Sermon Tone Analysis

Infected by Sin or Affected by Grace.

Romans 5:11-21

12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, vfor 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 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 bmany.

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 offences unto justification.

17 For if by one man’s offence 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 offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon eall men unto justification of life.

19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall zmany be made righteous.

20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence 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.

It’s hard to understand some of the writings of Paul.

The Apostle Peter even confirms this in when He speaks of Paul’s Letters.

When studying for our Wednesday night Bible Study lessons on have found hundreds of Commentaries and articles with many different opinions formed by the many different details that Paul inserts in his writings.

So I’m going to attempt to spare you some of the opinions and stick to the heart of the scripture and focus on the main theme.

I believe it’s both.

Because He is still adding onto the list of benefits of being Justified by faith.

But he is building the platform for the

Part of the debate is whether these verses we read tonight summarize what came before or if they point ahead to what follows.

It seems that they serve as a transition to do both.

“Therefore” (5:12) looks back, especially to 5:1-11, to show more benefits of being justified by faith in Christ.

Paul shows that the only way to escape the effects of the fall of the human race into sin is through the free gift of God’s grace that offers justification to all who will receive it.

Practically, this gives even greater assurance and hope to believers.

If we are in Christ, we are saved not because of our good deeds, but because of what Christ did for us on the cross.

So these verses reinforce and cement what came before.

But they also point to what follows.

In chapter 6, Paul moves from salvation to sanctification.

Crucial to living a life of holiness and freedom from sin is understanding our new identity in Jesus Christ.

So when Paul contrasts our old identity in Adam with our new identity in Christ, he looks ahead by laying a foundation for our sanctification.

Identification, either with Adam or with Christ, is the key to understanding chapter 5:12-21.

Paul is saying that either you’re under condemnation because you are in Adam or you’re justified because you are in Jesus Christ.

Also, he is showing that God’s gracious gift of righteousness in Christ is far greater than the devastation of sin that resulted from Adam’s disobedience.

Twice (5:15, 17) he says, “much more.”

He wants to encourage believers in Christ with the certainty of their glorious future in Him.

To sum up:

If you are in Adam, you are under the reign of death, but if you are in Christ, you will reign in life, because Christ’s gift is greater than Adam’s sin.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Romans: Assurance [Zondervan], p. 178) put it, “The whole story of the human race can be summed up in terms of what has happened because of Adam, and what has happened and will yet happen because of Jesus Christ.”

First, Paul explains what happened to the human race through Adam:

1.

If you are in Adam, you are under the reign of death (5:12-14).

1.

If you are in Adam, you are under the reign of death (5:12-14).

: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”

: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”

A. SIN AND DEATH ENTERED THE WORLD THROUGH ADAM AND “IN ADAM,” WE ALL SINNED (5:12).

In passing, note that Paul believed in the historicity of Adam and the story of the fall in the first three chapters of Genesis.

Adam was not a mythical figure invented by the author of Genesis to explain how sin entered the human race.

Rather, God created Adam and Eve as the first humans, placed them in the Garden of Eden, and gave them a strict commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

They disobeyed God, resulting in God banishing them from the garden and imposing the curse on the human race as a result of their sin.

Also, note in passing that although Eve was the first to sin, God held Adam accountable for plunging the human race into sin.

Why?

Because God appointed the man as the head of his wife in the garden before the fall.

The main idea of headship is responsibility or accountability.

Satan approached the woman to tempt and deceive her.

Adam passively followed her lead into sin.

But God charges Adam with introducing sin into the world, because as Eve’s head, Adam was responsible.

This responsibility and accountability for husbands to lead their families spiritually is still in place (; ).

And men are responsible to provide godly leadership in the local church (; ; ).

Paul says (5:12a), “through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin.”

The one man is Adam (5:14).

Paul is referring to the original sin when Adam disobeyed God’s explicit command and ate the forbidden fruit.

God had warned Adam that in the day he ate of that fruit, he would die ().

This referred both to physical death and to spiritual death, or separation from God.

At the moment Adam and Eve ate the fruit, the effects of physical aging and death were set into motion.

While the patriarchs lived extraordinarily long lives, the repeated refrain of is, “and he died, … and he died.”

Not only did people begin to die physically after the original sin, but also the entire creation began to experience death ().

But Paul has in mind not only physical death, but also the spiritual death that came through Adam’s fall.

In , Paul contrasts the death that came in through sin with eternal life.

When Adam sinned, he experienced spiritual separation from God that, apart from the gift of eternal life, would have resulted in eternal separation from God, which the Bible describes as “the second death” (, ).

So both physical and spiritual death entered into this world through Adam’s original sin.

But the crucial (and most controversial) phrase in is, what does Paul mean when he says, “and so death spread to all men, because all sinned”?

There have been four main views (plus a fifth, more recent view of Thomas Schreiner).

Without explaining those views, I think the best view in light of the context is that Paul is saying, “When Adam sinned, we all sinned.”

In other words, God appointed Adam as the representative head of the human race.

His sin involved the entire human race in sin.

His sin was imputed or charged to everyone born after him.

Because of Adam’s sin, each of us was born guilty of sin before we ever committed our first willful sin.

We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners by virtue of our union with Adam.

The common reaction to this is, “That’s not fair!”

But it’s always very dangerous to accuse the Almighty Sovereign of the universe of unfairness ()!

If God determined to treat Adam as the representative head of the human race, it is certainly God’s prerogative to do so.

Also, we live with this sort of representation every day.

If our political leaders declare war against another country, we go to war and some of our soldiers will die because of the action of our leaders.

Their decision was our decision because they represent us.

A further response to the unfairness charge is, do you think that you would have done better than Adam?

Do you think that you would have resisted temptation and lived a sinless life if you had been born without the effects and guilt of Adam’s sin? That’s not likely!

And, finally, if it’s not fair that Adam represented you when he sinned, neither is it fair that Christ represented you when He died on the cross.

But since there are other views, how do we know that Paul is really saying, “When Adam sinned, we all sinned”?

B. THE PROOF THAT ADAM’S SIN INFECTED THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE IS THAT DEATH IS UNIVERSAL (5:13-14).

Paul begins verse 12 with a comparison (“just as”), but then breaks off in mid-sentence to explain or prove (“for”) his comment, “because all sinned.”

While the flow of thought is not easy to follow, Paul seems to be arguing that the fact of universal death from the time of Adam until Moses was not due to their individual sins, which were not imputed to them because they were not breaking the specific commands of the law, but rather due to their identification with Adam in his original sin.

But, what does Paul mean when he adds (5:14), “even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam”?

Again, there is much debate, but it seems that Paul means that after the Law was given, sinners violated the specific commands of God, even as Adam did.

But those who lived between Adam and Moses still sinned, even though their guilt was not imputed because they didn’t violate specific commands.

So, if their guilt wasn’t imputed, why did they all die?

Answer: they died because Adam’s sin was imputed to them.

They sinned when he sinned.

The proof of their sinning in Adam is that they all died.

But, why does Paul add at this point that Adam is “a type of Him who was to come,” namely, of Christ?