Christ's Triump over Adam's Sin
In Adam all Die (14-17)
Sin was in the world before the law
In Rom. 5:13–14, then, we see that the power of death is so great that it exercises its dominion over people even if no law exists. In addition, violating a commandment revealed by God increases the seriousness of sin in the sense that the sin is now more defiant and rebellious in character (Calvin 1960: 119; Westerholm 1988: 183–84). This point accords with the Pauline conception that sin increases (5:20) and takes on a sharper profile (7:7–11) through the law.
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 (2:12–16); and Jews before the time of Moses were only in the position of Gentiles. But the degree of their guilt could not be the same either as that of Adam, or as that of the Jews after the Mosaic legislation
Accepting the likelihood of such an antithetical grammatical patterning in 5:13–14, we suggest that these two verses should be read as follows:
1. Paul justifies his statement at the end of 5:12 that “all have sinned [in the course of history]” by pointing out that “before the [Mosaic] law was given, sin was in the world.”
2. An objection that he knows could be raised against his justifying comment is given: “But sin is not (δὲ οὐκ) taken into account when there is no law.”
3. The apostle rebuts this objection: “Nevertheless (ἀλλά), death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the same way by breaking a command as did Adam.” This rebuttal draws attention to the fact that people died before the Mosaic law was given, and so implies that since death, which came into the world because of sin, was a reality for everyone prior to the time of Moses, the sin of all people was also a reality throughout all of human history.
Paul’s point is that their sins, though still punishable by death, were not technically counted against them in the same way as sin was counted against Adam. In Rom. 5:12–14 Paul considers both the sin of Adam and the sin of those who lived between the time of Adam and Moses. In both cases sin led to death, but Adam played a fundamental and typological role that those who followed him did not play, and hence Adam’s sin and death are the fountainhead for the sin and death that ensued. As A. Hultgren (2011: 226; cf. also 227) says, Adam is “positioned as the head of humanity.” Adam and Christ are the typological heads, and their fundamental role is explicated in the following verses.
Death Reigned from Adam to Moses
The Heresy of Pelagianism
entirely rejects the doctrine of original sin and confines sin to separate acts of the will, which retains the power to choose sinlessly as much as sinfully.
Arminianism* is semi-Pelagian* in its position on original sin. It agrees with Pelagians that sin consists in separate acts of the will, and that the guilt of Adam’s first sin is not transmitted to his descendants. It disagrees with Pelagians in that it holds that fallen man is depraved, though not totally, and that the pollution of Adam’s first sin is transmitted to his descendants.
The Free Gift (15-17)
Justification and Life for all Men (18-21)
One trespass led to death.
One act of righteousness leads to justification.
The Law came to increase the trespass
Just as Adam’s sin was imputed to us, so Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us.
Christs obedience makes us righteous
The law slipped in
34.30 παρεισέρχομαι; παρεισδύω: to join surreptitiously with evil intent—‘to slip into a group unnoticed, to join unnoticed.’
to come in beside, slip in, come in as a side issue, of the law, as having no primary place in the divine plan Ro 5:20.
The Removal of Guilt
Though some traditional translations render ἱλαστήριον as ‘propitiation,’ this involves a wrong interpretation of the term in question. Propitiation is essentially a process by which one does a favor to a person in order to make him or her favorably disposed, but in the NT God is never the object of propitiation since he is already on the side of people. ἱλασμός and ἱλαστήριονa denote the means of forgiveness and not propitiation.
The Declaration of Righteousness
Alien Righteousness
In the Protestant understanding of justification, God’s action by which the righteousness of Jesus Christ is reckoned to or bestowed on the sinner (Rom. 5:17–18). This is an “alien righteousness” given as an act of God’s grace apart from works and received by faith alone.