The Origin of Universal Sin and Death - Romans 5:12-14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUHUNkrD0TM

Introduction to Romans 5:12-14

What have we seen so far in Romans 5? We have seen the abundant blessings from God as a result of how we have been justified by faith in His Son. The most amazing of all is God’s love shown to us by the substitutionary atonement of His Son on the cross.

If God can do this most difficult thing to rescue us, it is not difficult at all for Him to remove the hostility in our relationship with Him so that we would not experience His wrath.

Rather we can rejoice in who our God is and what He has done for undeserving sinners like us. All of these benefits flow through Jesus.

What we see is that everything we are and have as Christians is due to the nature of our relationship to Jesus (see 5:1, 2, 9, 10, 11). That is the one truth that Paul is explaining. Paul in vv. 12-21 is going to explain the one truth of how one man can have such an impact on the whole of humanity regarding salvation.

The question is how can what one man did have such an effect on so many?

This is where this passage from 5:12-21 answers this question. V. 12 begins with “therefore,” lit., “for this reason,” “because of.” But we need to note that the explanation takes the form of a comparison between Adam and Christ.

The word “one” appears 12x from vv. 12-21: vv. 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. 8x referring to Adam, 4x referring to Christ. Why? V. 14 says that Adam was a type of the one who was to come. But what is the heart of the comparison or what is the similarity between Adam and Jesus? It is that what one person did affects everybody else (5:18-19).

Regarding the structure of this passage from vv. 12-21: Paul begins to state the comparison in v. 12, but the verse ends with a “--” signalling that Paul has gone into a digression, and there are two of them.

The first digression is from vv. 13-14 where Paul explains why death comes to all men because of sin.

The second digression is from vv. 15-17 where he compares and contrasts between Adam and the second Adam.

Then in vv. 18-19, that is where Paul completes the thought that he began with in v. 12. But vv. 20-21 is almost a separate section where Paul concludes with an introduction of the purpose of the law, something he will take on in the entirety of ch. 7.

But what this passage teaches is that God has always dealt with mankind through representatives. We are related to Adam by nature and we are related to Christ by grace.

Today we are only going to be examining Romans 5:12-14 where Paul begins the comparison but then breaks off into the first digression.

Next week, Brother Joshua will be examining the second digression in vv. 15-17, and when I return from my trip to the Philippines, Lord willing, I will be wrapping up the passage with vv. 18-21.

What we are going to see from these verses is the origin of sin and death. What we see is that even as believers who are enjoying the results of our salvation, there are two things that continue to diminish our hope, which is one of the main themes in this section.

First is sin, second is death.

Some Christians despair over stubborn sins in their life. That robs them of the confident expectation in God’s promise to glorify them. Some Christians are fearful of death even though they know the glorious result of what will happen.

It makes them no different than any unbeliever who is fearful of death. So Paul is concerned to address these hope-diminishing matters in this section. What we will eventually find out is that sin and death have been conquered by Christ. But today Paul is going to explain how sin and death entered the world.

What is the Origin of Sin and Death? (5:12)

As I mentioned earlier, the entire passage runs all the way to the end of the chapter, comparing Adam and the second Adam. We will see that both Adams have had an impact on the history of humanity.

But the second Adam’s impact is greater than the first Adam. In other words, God is dealing with humanity as a whole through two representative heads. But this passage is going to explain the impact of the first Adam.

Note the progression of Paul’s argument.

“Therefore” connects this section with the previous one. It is regarding how what Christ did can have such an impact on humanity. It also explains why sin and death are universal.

Sin Entered the World Through One Man (5:12a)

Sin entered the world as something evil. But notice that even though it was Eve who sinned first, here Scripture says that it is through Adam, not Eve that sin has its entrance into the world, even though Eve sinned first.

Everything started with the first man Adam. Some people doubt the historicity of Adam, whether he was real or not.

But this passage makes clear that Adam was as real as Jesus is.

And when Adam sinned by disobeying God, his sin was stitched into the very fabric of humankind. The historicity of Adam also shows the unity of the human race, so there is no place for racism, or the superiority of one race over another.

No racial group can claim that they were unaffected by sin.

Paul is arguing that the sin and death of the first man is the sin and death of us all (Schreiner). This is what theologians call “original sin” but perhaps a more accurate term proposed by theologian Wayne Grudem is “inherited sin.”

That makes this a very important verse in the Bible because this is the only verse that explicitly teaches on original sin or more accurately, inherited guilt.

Death Entered the World Through One Sin (5:12b)

Lit. and through the sin, the death. What was God’s command to Adam and Eve? “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (lit. dying you shall die) (Gen 2:16-17). It began with spiritual death, and then physical death (cf. Gen 5).

In other words, there would be no such thing as death if Adam did not sin, but death became a reality through sin.

The point is that sin and death are twin powers that have reigned since Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sin and death have ruled humanity since then.

So Death Spread to All Men (5:12c)

Lit., thus unto all men, the death came through. Paul says that death spread to all men because all sinned in Adam and this is without exception. Adam is our representative and when he sinned, we all sinned.

This also explains why we are all born sinners. You see the repeated emphasis of “one man’s trespass” throughout this chapter (esp 5:15-19). When people die, they are experiencing the penalty of their sin.

Universal sin leads to universal death. Unless you understand that, you wouldn’t hate death the way you should. This is something that God never intended.

Because All Sinned (5:12d)

The cause of death for all humanity is because all sin. This is the reason and the most important part of the verse.

What does it mean that all sinned?

There are three possibilities:

We have imitated Adam’s example.

Palegius gave this reason. He is basing that on an erroneous translation: all have sinned, as in at some point in their life, they have committed a sin. But the tense is: All sinned. In other words, when Adam sinned, they sinned. V. 15, 17, 18, 19 show that it is Adam’s one act that brought our condemnation, not our own act of sin. It also destroys the parallelism we see in the passage.

If I am condemned by imitating Adam’s example, then I should be righteous in imitating Christ’s example, but that is not what the Bible teaches.

We have inherited Adam’s corrupt nature.

That is true (Ps 51:4-5). But this does not go far enough. This was the teaching of a 16th-century theologian by the name of Arminius.

But his interpretation does not deal squarely with “all sinned”, rather according to his interpretation, it should be translated, “all are sinful.” But that is not what this passage says.

Again, you have the problem with the parallelism we saw earlier on. If I inherited a corrupt nature and if I exercise it, I die, then if I inherit a righteous nature from Christ, if I exercise it, I live.

This kind of theology leads to a works-based salvation.

We all participated in Adam’s sin.

How does that sound to you? But that is exactly what this passage teaches.

There are two ways of handling this:

1. That we all participated and that Adam was our representative and what he did affected all of us. We understand that, in election season, we elect a member of parliament to represent all of us and what he does affects all of us.

This is called Federalism.

What he does is what we do.

This has been the understanding of faithful believers throughout the ages. At the beginning, God made a covenant with Adam for him to be the representative of the human race, that what he does accrues to us either good or bad.

Before you object to that, note that that is exactly what God has done with Jesus Christ.

If you don’t like it that Adam represents the whole human race, then it should be the case for Christ and remember that this passage is how what Christ does affects all of us.

What Jesus did represents all of us.

Jesus did not die for His own trespasses or raised for His own justification. He is doing this as a representative for us.

But even that does not fully explain our participation.

2. Here is another way it can be explained by Augustine. We all were physically present with Adam. All of us trace our lineage back to Adam. We were all in his loins. This view is called Realism or the Seminal view.

Does the Bible support this view? Heb 7:2, 9-10. How can Levi pay tithes to Melchizedek when he wasn’t even born? He was in the loins of his ancestor Abraham.

This is the realistic view of the cohesion and solidarity of the human race.

There is a natural union we have with Adam and a supernatural union we have with Jesus Christ. The same God who unites us with Adam can supernaturally unite us with His Son.

You may not be very satisfied with the explanation but that is all the Bible has to say about this.

(Trans: But perhaps some may argue, how can there be sin before the law was given, after all, nobody can break the law unless there was a law in the first place, right?)

How Can There Be Sin Before the Law Was Given? (5:13-14)

Sin was in the World Before the Law was Given (5:13)

When Paul says that sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, he is making the point that sin, rather than the law, is the cause of death. Paul’s point is that sin is the cause of death rather than the law. This is confirmed by what Paul said back in 2:12 “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law.” The word “perish” means “to be destroyed” (cf. John 3:16).

So when Paul says that “sin is not counted where there is no law,” is he contradicting himself?

The key lies in understanding what “not counted” means. Before the law was given, sin was not counted as an infraction of the law.

Paul could actually be addressing an objection from someone with a Jewish heritage, someone who has received the law, as we saw in 2:17ff. These Jewish people are arguing that sin is not counted where there is no law. In other words, how can you be a criminal when there is no law in the first place, there is no law to break?

Paul could also be raising contradictory points for the readers to draw their own conclusions.

What conclusions does Paul want the readers to draw?

Possibly from what he previously mentioned in 2:14-15 regarding the Gentiles who were not recipients of the law, that even though the Gentiles did not have the law, they by nature do what the law requires and they show that the works of the law is written on their hearts.

Another possibility could be that Paul wants the readers to see that sin was not counted to other people like the way it is counted to Adam who is our representative.

That Was Why Death Reigned Before the Law was Given (5:14)

The law that Paul has been talking about is certainly the Mosaic law, because the period he referred to, from Adam to Moses, was the period where the Mosaic law has not been given.

Yet during that period, death reigned.

Therefore, that is clearly an evidence that God counted people guilty on the basis of Adam’s sin. Also, because of Adam’s position as our head representative, our transgression was not like his.

With his last phrase, Paul now is setting up the discussion about how Adam is the foreshadow of the second Adam, who is Christ. And in the second major digression from vv. 15-17, he will go into details regarding the comparison.

Application

The Difficulty of Discussing Sin and Death

The topic of sin is unpleasant because nobody likes you to point out the wrong they have done. Many people do not consider themselves a bad or evil person.

They like to think of themselves as generally good, but making a few mistakes here and there, after all, nobody’s perfect.

But that is exactly what this passage is teaching, “why is nobody perfect?” But preaching about sin makes people feel bad about themselves in a world where it is more positive to be boosting others’ self-esteem.

Also, you make others feel guilty.

But that is the point we need to get people to, because we are sinners, we need saving from our sins.

Neither is it easy to talk about death.

Many people fear death and it is a taboo subject. But this passage talks about how sin and death came about and how it spread to all human beings.

The Question of Unfairness

Some may question whether it is fair for you to inherit the sin of Adam.

There are a few ways to answer this point, but the fact is that we all have personally committed actual sins that we ourselves are guilty of. Back in Rom 2:6 God will render to each one according to his works.

But even more persuasive is that if we think it is unfair that Adam represents us, we should also think it unfair for Christ to represent us and have His righteousness imputed to us.

This is what Paul will get into in the next section.

But look just at v. 19: “As by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

The Amazing Work of Christ to Reverse the Work of Adam

While we have only covered the bad news, how what Adam did brought sin and death into the world. The fact is, in Christ, we will experience eternal life through the finished work of Christ on the cross.

This is our hope!