Death and Life, Ruin and Rescue

In Romans 5:12 to 21 Paul deals with how sin entered the human world through the mistake of one man and how remedy also came by one Man. It is an important concept to behold.

Sin entered the world through one man, Adam and on its heels, came death as a punishment for sin. This came to every one of human race because all have sinned. This thinking is basically the Jewish concept of human solidarity. According to this, the moral unit in the world is not an individual, but the whole community.

When Achan broke the law to covert and hide enticing treasures from the Jericho, the entire Israel faced the wrath of God and got defeated in the battle for Ai. It was a corporate responsibility. Only after Achan and his whole family with his cattle and sheep and his belongings were destroyed by fire, did the sin was pardoned and they could win Ai. Joshua 7:20-26.

Similarly, when the first man Adam sinned, the whole human race got affected. One can ask why God should be so unreasonable as to punish the whole human race for the sin of one man? Genesis 2:17. But in Adam’s fall everyone fell. One can say that our DNA got mutated for ever at that juncture and our genetic composition changed, with a tendency to sin being incorporated.

It is this concept of human solidarity coming into play, when Paul depicts Adam as the representative of the whole human race. Moreover, every one of us sin, due to both heredity and environment, and thus death comes to all of us, because of this universal lapse on our part. Paul has already said in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The punishment for sin is death. Romans 6:23 says ‘the wages of sin is death.’ Again, it is the corporate punishment, covering the entire human race. Verse 12. Paul continues his argument to say that there was sin before the coming of the Law, but it was not considered as sin, because there was no law. But people still died, not for contravening the law, but because of Adam’s sin. Their sins were not as great as that of Adam’s, still they died. All men sinned in Adam.

We need to understand here that Law was given to Israel and through them to the whole world, to point out our sin, to show what is right and wrong and to place the responsibility of contravening the Law on our shoulders. That should drive people to God to seek forgiveness. Law itself does not contain any remedy for sin. Adam is also a pattern of the one to come, that is, Jesus Christ.

Then, in due time, a gift from heaven came about. Gift was not like the trespass or sin. It was different. Many died due to the sin of one man, Adam, but the gift that came due to God’s grace, in the form of Jesus Christ, overflow to many.

Adam is the representative of the created humanity, in which we are all part of, with the tendency to sin and face death. Jesus Christ became the representative of the spiritual humanity, that is created by sinners accepting the gift of salvation offered by Christ, a renewed humanity. John 1:12, 13. Verse 15.

The difference between the gift and the sin is that, because of sin, judgment of God came and condemnation followed, consigning us to death. Gift covered the sins of many and brought in their justification, before the eyes of God and gave them eternal life. Verse 16.

Paul again clarifies the difference between sin and the gift, which came through Adam and Christ respectively. By the sin of one man, Adam, death reigned through that one man. Death ruled the roost. On the contrary, by the gift of righteousness through one Man Jesus Christ, which was offered to humanity because of God’s abundant provision of grace, life reigns in us.

In sin through Adam, death reigned; in righteousness through Christ, life reigns. Verse 17. That makes all the difference.

Adam --- man ---              sin                   --- death --- physical death

Christ --- Man --- gift of righteousness --- life     --- spiritual life

In Christ, we receive the power to win over sin and its power over us and escape eternal death. In John 5:24, John gives Jesus’s words, “whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” Yes, He is the only way and the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through him. John 14:6.

Paul now clinches the final argument in verses 18 and 19. Just as the result of one sin was condemnation for all men, which brought them all death, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification for all men who believed in Christ, bringing them all life.

The disobedience of one man Adam made many men sinners. Similarly, the obedience of one Man Christ, made many men righteous. Jesus obeyed and humbled himself even unto his death on the cross. Philippians 2:8.

This is the obedience which negated the results of the disobedience of Adam in the Garden of Eden. This act of obedience on the part of Jesus will also be the act, which will bring us back to the Garden of Eden, from where man was driven out because of his disobedience.

That is what it took for God to provide for the rescue of humanity – obedience of Christ unto his death on the cross. Do we grasp the significance of this enormous sacrifice by Christ for our sake?

Law was given to make us aware of our sins. It looks as if sin increased after the law, only because it made people to know a sin when they committed it. When you tell a child not to touch a thing, the child will forthwith go and touch the very thing forbidden to touch. That is human nature. When the law says do not do it, people contravened and did it anyhow. Law in itself had no power to offer to people not to sin. Verse 20

On the other hand, grace increased much more wherever sin abounded. Sin reigned in death, but grace reigned in life. Jesus lifted us above the law and gave us the strength not to offend God by our sins and to inherit eternal life. We in ourselves do not have the strength not to sin, neither does the law give us that strength. Verse 21

Only the grace of God, through which we received Christ’s righteousness, can give us victory over our sinful nature, by empowering us through the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, the believers. Even if we fall, we fall straight into the loving arms of Christ, who will catch us and steady our feet in righteousness.

Moses beautifully puts this across in Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” His arms are not short that He cannot catch us when we fall and steady us. We need just to trust in Him.

We were in Adam, but now we are in Christ; we do not belong to the race of Adam any longer, but we are born into a new race, the race of the redeemed people and a new family, the family of God.

All praise and glory be to God and his Son Jesus Christ, for this glorious future of ours and the gift of eternal life.

Amen.