12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
We have been reconciled to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. A question that would naturally follow would be to wonder how it's possible for one man (Jesus) to save all of mankind? In order to answer that question, Paul draws an analogy between Adam and Christ. And our passage today talks about Adam and the reign of death.
MacArthur shows us that the flow of logic goes like this....
Sin entered the world through one man. (Sin already existed prior to this, because Satan has sinned, but Adam introduced it to the human realm, and passed on the corrupting principle of sin into the human race)
Death entered the world through sin.
Death spread to all men.
Death reigns over all.
And what he's really saying is you shouldn't be surprised that one man's act could affect so many, you should have remembered that Adam's one act affected the whole human race. We all fell in Adam, we all sinned in Adam. We can all be made righteous in Christ in the same way, it is analogous.
John Piper makes some interesting points as well....
Adam, the first man, had a unique burden of responsibility for leadership when he was created which Eve did not have. The reason we say this is that, even though Genesis shows that Eve was the one Satan picked to tempt, and in one sense she broke the specific commandment first not to eat of the tree, that made no difference to God or to Paul; they held the man accountable. When God came to call the couple to account, Genesis 3:9 says, "The LORD God called the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" And when Paul talks about how sin entered the world and how we are all now sinners because of that first sin, he looks straight to Adam and not to Eve as the head and responsible one.
None of this is incidental. It is woven all through the Bible. The point is not that women aren't responsible or have no dealings with God directly. The point is that God holds men responsible for a unique role of leadership and protection and provision. So men, boys (who will become men); God designed you for this burden of responsibility. It is your calling. And if you fulfill it with humble, sacrificial love, it will be your glory as well....
The main point of the text is that what Christ has done for all who are in him is far greater than what Adam did for all who were in him.
* The obedience of Christ is parallel, but vastly superior, to the disobedience of Adam.
* The righteousness imputed to those who are in Christ is parallel, but vastly superior, to the sin imputed to those who are in Adam because of his disobedience.
* The life that comes to us who are in Christ through that imputed righteousness is parallel, but vastly superior, to the death that comes to those who are in Adam through that imputed sin.
In the next sermon in that series, John Piper adds that it's crucially important that we understand that Adam's sin imputed sin to us. It is not just that we sin individually (which we do, obviously) but that sin is literally now in our DNA, in our nature - it's been imputed to us.
The reason it's so important to see that is because that's why it makes sense that Christ's death and resurrection allows God to imputed His righteousness to us.
Piper explains more fully....
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.
I found v13-14 a bit confusing, but Piper gives an excellent explanation...
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?
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."
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....
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 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.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 5:15-17
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