What does it mean that death reigned from Adam to Moses (Romans 5:14)?

"Wherefore 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." By one man, the first Adam, sin entered into the world (not sins, but sin). And death followed, which is physical death. "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," and this death has passed upon the race because of sin. The margin of the authorized version contains a statement which is responsible for a very unscriptural teaching. The margin states "in whom all have sinned"; upon this it has been taught that the guilt of Adam has been imputed to all. This is not correct. We are not responsible for the sin of Adam nor are we held responsible by God for a sinful nature; we are responsible for the outworking of that nature, that is for our own sins. The wicked dead, those whose sins were not taken away, because they believed not, will not be judged for having had a sinful nature, but solely according to their works (Revelation 20:12). Death comes upon us on account of our sins, as it is stated in this verse "death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.

"For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law; nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him to come." This looks difficult, but it is simple after all. The law was given by Moses; from Adam to Moses there was no law, men were left to conscience, by which they knew good and evil. But death reigned nevertheless from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Adam had a commandment which he transgressed, inasmuch as there was no law till Moses, the generations could not sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Sin is lawlessness and not as the faulty translation of 1 John 3:4 states, "sin is the transgression of the law." However, sin becomes transgression when there is a law. As there was no law from Adam to Moses, sin was therefore not imputed as transgression. But as they all sinned, death reigned and there is also judgment afterwards for them. The last sentence of verse 14 "who is the figure of Him that was to come" is the important statement which is fully developed in the verses which follow and upon which the whole argument rests.

This is yet more apparent from the support the Apostle Paul adds in verse 14 to what was laid down in verse 13: "But death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those that sinned not in the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was coming." The two points are named when a positive commandment was imposed by God. Adam had a law; by Moses the law was made known. Between them there was no dealing with men by either the one or the other; yet men sinned as scripture abundantly shows. Hence death reigned, for it is the wages (not of transgression only but) of sin. It reigned in the case of Adam and Eve; it reigned from Moses' day; but not at either epoch only, but between them, when there was no law. Death reigned over all those that sinned; for sin they did, even though it was not in the likeness of our first parents' transgression. Their antediluvian posterity, as well as those who followed the flood down to the gift of law from Sinai, could not sin as their father in Eden or the children of Israel after they heard the ten words. But they sinned, they did their own will, they were corrupt and violent, as they afterwards added idolatry to their evil ways. Accordingly death reigned even over them; for they were sinners, though not transgressors, like Adam at first and Israel afterwards.

“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses; even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come.”

Death is the proof of man's responsibility for sin. So death reigned before Moses gave the law, and after Adam's transgression. For Adam was given a commandment, that he should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He disobeyed, and the sentence of death came upon him. But his children, “from Adam to Moses” were under no commandment: hence they were not transgressors, as Adam was. Yet “death reigned” even over them, for though they were not transgressors, they were sinners, and by sin death entered the world.

He begins by showing that DEATH is not simply the outcome of breaking a definite law, but it is the necessary result of sin, even where no law was given. This is proved by the fact that death reigned from Adam to Moses, i.e., from Genesis 3 to Exodus 20, during the period in which God gave no law at all (vv. 12-14) .

(V. 13). First, as to law. It is evident that Adam was put under law — in his case a very simple law forbidding him to eat of a certain tree. Two thousand five hundred years later the law was given to Israel through Moses. But, between Adam and Moses there was no specific law forbidding this or that. The question then arises, Can man be condemned for doing that which is not forbidden? The answer is that sin is not put to man's account, as actual transgression of a known law, where no law exists. Nevertheless, though not charged with transgression when there is no law, it is evident that man does his own will and in consequence suffers the penalty of death. This is proved by the fact that death reigned from Adam to Moses. It is thus proved that Adam's race is under sin and the penalty of death apart altogether from Law and the transgression of law.

Secondly, in this parenthesis, we learn there is another Head of another race of whom Adam was only "the figure". Christ is presented as the Head of a new race. The consideration of all that came in through Adam helps us to understand the blessing that has come in though Christ.

Paul mentions here, as an existing fact, the presence of sin in the world. The twelfth verse gives the positive proof of the existence of sin in the world by the fact that death is there. Death is the sign of sin for which man is condemned, law or no law. The following verses appeal to the early inspired history which no Jew would dispute. Until law sin was in the world. There was then something more than Adam's sin. It is true that sin is not put to account where there is no law: still death reigned from Adam to Moses; and this demonstrated that sin was there, for death is the wages of sin, and not only of transgression. If man is under a law given by God and infringes it, his death is the necessary consequence. But without that, without law, when there was not this rule whereby God, in His government, imputes sin by virtue of a given law, it was clear that death reigned equally — that it attacked individuals who were not under the law: the proof too that they were under everlasting ruin also. Death reigned, he says, over those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam's transgression (that is, over those who, in a different position from that of Adam and of the Jews, had sinned without the law). Paul groups together the position of the Jews and Adam, according to the true sense of Hosea 6:7, which charges the people with having acted like Adam. "But they, like (not "men," but) Adam, have transgressed the covenant." Both of these had a positive command, which each violated. But it was not so with sinners between the two points. They had died because they sinned, but it was not after the resemblance of Adam's transgression.

Nothing, however, is said of Gentiles in our verses, for we are here led up to times before the Jews were called, or the Gentiles consequently could be left aside. We see the sons of Adam down to the promulgation of God's law at Sinai. If on the one hand there was no law to charge sin to the account of the guilty, there was on the other hand the reign of death, and this over sinners, if not transgressors, even over those that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Men at large were guilty and died accordingly. We are here then in presence, not of the law and its special aims and its peculiar sphere, but of sin flowing down from its first source, Adam, through all the streams which descended thence. If law was not there to set sin to account, as it does precisely and in detail, their death was the witness that they were all sinners, whose dread wages were duly paid. Thus Adam, as we shall see more fully soon, is a figure of the coming One, of Christ (i.e., of a federal head who was to follow the first).

"G. H." Romans 5:13-14, teaches us, that although from Adam to Moses there was no law — no definite rule laid down, and therefore no formal imputation of sin in God's governmental dealings, yet, inasmuch as there was sin actually existing, death reigned as a necessary consequence. We must distinguish between sin and transgression. In order to transgress, there must be a rule laid down; now, there was no such rule from Adam to Moses; but there was sin, and hence men died. Hosea 6:7 should be read, "But they like Adam have transgressed." Israel was placed under a definite rule, and, like Adam, transgressed. This could not be said of any one from Adam to Moses. 1 John 3:4, last clause, should be read, "Sin is lawlessness" (anomia).

Now observe the five verses included in the parenthesis. The first two of these meet a difficulty that might arise in the minds of those very familiar with the law. Adam sinned against a definite commandment, hence his sin was a transgression. After that some 2,500 years had to roll away before the law of Moses was given, when once more transgression became possible. Between those points there was no transgression, for there was no law to transgress. Yet there was sin universally, as proved by the universal reign of death. The practical difference lay here, that sin is not "imputed" when there is no law: that is it is not put to our account in the same way. Only those who have known the law will be judged by the law, as we saw when reading chapter 2.

The case of the sinner is here stated (verse 12), not on the moral evidence of personal evil, but on the decisive testimony of death. Death is God's pervading and irrefragable witness of the presence, in and throughout the world, of that which produced it, even sin. "Sin entered into the world, and death by sin." But the means of this entrance of sin are immediately stated. It was "by one man." Adam died by the direct sentence of God pronounced upon his transgression. Mankind die because born of one who was himself mortal as thus judged. But death is not derived to the posterity of Adam, merely as an effect of his mortal condition, but as a consequence of his sinful nature. Sin, having taken hold on Adam, vitiated utterly the nature in which it lodged. And so it is sail that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.* Death is never separable from sin. The participation, therefore, of a sinful nature, produces death as its necessary effect. Sin, having found entrance and lodgment in the nature of Adam, did not vacate the world at the death of the first transgressor. It remained in the nature which reproduced itself in Adam's seed. It was in the world (verse 13), antecedently to the Law.

Accordingly, the decisive fact of universal mortality is immediately cited (verse 14), in proof of the universal presence and prevalence of sin. "Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." The parties here contemplated are, as I think, first, the Gentiles generally, as never having been under Law, while Adam was expressly under Law: and, secondly, infant children, who constantly are found to die, though by their age incapable personally of actual offence.