Introduction

In Romans chapters 1 – 3 the apostle Paul has shown that all of mankind is guilty before God and that only faith in the Lord Jesus Chris can save us. After this in Romans chapter 4 -5 he shows us that faith in Christ saves us from sin’s penalty. Chapter 4 reveals that salvation by faith has always been God’s means on saving mankind from the coming wrath of his judgment upon man’s sin.  Chapter 5:1 – 11 unfolds the peace we have with God. This is an unshakable peace that cannot be broken through trials. Chapter 5:12 – 21 deals with the Adam / Christ parallel, developing how death came through Adam, and eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some may object to a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis, and a historical Adam and Eve as beginning of life on earth.  In the “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” film interviewer Ben Stein talks with various scientists in America, who from the science, have come to the conclusion that this universe and the life within it have been designed by a creator. Molecular biology reveals the most incredible molecular factories on the smallest scale (within living cells) that sustain life on earth. The cosmos has been put together in such a way that if any of the constants (such as the gravitational constant) deviate from their current values the universe falls apart. At the end of that DVD, Ben Stein interviews Richard Dawkins, author of the “God Delusion”.  Ben asks him, “How do you account for the appearance of design in aspects of our makeup that science observes?”  And Richard Dawkins’ answer, paraphrased, is simply this, “A plausible explanation is that we are designed by aliens.  Aliens seeded life on earth.”  Ben makes two comments at that point.  Firstly, actually Richard Dawkins, he doesn’t have a problem with Intelligent Design.  Secondly, Dawkins only has a problem with some designers, like God.

The Adam’s One Transgression Brings Death To All

Adam’s One Transgression is Transferred to All Men

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
Romans 5:12

When Adam and Eve were created, God gave a clear command to them.

“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:17

But they were tempted and led astray by the serpent, and our parents did eat that forbidden fruit. Then we find God’s judgment is upon them,

“in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground.  For out of it, you were taken.  For dust you are and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19

Adam sinned and death came upon the human race.  Death is a penal event, not a natural event for mankind.  Adam and Eve were created immortal.  The only reason why they died was because they sinned against the Holy God.  There are at least three aspects to the death sentence passed on mankind.  Firstly there is spiritual death, or separation from God. They lost their close fellowship with God, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. Secondly there is also physical death. Our bodies grow old, we decay and die.  Finally there is eternal death, eternity under the wrath of God in hell.  As a holy God, who is perfect and just, and who cannot turn a blind eye to sin, God pours forth his wrath upon the individual who has broken his laws for all eternity.  Spiritual death (separation from God), physical death (the body dies) and eternal death (Judgment in hell beyond the grave) is spread to all men because all sinned.

Adam’s One Transgression Brings Death to All Mankind

We could ask, “How did death spread to all men?” What is it about individuals other than Adam that causes this death?  Before I gave what I think is the biblical view, I’m would like to remove what I believe is an erroneous concept.  Death does not spread to us just because of our own personal sinfulness, although it is true that our own personal sin deserves death.  Adam on the day he sinned gained a sinful nature.  He passed that sinful nature on to all his descendents.  We all have sinful natures.  Because of our sinful natures, we sin before God.  Our own personal actions and sin deserve death before a holy and just God.  This is absolute truth, but it’s not what Paul was talking about here.

So what do I think that Paul is talking about?  Death spreads to us all due to one man’s one sin.  Our actions add to the condemnation, but before we personally sin, we are already deserving of death because of Adam’s transgression. Death spreads to all humanity because of one man’s one sin. Here are selected part of verses 15 to 19:

“by one man’s offense, many died.” Romans 5:15

“the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation” Romans 5:16

“by the one man’s offense, death reigned through the one.” Romans 5:17

“through one man’s offense, judgment came to all men.” Romans 5:18

“for as by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners.” Romans 5:19

The whole emphasis is one man’s one sin brings death. As we’re going to see later on in the passage, the whole idea is that a parallel works in this way, death comes to humanity because of something out with  ourselves (Adam’s sin) and we are made innocent before God because of something out with ourselves (through the Lord Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection).

Imputed sin came into the world through Adam.  What do I mean by imputed?  Directly transferred to us, given to us or transferred to us straight away.  By one trespass, Adam’s sin brought condemnation to all.  There is a component of our guilt before God, that is not connected to our sinful nature, that is not connected to our sinful thoughts or actions (remember God judges the heart), but God holds us guilty for taking forbidden fruit.

The implication For Us of Adam’s One Transgression Transferred To Our Lives

The effect of this imputed guilt is startling.  From the first moment of their existence, men and women are out of fellowship with God.  Death reigns over men.  Not just because of their personal sin, but because they are human, i.e. they are descendants of Adam.  Before we think or act, the death sentence is passed on us because we are guilty of Adam’s sin.  It also shows how useless it is to try and earn salvation by doing good things.  We are sentenced to death before any “good” work is done because Adam’s sin is directly transferred to us. One commentator asked,

“How is it to be reconciled with the Divine Character, that the fate of unborn millions should depend on an act over which they had not the slightest control and in which they had no agency?”

The unborn millions weren’t in the Garden of Eden, they weren’t encouraging Adam.  So why are they held guity before God? I could give a biblical answer of acceptance and trust in the character of God, but as my wife simply put it, “Do you think you would have done any different, if you were there?”  We are not told the mechanism of how Adam’s guilt is directly transferred to us but it is stated that it is and faith accepts that this is consistent with the Holiness of God and His good and divine character that we see in the scriptures.  Adam’s guilt is imputed, directly transferred, to his offspring.  We die because of Adam’s sin.  Medical science has not increased the maximum lifespan of a human being.  What it has done is greatly help and improve the life expectancy of the average person, but it has not increased the maximum lifespan of a human. Verses 13 and 14 seek to add an illustration of this point.

“(For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law.  Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.” Romans 5:13,14

The idea is this: God has directly revealed His commands to Adam and the next fullest revelation of God’s ways was through Moses.  God had appeared in the intervening period to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob but the next full revelation of His commands and His laws was through Moses.  Yet, between Adam and Moses, many died but not sinning against the direct command as Adam had done.  So why had they died?  If they hadn’t sinned directly against the command of God, why were they still dying?  Because as Paul adds, where there is no sin, there is no resulting condemnation.  What they had, what every human being had was the guilt of Adam directly transferred to them and that was sufficient to cause their death. Death reigned through one man’s sin.

Christ’s Gift Brings Life To His People

Christ’s Gift Of Righteousness is Transferred to His People

“But the free gift is not like the offense.  For if by the one man’s offense, many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ abounded to many.” Romans 5:15

Where sin has entered in and caused so much destruction, but grace abounds to a greater degree.  Paul fully recognizes God’s judgment.  Death is an alien intrusion into God’s world.  Paul is not minimizing that at all.  There are over six billion people on this planet and unless the Lord returns in the intervening period, all will die.  That’s greater than any plague.  That’s greater than any means of destruction, atom bomb, any war that we have known.  Death will wipe out six billion people on this planet. Paul is not minimizing the effects of sin and death, but you got to see how bad something is before you can see how great the grace is that overcomes all of that.

God’s grace not only negates the penal sentence of death that is passed upon all human beings, but abounds to them being declared innocent before God and results in eternal life, the complete and utter reversal of the original death penalty.  We can have immortality.  We can live forever through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Paul does not depreciate the effectiveness of judgment but the emphasis is placed on a greater achievement of God’s grace.

Christ’s Gift Of Righteousness Brings Justification To His People

“and the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.” Romans 5:16

We have Adam’s sin and our sins marked against us, and the verdict in the courtroom is condemnation.  We are guilty.   But if we have Christ’s gift of righteousness, Christ’s perfect and holy life, then the declaration is one of innocence.  We are justified before God.  We were condemned on the basis of Adam’s single transgression, but through grace the perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ is transferred to His people by faith when they believe in Him. It is this that declares us innocent before God.

This righteousness covers not only the one transgression from Adam but also the countless, the innumerable, the millions of offenses that we have perpetrated ourselves against the Holy God.  Not just Adam’s offense is canceled out, but ours are too.  The entirety of our sins are removed as well.  That is the power of God’s grace.  When the perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ is transferred to us, sin and the verdict of condemnation (a guilty verdict returned on humans through Adam), is overturned, and an innocent verdict returned. We are not guilty due to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ freely given to us. All these things being life for those declared innocent.

“For if by the one man’s offense, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One Jesus Christ)” Romans 5:17

Death reigned over man, exercising its power overall, but grace is now characterized in producing a certainty and security of life for those who receive it.  Through Adam, we had sinned, and received condemnation and death.  Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we have righteousness leading to our justification (being declared innocent), and eternal life.  God’s grace has completely negated the imputed sin given to us through Adam.

Comparing Christ and Adam

We Are Treated According to Our Representatives Actions, Not Our Own

“Therefore, as through one man’s offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.  For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:18,19

In essence, we are treated according to our representative’s actions, or in the word’s of Charles Hodge:

“Paul’s object is to show that as we are justified by the righteousness of Christ as something out of ourselves, as we are condemned for the sin of Adam as something out of ourselves.  To make him teach that we are condemned for our inherent depravity to the exclusion of Adam’s sin necessitates his teaching that we are justified for our inherent goodness which destroys all hope of heaven.” Charles Hodge

For the parallel to work we have to be condemned for something out of ourselves and we have to be declared righteous for something out of ourselves.  If we say we are condemned due to our own sinful actions then the implication is that we are declared innocent before God because of our own good actions. Anybody who has read the proceeding verses in Romans knows that is not the case.  We are guilty before God and the only means that we can be declared innocent before God is to have the perfect life of Jesus Christ transferred to us by faith.

What Paul is saying is that those who have Christ’s righteousness imputed to them, directly transferred to them, are treated as if they had never sinned. Even though they have sinned, their representative, the Lord Jesus Christ, has not. We are treated according to our representative’s actions.  And our condemnation and justification do not depend on our natures or on our actions.  Charles Hodge, who was an expert in understanding the original New Testament Greek, clearly states that when Paul is talking about, “we are made sinners through Adam” or “we are made righteous through Christ”, that the Greek terms used never implies a change of the object in and of itself.  It is as if they are being regarded as one thing or regarded as the other.  The Greek never means that the object itself is changed.

Where Sin Increased, Grace Abounded All The More

“Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” Romans 5:20

It almost seems like a strange comment.  Moreover, the law entered that the offense might grow, that sinfulness might be revealed.  The Mosaic Law was legal as opposed to grace.

“You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them:  I am the Lord.” Leviticus 18: 5

Could the Israelites do the things in the Mosaic Law and live?  Of course, they couldn’t and God’s people always knew that another way had to be made.  The prophets of old foretold of the Lord Jesus Christ’s coming.  But what about this idea that sin might abound as the law comes in?  In Romans chapter 7, Paul says this.

“But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire.” Romans 7:8

It does seem that when we come in contact with God’s Word, our sinful natures are stirred up to be more sinful.  There could be a number of reasons why God has chosen this means.  It could be to show us how utterly foolish it is to try and earn our salvation before a Holy God.  Because when we come to His law, all manner of evil desire is produced within us when we see what the commandments are.

I sometimes wonder if there is an aspect of God’s judgment here.  For example we see how much the standards of God’s modesty of dress are ignored, and result is uncontrolled desire in many individuals.  Christ tells us that if you even lust, desire after somebody who is not your partner in marriage, you are guilty before God.  That is the commandment.  We see how these things are trampled and ignored.  We see how all manner of lust and desire is produced and whipped up through the media in people’s lives.  We see how this leads to uncontrolled actions of individuals, how it leads to the family breakdown, how it leads to all the pain and the heartache, not only for the adults involved but for the children too.

I sometimes wonder, if there’s an aspect of God’s judgment in that when people turn away from Him, when their sinful nature is stirred up and given free rein that they have to live with the consequences and the effects of that sin.  Yet truly, grace abounds over sin.  One trespass was enough to cause death to reign.  But when the trespass multiplied, how much more is the grace that overcame this.

The Lord Jesus Christ Is Our Channel To This Grace

“So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:21

Paul cannot separate this grace of God that we can receive from the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the only means by which we can be declared innocent before God.  It seemed that God’s creation had been ruined.  Sin as the victor brought death into what was once perfect.  The once eternal man now became the living dead.  He would produce a race of humans who were born to die.  He and his offspring would be cut off from God, spiritual death; would die physically and be in danger of being placed under the eternal wrath of God.  All this through one transgression of one man.

Thanks be to God for the Lord Jesus Christ!  He lived a life that we couldn’t.  He took God’s wrath and judgment upon the cross.  We know that His sacrifice was accepted because three days later, He rose again and He is seated at the right hand of God.  And so will we be, if we have that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  God will raise us out of our sin, out of the murkiness and the depths of our sinful natures, and seat us up in the heavenly realms with the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are spiritually secure in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God for the Lord Jesus Christ and all that He has done for us.  If we have faith in anything else, we are kidding ourselves.  All this has come through Him and Him alone, may He be our Lord and Saviour.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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