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. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death
reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life
through the One, Jesus Christ. 18 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. 19 For as through the one man's disobedience the
many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One
the many will be made righteous. 20 The Law came in so that the
transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace
abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so
grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Positively, the Work of Christ

We have devoted four messages to the positive side of this
passage because that is the main point. The negative effects of
Adam's sin are here mainly to help us see the positive effects of
Christ's righteousness. Notice again the litany of positive
statements about the work of Christ:

• Romans 5:15b: "Much more did the grace of God and the gift by
  the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many."
• Romans 5:16b: "The free gift [of Christ's righteousness, verse
  17] arose from many transgressions resulting in
  justification."
• Romans 5:17b: "Much more those who receive the abundance of
  grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through
  the One, Jesus Christ."
• Romans 5:18b: "Even so through one act of righteousness [of
  Jesus] there resulted justification of life to all men."
• Romans 5:19b: "Even so through the obedience of the One [Jesus]
  the many will be made righteous."
• Romans 5:21b: "So grace would reign through righteousness to
  eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

But now we need to stop and ponder the negative situation behind
all these positive statements. We need to try to understand how
Adam's sin affects the human race. I hope to point out six
practical benefits from doing this besides the main one of seeing
the nature of justification more clearly, which is what we have
been stressing in these last four messages.

What we have said is that just as the sin of Adam brings
condemnation to all who are in him, so the righteousness of Jesus
brings justification to all who are in him. We have stressed that
our justification is not based on "deeds which we have done in
righteousness" (Titus 3:5), but on the deeds that Christ has done
in righteousness. And we have seen that the reason God saves us
this way is because it corresponds to what happened to us in
relation to Adam. Our original condemnation is not based on
individual deeds done by us in sin, but on the first sinful deed of
Adam. Since condemnation came to us through Adam's sin,
justification comes to us through Christ's righteousness.

Negatively, Our Relationship to Adam

Now we need to pause and ponder our relationship to Adam and the
effect that it has on us and the world. Be aware that what we are
about to consider is a massive question about what it means to be
human and about why the world is the way it is. How you think about
this issue will have a pervasive effect on the way you think and
act about almost everything, from childrearing to evangelism to
education to the nature of civil law and government.

Let's put the negative parts of the text before us and then make
some observations and draw out some practical benefits for our
lives.

• Romans 5:12a: "Through one man sin entered into the world, and
  death through sin."
• Romans 5:14: "Death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over
  those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of
  Adam."

This is very important to see. Paul is saying that the
consequence of Adam's sin, death, was experienced by those who had
not done what Adam did. In other words, Paul is stressing here that
it is not our own individual sins that bring our first condemnation
on us. People die who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense
of Adam. The point is that Adam's sin is the most fundamental
problem, not our sins – just as Christ's righteousness is the
fundamental solution, not our righteousness.

• Romans 5:15a: "By the transgression of the one [Adam] the many
  died."
• Romans 5:16a: "The judgment arose from one transgression
  [Adam's] resulting in condemnation."
• Romans 5:17a: "By the transgression of the one [Adam], death
  reigned through the one."
• Romans 5:18a: "Through one transgression [of Adam] there
  resulted condemnation to all men."
• Romans 5:19a: "Through the one man's disobedience the many were
  made sinners."

Paul teaches two things here about our condition in relation to
Adam: 1) the power of sin enters into human life and corrupts or
depraves our human nature, and 2) nevertheless our condemnation is
owing first to Adam's sin, not our individual acts of sinning. Let
me point each of these out one at a time, starting with the
second.

We Sinned in Adam's Sinning

1) We sinned in Adam's sinning. That is what Romans 5:12 says in
the words, "for all sinned" (see the previous sermons on this
verse). How do we explain this? Without getting specific, we can
say that God ordains that that there be a union of some kind that
makes Adam's sin to be our sin so that our condemnation is just.
Verse 16 talks about the basis of our condemnation. It says, "The
judgment arose from one transgression [Adam's] resulting in
condemnation." Notice three steps: 1) one transgression, 2) a
consequent judgment, 3) resulting in condemnation. What is the
"judgment" that condemnation results from?

You could try to answer: The judgment that results in
condemnation is our fallen nature and our individual sins. But that
would not fit well with verse 14 where Paul says that this
condemnation, death, reigned "even over those who had not sinned in
the likeness of the offense of Adam." In other words, Paul wants to
stress it was Adam's act, not our independent acts, that brings
condemnation. He makes it explicit in verse 18: "Through
one transgression there resulted condemnation to all
men."

What is this judgment in verse 16 that "results in
condemnation"? I answer that it is the counting of Adam's sin as
our sin, on the basis of the union God has established between us
and Adam. God established a just and fitting union between Adam and
his posterity, and on that basis, when Adam sinned, the judgment
that leads to condemnation was the reckoning of Adam's sin as our
sin and guilt. That judgment, Paul says, resulted in condemnation.
So our condemnation does have a basis in our sin.
But it is not ours the way all our individual sins are ours; this
sin is ours on the basis of our union with Adam. It is through "one
transgression" – Adam's transgression – that
condemnation resulted to all (verse 18).

That's the first thing that the passage teaches about our
relation to Adam.

All Humanity Becomes Corrupt and Sinful

2) The other thing we see in this passage is that through Adam's
sin all humanity really does become corrupt in their hearts and
sinful in their behavior. This is not the main point of Romans 5.
In fact, it seems to me that Paul is trying explicitly to keep this
from being the main point, lest we base our condemnation first on
our individual sins, and then base our justification on our
individual righteousness. He is trying to avoid that mistaken view
of justification. Which is why he says in verse 14: "Nevertheless
death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not
sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam." That is, death came
to all, but it was not owing first to their individual sinful acts.
For example, infants died.

But, even though it is a subordinate point in this passage, it
is here. Notice Romans 5:13, "Until the Law [that is, in the time
from Adam to Moses] sin was in the world." So it is clear
that Paul views ongoing sin in the hearts of men as part of what
entered the world through Adam – "sin was in the world." All
people become sinful in their nature and in their
behavior.

Even though this is not clear and dominant here, it is clear
elsewhere in Paul and in the rest of the Bible (Psalm 51:6; 58:3;
Job 15:14; Jeremiah 13:23; Ezekiel 11:19). Or for example,
Ephesians 2:3, "Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts
of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest."
The key phrase is "by nature" we are children of wrath. In other
words, something happened to us in the sin of Adam that altered our
human nature. We do not just do sins; we are by nature
sinners, corrupt, depraved, bent, rebellious. Here in Romans, Paul
said it like this: "Both Jews and Greeks are all under sin" (3:9).
The point of verses 9-18 is that there is "none righteous, no not
one" (Romans 3:10). We don't just do sins; we are under the power
of sin. We are by nature unrighteous. And in Romans 6:6,17,20, we
are called not just sinners but "slaves of sin." That is the
condition of all human beings since the first man sinned.

Two Things That Need a Remedy

So we have seen two things that need a remedy. One is our sinful
nature that enslaves us to sin, and the other is our original guilt
and condemnation that is rooted not first in our individual sinning
but in our connection with Adam in his sin. The book of Romans
– indeed the whole Bible is the story of how God has worked
in history to remedy these two problems. The problem of our
condemnation in Adam God remedies through justification in Christ.
The problem of our corruption and depravity he remedies through
sanctification by the Spirit. Or to put it another way: The problem
of our legal guilt and condemnation before God is solved by his
reckoning to us the righteousness Christ; and the problem of our
moral defilement and habitual sinning is solved by his purifying us
by the work of Spirit. The first remedy, justification, comes by
imputed righteousness. The other, sanctification, comes by imparted
righteousness. Justification is instantaneous; sanctification is
progressive – and we will deal extensively with it in Romans
6-8, just we have dealt with justification in Romans 3-5.

They are not identical, and they are not separable.
Justification comes first by faith prior to any deeds done by us in
righteousness. By this we are forgiven and put right with God
legally. We are acquitted and counted righteous with Christ's
righteousness. Then on the basis of this secure and reconciled
standing with God, we are gradually transformed into the likeness
of his Son by the Spirit. Justification and sanctification are
inseparable because both are by faith. The faith that unites us to
Christ for justification also breaks the power of sin in our lives.
Woe to us if we try to get right with God by faith alone, and then
try to become good people by some other means. Trusting Christ for
all that God is for us in him is the link to God's justifying
grace, and trusting Christ for all that God is for us in him is the
link to God's sanctifying grace. We are pardoned and we are
purified – by the same kind of faith.

Well, I meant to focus on the negative half of this text, but I
keep slipping into the positive part. That's because God's plan of
salvation is so perfectly suited to our fallen condition, that it
is hard, as a Christian, to look at the condition and not
immediately exult in the remedy we have experienced.

Benefits of Pondering Our Depravity

But let me try to close by pointing out several practical
benefits from pondering the condition of the human race as depraved
by nature and legally condemned in Adam.

1) First, it humbles us morally and intellectually. Morally,
because I must admit I not only do bad things, but I am
bad. I not only need natural training, I need supernatural rebirth.
Something about me needs to die and something new needs to be
created. I am deeply in need for something beyond what I can
produce. And I am humbled because this doctrine of original sin
(which is what we have been discussing) pushes the ability of my
reason to the limit of its powers and leaves me behind. Most of us
will have to settle for a large dose of mystery here. How are we
connected to Adam such that it is just for his sin to be counted as
our sin, and just for us to be condemned? Paul does not make that
explicit. We do not doubt the justice of God; we doubt our own
ability to explain it. The doctrine of original sin is therefore a
morally and intellectually humbling truth.

2) It deepens our gratitude for salvation. The more we know
about our fallen condition, the more grateful we should feel that
we are saved. This is why Paul erupts with thanksgiving in Romans
6:17, "But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you
became obedient from the heart." Knowing that we are not just
sinners but "slaves of sin" will make us sing for joy to be
justified from sin's guilt and delivered from sin's power.

3) It helps us explain the world we live in. The ironic thing
about the doctrine of original sin is that, while being one of the
hardest doctrines to accept, it helps explain most of what we see
in the world: namely, the universality of evil. People who believe
what the Bible teaches about this doctrine are not baffled about
why history is strewn with corpses and why every society that has
ever been has had to deal with the evil of its people.

4) It therefore gives insight into how governments should best
be established. G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis said that the
doctrine of original sin is the basis of a democratic form of
government – where power is spread out over the people
– because it is the only reason we can give for not
absolutely trusting a ruling elite. In other words, the best
argument of democracy is not that men are good enough to govern
themselves, but that men are so bad none can be trusted with
absolute power.

5) It should produce compassion for others. Here is the way
Jonathan Edwards put it:

This doctrine teaches us to think no worse of others, than of
ourselves: it teaches us that we are all, as we are by
nature, companions in a miserable helpless condition: which under a
revelation of the divine mercy, tends to promote mutual
compassion. And nothing has a greater tendency to promote
those amiable dispositions of mercy, forbearance, longsuffering,
gentleness and forgiveness, than a sense of our own extreme
unworthiness and misery, and the infinite need we have of the
divine pity, forbearance and forgiveness, together with a hope of
obtaining mercy (Jonathan Edwards, Original Sin, The
Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 3 [New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1970], p. 424).

It is very hard to treat other sinners with contempt and
lovelessness when we have a deep grasp of our own fallen
condition.

6) This doctrine will help motivate us in evangelism and world
missions. It teaches us that there are no exceptions to human
sinfulness. All who come from Adam are in need of the second Adam.
There is only one, Jesus Christ. There is no other way for us to
get right with God but through God's one remedy: the righteousness
of Jesus Christ, and the power of his Spirit through faith. No
other religion teaches this remedy besides biblical Christianity.
God has revealed to us the diagnosis and God has revealed the
remedy. He has shown it to us. He has made us love it and rejoice
in it. It is plain what we should do. Tell this good news to all
the world and delight in the spread of Christ-exalting joy.