Romans 5:12-21--Death in Adam, Life in Christ

Romans 5:12-21
English Standard Version

Death in Adam, Life in Christ​
12 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-- 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 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.

15 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. 16 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. 17 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.

18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Here is the next "therefore" in the book of Romans, so we're now building again on the previous arguments form Romans 1:16-Romans 5:11.  So far Paul has argued that all of us are in a downward cycle of rebellion, that we are deserving of judgment--both Jew and Gentile alike, neither Jew nor Gentile are better off as both are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and that this justification that comes by way of faith in Jesus also leads to reconciliation becoming a new creation in Christ--both by His death and His life.

Now Paul is going to talk about how it is that many could be saved by the death of one man, Jesus.  In the Old Testament each man (or at least each family with the man being the head of the household) needed its own sacrifice and that atonement was limited in scope and only did not permanently deal with the sin.  So then, how is it that the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God was enough to deal with the sin of the whole world past, present and future, and that it didn't just temporarily cover sin, but that all the debt was paid in full and taken away from us?

Paul goes back to Genesis to point to the first Adam through whom sin and death entered the world for all men who were made in his image.  All those who are "in Adam" inherited his sin nature and a condition that we call "Original Sin" which means that we are born sinners and are at enmity with God from the beginning of our existence.  We do not desire God or the things of God--in fact we honestly hate Him and everything about Him and His kingdom because we desire to rebel against Him and that we would rule in His place, determining good and evil for ourselves.

Paul is going to connect the Fall to his argument about the Law.  We see that sin entered the world long before the Law of Moses was given.  So then, it is not the Law that defines sin, because if that was the case, there would be no sin before the Law and Adam and Eve could not have possibly sinned.  But since they did sin, then either "sin" is bigger than we think it is, "the Law" is bigger than we think it is, or both.  While we typically think of the Law as the Ten Commandments, the Law represents any positive or negative commandment by which God gives special revelation of His will and also defines for us who God is.  We see an example of both a positive and negative command combined in Genesis 2:16-17:  16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

So then Paul makes the argument that if Adam and Eve had no Law to break, they would not have sinned and would be innocent, but because they had this command and willfully rebelled against God, they sinned and their sin corrupted all of creation and made all of those descended through Adam "sinners."  So then the death that was promised in Genesis 2:17 reigned from Adam to Moses, even before the Mosaic Covenant which we normally think of when we hear about "the Law."  So then sin is any rebellion against who God is or anything He commanded--doing what He says not to do, failing to do what He tells us to do, being who He tells us not to be, or failure to be who He tells us to be.  Sin is not just about doing, but about being.  In all things both being and doing, we "miss the mark" of God's holiness and perfection and are no longer perfect image-bearers of Him.

Paul then introduces us to the idea of a prophetic type.  For those that have been part of our Gospel Foundations group, you will know that we have studied many people who were prophetic types of Christ--Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, the Judges, the Kings (especially King David), and now we are looking at the Prophets.  All of these people gave us glimmer of hope that God had not abandoned His plan for His people, but none of these men were able to do the work promised in the protoevangelium (the "first gospel") in Genesis 3:15, because each had his own sin debt to pay and could therefore not pay for the sin of anyone else (see Exodus 32:30-34 for a conversation where Moses asks to take the sin of the people upon himself and God refuses.  What Moses could not do, Jesus Christ would do.)

​So then, let's talk about the sin of Adam and the forgiveness that comes through Jesus.  I think these verses are pretty clear, but I'll take them in small portions to make sure we take time to fully digest them.  

15 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. 

All men were changed by Adam's sin and all men (unless they are alive at the time of Jesus's return and are in Christ to be transformed into their heavenly bodies) will die a physical death because of Adam's sin.  While the sin of Adam reached forward to condemn all men, the grace of Jesus reaches to all people past, present and future in all places at all times so that they might all be offered eternal life.  Both situations involve a choice.  It was a situation of Adam's choice and free will that led to sin, but as we will see later, is is God's choice as the Elector that will bring many sons to glory.  He will choose us because we would never choose Him.

​16 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. 

I think that's plain enough, and this is the main theme of the rest of the chapter--death and condemnation comes through Adam, but eternal life comes and justification through Jesus Christ.

Paul makes the same point again in several different ways to reinforce it, but the gist is that through Adam all died and were condemned but through Jesus many (but not all) will be made righteous, will be justified and will receive eternal life.  What was broken through the disobedience of one man was restored through the obedience of the one and only God-Man.

The Law does nothing to cleanse us but only to make us more aware of our sinfulness and need for salvation, but grace is greater than all of our sin and unlike the limited atonement of the Old Testament sacrificial system, it is able to deal with all sins--both trespasses and iniquities.  This is not a reason to keep living in sin as we'll soon see, but instead that we should understand celebrate to the ability that our finite minds are able the fullness and the majesty of the gift of grace.  It should make us break out in doxology, and that's exactly what we're going to see Paul do several times in the book of Romans.