Romans 5.18-The Contrast Between the Extent of Adam's Act of Disobedience and Christ's Act of Obedience
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday May 20, 2008
Romans: Romans 5:18-The Contrast Between the Extent of Adam’s Disobedience and Christ’s Obedience
Lesson # 171
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 5:12.
This evening we will note Romans 5:18, in which the apostle Paul presents the contrast between the “extent” of Adam’s act of disobedience and Christ’s act of obedience.
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 for.”
Romans 5:13, “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.”
“So then” is composed of the “inferential” particle ara (a&ra) (ar-ah), “so” and the “transitional” or “resumptive” use of the conjunction oun (ou@n) (oon), “then.”
Together, these two words emphasize the logical connection between Paul’s statements in Romans 5:12-17 with his statement to follow in Romans 5:18.
“As” is the relative adverb of manner hos (w($) (hoce), which is employed with the adverb of manner houtos, “so” in order to form a correlative clause that compares the extent to which Adam’s disobedience affected the human race with that of Christ’s obedience.
“Through one transgression” refers to the fact that the entire human race was condemned through the personal intermediate agency of Adam as a result of his deliberate and intentional violation of the Lord’s prohibition in the Garden of Eden to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
“There resulted condemnation” indicates that Adam’s disobedience to the Lord’s command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil resulted in condemnation for both Adam and all of his posterity.
“To all men” means that through Adam’s act of disobedience, condemnation extended to each and every person in the human race without exception and without distinction.
“So” is the adverb of manner houtos (ou^tw$) (hoo-tos), which is employed with the relative adverb of manner hos, “just as” in order to form a correlative clause that compares the extent to which Adam’s transgression affected the human race with that of Christ’s obedience.
It is introducing the apodasis of the comparative clause and is drawing a comparison from the previous historical fact of Adam’s transgression with another historical fact, namely, Christ’s act of obedience.
Adam’s transgression condemned the entire human race and “in the same way” Christ’s obedience provided the availability of justification through faith in Jesus Christ to all men.
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.”
“Even” is the “adjunctive” use of the conjunction kai (kaiV) introduces an “additional” statement about Adam’s act of disobedience, which hold true with Christ’s act of obedience, namely, that both acts affected the entire human race.
“Through one act of righteousness” means that the basis for the offer of justification being extended to the entire human race was accomplished through the personal intermediate agency of Christ whose obedience to the Father’s will in going to the Cross and dying a substitutionary spiritual death for all mankind.
This death is the basis for justification since it propitiated or satisfied the demands of God’s holiness, which required that sin be judged.
“There resulted justification of life” refers to the fact that our Lord’s voluntary substitutionary spiritual death on the Cross for all of sinful mankind resulted in the basis for the offer justification being extended to all men.
In Romans 5:18, the noun dikaiosis, “justification” is used in contrast with the noun katakrima, “condemnation,” which we noted refers to the penalty of condemnation or in other words, the state of being condemned that resulted from the guilty verdict rendered by the Supreme Court of Heaven after Adam sinned.
Thus, katakrima refers to the legal status of the sinner being condemned under the penalty of real spiritual death, physical death and eternal condemnation.
The noun dikaioma refers to the legal status of the sinner or in other words, the state of being righteous as a result of God declaring them righteous after imputing His righteousness to them the moment they trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior since it parallels the noun katakrima.
The noun dikaioma refers to the “offer” of justification that is “available” for all of sinful humanity since Paul clearly taught in Romans 3:21-4:25 that the sinner must exercise faith alone in Christ alone to be declared justified by God.
Galatians 2:16, “Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”
Paul is using the figure of metonymy meaning that the term dikaiosis, “justification” is used for the “basis for the offer” of justification, which is appropriated through faith alone in Christ alone.
In Romans 5:18, as was the case in Romans 5:17, the noun zoe, “life” refers to the eternal life the believer received the moment he exercised faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Eternal life is an attribute of God the Father (Jo. 5:26; 6:57; 1 Th. 1:9), God the Son (Jn. 5:26, 6:35 Phlp. 2:16; 1 Jo. 1:1) and God the Holy Spirit (Jn. 6:63; Rm. 8:2).
Eternal life is the very life of God has no beginning and no end and transcends time, matter and space.
God is an “ever present now” because He is by nature, eternal life.
Eternal life is received as gift from God the moment you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His uniquely born Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
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.”
“To all men” means that Christ’s act of obedience established the basis for the offer of justification, which produces eternal life, being “extended to each and every person in the human race without exception and without distinction.”
Paul is not teaching that the entire human race is automatically justified as a result of Christ’s act of obedience to the Father’s will in going to the Cross.
Rather, he is teaching that Christ’s death established the basis for the offer of justification being extended to each and every member of the human race without exception and distinction.
The fact that the sinner has to make a volitional decision in relation to this offer is clearly taught by Paul in Romans 3:21-5:1 and many other passages such as Ephesians 2:8-9, Galatians 2:16 and John 3:16-17 just to name a few.
Romans 3:21-30, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.”
Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”
