12 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— 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 until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the trespass of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression 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 to the many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the gracious gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were appointed sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be appointed righteous. 20 Now the Law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5: 12-21 LSB
Romans 5: 12-21
Through that one man, sin came into the world. Now listen. Sin entered the world through that one man, it wasn't invented by that one man, it wasn't originated by that one man. You remember Jesus said the devil sinneth from the beginning. There was sin prior to Adam. Lucifer, that great son of the morning, that great archangel who fell because of his pride, was the first and original sinner. But sin entered the world, the cosmos of man's existence, the system of creation, as we know it, through one man. He introduced sin to mankind. He became the agent of the devil.
The wicked, vile, sinful devil tempted Adam, who became the vehicle to pass sin out of the angelic realm into the human realm. And if you read in Genesis chapter 3, you read the sad story of how first Eve sinned and then Adam sinned. Adam is held responsible because he sinned willfully and wasn't deceived and because he was the head over Eve and was given authority. God gave Adam only one prohibition. He said you can do anything you want except just don't eat of that one tree of the knowledge of good and evil, just that one exception. But you know the story: Eve ate and so did Adam, which tells you that sin is basically born out of selfishness. How selfish do you have to be when you can have everything in a perfect world except one tree and the one tree is what you've got to have?
Pride, self-centeredness, always at the heart of sin even as it was with Lucifer, who said I will be like God, I will be like the most high, I will, I will, I will, I will, and that in Isaiah 14 is recorded and that's why he sinned. Now when Adam sinned, something dramatic happened. It says, "Sin entered the world." Amazing thing took place. His sin, listen to this, brought a constitutional change into his being. He degenerated from his original creative identity and became different. Unholiness became part of the fabric of his soul.
Would you please note, it says through one man's sin, singular, not sins. Not all the acts of sin came in through Adam. He didn't invent all the acts of sin, but the principle came, the nature, the disposition, the innate corrupting element entered into the human stream. For Adam was mankind. He was all the mankind there was, along with Eve. And once the sin principle came to dwell in him, he would then pass it on to all of his procreation. Just as all the offspring of Adam have human characteristics like eyes and ears, and hands and feet, and nose and mouth and internal organs, so they have the sin principle as well.
It is passed on to progeny. The world of mankind then became corrupted. John Donne must have been musing about this reality when he wrote, "No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." And then he said, "Every man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." You're not an island, you cannot be isolated; you cannot be separated. Adam, acted in a solidarity. Adam was mankind. In his loins was the seed of humanity that would bring forth every human life, and when he was polluted so was everything that came out of his loins, and he produced a polluted race.
God made a very important comment on this when God identified Israel with a sign called circumcision. God said I want you to circumcise every male child on the eighth day. Why? Well, you say well, that was the sign that you were a Jew. Well, it was more than that. Why did God choose that kind of sign? Why didn't he carve an X in their wrists or whatever? Why that? Because the cutting away of that skin was a demonstration of the fact that man needed a cleansing. Something in his life and character needed to be cut away. Something needed to be removed. And why did he choose that particular thing to be removed? Because nowhere better is the sinfulness of man demonstrated than in his procreative capacity.
If you want to see the sinfulness of man at its nature-level, you see it in the fact that a man will always produce a sinner. And so circumcision was God's way of saying to people, you need radical surgery at the very, most deep level of your nature as evidenced by the fact that you can produce nothing but sinners. The whole of mankind was there in Adam when he sinned and all subsequent human history then was encapsulated at that moment. The mark of sin was made and we all bear it.
The Jews would understand this corporate personality concept because they didn't think of themselves as individuals but as parts of people, tribe, and family. So, the whole of the human race in the loins of Adam is then caught in the polluting of sin. That's what Paul is saying here. He's saying in verse 12, "Through one man sin entered into the world," a pretty basic, simple point. Adam, acting as mankind, was then the solid mass of humanity and when he sinned he introduced sin into the human stream, and so that one man, by one act of disobedience, affected the whole human race. - J Mac
Vs. 12-14 Through one man sin entered the world - I hated this story as a young man, and of course, like everyone says about everything today, I thought, "how unfair, if I would have got the same chance in paradise then I would have looked around and acknowledged that I had everything I needed and then some, so I wouldn't have eaten the fruit of that one tree." So we think it's unfair of God to punish everyone because of one man's sin, yet we all sin so we don't have a leg to stand on and God doesn't owe us paradise. Yet, God, in His great mercy has also made it by One Man, Christ, His righteousness, that men can believe and be saved. This is the only part where we can see actual unfairness, and that is in the murder of the Son of God, for He was the only One without sin. "Sin is not imputed where there is no law", so from Adam to Moses we only knew that our kind fell, and the result was death, which principle was active even then. We are all dead in our trespasses and sins. We saw God punish the resulting sins that sprang forth from this original sin, that men left the natural order, and God found them to be violent and so even before Moses God destroyed the earth by water. Later, in Abraham's day, He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Sin resulted in men leaving the natural order, the foundation of civilization, the family, one man and one woman, committed to raising their children before God, they left that and men burned in lust for one another. So while the law of Moses had yet to arrive, yet men had a sense of being wronged, of murder because of what Cain did to Abel, and God's reactions to human depravity.
…3As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. 4Behold, every soul belongs to Me; both father and son are Mine. The soul who sins is the one who will die. Ezekiel 18: 3-4
…20Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God. 21God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5: 20-21
…13For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous. 14Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15So they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or defending them… Romans 2: 13-15
Vs. 15-17 The gracious gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification - Everything that was done to Christ was wrong. Every transgression, from His being hunted in His childhood by Herod, being mocked and accused of healing people and casting out demons by the power of Satan. His being rejected by those of the circumcision to which He was born, the kangaroo court, the false accusations, beatings, and the cross. Don't stick your nose up in the air, don't cry about how unfair your life is. He took what He didn't deserve so that you could believe in Him and receive what you don't deserve.
J Vernon McGee adds this thought...Now I recognize that this is a difficult section, and this is one of the most difficult passages. To simplify it, all this section means is this: one transgression plunged the race into sin; and one act of obedience and the death of Christ upon the cross makes it possible for lost man to be saved. (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson) - PA
Vs. 18-21 The many will be appointed righteous - Because of Christ's obedience we have a way to be seen as righteous. We now stand corrupt, it is our inherited DNA, and why I laugh every time someone says we are evolving as a society, no, entropy works in the opposite direction, that's what we observe, that's reality. God wipes everyone off the planet except for eight people, Noah and his family, and so here is a chance to start all over again, right? Wrong, the sin principle is still there, and the obedience of man to teach his children from generation to generation about God, well that is a weak link; it is sinners producing sinners, eventually making light of what God told Adam, then Noah and so on. Within a couple generations they were building the tower of Babel, a proud monument to themselves and their disobedience. Come to the end of yourself, plead for mercy from God, and be a true parent, teaching your children the reality of sin and the reality of God's judgment on it.
…8and placed everything under his feet.” When God subjected all things to him, He left nothing outside of his control. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. 9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. 10In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting for God, for whom and through whom all things exist, to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.… Hebrews 2: 8-10
