Rom 5:13-17 | KingComments | STEP | . A new section of Romans begins here. It’s important for your spiritual life to think deeply about these verses. So far, Paul has talked to you about your sins, the deeds you did in disobedience to God. Paul told you that God has forgiven your sins and that He could do this based on the fact that Jesus Christ has shed His blood. God no longer sees your sins. He now looks at you as a righteous person, as someone who has a right to belong to Him. Nothing is left that hinders God from having you close to Him. This should make you feel at home with Him. Think again of the first two verses of this chapter. Although you do not have any more problems about your evil deeds keeping you from the Lord, you probably have discovered you’re still capable of sinning. You don’t want to swear, steal, say bad things or hurt others anymore, yet these things suddenly happen. How can this be? The answer is that you still have an evil nature. This thought can be compared to a tree. If you pick all the apples from an apple tree, all the fruit will be gone, but it will still be an apple tree. The following year the tree will again grow apples. The apples can be compared to our sins , the wrong deeds we have done. God has put away your sins, but their root is still within you. This is where those evil deeds come from. This root is sin still dwelling in us, which ruled us when we were sinners. The remaining part of this chapter and the next two chapters explain what God has done with sin , with this evil nature. The way God dealt with sin living inside you, your evil nature from which your evil deeds come, was different from the way He dealt with the evil deeds. Therefore you should allow yourself enough time for the teaching of these chapters to become clear to you. This portion isn’t simple, but it is important for you to understand it so your faith can grow balanced and healthy. This importance is indicated by the extensive treatment Paul gives to this subject. Paul starts off in by stating that sin entered into the world by one man, Adam, the first man. Death entered by sin. Therefore, sin and death are inseparable. In Genesis 2 God said to Adam: “But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” ( ). The serious consequence of Adam’s sin was not just limited to him. All people born after Adam have inherited from him the same evil nature. Consequently all people who have ever lived have died, except Enoch and Elijah – both saved people – who were taken to heaven without dying. No one of Adam’s posterity has remained alive. In this, you can see how serious the consequences of Adam’s deed are. Since everyone sins, everyone makes it clear he is a descendant of Adam. But happily, as the next verses demonstrate, this is not all that can be said. . form a parenthetical section. First, say it was not just the Jew who was confronted with the problem of sin. Sin had been in the world long before the law was given to Israel: sin did not begin at that time. The only thing the law did was to command or prohibit something. As long as no law had been given, you could not trespass (overstep) the law. Therefore you could not be punished according to the law. But this doesn’t change the fact that death reigned. Adam had violated a commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and died. Everyone who lived in the time between Adam and Moses also died, even if they hadn’t violated such a commandment. It is clear that by Adam and since Adam, sin and death entered the world. But death and sin do not have the last word. Where such terrible things entered by one man, Adam, another Man has come, Christ, Who has worked wonderful things. And so, in a certain sense, Adam is an example of Christ Who was to come. This is explained in the following section. Now read Romans 5:12-14 again. Reflection: Do you know events from your own or someone else’s life that had consequences for someone else?

‏ Romans 5:13-17

Original Sin

Rom 5:12. A new section of Romans begins here. It’s important for your spiritual life to think deeply about these verses. So far, Paul has talked to you about your sins, the deeds you did in disobedience to God. Paul told you that God has forgiven your sins and that He could do this based on the fact that Jesus Christ has shed His blood. God no longer sees your sins. He now looks at you as a righteous person, as someone who has a right to belong to Him. Nothing is left that hinders God from having you close to Him. This should make you feel at home with Him. Think again of the first two verses of this chapter.

Although you do not have any more problems about your evil deeds keeping you from the Lord, you probably have discovered you’re still capable of sinning. You don’t want to swear, steal, say bad things or hurt others anymore, yet these things suddenly happen. How can this be?

The answer is that you still have an evil nature. This thought can be compared to a tree. If you pick all the apples from an apple tree, all the fruit will be gone, but it will still be an apple tree. The following year the tree will again grow apples. The apples can be compared to our sins, the wrong deeds we have done. God has put away your sins, but their root is still within you. This is where those evil deeds come from. This root is sin still dwelling in us, which ruled us when we were sinners.

The remaining part of this chapter and the next two chapters explain what God has done with sin, with this evil nature. The way God dealt with sin living inside you, your evil nature from which your evil deeds come, was different from the way He dealt with the evil deeds. Therefore you should allow yourself enough time for the teaching of these chapters to become clear to you. This portion isn’t simple, but it is important for you to understand it so your faith can grow balanced and healthy. This importance is indicated by the extensive treatment Paul gives to this subject.

Paul starts off in Rom 5:12 by stating that sin entered into the world by one man, Adam, the first man. Death entered by sin. Therefore, sin and death are inseparable. In Genesis 2 God said to Adam: “But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Gen 2:17). The serious consequence of Adam’s sin was not just limited to him. All people born after Adam have inherited from him the same evil nature.

Consequently all people who have ever lived have died, except Enoch and Elijah – both saved people – who were taken to heaven without dying. No one of Adam’s posterity has remained alive. In this, you can see how serious the consequences of Adam’s deed are. Since everyone sins, everyone makes it clear he is a descendant of Adam. But happily, as the next verses demonstrate, this is not all that can be said.

Rom 5:13-14. Rom 5:13-17 form a parenthetical section. First, Rom 5:13-14 say it was not just the Jew who was confronted with the problem of sin. Sin had been in the world long before the law was given to Israel: sin did not begin at that time. The only thing the law did was to command or prohibit something. As long as no law had been given, you could not trespass (overstep) the law. Therefore you could not be punished according to the law. But this doesn’t change the fact that death reigned.

Adam had violated a commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and died. Everyone who lived in the time between Adam and Moses also died, even if they hadn’t violated such a commandment.

It is clear that by Adam and since Adam, sin and death entered the world. But death and sin do not have the last word. Where such terrible things entered by one man, Adam, another Man has come, Christ, Who has worked wonderful things. And so, in a certain sense, Adam is an example of Christ Who was to come. This is explained in the following section.

Now read Romans 5:12-14 again.

Reflection: Do you know events from your own or someone else’s life that had consequences for someone else?

Christ and Adam

In this section a comparison is made between Adam and Christ. They are both at the beginning of a generation of people. The whole of mankind can be divided into these two generations. Someone belongs either to Adam, the head of a generation fallen in sin, or to Christ, the Head of a justified generation. The consequence of Adam’s deed extends to the whole group that belongs to him; the result of what Christ has done extends to the whole group that belongs to Him. This section is not easy to explain. You just take it in verse by verse. I will try to help you by showing the differences between Adam and Christ as they are mentioned in these verses.

Rom 5:15. Here the free gift, Christ given by God, and the transgression, Adam’s sin, are compared. Both the transgression and the free gift have far-reaching effects on others. The transgression of the one, Adam, meant death for every person. Adam’s deed still works in his posterity. Happily, there is an opposite to this; it is the gift of God in Jesus Christ. This gift too, works in those who have accepted Him, and it extends far and wide beyond the transgression. Anyone who belongs to ‘the many’ will thankfully admit this. Don’t you?

Rom 5:16. Here the gift is compared to the act of sinning. The occasion for judgment was the result of a single sin. The need for our justification was our many transgressions (sins). God put them all away when He judged His Son at the cross.

Rom 5:17. Here the results are compared. The result of the transgression of the one, Adam, was that by him death entered the world and reigned over it. Now look at the result of the gift. Everyone who has received the gift of righteousness will reign in life. This is made possible by that other “One”, Jesus Christ. Someone who belongs to Him has passed from death into life.

Rom 5:18. Here we have the result of the single deed of Adam and the result of the single deed of Christ. The result of Adam’s single deed extends to all people, and that means condemnation for everyone. This refers to the one who belongs to Adam, the one who is unconverted, who will be judged. Likewise, the result of Christ’s deed extends to all people. Everyone can partake of the new life to which the judgment cannot reach.

Rom 5:19. In this verse you’ll find the last comparison: who now belongs to Adam and who to Christ. All sinners belong to Adam because he was disobedient. All righteous ones belong to Christ because He was obedient.

There is a difference between Rom 5:18 and Rom 5:19. Rom 5:18 says that “all men” are under judgment as a consequence of Adam’s deed, but on the other hand, all can be justified as a result of what Christ has done. So it is to whom the results of the deeds of Adam and Christ extend – to all people. But in Rom 5:19, it is not ‘all men’ but “the many”. Here it is a matter of to whom the results of what Adam or Christ have done actually apply. One who belongs to Adam has been constituted a sinner. One who belongs to Christ has been constituted righteous.

Rom 5:20. When the law came in, man was already a sinner, but the law made this much clearer because he transgressed (overstepped) it. So man was a hopeless case from the beginning and even more so when the law came in. But what do you read next? “But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” God’s grace always surpasses the sin of man by far.

Rom 5:21. For you it is no longer true that sin reigns through death. Grace reigns for you. Notice that grace reigns through righteousness, and not because one is living as if sin no longer exists. Grace has been shown to you because God’s righteousness is satisfied in Christ’s work on the cross. The result of this is that you have received eternal life. And later – no one knows how soon that may be – you will enjoy this life in all its fullness in God’s glory, all through Jesus Christ, our Lord. What a God we have, and what a Lord!

Now read Romans 5:15-21 again.

Reflection: Look for some more differences between Christ and Adam (for example, look up 1Cor 15:45).