Romans 5.15c-The Gift of Righteousness Has Been Generously and Graciously Offered to the Entire Human Race
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday May 11, 2008
Romans: Romans 5:15c-The Gift Of Righteousness Has Been Generously And Graciously Offered To The Entire Human Race
Lesson # 166
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 5:12.
This morning we will note Romans 5:15c, in which Paul teaches us that the gift of righteousness has been generously and graciously offered by God to the entire human race on the basis of His grace policy and specifically, on the basis of Christ’s obedience.
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 look at verse 15 in detail.
Romans 5:15a, “But the free gift is not like the transgression.”
This statement stands in direct contrast with Paul’s statement at the end of Romans 5:14, “who is a type of Him who was to come.”
It introduces the first of seven different statements that present seven different ways in which Christ is “not” like Adam, which serve to warn the reader not to misunderstand the statement that Adam is a type of Christ.
“The free gift” is the noun charisma (xavrisma) (khar-is-mah), which refers to the obedience of Christ to the Father’s will in going to the Cross and dying a substitutionary spiritual death of all of sinful mankind.
“The free gift is not like the transgression” emphatically negates the idea that Adam’s act of disobedience and Christ’s act of obedience are identical in essence.
“The transgression” is the noun paraptoma (paravptwma) (para-ap-to-mah), which refers to Adam’s deliberate and intentional violation of the Lord’s prohibition in the Garden of Eden to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Romans 5:15b, “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.”
This statement “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.
Romans 5:15b, “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.
“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.
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 5:15b, “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 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..
“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.”
The noun dorea means, “gracious gift” since it emphasizes the gratuitous character of the gift or in other words, it stresses that the gift was not given to the recipient on the basis of merit.
It refers to the gift of righteousness with emphasis upon the fact that the sinner receives it on a non-meritorious basis when he exercised faith in Jesus Christ as his or her Savior, which is in accordance with God’s grace policy.
“By the grace” emphasizes that the gift of righteousness have abounded to the entire human race “on the basis of” of God’s grace policy.
“Of the one Man, Jesus Christ” emphasizes that the gift of righteousness has abounded to the entire human race on the basis of God’s grace policy, which is solely on the basis of Jesus Christ’s act of obedience.
The expression “did 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.
“Did abound” is verb perisseuo (perisseuvw) (per-is-syoo-o), which means, “to make available something to someone in great abundance, to generously and graciously provide or offer something to someone.”
Perisseuo is used of the noun dorea, which refers to the gift of righteousness.
Therefore, the verb denotes that on the basis of His grace policy and specifically on the basis of Jesus Christ’s act of obedience, God “has generously and graciously made available” or “offered” to the entire human race the gift of righteousness.
“To the many” is the adjective polus (poluv$) (pol-oos), which refers to the entire human race without exception or distinction.
Since God condemned the entire human race through Adam’s disobedience, He has also offered His righteousness as a gift to the entire human race on the basis of His grace policy and specifically, on the basis of His Son’s obedience.