Romans 5.12b-The Imputation of Adam's Sin to the Entire Human Race
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday April 27, 2008
Romans: Romans 5:12b-The Imputation of Adam’s Sin to the Entire Human Race
Lesson # 159
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 5:12.
This morning we will continue with our study of Romans chapter five.
Wednesday we presented a broad overview of Romans 5:12-21, in which Paul presents the basis of the believer’s justification through a comparison of Adam’s disobedience with the obedience of Christ.
The former resulted in condemnation to the entire human race whereas the latter brought blessing and the availability of justification for the entire human race.
Thursday we studied Romans 5:12a, which teaches that the sin nature and spiritual death entered the human race through the disobedience of one man, Adam.
This morning we will note Romans 5:12b, which teaches that each and every member of the human race received the imputation of Adam’s sin at the moment of physical birth.
Let’s read Romans 5:12-21 and then concentrate on verse 12 this evening.
Romans 5:12-13, “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 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
Romans 5:14, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, 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.”
Romans 5:15, “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.”
Romans 5:16, “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.”
Romans 5:17, “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:18, “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.”
Romans 5:19, “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.”
Romans 5:20-21, “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Let’s study in detail Romans 5:12b.
Romans 5:12, “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.”
“And” is the “consecutive” use of the conjunction kai (kaiV), which introduces the result of spiritual death entering the human race through the sin nature.
Adam’s original sin in the Garden of Eden resulted in the sin nature, which in turn “resulted in” spiritual death.
Adam’s original sin plus Adam’s sin nature equals “spiritual death,” which means that every member of the human race is separated from God and has absolutely no capacity to have a relationship with God who is holy.
“So” is the adverb of manner houtos (ou^tw$) (hoo-tos), which is drawing a comparison with the preceding statement and the one to follow.
In the preceding statement Paul taught that through Adam, the sin nature entered into the human race and consequently spiritual death entered through the sin nature.
In the statement to follow, he teaches spiritual death spread to each and every human being without exception or distinction.
Therefore, houtos draws a comparison between the manner in which spiritual death entered the human race and the manner in which spiritual death spread to the entire human race.
The manner in which spiritual death entered the human race and the manner in which spiritual death spread throughout the entire human race is one and the same, namely, through Adam’s act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden.
The emphatic position of the prepositional phrase di’ henos anthropou, “through one man” clearly indicates this to be the case.
So we can see that Adam’s act of disobedience that brought condemnation to his posterity in comparison with Christ’s act of obedience that resulted in justification of life to all men underlines the entire discussion in Romans 5:12-21.
Therefore, the adverb of manner houtos is comparing the manner in which the sin nature and spiritual death entered the human race with the manner in which spiritual death spread to the entire human race.
Adam’s act of disobedience was the manner in which both the sin nature and spiritual death entered the human race and also spread to each and every member of the human race without exception or distinction.
Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
“Death” is the noun thanatos (qavnato$) (than-at-os), which refers once again to real spiritual death.
Although, in Romans 5:12, thanatos is used of spiritual death, we must be aware of the fact that spiritual death also resulted in three other categories of death: (1) Physical death is the separation of the human soul (and in the case of the believer, the human spirit also) from the body (Matt. 8:22; Rom. 8:38-39; 2 Cor. 5:1-8; Phil. 1:20-21; 2:27, 30). (2) Second death is the perpetuation of spiritual death into eternity or eternal separation from God and it is the final judgment of the unbelievers in the human race and fallen angels whereby they are cast in the Lake of Fire (Matt. 25:41; Heb. 9:27; Rev. 20:12-15). (3) Unique voluntary substitutionary spiritual death of the impeccable humanity of Christ in hypostatic union on the cross (Matt. 27:45-46; Mark 15:34; Phlp. 2:8; Hb. 2:9, 14).
Christ’s spiritual death was needed to resolve the first three categories of death since physical death and the second death are the result of spiritual death.
Romans 5:12, “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.”
“Spread” is the verb dierchomai (dievrxomai) (dee-er-khom-i), which denotes that spiritual death “spread throughout” the entire human race.
In the same way, a deadly contagious virus can spread completely throughout an entire population so spiritual death spread throughout the entire human race.
This verb dierchomai speaks of the imputation of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden that every member of the human race receives at the moment of physical birth.
Imputation is the function of the justice of God in crediting something to someone for cursing or for blessing.
At the moment of physical birth, every member of the human race becomes a sinner because he has received the imputation of Adam’s sin in the garden.
The imputation of divine righteousness at the moment of spiritual birth is made possible by the imputation of Adam’s sin in the garden at the moment of physical birth (Romans 5:12-19).
The imputation of Adam’s sin at physical birth results in every person having the nature of Adam, which resides in the genetic structure of the physical body and can never please God but is selfish and self-centered and always disobedient to God.
This imputation means that every person born into the world is born physically alive but spiritually dead, yet qualified for the imputation of divine righteousness through faith alone in Christ alone.
The imputation of Adam’s sin in the Garden also resulted in the imputation of the sins of the world to Christ on the Cross.
The reason why God imputed Adam’s sin in the garden to every member of the human race at physical birth is given in two passages of Scripture:
Galatians 3:22, ‘But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”
Romans 11:32, “For God has shut up all in (Adam’s) disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”
Therefore, through a comparison these two passages, we can see that God’s purpose in imputing Adam’s sin to the entire human race was so that He might show mercy to the human race by making the promise of justification by faith in His Son Jesus Christ and the blessings that result from it.
Romans 5:12, “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.”
“To all men” means that spiritual death resulting in physical death spread to each and every person in the human race without exception and without distinction.
The fact that all men without exception received the imputation of Adam’s sin at the moment of physical birth is clearly indicated by the context.
Romans 5:15b, “For if by the transgression of the one the many died.”
Romans 5:16a, “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.”
Romans 5:17a, “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one.”
Romans 5:18a, “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men.”
Romans 5:19a, “For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners.”