For this [cause], even as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death; and thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned
Here Paul's letter turns from the wrong things people do to the ruined condition they are born in. It traces that ruin back to one man. Two questions follow: why does everyone die, and what does "because all sinned" mean?
One writer draws the line between what is personal and what everyone shares:
At Romans 5:12 the apostle begins his teaching about sin. The difference is clear. If it is a question of sins, you, my reader, have yours, and I have mine. If it is a question of our nature, of our flesh, we are only one, one single nature, one single mass. So the apostle turns to the heads or sources of our nature, whether for good or for evil: Adam and Christ.
This shift meets a real problem. Believers who are sure their sins are forgiven often still find something wrong at the root:
Many souls are greatly perplexed. Though they believe their sins are forgiven, they still find the root, sin, in the flesh. Much of this confusion comes from failing to notice carefully the distinction between sins and sin, as in this letter. As we have seen, verse 11 closes the question of sins. Verse 12 takes up sin.
The word has a specific weight in this part of the letter. A word count shows the change of subject:
The outcome of "sin" must be sins, but it is "sin" that the Apostle especially speaks of in this portion of the Letter. In chapters 1 to 5:11 the word sin occurs only twice; in this division, 5:12 to 8, it occurs thirty-four times. "Sin" is the evil principle of "lawlessness", or the creature doing his own will... Sins can be forgiven. But "sin", the evil principle that leads to sins, can only be met by death — a death that ends the life governed by sin.
"Through one man" points back to the moment when human nature changed at its source:
God made Adam free from evil, without the knowledge of sin. This was the starting point of man's existence on earth — a life whose moral character was nothing like our life now. But Adam preferred disobedience to obedience. By exercising his will, his nature became evil. With that, the character of the source of human life changed. Innocence disappeared from the earth, and sin entered the world. This is where our sinful nature comes from. We received it through our parents, and we were born with it.
This happened at the start of human history. So no nation stands outside it, not even Israel with its law:
So the most solemn change ever to affect the world came in long before the Jewish people existed, and therefore before God gave their boasted law... Adam was before them both and affects all mankind, the Jews not excepted... It was not outside man, but on the contrary "by one man"; yet its effect, death, spread through the world.
The verse does not argue from how people behave. It argues from death:
Here (verse 12) the sinner's case rests not on the moral evidence of personal evil, but on the decisive testimony of death. Death is God's widespread and undeniable witness that sin, which produced it, is present throughout the world... Death is never separable from sin. So sharing in a sinful nature produces death as its necessary effect.
Commentators differ over this final clause. Some reject the old marginal reading, "in whom all have sinned." They deny that God charges Adam's guilt to each person:
We are not responsible for the sin of Adam. God does not hold us responsible for a sinful nature either. We are responsible for how that nature works out, that is, for our own sins... Death comes upon us because of our sins, as this verse states.
Others keep both sides together, refusing to let either one crowd out the other:
No one doubts that infants and those without understanding die, and this through Adam's sin. But the Spirit does not exclude the consequence where personal guilt can apply. The fall left the race in ruin, and that ruin goes together with the evil workings of the fallen nature now in all men. Adam's sin is the cause, but it is not the sole account and whole case of man's bitter lot.
Sin's reign is not the last word:
Death took its throne, and sin its rule over the world, by Adam's one act. His disobedience was the key that opened the door for them to enter the world. Sin still reigns, its kingdom is as wide as the world, and its end is death. But God has an answer even to this. He does not reform the old ruler or alter the kingdom. God brings in something altogether new — something so noble that the believer's heart rejoices.
- One man. One act of disobedience let sin in. It changed the character of the source of human life, and everyone since inherits that nature.
- One principle. "Sin" here is the evil principle of doing one's own will — the root — as distinct from "sins," the acts that grow out of it.
- One proof. Death is God's public, undeniable witness that sin is everywhere, and it was at work long before the law.
- One debated clause. Commentators differ on "because all sinned". Some read it only of each person's own sins, and deny that God charges Adam's guilt to us. Others hold cause and personal guilt together.
- One answer. God does not reform the old ruler or alter the kingdom. He brings in something altogether new: a second Head, Christ, set over against Adam.
(for until law sin was in [the] world; but sin is not put to account when there is no law;
Paul has just traced sin and death back to one man, Adam. Now he pauses to answer an objection. How could people be sinners in the long stretch of history before God gave the law through Moses? His answer turns on two things — when sin entered the world, and what it means for sin to be "counted."
The order matters. Sin was already at work in the world long before Moses, so the law cannot be what produced it.
The apostle answers a possible objection, and he proves that sin exists apart from law... So the Jew could not even make the sad boast (and what will a man not boast about?) that the law came before sin. The whole purpose of law is to prove that people sin. Sadly, sin is not limited to Israel; it is everywhere. "Sin was in the world," where the law was not. When God gave the law through Moses, it put sin to account. But sin was already there, and it spread far beyond the area the law had in view when it came. Law could not cure sinners. It could only record sin — it could not remove it.
Paul does not use the same word here that he uses elsewhere in this letter. This is the language of a ledger.
The mistake is to suppose that "counted" here means the same thing as it does elsewhere in the letter. It is really a different word. The true thought is this: sin is not put on the account, the way separate items are listed on a bill.
So were people before the law simply let off?
It is still sin, and those who sin without law perish without law. But God does not call them to account for it at once in His government.
If God kept no ledger, how do we know sin was there at all? Paul points to the graveyard.
It is true that sin is not put to account where there is no law. Still, death reigned from Adam to Moses. That showed sin was there, because death is the wages of sin, and not only of breaking a law... It was clear that death reigned just the same — it struck people who were not under the law.
If sin was already everywhere, why give the law at all?
Sin is lawlessness, and it had been filling the earth ever since Adam's fall. But as soon as God gave the law, He drew a clear line. Step over that line and a man became a definite lawbreaker. His sin could now be put to his account in a way that was not possible before. God meant Israel to give definite proof of the fallen and sinful state that people were in.
This verse also settles what sin actually is. One familiar definition of sin cannot survive it.
1 John 3:4 has often been translated, "Sin is the transgression of the law." It should read, "Sin is lawlessness." If sin were the breaking of the law, there would be no sin before God gave the law; but there was... Besides, that idea lowers the standard of God's holiness. Sin is lawlessness — refusing to be under God. The very fact of having a will of our own set against God is sin.
Paul's history lesson has a wider purpose. If sin reached people who never had the law, then grace must reach them too.
The apostle's argument is that death proved sin was there before there was any law. You cannot limit grace to the Jews. If you do, you make grace narrower than sin. Death and sin were already there, and all had sinned. So if you shut grace up to those under law and keep out the Gentiles, you make sin a more powerful thing than the grace of God.
- Sin first. Sin was in the world before Moses. The law did not create sin. It only exposed and recorded what was already there.
- No account. "Counted" here means listed like the items on a bill. Where there was no law, God did not charge particular acts in His government.
- Death still reigned. Death reigned anyway, and that proved sin was there. Death is the wages of sin, not only of law-breaking.
- The line drawn. The law drew a clear line. Crossing it made a man a definite lawbreaker, and his sin could then be put to his account.
- Grace goes further. Sin and death reached far beyond the nation that had the law. Grace must reach at least as far, or sin would be stronger than God's grace.
but death reigned from Adam until Moses, even upon those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is [the] figure of him to come.
Paul has traced sin and death back to one man. Now he proves it from history. Between Eden and Sinai there was no law, yet people kept dying. The verse ends with a phrase that turns the whole argument around — Adam is a type, a preview, of Christ.
The two names in the verse mark the two moments when God laid down a formal command. Between them, sin had a different character. There was no written law to break.
Moses gave the law. From Adam to Moses there was no law, and men had only their conscience to guide them; by it they knew good and evil... Adam had a commandment, and he broke it. Since there was no law till Moses, the generations after him could not sin in the same way Adam did. Sin is lawlessness... However, sin becomes transgression when there is a law.
If no law was in force, how do we know sin was still there? Every grave answered the question.
Adam had a law, and Moses made the law known. Between them God dealt with men by neither the one nor the other. Yet men sinned, as Scripture shows again and again. So death reigned, for it is the wages (not of transgression only, but) of sin... They sinned, they did their own will, they were corrupt and violent, and later added idolatry to their evil ways. So death reigned even over them. They were sinners, though they were not transgressors, as Adam was at first and Israel later.
Genesis makes the same case without a word of argument.
It is striking to follow the line of long-lived men from Adam to Noah, with the same words attached to the end of each short history: "and he died." Death was reigning, a sure proof of sin having come into the world.
The previous verse says sin is not counted where there is no law, and that phrase is easy to misread. It does not mean God overlooked sin. It means sin was not put on people's account the way a written law puts it there.
The mistake is to suppose that "imputing" here means the same thing as elsewhere in this letter. It is really a different word. The true thought is that sin is not put on the account, the way separate items are put on a bill... "From Adam to Moses" covers most of the history in Genesis. It is the time before law, when sin was already in the world, but had not yet gained this added seriousness.
Commentators differ over who these people are. Grant, in the same passage, dismisses the idea that infants are in view. Others read the group more widely:
I think two groups are in view here. First, the Gentiles as a whole, who were never under law, while Adam was clearly under law. Second, infant children, who die all the time, though their age makes them incapable of any actual offence.
The closing clause looks like a side remark. Yet Adam resembles Christ in one specific way: he stands at the head of a race, and what he is, his family becomes.
Adam is the fountain-head of a stream of fallen, sinful humanity — a race of sinners who share the disastrous results of his sinful act. Seen this way, he is a "figure" of Christ.
Every person stands in one of two families, under one of two heads. That makes the question personal.
Adam did not become the father of a family until after his disobedience. All his offspring stand with him under condemnation and death. Christ became head of a new and heavenly race in resurrection. All who are identified with Him stand before God forever in His acceptance and blessing... In the divine thought there has been a transfer from Adam to Christ; but are we conscious of it in our own souls?
A type does not mean a copy. Adam pictures Christ at one point. At every other point he is the opposite.
Christ comes before us in two ways: by figure and contrast. Adam, as God made him, was the figure of Christ; as he made himself in his fall, he becomes a contrast to Christ... No finer man was ever placed in finer circumstances than Adam — yet he fell. As a fallen man, he became the head of a race like himself. What can come from such a source? If the fountain is polluted we shall not expect clean waters to flow from it.
- One head. Adam's single act made him the fountain-head of a race that shares his condemnation and his death.
- One reign. Death ruled the whole stretch from Eden to Sinai, when there was no law. That proves sin was already in the world.
- One account. Without a law, sin was not written up against people as transgression. It was still sin, and death still collected its wages.
- One figure. Adam is like Christ in one way only: each is head of a race. In everything else he is the contrast — a polluted fountain against a pure one.
- One transfer. Christ became Head of a new race in resurrection, and all who are His stand in His acceptance — the question is whether we know it.
But [shall] not the act of favour [be] as the offence? For if by the offence of one the many have died, much rather has the grace of God, and the free gift in grace, which [is] by the one man Jesus Christ, abounded unto the many.
Adam and Christ each stand at the head of a family, and one man's act settles the standing of everyone under him. But this verse denies that the two sides match, and asks whether God's gift only cancels Adam's damage or goes far past it. (Some quotes below use older translations, where "trespass" reads "offence.")
The word translated "many" is more exactly "the many" — a defined group, not a rough headcount. It appears twice, and each time it covers everyone belonging to the head named.
In verse 15 the word many occurs twice just as we noticed it does in verse 19. In this verse too it is more exactly "the many," that is, those who come under each headship. Adam brought death on all those under his headship, which in fact means all men without exception. Jesus Christ has brought in the grace of God and the free gift of grace to the many who are under Him. That is, to all believers.
The verse opens by denying the likeness before it draws any parallel.
One thing we must remember as we consider them: these two accounts are not a mere balance of results. "Not as the offence so also is the free gift." If righteousness is shown in dealing with sin, the "free gift" is measured only by the grace that has given Christ for us — though of course it must be righteous, absolutely so. So His work does not merely cancel the results of sin. It lifts us into a place altogether beyond what was originally ours.
The reasoning runs from the smaller case to the greater. If our tie to a fallen man could ruin us, our tie to Christ must do more.
Verse 15 points us to the source of sin and of righteousness, of guilt and of grace. This verse clearly compares two stores. Grace wins its triumph over guilt when we look to Jesus, in whom, as in a storehouse, all the fulness of grace dwells. If God condemns us for the sin of Adam, a mere creature like ourselves, will He not much more justify us by grace for the sake of the Divine One, Jesus, who is "full of grace and truth"?
The advantage lies on the good side because of who God is.
The difference is an immense advantage on the side of good. How could it be otherwise, with such a source of goodness as God, and with such a channel and ground and object as the man Christ Jesus? To punish, to strike, to destroy, was a grief, so to speak, to God. To bless is His delight — and now to the full, since Christ has removed every hindrance and made that blessing righteous.
Paul names two things — "the grace of God" and "the free gift by the grace" of Christ. The two words look at the same blessing from different ends.
I say such a thing was a gift, a free gift; I did not earn it. How did you come to have it? It was pure grace in the person who gave it to me. One word leads me to think of it as freely given, not earned, without condition or price. The other points to what moved the person to give. The gift of righteousness is not by working or labour, or acquired fitness, or anything on my part.
The verse also settles how far grace reaches. One man's ruin touched everyone, so no single nation can keep the remedy to itself.
Shall man's offence carry further than God's gift? Death was reigning outside the law, and by the offence of one, many were dead. Should not the grace of God much more abound to the many who are burdened by that death, instead of belonging only to the Jews who claimed it? The state of sin was universal through Adam, so grace must reach just as widely.
Death came down Adam's line as a penalty. What comes down the other line is not simply the removal of that penalty.
Now Christ gives the "free gift" to "the many" who are granted to "live by Him." For them it abounds far beyond their deliverance from death, the penalty of sin. It means for them life in the abundance of its power. It is "much more" than salvation from the death they duly and rightly deserved. It is the positive reality and blessedness of living with God.
- One act. One man's deed decides the state of a whole family. That is where Adam and Christ are alike — and the likeness stops there.
- One source. The trespass came from a creature; the gift comes from God through Christ, and that difference of source is why the verse says "much more."
- One gift, freely given. No one earned it. "Grace" points to what moved the Giver; "free gift" means it costs the receiver nothing.
- Wide reach. Because ruin spread to everyone through Adam, grace must be as wide in its address, not fenced off for one nation.
- Greater result. The gift does not simply undo Adam's loss; it lifts believers past what Adam ever had, into life with God.
And [shall] not as by one that has sinned [be] the gift? For the judgment [was] of one to condemnation, but the act of favour, of many offences unto justification.
Paul has been setting Adam and Christ side by side. Here he shows where the two sides do not match. One sin brought condemnation on a whole race. So what kind of gift answers countless sins and still ends in justification?
The verse is not saying that grace does a little better than sin did. One writer weighs the judgment against the gift.
It is not only a difference of measure but of kind. Verse 15 looked at the people affected; here the things themselves stand out. One act by the head who sinned sentenced people into condemnation. But the free gift, despite many offences, was for a state of accomplished righteousness.
The verse starts from a single act. That one act brought condemnation, and it shows something about God that has not changed.
There is another contrast. One sin brought in condemnation. Such was the holiness of God, and that holiness has not changed. Yet now, after people have committed many offences, His gracious gift is of a state of accomplished righteousness.
Why does Paul move from Adam's single sin to "many offences"? One writer says Paul is raising the stakes of his own argument.
In this verse the "many offences" is there to heighten the picture… Paul says you are not going to make grace cover a narrower field than sin. Then he strengthens the argument by bringing in the "many offences" as a greater difficulty, so that grace had to be stronger and greater than the evil.
What does "justification" cover here? One writer sets it against anything law-keeping could produce.
Here it goes from many offences to a sum of recognised righteousness. It is a gracious gift — a full righteousness that God weighs up and accepts as enough. Keeping the law would make righteousness a demand on man. It would be his own righteousness, measured by the law. But here it is a gracious gift. Judgment came upon men and brought condemnation. Now a gift deals with many offences, and gives us a righteousness God Himself counts as enough. It comes by God's free gift, not by man's responsibility.
The gift does not just cancel the sentence and leave a person at zero. It sets up something that lasts.
One sin established a state of condemnation. The gift through Christ has established a state of righteousness that lasts. This settled state of positive righteousness is "much more" than being delivered out of the state of condemnation. The gift does deliver from that condemnation, and it takes full account of the pile of offences. But beyond the deliverance, it provides a state of positive righteousness, and that state is one of abiding acceptance.
A common misreading takes the excess of grace as a matter of how many people it reaches.
People often misread these connected passages by making the "over-bounding" of grace a matter of breadth instead of height. If it were a question of the number reached, there could be no over-abounding of grace at all. Christ could not reach more than fell with Adam… But the real matter is one of depth and height, not of breadth.
Another writer guards the same ground differently. Some read this verse to mean that everyone is saved in the end.
Some have used this verse and the ones after it to teach universal salvation. But that is not what it means. We must not lose sight of the condition: faith in Christ. We are all in the first Adam by natural birth. Being identified with the second Man is only possible by the new birth. That happens when a sinner believes on Christ and in His finished work.
Guilt and righteousness do not reach a person in the same way.
Verse 16 shows that grace passes on far more than guilt does. Christ justifies us not only from the guilt of this one sin, but from the heavier guilt we have run up by our "many offences" — that is, all our sins. Besides, we shared Adam's guilt because we belong to his race. We receive righteousness in Christ as "a free and gracious gift."
- One. A single offence was enough to bring in condemnation — proof of a holiness in God that has never softened.
- Many. Paul then piles on "many offences" to make the case harder. Grace must prove stronger than the whole weight of evil.
- Gift. Law would make righteousness a wage man must earn. Instead God gives a righteousness He counts as enough.
- State. The gift does more than wipe the slate clean. It sets us in a lasting standing of righteousness and acceptance.
- Height. Grace over-abounds in depth and height, not in numbers. It comes through faith in Christ, not by birth as Adam's guilt did.
For if by the offence of the one death reigned by the one, much rather shall those who receive the abundance of grace, and of the free gift of righteousness, reign in life by the one Jesus Christ)
Paul has just set Adam's one offence against Christ's one act. Here he places the two outcomes side by side: death reigns, or those who receive reign in life through one Man.
God gave the first man rule over creation. What happened to that rule explains why the verse speaks of death as a king.
By Adam's one offence "death reigned through that one man." God gave Adam dominion over creation, and Adam has forfeited his rule: he has no more dominion; death reigns instead. ... While Adam reigned in Eden, death was always a danger that could take over his reign. But those who are under Christ as Head "reign in life" — a life that is eternal, and death can never interfere with it.
If death reigned, the neat opposite would be that life reigns. Paul writes something stronger.
In verses 15-17 the apostle shows that grace far surpasses sin. Adam's sin (v. 15) did not stay with him alone; its consequences reached his descendants too. How much more, then, do the consequences of Christ's work reach those who are His! ... The overflow of grace stands out most clearly in verse 17. It says, "if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man." You would expect the matching thought to be "much more life will reign." But no: "much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ."
The verse names two gifts, and they are not the same kind of thing. One meets a bare need; the other is sheer overflow. One writer sets them beside the Queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon, quoted here from an older translation.
She brought large presents to Solomon, but she went home enriched all the same. "King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba all her desire … besides what Solomon gave her out of his royal bounty." In the same way, our God not only meets the actual need of the sinner who comes to Him. He at once enriches him with all the blessing of Christ Himself. So Rom. 5:17 describes Christians as "those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness." There are two things here. Righteousness is our actual need; without it we must perish. "The abundance of grace" matches the "royal bounty" of Solomon.
Both gifts come by one verb: receive. Many people assume righteousness works the other way.
The "gift of righteousness" is to be "received," you notice — not earned, as many suppose. When it is received by faith, the one who has it is sure he will "reign in life."
Escaping a tyrant is one mercy. Sitting on his throne is another. The verse promises both.
Through the offence of the one man, a reign of death came in by that one man. It has been an absolute reign — a reign of unstoppable power. On the other hand there are those "who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness." This is not just rescue from the power of death, from its reign and triumph. It is a "much more," and by it they themselves become "more than conquerors." By the power of the life grace gives them, they themselves reign.
The promise has a date still to come and a use today.
We might have thought the contrast to "death reigning" would be "life reigning." It is more than that, for the word is "they … reign in life." The time is coming when the saints will reign with Christ. Now grace makes it possible for the saint to reign in life by Christ. God's thought is that Christ should make us completely superior to the power of sin, lawlessness and self-will.
The full weight of the promise waits for one moment: when death itself is gone.
When that happens, and "Death is swallowed up in victory," God's work of making us alive will reach its final completion. Then the word that we "reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17) will be fulfilled. Not only in life, but reigning in it, and that for ever.
- Reign lost. God gave Adam dominion, and Adam forfeited it. Death took the throne instead, and its rule was absolute.
- Reign reversed. The verse breaks the pattern. It does not say life will reign; it says you will reign. Grace does not just repair the damage; it goes far beyond it.
- Reign received. Two gifts come together. Righteousness meets the need we cannot live without, and an abundance of grace is poured out on top. You take both by faith. You earn neither.
- Reign exercised. This is more than escape from death's power. It is victory in its place: superiority over sin, lawlessness and self-will, by the power of the life grace gives.
- Reign forever. The final fulfilment waits until death is swallowed up. Then the reigning never ends — and all of it comes "through the one man Jesus Christ."
so then as [it was] by one offence towards all men to condemnation, so by one righteousness towards all men for justification of life.
The verse sets two men side by side: one act of Adam sent the whole human race toward condemnation, and one act of Christ answers it. Two questions follow: how far does "all men" reach in each half, and why is justification tied here to life, not only to forgiveness?
The ESV reads "one act of righteousness." One commentator argues from the Greek that the older rendering "the righteousness of one" cannot stand:
A Bible with cross-references shows in the margin that the words are "one righteousness." There is no doubt at all that this is the true rendering. When the Apostle wants to say "by the offence of one," he uses a different form of words. It is the correct one, and not the form he uses for "one offence." Theology may make it the righteousness of one, but not Greek.
An older English version read "upon all men." One writer says that word is the mistake, since it would make the verse teach that everyone is saved:
Taken as it stands, the last clause would imply the salvation of all men. That is clearly not the teaching of Scripture. The error in the rendering lies in the preposition "upon," given as the equivalent of the Greek word eis. There is no justification at all for such a rendering. The word means "into," "unto," "towards," and so on, depending on the connection... The "offence" of Adam reached towards all men for condemnation, since all men came under the consequences of his fall. The righteousness of One (Christ), on the other hand, extended towards all men. That is because the gospel proclaiming it was to be preached to every creature under heaven. Whether souls came under its benefit and blessing depended on something else: whether the glad tidings were received.
The next verse narrows "all" to "the many." One writer explains how the two verses work as a pair:
Suppose you had only the one act of Adam by itself; it would have plunged all men into condemnation. On the other hand, the work of Christ in itself would have brought complete deliverance to all men. But that is only the tendency towards all men, not the actual effect upon them. Here, in this chapter, we have in verse 18 the tendency, and in verse 19 the effect... "The many" who had to do with the one man who disobeyed were all men, because all were children of Adam. So by the obedience of Christ "the many" — those who belong to Him — shall be made righteous.
If the actual effect is on believers, the universal wording still has a purpose. It guards the sufficiency of the work:
The express purpose of what is said here is to show one thing. The effect of the work of recovery does not reach as far as the fall reached, but that is not because it lacks sufficiency for all. God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), so He could not leave anyone without provision made.
The commentators here work from an older rendering, "justification of life," where the ESV reads "justification and life." One writer explains what the phrase holds:
As to "justification of life" (Romans 5:18), it is the justification we have as being alive in Christ. It goes beyond mere forgiveness of the sins of the old man, which are put away. It is the clearing away of every charge against us, which we have as alive in Christ... not just the old sins cleared away, but a new place, given by a work of Christ which God had fully owned. He had finished the work His Father gave Him to do, and because of that He was in a new place as Man in life. Life (in us) and justification went together.
The believer's life now comes from a risen Head:
He is the last Adam, the life-giving Spirit, raised up from the dead. And the risen Christ imparts His own life to all those who have believed on Him. He has become the Head of a new race, and all who have been justified by His blood belong to that new race... The life they have, because they are joined to their glorious Head, is free from sin.
That life is meant to show. Another writer ties the gift to visible change:
Wherever there is justification, it is the gift of God, obtained by Christ's death at the cross, entirely apart from the sinner's merit or work in any way. But it is always accompanied by "justification of life" (Romans 5:18), which is the product of divine life — divine life in action, by the power of the Spirit of God, giving right desires, affections, will.
- One act. Adam's one offence is answered by Christ's one righteousness — the Greek reads "one righteousness," not "the righteousness of one."
- One direction. "Towards" all men, not "upon" all men: the gospel goes out to every creature, but only those who receive it come under the blessing.
- One reach. The wide word "all" proves there is no shortage in the remedy — the provision is not narrower than the fall.
- One effect. Verse 18 gives the bearing toward all; verse 19 gives the outcome in "the many" who belong to each head.
- One life. The result is "justification of life" — not only sins cleared, but the life of a risen Head, a life free from sin.
For as indeed by the disobedience of the one man the many have been constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the one the many will be constituted righteous.
Paul closes his comparison of Adam and Christ. He sets out two men, two acts, and two groups of people who stand under them. Everything turns on the word "made" — and on the nature of "the obedience of the one."
The verse is not counting up anyone's deeds. It describes what a person is because of the head he belongs to.
By one man's disobedience, the many were constituted sinners. Not in act — though later acts proved it true — but in fact, in condition, in state. In the same way, by the obedience of one the many will be constituted righteous. Again, not in act, though later acts will prove it, but in fact, in condition, in state.
People do not become sinners by sinning. They are born that way. One writer traces this back to the point where Adam began to have children.
God had created him in His own likeness. But he had no children during his short time of innocence, when another man might also have been in God's likeness. He fell first. Only then did he have children, in his own likeness as a fallen creature… So Romans 5:19 says that "by the one man's disobedience the many were made [or, constituted] sinners." All his descendants came into the world sinners in their very constitution. That is what is meant by "original sin."
Does "the obedience of the one" mean that Christ kept the law for us? One writer answers no, and points to what Christ came to do.
He was obedient without limit… His obedience was different in nature, and went far beyond law-keeping. "I have come to do your will, O God" — whatever that will might be. And it was to die: to give up His life for those the Father had given Him, and to suffer everything, even to the cup of wrath, to glorify God. Was that law?
The wider comparison points the same way.
Paul is contrasting the two heads, Adam and Christ. He sets the sin of the one, with all the disaster that follows it, against the righteousness, the obedience of the other, with all the blessing that follows it. It is a question of the "one offence" and the "one righteousness" (v. 18, margin). Christ's ONE righteousness was obedience even to His DEATH.
Being made righteous covers more than the removal of sins.
Being brought into the state of righteous includes both the justification and the life. Notice here that "the obedience of One" brings in the burnt-offering side of Christ's work, the full sweet aroma. To stand in Christ is not only to have our sins put away… it is to be accepted in all the preciousness His obedience has for God.
Verse 18 said "all men." Verse 19 narrows to "the many," and the change is deliberate.
By "the many" we understand those, and only those, who are under the respective headships. In Adam's case "the many" does of course cover all men, for by nature we are all of his race. In the case of Christ, not all men are of His race, but only all believers. All men were constituted sinners by Adam's disobedience. All believers are constituted righteous by Christ's obedience, even to death.
Commentators differ on how neatly the first "the many" maps onto "all men," but they agree on the reason the second clause could not say "all."
The final result is what is in view here. Since this result must be limited to the household of faith, it would have been false to say "all" in the last clause.
A verse that rests everything on someone else's obedience raises a personal question.
Has your heart come to submit to this righteousness? You have none of your own. Oh, nothing is harder for the heart than to be broken down and made willing to have righteousness by the obedience of another!
- One head. Your own record settles nothing here. What settles it is which man you belong to — the disobedient one, or the Obedient One.
- One inheritance. Adam had children only after he fell. So his race arrives already constituted sinners — a state, not just a habit.
- One obedience. The obedience that makes many righteous is not law-keeping done for us. It is Christ's obedience going all the way into death.
- One standing. That obedience does more than remove sins. It sets believers before God in all the preciousness of Christ's obedience.
- One condition. Verse 18 reaches out toward all. Verse 19 gives the result, and it belongs to "the many" who are His. To receive it, you must give up any righteousness of your own.
But law came in, in order that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded grace has overabounded,
Paul has just set Adam beside Christ: two men, two acts. So where does the law of Moses fit? The answer here is startling. The law came not to fix the problem but to make the problem visible. And the grace that followed rose higher than the sin it met.
The law slipped in alongside God's promise. It came after that promise, and before He kept it.
The law "came in" as it were, "by the way," between the promises and their fulfilment. (It was, of course, perfect in itself.) It came to show what man's condition would be if he stood on his own ground before God. The law was not before the promises, the apostle argues (Gal. 3), "that it should make the promise of none effect." God gave the promise first.
The wording can be misread, as if God gave commands to manufacture sin. But sin was already there. The law's work was to expose it. These writers use the older word "offence" where the ESV says "trespass."
But law did come: why it entered, and as it were, by the way, the apostle answers in verse 20. It was that (not sin, but) "the offence might abound." God forbid that we should say anything God gave creates evil! Sin was already there. The law came to bring out sin's real character — a direct breach of God's command, once He gives one.
A command does not cure sin. It stirs sin up, and it makes sin worse.
The law made the offence abound. By forbidding sin it stirred up sin; and it added to the evil of sin by making it transgression.
So the law never improved anyone. A standard given to someone who cannot meet it does not reform him. It exposes him.
Suppose I bring a right and true measure to a man who is in the habit of using a wrong measure, what do I do it for? Not to make him honest, but to prove his dishonesty. It is useless for him to say, I will change my character; the thing is already done.
The verse changes its word halfway through. The first half speaks of the offence; the second half speaks of sin. That change decides how far grace reaches.
Suppose He had said, "where the offence abounded grace did also abound." That would have limited grace to those under the law. But He was showing the opposite. Christ's work reached out beyond, as wide as Adam's in scope and effect. Grace overrode the whole, though people might reject it.
Sin reached its worst at the cross. That is the very place where grace answered it.
God has shown abounding grace, for He gave His own well-beloved Son. And He allowed sin to rise up to its full wickedness, even in putting Christ to death. Then, to show how powerless sin is in the presence of God's grace, that very act — where sin's greatest evil showed itself as hatred against God — is the thing that puts it all away. God's grace rolls over it all, yet in righteousness. So He has shown the utter helplessness of sin in His presence.
Sin's grip is stronger than any human effort to break it. So this verse promises power, not permission.
"Sin abounded" — not only in the number of its acts, but in its overwhelming force, since it overcame all human efforts to subdue it. Sin's power to overcome man is greater than man's power to resist sin. Man cannot put out the pull of the evil nature within him. But thanks be to God, "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."
This grace never caters to the flesh. It changes the master the believer lives under.
It is pure, and real, and powerful. It carries with it the perfect love and holiness of God, unstained by the human taint of self-indulgence or loose living. It does not cater to the evil of the flesh. Instead it transfers the believer out from under the authority of sin, into the freedom of being subject to Him whose yoke is easy and His burden light.
- Inserted — The law came in alongside, between the promise and its fulfilment. It is not the ground on which God blesses.
- Exposed — God did not give it to produce evil. It forced the sin already there into the open, as defiance of a known command.
- Measured — Like a true weight brought to a cheat, it does not make a man honest; it proves what he already is.
- Exceeded — The word shifts from "offence" to "sin." So grace is not limited to those under law. It reaches every child of Adam.
- Overpowered — At the cross sin rose to its worst, and grace rose higher. Its power is greater than sin's grip.
in order that, even as sin has reigned in [the power of] death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul closes his great comparison of Adam and Christ with a picture of two thrones. Sin once ruled, and its rule ended in death; now grace rules, and its rule leads to eternal life — through righteousness, not around it.
Sin's reign was a real kingdom. It had subjects, and they were all heading the same way.
We understand the reign of sin. Its kingdom is a kingdom of bondage with death for all within it. All the activities of men within that kingdom lead to death, because God is not their end and aim. But grace reigns. That means God reigns as His own heart desires, in full and eternal agreement with His righteous character. The end of that is eternal life and the glory that belongs to it by Jesus Christ our Lord. God is greater than the devil, and grace is greater than sin.
If grace reigns, someone else has lost the throne. One writer asks who holds it now.
Grace came in the Person of Christ, and as a result of His death, what do I find now? I find grace is reigning. Who is on the throne today? Christ. Later He will be the judge. The day of judgment has not come yet. Who is on the throne today? If I may use the figure — Grace. The apostle is careful in this same chapter to point out that sin and death have reigned. I might add another — Satan. There was a fearful group of three evils reigning — Satan, sin, and death — up to the coming of Jesus. What since then? They have been deposed.
The wording matters. Paul does not write that righteousness reigns.
It is not said that righteousness reigned. If it had, it would have been for the eternal condemnation of all. Righteousness will reign when He comes in judgment. But now grace reigns. Grace goes on despite all the neglect in men's hearts towards it — it reigns. It does not give up its ways and purposes. Grace reigns over sin. Man cannot master Christ's love, but Christ's love overcomes man. It overcame everything that stood in the way of His doing His Father's will, and His obedience overcame everything. Grace reigned on the cross, yet righteousness was there. Grace reigns in the subjection of our hearts — where sin once reigned, grace reigns. Grace means love working where there is evil. How? By the obedience of One — and so it is through righteousness.
"Through righteousness" is not a limit on grace. It is what makes grace's rule possible.
Grace reigns on the principle of righteousness. It reigns through what God has done by the cross and resurrection of His Son. Righteousness has put grace on the throne and given it the sceptre and the right to rule. The very being of God is now glorified by the satisfaction Christ made for sin. So He sets aside nothing of the eternal claims of His throne of justice. God's heart of love can still go out in grace to the vilest of sinners and the most determined of His enemies.
Sin's reign had an end, and so does grace's. Grace reigns "leading to eternal life," and one writer pictures that movement as water finding the sea.
In the Gospel grace not only over-abounds, it reigns. We who have believed have come under the kind rule of grace. This grace reigns through righteousness, since the cross was above all a work of righteousness. And the glorious end and completion of the story is eternal life. Here the boundless view of eternity begins to open before us. We see the river of grace. We see the channel of righteousness, cut by the work of the cross, in which it flows. We see finally the boundless ocean of eternal life, into which it flows.
Grace, righteousness and eternal life are not three separate blessings loosely stacked. The closing words of the verse tie them.
Sin and death have indeed been a powerful combination, but grace has infinitely surpassed them, while remaining perfectly consistent and united with righteousness. And it is not only a two-fold cord, but three-fold. Grace and righteousness are closely connected with eternal life. Christianity has made these three stand out in matchless glory, a glory heightened by the Name of "Jesus Christ our Lord," the Name by which these things are accomplished and bound together.
The reign of grace is not only a doctrine to admire. It settles the conscience of a believer who has sinned.
God could not be indifferent about sin. His holy character has been fully exercised in putting sin away. He has dealt with Christ about it, according to all that He is. I may have to taste the bitterness of its fruits. God may make me feel the effects of my sin, because He is not going to judge me for it. Grace now reigns through righteousness, to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. My conscience is fully cleansed through the blood of Christ, shed in perfect love. The righteousness of the One who bore my sins is mine.
- Reigned — Sin was a king, not a mood. Its kingdom was bondage, and every subject inside it moved toward death.
- Deposed — Sin, death and Satan held power until Jesus came. Now they are off the throne, and grace sits there.
- Through — Righteousness is not a limit on grace but its throne. It gave grace its sceptre, so God can bless the vilest sinner without setting aside His justice.
- Not righteousness — If righteousness reigned, all would be condemned. Righteousness will reign when Christ comes to judge; grace reigns now.
- Leading to — The river of grace runs in the channel of righteousness. It empties into the ocean of eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.