Romans 5:15-21 Bible Teaching

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SILENCE

So today is Easter and there is a segment of society that I would like to wish a very happy peep filled, jelly bean filled Easter Egg filled to – children – like our Lucy, and Eden Grace and the other children in our families that are out there. I hope they all have a wonderful day surrounded by Easter eggs, candy and great family memories.

To the adults, I’ve got nothing. Except the same wishes for peace and life and love that we have for each other every day of our lives.

See, the value of the resurrection is a day to day, minute by minute benefit as we choose to walk with the raised Christ who overcame sin, and death or we choose to walk without Him.

The power of the resurrection is therefore in and with believers constantly, and as a result we honor that event constantly – or not.

So to candy, and easter egg hunts and ham and family gatherings – salud! But as a religious day – not here.

Romans 5.end
April 4th 2021

Okay, so last week we entered into the discussion relative to the fall, sin, death and culpability.

Before we continue forward where we left off, Brother Shane, who is with his family vacationing this week (but watching from afar) asked about Eve and what the scripture says about her being “deceived.”

His point, which is a good one, is how much deception actually went into her eating the fruit.

It’s a great question because Genesis 3:6 says

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

So, it sounds like she make an actual decision, albeit one contrary to the commands of God, to eat the fruit rather than straight up being tricked or deceived.

Then we read in the same chapter beginning at verse 9

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

What is interesting about this, which Mike pointed out to me last week, is that when God shows up, everyone points the finger of blame to someone other than themselves, but God, a fairly administer of judgments on all of us, categorically ignored their blaming and one by one punished each of them for their crimes, saying at verse 14:

14 ¶ And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17 ¶ And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Back to verse 13 where the woman, passing the buck like her husband did, says that Satan beguiled her, the Hebrew Word is NAW-SHAW and it means

to lead astray, i.e. (mentally) to delude, or (morally) to seduce:–beguile, deceive but the key to this word is in its totality as it means to lead astray entirely or utterly. As in completely blinding rather than just partially blinding.

Paul, writing of Eve says in 2nd Corinthians 11:3 “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

That Greek term for beguile here is
ex-apat-aho, and again, it is unique in meaning that which

“seduces wholly, or deceives entirely.”

And so, the meaning from both old and apostolic record is very clear – she was not just deceived but she was wholly or completely tricked.

So to Shayne’s point, and relative to what Eve saw when looking upon the fruit, that it was good for food (it was practical,) it was pleasant to the eyes (it appeared delicious) and that it would make (whomever ate) it wise (which was probably the total deception because it did not make one wise but instead gave knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge are two very different things.

So, she may have reasoned through these factors to make her choice, but it was apparently faulty thinking, and instead of the choice being wise, she was fully deceived in that all of her observations, while true, were going to wind up contrary to goodness and therefore punishable to her and the human race thereafter.

Like Shayne intimated last week, she made a choice, and it was led based on observations, but those observations were founded on faulty perceptions, thereby she made them being wholly deceived.

I hope that helps somewhat, brother.

So, we left off at verse 14 and finished last week talking about Adam – the Father of our flesh. And verse fourteen read:

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.

So let’s pick it back up and see if we can’t finish chapter five today, beginning at verse 15:

Romans 5:15 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.

I’m really excited to cover this ground today and wrap up chapter five because once we’re through it we are through with Paul establishing His case and we’ll enter into him moving forward in chapter six.

Okay, in verse 15 Paul starts comparing the work done by Adam (which was unto condemnation) to the work done by Christ (which was unto our justification) among other things.

In the King James the first line of verse 15 is tough. So here goes:

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.

This is the first point of contrast between the effect of the sin of Adam and of the work of Christ.

The first line (in the “Kingus Jamius”) is brutally hard to understand when it says, “but not as the offense so also is the free gift.”

Simply put, perhaps the best way to read this is “But the offence of Adam is not like the free gift of Christ.”

The word offence here in the Greek means properly “to fall or stumble.” So, the first line says, in effect:

“But the stumbling or falling of Adam is not like the free gift of Christ.”

Or, in the reverse, the free gift of Christ is not – by its nature or in its promise – like the fall.

Where both (interestingly and oddly) have freely bestowed something upon Man, the benefits or the good bestowed gratuitously on us through Christ is the opposite of the detriments and darkness bestowed upon all by Adam.

Paul goes on, saying:

“For if through the offence (the stumbling or fall) of one (Adam) many (or all) be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. (I’ll explain the use of “many” here in a minute).

Again, Paul’s main point is to show the greater benefits that have resulted from the work of the Messiah than the evils from the fall of Adam.

In this, the world ought to rejoice!

See, as a result, from the transgression of Adam, Paul writes that “many” are “dead” (meaning “all” here in the Greek – right, because we know in Adam “all die,” not just “many”). So we understand that Paul’s use of many here is all.

Then he writes:

“much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.”

Now where it reads “that grace, through one has abounded unto many,” the Greek really reads, “unto the many.”

Paul begins with death passing onto “MANY” in this verse (which again means all) and then ends with GRACE abounding unto “THE MANY” (which I would suggest, again, means, “the All.”

We might not think this is any big deal but there is a reason he wrote it this way. And there are a couple ongoing arguments as to why.

The first argument states that the sin of Adam effected all (“the many”) BUT the work of Christ only extends to a portion of these affected by the fall (which is why the Greek has the article, “the” Many”).

The second argument suggest that they both mean the same thing – and that the phrase, “the many” refers to all those who have been adversely affected by the Fall (which is everyone) and all who have been effected by the work of Christ (which is everyone).

I agree with the latter argument so why even mention it to you? Because it is from points like this that proof texts for Calvinism spring.

If Jesus’ work only effects “the many” (meaning a limited number of select individuals) the point of limited atonement is reinforced by passages like this, not proven, but reinforced.

But if we interpret this passage to mean Jesus work for “THE many” refers to “all under the effects of the fall (which is everyone) then we have a support for a ubiquitous atonement – something the Reformed Theologians reject.

Taking the whole of scripture (the best we can) in context, I would suggest we have several meanings here; that it refers both to the general status of the human race of Man and to those who receive the finished work of God by faith.

There are many places in scripture where there are dual applications like this and I happen to think that this is one of them.

Verse 16, again quite cumbersome in the King James, says:

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.

A clearer way to say verse 16 might be:

“And not like the way one man sinned is the gift of grace given, for judgment came by the single sin of one man, but the free gift came after many offenses.”

In other words, the punishment for Adam’s sin and its effects came through one act of disobedience (by one man) but the grace of Christ, which too is from the work of one man, came about after many sins were committed.

This is the second point where the effects of the work of Christ differ from the sin of Adam.

Again, the first (found in Romans 5:15)
was that evil consequences flowed from the sin of one MAN, Adam, but that multitudinous benefits flowed from the work of one MAN, Jesus Christ.

Then the second point (made plain in this verse) is that the evil consequences flowed from one CRIME but that the favors through Christ has reference and application to many crimes or sins committed.

How was this possible?
How did Christ literally pay or propitiate for all sin (or many crimes as it reads here?) Paul does not say.

There is debate out there as to whether Yeshua suffered the punishment for every sin individually, you know like,

“He suffered for the time I stole a cookie,” and/or “He suffered for that time I punched my neighbor,”

And there is the other idea

that He suffered for all sin, lumped into one great universal whole.

I would suggest the latter – but you may be able to prove me wrong through scripture. I’m open to that.

What I’m not personally open to is the idea that He suffered only “for some sinners in the world.” Limited atonement is a lie as scripture plainly says otherwise.

This fact leads us into an arena many people misunderstand – myself included in the past.

But let me first establish the fact that Jesus suffered for the sins of the whole world.

John 1:29: “The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.'”

Luke 19:10: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (The “lost” seems to refer to the entire world of lost humanity, not just the lost elect.)
John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12),

John 4:42: “They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.'”

Romans 5:6: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”

1st Timothy 4:10: “We have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.”

Titus 2:11: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.”

Listen to 1st John 2:1-2 where John is speaking to believers:
“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
So, did Jesus suffer for the sins of the whole world. Absolutely.

When? Over 2000 years ago

Now don’t freak out over what I am about to say . . . hear me out . . . but if He propitiated (or reconciled) the whole world to God 2000 years ago has the whole world been forgiven, by God, of all of its sins?

I say, yes. Forgiven by way of punishment.

(long beat)

If this is the case, we then must ask, “Well then, is everyone saved because their sins have been forgiven?”

I would say yes and no. Yes, in that the wrath of God no longer abide upon them. No in that people are only saved TO the Kingdom of God by faith.

There is a saved from and a saved to in scripture. They are not the same thing. One has application to all, the other has application to those of faith in Christ.

Propitiation has been made – for all – and since this is so, all have been forgiven by and through Christ work.
Listen closely though, scripture does not teach that salvation is the result or is synonymous with a person “having their sins forgiven.”
The sins have already been forgiven – all of them – for the whole world. That is the “saved from” part. But true salvation remains elusive and “few be there that find it” as it comes by genuine faith and then promises “a saved to” for all who believe!
Nevertheless, many Christian churches teach what we might label “effectual forgiveness.” That is, they teach that sins are not forgiven until one believes Jesus died for their respective sins.
I’ve taught this in years past and have used the rhetoric on the air – (ie) “When you confess Jesus you will be forgiven of all your sins.”
But in saying things like this I have falsely taught that having one’s sins forgiven is equivalent to (or is synonymous with) being saved to the Kingdom. I now see them as very different aspects of Christ’s finished work.
To me, the doctrine of effectual forgiveness is not in the Bible. Quite frankly, the Bible (like passages we have read in Romans) teaches just the opposite “ . . . that while we (the world) were yet sinners (enemies of God – meaning unsaved) we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.”
It does not require faith to be reconciled to God as many falsely imply. Jesus propitiated the world whether we humans receive it and believe it or not. It is an unconditional gift and not one conditioned on our faith.
Nevertheless, we often see people by well meaning believers being encouraged to “have their sins forgiven” by and through this method or that.
Some religious folk are told to “be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.”
Others are asked to walk up the aisle and to ask God to “forgive them of their sins.”
Some are even told to have their sins forgiven by asking “Jesus into their hearts.” (a phrase that is not found in scripture but was popularized in the burned over district by zealous preachers of that day).
Some denominations believe that the only way to receive God’s forgiveness of sins is through confession of the sins to their leadership.
So it is no wonder that such churches or denominations also teach that a person is saved when his sins are confessed and then forgiven.
The scripture teaches that Christ paid for the sins of the world and that through this act God has been reconciled to the world. Therefore, everyone has been saved FROM his wrath but not TO His Kingdom, and not to a state of receiving His glorious rewards for choosing faith, but FROM His wrath for sin.
So, if we have all been forgiven, how are we then saved?
Paul writes in Romans 10:9-10
“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
“Confessing with the mouth the LORD Jesus” is akin to saying, “I believe that Jesus is God with us, the Great I Am, that He was born of a virgin, that He lived a perfect life, and that He shed His blood via crucifixion for the sins of the world . . .”
“And believing in my heart that God has raise Him from the dead” is saying you have faith in the final and wholly important act that sealed His life’s work – the resurrection, which was the point where God Himself recognized Jesus in the flesh as His only Begotten Son!
Listen to how Paul describes the Good News and of what it consists in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8:
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
The Bible teaches that “while we were enemies of God (meaning unsaved) all were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.”
It does not require faith to be reconciled to God as many churches falsely teach. Tt does not require faith to have our sins propitiated, paid for and forgiven. That work has been done –believe it or not.
And while “universal reconciliation” is a sound Biblical doctrine, “universal salvation” is certainly not.
The difference between reconciliation and salvation can be found in
Romans 4:22-25
Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him; but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
Romans 5:10
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
1st Corinthians 15:21-22
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
2 Corinthians 5:14
“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and he died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again.”
We are saved to relationship, to His kingdom, to His family of Saints by receiving His resurrected life in us and being filled with the Holy Spirit by God’s grace through faith. And being saved we have Christ in us because we have been born-from above.
Forgiveness of sin was long ago for all. Salvation comes by faith in the finished work which produced that forgiveness.
I am also convinced that God never gives up in his efforts to save people to His kingdom. But freewill there, like freewill here, will cause some to say, “no thank you, please.”
Okay, verse 17 in Romans 5, Paul continues saying:
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.)

Here Paul sort of repeats himself and gives us the same idea but in a varied form. But notice that line, “The gift of righteousness.”

Certainly, this stands opposed to the evils introduced by Adam.

Adam’s crime introduced to all the “gift of condemnation” but Christ’s work bestows the opposite – “the Gift of Righteousness.”

Righteousness by virtue of overcoming all the effects of Father Adam’s actions.

Righteousness by paying the price for all the worlds sin which put enmity between God and Man,

And righteousness by the righteous and holy life He lived on our behalf.

Here Paul adds:

“much more “they” (the saved to) which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

In other words, those who receive, by faith, all the work Jesus has done, shall reign in life (by the one who gave it – even Jesus).

Paul adds (“in life”) to this as a way to stand in opposition to the death Adam introduced to the world here . . . and the world to come for those who do not receive the finished work of Christ by faith. And this ends Paul’s parenthetical reference which brings us to verse 18.

Now remember, he left off at verse 12 saying:

12 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned:–

And now we could jump to verse 18 to continue on with that thought as he says:

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.

So, verse 18 is just a recapitulation of what had been stated in the previous verses.

Notice, relative to our topic of the forgiveness of all of humanities sins what verse 18 says?

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.

Now some would interpret this passage to be speaking of resurrection, that because of One Man, Christ, all will be resurrected – some to a resurrection of life and some to a resurrection of damnation. And that this is what Paul is talking about here.

But notice that from Adam judgment came upon “all men to condemnation.” Upon this Christians universally agree. That word means the condemnation of God upon the whole of humanity, body, soul and spirit.

And then notice that Paul, speaking of Christ, says that the FREE GIFT CAME UPON ALL MEN UNTO THE JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE – WHICH INCLUDES PRESENT AND FUTURE ETERNAL LIFE.

Verse 19 helps clarify this to be true when Paul says:

19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, (not, were just made subject to death, but many (I would suggest all) were made SINNERS) so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous (NOT JUST RESURRECTED) but made okay before God – which I suggest means many (the all) have their sins forgiven.

Here in verse 19 Paul explains the former verse.

Without this explanation we might believe or misinterpret verse 18 as only speaking of resurrection being the free gift.

But Paul felt an explanation was needed and in providing one completely shuts the door on the notion that the free gift offered to all mankind is merely physical resurrection but was instead a universal salvation from hell, the grave and the wrath of God.

Now that he has established the fact that Adam set us up big time and Jesus saved us up bigger time, Paul leans into another aspect of human-kind’s depravity.

It is believed that Paul added this primarily for the benefit of the Jews, who may have thought or been under the impression that having the Law, and by their obedience to it, they overcame the effects of the Fall.

I tend to think this may have been his primary reason for his stating this here but I also think the passage can be used to show that in addition to all the facts he’s laid out relative to the world’s state of sin, the Law came in and convicted everyone under it.

This is a final comparative that Paul makes on our behalf. He first compared the sin of Adam to the salvation of Christ, and here he compares the results of the Law with the salvation of Christ and so he says at verse 20

20 Moreover, (Paul adds, meaning ADDITIONALLY) the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

In saying this, Paul is showing that the effects of the law of Moses (on the Jews and possibly even on legalistic Christians today) was to increase (rather than diminish) the sins which had been introduced into the world by Adam.

And if this was the case, nobody could allow themselves to believe that obedience to the Law could ever bring someone the grace that abounded only by and through Christ.

So, Paul says, when the Law popped up (from Sinai) the Jews sins also abounded even more in the face of it! As we said last week, the people were sinful prior to the establishment of the Law, but (or “MOREOVER”) when the Law came, offenses were “abounding.”

A number of years ago, after I had left Mormonism and embraced Christianity, I had the first real and civil discussion with my younger brother (who is a staunch Mormon) on religion. Prior to this we were at odds with each other.

We had had theological warfare in the past and so all conversations have, for the ten years prior, been tenuous at best.

In that discussion I explained to him that for me, who was naturally rebellious and antisocial to some extent, Mormonism only served to further convict me, not aid me in grasping God’s solution.

In other words, I was able to say to my brother what Paul is saying here to the Jews, that while I was naturally rebellious from the womb, when I was placed under the law of Mormonism, my sin did more abound.

If I had stopped there, I would have been the most miserable of Men since I did paradoxically care deeply about God.

And therefore in the light of His saving grace, where salvation and liberty superabounded, I was supremely blessed.

That is the meaning of the way Paul describes how the grace of Christ overcomes all sins . . . He says that it
“superabounded.”

And he concludes chapter five with . . .

21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

That as sin, which came by virtue of our fallen natures, and by our willful ways, that was also enhanced in light of the Law written in stone, as Paul says, “unto death,” (He adds) “even so might grace –

A free gift.
An unattached, unconditional gift of salvation . . .

“reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Where Paul says, “through righteousness,” He does not mean “by and/or through our righteousness” but through, or by means of God’s plan of justification and righteousness, which is by and through the superabundant works of His Only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Beginning next week, we start to hear from Paul what all of this means, all of this grace, this love in action, in the lives of those who receive Him by faith.

Questions/Comments/Prayer