Romans 5:13-15 Bible Teaching

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Romans 5.14
March 28th 2021

Alright, we’re in Romans 5.

Let’s re-read verse 12 and then go right into our text for today:

Wherefore, (verse 12 says) 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.”

So there is the condemnation passage speaking to sin entering the world and therefore death due to sin, which is passed upon all people, for all have sinned.

We note that this passage in no way states that Adam’s sin passes onto us. All it says it that through Adam sin entered the world and as a result death (which we talked about last week was total death, first of spirit, next of soul and finally of body – due to Adam) and then Paul writes that this death is passed upon all people (why) because “all have sinned.”

We have all transgressed the Law of God in one form or another and that makes us all subject to death. The only one not worthy of death was Yeshua and yet He died willingly as a substitutionary death for us!

It is at this point that Paul enters the parenthetical reference I mentioned last week – which lasts from verse 13 through 17). It was written, apparently, to explain death and sin relative to the Law, and so Paul adds:

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.
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.)

Let’s just work through these three verses of the five found in the parenthetical reference)

Now, the last line of verse 12 is a bit confusing because it sort of sounds like we die because we all sin and if we didn’t sin, none of us would die.

Is this true? Yes and no.

Scripture tells us that the wages of sin is . . . . death.

So then we have to ask, “Does everyone, no matter the age or ability have sin?”

The answer, again, is yes.

So, then we have to ask, “Since everyone who dies has sin, no matter how old or how capable of understanding, is everyone responsible for their sin? The answer here is no.

Verse 12 reads “As by one man (Adam) all sin entered into the world, and “death by sin;” and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

This passage is referring to the sin of Adam which brought sin into the world (in which we are all born – and as a result) “death by sin.”

Adam’s disobedience brought death upon all of his progeny and since we are all his progeny, we all die.

But Paul seems to be referring to the fact that we all sin individually here as well and we have or possess the capacity to sin through Adam and the Fall.

Let me try and explain.

Good old Vernon McGee, (accent) who I just love listening when I first came to faith,” once said that human kind is sinful in a number of different ways.

First, because of Adam we are under sin. We are born into an environment that automatically makes us sinful creatures.

Maybe a simple way to understand this is to imagine that inhaling introduces sin into every cell of a human beings make-up the moment they take their first breath.

Did we inherent sin from Adam sinning? In other words did we, who have not done anything, inherit the punishment for Adam choosing to disobey God?

Again its both yes and no.

No, in that God is just and in no way would we be accountable for something of which we had no part.

But yes, in that Adam created an environment in which we are made sinful.

Does that make sense?

Pretend there is one house in which the whole of humanity resides. And God said to the first inhabitant:

“Don’t paint the interior walls with that lead based, carcinogenic never will ever go away paint – even though it’s a gorgeus color to the human eye.”

But Adam said, “I’m doing what I want. And he (meaning he and Eve) painted the entire house with “that lead based, carcinogenic never will ever go away paint.”

Adam personally died – spiritually and physically because of this action – but all of his progeny, born in that painted house, are immediately are exposed to the deleterious effects of his action – making us forever infected and defective in the eyes of God.

This does not mean we are accountable for the nature we inherit at birth nor does it mean we are culpable for what Adam chose to do, but we are infected and defected (sinful) none the less.

Now, McGee says we are also sinners because we commit acts of sin. The acts we choose to do is not what makes us sinners, we are sinners and therefore we do sinful things.

Do you get the difference?

Someone once posed the question:

“Are you happy because you’re good or are you good because your happy?”

Ask yourself that question:

“Are YOU happy (because you are good) or are you good because you are happy?”

Believe it or not the answer is the difference between legalistic religions of the world and those that teach grace.

So, let me (again – because we did this a couple weeks ago) take this question and apply it to the topic of human sin. Ready?

“Are human beings sinners because they sin or do they sin because they are sinners?”

The first premise is the LDS premise – human beings are sinners because they sin. But Christianity agrees with the latter – human beings sin because they are sinners.

The difference means a great deal in how we will ultimately view the solution to sin and salvation and how it is meted out and applied to the individual.

McGee then introduces what is difficult to fully understand. It is something that Paul here does not explain and if these two great minds aren’t going to attempt it neither is Sir Jack-Ass-Us going to try either.

But McGee suggests that we are also sinners by “imputation.” This refers to Adam acting on behalf of the human race as the “Federal Head” of our species.

Could it be Adam and Eve’s human genome was actually altered and passed down to us by and through the Fall? And if not genetically, did they pass on to all of us a defective Spirit and/or soul?

We can’t really say. What we can say, however, is on the basis of sin being imputed to all of us by one man, that by and through another man, and His Spiritual “Federal Headship” (meaning Christ) we receive grace-filled reconciliation, justification, and sanctification which is also imputed to all who believe.

Have you ever considered this? That on the one hand most Bible believing Christians suggest that Adam made all of us sinners and with this being the case, Jesus made ALL of us (not just those who believe – but ALL of us forgiven of sin before God? That’s the only logical conclusion I see but more important than my logic is what scripture says – Jesus paid for the sin (the price of sin) for the world!

This reality makes our afterlife meeting with God one of less or more rewards than one greater or lesser punishments – which are all predicated on a persons choice to live by faith and love or not.

Seeing this helps us then understand that (as members of the Human Race) have before us two as humans two Federal Headships.

We have Adam who is the Federal Head of the flesh. In him and his leadership, if you will, we all obtained a grand and glorious gift – disease, sin, and death – of everything (as I mentioned last week).

But our loving God also gave us Christ who is the Federal Head of the Spirit.
And in Him – His life, death, and resurrection – we may obtain far MORE grand and glorious gifts – new life here and eternal life in the beyond.

This is what Paul is speaking to. But getting back to verse 12, I think we can read from the last lines that death passes unto all because all have sinned (through the means we just discussed) and this includes the fact that we all sin by and through our relationship to our Federal Head Adam.

Now, the next verse, which begins Paul’s more detailed explanation of verse 12, adds a frankly troubling factor into the mix relative to the idea that all having sinned and the topic of death.
(verse 13)

13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Between the Fall of Man and the Law of Moses we have an amazing amount of time relative to world history –

Two thousand five hundred years. I mean, that is one third of historical time from the Fall until today!

(and this is not saying the earth did not exist long before but is only looking at the written account of Adam and Eve).

But Paul says (here in verse 13) that between Adam and Moses “sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed because there was no law.”

This passage can be problematic . . . if we let it. First, let’s look at the simple sides. What Paul says is

If there is no law, sin cannot be imputed or credited to the account of an individual.

Last week I said without the Law there is no sin – this was a mistake as proven by Paul here. The better thing to say is sin is always present but without a law it will not be imputed.

Looking at our modern world this is how and why drug designers are able to escape from prosecution when they peddle a newly created drug.

If I was able to go into my kitchen and mix up a concoction that literally made people high and hallucinate for a full year and it was made from a combination of compounds that the law had not pronounced illegal, I could not be arrested or charged with dealing a controlled substance . . . until a law is passed forbidding its contents, creation and distribution.

This is one reason why humanity is rarely best governed by law but instead best governed by love.

But that’s for another time and tacticly presents to us a utopia which is altogether unattainable in the human realm – and so we have laws.

But a living example of this illustration can be found in the manufacturing and selling of the drug known as ecstasy.

It was created in 1912, used by few, then in the 1960’s through 1985 it grew in popularity. In July of 1984 the United States issues an emergency ban on the drug making the use, production or sale of it illegal.

Prior to July of 1985, a health conscious person, including parents and others concerned for the welfare of mind and body, might opine that using it was a really bad choice, but they could not say using it was against the law.

This is what Paul is saying here in Romans about sin and the Law.

Between the time of Adam and Moses there was no written law (and I believe strongly that he is speaking of the Law of Moses) and for this reason “sin” transgression against God was not imputed to human kind.

But here’s the twenty-five thousand dollar question: Were men and women still sinners between Adam and Moses and the giving of the Law?

To discover our answer, we might as is the manufacturer of harmful drugs still harming others even though there is no written law condemning his or her drug?

To take the idea a little bit further (which is admittedly an uncomfortable step) but:

“Are infants still “sinful” (in nature, and even mind and heart) even though they have no ability to read or to comprehend sin or God’s commands?”

Of course they are! But the sin and the sinful nature is not imputed to them. But it does not erase the fact that their fleshly nature stands contrary to absolute truth and light.

Because the answers the Bible gives are troubling to people, especially people who do not understand the universal payment for the price of sin by Christ, men like Joseph Smith provided the world with alternative replies saying, “no, they are not.”

And with this opinion underfoot he then extrapolated out an entirely new, contrary to the Bible, system of salvation.

As an aside and for your information, it was Augustine who believed that Paul was actually writing about infants in this part of his letter to the Romans.

In any case, in verse 13 Paul admits that until the Law of Moses sin WAS certainly “in the world” (by and through all of those ways Reverend Vernon McGee mentioned) but that sin was NOT imputed or assigned to the accounts of sinful men and women because there was no law against it.

Verse 14

14 Nevertheless (Paul says, or despite this fact) 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.

Why did death reign (or why did people die – we might ask) if humanity was not imputed or charged with sins they committed between the time of Adam and Moses?

In the same vein we might ask:

Why do infants then die who are have not their sinful natures imputed or charged to them?

This query (and it’s answer) leads us to a deeper line of questioning.

“Was all of humanity, then, between the time of Adam until the time of Moses, deemed innocent because there was no written law available to convict them?”

Some scholars say yes – they were innocent, based on these passages. Others say no. Why so? In my opinion they take the whole of the word contextually into account in the creation of their view.

First of all, we know that between Adam and Moses that men were in fact “evil” – so evil that God destroyed most of the inhabitants at the time of Noah due “to violence.”

Were they culpable even though no written law was present? With culpability being defined as (deserving blame?) Absolutely.

How could they be blamed if no law was given until Moses? By the law written on their hearts.

So, while they certainly would not have “sin” imputed to them and their account which only comes by the presence of the Law, they were certainly capable of sinning against the law all people have written on their hearts, according to Romans one.

And therefore they were wiped out (or experienced physical death) as a result.

Understanding the word contextually helps us see that what Paul writes here was true, in reference to the Law of Moses, but we can also see why death reigned even though sin was not imputed.

That expression “death reigned” is striking.

It represents death like a dark monarch or king reigning over all generations.

And if it weren’t for Jesus, this death reign of darkness would have an eternal grip over human-kind. And remember, God gave “our Federal Head” a law and an associated curse.

He told Adam that in the day you eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge you would surely die.

The curse of this was passed on to all men whether they sinned (or not) in the manner that Adam sinned.

A second set of revealed laws were introduced through Moses some 2500 years later also with associated punishments.

But death still reigned before hand, which is why Paul adds:

“even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

“Even over those people” (meaning all the people who lived between the time of Adam and Moses) “that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.”

How could any of them sin in the same way (or in the similitude that Adam sinned?) They couldn’t have! Paul is merely saying that death reigned over them anyway because where the penalty of sin was present (death) the imputation of such sin was not.

Now remember, the POINT (as we mentioned last week) of Paul writing all of this is to show how wonderful and efficacious the work of Jesus is in saving all of Mankind from the corrosive works of the first Man Adam.

So here, in light of this objective, Paul is showing that even those people who lived without the written law, but who in fact still sinned and suffered death, salvation would come by the finished work of Christ. Paul adds the last line of the verse and says:

“Who (meaning Adam) is the figure of him that was to come.” (meaning, Jesus)

And in this line Paul suggests that there are (in some respects) similarities that exist in the conduct of Adam and the conduct of Christ.

Now, with the exception of Adam being the Father of our flesh and the Federal head of fleshly humankind and Jesus being the Father of our Spirit and the Federal head of the Spirit, these similarities do not mean that Adam was in any tangible way a type of Christ (as some have tried to suggest).

I would suggest that Adam was sort of a mirrored resemblance can be seen between the effects of Adam’s conduct and the effects of the Lord’s.

It is to these comparisons (between Adam and Jesus) that Paul now exposes us to in the following verses.

Now before we read verse 15 (which begins these comparisons) allow me to present a few insights (about the male creation we call Adam and the male creator called Christ.

There exists some rather fanciful thoughts and teachings about Adam which make their way around the faith.

Because he was the first human creation some people hold him is high esteem. This is especially true in Mormonism. So much so that most LDS people in the know believe that Adam is now a God, and from this point there extends all sorts of other positive notions bantered around about him.

But consider the following biblical points about Adam. Outside of a couple of early Old Testament genealogies, his name is only mentioned twice in the Old Testament and in those references he is referred to (not in a positive light) but as the one who transgressed or sinned.

Then we jump forward and find his name is mentioned again only in the Luke (due to genealogy again). But nothing more.

Then Paul is the first one to mention him and that happens here in Romans 5 – again, not in a good light.

Then in 1st Corinthians 15:22 Paul mentions his name again, saying:

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

Finally, his name is mentioned four more times in the Apostiolic Record but again, only referentially as the beginning (or Federal Head) of the human race.

As mentioned last week, however, we do read some interesting things about Eve.

After the Fall, her name is used to only twice in the entire Word. However, after the fall, we hear Eve’s heart in scripture.

In Genesis 4:1, at the birth of their first son, it was Eve who is quoted saying:

“I have gotten a man from the Lord.”

With the better translation reading, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.,”

After Cain slew Abel, and she bore another son Seth, Genesis 4:25 reports her to have said:

“And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”

In this we hear proclamations of faith and trust in God from the mouth of Eve alone . . . but nothing from the male mouth of the Father of our flesh.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews presents us in chapter eleven with a list of those we often refer to as “heroes in the Hall of Fame of faith. Whom does the writer turn to to begin his list? Adam, the father of our fallen flesh? No. He starts his chronology off with Abel, Adam’s slain son.

More specifically, the writer first mentions Abel, and adds in Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Samuel, Sampson, and Rahab too – all people of faith. All esteemed for their faith. But not word one about Adam.

I would suggest a thought – if I’m wrong I apologize in advance. But it seems to me, in light of these facts and in light of the lack of mentioning Adam in any meaningful way except referentially as the cause of the Fall, that perhaps Adam was never really sorry toward God. That he was never really repentant?

I mean just because God created Him in His image first, and breathed into Him his own breath of life, and called Him good, in no way means that Adam remained good.
Anymore that the created angel who became Satan remained a good angel.

Scripture subtly suggests that the Father of our flesh was not a man of faith, did not have a heart for God, and perhaps was embittered by being cast out of the garden.

Remember when God came to Adam and wanted to know the score of what had gone down, how Adam responded?

He placed the blame on everyone but himself, and there were only a few players involved!

In (Genesis 3:12) Adam said to God –

“The woman (first blame) whom thou gavest to be with me (second blame), she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”

Nevertheless, verse 14 says:

14 Nevertheless (Paul says, or despite this fact) 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.”

What does this mean, especially since we have seen that the first Man was such a fail? How did Adam then serve as a figure of Him (Jesus) who was to come?

The Greek word translated to “figure” here is too’-pos and it means a die, meaning a stamp, shape, statue, type, model – a fashion, figure, form, or pattern.

From what I can tell, citing scripture, the way Adam was a figure of Jesus to come was that he was a die, meaning a stamp, shape, statue, type, model – a fashion, figure, form, or pattern

Of the first man in flesh with Jesus being a type, die, stamp, model of the first man in Spirit.

Also, in this way, Adam was
As an antitype or negative image of what would be with Adam being a negative reflection and Jesus being the positive or living.

We find this view alluded to in 1st Corinthians 15:21 where we read

“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

This suggests that just as Adam, the first created son of flesh, brought death that the first created son of the Spirit (remember, Jesus was created when the Holy Spirit of God overshadowed Mary) would be the man who brings life.

Paul also speaks of Adam and Christ relative to the resurrection – which is another reason I am convinced that our resurrected body is spiritual and designed for heaven over a fleshly one designed for earth.

This is what Paul says in his comparison between Adam and Christ beginning at verse

1st Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual (Christ), but that which is natural (Adam); and afterward that which is spiritual (Christ).
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, (in this mortal life) we shall also bear the image of the heavenly (in our eternal life).
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

So, in these are some other ways, the scripture describes how Adam was a type for the One (who saves us) to come.

We will continue next week.

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