Romans 5

It is not enough to be reconciled to God just once; we must remain reconciled.²² We need help to remain reconciled with God. We need strength to endure suffering and persecution, remembering that he who stands firm to the end will be saved (Mark 13:13). We need to grow in grace and faith. We need to grow up into [Christ] who is the Head (Ephesians 4:15). And in all this the risen living Christ will be with us, helping us.

11 There can be no deep and abiding joy in the heart of a person who is not reconciled to God. But as soon as we are reconciled to Him, our hearts are at once filled with His joy, and we can rejoice in God. Why should we not rejoice in a God who, through Christ, has done so much for us?

12 … sin entered the world through one man. Who was that man? He was Adam (verse 14), the first man created by God.

After He had finished creating heaven and earth and everything in them, God saw all that was made, and it was very good (Genesis 1:31). But after that, the first man Adam sinned. Adam and his wife ate a fruit which God had commanded them not to eat (Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-3). At that moment, sin entered mankind. And ever since Adam’s time, all men have shared in Adam’s sin. From our very first ancestor, we inherited a sinful nature. And since the punishment for sin is death, in this way death came to all men. That death is both physical and spiritual.

Here a question arises. Paul says here that all sinned. But have tiny infants also sinned? No, we don’t say they have sinned, but the seed of sin has been planted in them. And as the infant grows up, that seed will certainly sprout. Just as a puppy begins to bark without being taught, so a child begins to sin without being taught. To sin is in his nature.

What happens to a child who dies in infancy? Does he go to heaven or hell? The Bible does not give a specif ic answer to this question. Most people believe that since the child hasn’t really sinned on purpose, he will go to heaven. We know that God has great love and concern for infants and small children. God will do what is right (see Matthew 18:10; Mark 10:14-15; General Article: Children and the Kingdom of God).

13 From Adam’s time up to the time of MOSES (verse 14), the written law²³ did not exist. God gave the written law to Moses to pass on to the Jewish nation. (Moses was born about four hundred years after Abraham’s time; before Moses’ time, then, neither the Jews nor the Gentiles had a written law.)

Because the law did not exist before Moses’ time, there was, of course, no such thing as disobedience to the law (Romans 4:15). Neither was there any punishment for disobeying the law. Sin is disobeying God’s law. Where there is no law, sin is not taken into account in a legal sense.²⁴

Take, for example, a child who does something wrong without realizing it. No one had ever told him it was wrong. So the child is not punished. But if the child is told it’s wrong to do something and then goes ahead and does it anyway, his sin will be taken into account, and his parents will punish him.

14 Before Moses’ time, even though the written law did not exist, sin was in the world (verse 13). Sin was in the world because it had originally entered Adam, who ate the fruit that God had told him not to eat; and from Adam sin had passed to all mankind. And along with sin came the punishment for sin, which is death. Some generations after Adam, God became so angry with sinful mankind that He sent a huge flood and destroyed all men living on the earth, except for Noah and his family (Genesis Chapters 6-7). In Abraham’s time, God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the wickedness of the people living there (Genesis Chapter 19). Even those who didn’t break a specif ic command of God died like everyone else, because death had entered mankind through Adam (see verse 12). Thus Paul says that death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses.

Adam was a pattern of the one to come—that is, Christ. In what way was Adam a pattern of Christ? Adam was the head of the old human race; Christ is the Head of a new spiritual race. Being the very first man, Adam influenced all those who came after him; that is, just as Adam sinned, they too all sinned. They became sinners like he was. Christ, on the other hand, being the first man of the new spiritual race, the eldest among all the sons of God, influences all those who follow Him. They become righteous like Him.

15 But the gift is not like the trespass. Christ’s work is not like Adam’s work. From Adam came death; from Christ comes life. From Adam came sin; from Christ comes the gift. The gift mentioned here is the gift of righteousness (verse 17), which is given by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. Together with the gift of righteous-ness comes eternal life—salvation. And this gift will overflow to the many—that is, to all believers.

16 The judgment followed one sin (Adam’s sin of eating the forbidden fruit). Thus from one man’s (Adam’s) sin came judgment. Then, the gift followed many trespasses. That is, after many other men had sinned, the gift of righteousness was given by the grace of Jesus Christ. From one man’s sin came condemnation for all men; from one man’s (Christ’s) obedience came justification for all men who believe.

17 From Adam came the “reign of death”; from Christ came the “reign of life.” From Adam, we have all received the inheritance of death; both our bodies and our spirits are under the power of death. We shall all die physically and, without Christ, we shall all die spiritually too.²⁵ But from Christ, we have received the inheritance of life, eternal life, not only on earth but in heaven also (see Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 and comments). This life has come to us through God’s abundant provision of grace and through His provision of the gift of righteousness.

18 Here Paul repeats what he has written in verse 16. From one trespass came condemnation for all men. From one act of righteousness (Christ’s act of giving His life for us) came justification that brings life for all men (see Romans 8:1-2).

19 Because of Adam’s disobedience, many men were made sinners. Because of Christ’s obedience, many men have been made righteous (see Philippians 2:8).

A question arises: How could one man, Adam, affect so many? How does Adam’s sin pass from generation to generation? The answer is this: Adam is our bodily father, our common ancestor according to the flesh. Mankind is like a great tree, and Adam is the seed of that tree. As is the seed, so must be the tree.

Another question arises: How can one man, Christ, make many people righteous? By the same principle. As Adam was the seed of the old race, so Christ is the seed of a new spiritual race. From Christ have sprung up many who have been declared righteous by God. As is the seed of Christ, so will be those who believe in Him.

20 The law mentioned here is the written law given by God to Moses. After the law came, man’s sin increased; because then men knew exactly what God’s commandments were. To break a commandment knowingly is a much greater sin than to break one unknowingly. Before the law came men sinned, but they sinned without knowing what God’s commands were; therefore, their guilt was less. This same principle applies to us also: if we sin knowingly, our sin will be considered greater by God (see Luke 12:47-48 and comment).

However, no matter how much sin has come from Adam, even more grace has come from Christ. As sin increases, so does grace increase.

21 Grace will always reign over sin. Grace reigns over sin as light reigns over darkness. Sin leads to death; grace leads to eternal life through Jesus Christ. Christ has completely overcome both sin and death (see Romans 8:1-2; 1 Corinthians 15:56 and comments).

In this verse, we see the three great steps in our salvation, the three great gifts of Christ: first, grace; second, through grace, righteousness; third, through righteousness, ETERNAL LIFE. In this way Christ has not only erased the harm brought about by Adam, but He has also done much more: He has made us sons and daughters of God, inheritors of all the riches of heaven.