12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have 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 to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. (Romans 5:12-14)
In the course of my travels, I often encounter persons who tell me that they could agree with theonomy but for some particular text, which they see as a bar to it. I do not attempt to answer their comment, because I have learned, first, that in the main such people want an argument, not a comment; second, they have not read what I have written, nor do they intend to! One such text often cited is Romans 5:12-14.
It must be admitted that this is not an easy text. On the other hand, it must be recognized that this text precludes antinomianism. It does not allow us to think of the world as having never been without God’s law.
First, Paul in Romans 1:18-31 makes clear that all men know God’s law and God Himself, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Rom.
1:20). To know God is to know His righteousness and law. Paul cites then the violations of the law by these men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness or injustice (Rom. 1:18, 22-31).
Second, as I John 3:14 tells us, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law,” or, more literally, every one who practices sin (hamartian) also does lawlessness (anomian); and the sin (hamartia) is lawlessness (anomia). Paul tells us here death is the penalty for sin; all men have sinned, and “so death passed upon all men” (Rom.
5:12). Before the giving of the Law, “from Adam to Moses,” obviously all men therefore sinned. Since Paul is so emphatic that all men know the invisible things of God, and that their sin is therefore without excuse because they cannot be ignorant of God’s law, obviously God’s death sentence is just.
Third, we are told that “sin is not imputed where there is no law,” and
“until the law sin was in the world” (Rom. 5:13), meaning that before Moses there was sin because men still knew the law. Sanday and Headlam said, “St. Paul would not say that the absence of written law did away with all responsibility. He has already laid down most distinctly that Gentiles, though without such written law, have law enough to be judged by (ii.
12-16); and Jews before the time of Moses were only in the position of
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Gentiles.”1 There is no room here for antinomianism, for, if their logic were correct, men should not have died before God gave the Law to Moses on Sinai, and after that only the Hebrews and any other to whom the law might be taught should suffer death. The logic of this view would also require us to be Pelagians of a radical sort and to say that Adam broke God’s verbal command and therefore died, but all his descendents should now be outside the covenant, its law, and its penalties, and therefore immune to death. Adam would in effect have “freed” his posterity from God’s covenant at the price of his life and given them freedom to be their own law (Gen. 3:5).
Fourth, as we shall see later, Paul is not trying to eliminate the law from a segment of history but to call attention to the transmission of sin by Adam to his posterity. Rebellion against God was now the nature of Adam’s humanity; Adam’s seed did not sin as Adam did, in direct, personal violation of God’s verbal command or law, but, because they were Adam’s seed, they manifested his rebellion against God. It was their nature now to say, my will, not God’s, be done, for my will is my law. This point is important to Paul, because he is establishing what Adam’s single act did in order to set forth what Christ’s act of obedience and atonement did. Both the first and last Adams determined the nature of the humanity born from them. Sin and death were transmitted by Adam; justice and life are transmitted by Christ to all who are born again in Him. Paul tells us that there is a universal prevalence of sin and death; this tells us of Adam’s significance. In telling us that all men have sinned, Paul tells us that all men in Adam are at war against God and His law. They are not ignorant of it but at war against it. Therefore “death reigned from Adam to Moses”
(Rom. 5:14).
Fifth, there is a difference before and after Moses. “Sin is not imputed where there is no law.” The word imputed is ellogao, and it means charge to one’s account. Obviously, something was charged to the account of all men from Adam to Moses, because all men were sentenced to death. Paul is here stating a general premise: there is no crime if there is no law. However, if men are sentenced to death, we must assume there was a law. Is not Paul saying that, before Moses and the written law, there was a law, because men were being sentenced to death? In v. 14, he comes to the point: men did sin before Moses, and “death reigned ... over them.” However, their sin was not
“after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” (Rom. 5:14). The word
“similitude” or “likeness” (homoioma, homoiomati) means to be of the same character. Adam’s sin was unlike that of his posterity, because Adam “is the figure of him that was to come, even Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:14). Adam’s
“transgression” (parabasis) or, breach of the law was unique because its
1. William Sanday and Arthur C. Headlam: The Epistle to the Romans, p. 134f. Ed-inburgh, Scotland: T. & T. Clark (1895) 1968.
ROMANS 5:12-14 77 penalty affected all men. In this, Adam was the figure of Christ, whose obedience and atonement affect all who are members of His new humanity.
Paul is not concerned with downgrading the law. Rather, his concern is the uniqueness of the two Adams. Their relationship to God and His covenant law was direct, verbal, and personal. Both had a determinative role in history in their effect on their seed. All men from Adam on have sinned, but not in the trans-personal way that Adam did. Paul’s concern is thus to stress the uniqueness of Christ as the father and creator of the new humanity, as the last Adam. Before Moses and after Moses, all men sinned and paid the penalty of death. Adam’s sin, however, had more than personal consequences, even as Christ’s righteousness had more than personal consequences.
Cranfield rightly comments, “The relevance of the reference to the law at this point lies in the fact that it is the law which makes manifest the full magnitude of sin and so also at the same time the full magnitude of the triumph of grace.”2 Adam’s work, his sin, was determinative for all who are members of the first humanity. Christ’s work is determinative for all members of the new humanity. The written law, by spelling out plainly the meaning of sin, which our Lord stressed in the Sermon on the Mount, makes all the more vividly plain the scope of God’s grace in Christ.
“Human death is the consequence of human sin.”3 Our justification and life are the consequence of Christ’s righteousness and atonement as our new Adam. In speaking of the era after Adam and before Moses, “What St. Paul wishes to bring out is that prior to the giving of the Law, the fate of mankind, to an extent and in a way which he does not define, was directly traceable to Adam’s Fall,” so commented Sanday and Headlam.4 This is very true, but all men in this era and after sinned, Paul stresses (v. 12), and therefore they died as true heirs of Adam. John Gill called attention to the fact that this doctrine of man’s depravity in Adam was not new with Paul.
He echoed Old Testament and rabbinic teachings which later Judaism denied.5
The sin of Adam had legal consequences for all men in his humanity as did the atoning death of Christ for all in His new humanity. We are legally and biologically children of Adam. We are also legally and biologically because of our rebirth members of Christ. There is a unity of the many in Adam, and a unity of the many in Christ. This is Paul’s concern. He tells us, first, in Adam the inheritance of death and a sinful nature, a warfare against God, is inherited by all men. Adam transmits this to all his
2. C.E.B. Cranfield: The Epistle to the Romans, vol. I, p. 270. Edinburgh, Scotland:
T. & T. Clark (1975) 1977.
3. Ibid., p. 281.
4. Sanday and Headlam, op. cit., p. 135.
5. John Gill: Gill’s Commentary, vol. VI, p. 34. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1980 reprint.
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posterity. Second, “The death of Christ does not precisely reverse the effects of Adam’s sin, it overpowers them by greater gifts,”6 said Gifford. It would be better to say that Christ’s work and regenerating power not only nullified the effects of Adam’s sin but opened the door to power and dominion in Christ. Third, the death of the body is the first stage in the greater judgment of all who are in Adam. Sin and death not only enter the world by Adam’s sin but “passed upon” or passed through to all men. As Lilly noted, Paul’s purpose here is “to prove that all mankind have sinned in Adam,” and Adam was “the moral as well as the physical head of the human race.”7
Has Paul here voided the law? Such an idea was not in his mind. What Paul undermined was any belief that man in any era is capable of overcoming his inheritance in Adam. Any attempt to renew man and society apart from Christ is inescapably plagued by the fact of sin and death. Before there can be works of law which benefit society there must be regenerate men in Christ. The fact of depravity conditions and governs the human scene. A valid sociology must begin with this fact. But this is not all. More than one tyranny has been established on the recognition of man’s sin. The politics of the welfare state and of socialism appeals to man’s greed and his desire to steal from others legally in order to benefit himself.
More than a few successful careers have been built on the recognition of man’s depravity and the “necessity” of gratifying it. To neglect the nature of man in the political process is a deadly fact: it invites great disasters.
The sociology of justification by God’s sovereign grace will recognize fallen man’s depravity and the need for justification and regeneration in order to establish a good society. The law then provides the way of justice.
6. E.H. Gifford, “Romans,” in F.C. Cook, editor: The Holy Bible, A Commentary, New Testament, vol. III, p. 116f. London, England: John Murray, 1881.
7. Joseph L. Lilly, “Romans,” in The Catholic Biblical Association: A Commentary on the New Testament, p. 423. 1942.
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