Romans Chapter 5 Part Two

Romans 5:12

Provided righteousness contrasted

Paul had now finished his description of how God has revealed and applied to humans His provided righteousness on the basis of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ received by faith. One thing remains to be done — to present the contrastive parallelism between the work of Jesus Christ (and its results in justification and reconciliation) and the work of another man, Adam (and its results in sin and death). Paul began by saying, Therefore (lit., “because of this”; cf. Rom_4:16), and started his comparison, just as; but he became concerned by other matters and did not return to the comparison until Rom_5:15. Paul explained that sin (in Gr., “the sin”) entered (eisēlthen, “entered into”) the world through one man; and, in accord with God’s warning (cf. Gen_2:16-17), death (in Gr., “the death”) through sin. God’s penalty for sin was both spiritual and physical death (cf. Rom_6:23; Rom_7:13), and Adam and Eve and their descendants experienced both. But physical death, being an outward, visible experience, is in view in Rom_5:12-21. Paul concluded, And in this way death (“the death”) came to all men. “Came” is diēlthen, literally “passed or went through” or “spread through.” Eisēlthen, “entered into” (the first clause in the verse) means that sin went in the world’s front door (by means of Adam’s sin); and diēlthen, “went through,” means that death penetrated the entire human race, like a vapor permeating all of a house’s rooms. The reason death spread to all, Paul explained, is that all sinned. Adam and Eve were created to live (not die). In the Garden of Eden was the tree of life which would make them live forever, if they ate of it. The tree of life is Jesus Christ. Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, and God drove them out of the garden so that they would not eat of the tree of life and live forever in their sinful nature.

Adam and Eve brought sin into the world: thus by one man sin entered. When Adam sinned, all mankind sinned in his loins, see v.18. The sin nature of man has to do with the flesh man. The flesh man is controlled by the desires of the flesh. Man is a spirit who lives in a body of flesh. Man has a free will to do with his life on earth as he wishes.

Because all humanity existed in the loins of Adam, and have through procreation inherited his fallenness and depravity, it can be said that all sinned in him. Therefore, humans are not sinners because they sin, but rather they sin because they are sinners.

 The Greek past (aorist) tense occurs in all three verbs in this verse. So the entire human race is viewed as having sinned in the one act of Adam’s sin (cf. “all have sinned,” also the Gr. past tense, in Rom_3:23). Two ways of explaining this participation of the human race in the sin of Adam have been presented by theologians — the “federal headship” of Adam over the race and the “natural or seminal headship” of Adam. (Others say that people merely imitated Adam, that he gave the human race a bad example. But that does not do justice to Rom_5:12.)

The federal headship view considers Adam, the first man, as the representative of the human race that generated from him. As the representative of all humans, Adam’s act of sin was considered by God to be the act of all people and his penalty of death was judicially made the penalty of everybody.

The natural headship view, on the other hand, recognizes that the entire human race was seminally and physically in Adam, the first man. As a result God considered all people as participating in the act of sin which Adam committed and as receiving the penalty he received. Even adherents of the federal headship view must admit that Adam is the natural head of the human race physically; the issue is the relationship spiritually. Biblical evidence supports the natural headship of Adam. When presenting the superiority of Melchizedek’s priesthood to Aaron’s, the author of Hebrews argued that Levi, the head of the priestly tribe, “who collects the 10th, paid the 10th through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor” (Heb_7:9-10).

Romans 5:13

Though sin entered human experience through the act of Adam’s sin (in which the entire human race participated seminally), sin expressed itself repeatedly in people’s actions (cf. Gen_6:5-7, Gen_6:11-13) from the point of its entrance “until” the Law was given. Man chose to follow the flesh instead of God beginning with Adam. It is impossible to break the law, however, if there is no law. If there is no speed limit, you could drive a hundred miles an hour and not be arrested. If the speed limit is 55 and you go even 65 you are probably going to get a fine to pay.  You would be breaking the law. Until Moses, there was no law written down.

Verse 12 tells us all men were regarded as sinners, but because there was no explicit list of commands, there was no strict accounting of their specific points of violation.

From Adam to Moses was the period where God had not yet given the Mosaic Law. Imputed can also be translated “reckoned” or “counted”.

  However, as Paul had already said, “Where there is no Law there is no transgression” (Rom_4:15). This does not mean that sin does not exist unless there is a Law. It means that sin does not have the character of being a transgression apart from Law and therefore sin is not taken into account (lit., “imputed, reckoned”) as such.

Romans 5:14

The fact that sin did exist during the period from Adam to the Law is proved by the fact that death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses (lit., “from Adam until Moses”). And death also reigned over people who had not broken a command as did Adam (cf. “death reigned,” Rom_5:17, and “sin reigned in death,” Rom_5:21). Adam had disobeyed a specific command of God (Gen_2:17) and committed a transgression, something that his descendants did not do when they sinned till other specific commands from God were received. But yet all Adam’s descendants had sinned with Adam (Rom_5:12), and therefore death did reign (cf. Gen_5:5, Gen_5:8, Gen_5:11, Gen_5:14, Gen_5:17, Gen_5:20, Gen_5:27, Gen_5:31). Since death was present, that proved all had sinned in Adam.

The mention of Adam by name (cf. “one man,” Rom_5:12) brought Paul back to the point of referring to him, who was a pattern of the One to come. Instead of each person possessing life, they are facing death. Adam brought death into the picture. And God could not allow them to live forever in sickness, pain, and deterioration of body and mind. God provides a way out of this terrible mess that man has gotten himself into, by sending the second Adam (Jesus Christ).

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God sent us a Savior.

Even without the law, death was universal. All men from Adam to Moses were subject to death, not because of their sinful acts against the Mosaic law, which they did not yet have, but because of their own inherited sinful nature.

In the rest of this chapter Paul explores the contrasts between the condemning act of Adam and the redemptive act of Christ. They were different in their effectiveness, their extent, their efficacy, their essence and their energy.

A parallelism exists between Adam and Jesus Christ as heads of groups of human beings (cf. 1Co_15:45-49), but the parallelism is more contrastive than comparative.

 Romans 5:15

The details of the parallelism between Adam and Christ (begun by Paul in Rom_5:12 with the words “just as”) are given in Rom_5:15-17. The apostle made clear the contrastive nature of the parallelism by stating, But the gift (charisma, “grace-gift”) is not like the trespass. What Christ “gives” contrasts with what Adam did, his “trespass” (paraptōma, “false step”; also mentioned in Rom_4:25; Rom_5:16-18, Rom_5:20). The point of the first contrasting parallel is the degree — how much more. The trespass of the one man brought physical death to the many, in this case the entire human race to date with two exceptions — Enoch and Elijah. By contrast, God’s grace — and the gift (viz., righteousness, as stated in Rom_5:17; cf. Rom_5:16) that came by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ — abounded to the many! Paul uses the word “many” with two distinct meanings, just as he will the word “all” in v.18. He has already established that all men, without exception, bear the guilt of sin and are therefore subject to death. So the “many” who die must refer to all Adam’s descendants.

Death reigned from Adam until Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ defeated death when He rose from the grave. We see this statement above how much greater Jesus' act of mercy than Adam's act of sin. By one man's transgression sin entered. Jesus Christ actually took the sin of the whole world upon His body and sin for the Christians died on the cross.

II Corinthians 5:21 "For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

In I Peter 2:24 "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." The real story is that Jesus paid our debt for us. We are bought and paid for with the shed blood of Jesus Christ. 

He provides our righteousness. Jesus made us righteous. We can’t make ourselves righteous in God's sight. Jesus made us righteous in God's sight.

If this latter “many” is identical with the first (the many who died, which is possible, but is not required by the text) and constitutes the entire human race, then “God’s grace and the gift” by means of “grace” abound in the sense of reaching and being available to all people, but not necessarily being appropriated by all.

Romans 5:16

Here Paul presented a second contrasting parallelism; this one is different in kind. He began by emphasizing the contrast: Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin. Literally, the Greek is, “Also not as through the one who sinned is the gift.” Obviously here a noun paralleling “the gift” is missing in the text. Some suggest “the judgment” from what follows; others the transgression, or the death, or the condemnation. It seems best to leave it indefinite as does the Greek text and to translate it by “the result” (as does the NIV) of that which happened.

Paul continued, The judgment followed (“was out of”) one sin (lit., “one,” i.e., Adam) and brought condemnation. God passed judgment (krima) on Adam and he (and the entire human race) received condemnation (katakrima, “punishment”; katakrima occurs elsewhere only in Rom_5:18 and Rom_8:1). But, by contrast, the gift (charisma, “grace-gift,” i.e., righteousness, Rom_5:17; cf. Rom_5:15) followed (“was out of”) many trespasses and brought justification (dikaiōma, “a declaration of righteousness,” also used in Rom_1:32, Rom_2:26; Rom_5:18; Rom_8:4). God tells Adam in Genesis chapter 3 verse 19 that he is dust and to dust he will return. This is the fate of all flesh. Flesh and blood do not inherit heaven.

Adam brought upon all men the condemnation for only one offense, his willful act of disobedience. Christ, however, delivers the elect from the condemnation of many offenses.

I Corinthians 15:50 "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."  The death that Adam brought was of the flesh.  Jesus did not just pick out some sins and die for that, but in fact died for all sin.

God’s grace, as Paul stated repeatedly, beginning in Rom_3:24, is the basis of a person’s being justified, declared righteous. And this was in the face of “many trespasses” (paraptōmatōn; cf. Rom_5:15, Rom_5:17-18, Rom_5:20). One man (Adam) trespassed (Rom_5:15) God’s command, and everyone since has repeatedly overstepped God’s instructions.  

Romans 5:17-18

The third contrasting parallelism (cf. Rom_5:15-16) combines the two preceding ones and involves both a difference in degree (how much more; cf. Rom_5:15) and a difference in kind (“death” and “life”; cf. Rom_5:16). The first-class condition in the first part of the verse assumes the statement to be true, if (since) death reigned (cf. Rom_5:20) through that one man. This fact is confirmed by Rom_5:12 and Rom_5:14. Death is a tyrant, ruling over people and bringing every person under its fear and into its grip (cf. Heb_2:15).

As a result it also is true that those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift (cf. Rom_5:15) of righteousness reign in life through the one Man, Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is the Agent of all of God’s provision for people. Whereas death reigns like a tyrant over all, believers in Christ, who receive God’s grace, reign in life. In the one case people are dying victims under a ruthless ruler; in the other they themselves become the rulers (cf. Rev_1:6) whose kingdom is one of life! The fact that it is “those who receive” God’s grace and gift emphasizes that the provision made for all in Christ’s sacrificial death and offered to all by God must be appropriated by an individual by faith to become effective (cf. “received” in Joh_1:12). This is just repeating, again, that through Adam sin ruled in the flesh of man and brought death until Jesus Christ who defeated sin and death, and brought life when He paid for all sin on the cross.

We read in I Peter 3:19 "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;" When Jesus died on the cross, he descended into the lower parts of the earth.

QUESTION: WHEN JESUS DIED, DID THOSE IN HELL HAVE A CHANCE TO REPENT AND BE SAVED EVEN THO THEY HAD ALREADY DIED? I’M ASKING THIS DUE TO THE SCRIPTURE OF 1 PETER.

Ephesians 4:8-10 "Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." "(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?" "He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)"

Upon examination, we find from I Peter 3:19 that after His crucifixion, our Lord, "...by the Spirit...went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

The Lord Jesus Christ went down "into the lower parts of the earth" (Eph. 4:9) or "Sheol," called "Hades" in the New Testament (Acts 2:27, 31).

Sheol (pronounced "Sheh-ole")[1], in Hebrew שאול (Sh'ol), is the "abode of the dead", the "underworld", or "pit".[2] Sheol is the common destination of both the righteous and the unrighteous dead, as recounted in Ecclesiastes and Job.

There are three Greek words for our English word "hell"—Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus, none of which are rendered by the word prison. Hades had a section commonly known as "hell" and a compartment known as "paradise," separated by "a great gulf fixed" (Luke 16:26). Gehenna is used of our Lord in the warnings and "danger of hell fire" that the "whole body should [not] be cast into hell" (Matt. 5:22,29,30; etc.).

While "tartarus" is found only one time, in II Peter 2:4, to describe the intended purpose for this "hell": Now if "TODAY" the thief was to be with Christ in "Paradise," Luke 23:43, then it was at the time of His death that he went to "Paradise." Since Christ had "not yet ascended to [His] Father" (John 20:17) and could therefore not be "touched," it is more than logical that "Paradise" was "IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH" where "the Son of man" spent "three days and three nights" (Matt. 12:40).

The answer is no. You see the Lord was victorious when He went to hell and he preached to the prisoners there and brought them out with Him. In some cases, preachers are teaching that he went there to preach to the spirits (demons) who were incarcerated there to claim the victory he had won over death.

We see from this that Jesus' purpose in going to hell was not to suffer, but to deliver those in the devil's captivity.

Remember, up to this point Satan had the keys to death and hell. I believe this is when the keys were taken from Satan.

Romans 5:19

In these verses Paul concludes his basic parallelism between Adam and Jesus Christ begun in Rom_5:12 and the contrasts between them in Rom_5:15-17. Paul reduced the contrast to the briefest possible statement. Consequently (lit., “so then”), just as the result of one trespass (paraptōmatos, “false step”; cf. Rom_5:15-17, Rom_5:20) was condemnation (katakrima, “punishment”; cf. Rom_5:16) for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. The “one righteous act” (lit. Gr.) was Christ’s death on the cross. One trespass (Adam’s sin) is contrasted with one righteous act (Christ’s sacrifice). The result of Adam’s sin (everyone under God’s condemnation) is contrasted with the result of Christ’s work (justification offered to all). One brought death; the other brings life. Once again the “all men” in the first half of the sentence includes the entire human race (cf. “all men” in Rom_5:12, and “the many” in the first half of Rom_5:15). This implies the same dimensions for the “all men” in the second half of the verse (cf. “many” in the second halves of Rom_5:16, Rom_5:19). The provision in the one righteous act, therefore, is potential and it comes to the entire human race as the offer and opportunity which are applied only to “those who receive” (Rom_5:17).

The same conclusion is stated in different words in Rom_5:19, where Adam’s act is called disobedience and the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ is called obedience. As a result the many (cf. first halves of Rom_5:15, Rom_5:18) were made (lit., “stand constituted as”) sinners (cf. Rom_11:32). In the second half of Rom_5:19 the many means “those who receive” (Rom_5:17; cf. “many” in the second half of Rom_5:16). They are not simply declared righteous (the verb dikaioō; is not used here), but they will be made righteous in the process of sanctification, culminating in glorification in God’s presence. These many who were made sinners, just means that through the ancestry of Adam and Eve they knew sin. The natural thing for anyone to do is to listen to the lust of the flesh. The opportunity and the desire to sin were available to all. Each person did their own sinning. We were not guilty because Adam sinned, but because we sinned.

Righteousness is made available to all mankind through Jesus Christ. Again, we must accept His righteousness into our lives. He (Jesus) has made it available for all of us, but we must act upon this availability before it will bring life and righteousness into our lives. 

I Peter 3:18 "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:"

We, too, must put our flesh to death that we might live in His Spirit.

Galatians 5:24 "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts."

The word “made” (from kathistēmi) means “stand constituted as,” the same verb used in the first half of Rom_5:19 in the words “were made sinners.”

Romans 5:20-21

A remaining question in this discussion is, Where does the Mosaic Law fit into all this and why? Paul explained, The Law was added so that the trespass (paraptōma, cf. Rom_5:15-19) might increase (“abound”). The word “added” should be rendered “came in beside,” for it translates the verb pareisēlthen. Two similar verbs, eisēlthen and diēlthen, were used in Rom_5:12. Gal_2:4 is the only other place in the New Testament that uses the Greek verb for “came in beside.”

Is the statement in Rom_5:20 a purpose or a result clause? The coming of the Mosaic Law (clearly meant here in light of Rom_5:13-14) did result in the abounding of “the trespass” (the consequence of any law), but (also in the light of Rom_5:13-14 and Rom_4:15) the Mosaic Law came in “so that” (purpose) abounding sin might be recognized as abounding trespass.

The result was that where sin increased (lit., “abounded”; cf. Rom_5:20) grace increased all the more (“overflowed superlatively”; cf. “overflow” in Rom_5:15). When God gave the law to man, it showed man how far short he had fallen in God's ways. There was absolutely no way that fleshly man could keep God's law. Man realized he needed a Savior. Through the grace of God, Jesus Christ became our Savior.

Although the Mosaic Law is not flawed, its presence caused man’s sin to increase. Thus it made men more aware of their own sinfulness and inability to keep God’s perfect standard, and it served as a tutor to drive them to Christ. (Gal3:24)

What a contrast! No matter how great human sin becomes, God’s grace overflows beyond it and abundantly exceeds it. No wonder Paul wrote that God’s grace “is sufficient” (2Co_12:9). God’s goal (hina, so, introduces a purpose clause) is that His grace might reign through righteousness (the righteousness of Christ provided for people) to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin reigned until Jesus Christ destroyed sin on the cross. God's grace (unmerited favor) to us provides eternal life to all who will accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord.  We did not earn it, it is a free gift. We can have life eternal, if we will only believe and receive the Lord Jesus Christ into our life.

Once again Paul spoke of reigning in connection with life. In Rom_5:17 those who received God’s gift “reign in life” through Christ. Here God’s grace is personified as reigning and bringing eternal life.

By the time the Apostle Paul had reached this point he had not only described how God’s provided righteousness is revealed in justification but he also was anticipating how it is to be revealed through regeneration and sanctification.