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.