Romans 5.15b-Christ's Act of Obedience Produced Infinitely Superior Results than Adam's Act of Disobedience
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday May 8, 2008
Romans: Romans 5:15b-Christ’s Act Of Obedience Produced Infinitely Superior Results Than Adam’s Disobedience
Lesson # 165
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 5:12.
Last evening we noted Romans 5:15a, in which Paul teaches that Adam’s act is absolutely not identical in essence with Christ’s act.
The former was a transgression and the latter was an act of God’s grace.
This evening we will study Romans 5:15b, in which Paul employs a first class conditional statement, and the a fortiori principle to teach us that Christ’s act of obedience produced infinitely superior results than Adam’s act of disobedience.
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.”
As we noted last evening, Romans 5:15 is divided into two sections: (1) Romans 5:15a, “However, on the other hand, this transgression is absolutely not, as an eternal spiritual truth, like the gracious act.” (2) Romans 5:15b, “For if and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that by means of this transgression committed by the one, the entire human race died. Of course, we know this is true. How much more then has the grace originating from God and the gift on the basis of grace, which is specifically, on the basis of the obedience of the one Man, who is Jesus, who is the Christ been generously and graciously offered to the entire human race.”
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.”
“For” is the “explanatory” use of the conjunction gar (gavr), which introduces a statement that “explains why” Adam’s transgression is absolutely not like the gracious act of obedience performed by Jesus Christ at the Cross.
“If” is the conditional particle ei (ei)) (i), which introduces a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
The basic relation that the protasis has to the apodasis is “evidence-inference.”
The evidence: If one man’s sin brought spiritual death resulting in physical death.
The inference: Then, how much more will the unique God-Man’s obedience result in not only blessing for those in the human race who trust in Him and His Work on the Cross but also will restore and bless the earth.
If an ordinary man’s (Adam) sin brought death and condemnation to the entire human race, “how much more” will God’s grace flow to the entire human race through the sinless God-Man, Jesus Christ’s unselfish, self-sacrificial act of obedience on the Cross.
So the act of the sinless God-Man is infinitely superior and more powerful than the act of an ordinary man.
1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.”
The results of Christ’s obedience is superior to results produced by Adam’s disobedience in that the former was an act of total unselfishness and the latter was an act of total selfishness.
Christ’s act of obedience was one of total self-sacrifice.
Adam thought only of himself whereas Christ was thinking of others.
Thus, the very essence or nature of Christ’s obedience is totally superior to that of Adam’s disobedience.
If Adam’s disobedience resulted in his posterity being spiritually dead, then how much more certain must be the results of Christ’s obedience, which were the result of unselfishness and self-sacrifice.
This principle also emphasizes that if one man’s disobedience could have universal consequences “how much more” will be the results of Christ’s obedience that was for the sake of others and done out of unselfishness and self-sacrifice.
Paul is reassuring his readers that if God condemned to death Adam’s posterity due to his sin, then they can be certain that God’s grace will abound also to the entire human race as a result of Christ’s unselfish, self-sacrificial act of obedience in going to the Cross to die spiritually as a substitute for the entire human race.
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.”
“By the transgression of the one the many died” means that the entire human race died spiritually the moment Adam disobeyed the Lord’s command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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.”
“Much more” is composed of the adjective polus and the comparative adverb mallon and forms the principle of a fortiori.
They emphasize that if by means of Adam’s transgression the entire human race died spiritually, then how much more greater were the results of Christ’s obedience.
The expression pollo mallon introduces the argument that the results of Christ’s obedience were infinitely superior to the results of Adam’s disobedience.
In other words, the results of God’s gracious gift of His Son and His Son’s gracious act in dying a substitutionary spiritual death for all mankind was infinitely greater for good than the evil resulting from Adam’s transgression.
So the logical argument of a fortiori as expressed by the words pollo mallon emphasizes that the obedience of Christ not only cancelled the effects of Adam’s transgression but also it provided infinitely more than Adam lost or even possessed when he disobeyed.
The principle of a fortiori as expressed through the words pollo mallon, “much more” emphasize that the very essence of Christ’s act was infinitely superior to Adam’s act in that it was one of self-sacrifice and unselfishness.
In Romans 5:15, this principle of a fortiori also emphasizes the certainty that if Adam’s disobedience resulted in his posterity being spiritually dead, then how much more certain must be the results of Christ’s obedience, which were the result of unselfishness and self-sacrifice.
If one man’s sin brought spiritual death resulting in physical death and a curse to not only the human race but also the earth, how much more will the unique God-Man’s obedience result in not only blessing for those in the human race who trust in Him and His Work on the Cross but also will restore and bless the earth.
If an ordinary man’s (Adam) sin brought death and condemnation to the entire human race, “how much more” will God’s grace flow to the entire human race through the sinless God-Man, Jesus Christ’s unselfish, self-sacrificial act of obedience on the Cross.
Therefore, the principle of a fortiori in Romans 5:15 emphasizes that Christ’s act of obedience is infinitely greater for good for the entire human race than the death and condemnation resulting from Adam’s transgression.
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.”
“The grace of God” refers to the sum total of unmerited benefits, both temporal and spiritual, imparted to the sinner through the harmonious function of the sum total of God’s attributes as a result of the sinner making the non-meritorious decision to trust in the Person and Work of Christ on the Cross.
Grace is all that God is free to do in imparting unmerited blessings to those who trust in Jesus Christ as Savior based upon the merits of Christ and His death on the Cross.
It is God treating us in a manner that we don’t deserve and excludes any human works in order to acquire eternal salvation or blessing from God.
Grace means that God saved us and blessed us despite ourselves and not according to anything that we do but rather saved us and blessed us because of the merits of Christ and His work on the Cross.
It excludes any human merit in salvation and blessing (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5) and gives the Creator all the credit and the creature none.
By means of faith, we accept the grace of God, which is a non-meritorious system of perception, which is in total accord with the grace of God.
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.”
“The gift” is the noun dorea (dwreav) (do-reh-ah), which refers to the “gift” of righteousness since this is clearly indicated by Paul’s statement in Romans 5:17, that the “gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
“By the grace” emphasizes that the gift of righteousness has abounded to the entire human race “on the basis of” of God’s grace policy.
“Of the one Man” is an obvious reference to the Last Adam, Jesus Christ as indicated by the genitive expression Iesou Christou, “Jesus Christ,” which follows it.
This expression contains the figure of metonymy where Jesus Christ is put for His act of obedience to the Father’s will in going to the Cross to die a substitutionary spiritual death for all of sinful mankind.
Therefore, the genitive expression tou henos anthropou Iesou Christou emphasizes that the gift of righteousness has abounded to the entire human race on the basis of God’s grace policy, which is namely solely on the basis of Jesus Christ’s act of obedience.
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.”
The expression “abound to the many” denotes that on the basis of His grace policy and specifically on the basis of Jesus Christ’s act obedience, God “has generously and graciously made available” or “offered” to the entire human race the gift of righteousness.