How
Sins Get Transmitted. Romans 5:12-15
As
we have noted, Romans chapter five is a transitional chapter. Paul is taking us
from the realities of the foundation of what we call salvation, but what he
specifically calls justification, in this epistle. He makes a strong
distinction between justification, that which takes place at the instant of
salvation, and the word group that we normally translate as saved he reserves
to refer to primarily the Christian life, the life of the believer after salvation.
We have to make that distinction and always be aware that it is typical in our
culture where certain words become taken out of the Scriptural context and used
in ways that aren’t the way the Bible necessarily uses that word, or maybe
doesn’t use that word all the time. “Saved” is like that. We normally think
that saved is getting into heaven and escaping eternal condemnation. It is used
that way in Scripture at times but the word, whether it is the verb sozo [swzw] or the noun
for salvation, soteria [swthria], can refer to
healing, to deliverance from some calamity, or it can refer to the outworking
of our justification. For example, in Philippians chapter two as Paul is
addressing those who are already believers and secure in their eternal destiny
exhorts them to “work out your salvation
with fear and trembling.” That is the post-justification spiritual growth that
occurs in the believer. That is going to be the thrust of Paul’s focus from
Romans chapter six to Romans chapter eight.
In
Romans chapter four we finished our discussion about justification. In Romans
5:1 Paul began to focus on the implications of that justification. Romans 5:1 NASB “Therefore, having been justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then in verses
2 & 3 he goes on to talk about the implications of that in terms of our
hope and our faith and our spiritual life and growth. That is the thrust of
those first eleven verses, and in verse 11 he says, “And not only this, but we
also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now
received the reconciliation.” He shifts his vocabulary from justification to a
broader concept which is reconciliation, which is
always related in the Scripture to the concept of peace.
Now he is going to backtrack a little
bit when we get into this next section because he wants to make sure his
readers, and we also, understand the connection between justification and the
spiritual life. So Romans 5 really stands as a hinge, as it were, between the
past discussion on justification and the coming discussion on the spiritual
life. He is transitioning from one to the other. He is now bringing some final
points to our attention about justification and then he is going to develop
that into the way the believer should think and react in terms of sin in his
own life.
In verse 12 he is going to start
bringing us to this conclusion on the basis of what he has talked about. In
some translations the verse starts with a “therefore,” but actually in the
Greek it is not a “therefore.” Therefore indicates a conclusion. But he uses
another phrase, dia touto [dia touto] which indicates “For this reason.” And “for this reason”
isn’t drawing a logical conclusion based on previous information but that he is
bringing something new to what he has been saying in the previous eleven
verses. It is like weaving a rope where you lay down one thread and then lay
another thread on top of it, and then you begin to twist them together. That is
what he is doing rhetorically in this chapter.
What Paul is going to do here is start
a line of thought in verse 12. He starts off, “Therefore, just as,” and he uses
a certain kind of construction here in the Greek where he uses a word which is like a conditional clause where there are two
parts to it. In the first part there is the protasis (the “if” clause) and then
there is the apodosis which is the second clause. He
will say “just as” and then later he says “thus” in verse 18, not in verse 12,
because it is as if he stops in the middle and says, ‘I am not sure they are
really understanding the point, so I want to make sure they don’t misunderstand
me.’ He goes down a little bit of a rabbit trail, which is called an anacoluthon
in literary circles, and he diverts his attention for a minute to explain how
and why every human being is declared a sinner. We have to understand what the
sin nature is, what sin is, and the basis of our condemnation. This is something that is so difficult
for some people to understand.
People think that the reason that they
are going to go to the lake of fire is because of their sin, and they think
that the reason that they are going to be judged at the judgment seat of Christ
is because of their sin. For the doctrine of real substitution to be true that
means Jesus Christ paid the penalty for every person’s sin. It is paid for. The
way the gospel has often been presented by people who hold to unlimited
atonement is that it is a hypothetical atonement or a potential: Jesus died for
you but if you reject it He didn’t really die for you, you have to pay for your
sins in eternity.
Some people have said that there are a
couple of places in the Gospels where Jesus says to the Pharisees that they
will die “in their sins.” That phrase “in your sins” or “in their sins” is used
in several places, but there is a difference between the preposition en [e)n]
and the preposition “for.” Dying “in your sin,” if we look at the use of that
phrase in John it is not clear. Jesus just makes this statement that “you are
going to die in your sin.” So how do we understand what an ambiguous phrase
means in a couple of places? We look to see if it is used anywhere else. Maybe
it is used somewhere else where it is not ambiguous. In Ephesians 2:1 Paul
says, NASB “And you were dead in your
trespasses and sins.” That is the same phrase, and it is talking about being
spiritually dead—physically alive but spiritually dead;
so “in your sins” in that context means to be spiritually dead. Then Paul uses
that same structure in Colossians 2:13 NASB “When you were dead in
your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh …” It is the same
phrase. From those two clear passages it seems that the phrase being “in your
sins” is related to being in a state of being spiritually dead. When Jesus
addressed the Pharisees and others and said, ‘You will
die in your sins,” what he is saying is, ‘You will die physically still in a
state of spiritual death.’ He is not saying they will die for their sins or
that they will make a payment for their sins, he is saying they are going to
die in that state—still spiritually dead.
As we have seen, there are basically
three problems that we all have. Problem # 1 is a legal problem: God as the
judge of the universe has assigned a legal penalty to the human race of
spiritual death, and that legal penalty needs to be paid. The second and third
problems are the consequence of that legal penalty that God assigned to Adam.
When Adam died spiritually that new status of spiritual death is what is passed
on to all of his descendants, but that legal condemnation is what comes down on
him at the beginning and then it changes his status so that all of his
descendants are born in a state of spiritual death. So no matter what happens
at the cross in terms of paying the legal penalty the reality is every human
being is still experientially dead. Problem # 2 is the experience of being
spiritually dead for every human being. Problem # 3 is that because we are
spiritually dead we produce unrighteousness. Isaiah 64:6.
So we have three problems: a) The legal
penalty; b) We are born spiritually dead; c) We are unrighteous.
We can’t be with God or spend eternity
with God unless the legal penalty is paid and unless there is a spiritual
rebirth so that we move from death to life, and unless we are righteous. The
first of those was solved at the cross. That is that universal aspect of the
atonement: Christ died for all. Christ propitiated the Father, satisfied His
righteousness, for the whole world; that is universal. Redemption: He paid the
price for all, so redemption is for all. Reconciliation in terms of the
objective side is for all. That is universal. But those three things only
satisfy the righteousness of God. They are all God-directed. They satisfy His
righteousness, they pay the legal penalty, and they solve the barrier problem
between God and man. But that still leaves every individual human being in a
status of being spiritually dead and unrighteous, so that has to be solved.
That is the condition that everybody is
in. The legal penalty is paid, so the fact that they are under condemnation for
sin, is no longer the issue. The issue is, they have to have righteousness and
they have to be regenerated. That is why life is such a major theme in the
Gospel of John and why John begins near the beginning with the conversation
with Nicodemus related to the fact that we can’t get into the kingdom unless we
are born again, regenerate, are given that new life. Because we are born
physically alive but are spiritually dead. The individual aspects of the
atonement that are related to regeneration and the imputation of righteousness
solve those two problems. We are only regenerate when we believe, and we only
receive the imputation of Christ’s righteousness when we believe.
Now, as Paul has established that
foundation for understanding imputation and justification, he wants to make
sure that he is not going to move into understanding the spiritual life without
his readers clearly comprehending the fact that sin isn’t the issue in terms of
the person’s relationship with God. He builds his argument in Romans 6 & 7;
in Romans 8 he really nails the issues on the spiritual life. He doesn’t
mention the Holy Spirit until chapter eight. Sin is not the issue in terms of
loss of salvation or that that is what we should always be focussed on: the
fact that we have failed. Christ solved that problem. But we have to understand
that sin is still an experiential problem because it knocks us out of
fellowship, but it doesn’t cause us to lose our salvation. This is the problem
that Christians have had down through the centuries: they just have not known
what to do with sin.
So in the early church there was the
rise of monasticism after a persecution, because when the church had been persecuted
and people were being dragged out of their homes because they were Christians
and taken to the Colosseum and the lions, it was easy to become arrogant and
proud and thinking, Oh I am spiritual, I am becoming a martyr. But once
Christianity became legalised, what were they to do to self-flagellate? They
couldn’t become a martyr so that had to do it themselves. They had to figure
out ways to go out and impress God, so they either went out
into the wilderness, like the early desert monks, and lived by themselves,
or maybe they became the pillar monks who would climb up on a pillar and sit
there. They thought that was spiritual. Then they began to cloister in
monasteries. We still have people who think that as a Christians that is good
and that we should protect ourselves from the world. A lot of churches are
doing that, where they build family life centers, bowling alleys, movie
theatres, and everything is about the life of the church. But Jesus said we are
to go out and we are called for a purpose: to be actively engaged as
ambassadors. We are engaged to go into this foreign culture no matter what the
threat might be, no matter how little security there may be, taking the gospel.
And ambassadorship isn’t for apostles, it is for every believer. We can’t be ambassadors if we sit
at home with five other friends and think how great we have it, God has blessed
us, and the rest of the world is just going to hell in a hand basket. We are
called to be engaged and not to retreat into some sort of monastic, protective
enclosure—friends, family, whatever.
The problem that Christianity has had
is that they don’t know what to do with sin afterwards. So it develops
monasticism, asceticism and forms of legalism and other things in order to
somehow impress God. Paul is coming back to this in these last verses of
chapter five to make sure we understand what sin is, where it came from, how we
got condemned—and we are not condemned for our personal sin, we are
condemned for Adam’s sin. When Christ died on the cross He died for Adam’s sin
plus every single sin that you and I ever commit.
Paul is going to begin with the
comparison and the contrast between Adam and Christ: between the sin of Adam
and the death of Christ on the cross. He starts off with the comparison and
doesn’t get to the contrast until v. 18ff. Romans 5:12 NASB
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death
through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— ”
In the next two verses Paul
describes relation between sin and death. the Romans
5:13 NASB “for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not
imputed when there is no law.” This covers that period from Adam to Moses. In
other words, what he is saying is those people were not being imputed their
sins because there was no law. So they are not condemned for their own sin. His
conclusion is going to be they are condemned for Adam’s sin, but they are not
going to be condemned for their sin—just like we are not condemned for
our sin.
Romans 5:14 NASB
“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses…” Even though they are under
condemnation their condemnation is not based on their sin. The fact that they
were spiritually dead shows that they were under condemnation. But it is not
for their sin, it is for Adam’s sin. “… even over
those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type
of Him who was to come.”
In the next section, vv.
15-17, Paul is going to contrast Adam’s sin with grace through Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:15 NASB
“But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression
of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the
grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. [16] The gift is not
like {that which came} through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the
judgment {arose} from one {transgression} resulting in condemnation, but on the
other hand the free gift {arose} from many transgressions resulting in
justification.” Here he sees that that condemnation is automatic for everybody,
but we have already been told that justification isn’t automatic for everybody,
it is qualified by personal faith and trust in Christ. The free gift isn’t
automatic to everyone. [17] “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the
abundance of grace…” Abundance of grace; that is the
qualifier. If we don’t receive the gift then we don’t get justification.
“… and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life
through the One, Jesus Christ.”
Then he picks up his
analogy again in verse 18 where he is going to connect Adam’s sin and
condemnation with Christ’s obedience and justification. Romans 5:18 NASB
“So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men,
even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life
to all men.”
Notice how when we get to
verse 18 when Paul is picking up his primary thought which
began in verse 12 he takes us right back to those words he associated
with the legal act of justification. He talks about judgment, condemnation, the
one man’s righteous act, resulting in justification of life. Here is where he
goes back to pick up the thread that he has laid down at the end of chapter
four and he is now going to tie that in with what he has been introducing
through reconciliation.
Romans 5:19 NASB
“For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so
through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” The question
then is, how does death spread to all men? In some
Christian backgrounds, for example in Protestant liberalism, in Arminianism,
and in some other systems of Christian theology there is no belief in Adam’s
original sin. Their belief in sin varies depending on which group we are
talking about. The same thing is true in Judaism. In Orthodox rabbinical
Judaism, which is based on the Talmud (which is a reinterpretation of the
Mishna), they don’t believe in Adam’s original sin. They will believe that
people are bad but are also capable of good, but they don’t have a doctrine of
total depravity. They believe total depravity is that every person is actively
evil and wicked. That is not what total depravity means. Total depravity means
that every aspect of our being has been depraved, but because the sin nature
also produces morality we can be as evil people. In fact, the worst form of
evil is not the overt wickedness that we see in some forms of idolatry, human
sacrifice, etc.; evil in its worst form is masked as altruism, that which is
good and beneficial.
We are going to have to
define what sin is. A lot of times when we talk to people who are not
Christians, or even when we talk to people who are Christians, we find they
have restricted sin to such a narrow category of heinous, horrible actions that
when you say you are a sinner they so no, they are not, because in their mind
sin means committing these horrible things. But the Bible says sin is any act,
any thought, any word that violates the character of God. It is not that there
are degrees of sin. There are degrees of consequences from sin but there are
not degrees of sin. Telling a “little white lie” is as much a violation of the
character of God as committing genocide. The consequences are far different,
but they are both sin. Eating a piece of fruit in disobedience to God plunged
us all into this nasty mess that we are in. It wasn’t anything horrible, it was
just an every day act that many of us perform every single day but it was done
in disobedience to God.
So we need to address this
question: how does this spread to all men? How can we all be guilty? Paul
begins in Romans 5:12 by stating it this way, NASB “Therefore, just
as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so
death spread to all men, because all sinned—” Paul is going to build his
whole discussion here on this comparison and contrast between Adam, the first
man, and Jesus as the second Adam. We call Him the second Adam because He was
created the same way the first Adam was created: He is without sin. Adam was
created without sin. Jesus in His humanity is just as capable of sinning or not
sinning as Adam. He has the same volition as Adam in His humanity. In His
humanity that is the whole issue: He has to face life and the testings of life
to always decide for God and always in obedience to God. This is what
Philippians 2 describes: Jesus was humble and submitted Himself to the
authority of God, even to the point of going to the cross. So there is this
comparison that Adam failed and we are suffering the consequences but Jesus in
His humanity succeeds, and because of that the human race can be restored to
its original purpose and fulfil the original plan that God had for the human
race as His image bearers in ruling and reigning over the planet.
“Therefore, just as through
one man …” In the Greek there is this phrase hosper
[w(sper] which introduces the beginning of the comparison, and then
the second part is going to introduce by either the word houtos [o(utoj],
which means “this,” or it might be rendered in the Greek houtos kai. What we have in the second
part where it says “and this death spread to all men” in the Greek is kai houtos. The order of the two words
is switched. But never is the comparison formula, the second part, introduced
by a kai houtos; it is always introduced by a houtos
kai. The second part of this verse isn’t the second part of the
comparison. The second part of the comparison doesn’t come in until we get down
to verse 18.
Paul is expanding the initial
statement, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world,” by
the second statement, “and so death spread to all men.” The last part of this
verse is an echo of the first part. So we understand the point that if we have
one man and it is because of that one man and his decision that sin enters into
the world. Paul concludes in that second half by saying, “and so death spread
to all men, because all sinned,” i.e. in Adam positionally. “Therefore, just as
through one man sin entered into the world.” It is interesting that the word
“sin” there has an article with it, which means he is talking about a specific
sin—not just any sin that Adam committed but the sin. This is it; this is the sin
that changed everything. The Greek word for sin here is hamartia [a(martia]
which means simply to miss the mark. That is the point of Romans 3:23, that we
have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. That phrase “the glory of
God” is an idiom for all of His character. We fall short of His standard; we
just can’t be good enough.
It is through one man that the sin
entered the world. There are two different words used in Romans 5:12 for entry.
There is the word eis [e)ij] which means to enter into something. It is an aorist
indicative here referring generally to something that has happened in the past,
but one of the ways an aorist is used is as something that is beginning. The
grammatical term is an inceptive aorist. An inceptive aorist means that it
should be translated “just as through one man sin began entry into the world.”
It has the emphasis on the beginning of a process. “… and
death through sin.” Death comes through sin, and this
is all forms of death; not just spiritual death but it
includes all forms of death. Spiritual death was the legal condemnation but in
this passage he is talking about the ramifications of that on every single
human being.
We are not talking about
the legal penalty, we are talking about the consequences of that legal penalty; all the forms of death into human experience because of
that one sin. “…and so death spread to all men.” Here
Paul uses a similar word to the one he used for entry, the word dierchomai [dierxomai]—the Greek preposition dia plus the verb erchomai.
It doesn’t mean simply to enter, it means to come through, to pass through; it
is used for things like a sword piercing into a body, of Christ passing through
the heavens in His ascension, and it has the idea of something that is going in
and spreading. It would be used to describe a gas expanding and permeating all
the areas of a house.
So the first statement Paul
makes is that sin enters, it goes through the front door into the world, and
death through sin; and death begins to spread out to all mankind. The word that
is used here for mankind is the word anthropos
[a)nqrwpoj] which can mean male but a lot of times it can mean just
the human race. Here it would be adequate to understand it as “death spread to
all human beings.” Why? Because all sinned. We must always remember that sin
isn’t defined by its impact in terms of our experience but by its relation to
God. Sin is sin because it violates the character of God, not because it has
certain negative consequences in our experience.