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 offense of Adam, who is a type of Him
who was to come. 15 But the free 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 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 free gift arose from many
transgressions resulting in justification.

When It's Hard to Understand a Teacher

When a teacher becomes complex in his teaching, then probably
one of two things is happening. Either he is confused and has lost
his bearings and doesn't really know what he thinks, or he is
dealing with reality at a level that defies ordinary human language
and thought. Not all complexity means that a teacher is deep and
wise; it may mean he is confused and befuddled. But then again,
when something is hard to understand it may not mean the teacher is
inept. It may mean that the subject itself is very complex and
difficult.

In Romans 5:12-21, Paul's thought is complex and difficult to
follow. But I don't think Paul has lost his bearings. He speaks, we
believe, as an inspired apostle. He is not confused or befuddled.
Instead, he is dealing with the saving work of Jesus Christ at a
level that pushes the limits of the human mind. So don't panic and
don't be too discouraged if you find the flow of thought in these
verses difficult to follow. They are difficult. But it's because he
is taking us very deep into the very structure of salvation and
history and humanity and deity. This should encourage us to linger
over these verses and meditate long on them and work hard to mine
the gold and silver in this shaft.

A Universal Image

Last Sunday I gave the big picture: The point of the text is to
display the greatness of the work of Christ in the way he provides
a righteousness for sinners like you and me. And the way Paul goes
about displaying the greatness of Christ's work is by lining it up
beside the work of Adam, the first man, and pointing out the
similarities and differences.

We noticed at the end of verse 14 the words, "Adam, who is a
type of Him who was to come." That's the hinge on which the text
swings. Adam, the first man, is a type or pattern or foreshadowing
of Jesus Christ. Paul believes that we will understand and cherish
the justifying work of our Lord Jesus better if we see it alongside
the work of Adam. And so we will admire Christ and trust Christ and
love Christ more. And God, who ordained it all, will be honored.
And that is our aim.

The other main emphasis last week was the way Paul shows the
global significance of Christ's work. If Adam is the father of all
human beings, and if the fundamental problem with all human beings
is found in how we are related to Adam and what happened to us when
Adam sinned, then everybody in the world, no matter when or where
or who – whatever tribe or language or culture or ethnic
identity – everybody has the same fundamental problem. And
this means that if Jesus Christ is not just a Jew who died as a
Jewish sacrifice for sins, but is also the "last Adam" or the
"second man" (as Paul calls him in 1 Corinthians 15:45, 47), who
provides a righteousness better than what we lost in Adam, then
Jesus is no tribal God, or limited, local Savior. He is the one and
only remedy for the divine judgment of condemnation that rests on
every human soul. Which means he is a great Savior able to save
persons from all times and all places and all peoples.

Now today let's go to the text and see what happened in Adam and
how Paul displays the work of Christ as the remedy to that.

For All Sinned

Let's go to verse 12. Paul begins his comparison between Adam
and Christ with the words "just as." "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 . . ." And then
Paul breaks off. We expect him to follow his "just as" half to be
followed by a "so also" half. "Just as through one man
sinned entered into the world . . . so also through one
man righteousness entered the world . . ." In fact he will pick up
the comparison in verse 18. But here he breaks off and doesn't
complete it.

Why? Probably because he realizes that he has just said
something that is liable to be misunderstood and needs to be
clarified. What was that? Well, several things, but he picks out
one in particular, because if he can make this one clear it will
keep the others from being misunderstood. He wants to clarify what
he means at the end of verse 12 by the phrase, "for all
sinned."

He has just said that through one man, Adam, sin entered the
world of mankind, and through sin death – the penalty, the
judgment on sin. Then he broadens out this statement and says that
this death, this judgment, was not confined to one man but spread
to all humans. Why? Now here comes the ambiguity. He says, "because
all sinned." Does this mean "because all sinned in Adam"? Does it
mean that Adam's sin was the sin of the human race, so that when he
sinned, in a real and profound and mysterious way, I sinned, and
you sinned? Was Adam's sin imputed to us, so that we are viewed as
sinning in him? Or does it mean that the penalty and judgment of
death is owing to our individual acts of sin and not to Adam's sin
being imputed to us? I believe the answer is that Paul means we all
sinned in Adam, that his sin is imputed to us, and that universal
human death and condemnation is God's judgment and penalty on all
of us because we were in some deep and mysterious way we were
united to Adam in his sinning.

Why Does It Matter?

Now someone might say, why does this matter? Doesn't Romans
teach in 3:23 that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God" individually? And doesn't Romans 6:23 teach that the "wages of
sin is death"? And so if our judgment and condemnation are what the
sins we do every day deserve, why does it matter if you can find a
deeper cause of our guilt and death and condemnation – namely
our union with Adam in his sinning at the beginning?

I think it is the answer to that question that made Paul stop
here at the end of verse 12 and break off his comparison so that he
could clarify what he means by "because all sinned." What's at
stake here is the whole comparison between Christ and Adam. If we
don't understand "because all sinned" as "because all sinned in
Adam," the entire comparison between Christ and Adam will be
distorted and we won't see the greatness of justification by grace
through faith for what it really is.

Let me try to illustrate what's at stake. If you say, "Through
one man sin and death entered the world and death spread to
everybody because all sinned individually," then the comparison
with the work of Jesus could be, "So also through one man, Jesus
Christ, righteousness and life entered the world and life spread to
all because all individually did acts of righteousness." In other
words, justification would not be God's imputing Christ's
righteousness to us, but our performing individual acts of
righteousness with Christ's help and then being counted righteous
on that basis. When Paul saw that as a possible misunderstanding of
what he said, he stopped to clarify.

But what does it say about the work of Christ, if we take the
words, "because all sinned" to mean "because all sinned in Adam"?
Then it would go like this: "Just as through one man sin and death
entered the world and death spread to everybody because all sinned
in Adam and his sin was imputed to them, so also through one man
Jesus Christ, righteousness entered the world and life through
righteousness, and life spread to all who are in Christ because his
righteousness is imputed to them." That is the glory of
justification by grace through faith. The basis of our vindication
and acceptance before God is not our righteous deeds, but Christ's
righteousness imputed to us. But this would be all distorted if the
words "because all sinned" at the end of verse 12 meant "because
all sinned individually," and not because all sinned in Adam and
his sin was imputed to us.

The parallel Paul wants us to see and rejoice in is that

• just as Adam's sin is imputed to us because we were in
  him,
• so Christ's righteousness is imputed to us because we are in
  him.

One of the best reasons for thinking this is what Paul meant is
to look at verse 18 where he really does complete the comparison he
started here. "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." In Adam we all
were condemned; in Christ we all are justified. Adam's
transgression was imputed to us; and Christ's righteousness is
imputed to us (see 1 Corinthians 15:22).

But all that would be lost if at the end of verse 12 the words
"because all sinned" referred to individual sins and not to our
sinning in Adam.

So he stops to clarify. Now how does he clarify?

Everybody Died, Even Before the Law

Verses 13-14: "For until the Law [of Moses] sin was in the
world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless
death reigned from Adam until Moses. . ." What is he saying?
Something like this: 1) Sin was in the world before Mosaic Law
(verse 13a); he concedes that personal sin was prevalent in the
world before Moses, not just Adam's sin. 2) But sin is not imputed
(not counted, not punished) where there is no law (verse 13b). 3)
"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses" (verse 14a).
That is, everybody died. Everybody was punished.

Now what's the implication Paul wants us to see? He wants us to
see that universal human death was not owing to individual
sins against the Mosaic Law but to their sinning in Adam. That is
what he is trying to clarify. Verse 12 says that "death spread to
all because all sinned." So Paul argues and clarifies: But people
died even though their own individual sins against the Mosaic law
were not the reason for dying; they weren't counted. Instead, the
reason all died is because all sinned in Adam. Adam's sin was
imputed to them.

But now there is an objection at this point to Paul's argument,
and Paul can see it coming. The objection is that even before
Mosaic Law there were commands of God to Noah and Abraham and
others, so maybe their death was owing to disobeying those
"laws," not because they sinned in Adam. And not only that, the
objection would go, Paul himself said back in Romans 1:32 that all
people – even Gentiles outside Israel – in their
consciences "know the ordinance of God, that those who practice
such things are worthy of death." So there seem to be two
exceptions to Paul's argument: Yes, there is no Mosaic Law to sin
against before Moses, but there are personal revelations; and there
is the law written on the heart. So, Paul, have you really shown
that the people between Adam and Moses died for sinning in Adam and
not for their own individual sins against these laws?

Even Those Whose Sin Was not Like Adam's

I said Paul sees this objection coming and, I think, that's why
he adds the next words in verse 14. He doesn't stop by saying,
"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses. . ." He goes on
to add the very crucial words, "[Death reigned] even over those who
had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam." In other
words, yes he concedes that there are other kinds of laws before
the Mosaic Law, and yes people broke those laws, and yes, one could
argue that these sins are the root cause of death and condemnation
in the world. But, he says, there is a problem with that view,
because death reigned "even over those who had not sinned in the
likeness of the offense of Adam." There are those who died without
seeing a law and choosing to sin against it.

Who are they? I think the group of people begging for an
explanation is infants. Infants died. They could not understand
personal revelation. They could not read the law on their hearts
and choose to obey or disobey it. Yet they died. Why? Paul answers:
the sin of Adam and the imputation of that sin to the human race.
In other words, death reigned over all humans, even over those who
did not sin against a known and understood law. Therefore, the
conclusion is, to use the words of verse 18: "through one
transgression there resulted condemnation to all men."

The Deepest Reason That Death Reigned

This is Paul's clarification: At the end of verse 12 the words,
"death spread to all men, because all sinned" mean that "death
spread to all because all sinned in Adam." Death is not
first and most deeply because of our own individual sinning, but
because of what happened in Adam.

Now here is the all-important question: Why did Paul, exactly at
this place – at the end of verse 14, right after saying that
death reigned over those who did not sin personally against a known
law like Adam did – why exactly here did Paul insert the
all-important words, "who is a type of Him who was to come"? Why,
precisely here at this point, did Paul say that Adam is a type of
Christ?

If you haven't gotten anything else, get this. Because this is
your life. Right here he says that Adam is a pattern for Christ
because the all-important parallel is seen here. What? The parallel
here is this: The judicial consequences of Adam's sin are
experienced by all his people not on the basis of their
individually doing sins like he did, but on the basis of their
being in him and his sin being imputed to them. As soon as that
becomes clear in Paul's argument, he brings in Christ as the
parallel: The judicial consequences of Christ's righteousness are
experienced by all his people not on the basis of their doing
righteous deeds like he did, but on the basis of their being in him
and his righteousness being imputed to them.

The Deepest Reason Eternal Life Reigns

That is the all-important parallel. The deepest reason why death
reigns over all is not because of our individual sins, but because
of Adam's sin imputed to us. So the deepest reason eternal life
reigns is not because of our individual deeds of righteousness, but
because of Christ's righteousness imputed to us by grace through
faith.

O how much light this sheds on why Paul embarked on this
paragraph at all! He did it for the sake of our faith and our
assurance and our joy. He did it to underline the fact that our
right standing with God and our freedom from condemnation is
not based on our righteous acts but on Christ's righteous
acts.

This is the foundation of the great Biblical truth of
justification by grace alone through faith alone. It has rescued
thousands of saints from the despair of legalism and the paralyzing
fear of imperfection. Christ became obedient even unto death so
that in him we might become the righteousness of God (see 2
Corinthians 5:21). Here is rest for your soul. Here is a message
that everyone you will ever meet needs to hear. Christ is our
righteousness. Trust him. Trust him. Trust him.