Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

The Glorious Results of Justification by Faith: Peace With God, a Standing in Grace, Sure Hope of Coming Glory, Present Patience, Joy in God. Verses 1-11.

The Two Representative Men, Adam and Christ, Contrasted: Condemnation and Death by Adam to All in Him, Justification and Life by Christ to All in Him. Verses 12-19.

By the Law, Sin Became Trespass; but GRACE TRANSCENDED ALL! Verse 20.

Grace Now Reigns, “Through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Verse 21.

THIS GREAT CHAPTER naturally falls into two parts:

In the first eleven verses we have the blessed results of justification by
faith, along with the most comprehensive statement in the Bible of the
pure love and grace of God, in giving Christ for us sinners.

In the second part, verses 12 to 21, God goes back of the history and state of human sin, (which in Chapters 1:21 to 3:20 have been before us) to Adam, as our representative head, who stood for us, and whose sin became condemnation and death to us; and shows us Christ, as the other representative Man (whom Adam prefigured), by His act of death on the cross bringing us justification and life. The emphasis in this great passage will be in each case upon the fact that the act of the representative, and not of the one represented, brought the result to pass.

1 Therefore having been declared righteous on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 through whom also we have obtained access into this Divine favor wherein we are standing: and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only so, but we also exult in the tribulations [which beset us]: knowing that tribulation is working out endurance; 4 and endurance [a sense of] approvedness [by God]; and [the sense of] approvedness works out [a state of] hope: 5 and [our state of] hope does not make us ashamed: because God’s love [for us] is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

6 For Christ, we being yet helpless [in our sins], at the appointed time
died for ungodly ones. 7 For hardly for a righteous man will any one die: for perhaps for a good [generous] man some one might venture to die. 8 But God commends His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! 9 Much more then, having been now declared righteous by [means of] His blood, shall we be saved through Him from the [coming] wrath. 10 For if, being enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His [risen] life.

11 And not only so, but we even exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Verse 1: Therefore having been declared righteous on the principle of faith—We must note at once that the Greek form of this verb “declared righteous,” or “justified,” is not the present participle, “being declared righteous,” but rather the aorist participle, “having been declared righteous,” or “justified.” You say. What is the difference? The answer is, “being declared righteous” looks to a state you are in; “having been declared righteous” looks back to a fact that happened. “Being in a justified state” of course is incorrect, confusing, as it does, justification and sanctification. “Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.” The moment you believed, God declared you righteous, never to change His mind: as David says, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin” (Rom. 4:8). If therefore you are a believer, quote this verse properly, and say, “Having been declared righteous on the
principle of faith I have”—these blessed fruits and results which are now to be recorded.

The Epistle takes on a new aspect in each chapter: in Chapter Three, Christ was set forth as a propitiation for our sins; in Chapter Four, Christ was raised for our justification; in Chapter Five, we have peace with God through Christ, a standing in grace, and the hope of the coming glory.

We have three blessings, then, in this first part of our chapter: (1) peace with God, in looking back to Calvary where Christ made peace by His blood; (2) a
present standing in grace, in unlimited Divine favor; and (3) hope of the glory of God—of being glorified with Christ when He comes.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ—“Peace” means that
the war is done. “Peace with God” means that God has nothing against us. This involves:

1. That God has fully Judged sin, upon Christ, our Substitute.

2. That God was so wholly satisfied with Christ’s sacrifice, that He will eternally remain so—never taking up the judgment of our sin again.

3. That God is therefore at rest about us forever, however poor our
understanding of truth, however weak our walk. God is looking at the blood of Christ, and not at our sins. All claims against us were met when Christ “made peace by the blood of His cross.” So “we have peace with God.”103

“If Thou hast my discharge procured,

And freely in my place endured

The whole of wrath Divine:

Payment God will not twice demand,

First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,

And then again at mine!”

Our peace with God is not as between two nations before at war, but as
between a king and rebellious and guilty subjects. While our hearts are
at last at rest, it is because God, against whom we sinned, has been fully satisfied at the cross. “Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” does not mean peace trough what He is now doing, but through what He did do on the Cross. He “made peace” by the blood of His cross. All the majesty of God’s holy and righteous throne was satisfied when Christ said, “It is finished.” And, being now raised from the dead, “He is our peace.” But it is His past work at Calvary, not His present work of intercession, that all is based upon; and that gives us a sense of the peace which He made through His blood. 104

This peace with (or towards) God must not be confused with the “peace of God” of Philippians 4:7, which is a subjective state; whereas peace with God is an objective fact—outside of ourselves. Thousands strive for inward peace, never once resting where God is resting—in the finished work of Christ on Calvary. 105

“I hear the words of love,

I gaze upon the blood;

I see the mighty Sacrifice,

And I have peace with God.

“ ’Tis everlasting peace,

Sure as Jehovah’s name;

’Tis stable as His stedfast throne,

For evermore the same.

“My love is oftimes low,

My joy still ebbs and flows;

But peace with Him remains the same,

No change Jehovah know.

“I change, He changes not,

God’s Christ can never die;

His love, not mine, the resting-place,

His truth, not mine, the tie.”

—(Bonar)

Verse 2: Look a moment at the second benefit: Through whom also we have had our access into this grace wherein we stand—The word “also” sets this
blessing forth as distinct from and additional to that of peace with God. Through Christ, in whom they have believed, there has been given to the justified “access” into a wonderful standing in Divine favor. Being in Christ, they have extended to them the very favor in which Christ Himself stands. Notice that the words “by faith” (as in A.V.) here should be omitted. It is not by an additional revelation, and acceptance thereof, that believers come into this standing in grace. It is a place of Divine favor given to every believer the moment he believes. In Chapter 6:14 we are to be told that we are under grace, not law. It is a glorious discovery to find how fully God is for us, in
Christ. 106

Now, as to this third great matter: We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. This is the future of the believer: to enter upon a glorified state, glorified together with Christ, as it is in Chapter 8:17. It is not merely to behold God’s glory, but to enter into it! “When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall we also with Him be manifested in glory” (Colossians 3:4). “The glory which thou has given Me I have given unto them” (John 17:22). We shall speak of this further, in its place in Chapter Eight. The translation “exult” rather than “glory,” or “boast,” suits Paul’s meaning here. So in the next verse, we exult in our tribulations. It is an inner, joyful confidence, rather than an outward glorying or boasting before others, although this latter will often necessarily follow!

Verses 3 and 4: And not only so, but we also exult in the tribulations [which
beset us]: knowing that tribulation is working out endurance: and endurance [a sense of] approvedness [by God]; and [the sense of] approvedness works out a state of hope—So now we find that not only does the believer look back to peace made with God at the cross; at a God smiling upon him in favor; and forward to his coming glorification with Christ, but he is able also to exult in the very tribulations that are appointed to him. Paul constantly taught, as in Acts 14:22; II Thessalonians 3:3, that “through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God,” and that “we are appointed unto afflictions.” The word means pressure, straits, difficulties; and Paul had them! “Pressed on every side, perplexed, pursued, smitten down”; “in afflictions, in
necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by evil report, . . . as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful,—yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things!” (II Corinthians 4:8, 9; 6:4-10). He regarded these as “our light affliction” said he, “which is for the moment, and is working for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory,” (II Corinthians 4:17); and so Paul “took pleasure” in them! (II Corinthians 12:10).

We need to take a lesson from the martyrs, who lived in the freshness and
strength of the early faith of the Church of God, who often sang in the midst of the flames! We hear today of Just the same courage where persecution and trial are greatest. We can but give here a testimony from Russia that will reach all our hearts. It is a classic on
suffering for Christ’s sake. 107

The Divine process is as follows: God brings us into tribulations, and that of all sorts; graciously supplying therewith a rejoicing expectation of deliverance in due time; and the knowledge that, as the winds buffeting some great oak on a hillside cause the tree to thrust its roots deeper into the
ground, so these tribulations will result in steadfastness, in faith and patient endurance; and our consciousness of steadfastness—of having been brought ‘by grace through the trials,—gives us a sense of Divine approval, or approvedness, we did not before have; and which is only found in those who have been brought through trials, by God’s all-sufficient grace. This sense of God’s approval arouses within us abounding “hope”—we might almost say, hopefulness, a hopeful, happy state of soul.

Verse 5: And [our state of] hope does not make us ashamed: because God’s love [for us] is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. Furthermore, then, no matter how much the world or worldly Christians may avoid or deride us, this hopefulness is not “ashamed,” or is not “put to shame”: because there is supplied the inward and wonderful miracle of the consciousness of God’s love shed abroad in our hearts through that second mighty gift of God to us (Christ Himself being the first),—the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Paul now takes up this “love of God” in what is, as regards Gods sheer grace, the highest place in Paul’s epistles. It is the greatest exposition in Scripture of God’s love, as announced in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world .that He gave—.” Ephesians unfolds the marvelous heavenly calling into which God’s grace has brought us. But, as to God’s love itself, what it is, we must come to the present verses of Romans: as John says, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10).

First of all, the indwelling Holy Spirit, given freely to all believers, sheds abroad in our hearts this love of God—making us conscious of it in a direct inner witness: and that especially in times of trial or need.

A THREE-FOLD VIEW OF GOD’S LOVE FOR US—SINNERS

Next, we see three stages of our sinnerhood, each connected in a peculiar, fitting, and touching way with God’s love.

1. Verse 6: For Christ,—we being yet helpless [in our sins], at the
appointed time died for ungodly ones—The fact of man’s total moral
inability is stated here in the gentlest possible terms. It is a bankruptcy of all moral and spiritual inclination toward God and holiness, as well as of power to be or do good. Yet into a scene of helplessness like this, God sends His Son,—for what? To die for the “ungodly.” No return or response is demanded: it is absolute grace—for the ungodly.

Verse 7: For scarcely for a righteous man will anyone die: though perhaps for a good man some one might even venture to die—Paul proceeds with his wonderful pean of praise concerning God’s love: Among men, while for a sternly honest man no one would die, yet some one might be found to venture death for a “noble” person, one of generous-hearted goodness. But what of God’s love?

2. Verse 8. God commendeth His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us—Now “sinning” is a stronger word than
“strengthless”: but it is strong in the wrong direction! Strengthless indeed toward God and holiness, we were all; yet vigorous and active in sin. And what did God do? What does God here say? It was while we were thus sinning that Christ died for us! And thus doth God “commend” 108 His peculiar love toward us. It is most astonishing, this announcement that God is “commending” this love of His for us,—a love “all uncaused by any previous love of ours for Him.”109 Salesmen “commend” their wares to those whom they deem able and willing to buy them. God “commends” His tender love to us; for He loved us as wretches occupied in sin, unable and unwilling to pay Him or obey Him. This is absolute grace.

3. Verse 10: For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the DEATH of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in His LIFE.

Now, “enemies” is a much worse word than either “strengthless” or “sinners”;
it involves a personal alienation and animosity. “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God . . . not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can it be.” What a condition! And yet, while we were going about avoiding and hating God, that same God was having His Son, Christ, meet all the Divine claims against us by His death on Calvary!

Mark that, while we were enemies, He did this. No change of our hateful
attitude was demanded by God before He sent His Son. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Grace, brother, grace,—unasked, undesired, and, of course, forever undeserved,—Divine kindness! “When the kindness of God our Savior, and His love toward man appeared, not by works which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy. He saved us.”

Here, then, whoever you are, read your record: strengthless, sinning, hating: then you can begin to conceive of, if you will believe, this sovereign, uncaused love which God here in this great passage “commends” to you. Do not try to be “worthy” of it; for offers to pay, by an utter bankrupt, are not only worthless, but an insult to grace! Self-righteousness seeks to discover in itself some cause for that Divine favor that God declares has its only source in Himself and His love. “Strengthless”—“sinners”—“enemies”—such were we all, and God sent His Son to die for us as such!

Now let us not dare try to get God to be reconciled to us through our prayers, our consecration, our works. We were reconciled to God while His enemies, through the death of His Son. One who has believed is overwhelmed to find that this reconciliation was effected while he himself was an enemy to God; and so the “much more” gets hold of his heart: I was
reconciled by His death while I was an enemy: how much rather, now that I have accepted this reconciliation and share Christ’s own risen life, shall God pour His salvation-favor upon me! I was an enemy then, and God gave Christ for me; now that I am God’s friend, He cannot do less! 110

This is the important thing to see, in the matter or reconciliation: it was necessary for us to be reconciled to God Himself, to that holiness and righteousness in God, that was infinitely against sin. This was brought about in Christ’s death. So, we read, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself” (II Corinthians :19). “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.” All sin is contrary to God’s holiness, righteousness, truth, and glory, but sin was put by God on Christ, and God “spared Him not.” And now God says to His messengers: “Go be ambassadors on behalf of Christ. Tell sinners that I have smitten Him instead of them. Tell them I forsook Him on the cross, that I might not forsake them forever!”

THE FOUR “MUCH MORES”

There are in this remarkable chapter four “much mores” which it is
interesting and profitable to note. Two are in this first section; and two in the second. First, we have the two “much mores” of future safety; verses 9 and 10; then the two “much mores” of grace’s abundance: verses 15 and 17, which are developed in the other section of the chapter.

Verse 9: Much more then, having been now declared righteous by [means of] His blood, shall we be saved through Him from the [coming] wrath—God has done the harder thing: He will do the easier thing. He has had Christ die for us while we were “yet sinners”; “much more” will He see that we, being now believers and accounted righteous in view of Christ’s blood, shall be saved from the coming wrath through Him (Christ). 111

Notice that shed blood is the justifying ground, the procuring cause, of our being accounted righteous; and that instead of our being uncertain of preservation from the wrath which is coming at the Last Judgment, the fact that Christ died for us while were were still sinners should give us a constant
state of calm security!

Verse 10: Much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His [risen] life—Again, God has done the harder thing—delivering Christ to death to reconcile us to Himself. He will certainly—much more! do the lesser thing for us: He will see that we share Christ’s risen life forever; and thus, even in the hour of
visitation upon the wicked, we shall be “saved by His life.” (This will more fully come out in Chapter Eight, where the blessed Spirit supplies that life which is in Christ to us, as a very “law of life.”)

We were reconciled to God by God’s having Christ meet in His death all the
claims of His throne,—His majesty, His holiness, His righteousness, His truth. “Much more,” being from our side reconciled, shall we be saved now and in the future by and in Christ’s risen life which we now share!

This “saved by His life” evidently looks forward to the coming Day of Judgment referred to in verse 9112 as the coming wrath, into which judgment our Lord has told us we shall not come (John 5:24). Indeed, Paul writes in I Thessalonians 1:10,—“Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come”!

And now the apostle closes up this section of the Epistle with a note of highest exultation:

Verse 11: And not only so, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation—He says. We exult in God. How great a change! Three chapters back, we were sitting in the Divine Judge’s court, guilty—our mouths stopped, and all our works rejected! Now, “through our Lord Jesus Christ” and His work for us, we are rejoicing, exulting, in Him who was our Judge! This is what grace can do and does! And we see that it is simply by receiving the reconciliation that has been brought in by Christ. For the word here is not “atonement,” which means to cover up, and is applied to the Old Testament sacrifices. The word reconciliation here (katallaga) is simply the noun form of the verb “reconcile,” in verse 10. Compare “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses (II Corinthians 5:19).

To “receive” a complete, accomplished reconciliation,—how simple! We have seen men and women exult in God, thus! Every believer has this great right of exultation. This is a “song of the Lord” that lasts forever—“through our Lord Jesus Christ”

GOD’S PLAN: THE “REIGN OF GRACE” THROUGH CHRIST

Romans 5:12-21

THE TWO MEN

ADAM

CHRIST

Verse 14.

THE TWO ACTS

ADAM—one trespass: Verses 12,15,17,18,19.

CHRIST—one righteous act (on the cross): Verse. 18.

THE TWO RESULTS

By ADAM—Condemnation, guilt, death: Verses 15, 16, 18, 19.

By CHRIST—Justification, life, kingship: Verses 17, 18, 19.

THE TWO DIFFERENCES

In degree

Verse 15

God the Creator’s grace by Christ, abounds beyond the sin of the creature, Adam..

In kind or operation

Verse 16

One sin, by Adam—condemnation and reign of death.

Many sins on Christ—justification and “reigning in life” for those accepting God’s grace by Him.

THE TWO KINGS

SIN—reigning through Death: Verse 17.

GRACE—reigning through Righteousness: Verse 21.

THE TWO ABUNDANCES

OF GRACE

OF THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

} Verse 17.

THE TWO CONTRASTED STATES

CONDEMNED MEN, SLAVES OF DEATH, BY ADAM

JUSTIFIED MEN, REIGNING IN LIFE, BY CHRIST

12 Therefore it [salvation through Christ’s work] is just as when through
one man sin entered the world, and through the sin, death: and in that way death passed to all men, for that all sinned [in Adam]: for before the Law [of Moses] 13 sin was in the world: but sin is not put to account if there is not law [against it]. 14 Notwithstanding, death reigned-as-king from Adam until Moses, even over those not having sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam,—who is a type of the Coming One [Christ].

15 But not as the trespass, so also is the grace-bestowal (charisma). For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the free-gift (dorea) of the One Man. Jesus Christ, abound unto the many! 16 And not as through one that sinned, so is the act of giving (dorema): for the
judgment came out of one [trespass] unto condemnation; but the grace-bestowal (charisma) came out of many trespasses unto a righteous [or justifying] act (dikaioma) [at the cross].

17 For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned-as-king through the one, much more those accepting the abundance of grace and of the free-gift
(dorea) of righteousness, shall reign-as-kings in life through the One, Jesus Christ!

18 So then just as [the principle was] through one trespass unto all men to condemnation; even so also [the principle is] through one righteous [or justifying] act [dikaioma] unto all men to justification of life! 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were set down as sinners, even so, through the obedience of the One the many shall be set down as righteous.

20 Law, moreover, came in alongside, that trespass [of law] might abound. But, where the sin abounded, the grace overflowed!

21 In order that, just as sin reigned-as-king by means of death: grace might reign-as-king, through righteousness, unto life eternal, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

THE GREAT DOCTRINE OF THE TWO MEN

We have seen, in Chapters One to Three, the fact of universal human guilt,
that all thus are “falling short of God’s glory”; and we have seen Christ set forth by God as a “propitiation through faith in His blood.” We also found that believers were declared righteous; and seen connected with a Risen Christ, in Chapter Four. Then we saw, in the first part of Chapter Five, the blessed results of this “justification by faith.”

When we come to Romans 5:12, a new phase or view of our salvation appears. (Although note our comments on Chapter 3:23.) A general view of the passage will be helpful. The two men, Adam and Christ, with their distinct federal113 or representative consequences, are before us. It is no longer what we have done—our sins, but the one trespass of Adam that is in view. And it is the work of Christ, also, looked at as an “Adam,”—His “righteous act” of death; with its effect of justification for us. So now we look back to the act that set us down as sinners, instead of to our own deeds; and to the act that sets us down righteous, apart from our own works.

There is no more direct statement in Scripture concerning justification than
we find in verse 19: Through the obedience of the One shall the many be
constituted righteous [before God]. It is true that up to verse 11 the question has been one of sins rather than the thing sin itself. It is true also that in verse 18, in the expression justification of life, the resurrection-side of salvation is before us. But we need to mark that God, in the great passage from verse 12 to verse 21, grounds our justification wholly in the work of Another than ourselves, even Christ; showing also the incidental place that the Law had—“that the trespass might abound”; thus opening the flood-gates of Grace!

The key word of this great passage is “one.” You will find it as follows (14 times in all) :

“One man”—“one man”—“one man”—verses 12, 15, 19.

“The one”—“the one”—“the One”—verses 15, 17, 19.

“One”—“one”—“one” (trespass) “one” (righteous act)—verses 16 (twice), 18 (twice).

“Through—one act of righteousness”—verse 18. “Through—the obedience of THE ONE”—verse 19.

“Through

one trespass”—verses 15, 17, 18.

one man’s disobedience”—verse 19.

“Through

one act of righteousness”—verse 18.

the obedience of THE ONE”—verse 19.

It will never do to go about counting ourselves justified in the sense merely of having our own trespasses, those we have committed, forgiven; for this would amount to counting ourselves as innocent before we personally sinned, and to have become guilty merely because we personally sinned. But this is to forget that we all were made sinners ‘by Adam’s act,—not our own. Nor does this mean that we got a “sinful nature” from our “first parents”: “By nature” we were, indeed, “children of wrath,” Paul tells us in Eph. 2; and David declares: “In sin did my mother conceive me.” But Romans Five does not talk of a nature of sin received by us from Adam, but of our being made guilty by his act. We were so connected with the first Adam that we did not have to wait to be born, or to have a sinful nature; but when Adam, our
representative, acted, we acted. Verse 19 plainly says, Through the one man’s disobedience the many were set down as sinners, while the preceding verse says the principle was, through one trespass—unto all men to condemnation.

“Condemnation” is a forensic word, it belongs to the court, not to the birth-chamber.

The same Divine principle is illustrated in the fact that “through Abraham
even Levi,” Abraham’s great-grandson, ‘who receiveth tithes, hath paid tithes, for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him” (Hebrews 7:9). God says of Levi, who was not yet born, whose father was not yet born, whose grandfather (Isaac) was not yet born: “LEVI PAID TITHES!”

The great truth of Romans 5:12 to 21 is that a representative acted, involving those connected with him.

We see immediately how Paul in a seven-fold way insists on the fact that Adam’s act of sin affected his race:

1. Through one man sin entered into the world (vs. 12a).

2. So in that way death passed unto all men, for that all sinned, [when Adam sinned] (vs. 12b).

3. By the trespass of the one the many died (vs. 15).

4. The judgment came out of one [trespass] unto condemnation (vs. 16).

5. By the trespass of the one, death reigned-as-king through the one (vs. 17).

6. Through one trespass [the effect was] towards all men to condemnation (vs. 18).

7. Through the one man’s disobedience the many were set down as [or made to become] sinners (vs. 19).

On the other hand, as regards Christ, we find:

1. That He is also an Adam—a representative or federal Man who acts for
all, and in whom all in Him are seen. Adam is called a figure [Greek: typos—type] of Him that was to come—Christ (vs. 14).

2. That by the One Man Jesus Christ, the grace of God, and the free-gift [by
that grace] did abound unto the many much beyond the evil results of Adam’s sin (vs. 15).

3. That through our Lord’s one righteous act [His death on the cross] the free-gift goes out to all men to justification of life, just as through [Adam’s] one trespass the judgment came to all men to condemnation (vs. 18).

4. That through the obedience [unto death] of the One [Christ] the many [those who received the gift] shall be set down righteous [before God] (vs.
19).

5. That those who receive the abundance of [God’s] grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign-as-kings in life through the One, Jesus Christ,—much beyond death s reigning through the one [Adam] (vs. 17).

We may now consider this passage briefly, verse by verse:

Verse 12: This whole plan of salvation,—by Christ’s work, not ours, which we
have been considering in Chapters Three, Four and Five, gives rise to the “therefore” which introduces this verse: Therefore [this plan of salvation of all by a single Redeemer], is on the same principle as when through [the other] one man sin entered the world; and, with it, its wages, death. Paul proceeds to emphasize that it was in that way,—that is, by one man, that death passed to all men, because when Adam sinned, all sinned. It was a federal representative act. Evidently physical death is primarily in view. “Man’s breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish” (Psalm 146:4). And read carefully the note below.114 So death passed unto all men, for that all sinned—The word “so” refers to the sin of the one man, but the words all sinned must not be read “all have sinned” (as the King James Version unfortunately mistranslates). The whole point is that all acted when Adam acted: all sinned. We have remarked on the
aorist tense, “sinned” (Greek: hēmarton) in connection with its use in Chapter Three. To translate it here (5:12) “have sinned” is utterly to obscure the Scripture, making man’s “sinnership” to depend on his own acts rather than on Adam’s—which latter is the whole point of the passage.

Verses 13 and 14: Now comes the remarkable statement that although sin was in the world during the first 2500 years, from Adam to Moses, it is not put to account when there is no law. The Greek word “put to account” used here occurs only one other time—Philemon 18. It signifies to charge up something to anyone as a due. (The wholly different word “reckon” in Chapters 3:24 and 4:23, 24 regards the person; this word in 5:13 regards some item put to one’s account.) It was to Adam, not to us, that God said: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” It was to Israel through Moses that God gave the ten commandments. The general argument of the apostle here is to show the effect of a federal or representative sin, in which an Adam acted, bringing an effect upon the individuals connected with him. Paul is about to prove that death passed to all men not because they sinned, but because Adam sinned. He is also about to show (verse 18) that all men were condemned by Adam’s act,—were made to become sinners.

To understand, therefore, the force of the words, sin is not put to account where there is no law,—or, as Conybeare enlighteningly paraphrases, “Sin is not put to the account of the sinner when there is no law forbidding it,”—we must remember:

1. That sin was in the world, between Adam and Moses.

2. That, according to Chapter One, the race had rejected light and were without excuse; though they were “without law” (anomos): for God’s definition of sin is not “transgression of law” (I John 3:4, A.V.), but anomia, which means refusal to be controlled—self-will.

3. That there was a “work” (working) written in their hearts, to which their consciences bore witness, either accusing or else excusing them; and that this working necessarily corresponded morally to any law to be afterwards revealed by Jehovah.

4. That condign judgments, such as the Flood, and the overthrow of Sodom, and the destruction of the Canaanites, followed the “filling up of the cup of iniquity” at such times: for such sinners both trampled on their own consciences, and inherited the previous generations of guilt.

5. That, nevertheless, the sins between Adam and Moses did not bring about the sentence of death upon humanity, however much individuals or nations
might hasten death’s overtaking them. For these people, though they sinned, had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s transgression, which was a wilful violation of a direct command of a revealed God; as was Israel’s making, through Aaron, the calf at Sinai: evolving judicial consequences to others besides themselves. For we read in Exodus 32:34 of a set future “visitation” on Israel, because of that sin at Sinai of their fathers: “In the day that I visit, I will visit their sin upon them”; this will be in “the time of Jacob’s trouble,” in
the Great Tribulation—long after the calf-worship; indeed, still future!

6. We therefore must regard the human race as under a sentence of death they did not bring upon themselves: death reigned from Adam until Moses (vs. 14). Unlike Adam, and unlike Israel after Moses, those who lived between the two had no positive outward Divine law, the breaking of which would be a direct transgression and a threatening of death therefor. Nevertheless “death reigned”—even over them. Constantly before our eyes is the attestation to the same truth: babes that know nothing of right or wrong, die. Every little white coffin,—yea, every coffin, should remind us of the universal effect of that sin of Adam, for it was thus and thus only that “death passed to all men.”

We see then, that from Adam until Moses, death “reigned-as-king”115 on
account of Adam’s sin. Paul has said (Romans 4:15), “Where there is no law
neither is there transgression”; so that those between Adam and Moses, not having direct commands of God, consequently had not transgressed known commands as Adam had done. Nevertheless, Adam’s transgression had involved his whole race.

Verse 14: Here Adam is declared a type of the One who was to come—that is, of Christ, the last Adam. We cannot sufficiently urge the study of this great passage: until the mind sees, and the heart understands—and that gladly, condemnation by the one, and justification by the Other. It is just as necessary to see this “by the one” doctrine regarding our spirits, as regarding our bodies. As to the latter, Paul says, “As in Adam all die, so also In Christ shall all be made alive”; “The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second Man is of heaven . . . And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (I Corinthians 15:22, 47, 49). To discover that we are even now no longer connected with that first Adam in which we were born, but with the Risen Christ, the last Adam—this will be our joy in Chapters Six to Eight. But the foundation of this blessed truth is laid here in the Doctrine of the Two Men.

We find in verses 15 to 17 a sort of parenthesis in which the results of Adam’s trespass and Christ’s act of obedience are shown to differ in two respects (but not at all in the principle of the one involving the many). In the first case (verse 15) there is the difference of degree in the result, because of the infinite chasm between the creature Adam, and the Creator—God and His Son Jesus Christ! So we read:

Verse 15: For if by the trespass of the one [Adam] death came to the many; MUCH MORE did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of THE ONE MAN, JESUS CHRIST, abound unto the many! It takes faith to esteem this true now, seeing, as we do, the cemeteries all about us; death on every hand,—the general dire results of sin; but we must believe that the free gift will finally be seen, in its results, to be as far beyond the results of the
trespass, as God and Christ are greater than the creature Adam!116

Verse 16: And not as through one that sinned, so is the act of giving: for the judgment came out of one unto condemnation; but the grace-bestowal came out of many trespasses unto a righteous act. This tells us that out of Adam’s one trespass came judgment, but that out of many trespasses laid upon Christ came not judgment, but a righteous act (dikaioma).117 In short, all men acted,—sinned in Adam’s act of sin. They that receive is on the principle of “the one for the many,” but manifestly does not include all men, because some reject; although we find in verse 18 that the free gift “came” unto them,—“unto all men.”

Note what it is that believing ones “receive”:

First, abundance of grace: The cross having met righteously all the claims of
the Divine being, and the Divine throne, against sinners, God has now spoken to us as He is, in abounding grace, for “God is Love.” Over and over are “abound,” “abundance” used here to express God’s attitude; and the free motion, since the cross, of His infinitely loving heart toward sinners, in gracious kindness. Those who “receive” God’s grace give Him the honor of His graciousness.

Second, Those that “receive” this abundance of grace have therewith the gift of righteousness. What a gift! Apart from works, apart from the Law, apart from ordinances, apart from worthiness, an out and out gift of righteousness from God! Many times in teaching this passage to Bible classes I have asked them to repeat three times over each of these expressions: “The abundance of grace,” “the gift of righteousness.” We earnestly commend this to you, dear reader! Try it.

Alas, how few believers have the courage of faith! We have looked so long at our unworthiness that the very thought of pushing away from the shore-lines and launching out on the limitless, fathomless ocean of Divine grace makes us shrink and waver. When some saint here or there does begin to believe the facts and walk in shouting liberty, we say (perhaps secretly), “He must be an especially holy, consecrated man.” No, he is just a poor sinner like you, who is believing in the abundance of grace! And if we hear some one praising God for the gift of righteousness, because he is now righteous in Christ before God, we are ready to accuse him of thinking too highly of himself. No, he is just a poor sinner like you and me, but one who has dared to believe that he has received an outright gift of righteousness, and is rejoicing in it.