The Triumph of Christ's Work over Adam's Sin
5:12-21. The rest of chapter 5 serves as a bridge between the first part of the letter and the next three chapters. It is linked with the first part by picking up the subjects of condemnation through Adam and justification through Christ, and by showing that the work of Christ far outweighs in blessing what the work of Adam did in misery and loss. It is linked with chapters 6-8 by moving from justification to sanctification, and from acts of sin to the sin in human nature.
Adam is portrayed in these verses as the federal head or representative of all those who are in the old creation. Christ is presented as the Federal Head of all those who are in the new creation. A federal head acts for all those who are under him. For example, when the President of a country signs a bill into law, he is acting for all the citizens of that country.
That is what happened in Adam's case. As a result of his sin, human death entered the world. Death became the common lot of all Adam's descendants because they had all sinned in him. It is true that they all committed individual acts of sin as well, but that is not the thought here. Paul's point is that Adam's sin was a representative act, and all his posterity are reckoned as having sinned in him.
Someone might object that it was Eve and not Adam who committed the first sin on earth. That is true, but since Adam was the first to be created, headship was given to him. So he is seen as acting for all his descendants.
When the Apostle Paul says here that death spread to all men, he is referring to physical death, even though Adam's sin brought spiritual death as well. (Vv. 13 and 14 show that physical death is in view.)
When we come to this passage of Scripture, certain questions inevitably arise. Is it fair that Adam's posterity should be constituted sinners just because he sinned? Does God condemn men for being born sinners, or only for those sins which they have actually committed? If men are born with a sinful nature, and if they therefore sin because they are born sinners, how can God hold them responsible for what they do?
Bible scholars have wrestled with these and a host of similar problems and have come up with a surprising variety of conclusions. However, there are certain facts that we can be sure of.
First, the Bible does teach that all men are sinners, both by nature and by practice. Everyone born of human parents inherits Adam's sin, and also sins by his own deliberate choice.
Second, we know that the wages of sin is death—both physical death and eternal separation from God.
But no one has to pay the penalty of sin unless he wants to. This is the important point. At enormous cost, God sent His Son to die as a Substitute for sinners. Salvation from sin and its wages is offered as a free gift through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Man is condemned on three grounds: He has a sinful nature, Adam's sin is imputed to him, and he is a sinner by practice. But his crowning guilt is his rejection of the provision which God has made for his salvation (Joh 3:18-19, Joh 3:36).
But someone will ask, “What about those who have never heard the gospel?” This question is answered in part, at least, in chapter 1. Beyond that we can rest in the assurance that the Judge of all the earth will do right (Gen 18:25). He will never act unjustly or unfairly. All His decisions are based on equity and righteousness. Although certain situations pose problems to our dim sight, they are not problems to Him. When the last case has been heard and the doors of the courtroom swing shut, no one will have a legitimate basis for appealing the verdict.
Paul will now demonstrate that Adam's sin affected the whole race. He first points out that sin was in the world during the period from Adam to the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. But during that time there was no clearly revealed law of God. Adam had received a clear oral commandment from the Lord, and many centuries later the Ten Commandments were a distinct written revelation of divine law. But in the intervening period men did not have a legal code from God. Therefore, although there was sin during that time, there was no transgression, because transgression is the violation of a known law. But sin is not imputed as transgression when there is no law forbidding it.
Yet death did not take a holiday during the age when there was no law. With the single exception of Enoch, death held sway over all mankind. You could not say that these people died because they had transgressed a clear command of God, as Adam did. Why then did they die? The answer is implied: they died because they had sinned in Adam. If this seems unfair, remember that this has nothing to do with salvation. All those who put their faith in the Lord were saved eternally. But they died physically just the same, and the reason they died was because of the sin of their federal head, Adam. In his role as federal head, Adam was a type (symbol) of Him who was to come—that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. In the succeeding verses Paul will develop the subject of these two federal heads, but more by contrast than by similarities. He will show that:
In Christ the sons of Adam boast More blessings than their father lost.
The first contrast is between the offense of Adam and the free gift of Christ. By the trespass of the first man, the many died. The many here refers, of course, to Adam's descendants. Death here may include spiritual as well as physical death.
The free gift abounds much more to the many. The free gift is the marvelous manifestation of the grace of God abounding to a race of sinners. It is made possible by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ. It was amazing grace on His part to die for His rebellious creatures. Through His sacrificial death, the gift of eternal life is offered to the many.
The two manys in this verse do not refer to the same people. The first many includes all who became subject to death as a result of Adam's trespass. The second many means all who become members of the new creation, of which Christ is the Federal Head. It includes only those to whom God's grace has abounded—that is, true believers. While God's mercy is showered on all, His grace is appropriated only by those who trust the Savior.
There is another important contrast between Adam's sin and Christ's gift. The one offense of Adam brought inevitable judgment, and the verdict was “Condemned.” The free gift of Christ, on the other hand, dealt effectively with many offenses, not just one, and resulted in the verdict “Acquitted.” Paul highlights the differences between Adam's sin and Christ's gift, between the terrible havoc wrought by one sin and the tremendous deliverance wrought from many sins, and finally between the verdict of condemnation and the verdict of justification.
By the one man's offense, death reigned as a cruel tyrant. But by the gracious gift of righteousness, a gift of overflowing grace, all believers reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
What grace this is! We are not only delivered from death's reign as a tyrant over us, but we reign as kings, enjoying life now and eternally. Do we really understand and appreciate this? Do we live as the royalty of heaven, or do we grovel among the muckheaps of this world?
The offense of Adam brought condemnation to all men, but the righteous act of Christ brought justification of life to all. The righteous act was not the Savior's life or His keeping of the law, but rather His substitutionary death on Calvary. This is what brought justification of life—that is, the justification that results in life—and brought it to all men.
The two alls in this verse do not refer to the same people. The first all means all who are in Adam. The second all means all who are in Christ. This is clear from the words in the preceding verse “those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness ... .” The gift must be received by faith. Only those who trust the Lord receive justification of life.
Just as by Adam's disobedience to God's command many were made sinners, so also by Christ's obedience to the Father many who trust Him are declared righteous. Christ's obedience led Him to the cross as our Sin bearer.
It is futile for universalists to use these verses to try to prove that all men will eventually be saved. The passage deals with two federal headships, and it is clear that just as Adam's sin affects those who are “in him,” so Christ's righteous act benefits only those who are “in Him.”
What Paul has been saying would come as a jolt to the Jewish objector who felt that everything revolved around the law. Now this objector learns that sin and salvation center not in the law but in two federal heads. That being the case, he might be tempted to ask, “Why then was the law given?” The apostle answers, The law entered that the offense might abound. It did not originate sin, but it revealed sin as an offense against God. It did not save from sin but revealed sin in all its awful character.
But God's grace proves to be greater than all man's sin. Where sin abounded, God's grace at Calvary abounded much more!
Now that the reign of sin, inflicting death on all men, has been ended, grace reigns through righteousness, giving eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Notice that grace reigns through righteousness. All the demands of God's holiness have been met, and the penalty of the law has been paid, so God can now grant eternal life to all who come pleading the merits of Christ, their Substitute.
Perhaps we have in these verses a partial answer to the familiar question, “Why did God allow sin to enter the world?” The answer is that God has received more glory and man has received more blessings through Christ's sacrifice than if sin had never entered. We are better off in Christ than we ever could have been in an unfallen Adam. If Adam had never sinned, he would have enjoyed continued life on earth in the Garden of Eden. But he had no prospect of becoming a redeemed child of God, an heir of God, or a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. He had no promise of a home in heaven or of being with Christ and like Him forever. These blessings come only through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ our Lord.
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