown; the fair, blooming creature began to wither and dissolve; and every branch ‘came dying into the world. (2.) Spiritual death. Just as in a tree when it is felled, the nourishment is immediately cut off from both the stem and branches; so it was with fallen man. In the day he ate he surely died; not a spark of spiritual life remained” in him, or any of his. This explains how your children come into the world utterly dead to God and divine things. They are lively in other things. The new-born babe clings to its mothers breast, but not to Jesus. (3.) The curse of God. This is the proper meaning of” were made sinners.” It is a judicial term, “were held in God’s sight as guilty, lost, undone sinners.” In that day the frown of God came upon all men. The holy nature of God abhorred the apostate race. The curse of the broken law passed upon all men.

Ah, brethren! here is matter for humiliation that few of you think about. Not only are you covered over with an infinite load of actual sins; not only have you got a heart like the inside of a grave, full of dead men’s bones and rotten flesh, and all uncleanness; or. like the cave of hell, “a hold for every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird,” but you belong to a cursed race; you are the wicked branch of a wicked tree, you are entirely and originally a sinner, spiritually dead, disinclined from all that is good. O pray to discover your connexion with the first Adam, to make you cleave to the second Adam! The world scoff and deride this truth, but that proves it to be divine: for if I he Gospel appeared wise to the world, it would disprove itself.

II. The way in which we are made righteous: “By the obedience of ONE shall many be made righteous.”

1. One. This second ONE is the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam, and the Son of God. (1.) The first Adam was fair, exquisitely fair, as he came from the hand of God; but the second is altogether lovely, fairer than the children of men. (2.) The first Adam was made in the likeness of God; but the second is God himself, the Lord from heaven, the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person. (3.) The first Adam was full of heavenly wisdom, so that he named all the creatures as they came; but in the second are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is the wisdom of God. He spake as never man spake. He calls all the stars by their names. (4.) The first was the head of the whole human race, the federal head: so that in him they stood, and in him they fell. Christ is offered as a head to every creature, and is actually the head of all the redeemed, and of myriads of holy angels, all gathered together in him, even in him.

O glorious ONE! Divine and human perfections meet in him! 0 that you were filled with sweet, admiring, adoring thoughts of him this day! O that he would rise upon you like the sun! He is the Light of the world, the Sun of righteousness, the bright and morning Star. It is that ONE who justifies the ungodly, who has power to forgive sins. He is precious to all that believe.

2. His obedience: Twofold.

(1.) He obeyed the holy law of God.—Satan thought he had got God’s law for ever dishonored, when he got the whole human race to abhor it, to disown it, and not to obey it; but he was foiled in this very thing. The Son of God came and obeyed it . The obedience of that ONE was more glorifying to God, more amazing to angels, than the obedience of a world would have been. He magnified the law, and made it honorable, made it shine brighter far than ever, as a holy, just, and good law.

Look through the life of Jesus, as related in the Gospel, and you will see what it is to obey the law of God. He had no other gods before his Father. He bowed to no idols. He took not his holy name in vain. He remembered the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. He came down to Nazareth, and was subject to Joseph and Mary. “Woman, behold thy son.” He did not kill, he did not commit adultery, he did not steal, there was no guile found in his mouth, he coveted not. Or, if you sum the ten commandments, and make them into two, He loved God with all his heart, ,and mind, and strength; and he loved his neighbors himself. An unquenchable love to God burned in his bosom. He regarded God in all that he did. Even when God bruised him and put him to grief, when God cried, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones;” even then he cried,” My God, my God I” He kissed the hand that smote him. He loved his neighbor more than himself: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” “For my love they are my adversaries,” “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Even when they were nailing him to the cross, wagging their heads at him, railing on him, offering him vinegar, he cried, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Love is the fulfilling of the law! Now God is love, and Christ is God. This is part of the obedience of One, by which he makes many sinners righteous.

(2.) He laid down his life. In this he obeyed a special commandment of his Father. Adam was not only under the ten commandments, but he had a special commandment given him, to try his obedience to God’s will, namely, that he should not eat the forbidden fruit. In like manner Christ was not only under the ten commandments, but under a special commandment, the most difficult that ever was given to any being, that he should die for sinners: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life. This commandment have I received of my Father.”— John x., 17. And a little after: “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”—John xviii., 11.

Therefore does he say: “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt-offering and sinoffering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.”—Psa. xl. And, “Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”—Phil, ii., 8. This was the most amazing trial of obedience that ever was. It was a long trial: “I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer my terrors I am distracted.” He was “a man of sorrows” from h\s youth. Often, often, he sank under the dark cloud of his Father’s anger, till he groaned his last on Calvary. There was nothing in the nature of things to oblige him to do it. There was nothing good or amiable in those for whom he died; they were vile sinners, not asking him to die for them, blind to his excellency and divine glory. Yet he was obedient unto death. This is the obedience by which he covers and justifies all those, however sinful, that come to God by him.

3. The consequence: “Many are made righteous.” We have seen that in the fall and ruin of man, it pleased God to deal with man, not as a field of corn, each standing on his own root, but as a tree, in which all the branches stand or fall together. We were not made sinners, each by his individual sin, but all by the sin of one. In like manner it has pleased God to justify sinners, not each by his own obedience, by his own goodness and holiness, but” by the obedience of ONE.” Just as Adam by his one sin brought death, the curse of God, and total spiritual death, not only upon himself, but upon all branches, even the most distant, even the minutest, even though unborn; so the second Adam, by his own obedience, brought pardon, righteousness, spiritual life, and eternal glory to all his branches, even the most distant, the smallest, even those unborn.

(1.) They are made righteous. Those who betake themselves to Christ are made righteous. It matters not what they have been before, they are righteous now. They belong to a righteous family, to a righteous tree; the root is righteous, and so are all the branches. They are not forgiven only—not only have their infinite sins been blotted out, but they are made righteous. They are not only made innocent, as if they had done no sin, but righteous, as if they had fulfilled all righteousness. All that Christ did and suffered is counted theirs. Neither are they made righteous as if they had obeyed, but as if they had obeyed divinely. They are made righteous all at once. We were made sinners all at once—by one blow—by one man’s sin; so those of you who cleave to Christ are made righteous all at once. You have not to wait many years before you find acceptance. You find it the moment you cleave to Christ: “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life”—”In the Lord have I righteousness and strength” —”In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and snail glory.”

(2.) Many, not few. The first Adam was the root of a numerous family, to whom, by his disobedience, he transmitted death and sin. The second Adam is the root of a numerous family, to whom he gives pardon and holiness. They are scattered over every country and every age, so that often they seem few, but they are many when gathered together. “So shall thy seed be.” “I saw a great company which no man could number,” every one made righteous in this way. “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” and none of them will be empty, yet every one will be righteous in the disobedience of one. O will ye not be among the many !

(3.) Many, not all. The second Adam offers himself to all. He is willing to be co-extensive with the first Adam. Ruin, by the fall of the first Adam, extended to every creature; and so the gift of the second Adam is to every creature; “Go, and preach the

Gospel to every creature.” The Gospel is preached to every creature under heaven. Christ stands willing to be a root of pardon, and righteousness, and eternal life, to every creature. Yet all do not, and will not, come. The most stay away, and die in their sins. I fear the most of you are now staying away from Christ. O that you were all made righteous in God’s way ! III. Lessons.

1. Most are on the wrong way. Many people are in earnest in a wrong direction. When a ship is wrecked, and the sailors take to the long-boat, they toil hard to get to land, but often they row in wrong directions So with sinners. Many of you are in earnest, but not in the right direction. Most are trying to be righteous in the obedience of many—each in his own. You want to stand on your own root. You will not take guilt from the first Adam, neither righteousness from the second. Are you wiser than God? If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. You are trying to make Christ useless. Is it not better to submit to God’s way—to fall in with the divine scheme—to submit to the righteousness of God ?

2. All believers are equally righteous before God. I have seen a family of children all dressed alike, that none might boast over the others, all being equally fair. So it is with God’s family; they are all righteous in the obedience of One. One garment covers them all the robe of their elder Brother. Believers differ. in attainments, in gifts and graces, but all are equally justified before God. It is not work of their own that justifies them, it is the work of Christ alone. Ah, brethren! there is no boasting in Christ’s family. “Where is boasting then? It is excluded.” This is what keeps most away. They cannot bear to be on the same level with a drunkard or a publican. They cannot bear to come before God along with Mary Magdalene and the dying thief.

3. You may come always to God this way. It is not once only that you need this divine obedience to cover you, but all your lit’: long. The moment you forsake Christ, you lose your righteousness before God. But you may return now. This obedience is always the sam —always full—always divine. You say you are changed: Christ is not changed. You say you have got new guilt: Christ is still the same. You may still be made righteous once more in the obedience of one. Why stay away from Christ! Can you make yourself righteous away from him? Can you be righteous any other way than by submitting to him?

Dundee, April 17, 1842.—(Action Sermon.)