Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 5:12
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
12 21. The same subject, illustrated by the connexion of fallen man with Adam, and justified man with Christ
12. Wherefore, &c.] Here begins an important section, closing with the ch. In point of language, and of links of thought, it is occasionally difficult, and moreover deals with the deep mystery of the effects of the Fall. We preface detailed comments with a few general remarks.
1. The section closes one main part of the argument that on the Way of Justification; and it leads to another that on its Results. It is connected more with the former than with the latter.
2. Its main purpose is unmistakable. It brings out the grandeur and completeness of Christ’s work by contrast with the work (so to speak) of Adam. It regards the two as, in some real sense, paralleled and balanced.
3. Without explaining (what cannot be explained, perhaps, in this life,) the reason of the thing, it states as a fact concerning the Fall that its result is not only inherited sinfulness, but inherited guilt; i.e. liability to punishment, (that of death,) on account of the primeval Sin. Death (in human beings) is penalty: but e.g. infants, void of actual moral wrong, die: therefore they die for inherited (we may say for vicarious) guilt.
4. From this admitted mystery and fact (as plainly it was with the Romans) St Paul argues to the corresponding “life” of believers in virtue of the vicarious righteousness of Messiah, whom here (and in 1Co 15:22; 1Co 15:45 ; 1Co 15:47,) he regards as the Second Adam.
5. Unquestionably the mystery of the Effects of the Fall is extremely great and painful. But it is the mystery of facts; and it is but one of the offshoots of the greatest and deepest of all distressing mysteries, the Existence of Sin. See further, Appendix D.
Wherefore, as, &c.] There is no expressed close to this sentence. But a close may be taken as implied in this first clause: q. d., “Wherefore [the case of Justification is] just parallel to the entrance of sin by one man, &c.” Rom 5:12 will then be a complete statement.
by one man ] Cp. 1Co 15:21-22 ; 1Co 15:45-49.
sin death ] See Rom 5:17-18 for the implied antithesis: Christ, righteousness, life.
death by sin ] In the case of Man. Scripture nowhere says that death in animals is due to human sin. Death was the specially threatened penalty to the sole race which was on the one hand created with an animal organism, which could die, and on the other, “made in the image of God.” The penal character of death is essential to St Paul’s argument.
passed ] Lit. went through, traversed, penetrated.
upon ] Better, unto; so as to reach all men. “ Men ” is expressed here in the Gr., marking the special reference to human beings.
for that all have sinned ] Better, for that all sinned; the aorist. St Paul refers to the First Sin, to the guilt of the Representative of the race. A close parallel, in contrast, is 2Co 5:15, where lit. “since One died for all, therefore they all died;” i.e. ideally, in their Divine Representative. See too 1Co 15:21, where our death in Adam is spoken of just as our sin in Adam here.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Rom 5:12-21 has been usually regarded as the most difficult part of the New Testament. It is not the design of these notes to enter into a minute criticism of contested points like this. They who wish to see a full discussion of the passage, may find it in the professedly critical commentaries; and especially in the commentaries of Tholuck and of Professor Stuart on the Romans. The meaning of the passage in its general bearing is not difficult; and probably the whole passage would have been found far less difficult if it had not been attached to a philosophical theory on the subject of mans sin, and if a strenuous and indefatigable effort had not been made to prove that it teaches what it was never designed to teach. The plain and obvious design of the passage is this, to show one of the benefits of the doctrine of justification by faith. The apostle had shown,
- That that doctrine produced peace, Rom 5:1.
- That it produces joy in the prospect of future glory, Rom 5:2.
- That it sustained the soul in afflictions;
(a)By the regular tendency of afflictions under the gospel, Rom 5:3-4; and,
(b)By the fact that the Holy Spirit was imparted to the believer.
- That this doctrine rendered it certain that we should be saved, because Christ had died for us, Rom 5:6; because this was the highest expression of love, Rom 5:7-8; and because if we had been reconciled when thus alienated, we should be saved now that we are the friends of God, Rom 5:9-10.
- That it led us to rejoice in God himself; produced joy in his presence, and in all his attributes.
He now proceeds to show the bearing on that great mass of evil which had been introduced into the world by sin, and to prove that the benefits of the atonement were far greater than the evils which had been introduced by the acknowledged effects of the sin of Adam. The design is to exalt our views of the work of Christ, and of the plan of justification through him, by comparing them with the evil consequences of the sin of our first father, and by showing that the blessings in question not only extend to the removal of these evils, but far beyond this, so that the grace of the gospel has not only abounded, but superabounded. (Prof. Stuart.) In doing this, the apostle admits, as an undoubted and well-understood fact:
1. That sin came into the world by one man, and death as the consequence. Rom 5:12.
2. That death had passed on all; even on those who had not the light of revelation, and the express commands of God, Rom 5:13-14.
3. That Adam was the figure, the type of him that was to come; that there was some sort of analogy or resemblance between the results of his act and the results of the work of Christ. That analogy consisted in the fact that the effects of his doings did not terminate on himself, but extended to numberless other persons, and that it was thus with the work of Christ, Rom 5:14. But he shows,
4. That there were very material and important differences in the two cases. There was not a perfect parallelism. The effects of the work of Christ were far more than simply to counteract the evil introduced by the sin of Adam. The differences between the effect of his act and the work of Christ are these.
- The sin of Adam led to condemnation. The work of Christ has an opposite tendency, Rom 5:15.
- The condemnation which came from the sin of Adam was the result of one offence. The work of Christ was to deliver from many offences, Rom 5:16.
- The work of Christ was far more abundant and overflowing in its influence. It extended deeper and further. It was more than a compensation for the evils of the fall, Rom 5:17.
5. As the act of Adam threw its influence over all people to secure their condemnation, so the work of Christ was suited to affect all people, Jews and Gentiles, in bringing them into a state by which they might be delivered from the fall, and restored to the favor of God. It was in itself adapted to produce far more and greater benefits than the crime of Adam had done evil; and was thus a glorious plan, just suited to meet the actual condition of a world of sin; and to repair the evils which apostasy had introduced. It had thus the evidence that it originated in the benevolence of God, and that it was adapted to the human condition, Rom 5:18-21.
(The learned author denies the doctrine of imputed sin, and labors to prove that it is not contained in Rom 5:12, Rom 5:19. The following introductory note is intended to exhibit the orthodox view of the subject, and meet the objections which the reader will find in the Commentary. The very first question that demands our attention is, What character did Adam sustain under the covenant of works, that of a single and independent individual. or that of the representative of the human kind?
This is one of the most important questions in Theology, and according to the answer we may be prepared to give, in the affirmative or negative, will be almost the entire complexion of our religious views. If the question be resolved in the affirmative, then what Adam did must be held as done by us, and the imputation of his guilt would seem to follow as a necessary consequence.
1. That Adam sustained the character of representative of the human race; in other words, that he was the federal as well as natural head of his descendants, is obvious from the circumstances of the history in the book of Genesis. It has been said indeed, that in the record of the threatening no mention is made of the posterity of Adam, and that on this account, all idea of federal headship or representation must be abandoned, as a mere theological figment, having no foundation in Scripture. But if God regarded Adam only in his individual capacity, when be said unto him in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, then, the other addresses of God to Adam, which form part of the same history, must be construed in the same way. And was it to Adam only, and not to the human kind at large, viewed in him, that God said, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth? Was it to Adam in his individual capacity, that God gave the grant of the earth, with all its rich and varied productions? Or was it to mankind at large? Was it to Adam alone that God said, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, etc.? The universal infliction of the penalty shows, that the threatening was addressed to Adam as the federal head of the race. All toil, and sweat, and die. Indeed, the entire history favors the conclusion, that God was dealing with Adam, not in his individual, but representative capacity; nor can its consistency be preserved on any other principle.
2. Moreover, there are certain facts connected with the moral history of mankind, which present insuperable difficulties, if we deny the doctrines of representation and imputed sin. How shall we on any other principle account for the universality of death, or rather of penal evil? It can be traced back beyond all personal guilt. Its origin is higher. Antecedent to all actual transgression, man is visited with penal evil. He comes into the world under a necessity of dying. His whole constitution is disordered. His body and his mind bear on them the marks of a blighting curse. It is impossible on any theory to deny this. And why is man thus visited? Can the righteous God punish where there is no guilt? We muss take one side or other of the alternative, that God inflicts punishment without guilt, or that Adams sin is imputed to his posterity. If we take the latter branch of the alternative, we are furnished with the ground of the divine procedure, and freed from many difficulties that press upon the opposite view.
It may be noticed in this place also, that the death of infants is a striking proof of the infliction of penal evil, prior to personal or actual sin. Their tender bodies are assailed in a multitude of instances by acute and violent diseases, that call for our sympathy the more that the sufferers cannot disclose or communicate the source of their agony. They labor with death and struggle hard in his hands, until they resign the gift of life they had retained for so short a while. It is said, indeed, that the case of infants is not introduced in Scripture in connection with this subject, and our author tells us, that they are not at all referred to in any part of this disputed passage, nor included in the clause, death reigned, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression. On this, some observations will be found in the proper place. Meanwhile, there is the fact itself, and with it we are concerned now. Why do infants die? Perhaps it will be said that though they have committed no actual sin, yet they have a depraved nature; but this cedes the whole question, for that depraved nature is just a part of the penal evil, formerly noticed. Why are innocent infants visited with what entails death on them? One answer only can be given, and no ingenuity can evade the conclusion, in Adam all die. The wonder is, that this doctrine should ever have been denied. On the human family at large, on man and woman, on infant child, and hoary sire, on earth and sky, are traced the dismal effects of the first sin.
3. The parallelism between Adam and Christ is another branch of evidence on this subject. That they bear a striking resemblance to each other is allowed on all hands. Hence, Christ is styled, in 1 Cor. 15, the last Adam, and the second man, and in this very passage, Adam is expressly called a type, or figure of him that was to come. Now in what does this resemblance consist? Between these two persons there are very many points Of dissimilarity, or contrast. The first man is earthy, the second is the Lord from heaven. From the one come guilt, and condemnation, and death; and from the other. righteousness, justification, and life. Where then is the similarity? They are alike, says Beza, in this, that each of them shares what he has with has. Both are covenant or representative heads, and communicate their respective influences to those whom they represent. Here then, is one great leading point of similarity, nor is it possible in any other view to preserve the parallel.
For suppose we disturb the parallel as now adjusted, and argue that Adam was not a federal head, that we are therefore neither held guilty of Adams sin, nor condemned and punished on account of it; where shall we find the counterpart of this in Christ? Must we also maintain that he does not represent his people, that they are neither esteemed righteous on account of his work, nor justified and saved by it? Such is the legitimate consequence of the opposite views. If we hold that from Adam we receive only a corrupt nature, in consequence of which we sin personally, and then become guilty, and are in consequence condemned; we must also argue that we receive from Christ only a pure or renewed nature, in consequence of which we become personally righteous, and are then and therefore justified and saved. But such a scheme would undermine the whole gospel. Though the derivation of holiness from Christ be a true and valuable doctrine, we are not justified on account of that derived holiness. On the contrary, we are justified on account of something without us – something that has no dependence whatever on our personal holiness, namely, the righteousness of Christ. Nay, according to the doctrine of Paul, justification in order of nature, is before sanctification, and the cause of it.
It is but justice to state, that the commentator maintains that a resemblance between Adam and Christ lies not at all in the mode in which sin and righteousness, life and death have been respectively introduced by them; but is found in the simple fact that the effect of their doings did not terminate on themselves, but extended to numberless other persons. pp. 117, 118, 128. Indeed, he repeatedly affirms, that in regard to the introduction of sin by Adam, nothing whatever is said in this passage in regard to the mode of it. The fact alone is announced. If this were true, it is allowed that the arguments we have now employed would be much weakened. But the assertion cannot be substantiated. If the analogy do not lie in the mode, but in the simple fact, that the effects of their doings do not terminate on themselves; what greater resemblance is there between Adam and Christ, than between any two persons that might be named? David and Ahab might be compared in the same way; the good deeds of the one, and the evil deeds of the other, not terminating with themselves. Besides, Paul certainly does state in the previous chapter, the mode in which the righteousness of Christ becomes available for salvation. He states plainly that God imputeth it without works. When then in the 5th chapter he looks back upon this subject, and introduces his parallel with Wherefore as by one man, etc. are we to believe that he intends no similarity in the mode? Shall we make the apostle explain the manner in which the righteousness becomes available, and say nothing of the way in which its opposite is introduced, at the very time he is professedly comparing the two?
Such is a brief outline of the evidence on which the doctrine of imputed sin is based. The principal arguments are those derived from the universality of penal evil, and the parallel between Adam and Christ. And these are the very topics handled by the apostle in this much vexed passage. Our author, indeed, in his opening remarks maintains, that nothing is said by the apostle of original sin in this place. The apostle here is not discussing the doctrine of original sin; and his design is to show one of the benefits of the doctrine of justification. But the design of Paul is to illustrate the doctrine of justification, and not simply to show one of its benefits. For in the former part of this chapter Rom 5:1-11, the apostle had fully enlarged on these benefits, and there is no evidence that Rom 5:12, Rom 5:19, are a continuation of the same theme. On the contrary, there is obviously a break in the discourse at Rom 5:12, where the apostle, recalling the discussion, introduces a new illustration of his principal point, namely, justification through the righteousness of Christ. On this the apostle had discouraged largely in Rom. 3; 4.
And lest any should think it anomalous and irrational to justify people, on account of a work they themselves had no hand in accomplishing, he now appeals to the great analogous fact in the history of the world. This seems the most natural construction. No wonder, says President Edwards, when the apostle is treating so fully and largely of our restoration, righteousness, and life by Christ, that he is led by it to consider our fall, sin, death, and ruin by Adam. – Orig. Sin. p. 303. The following analysis will assist the reader in understanding the whole passage: As the point to be illustrated is the justification of sinners, on the ground of the righteousness of Christ, and the source of illustration is the fall of all men in Adam; the passage begins with a statement of this latter truth. As on account of one man death has passed upon all people; so on account of one, etc. Rom 5:12. Before, however, carrying out the comparison, the apostle stops to establish his position, that all people are regarded, and treated as sinners on account of Adam. His proof is this. The infliction of a penalty implies the transgression of a law, since sin is not imputed where there is no law, Rom 5:13. All mankind are subject to death or penal evils, therefore all people are regarded as transgressors of a law, Rom 5:13. The Law or covenant which brings death on all people, is not the Law of Moses, because multitudes died before that Law was given, Rom 5:14.
Nor is it the law of nature, since multitudes die who have never violated even that law, Rom 5:14. Therefore, we must conclude, that people are subject to death on account of Adam; that is, it is for the offence of one that many die, Rom 5:13-14. Adam is, therefore, a type of Christ. Yet the cases are not completely parallel. There are certain points of dissimilarity, Rom 5:15, Rom 5:17. Having thus limited and illustrated the analogy, the apostle resumes, and carries the comparison fully out in Rom 5:18-19. Therefore as on account of one man. etc. Prof. Hodge.)
Rom 5:12
Wherefore, – dia touto. On this account. This is not an inference from what has gone before, but I a continuance of the design of the apostle to show the advantages of the plan of justification by faith; as if he had said, The advantages of that plan have been seen in our comfort and peace, and in its sustaining power in afflictions. Further, the advantages of the plan are seen in regard to this, that it is applicable to the condition of man in a world where the sin of one man has produced so much wo and death. On this account also it is a matter of joy. It meets the ills of a fallen race; and it is therefore a plan adapted to man. Thus understood, the connection and design of the passage is easily explained. In respect to the state of things into which man is fallen, the benefits of this plan may be seen, as adapted to heal the maladies, and to be commensurate with the evils which the apostasy of one man brought upon the world. This explanation is not what is usually given to this place, but it is what seems to me to be demanded by the strain of the apostles reasoning. The passage is elliptical, and there is a necessity of supplying something to make out the sense.
As – hosper. This is the form of a comparison. But the other part of the comparisons deferred to Rom 5:18. The connection evidently requires us to understand the other part of the comparison of the work of Christ. In the rapid train of ideas in the mind of the apostle, this was deferred to make room for explanations Rom 5:13-17. As by one man sin entered into the world, etc., so by the work of Christ a remedy has been provided, commensurate with the evils. As the sin of one man had such an influence, so the work of the Redeemer has an influence to meet and to counteract those evils. The passage in Rom 5:13-17 is therefore to be regarded as a parenthesis thrown in for the purpose of making explanations, and to show how the cases of Adam and of Christ differed from each other.
By one man … – By means of one man; by the crime of one man. His act was the occasion of the introduction of all sin into all the world. The apostle here refers to the well known historical fact Gen 3:6-7, without any explanation of the mode or cause, of this. He adduced it as a fact that was well known; and evidently meant to speak of it not for the purpose of explaining the mode, or even of making this the leading or prominent topic in the discussion. His main design is not to speak of the manner of the introduction of sin, but to show that the work of Christ meets and removes well-known and extensive evils. His explanations, therefore, are chiefly confined to the work of Christ. He speaks of the introduction, the spread, and the effects of sin, not as having any theory to defend on that subject, not as designing to enter into a minute description of the case, but as it was manifest on the face of things, as it stood on the historical record, and as it was understood and admitted by mankind.
Great perplexity has been introduced by forgetting the scope of the apostles argument here, and by supposing that he was defending a special theory on the subject of the introduction of sin; whereas, nothing is more foreign to his design. He is showing how the plan of justification meets well understood and acknowledged universal evils. Those evils he refers to just as they were seen, and admitted to exist. All people see them, and feel them, and practically understand them. The truth is, that the doctrine of the fall of man, and the prevalence of sin and death, do not belong especially to Christianity any more than the introduction and spread of disease does to the science of the healing art. Christianity did not introduce sin; nor is it responsible for it The existence of sin and we belongs to the race; appertains equally to all systems of religion, and is a part of the melancholy history of man, whether Christianity be true or false.
The existence and extent of sin and death are not affected if the infidel could show that Christianity was an imposition. They would still remain. The Christian religion is just one mode of proposing a remedy for well-known and desolating evils; just as the science of medicine proposes a remedy for diseases which it did not introduce, and which could not be stayed in their desolations, or modified, if it could be shown that the whole science of healing was pretension and quackery. Keeping this design of the apostle in view, therefore, and remembering that he is not defending or stating a theory about the introduction of sin, but that he is explaining the way in which the work of Christ delivers from a deep-felt universal evil, we shall find the explanation of this passage disencumbered of many of the difficulties with which it has been thought usually to be invested.
By one man – By Adam; see Rom 5:14. It is true that sin was literally introduced by Eve, who was first in the transgression; Gen 3:6; 1Ti 2:14. But the apostle evidently is not explaining the precise mode in which sin was introduced, or making this his leading point. He therefore speaks of the introduction of sin in a popular sense, as it was generally understood. The following reasons may be suggested why the man is mentioned rather than the woman as the cause of the introduction of sin:
(1) It was the natural and usual way of expressing such an event. We say that man sinned, that man is redeemed, man dies, etc. We do not pause to indicate the sex in such expressions. So in this, he undoubtedly meant to say that it was introduced by the parentage of the human race.
(2) The name Adam in Scripture was given to the created pair, the parents of the human family, a name designating their earthly origin; Gen 5:1-2, In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam. The name Adam, therefore, used in this connection Rom 5:14, would suggest the united parentage of the human family.
(3) In transactions where man and woman are mutually concerned, it is usual to speak of the man first, on account of his being constituted superior in rank and authority.
(4) The comparison on the one side, in the apostles argument, is of the man Christ Jesus; and to secure the fitness, the congruity (Stuart) of the comparison, he speaks of the man only in the previous transaction.
(5) The sin of the woman was not complete in its effects without the concurrence of the man. It was their uniting in it which was the cause of the evil. Hence, the man is especially mentioned as having reordered the offence what it was; as having completed it, and entailed its curses on the race. From these remarks it is clear that the apostle does not refer to the man here from any idea that there was any particular covenant transaction with him, but that he means to speak of it in the usual, popular sense; referring to him as being the fountain of all the woes that sin has introduced into the world.
In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, Gen 2:17. This is an account of the first great covenant transaction between God and man. It carries us back to the origin of mankind, and discloses the source of evil, about which so much has been written and spoken in vain. That God entered into covenant with Adam in innocence, is a doctrine, with which the Shorter Catechism has made us familiar from our infant years. Nor is it without higher authority. It would be improper, indeed, to apply to this transaction everything that may be supposed essential to a human compact or bargain. Whenever divine things are represented by things analogous among men, care must be taken to exclude every idea that is inconsistent with the dignity of the subject. If the analogy be pressed beyond due bounds, the subject is not illustrated, but degraded. For example, in the present case, we must not suppose that because in human covenants, the consent of parties is essential, and both are at full liberty to receive or reject the proposed terms as they shall see fit; the same thing holds true in the case of Adam. He indeed freely gave his consent to the terms of the covenant, as a holy being could not fail to do, but he was not at liberty to withhold that consent. He was a creature entirely at the divine disposal, whose duty from the moment of his being was implicit obedience. He had no power either to dictate or reject terms, The relation of parties in this covenant, renders the idea of power to withhold consent, inadmissible.
But, because the analogy cannot be pressed beyond certain limits, must we therefore entirely abandon it? Proceeding on this principle, we should speedily find it impossible to retain any term or figure, that had ever been employed about religious subjects. The leading essentials of a covenant are found in this great transaction, and no more is necessary to justify the appellation which orthodox divines have applied to it. A covenant is a contract, or agreement, between two or more parties, on certain terms. It is commonly supposed to imply the existence of parties, a promise, and a condition. All these constituent parts of a covenant meet in the case under review. The parties are God and man, God and the first parent of the human race; the promise is life, which though not expressly stated, is yet distinctly implied in the penalty; and the condition is obedience to the supreme will of God. In human covenants no greater penalty is incurred than the forfeiture of the promised blessing, and therefore the idea of penalty is not supposed essential to a covenant. In every case of forfeited promise, however, there is the infliction of penalty, to the exact amount of the value of the blessing lost. We cannot think of Adam losing life without the corresponding idea of suffering death. So that, in fact, the loss of the promise, and the infliction of the penalty, are nearly the same thing.
It is no valid objection to this view, that the word covenant, as our author tells us, (p. 137,) is not applied in the transaction in the Bible, for there are many terms, the accuracy of which is never disputed, that are no more to be found in the Scriptures than this. Where do we find such terms as the fall, and the Trinity, and many others that might be mentioned? The mere name, in, deed, is not a matter of very great importance, and if we allow that in the transaction itself, there were parties, and a promise, and a condition, (which cannot easily he denied,) it is of less moment whether we call it a covenant, or with our author and others, a divine constitution. It is obvious to remark, however, that this latter title is just as little to be found applied in the transaction in the Bible, as the former, and besides is more liable to be misunderstood; being vague and indefinite, intimating only, that Adam was under a divine law, or constitution; whereas the word covenant distinctly expresses the kind or form of law, and gives definite character to the whole transaction.
But although the doctrine of the covenant of works is independent of the occurrence of the name in the Scriptures, even this narrow ground of objection is not so easily maintained as some imagine. In Hos 6:7, it is said (according to the marginal reading, which is in strict accordance with the original Hebrew,) they like Adam: k’-Aadam have transgressed the covenant. And in that celebrated passage in the Epistle to the Galatians, Gal 4:24, when Paul speaks of the two covenants, he alludes, in the opinion of some of the highest authorities, to the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. This opinion is espoused, and defended with great ability by the late Mr. Bell of Glasgow, one of the most distinguished theologians of his times, in a learned dissertation on the subject: Bell on the Covenants p. 85. Scripture authority, then, would seem not to be entirely lacking, even for the name.
This doctrine of the covenant is intimately connected with that of imputed sin, for if there were no covenant, there could be no covenant or representative head; and if there were no covenant head, there could be no imputation of sin. Hence, the dislike to the name.)
Sin entered into the world – He was the first sinner of the race. The word sin here evidently means the violation of the Law of God He was the first sinner among people, and in consequence all others became sinners. The apostle does not here refer to Satan, the tempter, though he was the suggester of evil; for his design was to discuss the effect of the plan of salvation in meeting the sins and calamities of our race. This design, therefore, did not require him to introduce the sin of another order of beings. He says, therefore, that Adam was the first sinner of the race, and that death was the consequence.
Into the world – Among mankind; Joh 1:10; Joh 3:16-17. The term world is often thus used to denote human beings, the race, the human family. The apostle here evidently is not discussing the doctrine of original sin, but he is stating a simple fact, intelligible to all: The first man violated the Law of God, and, in this way, sin was introduced among human beings. In this fact – this general, simple declaration – there is no mystery.
And death by sin – Death was the consequence of sin; or was introduced because man sinned. This is a simple statement of an obvious and well-known fact. It is repeating simply what is said in Gen 3:19, In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return into the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. The threatening was Gen 2:17, Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. If an inquiry be made here, how Adam would understand this; I reply, that we have no reason to think he would understand it as referring to anything more than the loss of life as an expression of the displeasure of God. Moses does not intimate that he was learned in the nature of laws and penalties; and his narrative would lead us to suppose that this was all that would occur to Adam. And indeed, there is the highest evidence that the case admits of, that this was his understanding of it.
For in the account of the infliction of the penalty after the Law was violated; in Gods own interpretation of it, in Gen 3:19, there is still no reference to anything further. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Now it is incredible that Adam should have understood this as referring to what has been called spiritual death, and to eternal death, when neither in the threatening, nor in the account of the infliction of the sentence, is there the slightest recorded reference to it. People have done great injury in the cause of correct interpretation by carrying their notions of doctrinal subjects to the explanation of words and phrases in the Old Testament. They have usually described Adam as endowed with all the refinement, and possessed of all the knowledge, and adorned with all the metaphysical acumen and subtility of a modern theologian. They have deemed him qualified in the very infancy of the world, to understand and discuss questions, which, under all the light of the Christian revelation, still perplex and embarrass the human mind. After these accounts of the endowments of Adam, which occupy so large a space in books of theology, one is surprised, on opening the Bible, to find how unlike all this, is the simple statement in Genesis. And the wonder cannot be suppressed that people should describe the obvious infancy of the race as superior to its highest advancement; or that the first man, just looking upon a world of wonders, imperfectly acquainted with law, and moral relations, and the effects of transgression, should be represented as endowed with knowledge which four thousand years afterward it required the advent of the Son of God to communicate!
The account in Moses is simple. Created man was told not to violate a simple law, on pain of death. He did it; and God announced to him that the sentence would be inflicted, and that he should return to the dust whence he was taken. What else this might involve, what other consequences sin might introduce, might be the subject of future developments and revelations. It is absurd to suppose that all the consequences of the violation of a law can be foreseen, or must necessarily be foreseen, in order to make the law and the penalty just. It is sufficient that the law be known; that its violation be forbidden; and what the consequences of that violation will be, must be left in great part to future developments. Even we, yet know not half the results of violating the Law of God. The murderer knows not the results fully of taking a mans life. He breaks a just law, and exposes himself to the numberless unseen woes which may flow from it.
We may ask, therefore, what light subsequent revelations have east on the character and result of the first sin? and whether the apostle here meant to state that the consequences of sin were in fact as limited as they must have appeared to the mind of Adam? or had subsequent developments and revelations, through four thousand years, greatly extended the right understanding of the penalty of the law? This can be answered only by inquiring in what sense the apostle Paul here uses the word death. The passage before us shows in what sense he intended here to use the word. In his argument it stands opposed to the grace of God, and the gift by grace, Rom 5:15; to justification, by the forgiveness of many offences, Rom 5:16; to the reign of the redeemed in eternal life, Rom 5:17; and to justification of life, Rom 5:18. To all these, the words death Rom 5:12, Rom 5:17 and judgment Rom 5:16, Rom 5:18 stand opposed.
These are the benefits which result from the work of Christ; and these benefits stand opposed to the evils which sin has introduced; and as it cannot be supposed that these benefits relate to temporal life, or solely to the resurrection of the body, so it cannot be that the evils involved in the words death, judgment, etc., relate simply to temporal death. The evident meaning is, that the word death, as used here by the apostle, refers to the train of evils which have been introduced by sin. It does not mean simply temporal death; but that group and collection of woes, including temporal death, condemnation, and exposure to eternal death, which is the consequence of transgression. The apostle often uses the word death, and to die, in this wide sense, Rom 1:32; Rom 6:16, Rom 6:23; Rom 7:5, Rom 7:10, Rom 7:13, Rom 7:24; Rom 8:2, Rom 8:6,Rom 8:13; 2Co 2:16; 2Co 7:10; Heb 2:14. In the same sense the word is often used elsewhere, Joh 8:51; Joh 11:26; 1Jo 5:16-17; Rev 2:11; Rev 20:6, etc. etc.
In contrasting with this the results of the work of Christ, he describes not the resurrection merely, nor deliverance from temporal death, but eternal life in heaven; and it therefore follows that he here intends by death that gloomy and sad train of woes which sin has introduced into the world. The consequences of sin are, besides, elsewhere specified to be far more than temporal death, Eze 18:4; Rom 2:8-9, Rom 2:12. Though therefore Adam might not have foreseen all the evils which were to come upon the race as the consequence of his sin, yet these evils might nevertheless follow. And the apostle, four thousand years after the reign of sin had commenced, and under the guidance of inspiration, had full opportunity to see and describe that train of woes which he comprehends under the name of death. That train included evidently temporal death, condemnation for sin, remorse of conscience, and exposure to eternal death, as the penalty of transgression.
And so – Thus. In this way it is to be accounted for that death has passed upon all people, to wit, because all people have sinned. As death followed sin in the first transgression, so it has in all; for all have sinned. There is a connection between death and sin which existed in the case of Adam, and which subsists in regard to all who sin. And as all have sinned, so death has passed upon all people.
Death passed upon – dielthen. Passed through; pervaded; spread over the whole race, as pestilence passes through, or pervades a nation. Thus, death, with its train of woes, with its withering and blighting influence, has passed through the world, laying prostrate all before it.
Upon all men – Upon the race; all die.
For that – eph’ ho. This expression has been greatly controverted; and has been very variously translated. Elsner renders it, on account of whom. Doddridge, unto which all have sinned. The Latin Vulgate renders it, in whom (Adam) all have sinned. The same rendering has been given by Augustine, Beza, etc. But it has never yet been shown that our translators have rendered the expression improperly. The old Syriac and the Arabic agree with the English translation in this interpretation. With this agree Calvin, Vatablus, Erasmus, etc. And this rendering is sustained also by many other considerations.
(1) If o be a relative pronoun here, it would refer naturally to death, as its antecedent, and not to man. But this would not make sense.
(2) If this had been its meaning, the preposition en would have been used; see the note of Erasmus on the place.
(3) It comports with the apostles argument to state a cause why all died, and not to state that people sinned in Adam. He was inquiring into the cause why death was in the world; and it would not account or that to say that all sinned in Adam. It would require an additional statement to see how that could be a cause.
(4) As his posterity had not then an existence, they could not commit actual transgression. Sin is the transgression of the Law by a moral agent; and as the interpretation because all have sinned meets the argument of the apostle, and as the Greek favors that certainly as much as it does the other, it is to be preferred.
All have sinned – To sin is to transgress the Law of God; to do wrong. The apostle in this expression does not say that all have sinned in Adam, or that their nature has become corrupt, which is true, but which is not affirmed here; nor that the sin of Adam is imputed to them; but simply affirms that all people have sinned. He speaks evidently of the great universal fact that all people are sinners, He is not settling a metaphysical difficulty; nor does he speak of the condition of man as he comes into the world. He speaks as other men would; he addresses himself to the common sense of the world; and is discoursing of universal, well-known facts. Here is the fact – that all people experience calamity, condemnation, death. How is this to be accounted for? The answer is, All have sinned. This is a sufficient answer; it meets the case. And as his design cannot be shown to be to discuss a metaphysical question about the nature of man, or about the character of infants, the passage should be interpreted according to his design, and should not be pressed to bear on that of which he says nothing, and to which the passage evidently has no reference. I understand it, therefore, as referring to the fact that people sin in their own persons, sin themselves – as, indeed, how can they sin in an other way? – and that therefore they die. If people maintain that it refers to any metaphysical properties of the nature of man, or to infants, they should not infer or suppose this, but should show distinctly that it is in the text. Where is there evidence of any such reference?
(The following note on Rom 5:12, is intended to exhibit its just connection and force. It is the first member of a comparison between Adam and Christ, which is completed in Rom 5:18-19. As by one man, etc. The first point which demands our attention, is the meaning of the words, By one man sin entered into the world. Our author has rendered them, He was the first sinner; and in this he follows Prof. Stewart and Dr. Taylor; the former of whom gives this explanation of the clause; that Adam began transgression, and the latter interprrets it by the word commence. It is, however, no great discovery, that sin commenced with one man, or that Adam was the first sinner. If sin commenced at all, it must have commenced with some one. And If Adam sinned at all, while yet he stood alone in the world, he must have been the first sinner of the race! President Edwards, in his reply to Dr. Taylor of Norwich, has the following animadversions on this view: That the world was full of sin, and full of death, were too great and notorious, deeply affecting the interests of mankind; and they seemed very wonderful facts, drawing the attention of the more thinking part of mankind everywhere, who often asked this question, whence comes this evil, moral and natural evil? (the latter chiefly visible in death.) It is manifest the apostle here means to tell us how these came into the world, and prevail in it as they do. But all that is meant, according to Dr Tay ors interpretation, is he began transgression, as if all the apostle meant, was to tell us who happened to sin first, not how such a malady came upon the world, or how anyone in the world, besides Adam himself, came by such a distemper. – Orig. Sin, p. 270.
The next thing that calls for remark in this verse, is the force of the connecting words and so kai houtos. They are justly rendered in this way,. in this manner, in consequence of which. And therefore, the meaning of the first three clauses of the first verse is, that by one man sin entered into the world. and death by sin, in consequence of which sin of this one man, death passed upon all people.
It will not do to render and so by in like manner, as Prof. Stewart does, and then explain with our author, there is a connection between death and sin. which existed in the case of Adam, and which subsists in regard to all who sin. This is quite contrary to the acknowledged force of kai houtos, and besides, entirely destroys the connection which the apostle wishes to establish between the sin of the one man, and the penal evil, or death, that is in the world. It, in effect, says there is no connection whatever between those things although the language may seem to imply it and so large a portion of Christian readers in every age have understood it in this way. Adam sinned and he died, other people have sinned and they died! And yet this verse is allowed to be the first member of a comparison between Adam and Christ! Shall we supply then the other branch of the comparison, thus: Christ was righteous and lived, other people are righteous and they live? If we destroy the connection in the one case, how do we maintain it in the other? See the supplementary note.
The last clause for that all have sinned, is to be regarded as explanatory of the sentiment, that death passed on all, in consequence of the sin of the one man. Some have translated eph’ ho, in whom; and this, indeed, would assign the only just reason, why all are visited with penal evil on account of Adams sin. All die through him, because in him all have sinned. But the translation is objectionable, on account of the distance of the antecedent. However, the common rendering gives precisely the same sense, for that, or because that all have sinned, that is, according to an explanation in Bloomfields Greek Testament, are considered guilty in the sight of God on account of Adams fall. Thus, the expression may be considered equivalent to hamartoloi katestathesan at Rom 5:19. There can be no doubt that hemarton does bear this sense, Gen 44:32; Gen 43:9. Moreover, the other rendering because all have sinned personally, is inconsistent with fact. Infants have not sinned in this way, therefore, according to this view, their death is left unaccounted for, and so is all that evil comprehended in the term death, that comes upon us antecedent to actual sin. See the supplementary note.
Lastly, this interpretation would render the reasoning of the apostle inconclusive. If, observes Witsius, we must understand this of some personal sin of each, the reasoning would not have been just, or worthy of the apostle. For his argument would be thus: that by the one sin of one, all were become guilty of death, because each in particular had besides this one and first sin, his own personal sin, which is inconsequential. That people are punished for personal or actual transgression is true. But it is not the particular truth Paul seeks here to establish, any more than he seeks to prove in the previous part of his epistle, that people are justified on account of personal holiness, which is clearly no part of his design.)
Rom 5:13
For until the law … – This verse, with the following verses to the 17th, is usually regarded as a parenthesis. The Law here evidently means the Law given by Moses. Until the commencement of that administration, or state of things under the law. To see the reason why he referred to this period between Adam and the Law, we should recall the design of the apostle, which is, to show the exceeding grace of God in the gospel, abounding, and superabounding, as a complete remedy for all the evils introduced by sin. For this purpose he introduces three leading conditions, or states, where people sinned, and where the effects of sin were seen; in regard to each and all of which the grace of the gospel superabounded. The first was that of Adam, with its attendant train of ills Rom 5:12, which ills were all met by the death of Christ, Rom 5:15-18. The second period or condition was that long interval in which men had only the light of nature, that period occurring between Adam and Moses. This was a fair representation of the condition of the world without revelation, and without law, Rom 5:13-14. Sin then reigned – reigned everywhere where there was no law. But the grace of the gospel abounded over the evils of this state of man. The third was under the Law, Rom 5:20. The Law entered, and sin was increased, and its evils abounded. But the gospel of Christ abounded even over this, and grace triumphantly reigned. So that the plan of justification met all the evils of sin, and was adapted to remove them; sin and its consequences as flowing from Adam; sin and its consequences when there was no written revelation; and sin and its consequences under the light and terrors of the Law.
Sin was in the world – People sinned. They did what was evil.
But sin is not imputed – Is not charged against people, or they are not held guilty of it where there is no law. This is a self-evident proposition, for sin is a violation of law; and if there is no law, there can be no wrong. Assuming this as a self-evident proposition, the connection is, that there must have been a law of some kind; a law written on their hearts, since sin was in the world, and people could not be charged with sin, or treated as sinners, unless there was some law. The passage here states a great and important principle, that people will not be held to be guilty unless there is a law which binds them of which they are apprized, and which they voluntarily transgress; see the note at Rom 4:15. This verse, therefore, meets an objection that might be started from what had been said in Rom 4:15. The apostle had affirmed that where no law is there is no transgression. He here stated that all were sinners. It might be objected, that as during this long period of time they had no law, they could not be stoners. To meet this, he says that people were then in fact sinners, and were treated as such, which showed that there must have been a law.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 5:12-21
By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men.
The entrance of sin into the world
Sin entered as a foe into a city, a wolf into a fold, a plague into a house; as an enemy to destroy, a thief to rob, a poison to infect. (T. Robinson, D. D.)
Introduction of sin into the world
The word entered indicates the introduction of a principle till then external to the world, and the word by throws back the responsibility of the event on him who, as it were, pierced the dyke through which the irruption took place. Paul evidently holds, with Scripture, the previous existence of evil in a superhuman sphere. Assuredly no subsequent transgression is comparable to this. It created, here below, a state of things which subsequent sins only served to confirm. If the question is asked, how a being created good could perpetrate such an act, we answer that a decision like this does not necessarily suppose evil in its author. There is in moral life not only a conflict between good and evil, but also between good and good, lower good and higher good. The act of eating the fruit of the tree on which the prohibition rested, was not illegitimate in itself. It became guilty only through the prohibition. Man, therefore, found himself placed–and such was the necessary condition of the moral development through which he had to pass–between the inclination to eat–an inclination innocent in itself, but intended to be sacrificed–and the positively good Divine order. At the instigation of an already existent power of revolt, man drew from the depths of his liberty a decision whereby he adhered to the inclination rather than to the Divine Will, and thus created in his whole race, still identified with his person, the permanent proclivity to prefer inclination to obligation. (Prof. Godet, D. D.)
Sin and death
I. The Origin And Diffusion Of Sin.
1. As to the origin of sin. By one man sin entered into the world.
(1) Sin is the transgression of the law, and the one man by whom it entered into the world was Adam. He was created after the image of the Almighty, and placed in Eden, where we behold a test of obedience, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, with regard to which, the Lord God commanded the man, saying thou shalt not eat of it. Here, then, was the law, showing the right of God to command, the obligation of man to obey, and the responsibility and the final account which man must render to the Almighty for his conduct. Satan, animated by malignant hatred to God and holiness, became the tempter, that he might introduce sin. Our first parents yielded, an event which changed the path of nature, and whose mighty consequences will be felt throughout eternity.
(2) The transgression of our first parents was of vast and heinous amount. There are some who have been inclined to treat it with levity, and have sometimes inquired, What mighty offence could there be in the eating of an apple? In answer, note the sins connected with this transgression. There was–
(a) Unbelief, because they denied the right to command and the penalty that existed.
(b) Ambition, because they aspired to be as gods, distinguishing between good and evil.
(c) Sensuality, because they wished to gratify mere animal appetite.
(d) Ingratitude, because they turned against that God who had spread around them every enjoyment.
2. As to its diffusion, all have sinned.
(1) As it is impossible that an evil tree should bring forth good fruit, so it was impossible, when the nature of our first parent had become corrupted, that one of his descendants could enter into the world except as being a partaker of corruption also. Each, then, enters the world possessing what we term original sin.
(2) This important doctrine is indicated in Gen 5:3, where Adam is said to have begotten a son in his own likeness, after his own image, apparently in contrast to the fact that he was formed after the likeness of God. The same doctrine is affirmed in the inquiries of Job and Bildad, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. How can he be clean that is born of a woman? There is the confession of David, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. There is the statement of Christ, That which is born of the flesh is flesh. There is the asseveration of the apostle, The old man is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts.
(3) Now, that original sin always produces actual transgression. Hence it is that the children of the first man exemplify in themselves unbelief, ambition, sensuality, and ingratitude. Whatever modification may have been formed by education, example, or interest, this one fact remains, that man everywhere is a sinner. The charges of Scripture are without exception or limit: All flesh has corrupted his way upon the earth. There is none that doeth good, no not one. The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
II. The origin and diffusion of death.
1. The origin of death by sin. Man was formed with a susceptibility of being affected by the prospect of reward, and by the fear of punishment. Obedience was connected with the one, and disobedience with the other; and thus the most powerful of motives was put in action to aspire to good, and to avoid evil. Now, death was a penalty presented as the result of transgression (Gen 2:16-17; Gen 3:17; Gen 3:19). The wages of sin is death. Corporeal death was included, but much more, viz., spiritual and eternal death; i.e., the debasement of human nature consequent upon its alienation from God, the withdrawment of the Divine friendship, the terrors of the conscience at the prospect beyond the grave, the consummation of all this by the entrance of the soul into a state of retribution forever.
2. The diffusion of death. Death passed upon all men. In Adam all die; all men are sinners, and therefore against all men the penalty is still standing.
(1) Corporeal death is a penalty which is exacted from all the sons and daughters of Adam.
(2) The ages at which the allotment is suffered vary. There is the child at the mothers breast, the youth in the springtide of gaiety and buoyant spirits, the man in the maturity of wisdom and of power, the aged bending under the decrepitude of years.
(3) The method in which the allotment is suffered varies. The convulsions of nature; war; famine; accident; disease, slow and sudden. And yet, amid the variety of modes, seasons, the path is the same. All these things are but so many avenues leading down to the one narrow house, which has been appointed for all living.
3. Spiritual death constitutes the state of every man by nature. Every man in consequence of that state of spiritual death, is also in peril of proceeding to receive the recompense of it in the agonies of death eternal.
III. Those reflections by which our views of the combined origin and the diffusion of sin and death may be duly sanctified.
1. It becomes us to perceive and to lament over the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
2. We are called upon also to admire the riches of that Divine mercy which has provided a remedy against an evil which is so dreadful. (J. Parsons.)
Death by sin, and sin by man
I. The great curse of the world.
1. In its physical application. All the pains that our body has to endure are but the efforts of death to master it; and those pains are rendered worse because they awaken the fear of death. It is because accidents and disease are so often fatal that they are so greatly dreaded, and their pains so bitterly endured.
2. In its social results. Friendships shattered, homes broken up, hearts bleeding, does not the mere mention of these daily facts remind us what a curse death is. The graves of good men, and of beloved ones bear witness to more terrible things about death than can be expressed.
3. Spiritual death, all that is the opposite of purity, peace, love, joy, i.e., of eternal life is meant in Scripture by death. This death, which is insensibility, corruption, helplessness, ruin, is widespread. Every soul is either a temple or a tomb, a sanctuary or a sepulchre. Let the life of God be wanting, and the soul is dead. Over such death good men lament, angels may wail, and the Spirit of God grieves.
II. The original cause of death. Sin. Death is not here naturally. It invaded the world and is here because sin is here. Some find a difficulty in admitting that physical death is the result of sin; our bodies must die, they say, altogether apart from it. In answer may we not ask–
1. May not our physical nature be so injured by sin, that we cannot tell from our present knowledge what it might primarily have been? May not sin have introduced some mortal element that makes death now a necessity, or have expelled some immortal element that would have made death impossible?
2. Can we not see that the God who translated Enoch and Elijah could have so translated all the human race, supposing it were necessary that they should go? or–
3. Can we not see that but for sin death might have been without pain or fear? Even now to the Christian death resembles sleep. To the sinless the analogy might have been still more true. But explain it how we may, the teaching of the Scripture is that death is the penalty of sin. Shall not we count sin, then, our deadliest enemy, and contend with it as such?
III. The vast influence of man. By one man. It was the hand of man that opened the worlds gates to sin and to death. What the force of no foe from without could accomplish, happened through the compliance of a traitor within. But the text says that by one man sin entered, etc. Oh, the stupendous power, the momentous responsibility of that one man! Had that one man resisted temptation all might have been otherwise. We should have inherited stronger natures, nobler habits, and holy tendencies. But the one man who stood in the very forefront of the battle used the will he had (and without which will he could not have had any virtue), and chose to sin. And today our ancestors sins, even back to the sin of the first sinner, have exercised their share of influence in making us what we are. Our yielding to temptation is none the less guilty than Adams. For if our nature is weaker and our tendencies more debased, we have in the sufferings and deaths of generations a warning such as he could not have known. So without charging home on our first father more than his due proportion of guilt, we summon him here as an unanswerable witness to the vast influence of individual men. Our sins should ever be discouraged, our virtues excited by the remembrance that by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Conclusion: Let us thank God for the gospel that so gloriously meets at every point the sad suggestions of our text.
1. Is death in the world? Its conqueror, He who has taken its sting and crushed its power, is the ever living, ever present Christ.
2. Is sin in the world, working its fearful ravages as the precursor of death? The Saviour from sin is even more intimately one with this same human race. As one man sinned, one man has redeemed the world. And where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound. (U. R. Thomas.)
On the fallen state of man
I. The sinfulness of our fallen state.
1. What it is, or wherein the sinfulness of our fallen state doth consist.
2. Not only particular expressions and passages, but the whole of Divine revelation, concerning Christs coming into the world to save His people from their sins, proceeds upon a supposition of this truth, that sin has entered into the world, and that all have sinned.
3. Sin has in it an unlikeness, or contrariety and opposition, to the very nature of God. Sin is a transgression of the Divine law, and betrays want of loyalty to our supreme Lord–rebellion, and a contempt or denial of His authority and right of sovereignty over us. Sin is also dishonouring to God, and robs Him of that glory, honour, and service we owe to Him. Sin likewise carries in it the baseness of ingratitude to God, our kind Benefactor. Further, sin brings confusion into our frame, turning our affections from God to the creatures, and exalting the passions and appetites to reign over reason, and counteract the dictates of conscience. Again, sin brings deformity, pollution and defilement on our souls; effacing that likeness to God, and conformity to His law, which is their beauty and glory; stamping them with the likeness of the prince of darkness, and making them vile and filthy.
II. The misery of our fallen state. Death by sin, and so death passed upon all men.
1. Let us consider what this misery is, or what is implied in that death which entered into the world by sin. They are exposed to manifold miseries in this life–to internal miseries in the soul–the distress that flows from vile affections and disorderly appetites. Further, the death which is here said to have entered into the world by sin, no doubt includes natural death, or the separation of soul and body. The second, or eternal death, is by far the worst and most dreadful part of the misery to which we are exposed by sin.
2. Sad experience, in all ages and in all nations, witnesseth that troubles of various kinds are incident to the children of men while they live and that death is the common lot of all mankind. Death or misery is the punishment which sin deserves; its just reward. Death or misery is the fruit of sin connected with it and allotted to it by the law of God; God having expressly threatened to Adam, In the day thou eatest, thou shalt surely die. The honour of the Divine veracity requires that sin be punished. The connection established betwixt sin and punishment is not a mere arbitrary constitution, but founded upon the infinite purity, rectitude, and goodness of God. The same thing may be argued from the Divine justice and righteousness. Of this He has given a most awful and striking display in the sufferings and death which Christ, as our substitute, endured when He His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree. Nay, this the very goodness of God, and the end of His government, as the kind and merciful Ruler of the world, require. When the Lord caused His goodness to pass before Moses, He proclaimed, as one part of it, That He will by no means clear the guilty; intimating that even His punishing the guilty is an act of His goodness and love.
3. The greatness of that misery to which we are, by sin, become liable. (T. Fernie, M. A.)
The introduction and consequences of sin
1. The question of the origin of evil has exercised and perplexed the understandings of men in every age. The theories of most of the ancient philosophers on this point involved far greater difficulties than that which they were introduced to account for. And how could it be otherwise? for the principles of the subject lie beyond the range of the human faculties.
2. Even the Christian revelation does not profess to give a full explanation; for it does not countenance the presumptuous attempts of men to be wise above what is written. It is a religion of faith; and God expects that all His rational creatures should be willing to receive with humility, and thankfulness, the measure of knowledge with respect to Himself and His ways which He is pleased to communicate. It is also a religion of practice. It was never intended to furnish materials for mere intellectual exercise.
3. In conformity, then, with these leading characteristics of our religion, the gospel revelation, although it does not profess to give a full explanation of the origin of evil, does yet give us some information which calls for the exercise of humble faith and is intended to promote the purposes of practical godliness. The substance of the information is given in the text.
I. By one man sin entered into the world. From this we learn that God was not the author of sin, it formed no part of our constitution as it came from the hand of its Creator. But although man was able to stand, he was also liable to fall; and he did fall through the temptation of the devil. The introduction, then, of sin into the world was the joint work of Satan and of man.
II. In what way did this first sin of our first parent bear upon the character and condition of his posterity?
1. Does the text mean merely that the first man was the first that sinned, and that all his descendants have also sinned in like manner, following his bad example? There is a great deal more in the matter than this.
(1) The Scriptures, and especially the whole subsequent part of the chapter, represent all Adams posterity as implicated both in the guilt and in the punishment of his first transgression. The trial of Adam, under the covenant of works, was substantially the trial of the human race. Adam was a fair specimen of human nature, and his conduct was a fair test of what human nature could do, and would do, when placed in certain circumstances, and subjected to certain influences.
(2) But Adam was not only a fair specimen of human nature, he was also the federal head and representative of all his posterity. In consequence of this, all men sinned in him, and fell with him, and are justly subjected to all the penal consequences of Adams first sin.
2. Adam lost communion with God. It was no longer consistent with the holiness of the Divine character to hold fellowship with a being who had rebelled against His authority. Adam, accordingly, was expelled from Eden, where he was wont to hold personal intercourse with the Father of his spirit. So all his posterity are born where they cannot in the ordinary course of things expect to be visited with any intimations of a Fathers care and love.
3. From this all the other consequences of Adams sin upon his posterity are derived. These are all comprehended under the word death. The sanction attached to the covenant of works was, that in the day he broke it he should surely die.
(1) That the word death here means more than the separation of the soul and the body is evident, for the denunciation was not literally fulfilled. At the same time, we are expressly informed that temporal death was a consequence of Adams transgression. We are too much in the habit of looking upon death just as the natural consequence of our bodily constitution, and of the physical influences to which we are subjected. But had man not fallen, he had never died, nor been subjected to those influences which now are the proximate causes of death; but he would have flourished forever in undecaying health.
(2) Death, then, involves something more than dissolution. Men are naturally dead in trespasses and sins; kept in a state of distance and alienation from God, the truth of which fact rests upon grounds independent of the truth that mans moral nature is derived from Adam. This might be proved in many cases by an appeal to a mans consciousness, and by an impartial examination of the state of the world, and the moral aspect of human society. This condition is not only one of sinfulness, but one of misery. The true happiness of a rational and immortal creature can consist only in the favour of God. Everything else, although it may afford pleasure for a time, is in reality only a vain show of happiness, and can afford no permanent enjoyment.
(3) But there is a more alarming sense still in which the word death is used. The apostle tells us that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, where, from the contrast between the two parts of the statement, it follows necessarily that the death which is the wages of sin must be eternal death, that is, the endurance of everlasting misery in hell.
4. The reason of man has often alleged that it is inconsistent with justice to involve men in the penal consequences of an offence which they did not commit. To which the full and adequate answer is–Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? At the same time, before anyone can show that he is treated unjustly, the objector must show that, if he had been placed in Adams circumstances, he would not have fallen as Adam did, but would have held fast his integrity. And this is a position which few individuals will be presumptuous enough to maintain. Besides, our actual transgressions are independent of the particular manner in which they originated. It is our duty to state plainly and openly all the doctrines revealed to us in Scripture; and if wicked men will pervert the doctrines of Scripture their blood be upon their own head.
5. But, remember that God did not abandon all intercourse with the human race when He drove Adam from paradise. Immediately after the fall, He held out an intimation of a Deliverer, and by a series of wonderful dispensations He made preparations for the manifestation of Him who was to destroy the works of the devil. Accordingly, in the fulness of time, God sent into the world His only-begotten Son for the purpose of delivering men. On the ground of what Jesus Christ did and suffered, every man is warranted to come to Christ that he may receive salvation. The offers of the gospel are addressed to you, and if you do not accept of them, you remain, of course, in your sins; but the guilt is entirely your own, you have rejected the counsel of God against yourselves and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life. (W. Cunningham, D. D.)
Original sin
This doctrine may be regarded as it respects the disposition to sin, and as it respects the guilt of it. These two particulars are distinct. The corruption of human nature means its tendency to sin. The guilt of them who wear that nature means their evil desert on account of sin.
I. The fact of the sinful disposition–
1. Can only be gathered from mans sinful doings or desires. We do not need to dig into a spring to ascertain the quality of its water, but to examine the quality of the stream which flows from it. We have no access to the hearts of the inferior animals, and yet we can pronounce from their doings on their disposition. We speak of original ferocity in the tiger. This means that, as the fountain on the hillside is formed and filled up before it sends forth the rills which proceed from it, so a ferocious quality of nature exists in the tiger before it vents itself forth in deeds of ferocity; and it is a quality not due to education, provocation, climate, accident, or to anything posterior to the formation of the animal itself; it is seen, both from the universality and unconquerable strength of this attribute, that it belongs essentially to the creature. There is no difficulty in understanding here the difference between original and actual. Could the cruelties of a tiger be denominated sins, then all the cruelties inflicted by it during the course of its whole life–then would these be its actual sins. These might vary in number and in circumstances with different individuals, yet each would have the same cruel disposition. It is thus that we verify the doctrine of original sin by experience. Should it be found true of every man, that he is actually a sinner, then he sins, not because of the mere perversity of his education, the peculiar excitements to evil that have crossed his path, the noxious atmosphere he breathes, or the vitiating example that is on every side of him; but purely in virtue of his being a man. And to talk of the original sin of our species, thereby intending to signify the existence of a prior and universal disposition to sin, is just as warrantable as to affirm the most certain laws, or the soundest classifications in natural history.
2. There is not enough, it may be thought, of evidence for this fact, in those glaring enormities which give to history so broad an aspect of wicked violence. For the actors in the great drama are few, and though satisfied that many would just feel and do alike in the same circumstances–there is yet room for affirming that, in the unseen privacies of social and domestic life, some are to be found who pass a guileless and a perfect life in this world. Now it is quite impossible to meet this affirmation by passing all the individuals of our race before you, and pointing out the actual iniquity of the heart or life, which proves them corrupt members of a corrupt family. You cannot make all men manifest to each man; but you may make each man manifest to himself. You may appeal to his conscience, and in defect of evidence in his outward history you may accompany him to that place where the emanating fountain of sin is situated. You may enter along with him into the recesses of his heart, and there detect the preference to its own will, the slight hold that the authority of God has over it. We dispute not the power of many amiable principles in the heart of man, but which work without the recognition of God. It is this ungodliness which can be fastened on every child of Adam. From such a fountain innumerable are the streams of disobedience which will issue; and though many of them may not be so deeply tinged, yet still in the fountain itself there is independence of God. Put out our planet by the side of another, where all felt the same delight in God that angels feel, and are you to say of such a difference that it has no cause? Must there not be a something in the original make and a constitution of the two families to account for such a diversity?
3. We are quite aware that this principle is but faintly recognised by many expounders of human virtue. And therefore it is that we hold it indeed a most valid testimony in behalf of our doctrine, when they are rendered heartless by disappointment; and take revenge upon their disciples by pouring forth the bitterest misanthropy against them. Even on their own ground, original sin might find enough of argument to make it respectable.
4. The existence of mans corruption, then, is proved from experience; how it entered into the world is altogether a matter of testimony. By one man, says our text, sin entered into the world. He came out pure and righteous from the hand of God; but Adam, after he had yielded to temptation, was a changed man, and that change was permanent, and while God made man after His own image, the very first person who was born into the world, came to it in the image of his parent. This is the simple statement, and we are not able to give the explanation. The first tree of a particular species may be conceived to have come from the Creators hand with the most exquisite flavour. A pestilential gust may have passed over it, and so changed its nature, that all its fruit afterwards should be sour. After this change it may be conceived to have dropt its seeds, and all the future trees rise in the transformed likeness of the tree from which they sprung. If this were credibly attested, we are not prepared to resist it; and as little are we entitled to set ourselves in opposition to the Bible statement that a moral blight came over the character of our great progenitor; and that a race proceeded from him with that very taint of degeneracy that he had taken on.
5. Another fact announced in this passage is the connection between the corruption of our nature and its mortality. This brings out in another way the distinction between actual and original sin. All have not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression, i.e., by a positive deed of disobedience; infants e.g. The death that they undergo is not the fruit of any actual iniquity, but of that moral virus which has descended from the common fountain. And what is this but the original and constitutional aptitude that there is to sinning, a disposition that only yet exists in embryo, but which will come out into deed so soon as powers and opportunities are expanded. The infant tiger has not yet performed one act of ferocity, but we are sure that all the rudiments of ferocity exist in its native constitution. The tender sapling of the crab tree has not yet yielded one sour apple, but we know that there is an organic necessity for its producing this kind of fruit. And whether or not we should put to the account of this the boisterous outcry of an infant, the constant exactions it makes, and its spurning impatience of all resistance and control, so as to be the little tyrant to whose brief but most effective authority the entire circle of relationship must bend, still the disease is radically there. Original sin, then, as it respects the inborn depravity of our race, is at one with the actual experience of mankind.
II. We should further proceed to show in how far original sin, as it respects the imputation of guilt to all who are under it, is at one with the moral sense of mankind. Experience takes cognisance of whether such a thing is, and so is applicable to the question whether a depraved tendency to moral evil is or is not in the human constitution. The moral sense of man takes cognisance of whether such a thing ought to be, and whether man ought to be dealt with as a criminal on account of a tendency which came unbidden by him into the world.
1. To determine the question we should inquire how much man requires to have within his view, ere his moral sense be able to pronounce conclusively. One may see a dagger projected from a curtain, grasped by a human hand, directed against the bosom of an unconscious sleeper; and, seeing no more, he would infer that the individual was an assassin. Had he seen all he might have seen that he was in fact an overpowered victim, an unwilling instrument of the deed. The moral sense would then instantly reverse the former decision and transfer the charge to those who were behind.
2. Now, the mind of man, in order to be made up as to the moral character of any act, needs to know only what the intention was that originated the act. An act against the will indicates no demerit on the part of him who performed it. But an act with the will gives us the full impression of demerit. How the disposition got there is not the question which the moral sense of man, when he is unvitiated by a taste for speculation, takes any concern in. Give us two individuals–one of whom is revengeful and profligate, and the other kind and godly, and our moral sense leads us to regard the one as blameable and the other as praiseworthy. And in so doing it does not look so far back as to the originating cause of the distinction.
3. What stumbles the speculative inquirer is this, he thinks that a man born with a sinful disposition is born with the necessity of sinning, which exempts him from all imputation of guiltiness. But he confounds two things which are distinct, viz., the necessity that is against the will with the necessity that is with the will. The man who struggled against the external force that compelled him to thrust a dagger into the bosom of his friend, was operated upon by a necessity that was against his will; and you exempt him from all charge of criminality. But the man who does the same thing at the spontaneous bidding of his own heart, this you irresistibly condemn. The only necessity which excuses a man for doing evil, is a necessity that forces him by an external violence to do it, against the bent of his will struggling most honestly and determinedly to resist it. But if the necessity be that his will is bent upon the doing of it, then such a necessity just aggravates the mans guiltiness.
4. It is enough, then, that a disposition to moral evil exists; and however it originated, it calls forth, by the law of our moral nature, a sentiment of blame or reprobation. If it be asked how this can be, we reply that we do not know. It is not the only fact of which we can offer no other explanation than that simply such is the case. We can no more account for our physical than for our moral sensations. When we eat the fruit of the orange tree we feel the bitterness; but we do not know how this sensation upon our palate stands connected with a constitutional property in the tree, which has descended to it through a long line of ancestry. And when we look to the bitter fruit of transgression, and feel upon our moral sense a nauseating revolt, we do not know how this impression stands connected with a tendency which has been derived through many centuries. But certain it is that the origin of our depravity has nothing to do with the sense and feeling of its loathesomeness wherewith we regard it.
5. There is an effectual way of bringing this to the test. Let a neighbour inflict moral wrong or injury; will not the feeling of resentment rise immediately? Will you stop to inquire whence he derived the malice, or selfishness, under which you suffer? Is it not simply enough that he wilfully tramples upon your rights? If it be under some necessity which operates against his disposition, this may soften your resentment. But if it be under that kind of necessity which arises from the strength of his disposition to do you harm, this will only stimulate your resentment. And thinkest thou, O man, who judgest another for his returns of unworthiness to you, that thou wilt escape the judgment of God?
6. These remarks may prepare the way for all that man by his moral sense can understand in the imputation of Adams sin. We confess that no man is responsible for the doings of another whom he never saw, and who departed this life many centuries before him. But if the doings of a distant ancestor have in point of fact corrupted his moral nature, and if this corruption has been transmitted to his descendants, then we can see how these become responsible, not for what their forefathers did, but for what they themselves do under the corrupt disposition that they have received from their forefather. According to this explanation, every man still reapeth not what another soweth, but what he soweth himself. Every man eateth the fruit of his own doings.
III. In attempting to vindicate the dealings of God with the species, let us begin with the portion now within hearing. What have you to complain of? You say that, without your consent, a corrupt nature has been given you, and that so sin is unavoidable, and yet there is a law which denounces upon this sin the torments of eternity. Well, is this an honest complaint? Do you really feel your corrupt nature, and are you accordingly most desirous to be rid of it? Well, God is at this moment holding out to you in offer the very relief which you now tell us that your heart is set upon. Does not God wipe His hands of the foul charge that His sinful creatures would prefer against Him, when He says, Turn unto Me and I will pour out My Spirit upon you? Who does not see that every possible objection which can be raised against the Creator is most fully and fairly disarmed by what He offers to man in the gospel? And if man will persist in charging upon God a depravity that He both asks and enables us to give up, did not we firmly retain it by the wilful grasp of our own inclinations, is it not plain that on the day of reckoning it will be clear that the complaints of man, because of his corruption, have been those of a hypocrite, who secretly loved the very thing he so openly complained of. We may conceive a man murmuring at being upon a territory over which there is spread a foul atmosphere charged with all the elements of discomfort and disease, and at length to be wrapped in some devouring flame which would burn up every creature within its vortex. But let God point his way to another country, where freshness was in every breeze, and the whole air shed health and fertility and joy over the land that it encompassed–let Him offer all the facilities of conveyance so as to make it turn simply upon the mans will, whether he should continue in the accursed region or be transported to another. And will not the worthless choice to abide rather than to move, acquit God of the severity wherewith He has been charged, and unmask the hypocrisy of all the reproaches which man has uttered against Him? What is true of the original corruption is also true of the original guilt. Do you complain of that debt under the weight and oppression of which you came into the world? What ground, we ask, is there for complaining, when the offer is fairly put within your reach, of a most free and ample discharge, and that not merely for the guilt of original, but also for the whole guilt of your proper and personal sinfulness. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
Original sin, a scientific fact
Now he who would deny original sin must contradict all experience in the transmission of qualities. The very hound transmits his peculiarities, learnt by education, and the Spanish horse his paces, taught by art, to his offspring, as a part of their nature. If it were not so in man, there could be no history of man as a species; no tracing out the tendencies of a race or nation; nothing but the unconnected repetitions of isolated individuals, and their lives. It is plain that the first man must have exerted on his race an influence quite peculiar; that his acts must have biassed their acts. And this bias or tendency is what we call original sin. (F. W. Robertson.)
Original sin
Probably no one will seriously deny the fact which is asserted throughout the Bible that all are under sin, that in many things we offend all. The universality of sin, apart from all theories as to its origin, or the cause of its universality, is a fact of experience as incontestable as any universal statement about the human race can be. This is different from the doctrine of original sin; it is an assertion that, as a matter of fact, all human beings whom we know, all of whom any record exists have, so far as we can judge, shown in one point or another a weakness and corruption of nature, a faultiness–to use the lowest term–which in most cases rises to occasional wickedness, in some to the most extreme and continuous depravity. But it has been pointed out by a great theologian of our own time, that when such a fact as this can be affirmed of every representative of a race composed of such various sorts, under such various conditions of time and place, as the human race, the fact points to a law. No fact can be universal unless some law, some general cause, lies behind it. We may not always know what it is, but we believe that it is there though we have not yet discovered it. It is simply impossible for us to think that the universal phenomenon of sin is due to chance; that men, differently constituted and differently placed as they are, should all have fallen into sin by accident. There must be, then, some law corresponding to the fact and explaining it. Such a law is that which we assert in asserting the doctrine of original sin. For this doctrine does not simply declare that all men sin–that would be merely a re-statement of the universal fact, a summary, not a law; but it asserts that this is the result of inheritance depending upon the physical relation of one generation to another, and that each human being brings with him into the world a tendency to sin, which is due to no act or wish of his own, but is the working out of far off causes among the dim origins of the human race. That is the law which, according to the Bible and the Church, lies behind and explains the universal fact of sin. There might be another explanation, another law. It might be maintained that every soul was freshly created by God, that it came into the world unaffected by the previous conditions of the race, untainted by any stain of will or deed of its human ancestry, and that by the direct act of its Creator every such soul has been made to fall into sin; so that the phenomenon of universal sinfulness is simply a repetition in millions and millions of cases of an act of Gods controlling power by which men are allowed–nay, impelled–to become evil. This is a conceivable theory; but the conscience of every Christian must revolt from such a travesty of Gods love and human free will. Whatever the mystery of sin may be–and I am not, of course, attempting (the Church has never attempted) to explain its origin, its first appearance in Gods universe–we must at least bring it into harmony with what we know of Gods will and of His methods in other parts of His action. And it is surely more consistent with our knowledge of the universe to say that sin is due to one great cause acting uniformly throughout the human race than to ascribe it to so many repeated separate acts of Gods will. We dare not believe that God directly wills that any soul should sin, but we can see that indirectly, and in consequence of one of the great general laws of His action, He may allow men to reap the fruit of human sin even if the harvest should be their own continuance in sin. That, apart from the question of redemption, is the Christian doctrine of original sin. It depends upon a general law, the law of the intimate relation of human beings one to another–the solidarity, as it is called, of the human race. Indeed, but for this relation, it is difficult to see how Christianity could be an intelligible system at all. If we do not share in the sinfulness of our forefathers, neither do we share in the redemption won for us by Christ, the spiritual Head of our race. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. If men are simply separate atoms, unrelated to each other save by the similarity of outward form and nature, how can they be Christs brethren? If they do not constitute a body, how is Christ the Head? (Hon. and Rev. A. T. Lyttelton.)
Original sin: why God did not arrest its consequences
Was it compatible with Divine perfection to let this succession of generations, stained with original vice, come into the world? God certainly might have annihilated the perverted race in its head, and replaced it by a new one; but this would have been to confess Himself vanquished by the adversary. He might, on the contrary, accept it such as sin had made it, and leave it to develop in the natural way, holding it in His power to recover it; and this would be to gain a victory on the field of battle where He seemed to have been conquered. Conscience says to which of these two courses God must give the preference, and Scripture teaches us which He has preferred. (Prof. Godet.)
Original sin
Sin is born in a child as surely as fire is in the flint–it only waits to be brought out and manifested. (W. F. Hook, D. D.)
Original sin
acted as an extinguisher; and therefore the soul is born in darkness and cannot see until enlightened by the Holy Spirit. (A. Toplady, M. A.)
Original sin
Our father Adam had a great estate enough at first, but he soon lost it. He violated the trust on which he held his property, and he was cast out of the inheritance, and turned adrift into the world to earn his bread as a day labourer by tilling the ground whence he was taken. His eldest son was a vagabond; the first born of our race was a convict upon ticket of leave. If any suppose that we have inherited some good thing by natural descent, they go very contrary to what David tells us, when he declares, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Our first parents were utter bankrupts. They left us nothing but a heritage of old debts, and a propensity to accumulate yet more personal obligations. Well may we be poor who come into this world heirs of wrath, with a decayed estate and tainted blood. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Original sin, a root
A pious minister, having preached on the doctrine of original sin, was afterwards waited on by some persons, who stated their objections to what he had advanced. After hearing them, he said, I hope you do not deny actual sin too? No, they replied. The good man expressed his satisfaction at their acknowledgment; but, to show the folly of their opinions in denying a doctrine so plainly taught in Scripture, he asked them, Did you ever see a tree growing without a root? (J. G. Wilson.)
The misery of mans sinful state
Note–
I. That all mankind are made miserable. This needs no proof. Sad experience in all ages confirms the truth of this assertion.
II. That this misery came upon men by the fall. Man came not out of Gods hand with the tear in his eye, or sorrow in his heart, or a burden on his back. Death never could enter the gates of the world till sin set them wide (Gen 3:1-24). And then one sin let in the flood, and many sins followed and increased it. The first pilot dashed the ship on a rock, and then all that were in it were cast into a sea of misery.
III. What that misery is. Note–
1. Mans loss by the fall. He has lost communion with God.
(1) A saving interest in God as his God. Man could then call God his own God, his Friend, his Portion, being in covenant with Him.
(2) Sweet and comfortable society and fellowship with God (Gen 3:8). Thus man lost God (Eph 2:12), the greatest and the fountain of all other losses. Had the sun been forever darkened, it had been no such loss as this. Man is a mere nothing without God; a nothing in nature without His common presence, and a nothing in happiness without His gracious presence (Psa 30:5; Psa 63:3).
2. What man is brought under by the fall.
(1) Gods wrath (Eph 2:3).
(2) His curse (Gal 3:10).
3. What man is liable to in consequence.
(1) In this world.
(a) To all the miseries of this life. First, outward miseries, as, Gods curse upon the creature for our sake (Gen 3:17); calamities, such as sword, famine, and pestilence; miseries on mens bodies, sickness, pains, etc.; on our estates, as losses, wrongs, and oppressions; on our names, by reproach, disgrace, etc.; on our employments; on our relations. Secondly, inward spiritual miseries, as blindness of mind (Eph 4:13; 1Co 4:4), a reprobate sense (Rom 1:28), strong delusions (2Th 2:11), hardness of heart (Rom 2:5), vile affections (Rom 1:26), fear, sorrow, and horror of conscience (Isa 33:14).
(b) At the end of this life, man is liable to death (chap. 6:23).
(2) In the world to come.
(a) The punishment of loss–of all the good things of this life; of all the good things which they are enjoyed here; the favourable presence and enjoyment of God and Christ (Mat 25:41); of all the glory and blessedness above.
(b) The punishment of sense. Conclusion:
1. See here the great evil of sin.
2. Woeful is the case of all who are in a state of nature. (T. Boston, D. D.)
Mans fall
Let us consider–
I. That sin which by one man entered into the world.
1. What this sin was, and how it came to be committed. The sin itself, as to the outward act, was the eating of the tree of knowledge contrary to the command of God. The manner of doing it may be collected from Genesis
3. compared with other Scriptures.
2. Its heinousness.
(1) It contained many sins.
(a) Direct disobedience and rebellion against God.
(b) Unbelief.
(c) Inordinate indulgence to the sensual appetite.
(d) Pride and covetousness.
(e) An envious discontent with God.
(f) Sacrilege; for God was robbed.
(g) Idolatry; because the trust due to God only was transferred to the devil, and because they made a tree a god to themselves, and expected from it greater benefits than their Maker would bestow.
(h) Ingratitude.
(i) Injustice and cruelty against all their posterity.
(2) It had special aggravations.
(a) It was committed in a direct manner against God, and struck at all His perfections at once. His Majesty was treated by it with irreverence, His truth was arraigned, as though He had spoken what was equivocal or false. His Omnipotence was impeached, by the hope of escaping an evil certainly threatened; His goodness was contemned by ingratitude. Finally, His omnipresence, wisdom, justice, and holiness all shared in the affront.
(b) It was perfectly voluntary, being done against the clearest light.
(c) The broken command was an easy one, for it required nothing to be done, but only somewhat to be foreborne.
(d) The sin was committed in paradise, a delightful spot, honoured with the special presence of God and friendly communion with Him.
(e) This sin was the first in our world, which gave birth to the innumerable sins and calamities.
II. The concern which all men have in the first sin.
1. All men suffer and die through it (verses 14-17).
2. It belongs in the guilt of it to all men. All have sinned. How? Why, in Adam, their common father and head. (See also verses 18, 19.)
III. The dreadful consequences of the first sin to all the posterity of Adam.
1. Natural death, with a long train of miseries in life preceding it.
2. The punishments of another world.
3. One which commences in every man on the first union of soul and body–the want of habitual rectitude, or of effectual principles to incline and enable him to do what is pleasing to God, together with the inherency of an evil habit and bias prompting and disposing him to sinful actions.
Conclusion:
1. Let us learn from the first sin growing into such an enormous size, though conversant about a matter in itself inconsiderable, never to account the doing of anything which God forbids a slight trespass, and never to venture on it under such a pretence (1Co 5:6; Jam 3:5).
2. Let us be deeply humbled before God, for original sin without us, even that of our first parents, which, though not done by us is yet upon us by a just imputation, and for original sin within us.
3. Let us see that we abuse not this doctrine by charging all our sins so to the score of original corruption, as by the presence of a necessity, either to take an unbounded liberty in sinning or to extenuate the guilt of what we do knowingly with free and full consent of will. On the contrary, it is incumbent on us to watch, strive, and pray the more carefully and earnestly against sin as it easily besets us.
4. Let us take occasion from the view of our fall in the first Adam, with its sad consequences, to admire and thankfully use the way of our recovery in the second, which is in exact opposition to the former, only with superior efficacy and advantage. (Hubbard-Puritan.)
Human depravity
It is–
I. Total in its influences over the mind. Even–
1. The understanding.
2. The conscience.
3. The will.
4. The affections.
II. Universal in its prurience among mankind. It exists in all–
1. Ages.
2. Countries.
3. Communities.
4. Families.
5. Individuals.
III. Inherent in our nature in consequence of the fall.
1. The origin of sin is in the creature, not in the Creator.
2. Accordingly, man was created pure and holy.
3. But almost the first thing recorded of him is his fall.
4. The results of the fall–its degradation and misery of man–pass from one generation to another. (T. Raffles, D. D.)
The need of healing
1. The traits of greatness and of misery in man are so clear, says Pascal, that it is absolutely necessary that the true religion should teach us that there is in him some great principle of greatness, and at the same time some great principle of misery.
2. In Gen 3:1-24 we see the beginning of all that dreary, mean, disfiguring misery that rudely clashes with the honour of humanity, as the heir of a great house entering upon his envied heritage is saddened for life as he is told the secret of some shameful cloud upon the name he boasts, some taint of dishonour or wretchedness that is in his veins–so we learn the great blot on our scutcheon: how it is that we can be so noble and so base–it is because by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.
I. Let us try to see how naturally faith may link the record of the fall with the facts of our present state.
1. There is a clear and familiar analogy between our childhood and the childhood of our race. We look back, and in both cases the utmost effort of our thought fails long before it draws near to the first dawn of life and consciousness; in both eases there is much that we most take on trust, here relying upon the words of earthly parents, there upon the Word of God. And we then come to find, in both cases, that life itself is a verification of that which we have thus received by faith.
(1) For as we try to recall the first years of our own lives, the lines which we can retrace through our school days grow faint and uncertain as they enter the furthest past, till in the far distance of childhood only a few points of quivering light appear, like the scattered lamps of a straggling suburb, and then the tracks of consciousness are utterly lost in impenetrable haze. It is from others that we learn the story of those earliest days. It is faith in others, the evidence of things not seen, which links our present and our past. But then, as we go on living by this faith, accepting the manifold conditions of the state assigned to us, the witness of experience day by day confirms our trust.
(2) Now, is it not even exactly thus with the dim childhood of mankind? We travel back along the centuries towards the beginning of our race; presently the guidance of history falters and then stops; then tradition fails us long before we get to the boyhood of humanity; at last even science is irresolute, and only offers us hypothesis. Natural reason tells us as little of the childhood of humanity as memory can tell us of our own. But then, from behind the veil, there comes the voice of the Father of Spirits, whose eyes did see our substance yet being imperfect, and He alone tells us how man first became a living soul, and what were the conditions of his dawning thought; from Him we learn how our new life was lifted up by the inward strength of His own holiness, by the unchecked fulness of His grace; He teaches us what was the trial of those early years, and what choice first called our freedom into exercise. And then He shows us the beginning of our sin and all its devastating work. All that wondrous vision of mans infancy He offers to our faith. But here again Faith is not left to stand alone. By experience we find ourselves to be just what that strange revelation would lead us to expect: confused, uncertain of our proper place, bewildered between our ideal and our caricature, contented neither with virtue nor with vice; we have forces striving in us which are and are not ourselves, we have desires from which we recoil, and aversions for which we long, so that sometimes it almost seems as though man might have called himself fallen, even if God had never told him how he fell.
II. Yes, it is true indeed that, as Pascal says, The mystery of the fall and of the transmission of original sin is a mystery at once most remote from our knowledge and most essential to all knowledge of ourselves. It is, indeed, itself incomprehensible, but without it we are incomprehensible.
1. The facts of life force our thoughts to the recognition of the fall, just as the attractions and repulsions of the heavenly bodies guide the astronomer to believe in the existence of an undiscovered star. And so it has come to pass that the doctrine of the fall has been at once the most scornfully rejected and the most generally acknowledged truth in all the Christian faith. Surely it is both true and strange that a belief which seems at first so hard to realise, which is often thrust away with a confident impatience, can yet appeal to a vast army of witnesses, often unconscious, sometimes incredulous, of that which they have attested.
2. Plato compares the soul in its present plight to the form of the god Glaueus, immortal and miserable, crippled and battered by the waves, disfigured by the clinging growth of shells and seaweed, so that the fishermen as they catch sight of him can hardly recognise his ancient nature. However it may be misnamed, however the moral sense may be crushed down to die under fatalism and despair, still there is the witness to a corruption, a perversion of humanity, wide as the world and deep as life. The witness of all our experience, of all current language, all common expectations, about the ways of man; the witness of daily life, of our journals with their columns full of ceaseless news about the fruits of sin; the witness, interpreting all else, of our own hearts, all converge upon the truth of a worldwide disfigurement of human life, a pervading taint through all our history, a sense of something wrong in the ethical basis of our nature, thrust into every movement of the will.
3. And then, it may be, our minds will stagger and our hearts begin to sink at the dreary vision of that vast desolating gloom: there is none good, then, no, not one. There be many that say, Who will show us any good? The lies of the cynic and the pessimist claim kindred with our thoughts. Yes, they say, all this is true, and we had better simply acquiesce in it. What have we to do with those vague ideals which have made so many restless and miserable? When will men frankly recognise their proper level, and live there, and renounce those fruitless, wasteful hopes.
III. Oh, then, if that worst of all infidelity, the disbelief in goodness, the despair of holiness, begins to creep about your souls, then turn and gaze, where through the rent cloud the pure white light of God Himself has broken through. One break there is in that uniform tenor of our history, even the surpassing miracle of a sinless life.
IV. We can afford to realise and face the sin of the world, the sinfulness of our own hearts; we can bear to know the worst because we know the best, because the darkness is past, and the true Light now shineth, because we can turn from the gloom of sinful history to the perfect glory of the holiness of Christ. In Him is no sin, the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. The Word was God, and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father. (F. Paget, D. D.)
What is chance
?–
1. All death is a solemn and fearful thing. When it comes to an old person one cannot help feeling it often a release; but when death comes suddenly to people in the prime of life we cannot help asking, What is this death? this horrible thing which takes husbands from their wives, and children from their parents, and those who love from those who love them? What right has it here, under the bright sun, among the pleasant fields, destroying Gods handiwork, just as it is growing to its prime of beauty and usefulness? And there, by the bedside of the young at least, we do feel that death must be the enemy of a loving, life-giving God, as much as it is hated by poor mortal man. And then we feel there must be something between man and God. What right has death in the world if man has not sinned? And then we cannot help saying further, This cruel death! it may come to me, young and healthy as I am. It may come tomorrow, this minute, by a hundred diseases or accidents which I cannot foresee or escape, and carry me off tomorrow. And where would it take me to?
2. But perhaps you young people are saying to yourselves, You are trying to frighten us, but you shall not. We know very well that it is not a common thing for a young person to die, and therefore the chances are that we shall not die young, and it will be time enough to think of death when death draws near. Well, what do you mean by chance? What are these wonderful chances which are to keep you alive for forty or fifty years more? Did you ever hear a chance? Did anyone ever see a great angel called Chance flying about keeping people from dying? What is chance, which you fancy so much stronger than God?
3. Perhaps you will say, All we meant was that Gods will was against our dying. Then why put the thought of God away by foolish words about chance? For it is God only who keeps you alive, and He who makes you live can also let you not live.
4. Then again, it is not as you fancy, that when God leaves you alone you live, and when He visits you you die–but the very opposite. Our bodies carry in them from the very cradle the seeds of death. We live because God does not leave us alone, but keeps down those seeds of disease and death by His Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life.
5. Gods Spirit of Life is fighting against death in our bodies from the moment we are born. And, as Moses says, when He withdraws His Spirit then we are turned again to our dust. So that our living a long time or a short time does not depend on chance, or on our own health or constitution, but entirely on how long God may choose to keep down the death which is ready to kill us at any moment, and certain to kill us sooner or later,
6. And therefore I ask you, For what does God keep you alive? Will a man keep plants in his garden which bear neither fruit nor flowers; or stock on his farm which will only eat and never make profit; or a servant in his house who will not work? Much more, will a man keep a servant who will not only be idle himself, but quarrel with his fellow servants, and teach them to disobey their master? And yet God keeps thousands in His garden, and in His house, for years and years, while they are doing no good to Him, and doing harm to those around them.
7. Then why does not God rid Himself of them at once and let them die, instead of cumbering the ground? I know but one reason. If they were only Gods plants, or His stock, or His servants, He might do so. But they are His children, redeemed by the blood of Christ. God preserves you from death because He loves you. Oh, do not make that truth an excuse for forgetting and disobeying your heavenly Father! Why does any good father help and protect his children? Not as beasts take care of their young, and then as soon as they are grown up cast them off and forget them; but because he wishes them to grow up like himself, to be a comfort, help, and pride to him. And God takes care of you and keeps you from death for the very same reason. God desires that you should grow up like Himself.
8. But if you turn Gods grace in keeping you alive into an excuse for sinning–if, when God keeps you alive that you may lead good lives, you take advantage of His fatherly love to lead bad lives, and basely presume on His patience, what must you expect? God loves you, and you make that an excuse for not loving Him; God does everything for you, and you make that an excuse for doing nothing for God; God gives you health and strength, and you make that an excuse for using your health and strength just in the way He has forbidden. What can be more ungrateful? What can be more foolish? Oh, if one of our children behaved to us a hundredth part as shamefully as most of us behave to God, what should we think of them? Oh, beware! God is patient; but if a man will not turn, He will whet His sword. And then, woe to the careless and ungrateful sinner. God will take from him his health, or his blind peace, and by affliction, shame, and disappointment, teach him that his youth, health, money, and all that he has, are his Fathers gifts, and that his Father will take them away from him till he cries, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee. Father, take me back, for I have sinned, and am not worthy to be called Thy child. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
A historical parallel
The apostles argument turns entirely upon a parallel between the effects of Adams sin and those of Christs righteousness.
I. He is accordingly obliged to glance back upon the results which followed upon tire first mans transgression of law.
1. The point to be proved is this: Sin and death spread to all mankind through one man. The proof is this: All men betwixt Adam and Moses died. Why? Not, argues St. Paul, for any transgression of their own, but for Adams. At first one may object, sin was in the world. Why should they not have died for their own sin?
(1) But remember that Paul has already taught us to discriminate betwixt sin committed against, and sin committed without law. Without a law sin may be present as a defect of nature or fault of will, but sin as a violation of statute can enter only where the statute is known. Where no law is there can be no transgression (Rom 4:15). This he now supplements by sin is not imputed where there is no law (verse 13), axioms which carry with them all the stronger assurance of truth, that they not only echo, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, but are in accord with all that our Lord taught us concerning Him who is perfect love.
(2) Turning next to the bearing of these legal maxims upon the position of men betwixt Adam and Moses, one cannot fail to see that it applies to them roundly, yet with qualifications. That they sinned without law, and therefore not after the fashion of Adams transgression (verse 14), is true in the main, but only partially true of some of them. St. Paul himself implies as much by, even over them that had not sinned as Adam did. For although the ages before Moses, like the vast heathen world ever since, possessed no statute recognised to have come from heaven which denounced death as the penalty of transgression, such as Adam or the Jews had, and therefore could not break the statute with their eyes open in the same degree; yet they still retained (chap. 1) the relics of natural conscience, testifying to the eternal rules of right and wrong, and testifying quite clearly enough to render some of them at least inexcusable. But in many of them conscience was undeveloped, false judgments; in all, it was defective, prescribing only certain rules of duty, and very feebly declaring, if at all, the penalty for disobedience. Besides, this inadequacy of the moral sense, being a portion of that subjection of human nature to the consequences of transgression for which we are seeking to account, needs itself to be accounted for.
2. After all fair deductions have been allowed for, let the question be put broadly: Were the sins committed without revealed law such that, had there been no antecedent transgression, they would have been in the bulk of cases punishable with eternal death? I think St. Pauls reasoning compels us to reply that they were not. Suppose it conceivable for a new-created moral agent to be left in that condition of imperfect knowledge of the Divine will, and to sin, his fall would not entail such a penalty as actually followed the transgression of Adam. Here, then, were men dying for thousands of years under a penalty which was originally attached to the express violation of a known law, but not attached to such sins as they themselves could commit. Before Adam there had been placed a clear command with precise warnings. Deliberately breaking it, he died. But his posterity could not so sin. Before them no such positive law had been set. To them no such consequences had been foretold. They made no such deliberate choice. Yet on all of them alike falls that same penalty. There is the fact. Is there any other explanation of it except St. Pauls, viz., that they died because Adam sinned; because the sentence passed on the first man for his transgression included his posterity in its sweep, be their personal offences what they might; and from this point of view it does supply an explanation for what must otherwise appear inexplicable. Moreover, if it be once admitted, it materially alters the complexion of all the subsequent sins of mankind. Those later sins of the men without law might not be such transgressions as of themselves to entail death. Yet it is impossible to cut them off from their guilty origin in the one transgression which went before. If the race be one, and its whole sin be the fruit of one culpable and deliberate act of original rebellion, then it is clear that the total mass of moral evil must continue to be stained throughout with the dark hue of its origin.
3. It need hardly be added that in the case of adults under Christianity, sin has to a great extent recovered the type of Adams first transgression. The law has long since been republished with plain spoken promises and penalties. Most of us have chosen evil with the clearest knowledge. Still, even we can be proved to underlie the penalty, not of our own, but of Adams sin. For time was when we, too, had no law. As children we knew nothing of sin or duty, of the Lawgiver or the penalty. Yet we were subject then to death.
4. All this, however, is not preliminary merely, but parenthetic. Now that the sweeping lapse of a race into death through the single act of a representative man has been proved, he is prepared at the close of verse 14 to resume his interrupted sentence begun in verse 12. He does not resume it, and the reason is very notable. He has caught sight of differences betwixt the two cases which make the parallel in some points a contrast. The cases are similar, but not equal. Is there any shortcoming? On the contrary, there is a glorious excess. The apostle, therefore, forbears to conclude his parallel, but abruptly exclaims–
II. But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift! (verse 15).
1. One point of superiority is developed in verse 15, If by the trespass of the one, etc. Here are two similar procedures on the part of God, by which a vast multitude of human beings is involved in each case in the fate of one man. The one application of the principle turns out to be a terrific disaster which overwhelms countless millions of unhappy beings in the judgment and ruin that overtake their transgressing representative. The other is a blessed provision of Divine kindness brought in to remedy the sad efforts of the former through the action of a better and abler Representative. This argument bears upon us in two ways.
1. Do we feel the fact of universal condemnation for a single mans sin to be baffling? Then learn the best use to be made of this hard fact. If anything can relieve the difficulty it must be when grace pledges itself to save on the same principle. It is at least something to discover that it is a principle of the Divine administration and not an isolated occurrence. There comes out (to say no more) a certain noble consistency in Gods treatment of us. When the very principle which, on its first application, in Adam worked disaster, turns its hand, so to say, in the gospel, to work a remedy for its own ruin, is there not a certain poetical justice, or dramatic completeness, in the two-fold scheme? May not the one be intended to be read in the light of the other? Is it not conceivable that both applications of the one rule to the Two Heads of Humanity may be requisite to make up that plan of Omniscience, of which each were but a broken part? At all events one thing is plain. The more keenly anyone feels the hardship of being involved without his will in the condemnation of another, with so much the more joyous eagerness ought he to embrace the parallel way of escape which has been brought nigh by the obedience of Another.
2. Are you one who stumbles, not at the fall in Adam, but at the doctrine of a free pardon in Christ apart from merits of your own? Have you never considered to whom you are indebted for your sin and condemnation? Surely, if you must take death at another mans hand, you may as well take life too! Is it not idle to quarrel with the way in which God would set us right, since it is in this very way that we have got wrong.
3. Another point of superiority arises: one of fact no less than of logic. blot as through one that sinned, so is the gift, etc. (verse 16, R.V). In order to mens condemnation there needed but the one trespass of Adam. In order to our being declared righteous, there need many trespasses to be wiped out in blood. The Restorers work might perhaps have followed close on the fall by an instant purging of the first transgression, and an instant replacing of the lapsed race in recovered purity again. There would in that event have been no room for the superiority St. Paul seems here to have in his eye. But it pleased the Most High to suffer sin to make its way through the world till it had grown to be a burden intolerable to the earth. Then at length came the free gift of an atonement which covered all. It is the same with individual experience. Is it not alter a man has for years abused his freedom to choose the wrong, adding to the inherited fault under which he is condemned a crowd of illegal acts, that the free gift which justifies is usually revealed to the soul? Then when it comes to a mature and experienced offender, grown penitent at last, how widely must it abound!
4. Another point of superiority remains: If by the trespass of the One, etc. (verse 17, R.V). The results to be expected from redemption are grander than the results of the fall were disastrous. This sounds fabulous, for the disaster entailed on mankind by the fall of the One might well appear too fearful ever to be overtopped by any subsequent advantage; that disaster Paul does not attempt to soften. Death reigned; it not only entered and passed through unto all (verse 12), it is mans king. A triple crown it wears: over body, soul, and spirit. Over against this last extremity of ill, what can Jesus bring us of excelling good? Why, merely to undo that curse calls for the abolishing of death. To discrown our tyrant–no more; and set them free who are all their lifetime subject to his bondage; is not this as much as mans highest hope dare look for? But superabounding grace conceives a higher triumph. The Deliverer turns a rescue into a conquest. The curse is reversed till it becomes a blessing. Having brought back life, Christ raises life to glory. Death is discrowned, but only to set a crown upon the head of the redeemed. Not death reigns any more, but we reign in life. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.)
The great parallels
I. The universal diffusion of death by the deed of one man (verses 12-14).
II. The superiority of the factors acting in Christs work over the corresponding factor in the work of Adam (verses 15-17).
III. The certainty of equality in respect of extension and effect between the second work and the first (verses 18-19).
IV. The indication of the true part played by the law between these two universals of death and righteousness (verses 20-21).
Adam and Christ
I. Adam. Through Him we are all–
1. Subject to suffering, sorrow, and death.
2. Debarred from entrance into Paradise.
3. Kept from eternal happiness.
II. Christ. By Him–
1. Our sins are atoned for.
2. We are entirely freed from guilt.
3. Eternal life is granted to us.
4. Immortal happiness is our portion. (J. H. Tarson.)
Adam and Christ
I. The parallel.
1. Both stand in a federal relation to mankind.
2. In both cases the effect of individual action is transferred.
3. The effect in both cases is coextensive.
II. The contrast.
1. The effects in the one case are–sin, condemnation, death; in the other–grace, justification, life.
2. In the one they follow by just consequence, in the other by grace.
3. In the one are suffered involuntarily; in the other are enjoyed by faith.
4. In the one they proceed from one sin; in the other cover many offences.
5. In the one they terminate in death; in the other in everlasting life.
III. The conclusion.
1. If sin has destroyed all, grace can save all.
2. If sin has abounded, grace doth much more abound.
3. If sin has reigned unto death, grace reigns unto eternal life. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Adam and Christ
Where frost and snow have abounded in winter, there spring, sunshine, and gladness will abound still more. Where, at Passion tide, Herods cunning, Pilates cowardice, the Pharisees envy, Judass treachery, and the blind Crucify, Crucify! of the mob have risen high, there, on Easter morn, the hallelujah of angels and the Church around the triumphant Saviour will rise still higher. Here are contrasted–
I. The one transgression and the one obedience.
1. What, I hear it objected, is it not arbitrary, and unjust that the fall of the first man should involve all succeeding generations, and scatter them, as children of misery, upon fields of thorn, as children of death upon churchyards? But, is it not simple matter of fact that some fate–explain it as we may–does, again and again, strew us, as children of misery and death, upon the earth?
2. And if further it be objected that, as Abraham was once nerved for endurance by the vision of his posterity, so Adam must needs have been deterred if the thought of the ruin hanging over the sons of men had been granted him in time. But was such prevision wanting? In the blessing, Replenish the earth, and subdue it, Adam sees himself set at the head of an entire economy; his lot is to be the lot of his heirs and posterity. By the image of God born with him, by his covenant fellowship with God, by the paternal warnings of the hostile powers against which the Garden of Eden was to be fenced and guarded, by the highest aim of eternal life, were not the fullest means of security imparted to the first man?
3. And when the fall took place, think you that God should have annihilated the human race? Annihilation is no redemption, and to yield the game to Satan is no victory. Then only is evil overcome by good when Divine love makes itself a sacrifice. Who will doubt, when over against the one Adam stands the one Christ, who with, It is written, wields a victorious sword, and becomes the dispenser of every heavenly blessing.
II. The dominion of one death and the dominion of one life.
1. You are familiar with the doubt of the unity of the race, which appeals to the various shapes of the skull, different complexions, divers tongues, etc. But Paul believes in the unity of the race, and knows one family of Adam, when, in Athens, he speaks of one blood, of which the nations are made; and when he says, Is God the God of the Jews only?–is He not the God of the Gentiles also?
2. And what sombre witnesses to this unity Paul summons! First sin itself, which shows itself far as humanity extends. But at the same time he points to death, which is the lot of all men, not merely of those struggling with poverty, but of those nursed in luxury; not merely of those feeble through age, but of children with their morning and May tide freshness; not merely of those branded with vice, but to the truly good, comes the stern creditor who demands of all the payment of the debt of life!
3. Nothing is more unnatural than for Gods image, instead of declining gently, and then being quietly transplanted; instead of entering into glory by a transfiguration, to fall a prey to violent dissolution, and be devoured by corruption. In outer death an inner death is imaged; the sting of death is sin, the wages of sin is death. Sin is absence from the source of all life–from God–and is therefore deadly in nature. The one separation is punished by the other; separation between the soul and God by separation between soul and body; yea, by a separation which rends in twain the soul itself. But if a house be divided against itself, how can it stand?
III. The condemnation on all and the abounding grace for all. What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Nothing more wretched than man in his sin, in his death–a lost son, a dethroned king. What is man, that Thou visitest him? Nothing higher in dignity than man; far above angels; since the Son of God assumes human nature, and by His incarnation, passion, resurrection, outpouring of His Spirit, makes fallen humanity partaker of the Divine nature. Four dispensations of God with mankind are here to be described. The original one in Paradise; the second in the fall, where, without intermission, death is preaching repentance, and to every life history affixes the black seal bearing the inscription, And he died; the third dispensation under the law, which came between the fall and the rising again, that sin might abound, that is, become more and more perceptible; the fourth in the fulness of time. Now that you have been driven from the first, you will not deny. Are you living in the second, in utter indifference, a man utterly without conscience, not even alarmed by a command of God? Or are you living under the law, pursued by sin, not merely as sin but also as a punishment? Or do you know, in addition to the weakness and guilt of the first Adam, the power, the riches, and the grace of the second? Have you, under the Cross, come under the shelter of the strong arm, mightier than a Samson who, in his death, embracing the pillars of the idol temple, buried four thousand of the worshippers? Have you felt the arm which, stretched out in Golgotha, overturned the idol temple of sin and the gloomy prison house of death? And as David once cut off the giants head with the giants sword, have you learnt under the Cross that death is conquered by death; death as the wages of sin by death as a sacrificial offering? (R. Koegel, D. D.)
The analogy between the manner of mans condemnation in Adam and justification in Christ
I. The fact on which the analogy proceeds.
1. Stated (verse 12).
2. Proved (verses 13, 14).
II. The points in which it does not hold.
1. The free gift transcends the offence, it reaches not only as far, but in those who receive it effects much more good than the offence did evil (verse 15); for the free gift neutralises the effect not only of one offence but of many (verse 16); not only destroys death but brings abundance of life (verse 17).
III. The points in which it does hold.
1. One offence (marg) occasioned the condemnation of all; one righteousness (marg.) provides for the justification of all (verse 18).
2. In one man many sinned, in one shall many be made righteous (verse 19).
IV. The summing up of the whole.
1. Grace abounds over sin (verse 20).
2. Death is swallowed up of life. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The principle on which justification proceeds: that of mediation
Mediation is the principle on which human society is based and constituted. Ever since the creation of the first pair, all have been born and preserved by it. The dominion conferred on the man in Eden (Gen 1:28) was not to be achieved singly, but in society. Even here our blessings come through mediation. Yet not our blessings only. The fact that men have it in their power to do us good involves also that of doing us mischief. This constitution of society is precisely that which made it possible for the first man to involve himself and all his posterity in sin and ruin, and for the Second Man to provide salvation and glory (verse 18).
I. Both Adam and Christ were Divinely appointed and responsible representatives of the whole human race.
1. Adam was its natural head; but he was much more. All men are affected by the conduct of Adam, in a wider sense than that in which children are affected by the conduct of their parents. All children born into the world to the end of time will be affected by the one offence of Adam just in the same sense and to the same extent as his own children were affected by it. And this is not simply because he was the natural head. Noah was also the natural head of all the men who have existed since the deluge; but it is never intimated that he, by his one recorded sin, entailed a curse upon all his posterity. But it is plainly affirmed that Adam, by his one offence, has done so. For he was also the federal head of the race. God dealt with the entire race in and through him. To him were entrusted the interests of all his descendants. Had he proved faithful these would have been born into the world holy and happy, and would each have commenced his probation on terms as favourable as Adams. But he failed us, and thus induced our ruin.
2. Now Adam is a type of Christ in that he was a Divinely constituted representative of the race. Adam was created in the image of God. But Christ, the beloved Son, is the image of the invisible God. The race, therefore, in its very creation, sustained special relationship to Him. And it was fitting that He, whose image in man had been marred by the fall of the first man, should Himself become man in order to its restoration. For we are predestinated to be conformed to His image. Adam, as our first head and representative, failed in his fidelity, and thereby betrayed and ruined our interests; Christ, our Second, has gloriously succeeded.
II. The likeness between Adam and Christ is one of essential opposition, because that Adam has affected us for evil, Christ for good.
1. The judgment to condemnation on account of Adams sin involved the penalty of moral death for all his posterity. Not that any positive evil principle was infused into our nature, but rather that the Holy Spirit, in fellowship with whom all spiritual life is sustained, was then penally withdrawn, and that being so men became dead in trespasses and sins. In Adam all died.
2. The judgment to condemnation on account of Adams sin was a judgment to bodily death (Gen 3:17-19). And this in all probability resulted from the penal withdrawment of the Spirit of life. Naturally liable to death man must have been; i.e., regarded as a creature whose animal life is an organic successional growth, sustained by material food. So long as he remained innocent he had the pledge and sacrament provided against this liability in the tree of life. But as soon as he had sinned, he was subjected to the vanity which was the lot of the lower creatures, denied access to the tree of life, and surrendered to the dissolution which had already been the natural termination of the existence of the inferior orders. But as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (1Co 15:22; Joh 5:28-29). And though the restoration of immortal life to the bodies of His people is deferred, the quickening Spirit is a pledge and earnest that He who raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken their mortal bodies (Rom 8:11).
3. The judgment to death, on account of sin, was a judgment to everlasting death. As grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord, even so (unobstructed) sin reigns in death, by offending Adam, unto everlasting death. In the very nature of things it cannot be otherwise. For to doom a man to death at all is to doom him to endless death. No one ever thinks of a criminal being sentenced to death for so many years. The dead have no power to recover life. And this is as true of spiritual as of physical death. The fact is that sin reigns in death, and by death is its dread dominion sustained.
III. The grace of redemption, which is by Jesus Christ, not only meets, and avails to counteract, the curse entailed from Adam at every point, but abounds far beyond even that.
1. Adam entailed upon us the curse of one offence only. He doubtless committed other sins; but they have involved us in no disadvantages. If, therefore, Christ had made provision for nothing beyond the cancelling of the judgment on account of that, the parallel between the first and Second Man would have been at that point complete. But He has done much more (verse 16). And not only so, but being justified, there is provision made to secure our continued acceptance. Nor does even a lapse cut off the offender from hope: but, because God has just ground on which to multiply to pardon, a fallen David and a backsliding Peter may be restored. Therefore the word of exhortation (Gal 6:1), and the word of compassionate love (1Jn 2:1-2). Thus richly does the grace of Christ super-abound over the curse from Adam.
2. The apostles position clearly implies that the number of the saved through Christ will far exceed that of the finally lost through Adam. It is not intended to intimate, however, that any are really lost on account of Adams sin alone. The apostle clearly assumes that there are none such (verses 15, 18). And have we not an assurance here that all infants, incapables, etc., shall through Christ inherit everlasting life? But those who resist grace and refuse salvation thereby make the sin of Adam their own, and in that sin they shall perish. But–
3. The apostle further intimates that those who avail themselves of the redemption which is by Jesus Christ shall be elevated to a far higher state of glory and blessedness than could have been inherited by unfallen man (verses 17, 20, 21). Conclusion:
1. This review of the Divine administration calls for ardent and adoring gratitude.
2. We must learn to regard sin with ever-increasing hatred:
3. Let all avail themselves with glad alacrity of the gift of grace through Christ. (W. Tyson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world] From this verse, to the conclusion of the chapter, the apostle produces a strong argument to prove that, as all mankind stood in need of the grace of God in Christ to redeem them from their sins, so this grace has been afforded equally to all, both Jews and Gentiles.
Dr. Taylor has given the following analysis of the apostle’s mode of argumentation. The argument stands thus:-“The consequences of Christ’s obedience extend as far as the consequences of Adam’s disobedience. The consequences of Adam’s disobedience extend to all mankind; and therefore, so do the consequences of Christ’s obedience. Now, if the Jews will not allow the Gentiles any interest in Abraham, as not being naturally descended from him, yet they must own that the Gentiles are the descendants of Adam, as well as themselves; and being all equally involved in the consequences of his sin, from which” (as far as the death of the body is concerned) “they shall all equally be released at the resurrection, through the free gift of God, therefore they could not deny the Gentiles a share in all the other blessings included in the same gift.”
This argument, besides proving the main point, goes to show:
1. That the grace of God in the Gospel abounds beyond, or very far exceeds, the mere reversing of the sufferings brought upon mankind by Adam’s one offence; as it bestows a vast surplusage of blessings which have no relation to that offence, but to the many offences which mankind have committed, and to the exuberance of the Divine grace.
2. To show how justly the Divine grace is founded on the obedience of Christ, in correspondence to the dispensation Adam was under, and to the consequences of his disobedience: if this disobedience involved all mankind in death, it is proper that the obedience of Christ should be the cause not only of reversing that death to all mankind, but also of other blessings which God should see fit (through him) to bestow on the world.
3. It serves to explain, and set in a clear view, the difference between the law and grace. It was the law which, for Adam’s one transgression, subjected him and his posterity, as included in him when he transgressed, to death, without hopes of a revival. It is grace which restores all men to life at the resurrection; and, over and above that, has provided a gracious dispensation for the pardon of their sins; for reducing them to obedience; for guarding them against temptations; supplying them with strength and comfort; and for advancing them to eternal life. This would give the attentive Jew a just notion of the law which himself was under, and under which he was desirous of bringing the Gentiles.
The order in which the apostle handles this argument is this:-
1. He affirms that death passed upon all men by Adam’s one transgression, Ro 5:12.
2. He proves this, Ro 5:13; Ro 5:14:
3. He affirms there is a correspondence between Adam and Christ; or between the , offence, and the , free gift, Ro 5:14.
4. This correspondence, so far as the two opposite parts answer to each other, is justly expressed, Ro 5:18; Ro 5:19; and there we have the main or fundamental position of the apostle’s argument, in relation to the point which he has been arguing from the beginning of the epistle, namely, the extensiveness of the grace of the Gospel, that it actually reaches to ALL MEN, and is not confined to the Jews.
5. But, before he laid down this position, it was necessary that he should show that the correspondence between Adam and Christ, or between the offence and the gift, is not to be confined strictly to the bounds specified in the position, as if the gift reached no farther than the consequences of the offence; when in reality it extends vastly beyond them, Ro 5:15-17.
6. Having settled these points, as previously necessary to clear his fundamental position, and fit to his argument, he then lays down that position in a diversified manner of speech, Ro 5:18; Ro 5:19, just as in 1Co 15:20, 1Co 15:21, and leaves us to conclude, from the premises laid down, Ro 5:15-17, that the gift and the grace in its utmost extent, is as free to all mankind who are willing to accept of it, as this particular instance, the resurrection from the dead. They shall all be raised from the dead hereafter; they may all be quickened by the Spirit here.
7. Having thus shown the extensiveness of the Divine grace, in opposition to the dire effects of the law under which Adam was; that the Jews might not overlook what he intended they should particularly observe, he puts them in mind that the law given to Adam, transgress and die, was introduced into the Jewish constitution by the ministry of Moses; and for this end, that the offence, with the penalty of death annexed to it, might abound, Ro 5:20. But, to illustrate tho Divine grace by setting it in contrast to the law, he immediately adds: where sin, subjecting to death, hath abounded, grace hath much more abounded; that is, in blessings bestowed; it has stretched far beyond both Adam’s transgression, and the transgressions under the law of Moses, Ro 5:20; Ro 5:21, and see the note on the first of these verses.
Upon this argument the learned doctor makes the following general remarks:-
“I. As to the order of time: the apostle carries his arguments backwards from the time when Christ came into the world (Ro 1:17; to Rom. 4.) to the time when the covenant was made with Abraham, (Rom. 4.,) to the time when the judgment to condemnation, pronounced upon Adam, came upon all men, Ro 5:12, to the end. And thus he gives us a view of the principal dispensations from the beginning of the world.
“II. In this last case, as well as in the two former, he uses law or forensic terms; judgment to condemnation, justification, justify, made sinners, made righteous. And therefore, as he considers both Jews and Gentiles at the coming of Christ, and Abraham when the covenant was made with him, so he considers Adam, and all men, as standing in the court before the tribunal of God. And this was the clearest and concisest way of representing his arguments.” Notes, p. 283.
Sin entered into the world] There was neither sin nor death before the offence of Adam; after that there were both. Adam’s transgression was therefore the cause of both.
And death by sin] Natural evil is evidently the effect of moral evil; if man had never sinned, he had never suffered. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return, was never spoken till after Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit.
Death passed upon all men] Hence we see that all human beings partook in the consequences of Adam’s sin. He propagated his like; and, with the rudiments of his own nature, propagated those of his moral likeness.
For that all have sinned] All are born with a sinful nature; and the seeds of this evil soon vegetate, and bring forth corresponding fruits. There has never been one instance of an immaculate human soul since the fall of Adam. Every man sins, and sins too after the similitude of Adam’s transgression. Adam endeavoured to be independent of God; all his offspring act in the same way: hence prayer is little used, because prayer is the language of dependence; and this is inconsistent with every emotion of original sin. When these degenerate children of degenerate parents are detected in their sins, they act just as their parents did; each excuses himself, and lays the blame on another. What hast thou done?-The woman whom THOU gavest me, to be with me; SHE gave me, and I did eat. What hast THOU done? –The SERPENT beguiled me, and I did eat. Thus, it is extremely difficult to find a person who ingenuously acknowledges his own transgressions.
See Clarke on Ge 3:6, &c., where the doctrine of original sin is particularly considered.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
From this verse to the end of the chapter, the apostle makes a large comparison between the first and Second Adam, which he joins to what he had said by the causal particle wherefore: q.d. Seeing things are as I have already said, it is evident, that what was lost by Adam is restored by Christ. This verse seems to be lame and imperfect; the reddition is wanting in the comparison; for unto this,
as by one man sin entered into the world, there should be added, so by Christ, &c. But the reddition, or second part of the comparison, is suspended, by reason of a long parenthesis intervening to Rom 5:18,19, where the apostle sets down both parts of the comparison.
By one man: viz. Adam.
Objection. Eve first sinned, 1Ti 2:14.
Answer. He is not showing the order how sin first entered into the world, but how it was propagated to mankind. Therefore he mentions the man, because he is the head of the woman, and the covenant was made with him: or, man may be used collectively, both for man and woman; as when God said: Let us make man, & c.
Sin; it is to be understood of our first parents actual sin, in eating the forbidden fruit; this alone was it that affected their posterity, and made them sinners, Rom 5:19.
Entered into the world; understand the inhabitants of the world; the thing containing, by a usual metonomy, is put for the thing contained.
And death by sin; as the due reward thereof.
Death here may be taken in its full latitude, for temporal, spiritual, and eternal death.
And so death passed upon all men; seized upon all, of all sorts, infants as well as others.
For that all have sinned; others read it thus, in which all have sinned, i.e. in which one man; and so it is a full proof that Adam was a public person, and that in him all his posterity sinned and fell. He was our representative, and we were all in him, as a town or county in a parliament man; and although we chose him not, yet God chose for us.
The words w are rendered in which, in other places, and the preposition is put for ; see Mar 2:4; Heb 9:10; and if our translation be retained, it is much to the same sense; for if such die as never committed any actual sin themselves, (as infants do), then it will follow that they sinned in this one man, in whose loins they were: as Levi is said to have paid tithes in Abrahams loins, Heb 7:9.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. Whereforethat is, Thingsbeing so; referring back to the whole preceding argument.
as by one manAdam.
sinconsidered here inits guilt, criminality, penal desert.
entered into the world, anddeath by sinas the penalty of sin.
and so death passed upon allmen, for that all have sinnedrather, “all sinned,”that is, in that one man’s first sin. Thus death reaches everyindividual of the human family, as the penalty due to himself.(So, in substance, BENGEL,HODGE, PHILIPPI).Here we should have expected the apostle to finish his sentence, insome such way as this: “Even so, by one man righteousness hasentered into the world, and life by righteousness.” But, insteadof this, we have a digression, extending to five verses, toillustrate the important statement of Ro5:12; and it is only at Ro 5:18that the comparison is resumed and finished.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world,…. The design of these words, and of the following, is to show how men came to be in the condition before described, as “ungodly”, Ro 5:6, “sinners”, Ro 5:8, and “enemies”, Ro 5:10; and to express the love of Christ in the redemption of them; and the largeness of God’s grace to all sorts of men: the connection of them is with Ro 5:11, by which it appears that the saints have not only an expiation of sin by the blood of Christ, but a perfect righteousness, by which they are justified in the sight of God; and the manner how they came at it, or this becomes theirs, together with the necessity of their having such an one, are here declared: by the “one man” is meant Adam the first man, and parent of mankind, who is mentioned by name in Ro 5:14; sin which came by him designs a single sin, and not many, even the first sin of Adam, which goes by different names, as “sin” here, “transgression”, Ro 5:14, the “offence” or “fall”, Ro 5:15, “disobedience”, Ro 5:19, and whatever was the first step or motive to it, which led to it, whether pride, unbelief, or concupiscence, it was finished by eating the forbidden fruit; and is called sin emphatically, because it contained all sin in it, was attended with aggravating circumstances, and followed with dismal consequences. Hence may be learnt the origin of moral evil among men, which comes not from God, but man; of this it is said, that it “entered into the world”; not the world above, there sin entered by the devil; but the world below, and it first entered into paradise, and then passed through the whole world; it entered into men by the snares of Satan, and by him it enters into all the inhabitants of the world; into all men that descend from him by ordinary generation, and that so powerfully that there is no stopping of it. It has entered by him, not by imitation, for it has entered into such as never sinned after the similitude of his transgression, infants, or otherwise death could not have entered into them, and into such who never heard of it, as the Heathens; besides, sin entered as death did, which was not by imitation but imputation, for all men are reckoned dead in Adam, being accounted sinners in him; add to this, that in the same way Christ’s righteousness comes upon us, which is by imputation, Adam’s sin enters into us, or becomes ours; upon which death follows,
and death by sin; that is, death has entered into the world of men by sin, by the first sin of the first man; not only corporeal death, but a spiritual or moral one, man, in consequence of this, becoming “dead in sin”, deprived of righteousness, and averse, and impotent to all that is good; and also an eternal death, to which he is liable; for “the wages of sin is death”, Ro 6:23; even eternal death: all mankind are in a legal sense dead, the sentence of condemnation and death immediately passed on Adam as soon as he had sinned, and upon all his posterity;
and so death passed upon all men; the reason of which was,
for that, or because “in him”
all have sinned: all men were naturally and seminally in him; as he was the common parent of mankind, he had all human nature in him, and was also the covenant head, and representative of all his posterity; so that they were in him both naturally and federally, and so “sinned in him”; and fell with him by his first transgression into condemnation and death. The ancient Jews, and some of the modern ones, have said many things agreeably to the apostle’s doctrine of original sin; they own the imputation of the guilt of Adam’s sin to his posterity to condemnation and death;
“through the sin of the first man (say they g) , “thou art dead”; for he brought death into the world:”
nothing is more frequently said by them than that Adam and Eve, through the evil counsel of the serpent, , “were the cause of death to themselves and to all the world” h; and that through the eating of the fruit of the tree,
, “all the inhabitants of the earth became guilty of death” i: and that this was not merely a corporeal death, they gather from the doubling of the word in the threatening, “in dying thou shalt die”, Ge 2:17 (margin);
“this doubled death, say they k, without doubt is the punishment of their body by itself, , and also of the “soul by itself”.”
They speak of some righteous persons who died, not for any sin of their own, but purely on the account of Adam’s sin; as Benjamin the son of Jacob, Amram the father of Moses, and Jesse the father of David, and Chileab the son of David l, to these may be added Joshua the son of Nun, and Zelophehad and Levi: the corruption and pollution of human nature through the sin of Adam is clearly expressed by them;
“when Adam sinned, (say they m,) he “drew upon him a defiled power, , “and defiled himself and all the people of the “world”.”
Again n,
“this vitiosity which comes from the sin and infection of our first parents, has invaded both faculties of the rational soul, the understanding by which we apprehend, and the will by which we desire.”
This corruption of nature they call , “the evil imagination”, which, they say o, is planted in a man’s heart at the time of his birth; and others say p that it is in him before he is born: hence Philo the Jew says q, that , “to sin is connatural”, to every man that is born, even though a good man; and talks r of , “evil that is born with us”, and of s , “spots that are of necessity born with” every mortal man. And so his countrymen t often speak of it as natural and inseparable to men; yea, they represent Adam as the root and head of mankind, in whom the whole world and all human nature sinned: descanting on those words, “as one that lieth upon the top of a mast”, Pr 23:34;
“this (say they u) is the first man who was
, “an head to all the children of men”: for by means of wine death was inflicted on him, and he was the cause of bringing the sorrows of death into the world.”
And in another place, speaking of Adam, they say w, that
“he was , “the root of the creation”, or “of the men of the world”; and death was inflicted upon him and on his seed, because he sinned one sin in eating of the tree.”
And it is observed,
“that , the “He” demonstrative is not prefixed in Scripture to proper names, which yet is to the word “Adam”; the reason is, (say they x,) because in Adam all his posterity are pointed at, and the whole human species designed.”
Again, they observe y, that
“the end of man is to die, of which this is the reason, because , “mankind” has sinned; that is, the nature of which he is composed, or in other words, Adam and Eve have sinned.”
Once more z
“when he (Adam) sinned, , “all the whole world sinned”, and his sin we bear;”
and a that
“the whole congregation of Israel have need of atonement for the sin of the first Adam, for he was , reckoned as the whole congregation;”
which exactly tallies with the apostle’s assertion in this text.
(When this commentary was written, it was generally accepted that all the fossils in the rocks were laid down by Noah’s world wide flood and that the universe was about 6000 years old. Since that time, science has postualated that life evolved over billions of years and that the fossils are a result of this evolutionary process. If you accept the Bible as your authority you cannot accept the theory of evolution in any form. Firstly, the biblical chronology restricts the age of the universe to about 6000 years. Secondly, in order to get fossils, animals must die. This verse tells us that sin, not evolution, is the cause of death. Death and suffering did not exist until after Adam sinned. Hence before Adam sinned, no animal died and it would be impossible for any fossils to form. Before the fall, all animals ate plants, not other animals Ge 1:30. Paul tells us in Ro 8:20 that Adam’s sin subjected all of creation to the curse, not just mankind.
[See comments on Ro 6:23].
See Gill (Editor’s note) on “Ex 20:11”. Editor)
g Debarim Rabba, sect. 9. fol. 244. 2. h Zohar in Gen. fol. 27. 1, 2, 3, 4. & 36. 3. 4. & 37. 2. & 46. 4. & 54. 3. & 67. 3. & 86. 1. & 98. 1. in Exod. fol. 106. 1. & 127. 2. in Lev. fol. 46. 2. 3. Bemidbar Rabba, fol. 225. 3. Caphtor, fol. 37. 2. i Targum in Ruth iv. 22. & in Eccles. vii. 29. k R. Joseph Albo in Sepher lkkarim, l. 4. c. 41. l T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 55. 2. Bava Bathra, fol. 17. 1. Zohar in Gen. fol. 36. 4. & Imre Binah in ib. & 44. 4. & lmre Binah in ib. & Numb. fol. 83. 2. m Zohar in Gen. fol. 37. 1. n Menasseh ben Israel Praefat. ad lib. de Fragilitate Humana. o Aben Ezra in Psal. li. 5. Abraham Seba in Tzeror Hammor, fol. 14, 3. 4. p T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 91. 2. Bereshit Rabba, fol. 30. 1. q De Vita Mosis, p. 675. r De Praemiis, p. 920. s De Nomin. Mutat. p. 1051. t Kimchi in Psal. li. 5. Menah ben Israel de Fragilitate, par. 1. p. 2. u Bemidhar Rabba, fol. 198. 3. w Caphtor, fol. 102. 1. x Menasseh ben Israel de cermino Vitae, c. 3. sect. 8. p. 198. y En Jaacob, par. 1. fol. 19. 4. z Zohar in Lev fol. 46. 2. R. Menachem Rakanati apud Voisin. Obs. in Pugionem Fidei, p. 590. a Zohar in Gen. fol. 76. 3. & 36. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Therefore ( ). “For this reason.” What reason? Probably the argument made in verses 1-11, assuming our justification and urging exultant joy in Christ because of the present reconciliation by Christ’s death and the certainty of future final salvation by his life.
As through one man ( ‘ ). Paul begins a comparison between the effects of Adam’s sin and the effects of the redemptive work of Christ, but he does not give the second member of the comparison. Instead of that he discusses some problems about sin and death and starts over again in verse 15. The general point is plain that the effects of Adam’s sin are transmitted to his descendants, though he does not say how it was done whether by the natural or the federal headship of Adam. It is important to note that Paul does not say that the whole race receives the full benefit of Christ’s atoning death, but only those who do. Christ is the head of all believers as Adam is the head of the race. In this sense Adam “is a figure of him that was to come.”
Sin entered into the world ( ). Personification of sin and represented as coming from the outside into the world of humanity. Paul does not discuss the origin of evil beyond this fact. There are some today who deny the fact of sin at all and who call it merely “an error of mortal mind” (a notion) while others regard it as merely an animal inheritance devoid of ethical quality.
And so death passed unto all men ( ). Note use of rather than , just before, second aorist active indicative in both instances. By “death” in Gen 2:17; Gen 3:19 physical death is meant, but in verses Rom 5:17; Rom 5:21 eternal death is Paul’s idea and that lurks constantly behind physical death with Paul.
For that all sinned (‘ ). Constative (summary) aorist active indicative of , gathering up in this one tense the history of the race (committed sin). The transmission from Adam became facts of experience. In the old Greek ‘ usually meant “on condition that,” but “because” in N.T. (Robertson, Grammar, p. 963).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Wherefore as. As [] begins the first member of a comparison. The second member is not expressed, but is checked by the illustration introduced in vers. 13, 14, and the apostle, in his flow of thought, drops the construction with which he started, and brings in the main tenor of what is wanting by “Adam who is the type,” etc. (ver. 14).
Entered into. As a principle till then external to the world.
Passed upon [ ] . Lit., came throughout upon. The preposition dia denotes spreading, propagation, as eijv into denoted entrance.
For that [ ] On the ground of the fact that.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
SIN ENTERED HUMANITY THRU ADAM
1) “Wherefore as by one man “ (dia touto hosper di henos anthropon) “Therefore just as through one man;” Adam the head of the human race, through which channel sin began to flow in the blood stream of humanity, Gen 2:17; Gen 3:3.
2) “Sin entered into the world,” (he hamartia eis ton kosmon eiselthen) “The sin entered into the world, created universe;” When Adam by premeditation and intent aforethought disobeyed God, sin entered into the man-world or world of Man; Rom 5:19. This one man’s sin made the many (masses) sinners.
3) “And death by sin,” (kai dia tes hamartias ho thanatos) “And death (entered) through the sin,” of one man. There could be no infant mortality; no infant would die if there were no sin in his being, Rom 5:17-19; 1Co 15:21-22; Rom 6:23. Death is the wages of sin.
4) “And so death passed upon all men,” (kai houtos eis pantos anthropous ho thanatos dielthen) “So also the universal death principle passed into all men;” After Adam’s sin every child conceived, begotten, or born into the human race inherited the germ of physical and spiritual death from conception, Psa 51:5; Psa 58:3; Jas 1:15; Rom 3:23.
5) “For that all have sinned,” (eph ho pantes hemarton) “Inasmuch as all sinned;” all in human history had sinned, 1Ki 8:46; Ecc 7:20; All not only have sinned but all are also sinners by nature, with the contagious, incurable, sin-germ of death in the body, bringing on judicially appointed death, Jas 1:15; Heb 9:27.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
12 Wherefore as, etc. He now begins to enlarge on the same doctrine, by comparing with it what is of an opposite character. For since Christ came to redeem us from the calamity into which Adam had fallen, and had precipitated all his posterity with him, we cannot see with so much clearness what we have in Christ, as by having what we have lost in Adam set before us, though all things on both sides are not similar: hence Paul subjoins an exception, which we shall notice in its place; and we shall also point out any other difference that may occur. The incompleteness of the sentence sometimes renders it obscure, as when the second clause, which answers to the former, is not expressed. But we shall endeavor to make both plain when we come to those parts. (163)
Sin entered into the world, etc. Observe the order which he keeps here; for he says, that sin preceded, and that from sin death followed. There are indeed some who contend, that we are so lost through Adam’s sin, as though we perished through no fault of our own, but only, because he had sinned for us. But Paul distinctly affirms, that sin extends to all who suffer its punishment: and this he afterwards more fully declares, when subsequently he assigns a reason why all the posterity of Adam are subject to the dominion of death; and it is even this — because we have all, he says, sinned. But to sin in this case, is to become corrupt and vicious; for the natural depravity which we bring, from our mother’s womb, though it brings not forth immediately its own fruits, is yet sin before God, and deserves his vengeance: and this is that sin which they call original. For as Adam at his creation had received for us as well as for himself the gifts of God’s favor, so by falling away from the Lord, he in himself corrupted, vitiated, depraved, and ruined our nature; for having been divested of God’s likeness, he could not have generated seed but what was like himself. Hence we have all sinned; for we are all imbued with natural corruption, and so are become sinful and wicked. Frivolous then was the gloss, by which formerly the Pelagians endeavored to elude the words of Paul, and held, that sin descended by imitation from Adam to the whole human race; for Christ would in this case become only the exemplar and not the cause of righteousness. Besides, we may easily conclude, that he speaks not here of actual sin; for if everyone for himself contracted guilt, why did Paul form a comparison between Adam and Christ? It then follows that our innate and hereditary depravity is what is here referred to. (164)
(163) The beginning of this verse has occasioned a vast number of conjectures, both as to the connection and as to the corresponding clause to the first sentence. Most agree in the main with [ Calvin ] on these two points. [ Hodge ] announces a similar view as to the connection in these words, — “The idea of men being regarded and treated, not according to their own merits, but the merit of another, is contrary to the common mode of thinking among men. The Apostle illustrates and enforces it by an appeal to the great analogous fact in the history of the world.”
As to the corresponding clause, that it is found in Rom 5:18, there is a common consent, — [ Pareus ], [ Willet ], [ Grotius ], [ Doddridge ], [ Scott ], [ Stuart ], [ Chalmers ], etc.; the intervening verses are viewed as parenthetic.
The phrase, διὰ τοῦτο, and also διὸ and οὖν, are sometimes used anticipatively as well as retrospectively, as their corresponding particles are often in Hebrew. See note on Rom 2:1. That Paul uses διὰ τοῦτο in this way appears evident from Rom 4:16; Rom 13:6; 1Co 11:10. It anticipates here, as I think, what is afterwards expressed by ἐφ ᾧ, as in Rom 4:16, by ἵνα, in Rom 13:6, by γὰρ, and in 1Co 11:10, by διὰ before angels. Then the meaning of the verse would be conveyed by the following rendering, —
12. For this reason — as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, even so death came on all men, because all have sinned.
According to this view, the corresponding clause is in the verse itself. The sentiment of the passage is this, — through one man sin entered and death followed; and death followed as to all mankind, because all had sinned. Then, according to his usual manner, the Apostle takes up the last subject, “sin,” issuing in the death of all; and at the end of the Rom 5:14 he goes back to “the one man,” Adam, who he says was a type of another: and this sentence is made the text of what follows till the end of the Rom 5:19. Having before referred to the state of things before the “law,” in the two remaining verses he refers to the bearing of the law on his subject, and shows that there is in Christ an abundant provision for the increase of sin occasioned by the law.
So abundant is grace that it is fully sufficient to remove original sin, actual sins — its fruits, and the sins discovered by the law, and by its means increased and enhanced. Hence superabundance is ascribed to it. — Ed.
(164) The particles ἐφ ᾦ, at the end of this verse, have been variously rendered, without much change in the meaning. “ In quo — in which,” i.e., sin, [ Augustine ] ; “ in quo — in whom,” i.e., man, [ Chrysostom ] and [ Beza ] ; “ per quem — by or through whom,” [ Grotius ] ; “ propterea quod,” vel, “ quia,” vel, “ quoniam — because,” [ Luther ], [ Pareus ], and [ Raphelius ] ; which is the same with that of [ Calvin ] See Mat 26:50; 2Co 5:4; Phi 3:12
[ Wolfius ] quotes a singular passage from a Jewish Rabbi, [ Moses Tranensis ], “In the sin which the first man sinned, the whole world through him (or in him, בו) sinned: for he was every man, or all mankind — כי זה כל אדם.” The idea is exactly the same with that of the Apostle.
“
There are three things,” says [ Pareus ], “which are to be considered in Adam’s sin, — the sinful act, the penalty of the law, and the depravity of nature; or in other words, the transgression of the command, the punishment of death, and natural corruption, which was the loss of God’s image, and in its stead came deformity and disorder. From none of these his posterity are free, but all these have descended to them; there is a participation of the transgression, an imputation of guilt, and the propagation of natural depravity. There is a participation of the sin; for all his posterity were seminally in his loins, so that all sinned in his sin, as Levi paid tithes in the loins of Abraham; and as children are a part of their parents, so children are in a manner partakers of their parents’ sin. There is also an imputation of guilt, for the first man so stood in favor, that when he sinned, not only he, but also all his posterity fell with him, and became with him subject to eternal death. And lastly, there is the propagation or the generation of a dreadful deformity of nature; for such as Adam became after the fall, such were the children he begat, being after his own image, and not after the image of God. Gen 5:1. All these things, as to the first sin, apply to the parent and also to the children, with only this difference — that Adam sinning first transgressed, first contracted guilt, and first depraved his nature, — and that all these things belong to his posterity by participation, imputation, and propagation.”
Both [ Stuart ] and [ Barnes ] stumble here; and though they denounce theorizing, and advocate adherence to the language of Scripture, they do yet theorize and attempt to evade the plain and obvious meaning of this passage. But in trying to avoid one difficulty, they make for themselves another still greater. The penalty, or the imputation of guilt, they admit; which is indeed undeniable, as facts, as well as Scripture, most clearly prove: but the participation they deny, though words could hardly be framed to express it more distinctly than the words of this verse; and thus, according to their view, a punishment is inflicted without a previous implication in an offense; while the Scriptural account of the matter is, according to what Calvin states, that “sin extends to all who suffer its punishment,” though he afterwards explains this in a way that is not altogether consistent. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom. 5:12.Adam the head of a race whose transgressions lead on to condemnation. Christ the ancestor of a seed whose faith and obedience culminate in eternal life. Rabbis spoke of a double death of the soul and of the body, and thought that but for Adams sin man would not have died, but only expired, the spirit being dismissed by the kiss of peace. The sin of all men was wrapped up in the one act of Adams sin, and developed afterwards in individual cases. Adams descendants not accountable for his sins.
Rom. 5:13.The law made sin more manifest. The sin of those who lived between Adam and Moses could not be sin against that law of Moses, which was not promulgated. It must have some other explanation.
Rom. 5:14.Cabbalists spoke of Adam as the later or lower Adam, in contrast with the ancient Adam, the Messiah existing before the Creation.
Rom. 5:15.Mankind generally included in the Fall. In the Redemption is universal provision, though not universal acceptance.
Rom. 5:16.One sin, many sinners; many sins, one Saviour.
Rom. 5:21.In Rom. 5:14 death is a monarch, while here sin is the monarch. Death is the sphere where sin shows its power, for the sting of death is sin. indicates death as the terminus of sin; points to life as the end and reward of righteousness. But where sin abounded, grace did superaboundi.e., the pardoning mercy of the gospel has triumphed even over the sins of the Jews, which were greatly aggravated by reason of the light they enjoyed (Stuart).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rom. 5:12-21
The two opposing sovereignties.St. Peter regarded his beloved brother Paul as having written epistles in which are some things hard to be understood; but there are some who seem to speak as if St. Peter were a weakling. They treat St. Paul in deferential style, as if they would challenge him to come forth from the unseen world and propound more difficulties for them to solve. But we follow in the footsteps of St. Peter, and feel, especially in the Epistle to the Romans, that these are things hard to be understoodthings which for their explanation will require the revealing light of eternity. We cannot explain all. We do not make the vain attempt. Sufficient if some help is given to earnest seekers of the truth. In previous chapters we have found things hard to be understood, and we enter now on ground that is thickly sown with difficulties. Mystery is everywhere. It begins in the garden of Eden. Its course is the pathway of the human race. We bow in the presence of the mystery, and find sweet refuge in the arms of all-embracing mercy.
I. The two opposing sovereigns.Sin and grace are the two opposing sovereigns placed before us by St. Paul as ruling in the moral sphere, and with their sceptre touching even the material world. St. Paul does not sever the moral from the material. There are forces working above, beyond, and through all material forces. Sin touches the physical. A soul act taints the race. Sin, the dread sovereign, has brought in death, trouble, moral inability.
1. Death. Solemn word! What does it mean? Our understanding or misunderstanding of biblical expressions and terms has been formed very much by Milton,of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our woe. We read and speak as if death were unknown before Adams fall. Pelagius anticipated modern geologists, for he affirmed that death is not a consequence of sin and that Adam would have died even if he had not sinned. The modern scientist tells us that there is ample proof in the geological remains that physical death has been the lot of the lower animals from all time. All the animals are in one chain of progressive development, and are all related. The lower animals were all subject to death; and the highest animal, man, is by implication and analogy subject now and always in the past to physical death. Let scientists, if they please, reduce themselves to mere animals. Well, there is death and death,death as the king of terrors; death as a gentle nurse putting the child to sleep, from which it is to awake in the sweet morn of eternitys day. Death is no death to unfallen Adam, who walks his earthly course of hundreds of years, and then in the eventide, with the sweet balm of the breeze blowing about his frame, with the rich music of the birds and the rippling waters, with a gently falling sound soothing his tired nature, seeks repose upon his bed of flowers, and his spirit passes to commune with the spirit of the Eternal. Surely that apostle who could form the beautiful ideal expression to set forth the transition of Christians, And some have fallen asleep, is not to be unthinkingly charged with the idea that mere physical dissolution is of recent introduction to our planet. Death as a terror was brought in by sin. Death in its repulsive aspect was brought in by the dreadful act of the first murderer. Death came in by sin; and the blood of the slaughtered Abel gives emphasis to the utterance, Death has reigned, for sin has entered. Earths gory battle-fields tell what an awful power is sin.
2. Trouble. Sin brings trouble. Here no elaborate arguments are required. We do not stand on debatable ground. Experience, and history which is recorded experience, declare that sin entails sorrow; and trouble, in the sense of an absence of peace, the presence of unrest.
3. Moral inability. Disobedience. No need to enter upon the discussion of disputed questions. We may dispute until doomsday about the freedom of the will and cognate topics; but man everywhere shows the signs of a fallen nature. Education may do something to restain the outbreak of human depravity, the restraining force of society may check; but on all hands we have marks of mans sinfulness. Divine grace is needful, and is the only adequate remedy. The one sovereign is baneful, but the other is blessed. Grace, the benign sovereign, has brought in life, peace, and moral ability.
1. Life. In Christ Jesus there is life eternal. And this life eternal is not a future but a present possession. It is life here and now for the believer. In the midst of the groans and pains and tears which accompany and precede death, we may enjoy the blessing of eternal life.
2. Peace. Sia brings trouble and unrest. Grace brings peace and sweet soul-rest. How infinitely blessed the repose which is enjoyed by the children of peace!
3. Moral ability. Obedience. We do not know how far grace reigns and influences. The restraining power of grace may extend to regions and persons far beyond our thought. Grace abounds unto many. Let us not in our thoughts ever turn the apostles many into a few. The abundance of grace reigns, and though its sovereign influence many royal persons are walking through the universe of God.
II. The seeming weakness of one sovereign and the apparent strength of the other.Sin still reigns. Even in our optimistic moods we must confess that sin reigns, and spreads death in all its forms and pains and unutterable agonies. Grace as a sovereign is apparently weak. Grace has been reigning for a long period, and yet, after all, how ungracious is the greater part of humanity! How far does the apostles grace reach? Can it touch and bless the millions upon millions that are e as yet outside the pale of Christianity? Oh, our faith sometimes seems ready to fail when we think that grace is still a sovereign, with, apparently at least, a very small portion of the race as its subjects.
III. But the seemingly weak must finally overcome the apparently strong.Grace, after all, may not be so weak as it may appear to the superficial vision. In due time Christ died. The due time was marked a long way on times great dial-plate. The due time for the triumphant vindication of graces all-abounding force and all-pervading sovereignty may yet be some distance off, if it is to be measured by the due time of the Saviours advent. In the past by weak things God has conquered. Base things have overturned the mighty. Seeming folly has confounded wisdom. And grace, though seemingly weak, shall in due time conquer and subdue and destroy sin. Grace shall reign through righteousness unto eternal life. Many questions trouble the anxious soul when studying such passages as the one before us. But let us not ask, Why sin, why moral evil, why a taint upon the whole race, from one mans disobedience? Let us rather say, Here is the sin, here is the undoubted fact of a depraved moral tendency; and thus in the mediatorial work of Jesus is the sovereign remedy. Seek, my soul, for the divine healing. The sick does not ask, Whence and why the pestilence? but seeks after a remedy. The wise Israelite bitten by the serpent did not ask, Whence the serpents, why the infliction, how is the virus infused? but he looked to the brazen serpent, and was healed. Thank God, we may be healed through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us seek that grace may reign in our hearts through righteousness unto eternal lifeeternal life with all its amplitude of bliss. What eternal life means will require an eternal life to unfold. It will be ever developing into divine possibilities through eternity.
Rom. 5:19. Adam and Christ.Up to this point Paul has been discussing condemnation and justification. Wrath is on all, even on the Jews, and the righteousness of faith is for all, even for the Gentiles. In chaps. 68 he is about to consider the theme of sanctification. Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. He is passing from the one to the other. But before he does so he inserts these three concluding verses of chap. 5, in which he tersely sums up the former subject, and consciously prepares the way for the latter. Rom. 5:19 is the summary.
I. The apostles favourite conception of two representative men.Adam and Christ. They are the federal heads of the human race. They are not regarded as individual units. No man ever is. He is bound by ties to his fellows that he dare not disregard. You cannot uproot even so much as a tare without uprooting along with it some of the precious wheat. Whenever one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. And yet the whole tendency of modern preaching is towards individualism. True religion is represented as a certain definite dealing between the individual soul and Jesus Christ. That indeed is a great truth. Individual salvation is one truth; but representative responsibility is another. The statesman in the commonwealth, the minister in the congregation, the parent in the home, and the teacher in the class are all representative men.
II. The conduct of these two men as under law to Jehovah: Adam disobeyed, Christ obeyed.The Greek word indicates that the first step in Adams fall was simply carelessnessthe neglect or refusal to hear. But how much may be involved in that! Carelessness or remissness on the part of the guards, that is the first step in the capture of a city or the wreck of a train. Carelessness is always culpable and blameworthy. In the case before us it was the moral act which provoked the sentence of condemnation. It was the sin that opened the floodgates of evil upon a world. The plea of carelessness or thoughtlessness is no plea. All minimising of evil is a corrupting of the mind from the simplicity that is in Christ, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. But Jesus obeyed. He did not neglect to hear, as Adam did, through listening to the siren voices of evil. His obedience was both voluntary and obediential (cf. Rom. 5:6 with Rom. 5:19). A voluntary sacrifice, and yet in strictest obedience to law. The two aspects are not incompatible. They are reduced to harmony by the moving element of love. When we do anything in love, that does not exclude the feeling and the fact that it is also a thing of duty. Adams disobedience was one act, but not so Christs obedience. It was the entire work of Christ in its obediential character. The Passover lamb had not merely to be slain; it must be without blemish.
III. The fruit or outcome of their conduct.The many were made sinners and the many shall be made righteous. Here we meet the great Pauline doctrine of imputation. It is confessedly one of great difficulty. But if there be mystery in it there is also mercy. For read 2Co. 5:21. There are three imputationsAdams sin imputed to us, our sins imputed to Christ, and Christs righteousness imputed to us. These three must stand or fall together. If the principle of imputation be unjust, it is equally unjust for all the three cases. But when we speak of Adams sin as being imputed to us, we are only stating a half-truth. It was our sinthat is, the other half: As through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin: and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned,not have sinned (A.V.), a fact which no one doubted; but sinned (R.V.)sinned at a special point in time, sinned in the one man. It is all mystery, we say. Well, perhaps so it is; but the fruit need not be so. We are sinners through our connection with Adam; we may be made righteous through our connection with Christ,only the one connection is that of birth, the other that of faith.John Adams.
Rom. 5:21. Grace abounding.Two facts are here worthy of attention and suggested by the passage:
I. That sin and grace are in the world as ruling powers.Sin and grace are two small words, but they represent mighty things. Sin here stands for the principle of evil, the root of all wrong; grace, the principle of all goodness, the root of all that is virtuous and holy in the universe. In the chapter Paul speaks of these two forces as coming into the worldone through Adam, the other through Christ. These principles are the moral monarchs of the race, and monarchs always in fierce fighting. All the battlings in the world are but the results of their mutual antagonism.
II. That the rule of the one issues in death, of the other in everlasting life.As sin hath reigned unto [or, in] death. It is not necessary to regard death here as meaning the dissolution of the body, for this would have taken place had sin never been introduced into the universe; nor the extinction of our being. But it means the destruction of all that can make life worth having. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. What is the death of a spirit but the life of wickedness? This is sin. But whilst sin leads to death, grace leads to everlasting life. What is everlasting life? Not mere life without end, but life without evil. Everlasting life is everlasting goodness.
Conclusion.The great question is, Which is our moral monarch, sin or grace? In all hearts one must be subordinate to the other, one must reign over the other.Homilist.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom. 5:12-21
Death by Adam; life by Christ.And so death passed on all menthat is, thus it is, or so it happened, that death passed on all men. As death is the penalty of sin, and as by one man all became sinners, thus it was by one man that death passed on all men. The force of the words and so have been much disputed; many understand them as answering to the word as at the beginning of the verse: As Adam sinned and died, so also do all men. But, in the first place, the words do not admit of this interpretation; Paul does not say so also, but and so, thus it was. Besides, according to the view of the passage, this verse does not contain the first part of a comparison between Adam and Christ, but merely a comparison between Adam and his posterity. It is by one man that men became sinners; and thus it was by one man that death passed upon all men. The scope of the passage is to illustrate the doctrine of justification on the ground of the righteousness of Christ, by a reference to the condemnation of men for the sin of Adam. The analogy is destroyed, and the point of the comparison falls, if everything in us be assumed as the ground of the infliction of the penal evils of which the apostle is here speaking. Not only does the scope of the passage demand this interpretation, but also the whole course of the argument. We die on account of Adams sin: this is true, because on no other ground can the universality of death be accounted for. But if we all die on Adams account, how much more shall we live on account of Christ? The doctrine which the verse thus explained teaches is one of the plainest truths of all the Scriptures and of experience. Is it not a revealed fact, above all contradiction, and sustained by the whole history of the world, that the sin of Adam altered the relation in which our race stood to God? Did we not fall when Adam fell? If these questions are answered in the affirmative, the doctrine contained in the interpretation of Rom. 5:12, given above, is admitted. The doctrine of the imputation of Adams sin, or that on account of that sin all men are regarded and treated as sinners, was a common Jewish doctrine at the time of the apostle as well as at a later period. He employs the same method of expression on the subject which the Jews were accustomed to use. They could not have failed, therefore, to understand him as meaning to convey by these expressions the ideas usually connected with them. Whatever obscurity, therefore, rests upon this passage arises from taking the word death in the narrow sense in which it is commonly used among men: if taken in its scriptural sense, the whole argument is plain and conclusive. Let penal evil be substituted for the word death, and the argument will stand thus: All men are subject to penal evils on account of one man. The simple doctrine and argument of the apostle is, that it was by the offence of one man that judgment came on all men to condemnation.Hodge.
Man might have been translated.Long before the creation of man the existence of death is proved in the domain of animal life. Now the body of man belongs to the great sum-total of animal organisation, of which he is the crown; and therefore the law of death must already have extended to man, independently of sin. Pauls words in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, as well as those of Genesis, the sense of which he reproduces, prove beyond doubt the natural possibility of death, but not its necessity. If man had remained united to God, his body, naturally subject to dissolution, might have been gloriously transformed without passing through death and dissolution. The notion of the tree of life, as usually explained, means nothing else. This privilege of an immediate transformation will belong to the believers who shall be alive at the time of our Lords return (1Co. 15:51-52), and it was probably this kind of transformation that was on the point of taking effect in the person of the Lord Himself at the time of His transfiguration. This privilege, intended for holy man, was withdrawn from guilty man: such was the sentence which gave him over to dissolution. It is stated in the words, Thou art dust [that is to say, thou canst die], and to dust shalt thou return [that is to say, thou shalt in fact die]. The reign of death over the animals likewise proves only this: that it was in the natural condition of man to terminate in dissolution. Remaining on the level of animalism by the preference given by him to inclination over moral obligation, man continued subject to this law. But had he risen by an act of moral liberty above the animal, he would not have had to share its lot (see also on Rom. 8:19-22).Godet.
Christ paid more than we owe.Far more than what we owed was paid by Christ, as much more as the immeasurable ocean exceeds a drop. Doubt not, therefore, O man, when beholding such a treasure of blessings; nor ask how the old spark of death and of sin has been extinguished, seeing that such a sea of the gifts of grace has been poured upon it.Chrysostom.
Calvin as an interpreter.Mark the language of Calvin on these words: The free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. Communem omnium gratiam facit, quia omnibus exposita est, non quod ad omnes extendatur re ips. Nam etsi passus est Christus pro peccatis totius mundi, atque omnibus indifferenter Dei benignitate offertur; non tamen omnes apprehendunt. This free gift of God, says Calvin in the above passage, is here declared to be common to all, because it is open to all, not because it actually extends to all. For although Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world, and, by the mercy of God, is offered to all without distinction, yet all do not lay hold of Him. In this passage Calvin speaks as an interpreter of Scripture, in the Institutes as the advocate of a system. His Institutes, moreover, were written in his earlier days; but his commentaries on Scripture were the labours of his maturer days. It is the observation of Witsius that Calvin uses one language in controversy and another when tranquilly explaining Scripture: Tantum spe interest, utrum quis cum adversario contendat, an libero animo commentetur.
Words signifying sin.The first, translated offence or trespass, means the falling from a position; the second, by the general word sin, implies the missing of a mark; while in Rom. 5:19 we have the disobedience of Adam, which signifies the neglect or refusal to hear, and in Rom. 5:14 the term transgression, or the overstepping of a positive law. What is the precise significance of the statement that the law entered that she offence might abound? What is this offence? The majority of commentators answer, the first sin of Adam. But in what sense is it this? In the previous steps of his argument the apostle has asserted that sin reigned from Adam to Moses. That sin, however, could not be a transgression of positive law, for as Paul asserts in Rom. 4:15, where no law is, there is no transgression. It was rather an offencea wider term, embracing definite acts of sin, whether committed without law or under it. Wittingly or unwittingly, it was the actual repetition of the disobedience of Adam. Death reigned from Adam to Moses because sin reigned; and one object, at least, which was served by the law was to prove that this was indeed the casewas to prove that every offence was practically a real transgression, and that both were the expression or manifestation of the disobedience of Adam. Thus the first way in which the law makes the offence to abound is by bringing the knowledge of sinby putting the already existing offence in its true light. But it does so, in the second place, by being a provocation to sin. I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. The principle contained in the law is opposed to the principle of sin. There is an exasperating antithesis between the two. So that when the light of the law is flashed upon the principle of sin in man, it arouses into intense action the slumbering volcano within, until it rushes forth in molten streams of intensified and multiplied transgressions. The office of the law is therefore to show that all the differences in the terms do not alter the real nature of the thing. And the apostle consequently returns to the general term for sin (), which he has held in abeyance since the beginning of the paragraph, and writes, But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.John Adams, B.D.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Text
Rom. 5:12-19. Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned:Rom. 5:13 for until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Rom. 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adams transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come. Rom. 5:15 But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift. For if by the trespass 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 unto the many. Rom. 5:16 And not as through one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment came of one unto condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses unto condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses unto justification. Rom. 5:17 For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ. Rom. 5:18 So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. Rom. 5:19 For as through the one mans disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous.
REALIZING ROMANS, Rom. 5:12-19
203.
How does this section connect with the preceding one?
204.
In what way is it true that through Adam sin entered the world? He did not originate it, did he?
205.
Did death enter at the same time sin did? What death? i.e., what type of death?
206.
The same death which Adam brought by his sin spread to all men. Would you agree with that thought?
207.
The reason death passed to all men is that when Adam sinned they sinned. Or would you say they are to die for their own sins?
208.
Please note the past tense in sinned of Rom. 5:12 b. What significance does it have?
209.
The law of Rom. 5:13 is obviously the law of Mosessin was in the worldin what sense? Specify.
210.
The most difficult passage for interpretation in the whole book of Romans is the little phrase, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. What do you believe about it? Remember, you are obligated by God to attempt to know His will. The next phrase is a key to understanding. Read it.
211.
What death reigned from Adam to Moses?
212.
In what way has no one sinned like Adam?
213.
In several comparisons we can say we do sin like Adam. Mention two or three.
214.
Adam is like Christ. Specify two ways in which this is true.
215.
What are the trespass and the free gifts of Rom. 5:15? Surely you know what the trespass is.
216.
The gift superseded the trespass in overcoming the results of the trespass. How so?
217.
The gift brought much more. In what way?
218.
In Rom. 5:16 is yet another comparison. This one has to do with judgment. What is it?
219.
What is the condemnation and justification of Rom. 5:16? Be careful, You could be wrong.
220.
Once again: what death reigned because of Adams sin? Notice please, the persons of Rom. 5:17 are those who have accepted Christ. Are some going to be lost, condemned, who never came to the age of accountability?
221.
Notice please in your attempt to understand Rom. 5:17 that Christs gift does more than merely overcome Adams transgression and its effects, How is this true?
222.
Does Rom. 5:18 teach that Adam caused all men to be lost, and Christ saved all men? In what sense? Remember, what you ascribe to Adam you must also ascribe to Christ.
223.
The many were made sinners (Rom. 5:19 a). How did we define the word sinner? By Adams sin all were made sinners. How can this be understood?
224.
The same connotation you place upon sinners must apply to the antithesis righteousness. What will it be?
Paraphrase
Rom. 5:12-19. All mankind are brought into a state of salvation through Christ, for this reason, As by one man Adam, sin entered into the world, and by his sin death, and so death passed through the world to all men, because all have sinned; even so, by one man Christ, righteousness entered into the world, and by his righteousness life, and so life passed through the world to all men, because all have obeyed.
Rom. 5:13 Death hath come on all men for Adams sin; for, from the fall until the law, sin was counted to every person in the world; it was punished with death: but sin is not counted, when there is no law transgressed.
Rom. 5:14 Nevertheless, death, the punishment of sin, reigned from Adam to Moses, even over infants and idiots, who, being incapable of law, had not sinned actually like Adam; who, because he brought death on all, may be called, by way of contrast, the representation of him who was to come and restore life to all.
Rom. 5:15 However, the resemblance is not exact; for, not as the fall by Adam, so also is the gracious gift by Christ. They differ in their power, the one to kill, and the other to make alive: for if by the fall of the one man Adam, all mankind died, much more the goodness of God and the gift of life by that goodness, which is bestowed on account of the one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded to all mankind, by giving them life under the new covenant, and by raising them from the dead at the last day.
Rom. 5:16 Secondly, Not like the sentence passed through the one who sinned, is the free gift of pardon which is bestowed through the one who obeyed. They differ in their causes and consequences: for verily the sentence was for one offence only, and issued in condemnation to death; but the gracious gift of pardon is of all offences, issuing in righteousness counted to the pardoned person, whereby he is entitled to the reward of eternal life.
Rom. 5:17 Thirdly, If, consistently with justice, (as was shown Rom. 5:12), by the fall of one man Adam, death hath reigned over all mankind, through that one man; much more is it consistent with justice and goodness, that they who receive the overflowing of grace, in the glorious resurrection of the body, (Rom. 5:15), and of the gift of righteousness, (Rom. 5:16) shall reign in the happy life which they are to regain through the one man Jesus Christ.
Rom. 5:18 Well then, as it pleased God, through one offence committed by Adam, to pass sentence upon all men, condemning them to death temporal; even so, it pleased God, through one act of righteousness performed by Christ, to pass sentence on all men, justifying, that is, delivering them from immediate death, and allowing them to live a while on earth, and declaring that, after death, they shall all be raised from, the dead.
Rom. 5:19 And as through the disobedience of one man, all were made liable to sin and punishment, notwithstanding many of them never heard of Adam, or of his disobedience; even so, through the obedience of one man, all have been, are, and shall be made capable of righteousness and eternal life, notwithstanding many of them never heard of the person through whom these blessings are bestowed.
Summary
By one man sin entered into the world, and death by that sin. Sin was in the world before the law, but not counted. From Adam to Moses men died, though guilty of no sin like Adams. Adam was a type of Christ, but not in all respects. The sin not like the gift, By the sin of one all died. The favor of God and the gift of Christ abound to all. Nor was the sentence like the gift. The sentence was because of one sin; the gift consists in being justified from many sins. Through one sin death reigns over all; yet all who are justified will reign in life through Christ. As by one sin all have been condemned, so by Christs death all are to be so far justified as to live. By the sin of Adam all are constituted sinners; by the death of Christ all are constituted just.
Comment
5. Adam and Christ contrasted. Rom. 5:12-21
Since the subject of sin had been introduced along with its results, Paul now thought it only logical to offer the explanation of the existence of sin, and at the same time show how Christ completely answered every need man incurred through sin. The facts presented concerning Adam and his part in the circumstances must have been common knowledge to the Jew. The Jew must have known from ages past that through one man sin entered into the world. John tells us that sin is lawlessness (A. R. V.), or the transgression of law is sin (K. J. V. I. 1Jn. 3:4). God gave a law to Adam. He said, Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. (Gen. 2:17 a). Adam, through the influence of his wife, transgressed this law and thus sin entered the world. Where there is no penalty there is no power in the law; hence we find Jehovah not only giving a law, but also pronouncing punishment for disobediencefor in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Gen. 2:17 b). Hence we see the twofold result of Adams actsin and death.
Now we come to those few words that have occasioned so much discussion and controversy. Here they are; read them carefully and think upon them as we make a few observations. . . . and so death passed unto all men for that all sinned . . . The literal translation of Moses E. Lard is good: . . . and thus it (death) spread to all men, because all sinned. What is the death spoken of? It must surely be the same type of death associated with Adam, for it is so used in this verse. The same death that Adam suffered is the death that spread to all men. What type of death then did Adam suffer? The only death spoken of in the life and experience of Adam was the cessation of physical life described in Gen. 5:5 where it says, . . . and he died. While it is probably true that Adam also died spiritually, the subject of physical or natural death is the main one under discussion in this passage. We hope to clear this up by further study. Until then please keep it in mind. Rom. 5:12 a
103.
Show the reasonableness of introducing the thought of the section Rom. 5:12-21.
104.
Explain in your own words how through one man sin entered the world.
105.
What is the twofold result of Adams act?
106.
What is the thought of Lards literal rendering of verse two?
How can it be explained that Adam did not die in the day that he first sinned? The first answer is that he did begin to die then for he was cut off from the tree of life. Corruption and enfeeblement of his body immediately resulted which ultimately brought death. The second is that he was granted an extension of life because of the promise of God (Gen. 3:15) concerning the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, which as we shall see counteracted the physical death resulting from Adams sin.
Adam suffered physical death for this one sin of his and this death spread to all men, because all sinned. When and how did all men sin so as to bring death into every life? Is death the result of the wilful sin in the life of each individual? Surely not, for how then can we account for the death of babies who have no reasoning power and are not yet responsible? The only explanation seems to lie in the fact that when Adam sinned all men sinned also. McGarvey says: . . . one act of sin brought sentence of condemnation unto death upon all because all were in sinful Adam as their forefather, thus sharing his act. Moses E. Lard said, God decreed beforehand that if Adam sinned, both he and all his posterity should die. Thus we see according to the justice of God how the sentence of death passed to all men. Though God has not clearly revealed just why Adams descendants had to die for his one sin, the following statements may throw a little light on the answer. The answer seems to be based on this one fact, that at the time of Adams sin he had no children. Had the full death penalty been inflicted upon Adam and Eve in the day of their sin, their descendants would have effectively received the penalty also seeing that they (the descendants) would thus have been denied the chance to live at all. Thus, because Gods justice would have extended to both Adam and his posterity, also must Gods mercy in lengthening Adams life extend to his offspring in giving them a limited physical life. There also was given to man the opportunity to counteract his personal sin and to receive eternal life after death by availing himself of Gods pardon and all the benefits of the promise (Gen. 3:15) fulfilled. Rom. 5:12 b*.
[*It is interesting to notice that there are three exceptions to the statement, death passed to all men: Enoch (Gen. 5:24), Elijah (2Ki. 2:1; 2Ki. 2:11-12) and the living Christians at the time of Christs coming (1Co. 15:51-52; 1Th. 4:16-17).]
107.
Give your reasons for believing the death spoken of in the case of Adam was physical.
108.
How can we say that Adam died in the day that he ate?
109.
Why do you believe Adams descendants had to die for his sin?
After Adams sin until the law of Moses, sin as a transgression of Gods will was in the world. There were laws of sacrifice (consider Cain and Abel) and there was a law against murder (Gen. 9:6) and also other laws of right and wrong. (Gen. 26:5). If there had been no law the people of this period could not be held responsible before God for their deeds. That the people of this period sinned personally as well as in Adam is evident, Rom. 5:13.
Nevertheless (in spite of their personal sins) they all died. Their personal sins had nothing to do with the fact that physical death at some time overtook each of them. They died even though they had not sinned as Adam did. The natural consequence of Adams sin both to him and his posterity was physical death. Though for some sins men might be put to death at the hands of society, such a death is not a natural result of their sin as is death from Adams sin. Since, then, there was no law (and still is none), the breaking of which would bring physical death, we can see that it would be impossible to sin just as Adam did. Their sin which did bring death to them was unlike Adams in that they sinned in him and were not personally responsible, while Adam was personally responsible. Rom. 5:14 a.
The last part of Rom. 5:14 points out that Adam is a type, a figure of him that was to come, Christ (cp. Rom. 5:15 b). The comparison and contrast of Adam and Christ is not so much a personal likeness or unlikeness, but rather a viewing of their respective acts and the consequences of their acts. The similarity between them is seen only as far as the scope or range of their work is equal. Where the scope of Christs work exceeds that of Adam, there is no longer a likeness but a contrast. Also a contrast is seen in the nature of the respective accomplishments of Adam and Christ. Rom. 5:14 b.
In Rom. 5:15 a the work of Adam (his first sin) is referred to as the trespass, and the work of Christ (the benefits of his death, burial and resurrection) as the free gift. The contrast is seen in that the trespass and the free gift are opposite in nature and also in that the latter superseded the former. Paul continues on (Rom. 5:15 b) to say that if because of Adams one sin physical death came to all, then the sacrificial act of Christ not only counteracts physical death but much more. Adams sin brought physical death to all without any hope of a resurrection and still less hope of immorality. Christ by His obedience unto death redeems all men from physical death by accomplishing for them the resurrection of the dead. Thus far the range of their accomplishments are the same; the work of Christ has only cancelled the work of Adam.
110.
Explain Rom. 5:13.
111.
What is the meaning of the term nevertheless in Rom. 5:14?
112.
What two exceptions are there to the statement, death passed to all men?
113.
What is compared and contrasted in Adam and Christ?
114.
What is the meaning of the term free gift?
Now we come to explain the much more of Rom. 5:15 b. Christs accomplishments did not stop at merely cancelling the effect of Adams sin but far superseded it by making available to all a means whereby forgiveness of personal sins and eternal life could be obtained. Christs act unconditionally accomplished for all the resurrection from the dead which will release them from the penalty of their sin in Adam. This, however, is not sufficient, for all have committed other sins than the one they committed in Adam, and for these there are other punishments beside physical death. Though Adam and his descendants will all be freed from physical death there is spiritual death with which all must reckon. Here we see the much more in that the work of Christ surpasses in scope that of Adam by bringing release from spiritual death also. Adam and his offspring receive physical death as a result of his one sin. They also receive spiritual death as a result of their personal sins. The free gift counteracts the former unconditionally and the latter conditionally, through faith and obedience. Adams act condemned many to physical death. Christs act rescues all from physical death. Christs act does more; it also saves from spiritual death those who have faith in Jesus Christ. Rom. 5:15 b.
Further contrast is seen in Rom. 5:16. Through Adams first sin he only was condemned to spiritual death. But through the free gift the many personal sins of all who believe and obey Christ are forgiven. Those who are thus forgiven are justified from their many trespasses and at the same time saved from spiritual death. Christs death atoned not just for our sin in Adam, which brought physical death, but also for our many personal sins, which brought spiritual death. Rom. 5:16
In Rom. 5:17 the apostle gives us two graphic word pictures. In the first, he describes death as a tyrant king reigning over the world because of Adams sin. In the same picture, he also describes those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness as kings who reign in life because of Jesus Christ. The second picture shows how far the effect of the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness surpasses in scope that of the trespass. Here again we see the words much more, The thought undoubtedly is that in Christ we are not only saved from physical death but also from spiritual death. Gods grace unconditionally cancels the effect of Adams sin (physical death) in the lives of all. But the abundance of Gods grace cancels the effect of personal sins (spiritual death) in the lives of those who will receive it through faith and obedience. Rom. 5:17
115.
What is the meaning of the words much more in Rom. 5:15 b?
116.
Explain Rom. 5:16.
117.
What is the word picture in Rom. 5:17?
In summary of the previous words, we have Rom. 5:18. The inspired writer simply says: through one trespass (Adams sin) the judgment (or we could say the sentence) came unto all men to condemnation (that is, all men had to suffer the penalty of the sentence which was physical death); contrariwise, even so through the one act of righteousness (the death of Christ) the free gift came unto all men (the provision of forgiveness in His blood) to justification of life (the full result of the free gift).
In Rom. 5:19 we find the reasons given for the statement made in Rom. 5:18. In Rom. 5:18 we have the plain statement made that sentence was passed upon all men and all men died, but that all could live through Christ. No reasons were given for these conclusions but now we are informed of the circumstances. All die because through the disobedience of Adam they were made (or constituted) sinners. Likewise the many are to be given life because through the obedience of the one the many were made (or constituted) righteous. In what sense were they sinners and in what sense were they righteous? Surely it would be without reason to say that any man had a part in the personal guilt of Adams sin except Adam. The very thought of the word constitute or made has to do with an act not of man himself but of an objective accomplishment. If man was to be held accountable in a personal way for Adams sin the text would read, through the one mans disobedience the many were sinners, thus placing the guilt upon them and suggesting personal participation and responsibility, Again the same reasoning used to show personal guilt or responsibility in Adams sin would provide universal salvation with no personal effort on the part of man. If through the one act of disobedience all men had a personal participation in that act without any act of volition upon their part at all, then through the second Adams act of obedience all men could and would be saved or constituted righteous with no act of choice upon their part. This is a parallel and such would have to be the conclusion. The only possible sense in which all men could be constituted sinners through Adams disobedience would be that they sinned in Adam and in this sense were constituted sinners, and hence suffer physical death. Rom. 5:18-19
118.
What is the thought of condemnation unto all men in Rom. 5:18?
119.
What is the import of the thought made sinners in Rom. 5:19?
A SURPASSING RECONCILIATION
By WILBUR FIELDS
Rom. 5:12-19
INTRODUCTION: Rom. 5:12-14
1.
God reconciled the world to himself through Christ.
2.
To reconcile us, God had to overcome the effects of Adams sin.
a.
Sin entered through Adam.
b.
Death entered through his sin.
c.
Death passed to all men, because all sinned.
3.
The reconciliation which we have in Christ supersedes every evil effect we suffer in Adam.
PROPOSITION: Some aspects of mans surpassing reconciliation.
I.
THE POWER OF ADAMS SIN IS COMPLETELY OVERCOME IN CHRIST. Rom. 5:15
1.
The power of Adams sin brought the death penalty to all.
2.
Christ has power to reverse the death penalty and to provide escape from our own sins.
II.
THE SENTENCE OF ADAM IS ECLIPSED BY THE CONTRASTING GIFT OF CHRIST. Rom. 5:16
1.
Adams sentence came because of one sin, which brought condemnation to all men.
2.
Christs gift brings justification from many sins.
III.
THE REIGN OF DEATH THROUGH ADAMS SIN IS WONDERFULLY OVERTHROWN IN CHRIST. Rom. 5:17
1.
Because of the trespass, death reigned through the one man.
2.
Because of the free gift, they that receive it shall themselves reign in life through Jesus Christ.
IV.
THE EFFECTS OF ADAMS SIN ARE CONTRASTED WITH THOSE OF CHRISTS GIFT. Rom. 5:18-19
1.
Through the trespass, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.
2.
Through the one act of justification, the free gift came to all men, bringing justification and life.
3.
This is explained in the fact of imputed conditions.
a.
The many were made sinners in Adam.
b.
The many were made just in Christ.
CONCLUSION
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(12) Wherefore.The train of thought which follows is suggested by the mention which had just been made of atonement, reconciliation. We see here another instance of the Apostles fondness for transcendental theology, and for the development of the deeper mysteries of Gods dealings with man. The rapidity with which ideas of this kind throng into his brain is such as to break the even flow and structure of his sentence.
As by one man.This clause, As by one man sin and death entered, ought to have been answered by So by one Man grace and life entered. But a difficulty occurs at the very outset. How can it really be said that sin and death entered by Adam? For sin does not exist without law, and the law did not come in till Moses. And yet we have proof that sin must have been there; for death, its consequence, prevailed all through this period in which law was still wanting. The fact was, the sin which then prevailed, and had such wide and disastrous effects, was Adams. So that it is strictly legitimate to compare his fall with the act of redemption. It is strictly true to say that by one man sin and death entered into the world, as life and grace entered by another. In either case the consequence was that of one mans act.
For that all have sinned..Rather, for that, or because, all sinnedi.e., not by their own individual act, but implicitly in Adams transgression. They were summed up, and included in him as the head and representative of the race.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(12-21) Contrast between the reign of death introduced by the sin of Adam, and the reign of life introduced by the atonement of Christ.
The sequence is, first sin, then death. Now, the death which passed over mankind had its origin in Adams sin. Strictly speaking, there could be no individual sin till there was a law to be broken. But in the interval between Adam and Moses, i.e., before the institution of law, death prevailed, over the world. which was a proof that there was sin somewhere. The solution is, that the sin in question was not the individual guilt of individual transgressors, but the single transgression of Adam. Here, then, is the contrast. The single sin of the one man, Adam, brought death upon all mankind; the single act of the one Redeemer cleared away many offencesalso for all men. Under the old dispensation law entered in to intensify the evil; but, in like manner, under the new, grace has come in to enhance and multiply the benefit. Thus the remedial system and the condemnatory system are co-extensive, the one over against the other, and the first entirely cancels the second.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. In the grand antithesis between Adam and Christ. ( Rom 5:12-21 .)
This memorable passage is here with great distinctness set, as a living picture presenting, as it were to the eye, the tableau of ruin and renovation. To the Jew, with whom St. Paul is discussing, Christ is thus installed in his exalted position in the organic system of the world. Adam, as head of the race, is the type; yet the mournful contrast and dark background to this new world-wide Saviour.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
12. Wherefore As the result of all that has gone before, describing man’s natural fall and gracious delivery, but more specially now suggested by that ruin and redemption in Rom 5:10-11.
One man Adam, (and not Eve.) as the representative of the race.
Sin entered The first actual human sin was committed. Satan had sinned before, and both he and his sin were in the physical world, that is, on earth. Indeed, Satan’s sin in tempting preceded Adam’s sin in the world; so that it is not the physical earth that is meant, but the human world, the race of man.
By the sin that entered many understand the state of sin (sometimes called corruption) into which man is fallen as a nature. And no doubt there is a state of evil, as well as evil action, which in the Scriptures is called sin. Sin is not in action alone: there may be a permanently wrong and wicked state of mind, of purpose, of temper, of character. A man may for years entertain a purpose of murder, waiting the opportunity for the deed. He is thus in heart, state, and character a permanent murderer. Whether awake, asleep, or in a swoon, there is the same unsuspended state of character. A man’s sensual nature may have the entire predominance over his moral nature, so that, awake or asleep, he may be a sensual, drunken being. So pride, ambition, scepticism, and a thousand other vices, may be triumphant in a man’s permanent mental state and fixed moral character. He is, therefore, in a state of sin. And whatever good there is in him is so subordinated to, harmonized with, and tainted by, these predominant evils as to be only qualifiedly good. Yet it was Adam’s flagrant act of disobedience to God’s law which at once thus subordinated the good to evil in his moral constitution God; law, conscience, were no longer supreme; self submission to temptation, animal indulgence, took the ascendant. That changed condition of soul becoming hereditary, has been called “Original Sin.” Whatever may be the suitableness of the term, Scripture, consciousness, and experience amply attest the mournful fact.
Death by sin Geologists declare, and science seems universally to accept the declaration, that animal death existed for ages before the human race existed. Indeed death, disintegration, dissolution, appears to belong to the very nature of all material organisms. This fact seems to be recognised in the Genesis history. Adam’s first organism seems to have been naturally dissoluble, and its dissolution to have been prevented by the tree of life.
His bodily immortality seems thus to have been properly supernatural. Just so his holiness was supernatural, being superinduced by the blessed indwelling and communion of the Divine Spirit. Sin removed the Holy Spirit; the sentence upon sin removed him from the tree of life, (Gen 3:22,) and so when sin entered then also entered death by sin. It was, as above said, into the human world that both sin and death now entered. It is said explicitly that “death passed upon all men,” not upon the lower animal races. On Adam’s sin, moral subversion and mortality obtained full sway over him, and so of all his descendants by the law of propagation; the law by which throughout the entire generative kingdoms, whether vegetable, animal, or human, like nature begets like nature, bodily, mental, and moral.
“When the apostle here teaches that all evil has its origin in sin, and all sin in that of the ancestor of the human race, he by no means propounds an entirely new doctrine. It is substantially contained in the third chapter of Genesis, and is frequently declared in the Apocrypha: Wisdom of Solomon, Rom 11:23-24; Sir 25:24 . It has likewise been handed down in the exegetical traditions of the rabbins, among whom, for example, are to be found such sentiments as the following: The Targum, on the text, Ecc 7:29, ‘God hath made man upright,’ observes: ‘But the serpent and the woman seduced him, and caused death to be brought upon him and all the inhabitants of the earth;’ and on Rth 4:22, ‘Jesse lived many days, until the counsel which the serpent gave to Eve was called to mind before God. In consequence of this counsel all men upon earth are obnoxious to death.’ To the same purpose are the words of R. Shemtob (died anno 1293) in the book Sepher Haemunoth: ‘In their mystical commentaries our doctors say that if Adam and Eve had not sinned their descendants would not have been infected with the propensity to evil; their form would have remained perfect like that of the angels, and they would have continued forever in the world, subject neither to death nor change.’
‘Bereschith Rabba,’ a mystical commentary upon Genesis from an early period of the Middle Ages, par. 12, 14: ‘Although created perfect, yet when the first man sinned all was perverted, and shall not return to order until the Messiah come.’” Tholuck. Yet some of these authorities are probably the borrowers from the apostle rather than originals. Other Jewish doctors maintain an implanted tendency to evil born in every man.
All have sinned How does the apostle mean that all have sinned? Theologians have replied, All have sinned in Adam. But no such phrase as sinned in Adam occurs in Scripture. The phrase In Adam all die does occur. This does not mean, however, that any man’s body or person was physically, materially, or morally present, or so incorporated in the body of Adam as to expire with him when he expired. No more was any person present in Adam to eat the forbidden fruit when he ate. Every man dies conceptually in the first mortal man, just as every lion dies in the first mortal lion; that is, by being subjected to death by the law of likeness to the primal progenitor. The first lion was the representative lion, in whose likeness every descended lion would roar, devour, and die; and so in him all the lion race die. Adam, separated by sin from the Holy Spirit, was a naturally disposed sinner, and, shut from the tree of life, a natural mortal; and so by the law of descent his posterity are naturally disposed sinners, and both naturally and penally mortal.
But when the apostle declares that all have sinned, he declares not merely the natural disposition, but the actual sinning of all. Our view is this: The aorist or past tense, here used of the word sinned, does in this epistle often imply a general certain fact or state of facts. So it is used in Rom 3:23; Rom 9:22-23; Rom 8:29-30, (where see notes,) where justified and glorified express a uniform general fact in the same tense. And it is so regularly used throughout this very passage, 12-21. Rom 5:15, Hath abounded, essentially means always abounds and always will abound; 17, Death reigned; 21, Sin hath reigned, express permanent, universal facts. The clause all have sinned, therefore, means just the same as all sin thus stating a fact which (allowing for volitional freedom) is as uniform as a law of nature. Now such a uniform law of nature, however generally stated, takes effect only in those circumstances or conditions which allow it possible. Thus “water runs,” that is, such is the nature of water if gravitation permit. “Lead melts,” that is, when the temperature allows. “All men sin” such is their nature when their probation presents itself. Such being their normal action, such must be their permanent nature. And infants are of the same nature, they needing only the possible conditions for actual sinning. The sentence of universal death must stand, therefore, because in the divine view men are by nature universal sinners. Not because they literally sinned in Adam; not because Adam’s personal sin is imputed to them, but because such is their nature that in this scene of probation, hemmed in with temptations on all sides, sooner or later they will sin; and of whatever act a being is the normal, if not absolutely universal, performer, of that he is normally called the doer; if of sin, then a sinner.
The aoristic character of the verbs we have quoted is preserved by the writer’s being considered as assuming his standpoint at the close of the whole series of transactions they express. Standing at the finale of all probationary history, he recognises that all sinned when the lengthened trial came. (For the reconciliation of volitional freedom with this universality of sin see WILL, pp. 338-343.)
In Rom 5:12 the apostle states one side of the comparison, but he does not state the other side until Rom 5:18. What intervenes may be considered logically parenthetic. To obtain the gist of the parallel, Rom 5:12; Rom 5:18 may be read together.
The Adamic side of the comparison the apostle assumes on the admitted authority of Genesis. The purpose of the parallel is, (1.) To show the illustrious place of Christ in the history of our world. (2.) To show that justification by Christ extends beyond mere Judaism, and embraces the race. (3.) To show that the redemption more than repairs the fall.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed to all men, for that all sinned: ,’
The opening statement is a simple one based on the fall of man in Genesis 3. By this sin entered into the world, with its subsequent penalty of death. In the beginning there was one man (in Hebrew ‘man’ = ‘adam’). And through that one man sin and death entered into the world as a result of his own deliberate choice (1Ti 2:14). As a consequence both sin and death passed to all men, for the subsequent death of all men demonstrated that all had sinned. Adam had tainted his seed making all men sinful, something proved by the fact that they died.
‘Sin entered into the world –.’ That is by an act which established within man a certain disposition to sin. Sin had become a principle within man. Note how, in the passages that follow, sin is constantly seen as a pervasive influence, a kind of tyrant, which affects men and drives them to sin. Compare Rom 5:20; Rom 6:16; Rom 6:23; Rom 7:8; Rom 7:11; Rom 7:13-23.
‘For that all sinned –.’ Eph ho pantes hemarton. For pantes hemarton compare Rom 3:23. Paul is once again taking up his theme that all without exception have sinned. ‘Eph ho’ has caused great controversy. If the pronoun is taken as masculine we could translate ‘in whom’, a translation which led on to the idea of original guilt. But eph is an unnatural preposition for signifying such an idea, and taking the pronoun as neuter gives us better sense in the light of Paul’s whole argument that ‘all have sinned’. Compare in this regard the use of eph ho in 2Co 5:4; Php 3:12. Thus we translate as ‘for that, because’.
There is a diversity of opinion in Jewish tradition concerning man’s relationship to Adam’s sin, and the teaching is by no means clear, but it may in the main probably be summed up in the words of 2 Baruch 54:15, 19, ‘Adam sinned first and brought death upon all — Adam is not the cause, except only for himself, but each of us has become the Adam of his own soul’.
‘Therefore just as (howsper) –’ would normally require a comparison to follow (‘so also’), something which does not obviously occur in the text. Most would see the comparison as occurring in Rom 5:18-19, as Paul again takes up his point (e.g. ‘as by one man sin entered into the world — even so through the obedience of one will many be made righteous’). Others see the comparison as being taken up by, ‘who is a figure of the one who is to come’. But this is not the only occasion when Paul appears to drop a line of argument when diverted by something important that he wants to say. And it may be that we should leave it there. What is important is that the explanation is finally given.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Adam Brought Sin And Death For All Into The World, Because All Have Sinned (5:12-14).
Having previously proved that all men have sinned (Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20), Paul now introduces the clinching argument in terms of our descent from Adam. The effect of Adam’s sin is to be seen in that all men subsequently die, demonstrating once more that all have sinned (compare Rom 3:23).
Note how powerfully Paul sets up ‘sin’ as a principle at work in the world, almost as though it was personal, a theme which continues throughout Rom 5:12 to Rom 8:13. Sin entered into the world (Rom 5:12). Sin was in the world (Rom 5:13). Sin reigns over men (Rom 5:20). Men can be servants of sin (Rom 6:16). Sin pays wages (Rom 6:23). Sin seizes its opportunity to make men exceedingly sinful (Rom 7:8). Sin can beguile us and kill us (Rom 7:11). Sin works death in us (Rom 7:13). Indeed, as with the snake in Genesis 3, we can see behind ‘sin’ the subtle hand of the great Deceiver. The whole world lies in the arms of the Evil One (or ‘of evil’ – 1Jn 5:19). But we must not in consequence confuse the two. In the end it is man who is responsible for what he does, and sin is part of what he has become.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Paul Now Describes Man’s Oneness With Adam In Judgment And Compares It With The Believer’s Oneness With Christ In Deliverance (5:12-21).
This passage can be seen as summarising all that has gone before, whilst also introducing new concepts that lie ahead. It is transitional. Here Paul enters into the depths of the world’s sin, and of God’s provision for that sin through Christ, as dealt with in Rom 1:18 to Rom 4:25. But at the same time his words lead into what lies ahead as he considers the reign of sin over men’s lives. These verses demonstrate the sinfulness of all men from the beginning, and contrast it with the remedy that God has provided in Christ (Rom 1:18 to Rom 5:11). They then lead into the idea of man’s bondage to sin, and the way of release through Christ which will be described from Rom 6:1 onwards.
It commences by taking up the earlier theme of Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:23, and emphasising that ‘all have sinned’. In order to do this Paul goes back into history and demonstrates that all men have sinned, because all are sons of Adam. And they did that in a time when there was no Law. Thus there was at that time no distinction between Jew and Gentile. And the corollary is that the same is true now. Now also there is no longer a thought of a distinction between Jew and Gentile. All participate equally in Adam’s sinfulness and are therefore seen as one in him, for they are descended from him. The whole world thus shares in the same problem, and none can escape it. And that includes Jew as well as Gentile. He will then go on to say that in the same way all who would be saved have to participate in the righteousness and obedience of Christ (Rom 5:17-19; 2Co 5:21; 1Pe 1:2). There is no alternative. There is no other way of avoiding sin and death, the two tyrants which lord it over mankind. We must choose between Adam or Christ.
In both cases there is imputation and impartation. Adam’s sin is in some way imputed to us, although it should be noted that that is because we ourselves sin, as is evidenced by the fact that we die (Rom 5:13-15). And yet Adam’s sin is also seen as imparted to us because we were made actual sinners through the sin of Adam (Rom 5:12). It should be noted what imputation here means. It signifies ‘sharing in the blame for sin’. It does not indicate the direct forensic application to men of Adam’s sin. This is evident from the fact that had they had the Law sin would have been ‘imputed’ to them by the Law. (‘Sin is not imputed where there is no law’). The idea of imputation here therefore is that of putting the blame where it belongs, on those who sinned because they were affected by Adam’s sin. It is not saying that they bore the guilt of Adam’s own sin.
In a parallel fashion we can be looked on as righteous as Christ’s righteousness comes upon us (Rom 5:18), and this through our benefiting from His obedience (Rom 5:19). As a consequence we are to ‘reign in life through Christ’, something which requires imparted righteousness, although only through the grace of God (Rom 5:17; Rom 5:20-21).
Thus the theme of the second part of this passage is that as in Adam all struggle and die, as a result of their connection with Adam, so in Christ will all who are connected with Him be made spiritually alive, and reign in life. A secondary theme, lying in the background, might be seen as the indication that, when we get down to the foundations, the Law is of secondary (although real) importance. It neither initially caused the condemnation of mankind (Rom 5:13), nor could it provide a way of escape from sin (Rom 5:20-21). All it could do was bring man’s many transgressions into the open. It was a half way measure.
This passage can thus be divided into three sections:
1) The first emphasises the fact of universal sin and death. Adam brought sin and death for all into the world because all have sinned (12-14). Death therefore reigns.
2) The second emphasises the difference that God has made by acting in grace, and through providing the gift of righteousness. For in contrast to Adam’s bringing of sin into the world, Jesus Christ has brought into the world three things. Firstly the free gift of true righteousness (Rom 5:16-19), thereby offering to those who believe in Him acceptability with God through ‘justification’, through ‘being accounted as righteous’ (Rom 5:16), thus dealing with the penalty of sin; secondly the ability to reign in life through Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17), thus dealing with the power and grip of sin; and thirdly the final right to eternal life (Rom 5:18) which is again ‘through Jesus Christ our LORD’ (Rom 5:21), which will result in deliverance from sin in every way. Thus it is our LORD Jesus Christ Who has dealt with the problem of death, the final consequences of sin, and all this as a result of His obedience (15-19).
3) The third introduces the effect of the introduction of the Law. The Jew might well be asking at this stage, ‘but what about the Law?’ Paul’s reply is that the entrance of the Law in fact simply made man’s sin to abound. Fortunately, however, God intervened and His grace abounded even more. So while sin reigned, resulting in death, grace reigned through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (20-21).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
How Righteousness Is Imputed In Rom 5:1-21 Paul applies this principle of God imputing righteousness to the believer. He tells us to whom God imputes righteousness (Rom 5:1-5), and why God imputes righteousness (because of His great love for us) (Rom 5:6-11), and how God imputes righteousness (through the obedience of one, many were made righteous) (Rom 5:12-21). This passage of Scripture contrasts Adam with Jesus in order to explain how God imputes righteousness to us. Paul makes the claim that sin entered the world by one man, bringing death upon all of humanity (Rom 5:12). He then supports his claim with a number of arguments (Rom 5:13-17): (1) Adam was from one offence unto many deaths; Jesus was from grace unto many gift of eternal life, (2) Adam was from judgment to condemnation; Jesus was from righteousness to justification, (3) Adam was from one disobedience unto many sinners; Jesus was from one obedience unto many righteous. Paul concludes with the statement that eternal life through God’s grace is now available to all of mankind through faith in Jesus Christ (Rom 5:18-21).
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Rom 5:12
Sin is like leaven in that it permeates everything it touches. When Adam sinned, he allowed sin to enter into the world and defile everything under its influence. Sin entered into every human being. We were in the loins of Adam when he sinned we partook of that sin and became sinful in the same way that Levi paid tithes “in Abraham” (Heb 7:9-10).
Heb 7:9-10, “And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.”
Rom 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Rom 5:13
The effects of sin were still reigning over mankind from the time of Adam to Moses, and death was the manifestation of man’s sinful nature; but individuals did not have to become conscience of their sins as those under the Law. This means that God will impute different levels of judgment on Judgment Day simply because we are now more accountable to God than those who lived in ignorance (Act 17:30). We see a reference to various levels of accountability and judgment in Mat 11:24:
Act 17:30, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:”
Mat 11:24, “But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.”
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Rom 5:14
1Co 15:45, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”
Rom 5:14 Comments – Death was the manifestation of man’s sinful nature, even though man had no law to reveal or define his sin. The moment the Law came, man’s sin nature was magnified.
Rom 5:15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Rom 5:16 Rom 5:17 Rom 5:17
Eph 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
In fact, everything that Jesus Christ placed under His feet during His earthly ministry is also under our dominion and we can walk in the same authority that Jesus walked through faith in His name. He was teaching His disciples to so do by sending them out to minister in His name by twos.
Rom 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Rom 5:19 Rom 5:20 Rom 5:20
Gal 3:19, “ Wherefore then serveth the law ? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The First and the Second Adam.
Death the consequence of sin:
v. 12. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
v. 13. (for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
v. 14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come. The apostle here introduces an extended comparison between the salvation which we owe to Christ, and the calamity of Adam’s transgression with its results. Very emphatically he opens this section: Wherefore, or, because. From the facts which he has adduced regarding the method of justification, it follows that as by one man all became sinners, so by one all are constituted righteous. By one man, through Adam, who followed Eve in eating the forbidden fruit, sin came into the world. Sin is every transgression of the divine Law, when the works, thoughts, and desires of men miss their object, do not conform to the will of God. By the disobedience of Adam sin came into the world, it made its appearance in the world, it began to exist. And through sin death came. The disobedience of Adam bore bitter fruits: first, he was the cause of sin, he brought it to mankind, he was instrumental in having it invade the race; and therefore, by means of sin, men became subject to death. Adam sinned, and the consequence, the punishment of his sin, was death; the death of Adam was the beginning of human mortality. On the day that Adam ate of the forbidden fruit began the performance of the threatened disaster, the execution of the sentence of death; from that hour the germ of death was in his nature, his body was a mortal body, and it was only a question of time when it would return to dust. And thus, in this manner, death passed through to all men, reached all, because all sinned. Death is universal because sin is universal; all men, even by their conception and birth, are subject to death; their entire life is a course which has death as its object. So absolutely is man subject to death, from the very first moment of conception, that St. Paul makes the statement only of death that it has passed through to all men. And this is true because all sinned, sinned in Adam, sinned through or by that one man. Not as though they all had actually, in the person of their progenitor, performed that first transgression of the command of God, but that through his disobedience all men are regarded and treated as sinners by God. On account of the disobedience of Adam, God looks upon them all as sinners; God has imputed to all men the sin of Adam. It is a principle which runs through all the great dispensations of Providence: posterity, natural and federal, bears the blame(Canaan, Gehazi, Moabites and Amalekites, etc.). As a proof for the statement just made, Paul introduces a historical fact. He refers to the time before the Law, before the Law was formally given, written, and codified. At that time sin was nevertheless in the world, people did transgress the holy will of God. But sin is not charged to the transgressor’s account in the absence of a definite law, it is not entered on the debit side by God as a transgression of a divine commandment. See chap. 4:15. And yet death ruled in the human race, had absolute kingly authority from Adam to Moses, during the entire interval, even over those that had not sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam. There was unrestrained sovereignty and tyranny of death with regard to all men, not only those that had never broken any positive, codified law, but also those that had never in their own persons violated any individual command, by which their sentence of death could be accounted for. Paul thus plainly teaches that the sinners of the first period of the world, before Moses, became subject to death on account of the one transgression of Adam. Death came upon them before they had committed positive sins of their own; but as the punishment of death implies a violation of law, it follows that God regarded and treated them as sinners on the ground of Adam’s disobedience. This is true at all times. The one transgression of Adam was the cause that brought about the death of all men. It is true indeed that every sin merits death, even if it has not become a conscious transgression of the divine Law, even if it exists only in the innermost desire of the heart which is contrary to the holiness of God. But it is true also that the disobedience of Adam, which drew down upon him the curse of death, is so thoroughly imputed to all men that they are actually born into death. But this same death God now uses to punish individual sins and sinfulness. Of Adam the apostle finally says: Who is the impression, the figure, the type of Him that was to come. The first Adam is a prophetical type, 1Co 10:6-11, of the Adam that was to come, of Christ. The resemblance between the two is not casual, but predetermined. The sin of the first Adam was the ground of our condemnation; the righteousness of the second Adam is the ground of our justification.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Rom 5:12. Here the Apostle advances his third and last argument, to prove the extensiveness of the divine grace, or that it reaches to all mankind as well as to the Jews. His argument stands thus: “The consequences of Christ’s obedience extend as far as the consequences of Adam’s disobedience; but those extend to all mankind; and therefore so do the consequences of Christ’s obedience.” Now if the Jews will not allow the Gentiles any interest in Abraham, as not being naturally descended from him, yet they must own that the Gentiles are the descendants of Adam, as well as themselves; and being all equally involved in the consequences of his sin, that is to say, temporal death and its concomitants, from which they shall all equally be released at the resurrection, through the free gift of God, respecting the obedience of Christ,they could not deny the Gentiles a share in all the other blessings included in the same gift. This argument, besides proving the main point, serves to shew, 1st, That the grace of God in the Gospel abounds beyond, or very far exceeds, the mere reversal of the sufferings brought upon mankind by Adam’s one offence, as it bestows a vast surplusage of blessings, which have no relation to that offence, but to the many offences that mankind have committed, and to the exuberance of the divine grace. 2nd, To shew how justly the divine grace is founded upon the obedience of Christ, in correspondence to the dispensation that Adam was under, and to the consequences of his disobedience. If his disobedience involved all mankind in death, it was proper that the obedience of Christ should be the reason and foundation, not only of reversing that death to all mankind, but also of any other blessings which God should see fit to bestow upon the world. 3rdly, It serves to explain, or set in a clear view, the difference between the law and grace. It was the law, which for Adam’s one transgression subjected him and his posterity, as included in him when he transgressed, to death, without hopes of a revival. It is grace, or the favour of the law-giver, which restores all men to life at the resurrection; and, over and above that, has provided a gracious dispensation for the pardon of their sins; for reducing them to obedience; for guarding them against temptations; for supplying them with strength and comfort; and, if faithful to the grace of God, for advancing them to eternal life. This would give the attentive Jew a just notion of the law which himself was under, and under which he was fond of bringing the Gentiles.
The order in which the Apostle handles the argument is this: First, he affirms, that death passed upon all mankind by Adam’s one offence, Rom 5:12. Secondly, He proves this, Rom 5:13-14. Thirdly, He affirms that there is a correspondence between Adam and Christ, or between the offence and the free gift, Rom 5:15. Fourthly, This correspondence, so far as the two opposite parts answer each other, is fully expressed, Rom 5:18-19.; and there we have the main or fundamental position of the Apostle’s argument, in relation to the point which he has been arguing from the beginning of the Epistle; namely, the extensiveness of the grace of the Gospel, that it actually reaches to all men, and is not confined to the Jewish peculiarity. Fifthly, But before he lays down this position, it was necessary he should shew that the correspondence between Adam and Christ, or between the offence and the gift, is not to be confined strictly to the bounds specified in the position, as if the gift reached no farther thanthe consequences of the offence, when in reality it extends greatly beyond them, Rom 5:15-17. Sixthly, Having settled these points as previously necessary to clear up hisfundamental position, and fit it to his argument, he then lays down that position in a diversified manner of speech, Rom 5:18-19 just as in 1Co 15:20-21 and leaves us to conclude from the premises laid down, Rom 5:15-17 that the gift and grace, or favour of God, in its utmost extent, is as free to all mankind who are willing to accept of it, as this particular instance, the resurrection from the dead. Seventhly, Having thus shewn the extensiveness of the divine grace, in opposition to the direful effects of the law, under which Adam was, that the Jew might notoverlook what he intended he should particularly observe, the Apostle puts him in mind, that the law given to Adam, transgress and die, was introduced into the Jewish constitution by the ministry of Moses; and for this end, that the offence, with the penalty of death annexed, might abound, Rom 5:20. But to illustrate the divine grace, by setting it in contrast to the law, he immediately adds, where sin subjecting to death hath abounded,grace hath much more abounded; that is to say, in blessings bestowed, it has stretched both far beyond Adam’s transgression, and the transgressions under the law of Moses; Rom 5:20-21. Upon this argument the two following general remarks may be made: First,
As to the order of time, the Apostle carries his arguments backward, from the time when Christ came into the world (chap. Rom 1:17 to chap. 4:) to the time when the covenant was made with Abraham, chap. 4: and to the time when the judgment of condemnation pronounced upon Adam came upon all men; chap. Rom 5:12 to the end. And thus he gives us a view of the principal dispensations from the beginning of the world. Secondly, In this last case, as well as the two former, he uses law or forensic terms; judgment for condemnation, justification,justify,made righteous; and therefore as he considers both Jews and Gentiles at the coming of Christ, and Abraham when the covenant was made with him, so he considers Adam and all men as standing in the court before the tribunal of God; and this was the clearest and concisest way of representing his arguments.
Wherefore, as by one man, &c. The sense and connection of this verse seems well kept up, if the , and, in the second clause be considered as redundant, which it frequently is, 1Co 14:27. 2Co 1:6. As by one man sin entered,so, or even so, death passed upon all men. And thus the positions in each clause aptly, and regularly answer each other. All other interpretations of the verse seem greatly to embarrass the construction and the sense. Wherefore, , frequently signifies in relation to the affair going before, not by way of inference from it, but to denote a farther enlargement upon it, or the advancing of something which enforces or explains it. For that all have sinned, is rendered by some unto which all have sinned; that is, “all are so far involved in the consequences of Adam’s first transgression, as by means of it to become obnoxious to death.” St. Paul is here evidently speaking of that mortality to which all men became subject in consequence of Adam’s transgression. Volumes have been written to prove, that the death inflicted upon all mankind, as a punishment for that transgression, was not only natural, but spiritual and eternal; but after all that has been controverted on the subject, it appears a mere strife of words. That in Adam all die, or become subject to temporal death, is a fact which we too fatally experience: that this death was the consequence of sin is equally certain; and if there be any meaning in the words, sin is certainly the spiritual death of the soul: the spiritual death therefore introduced the natural; and that the sinful soul dying to this life cannot be admitted into the life of glory with God, is a fact equally certain, upon the authority of revelation, with those already advanced. If therefore it be allowed, that byone man sin entered into the world, and natural death by sin, it must be allowed that from the same source proceeds the spiritual and eternal, as well as the natural death. With all this I do not on any account mean to assert, that this death is inflicted upon all mankind as their punishment for Adam’s transgression. The plain fact stands only thus:that we are subject to sin and death, in consequence of sin and death introduced into the world by Adam.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 5:12 . [1228] ] Therefore , because, namely, we have received through Christ the and the assurance of eternal salvation, Rom 5:11 . The assumption that it refers back to the whole discussion from chap. Rom 1:17 (held by many, including Tholuck, Rckert, Reiche, Kllner, Holsten, Picard) is the more unnecessary, the more naturally the idea of the itself, just treated of, served to suggest the parallel between Adam and Christ, and the in point of fact contains the summary of the whole doctrine of righteousness and salvation from Rom 1:17 onward; consequently there is no ground whatever for departing, as to , from the connection with what immediately precedes. [1229] This remark also applies in opposition to Hofmann (comp Stlting and Dietzsch), who refers it back to the entire train of ideas embraced in Rom 5:2-11 . A recapitulation of this is indeed given in the grand concluding thought of Rom 5:11 , that it is Christ to whom we owe the reconciliation. But Hofmann quite arbitrarily supposes Paul in to have had in view an exhortation to think of Christ conformably to the comparison with Adam, but to have got no further than this comparison .
] There is here an as in Mat 25:14 ; and 1Ti 1:3 . The comparison alone is expressed, but not the thing compared, which was to have followed in an apodosis corresponding to the . The illustration, namely, introduced in Rom 5:13-14 of the now rendered it impossible to add the second half of the comparison syntactically belonging to the , and therefore the Apostle, driven on by the rushing flow of ideas to this point, from which he can no longer revert to the construction with which he started, has no hesitation in dropping the latter (comp generally Buttmann’s neut. Gr. p. 331; Khner, II. 2, p. 1097), and in subsequently bringing in merely the main tenor of what is wanting by the relative clause attached to : in Rom 5:14 . This . . is consequently the substitute for the omitted apodosis, which, had it not been supplanted by Rom 5:13-14 , would have run somewhat thus: so also through one man has come righteousness, and through righteousness life, and so life has come to all . Calvin, Flacius, Tholuck, Kllner, Baur, Philippi, Stlting, Mangold, Rothe (who however without due ground regards the breaking off as intended from the outset, in order to avoid sanctioning the Apokatastasis) find in . . ., in v. 14, the resumption and closing of the comparison, [1232] not of course in form, but in substance; compare also Melancthon. According to Rckert, Fritzsche (in his commentary), and de Wette, Paul has come, after Rom 5:13-14 , to reflect that the comparison begun involved not merely agreement but also discrepancy , and has accordingly turned aside from the apodosis, which must necessarily have expressed the equivalence, and inserted instead of it the opposition in Rom 5:15 . This view is at variance with the entire character of the section, which indeed bears quite especially the stamp of most careful and acute premeditation, but shows no signs of Paul’s having been led in the progress of his thought to the opposite of what he had started with. According to Mehring, Rom 5:15 , following Rom 5:13-14 (which he parenthesises) is meant to complete the comparison introduced in Rom 5:12 , Rom 5:15 being thus taken interrogatively. Against this view, even apart from the inappropriateness of taking it as a question, the in Rom 5:15 is decisive. Winer, p. 503 [E. T. 712] (comp Fritzsche’s Conject . p. 49) finds the epanorthosis in , Rom 5:15 , which is inadmissible, because with in Rom 5:15 there is introduced the antithetical element, consequently something else than the affirmative parallel begun in Rom 5:12 . Others have thought that Rom 5:13-17 form a parenthesis, so that in Rom 5:18 the first half of the comparison is resumed, and the second now at length added (Cajetanus, Erasmus Schmid, Grotius, Bengel, Wetstein, Heumann, Ch. Schmid, Flatt, and Reiche). Against this view may be urged not only the unprecedented length, but still more the contents of the supposed parenthesis, which in fact already comprehends in itself the parallel under every aspect. In Rom 5:18 f. we have recapitulation , but not resumption . This much applies also against Olshausen and Ewald. Others again have held that Rom 5:12 contains the protasis and the apodosis completely, taking the latter to begin either with (Clericus, Wolf, Glckler), or even with (Erasmus, Beza, Benecke), both of which views however are at variance with the parallel between Adam and Christ which rules the whole of what follows, and are thus in the light of the connection erroneous, although the former by no means required a trajection ( for ). While all the expositors hitherto quoted have taken as the beginning of the first member of the parallel, others again have thought that it introduces the second half of the comparison . So, following Elsner and others, Koppe, who after conceives supplied from Rom 5:11 ; so also Umbreit and Th. Schott (for this reason, because we , Christ comes by way of contrast to stand just as did Adam). Similarly Mrcker, who attaches to Rom 5:11 . These expositions are incorrect, because the universality of the Adamite ruin, brought out by . . [1234] , has no point of comparison in the supplied protasis (the explanation is illogical ); in Gal 3:6 the case is different. Notwithstanding van Hengel (comp Jatho) thinks that he removes all difficulty by supplying after ; while Dietzsch, anticipating what follows, suggests the supplying after : through one man life has come into the world .
through one man , that is, , Rom 5:16 . A single man brought upon all sin and death; a single man also righteousness and life. The causal relation is based on the fact that sin, which previously had no existence whatever in the world, only began to exist in the world (on earth) by means of the first fall. [1236] Eve , so far as the matter itself is concerned ( Sir 25:14 ; 2Co 11:3 ; 1Ti 2:14 ; Barnab. Ep. 12), might as well as adam , be regarded as the .; the latter, because he sinned as the first man, the former, of whom Pelagius explained it, because she committed the first transgression. Here however, because Paul’s object is to compare the One man, who as the bringer of salvation has become the beginner of the new humanity, with the One man who as beginner of the old humanity became so destructive, in which collective reference (comp Hofmann’s Schriftbew . I. p. 474) the woman recedes into the background , he has to derive the entrance of sin into the world from Adam , whom he has in view in . Comp 1Co 15:21 f., 1Co 15:45 f. This is also the common form of Rabbinical teaching. See Eisenmenger’s entdeckt. Judenth . II. p. 81 f.
] not: sinfulness, habitus peccandi (Koppe, Schott, Flatt, Usteri, Olshausen), which the word never means; not original sin (Calvin, Flacius, and others following Augustine); but also not merely actual sin in abstracto (Fritzsche: “nam ante primum facinus patratum nullum erat facinus”), but rather what sin is according to its idea and essence (comp Hofmann and Stlting), consequently the determination of the conduct in antagonism to God , conceived however as a force , as a real power working and manifesting itself exercising its dominion in all cases of concrete sin (comp Rom 5:21 ; Rom 6:12 ; Rom 6:14 ; Rom 7:8-9 ; Rom 7:17 al [1241] ). This moral mode of being in antagonism to God became existent in the human world through the fall of Adam; produced death, and spread death over all. Thus our verse itself describes the as a real objective power , and in so doing admits only of this explanation. Compare the not substantially different explanation of Philippi, according to which the actual sin of the world is meant as having come into the world potentialiter through Adam; also Rothe, who conceives it to refer to sin as a principle , but as active; and Dietzsch.
On . , which applies to the earth as the dwelling-place of mankind (for in the universe generally sin, the devil , was already in existence), comp Wis 2:24 ; Wis 14:14 ; 2Jn 1:7 ; Clem. Cor. I. 3; Heb 10:5 . Undoubtedly sin by its entrance into the world came into human nature (Rothe), but this is not asserted here, however decisively our passage stands opposed to the error of Flacius, that man is in any way as respects his essential nature . [1243]
The mode in which the fall took place (through the devil , Joh 8:44 ; 2Co 11:3 ) did not here concern the Apostle, who has only to do with the mischievous effect of it, namely, that it brought into the world, etc.
. . ] scil. . . The is physical death (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Augustine, Calovius, Reiche, Fritzsche, Maier, van Hengel, Klpper, Weiss, and many others), viewed as the separation of the soul from the body and its transference to Hades (not as “citation before God’s judgment,” Mehring), with which however the conception of the and of the in ch. 8, very different from the of men, must not be mixed up (as by Dietzsch), which would involve a blending of dissimilar ideas. The interpretation of bodily death is rendered certain by Rom 5:14 as well as by the considerations, that the text gives no hint of departure from the primary sense of the word; that the reference to Gen 2:17 ; Gen 3:19 could not be mistaken by any reader; and that on the basis of Genesis it was a universal and undoubted assumption both in the Jewish and Christian consciousness, that mortality was caused by Adam’s sin. See Wis 2:24 ; Joh 8:44 ; 1Co 15:21 ; Wetstein and Schoettgen, in loc [1244] ; and Eisenmenger’s entdeckt. Judenthum , II. p. 81 f. Compare, respecting Eve, Sir 25:24 . Had Paul taken in another sense therefore, he must of necessity have definitely indicated it, in order to be understood. [1245] This is decisive not only against the Pelagian interpretation of spiritual death, which Picard has repeated, but also against every combination whatever whether complete (see especially Philippi and Stlting), or partial of bodily, moral (comp , Mat 8:22 ), and eternal death (Schmid, Tholuck, Kllner, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Olshausen, Reithmayr; Rckert undecidedly); or the whole collective evil , which is the consequence of sin, as Umbreit and Ewald explain it; compare Hofmann: “all that runs counter to the life that proceeds from God , whether as an occurrence , which puts an end to the life wrought by God, or as a mode of existence setting in with such occurrence.” As regards especially the inclusion of the idea of moral death (the opposite of the spiritual ), the words and are never used by Paul in this sense; not even in Rom 7:10 (see in loc [1247] ), or in 2Co 2:16 ; 2Co 7:10 , where he is speaking of eternal death. [1248] The reference to spiritual death is by no means rendered necessary by the contrast of . in Rom 5:18 , comp Rom 5:21 ; since in fact the death brought into the world by Adam, although physical, might be contrasted not merely in a Rabbinical fashion, but also generally in itself, with the that has come through Christ; for to this belongs also the life of the glorified body , and it is a life not again subject to death .
] and in such manner, i.e. in symmetrical correspondence with this connection between the sin that entered by one man and the death occasioned by it. Fuller explanation is then given, by the , respecting the emphatically prefixed , to whom death, as the effect of that first sin of the One, had penetrated. Since sums up the state of the case previously expressed (comp e.g. 1Co 14:25 ; 1Th 4:17 ) any further generalization of its reference can only be arbitrary (Stlting: “through sin ”). Even the explanation: “in virtue of the causal connection between sin and death” (Philippi and many others) is too general. The , in fact, recapitulates the historical state of the case just presented, so far as it specifies the mode in which death has come to all , namely, in this way, that the One sinned and thereby brought into the world the death , which consequently became the lot of all .
] came throughout (Luk 5:15 ). This is the progress of the in its extension to all individuals, . , which in contrast to the . is put forward with emphasis as the main element of the further description, wherein moreover , correlative to the , has likewise emphasis. On comp Plut. Alcib. 2. Compare also in Eze 5:17 and Psa 88:16 . More frequent in classic authors with the simple accusative, as in Luk 19:1 .
]
[ 1252] on the ground of the fact that , i.e. because, all sinned , namely (and for this the momentary sense of the aorist is appropriate [1253] ) when through the One sin entered into the world. Because, when Adam sinned, all men sinned in and with him, the representative of entire humanity (not: “ exemplo Adami,” Pelagius; comp Erasmus, Paraphr .), death, which came into the world through the sin that had come into it, has been extended to all in virtue of this causal connection between the sin that had come into existence through Adam and death. All became mortal through Adam’s fall, because this having sinned on the part of Adam was a having sinned on the part of all; consequently , Rom 5:15 . Thus it is certainly on the ground of Adam that all die ( , 1Co 15:22 ), because, namely, when Adam sinned, all sinned, all as (Rom 5:19 ), and consequently the death that came in through his sin can spare none. But it is in a linguistic point of view erroneous, according to the traditional Catholic interpretation after the example of Origen, the Vulgate, and Augustine (Estius, Cornelius Lapide, Klee; not Stengel, Reithmayr, Bisping, and Maier; but revived by Aberle), to take as equivalent to , in quo scil. Adamo , as also Beza, Erasmus Schmid, and others do; compare Irenaeus, Haer. 5.16, 3. The thought which this exposition yields (“omnes ille unus homo fuerunt,” Augustine) is essentially correct, but it was an error to derive it from , since it is rather to be derived from , and hence also it is but arbitrarily explained by the sensuous notion of all men having been in the loins (Heb 7:9-10 ) of Adam (Origen, Ambrosiaster, Augustine). Chrysostom gives in general the proper sense, though without definitely indicating how he took the : “ ; .” So also substantially Theophylact, though explaining, with Photius, as equivalent to . The right view is taken by Bengel (“quia omnes peccarunt. Adamo peccante ”); Koppe (“ipso actu, quo peccavit Adamus”), Olshausen, Philippi, Delitzsch, Psychol . p. 126, 369, and Kahnis, Dogm. I. p. 590, III. p. 308 f.; comp also Klpper. [1256] The objection that in this way the essential definition is arbitrarily supplied (Tholuck, Hofmann, Stlting, Dietzsch, and others) is incorrect; for what is maintained is simply that more precise definition of , for which the immediate connection has necessarily prepared the way, and therefore no person, from an unprejudiced point of view, can speak of “an abortive product of perplexity impelling to arbitrariness” (Hofmann). Nor is our view at variance with the meaning of (as Ernesti objects), since from the point of view of death having been occasioned by Adam’s sin ( ) the universality of death finds its explanation in the very fact , that Adam’s sin was the sin of all . Aptly (as against Dietzsch) Bengel compares 2Co 5:14 : , (namely, Christo moriente ); see on that passage. Others, and indeed most modern expositors (including Reiche, Rckert, Tholuck, Fritzsche, de Wette, Maier, Baur, Ewald, Umbreit, van Hengel, Mehring, Hofmann, Stlting, Thomasius, Mangold, and others,) have interpreted of individual sins, following Theodoret: , . Compare Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 263; Mrcker l.c [1257] p. 19. But the taking the words thus of the universal having actually sinned as cause of the universal death (see other variations further on) must be rejected for the simple reason, that the proposition would not even be true; [1258] and because the view, that the death of individuals is the consequence of their own actual sins, would be inappropriate to the entire parallel between Adam and Christ, nay even contradictory to it. For as the sin of Adam brought death to all (consequently not their own self-committed sin), so did the obedience of Christ (not their own virtue) bring life to all. Comp 1Co 15:22 . This objective relation corresponding to the comparison remains undisturbed in the case of our exposition alone, inasmuch as . . shows how the sin of Adam necessarily brought death to all . To explain again, as is done by many, and still by Picard and Aberle: they were sinful , by which is meant original sin (Calvin, Flacius, Melancthon in the Enarr.: “omnes habent peccatum , scilicet pravitatem propagatam et reatum”), or to import even the idea poenam luere (Grotius), is to disregard linguistic usage; for means they have sinned , and nothing more. This is acknowledged by Julius Mller ( v. d. Snde , II. p. 416 ff. Exo 5 ), who however professes to find in . . only an accessory reason for the preceding, and that in the sense: “ as then” all would besides have well deserved this severe fate for themselves by their actual sins . Incorrectly, because does not mean “ as then ” or “ as then also ” ( i.e. ); because the statement of the reason is by no means made apparent as in any way merely secondary and subjective , as Neander and Messner have rationalised it, but on the contrary is set down as the single, complete and objective ground; because its alleged purport would exercise an alien and disturbing effect on the whole development of doctrine in the passage; and because the sense assigned to the simple ( this severe fate they would have all moreover well merited ) is purely fanciful. Ernesti takes not of the objective ground, but as specifying the ground of thinking so, i.e. the subjective ground of cognition: “ about which there can be no doubt, in so far as all have in point of fact sinned;” this he holds to be the logical ground for the . . [1260] But, as there is no precedent of usage for this interpretation of (Phi 3:12 is unjustifiably adduced), Ernesti is compelled to unite with Rom 5:13-14 in an untenable way. See on Rom 5:13 f., remark 1, and Philippi, Glaubensl. III. p. 222 ff. Exo 2 .
Respecting , which is quite identical with , we have next to observe as follows: It is equivalent to , and means on the ground of the fact that , consequently in real sense propterea quod , [1261] because ( dieweil , Luther), of the causa antegressa (not finalis ), as also Thomas Magister and Favorinus have explained it as equivalent to . So in the N. T. at 2Co 5:4 and Phi 3:12 . Comp Theophilus, a [1263] Autol. ii. 40, ed. Wolf: ( because he was unable to put them to death), Diod. Sic. xix. 98: . , ( because they call the greater a bull, etc.); just so , Plut. de Pyth. orac. 29. Favorinus quotes the examples: , and , . Thomas Magister cites the example from Synesius ep. 73: ( propterea quod Gennadium accusasset, comp Herm. a [1265] Viger. p. 710). Another example from Synesius (in Devarius, ed. Klotz, p. 88) is: ( on the ground of this, that , i.e. because thou hast done well to Secundus) , , . . See further Josephus, Antt. i. 1, 4 : , ( propterea quod ) . Antt. xvi. 8, 2 : , , . Rothe (followed by Schmid, bibl. Thol. p. 260) has taken it as: “ under the more definite condition, that ” ( ), so that individual sins are the consequence of the diffusion of death through Adam’s sin over mankind. But this view is wholly without precedent in the usus loquendi, for the very frequent use of , under the condition, that (usually with the infinitive or future indicative), is both in idea and in practice something quite different; see Khner, II. 2, p. 1006. Of a similar nature are rather such passages as Dem. 518, 26: , ( upon the ground of which he will not seem worthy, etc.); de cor. 114 (twice); as well as the very current use of , propterea (Xen. Mem. i. 2, 61), of , for this very reason (Dem. 578, 26; Xen. Cyr. ii. 3, 10), etc.; and further, such expressions as (Xen. Cyr. i. 3, 16), where with the dative specifies the ground (Khner, II. 1, p. 436). Ewald formerly ( Jahrb. II. p. 171), rejecting the second , explained: “and thus there penetrated to all men that, whereunto all sinned ,” namely death, which, according to Gen 2:17 , was imposed as punishment on sin, so that whosoever sinned, sinned so that he had to die, a fate which he might know beforehand. In this way the would (with Schmid and Glckler, also Umbreit) be taken of the causa finalis (Xen. Cyr. viii. 8, 24: , , iii. 3, 36, , , Thuc. i. 134, 1, al [1266] ; and see especially Wis 2:23 ), and the subject of ( ) would be implied in it. But, apart from the genuineness of , which must be defended, there still remains, even with the explanation of as final, so long as is explained of individual actual sins, the question behind as to the truth of the proposition, since not all , who die, have actually sinned; and indeed the view of the death of all having been caused by the actual sins of all is incompatible with what follows. [1267] See also Ernesti, p. 192 ff.; comp his Ethik. d. Ap. P. p. 16 f. Moreover the telic form of expression itself would have to be taken only in an improper sense, instead of that of the necessary, but on the part of the subjects not intended, result , somewhat after the idea of fate, as in Herod. i. 68: . Subsequently (in his Sendschr. d. Ap. P. ) Ewald, retaining the second , has assumed for the signification, so far as (so also Tholuck and van Hengel); holding that by the limiting phrase “ so far as they all sinned ,” death is thus set forth the more definitely as the result of sin, so that corresponds to the previous . But even granting the not proved limiting signification of (which elsewhere has, Rom 9:13 ), there still remain with this interpretation also the insurmountable difficulties as to the sense, which present themselves against the reference of to the individual sins. Hofmann (comp also his Schriftbew . I. p. 529 f.) refers to , so that it is equivalent to : amidst the presence of death; making the emphasis to lie on the preposition, and the sense to be: “ death was present at the sinning of all those to whom it has penetrated; and it has not been invariably brought about and introduced only through their sinning, nor always only for each individual who sinned .” Thus might be justified, not indeed in a temporal sense (which it has among poets and later prose writers only in proper statements of time, as in Homer, Il. viii. 529, ), but perhaps in the sense of the prevailing circumstance , like the German “ bei ” [with, amidst]
[ 1270] (see Khner, II. 1, p. 434). But apart from the special tenor of the thought, which we are expected to extract from the bare , and which Paul might so easily have conveyed more precisely (possibly by , or ), this artificial exposition has decidedly against it the fact that the words must necessarily contain the argumentative modal information concerning the preceding proposition . . , which they in fact contain only when our view is taken. [1271] They must solve the enigma which is involved in the momentous of that clause; and this enigma is solved only by the statement of the reason: because all sinned , so that the of Adam was the sin of all . Against Hofmann, compare Philippi’s Glaubensl. III. p. 221 f. Exo 2 .
[1228] See Schott (on vv. 12 14) in his Opusc. I. p. 313 ff.; Borg, Diss. 1839; Finkh in the Tb. Zeitschr . 1830, 1, p. 126 ff.; Schmid in the same, 4, p. 161 ff.; Rothe, neuer Versuch e. Auslegung d. paul. Stelle v. 12 21, Wittemb. 1836; J. Mller, v. d. Snde , II. p. 481, Exo 5 ; Aberle in the theol. Quartalschr . 1854, p. 455 ff.; Ewald, Adam u. Christus Rom. v. 12 21, in the Jahrb. f. bibl. Wissensch . II. p. 166 ff.; Picard, Essai exgt. sur Rom. v. 12 ff. Strassb. 1861; Hofmann, Schriftbew . I. p. 526 ff.; Ernesti, Urspr. d. Snde , II. p. 184 ff.; Holsten, z. Ev. d. Paul. u. Petr. p. 412 ff.; Stlting, l.c. p. 19 ff.; Klpper in the Stud. u. Krit. 1869, p. 496 ff.; Dietzsch, Adam u. Christus Rom. v. 12 ff., Bonn 1871. Compare also Lechler’s apost. Zeit. p. 102 ff.
[1229] The close junction with ver. 11 is maintained also by Klpper, who unsuitably however defines the aim of the section, vv. 12 21, to be, to guard the readers against a timid littleness of faith, as though, notwithstanding justification, they were still with reference to the future of judgment not sure and certain of escaping the divine wrath; a timid mind might see in the tribulations anticipations of that wrath, etc. But how far does the entire confession of vv. 1 11 stand elevated above all such littleness of faith! In the whole connection this finds no place whatever, and receives therefore in vv. 12 21 not the slightest mention or reference.
[1232] The objection of Dietzsch, p. 43, that asserts nothing real regarding the second member of the comparison, is unsatisfactory, since Paul is just intending to bring forward a very definite special statement regarding the typical relation which he now merely expresses in general terms.
[1234] . . . .
[1236] Not merely came to light as known sin (Schleiermacher, Usteri). See Lechler, p. 104.
[1241] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
[1243] Compare Holsten, zum Ev. d. Paul. u. Petr. p. 418: who thinks that the unholiness lying dormant in human nature first entered actually into the visible world as a reality in the transgression of Adam; also Baur, neut. Theol. p. 191, according to whom the principle of sin, that from the beginning had been immanent in man, only came forth actually in the of the first parent. In this way sin would not have come into the world , but must have been in the world already before the fall, only not having yet attained to objective manifestation.
[1244] n loc. refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
[1245] This remark holds also against Mau in Pelt’s theol. Mitarb. 1838, 2, who understands the form of life after the dissolution of the earthly life.
[1247] n loc. refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
[1248] In 2Ti 1:10 is used in the sense of eternal death, which Christ (by His work of atonement) has done away; the opposite of it is , which He has brought to light by His gospel. Not less is Eph 2:1 to be explained as meaning eternal death.
[1252] The most complete critical comparison of the various expositions of these words may be seen in Dietzsch, p. 50 ff.
[1253] Hofmann erroneously holds ( Schriftbew. l.c. ) that the imperfect must have been used. What is meant is in fact the same act, which in Adam’s sin is done by all, not another contemporaneous act. Comp. 2Co 5:15 . It is mere empty arbitrariness in Thomasius l.c. p. 316, to say that our explanation is grammatically unjustifiable. “Why so? Stlting (comp. Dietzsch) objects to it that then must also be taken in the momentary sense. But this by no means follows, since . . is a special relative clause. Nevertheless even that . . is not something gradually developing itself, but a thing done in and with the sin of the One man. This One has sinned and has become liable to death, and thereby all have become mortal, because Adam’s sin was the sin of all .
[1256] Who, although avoiding the direct expression of our interpretation, nevertheless in substance arrives at the same meaning, p. 505: “All however sinned, because Adam’s sin penetrated to them, inasmuch as God punished the fault of Adam so thoroughly that his sin became shared by all his descendants.” For Klpper properly explains the . defining the relation as imputation of Adam’s sin to all.
[1257] .c. loco citato or laudato .
[1258] Namely, in respect to the many millions of children who have not yet sinned. The reply made to this, that Paul has had in view only those capable of sin (Castalio, Wetstein, Fritzsche and others) is least of all applicable in the very case of this Apostle and of the present acutely and thoroughly considered disquisition, and just as little is an appeal to the disposition to sin (Tholuck) which children have (Paul says plainly ). This way out of the difficulty issues in an exegetical self-deception. He who seeks to get rid of the question regarding children must declare that it is not here raised, since the passage treats of the human race as a whole (comp. Ewald, Jahrb. VI. p. 132, also Mangold, p. 118 f.). This would suffice, were the question merely of universal sinfulness; for in such a case Paul could just as properly have said here, with self-evident reference to all capable of sin, as in Rom 3:23 . But the question here is the connection between the sin of all and the dying of all, in which case there emerges no self-evident limitation, because all , even those still incapable of peccatum actuale, must die. Thus the question as to children still remains, and is only disposed of by not taking in the sense of having individually sinned; comp. Dietzsch, p. 57 f. This also applies against Stlting, according to whom Paul wishes to show that sin works death in the case of all sinners without exception.
[1260] . . . .
[1261] Baur also, II. p. 202 (comp. his neutest. Theol. p. 138), approves the rendering because , but foists on this because the sense: “ which has as its presupposition .” Thus it should be understood, he thinks, also in 2Co 5:4 and Phi 3:12 ; and thus Paul proves from the universality of death the universality of sin. See, in opposition to this logical inversion, Ernesti, p. 212 ff.
[1263] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
[1265] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
[1266] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
[1267] Along with which it may be observed that there is the less warrant for mentally supplying, in the contrasted propositions on the side of salvation, a condition corresponding to the . . (Mangold; , which is implicitly involved in , ver. 17), the more essential this antitypical element would be.
[1270] So also Dietzsch has taken it, in substantial harmony with Hofmann, less artificially, but not more tenably: amidst the presence of death . He thinks that the Apostle desires to emphasise the view that death, originating from the One, is and prevails in the world, quite apart from the sinning of individuals; that independently of this, and prior to it, the universal dominion of death springing from Adam is already in existence. But with what strange obscurity would Paul in that case have expressed this simple and clear idea! How unwarranted it is to attach to his positive expression the negative signification ( apart from, independently of )! With just as little warrant we should have to attach to the , since in no case could it include the children who have not yet sinned, a limitation of meaning, which yet it is utterly incapable of bearing after the just said. The exposition of Dietzsch, no less than that of Hofmann, is a laboriously far-fetched and mistaken evasion of the proposition clearly laid down by Paul: “ because they all sinned ,” namely, when through one man sin came into the world and death through sin.
[1271] This applies equally against the similar exposition of Thomasius ( Chr. Pers. u. Werk . I. p. 316 f.), amidst the presence of which relation ( as neuter). As if previously a “ relation ” had been expressed, and not a concrete historical fact! Weisse took even as although , a linguistic impossibility, which Finckh also presents.
REMARK 1. The Rabbinical writers also derived universal mortality from the fall of Adam, who represented the entire race in such a way that, when Adam sinned, all sinned. See the passages in Ammon, Opusc. nov. p. 72 ff. Even perfectly righteous persons are “comprehensi sub poena mortis” (R. Bechai in Cad hackemach f. 5, 4). It may reasonably be assumed therefore that the doctrine of the Apostle had, in the first instance, its historical roots in his Jewish (comp Sir 25:23 ; Wis 2:23 f.; Rom 14:14 ) and especially his Rabbinical training, and was held by him even prior to his conversion; and that in his Christian enlightenment he saw no reason for abandoning the proposition, which on the contrary he adopted into the system of his Christian views, and justified by continuing to assert for it in the development of the divine plan of redemption the place which is here assigned to it, as even Christ Himself traces death back to the fall (Joh 8:44 ). Comp 1Co 15:22 : , on which our passage affords the authentic commentary. We may add that, when Maimonides is combating ( More Nevoch . iii. 24) the illusion that God arbitrarily decrees punishments, there has been wrongly found in the dogmatic proposition adduced by him, “ non est mors sine peccato , neque castigatio sine iniquitate,” the reverse of the above doctrine (see especially Fritzsche, p. 294). The latter is on the contrary presupposed by it.
REMARK 2. That Adam was created immortal, our passage does not affirm, and 1Co 15:47 contains the opposite. But not as if Paul had conceived the first man as by his nature sinful, and had represented to himself sin as a necessary natural quality of the (so anew Hausrath, neut. Zeitgesch . II. p. 470), but thus: if Adam had not sinned in consequence of his self-determination of antagonism to God, he would have become immortal through eating of the tree of life in Paradise (Gen 3:22 ). As he has sinned, however, the consequence thereof necessarily was death , not only for himself, seeing that he had to leave Paradise, but for all his posterity likewise. [1274] From this consequence, which the sin of Adam had for all , it results, in virtue of the necessary causal connection primevally ordained by God between sin and death, by reasoning back ab effectu ad causam , that the fall of Adam was the collective fall of the entire race, in so far as in fact all forfeited Paradise and therewith incurred death.
If be explained in the sense of individual actual sins , and at the same time the untenableness of the explanation of Hofmann and Dietzsch be recognised, it becomes impossible by any expedients, such as that of Rothe, I. p. 314, ed. Schenkel, to harmonize the view in our passage with that expressed in 1Co 15:47 ; but, if it be referred to the fall of Adam , every semblance of contradiction vanishes.
[1274] Comp. Jul. Mller, dogmat. Abhandl . 1870, p. 89 f. Schultz, alttest. Theol. I. p. 394.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Rom 5:12-19 . Parallel drawn between the salvation in Christ and the ruin that has come through Adam .
, , , , , , . , , Theophylact; comp Chrysostom, who compares the Apostle here with the physician who penetrates to the source of the evil. Thus the perfect objectivity of the salvation, which man has simply to receive, but in no way to earn, and of which the Apostle has been treating since chap. Rom 1:17 , is, by way of a grand conclusion for the section, set forth afresh in fullest light, and represented in its deepest and most comprehensive connection with the history of the world. The whole of the divine plan of salvation and its history is still to be unfolded before the eyes of the reader ere the moral results that are associated with it are developed in chap. 6.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
SECOND DIVISION
SIN AND GRACE IN THEIR SECOND ANTITHESIS (AS IN THEIR SECOND POTENCY): ACCORDING TO THEIR NATURAL EFFECTS IN HUMAN NATURE, AND IN NATURE IN GENERAL. THE SINFUL CORRUPTION OF THE WORLD, PROCEEDING FROM ADAM, AND INHERITED IN COMMON BY ALL MEN, AND THE LIFE OF CHRIST AS THE INWARD LIVING PRINCIPLE OF THE NEW BIRTH TO NEW LIFE IN INDIVIDUAL BELIEVERS, IN ALL MANKIND, AND IN THE WHOLE CREATED WORLD. (THE PRINCIPLE OF DEATH IN SIN, AND THE PRINCIPLE OF THE NEW LIFE; AS WELL AS THE GLORIFICATION OF THE NEW LIFE, AND OF ALL NATURE, IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.)
s Rom 5:12 to Rom 8:39
First Section.Adams sin as the powerful principle of death, and Gods grace in Christ as the more powerful principle of the new life, in the nature of individual men, and in mankind collectively. The law as the direct medium of the complete manifestation of sin for the indirect mediation of the completed and glorious revelation of grace.
Rom 5:12-21
12Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death35 passed upon all men, for that [ , i.e., on the ground that, because] 13all have [omithave] sinned: ([omit parenthesis]36 For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law [where the law is not]. 14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned [those that sinned not]37 after the similitude [likeness] of Adams transgression, who is the figure [a type] of him that was to come [the coming one, i.e., the second Adam]. 15But not as the offence [fall, transgression],38 so also is the free gift: for if through the offence [transgression] of [the] one [the] many be dead [died], much more [did]39 the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man [the gift by the grace of the one man], Jesus Christ, hath abounded [abound] unto [the] many. 16And not as it was [omitit was] by [the] one that sinned,40 so [omit so] is the gift: for the judgment was [came] by [, of] one (fall) to condemnation, but the free gift is [came] of many offences [falls, transgressions] unto justification [, sentence of acquittal, righteous decree, or, righteous act]. 17For if by one mans offence [by one transgression, or, by the transgression of the one]41 death reigned by [through the] one; much more they which [who] receive [the] abundance of [the] grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by [the] one, Jesus Christ.) 18[omit parenthesis.] Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life [So then, as through the transgression of one, or, one transgression, it came upon all men to condemnation; so also through the , righteous act of one, or, one righteous act, it came upon all men unto justification of life].42 19For as by one mans disobedience [through the disobedience of the one man] [the] many were made [constituted]43 sinners, so [also, ] by the obedience of [the] one shall [the] many be made [constituted] righteous. 20Moreover the law entered [came in besides],44 that the offence [transgression] might abound [multiply]. But where sin abounded [multiplied], grace did much more [exceedingly]45 abound: 21That as sin hath [omit hath] reigned unto [, in] death, even so [so also] might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by [through] Jesus Christ our Lord.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
[Special Literature on Rom 5:12-21.S. J. Baumgarten, De imputatione peccati Adamitici posteris facta, 1742. S. Schott, Opuscula, i. p. 313 sqq. C. F. Schmid, Ueber Rm. Rom 5:12 ff., in the Tbing. Zeitschrift for 1830, No. IV. p. 161 ff. (A very able and sound discussion. Comp. the same authors Bibl. Theologie des N. T., vol. ii. pp. 256262.) Rich. Rothe (died 1868), Neuer Versuch einer Auslegung der Paulin. Stelle Rm. Rom 5:12-21, Wittenberg, 1836. (A masterpiece of exegetical acuteness and finesse.) I. Chr. K. v. Hofmann, Der Schriftbeweis, 2d ed., Nrdlingen, 1857, vol. i. pp. 524541. Jul. Mller, Christl. Lehre von der Snde, vol. ii. p. 407 ff., 472 ff., 3d Germ. ed., 1849. H. Ewald, Adam und Christus, Rm. Rom 5:12-21, in his Jahrbcher fr bibl. Wissenschaft, ii. p. 166 ff. Timothy Dwight (of Yale College), Princeton Exegesis. A Review of Dr. Hodges Commentary on Rom 5:12-19, in the New Englander for July, 1868, pp. 551603. (Polemical against Hodge). A. Stlting, Beitrge zur Exegese der Paulin. Briefe, Gtt., 1869, pp. 142. Reiche, Olshausen, Tholuck, Stuart, Hodge, and Forbes, are most full, though widely divergent, in the exposition of this passage, which many regard as the most difficult in the whole Bible.P. S.]
[Introductory Remarks.This section is difficult in proportion to its depth, grandeur, and world-historical comprehensiveness. Only a mind of the very highest orderto say nothing of inspirationcould conceive such vast thoughts, and compress them within so few words. The beginning, the middle, and the end of history, are here brought together in their representative moral powers and principles. Paul deals with religious truths and facts, which are much broader and deeper than the afterthoughts of our logic and theology, and cannot be squeezed into the narrow limits of particular schools and schemes. The exegesis of this part of the Romans began in earnest with Augustine, in his contest with the Pelagian heresy; it was resumed in the Reformation period, and carried further, philologically and doctrinally, in the present century, but is by no means exhausted, and puts exegetical skill again and again to the severest test. Every line bears the marks of theological controversy about original sin, free agency, imputation, limited atonement, universal salvation, and other questions which will occupy the human mind to the end of the world. The section is not a mere episode, but a progress in the argument from the doctrine of justification to the broader doctrine of a life-union of the believer with Christ, which prepares the way for the doctrine of sanctification, in chap. 6., and glorification, in chap. viii. Like a skilful physician, the Apostle goes not only to the root and fountain-head of the evil,46 but also to the root and fountain head of the cure. In bold antithetical contrasts, and on the basis of a vital, organic union of humanity, both in the order of fallen nature and the order of redeeming grace, he presents the history of the fall by the first, and the redemption by the second Adam. Adam and Christ are the two representative heads of the whole race, the one the natural, the other the supernatural: from the one, the power of sin and the power of death have proceeded upon all men through their participation in his fall; from the other, righteousness and life have come upon all on condition of faith, or a living apprehension of Christ. But the gain by the redemption greatly surpasses the loss by the fall. The main stress lies on the idea of life in its progress from Christ to the believer. The same parallelism between the first and second Adam, but with exclusive reference to the contrast of death and the resurrection, occurs in 1Co 15:21-22; 1Co 15:45-48, which should be kept in view. It is impossible to understand this section from the standpoint of a mechanical and atomistic conception of humanity and of sin, such as Pelagianism and cognate systems maintain. On the surface, all things appear separate and isolated; in the hidden roots, they are united. It is characteristic of all deep thinking, to go back to principles and general ideas. Paul evidently views the human race as an organic unit. Adam and Christ sustain to it a central and universal relation, similar to that which the fountain sustains to the river, or the root to the tree and its branches. Adam was not merely an individual, but the natural head of the human family, and his transgression was not an isolated act, but affected the whole race which sprung from his loins; just as the character of the tree will determine the character of its branches and fruits. So it is with Christ. He calls himself emphatically the (not a) Son of Man, the universal, normal, absolute Man, the representative head of regenerate humanity, which is from heaven, heavenly, as Adams fallen humanity is of the earth, earthy (1Co 15:47-48). Both were tried and tempted by the devil, the one in the garden of innocence, the other in the desert; but the one succumbed, and dragged his posterity into the ruin of the fall; while the other conquered, and became the author of righteousness and life to all who embrace Him. Christ has gained far more for us than Adam lostnamely, eternal reunion with God, in the place of the temporary union of untried innocence. The resurrection of humanity in Christ is the glorious solution of the dark tragedy of the disastrous fall of humanity in Adam. In view of the greater merit of Christ and the paradise in heaven, we may reverently and thankfully rejoice in the guilt of Adam and the loss of his paradise on earthalways, of course, detesting the blasphemous maxim: Let us do evil, that good may come. It is Gods infinite wisdom and mercy alone which overrule the wrath of man for His own glory.P. S.]
Meyer inscribes this section: The drawing of a parallel between salvation in Christ and the ruin produced by Adam. But this does not do justice to the context of the section. Tholuck adopts Bengels view: Respicit totam tractationem superiorem, ex qua hc infert apostolus, non tam digressionem faciens quam regressum de peccato et de justitia. [Bengel continues: In imitation of Pauls method, we should treat first of actual sin (chaps. Rom 1:3.), and then go back to the source in which sin originated. Philippi also regards this section as a comparative or contrastive retrospect and comprehensive conclusion; De Wette and Rothe as an episode.P. S.] We differ from all these, and refer to our division of the Epistle, and to the superscription here.
1. The principle of sin and death become immanent (hereditary) in humanity (Rom 5:12-14).
2. The opposing principle of the gift of grace and of the new life made immanent (spiritually hereditary) in humanity (Rom 5:15-19).
3. The coperation of the law for the finished revelation of sin and for the communication of the finished revelation of the grace of justification (Rom 5:20-21).
1. Arrangement of the first paragraph, Rom 5:12-14.
(a.) Sin and death, proceeding from Adams upon all, under the form of an ethical appropriation by all (Rom 5:12).
(b.) Death as revealer of the improperly apprehended sin, from Adam to Moses, or to the law (not by the law, Rom 5:13-14).
2. The second paragraph, Rom 5:15-19.
(a.) The actually manifested contrast in the effects of the two principles, (aa.) The contrast between the natural and actual effects, according to their quantitative extension to persons; or the contrast in its personal relation (Rom 5:15). (bb.) The contrast between the positive effects, according to the qualitative intensity of judgment and justification; or, the contrast in its essential relation (Rom 5:16).
(b). The contrast in the potential and prospective effects of the two principles. (aa.) The contrast between the enslavemment of all personal life by impersonal (merely personified) death, and the future glory of the pardoned, immortal, and reigning personalities in the new life (Rom 5:17, at the same time a proof for Rom 5:16). (bb.) The contrast in all its ideal magnitude: One condemnation came upon all men, because of the power of the fall of one man; so, by the righteousness of one, can all men attain to the justification of life (that is, not merely of faith, Rom 5:18).
(c.) The contrast in the final effects disclosed by the gospel. By the effect of one mans disobedience, the many are represented in the light of the gospel as sinners exposed to the judgment; finally, by the obedience of one, the many are to be represented as righteous in the judgment (Rom 5:19).
3. Third paragraph, Rom 5:20-21.
The law is designed to effect directly the developing process of sin to historical completion, in order to effect indirectly that revelation of grace which far preponderates over the development of sin (Rom 5:20-21).
First Paragraph (Rom 5:12-14)
The principle of sin and death in humanity
Rom 5:12. Wherefore []. Rckert, Kllner [Tholuck, Reiche, Stuart], &c., refer to the entire discussion from Rom 1:17;47 Rothe, to the previous section, Rom 5:1-11, which he claims to treat of holiness; Tholuck, to Rom 5:11; Rom 5:10; Rom 5:9, &c.; Meyer, to Rom 5:11 alone.48 We refer it merely to in the previous verse. The verb does not denote, in the New Testament, a passive reception, but an ethical, religious, and moral appropriation; for example, Joh 1:12. And this is here the point of comparison between Rom 5:11-12.
Because this point has been overlooked, an incredible amount of vexation has been produced in reference to the presumed anacoluthon, or [an incomplete sentence, a protasis without an apodosis]. Conjectures [concerning the construction or the apodosis corresponding to , like as]:
1. According to Calvin, Tholuck, Philippi, and others, the conclusion is indicated in the words , Rom 5:14. [Meyer also regards the clause: who is a type of the future (Adam), as a substitute for the apodosis, which was swept away by the current of ideas in Rom 5:13-14.P. S.]
2. According to Rckert, Fritzsche, and De Wette [?], Paul dropped the comparison between Adam and Christ after enumerating the points of analogy, because their dissimilarity occurred to his mind (Rom 5:15). De Wette translates Rom 5:12 : Therefore (is it) as by one man, &c. According to Origen, Bengel [Rothe], and others, the Apostle designedly suppresses the conclusion. [Bengel says simply: Apodosis, variata oratione, latet in seq., is concealed in what follows. But Rothe holds that Paul designedly omitted the apodosis, to prevent the illegitimate doctrinal inference of a universal salvation. See below.P. S.]
3. According to Grotius, [E. V., Stuart, Barnes, Hodge], &c., Rom 5:13-17 are parenthetical; and the conclusion follows in Rom 5:18. [Against this construction may be urged, with Meyer, the unexampled length and importance of the supposed parenthesis, and that Rom 5:18 is not so much a reassumption as a recapitulation.P. S.]
4. According to Clericus, Wolf, and others, the conclusion is already in Rom 5:12, and begins with [as if this could be synonymous with , so also, which is impossible.P. S.]; according to Erasmus, Beza, and others, it begins with [which makes superfluous, and sets aside the comparison between Adam and Christ.P. S.]
5. The proper view is the one defended by Koppe, in harmony with [Cocceius] Elsner, and others. The apodosis begins as a comparative statement with , since is brought over from Rom 5:11. [In other words, introduces the second member of the comparison, while the first must be supplied from Rom 5:11 in this way: Therefore (we received and appropriated the reconciliation through Christ in the same manner) as by one man sin entered into the world, &c.P. S.]49 Tholuck remarks, that then we do not know exactly what to do with the comparison.50 But the comparison is contained in the already indicated conception of the ethical appropriation of the principle of the reconciliation on one hand, as of the principle of sin and death on the other. The antithesis, more fully extended, is the following: , , , . It is very plain that, without the conception of , the whole of the following antitheses would appear as a series of blind natural necessities; see Book of Wis 1:16; Wis 2:24, and the explanation of , which follows below. Rothe thinks that the Apostles supposed anacoluthon was even premeditatedaccording to the idea of Origenin order to conceal the doctrine of the apocatastasis which might be deduced from the protasis. See thereon Tholuck, p. 215.
[I cannot bring my mind to adopt Dr. Langes construction, which evades a grammatical difficulty only to give room for a more serious logical one, and mars the beauty and completeness of the analogy. It seems to me that the most natural solution of the difficulty is either (1) to take elliptically: This is therefore like the case when; comp. Mat 25:14 : , as a man going abroad, where neither has, nor necessarily requires, a corresponding (see Textual Note in the Amer. edition of Lange on Matthew, p. 442); Gal 3:6; 1Ti 1:3, where , and Mar 13:34, where is used elliptically; or (2) to assume an intentional anacoluthon (comp. Winer, Gramm., p. 527 ff., on the two kinds of anacolutha, involuntary and intentional). I prefer the latter solution. The complete antithesis would read thus: As () by one man (Adam) sin ( ) entered into the world, and death ( ) through sin, and thus death extended () to all men, inasmuch as all sinned (): so also () by one man, Jesus Christ, righteousness ( ) entered into the world, and life ( ) through righteousness, and thus life shall extend () to all men, inasmuch as (on condition that) all shall believe (). We might also supply, after the second righteousness: in order that all, being justified by faith, may be saved. Rothe (p. 61) supplies as the last clause of the apodosis: ; Philippi: . But these are unessential differences. The great points of comparison are: (1) Sin and death, as a principle and power, proceeding from Adam; righteousness and life, as a counteracting and conquering principle and power, proceeding from Christ, upon the whole human race. (2) Death passing upon all men by participation in the sin of Adam; life passing upon all men by participation in the righteousness of Christ. But the analogy is not absolute; for (1) the participation in Adams sin is universal in fact, while the participation in the righteousness of Christ, though this righteousness is equally universal in power and intention, is limited in fact to believers; in other words, all are sinners, but not all are believers; all men are one with Adam, but not all are one with Christ (hence the past tense in the case of the , but the future in the case of the , Rom 5:19). (2) What Christ gained for us is far greater ( , Rom 5:15, comp. , Rom 5:17, and , Rom 5:20) than what was lost by Adam. Paul, therefore, in the rush of ideas suggested by the parallel, intentionally suspends the apodosis, to make first some explanatory and qualifying statements in regard to the difference in the mode, extent, and quality of the effects proceeding respectively from Adam and Christ, and then, after hinting at the second member of the comparison, at the close of Rom 5:14, he brings out the double parallel of similarity and dissimilarity in full as a conclusion, Rom 5:18-19; Rom 5:21. The whole section, as Meyer justly remarks, bears the impress of the most studied and acute premeditation; and this must apply also to the apparent grammatical irregularity in the absence of the apodosis. The Apostle might have spared the commentators a great deal of trouble, if he had, according to the ordinary rules of composition, first stated the comparison in full, and then given the explanations and qualifications; but such grammatical difficulties in the Scriptures are generally overruled for a profounder investigation and elucidaton of the sense.P. S.]
As by one man [ , by one man, single and singular in his position, and so presented as the , the type of the one greater man; Webster and Wilkinson.P. S.] Not by his guilt (Meyer) [ , Rom 5:16], which would by no means suit the antithesis: Christ. But rather by one man, as the human principle, as the historical cause.51 The one man is Adam, as representative of the first human pair in their unity. The sin of Eve (Sir 25:24; 2Co 11:3; 1Ti 2:14) did not fully decide concerning the future of the human race, because Adam was the head. It was with his sin that the sin of Eve was consummated as the guilt of the first man [and acquired its full power over posterity]. Therefore Adam is meant as the head, as the principle, and not merely with regard to propagation. [Webster and Wilkinson: Adam, not Eve, is charged with the primal sin, as he received the command direct from God, and his sin was without excuse. Here, only the guilt of the transgression is in view; in 2Co 11:3; 1Ti 2:14, the mode, instrument, and process. Bengel assigns three reasons for the omission of Eve: (1) Adam had received the commandment; (2) He was not only the head of his race, but also of Eve; (3) if Adam had not obeyed his wife, one only would have sinned. The omission of the mention of Satan, the primary cause of sin (comp. Gen. iii.; Joh 8:44; 2Co 11:3), he accounts for because (1) Satan is opposed to God, Adam to Christ, whose economy of grace is here described; (2) Satan has nothing to do with the grace of Christ. It should be remembered, also, as Forbes remarks, that in Genesis the very name of Adam, with the article prefixed (, the Adam, the man), is treated as an appellative more than as a proper name, and that, in Gen 1:27, it includes generically both sexes: So God created Adam (in Hebrew) in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them; comp. Gen 5:1-2. It was man, or human nature which we have in common with him, that was put on trial in Adam. Paul draws a parallel between Adam and Christ, but never between Eve and Mary. The latter analogy is an unjustifiable inference, first hinted at by Irenus, and more fully developed by Roman Catholic divines, and became a fruitful source of Mariolatry, which virtually makes the human mother of Christ the fountain of the Christian salvation.P. S.]
Sin. [ . The definite article before , and also before , denotes sin and death as a power or principle which controls man and reveals itself in hereditary corruption, and in every form of actual sin. So , which corresponds to it as its opposite, Rom 5:17; Rom 5:21, is not a single righteous act, but the power of good as a state and as a working principle. Sin is personified as a fearful tyrant, who acquired universal dominion over the human race; he reigns in death, Rom 5:21; works death in us, Rom 7:13; lords it over us, Rom 6:14; works all manner of concupiscence, Rom 7:8; deceives and slays the sinner, Rom 7:11, &c. In all these cases the force of the definite article can be rendered in German, but in English, on the contrary, the absence of the article has the force of generalizing, not so much, its far as I know, from any rule of grammar, as from usage, and perhaps for euphonys sake.P. S.] In what sense? Explanations: 1. Original sin, or natural depravity (Augustine, Calvin); 2. Sinfulness [Sndhaftigkeit, habitus peccandi], (Koppe, Olshausen [also Webster and Wilkinson: sinfulness personified; a sinful disposition, our sinful nature; Rom 6:12; Rom 6:14]); 3. Actual sin (Limborch, Fritzsche); 4. Sin as a ruling power (Meyer [De Wette], Tholuck), or better as a principle (Rothe). Philippi, on the contrary, understands sin as the unity of propensity and deed, as also Aret., Schmid, J. Mller. But sin, as an individual deed, is expressed by ,, &c. It is therefore the principial or fundamental power (die principielle Macht) of sin as the mother of death (Jam 1:15). [The Apostle very carefully, throughout this whole section, distinguishes between , as the generic idea, and and , as a concrete act, the transgression of a law; compare Rom 5:12-13; Rom 5:20-21, with 15, 16, 17, 18. By the of Adam the entered into the human world, and this again became the fruitful mother of the innumerable of his descendants.P. S.]
Entered into the world. [ ; comp. the Book of Wisdom ii. .24 (in explanation of Gen. iii.): . Sin , came in; death , passed through; the Mosaic law (Rom 5:20), came in by the side, or between.] Limborch: a popular personification. On the excessive personification of sin and death in Fritzsche, see Tholuck, p. 219.Into the world. Not merely into the human world (Meyer), or into human nature (Rothe), but as ruin and destructive power in the whole sphere of humanity in general (see Rom 8:20). It is plain that the human sphere of the world alone is assumed here (according to Abelard: in hanc partem mundi sc. terrenam, in qua homines habitant), as Tholuck remarks, from the fact that, according to the Apostles conviction, evil was already in existence in another world. [Comp. 1Co 11:3; Gen. iii.; Book of Wis 2:24; Joh 8:44.P. S.] The expression indicates not only the tendency to sin and death in human nature (Rothe), but also the propagation of sin (Augustine); because the is a conjunction of things, and means an organic connection. The words and refer to the individual and ethical appropriation of sin which is in the since Adams fall.
Death (namely, entered into the world). Explanations: 1. Physical death (Chrysostom, Augustine, Calov., Meyer. Reference to Gen 2:17; Gen 3:19);52 2. Spiritual death (Pelagius); 3. Physical, spiritual, and eternal death; or the collected evil result of sin (Olshausen, De Wette, Tholuck [Philippi, Schmid, Jon. Edwards, Alford, Stuart, Hodge]). This is no doubt correct, for physical death in itself has no biblical and ethical significance (see Rom 8:6; 1Co 15:56; Jam 1:15).
[The Bible uniformly connects sin and death as cause and effect; comp. Gen 2:17; Eze 18:4 (The soul that sinneth, it shall die); Jer 31:30; Jer 6:16; Jer 6:21; Jer 6:24; Rom 7:10; Rom 8:13; Jam 1:15, &c. Jeder Sndenfall, says Dr. Nitzsch, ist ein Todesfall, und jeder Fortschritt in der Snde ein neues Sterben. Without sin, there would be neither spiritual nor physical death. This was symbolically intimated by the tree of life in paradise, of which fallen man was forbidden to eat, lest he live for ever. Adam, if he had not sinned, might have passed to higher forms of life, but without a violent separation of body and soul, without being unclothed, but by being clothed upon (2Co 5:2-4), or, in the beautiful figure of the Rabbins, by a kiss of the Almighty. Death and life are very deep and comprehensive terms in the Scriptures, and the connection must decide whether all, or which of the meanings are exclusively or prominently kept in view. There are three kinds of death: (1) The death of the soul (1Jn 3:14; comp. Mat 8:22; Eph 2:1), which is properly the first and immediate effect of sin, since sin is a separation of the soul from God, the fountain of life; (2) The death of the body (Rom 5:10; Mat 20:18; Mat 26:66; Joh 11:4; Joh 11:13; Act 13:28; Php 1:20; Php 2:8), which is the culmination and end of all physical malady and evil in this world; (3) the eternal death of soul and body (Rom 1:32; 2Co 3:16; 2Co 7:10; Jam 5:20; 1Jn 5:16), which is also called the second death, (in the Rev 2:11; Rev 20:6; Rev 20:14; Rev 21:8). In our passage (as also Rom 7:21; Rom 7:23; Rom 7:5; 2Ti 1:10), is as comprehensive as , its cause, and as , its opposite. It embraces all physical and moral evil, as the penal consequence of sin; it is death temporal and spiritual, viewed as, one united power and principle ruling over the human race. That the Apostle meant physical death, is clear from Rom 5:14, and from his unmistakable reference to Gen 2:17; Gen 3:3; Gen 3:19; while from Rom 5:17-18; Rom 5:21, we may infer that he had also in mind spiritual and eternal death, as the contrast to eternal life, , in which the Scripture idea of life culminates, as the idea of death culminates in eternal damnation. Ewald has an excellent note on this passage (Die Sendschreiben des Ap. Paulus, p. 373): Paul knew that, notwithstanding the words Gen 2:17, Adam did not literally die immediately after his sin; consequently he must mean by death that entire inner corruption (jenes ganze innere Verderben) by which even the physical death only becomes true death; just as, on the other hand, he ascribes true life to the genuine Christians even now before the resurrection of the body. All this is so well founded in his constant use of language, that it needs no explanation. Comp. also the remarks of Philippi in loc., and Cremer, Bibl. Theol. Wrterbuch, sub , p. Rom 232: Daher ist Tod zusammenfassender Ausdruch fr die gesammte gerichtliche Consequenz der Snde, Rom 5:12; Rom 5:14; Rom 5:17; Rom 5:21; Rom 6:16; Jam 5:20, in welchem alles durch die Snde bedingte Uebel sich concentrirt, synon. Verderben, .P. S.]
And so (death) passed upon all men. The second was left out probably because would be referred equally to sin and death. But both are comprehended in the in its spiritual character. The denotes the extension, the universal progress; though a germ-like development is not contained in the word, but in the thing itself. [ (demzufolge, dergestalt, consequently) connects the universal reign of death, chronologically and logically, with the universal reign of sin, as its preceding cause. Some make , and thus, equivalent, by transposition, to , so also, and regard this as the apodosis of the first clause of the twelfth verse; but this is entirely ungrammatical, and inconsistent with the main object of this section, which is to draw a parallel, not between Adam and his posterity, or sin and death, but between Adam and Christ. , upon, all men, is equivalent to the preceding , but differs from it as the concrete parts from the abstract whole; and differs from as the going from house to house differs from entering a town; De Wette. Luther well translates : ist durchgedrungen, passed through and pervaded, as a destructive and desolating power.P. S.]
In such a manner that [solcherweise dass, or, on the ground that; better: inasmuch as]. (= ) is as much as . It can therefore mean here: on the ground that; , propter ea quod (Meyer); under the supposition that (Baur); on condition that (Rothe); in conformity with it, that. Tholuck [p. 234] favors the meaning because, with reference to 2Co 5:4; Php 3:12; yet he makes the because relative, and translates, so far as they all.
[It is almost unanimously agreed now, that , for which the Greeks generally use the plural, (propter ea quod), has here the sense of a conjunction, and that is the neuter, not the masculine to be referred back either to (with Augustine, some Roman Catholics, older Lutherans and Calvinists), or to (with Glckler, Hofmann). It can mean neither in quo, (Augustine), nor per quem, (Grotius), nor propter quem or cum quo, or (Chrysostom, Theophylact, (cumenius, Elsner). But it must be resolved either into , ea conditions ut, ea ratione ut, unter der Voraussetzung, unter der nheren Bestimmtheit dass, on the presupposition, on the definite ground that, on condition that (so Rothe, in a learned and subtle discussion, 1. c. pp. 1738, and Schmid, Bibl. Theol. des N . T., 2:260 f.); or into = (Thomas Magister and Phavorinus: , ), propter id quod, auf Grund dessen dass, darum dass, weil, on this account that, because; comp. 2Co 5:4; Php 3:12, and classical passages quoted by Meyer, p. 204 f. (so Fritzsche, Rom. 1. 299 sq., Meyer, Tholuck, Philippi, Winer, Gramm., p. 368, who are followed, without further discussion, by Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, Stuart and Hodge). The latter explanation gives the plain sense, that the universal reign of death is caused by universal sin; while Rothes explanation conveys the more subtle idea that the actual sin of individuals is a consequence of the same proceeding by which death, through Adams sin, passed upon all men, or that the sin of Adam has caused the sin of all others in inseparable connection with death. I prefer the translation, so far as, inasmuch as, which gives good sense in all the Pauline passages (2Co 5:4 : , ; Php 3:12 : ). It is not so much a causal, as a qualifying and conditioning conjunction (a relative or modified ), which in our passage shows more clearly the connection of death with sin. It implies that a moral participation of all men in the sin of Adam is the medium or cause of their death; just as faith on our part is the moral condition of our participation in Christs life. It is unfavorable to the doctrine of a gratuitous imputation. The legal act of imputation is not arbitrary and unconditioned, but rests on a moral ground and an objective reality.P. S.]
[All sinned (not, have sinned, E. V.), . The aor. II. presents the sinning of all as a historical fact, or a momentary action of the past; comp. , in Rom 5:15; , 2Co 5:14; and especially Rom 3:23, where precisely the same phrase occurs: all sinned, as in one act (in Adam), and consequently became sinners (comp. Textual Note5, p. 128). Some take the aorist in the sense of the perfect = ; but the aorist was chosen with reference to the past event of Adams fall, which was at the same time virtually the fall of the human race as represented by him, and germinally contained in him.53 cannot mean: to be, or, to become sinful (= , or, ), although this is the necessary result of the first sinful act; still less, to suffer the punishment of sin; but it means real, actual sinning. In what sense? The choice in the following list lies between interpretations (4) and (5), which are both equally consistent with the natural grammatical sense of ; while the other interpretations are more or less strained or false.P. S.]
Explanations of :
(1) In quo, namely, in Adam, the whole race sinned. (Origen,54 Chrysostom,55 Theophylact, Augustine56 [Beza, Brenz, Bucer, Este, Erasmus Schmid], and, as probably the last among Protestant expositors [?], Benjamin Carpzov, 1758).57 The supposition here is the organic unity of the human race.
(2) Because all have become sinful [vitiati sunt, peccatores facti sunt]that is, sinners by original sin (Calvin, Melanchthon, Flatt).58
(3) Metonymically, because all have been punished as sinners, or are involved in the consequences of the fall (Chrysostom,59 Grotius,60 Arminians and Socinians [and Calvinists of the Federal school, Macknight, Hodge]).61
(4) Some supply even Adamo peccante after (Pareus, and others; Bengel, Olshausen, &c.). Philippi, p. Rom 179: We must mentally supply , or more specifically; Adamo peccante, to . Meyer, likewise, because all sinned when Adam sinned, in and with him! 1Co 15:22 [ ] has been alleged as proof of this.62
(5) The expression must be understood of the personal sins of individuals (Reiche, Rckert, De Wette, Tholuck [Fritzsche, Baur, Van Hengel, Stuart], and others).63 Meyer calls this interpretation false in view of the many millions of children who have not yet sinned64 [i.e., committed actual transgression]. Tholuck refers to the disposition of children to sin [which, however, is inconsistent with .P. S.]. But he who finds no difficulty in conceiving that children sinned in Adam, should find less difficulty in thinking that they sinned in the womb of their mother, and least difficulty in sinking their individuality in the solidarity of their sinful ancestry. Meyer objects further, that the view that the death of individuals is the result of their personal sins, would vitiate and even contradict the whole parallel between Adam and Christ. For as the sin of Adam brought death to all (therefore not their self-committed sin), so the obedience of Christ (not their own virtue) brought life to all (comp. 1Co 15:22).65 Thus an absolute natural necessity prevailed on both sides! The proper consideration of the parallel, on the contrary, leads to this conclusion: As in the actual appropriation of the merits of Christ a personal ethical appropriation takes place by faith, so in the actual sharing in the guilt of Adam does an ethical participation by unbelief take place (see Rom 11:32). It is a great error to imagine that, in order to avoid the Pelagian heresy, we must cast ourselves into the arms of the Augustinian theory, and do violence to the plain text. This is done by Beza, Calvin, Philippi, and Meyer, though by each in a different way.
(6) The is understood as causa finalis: unto which, viz., death or punishment; thus making to mark the end, or consequence, to which sinning came. (Venema, Schmid, Glckler, and Ewald [formerly, not now].)66 Meyer observes, that this telic view implies a necessary, though not intended effect, in accordance with the idea of fate.
(7) Hofmann: Under whose (deaths) dominion they sinned. This view might be better supported by the thought in Heb 2:15, than by the language in Heb 9:15. Yet it is untenable.67
(8) Thomasius: Under which relation (namely, that sin and death came into the world by one man) all sinned, &c.
It is evident that the most of these explanations are attempts, from doctrinal considerations, to avoid the idea of individual personal guilt, and by this means a relation, clear enough in itself, is obscured. The Apostles assumption is, the priority of sin in relation to death, and the causal connection of the two. Accordingly, the meaning is, since sin came into the world as an abnormal ethical principle, death came into the world with it as the corresponding abnormal physiological principle. Therefore the propagation of the abnormal principle of death presupposes the preceding propagation of the principle of sin in the real sinning of all. It arises from the unity and solidarity of humanity, that certain casesfor example, children born dead, or dying [and idiots]do not here come into consideration. The definition of the , under the presupposition that, is therefore the most natural. In view of the death of innocent children, we may assume different degrees of guilt and death: in proportion as, or in what measure, they all sinned.
Rom 5:13. For until the law, &c. [ ,i.e., from Adam to the Mosaic legislation, comp. Rom 5:14 . Alford: How, consistently with Rom 4:15, could all men sin, before the law? This is now explained. But Rom 4:15 is too far off, and treats of , not of . connects this verse with , Rom 5:12.P. S.] The Apostle did not need to show first that the death of all was grounded in Adams sin (Meyer); this he could presuppose from Jewish and Christian knowledge. But he proves rather that the actual extension of death took place always under the supposition of preceding sin in the world. Therefore his first proposition: Even in the period between Adam and Moses, sin was universal in the world. It was indeed not imputed, not placed directly in the light of the conscious judgment of God, because the law, as the rule of conduct and the accuser, was not yet present. But, indirectly, its presence was made manifest by its effect, the despotic government of death; although a transgression in such a definite way as that committed by Adam could not occur in the period designated (notwithstanding many analogies: Cain, the Cainites, Ham, Ishmael, Esau). Even the transgression again made manifest by the Mosaic law does not remove the great antagonism by which, in principle, sin and death proceeded from Adam, the type of Christ, the antitype, from whom, in principle, righteousness and life proceded. Meyer supposes the Apostle to say: The death of individuals, which passed also upon those who have not sinned, as Adam did, against a positive commandment, cannot be derived from sin committed before the law, because, the law not being present, the imputation was wanting [absolutely?]; and the conclusion which Paul draws therefrom, is, that it is by Adams sin (not by individual sins) that death has been produced (!). Now, how does this agree with the history of the Deluge, and of Sodom and Gomorrah? Here, definite death is everywhere traced to definite offences. Tholucks view of the connection [p. 238 ff.] is similar to Meyers. The most of the later commentators, on the contrary, properly regard Rom 5:13-14 as an argument for (Rckert, De Wette, Neander, and others; and formerly Diodorus, Calvin, and others). Calov has correctly concluded: Since they were punished because of sin, they must have had some law.68
But sin is not imputed [reckoned, in Rechnung gebracht, ]. (Philem. Rom 5:18 [text. rec.] is the only other place).69 Meyer explains: Is brought to account by God for punishment [wird in Rechnung gebracht, viz., zur Bestrafung]. His citation (Rom 4:15) is sufficient to correct him. It is with the , and the consciousness of it, that the (which is also transgression, according to the measure of the natural conscience) first receives the impressed character of conscious transgression, , and therewith the is first finished by the of the . Therefore even the sin of the generations before the flood was not yet definitely settled by its overthrow (1Pe 3:20; 1Pe 4:6); therefore the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of less sin than the contemporaries of Jesus. The of sin constitutes therefore the reverse side of the ; it does not denote any preliminary attribution, but the final imputation, or settlement.Explanations: Is not imputed, a. By God; (1) Not in general (the Deluge, Sodom and Gomorrah, &c., were exceptions); (2) Not in the usual manner of sin (Bengel: peccatum non notat scelera insignia [qualia Sodomit, ante Mosis tempora luerunt, sed malum commune]); (3) The Arminians: the was only natural evil; (4) Calov., better than all: the word must be understood only hypothetical. The men of the ante-Mosaic period also had a kind of law. b. By man (Ambrose, Augustine, Theodore Mopsvestia, Luther: Sin is not minded, man achtet ihrer nicht). c. Zwingli: By the human judge. Altogether foreign to the context. Hofmann: the proposition laid down refers only to humanity in general, and not to individuals. This is a modification of Schleiermachers representation of penal justice.We must add the remark, that the imputing judge is God, but that, in the imputation, the human knowledge of the in the light of the judgment is to be taken fully into consideration. [Alford explains ., reckoned, set down as transgressionput in formal account, by God. In the case of those who had not the written law, is not formally reckoned as , set over against the command; but, in a certain sense, as distinctly proved, Rom 2:9-16; it is reckoned, and they are condemned for it.P. S.]
When there is no law [ ]. Not: Where the law is not. [So Alford, and those who refer to the Mosaic law exclusively.P. S.] The Apostle appears to lay down the proposition in the form of a general maxim (where there is no accuser, there is no judge) in order to suggest the idea of degrees of legality and imputation (see the explanation of Calov.). Here, too, Meyer would relieve the death of the generations before Moses from being caused by individual sin (see, on the contrary, Psalms 90). We say, with Rom 1:18 ff., that the falling of those generations into sin was, in general, a great judgment of God; but an ethical because [Rom 1:19] always precedes.
Rom 5:14. Nevertheless [notwithstanding the relative non-imputation of sin] death reigned [ , emphatically put first, ]. Death, already personified, appears here as a ruler, and, according to its nature, as a tyrant.70 The universal reign of death implies the universal reign of sin as its cause, in proof of Rom 5:12 (against Meyer and Hofmann). The dominion of death embraces not only physical death with all its historical terrors, but also the consciousness of death, or the sting of death (1Co 15:56), and the consequence of death, the dreary, wretched existence in Sheol.71 [, (until) . = , Rom 5:13. There is no clear difference between and , except that , from , etymologically, denotes primarily extension, or length of time; , from , point of time.P. S.]
Even over those, &c. [ 72 ]. Over those who, unlike Adam, were not guilty of a definite , or transgression of a definite command of God. The may be understood as antithetical to Adam, or better, as making a distinction between sinners in the general sense, and the wicked transgressors of special laws of God, who effect, as it were, new falls of man, such as Cain, Ham, &c. Athanasius explains thus: those who committed no mortal sin; Grotius: no gross sins; Crell, and others: transgressed no law to which the threat of death was attached. But the measure is simply the , as in Rom 4:15. The elder expositors have included here also the children [and idiots] subjected by Adams sin to the pna damni; Brenz makes this the exclusive reference [against which Calvin correctly protests. Children are included, but not specially intended.P. S.] Indirectly, this verse refers definitely to the connection between sin and death in the period from Adam to Moses, as has been also perceived by De Wette, Fritzsche, and Baur, but is opposed in vain by Meyer.
Who is a type of the coming one [i.e., the second Adam, ]. Koppe comes in positive conflict with the context, when he takes as neuter: of that which should come. The first Adam is the type of the second (1Co 15:45), and is the principle of the first eon, as Christ is the principle of the second, but according to the antagonism between the first and second eons. See Meyer, for similar expressions of the Rabbis; e.g., Adamus postremus est Messias. According to Tholuck, the deduction of the antithetical side should now have followed, but Paul was contented with the , &c., in order to indicate the other half. But in our view the antithesis has already preceded (Rom 5:9-11), and is fully elaborated in chap. 68, after the transitional individual antitheses that now follow.
[This important clause points back to Rom 5:12, and indicates the apodosis, the other member of the comparison. , from , to strike, to wound, has a variety of significations which are closely related, and yet may seem in some cases contradictory (comp. the German Abbild, Urbild, Vorbild). It means (1) a blow; (2) a print, or impression, made by a blow (Joh 20:25, ); (3) a form, image, figure (Bild, Abbild; so often in the classics, and in Act 7:43, , ); (4) a pattern, model (Muster, Modell, Urbild; Rom 6:17, ; Act 7:44; Heb 8:5 : in the two last passages, however, is taken by some in the sense of copy; comp. Bleek on Heb 8:5, vol. iii. p. 439 f.); (5) a moral model or example for imitation (Vorbild; 2Th 3:9, ; 1Ti 4:12; Tit 2:7; Php 3:17; 1Pe 5:3); (6) a historical prefiguration (Vorbild), or type in the usual theological sensei.e., a person or thing designed to foreshadow or symbolize a future person or thing which is the (Urbild); so 1Co 10:6; 1Co 10:11, and here. Generally the New Testament antitype is related to the Old Testament type, as the substance is to the shadow, or the original to the copy.73 But Christ corresponds to Adam in the antithetical sense: Adam being the author of death for all, Christ the author of life for all. The prefigurative feature in Adam was his central and universal significance for the whole race, which was fulfilled in a much higher sense and with opposite effect in Christ, the absolute and perfect Man. In 1Co 15:45, Paul likewise contrasts , and , with reference, no doubt, to the Rabbinical theology, in which the Messiah is called , Adamus postremus, in opposition to .74 To this personal contrast corresponds the contrast of two epochs and orders of things, and . The coming one ( ) is not to be referred to the second coming of Christ (Fritzsche, De Wette), but to the first. Paul speaks from the historical standpoint of the first Adam.P. S.]
Second Paragraph (Rom 5:15-19)
Tholuck remarks on the train of thought to Rom 5:19 : In the explanations of the elder expositors there is no attempt to trace the connection and progress of thought to Rom 5:19; many of the later ones doubt altogether the possibility of such a proof. Morus says: De hac dissimilitudine agitur jam per quinque versus ita, ut quinquies idem illud repetatur, variatis quidem verbis, at re manente semper eadem. Kllner and Rckert similarly; against whom, see Rothe. According to Tholuck, the train of thought is as follows: In Rom 5:15, the quantitative more on the side of the operation proceeding from Christ; in Rom 5:16-17, the qualitative more; in Rom 5:18-19, resumption of the parallel, including the differences pointed out. Our construction is given above.
[Rom 5:15-17 occupy an intermediate position between Rom 5:12 and Rom 5:18-19; and as Rom 5:13-14 are explanatory of the reign of death in connection with sin, asserted in Rom 5:12, so Rom 5:15-17 are qualifying, by stating as briefly and tersely as possible the disparity in the parallel between Adam and Christ, in favor of the superabounding grace of Christ. The admirable symmetrical adjustment of parts will appear from the following arrangement of the text in literal translation:
15. But not as the fall ()
so also (is) the grace ():
for if by the fall
of the one man ( )
the many died;
much more
did the grace of God and the gift by the grace
of the one man Jesus Christ
abound unto the many.
16. And not as by one guilty transgression ()75
(so also is) the gift ( ):
for the judgment (issued in, or, came)
from one (full)
unto condemnation (),
but the grace (issued in, came)
from many falls
unto a righteous act ():
17. For if by the fall of the one76
Death reigned
through the one;
much more
will they who receive the abundance
of the grace and the gift of righteousness
reign in life
through the one Jesus Christ.P. S.]
A. The contrast in the effects of the principles made manifest. 1. The natural consequences in relation to persons (Rom 5:15); 2. The positive consequences in relation to the intensity, the essential gradation of the effects (Rom 5:16). Rom 5:15 refers to the opposition of Christian salvation to the ruin in the non-legal period and sphere; Rom 5:16, to its opposition to the ruin in the legal world.
Rom 5:15. But not as the fall (transgression), so also is the gift of grace77 [ , ]. We hold that the Apostle, in his brief and pregnant expressions in Rom 5:15-16, lays down axioms in negative construction. Meyer translates Rom 5:15 : Not as the trespass, so also the gift of grace; and quite unintelligibly Rom 5:16 : And not as by one who sinned is the gift. The is , the . As principles which enter humanity and permeate it, Adam and Christ are alike; but in the nature of their effects they constitute contrasts.Rosenmller, and others, would neutralize the negation by regarding as interrogative; but this, as Meyer remarks, is forbidden by the contrasting character of the contents. We see no reason for taking the , contrary to its most natural signification, as offence; it denotes, with sin, a fall, an ethical defeat; yea, the fall as a medium of the fall, just as the of Christ is not merely , but a medium of the . [, from , to fall, is not a sinful state or condition, but a concrete actual sin, the transgression of the law (), the act of disobedience () by which Adam fell; comp. Rom 5:16; Rom 5:18-19, and Book of Wis 10:1, where it is likewise used of the fall. and mean nearly the same as in this verse, , Rom 5:16, , Rom 5:18, but they emphasize the idea that salvation is of free grace. Forbes ingeniously refers , the Grace which pardons the sinner, antithetically to Death, the penalty of transgression, and , the Gift of righteousness, antithetically to Sin, which it removes and supersedes; the one is mainly the grace that justifies, the other the grace that sanctifies. See his note, p. 243 f.P. S.] Tholuck thinks that we should expect [ would correspond better.P. S.] instead of . But the question here is concerning the natural or historical effects of both principles, while in Rom 5:16 they are presented in their relation to law and right.
For if through the fall of the one the many died [ (mark the definite article, which is overlooked in the E. V.) (the many, i.e., the immense multitude of all the descendants of the one Adam) .P. S.]. The is not hypothetical. There is an oxymoron in the expression: one fell, many died (not only the one). Why , and not , as in Rom 5:12; Rom 5:18? Meyer: The antithesis to the is made more sensible and stronger by marking the totality as multitude; for possunt aliqua esse omnia, qu non sunt multa, Augustine. Grotius wrongly: fere omnes, excepto Enocho, which is contradicted by Rom 5:12; Rom 5:18. [ must be taken in the same comprehensive sense as in Rom 5:12.; see p. 176. It is parallel to , Rom 5:12, and must be explained accordingly; see p. 177.P. S.]
Much more. Is the expression of a logical plus,
that is, of an inference ([Chrysostom, ] Theodoret, Philippi [Fritzsche, Hodge, Stuart], and others), or of a real plus, a comparison (Calvin [Bengel78], Rothe [Alford: much more abundant], &c.). [In other words, does express a stronger degree of evidence, as an argumentum a minore ad majus (here a pejori ad melius), as it certainly does Rom 5:9-10, or a higher degree of efficacy?P. S.] Meyer: This latter is contrary to Rom 5:17. This is so far right as death, viewed absolutely, is an absolute negation, and a real plus [a higher degree of abundance] is comprised already in . But the logical plus involves also a real plus. [So also Tholuck.] It rests on the following antitheses: 1. The introduced here without name, and opposite to him, and ; 2. , and the opposite ; 3. , in opposition to the simple fact, . The is the source and spirit of the universal and personal charisma, which is Christ himself; the , &c, is its form and appearance, the positive gift of Divine adoption, with the Divine inheritance, in the pardon of sin. Both must not be resolved into an (Rosenmller, and others). According to Rothe, Tholuck, and others, must be connected with ; according to De Wette and Meyer, stands absolutely, and , &c., belongs to , on account of the antithesis to . But in that case the article should be expected before . Besides, forms the idea of . The aorist indicates an event which had already taken place.
Rom 5:16. And not as by one transgression [ , which Lange renders Verschuldung, transgression accompanied with guilt.P. S.]. We must first of all substitute the reading of the Codd. D. E. F. G., and of the Itala [Vulg.: Et non sicut per unum peccatum] for [by one that transgressed], although the latter has better authority.79 The reason lies in the text; Rom 5:16 contains only definitions of things, not persons. The opposite of is ; besides, we have , , , , and . Tholuck observes: Those Codd. present frequently a corrupted text, one conformed to the Latin translation; and as is not even sufficiently attested by external authorities, it must give way to the more difficult reading. But, at first appearance, was the easier reading, for it was supposed that in every antithesis Adam himself must have been mentioned again. Meyer explains: And not by one that sinned () so is the gift; that is, it is not so as if it would be caused .80 Tholuck: The gift has another character than that which came by the one who sinned. These explanations are no recommendation to the reading . For, first, the thought that the may have come by one that sinned himself, is far-fetched and unnatural. Second, the antithesis between the effects of the two principles is obliterated. Those who adopt the reading , propose different supplements: Grotius, and others, [after .]; Bengel [Webster and Wilkinson, Stuart, Hodge], and others, ; Reiche, after Theophylact, ; Fritzsche, and others, ; Beza, and others [after ], (De Wette: and not like that which resulted from one who sinned, is the gift).81 Rothe, Tholuck, and Meyer, supply merely [after ]; Philippi, [after ., and after .P. S.]. This [which? , or ?P. S.] is sufficient with , which means more than , and expresses the idea of guilt Verschuldung) in connection with sin (see Mar 3:28; Luk 4:12, &c.).
For the judgment (passes) from one (transgression) to condemnation [ . Lange supplies, from the preceding clause, after , and translates it, in both cases, Verschuldung.P. S.] Here, too, the verb is wanting. Meyer supplies , or resulted; De Wette, turned out. But the verb is indicated by the ; requires the idea of progress, development. (For the antithesis, Rothe has attempted to substitute an untenable division, , ). The might mean judgment in general (Meyer),82 if it did not refer to , by which it becomes judgment to punishment. Explanations: reatus (Beza, Cocceius); the threatened punishment, Gen 2:17 (Fritzsche, Tholuck); the sentence of punishment pronounced on Adam and his posterity, Gen 3:19 (Reiche, Baumgarten-Crusius [Rckert, De Wette], and others).From one (transgression). We simply supply the foregoing , and translate the incurring of guilt, because the deed is connected with its consequence, and the word is connected with the idea of guilt. is taken by Meyer as masculine.To condemnation [ ]. Explanations of the antithesis , : 1. Fritzsche: The threat of punishment, Genesis 2, and the sentence of punishment, Genesis 3; similarly Tholuck. Reiche: the sentence of punishment pronounced on Adam, and that on his posterity. 2. Rckert: the Divine sentence and its result, death, was declared against the one who had sinned; but from him the sentence has extended to all. Plainly, the , as the principle of judgment, proceeds from the one of Adam, and passes through gradations of judgment to the , which is completed ideally as the sentence of fitness for condemnation by the appearance of the gospel, and will be actually completed as real judgment to condemnation at the end of the world. Yet the antithesis here does not pass beyond the ideal judgment to condemnation. The antithesis of the one Adam and of the whole race, which Baumgarten-Crusius finds here, is only presumed; the numerical antithesis, rather, in this passage is , . It must be borne in mind that the expression is much stronger than , and denotes the gradations of the one fall by many new apostasies (see the Second Commandment).
But the gift of grace (passes) from many falls (lapses) unto the good of justification [ , which Lange translates: das Gnadengut aber geht von vielen Sndenfllen aus fort bis zum Rechtfertigungsgut; or, in the Exeg. Notes, Rechtfertigungsmittel.P. S.]. The personal charisma is Christ himself (see Rom 5:15), the source of all special gifts of grace (see Tit 2:11).From many falls, or lapses (Sndenfllen). Caused by them. As the of Adam has become the universal of humanity, so has the , of Christ grown to be the universal and absolute . As Christ, as the Risen One, has come forth , so has He, as the Just One, the personal , come forth from the place of the . It was thus with the advent of Christ on earth; but the finished was the same crucifixion by which He was perfected as . The usual explanations rest mostly on a misconception. Meyer: Since God declared sinners righteous. Augustine: Quia non solum illud unum solvit, quod originaliter trahitur, sed etiam qu in uno quoque homine motu propri voluntatis adduntur. Better De Wette [and Alford]: The gift of grace became, by occasion of many transgressions, justification. Philippi: From out of many lapses. The is neither the condition of righteousness (that would be ; Luther, Tholuck, and others), nor the declaration of God by which He executes the (Meyer), but, according to Rckert and [Adelbert] Maier, the means or medium of justification (Rechtfertigungsmittel), which is in harmony with the form of the word. Meyer asks for the empirical proof; it lies right before us: Were the real justification of mankind, would be its real condemnation, and that would be a contradiction. Comp. also Rom 5:18, where the is the presupposition of the . (The explanation of Rothe, after Calvin: legal compensation in the sense of satisfactio is partly too general, and partly impinges very much on ). An elaborate discussion see in Tholuck, p. 258.
[, in Hellenistic usage, means usually statutum, ordinance, a righteous decree, or righteous judgment (Rechtsspruch, Rechtsbestimmung); comp. Rom 1:32; Rom 2:26; Rom 8:4; Luk 1:6; Heb 9:1; Heb 9:10; Rev 15:4; or also. (as in classical usage) a righteous act, a just deed, as Rev 19:8 ( ); Bar 2:19 ( ); comp. the Hebrew as distinct from in Pro 8:20, where both are translated in the Septuagint, while the Vulgate distinguishes them as judicium and justitia. I see no good reason for departing from this meaning. It is either, in opposition to , the righteous decree which God declared on account of the perfect obedience of Christ; or it is, as Rom 5:18, in opposition to , the righteous act of Christ as the objective basis (or, as Lange has it, the means) of our . Tholuck, after a full discussion of the various interpretations, favors (p. 261) the translation, Rechtfertigungsthat, actio justificativa, which would difer from , justificatio, as the accomplished fact differs from the process. Wordsworth explains it here, and in Rom 5:18, to mean a state of acceptance as righteous by God, a recognized condition of approval; but this is without any authority. The Latin Vulgate (justificatio, Rom 5:16, but justitia, Rom 5:18), the E.V., and even De Wette, Olshausen, Robinson (sub , No. 3), Stuart, Alford, and Hodge, take in Rom 5:16 as equivalent to .. (Alford: As is a sentence of condemnation, so will be a sentence of acquittal. This, in fact, amounts to justification. Hodge: It means justification, which is a righteous judgment, or decision of a judge, pronouncing one to be just.) Rothe (p. 103) calls this interpretation a piece of exegetical levity; and it is evident that, in Rom 5:18, is distinguished from . He goes back (with Pareus, J. Gerhard, Calov, Wolf, B. Carpzov) to classical usage, quoting a passage from Aristotle (Eth. Nicom. v. 10), who defines to be , the amendment of an evil deed.83 Rothe consequently translates it, full satisfaction of justice, legal adjustment (Rechtserfllung, Rechtsgutmachung, Rechtsausgleichung). This meaning suits admirably here, and in Rom 5:18 (where, however, the word is opposed to , not, as in Rom 5:16, to ), and does not materially differ from the explanation of Lange. In Rom 5:18, , being the opposite of , and essentially equivalent to , in Rom 5:19, must denote the righteous deed, i.e., the perfect obedience of Christ, and is so understood by Calvin, Este, Grotius, and Bengel. As it is not likely that the same word should be used in one breath in two different senses, it is safe to explain in Rom 5:16 from its more obvious meaning in Rom 5:18. I prefer this (with Lange) to the other alternative chosen by Meyer (Rechtfertigungsspruch), Ewald (Gerechtsspruch), Van Hengel, Umbreit, who give it in both verses the meaning, righteous decree. I quote, in addition, the excellent note of Bengel on in Rom 5:18, which throws light on its meaning in Rom 5:16 : est quasi materia (justificationi) substrata, obedientia, justitia prstita. Justificamentum liceat appellare, ut denotat firmamentum, vestimentum, additamentum, inquinamentum, munimentum, purgamentum, ramentum, tegumentum, firmamentum, calceamentum, sentimentum, Gall. sentiment. Aristot. l. v. Eth. c. 10 opposita statuit et , atque hoc describit , id quod tantundem est atque Satisfactio, vocabulum Socinianis immerito invisum. Exquisitam verborum proprietatem schematismus exhibit:
A.
B.
C.
D.
Rom 5:16.
,
,
A.
B.
C.
D.
Rom 5:18.
,
,
.
In utroque versu A et B , itemque C et D, sed A et C, , itemque B et D. Versu 16 describitur negotium ex parte Dei: Rom 5:18 describitur ex parte Adami et Christi: idque in conomia peccati minore verborum varietate, quam in conomia grati. est declaratio divina illa, qua peccator, mortis reus, vit adjudicatur, idque jure.P. S.]
B. The contrast of potential, prospective effects.
1. The contrast between the enslavement and negation of all personal life by personified death, and of the future glory of pardoned persons in the new life (Rom 5:17).
2. The contrast in all its ideal magnitude: owing to the power of the fall of one, judgment and condemnation came upon all men; all men can attain to justification of life (that is, not merely of faith) by the justifying righteousness of one (Rom 5:18).
Rom 5:17. For if by one mans fall, &c. [ , …]. This verse (which Rothe has improperly treated as a parenthesis,84 and which Er. Schmid has even conceived to be the contradiction of an opponent) is, in form, first of all a proof of the and in Rom 5:16; but it develops the consequence of the , as of the , to a new and glorious contrast. Here, now, the personal element in Rom 5:15 is united with the material one in Rom 5:16; yet the personal predominates. From one proceeded, through one offence, the tendency toward destruction; death tyrannized over and defaced the personal life, and threatened to extinguish it; but much more shall believers become by the one Christ, on the ground of the , the , the ruling, royal personalities in eternal life. The point of the antithesis is therefore and . The is also here a logical conclusion, which involves the higher degree of real power, as brought out in the antitheses: , and the opposite ; to which is yet added the in contrast with the bondage of the former slaves of death (Heb 2:14); then again, the nameless and the one Jesus Christ; and finally, to a certain extent, and . Meyer well remarks: Bear in mind that Paul does not say in the paradosis, in conformity with the protasis: , but, in harmony with the matter in question, and corresponding to the active nature of the relation, he places the subjects in the active first. This is the chief point just here. (Menochius: suavius et gloriosus sonat.) Tholuck: To be ruled, is a bound and passive condition, while, on the other hand, the quality of free movement lies in life. The eschatological idea of a ruling in the finished kingdom of God, was brought over by Christ in a more profound sense from Judaism (Mat 19:28; Luk 22:29). Paul has especially appropriated it (1Co 4:8; 1Co 6:2; 2Ti 2:12). Tholuck questions the right to make prominent, according to Thomas Aquinas, Grotius, Stier, and others, the element of subjective spontaneousness, here, where the whole weight falls on the Divine work of grace. But the Apostle speaks of the self-active appropriation of the work of grace in the life of believers.
Rom 5:18. Therefore, as through the fall of one, &c. [Better: through one fall ( in the neuter), , ].85 This verse is, as Meyer and others remark, a resumption of the preceding contrasts compressed in one sentence ( , Theodore of Mopsvestia). But we must not overlook the new contrast brought out here. (On the use of , see Meyer.)86 As far as the verb that is wanting is concerned, De Wette remarks: It is usual to supply here (likewise Rckert and Fritzsche), in the first member, , and in the second, ; but better, something indefinite, as (thus Meyer and Tholuck); Winer, . We call up the pregnant expressions in Rom 2:28-29, and repeat accordingly after , and after . is sufficiently contained in . The contrast in that case is simply this: The fall of one man came ideally and dynamically as a fall upon all men unto condemnation; that is, by the common fall, all men would, without redemption, be subject to condemnation; on the other hand, the of one came ideally and dynamically as upon all men unto justification of life in the last judgment; that is, the of Christ is sufficiently powerful to justify and perfect all men. Meyer [with Rothe, Ewald, Alford, Wordsworth.P. S.] construes here both times as neuter (one trespass, one sentence of justification), which Tholuck has properly rejected. The Greek writers, Theodoret and Theophylact [as also Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, E. V., Bengel, Fritzsche, Philippi, Hodge.P. S.], have taken it as masculine.87 Here, as in Rom 5:16, Meyer makes the to mean judgment of justification (Rechtfertigungsspruch), and rejects the translations: fulfilment of the right (Rechtserfllung, Rothe and Philippi); deed of justification (Rechtfertigungsthat, Tholuck); virtuousness (Tugendhaftigkeit, Baumgarten-Crusius); obedience (Gehorsam, De Wette); the recte factum of Christ (Fritzsche). It is simply the same everywhere. If it be said that Christ is our righteousness, it is the same as saying that Christ is the personal medium of our justification. [Comp. the remarks on p. 184 f.P. S.] The future supplied by Winer and Philippi in the apodosis, is sufficiently implied in . We hold that the Apostle here means the final , justification, which, in the general judgment, constitutes the antithesis of the , condemnation. The is offered to all men, and the is its purpose; but the realization of the purpose takes place merely according to the measure of faith. The Roman Catholic expositors assert that justification of faith itself is denoted here as justification of life [i.e., progressive justification = sanctification.P. S.] According to Calvin, and others, it is the justification whose result is life. Tholuck: The with the effect of the future completion of life. Augustine likewise. Thomas Aquinas describes correctly the ideal universality of the : Quamvis possit dici, quod justificatio Christi transit in justificationem omnium, ad sufficientiam, licet quantum ad efficientiam procedit in solos fideles.
[ are, in both clauses, all men without exception, as in Rom 5:12; but this does not justify a Universalist inference, for Paul speaks of the objective sufficiency and intention of Christs , not of its subjective application to individuals, which depends upon the of faith, as intimated in Rom 5:17. The distinction drawn by Hofmann and Lechler between , all men without distinction, and , all, without exception, lacks proof (Meyer calls it, rein erdichtet). More of this in Rom 5:19.P. S.]
C. The Contrast of the Final Effects.
Rom 5:19. For as through the disobedience of the one man, &c. [ , , …. According to Meyer, Rom 5:19 furnishes only a grand and conclusive elucidation of Rom 5:18 (). Tholuck likewise, in harmony with Calvin. But this contrast denotes the final antithesis of the judgment and of justification as made manifest by the gospel (see Rom 2:16). The sense is: As, in consequence of the disobedience of the one man Adam, the many (as many as there are) have been presented in the light of the gospel as sinners subject to condemnation, so, in consequence of the obedience of the one man Christ, shall the many (as many as believe) be presented in the same light as just. It is self-evident that the effect of the gospel is included in the second clause; but from Rom 5:20-21 we must infer that it is presumed also in the first clause. It is only through the gospel that this ideal general judgment is brought to pass, by which all men are presented and exposed as condemned sinners in consequence of their connection with the sin of Adam (see Joh 16:8-9; comp. Psa 51:5-6). We are authorized by the language in maintaining that possesses here the full idea of setting down, exhibiting, making to appear as what one is. [See below.]
[Through the disobedience of the one man, . The trespass, or fall, of Adam, , is here definitely described as an act of disobedience, which is the mother of sin, as obedience to the Divine will is the mother of virtue; for disobedience is essentially selfishness in actual exercise, the rebellion of the human will against the Divine, the false self-assertion or independence in opposition to God, to whom we owe life and all, and whose service is true freedom.P. S.]88
The many were constituted sinners [ ].89 Meyer: According to Rom 5:12, they were, through Adams disobedience, actually placed in the category of sinners, because they sinned in and with Adams fall. This is Augustinian dogmatics, but no exegesis warranted by the context. [? see below.P. S.] Tholuck: Were made, became. In this sense, according to his account, certain commentators have found the imputatio forensis expressed; others, a real becoming, in which the element of spontaneity is included. On the further complications which have arisen between Romish and Protestant commentators on the supposition of really becoming, see Tholuck, p. 268. The of Adam himself has certainly set forth the many as sinners, but only because it has come into the light of the law, and finally of the gospel, and so far as it has now become clear: 1. As an ethico-physical causality, but not as a purely physical fatality; 2. So far as the offence of Adam has become the clear type of the sinfulness and sin of every man; 3. So far as the judgment of the finished revelation comprehends the many as in one.
So by the obedience of one shall the many be made (constituted) righteous [ ]. That is, not merely by the death [the passive obedience] of Christ, but also by the [active] obedience of His whole life, which was finished in His death.90 But why the future? Meyer: It relates (corresponding to ) to the future revelation of glory after the resurrection (Reiche, Fritzsche, Hofmann). Tholuck also, together with Abelard, Cocceius, and others, refers the future to the final judgment. But the setting forth of believers as righteous extends from the beginning of the preaching of the gospel through all subsequent time. Beza properly observes, that the future denotes the continua vis justificandi; and Grotius, Calov., Rckert, De Wette, and Philippi, regard it similarly as a prsens futuribile. Tholuck objects: Is not objective justification a single act? Certainly, but only for individuals; but in the kingdom of God these acts are repeated through all the future to the end of the world.
[The interpretation of (passive Aor. I.) and has been much embarrassed and obscured by preconceived dogmatic theories. (also and ) means: (1) to set down, to place (this would give good sense here: to be set down in the rank of sinners; but see below); (2) to appoint, to elect (this is inapplicable here, as it would make God directly the author of sin); (3) to constitute, to cause to be, to make (reddere aliquem aliquid); hence the passive: to be rendered, to become; (4) to conduct, to accompany on a journey (only once in the New Testament). Reiche has spent much learning to establish a fifth meaning: to show, to exhibit; but this is somewhat doubtful. The verb occurs twenty-two times in the New Testament, three times only in Paul (twice here, and once in Tit 1:5). In sixteen of these cases (including Tit 1:5) it clearly refers to official appointment; in one it means, to accompany (Act 17:15); in the remaining, five, viz., Rom 5:19 (twice); Jam 3:6; Jam 4:4; 2Pe 1:8, it is, to constitute, to render. So it is taken in this verse by nearly all the recent commentators.91 But in what sense? Figuratively, or really? Chrysostom, and the Greek commentators who did not believe in original sin, started the figurative or metonymic interpretation, which was subsequently more fully developed by the Arminians and Socinians (Grotius, Limborch, Wetstein, Socinus, Crell), and advocated also by Storr and Flatt, of the school of the older Germansupernaturalism, namely, that means: they were only apparently made sinners, or accounted, regarded, and treated as sinnersi.e., exposed to the punishment of sin, without actually being sinners.92 The same view has been strenuously advocated even by so sound and orthodox a commentator as Dr. Hodge, but from the very opposite doctrinal standpoint, and in the interest of immediate forensic imputationism. He takes , like , Rom 5:12, in a purely legal and forensic sense: they were regarded as sinners independently of, and antecedently to, their being sinners, simply on the ground of the sin of Adam, their federal representative; as, on the other hand, they are regarded as righteous solely on the ground of Christs righteousness, without any personal righteousness of their own.93 This interpretation, though less artificial than the corresponding passive rendering of , Rom 5:12, is not supported by a single passage of the New Testament where occurs, and conflicts with the connection. For Rom 5:19 gives the reason () for the statement in Rom 5:18, why judgment came upon all men to condemnation, and it would be sheer tautology to say: they were condemned because they were regarded and treated as sinners. The phrase, then, can be taken only in the real sense, like in Rom 5:12. It means: they were made sinners either by virtual participation in the fall of Adam, or by actual practice, by repeating, as it were, the fall of Adam in their sinful conduct. Both interpretations are perfectly grammatical, and do not exclude each other. Even if the verb under consideration, in the passive, could be made out to mean: to be exhibited, to appear ( = , see Wetstein, Reiche, Fritzsche), it always presupposes actual being: they were made to appear in their true character as sinners, or what they really were.94 Comp. Lange above.95 This is very different from: they were regarded and treated as sinners, without being such. The metonymic interpretation confounds the effect with the cause, or reverses the proper order that death follows sin. We are regarded and treated as sinners because we are sinners in fact and by practice. So, on the other hand, is more than the declaratory , and means, that by Christs merits we shall be actually made righteous, and appear as such before His judgment seat. It denotes the righteousness of life, as a consequence of justification by faith (comp. , Rom 5:18). Luther says: Wie Adams Snde unsere eigene geworden ist, also auch Christi Gerechtigkeit; as Adams sin has become our own, so also Christs righteousness. Calvin correctly translates: peccatores constituti sunt, justi constituentur, and remarks in loc.: Unde sequitur, justiti qualitatem esse in Christo: sed nobis acceptum ferri, quod illi proprium est. David Pareus, one of the ablest among the older Reformed commentators, explains .: multo plus est, quam justificabuntur. Nam justificari est a condemnation absolvi justitia imputata; justum constitui est etiam justitia habituali sanctificari, hoc est, simul justificationis et sanctificationis beneficium complectitur. Bengel in loc.: Apostolus talem justorum constitutionem videtur prdicare, qu justificationis actum subsequatur, et verbo inveniri includitur (Php 3:9; coll. Gal 2:17); i.e., the Apostle seems to set forth such a constituting of men as righteous, as may follow upon the act of justification, and as is included in the expression, being found. Alford: be made righteous, not by imputation merely, any more than in the other case; but, shall be made really and actually righteous, as completely so as the others were made really and actually sinners. When we say that man has no righteousness of his own, we speak of him as out of Christ: but in Christ, and united to Him, he is made righteous, not by a fiction or imputation only of Christs righteousness, but by a real and living spiritual union with a righteous head, as a righteous member, righteous by means of, as an effect of, the righteousness of that head, but not merely righteous by transference of the righteousness of that head; just as, in his natural state, he is united to a sinful head as a sinful member, sinful by means of, as an effect of, the sinfulness of that head, but not merely by transference of the sinfulness of that head.P. S.]
On the question raised by Tholuck, and others, whether this passage does not lead to the doctrine of the , see Doct. and Ethical, No. 12.
[The inference of a universal salvation from this verse, as also from Rom 5:15 ( ) and 18 ( ), is very plausible on the surface, and might be made quite strong if this section could be isolated from the rest of Pauls teaching on the terms of salvation. The same difficulty is presented in 1Co 15:22 : As in Adam all die (), so in Christ shall all be made alive ( ). It has been urged by some that the apocatastasis is implied partly in the indicative future, and , but especially in the fact that, as , all, and , the many,96 are confessedly unlimited in the first clause, we have no right to limit them in the second clause. (The advocates of eternal punishment forcibly derive the same argument for their doctrine from the double , Mat 25:46). The popular explanation that and means, in one case, Adams natural seed ( ), in the other, Christs spiritual seed (i.e., ), though true as to practical result, fails to do justice to the superabundance of Gods grace over mans sin. Paul unquestionably teaches emphatically the universal sufficiency of the gospel salvation, without any restrictions which might break the force of the parallel between Adam and Christ.97 All men are capable of salvation, or salvable (erlsbar), which must by all means be maintained against Manichism and fatalism. If any are ultimately lost, it is not from metaphysical or constitutional inability, nor from any defect in Christs atonement, which is of infinite value in itself, and was made for the sins of the whole world (1Jn 2:2), nor from any unwillingness on the part of God, who, according to His benevolent purpose, will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth (1Ti 2:4; comp. Rom 4:10; 2Pe 3:9). But we must make a distinction between the objective sufficiency and the subjective efficacy of Christs atonement, between the possibility and the actuality of a universal salvation. All men may be saved, since abundant provision has been made to that end, and under this view we must approach even the worst sinner; but which, and how many, will be saved, is a question of the future which God only knows. From the great stress which Paul lays in this passage on the superabundance of grace which greatly exceeds the evils of the fall, we have a right to infer that by far the greater part of the race will ultimately be saved, especially if we take into consideration that the half of mankind die in infancy before having committed actual transgression, and that, in the days of millennial glory, the knowledge of Christ will cover the earth. It is a truly liberal and noble sentiment of Dr. Hodge when he says (p. 279): We have reason to believe that the lost shall bear to the saved no greater proportion than the inmates of a prison do to the mass of the community. But from all our present observation, as well as from the word of God (comp. Mat 7:13-14), we know that many, very manyyea, the vast majority of adults even in Christian landswalk on the broad path to perdition, although they may yet be rescued in the last moment. Paul himself speaks of the everlasting punishment of those who obey not the gospel of Christ (2Th 1:9), and teaches a resurrection of the unjust as well as of the just (Act 24:15). We know, moreover, that none can be saved except by faith, which is Gods own express condition. For salvation is a moral, not a mechanical process, and requires the free assent of our will. Now Paul everywhere presents faith as the subjective condition of justification; and in Rom 5:17 he expressly says, that those who receive () the abundance of the grace and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by the one, Jesus Christ. He contrasts the whole generation of Adam and the whole generation of Christ, and, as the one die in consequence of their participation in Adams sin, so the other shall be made alive by virtue and on condition of their union with Christs righteousness. In Gal 3:22 he states the case beyond the possibility of mistake: The Scripture hath concluded all ( ) under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe ( ).Universalism must assume a second probation after death even for those who lived in Christian lands, with every opportunity of saving their soul. But such an assumption is contrary to Gal 6:7-8, and the whole practical tenor of the Bible, and is in itself untenable and illusive. A new trial, instead of improving, would greatly lessen the chance of building up a good character. For as it is impossible, without a new creation, to return to the mothers womb and live the old life over again, the second trial would have to commence where the first left offthat is, with a dismal outfit of neglected opportunities, broken vows, sad reminiscences, abused faculties, bad habits, and in the corrupting company of moral bankrupts, with every prospect of a worse failure and a more certain ruin. God wisely and mercifully gave to men but one state of probation, and those who improved it best, would shrink most from running the risk of a second.P. S.]
Third Paragraph (Rom 5:20-21)
How the law is designed to bring about directly this process of the development of sin, in order also to bring about indirectly the revelation of grace.
Rom 5:20. But the law. [ , … The Mosaic law is meant, though the article is wanting, as is often the case where there can be no mistake.P. S.] The Apostle now cannot avoid to state the relation of the law or of Moses to this antithesisAdam and Christespecially since he had already intimated this relation in Rom 5:13. Grotius thought the following discussion induced by an objection. But chaps. vi. and vii. show that Paul could not avoid to answer this question.Came in between [zwischenein, parenthetically, as it were] . Not besides, thereto (Meyer);98 nor subintravit (Vulg.);99 nor incidentally, subordinately (nebenschlich, Rothe,100 Tholuck [Reiche, Philippi], and others [contrary to the pedagogic mission of the law; Rom 3:20; Gal 4:24]). The coming to, in addition to, lies in the ; the coming into, in the . Therefore, properly to enter between, to come between [Adam and Christ] (Theodoret, Calvin, Luther [Estius,101 Grotius, Usteri, Ewald], &c.), which Meyer opposes without warrant. The reference to the position of Moses between Adam and Christ may, indeed, be only an intimation; but to say that sin merely supervened in addition to sin (Beza, De Wette, &c.), is not satisfactory, because the question in the foregoing is not concerning sin alone, but the antithesis of sin and grace. Tholuck concludes incorrectly from this consideration, that the law is characterized as an incidental factor. The law incidental? (Chrysostom [Theophylact, Cornelius a Lapide, without any foundation], have understood as denoting obiter, ad tempus). The Apostle has evidently the idea of an ethico-chemical process. The law had to enter into the process of the development of sin, in order to force it to a crisis. [Olshausen: Paul regards the law as a salutary medicine, which forces the disease that rages in the inward, nobler parts, to the surface. So also De Wette and Rothe.P. S.]
That the fall might multiply [ ; Lange: damit der Sndenfall vlliger werde (erscheine); Alford: in order that the trespass might multiply. The Apostle uses here (not , nor ), because the law does not aim to multiply sin as such, but to make it appear and to reveal it to the conscience as a i.e., a transgression of the positive will of God; comp. Rom 3:20; Rom 4:15; Rom 7:7; and Rothe, p. 167.P. S.]. The boldness of this thought has troubled the commentators. It is indeed not satisfactory to alleviate it by supposing that the law is intended merely to enhance the knowledge of sin (Grotius, Baur, and others); but this is one important element of its mission (see chap. vii.), and must not be rejected, with Meyer, as false. To explain of the consequence or result (merely , with Chrysostom [ , ; Estius: non finalem causam denotat, sed eventum.P. S.], Koppe, Reiche [Stuart, Barnes]), is likewise unsatisfactory; yet the Apostle has certainly inferred from the result the design and intention in the .102 Gal 3:19 does not serve as an elucidation of this passage, as Meyer would have it; and Rom 7:14 proves that, by the law, the knowledge of sin comes; while 1Ti 1:9 shows that the law constitutes a weapon against the ungodly. Reiche has called the telic construction blasphemous; in reply to which, comp. Meyer [p. 224]. He properly remarks, that sin had to reach its culminating point, where it will be outdone by grace. Only this culminating point should not be merely objective, but subjective also, in accordance with the sentence quoted from Augustine, on Psalms 102.: Non crudeliter hoc fecit Deus, sed consilio medicin; augetur morbus, crescit malitia, quritur medicus et totum sanatur. It is a fact both that the misunderstood law, according to Gods decree, induced the crucifixion of Christthe climax of the worlds guiltand that the same law, well understood, prepared the way for the saving faith of the New Testament. For this reason there is truth in Rothes explanation: All sin should ever stand out more complete under the form of the . Tholuck also takes ground with Olshausen, De Wette, and Neander, in favor of the telic rendering. Reasons: 1. Nitimur in vetitum; 2. Thomas: When the passions dare not manifest themselves, they become more intense. Does this apply here? Sin, even in the form of anti-Christianity, undoubtedly becomes, more intense in opposition to the gospel, but still this is mostly ecbatic consequence; 3. Luther: The accusing and condemning law awakens enmity to God. For this reason, Judaism, like all fanaticism, is angry at God. It is a prime consideration that here the law is specifically understood as the law of the letter, as designed to finish, both objectively and subjectively, the sinful process of the old world. Therefore the second in Rom 5:21, as Tholuck well remarks, takes the sting from the first. [In other words, the first indicates the mediate, the second the ultimate end and purpose.P. S.] Philippi understands by merely the . of Adam inhering in sinners. But it denotes here rather the completion of the fall of humanity itself.
But where sin multiplied [ ]. Where it was completed, came to full revelation. It is very strange that Rothe regards the head of the whole deduction from to as parenthetical. () is not temporal (Grotius [De Wette, Fritzsche, Stlting]), but spacial (Meyer, Tholuck)perhaps both; time being considered as an expansion[Grace exceedingly abounded (not, much more, E. V.), ]. [supra modum redundavit] is superlative [not comparative; comp. , , , ]; (2Co 7:4 [the same verb]; 1Ti 1:14; Mar 7:37; 2Th 1:3).
Rom 5:21. That, as sin reigned in [not unto, E. V.; Lange, mittelst, by means of] death [, . The second indicates the more remote and ultimate purpose of the coming in of the law, as the first , Rom 5:20, denotes its nearer and mediate aim and effect; the increase of sin served merely as a means for the triumphant and eternal reign of grace. Hodge: The design of God in permitting sin, and in allowing it to abound, was to bring good out of evil; to make it the occasion of the most wonderful display of His glory and grace, so that the benefits of redemption should infinitely transcend the evils of the apostasy.P. S.] As sin wrought death, so again did death work sin (see Heb 2:14). But here the priority in the is ascribed to sin. It reigned [aor., the historic past]. It reigns no more. before is not a substitute for (Beza, and others). Meyer opposes also the explanation: by death (Tholuck, Philippi). Death denotes the sphere of the dominion of sin. But death is also the medium of the reign of sin; see the antithesis, .
So also grace may reign, &c. [ , …] The law would thus bring to pass the dominion of grace; and it now reigns in reality. The material medium is righteousness unto (leading to) life eternal; the personal medium is Jesus Christ our Lord; and both are identical. The ., and not the , is named as the medium of the dominion of grace, because the is the goal. The righteousness of faith and the righteousness of life are comprised here in the idea of the . ( is aorist, not future. Meyer against Reiche, see Col 3:4.)
[The last word in this section is, Jesus Christ our Lord, the one glorious solution of the Adamic fall and the dark problem of sin. Adam disappears, and Christ alone remains master of the field of battle, having slain the tyrants, Sin and Death. Forbes concludes his notes on Rom 5:12-21 with the exclamation (p. 257): Who can rise from the study and contemplation of this wondrous passage, full of such profound views and pregnant meanings, with all its variously complicated yet beautifully discriminated relations and interlacements of members and thoughts, without an overpowering admiration and irresistible conviction of the superhuman wisdom that must have dictated its minutest details!P. S.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
[Literature on the Doctrinal Questions involved in Rom 5:12-21.The authoritative Creed statements on anthropology and hamartiology from the Synod of Orange, A. D. 529 (comp. my Church Hist., vol. 3. pp. 866 ff.) to the Westminster Assembly, 1643. To these may be added two quasi-creeds of sectional and temporary authority, drawn up in the interest of immediate imputationism, viz., the decree of the French Reformed Synod of Charenton, 1645 (Decretum Synodi nationalis Ecclesiarum Reformatarum Galli A. D. 1645 de imputatione primi peccati omnibus Adami posteris, cum ecclesiarum et doctorum protestantium consensu, ex scriptis eorum ab Andrea Riveto collecto, in the Opera Theol. of A. Rivet, Roterod. 1660, tom. 3. pp. 798827); and the Formula consensus Helvetica, 1675 (in Niemeyers Collectio Confess. Reform., pp. 720739). Comp., in part, Winers Comparative Symbolik, pp. 53 ff., where the principal passages from the symbolical books are collected.The numerous works of Augustine against Pelagius and Julian of Eclanum. Anselm, De conceptu virginali et orig. peccato. Rivet, Theses theologic de peccato originis (Opera, tom. 3. pp. 804 sqq.) President Edwards, On Original Sin (Works, vol. 2:303583.) Jul. Mller, The Christian Doctrine of Sin (the most exhaustive work on the subject, now accessible also to the English reader in an intelligible translation, from the 5th German edition, by Rev. W. Urwick, Edinb., 1868). Ebrard, Christl. Dogmatik (1851), 1. pp. 511 ff.; Kirchen- und Dogmen-Geschichte (1866), 2:504 ff., 538 ff. Heppe, Dogmatik der evang. reform. Kinche aus den Quellen (1861), pp. 204 ff. Chs. Hodge (Princeton). Theol. Essays, New York, 1846, Nos. 6.8., on Imputation, pp. 128 ff.; in Princeton Rev. for April, 1860, pp. 335 ff., and revised edition of Romans (1864), pp. 279284. Archibald Alex. Hodge (Alleghany), Outlines of Theology, New York, 1860, chap. xvi., pp. 230246. R. W. Landis, several articles in the Danville Review, from Sept. 1861 to Dec. 1862. Shedd, History of Christian Doctrine (1863), 2:152 ff. (and essay on Original Sin, in his Discourses and Essays, pp. 218271). Sam. J. Baird, The First Adam and the Second. The Elohim Revealed in the Creation and Redemption of Man, Philad., 1860, pp. 1150, 305 ff., 410 ff., 474 ff. G. P. Fisher, The Augustinian and the Federal Theories of Original Sin compared, in the New Englander for 1868, pp. 468 ff.P. S.]
1. On the internal connection of the section, as well as its organic relations to what precedes and follows, compare the inscription and the introductory foundation of the Exeg. Notes.
[2. Historical Statements on the different Theories of Original Sin and Imputation.The Apostle clearly teaches, and our religious experience daily confirms, the fact of the universal dominion of sin and death over the human race, which dominion goes back in unbroken line to our first parents; as, on the other hand, the power and principle of righteousness and life go back to Jesus Christ, the second Adam. Sin existed before Christianity, as disease existed before the science and art of healing; and, however explained, the stubborn, terrible fact remains. It is all-important, as we stated in the introductory remarks, to distinguish clearly between the fact itself and the different modes of explanation, or between the primitive truths of the Bible and the after-thoughts of human philosophy and theology. Here lies the reason why Christian men, holding very divergent views on the why and wherefore, or the rationale of Scripture truths, may yet in their inmost heart and religious experience be agreed. The commentators have so far dwelt mainly on the negative clause of Pauls parallelism, viz., the propagation of sin and death from Adam; but he lays the chief stress upon the positive clause, the antitype, and the life-union of the justified believer with Christ, which prepares the way for chap. vi.
The following are the principal theories on this subject:
(1) The pantheistic and necessitarian theory regards sin as an essential attribute (a limitation) of the finite, and a necessary stage in the development of character; it consequently destroys the radical antagonism between good and evil, and places itself outside of the Christian system. Where there is no real sin, there is no room for redemption.
(2) The Pelagian heresy denies original sin, and resolves the fall of Adam into an isolated and comparatively trivial childish act of disobedience, which indeed set a bad example, but left his character and moral faculties essentially unimpaired, so that every child is born into the world as innocent and perfect, though as fallible, as Adam was created. It offers no explanation of the undeniable fact of the universal dominion of sin, which embraces every human being with the one solitary exception of Jesus of Nazareth. It rests on an atomistic anthropology and hamartiology, and is as anti-scriptural as the opposite extreme of pantheism. Socinianism, Unitarianism, and Rationalism likewise deny original sin and guilt in the proper sense of the term.
(3) The assumption of a pre-Adamic fall of all men, either in timei.e., in a state of individual prexistence of the soul prior to its connection with the body (as Origen held it), or timeless and transcendental (so Dr. Jul. Mller: ein ausserzeitlicher Urzustand und Urfall). This is a mere hypothesis, without support in human consciousness, and inconsistent with the plain sense of Rom 5:12, which, in harmony with Genesis 3., derives sin from the one historical Adam.
(4) The Augustinian or realistic theory of a real though impersonal and unconscious participation of the whole human race in the fall of Adam, as their natural head, who by his individual transgression vitiated the generic human nature, and transmitted it in this corrupt and guilty state to his descendants by physical generation. As an individual act, Adams sin and guilt was his own exclusively, and is not transferable to any other individual; but as the act of mankind in their collective, undistributed, and unindividualized form of existence, it was, virtually or potentially, the act of all who were germinally or seminally contained in their first parent, as Levi was in the loins of Abraham (Heb 7:9-10). Persona corrumpit naturam, natura corrumpit personam. In other words: Adams individual transgression resulted in a sinful nature; while, in the case of his descendants, the sinful nature or depraved will results in individual transgressions. See the passages from Augustine quoted on p. 178, third foot-note. His view rests on his deep religious experience and his interpretation of Romans 5., but it presupposes, as a necessary prerequisite, the original organic unity of the human race, a distinction between person and nature (which must be made also in the doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation), and may be philosophically supported by the Platonico-Aristotelian realism concerning the doctrine of the general conceptions, as the original types of individual things.
This realistic view of the fall of the race in Adam became the orthodox doctrine of the Latin Church. It was defended by the great schoolmen, Anselm, Peter the Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, &c. (yet with a material modification of Augustines conception of original sin and guilt, which scholastic theology made to consist only in the loss of original righteousness; viewing it more as a negative state of privation than as positive corruption). It was even more earnestly and vigorously maintained by the Reformers, both Lutheran and Calvinistic (who advocated afresh the Augustinian view of hereditary sin and guilt in all its severity). The various writings of Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, and the symbolical books of the sixteenth century, abound with quotations and reminiscences from Augustine on the doctrines of Sin and Grace.
But within the Augustinian system different views of imputation were developed, especially in the Reformed Church:
(a.) Imputation, immediate and mediate,103 conjoined and inseparable. This makes the guilt of Adams first sin imputed, and the guilt of inherent depravity inseparable and conditional to one another. Both kinds of imputation are held in fact; but the distinction was not made before the seventeenth century. Participation is assumed as the ground of imputation. Native corruption is itself sin, and likewise punishment for guilt incurred in Adams sin. Hereditary guilt coxists with hereditary sin; man is condemned, both on account of the act of disobedience which he committed in the loins of Adam, and for hereditary depravity.
Here we must distinguish again a minor difference relating to the order of the two kinds of imputation:
(aa.) Some put immediate imputation before mediate in the order of things. So Augustine and his strict followers in the Catholic Church, and the Calvinists of the Montauban school, David Pareus, Andrew Rivet,104 the elder Turretin,105 and Heidegger;106with this difference, that the Dutch and French Calvinists of the seventeenth century combined, with the Augustinian theory of participation, the federal theory of representation (see below, No. 5); and, while still holding to both kinds of imputation, they laid the chief stress upon immediate imputationthus preparing the way for exclusive immediate imputationism.
(bb.) Others give mediate imputation, or the imputation of inherent depravity, the logical priority, so that Adams sin is imputed to us only because it becomes our own by propagation (to which some add, by actual transgression). Here belong, in all probability, Anselm among the schoolmen,107 Calvin,108 and Bullinger among the reformers;109 and, more clearly and expressly, Stapfer and President Edwards,110 who are often inaccurately quoted as mediate imputationists; also the orthodox Lutherans of the seventeenth century.111 It is certain that we have all to bear the consequences of Adams sin, and this sin is therefore the cause of our native corruption; but it is not our personal guilt independently of this corruption, and our assent to it.
(b.) Mediate or consequent imputation makes inherent depravity derived from Adam, and this alone, the ground of condemnation. Vitiositas prcedit imputationem. So the Reformed school of Saumur, in France, especially Joshua Placus (La Place), who denied that the imputation of Adams sin was prior to, and independent of, inherent depravity, but who claimed to be in full harmony with the teaching of Calvin on this subject. This view, so far as it restricts the nature of original sin to the mere hereditary corruption of Adams posterity, excluding the imputation of the first sin by which he fell, was condemned by the French Reformed Synod at Charenton, near Paris, in 1645, yet without mentioning the name of Placus, who contended that he was not touched by this decree, since he admitted a mediate imputation of Adams sin, consequent and dependent on corruption.
(c.) Immediate or antecedent imputation as opposed to mediate imputation, makes, on purely legal grounds, the sin of Adam, as the sin of the federal head of the race, the only and exclusive ground of condemnation independently of, and prior to, native depravity and personal transgression; so that hereditary guilt precedes hereditary sin, and not vicevers. This exclusive immediate imputationism is held by Calvinists of the supralapsarian and federal school, and gives up the Augustinian ground of participation. See below, No. (5) (b). In antagonism to this view, the New School theology of New England has departed to the opposite extreme of rejecting imputation under any form. (See No. 6.)
(5) The federal theory of a vicarious representation of mankind by Adam, in virtue of a covenant made with him. It arose in Holland in the seventeenth century, simultaneously with the development of representative federal government, and gained advocates among Calvinistic or Presbyterian divines in France, England, Scotland, and the United States. It supposes a (one-sided, ) contract or covenant of the sovereign Creator with the first man, called the covenant of works (fdus operum, fdus natur), as distinct from the covenant of grace (fdus grati), to the effect that Adam should stand a moral probation on behalf of all his descendants, so that his act of obedience or disobedience, with all its consequences, should be judicially imputed to them, or accounted theirs in law. Adams position is compared to the relation of a representative to his constituents, or rather of a guardian to his wards, since in this case the wards were not consulted, and did not even exist at the time of his appointment. The transaction must be resolved at last into the sovereign pleasure of God.112
Here again we must distinguish two schools:
(a.) The Augustino-federal school is a combination, and superadds the federal scheme on the realistic basis of participation, so that imputation is made to rest on moral as well as legal grounds. This was the view of the founders and chief advocates of the federal theory, Cocceius (originally John Koch, or Cook, born at Bremen, 1603, died as professor at Leyden, 1669), Burmann, Witsius, and is taught by the Westminster standards,113 and even in the Consensus Helveticus, although in this the Augustinian idea of participation is almost absorbed by the idea of the covenant.114
(b.) The purely federal school (from nominalistic premises, according to which the general conceptions are mere names, not things, subjective abstractions, not objective realities) denies the Adamic unity of the race in the realistic sense, consequently also all participation of Adams descendants in the act of the primal apostasy; yet it holds that, by virtue of his federal headship on the ground of a sovereign arrangement, his sin and guilt are justly, directly, and immediately imputed to them. The imputation of Adams sin, and in the same way also the imputation of Christs righteousness or justification, is thus made a purely forensic process, which affects our legal relation, but by no means our moral character.
This forensic theory of imputation, which excludes participation in Adams sin, dates from the time of Turretin, in the latter part of the seventeenth century,115 and is upheld by a number of Calvinistic divines in England and America, but has no advocate of note, as far as I know, among modern Continental divines.116
Legal representation seemed to offer an easier vindication of Divine justice than the Augustinian view.117 It involves, undoubtedly, an element of truth, but, if detached from the idea of moral participation, it resolves itself into a mere legal fiction, and greatly enhances the difficulty of the problem by removing the best reason for imputation. For how can an infinitely just and holy God punish countless millions of human beings simply and solely for the sin of another, in which they had no part whatever? The passage, Eze 18:1-4, where God rebukes the Israelites for using the proverb of the sour grapes, which Julian of Eclanum and his sympathizers have quoted ad nauseam against the Augustinian theory, returns here with double force. The analogy of forensic justification is not to the point, for the righteousness of Christ is not imputed to the impenitent sinner, but only on the subjective condition of faith, by which Christ is apprehended and made our own. Justification presupposes regeneration, or an action of the Holy Spirit, by which He creates repentance of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ, and makes us one with Him. By being in Christ is meant, not merely a nominal, putative, or constructive relation, but a real, substantial union; so also our being in Adam, by which the other relation is illustrated, is real and vital. This analogy, therefore, leads to the opposite conclusion, that moral participation, either potential or personal, or both, must be the ground of the imputation of Adams sin.
(6) The New School Calvinists of New England (since the days of the younger Edwards), in radical opposition to Princeton, reject imputation altogether; but maintain that the sinfulness of the descendants of Adam results with infallible certainty (though not with necessity) from his transgression; the one class holding to hereditary depravity, prior to sinful choice, the other class teaching (with Dr. N. W. Taylor, of New Haven) that the first moral choice of all is universally sinful, yet with the power of contrary choice. This is a peculiar modification of the Pelagian conception of liberum arbitrium, but differs from it in making a nice distinction between natural ability and moral inability.118
(7) The semi-Pelagian, and the cognate Arminian theories (of which the former, since the fifth century, has gained large influence in the Latin, the latter, since the seventeenth century, in a considerable portion of the Reformed Churches, and was adopted by the Wesleyan Methodists), though by no means explicit and uniform on this point, agree in that they admit the Adamic unity, and the disastrous effects of the primal apostasy upon the whole posterity of Adam, but regard the native or hereditary corruption not properly as sin and guilt exposing us to just punishment, but only as an evil, an infirmity, malady, and misfortune, for which the most benevolent God provided a sufficient remedy for all. Zwingli taught a similar view, and distinguished original sin as a moral defect or disease (he called it, in the Swiss dialect, Bresten) from sin proper. Semi-Pelagianism holds a medium position between Pelagianism and Augustinianism; Arminianism wavers between semi-Pelagianism and Calvinism; both may, according to the elastic nature of compromises, lean now more to the one, now to the other extreme; employing at times the Augustinian phraseology, but putting, after all, a different interpretation upon it.
The stationary anthropology and hamartiology of the Greek Church occupies a similar position, but it never passed through the mill of Western controversies, and remains to this day theologically incomplete.
Most evangelical divines of the present day are divided between the Augustinian or realistic, the federal or forensic, and the Arminian theories, or they look for a still more satisfactory solution of the difficult problem by a future Augustine, who may be able to advance, from a deeper study of the Scriptures, the knowledge of the Church, and reconcile what now seem to be irreconcilable contradictions. It should be remembered that the main difficulty lies in the fact itselfthe undeniable, stubborn, terrible factof the universal dominion of sin and death over the entire race, infants as well as full-grown sinners. No system of philosophy has ever given a more satisfactory explanation than the great divines of the Church. Outside of the Christian redemption, the fall, with its moral desolation and ruin, remains an impenetrable mystery. But immediately after the fall appears, in the promise of the serpent-bruiser, the second Adam, and throws a bright ray of hope into the gloom of despair. In the fulness of the time, according to Gods own counsel, He appeared in our nature, to repair the loss, and to replace the temporary reign of sin by the everlasting reign of superabounding grace, which never could have been revealed in all its power without the fall.119 The person and work of the second Adam are the one glorious solution of the problem of the first, and the triumphant vindication of Divine justice and mercy. This is the main point for all practical purposes, and in this, at least, all true Christians are agreed.P. S.]
3. [In Lange, No. 2.] Criticism of the Augustinian doctrine of Sin and Grace. Augustine, in his controversy with Pelagius, has undoubtedly expressed and defended the Churchs sense of religious truth, and thereby become a rich source of blessing to Western Christendom. It cannot be denied, however, that the theologico-dogmatical expression of his sense of truthespecially his doctrine of original sinfar transcends the Scriptural bounds, and has done harm by its erroneous features. Augustine has not only supported, but also obstructed the Reformation. His explanation of in Rom 5:12, which has obscured the exegesis of this passage even in Meyer (not to speak of Tholuck and Philippi), is of itself a sufficient testimony of this. See the Exeg. Notes. It sets aside the formal freedom which remains even within the material bondage and slavery, and which, under the power of sin, becomes a of death by means of unbelief, but, under the exercise of the gratia prveniens, becomes a of the marks of salvation by means of faith. It thus destroys or weakens the ethical signification of the itself [comp. Rom 5:11; Rom 5:17, and Notes] in the interest of the Augustinian dogmatics. The biblical doctrine of original sin is distinguished from the Augustinian mainly in the following respects:
(a.) The Bible teaches an ethico-physical fall of the human race from Adam, as a fall in principle; Augustine, a physico-ethical fall of the human race in Adam, as a completed fact.120 Therefore Augustine ignores the distinction between the inheritance of the propensity and curse of sin, or of deathwhich inheritance oppresses all who are Adamically begottenand the ethical appropriation of the corruption.
(b.) With Augustine, the ideal and potential condition of condemnationthat is, the condemnableness of men, apart from redemptioncoincides with a judicially completed condition of condemnation; therefore, with him, redemption is properly a new creation.
(c.) With Augustine, the exercise of grace, of the Logos, and of the Spirit of God, is theocratically and ecclesiastically bound and limited; his Christ is, in substance, not greater than the extent (rayon) of the Church; therefore he does not perceive the gradations of the hereditary blessing and of the hereditary curse within the general corruption of mankind, and still less the significance of the antithesis in Rom 2:14-15, within the whole world. His acceptation of mere gradations of evil downwardly, is in contradiction with his own system.
(d.) A consequence of this extreme view of original sin is his extreme view of the government of grace. He had in mind, probably, the great religious truth of the ethical irresistibility of all-conquering love; but in his theological system he gave it a fatalistic character in opposition to formal freedom.
(e.) Because, with him, the ideal and potential condemnation of all is aggravated into an actual condition of condemnation, he has alsoin consequence of the fact that only a part of humanity within the ecclesiastical pale of this world believe and are savedlimited the extent of the effects of the ideal and potential , or righteous act of Christ; while Paul teaches that the has come upon all men.
[There is considerable force in these objections to the Augustinian system which apply fortiori to Calvinism. But they cannot diminish the great merits of the African father, who searched the problem of sin more profoundly than any divine before or after him. He was right in teaching the (virtual or potential) fall of the whole race in Adam, and the sinfulness of our nature, or depraved will, as the source of all sinful volitions, words, and acts. But he did not take into sufficient account that there is a Divine and , which hold the arm of Gods , and suspend the full and final execution of the well-deserved judgment, until men make the fall of Adam their personal, individual act, and reject the offer of redemption (comp. the remarks on Rom 3:24-25, p. 134). Hence Augustine consigns even all unbaptized children to condemnation, although in the mildest form (De pecc. orig., c. Rom 36: Infans perditione punitur, quia pertinet ad massam perditionis. Enchir., c. Rom 93: Mitissima sane omnium pna erit eorum, qui prter peccatum quod originale traxerunt, nullum insuper addiderunt.) In this respect even the strictest Calvinistic divines of our age decidedly dissent from him, and are disposed to hold that all children who die in infancy, whether baptized or not, will be saved by the infinite mercy of God. This charitable belief and hope has a strong support in the universal sufficiency of the atonement, and especially in the words of our Saviour concerning little children, spoken without qualification or limitation (Mat 19:14; Mar 10:14). There can be no salvation without Christ, even for children; but God is not bound to the use of His own appointed means, by which the benefits of Christ are ordinarily applied to men.P. S.]
4. On the question why Eve is not the one human being by whom sin came into the world (Pelagius and Ambrosiaster have really held that Eve is meant),121 compare, in addition to the Exeg. Notes, Tholuck, p. 216.
5. The Apostle does not speak here of the first origin of sin, or of the fall of Satan, as Christ does, Joh 8:44. Although the doctrine of the devil is by no means wanting in his writings, it does not stand out very prominently. He here speaks merely of the entrance of sin into our human world from an unknown world beyond this, where it is assumed that it already existed in personified form. Now, this human world is neither the whole universe, nor merely human nature, but the human race in connection with the earth and the cosmic nature as far as it is organically connected with man (see 2Pe 3:10, and other passages). The personification of sin and of death exhibits both as (pseudo-formative) principles which have pervaded the organism of the human world, but under the ethical conditions under which they can alone become thoroughly dominant. The individual man, in his organic nature, is connected with humanity, but as an individual intellectual being he has an existence in himself. Pelagius denied the former, while Augustine has largely ignored the latter. The organic connection implies the propagation of the sinful propensity and guilt, according to Joh 3:6, as well as according to chaps. 68 of this Epistle. In the broader sense, Christ also stood in the organic connection of humanity as the Son of Man, but only in the historical sense. Therefore He bore the burden of humanity for its reconciliation.
6. Paul calls the sin of Adam , as the transgression of the Divine commandment standing clearly before him; , as the sin which resulted in a fall; , as a starting-point of many sins; , as disobedience to the known will of God. These designations and statements set aside such theories on the origin of sin as that of J. Mller (that there was a previous or timeless fall of the human souls), and that of R. Rothe (that sin was the original, abnormal condition of humanity proceeding from their material constitution).
7. The relation of sin to death. Sin is death, says John (1Jn 3:14-15); sin bringeth forth death, says James (Rom 1:15); sin has, as its wages or punishment, death as a consequence, says Paul (Rom 6:23). This is all the same relation, but from different points of view. The physical dying of the creature in itself is not thereby meant, but the perishableness of the creature is increased by ethical or spiritual death (Romans 8.); and the original transformation destined for man (2Co 5:1 ff.) has, by sin, become fearful death, in connection with corruption and the gloom of Sheol. Therefore Death itself is conquered by the death of Christ, because its sting is taken from it (1Co 15:51; 1Co 15:56). The ethical character of death and the salvation of the redeemed from death are brought to light not only in the resurrection, but also in the revelation of the original transformation at the end of the world (1Co 15:51); while the ungodly, in spite of the general resurrection, are subject to the second death (Rev 2:11; Rev 20:6, &c.).
8. In the period between Adam and Moses, death appeared to be merely the order of nature, because the paradisaical law had disappeared from knowledge by the fall, and the Mosaic law had not yet appeared. Nevertheless, sin was also at that time the causality of death, but not as transgression in the light of legal knowledge. The concealed sin against the law dwelling in all man (Rom 2:14-15) was, indeed, attested by the manifest, tyrannical, and terrible dominion of death. Sin, says Paul, is not imputed where there is no lawthat is, not fully settled until the law. But since it is with the gospel that the full significance of the law becomes clear, it follows that condemnation can only come with final hardening of the heart against the gospel.
9. Adam and Christ appear here as principles of the old and new humanity, of the first and second on, so far as their posterity is determined by their life. Yet it is not Adam in himself who is the principle of sin and death, but Adam in his deedhis disobedience. From the nature of sin, the disobedience () cannot coincide in him with personality. In Christ, on the contrary, personality and the obedience () are one. In reference to personal issue, Adam is the natural ancestor of the whole human race. Christ is the spiritual founder of the whole human race. Both constitute together a harmonious antithesis in historical consequence (1Co 15:45). But they represent the principal antithesis in so far as sin and death proceeded from one (through him), and righteousness and life from the other. The Apostle sets forth these antitheses in a series of parallels, in which, first, their homogeneousness comes into consideration (the through one, the organic development), and second, the dissimilarity (the much more on Christs part); then the removal of sin by grace, and the triumph of the new principle (so far as by means of the law it makes sin itself serviceable to its glory). On the construction of these antitheses, compare the general groundwork of the Exeg. Notes.
10. While doctrinal theology has ascribed to the law a threefold use or purpose (bar or bridle, mirror, ruleZgel, Spiegel, Regel), the Apostle seems here to add a usus quartus, or rather primus, in so far as he says that the law must have brought sin to full manifestation and development. This thought is not altogether included in the use of the mirror (see the Exeg. Notes), but it is most intimately connected with it. As the knowledge of sin must come by the law, so also the revelation, the bringing of sin to light, must come by the law. The law has not produced real inward sin, but, like a chemical element, it has introduced a fermenting process into humanity, in which human nature and sinfulness seem to be identical; and by this means the external manifestation of sin is finished, in order to render possible its distinction and separation from human nature itself. The holiness of this effect is properly understood when we distinguish properly between the inward sin and its outward realization, its phase, in which the judgment has already commenced. Hence it is clear that the use of the law is the effecting of the knowledge of sin. The manifestation of sin for bringing to pass the knowledge of sin, comes by the law. The law, as letter, has completed the development of sin; the law, as the word of the Spirit, has brought the perfect knowledge of sin.
11. Although Paul, in this section, has mostly contrasted the many on the one side with the many on the otherbecause this expression makes more apparent the grandeur of the fundamental developments from the onehe yet declares definitely, in Rom 5:18, that the of the one Christ is available for all men, with the tendency to become for them the .
12. The Apostle makes prominent in many ways the great preponderance of the antitheses of grace over the theses of sin. The author of sin becomes to him a nameless being, who is opposed by God in His grace, and by the man Jesus Christ as the personal gift of grace. Sin itself falls immediately into the , and meets the . But the work of grace breaks through many offences, as if invited and augmented by them, like a mountain stream from the rocky cliff; and the dominion of death on one side is only a measure of the much more powerful revelation of grace on the other. But the so-called , as a necessary, natural result of salvation, is no more declared in the of Rom 5:15, than the expression is designed to abridge the universality of grace. The ethical part of the organized process, the on one or the other side, is opposed to such a conclusion. Nevertheless, it is the Apostles aim to glorify the unfathomableness, immeasurableness, and illimitableness of the stream of grace, and its absolute and universal triumph in the history of the world.
[Sin reigns in death, grace reigns unto life. On this, Dr. Hodge remarks (p. 279): That the benefits of redemption shall far outweigh the evils of the fall, is here clearly asserted. This we can in a measure comprehend, because, (1) The number of the saved shall doubtless greatly exceed the number of the lost. Since the half of mankind die in infancy, and, according to the Protestant doctrine, are heirs of salvation; and since, in the future state of the Church, the knowledge of the Lord is to cover the earth, we have reason to believe that the lost shall bear to the saved no greater proportion than the inmates of a prison do to the mass of the community. (2) Because the eternal Son of God, by His incarnation and mediation, exalts His people to a far higher state of being than our race, if unfallen, could ever have attained. (3) Because the benefits of redemption are not to be confined to the human race. Christ is to be admired in His saints. It is through the Church that the manifold wisdom of God is to be revealed, throughout all ages, to principalities and powers. The redemption of man is to be the great source of knowledge and blessedness to the intelligent universe.I add a fine passage from Dr. Richard Clerke (Sermon on Tit 2:11, quoted by Ford): Grace will not be confined. For Gods goodness cannot be exhausted. He is dives in omnes, saith the Apostle, rich enough for all (Rom 10:12). It is an excellent attribute, which is given him by St. James, [in some MSS., but the usual reading in Jam 5:11 is .P. S.] In Gods mercy, there is both and : it is both free and rich; both gratiosa et copiosa (Psalms 130.), both bountiful and plentiful: not only , bursting forth round about, round about all ages, round about all nations, round about all sorts, but (Rom 5:20), surrounding all those rounds, and with surplus and advantage overflowing all. I say, not only , an abounding grace, abounding unto all, to the whole world, but (1Ti 1:14), a grace superabounding; that, if there were more worlds, grace would bring salvation even unto them all. St. Pauls own parallel shall end this point (1Ti 2:4). It is Gods will that all men should be saved.P. S.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
What follows from the comparison of Adam with Christ? 1. That by the one Adam, sin, death, condemnation, and the dominion of death have come; 2. But by the one Christ, life, righteousness, and the dominion of grace have come upon all men (Rom 5:12-21).Sin and death passed upon all (Rom 5:12-14).Sin as the cause of death: 1. Original sin; 2. Sins of commission (Rom 5:12).They too have sinned who have not committed the same transgression as Adam; comp. Rom 2:12 (Rom 5:14).All sin is transgression of the law, but not in the same way (Rom 5:14).Adam is a figure of Him that was to come (Rom 5:14).Man a figure of the Son of Man (Rom 5:14).The first and second Adam: 1. Resemblance; 2. Difference (Rom 5:14-19).The difference between sin and gift. It consists herein: 1. That, through the sin of one, many have died, but that, on the other hand, Gods grace and gift have freely abounded unto many; 2. By one mans sin many have become condemned, but one gift has abounded from many offences to righteousness; 3. By the sin of the one, death has reigned over many, but by the one Jesus Christ will many still more rejoice in the dominion of life (Rom 5:15-17).The sole man Jesus Christ; not only (1) one, but also (2) the only one of His character (Rom 5:15).Yet how different are the fruits of sin and righteousness! 1. The fruit of the former is condemnation; 2. The fruit of the latter is justification of life (Rom 5:18).As condemnation is come unto all men, so also is justification of life (Rom 5:18).The universality of Divine grace brought to pass by the righteousness of Christ (Rom 5:18).The different effects of Adams disobedience and Christs obedience (Rom 5:19).For what purpose did the law enter? 1. Not merely to make sin prominent; but, 2. To bring it to a crisis; and Song of Solomon , 3. To prepare for grace by Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 5:20-21).
Luther: As Adam has corrupted us with foreign sin without our fault, so has Christ saved us with foreign grace without our merit (Rom 5:14).Notice that he speaks here of original sin, which has come from Adams disobedience; therefore every thing is sinful which pertains to us (Rom 5:18).As Adams sin has become our own, so has Christs righteousness become our own (Rom 5:19).
Bengel: Gods gift is grace, flowing from the Father upon Him, and through Him to us.
Starke: Believers are, by the spiritual life of the new birth, reigning kings over sin on earth, as they shall also be fellow-kings in the heaven of glory (Rom 5:17).O universal grace of God, by which all may be saved by Christ! 1Ti 2:4; Act 17:30-31 (Rom 5:18).A small drop of grace can calm and engulf the raging waves of corruption (Rom 5:20).Cramer: As no one can deny that he is mortal, so also must no one say that he is not sinful (Rom 5:14).Nova Bibl. Tb.: Sin has a mighty kingdom and dominion. Let nobody regard it as small and contemptible! Yet the kingdom of grace is much more mighty. The purpose of the latter is to destroy the former; where the kingdom of grace increases, the kingdom of sin declines. The former brings life, the latter death.
Gerlach: There is this great difference between the effects of the fall and of redemption: the effects of the former consist in a strongly legal judgment, which must ensure condemnation in consequence of a single transgression; but the effects of the latter are a free gift, which made amends not merely for one sin, but for all the repetitions of Adams transgression that have arisen from that first one; and it has made amends so completely, that it has really effected in fallen men the righteousness required by the law (Rom 5:16).So powerfully does grace operate on those who have received its fulness, that they, by grace, become rulers in life through Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17).
Lisco: Mankind is united in Adam and Christ; therefore the sin of Adam became the sin of all, and Christs offering became the propitiation for all. As every leaf of the tree suffers by disease of the root, so does every one recover by its restoration; thus it is with mankind in Adam and Christ (Rom 5:12-21).Death is the great evil that was begotten by sin (Rom 5:12).As Adams sin has become ours, so has Christs righteousness become ours (Rom 5:19).
Rieger: This little passage is as the pillar of fire in the wilderness; dark and threatening toward the Egyptians and impenitent, but bright and clear toward the Israelites. This passage lightens and thunders against hard sinners, who treat every thing lightly; but it shines with the lovely splendor of grace upon penitent and anxious souls (Rom 5:20).
Heubner: The dominion of sin in the world is not Gods work, but mans guilt.The universality of corruption should not comfort, but humiliate us: 1. We should each be ashamed before all the rest; 2. We should be ashamed before the inhabitants of other worlds, who perhaps do not know any thing about sin; 3. We should so much the more bear in mind, that, amid the universal sinfulness, we shall not be the only pure ones; 4. We must therefore work out our salvation the more earnestly by prayer, and faith in Christ (Rom 5:12).Adam is the natural, Christ is the spiritual ancestor; the former is the transgressor of the Divine commandment, the latter the fulfiller of the whole Divine law; the former is the cause of death and human corruption, the latter the author of life, redemption, and holiness (Rom 5:14).The real ground why the operation of Divine grace is as universal as the sinful corruption from Adam, is this: that grace knows no other limits than those which man himself sets by unbelief (Rom 5:17).The more man is pervaded by the knowledge of his sin, the richer will be his reception of grace (Luk 7:47).
Besser: By one upon all (Rom 5:12-21).The saving counsel of God has always been one and the same to all men, not only to the children of Abraham, but to all the sons of Adam (Rom 5:12).Death, having once stepped its foot into the world, has forced its way to all men (Rom 5:12).Sin has become a natural power over persons, which cannot be dislodged by the blows of any club; but gracewhich does not enter with compulsory power, but with the evangelical drawing of the word of Godis so powerful that it breaks the power of nature (Rom 5:12).Death reigned. Well for us that this is said as of a ruler who is dead (Rom 5:17).The new decree, You shall live, which is warranted by the empty grave of Jesus Christ, is higher and stronger than the old decree, You must die, which is confirmed by millions of graves (Rom 5:17).The Apostle once more recapitulates the abundance of doctrine which he has demonstrated all along from Rom 5:12 : Sin, death, grace, righteousness, life. These five stand thus: grace rises highest in the middle; the two conquering giants, Sin and Death, at the left; the double prize of victory, Righteousness and Life, at the right; and over the buried name of Adam the glory of the name of Jesus blooms (Rom 5:21).
Schleiermacher, on Rom 5:19 : The effects of the death of the Redeemer, so far as it was a work of His obedience.Deichert: Has the Christ who died for us become the Christ within us?How much more blessed to live under grace than under the law!
Lange: Adam and Christ in the internal and historical life of mankind.As all men are comprehended in the fall of Adam, so, and still more, are they in the righteousness of Christ.As sin and death have assumed the appearance of personal, princely powers, in order to extinguish the personal life of mankind, so does the personal God again elevate men, by the glorious personality of Christ, to a personal life in royal freedom.The antithesis between Adam and Christ: 1. In personal effects (Rom 5:15); 2. In essential effects (Rom 5:16); 3. In the destruction of the apparently personal life of sin, and the restoration and glorification of the true personal life of grace, or the false and the true (Rom 5:17); 4. In the final aims of both (Rom 5:18); 5. In the full manifestation of both in the light of the gospel (Rom 5:19).The glory of Gods grace in the exercise of its authority. How it has not only, 1. Conquered sin and death; but, 2. Even made them of service.The Divine art of distinguishing the effect of the law.The twofold character of the law: 1. Apparently a promotion of sin; but, 2. Really a communication of grace.Adam, Moses, and Christ.How far does Moses appear to stand on Adams side; but how far does he rather stand on Christs side?The twofold effect of the law and of legality in the history of the world.The twofold curse of the law: 1. The curse of the law, well understood, leads to salvation; 2. The curse of the law, misunderstood, leads to ruin.
[Burkitt (condensed): Every sin we commit in defiance of the threatenings of God is a justifying of Adams rebellion against God. Our destruction is in ourselves, by our actual rebellion; and at the great day we shall charge our sin and misery upon ourselvesnot on God, not on Satan, not on instruments, and not on our first parents.Henry: We are by Christ and His righteousness entitled to, and instated in, more and greater privileges than we lost by the offence of Adam. The plaster is wider than the wound, and more healing than the wound is killing.Scott: Instead of perplexing ourselves about the incomprehensible but most righteous dispensation of God, in permitting the entrance of sin and death, let us learn to adore His grace for providing so adequate a remedy for that awful catastrophe.As our children have received a sinful and suffering nature from the first Adam, let us be stirred up by their pains and sorrows to seek for them the blessings of the second Adams righteousness and salvation.Wesley (Sermon on Gods Love to Fallen Man, Rom 5:15): The more we deal our bread to the hungry and cover the naked with garments, and the more kind offices we do to those that groan under the various ills of human life, the more comfort we receive even in the present world, and the greater the recompense we have in our own bosom.Dwight: The subject of moral evil is too extensive and mysterious to be comprehended by our understanding. Many things connected with it lie wholly beyond our reach. But where knowledge is unattainable, it is our duty and interest to trust humbly and submissively to the instructions of Him who is the Only Wise.Clarke: The grace of the gospel not only redeems from death and restores to life, but brings the soul into such a relationship with God, and into such a participation of eternal glory, as we have no authority to believe would have been the portion of Adam himself, had he even eternally retained his innocence.Hodge: We should never yield to temptation on the ground that the sin to which we are solicited appears to be a trifle (merely eating a forbidden fruit), or that it is but for once. Remember the one offence of one man. How often has a man, or a family, been ruined forever by one sin!Compare Isaac de la Peyreres Men before Adam (London, 1656), in which the author attempts to prove that the first men were created before Adam, and builds up a curious theological system on that supposition.Compare also W. Bucklands Inquiry whether the Sentence of Death pronounced at the Fall of Man included the Whole Animal Creation, or was restricted to the Human Race. London, 1839.J. F. H.]
Footnotes:
[35]Rom 5:12.[ (Rec.) is found in . B. C. K. L, some versions and fathers; is adopted by Lachmann, Meyer, Wordsworth, and Lange. Tischendorf and Alford omit it, on the authority of D. E. F. G., and many fathers. Alford considers it a marginal gloss, to define the subject of . But the external authority for it is sufficient to overcome the doubt arising from the variation in position found in some authorities, especially as the omission may have readily arisen from the transcribers mistaking -, which precedes, for the close of the word he was about to write: – (Meyer).
[36]Rom 5:13.[On the parenthesis of the E. V. This is to be omitted; for, although it might be a help to the ordinary reader, it is inserted on the view that Rom 5:18 is strictly resumptive, which is not in accordance with Langes exegesis. Even were it the case, Rom 5:13-17 comprise an argument so important, that it does not deserve the subordination implied in a parenthesis. The E. V. is frequently unfortunate in this regard: e.g., Gal 1:7, where the very theme of the Epistle is put in parenthesis.
[37]Rom 5:14.[Some cursives and fathers omit . This probably arose from a wish to make this verse correspond with Rom 5:12, the meaning of which was misunderstood. There is no question as to the correctness of its insertion.The pluperfect of the E. V. is to be changed to the simple past: sinned, as a more correct rendering of the aorist participle. The other emendations are not absolutely necessary, but are offered as more literal, and perhaps preferable for other reasons.
[38]Rom 5:15.[The word , occurring five times in this section, is rendered offence in the E. V.; by the Amer. Bible Union: trespass. Both are etymologically correct, but more modern usage compels us to reject offence. Trespass would be preferable to transgression, on the ground that (Rom 5:14) must also be rendered by the latter word; yet trespass has at present a technical meaning, which is legal, transgression, being more theological. The very slight distinction between and is sufficiently implied in the clauses where the words occur. Lange renders the latter: Sndenfall, fall, to distinguish it from , Uebertretung, Rom 5:14.
[39]Rom 5:15.[The aorist, , is to be rendered did abound, and the auxiliary did placed after much more, as indicating more plainly that much more is rather quantitative than logical.The articles are unfortunately omitted throughout in the E. V.; the one, the many, express the definiteness of the Greek.
[40]Rom 5:16.[Lange adopts the reading (D. E. F. G., some fathers, cursives, and versions, Griesbach), urging that it is required as an antithesis to . But this is the very reason for deeming it a gloss. is found in . A. B. C. K. L., adopted by Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, Wordsworth.
[41]Rom 5:17.[The two renderings correspond to two various readings; in any case, mans, of E. V., must be rejected. A. F. G. have (D.E., .); adopted by Griesbach, Tischendorf, Meyer, Lange. . B. C. K. L., many versions and fathers, read ; adopted by Lachmann, Alford, and Wordsworth. It is a question which is correct, but Meyers explanation is most satisfactory. He considers the former reading the original one, because thus the origin of the other variations are very naturally explained. For more definite description the article was added by some (D. E.); by others, was changed into . But since, at all events, the sense was the same as . (Rom 5:15), this was at first added as a parallel passage, and then received into the text.
[42]Rom 5:18.[The questions respecting the changes to be made in this verse are exegetical. It is only necessary to note here, that the above rendering indicates the doubt as to the precise meaning of , and ; leaving the subjects indefinite (instead of retaining the italicized glosses of the E. V.). Lange supplies and . On all the points, see Exeg. Notes.
[43]Rom 5:19.[So Amer. Bible Union. Lange: herausgestellt. The rendering given above is correct; any dogmatic questions that arise cannot affect this.
[44]Rom 5:20.[, only Gal 2:4; there, in malam partem. The above rendering is literal and exact. Lange translates: came in between. See Exeg. Notes.
[45] Rom 5:20.[Alford suggests that words compounded with have a superlative, not a comparative force.The change in the first verb in English is to indicate that two different words are used in Greek.R.]
[The following is the Greek text of this section, in parallelistic arrangement, from Forbes:
12.
A , , ,
13. ,
14. B
C
D Points of disparity in the comparison D stated in Rom 5:15-17.
18.
C
Justification. ,
19. Sanctification. ,
20. B , , ,
21. A , .P. S.]
[46][As Chrysostom remarks in the beginning of his tenth Homily on Romans, Opera, tom. 4. p. 519, ed. Montfaucon, but he omits the positive part, which is more important.P. S.]
[47][So also Bengel refers to the whole of the preceding discussion, from which the Apostle draws these conclusions, herein making not so much a digression as a retrogression. Hodge: The wherefore is to be taken as illative, or marking an inference from the whole of the previous part of the Epistle, and especially from the preceding verses.P. S.]
[48][Meyer: darum, weil wir namlich durch Christum die und die Gewissheit des ewigen Heils empfangen haben, Rom 5:11. But Meyer regards Rom 5:11 as the summary of the whole preceding doctrine of justification and salvation. Philippi likewise refers to Rom 5:11 in such a way that it looks at the same time to the whole deduction from Rom 1:17 to Rom 5:11. This to us seems to be the most satisfactory connection.P. S.]
[49][This construction is favored, upon the whole, by De Wette (who, however, objects to it: Ergnzt man , so weiss man nicht recht, was man mit der. Vergleichung anfangen soll), Umbreit, Theo. Schott, Wordsworth, Alford, Jowett, Conybeare and Howson. I subjoin Alfords note in full, though I dissent from it: This verse is one of acknowledged difficulty. The two questions meeting us directly, are: (1) To what does refer? (2) , like as, may introduce the first member of a comparison, the second being to be discovered; or may introduce the second, the first having to be discovered. I shall endeavor to answer both questions in connection. I conceive to refer to that blessed state of confidence and hope just described: on this account, here meaning, qu cum ita sint: this state of things, thus brought about, will justify the following analogy. Thus we must take , either (a) as beginning the comparison, and then supply, so by Christ, in His resurrection, came justification into the world; and by justification, life; or () as concluding the comparison, and supply before it, it was, or Christ wrought. This latter method seems to me far the best. For none of the endeavors of commentators to supply the second limb of the comparison from the following verses has succeeded: and we can hardly suppose such an ellipsis, when the next following comparison (Rom 5:16) is rather a weakening than a strengthening the analogy. We have examples for this use of in Mat 25:14, and of , Gal 3:6.P. S.]
[50][This objection was made by De Wette, from whom Tholuck, p. 215, quotes. Mever calls this explanation illogical, because the universality of Adams corruption, which is the prominent idea in Rom 5:12, has no corresponding parallel in the protasis which is supplied from the preceding verse.P. S.]
[51][And also the efficient cause in the same sense in which Christ is the efficient cause of righteousness and life. According to the Pelagian and Unitarian theory, Adam was merely the occasion: he sinned, and set a bad example to others, as Christ set a good example. Here Christ sinks to the position of a mere teacher.P. S.]
[52][Gen 2:17, where death is mentioned for the first time, speaks rather for a more comprehensive view, see below, sub (3); since the first parents were threatened with the penalty of death to be inflicted on the very day of their fall, and long before their physical death.P. S.]
[53][Winer, p. 259, denies that the aorist is ever confounded with the perfect. Even in Luk 1:1 (); Joh 17:4 (, ); Php 3:12 (), and similar cases, the action is related simply as passed. The perfect expresses the past action in its relation to the present, so that the result of the action is generally, though not necessarily (see Krger, 151, and Winer, 254), supposed to be continued.P. S.]
[54][Origen taught a personal fall of all men in a preexistent state. In Ep. ad Rom. (Opp. 4. p. 546): Si Levi in lumbis Abrah fuisse perhibetur, multo magis homines in lumbis erant Ad, cum adhuc esset in paradiso, el omnes homines cum ipso vel in ipso expulsi sunt de paradiso.P. S.]
[55][Chrysostom (Homilia X.) explains rather loosely and superficially: , ; , , i.e., by the fall of Adam, even those who did not eat of the forbidden tree have all become mortal. This is all he says, and then he passes immediately to Rom 5:13.P. S.]
[56][Augustine, following the wrong translation of the Vulgatein quoused this passage as an argument for the doctrine of original sin and the fall of the human race in Adam. De pecc. mer. et rem. Rom 3:7 : In Adamo omnes tunc peccaverunt, quando in ejus natura, illa insita vi qua cos gignere poteral, adhuc omnes ille unus fuerunt. Contra Jul. Rom 5:12 : Fuerunt omnes ratione seminis in lumbis Adami quando damnatus es. quemadmodum fuerunt Israelil in lumbis Abrah, quando decimatus est, Heb 7:9-10. De Civitate Dei, l. xiii. c. Romans 14 : Omnes enim fuimus in illo uno, quando omnes fuimus ille unus, qui per feminam lapsus est in peccatum. Nondum erat nobis singillatim creata et distributa forma, in qua singuli viveremus; sed jam natura erat seminalis, ex qua propagaremur; i.e., the form in which we were to live, as individuals, had not yet been created and assigned to us, but that seminal nature was already in existence, from which we were to be propagated. From this last passage it is evident that Augustine did not teach, as he is sometimes misrepresented, a personal and conscious coexistence and coagency of Adams posterity in Adam and his fall (which involves the contradiction of an existence before existence), but simply a potential or germinal coexistence. The genus homo or human nature which he represented, was not a receptacle of millions of human beings, but a single, simple essence, which became manifold by propagation. As in the doctrine of the Trinity and of the Person of Christ we distinguish between nature and person, so also here. Our human nature was on trial in Adam, and fell in him; consequently we all fell as partaking of that nature, and share in his guilt. This seems to me to be Augustines view. Estius, one of the best Roman Catholic commentators, gives the same interpretation on the basis of the Vulgate translation; Dicuntur omnes peccasse in Adam, tanquam in principio et radice totius generis, quoniam in lumbis ejus erant, quando ille peccabat. Then, after quoting several passages from Aug., he continues, in explanation of the Augustinian theory: Id vero sic intellige: quia tunc quando ille propria voluntate peccavit, in quo tanquam in principio generis, omnes erant, causa data est, per quam deinceps universum genus inficeretur, et singuli constituerentur peccatores, videlicet a suo quisque peccato, quod ex illa origine contraheret; quomodo, si pater attaminatus lepra filios gignat leprosos, dicentur filii facti leprosi a patre, licet unusquisque suam ex illo contrahat lepram. This, in a certain sense, is theologically true, but exegetically falsei.e., the doctrine of original sin, or total depravity as derived from Adam, is implied in the whole passage, especially in , but not in . For is not equivalent to , (see above); is too far separated from the relative , and the whole phrase, , meaning, to sin in some one, or by one, is without example. For a modification of the Augustinian interpretation, see (4) below.P. S.]
[57][Sam. J. Baird, Elohim Revealed, Philad. 1860, p. 417, defends the same view; taking = , as in Rom 5:14; Mar 2:4; Luk 5:25; , 1Co 15:22.P. S.]
[58][Melanchthon: Omnes habent peccatum, scilicet pravitatem propagatam et reatum. Calvin: Nempe, inquit, quoniam omnes peccavimus. Porro istud peccare est corruptos esse et vitiosos. Illa enim naturalis pravitas, quam e matris utero afferimus, tametsi non ita cito fructus suos edit, peccatum tamen est coram Domino, et ejus ultionem meretur. Atque hoc est peccatum, quod vocant naturale. According to Calvin, then the inherent, hereditary depravity derived from Adam is the reason why all die. This interpretation is not only ungrammatical, since cannot mean, to become corrupt, but it also vitiates the analogy between Adam and Christ.P. S.]
[59][ .P. S.]
[60][Grotius: pnam lucre, to suffer punishment. He appeals to Gen 31:36; Job 6:24; 1Ki 1:21, for this metonymy of the effect. he takes = through whom. The same interpretation is more fully defended by Whitby, an Arminian, on Rom 5:19.P. S.]
[61][Meyer calls this interpretation sheer ungrammatical arbitrariness (nur sprachwidrige Willkhr); for means, they sinned, and nothing else (p. 204). Nevertheless, it is defended by Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, even in the revised edition of his Comm. (p. 236 ff.), with a degree of dogmatic positiveness, as if there could be no doubt about it. He holds that all men sinned in Adam merely in a representative or putative, not in any real sense, and that has the passive meaning: they became legally guilty, and were regarded and treated as sinners on account of Adams sin by virtue of a natural and federal relationship between Adam and his posterity. The only possible way, he says, in which all men can be said to have sinned in Adam, is putatively. [This is begging the question.] His act, for some good and proper reason [?], was regarded as their act, just as the act of an agent is regarded as the act of his principal, or the act of a representative as that of his constituents [although in this case they never elected him]. The act of the one legally binds the other. It is, in the eye of law and justice, their act. But never has this meaning of putative sinning. It is obviously impossible in , Rom 5:14. In the parallel passage, Rom 3:23, Hodge himself understands it of actual sinning (all have sinned, and are sinners, or, all sinned, p. 140). The two solitary passages which he quotes from the Septuagint (Gen 43:9, comp. Gen 44:32 : , and 1Ki 1:21 : , i.e., in the view of the reigning prince), are neither parallel nor decisive, as has often been shown by older commentators. When Hodge confidently appeals to the authority of theologians of every grade and class of doctrine, Calvinists, Arminians, Lutherans, and Rationalists, in favor of his interpretation (p. 241), he is greatly mistaken. I know of no recent commentator of note, German or English, who agrees with him on this point. Philippi and Wordsworth, whom he quotes on his side, hold the realistic Augustinian view (which Hodge repudiates as nonsense. See next foot-note.) So does even Robert Haldane, the most rigorous Scotch Calvinistic commentator on the Romans, who says (p. 211 of the Amer. edition): Adams sin was as truly the sin of every one of his posterity, as if it had been personally committed by him. It is only in this way that all could be involved in its consequence. Besides, it is only in this light that it is illustrative of justification by Christ. Believers truly die with Christ, and pay the debt in Him by their union or oneness with Him. It belongs not to us to inquire how these things can be. We receive them on the testimony of God. If God deals with men as sinners on account of Adams sin, then it is self-evident that they are sinners on that account. The just God could not deal with men as sinners on any account which did not make them truly sinners. The metonymical interpretation arose from opposition to the doctrine of original sin. Hodge tries to defend the dogma of imputation on a Socinian exegesis. But by rejecting the realistic theory of a participation of Adams posterity in his fall, he loses the basis for a just imputation, and resolves it into a legal fiction. Only a sinful and guilty being can be the subject of the displeasure of a righteous and holy God. We do not object to the doctrine of imputation in itself, but simply to that form of it which, ignores or denies the vital nature of our connection with Adam and with Christ, as plainly taught in this whole section. Adam is our natural representative de facto as well as de jure. He is the root of humanity, and his fall affected the stock, and every branch, by the inherent law of organic life-union. Not Adams transgression outwardly reckoned, but Adams sinfulness and mortality inwardly communicated or imparted, are the chief points of comparison, and placed in contrast with the righteousness and life of Christ, with whom we hold even a more intimate life-union by faith, than with Adam by sin.P. S.]
[62] [This interpretation, which Dr. Lange treats rather too severely, agrees theologically with Augustines (No. 1), although it differs from it grammatically. It is defended by two of the ablest modern commentators, Philippi, and (in recent editions) by Meyer. Philippi, whom Dr. Hodge (p. 241) wrongly quotes in favor of his purely legal imputation theory (see the preceding note), says, after criticising other views: Wir werden deshalb mit Nothwendigkeit zu derjenigen Auffassung zurckgefhrt, welche, obgleich sie von den neueren Auslegern aufgegeben ist (vgl. jedoch Olshausen) und fernliegend erscheint, dennoch die nchste, cinfachste und natrlichste ist. Es ist nmlich zu im Gedanken: , oder noch prciser: Adamo peccante zu ergnzen. Non agitur de peccato singulorum proprio, sagt Bengel. Omnes peccarunt, Adamo peccante, oder, wie Koppe es ausdrckt, ipso actu quo peccavit Adamus. Dafr spricht auch der momentane Sinn des Aoristes . Der Tod ist zu Allen hindurchgedrungen, weil sie Alle sndigen, als Adam sndigte, weil in der Snde Adams ihre eigene Snde milbeschlossen war. So wrden wir also dem wesentlichen Sinde nach, wenn auch auf anderem grammatischem Wege, das Augustinische in quo omnes peccaverunt, wieder gewinnen. Passend lsst sich 2Co 5:15 vergleichen: , , wozu wir hier den entsprechenden Gegensatz: , finden. Wie ferner hier von dem , so ist 1 Kor. Rom 15:22 von dem Aller die Rede. Der Apostel stellt demnach die Menscheitssnde als objectiv in Adam beschlossen dar, gerade so wie er die Menschheitsgerechtigkeil als objectiv in Christo beschlossen denkt, und die Parallele erhlt nun erst die rechte Prcision und plastische Anschaulichkeit. Meyer, who is misrepresented by Dr. Hodge (p. 233) as charging Paul with forgetfulness in stating what is not true in point of fact, holds the same Augustinian view, and stated it plainly not only in the fourth edition (1865, p. 201), but in the third (1859, p. 187), and even in the second edition (1854, ten years before the appearance of Hodges revision!) as follows: ( ) auf Grund dessen dass, d. h., weil alle sndigten, nmlich (beachte den momentanen Sinn des Aor.) als durch den Einen die Snde in die Welt eintrat. Weil, als Adam sndigte, alle Menschen in und mit ihm, dem Vertreter der ganzen Menschheit (nicht: exemplo Adami, Pelag.), gesndigt haben, ist der Tod, welcher durch die in die Welt gekommene Snde in die Welt kam, vermge dieses urschlichen Zusammenhanges der durch Adam ins Vorhandensein getretenen Snde und des Todes auf alle verbreitet worden. Alle wurden durch Adams Fall sterblich, weil dieses Gesndigthaben Adams ein Gesndigthaben Aller war, mithin , Rom 5:15. So ist es allerdings in Adam begrndet, dass Alle sterben ( , 1 Kor. Rom 15:22), weil nmlich, als Adam sndigte, Alle sndigten, Alle als (Rom 5:19), und somit der durch seine Snde eingekommene Tod keinen verschonen kann. The same interpretation is substantially adopted by the best English commentators of the age. Alford says: All sinned in the seed, as planted in the nature by the sin of our forefather, and in the fruit, as developed by each conscious responsible individual in his own practice. Observe how entirely this assertion of the Apostle contradicts the Pelagian or individualistic view of men, that each is a separate creation from God, existing solely on his own exclusive responsibility, and affirms the Augustinian or realistic view, that all are evolved by Gods appointment from an original stock, and, though individually responsible, are generically involved in the corruption and condemnation of their original. Wordsworth: Observe the aorist tense, , they all sinned; that is, at a particular time. And when was that? Doubtless, at the Fall. All men sinned in Adams sin. All fell in his fall. All men were that one man, Adam (Augustine). All men were in him, as a river is in its source, and as a tree is in its root. We are all by nature in the first Adam, as we are all by grace in the second Adam, Christ. Webster and Wilkinson: All sinned virtually when Adam sinned, because in him their nature became sinful.
This good orthodox interpretation, supported by the most respectable array of authorities from Augustine and the Reformers down to Philippi and Meyer, Dr. Hodge calls mystic and pantheistic nonsense, which does not rise even to the dignity of a contradiction, and has no meaning at all; adding: It is a monstrous evil to make the Bible contradict the common sense and common consciousness of men (p. 236). We hold that all men sinned in Adam, not indeed personally by conscious actual transgression (which Augustine never said or meant; see the passages quoted in the third foot-note on p. 178), but virtually or potentially; in other words, that Adam fell, not as an individual simply, but as the real representative head of the human race, and that his fall vitiated human nature itself, and prospectively his whole posterity, in the same manner in which the disease of the germ and root will affect the tree and branches proceeding from it. This may be uncommon sense (as is the whole fifth chapter of Romans), but it is certainly no nonsense. The human race is not a sandheap, but an organic unity; and only on the ground of such a vital unity, as distinct from a mechanical or merely federal unity, can we understand and defend the doctrine of original sin, the imputation of Adams sin, and of Christs righteousness. Without an actual communion of life, imputation is an arbitrary legal arrangement. We readily admit that the Augustinian view is liable to objections (see Langes and our strictures in Doctrinal and Ethical, No. 2 and 3), but it is far preferable to the legal fiction theory.P. S.]
Footnotes:
[63][So Theodoret: , . Pelagius may be ranked here, for in his brief comments on Romans he explains : In eo quod omnes peccaverunt, exemplo Ad peccant, or per imitationem, in opposition to per propagationem. Julian of Eclanum, the ablest champion of Pelagianism, takes in the sense of propter quod (Aug. Contra Jul. 6:75; Op. imperf. 2:66). But both denied original sin, which may be held in perfect consistency with this interpretation of . Among American commentators it is advocated especially by Barnes and Stuart. We quote from Moses Stuart: There remains, therefore, only the first plain and simple method of interpretation, viz., all men have sinned in their own persons; all men have themselves incurred the guilt of sin, and so subjected themselves to its penalty; or at least, all men are themselves sinners, and so are liable to death. Prof. Dwight, in his article against Hodge, seems to adopt this view; taking, however in a semi-figurative sense, so that Paul conceives of our individual, personal sinning, as summed up and centred in Adam, not because we sinned either really or putatively when he did, but because, when he sinned, the whole future results were then made certain, and so, in a sense, were accomplished (1. c. p. 560).P. S.]
[64][The German-original reads; Dogegen sagt Meyer, das Wort passe nicht auf die gesndigt habenden Kinder, children who have sinned, instead of in Betreff der vielen Millionen noch nicht gesndigt habenden K. (see Meyer, p. 203). The printers omission of noch nicht, not yet, makes sad work here with the argument, and caused some perplexity to the translator. Flatt, and others, raised the same objection to the above interpretation, viz., that it would include infants among actual sinners, which is not true. Hodge, p. 232 f., urges five arguments against it.P. S.]
[65][So also Hodge: It would make the Apostle teach that, as all men die because they personally sin, so all men live because they are personally and inherently righteous. This is contrary not only to this whole passage, but to all Pauls teaching, and to the whole gospel.P. S.]
[66][In his Jahrbcher der bibl. Wissenschaft, ii. p. 171, Ewald explained, with the rejection of the second : und so zu allen Menschen durchdrang das, woraufhin alle sndigten, and so passed upon all men that unto which all sinned, viz., death, which in Gen 2:17 is decreed as the punishment of sin, so that whosoever sins, sins unto deathi.e., must die. But subsequently, in his Comm. on the Pauline Epistles (1857, p. 327), Ewald translated: Sofern alle, sndigten, inasmuch as all sinned, and remarks (in a foot-note on p. 373) that this meaning of (as a conjunction) is similar to the preceding , showing death to be the consequence of sin.P. S.]
[67][Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, vol. i. p. 529, 2d ed., takes as a preposition of time, and refers to the preceding (which is wanting in several MSS.) in the sense: bei dessen Vorhandensein, i.e., during the reign of death all sinned. He quotes, in support, Heb 9:15 : . But this simple and almost trivial idea could have been expressed much more clearly. The interpretation of Thomasius (sub 8) resembles that of Hofmann, except that he takes as neuter: beim Vorhandensein welches Verhltnisses. But the preceding words pronounce a fact, not an abstract relation. Comp. Meyer, p. 206.P. S.]
[68][Hodge makes the whole doctrine and argument of the Apostle to be, that there are penal evils which come upon men antecedent to any transgressions of their own; and as the infliction of those evils implies a violation of law, it follows that they are regarded and treated as sinners, on the ground of the disobedience of another (p. 252).P. S.]
[69][Outside of these two passages in the New Testament, the word, according to Meyer, occurs but once, viz., in Bckh, Inscript. i. p. 850, A. 35. It means , , to reckon in, to put to ones account.P. S.]
[70][Origen: Videtur Ap. mortem describere velut tyranni alicujus ingressum.P. S.]
[71][Bengel: Morti adscribitur REGNUM, ut ROBUR, Heb 2:14. Sane vix ullus rex tot subditos habet, quot vel reges mors abstulit. Immane regnum. Non est Hebraismus. Imperat peccatum: imperat justitia.P. S.]
[72][ with is a Hebraism ( ); comp. Luk 1:33; Luk 19:14; 1Sa 8:9; 1Sa 8:11; in classic Greek it rules the genitive or dative. The preposition signifies the persons over whom the sovereignty is exercised. The second before expresses the model to which the act is conformed; comp. , Luk 1:15. The whole phrase corresponds to the Hebrew , and is equivalent to . It must not be connected with (Chrysostom and Bengel), but, as is usually done, with .P. S.]
[73][, (literally, counterblow), is, however, sometimes equivalent to in the sense of copy (Abbild), as Heb 9:24, ; 1Pe 3:21; and Apost. Const. Rom 4:14, where the sacramental bread and wine are called the antitypes of the body and blood of Christ. Comp. Bleek on the Hebrews, vol. iii. p. 591.P. S.]
[74][Tholuck, p. 246, quotes a remarkable passage from the book, Neve Shalom R. Abraham Ben Isaac (died 1593), which shows perhaps the reflex influence of Paul upon the Rabbinical theology: The last Adam is the Messiah; He will be higher than. Moses, higher than, the angels who serve Him, and the old sin by which death has been introduced will be abolished by Him, for in His days the dead will rise. This was the Divine intention at the creation of man, that he should be eternal; but sin occasioned death: now the Divine intention is fulfilled by the second Adam, who is the antitype of the first.P. S.]
[75][Or, by the one that sinned, if we read . See Textual Note6, and Exeg. Note below.P. S.]
[76][ , the reading of Cod. Sin., Lachmann, Alford, and the text. rec. Lange prefers, with Meyer, the reading: , by one fall. See Textual Note7, and Exeg. Notes below.P. S.]
[77][According to Langes translation: Aber nicht stehts (im Sinn der Gleichmaessigkeit Adams und Christi) wie mit dem Sndenfall also mit dem Gnadengut (der persoenlichen Gnadengabe, Christus). Alford translates: But not (in all points) as the act of transgression, so also is the gift of grace.P. S.]
[78][Adamus et Christus, secundum rationes contrarias, conveniunt, in positivo; differunt, in comparativo.P. S.]
[79] [The Codex Sinaiticus, in the octavo edition of Tischendorf (1865), reads , but this is a correction by a second or third hand. In the original MS. and the large uncial edition the word is broken by the line, and reads, AMAPTH-TO, which may be a mistake for , as well as for . The absence of the article before is in favor of Langes preference for , for Paul always uses the article when refers to a person, except in Rom 5:12, where it is first introduced and connected with .P. S.]
[80] [Meyer: Es ist damit nicht so, als wenn es . (wie der Tod durch Adam) verursacht wre (es ist vielmehr zum geworden). Meyer emphasizes the one and many, and supplies simply after . Similar is the explanation of Rothe, Ewald, Van Hengel.P. S.]
[81][So also Alford, who supplies : And not as (that which took place) by one that sinned, so is the gift.P. S.]
[82] [Meyer: ganz allgemein: das Urtheil, welches Gott als Richter fllt. Denn zu was fr einem Urtheil dieses in concreto ausgeschlagen ist, sagt erst das folgende .P. S.]
[83] [This passage affords a striking parallel, and has some bearing on the question whether Paul was acquainted with the works of the great Stagirite (which, from a remote resemblance of style, the mode of close, dialectic reasoning, from Pauls educational advantages in Tarsus, from his acquaintance with the spirit and working of the Hellenic philosophy, and even with inferior Greek authors, as Aratus and Cleanthes, Act 17:28, Menander, 1Co 15:33, and Epimenides, Tit 1:2, seems to me highly probable). I give it, therefore, in full. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Book v. chap. 10 (according to Bekkers ed., 2:1135; or chap. 7, in Didots and other editions), Aristotle says: , , , , , . . K , . An unjust act differs from the unjust (injustice in the abstract), and so does a just act from the (abstract) just; for a thing is unjust either by nature or by order (ordinance). But the very same thing which) when done, is an unjust act, is not so before it is done, but it is unjust. The same may be said of a just act. But the common term is rather a deed justly done (); but the correction of an unjust act Just act ().P. S.]
[84] [This is a slight mistake, occasioned by a statement of Tholuck (p. 261 f.). Dr. Rothe regards not Rom 5:17, but Rom 5:16, as a parenthesis (1. c. p. 132), and Rom 5:17 as a corroborative and explanatory reassumption of Rom 5:15, to which it corresponds in all its parts as follows:
Rom 5:15.
,
. . . . .
Rom 5:17.
.;
.
. , …P. S.]
[85] [The Greek is here, like an exclamation, as brief and concise as possible, and cannot be intelligibly rendered without supplying some words. The E. V. supplies, besides the verb came, two nouns, viz., judgment () and free gift (), from Rom 5:16. Lange supplies and from Rom 5:18, and translates: Demnach also: wie durch den Sndenfall des Einen (ein Sndenfall) auf alle Menschen (kommt) zur Verdammniss, so auch (kommt) durch Eines Rechtfertigungsgut (ein Rechtfertigungsgut) auf alle Menschen hin zur (wirklichen) Rechtfertigung des Lebens (welche Leben ist). Rothe takes in both clauses not in the masculine, but in the neuter gender, and supplies only the verb came: Wie es durch Eine Uebertretung fr alle Menschen zur Verdammniss (kommt), in eben derselben Weise (kommt es) auch durch ein Rechtgenugthuung fr alle Menschen zur Rechtfertigung des Lebens. Meyer: Wie es also durch Ein Vergehen fr alle Menschen zum Verdammungsurtheil (gekommen ist); so ist es auch durch Ein Rechtfertigungsurtheil fr alle Menschen zur Rechtfertigung des Lebens (gekommen). Alford in the same way (except that he gives a different meaning): Therefore as by means of one trespass it came ( being supplied) upon all men unto condemnation, so also by means of one righteous act it came upon all men unto justification of life. Wordsworth likewise takes here as neuter, and translates: Therefore, as through one transgression the sentence was unto all men to condemnation, so through one state of acceptance with God (so he interprets ), the sentence now is unto all men to justification of life. Ewald most literally: Also dennwie durch Einen Fehltritt fr alle Menschen zur Verurtheilung, so auch durch Einen Gerechtspruch fr alle Menschen zur Rechtfertigung von Leben.Dr. Hodge adopts the translation of the E. V., from which he very seldom departs. The new version of the Amer. Bible Union likewise agrees with the E. V. in supplying judgment came, and free gift, but more correctly renders , through one trespass, and , through one righteous act.P. S.]
[86] [Meyer says: is conclusive: demnach nun (accordingly then, so then, therefore now); it is of frequent occurrence in Paul (Rom 7:3; Rom 7:25; Rom 8:12; Rom 9:16; Rom 9:18; Rom 14:12; Rom 14:19; Gal 6:10; Eph 2:19 al.), and, contrary to classical usage (Herm. ad Antig. 628, ad Viger. p. 823), at the beginning of the sentence. Klotz distinguishes between and , in that the former ad internam potius causam spectat, the latter magis ad externam. The ratiocinative force of is weaker, and is supported by the collective power of . See Ellicott on Gal 6:10.P. S.]
[87] [The antithesis , and the analogy of Rom 5:12; Rom 5:15; Rom 5:17; Rom 5:19, where is masculine, are in favor of Langes view, which is also that of the translators of the E. V.; but the absence of the article before is almost conclusive against it; for in all the eight cases of this section, where it is indisputably masculine, it has uniformly the article (Rom 5:15, ; Rom 5:17, three times; Rom 5:19, twice), except in Rom 5:12, where it is connected with a noun ( ), and therefore unnecessary; while in Rom 5:16, where must be neuter, in opposition to , it is, as here, without the article. The Apostle is therefore quite careful and consistent. The objection that the comparison is between Adam and Christ, rather than between the fall of one and the righteousness of another, does not hold, for it is clearly a comparison of both persons and effects. The E. V. has much obscured the force of this section by omitting the article throughout before , as also before .P. S.]
[88] [Tholuck quotes here the quaint and pointed remark of Luther: Wohl setzt Adam seinen Zahn in einen Apfel, aber in Wahrheit setzt er ihn in einen Stachel, welcher ist das gttliche Gebot. Bengel says that , in , very appositely points out the principle of the initial step, which ended in Adams fall, namely, the carelessness of his understanding and will, which simultaneously gave way; as the first step towards the capture of a city is remissness on the part of the guards on watch.P. S.]
[89] [Vulgate: peccatores constituti sunt. So also Calvin. E. V.: were made sinners. Lange translates: als Snder herausgestellt worden sind, set forth, made to appear (in their real character) as sinners. So also Ewald: als Snder dargestellt wurden. Meyer and Philippi: als Snder hingestellt, in die Kategorie von Sndern versetzt wurden, set down in the rank, or category, of sinners. Alford (with De Wette): were made actual sinners by practice, not, were accounted as (Grotius, al.); nor became by imputation (Beza, Bengel); nor were proved to be (Koppe, Reiche, Fritzsche).P. S.]
[90] [Meyer refers , as the opposite of Adams , specifically to the expiatory death of Christ, which was , His obedience to the will of God; Php 2:8. But Lechler, Hofmann, Stuart, Barnes, and others, agree with Lange.P. S.]
[91] [Philippi doubts the meaning reddere, facere, in the N. T., and insists upon the fundamental meaning (1) to set down, sistere, constituere, hinstellen, einsetzen, and translates: in die Kategorie von Sndern gesetzt werden. But also in this case the setting down or the imputation must be based on the fact that they really are sinners, and so it is taken by Philippi.P. S.]
[92] [Chrysostom is generally set down as the first advocate of this interpretation, but it should be remembered that he puts the metonymy not in the verb , but in the noun , which he makes to mean obnoxious to punishment and condemned to death, . He says that the Apostle designed merely to state the fact, that all became mortal through Adam, but not the why and wherefore. (Hom. x. Tom. ix., p. 523, ed. Bened.) It is unnecessary to prove that , in the N. T., means a real sinner, and nothing else. Grotius explains Rom 5:19 : Here again is a metonymy. They were so treated as though they had actually sinned; that is, they were subject to death. So the word sinner is used in 1Ki 1:21, and elsewhere. So also Whitby, one of the best English commentators of the Arminian school.P. S.]
[93] [Dr. Hodge, though otherwise a strict Calvinist, rejects the realistic Augustinian view of a fall of the whole race in Adam, and yet makes all the descendants of Adam legally responsible for his fall. To maintain this ground of an exclusively forensic imputation, he must resort to this forced interpretation of and . , he says (p. 271), never [!] in the N. T. means to make, in the sense of effecting or causing a person or thing to be in its character or nature other than it was before. does not mean, to make one sinful, but to set him down as such, to regard or appoint him to be of that class. [To regard, and to appoint are two very different things.P. S.] Thus, when Christ is said to have been constituted the Son of God, He was not made Son, but declared to be such. [But in this passage, Rom 1:4, is used, not , and even that means more than declared; see Textual Note5 on p. 56.] Who constituted thee a ruler or judge?i. e., Who appointed thee to that office? So, Whom his lord made ruler. [These two passages, Mat 24:45; Act 7:35, imply that neither was a ruler before being appointed, and they would lose their force, were we to substitute regarded for constituted.] When, therefore, the Apostle says that the many were constituted () sinners by the disobedience of Adam, it cannot mean that the many thereby were rendered sinful, but that his disobedience was the ground of their being placed in the category of sinners. It constituted a good and sufficient reason for so regarding and treating them. The same remark applies, of course, to the other clause of this verse: . This cannot mean, that by the obedience of one the many shall be made holy. It can only mean, that the obedience of Christ was the ground on which the many are to be placed in the category of the righteousi.e., shall be so regarded and treated. It is not our personal righteousness which makes us righteous, but the imputation of the obedience of Christ. And the sense in which we are here declared to be sinners, is not that we are such personally (which indeed is true), but by the imputation of Adams disobedience. With the same assurance, as in Rom 5:12 (see p. 178), Dr. Hodge claims that this dogmatic eisegesis is the obvious grammatical meaning of the passage, adopted by commentators of every class, as to theological opinion. Of all respectable modern commentators, Philippi (a high-church Lutheran) is the only one who apparently favors it by pressing the meaning, to set down, as distinct from reddere, facere, but he does so in the realistic Augustinian sense, which he expressly vindicates in the interpretation of (see p. 178). De Wette calls the Socinian interpretation of false, and Meyer insists that the verb means, die wirkliche Einsetzung in den Snderstand, wodurch sie zu Sndern thatsachlich geworden sind, peccatores constituti sunt; and he quotes Jam 4:4; 2Pe 1:8; Heb 5:1; Heb 8:3; where the metonymic sense is impossible.P. S.]
[94] [Tholuck, p. Rom 267: So ergiebt sich denn fr das Pass. nicht die Bedeutung: dargestellt werden im Sinne von erscheinen ais etwas, was man nicht ist, sondern gemacht werden, werden.P. S.]
[95] [The latest commentator of Rom. v., Ad. Stlting (Beitrge zur Exegese der Paulinischen Briefe, Gttingen, 1869, p. 40), nearly agrees with Lange in giving the verb a special reference to the judgment. , he says, hat hier die solenne Bedeutung des Hinstellens vor den Richter, wie ja die richterliche Thtigkeit Gottes auf Adamitischer Seite im Vorhergehenden durch und auf das klarste bezeichnet ist.P. S.]
[96] [The E. V. has much obscured the meaning by omitting the article before many, as if it were antithetical to some, while the many are opposed to the one, .P. S.]
[97] [According to Rothe, l. c. p. 155, Paul meant to suggest the idea of the possibility of the ultimate salvation of all men, but no more. Vllig bestimmt und unzwei-deutig will der Apostel nur die reale Mglichkeit der Beseeligung Aller durch Christi aussagen; allein dabei will er doch zugleich mit vllig bewusster Absicht (und er erreicht diese Absicht durch das einerseits und durch das zweimalige andrerseits), in dem Leser die bestimmte Varmuthung erregen, dass auch die geschichtliche Verwirklichung jener realen Mglichkeit von ihm mitgemeint sein moge; Aber auch eben nur als Vermuthung, die er durchaus nicht soll aus dem Gebiet der blossen Wahrscheinlichkeit in das der Evidenz hinuberziehen knnen. Gewiss, die meisterliche Kunst in der Durchfhrung einer so fein nancirten Intention ist wohl zu bewundern.P. S.]
[98][As , Gal 3:19. Beza: prterea introiit, supervened, came in the way of addition. Meyer: es kam noch daneben ein, viz., in addition to sin, which had already entered into the world, Rom 5:12. Similarly Alford: came in besides the fact of the many being made sinners, and as a transition-point to the other result. Hodge: The law was superinduced on a plan already laid, and for a subordinate (?) although necessary purpose.P. S.]
[99] [The idea of secresy, or surreptitious entrance, is not necessarily implied in (comp. , , ), and must be either derived from the context, as in Gal 2:4 (the only passage in the New Testament where the verb occurs besides our own), or be expressed by . In our passage such an idea would be inconsistent with the holy character of the law, the solemn manner of its promulgation, and the Apostles reverence for it (Rom 7:12 ff.). From Meyer.P. S.]
[100] [Rothe, p. 158, translates: nebenbei zwischenein gekommen, it came in incidentally between. He thus combines the idea of the incidental coming in of the law with that of its medial position between Adam and Christ. So Olshausen: In dem ist sowohl das mitten inne Treten, als auch das Beilufige, nicht absolut Nothwendige desselben angedeutet.P. S.]
[101] [Estius: Lex, prohibens peccatum, medio tempore inter Adam et Christum subingressa est.P. S.]
[102] [Meyer, who is a philological purist even to occasional pedantry, takes here, and everywhere, , and thus seems to justify even the supralapsarian theory of sin. Alford likewise insists on the uniform telic meaning of . It undoubtedly denotes the design here, but the mediate, not the ultimate design, as in Rom 5:21.P. S.]
[103] [The terminology immediate or antecedent, and mediate or consequent imputation, is traced by Turretin (Instit., Pars 1. p. 556, Locus IX. de peccato, Qu. X.) to Joshua de la Place, of Saumure (15961655), who was charged with inventing it to evade the force of the synodical decision of Charenton, 1645. Augustine and the Reformers did not use it, and hence there has been some dispute as to the side on which to place them.]
[104][In opposition to Placus, and in vindication of the decree of the Synod of Charenton, the distinguished Professor Rivet, of Leyden, made a collection of passages on imputation from the Reformed and Lutheran Confessions, and prominent divines, as Calvin, Beza, Bullinger, Wolfgang Musculus, Viret, Bucanus, Peter Martyr; Wolleb, Whittaker, Davenant, Zanchius, Olevianus, Ursinus, Pareus, Piscator, L. Crocius, Melanchthon, Chemnitz, Hunnius, and many others (including also Roman Catholics). But these testimonies are to a great extent general, and make no distinction between immediate and mediate imputation. The collection of Rivet is translated in part in the Princeton Review, vol. 11. (1839), pp. 553579.]
[105] [Turretin (l. c. Pars I. p. 557) defines imputation thus: Imputatio vel est res alien, vel propri. Aliquando imputatur nobis id quod nostrum est personaliter, quo sensu Deus imputat peccata peccatoribus, quos propter propria crimina punit, et in bonis dicitur zelus Phine illi imputatus ad justitiam (Psa 106:31); aliquando imputatur id quod est extra nos, nec a nobis est prstitum, quomodo justitia Christi dicitur nobis imputari, et peccata nostra ipsi imputantur, licet nec ipse peccatum in se habeat, nec nos justitiam.]
[106] [The Formula consensus Helvetica, a strongly partisan theological Confession, drawn up in 1675 by Heidegger of Zrich, at the solicitation of Turretin of Geneva, and Gernler of Basel, in opposition partly to the mediate imputationism of La Place, asserts that the imputatio culp is not the consequence, but the cause of the propagatio vitiositatis, or the corruptio hereditaria, and condemns the doctrine of those who sub imputationis mediat et consequentis nomine, non imputationem duntaxat primi peccati tollunt, sed hereditari etiam corruptionis assertionem gravi periculo objiciunt. Arts. 10.12. (in Niemeyers Collect., p. 733). The same Confession teaches also a limited atonement, and verbal, even punctual inspiration; but it soon lost all authority. Ebrard (Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte, 3. p. 556) calls it, rather too severely, the ridiculous after-birth of a symbolical book.]
[107] [Anselm (De conc. virg., 100:7) says we are not condemned because we ourselves sinned in Adam, as we did not yet exist, but because we were to descend from him (sed quia de illo fuluri eramus).]
[108] [Calvin, on Rom 5:17 : We are condemned for the sin of Adam not by imputation alone, as if the punishment of the sin of another were exacted of us (peccato Ad non per solam imputationem damnamur, acsi alieni peccati exigeretur a nobis pna), but we bear its punishment because we are guilty of the sin also (quia et culp sumus rei), in so far as our nature, vitiated in him, is held bound with the guilt of iniquity before God (quatenus scilicet et natura nostra in ipso vitiata iniquitatis reatu obstringitur apud Deum). He then goes on to say, that we are in a different manner restored to salvation by the righteousness of Christ, viz., not because it is in us, but it is freely given to us by gratuitous imputation (gratuitam justiti imputationem). Ebrard (Dogmatik, 1., p. 512 f.) and Hodge (on Romans, p. 234) represent Calvin as a mediate imputationist; the former assenting, the latter dissenting. Calvin and the Reformed Confessions draw no line of demarcation between original sin imputed and original sin inherent. Calvin always guards against the supposition that we are condemned by an arbitrary imputation of a foreign act personal to Adam.]
[109] [Ebrard says, 1:100. 1. p. Rom 513: Bullinger knows of such a reatus only which takes place in consequence of the corruptio or vitiositas, but not of a reatus which is the cause of the innate vitiositas. This would be likewise mediate imputation only. But compare the passages of Bullinger quoted by Rivet, l. c.]
[110] [The aim of Edwards, in his treatise on Original Sin, written against the Arminian, Dr. John Taylor, of Norwich, was to show that it is no absurd or impossible thing for the race of mankind truly to partake of the sin of the first apostasy, so that this, in reality and propriety, shall become their sin; and therefore the sin of the apostasy is not theirs merely because God imputes it to them, but it is truly and properly theirs (by virtue of a real union between the root and the branches of mankind, established by the Author of the universe), and on that ground God imputes it to them (Works, 2. p. 559). He says, moreover, that the arguments which prove the depravity of nature, establish also the imputation of Adams first sin, and that both are included in the usual conception of original sin. The first depravity of heart, and the imputation of that sin [of Adam], are both the consequences of that established union [between Adam and his posterity]; but yet in such order, that the evil disposition is first, and the charge of guilt consequent, as it was in the case of Adam himself (p. 544). Then, in a foot-note, he quotes with approbation a long extract from Stapfers Theologia Polemica, to the effect that the mediate and the immediate imputation are inseparable, and that one should never be considered without the other. Dr. Shedd, History of Christian Doctrine, 2. p. 163, seems to hold the same view. Edwards speaks, however, of imputation only incidentally; his main object was to defend the doctrine of native depravity by the theory of identity; i.e., a divinely constituted oneness of Adam and his race, by which his posterity should be born in his moral image, whether good or bad, according to the law that like begets like.]
[111] [The Lutherans held that the imputatio is immediata: in quantum exstitimus adhuc in Adamo (quia Adam representative fuit totum genus humanum); mediata: mediante peccato originali inhrente, in quantum in propriis personis et individualiter consideramur. The first is mediated through the second. Comp. Luthardt, Compendium der Dogmatik, p. 114 (2d ed. 1866).]
[112] [See the different definitions of this fdus operum from the writings of Cocceius, Witsius, Heidegger, &c., in Heppes Dogmatik, pp. 204 ff. It is called fdus , quia unius tantum partis dispositione et promissione constat, as distinct from a fdus mutuum or . There is no Scripture proof whatever for such a primal covenant. The solitary passage quoted, Hos 6:7 : For they (Ephraim and Judah) like men (not, like Adam) have transgressed the covenant, refers to the Mosaic covenant. Even Turretin (Inst. theol. elenchtic, Pars I. p. 519, of the Edinb. and N. Y. ed., 1847) admits that it is inconclusive, and may be explained of the inconstancy of men, ut dicantur transgressi fdus sicut homines facere solent, qui sua natura vani, levesque sunt et fidem spe fallunt.]
[113][On the Westminster divines, see Baird, Etohim Revealed, pp. 39 ff., and especially the learned articles of Dr. Landis in the Danville Review for 186162.]
[114] [Art. X.: Sicut Deus fdus operum cum Adamo inivit non tantum pro ipso, sed etiam in ipso, ut capite et stirpe, cum toto genere humano, ita Adamus tristi prolapsu, non sibi duntaxat sed toti etiam humano generi, bona in fdere promissa perdidit. Comp. also the passages quoted by Heppe, 1:100. pp. 228 f.]
[115] [Turretin, like Heidegger, holds indeed to a double unity of the race with Adam, a natural or real, and a federal or forensic, but he evidently lays the chief stress upon the latter, and prepares the way for giving up the former. He says (in his Institutes, first published in 1688, Pars I. p. 557, Qu. XI.): Adamus duplici vinculo nobiscum junctus est: (1) Naturali, quatenus pater est, et nos ejus filii; (2) Politico ac forensi, quatenus fuit princeps et caput representativum totius generis humani. Fundamentum ergo imputationis non est tantum communio naturalis, qu nobis cum Adamo interceditalias omnia ipsius peccata deberent nobis imputarised prcipue moralis et fderalis, per quam factum est, ut Deus cum illo, ut cum nostro capite, fdus pepigerit. Unde Adamus se habuit in illo peccato, non ut persona privata, sed ut publica et representativa qu omnes suos posteros in actione illa reprsentavit, cujus proinde demeritum ad omnes pertinet. In Qu. XII. he quotes with approbation from Augustine, in illo uno multi unus homo erant, adding, by way of explanation, unitate non specifica vel numerica, sed partim unitate originis, quia omnes ex uno sunt sanguine, partim unitate reprsentationis, quia unus omnium personam reprsentabat, ex ordine Dei. In Qu. XVI., pp. 558 f., he establishes his view from Rom 5:12-14. He says of correctly, that it cannot mean the habit of sin, nor inherent corruption, but actual sin committed in the past (peccatum aliquod actuate, idque prteritum), which can be no other than the sin of Adam itself (quod non potest aliud esse, quam ipsum Adami peccatum); but then he turns it into the meaning of representative sinning: Ergo eo peccante censentur el ipsi peccasse. He proves this from the analogy of Christ: In Christo justi constituimur per justiti imputationem: ergo et peccatores in Adamo per peccati ipsius impuationem This is precisely the exegesis of Dr. Hodge, except that Turretin translates , with Augustin, in quo (viz., Adamo), while Hodge, more correctly, takes it as a conjunction.]
[116] [Drs. Ridgely, Doddridge, Watts, and Cunningham, of Scotland (in his Historical Theology, Edinb., 1863, vol. i., p. 515, and in his Reformers and the Theology of the Reformation, Edinb., 1862, pp. 371 ff.), are counted on this side. Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, is the ablest advocate of immediate forensic imputationism. He states it (on Romans, p. 279) as follows: The doctrine of imputation is clearly taught in this passage (Rom. v.). This doctrine does not include the idea of a mysterious identity of Adam and his race, nor that of a transfer of the moral turpitude of his sin to his descendants. It does not teach that his offence was personally or properly the sin of all men, or that his act was, in any mysterious sense, the act of his posterity. Neither does it imply, in reference to the righteousness of Christ, that His righteousness becomes personally and inherently ours, or that His moral excellence is in any way transferred from Him to believers. The sin of Adam, therefore, is no ground to us of remorse; and the righteousness of Christ is no ground of self-complacency in those to whom it is imputed. This doctrine merely teaches that, in virtue of the union, representative and natural, between Adam and his posterity, his sin is the ground of their condemnationthat is, of their subjection to penal evilsand that, in virtue of the union between Christ and His people. His righteousness is the ground of their justification. This doctrine is taught almost in so many words in Rom 5:12; Rom 5:15-19. It is so clearly stated, so often repeated or assumed, and so formally proved, that very few commentators of any class fail to acknowledge, in one form or another, that it is the doctrine of the Apostle. The last is a mistake, as we have shown in the Exeg. Notes. Dr. Hodges hostility to the realistic Augustinian view proceeds, I think, from a misunderstanding. He does not distinguish between a virtual or potential, and a personal or individual coxistence and cogency of the race in Adam. Augustine taught the former only; the latter is impossible and absurd, unless we hold it in the form of prexistence, which Augustine expressly rejects.]
[117] [Watts, as quoted by Prof. Fisher, l. c. p. 506, navely confesses that he would gladly renounce this theory if he could find any other way to vindicate Providence,]
[118] [Comp. Stuart and Barnes on Rom. v.; Prof. Geo. P. Fisher, The Princeton Review on the Theology of Dr. N. W. Taylor, in the New Englander for April, 1868.]
[119] [This idea has found familiar expression in devotional lines such as those of Watts:
In Christ the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their father lost.
Bishop Ken. (Christian Year, Sunday next before Easter):
What Adam did amiss,
Turned to our endless bliss;
O happy sin, which to atone,
Drew Filial God to leave his Throne!
A. L. Hillhouse:
Earth has a joy unknown in heaven
The new-born peace of sin forgiven!
Tears of such pure and deep delight,
Ye angels! never dimmed your sight.]
[120] [Comp., however, my remarks on pp. 178 and 192.]
[121] [Pelagius, in his superficial commentary on Romans, preserved in the works of Jerome and Augustine, explains : per unum hominem Evam.P. S.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (13) (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. (14) Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. (15) But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. (16) And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. (17) For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) (18) Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. (19) For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (20) Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: (21) That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Apostle having thus raised up the subject to the highest pitch of excellency, in shewing the blessed state of the soul, in being freely, fully, everlastingly justified in, and by, Christ; having received the atonement in the heart, and conscience; being fully applied, and made effectual by the Holy Ghost; and living upon it, having access daily, hourly, to the throne b y it; and constantly from it, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God; goes on now, directed and led by the blessed Spirit, to trace back the wonderful subject even to the very fall of man, which involved our whole nature in one mass of ruin, and which none but Christ could deliver from. And the Apostle, in various ways, and by various statements, draws a parallel, between the Adam – nature of our fallen state, and the grace – union in Christ; to shew, (and which he hath done in a very blessed manner,) that as Adam, and Christ, are the two Covenant heads of each family, the relationship brings with it an union interest, and concern, in all that belonged to each, in this Covenant-character. I very earnestly entreat the Reader, to attend with great diligence to the statement the Apostle hath made. May He who taught Paul, teach both Writer and Reader of this Poor Man’s Commentary. For, surely, the Apostle’s mind was most blessedly led out in the contemplation, when God the Holy Ghost guided his heart and pen to send this sweet scripture to the Church.
The Apostle begins this part of the subject, in drawing the parallel of the two Adams, so called in scripture, (1Co 15:45 .) in order to represent them, as covenant heads of their people. By the sin of the first Adam, the whole race were equally involved in the guilt and punishment due to original corruption, although they had no hand in actual transgression. In like manner, by the righteousness of the second Adam, the whole Church became interested, although they bore no part in the vast work, either by personal holiness in themselves, or by obedience to the law of God.
This doctrine the Apostle prosecutes through several verses. In the instance of Adam, he considers all his children implicated, in all that concerned him. And, as it is said of Levi, the descendant of Abraham, that he was in the loins of his father when Melchizedec met him, and blessed him: Heb 7:10 . So the whole race of mankind were in the loins of Adam, when he transgressed the commands of God, and were with him involved in the same condemnation. And equally to be considered must the whole Church be in Christ, being chosen in him before the foundation of the world, Eph 1:4 . Hence that sweet promise: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring, Isa 44:3 . Reader! pause over this view of the subject, and remember, that it is scriptural. And, do not pass away from it, before that you have fully brought home the doctrine to the mind, under due conviction. You and I both, daily, prove our relationship to Adam, from the Adam – nature we carry about with us, in the common infirmities of that nature, and the remains of in-dwelling corruption. Have we similar testimonies, in our souls’ experiences of our grace-union in Christ? It is a grand subject of enquiry. For as it is most certain, that neither of us could have been involved in the sin and condemnation of the first Adam, had we not sprung from him by generation: So, equally certain is it, that we have no interest in the righteousness and justification by the second Adam, even the Lord from heaven, unless we are his in regeneration. The transgression of Adam the sinner, would never have hurted you, or me, had we not been born from him, and his blood ran through our veins; neither will the righteousness of Christ the Savior benefit us, unless we are found new-born in Him, and his Holy Spirit formed in our hearts.
It is very blessed to follow the Apostle, through the several parts of this Chapter, wherein he hath stated the consequence of things, by virtue of the Church’s oneness, and interest with Christ. He puts the subject, under various illustrations of it, and in a very beautiful manner goes over it again and again, as if he would have no child of God ignorant, on a point of so much importance. He describes the reign of death in Adam, and the reign of life in Christ, under their different heads; and shews the awful consequence of the former, and the blessed effects of the latter, as set forth in all the circumstances of mankind. Death (said he) reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, A period of two thousand five hundred years, when there was no written law, which by the transgressions of it, might have subjected to the penalty of death. And even on infants also, which never had committed, neither were in a capacity of committing, actual sin. A plain palpable proof of original sin, and death the sure consequence of it. He then argues, and with irresistible force of argument, that if such were the sure events which followed the original apostacy of our nature, in which thousands bore no part; ought not those blissful effects promised to the obedience and blood-shedding of Jesus be equally the privilege of his redeemed, to which they have none of them contributed? If so much evil followed the transgression of one sinner; must it not be equally right, that so much good should be the result from the righteousness of one Almighty Savior? And especially as both the person and sin of Adam, carry with them no proportion to the greatness and glory of the Person, and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one a finite creature. The other Infinite. The offence of the one, in the time-state only of the Church. The righteousness of the other, everlasting. The sin of Adam of one, that is, of the earth, earthly. The holiness of Christ, the Lord from heaven, Reader! ponder well the subject; and see whether, under divine teaching, your conclusion from the whole, will not join issue with the Apostle’s; that if such be the reign of sin unto death, arising from the apostacy of our Adam – nature; how much greater must be the reign of grace through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
XIV
THE SEMINAL IDEA OF SALVATION
Rom 5:12-21
The one offense committed by the first Adam was his violation of that test, or prohibition, “Thou shalt not eat of the tree of death; thou shalt not experimentally know the difference between good and evil.” In other words, he was an anti-prohibitionist. The law commenced with an absolute prohibition, and it didn’t avail Adam a thing to plead personal liberty. Race responsibility rested on Adam alone. It could not possibly have rested on Eve, because she was a descendant of Adam, just as much as we are. God created just one man, and in that man was the whole human race, including Eve. Later he took a part of the man and made a woman, and the meaning of the word “woman” is derived from “man.” When Adam saw her he said “Isshah,” woman, which literally means “derived from man'”. As she got both her soul and body from the man, being his descendant, it was impossible that the race responsibility should rest on her.
If only Eve had sinned the race would not have perished. She would have perished, but not the race. The race was in Adam. God could have derived another woman from him like that one. He had the potentiality in him of all women as well as all men. Some error has arisen from holding Eve responsible, such as the error of pointing the finger at the woman and saying, “You did it!” If we have ever committed this error, let us never do it any more. The text says, “By one offense of one man” and not by one offense of one woman. That Eve sinned there is no doubt; she was in the transgression. To the contrary, history shows that God connects salvation with the woman, and not damnation. He said, “The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” There we have the promise of grace. And he could not have said the seed of the man, for, if one be the seed of a man, he inherits the man’s fallen nature.
This fact has a mighty bearing on the Second Adam. When the Second Adam came, the first and virtually essential proof was that a woman was his mother, but no man was his father God was his father. If a man had been his father he would himself have been under condemnation through a depraved nature. Mary could not understand the announcement that she should become the mother of a Saviour who would be the “Son of God,” since she had not yet married, until the angel exclaimed: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God” (Luk 1:35 ). Hence whoever denies our Lord’s birth of a virgin and that he was sired by the most High denies the whole plan of salvation and is both the boss liar of the world and antichrist. The essential deity of our Lord and his incarnation constitute the bedrock of salvation. It is the first, most vital, most fundamental truth. No man who rejects it can be a Christian or should be received as a Christian for one moment. See Joh 1:1 ; Joh 1:14 ; 1Jn 4:1-3 ; Phi 2:6-8 ; 1Ti 3:16 .
But this question comes up, “Did not Jesus derive his human nature, through heredity, from his mother, or since she was a descendant of fallen Adam, how could her Son escape a depraved nature?” This is a pertinent question and a very old one. It so baffled Romanist theologians that they invented and issued under papal infallibility the decree of “The Immaculate Conception,” meaning not only that Jesus was born sinless, but that Mary herself was born sinless, which of course only pushes back the difficulty one degree. Their invention was purely gratuitous. There is nothing in the case to call for a sinless mother. Depravity resides in the soul. The soul comes, not from the one who conceives, but from the one who begets. This is the very essence of the teaching in the passage cited from Luke.. The sinlessness of the nature of Jesus is expressly ascribed to the Sire: “The Holy One who is begotten.” And it is the very heart of Paul’s entire biological, or seminal, idea of salvation, i.e., life from a seed. The seed is in the sire. The first Adam’s seed is unholy; the Second Adam’s seed is holy. Hence the necessity of the Spirit birth. So is our Lord’s teaching in Joh 3:3-6 ; Joh 8:44 ; 1Jn 3:9 ; the parable of the tares with its explanation in Mat 13:24-30 ; Mat 13:36-43 ; and especially 1Pe 1:23 : “Having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.” The propriety of salvation by the Second Adam lies in the fact that we were lost through the first Adam. All the criticism against substitutionary, or vicarious, salvation comes from a disregard of this truth.
Christ met all the law requirements as follows:
1. By holiness of nature starting holy
2. By obeying all its precepts
3. By fulfilling its types
4. By paying its penalty
The value of the first three items is that they qualified him to do the fourth. If he had been either unholy in nature or defective in obedience he would have been amenable to the penalty for himself. But holiness in his own nature and his perfect obedience exempting him from penalty on his own account, he could be the sinner’s substitute in death and judgment: “Him who knew no sin, God made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2Co 5:21 ). “Ye were redeemed . . . with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1Pe 1:18-19 ). If he answered not to the types, he could not be the Messiah.
Christ’s one act of righteousness, which is the sole ground of our justification, is his vicarious death on the cross. No one ought to preach at all having no gospel message if be does not comprehend this with absolute definiteness. If we attribute our justification to Christ’s holiness, or to his perceptive obedience, or to his Sermon on the Mount, or to his miracles, or to his kingly or priestly reign in heaven where he is now, or if we locate that one act of righteousness anywhere in the world except in one place and in one particular deed we ought not to preach.
The one act of righteousness the sole meritorious ground of justification is our Lord’s vicarious death on the cross, suffering the death penalty of divine law against sin. This death was a real sacrifice and propitiation Godward, so satisfying the law’s penal sanctions in our behalf as to make it just for God to justify the ungodly. Our Lord’s incarnation, with all his work antecedent to the cross, was but preparatory to it, and all his succeeding work consequential. His exaltation to the throne in heaven, his priestly intercession, and his coming judgment flowing from his “obedience unto the death of the cross” (Phi 2:8-9 ).
The particular proof of this one act of righteousness from both Testaments is as follows:
1. Proof from the Old Testament:
(1) The establishment of the throne of grace, immediately after man’s expulsion from paradise, where God dwelt between the cherubim, east of the garden of Eden, as a Schechinah, or Sword flame, to keep open the way to the tree of life (Gen 3:24 ) and was there acceptably approached only through the blood of an innocent and substitutionary sacrifice (Gen 4:3-5 ; cf Rev 7:14 ; Rev 22:14 ), which mercy seat between the cherubim was to be approached through sacrificial blood, just as described in that part of the Mosaic law prescribing the way of the sinner’s approach to God (Exo 25:17-22 ).
(2) In the four most marvelous types:
(a) The Passover lamb whose blood availed when Jehovah saw it (Exo 12:13 ; Exo 12:23 ) showing that the blood propitiated Godward. See 1Co 5:7 .
(b) In the kid on the great day of atonement (Lev 16 ) which shows that the expiatory blood must be sprinkled on the mercy seat between the cherubim as the basis of atonement.
(c) In the red heifer, burned without the camp, and whose ashes, liquefied with water, became a portable means of purification, Num 19:2-6 ; Num 19:9 ; Num 19:17-18 , with Heb 9:13 , representing that first and cleansing element of regeneration in which the Holy Spirit applies Christ’s blood. See Psa 51:2 ; Psa 51:7 ; Eze 36:25 ; Joh 3:5 (born of water and Spirit); Eph 5:26 ; Tit 3:5 .
(d) The brazen serpent, fused in fire and then elevated to be seen, which shows that the expiatory passion, a fiery suffering, must be lifted up in preaching, as the object of faith and means of healing, Num 21:9 , explained in Joh 3:14-16 ; Joh 12:32-33 ; Gal 3:1 .
(3) In such striking passages as Isa 53:4-11 . Compare the messianic prayer: “Deliver my soul from the sword,” Psa 22:20 , with the divine response, “Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith Jehovah,” Zec 13:7 , and hear the sufferer’s outcry: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Psa 22:1 and Mat 27:45-46 . When these passages are compared with Isa 53:5-10 , Rom 3:25 , 2Co 5:21 and 1Pe 2:24 , it cannot be reasonably questioned that he died under the sentence of God’s law against sin, and that this death was propitiatory toward God and vicarious toward man, and is the one act of righteousness through which our justification comes.
2. Some of the New Testament passages, including several already given, are our Lord’s own words in instituting the Memorial Supper: “This is my body given for you. . . . This cup is the New Covenant in my blood . . . even that which is poured out for you . . . which is shed for many unto remission of sins.” We need to add only Rom 3:25 ; 1Co 1:30 ; 1Co 5:7 ; 1Pe 1:18-19 ; 1Pe 2:24 ; and Heb 10:4-14 .
The combined text, “One exercise of faith,” means that unlike sanctification, justification is not progressive, but one instantaneous act; God justifies, and our laying hold of it is a simple definite transaction. One moment we are not justified; in the next moment we are justified. One look at the brazen serpent brought healing. Zacchaeus went up the tree lost, and came down saved. The dying thief at one moment was lost, and the next heard the words: “Today shall thou be with me in paradise.” At midnight the lost jailer was trembling; just after that he was rejoicing believing in God with all his house. There is no appreciable time element in the transition from condemnation to justification.
Considering Christ as a gift, how long does it take to receive him? Considering him as a promise, how long to trust? Considering Christ as the custodian of an imperiled soul, how long to commit it to him? Considering the union between Christ and the sinner as an espousal (2Co 11:2 ) how long to say: “I take him”?
As a marriage between man and woman is a definite transaction, consummated when he says, “I take her to be my lawful wife,” and when she says, “I take him to be my lawful husband,” so by one exercise of faith we take Christ as our Lord. But as sanctification is progressive, we go on in that from faith to faith. But justification through faith in a sub statute does not tuna loose a criminal on society. If it be meant a criminal in deed, it is not true, because to the last farthing the law claim has been met in the payment of the surety. In other words, the law has been fully satisfied. If it be meant in spirit, it is not true, for every justified man is regenerated. A new heart to love God and man has been given, a holy disposition imparted, loving righteousness and hating iniquity. A spirit of obedience, new and mighty motives of gratitude and love are at work, and motive determines very largely the moral quality of action. In other words, the justified man is also a new creature.
It secures in the new creature the only basis of true morality. Morality is conformity with moral law. Immorality is nonconformity with moral law. The first and great commandment of moral law is supreme love toward God, and the second is love to thy neighbor as thyself. “No unregenerate man can make a step in either direction any more than a bad tree can produce good fruit, for “the carnal mind is enmity against God and not subject to his law, neither indeed can be.” The unregenerate is self-centered; the regenerate, Christ centered. The justified man, being regenerate, will be necessarily a better man personally and practically than he was before in every relation of life better in the family, better in society and better in the state. A claim to justification without improvement in these directions is necessarily a false claim.
The writer in Rom 2:17 has already introduced the word, “law,” in a special sense when discussing the case of the Jew as contradistinguished from other nations. And this is the sense of his word, “law,” when he says, “For until the law sin was in the world.” Law, to a Jew, meant the Sinaitic law. But the apostle is proving that law did not originate at Sinai, in any sense except for one nation, as was evident from sin and death anterior to it. First, there was primal law inhering in God’s intent in creating moral beings, and in the very constitution of their being, and in all their relations. And this law, even to Adam in innocence, found statutory expression in the law of labor, the law of marriage, and in the law of the sabbath, as well as in the particular prohibition concerning the tree of death. Immediately after Adam’s fall and expulsion from paradise came the intervention of the grace covenant, with its law of sacrifices, symbolically showing the way of a sinner’s approach to God through vicarious expiation. There were preachers and prophets of grace before the flood, as well as the convicting and regenerating spirit. All these expressions of law passed over the flood with Noah, with several express additions to the statutory law both civil and criminal. Death proved sin, and sin proved law, before we come to Sinai. Adam was under law. Adam sinned and death reigned over him. Adam’s descendants down to Moses died. Therefore they had sinned, and therefore were under the law. But their sin was not like Adam’s in several parties ulars: (1) They did not sin as the head of a race. (2) They did not sin from a standpoint of innocence and holiness, but from an inherited depravity. (3) They sinned under a grace covenant which Adam had not in paradise. This last particular is here emphasized, where grace in justification is contrasted with the condemnation through Adam’s one offense.
If then the Sinaitic code did not originate law, what was its purpose? “The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound.” This purpose of the law will be considered more elaborately later. Just here it is sufficient to say that the Sinaitic code under three great departments, or heads, is the most marvelous and elaborate expression of law known to history. Its three heads or constituent elements, as we learn in the Old Testament, are
1. The decalogue, or moral law, or God and the normal man.
2. The law of the altar, or God and the sinner, or the sinner’s symbolic way of approach to God, including a place to find him, a means of propitiating him) times to approach him, and an elaborate ritual of service.
3. The judgments, or God and the State, in every variety of municipal, civil, and criminal law.
So broad, so deep, so high, so minute, so comprehensive is this code, so bright is its light, that every trespass in thought, word, and deed is not only made manifest, but is made to abound, in order that where sin abounded grace would abound exceedingly.
QUESTIONS
1. What was the one offense committed by the first Adam?
2. On whom did race responsibility rest, Adam or Eve, or both; why?
3. If only Eve had sinned, what would have been the result?
4. What error has since arisen from holding Eve responsible?
5. What to the contrary does history show?
6. What bearing has this fact on the Second Adam?
7. How could Jesus, being born of a depraved woman, escape a depraved nature?
8. What the propriety of salvation by the Second Adam?
9. How did Christ meet all the law requirements?
10. What is the value of the first three items?
11. What is Christ’s one act of righteousness, which is the sole ground of our justification?
12. What particular proof of this one act of righteousness from both Testaments?
13. What does the combined text mean by “one exercise of faith”?
14. How is it that justification through faith in a substitute does not turn loose a criminal on society?
15. How then is it that it does not demoralize?
16. Explain the parenthetic statement in Rom 5:13-17 and also Rom 5:20-21 .
17. If the Sinaitic code did not originate the law, what was its purpose?
18. What are the three constituent elements of the Sinaitic law?
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Ver. 12. As by one man ] Yet Anabaptists deny original sin, as did also the Pelagians of old, confuted by Augustine. Egranus, a German preacher, said (as Melancthon reporteth) that original sin is a mere fiction of Augustine and other divines; and that, because there was no such word found in the Scriptures. (Joh. Manl.) Papists say that original sin is the smallest of all sins, not deserving any more of God’s wrath, than only a want of his beatifical presence; and that, too, without any pain or sorrow of mind from the apprehension of so great a loss. There have been among us that have said, that original sin is not forbidden by the law. Directly, indeed, and immediately it is not; but forbidden it is, because cursed and condemned by the law. In original sin is a tacit consent (eminently) to all actual sin. And some understand this text of all sin, both original and actual.
And so death, passed upon all men ] As a sentence of death on a condemned malefactor; or, as those diseases that are called by physicians corruptio totius substantiae; or as the rot overrunneth the whole flock, .
12 19. ] The bringing in of RECONCILIATION and LIFE by CHRIST in its analogy to the bringing in of SIN and DEATH by ADAM.
12. ] This verse is one of acknowledged difficulty. The two questions meeting us directly are (1) To what does refer? (2) , ‘like as,’ may introduce the first member of a comparison, the second being to be discovered; or may introduce the second, the first having to be discovered. I shall endeavour to answer both questions in connexion. (1) I conceive to refer to that blessed state of confidence and hope just described: ‘on this account,’ here meaning, ‘qu cum ita sint:’ ‘this state of things, thus brought about, will justify the following analogy.’ Thus we must take , either ( ) as beginning the comparison, and then supply, ‘so by Christ in His Resurrection came justification into the world, and by justification, life;’ or ( ) as concluding the comparison, and supply before it, ‘it was,’ or ‘Christ wrought.’ This latter method seems to me far the best. For none of the endeavours of Commentators to supply the second limb of the comparison from the following verses have succeeded: and we can hardly suppose such an ellipsis, when the next following comparison ( Rom 5:16 ) is rather a weakening than a strengthening the analogy. We have example of this use of , in Mat 25:14 , and of , Gal 3:6 .
Consequently (the method of God’s procedure in introducing life by righteousness resembled the introduction of death by sin: ‘it was’) like as by one man (the Apostle regards the man as involving generic succession and transmitting the corrupt seed of sin, not the woman : but when he speaks of the personal share which each had in the transgression, 1Ti 2:14 , he says, ‘Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression’) sin (as a POWER ruling over mankind, see ch. Rom 3:9 , and Rom 5:21 , partly as a principle which exists in us all, and developes itself in our conduct, partly as a state in which we are involved; but the idea here must not be confined (Calv.) to original sin , as it reaches much wider, to sin both original and actual: nor to the habit of sinning (as Olsh.): nor is it merely the propensity to sin (as Rthe): nor is sin personified merely as in ch. Rom 7:8 ; Rom 7:11 ) entered into the world (not ‘esse cpit,’ ‘primum commissa est,’ as Reiche, Fritz., and Meyer: but literally , ‘entered into,’ ‘gained access into,’ the moral world , for sin involves moral responsibility. So Gal 3:23 , , ‘before the faith came in ’), and by means of sin (as the appointed penalty for sin, Gen 2:17 ; Gen 3:19 ) death (primarily, but not only , physical death: as , so , is general , including the lesser in the greater, i.e. spiritual and eternal death . See ch. Rom 6:16 ; Rom 6:21 ; Rom 7:10 ; Rom 8:6 ; 2Co 7:10 ), and thus (by this entering in of sin and death; i. e, in fact, by this connexion of sin and death , as appears by ) death (whether . be genuine or not, death is the subject of ) extended to all men (see reff. De W. well says that . . differs from , as the concrete part from the abstract whole, and . from , as the going from house to house differs from the entering a town.
Obs., that although the subject of is plainly only death , not sin and death , yet the spreading of sin over all men is taken for granted , partly in the , partly in the following clause), because ( , lit. of close juxtaposition: and so ‘ on ground of,’ ‘on condition that ,’ which meaning, if rightly applied, suits the case in hand. Life depended on a certain condition, viz. obedience: Death on another, viz. disobedience. Mankind have disobeyed; the condition of Death’s entrance and diffusion has been fulfilled: Death extended to all men, as a consequence of the fact, that, posito, that, = because , all have sinned.
Orig [30] , Aug [31] , Beza, and Estius render it as Vulg., ‘ in quo ’ (Adam): Chrys., Theophyl., c [32] , Elsner, ‘ propter quem :’ Grot., ‘ per quem ’) all sinned (see ch. Rom 3:23 : not ‘ were sinful ,’ or ‘ were born in sin ,’ as Calvin would restrict the meaning: sin , as above remarked, is here, throughout, both original and actual : in the seed , as planted in the nature by the sin of our forefather: and in the fruit , as developed by each conscious responsible individual in his own practice. So that Calvin’s argument, ‘hic non agi de actuali peccato, colligere promptum est: quia si reatum quisque sibi arcesseret, quorsum conferret Paulus Adam cum Christo?’ does not apply, and the objection is answered by Paul himself, where he says, distinguishing between the and the below, Rom 5:15-16 , . The was not only that of one, the original cause of the entry of sin, but the often repeated sins of individual men: nor, ‘ suffered the punishment of sin ,’ as Grot. and Chrys., ).
[30] Origen, b. 185, d. 254
[31] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo , 395 430
[32] cumenius of Tricca in Thrace, Cent y . XI.?
Observe how entirely this assertion of the Apostle contradicts the Pelagian or individualistic view of men, that each is a separate creation from God, existing solely on his own exclusive responsibility, and affirms the Augustinian or traducian view, that all are evolved by God’s appointment from an original stock, and though individually responsible, are generically involved in the corruption and condemnation of their original.
12 8:39. ] THE POWER OF GOD (ch. Rom 1:16 ) IS SET FORTH AS FREEING FROM THE DOMINION OF SIN AND DEATH, AND ISSUING IN SALVATION.
Rom 5:12-21 . The treatment of the righteousness of God, as a Divine gift to sinners in Jesus Christ, is now complete, and the Apostle might have passed on to his treatment of the new life (chaps. 6 8). But he introduces at this point a digression in which a comparison which in most points is rather a contrast is made between Adam and Christ. Up to this point he has spoken of Christ alone, and the truth of what he has said rests upon its own evidence; it is not affected in the least by any difficulty we may have in adapting what he says of Adam to our knowledge or ignorance of human origins. The general truth he teaches here is that there is a real unity of the human race, on the one hand in sin and death, on the other in righteousness and life; in the former aspect the race is summed up in Adam; in the latter, in Christ. It is a distinction, apparently, between the two, that the unity in Adam is natural, having a physical basis in the organic connection of all men through all generations; whereas the unity in Christ is spiritual, being dependent upon faith. Yet this distinction is not specially in view in the passage, which rather treats Adam and Christ in an objective way, the transition (morally) from Adam’s doom to that of man being only mediated by the words in Rom 5:12 , and the connection between Christ and the new humanity by in vet. 17.
Rom 5:12 . refers to that whole conception of Christ’s relation to the human race which is expounded in chaps. Rom 3:21 to Rom 5:11 . But as this is summed up in Rom 5:1-11 , and even in the last words of Rom 5:11 (through Him we received the reconciliation) the grammatical reference may be to these words only. : the sentence beginning thus is not finished; cf. Mat 25:14 . There is a virtual apodosis in the last clause of Rom 5:14 : ; the natural conclusion would have been, “so also by one man righteousness entered into the world, and life by righteousness”. Cf. Winer, p. 712 f. By the entrance of sin into the world is not meant that sin began to be, but that sin as a power entered into that sphere in which man lives. Sin, by Divine appointment, brought death in its train, also as an objective power; the two things were inseparably connected, and consequently death extended over all men (for , cf. Ps. 87:17, Eze 5:17 ) . The connection of sin and death was a commonplace of Jewish teaching, resting apparently on a literal interpretation of Gen 3 Cf. Sap. Rom 2:23 f. . Cf. also Sir 25:24 , Rom 6:23 , 1Co 15:56 . Paul no doubt uses death to convey various shades of meaning in different places, but he does not explicitly distinguish different senses of the word; and it is probably misleading rather than helpful to say that in one sentence (here, for example) “physical” death is meant, and in another (chap. Rom 7:24 , e.g. ) “spiritual” death. The analysis is foreign to his mode of thinking. All that “death” conveys to the mind entered into the world through sin. The words , in which the resumes of the preceding clause, give the explanation of the universality of death: it rests upon the universality of sin. means propterea quod as in 2Co 5:4 and perhaps in Phi 3:12 . Winer, 491. But in what sense is the universality of sin to be understood? In other words, what precisely is meant by ? Many interpreters take the aorist rigorously, and render: because all sinned, i.e. , in the sin of Adam. Omnes peccarunt, Adamo peccante (Bengel). This is supported by an appeal to 2Co 5:14 , : the death of one was the death of all; so here, the sin of one was the sin of all. It seems to me a final objection to this (grammatically quite sound) interpretation, that it really makes the words meaningless. They are evidently meant to explain how the death which came into the world through Adam’s sin obtained its universal sway, and the reason is that the sin of which death is the consequence was also universally prevalent. The sense in which this was so has been already proved in chap. 3, and the aorist is therefore to be taken as in Rom 3:23 : see note there. Because all men were, in point of fact, sinners, the death which is inseparable from sin extended over all. To drag in the case of infants to refute this; on the ground that does not apply to them (unless in the sense that they sinned in Adam) is to misconceive the situation: to Paul’s mind the world consists of persons capable of sinning and of being saved. The case of those in whom the moral consciousness, or indeed any consciousness whatever, has not yet awakened, is simply to be disregarded. We know, and can know, nothing about it. Nothing has been more pernicious in theology than the determination to define sin in such a way that in all its damning import the definition should be applicable to “infants”; it is to this we owe the moral atrocities that have disfigured most creeds, and in great part the idea of baptismal regeneration, which is an irrational unethical miracle, invented fry men to get over a puzzle of their own making.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rom 5:12-14
12Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned- 13for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14Nevertheless 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.
Rom 5:12 “Therefore” Romans has several strategically placed “therefores” (cf. Rom 5:1; Rom 8:1; Rom 12:1). The interpretive question is to what they relate. They could be a way of referring to Paul’s whole argument. For sure this one relates to Genesis and, therefore, probably back to Rom 1:18-32.
“as through one man sin entered into the world” All three verbs in Rom 5:12 are aorist tense. Adam’s fall brought death (cf. 1Co 15:22). The Bible does not dwell on the origin of sin. Sin also occurred in the angelic realm (cf. Genesis 3 and Rev 12:7-9). How and when are uncertain (cf. Isa 14:12-27; Eze 28:12-19; Job 4:18; Mat 25:41; Luk 10:18; Joh 12:31; Rev 12:7-9).
Adam’s sin involved two aspects (1) disobedience to a specific commandment (cf. Gen 2:16-17), and (2) self-oriented pride (cf. Gen 3:5-6). This continues the allusion to Genesis 3 begun in Rom 1:18-32.
It is the theology of sin that so clearly separates Paul from rabbinical thought. The rabbis did not focus on Genesis 3; they asserted instead, that there were two “intents” (yetzers) in every person. Their famous rabbinical saying “In every man’s heart is a black and a white dog. The one you feed the most becomes the biggest.” Paul saw sin as a major barrier between holy God and His creation. Paul was not a systematic theologian (cf. James Steward’s A Man in Christ). He gave several origins of sin (1) Adam’s fall, (2) satanic temptation, and (3) continuing human rebellion (i.e., Eph 2:2-3).
In the theological contrasts and parallels between Adam and Jesus two possible implications are present.
1. Adam was a real historical person.
2. Jesus was a real human being.
Both of these truths affirm the Bible in the face of false teaching. Notice the repeated use of “one man” or “the one.” These two ways of referring to Adam and Jesus are used eleven times in this context.
“one man” This generic phrase (lit. henos anthrpou) is used to represent Adam (Rom 5:12; Rom 5:16-19) or Jesus (Rom 5:15 [twice], 17 [twice], 18,19). They each represent a group or community (i.e., “many,” cf. Rom 5:15 [twice], 19[twice]; “all,” cf. Rom 5:12-13; Rom 5:18 [twice]).
“death through sin” Augustine first coined the term “original sin.” It describes the consequences of Adam/Eve’s choices in Genesis 3. Their rebellion has affected all of creation. Humans are impacted by
1. a fallen world system
2. a personal tempter
3. a fallen nature
Original sin (Rom 5:12-14; Rom 5:16 a,17) forms a partnership with personal sin (Rom 5:12 d,16b) to make all humans sinful! Sin results in “death” (cf. Rom 1:32; Rom 6:13; Rom 6:16; Rom 6:21; Rom 6:23; Rom 7:5; Rom 7:9-11; Rom 7:13; Rom 7:24; Rom 8:13).
The Jerome Biblical Commentary (p. 308) mentions the rabbinical tradition that there were three periods of history.
1. Adam – Moses
2. Moses – Messiah
3. Messiah – eschaton
If Paul was thinking of these divisions then
1. Adam – Moses (original sin, no law but death)
2. Moses – Messiah (personal sin, violation of law)
3. Messiah – (freedom from the Law/law through grace)
“death spread to all men” The major thrust of this paragraph is the universality of the consequences of sin (cf. Rom 5:16-19; 1Co 15:22; Gal 1:10), which is death.
1. spiritual death – Gen 2:17; Gen 3:1-24; Isa 59:2; Rom 7:10-11; Eph 2:1; Col 2:13; Jas 1:15
2. physical death – Gen 3:4-5; Gen 5:1-32
3. eternal death – Rev 2:11; Rev 20:6; Rev 20:14; Rev 21:8
“because all sinned” All humans sin in Adam corporately (i.e., inherited a sinful state and a sinful propensity.) Because of this each person chooses to sin personally and repeatedly. The Bible is emphatic that all humans are sinners both corporately and individually (cf. 1Ki 8:46; 2Ch 6:36; Psa 14:1-2; Psa 130:3; Psa 143:2; Pro 20:9; Ecc 7:20; Isa 9:17; Isa 53:6; Rom 3:9-18; Rom 3:23; Rom 5:18; Rom 11:32; Gal 3:22; 1Jn 1:8-10).
Yet it must be said that the contextual emphasis (cf. Rom 5:15-19) is that one act caused death (Adam) and one act causes life (Jesus). However, God has so structured His relationship to humanity that human volition is a significant aspect of “lostness” and “justification.” Humans are volitionally involved in their future destinies! They continue to choose sin or they choose Christ. They cannot affect these two choices, but they do volitionally show to which they belong!
The translation “because” is common, but its meaning is often disputed. Paul used eph’ h in 2Co 5:4; Php 3:12; and Php 4:10 in the sense of “because.” Thus each and every human chooses to personally participate in sin and rebellion against God. Some by rejecting special revelation, but all by rejecting natural revelation (cf. Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20).
Rom 5:13-14 This same truth is taught in Rom 3:20; Rom 4:15 and Act 17:30. God is fair. Humans are only responsible for what is available to them. This verse is speaking exclusively of special revelation (OT, Jesus, NT), not natural revelation (Psa 19:1-6; Rom 1:18-23; Rom 2:11-16).
Notice that the NKJV sees the comparison of Rom 5:12 as separated by a long parenthesis (cf. Rom 5:13-17) from its conclusion in Rom 5:18-21.
Rom 5:14
NASB, NKJV,
NJB”death reigned”
NRSV”death exercised dominion”
TEV”death ruled”
Death reigned as a King (cf. Rom 5:17; Rom 5:21). This personification of death and sin as tyrants is sustained throughout this chapter and Romans 6. The universal experience of death confirms the universal sin of mankind. In Rom 5:17; Rom 5:21, grace is personified. Grace reigns! Humans have a choice (the two ways of the OT, i.e., death or life, cf. Deu 11:26; Deu 30:1; Deu 30:19), death or life. Who reigns in your life?
“even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offence of Adam” Adam violated a stated command of God (i.e., Gen 2:15-17), even Eve did not sin in this same way. She heard from Adam about the tree, not from God directly. Humans from Adam until Moses were affected by Adam’s rebellion! They did not violate a specific command from God, but Rom 1:18-32, which is surely part of this theological context, expresses the truth that they did violate the light that they had from creation and are thereby responsible to God for rebellion/sin. Adam’s sinful propensity spread to all of his children.
NASB, NKJV,
NRSV”who is a type of Him who was to come”
TEV”Adam was a figure of the one who was to come”
NJB”Adam prefigured the One to come”
This expresses in a very concrete way the Adam-Christ typology (cf. 1Co 15:21-22; 1Co 15:45-49; Php 2:6-8). Both of them are seen as the first in a series, the origin of a race (cf. 1Co 15:45-49). Adam is the only person from the OT specifically called a “type” by the NT (for “Israel” see 1Co 10:6). See Special Topic: Form (Tupos) at Rom 6:17.
Wherefore = On account of (App-104. Rom 5:2) this. Having described the fruits of sin, the apostle now goes on to deal with the root.
as = just as.
man. App-123. Compare 1Co 15:21.
sin. App-128.
world. App-129.
death, &c. = by means of sin, death.
passed = passed through.
upon = unto. App-104.
for that = because. Greek. eph’ (App-104.) ho.
have. Omit.
sinned. i.e. in Adam, as representative. See Rom 3:23. App-128.
12-8:39.] THE POWER OF GOD (ch. Rom 1:16) IS SET FORTH AS FREEING FROM THE DOMINION OF SIN AND DEATH, AND ISSUING IN SALVATION.
Rom 5:12. , wherefore) This has regard to the whole of the preceding discussion, from which the apostle draws these conclusion concerning sin and righteousness, herein making not so much a digression as a regression. In imitation of Pauls method, we must treat, in the first place, of actual sin, according to the first and following chapters, and then go back to the source in which sin originated. Paul does not speak altogether expressly of that which theologians call original sin; but, in truth the sin of Adam is sufficient to demonstrate mans guilt; the very many, and most mournful fruits resulting from it, are sufficient for the demonstration of mans habitual corruption. And man, in consequence of justification, at length looks back upon, and apprehends the doctrine concerning the origin of evil, and the other things connected with it. This second part, however, is in special connection with the first part of this chapter; comp. the much more, which reigns [Rom 5:17] on both sides [i.e. grace reigning and triumphing abundantly over both original sin and habitual corruption]; Rom 5:9, etc., 15, etc., for the very glorying of believers is exhibited; comp. Rom 5:11 [we glory, or Engl. vers. we joy] with Rom 5:21. The equality, too, of Jews and Gentiles, and consequently of all men, is herein included.-, as) The Protasis, which the words and so continue; for it is not so also that follows [which would follow, if the apodosis began here]. The apodosis, from a change in the train of thoughts and words, is concealed in what follows.-, man) Why is nothing said of the woman? Ans. 1. Adam had received the commandment. 2. He was not only the Head of his race, but also of Eve. 3. If Adam had not listened to the voice of his wife, not more than one would have sinned. Moreover, why is nothing said of Satan, who is the primary cause of sin? Ans. 1. Satan is opposed to God; Adam to Christ; moreover, here the economy of grace is described as it belongs to Christ, rather than as it belongs to God: therefore, God is once mentioned, Rom 5:15; Satan is never mentioned. 2. What has Satan to do with the grace of Christ?- – , sin-death) These are two distinct evils, which Paul discusses successively at very great length.- ) into this world, which denotes the human race-, entered) began to exist in the world; for it had not previously existed outside of the world.- , and by) Therefore, death could not have entered before sin.- ) and so, namely, by one man.-) unto [or upon] all, wholly.-, passed) when sin once entered, which had not been in the world from the beginning.- ) with the verb has the same signification, as with the genitive, . The meaning is, through the fact that, or in other words, inasmuch as all have sinned, comp. the , 2Co 5:4, and presently after, the other , occurring in Rom 5:14.-) all without exception. The question is not about the particular sin of individuals; but in the sin of Adam all have sinned, as all died in the death of Christ for their salvation, 2Co 5:15. The Targum on Ruth, ch. 4, at the end: On account of the counsel, which the serpent gave to Eve, all the inhabitants of the earth became subject to death, , Targum on Eccl. ch. 7, at the end. The serpent and Eve made the day of death rush suddenly upon man and upon all the inhabitants of the earth. Sin precedes death; but the universality of death becomes known earlier than the universality of sin. This plan of arrangement is adopted with respect to the four clauses in this verse.
Rom 5:12
Rom 5:12
Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned. Though Eve first ate of the forbidden fruit, Adam’s eating it completed the transgression and made it unanimous. Paul follows the usual custom of speaking of the man instead of the woman. He indulges in no reasoning as to why they sinned; he merely states the fact that they did sin. He speaks of it merely to draw a contrast between the effects of what Adam did and the effects of what Christ did; and he did this to show how the gospel of Christ more than overcomes the effects of Adam’s sin. Christianity is not concerned with the origin of sin so much as with the fact of sin. The gospel did not bring sin into the world, but it was brought into the world as the panacea for sin and all its ills. Death resulted from sin. But what death is here meant? It is true that physical death came as a result of sin, but so also does spiritual death. The context and the nature of Paul’s argument must determine which death is here meant. In this Roman letter Paul frequently uses the word death, without saying which death he means, leaving the reader to determine from the context which death he means. The context favors the idea that death in verse 12 is spiritual death. The moral and spiritual condition of man and the gospel plan of justification had been the matter under discussion. Besides, the death here mentioned passed upon all men on account of their own sins. Physical death came upon all on account of Adam’s sin, but the death here mentioned came only upon those who sinned. Facts are against the idea that all men suffer physical death on account of their own sins; but spiritual death does come in that way, and hi no other way. The condition of infants and idiots is not taken into consideration in the discussion of sin and spiritual death. They die a physical death, even though they have not sinned.
It is generally agreed that Rom 5:13-17 is parenthetical, and that the thought started in Rom 5:12 is resumed in Rom 5:18, Such parentheses are frequent in Paul’s writing.
Death through Adam, Life through Christ
Rom 5:12-21
This is the profoundest and most fundamental section of the whole Epistle. It contains an insight into the deep things of God, 1Co 2:10. We must read it slowly and thoughtfully many times in order to catch its drift. In these comments we can only skim in the most superficial manner across the surface.
We are here taught the unity of the race, not only in Adam, but in Christ. Adams sin has affected the standing of every man; but the grace and the obedience of the One Man, Jesus Christ, have secured for all men the offer of the free gift. The guilt that lay upon the race by the sin of Adam has been removed from the race by the obedience of the Son of man to the Cross. None, therefore, are condemned, on account of that first transgression, or doomed for that primal fall. In a sense, all are made righteous; that is, all stand before God on the basis of their individual, rather than their racial, responsibility. We are not condemned with Adam, but may be condemned, if we refuse to avail ourselves of the grace of Jesus Christ. All that sin forfeited is put within our reach. Nay, we may reach higher heights than Adam, if we will only receive the abundance of the grace of Christ.
Lecture 5 – Rom 5:12-7:25
The Gospel in Relation to Indwelling Sin
Part I
Chapters 5:12-7:25
It will be necessary to take up this third part of the great doctrinal division in two lectures because of the wide scope of chapter 5:12 to the end of chapter 8. We shall look first therefore at that portion which ends with chapter 7. In the last half of chapter 5 we have the two heads-Adam and Christ. In chapter 6 we have two masters, SIN personified and GOD as revealed in Jesus. In chapter 7 there are two Husbands to be considered-the Law and Christ risen.
The awakened sinner is concerned about one thing: how to be delivered from the judgment his sins have righteously deserved. This aspect of salvation has all been gone into and settled in the portion we have recently gone over. It is never raised again. As we go on into this next part of the epistle the question of guilt does not come up. The moment a sinner believes the gospel his responsibility as a child of Adam under the judgment of God is over for ever. But that very moment his responsibility as a child of God begins. He has a new nature that craves what is divine. But he soon discovers that his carnal nature has not been removed nor improved by his conversion to God, and from this fact arises many trying experiences. It often comes as a great shock, when he realizes that he has still a nature capable of every kind of vileness. He is rightly horrified, and may be tempted to question the reality of his regeneration and his justification before God. How can a Holy God go on with one who has such a nature as this? If he tries to fight sin in the flesh he is probably defeated, and learns by bitter experience what Philip Melanchthon, Luthers friend, put so tersely, Old Adam is too strong for young Philip.
Happy is the young convert if at this crisis he comes under sound scriptural instruction instead of falling into the hands of spiritual charlatans who will set him to seeking the elimination of the fleshly nature and the death of the carnal mind. If he follows their advice he will be led into a quagmire of uncertainty and dazzled by the delusive will-o-the-wisp of possible perfection in the flesh, will perhaps flounder for years in the bog of fanaticism and self-torture before reaching the rest that remains for the people of God. I have tried to tell of my own early experiences along this line in a little volume entitled, Holiness, the False and the True, which I am thankful to know has been blessed to the deliverance of many thousands of souls. It was the truth we are now to consider that saved me at last from the wretchedness and disappointments of those early years.
In taking up these chapters I desire to antagonize no one but, simply, to constructively open up the line of truth here set forth for the souls blessing.
And first we have to consider the two great families and the two federal heads of chapter Rom 5:12-21.
The moment a man is justified by faith he is also born of God. His justification is, as we have seen, his official clearance before the throne of God. His regeneration involves his introduction into a new family. He becomes a part of the New Creation of which the risen Christ is the Head. Adam the first was federal head of the old race. Christ Risen, the Second Man and the Last Adam, is Head of the new race. The old creation fell in Adam, and all his descendants were involved in his ruin. The new creation stands eternally secure in Christ, and all who have received life from Him are sharers in the blessings procured by His cross and secured by His life at Gods right hand.
Joyful now the new creation
Rests in undisturbed repose,
Blest in Jesus full salvation,
Sorrow now nor thraldom knows.
It is the apprehension of this that settles the question of the believers security and thus gives a scriptural basis for the doctrine of deliverance from the power of sin.
It will be observed that the subject begun in verse Rom 5:12 is concluded in verses Rom 5:18-21. The intervening passage (verses Rom 5:13-17) is parenthetical, or explanatory. It may be best therefore for us to examine the parenthesis first. Sin was in the world dominating man from Adams fall even before the law was given by Moses; but sin did not as yet have the distinct character of transgression till a legal code was given to man: which he consciously violated. Therefore, apart from law, sin was not imputed. Nevertheless that it was there and to be reckoned with, is manifest, for by sin came death and death reigned as a despotic monarch over all men from Adam to Moses, save as God interfered in the case of Enoch, who was translated that he should not see death. Even where there was no wilful sin, as in the case of infants and irresponsible persons, death reigned, thus proving that they were part of a fallen race federally involved in Adams sin and actually possessing Adams fallen nature. He who was originally created in the image and likeness of God defaced that image by sin and lost the divine likeness, and we read that Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image (Gen 5:3). This is characteristic of all the race of which he is the head. In Adam all die.
Theologians may wrangle about the exact meaning of all this and rationalists may utterly refuse to accept it, but the fact remains, It is appointed unto men once to die, and apart from divine interference each one may well say with the poet:
I have a rendezvous with death,
I shall not fail my rendezvous.
You have doubtless heard of the epitaph, often mentioned in this connection, which is engraven on a tombstone marking the resting place of the bodies of four young children in St. Andrews churchyard in Scotland:
Bold infidelity, turn pale and die.
Beneath this stone four sleeping infants lie:
Say, are they lost or saved?
If deaths by sin, they sinned, for they are here.
If heavens by works, in heaven they cant appear,
Reason, ah, how depraved!
Turn to the Bibles sacred page, the knots untied:
They died, for Adam sinned; they live, for Jesus died.
There is no other solution to the problem of childhood suffering than that of the fall of the race in Adam.
But Adam was a figure, an antitype, of Him who was to come-yea, who has come and has Himself taken the responsibility of undoing the effects of the fall for all who, trusting in Him, become recipients of His resurrection life; and with this is linked a perfect righteousness which is eternal in duration and divine in origin. There is a difference as to the offence and the gift however. Adams one offence involved his race in the consequences of his fall. Christ, having satisfied divine justice, offers the gift of life by grace to all who will believe and so it abounds unto many. Notice that here in verse Rom 5:15 we have the third much more.
Nor is it merely that as by one that sinned so is the gift-for the one sin brought universal condemnation, putting the whole race under judgment. But the reception of the gift of life and righteousness in faith places the recipient in the position of justification from all things irrespective of the number of offences. Death reigned because of one offence. But we are told that much more, those who receive this abundance of grace and this free gift of righteousness now reign triumphant over death in life by Jesus Christ, the one who has overcome death and says, Because I live ye shall live also.
This is the substance of the parenthesis. Now let us go back-with all this in mind-to verse Rom 5:12, and link it with verses Rom 5:18-21. Sin entered into the world by one man and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for all have sinned, inasmuch as all were in the loins of Adam when he fell and all the race is involved in the defection of its head.
Now look at verse Rom 5:18. Therefore as by one offence there came universal condemnation, even so by one accomplished act of righteousness on the cross there comes an offer to all-that of justification of life. In other words, a life is offered as a free gift to all who are involved in the consequences of Adams sin, which is the eternal life manifested in the Son of God who once lay low in death under the sentence of condemnation, but arose in triumph having abolished death, and now as Head of a new race imparts His own resurrection life-a life with which no charge of sin can ever be linked-to all who believe in Him. They share henceforth in a life to which sin can never be in any sense attached. This is a new creation, of which Paul writes so fully in 2Corinthians Chapter 5 and in 1Corinthians Chapter 15: If any man be in Christ it is new creation. And it is in new creation that all is of God; Old things have passed away and all things have become new. So we get the full force of the word, As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. It is not universal salvation, nor is it merely that He will raise all the dead, but the two races, the two creations, the two Headships, are in contrast. Christ is the beginning, the origin, the federal Head of the creation of God (Rev 3:14). As the risen Man at Gods right hand, having passed through death He now is the fountain of life, pure, holy, unpolluted life, to all who believe. So we are now before God in justification of life.
By one mans disobedience the many were constituted sinners. Much more, by one glorious act of obedience unto death on the part of Him who is now our new Head, the many are constituted righteous.
The coming in of the law added to the gravity of the offence. It gave sin the specific character of transgression. But where sin abounded (had reached its flood-tide, so to speak) grace did much more abound, that is, grace super-abounded, so that as sin reigned like a despotic monarch throughout the long centuries before the cross, unto the death of all his subjects, now grace is on the throne and reigns through accomplished righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord!
What a gospel! What a plan! It is perfect; it is divine; like God Himself! How gloriously do these five much mores bring out the marvels of grace!
4. In Christ.
The Sanctification of the Believer; his Deliverance from Sin and the Law; Children and Heirs.
Chapter 5:12-8.
CHAPTER 5:12-21
1. Sin and Death Through the First Adam. (Rom 5:12-14.)
2. In Adam by Nature; in Christ Through Grace(Rom 5:15-21.)
So far the subject of this Epistle has been our sins and how God has dealt with them in the Cross of Christ. The guilt and penalty of the sins of the believer are forever gone. With this section the question of sin itself is taken up and we learn how the justified believer is also sanctified in Christ and as such delivered from the dominion of sin and from the law. Furthermore we learn it also includes that believers are children and heirs of God. To distinguish between sins and sin is important. Sin is that evil principle in us, as fallen creatures, and sins are the fruits which spring from the evil root in us. Sin, the old nature, and how God deals with it in virtue of the redemption of Jesus Christ, is now, first of all, revealed. What we were in Adam and what we are through grace in Christ, how as identified with Christ we may be delivered from the power of indwelling sin, are truths unknown to many believers. Without this knowledge a true Christian experience, such which a believer should constantly enjoy, is impossible. One of the chief reasons why true believers are carried about with divers and strange doctrines, is the ignorance of these great facts of our redemption in Christ as unfolded in this part of Romans. How many others are constantly striving and struggling to lead a spiritual life and fail in it because they know not the great principles of sanctification and deliverance in Christ.
Rom 5:12-14
Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death and thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. By one man, the first Adam, sin entered into the world (not sins, but sin). And death followed, which is physical death. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return, and this death has passed upon the race because of sin. The margin of the authorized version contains a statement which is responsible for a very unscriptural teaching. The margin states in whom all have sinned; upon this it has been taught that the guilt of Adam has been imputed to all. This is not correct. We are not responsible for the sin of Adam nor are we held responsible by God for a sinful nature; we are responsible for the outworking of that nature, that is for our own sins. The wicked dead, those whose sins were not taken away, because they believed not, will not be judged for having had a sinful nature, but solely according to their works (Rev 20:12). Death comes upon us on account of our sins, as it is stated in this verse death passed upon all men for that all have 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 them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression, who is the figure of Him to come. This looks difficult, but it is simple after all. The law was given by Moses; from Adam to Moses there was no law, men were left to conscience, by which they knew good and evil. But death reigned nevertheless from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression. Adam had a commandment which he transgressed, inasmuch as there was no law till Moses, the generations could not sin after the similitude of Adams transgression. Sin is lawlessness and not as the faulty translation of 1Jn 3:4 states, sin is the transgression of the law. However, sin becomes transgression when there is a law. As there was no law from Adam to Moses, sin was therefore not imputed as transgression. But as they all sinned, death reigned and there is also judgment afterwards for them. The last sentence of Rom 5:14 who is the figure of Him that was to come is the important statement which is fully developed in the verses which follow and upon which the whole argument rests.
Rom 5:15-21
The first Adam is the type of the last, Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. The same comparison is also found in 1Co 15:1-58 For as all in Adam die, even so all in Christ shall be made alive (1Co 15:22). This passage has often been used by those who teach the ultimate, universal salvation of the whole race. It has nothing whatever to do with salvation from the penalty of sin, but it applies to the resurrection of the bodies of the redeemed. Here in Romans the contrast is of a different nature. Adam and Christ are viewed as two heads, having each his offspring to whom they communicate something. The first Adam bestows upon his offspring the results of his sin; Christ, the last Adam,* bestows upon those who belong to Him, by personal faith in Him, the blessed consequences of His great work. (Christ is never called the second Adam, but the last Adam, as there will not be another after Him.) A sinful nature and physical death is what we have as the children of the first Adam. In Christ the believer receives a sinless nature, eternal life and glory. In this sense Adam is the figure of Him to come.
The first sentence of Rom 5:15-16 is best put in the form of a question. This helps much in understanding this deep portion of the Epistle. But shall not the free gift be as the offence? By the offence of Adam the many died, his offspring has been affected by his Offence. In like manner the grace of God and the gift of Grace, which is by the other Adam, Jesus Christ abounds also to the many. The question asked must therefore be answered in the affirmative. This and the following verses have also been used to teach that there is universal salvation. But it does not mean that. The condition faith in Christ must not be lost sight of. We are all in the first Adam by the natural birth; identification with the second Man is only possible by the new birth and that takes Place when a sinner believes on Christ and in His finished work. Those who do not believe are in Adam and are dead in trespasses and sins. And shall not as by one that has sinned be the gift? For the judgment was of one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification (Rom 5:16). The sins committed are here in view. Our sin brought judgment. The free gift of justification, on account of Christs atoning sacrifice, is blessedly sufficient to deliver from the guilt of many offences. For if by the offence of one death reigned by the one; much more shall those who receive the abundance of grace, and Of the free gift of righteousness, reign in life by the one, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17). The Previous verse spoke of the guilt of sins, which rests upon all those who are in Adam and this guilt is met in Christ by justification. In Rom 5:17 death which reigns in the first man is met by reign of life in Jesus Christ. Those who believe on Him have life now and are delivered from the reign of death. When He comes, the bodies of His Saints will be raised in incorruption and we who remain shall be changed in a moment and be caught up into His Presence without dying. Rom 5:18 in the Authorized version is poorly translated and misleading. So then as it was by one offence towards all men to condemnation, so by one righteousness towards all men to justification of life. This blessed contrast between Adam and Christ is made again in Rom 5:19. For as indeed by the disobedience of the one man (Adam) the many have been constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the one the many shall be constituted righteous. Here it is the contrast between Adams disobedience and Christs obedience. And the obedience of Christ which constitutes all who believe on Him righteous, is not His obedient life, but His obedience in the death of the cross. But law came in in order that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded grace overabounded, in order that, even as sin has reigned in the power of death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here for the first time a reason is given why God gave the law. The Epistle to the Galatians will bring the subject of Law and Grace more fully to our attention. Law came in that the offence might abound; it has constituted man a transgressor and in this sense the offence abounds. But grace overabounds. It deals with the transgressions and reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Wonderful and preciously deep contrast! In Adam sin. condemnation and death. In Christ righteousness, justification and eternal life; yea much more, eternal glory. In Adam we have his constitution; in Christ we possess through grace His life and glory.
The “wherefore” relates back to Rom 3:19-23 and may be regarded as a continuation of the discussion of the universality of sin, interrupted; Rom 3:24 to Rom 5:11; by the passage on justification and its results.
have sinned
The first sin wrought the moral ruin of the race. The demonstration is simple.
(1) Death is universal (Rom 4:12; Rom 4:14), all die: sinless infants, moral people, religious people, equally with the depraved. For a universal effect there must be a universal cause; that cause is a state of universal sin (Rom 5:12).
(2) But this universal state must have had a cause. It did. The consequence of Adam’s sin was that “the many were made sinners” (Rom 5:19)–“By the offence of one judgment came upon all men unto condemnation” (Rom 5:18).
(3) Personal sins are not meant here. From Adam to Moses death reigned (Rom 5:14), although, there being no law, personal guilt was not imputed (Rom 5:13). Accordingly, from Gen 4:7 to Exo 29:14 the sin-offering is not once mentioned. Then, since physical death from Adam to Moses was not due to the sinful acts of those who die (Rom 5:13), it follows that it was due to a universal sinful state, or nature, and that state is declared to be out inheritance from Adam.
(4) the moral state of fallen man is described in Scripture Gen 6:5; 1Ki 8:46; Psa 14:1-3; Psa 39:5; Jer 17:9; Mat 18:11; Mar 7:20; Mar 7:23; Rom 1:21; Rom 2:1-29; Rom 3:9-19; Rom 7:24; Rom 8:7; Joh 3:6; 1Co 2:14; 2Co 3:14; 2Co 4:4; Gal 5:19-21; Eph 2:1-3; Eph 2:11; Eph 2:12; Eph 4:18-22; Col 1:21; Heb 3:13; Jam 4:14; 1Co 15:22.
as by: Rom 5:19, Gen 3:6
and death: Rom 6:23, Gen 2:17, Gen 3:19, Gen 3:22-24, Eze 18:4, 1Co 15:21, Jam 1:15, Rev 20:14, Rev 20:15
for that: or, in whom
all: Rom 3:23, Jam 3:2, 1Jo 1:8-10
Reciprocal: Gen 5:3 – in his Gen 5:5 – and he died Gen 6:17 – shall die Gen 50:24 – I die Lev 12:2 – If a woman Num 19:11 – toucheth the dead Num 27:3 – died in his Job 14:4 – Who can bring Psa 49:10 – wise Psa 51:5 – shapen Isa 43:27 – first father Hos 13:1 – died Luk 8:42 – and she Act 17:26 – hath made Rom 5:15 – many Rom 5:17 – For if Rom 5:18 – upon Rom 8:10 – the body 1Co 15:22 – in Adam 1Co 15:45 – The first 1Co 15:48 – such are they also that are earthy Gal 3:22 – concluded Eph 2:3 – by Heb 7:9 – payed Heb 9:27 – as
ADAM AND CHRIST
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.
Rom 5:12; Rom 5:19
A comparison and contrast this, often occurring elsewhere in the Apostles writings. Here it is said expressly: Adam is a type of Him Who was to come; that is, of Christ. Adam and Christ, type and antitype, in nature as in influence!
The one Adam and the one Christ! Here are contrasted
I. The one transgression and the one obedience.
II. The dominion of death and the kingdom of life.
III. The condemnation on all and the abounding grace for all.
Illustrations
(1) Who will still contend, who will doubt, when over against the one Adam stands the one Christ, in such a way that the sin of the one begets and draws after it innumerable new sins, while the gift of Jesus Christ brings justification from many sins, the obedience of the Saviour makes many righteous? There the one Adam, who in Eden fell a victim to temptation, to doubt, to misbelief, and other great crimes and sins, while wishing to be like God; here the one Son of Man, Who in the wilderness with It is written wields a victorious sword, and deems it not robbery to be equal with God, and although in the form of God humbles Himself, and by an emptying of Himself beyond comparison becomes the dispenser of every heavenly blessing.
(2) What sombre witnesses to the unity of the human race St. Paul summons! First of all, indeed, sin itself, which shows itself unmistakably in all places and at all times, far as humanity extends. But at the same time he points to death, this most terrible of all preachers of repentance.
The As and So of Scripture
Rom 5:12-21
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We wrote a booklet on “As and So,” dealing with the “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.” We now present the wider meanings of some of these Bible combinations-As and So.
Perhaps the most striking combinations of the two words are to be found in the fifth chapter of Romans. Let me jot down some of these for you.
“As by one man sin entered * * so death passed upon all” (Rom 5:12).
“As the offence, so also is the free gift” (Rom 5:15).
“Not as * * by one * * so is the gift” (Rom 5:16).
“As by the offence of one * * judgment * * so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men” (Rom 5:18).
“As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous” (Rom 5:19).
“As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign” (Rom 5:21).
We have before us a comparison well worthy of thought. Here are some further suggestions:
1. In each case (excepting the last where it is inferred) the whole entail of sin is laid at the feet of Adam’s transgression. How far-reaching then does Adam’s sin become? How far-reaching also was Satan’s victory over Adam?
Whatsoever we see today in sin’s sweep and sway may be traced back to the garden of Eden and to Adam the father of us all.
(1) It was by one man sin entered, so death passed upon all. One man could bring in sin and death, but that man, and all of his natural descendents are all helpless to stay sin’s march and sin’s result, which is death.
Every effort at social regeneration, or at salvation by any and every scheme known to man, has utterly failed. Sin still rules the hour and death still reigns.
(2) It was by the offense of one (Adam) that all passed under judgment. Sin cannot go unpunished. When God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden, He gave us a picture of what He must do, and will do to every man under sin.
All are under the condemnation. Not one man can escape God’s judgment nor His wrath. We speak of man, every man, under sin. Every son of Adam is condemned, because all have sinned.
2. In each case the whole possibility of righteousness is laid at the feet of Jesus Christ, the Last Adam, God’s Second Man.
(1) Death in Adam passed upon all, for that all have sinned; eternal life passes upon all in Christ who receive the atonement. Death was sin, life eternal is the result of faith.
(2) As was the offense so is the free gift. The offense brought condemnation through the sin of one, the righteousness of Christ brought the free gift upon all.
(3) One man’s disobedience made many sinners; one Man’s obedience makes many righteous. In this statement is found God’s honor and majesty fully sustained. God cannot save the sinner in his sins. God, however, through Christ made the sinner righteous. The sinner’s sin-his disobedience-was placed onto Christ; Christ’s righteousness, by His obedience was passed onto us. He became sin for us, we are made the righteousness of God in Him.
(4) Sin reigned unto death; grace reigns unto eternal life. Here we stop only to stress one thing. Whatever sin did in its havoc of death, grace does in its blessings of righteousness and life. Grace not only abounds over sin, but it superabounds. Man redeemed, reaches a far higher altitude than man knew before sin had touched him.
Thus have we sought to scan briefly the great doctrinal statements of “As Adam * * so Christ” and of “As sin * * so righteousness, and of “As death * * so life.”
We have read how: “Upon a steep precipice in the Alps, near Gemi, a white marble cross is erected. Upon the outstretched arms the inscription is placed, ‘Jesus only.’ A story tells that the only daughter of a noble family, one day while climbing in the mountains, fell from this precipice into the gaping abyss, and lost her life. The parents, bent with grief, could not find comfort. They tried to divert their minds in travel, but could not find any balm. At last they turned to the Lord Jesus, and found comfort and peace. Then upon the mountain slope, where they lost their child, they erected the white cross with the inscription, ‘Jesus only.’ There is no way to real peace or salvation save ‘Jesus only.'”-Frommel’s Sermons.
Thus, in salvation, we pass from the “As” of Adam and sin’s woe to “So” of salvation by Jesus only.
I. THE AS AND SO OF THE CROSS (Joh 3:14)
“As Moses lifted up the serpent * * so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” When Christ spoke these words, He not only placed His stamp of approval upon the historicity of Moses, but He also asserted that Moses’ historical act, which was done under the command of God, was a typical act, looking down through the centuries to the Cross.
Christ’s Words also revealed the fact of His fore-knowledge of His Cross. Back in the days of Moses, He knew that He was destined to die. Again, in the early days of His earth ministry, when He was speaking to Nicodemus relative to the plan of salvation, He knew that He had to die.
It was a miracle that brought healing to all who looked at the uplifted serpent. It is a miracle that brings salvation to all who believe upon the uplifted Christ of Calvary’s Cross.
The “As Moses” was a historic miracle; the “even so must Christ” was, when spoken, a miracle in anticipation.
Let us look into this more carefully. There are three Greek words which are translated into the one English word “Miracle.”
1. The first Greek word is “semeion.” This word means a sign by which anything is designated. The miracle in the wilderness, with its uplifted serpent and the healing of the Israelites, was a sign, because it anticipated and foretold the salvation of sinners through Christ uplifted on the Cross.
It was, moreover, a sign in that it foreshadowed Christ’s death by crucifixion long before such a mode of capital punishment was known to man. It was a sign, again, because the serpent was “accursed,” and, therefore, foreshadowed Christ who was to be made a curse for us. The healing of those who looked was also a sign of the salvation of those who believe in Christ.
2. The second Greek word is “dunamis.” This word suggests Divine power in action. The uplifted serpent was a “dunamis,” because whosoever looked upon it was healed by the power of God. In this sense, the “dunamis” of the uplifted serpent anticipated the “dunamis” or the saving power of God through the Cross. Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”
3. The third Greek word is “teras.” This word means a wonder. It suggests the marvel of a miracle, the amazement that is caused among men by the miraculous. When the bitten Israelites looked to the uplifted serpent and were healed, they marveled at the healing grace of the eternal God. They knew there was no power in a serpent of brass to heal them from the bite of living serpents, therefore, they glorified God. In the case of Christ uplifted, the believer never ceases to marvel at the grace of God made manifest in His redemption through the Christ of Calvary’s Cross. He is filled with praise and wonder as he thinks upon what God hath wrought.
Thus, we have seen how the miracle of “as Moses” is linked to the miracle of “even so Christ”-a miracle builded upon a miracle; faith builded upon faith, Once again the brazen serpent lifted up by Moses is indissolubly joined to the Christ who was lifted up by God.
II. THE AS AND SO OF THE RESURRECTION (Mat 12:40-42)
Once more we have before us a miracle based upon a miracle. Jonah three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, and afterward Jonah cast alive onto the land was a miracle.
Christ three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and afterward, Christ raised from the dead and alive after His passion was a miracle.
1. The miracle of Jonah was a “semeion”-a sign. Christ said, “There shall no sign be given * * but the sign of the Prophet Jonah.”
Christ knew the depths of the Jonah sign, when the sign was first set forth in the experience of Jonah, for it was He who wrought the miracle of Jonah swallowed and undigested; and it was He who spoke to the fish, commanding it to cast out Jonah upon the land.
We need not marvel, therefore, that Christ could, in wisdom, declare to the Jews the sign of the Prophet Jonah, and could, with the same wisdom, base His own Deity, with His death and resurrection, upon the Jonah sign.
2. The miracle of Jonah was a “dunamis”-power. The power of God alone could prepare a fish that could safely house the runaway Prophet; and the power of God alone could cause the fish to cast Jonah alive upon the land.
Thus, also, Christ raised from the dead was a “dunamis,” because only God has power to raise the dead.
May we suggest that as Christians we need to know the “dunamis”-the power of Christ’s resurrection-in our daily walk and life.
3. The miracle of Jonah was a “teras”-a Divine wonder. It was the wonder of Jonah cast alive on the land, and walking alive upon the streets of Nineveh that caused that great city to repent.
No Jewish Prophet, crying, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” could have made the Ninevites to sue for mercy. It was the marvel and the wonder that Jonah lived that startled the Ninevites into believing. They knew that God, and only God, had preserved the Prophet Men of the cloth may doubt the historicity of Jonah, and the possibility of Jonah being swallowed and then cast alive upon the land, but the repentance of Nineveh is the great attest to its truth.
Thus Christ in saying, “As Jonas * * so shall the Son of Man,” based a miracle upon a miracle, and a fact upon a fact.
If Jonah did not live, Christ did not live. Christ, however, did live.
How else can you account for the three thousand saved at Pentecost?
It was the “teras”-the marvel of Christ’s resurrection-that, under the testimony of Peter and the Apostles, and under the power of the descending Spirit, caused the people to cry out, “What shall we do?” and caused them to repent and be baptized.
III. THE AS AND SO OF THE SECOND COMING (Luk 17:28-30)
We have something different before us in the “as” and “so” of the Lord’s Return. The days of Noah and of Lot are likened unto the days of the Coming of the Son of Man.
1. Our Lord did not hesitate to reach back into the historical misty past, and then look forward to the prophetical misty future, and say, “as” and “so.”
He knew the details of both the days of Noah and the days of Lot, for He was there. He knew the details of the day of His Coming, for He lives in one eternal “now,” and He is there. That which is “misty” to man is “clear sky” to Him.
In the days of Noah and of Lot the wickedness of man had come to the full, and the judgment of God, with miraculous power, fell upon man to his utter undoing.
In the day of the Coming of the Son of Man, the world will be ripe in its iniquity and sin; and the judgments of God will again fall in miraculous power.
2. The Greek words “semeion” and “dunamis” and “teras” all had their part in the judgments of God in those days, and they will be followed in close parallels in the day of Christ’s Return to the Mount of Olives.
The comparisons of those historic times, with the times of the. ending of this age, are too many for the space of our study.
With bowed head we marvel at the majesty of the Lord’s vision as He spoke this final “as” and “so.” His words went across the whole opinion of men. He dared to say what unregenerate man had never dared or cared to say. The world wants smooth words, and flattering words, and words of optimism and of the “upward trend.” Christ spoke words to the contrary.
The world wants to prophesy “success,” Christ prophesied “failure.” The Lord even brought the success of the ministrations of the Spirit, and of the Church, in this day of grace, into seeming disrepute. He was, however, in fact, not speaking of the Spirit’s failure, nor of the Church’s collapse, He was showing that man, even under such benign privileges, would prove himself altogether corrupted.
3. The wonder of wonders is that nineteen hundred years have passed since our Lord reached back to the days of Noah and of Lot, and said, “as,” and looked down to the days of His Coming again, and said, “so.” These years have proved that the Lord’s words were true.
The “so” of our day is even now fast running into the mold of the “as” of that early historic day. It is now as it was then. Our only conclusion is that we are drawing very near to the days of the Coming of the Son of Man.
Just this one word more. Let no one become discouraged or shaken in his faith by means of the present apostasy, and the prevailing world-wickedness of men. The present day, with all of its sin and sorrow, should only settle, strengthen, and establish faith-for Christ’s own prophecy has become history; His “as” has become “so,” even as He said.
When darkness shrouds the earth around,
When wickedness and sin abound,
His coming draweth near;
Then shout and sing, hosannas ring,
Lift up your heart with cheer,
Christ comes again, with Heavenly train.
Why should you doubt and fear?
IV. THE AS AND SO OF SERVICE (Joh 17:18)
1. God sent Jesus Christ into the world. When we think of the Lord Jesus among men, we must think of Him as sent of God. He came under orders; He came to accomplish a definite service; He came to do the will of Another; to fulfill the works of Another, and to speak the words of Another.
Every believer is also sent from God. He is under orders. He must work the works of the One who sent him while it is day. He must speak the message which God gives him to speak, and fulfill the task which God gives him to fulfill.
2. God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. The Lord Jesus, when He moved among men, was the Friend of sinners. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. What marvelous grace is wrapped up in this thought!
The world knew not God; the world was rebellious against God; it would not accept God’s Headship. Yet, God sent His Son that the world might not be condemned, but saved.
The Lord Jesus went about doing good, healing and helping, lifting and loving.
Even thus did God send us into the world. The world may hate us as it hated Him, but we must seek to save it. Our ministry is a ministry of love, and of mercy, not of condemnation.
3. God sent His Son to be a propitiation for the sins of the world. Step by step we are entering into the purposes of God toward the world which He, Himself, created. Men are not lost because God hates them. God desires that ail men might be saved. Had God not sent His Son into the world to be a Saviour, no man had ever been saved. Had God not sent His Son as a propitiation, that is, as a mercy seat for sinners, God could not have saved the lost.
Jesus Christ came purposefully to die. He took flesh and blood in order that He might have blood to shed, and that His life might be given as a ransom for men.
God sent Him forth under the Law, that He might redeem those who were under the Law. Men are lost because they reject God’s proffered mercy, and spurn God’s gracious provision.
We, too, are sent as the Son was sent. The words still ring in our ears: “As the Father hath sent Me, * * even so have I also sent [you].”
We cannot die a substitutionary death as our Lord died, but we can share the stigma of His Cross. We may not die as one, for the sins of the world; but we can live or die in behalf of the gospel message that carries the story of salvation to the world.
Some one said, “God had but one Son and He gave Him to be a missionary.” That is true, but in that one Son many have become sons, and they are all sent to be missionaries. Even now we can hear Christ voicing the deeper meaning of our text, as He says, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
Souls are dying, dying, dying, in the night,
Hear them crying, crying, crying, for the light,
Who will be their guiding star,
Who will go to lands afar,
Telling them of gates ajar
To mansions bright?
AN ILLUSTRATION
SERVANT, A VOLUNTARY
“And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” A wealthy family in San Francisco engaged the services of a handsome young Japanese, whose business it was to wash windows and polish silver, furniture, etc He was always called “Sol” and was faithful and obliging. At the end of four years he left of his own accord, having saved some 80. Nothing more was heard from him until one of the daughters, traveling in Europe, attended a court reception at Berlin, and was introduced to “Sol” as “Lieutenant Karo Yatami.” She learned that he was wealthy, and the nephew of the Mikado of Japan. His appointment in the German army was by request of his uncle, who had determined to adopt the German military system. The young lady inquired: “Why did you take the position of a servant?” He replied: “Though rich, I believed I could best serve my country by beginning where I did, and thus becoming acquainted with the American manners and customs.”
:12
Rom 5:12. The one man by whom sin entered into the world was Adam. He is the only one who is regarded as a personal sinner in this verse. However, it was his sin that caused the separation from the tree of life with its consequent death of the body for all his descendants, we must regard the phrase all have sinned as meaning only that all human beings regardless of age or mental or moral qualification, are physical partakers of the results of Adam’s sin. We know it cannot mean that infants were thereby forced to become sinners as to their character, for they are represented by Jesus as already possessing the character that adults are required to develop before they can enter the kingdom of heaven (Mat 18:3).
Rom 5:12. On this account, or, therefore, First of all on account of the statement of Rom 5:11, but virtually on account of all that precedes, since Rom 5:11 sums up the whole doctrine of righteousness and salvation. Since reconciliation is received through our Lord Jesus Christ in the manner already set forth, therefore the following parallel between Adam and Christ holds good.
As, etc. The main difficulty is in regard to what should correspond with as, the construction not being regular. The view of Meyer, which is grammatically most defensible, is that indicated in the analysis at the beginning of the section. The correspondence is suggested in Rom 5:12, the second member (the coming One) indicated in Rom 5:14; expressed, after some points of difference, in Rom 5:18-19. In the rush of ideas suggested by the parallel, Paul intentionally suspends the mention of the second half, until he has proven one point in regard to the first half (Rom 5:13-14), and stated three important contrasts. In full form the parallel would be: so also by one man, Jesus Christ, righteousness entered into the world, and life through righteousness, and thus life shall extend to all men, on condition that all believe, or are justified. But the parallel cannot hold in the last clause; for all men are sinners, but not all are believers; all are one with Adam, but not all are one with Christ. Other unsatisfactory explanations: that there is a designed suppression, because the parallel would not hold; that Rom 5:13-17 are parenthetical (so E. V.); that we should supply: It was, or, Christ wrought, before as.
Through one man, i.e., Adam (Rom 5:14). Eve is not mentioned, for Adam had received the commandment, was the head of the woman, and had he not transgressed, his posterity would not have sinned (Bengel). The comparison between Adam and Christ is the only apt one, and there is no reference to Satan, because the Apostle is concerned with the effect, not the mode, of the fall (Meyer).
Sin. The presence of the definite article in the Greek, and the course of thought sustain the view that sin is here regarded as a power or principle, personified as a fearful tyrant, who has acquired universal dominion over the human race. Compare the characteristics of sin, as given in this Epistle: he reigns in death (Rom 5:21); lords it over us (chap. Rom 6:14); deceives and slays the sinner (chap. Rom 7:11); works death in us (chap. Rom 7:13). This view is further sustained by the distinction made, throughout this section, between sin and transgression, offence (or trespass). The term is, therefore, not to be limited, either to original sin on the one hand, or to actual sin on the other.
Entered into the world; the world of man. According to the Apostles conviction, evil was already in existence in another world (Tholuck), that of the angels. Hence our passage sheds no light on the origin of evil, except in the human race.
Death. The entrance of death into the world of humanity was through sin, death as a power in the world resulted from the entrance of sin as a power; the two are uniformly connected in the Bible, beginning with Gen 2:17. Some limit the reference here to physical death, which undoubtedly was the first result. But the results of sin are more extensive, and the contrast with life in Rom 5:17-18; Rom 5:21, points to the evident sense of death throughout the entire passage. This includes all physical and moral evil, the entire penal consequences of sin, death of the body, spiritual death, and eternal death of both soul and body (the second death, Rev 2:11; Rev 20:6; Rev 20:14; Rev 21:8). The fact that physical death did not immediately follow the first transgression, shows that Gen 2:17 included a more extensive penalty.
Passed upon, lit., came through unto, all men. The universal reign of death is thus connected, chronologically and logically, with its cause, the universal reign of sin. All men here represents the several individuals making up the world.
For that, or, because, on the ground that. This is the view now generally accepted. Other views: In whom, i.e., Adam; an ancient view (so Augustine) now generally rejected as ungrammatical. On the condition that; but this is unusual, and designed to meet a doctrinal difficulty.
All sinned, not, have sinned. A single historical act is meant, namely, the past event of Adams fall, which was at the same time virtually the fall of the human race as represented by him and germinally contained in him. (For the views of this connection between Adam and his posterity see Excursus at the close of the section.) As regards the interpretation of the words, it may be insisted that simned is not equivalent to became sinful. There remain two views: (1.) As a historical fact, when Adam sinned all sinned, because of the vital connection between him and his posterity. (2.) When Adam sinned, all were declared sinners, he being the representative of the race. The objection to this is, that sinned is not equivalent to were regarded as sinners, It makes the parallel between Adam and Christ more close than the passage, thus far, appears to warrant.
Subdivision 1. (Rom 5:12-21.)
Christ our new creation Head.
We begin then with Christ as Head of new creation, in contrastive parallel with Adam and our heritage of evil from our first father’s fall. There are here many questions that have arisen and will arise: it is a much trodden ground of debate and controversy. Happily for us, we have not the responsibility of clearing up all the difficulties of divine government, but only of seeking the meaning of what is here before us. Faith’s part is not to say there are no mysteries, but to wait in quiet confidence for the due time of their revelation. We know in part, and we prophesy in part; but the veil which is ofttimes over the face of His dispensations is not, thank God, therefore over His own face. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not and cannot henceforth be in the darkness, but is Light and in the light.
1. We have first, what is too plain a fact, that sin and death are here. That death is, no one can dispute; that sin is, if any one denies, the common conscience of men will everywhere rebuke him. Sin, too, is something peculiarly man’s own; man has a power for self-debasement which the beast has not, and which can hardly be an acquisition he has made, seeing it is manifestly a degeneracy. It is a principle born with him also, a universal heritage, early and quickly developing. All the evidence we can expect then is in proof of the statement here, that by one man sin entered into the world; while the shadow of it over man, which the beast feels not, confirms the further one that death came in for him as penalty with sin. If geology can appeal to facts which show that death existed before man upon the earth it in no wise touches the truth of this at all. Scripture never asserts that death came in for the beast through sin or through man. Nor does it assert that there was no death in the beginning, which is a mere mistaken inference from the green herb assigned to the living thing for food. The “world” of which the apostle speaks here is doubtless the world of men alone: it is “to all men” that death came through, as he says.
He adds even as to men as the ground of the penalty, “for that all have sinned;” and here the main discussion immediately begins. There are a number of different explanations of these words, but most of them really alter what they would explain. To read “in whom all sinned” is impossible as a translation; nor can one say “all have become sinful,” or “all have been treated as sinners:” it is exactly the statement of Rom 3:23, where “all have sinned” speaks of literal, personal sins committed. In complete opposition to the thought of sinning in Adam, nothing can surely be intended but that men have come under the dominion of death on account of their own sins. The contradiction of fact is, of course, the main, if not the only reason why this is not at once accepted. How could this be true of infants? is naturally asked, and might at first sight seem unanswerable. But the passage just now referred to has exactly the same thing to be said of it, but where it is no difficulty at all. If it be a question of salvation, infants cannot be saved as sinners, nor can be justified by faith; yet no one would contend on this account that this could not be God’s way of salvation because it did not take in infants. The apostle speaks there simply of those standing in their own responsibility before God. Infants are therefore understood as excepted, and that applies to both statements. As soon as you can speak of accountability at all this becomes true that all sin; and that shows of course the ruin of the race. Death has come in through the one man Adam, as has been said; and yet not because of any such formal covenant with Adam on behalf of his posterity as many plead, but because through that mysterious oneness of the race which, whatever question may be raised about it, cannot be denied, the fall of Adam did involve the corruption of his posterity. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” asks Job; and answers himself, “Not one.” Thus the “all have sinned” in this place demonstrates the fitness of God’s sentence of death passed upon all. For, if you plead the exception of infants from the penalty on Adam, your exception ought to plead for them as much as to their exemption from the inheritance of corruption, which is a more terrible fact, and from which yet the justice of God does not exempt them. The greater fact of the general corruption proved so sadly as each emerges into the common world of men, implies the parallel fact of death as its accompaniment. But in this very way the consideration of the case of infants may be omitted from the statement before us.
It is thought by many that at this point the apostle breaks off his argument, to introduce a long parenthetical explanation as to the relation of law to sin, and as to the parallel between Adam and Christ, returning to complete his thought in the eighteenth verse. This (which is what we find in the common version, and which has been exchanged in the revised for the worse hypothesis of a mere broken statement which never reaches an orderly conclusion) seems, however, only to derange the true relation of parts to one another as expressed in the structure. The parenthesis seems too long and too important in what it contains, as well as too anticipative of the after-conclusion. The twelfth verse, moreover, is not broken off in the manner supposed. The proper view seems rather, as others have suggested, that the introductory “wherefore,” referring clearly to what has gone before, teaches us to look back for the true commencement of that to which the twelfth verse becomes then itself the conclusion; though this is not fully reached without a more explicit disclosure of what was in the apostle’s mind, that Adam was in fact the “figure,” or “type, of the One that was to come.” For in the gospel upon which he had been dwelling was already announced that principle of the One standing for the many, to which he now explicitly calls attention. We may supply “Wherefore this is” -this coming in of peace and reconciliation through Christ -in the same way “as by one man sin and death entered.” This meaning, the words as to Adam, “who is the type of the One that was to come,” bring into full day, without there being formally the conclusion.
There is, therefore, no parenthesis here; but the apostle goes on to say that sin existed before law. This the Gentile needed to consider, rather than the Jew, who would easily admit it; but the Gentile might say, “We had not the will of God made known to us, as the Jew had.” In fact Paul had spoken to the Athenians of a time of ignorance at which God winked. The law had put sin into account in the way the Gentile had nothing like. Adam in paradise had a law indeed, though a very simple one, and which after his expulsion from the garden could have no further application. From Adam to Moses there was no law. Yet (with one gracious exception only) from Adam to Moses the universal reign of death proved fully the presence of sin which God reckoned to them. Yet there was no law, and therefore no transgression: for where no law is there is no transgression, as has been already said (Rom 4:15). Adam transgressed: he had a limit imposed which he overstepped; but those who had not sinned in the likeness of that open transgression of his, yet died, as he had died: sin universal was proved in the fact of universal death.
In all this the darkness is unrelieved; but it is but the background upon which the glory of divine grace is to be displayed: even from the centre of the darkness now the light shines: this very principle which seems only to have worked ruin, God can transform into one of complete triumph over the evil that has come in. Another Adam shall replace the failed first man, and a fairer creation arise in unfading beauty out of the ruin of the old.
2. A type, by the very fact that it is a type, must be in contrast with its anti-type: the shadow cannot be the perfect image. Here, however, at first sight, the contrast is more evident than the resemblance; and the apostle at the outset emphasizes the contrast. “Not as the offence,” he says, so is the gracious gift.” In the fact of representation of their respective companies, the two Adams are alike. Each is the head of a race, which stands or falls with its respective head. In the first epistle to the Corinthians (1Co 15:45) these heads are themselves put in contrast with one another: “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit.” This gives us the key to the respective races with which they are connected: the first is a natural, the last a spiritual race. And so it is said in the epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 2:16), “He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold.” These the apostle speaks of indeed in this place as His brethren, rather than His seed; as in the present epistle also He is seen as “the Firstborn among many brethren” (Rom 8:29). And because He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb 2:11).
Here the identity of the Head with the race is affirmed: and in this sense Adam, though the father of all, would also be the firstborn among many brethren. As to the Lord, it is with the seed of Abraham that He is allied; that is, with the family of faith, the spiritually born. And because the children God has given him are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part in the same (ver. 14).
But He is truly also the Last Adam of this spiritual race, Himself the Quickening Spirit to them all, Himself their life; “for as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, so the Son quickeneth whom He will” (Joh 5:21).
Thus here are two Adams, alike in this, yet how unlike! the Adam of the old, and the Adam of the new creation! In connection with the one, spite of the beauty and uprightness in which he first came forth from under the Creator’s hands, his personal history was little more than that of the “offence,” the fatal effects of which he transmitted to his seed. With the other comes, not penalty or requirement, but “gift.” How great must be the contrast then! If God is inflicting judgment, this must be executed according to the demand of divine righteousness; but here therefore can be no overplus. But if God be giving, what shall limit Him as to the gift He chooses to bestow? Any gift to fallen creatures must be of His grace; but if it be grace upon grace, who shall say Him nay? Has He in fact come in in Christ simply to undo the effect of the fall, and set man where be was before it? Nay, if the offence was disastrous, and the many died, much more has the grace of God and His gift in grace, which is by the One, Jesus Christ, abounded towards many! Innocence has indeed been lost, with the continuance of life on earth, and the Eden paradise; but righteousness and holiness have been gained, eternal life, and the paradise of God! Here is the divine balance-sheet: it would not suit God to have a poorer exhibit; it would not suit Him to have no gain in glory: and this is what the Second Man has toiled for, as the first wrought the shame.
And there is another contrast: one sin committed brought in condemnation; such was the holiness of God, a holiness still unchanged; yet now after many offences having been committed, His gracious gift is of a state of accomplished righteousness.
Again, if the men through whom those diverse effects are wrought are thus in contrast, and if the present effects themselves carry on the contrast, how will the future bring this out in full result! If the work of the one man has brought about the present reign of death, much more shall they who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One Man, Christ. It is not merely that life will reign instead of death, but that the recipients of this grace themselves will reign in an unending life.
Thus we see, all through, that the parallel here is one of contrast, and that Christ having come in to undo the work of the fallen first man, in a grace which, though ever righteous, cannot be measured by righteousness simply, as the judgment is, there must be as the result a plenitude of blessing which shall glorify God where sin has come in to dishonor. Him, and thus shall raise up the fallen creature also to a height far above the level of his original condition. These things are necessary concomitants: God is going to “show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:7).
This is indeed directly contrary to some thoughts which have been largely held and thought to be flavored by the well-known phrase used by the apostle Peter in his address to the Jews soon after Pentecost, in which he speaks of a restitution of all things to be brought about at Christ’s reappearing, and “of which” he says, “God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Act 3:21). This has been thought decisive that eternity will be but a final return to what were God’s first thoughts when He created man, and which He could not permit the entrance of sin to set aside. Or else, it is contended, Satan would really have gained a victory in compelling Him to change His plan about Eden and the earth. And this has been carried so far by some that the “new earth” of which the prophets speak has been supposed to be indeed a “Paradise regained,” in which generations of men would in the ordinary way of nature but without death, replace one another to all eternity. Adam instead of Christ, is thus made to have been God’s first thought, Christ an expedient when the first man failed; the paradisaic state is unscripturally exalted, and the work of Christ and its consequences really, however unintentionally, degraded. For it should be plain that as the Person is far greater, so His work must be, and so the fruits of it. Where the original creation is taken as the perfection of what was in the mind of Him who created it, Adam is considered to have been a creature made for heaven, to whom it was secured by covenant that he would receive it as the reward of his well-doing; and the ten commandments are carried back some two thousand five hundred years before they were given, to be the measure of what he was required to fulfil. Thus when he failed, Christ is supposed to have taken up the broken contract, and to have gained for us, by his fulfilment of it, what Adam lost.
All this is in complete forgetfulness of what Christ is, and of the work which lay before Him; it is to forget that almost throughout what we have been looking at, the parallel between the two Adams is one of contrast. Here let the pregnant figure of the trespass-offering speak -which is the divine thought of restitution given to us. Plainly, had man in that case fulfilled the law as regards God and his fellow, there need have been, and would have been, no offering at all. If Christ even had taken up Adam’s broken contract to fulfil it, death would have had no place in such work, because death was the penalty of the breach of it. If He could thus have fulfilled the work for Adam, and given to God the obedience in which Adam failed, and in Adam’s behalf, the punishment of the breach of it could not have been required of Him. What was wrong would have been set right without the shedding of blood. But “without shedding of blood is no remission;” and “if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Heb 9:22; Gal 2:21).
But furthermore, in this matter of the trespass-offering, after the injury inflicted had been duly estimated and made up, still restitution in God’s thought of it, was not complete until there had been added to it a “fifth part more.” Thus the person who offered the offering did more than could have been required if the trespass had not been committed, and the injured person was now a gainer to that extent. In the trespass-offering two aspects of it are distinguished which would not come together in the ordinary use of it; there was a Godward and a manward side, which in Christ’s fulfilment of it did come together. God and man are both considered as suffering through sin, and are both now gainers through the work of Christ; and this is the “much more” of the apostle in the fifth of Romans, and this is the “fifth part more” of the book of Leviticus.
To see it in anywise, we must have clearly before our eyes the contrast between these two of whom we have been speaking: what did God gain, to speak humanly, by Christ’s work? what could He have gained, at the best, by Adam’s?
What was the first man, Adam?
Not, if we are to take Scripture, a being formed for heaven, but in express contrast with heaven, “of the earth, earthy.” If I open Genesis, I find no hope of heaven held out to him there, no idea of being raised above the estate in which he was created. I find no works enjoined, for which be was to be rewarded; one prohibition only of a thing which would have had no moral character attaching to it, had it not been forbidden. Created very good, he was to keep his first estate, not seek a new one. Nor, until sin had made our estate evil, and only with fallen man, do we find a thought of a creature quitting its estate, except as sin. So with “the angels who kept not their first estate,” of whom Jude speaks. Not made to toil at working out a righteousness, but to enjoy the bounteous goodness which had provided richly for him, one test of obedience, and of the easiest, was given: if he ate of the tree, he died.
What did God gain by such obedience?
Save as one of the countless creatures He had made, whose happiness bore witness of creating goodness and wisdom -nothing. Had he obeyed, what marvel? Had he obtained witness that he was righteous, it would have been creature-righteousness, not divine. With Eliphaz, we might have asked, Is it gain to God that thou makest thy ways perfect?” And had he been obedient, as angels were, would the fitting reward for it have been a place in glory and at the right hand of God? Would he have inherited all things? Would he have been where Christ as Man is, and have shared what the saints will share, as joint-heirs with Him?
Simple questions, yet needful. For if they are to have adverse answer, after all the plan as shown in Adam must be so far altered; and how much does this imply?
But Adam fell: that wrong was done to God, of which the trespass-offering speaks. Sin had spoiled the old creation, and (again to speak humanly, as we must,) raised the question of God’s character. If He cut off the offenders in righteousness, love would not be shown; if mercy spared them, how could He be holy? Slowly and patiently was the answer given. Christ was that answer. Not simply the taker up of man’s cause. Not the worker out of mere human righteousness. But the brightness of the Father’s glory; the Wisdom and Power of God: the Fulfiller of divine righteousness, and the Revealer of divine Love. The glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ. There we see it. If the entrance of sin into the world had in anywise raised a question about God, not only are such questions for ever at rest, but the way in which it has been dealt with in the Cross of His Son becomes the very way in which His attributes shine out. Christ is not merely “the Lord our Righteousness,” He is the very “Righteousness of God.” Could Adam have been that, or wrought it? We are in another sphere altogether, plainly. Inseparably connected with man’s worst wickedness, is the display of God’s righteousness, and not in wrath, but through which He justifies the ungodly.
Thus Christ’s work is different both in its character and results Godward from anything that could be of Adam, asked or had. It was such as the Only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father alone could accomplish, and must have corresponding results for man also, for here also the “fifth part more” applies. Things are restored, but not to the primitive condition before the fall. They are “made new,” in a “new creation,” not the old, and whose Head is “the beginning of the creation of God.”
3. It is the gain manward of the work of Christ with which the apostle here is occupied; although the Godward side must be disclosed in connection with this; but the point here all the way through is the effect with regard to the many with whom the Head is connected. In the last three verses we had the contrasts between the judgment and the grace; now we have the actual realization, along with the declaration of the sufficiency of Christ’s work for all, which renders all inexcusable who do not receive it. The purpose of the law added at the close shows the earnestness of God’s grace in pressing upon men their need; law being thus a true handmaid to the gospel as is shown elsewhere. The provision for man’s sinful condition is also dwelt upon, which the very idea of an Adam-head implies, a life in Christ, which prepares us for the doctrine of the chapters following, in which this comes to the front in the consideration of practical questions of the deepest interest and importance. It is characteristic of all this second division of Romans that life and nature come up in it, as in the first only actual sins, which are the ground of final judgment, as has already been shown. The conviction of a soul before God is not to be effected by pressing upon him Adam’s sin, or the evil nature which he has thus derived from Adam. These he will turn into pleas in his own favor, rather than against him; and it is in this way that Job actually pleads that one cannot bring a clean thing out of an unclean: humiliated he is by it, but not condemned. On the other hand, spite of such pleas, conscience will bring him in guilty for every actual sin, and from its decision there is no appeal. Whatever man’s nature may be, be, unlike the beast, is responsible to control it morally, and not be controlled by it. In the power of the will, in which lies man’s true manhood, his accountability to God is found as well.
It is when one is converted and the bent of the will is Godward, that the hindrance of a fallen nature is proved in bitter experience. This we shall have to consider in a little while. At present it is only the presence of such a nature that is recognized, along with the parallel communication of a new nature from the new source of life to a believer, the new Adam-Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hitherto we have had the fruits of old nature, the actual sins. Now we are to look deeper remembering all the time what we have spoken of as to human accountability being due to something beside nature. We never speak of nature acting indeed, except as implying a certain passivity in the man himself, and not the man in his full manhood energy.
The contrast now is only that necessarily involved in the two heads that are before us; although in the statement of the general bearing of accomplished righteousness “all men” have not the same relation to the Second that they had to the first. This is of them, however, and not of Him; the express purpose of what is said here being to show that it is not from any lack of sufficiency for all that the effect of the work of recovery does not reach to the full extent of the fall. God is not willing that any should perish (2Pe 3:9), and therefore could not leave any without provision made: “as by one offence (the bearing) towards all men was to condemnation, thus also through one accomplished righteousness (the bearing) toward all men is to justification of life.” Besides the universal aspect, there is only the last expression that is new. “Justification of life” is not found anywhere else in Scripture, and in itself it may have more than one significance. What is commonly understood by it is “justification to life,” -a clearing from charge which entitles the justified man to life instead of the death that would have been his due. This is not unfitted to stand over against condemnation also, though justification alone would sufficiently do this.
But “justification attaching to life” introduces an important thought that is not found in the former way of reading it, and which connects moreover with what is soon to follow. If Christ be really another Adam, a life communicated to those who are of His race forms a necessary part of this idea. The Last Adam is thus a “quickening Spirit,” a communicator of life in a way transcending all that could be attributed to the first. The life, as the Lord has taught us, is eternal life, and thus we are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. All this we have had fully in the Gospel of John, and need not repeat here what is indeed simple and familiar truth. But this life, in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, is resurrection life. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,” He says, speaking of it, “it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (Joh 12:24). And so again He speaks of him that believeth in Him as one with death now behind him, and never to know it (Joh 11:26). Thus the life being resurrection life, the virtue of His death is in it for us, and His resurrection is our justification: we have justification attaching to the life we have in Him” justification of life.” Brought into a new creation by our part in the Last Adam, His death is our severance from all that judicially attached to us in the old; “if any man be in Christ, (it is) new creation: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2Co 5:17). Thus the “one accomplished righteousness” has wrought for us.*
{*This “one accomplished righteousness” corresponds to the obedience of One, spoken of just below, and is in contrast with the offense and disobedience of the first Adam. It would seem to include the Lord’s death and resurrection, in which God’s righteousness was declared. It has nothing to do, directly, with our Lord’s own personal righteousness, save as that fitted Him to be the unblemished sacrifice. In His death righteousness in grace toward man was fulfilled and in His resurrection it was proclaimed. -S.R.}
This is its bearing towards all men -most important to be stated to vindicate the grace of God from what men’s unbelief might bring against it. In the actual result the apostle cannot speak any more of “all men,” but once more of “the many.” “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were brought into the state of sinners,” -there is the sinful state, the heritage of uncleanness derived from the uncleanness of our fallen parents, -“so through the obedience of the One, the many shall be brought into the state of righteous.” This last, no doubt, includes both the justification and the life. Notice here that “the obedience of One” brings in the burnt-offering aspect of Christ’s work, the full sweet savor. To stand in Christ is not merely to have our sins put away, nor even (what we have not yet come to) our old man set aside, but it is to be accepted in all the preciousness for God of His obedience.
Thus there is a growing fulness in the statements here. They are not mere repetitions of the same, growing blessed, truth. They go on swelling in an increasing triumph of divine goodness overmastering evil. In the closing strain the law takes its place and acts its part, only apparently to make the tale of sin more disheartening, and yet in the end to make victorious grace manifestly supreme and lift it to its throne of glory. “Law came in by the way that the offence might abound:” -did that need? one might ask; was it not to add difficulty to difficulty -to make greater the distress that it could not relieve? So it would indeed seem, and not only seem, but so it really was: law, as we shall see fully in the argument of the seventh chapter, by its very opposition to the innate evil only arouses it to full activity and communicates to it new strength: “the strength of sin is the law” (1Co 15:56). This was indeed its mission; which if that were all, would be but disaster -a ministration of death and condemnation indeed! (2Co 3:7; 2Co 3:9); but it came in by the way, says the apostle, -to fulfil a temporary purpose, in making manifest the hopeless condition of man apart from grace, when every command on God’s part arouses the hostility of man’s heart against it: “the law entered that the offence might abound”! Yes, but that man learning himself by this, grace may be known as grace, and so received; “that as sin reigned in death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” How suitably the ascription of Lordship to the glorious Conqueror closes this wondrous recital of what we owe to Him! It is this heart-homage to Him which is of the essence of the blessing bestowed. The reign of grace is that in which Christ reigns, and subjects all enemies; the heart entirely subdued to Him, that subjection is its deliverance and freedom.
HUMANITY AND TWO ADAMS
Wherefore leads back to chapter 3, where the apostle is referring to the sinful condition of all men. It was by one man that sin entered the world bringing physical death as a penalty, and that all have sinned is proven by the fact that all have paid that penalty (Rom 5:12). To be sure the law was not given to Moses till Sinai, but as death reigned from Adam to Moses, it is evident that there was a transgression of another law than that written on stone, for sin is not imputed when there is no law (Rom 5:13). For the nature of this other law compare again Rom 2:15.
But as sin came through the first Adam, so the gift of righteousness came through the second Adam. It was just one offense that brought the condemnation, but the gift of righteousness covers many offences (Rom 5:16; Rom 5:19). It was the giving of the law at Sinai that revealed how many these offences were (Rom 5:20) for by the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20). Nevertheless, though sin was thus seen to abound, yet grace did much more abound (Rom 5:20). Sin as used here is different from sins, the former referring to our fallen nature, and the latter to manifestations of that nature.
What Paul had said about grace abounding where sin abounded, might lead an uninstructed mind to infer that it put a premium on sin. Or in other words, if man were justified by faith only, what provision was made for a change of character? How did salvation by grace affect ones experience as well as his standing before God? Chapters 6 to 8 work out this thought as follows.
EXPERIENCING GRACE
The believer is identified with Christ in His death and resurrection (Rom 6:1-10). The baptism into Jesus Christ (Rom 6:3), is the pentecostal experience which becomes the birthright of every believer the moment he believes. He is then baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of which Christ is the Head (1Co 12:13); and being so baptized he is considered as one with Christ as any member of a human body is one with the head of that body. This means of course, that he is regarded in Gods sight as having died when Christ died he was baptized into His death. The sequel however, must be equally true, and he is regarded as having risen from the dead when Christ rose. Hence he is now in a legal or judicial sense walking before God in newness of life. Being dead he is freed from sin (Rom 6:7), i.e., having legally died in Christ when Christ died just as every member of a body dies when its head dies, he has paid the penalty of his sin in Christ, and having now arisen in Christ after the payment of that penalty, death hath no more dominion over him (Rom 6:9), he has not again to pay the penalty of sin.
It is now his duty to reckon this to be true, and no longer to allow sin to reign in his mortal body (Rom 6:11). The way to accomplish this is not by efforts and resolutions on his part, but by yielding his new life unto God. He yields his new life by yielding the members of his body unto God his eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, brain, etc. (Rom 6:13).
The result will be his deliverance from the dominion of sin God will see to it (Rom 6:14). The old relation of the man to the law of sin, and his new relation to Christ are illustrated by the effect of death upon servitude (Rom 6:16-23). The old servitude was rendered to sin the end of which was death. But death in another form, i.e., crucifixion with Christ, has now intervened to free the servant from sin, and enable him to become the servant of God, with fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life (Rom 6:22). The relationship is next illustrated by marriage (Rom 7:1-6). Death dissolves the marriage relationship, and as natural death flees a wife from the law of her husband, so crucifixion with Christ sets the believer free from the law, or rather its penalty resting upon him on account of his sin.
Newness of spirit and oldness of the letter (Rom 7:6) are expressions requiring a word of comment as we meet with them again in another epistle. By the letter is meant the Mosaic law, and by the spirit the power and relationships of the new life in Christ Jesus (see 1Co 3:6).
QUESTIONS
1. What is the significance of wherefore at the beginning of this lesson?
2. How is it proven that all men have sinned?
3. Did you cross-reference 2:17?
4. What is the distinction between sin and sins?
5. What thought is it that chapters 6-8 are working out?
6. What is the meaning of baptized into Jesus Christ?
7. How may the dethronement of sin be accomplished in a believer?
8. What two illustrations of this truth are employed in this lesson?
9. Describe oldness of letter and newness of spirit.
The doctrine of original sin is not more difficult to be understood, than it is necessary to be known: the apostle here declares the manner how sin and death entered the world, namely, by the fall of Adam the first man: By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.
Note, 1. An unhappy parent; namely, Adam: By him sin entered into the world.
2. An unhappy posterity; namely, the whole world, proceeding from and coming out of the loins of Adam, in whom all have sinned.
3. An unhappy portion; sin and death: Sin entered by Adam, and death entered by sin. This was the legacy which Adam left to all his posterity.
Now the sad and mournful truth which the scripture contains, is this: “That our first parent, by his transgression, hath entailed a miserable inheritance, an unhappy portion of sin and death upon all posterity.” Adam’s sin becomes ours.
1. By meritorious imputation: God treated with him not as a private person, but as caput gentis, as the root and parent of all mankind.
Hence a comparison is often made between the first and second Adam; the grace of the one, with the sin of the other: the life conveyed by the one, and the death transmitted by the other.
By Adam we were cast, by Christ we were cleared; cursed in Adam, crowned in Christ. Now this comparison would be wholly insignificant, if Adam had not been looked upon as the representative of us all.
2. The sin of Adam is derived to us by way of inhesion: We have received from him a depravity of nature, and evil disposition, a propension to all mischief, and aversion to all good.
The sin of Adam transmitted to us, doth not only cause guilt upon our persons, but filth upon our natures; not only lay a charge to us, but throws a stain upon us.
3. We make Adam’s sin our own by imitation, by treading in the steps of his disobedience. Every sin we commit in defiance of the threatenings of God, is a justifying of Adam’s rebellion against God; and accordingly, we die by our own folly, as well as by his fall; our destruction is of ourselves, by our actual rebellions; and we shall at the great day charge our sin and misery upon ourselves, not on God, but on Satan, not on instruments, not on our first parents.
Rom 5:12-13. Wherefore This refers to all the preceding discourse, from which the apostle infers what follows: he does not therefore make a digression, but returns to speak again of sin and righteousness; as if he had said, We may from these premises infer, that the benefit which we believers receive from Christ is equal to the detriment we derive from Adam; yea, is on the whole greater than that. For, as by one man That is, Adam, the common father of the human species; (he is mentioned, and not Eve, as being the representative of mankind;) sin entered into the world Actual sin, namely, the transgression of Adam and its consequence, a sinful nature, which took place in him, through his first sin, and which he conveyed to all his posterity; and death With all its attendants. It entered into the world when it entered into being; for till then it did not exist; by sin Therefore it could not enter in before sin; and so Namely, by one man; death passed From one generation to another; upon all men, for that all have sinned Namely, in Adam, their representative, and as being in his loins. That is, they are so far involved in his first transgression and its consequences, and so certainly derive a sinful nature from him, that they become obnoxious to death. Instead of, for that, Dr. Doddridge renders , unto which, (namely, unto death, mentioned in the preceding clause,) all have sinned. In which ever way the expression is rendered, the words are evidently intended to assign the reason why death came upon all men, infants themselves not excepted. For until the law For, from the fall of Adam, unto the time when God gave the law by Moses, as well as after it; sin was in the world As appeared by the continual execution of its punishment; that is, death: but It is a self- evident principle that sin is not, and cannot be, imputed where there is no law Since the very essence of sin consists in the violation of a law. And consequently, since we see, in fact, that sin was imputed, we must conclude that the persons, to whose account it was charged, were under some law. Now this, with respect to infants, could not be the law of nature, (any more than the law of Moses,) for infants could not transgress that; it must therefore have been the law given to Adam, the transgression whereof is, in some sense, imputed to all, even to infants, he being the representative of all his posterity, and they all being in his loins. In other words, they do not die for any actual sins of their own, being incapable, while in infancy, of committing any, but through Adams sin alone.
Third Section.
Twelfth Passage (5:12-21). The Universality of Salvation in Christ proved by the Universality of Death in Adam.
Justification by faith had just been expounded; the historical foundation on which it rested, its harmony with the Israelitish revelation, the certainty of its enduring to the endall these points had been illustrated; and the major part of the theme, Rom 3:21-22, was thus developed. One idea remains still, and that the most important of all, which was expressed in the theme in the striking words: , for all and upon all who believe. Universalism was the peculiar character of Paul’s gospel; justification by faith, the subject of exposition thus far, was its necessary condition. To omit expressly developing this decisive feature would have been to leave the fruit ungathered after laboriously cultivating the tree. The apostle could not commit such a mistake. He performs this final task in the last piece, the very peculiar nature of which suffices to demonstrate its importance.
Commentators have understood the idea and object of the passage in various ways. According to Baur and his school, as well as several other commentators, the apostle has in view the Jewish-Christianity reigning in the Roman Church. He wishes at once to refute and gain it, either by expounding a conception of history in which the law finds no more place (Baur), or by proving that salvation, like condemnation, depends in no degree on the conduct of individuals and their works, but solely on an objective standard, on the unconditional and absolute appointment of God (Holsten). But this piece does not answer exactly either to the one or other of these two views. The observation made in Rom 5:20 on the secondary part played by the law, cannot express the intention of the entire piece. This remark, rendered indispensable in this universal survey by the important place filled by the Mosaic law in the religious history of mankind, is thrown out too much by the way to allow of its concentrating upon itself the interest of so vast an exposition. The other view, that of the absolute determinism which Holsten ascribes to St. Paul, would no doubt serve to cut by the roots the system of justification by works; but it would be one of those remedies which destroy the suffering by killing the sufferer. For determinism excludes human merit only by suppressing moral liberty and responsibility. It is not so that Paul proceeds. In any case, it is easy to see that the apostle’s direct aim in this piece is not to exclude legal righteousness; he has done with this idea. It is the universality of the Christian salvation which he wishes to demonstrate. Ewald, Dietzsch, and Gess rightly advance the striking difference which there is between the argument of the Epistle to the Galatians and the teaching of the Epistle to the Romans. In the former, where Paul is attacking Jewish-Christianity, his argument starts from the theocratic history, from Abraham; in the latter, which expounds the relation of the gospel to human nature, Jewish and Gentile, the argument starts from general history, from Adam, the father of all mankind. From the very beginning of the Epistle the point of view is universal (Gentiles, chap. 1; Jews, chap. 2).
Very many commentators hold the opinion that the apostle’s purpose is to ascend to the source of the two currents, whether of condemnation and death, or of justification and life, which sway the life of mankind; or, as Dietzsch puts it, to the very powers which determine present facts, the lot of individuals. The practical aim of this investigation would thus be that indicated by Chrysostom in the words: As the best physicians turn their whole attention to find out the root of maladies, and thus reach the very source of the evil, so it is that Paul acts. Every reader would thus be invited by the passage to break the bond of oneness (solidarity) which naturally unites him to the head of lost humanity, and to contract by faith the new bond whereby he can have fellowship with the head of justified humanity. This view is the most widely spread, and we do not conceal from ourselves the measure of truth which it contains. But two difficulties arrest us when we attempt to make this idea the key to the whole passage. It is perfectly obvious from Rom 5:12 that the apostle is rather concerned with the origin of death than with that of sin, and that he mentions the latter only to reach the former. It is also to the fact of death that he returns most frequently in the course of this piece, comp. Rom 5:15-18; Rom 5:21. Would it be so if his direct aim were to ascend to sin, the source of evil? Then we find him nowhere insisting on the gravity of sin and on the necessity of faith for salvation. No exhortation to the reader to form a personal union with the new Adam reveals this directly practical intention which is ascribed to him, especially by Hofmann and Th. Schott. We are therefore forced to conclude that we are not yet on the right track.
Rothe starts from the idea that the first part of chap. 5 has already begun the exposition of sanctification as the fruit of justification by faith, an exposition which continues in chap. 6 The passage from Rom 5:12-21 would thus be a simple episode intended to prove that as men became sinners in common by the sin of one, so they can only become saints in commonthat is to say, in Christ. The piece would thus treat of the moral assimilation, either of corruption or holiness, by individual men. Such is also the opinion of Lange and Schaff, who make chap. Rom 5:12 begin the part of the Epistle relating to moral regeneration by the appropriation of the holy life of the new Adam (vi.-viii.). There is certainly mention of sanctification in the passage,Rom 5:1-11; we grant this to Rothe (comp. Rom 5:9-10 : by Him; by His life), but, as we have seen, only in relation to final justification, which rests on the continuance of the action of the living Christ in the justified soul. As to the subject of sanctification thus announced beforehand, it is not actually treated till chap. 6. The relations to 6-8 are no doubt real and profound. Lange proves them perfectly. But it is exaggerating their scope to make them a reason for detaching the passage Rom 5:12-21 from the preceding context, in order to make it the preface to the doctrine of sanctification. The dominant ideas in the passage are not those of sin and of the new life; they are only, as we shall see, those of condemnation and justification, which had been the subject of the whole preceding part. This piece must therefore be regarded as its conclusion.
By the first term of the comparison (our common condemnation in Adam) this parallel certainly recalls the whole section of the , wrath, Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20, as by the second (common salvation in Christ) it recalls the subject of the second section, the righteousness of faith, Rom 3:21 to Rom 5:11. But this resemblance is far from exhausting the connection of this piece with all that precedes. The two terms of comparison, Adam and Christ, are not only put in juxtaposition with one another; they are put in logical connection, and it is in this living relation that the true idea of the piece is contained. With a boldness of thought which it is scarcely possible to imagine, Paul discovers, in the extension and power of the mysterious condemnation pronounced in Adam, the divine measure of the extension and power of the salvation bestowed in Christ, so that the very intensity of the effects of the fall becomes transformed, in his skilful hands, into an irresistible demonstration of the greatness of salvation. And this final piece is thus found to be at one and the same moment the counterpart of the first section (condemnation) and the crowning of the second (justification).
The following parallel falls, as it were, of itself into four distinct paragraphs:
1. Rom 5:12-14 : the universal diffusion of death by the deed of one man.
2. Rom 5:15-17 : the superiority of the factors acting in Christ’s work over the corresponding factor in the work of Adam.
3. Rom 5:18-19 : the certainty of equality in respect of extension and effect between the second work and the first.
4. Rom 5:20-21 : the indication of the true part played by the law between these two universals of death and righteousness.
Exegesis has been led more and more to the grouping which we have just indicated (see Dietzsch, and especially Hodge), though the idea of those four paragraphs and their logical relation are still very variously understood.
Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sin:–
12. Therefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death came upon all men, in that all sinned. Not have sinned as E. V., which would involve personal responsibility, condemning the infants; but sinned, the imperfect tense, does not involve personality, but simply implies that all sinned seminally in Adam when he fell, as all were in him, the only one created, including all humanity in all ages.
Rom 5:12-21. The therefore of Rom 5:12 covers Rom 1:16 to Rom 5:11 : the working of sin and grace are traced up to their fountain-heads in Adam and Christ (cf. 1Co 15:45-47).Adam (Heb. man) stands for humanity racially. Two opposing currents run through mans life, each with its personal source (Rom 5:12-14, Rom 5:18 f.); but with this broad correspondence, there are signal contrasts (Rom 5:15-17); grace is the ultimate victor (Rom 5:20 f.).
Rom 5:12 affirms the solidarity of mankind in sin and death. The clause for that all sinned repeats the cardinal declaration of Rom 3:23, and needs no complementary in him (Adam): wherever death enters, sin has opened the door.
Rom 5:13 f. deals with the seeming exception of pre-Mosaic times: all sinned, I say (Rom 5:12); for there was sin in the world up to the time of lawMoses law did not create sin, but matured it (cf. Rom 5:20; Rom 7:7 ff., Rom 7:13). Yet, some one says, sin is not taken into account where no law exists (see Rom 4:15).For all that, replies Paul, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not, like Adam, transgress an explicit command. The inference goes without saying: the intervening generations violated some law; the sequence of sin and death is itself matter of primordial law (Rom 8:2). Death was universal from Adam downwards; sin was universal; ipso facto, law was universal. This Paul had shown in Rom 2:14-16, in another way. Through all ages, amongst all races, sin genders death (Jas 1:15); at the bottom there is no difference (Rom 3:22).The complement of just as (Rom 5:12) is virtually contained in the last clause of Rom 5:14, who (Adam) is a type of the One to come. What Adam was to his kind in point of transgression, this Other is to be in the contrary sense.
Rom 5:15 f. But Christs grace in its potency is far more than a counterpoise to the race-sin. Paul pits the grace of God and . . . the grace of the One Man conjointly against the trespass. Rom 5:15 marks the contrast in kind, Rom 5:16 in degree: the sin of one man resulted in general condemnation, while the justification-bringing act of grace. dealt with many trespasses.
Rom 5:17. Finally, Christs grace triumphantly reverses the effects of Adams fall, turning the slaves of death into lords of life.To speak of righteousness as a gift received is another way of affirming Justification by Faith (cf. Rom 3:24, Rom 4:4 f.).
Rom 5:18 f., Rom 5:21. Thus the two headships are vastly disparate: on the one side, trespass, disobedience, sin, bearing fruit in condemnation, sinfulness (were constituted sinners, Rom 5:19), death; on the other, rectification (the one justificatory act or sentence, Rom 5:18), obedience, grace, resulting in justification, righteousness, life eternal (terms of status, character, destiny).The many versus the one of Rom 5:19 = all versus one of Rom 5:18. In Rom 5:14; Rom 5:17, death came to reign through sin: in Rom 5:21, sin reigns in death; for mortality brings home to men sins domination, as life eternal will display the regnancy of grace.
Rom 5:20 brings in the law by the way, as multiplying the (Adams) trespassso as to further, however, the superabounding of grace (cf. Rom 4:15, Rom 7:7-13, and Gal 3:19 f.).This paragraph extends the scope of Christs redemption from the primeval fall on to the glories of eternal destiny.
Verse 12
By one man; that is, Adam, whose transgression in Eden was the introduction of sin and misery in the world.
SECTION 15 THE CURSE OF ADAM IS REVERSED
CH. 5:12-19
Because of this, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and in this way to all men death passed through, in as much as all sinned- For until the Law sin was in the world. But sin is not reckoned while there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned as king from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the Coming One.
Nevertheless, not as the trespass, so also the gift of grace. For if, by the trespass of the one, the many died, much more did the grace of God and the free gift, in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, abound for the many. And not as through one having sinned, is the free gift. For on the one hand the judgment came by one for condemnation, but the gift of grace came by many trespasses for a decree of righteousness. For if by the trespass of the one death became king through the one, much more shall they who receive the abundance of the grace and of the free gift of righteousness reign in life as kings through the one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one trespass a result came for all men tending towards condemnation, so also through one decree of righteousness a result came for all men tending towards justification of life. For, just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of the one the many will be constituted righteous.
Rom 5:12. Because of this: introducing a logical result of the fact, stated in Rom 5:11, that through Christ we have been reconciled to God, viz. that in Christ we have a parallel to the estrangement of our race from God through Adams sin.
Man: a human being of any age or sex: cp. Joh 16:21. From Rom 5:14 (cp. 1Co 15:22) we learn that the one man was Adam: contrast Sirach xxv. 24, quoted below. Had not he sinned, death would not have gained a mastery over the whole race.
Sin: personified as an active, ruling principle: so Rom 5:21; Rom 6:12-13; Rom 6:17; Rom 6:19.
Sin entered: therefore before that time it was outside the world, i.e. the human race, the only part of the world capable of sin. In Gen 1:31, we find a sinless world. These words suggest that Adams sin was in some sense a cause of the many sins of his children: see note below.
And in this way: through sin and through one man.
Passed through: extended its dominion to all men. The death of each individual is a compulsory tribute to the sovereignty then usurped.
Inasmuch as all sinned: a reason why through one mans sin death spread its sway over the entire race, thus expounding in this way. Paul says that when Adam sinned, all sinned. This cannot refer to their own personal sins: for, as will be proved in Rom 5:13, these are not the cause of the universal reign of death. The meaning of these difficult words, Paul will further expound in Rom 5:18-19.
Notice here a plain assertion that all men die because Adam sinned: so 1Co 15:22. This is also the easiest explanation of Joh 8:44. The same teaching may be fairly inferred from Gen 2:17; Gen 3:19; Gen 3:22. But it is not elsewhere clearly taught in the Bible. We find it however in Wisdom ii. 23, God created man for incorruptibility but by envy of the devil death entered into the world; and in Sir. xxv. 24, Because of her we all die. These quotations, from different authors, prove that the teaching before us was known among the Jews before the time of Christ. See further in note below on Original Sin.
Rom 5:12 is incomplete: it states only one side of an important comparison. For, although grammatically the clause also in this way etc. might be taken as introducing the second member of the comparison, this would yield no adequate contrast. Evidently the comparison is broken off in order to prove the former side of it. The second side is informally introduced in Rom 5:15; and the whole comparison is formally stated in Rom 5:18-19. Similar broken constructions are found in Gal 2:6-9; Eph 2:1-5.
Rom 5:13-14. Proof, from historic facts, of the doctrine stated in Rom 5:12. That Paul interrupts his comparison in order to prove this first member of it, shows that it was not so generally accepted as to make proof needless.
Law: the Law of Moses looked at in its abstract quality as a prescription of conduct: so Rom 2:12.
Until the Law: throughout the time preceding the giving of the Law: see Rom 2:14.
Sin reckoned: so Rom 4:8. We have here a universal principle bearing upon the foregoing historic fact. It is true that during the whole period up to the time of Moses sin was in the world. But this will not account for the reign of death. For, although death is the penalty of sin, the penalty is not inflicted while there is no law.
Nevertheless, death reigned-as-king: although there was no law prescribing such penalty.
There was sin death reigned: but the latter was not a result of the former, because the connecting link, law, was absent.
Likeness (as in Rom 1:23) of Adams transgression: their sin was not, like his, an overstepping of a marked-out line. These words leave room for any men from Adam to Moses who may have broken definite commands prescribing a penalty, and who therefore died because of their own sin. Paul reminds us that the reign of death was not limited to any such cases.
This argument is Pauls proof of the teaching in Rom 5:12 that all men die because Adam sinned. It is true that all have sinned and that death is the penalty of sin prescribed to Adam in Paradise and afterwards in the Law given to Israel. But the universal reign of death long before Moses cannot be an infliction of the penalty threatened to him. It must therefore be an infliction on Adams children of the penalty laid upon him (Gen 3:19) for his first transgression.
The above argument is not invalidated by the law written in the heart, by which, as we read in Rom 2:14-15, they who have not received the Mosaic Law will be judged and punished. For this law belongs to the inner and unseen world, and in that unseen world its penalty will be inflicted. The punishment of bodily death belongs to the outer and visible world; and therefore cannot be inflicted in fulfilment of a law written only within.
A similar argument may be drawn from the death of infants. Upon them, though innocent of actual sin, the punishment of death is inflicted. This proves that they come into the world sharing the punishment, and therefore in effect the sin, of Adam. But it suited Paul better to use an argument which keeps the Law before his readers. The case of infants confirms the conclusion at which, by another path, Paul arrived.
Notice that to Paul death is essentially and always the penalty of sin. He sees men die; and inquires for whose sin the penalty is inflicted. His view is confirmed by the fact that both in Paradise and at Sinai God threatened to punish sin by death, and thus set it apart from all natural processes as a mark of His anger. See further in the note below.
Type: so Rom 6:17 : a Greek word denoting a mark made by the pressure of something hard. It is used in Joh 20:25 for a mark of nails; in Act 7:43 for a copy or imitation; and in Act 7:44; Heb 8:5 for a model or pattern to be imitated. Hence commonly for a pattern to be followed: 1Co 10:6; 1Co 10:11; Php 3:17; 1Th 1:7; 1Ti 4:12; Tit 2:7; 1Pe 5:3.
The Coming One: Christ, to whom, standing by Adam, Paul looks forward as still to come. After teaching that God put Adam in such relation to mankind that his sin brought death to all men, he now teaches that in this, in an inverse direction, Adam was a pattern of Christ. He thus introduces the second side of the comparison broken off at the end of Rom 5:12. This second side will occupy Rom 5:15-19.
Rom 5:15. Nevertheless, not as etc.: although Adam is a type of Christ, the comparison between the trespass (see Rom 4:25) of Adam and the gift-of-grace (see Rom 1:11) of Christ does not hold good in everything. Where it fails, Paul will explain in Rom 5:16. But he has introduced a new word, gift-of-grace, and must explain and justify it before he proves the denial of which it is a part. This explanation occupies the rest of Rom 5:15 : it is also a partial statement of the other side of the comparison broken off in Rom 5:12.
For if etc.: explanation of the gift-of-grace which Paul has just put beside the trespass of Adam.
By the trespass of the one, the many died: a restatement of Rom 5:12.
The free-gift: explained in Rom 5:17 as the free gift of righteousness.
It is a manifestation of the grace of God: cp. Rom 3:24 : justified as a free gift by His grace. Gods favour and the gift of righteousness reached us in the grace of the one man, i.e. amid the favour shown to us by Jesus Christ. Cp. 2Co 8:9.
Abounded for: as in Rom 3:7 : produced overflowing results in a definite direction, viz. towards the many. These last words denote a tendency, not necessarily an actual result. Nor does the indefinite term the many denote necessarily the same number of persons in each case: see under Rom 5:19. The article implies only in each case a definite object of thought.
Much more: greater certainty, as in Rom 5:9-10. For here there can be no comparison in quantity. But considering Gods character, it is much more easy to believe that the many are blessed than that the many die through one man. The former, Paul has proved: and his proof of it compels us to believe the latter. A similar kind of argument in Rom 5:9-10.
Rom 5:16. Paul now adds to the surpassing comparison in Rom 5:15 b a restatement of the denial in Rom 5:15 a, i.e. of the one point in which the comparison does not hold good: and not as etc. The free gift through Christ differs from the death which came through Adam in that the latter was occasioned only by one man having sinned: i.e. by one mans sin. This denial is expounded and proved in Rom 5:16 b, 17.
The judgment: the sentence pronounced in Paradise on Adams sin. In consequence of one man, i.e. of his sin, this judgment became adverse, i.e. condemnation. These words look upon sin from a new point of view, viz.
that of the judge who condemns it. This result followed from the action of one man.
But the gift-of-grace follows, and undoes the effect of, many trespasses, and leads up to a decree-of-righteousness, i.e. acquittal, a direct contrast to condemnation. See under Rom 5:18.
Rom 5:17. Practical result of the decree of acquittal just mentioned, prefaced by a restatement of the darker side of the comparison.
Death became king: restatement of the many died in Rom 5:15, in a form already adopted in Rom 5:14. This reign of death was the punishment following the condemnation pronounced in Paradise.
The abundance of the grace and of the free gift of righteousness: resuming and expounding similar words in Rom 5:15.
They who receive etc.: only to those who believe does the blessing which comes through Christ surpass the loss through Adam. Notice the emphatic repetition, keeping before us the point of comparison: by the one mans trespass through the one through the one. Also the tone of triumph. Through Adams sin death became our king. His dread summons, we are compelled to obey. But a day is coming when upon the throne now occupied by death ourselves will sit and reign in endless life.
That the numbers affected are not the same on both sides, does not mar the comparison: for Paul writes as a believer to believers. To them the gift through Christ outweighs the effect not only of Adams sin but of their own (Rom 5:16) many trespasses.
Rom 5:18. After the digression in Rom 5:13-14, inserted to prove the former side of the great comparison in Rom 5:12, and the second digression (Rom 5:15-17), in which he proves that the parallel does not hold good in all details, and also states the essential and glorious matter of the second side of the comparison, Paul comes now formally to state in Rom 5:18 and to restate in Rom 5:19 the whole comparison. The resumed thread is indicated by the phrase for all men, already used in Rom 5:12 for the former side, now for the first time used for both sides, of the comparison.
Therefore: a logical summing up and inference, as in Rom 7:3; Rom 7:25; Rom 8:12; Rom 9:16; Rom 9:18; Rom 14:12; Rom 14:19.
Through one trespass: emphatic resumption of similar words in Rom 5:15; Rom 5:17.
For all men: resuming the same words in Rom 5:12.
For condemnation: resuming the same words in Rom 5:16.
Decree-of-righteousness: acquittal, as in Rom 5:16, where its meaning is determined by its contrast to condemnation. In Rom 5:16, this acquittal was mentioned as an outworking of Gods grace: here it is a channel through which come justification and life eternal. It is best to take the word as denoting the Gospel announcement of pardon for all who believe, this being looked upon as a judicial decree and as pronounced once for all in Christ.
For all men: a definite universal phrase which cannot denote less than the entire race, a meaning it must have in the former part of this verse. Same words, in same universal sense, in 1Ti 2:1; 1Ti 2:4; Tit 2:11. In Rom 12:17; 1Co 7:7; 1Co 15:19; 2Co 3:2, the compass is less definite, but still universal.
Justification: announcement of pardon, as in Rom 4:25.
Of life: result of justification. So Rom 5:17.
The meaning of Rom 5:18 is obscured by the absence of any verb in either clause. So Rom 5:15 a, Rom 5:16 a and b. The verb here must be supplied from the foregoing argument. The verse reads literally, Therefore, as through one trespass for all men, for condemnation, so also through one decree of righteousness for all men for justification of life. The word which I have rendered for, denotes tendency, whether of actual result or more frequently of purpose. In Rom 7:10, we have both uses in one short verse; the commandment was designed for life, but actually it resulted in death. The precise meaning in each case must be determined by the context. In Rom 5:18 a, we have an actual result: through one moral fall an influence has gone forth which has reached all men, and has resulted to all in condemnation to death. Through one proclamation of pardon has gone forth an influence designed for all men and leading to justification and life eternal. Over against a universal result, Paul sets a universal purpose to counteract that result. This universal purpose is all that his words grammatically mean, and all that his argument demands. When he speaks in the indicative future of actual results, as in Rom 5:17; Rom 5:19, he does not use the definite term all men.
Rom 5:19. Summary of the reasons and explanations, as Rom 5:18 summed up the conclusions, of Rom 5:12-18 corresponds with to all men death passed through; Rom 5:19, with inasmuch as all sinned.
Constituted sinners: made sharers of the punishment inflicted on Adam, and in this sense made sharers of his sin: a forensic reckoning. In a still deeper sense we have become sinners through Adams sin: see note below. But of this deeper sense we have no hint here.
Obedience: Christs obedience to death, as in Php 2:8. For in Rom 3:24-26, of which Romans 5 is a practical and experimental exposition, justification is attributed, not to Christs obedient life, of which as yet in this epistle we have read nothing, but conspicuously to His death and blood.
Shall be constituted righteous: faith reckoned for righteousness, as each one from time to time appropriates by faith the one decree of righteousness. The future tense as in Rom 4:24, us to whom it shall be reckoned: cp. Rom 5:14, the Coming One. This is better than to refer it to the great day: for believers are already accepted as righteous. Paul puts himself between Adam and Christ, and looks back to the sentence pronounced on the many because of Adams sin and forward to the justification which in Gospel days will be announced to the many because of Christs obedience to death.
The change from all men in Rom 5:12; Rom 5:18 to the many in Rom 5:15; Rom 5:19 cannot have been adopted merely to remind us of the large number of persons referred to. For this would be more forcefully done by the words all men. But Paul could not say that all men will be constituted righteous. For there are some of whom he writes with tears, in Php 3:19, that their end is destruction. And in Rom 5:17 he limits his assertion to those who will receive the abundance of the grace. That in the 2nd clause of Rom 5:19 the phrase the many does not include so many as it does in the 1st clause, does not mar the comparison. For the blessing is designed for all men, and will be actually received by all except those who reject it.
We will now build up Pauls argument from his own premises. God created man without sin, and gave him a law of which death was the penalty. Adam broke the law, and was condemned to die: and this sentence we find inflicted also upon his descendants. It is true that they are sinners: but, since no law prescribing death as penalty has been given to them, their death cannot be a punishment of their own sins. We therefore infer that the condemnation pronounced on Adam was designed for them, and that God treated them as in some sense sharers of his sin. In later days, another Man appears. He was obedient, even when obedience involved death. Through His death, pardon is proclaimed for all who believe: and through Him many enjoy Gods favour and will reign in endless life. Since the Gospel offers salvation to all men and is designed for all, we have in it a parallel, in an opposite direction, to the condemnation pronounced in Paradise, and in Adam a pattern of Christ. But we have more than a parallel. We also have broken definite commands. For our own sins, we deserve to die: but through Christ we shall escape the result, not only of Adams sin, but of our own many trespasses. Therefore to all men the blessing is equal to the curse: for it offers eternal life to all. To believers, it is infinitely greater.
Rom 5:18 implies clearly that Gods purpose to save embraced all men. It therefore contradicts any theory which limits the efficacy of the Gospel by some secret purpose of God to withhold from some men the influences leading to repentance and faith which He brings to bear on others. The universality of these influences is implied, as we have seen, in Rom 2:4. It is asserted or implied in Rom 14:15; 1Co 8:11; 1Ti 2:4; 1Ti 4:10, Tit 2:11; Joh 3:16; Joh 6:51; Joh 12:47; Joh 1:29; 1Jn 4:14; 1Jn 2:2. Against these passages, there is nothing to set. For the more limited reference in Act 20:28; Eph 5:25; Joh 10:11; Joh 10:15; Joh 15:13; Joh 11:52 is included in the wider; and is easily explained. Similarly, the still narrower references in 2Co 8:9; Gal 2:20. For they who accept salvation are in a special sense objects of Christs love, even as compared with those who reject it. The entire N.T. assumes that the ruin of the wicked is due only to their rejection of a salvation designed for all.
In Rom 5:1-11, Doctrine 2, Justification through the Death of Christ, was expounded in its bearing on the individual: in Rom 5:12-19, it is expounded in its bearing on the race as a whole and on our relation to the father of the race. In the reversal not only of the evils we have brought upon ourselves but of those resulting from a curse pronounced in the infancy of mankind, we see the importance and the triumph of the Gospel. Again, in Romans 4, Paul supported Doctrine 1, Justification through Faith, by pointing out its harmony with Gods treatment of Abraham. He has now supported Doctrine 2 by pointing out its harmony with Gods treatment of Adam; and has thus given a wonderful and unexpected confirmation both of the Gospel and of the story of Paradise. Lastly and chiefly, we here find in the Gospel a solution (the only conceivable solution) of what would otherwise be an inexplicable mystery. Independently of the Gospel, Paul has proved that all men suffer and die because of the sin of one who lived before they were born. This would be, if it were the whole case, inconsistent with every conception we can form of the justice of God. We now find that it is not the whole case. The pardon proclaimed through Christ for all who believe justifies the curse pronounced on all because of Adams sin. Thus the dark shadow of death discloses a bright light shining beyond it.
Notice that Paul accepts the story of Paradise as embodying important truth. But, that he refers only to broad principles, leaves us uncertain whether he held the literal meaning of all its details.
ORIGINAL SIN. We have no indication that the word death in Rom 5:12-19 means anything except the death of the body. The argument rests on the story of Genesis; and there we have no hint of any death except (Gen 3:19) the return of dust to dust. The proof in Rom 5:14 of the statement in Rom 5:12 refers evidently to the visible reign of natural death. And the comparison of Adam and Christ requires no other meaning of the word. Through one mans sin, the race was condemned to go down into the grave: and through one mans obedience and one divine proclamation of pardon believers will obtain a life beyond the grave. The whole argument is but a development of 1Co 15:22.
Nor have we any direct reference to universal depravity as a result of Adams sin. Had it been Pauls purpose to assert this result, this section would have been out of its place in the epistle. For as yet he has not referred explicitly to any moral change wrought in us by Christ. We may go further and say that the Bible nowhere teaches plainly and explicitly that in consequence of Adams sin all men are born naturally prone to evil. That this important doctrine may however be inferred with complete certainty from the teaching of this section read in the light of other teaching of Holy Scripture, I shall now endeavour to show.
In Rom 2:1; Rom 2:3; Rom 2:5, Paul assumed that, apart from the Gospel, all men are committing sin. In spite of (Rom 2:14; Rom 2:26) occasional and fragmentary obedience, he has convicted (Rom 3:9) both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. By works of law (Rom 3:20) Will no flesh be justified before Him: for (Rom 3:23) all have sinned. Unless justified through faith, all men are (Rom 5:6-10) morally powerless godless, sinners, and enemies of God. All are or have been slaves of sin: Rom 6:17; Rom 6:19-20. The awful reality of this bondage is described in Rom 7:23-24. It is closely connected with bodily life: for (Rom 8:8) they that are in flesh cannot please God. All this implies an inborn and universal tendency to evil. And throughout the N.T. we find similar teaching.
We cannot conceive man to have been thus made by a righteous and loving Creator. And that everything that He made was very good, is asserted in Gen 1:31. A change has taken place: we seek its cause.
In Rom 6:16-22, we shall learn that to sin is to surrender ourselves to an evil power greater than our own, to be its slaves. This is plainly and solemnly asserted by Christ in Joh 8:34. Therefore, unless the sinner be rescued by one mightier than himself, his first trespass will inevitably be followed by a course of sin. If so, by his first sin Adam must have lost his moral balance, and fallen under the power of sin. And, since even the powers of evil are in Gods hand, this inner result of sin must have been by His permission and ordinance. It was therefore a divinely-inflicted punishment. God decreed that the first act of disobedience should be followed by proneness to sin.
It is now evident that the consequences of Adams sin were both outward and inward. God gave up his body to the worms, and (cp. Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28) his spirit, in some real measure, to the power of sin.
The former part of this penalty, we find inflicted on all Adams children. This, Paul describes by saying, in Rom 5:10; Rom 5:19, that in him they all sinned, and that through his disobedience many were constituted sinners. This suggests an original relation between him and them such that, in its physical consequence, his sin became theirs. It is equally certain that the latter part of the penalty is inflicted upon all. For we find that all men are actually, unless saved by Christ, slaves of sin. This cannot have been their state as created. We can account for it only by supposing that they share not only the physical but the moral effect of their fathers fall. By sin he sold himself into moral bondage: and because of his sin his children are born slaves to sin.
The above is confirmed by an important picture of universal sin in Eph 2:1-3, concluding with the words and were by nature children of anger, as the rest. Paul here traces actual sins to an inborn tendency. Similarly in Joh 3:6 Christ traces the necessity for a new birth to the origin of our bodily life, born from the flesh. In Psa 51:5; Job 11:12; Job 14:4; Job 15:14, we have indications of an inborn defect of human nature. Since this defect cannot be attributed to the Creator, it must have another cause: and this cause lies open to our view in the fall of the first father of our race, from whom we inherit the corruption of death.
This inference is confirmed by all the facts of human heredity. Indisputably men inherit from their parents not only special physical weaknesses but special tendencies to various sins.
In this sense we may say that Adams sin was reckoned or imputed to his children: not that God looks on them as though they were in any way responsible for it, but simply that the evils which God threatened should follow sin have fallen upon Adams descendants, by the decree of God, because Adam sinned. About the state of men unsaved, see further at the close of 22.
In Rom 5:12-19; 1Co 15:22, Paul asserts plainly, following earlier Jewish writers, e.g. Wisdom ii. 23, Sirach xxv. 24, that the doom of death now resting on all men is a result of Adams sin. On the other hand, modern Science leaves no room to doubt that animals died long ages before man appeared; and that the death of man is closely related to that of animals. This apparent contradiction demands careful consideration.
The statement that through one man sin entered into the world does not necessarily include the death of animals. For the term the world may fairly be limited to the human race, as in Rom 3:6, God will judge the world, and in Rom 3:19, all the world become guilty before God; where all else except the human race lies outside the writers thought. Consequently Pauls statement is not directly contradicted by the earlier death of animals.
The real question before us is, What would have happened if Adam had not sinned? This question Natural Science cannot answer. For the intelligence and moral sense of man cannot be accounted for by any forces observed working in animal life; and therefore reveal in him an element higher than everything in animals and closely related to the unseen Creator of animals and men.[*] Moreover, each of these elements, the animal and the divine, claims to rule the entire life of man. Between them, capable of being influenced by either, is the mysterious self-determination of man. All this belongs to his original constitution.
* This is well argued, by a naturalist of the first rank, in Wallaces Darwinism, pp. 461-474.
In the inevitable conflict resulting from this dual constitution, man accepted as his lord the lower element of his nature. Like an animal, he ate attractive food, disregarding the divine prohibition. We need not wonder that by so doing he fell under the doom of death to which all animal life had long been subject. But we cannot doubt that man was absolutely free to yield submission to the higher, instead of the lower, side of his nature. And we have no proof whatever that, if he had done this, and thus claimed his affinity to God, he would have fallen under the doom of animals.
This possibility lies outside the range of Natural Science. This last reports that animals died long before man appeared, and that to their death the death of man is closely related. Beyond this it cannot go; except that it finds in man phenomena which cannot be accounted for by the forces observed in animals, thus revealing in him a higher life. It cannot therefore contradict the teaching of the great apostle.
This teaching is confirmed by the repulsiveness of the phenomena of death, a repulsiveness increasing as we ascend the scale of life. This repulsiveness suggests irresistibly that a world in which death is the doom of every living thing is not itself the consummation of the Creators purpose. It compels us to look for a new earth and heaven not darkened by the shadow of death. Against this hope, Natural Science, which sees only things around, has nothing to say. The objection we are considering need not therefore deter us from accepting the doctrine before us.
We shall however do well to remember that this doctrine is taught in the N.T. only by Paul; and that it is not made, even by him, a fundamental truth on which other teaching is built. It is introduced only to show how far-reaching is the salvation announced by Christ; and therefore ought not to be quoted as one of the great doctrines of the Gospel.
5:12 {10} Wherefore, as by {l} one man {m} sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, {n} for that all have sinned:
(10) From Adam, in whom all have sinned, both guiltiness and death (which is the punishment of the guiltiness) came upon all.
(l) By Adam, who is compared with Christ, and similar to him in this, that both of them make those who are theirs partakers of that which they have: but they are not the same in this, that Adam derives sin into them that are his, even into their very nature, and that to death: but Christ makes them that are his partakers of his righteousness by grace, and that to life.
(m) By sin is meant that disease which is ours by inheritance, and men commonly call it original sin: for so he calls that sin in the singular number, whereas if he speaks of the fruits of it, he uses the plural number, calling them sins.
(n) That is, in Adam.
E. The restorative effects of justification 5:12-21
Justification by faith not only carries with it many benefits (Rom 5:1-11), but it also overcomes the effects of the Fall. Paul’s final argument in support of justification by faith involves a development of his previous emphasis on the solidarity that the saved experience with their Savior (Rom 5:1-2; Rom 5:9-10). In this section (Rom 5:12-21) he expanded that idea by showing that just as Adam’s sin has affected all people, so Jesus Christ’s obedience has affected all believers.
"As Adam’s one sin never fails to bring death, so Christ’s one righteous act in behalf of sinners never fails to bring the opposite award to those who are in Him." [Note: Stifler, p. 95.]
The apostle viewed Adam and Christ as federal heads of two groups of people. A federal head is a person who acts as the representative of many others and whose actions result in consequences that the individuals he represents inevitably experience. Some interpreters believe Paul viewed Adam as the natural head of the human race, rather than as the federal head. [Note: E.g., Witmer, p. 458.] Examples of federal heads include a king, a president, a member of congress, and a parent, among others.
In this section Paul was not looking primarily at what individual sinners have done, which had been his interest previously. Rather he looked at what Adam did in the Fall and what Jesus Christ did at the Cross and the consequences of their actions for humanity. Adam’s act resulted in his descendants sinning and dying. We inherit Adam’s nature that was sinful, and this accounts for the fact that we all sin and die. We are sinners not only because we commit acts of sin but also because Adam’s sin corrupted the human race and made sin and punishment inevitable for his descendants as well as for himself. However, Christ’s act of dying made all who trust in Him righteous apart from their own works.
"When one man fails in the accomplishment of God’s purpose (as, in measure, all did), God raises up another to take his place-Joshua to replace Moses, David to replace Saul, Elisha to replace Elijah [Jesus to replace Adam]." [Note: Bruce, p. 119.]
"The power of Christ’s act of obedience to overcome Adam’s act of disobedience is the great theme of this paragraph. . . .
"The main connection is with the teaching of assurance of final salvation in the immediately preceding paragraph (Rom 5:2 b, 9-10). The passage shows why those who have been justified and reconciled can be so certain that they will be saved from wrath and share in ’the glory of God’: it is because Christ’s act of obedience ensures eternal life for all those who are ’in Christ.’" [Note: Moo, pp. 315, 316.]
The first verse of this section (Rom 5:12-21) picks up the idea of future salvation from Rom 5:9-10.
Paul did not call Adam and Christ by name when he first spoke of them but referred to each as "one man." The key word "one" occurs 14 times in Rom 5:12-21. He thereby stressed the unity of the federal head with those under his authority who are also "men" (i.e., human beings).
We might interpret this verse as meaning that Adam only set a bad example for mankind that everyone has followed if we did not continue reading. Adam’s sin had a more direct and powerful effect than that of a bad example (Rom 5:15). It resulted in his descendants inheriting a sinful human nature that accounts in part for our sinfulness.
Paul personified sin presenting it as an evil power. He probably meant both physical and spiritual death.
Why did Paul and God hold Adam responsible for the sinfulness of the race when it was really Eve who sinned first? They did so because Adam was the person in authority over and therefore responsible for Eve (Gen 2:18-23; 1Co 11:3). Furthermore, Eve was deceived (2Co 11:3), but Adam sinned deliberately (1Ti 2:14).
Paul compared the manner in which death entered the world, through sin, and the manner in which it spread to everyone, also through sin. Death is universal because sin is universal. Paul’s concern was more with original death than with original sin.
"Death, then, is due immediately to the sinning of each individual but ultimately to the sin of Adam; for it was Adam’s sin that corrupted human nature and made individual sinning an inevitability." [Note: Ibid., p. 325.]
Witmer compared Adam’s sin to a vapor that entered a house (humanity) through the front door and then penetrated the whole house. [Note: Witmer, p. 458.]
"Perhaps what makes this sermon ["Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," by Jonathan Edwards] most offensive to the ears of contemporary interpreters is not the language of impending destruction nor even that God is angry. What is probably most distasteful in Edwards’s theology is the doctrine of original sin, that he would believe that human beings are born guilty of sin and deserving of divine wrath. Perhaps implicitly, the view of the universal goodness of humanity that permeates the worldview of many people today has also penetrated evangelical theology as well. That all humans, including children, are guilty of sin and therefore deserving of the wrath of God seems harsh and unfair to modern ears." [Note: Glenn R. Kreider, "Sinners in the Hands of a Gracious God," Bibliotheca Sacra 163:651 (July-September 2006):274.]
Chapter 13
CHRIST AND ADAM
Rom 5:12-21
WE approach a paragraph of the Epistle pregnant with mystery. It leads us back to Primal Man, to the Adam of the first brief pages of the Scripture record, to his encounter with the. suggestion to follow himself rather than his Maker, to his sin, and then to the results of that sin in his race. We shall find those results given in terms which certainly we should not have devised a priori. We shall find the Apostle teaching, or rather stating, for he writes as to those who know, that mankind inherits from primal Man, tried and fallen, not only taint but guilt, not only moral hurt but legal fault.
This is “a thing heard in the darkness.” It has been said that Holy Scripture “is not a sun, but a lamp.” The words may be grievously misused, by undue emphasis on the negative clause; but they convey a sure truth, used aright. Nowhere does the Divine Book undertake to tell us all about everything it contains. It undertakes to tell us truth, and to tell it from God. It undertakes to give us pure light, yea, “to bring life and immortality out into the light,”. {2Ti 1:10} But it reminds us that we know “in part,” and that even prophecy, even the inspired message, is “in part”. {1Co 13:9} It illuminates immensely much, but it leaves yet more to be seen hereafter. It does not yet kindle the whole firmament and the whole landscape like an oriental sun. It sheds its glory upon our Guide, and upon our path.
A passage like this calls for such recollections. It tells us, with the voice of the Apostles Lord, great facts about our own race, and its relations to its primeval Head, such that every individual man has a profound moral and also judicial nexus with the first Man. It does not tell us how those inscrutable but solid facts fit into the whole plan of Gods creative wisdom and moral government. The lamp shines there, upon the edges of a deep ravine beside the road; it does not shine sun-like over the whole mountain land.
As with other mysteries which will meet us later, so with this; we approach it as those who “know in part,” and who know that the apostolic Prophet, by no defect of inspiration, but by the limits of the case, “prophesies in part.” Thus with awful reverence, with godly fear, and free from the wish to explain away, yet without anxiety lest God should be proved unrighteous, we listen as Paul dictates, and receive his witness about our fall and our guilt in that mysterious “First Father.”
We remember also another fact of this case. This paragraph deals only incidentally with Adam; its main theme is Christ. Adam is the illustration; Christ is the subject. We are to be shown in Adam, by contrast, some of “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” So that our main attention is called not to the brief outline of the mystery of the Fall, but to the assertions of the related splendour of the Redemption.
St. Paul is drawing again to a close, a cadence. He is about to conclude his exposition of the Way of Acceptance, and to pass its junction with the Way of Holiness. And he shows us here last, in the matter of Justification, this fragment from “the bottoms of the mountains”-the union of the justified with their redeeming Lord as race with Head; the nexus in that respect between them and Him which makes His “righteous act” of such infinite value to them. In the previous paragraph, as we have seen, he has gravitated toward the deeper regions of the blessed subject; he has indicated our connection with the Lords Life as well as with His Merit. Now, recurring to the thought of the Merit, he still tends to the depths of truth, and Christ our Righteousness is lifted before our eyes from those pure depths as not the Propitiation only, but the Propitiation who is also our Covenant-Head, our Second Adam, holding His mighty merits for a new race, bound up with Himself in the bond of real unity.
He “prophesies in part,” meanwhile, even in respect of this element of his message. As we saw just above, the fullest explanations of our union with the Lord Christ in His life were reserved by St. Pauls Master for other Letters than this. In the present passage we have not, what probably we should have had if the Epistle had been written five years later, a definite statement of the connection between our Union with Christ in His covenant and our Union with Him in His life; a connection deep, necessary, significant. It is not quite absent from this passage, if we read verses 17, 18 (Rom 5:17-18) aright; but it is not prominent. The main thought is of merit, righteousness, acceptance; of covenant, of law. As we have said, this paragraph is the climax of the Epistle to the Romans as to its doctrine of our peace with God through the merits of His Son. It is enough for the purpose of that subject that it should indicate, and only indicate, the doctrine that His Son is also our Life, our indwelling Cause and Spring of purity and power.
Recollecting thus the scope and the connection of the passage, let us listen to its wording.
On this account, on account of the aspects of our justification and reconciliation “through our Lord Jesus Christ” which he has just presented, it is just as through one man sin entered into the world, the world of man, and, through sin, death, and so to all men death travelled, penetrated, pervaded, inasmuch as all sinned; the Race sinning in its Head, the Nature in its representative Bearer. The facts of human life and death show that sin did thus pervade the race, as to liability, and as to penalty: For until law came sin was in the world: it was present all along, in the ages previous to the great Legislation. But sin is not imputed, is not put down as debt for penalty, where law does not exist, where in no sense in there statute to be obeyed or broken, whether that statute takes articulate expression or not. But death became king, from Adam down to Moses, even over those who did not sin on the model of the transgression of Adam-who is (in the present tense of the plan of God) pattern of the Coming One.
He argues from the fact of death, and from its universality, which implies a universality of liability, of guilt. According to the Scriptures, death is essentially penal in the case of man, who was created not to die but to live. How that purpose would have been fulfilled if “the image of God” had not sinned against Him, we do not know. We need not think that. the fulfilment would have violated any natural process; higher processes might have governed the case, in perfect harmony with the surroundings of terrestrial life, till perhaps that life was transfigured, as by a necessary development, into the celestial and immortal. But, however, the record does connect, for man, the fact of death with the fact of sin, offence, transgression. And the fact of death is universal, and so has been from the first. And thus it includes generations most remote from the knowledge of a revealed code. And it includes individuals most incapable of a conscious act of transgression such as Adams was; it includes the heathen, and the infant, and the imbecile. Therefore wherever there is human nature, since Adam fell, there is sin, in its form of guilt. And therefore, in some sense which perhaps only the Supreme Theologian Himself fully knows, but which we can follow a little way, all men offended in the First Man-so favourably conditioned, so gently tested. The guilt contracted by him is possessed also by them. And thus is he “the pattern of the Coming One.”
For now the glorious Coming One, the Seed of the Woman, the blessed Lord of the Promise, rises on the view, in His likeness and in His contrast. Writing to Corinth from Macedonia, about a year before, St. Paul had called him {1Co 15:45; 1Co 15:47} “the Second Adam,” “the Second Man”; and had drawn in outline the parallel he here elaborates. “In Adam all die; even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” It was a thought which he had learned in Judaism, but which his Master had affirmed to him in Christianity; and noble indeed and far reaching is its use of it in this exposition of the sinners hope.
But not as the transgression, so the gracious gift. For if, by the transgression of the one, the many, the many affected by it, died, much rather did the grace of God, His benignant action, and the gift, the grant of our acceptance, in the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, (“in His grace,” because involved in His benignant action, in His redeeming work) abound unto the many whom it, whom He, affected.
We observe here some of the phrases in detail. “The One”; “the One Man”:-“the one,” in each case, is related to “the many” involved, in bane or in blessing respectively. “The One Man”:-so the Second Adam is designated, not the First. As to the First, “it goes unsaid” that he is man. As to the Second, it is infinitely wonderful, and Of eternal import, that He, as truly, as completely, is one with us, is Man of men. “Much rather did the grace, and the gift, abound”:-the thought given here is that while the dread secret of the Fall was solemnly permitted, as good in law, the sequel of the divine counter work was gladly sped by the Lords willing love, and was carried to a glorious overflow, to an altogether unmerited effect, in the present and eternal blessing of the justified. “The many,” twice mentioned in this verse, are the whole company which, in each case, stands related to the respective Representative. It is the whole race in the case of the Fall; it is the “many brethren” of the Second Adam in the case of the Reconciliation. The question is not of numerical comparison between the two, but of the numerousness of each host in relation to the oneness of its covenant Head. What the numerousness of the “many brethren” will be we know-and we do not know; for it will be “a great multitude, which no one can number.” But that is not in the question here. The emphasis, the “much rather,” the “abundance,” lies not on the compared numbers, but on the amplitude of the blessing which overflows upon “the many” from the justifying work of the One.
He proceeds, developing the thought. From the act of each Representative, from Adams Fall and Christs Atonement, there issued results of dominion, of royalty. But what was the contrast of the cases! In the Fall, the sin of the One brought upon “the many” judgment, sentence, and the reign of death over them. In the Atonement, the righteousness of the One brought upon “the many” an “abundance,” an overflow, a generous largeness and love of acceptance, and the power of life eternal, and a prerogative of royal rule over sin and death; the emancipated captives treading upon their tyrants necks. We follow out the Apostles wording:
And not as through the one who sinned, who fell, so is the gift; our acceptance in our Second Head does not follow the law of mere and strict retribution which appears in our fall in our first Head. (For, he adds in emphatic parenthesis, the judgment did issue, from one transgression, in condemnation, in sentence of death; but the gracious gift issued, from many transgressions, -not indeed as if earned by them, as if caused by them, but as occasioned by them; for this wonderful process of mercy found in our sing, as well as, in our Fall, a reason for the Cross-in a deed of justification.) For if in one transgression, “in” it, as the effect is involved in its cause, death came to reign through the one offender, much rather those who are receiving, in their successive cases and generations, that abundance of the grace just spoken of, and of the free gift of righteousness, of acceptance, shall in life, life eternal, begun now, to end never, reign over their former tyrants through the One, their glorious One, Jesus Christ.
And now he sums up the whole in one comprehensive inference and affirmation. “The One” “the many”; “the One,” “the all”; the whole mercy for the all due to the one work of the One; -such is the ground thought all along. It is illustrated by “the one” and “the many” of the Fall, but still so as to throw the real weight of every word not upon the Fall but upon the Acceptance. Here, as throughout this paragraph, we should greatly mistake if we thought that the illustration and the object illustrated were to be pressed, detail by detail, into one mould. To cite an instance to the contrary, we are certainly not to take him to mean that because Adams “many” are not only fallen in him, but actually guilty, therefore Christs “many” are not only accepted in Him, but actually and personally meritorious of acceptance. The whole Epistle negatives that thought. Nor again are we to think, as we ponder ver. 18 (Rom 5:18), that because “the condemnation” was “to all men” in the sense of their being not only condemnable but actually condemned, therefore “the justification of life” was “to all men” in the sense that all mankind are actually justified. Here again the whole Epistle, and the whole message of St. Paul about our acceptance, are on the other side. The provision is for the genus, for man; but the possession is for men-who believe. No; these great details in the parallel need our reverent caution, lest we think peace where there is, and can be, none. The force of the parallel lies in the broader and deeper factors of the two matters. It lies in the mysterious phenomenon of covenant headship, as affecting both our Fall and our Acceptance; in the power upon the many, in each case, of the deed of the One; and then in the magnificent fulness and positiveness of result in the case of our salvation. In our Fall, sin merely worked itself out into doom and death. In our Acceptance, the Judges award is positively crowned and as it were loaded with gifts and treasures. It brings with it, in ways not described here, but amply shown in other Scriptures, a living union with a Head who is our life, and in whom we possess already the powers of heavenly being in their essence. It brings with it not only the approval of the Law, but accession to a throne. The justified sinner is a king already, in his Head, over the power of sin, over the fear of death. And he is on his way to a royalty in the eternal future which shall make him great indeed, great in his Lord.
The absolute dependence of our justification upon the Atoning Act of our Head, and the relation of our Head to us accordingly as our Centre and our Root of blessing, this is the main message of the passage we are tracing. The mystery of our congenital guilt is there, though it is only incidentally there. And after all what is that mystery? It is assuredly a fact. The statement of this paragraph, that the many were “constituted sinners by the disobedience of the one,” what is it? It is the Scripture expression, and in some guarded sense the Scripture explanation of a consciousness deep as the awakened soul of man; that I, a member of this homogeneous race, made in Gods image, not only have sinned, but have been a sinful being from my first personal beginning; and that I ought not to be so, and ought never to have been so. It is my calamity, but it is also my accusation. This I cannot explain; but this I know. And to know this, with a knowledge that is not merely speculative but moral, is to be ” shut up unto Christ,” in a self-despair that can go nowhere else than to Him for acceptance, for peace, for holiness, for power.
Let us translate, as they stand, the closing sentences before us:
Accordingly therefore, as through one transgression there came a result to all men, to condemnation, to sentence of death, so through one deed of righteousness there came a result to all men, (to “all” in the sense we have indicated, so that whoever of mankind receives the acceptance owes it always and wholly to the Act of Christ,) to justification of life, to an acceptance which not only bids the guilty “not die,” but opens to the accepted the secret, in Him who is their Sacrifice, of powers which live in Him for them as He is their Life. For as, by the disobedience of the one man, the many, the many of that case, were constituted sinners, constituted guilty of the fall of their nature from God, so that their being sinful is not only their calamity but their sin, so too by the obedience of the One, “not according to their works,” that is, to their conduct, past, present, or to come, but “by the obedience of the One,” the many, His “many brethren,” His Fathers children through faith in Him, shall be, as each comes to Him in all time, and then by the final open proclamation of eternity, constituted righteous, qualified for the acceptance of the holy Judge.
Before he closes this page of his message, and turns the next, he has as it were a parenthetic word to say, indicating a theme to be discussed more largely later. It is the function of the law, the moral place of the perceptive Fiat, in view of this wonderful Acceptance of the guilty. He has suggested the question already, Rom 3:31; he will treat some aspects of it more fully later. But it is urgent here to enquire at least this, Was law a mere anomaly, impossible to put into relation with justifying grace? Might it have been as well out of the way, never heard of in the human world? No, God forbid. One deep purpose of acceptance was to glorify the Law, making the perceptive Will of God as dear to the justified as it is terrible to the guilty.
But now, besides this, it has a function antecedent as well as consequent to justification. Applied as positive precept to the human will in the Fall, what does it do? It does not create sinfulness; God forbid. Not Gods will but the creatures will did that. But it occasions sins declaration of war. It brings out the latent rebellion of the will. It forces the disease to the surface – merciful force, for it shows the sick man his danger, and it gives point to his Physicians words of warning and of hope. It reveals to the criminal his guilt; as it is sometimes found that information of a statutory human penalty awakens a malefactors conscience in the midst of a half-unconscious course of crime. And so it brings out to the opening eyes of the soul the wonder of the remedy in Christ. He sees the Law; he sees himself; and now at last it becomes a profound reality to him to see the Cross. He believes, adores, and loves. The merit of his Lord covers his demerit, as the waters the sea. And he passes from the dread but salutary view of “the reign” of sin over him, in a death he cannot fathom, to submit to “the reign” of grace, in life, in death, forever.
Now law came sideways in; law, in its largest sense, as it affects the fallen, but with a special reference, doubtless, to its articulation at Sinai. It came in “sideways,” as to its relation to our acceptance; as a thing which should indirectly promote it, by not causing but occasioning the blessing; that the transgression might abound, that sin, that sins, in the most inclusive sense, might develop the latent evil, and as it were expose it to the work of grace. But where the sin multiplied, in the place, the region, of fallen humanity, there did superabound the grace; with that mighty overflow of the bright ocean of love which we have watched already. That just as our sin came to reign in our death, our penal death, so too might the grace come to reign, having its glorious way against our foes and over us, through righteousness, through the justifying work, to life eternal, which here we have, and which hereafter will receive us into itself, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
“The last words of Mr. Honest were, Grace reigns. So he left the world.” Let us walk with the same watchword through the world, till we too, crossing that Jordan, lean with a final simplicity of faith upon “the obedience of the One.”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary