Free Bible Commentary
“Romans 5:12-21”
Categories: Romans“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
“But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
“So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
---End of Scripture verses---
This has to be one of the toughest passages in all of Scripture to parse out. It contains incomplete thoughts as well as awkward statements, but the overall message is still intact and clear. Even though we may not be 100% certain on the precise meaning of everything the inspired Apostle wrote, we can be confident about things that he most certainly did NOT teach. Spiritual meat doesn’t get any stronger than this (Hebrews 5:14), and it can be “hard to understand” and digest. “The untaught and unstable” have distorted it “as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” to their destruction (2 Peter 3:15-16).
In the first eleven verses of chapter five, the author emphasized the all sufficiency of Jesus Christ as the answer to all of our spiritual needs. We can only be justified by faith in Christ and acquire peace with God through Him (verse 1). Only through Jesus and by His sacrifice alone can people hope to be reconciled to the Father in heaven from a once hostile condition of alienation (verses 10-11). Faith in Christ saves us, sustains us and spares us from the wrath of God (verse 10). Yes, all this grace and all these blessings are provided by just one man, who was much more than a man!
In verses 12-21 Paul goes on to show us how one man offers the cure for the consequences of the sin that the first man introduced to the world with his first transgression. Jack Cottrell wrote in his commentary: “His argument moves from the lesser to the greater. If we can accept the fact that one sin of a mere man has brought sin and death upon the whole world, then we can surely believe that the atoning death of the Son of God has brought salvation upon the whole world. The purpose of the passage, then, is to increase our confidence in the all-sufficiency of the death of Christ.”
It is a shame that people have taken a passage meant to bolster faith and confidence in Christ and His grace, and switched the focus to the sickness (sin) instead of the cure. Entire systems of religion have been built upon the idea of “original sin” and all the false connotations associated with it. But “sin is transgression of the law” and not a heritable trait. We will not be judged by the sins of our father or ancestors (Ezekiel 18:20), even though we may be forced to suffer consequences from them. Our Creator is the God of absolute equity and justice and He will never condemn us for sins that we do not and cannot commit.
The main point of Paul’s argument is that Christ undid for humanity every horrible thing that Adam did by first sinning. This is why Adam is a “type” of Jesus (verse 14). Christ’s one single action of obedience profoundly affected the world in a like fashion that (but in a much greater way than) Adam’s one act of disobedience did (grace abounded all the more!). Adam introduced sin to the human race; Christ introduced grace (verse 15). Adam’s sin brought in judgment and condemnation; Christ’s sacrifice gave us justification and salvation (verse 16). Because of Adam death reigned, but because of Jesus life reigns (verse 17).
Paul wrote in verse 12, “through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” The question is, HOW did “all” people sin when the sin of “one man” entered the world? I have heard many explanations but the most plausible one is that all people sinned representatively in Adam. As Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek through Abraham when he was still “in the loins of his father” (Hebrews 7:9-10), so Adam’s entire posterity sinned through him as the seed-bearer of our race. Moses Lard wrote: “With that sin death entered, entered at once and for all time and entered for the whole human race… Sin by representation does not imply guilt, as actual personal sin does… Hence no one of his posterity will ever, after death, be held responsible for Adam’s sin.”
If anything Paul teaches just the opposite of “total hereditary depravity” in these verses. Just for the sake of argument, if Romans 5 teaches that we inherited anything at birth it was grace from Jesus. If we truly all “die” spiritually because of Adam’s sin from infancy (which I do not believe we do), then we truly all “live” spiritually because Jesus’ sacrifice wiped away our sin from infancy. Once again, Paul wrote in verse 18, “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men” (verse 18). Jesus completely removed the condemnation of Adam’s transgression with His “one act of righteousness” resulting in “justification” for “all”.
If this passage suggests that all people are spiritually lost universally and unconditionally through Adam’s sin (which it does not, but just for argument’s sake), then it also teaches that all people are spiritually saved universally and unconditionally through Christ’s sacrifice. Remember that the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice had efficacy before and after the cross (Hebrews 9:15), so His grace would have saved all people that ever lived upon the face of the earth before they ever incurred condemnation from Adam’s sin. Consistency demands that whatever Adam did, Jesus undid!
But what actually happened is that when Adam transgressed God’s command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin entered into the world (verse 12). Because of this sin, spiritual and physical death entered the world as well. Because of what the first human being did, no human being can escape physical death, accept those who are alive when Christ returns. But Jesus “reversed the curse” of Adam’s sin spiritually speaking. Because of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, all sinners can become as spiritually pure as we were when we were innocent infants.
But just as we incurred God’s condemnation when we personally committed sin, we will only receive salvation through God’s grace upon meeting certain conditions as well: we must believe in Christ and obey the Gospel. The gift of God’s grace must be willingly accepted by all who have broken God’s commandments and stand condemned before Him and in need of the cleansing blood of Christ. The only way for grace to abound “all the more” (verse 20) personally in someone’s life is for them to own up to their personal transgression and sin’s destructive nature, to turn from those sins in repentance, and to put on Christ in baptism (Galatians 3:27), calling on His name (Acts 22:16), confessing belief in Him as Savior.
Please read Romans 6:1-14 for tomorrow.
Have a safe and blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
