15. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 5:15-21)
Having established the uniqueness of Adam and Christ, each as covenant head of a humanity, Paul now draws the implications. Paul does not speak against God’s law but in terms of it. Davies’ comment about the New Testament is valid when he writes, “Christianity is a protest against Judaism in favour of the Old Testament.”1 As against the current religious individualism in Greco-Roman culture and in the Judaism of his day, Paul asserts covenantalism. All men are in Adam, or they are in Christ. In Adam, we beget children of Adam who are born to sin and die unless we give them to Christ, and He receives them in His grace and mercy. As Luthi noted, “A new year is never new, because even though a new calendar year may have begun, we have not ceased to be descendants of Adam.”2
This passage of Romans has been called “the despair of the translator.”3 The reason for this is that Paul, at one and the same time, gives us a comparison and a contrast, both the similarity between Adam and Christ and their dissimilarity. They are alike in that each is the covenant head of his humanity, his human race; they differ in what they give to their humanity. Adam gave sin and death to his humanity. Christ’s gift is far greater, Paul says in v. 15. Paul describes Adam’s sin as an offense, trespass,
1. W.D. Davies: The Gospel and the Land, p. 377. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1974.
2. Walter Luthi: The Letter to the Romans, p. 69. Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press (1961) 1962.
3. R.C.H. Lenski: The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, p. 366. Co-lumbus, Ohio: Wartburg Press, 1945.
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or transgression. Our Lord’s gift is, literally, “the charisma,” a gift coming out of God’s grace. This gift covers the totality of our endowment in Christ. Adam’s trespass led to death; Christ’s work of grace leads to a new life and to heirship in Him. The reign of death is superseded by the reign of life.
In v. 16, Paul tells us that, whereas Adam’s one sin led to death, Christ’s redemption saves us from countless sins. Moreover, as Hodge noted,
“Christ does much more than remove the guilt and evils consequent on the sin of Adam.”4 He not only removes our original sin (Gen. 3:5), but he also makes atonement for us and redeems us from all our particular sins.
Moreover, we are made a new creation in Him (2 Cor. 5:17). Those who are sons of Adam are born to sin and die; their works add up to innumerable towers of Babel, all doomed to confusion. Our works in Christ adds up to justice and dominion. The world has no future apart from God’s justice and dominion according to His law word. This goal is impossible outside Christ. The great fact of justification establishes man in a new course, and into the power of God towards justice and dominion.
In v. 17, Paul stresses this fact. The necessary consequence of our justification by Jesus Christ is that we shall, “by the gift of righteousness (or justice) reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ.” The word reign is basileuo, from king, basileus. It is a word which modern man has cheapened and spiritualized away. It was a dangerous word in the Roman Empire because it meant a rival power, another ruler than the emperor. We can appreciate its meaning better today if we could imagine believers in Marxist Russia declaring that they are called to be tsars under the Tsar of tsars, Jesus Christ. We are asked to see on the one hand the universal prevalence of death in Adam; much more must we recognize that, by the gift of justice, we now shall reign in life by Jesus Christ. This gift of righteousness or justice is ours, first, because we have been justified by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, and, second, we are instructed by His law, now written on the tables of our heart (Ezek. 36:26; Jer. 32:39; 24:7; Ezek. 11:19; etc.), how to establish justice and dominion. When Christ reigns over us, we reign in our appointed place.
This passage tells us how far reaching the Hellenic spiritualization of Scripture has gone. Greek philosophy saw ideas as most important and hence was given to abstraction. In terms of this, the Bible has been routinely read in terms of a “higher” or “spiritual” meaning abstracted from its language and history. But, in any possible exegetical sense, king and reign could not then be seen as “spiritual” in meaning. The charge which led to our Lord’s execution was that He had been hailed publicly as the royal Son
4. Charles Hodge: Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, p. 258. New York, New York: Armstrong (1882) 1893.
ROMANS 5:15-21 81 of David (Matt. 21:9; 27:37; John 19:12,15,19; etc.). Christians very early were seen as a seditious group because they saw Christ as Lord or King, and themselves as kings in and under Him. To spiritualize Paul’s language here is to pervert the faith.
Calvin applied our inheritance from Adam and from Christ to our children, concluding, quite logically,
Hence, in order to partake of the miserable inheritance of sin, it is enough for thee to be man, for it dwells in flesh and blood; but in order to enjoy the righteousness of Christ it is necessary for thee to be a believer; for a participation of him is attained only by faith. He is communicated to infants in a peculiar way; for they have by covenant the right of adoption, by which they pass over unto a participation of Christ. Of the children of the godly I speak, to whom the promise of grace is addressed; for others are by no means exempted from the common lot.5
In the baptism of children, we who are in Christ acknowledge that we and all our possessions and children belong to Christ, and we return our children to the Lord, for Him to make them His own also.
In v. 18, Paul’s reference to the righteousness or justice of Christ has reference to the totality of His life and work, to His atonement, His total and perfect obedience, and His complete faithfulness to God’s every word (Matt. 4:4). Adam’s one act of sin is contrasted to the total justice of Christ.
However, in one sense, Adam’s work had a totality. In v. 17, Paul tell us that “death reigned” after Adam; now the believers in Christ reign. As total as death is, so total is our reign in Christ ordained to be. We cannot limit our calling to dominion. The Kingdom of God must reign as universally as death has reigned since Adam. Moffatt’s rendering of v. 18 brings out the intended contrast clearly:
Well then, as one man’s trespass issued in doom for all, so one man’s act of redress issued in acquittal and life for all.
This helps to bring forth more clearly what “justification of life,” a remarkable phrase means: in Adam, we are sentenced to death; in Jesus Christ we are sentenced to justified life. We are declared just by the atoning blood of Christ, and we are released to do justice in Christ. This is a legal sentence, and it is an aspect of our acquittal in Christ. We are not justified to walk away and enjoy peace of mind in our ways but to do justice under God. This is our remarkable sentence from the court of God.
In v. 19, Paul restates covenantalism. Adam’s sin and nature governs all his humanity, and Christ’s obedience makes His people righteous or just before God, and it remakes their nature to be a people of justice. All men
5. John Calvin: Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, p. 210f. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1948.
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face God either in Adam or in Christ. No man can gain life and justice in the true sense apart from Christ: Adam’s inheritance will govern his work and activities.
In v. 20, Paul returns directly to the law. All men know God and His law in all their being (Rom. 1:18-31; 2:14-15). They are without excuse when they sin. The written law entered history, not only to set forth God’s justice more clearly, but also to make the offense abound, to make it all the more inexcusable. The law spells out the consequences of sin, of injustice, as in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, so that, when men sin they know what sin leads to all the more clearly. Their trespass is made more fearful thereby. On the other hand, great as are the consequences of sin, the consequences of grace, of justification are far greater. We cannot see the two consequences as equivalent, because the results of sin cannot equal the cosmic results of justification.
In v. 21, Paul again refers to the dual reign, of sin and death on the one hand, and of righteousness and eternal life on the other. The triumph of grace renders the results of sin insignificant by comparison. Despite misrepresentations to the contrary, Calvinists have stressed the magnificence of the triumph of grace, and also the number of the redeemed.
Joseph Bellamy, in The Millennium, looking ahead to the great population of the earth in the years ahead, and to the world-wide triumph of Christ’s Kingdom saw, that, even if one assumed all to be lost before then, “yet if all these should be saved, there would be above seventeen thousand saved, to one that would be lost.”6 Much later, Charles Hodge said mainly the same thing:
That the benefits of redemption shall far outweigh the evils of the fall is here clearly asserted. This we can in a measure comprehend, because, 1. The number of the saved shall doubtless greatly exceed the number of the lost. Since the half of mankind die in infancy, and, according to the Protestant doctrine, are heirs of salvation; and since in the future state of the Church the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, we have reason to believe that the lost shall bear to the saved no greater proportion than the inmates of a prison do to the mass of the community. 2. Because the eternal Son of God, by his incarnation and mediation, exalts his people to a far higher state of being than our race, if unfallen, could ever have attained. 3. Because the benefits of redemption are not to be confined to the human race.
Christ is to be admired in his saints. It is through the Church that the manifold wisdom of the redemption of man is to be the great source of knowledge and blessedness to the intelligent universe.7
6. Joseph Bellamy, “The Millennium,” in The Works of Joseph Bellamy, vol. I, p. 457.
Boston, Massachusetts: Doctrinal Tract and Book Society (1850) 1853 7. Charles Hodge, op. cit., p. 279.
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