ROMANS CHAPTER 5: ADAM, CHRIST AND THE LAW.

‘Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus 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 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 5:12-14).

Romans chapter 5 verses 12-21 is a difficult passage to interpret both grammatically and contextually. Our aim is to look at this crucial section in order to help the reader to see what it is teaching about the gospel in light of the greater context of the Book of Romans.

It is wise for us to begin by giving a general overview of the Book of Romans as it leads into chapter 5. It is evident that Romans begins with a purpose statement by the author Paul. He is writing to a church he has never before visited with the purpose of sharing with them the precious gospel he so loved. Most likely Paul desired to preach the gospel to the Roman Christians but had no idea how and when he would get there. In lieu of that, Paul writes them both explain the gospel and to encourage the Roman Christians by it. The result of this is that the church has been enriched beyond measure with this greatest summary of the gospel ever written.

Paul begins his exposition of the ‘good news’ by emphatically reporting the bad news. The bad news is simply this, humanity is inveterately sinful. Without explicitly stating it, Paul describes the depravity of his first century Roman audience who would be quite familiar with the sins Paul is describing. The chapter is hard punching and designed to shock the reader. The Roman world, according to Paul, was sinning itself silly and on the verge of moral self- destruction. In chapter two he changes his focus to the religious community, especially the Jews. To everyone’s surprise he puts the sins of the smug religious people on the same level as those of the unrestrained heathens. His point is simple, sin, whether outwardly grotesque or smugly self righteous is equally odious to a holy God. His argument is summarized in chapter 3 verse 9, ‘for we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.’ Paul goes on to prove his point by citing several Old Testament texts which outline the gross sins of humanity; sins of the heart, the mind, the motives and, of course, the behavior.

This all sets the table for Paul’s explanation of the gospel or ‘good news’. The tension that Paul wants the readers to feel is that all men are equally guilty before a holy God. Thus only a gospel that solves the problem of man’s unrighteousness can be any true gospel at all. The fact is that all men have a righteousness problem. Some men may compare favorably to other men, but what God demands is a righteousness that fares favorably with Him; a perfect, divine, righteousness. Paul’s conclusion is that all have sinned and come short of God’s glory (3:23).

At this point Paul will hint that there is a righteousness that men can have that will actually enable them to stand before God. It is not a righteousness found within the sinner himself, but an external righteousness that is ‘apart from the law’ (3:21), and apart from all human effort. Paul gives a brief hint as to how that righteousness comes to humanity by stating in 3:22 that it is an imputed righteousness ‘through faith in Jesus Christ.’

Chapter 4 then is crucial to the entire gospel narrative. Paul is not intent to show how faith saves a sinner, but that the Old Testament unequivocally teaches that faith saves. He proves that by looking at the life Abraham who was declared righteous by faith alone. He quotes Genesis 15:6 to prove it. In addition, Paul wants the readers to understand that this declaration of righteousness has nothing to do with circumcision or keeping the law. Paul will remind the audience that Abraham was uncircumcised when God’s proclamation of righteousness upon him was given. This truth would certainly encourage the uncircumcised Romans.

This leads us to chapter 5. The first eleven verses are simply an extension of chapter 4 and would better included in that chapter. Paul’s point here is that the benefits of being declared righteous, or justification, are manifold. Justification not only renders a man righteous before a holy God but instills a hope in him that enables the one who trusts Christ the ability to endure trials of every kind. This bestowal of divine righteousness cannot be reversed because it is a gift of God. This is proven in verses 6-11 where Paul notes that God’s promise to save sinners was accomplished while man was steeped in his sin and at enmity with God.

But one key question has not been answered. And this is where the apostle takes the reader beginning in 5:12. And here is where the fun (and debates) begins. Verse 12 opens with the important word ‘therefore’. This word is probably mistranslated in many versions. This is not the word for ‘therefore’ used most frequently by Paul to connote an inference. Here we have the construction, ‘dia touto’, which can be easily translated ‘because’ or even ‘furthermore’. If we take it to mean ‘therefore’ we have to try and find some question that is raised in the previous section that Paul is answering. But there is no mention of sin coming into the world in the opening verses of chapter 5 which leads us to believe the word ‘therefore’ is not inferential, but a continuation of Paul’s initial gospel survey. Thus it would be more in line with the flow of the passage to read 5:12 as, ‘furthermore through one man sin entered the world and death through sin.’ Paul had previously stated that all men fall short of God’s standards and that He has ordained faith in His Messiah to be the way of satisfying His justice. Now he continues his investigation of the sin problem asking ‘how did sin come into the world in the first place? And if sin is merely bad behavior then can’t man simply fix this problem by trying harder obey God?’ Verse 12, then, drives the rest of the chapter. It gives us a clue of the direction Paul wants to go. Sin is not a problem of men sinning, but is a problem of the infiltration of a sin nature that came to all men by natural generation through Adam. This topic is crucial for understanding Christian theology. But note that Paul doesn’t try to explain how Adam’s sin passed on to all men. He simply states that it did. The proof of this unfortunate result of Adam’s sin is that all men die. Paul says, in effect, just look around. All men are dying and why is this? It must be that the principle of death inheres in all men and it came from father Adam. But remember, Paul is doing this in order to magnify the gospel. His point is that the problem with mankind is far deeper than mere behavior, it has to do with a corrupt nature. And the only cure for this corruption deeply etched in man’s being is for God to bring a righteousness to man from outside of anything earthly for all upon the earth is corrupt.

But before Paul gets into his statement about Adam and Jesus he digresses in verses 13-17 to answers a question that may have come into the mind of the audience. And that question could be stated as, ‘if there was no law until Moses than how could there be any sin in the world? After all sin is a transgression of law.’ Please notice that most translators note this digression of thought and put verses 13-17 in brackets. The brackets are not found in the original for there was no punctuation in the manuscripts but when one reads the text it become obvious that Paul has diverted his argument for a few verses. This can be further demonstrated by the way verse 18 seamlessly picks up the thread of thought begun in verse 12. Notice that verse 18 begins with therefore and says, ‘as through one man’s offense {judgment} came to all men resulting in condemnation, 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.’ There is a smooth flow of thought from verse 12 to verse 18 which shows that Paul has returned to his initial argument.

Before getting back to Paul’s initial argument we return to verse 13 and look for a moment at the digression. Paul evidently saw a question in the minds of his readers about the law’s role in the proliferation of sin throughout the world. His simple answer is that the law has nothing to do with the presence of sin. That is, from Adam to Moses, the time in which there was no law, sin reigned in the world. What then is the purpose of the law? Paul says ‘for until the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no law.’ Sin has always been in the world even before there was no law. What the law does not do, therefore, is change the quantity or extensiveness of sin; the law cannot and never has increased or diminished sin. Long before the law came man knew about sin and righteousness. The apostle had already discussed this in chapter 2 verses 12-16 where he acknowledges that all men have a conscience that is aware of sin and this is proven by their affinity to accuse or excuse one another. So what then does the law accomplish? Nothing, really, except that it quantifies, highlights and puts a name to sin. Sin has always existed but until the law came it was not clearly seen. A person who dwells in a house where there are no scales may not think himself being overweight because there is no barometer to measure it by. But just because there is no scale does not mean he is fit as a fiddle. He conscience tells him otherwise. As verse 20 will later say, ‘the law entered that the offense might abound.’ The law doesn’t save or damn; it only reports.

What Paul next says in verse 14 is fascinating. His point is that humanity in this pre-law period did not sin in the same manner of Adam, or as Paul states it, ‘in the likeness (or similitude) of Adam’s transgression.’ What does Paul mean? Simply this, Adam and only Adam sinned against a specific law given by God (thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). Adam transgressed a clearly spoken command of God and this makes his sin unique compared to all the other men that lived before Moses. To say it another way, Adam did not sin against his conscience in the garden (eating fruit is not consciously sinful); he sinned against God’s clear command. But here is Paul’s point: just because men did not sin like Adam, does not mean there was no sin reckoned against them. Sin reigned in the pre-law world even though men did not have clear commands from God. And the proof? All men die (review Genesis chapter 5). So where did sin come from? This is Paul’s question. It came from a specific transgression by a specific man who broke a specific law. And it was this sin that infected Adam and it was this sin that was passed on to all humanity and corrupted the nature of all.

So how does this relate to the gospel message? Paul continues with his digression in verses 15 through 17 where he describes the contrast between Adam’s sin as it relates to humanity to Christ’s righteousness as it relates to humanity. And here we have a stark contrast. Adam’s sin was passed along to all men by an internal (yet mysterious) corruption of nature. It was a corruption that was deserved for it came through human works. And this sin of Adam bequeathed to all men the prospect of sure death (15), of judgment (16) and the miserable prospect of sin being with man for all eternity (17). As a contrast to this is God’s bestowal of righteousness upon the sinner through Christ. It is not rooted in works. This gift comes to man via sheer grace. Three times Paul notes that Christ’s righteousness is a ‘free gift’. It is God’s pleasure to give to sinful humanity the status of being right with Him. In saying this Paul is explicitly stating that God did not try to change men through the law or any human work, which could only lead to another Fall. Salvation in Christ is not empowering men to earn God’s favor by good works, but by bestowing on them an irreversible gift which rests upon the imputed righteousness of Christ, a gift that lies outside the realm of human achievement.

All of this was a digression, and what a wonderful digression is was! But now in verse 18 Paul returns to his initial gospel argument which was to show that sin entered the world through one man and sin has been defeated through one man. He states that these two men, Adam and Jesus, represented the human race. The first transgressed and bequeathed to his posterity a sin nature. The Second Adam, Jesus, was victorious over sin by his perfect life and atoning death and so gifted to all believers a perfect righteousness. It is important to understand what the contrast was between these two representative works. In Adam’s case his fallen nature which came as a result of his transgression was passed down to all men by normal generation. In Christ’s case, His righteousness, and His perfect nature, was gifted to mankind not by a normal generation but by a miraculous imputation of His righteousness by the decree of God. This means that the gospel solution is disconnected from recipient’s behavior. This ensures that the righteous gift of Christ is certain because it depends not on any internal response in man. This makes the gospel message a beautifully wrapped present to humanity that can never be annulled.

Paul is not done. Having finished his original though in verses 18 and 19 Paul returns to comment on the law in verse 20 which he had hinted at in verse 13. Paul’s point is that law is not part of the gospel narrative. Rather, the law came from the side for one reason only; to magnify the desperate state of humanity and to drive men to receive God’s grace. The upshot of the entrance of the law was to make sin abound. That is, the law was the greatest revealer of the depraved nature of the human heart. To this Paul gives another great comforting thought: no matter how bad the human heart is as revealed by the law, the grace of God floods over it, for grace is stronger than sin. This statement sets the stage for chapter 6 where Paul will argue that the one who has received the imputed righteousness of Christ will never wallow in a sinful life because that person is also united to Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. .

In review, Romans 5 is Paul’s attempt to further explain the gospel by demonstrating how sin came into the world and so darkened the very soul of man and how God’s righteous Son came into the world in order not only reverse that horrible condition, but to gift to man a perfect righteousness that can never be lost. In doing this Paul makes a digression to show what role the law plays in the entire redemptive scheme. The gospel, he concludes is God’s divine act apart from law. The gospel is God’s gift of righteousness to man from beginning to end, a righteousness that is permanent and perfect and is available to the most depraved sinner. Amen.