Romans 5.21-The Contrast Between the Dominion of Adam's Disobedience and Christ's Obedience
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday May 25, 2008
Romans: Romans 5:21-The Contrast Between the Dominion of Adam’s Act and Christ’s Act
Lesson # 174
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 5:12.
This morning we will complete our study of Romans chapter five and by doing so we will also be completing a study of the third major section in the book of Romans, which appears in Romans 3:21-5:21.
Today, we will note Romans 5:21, in which Paul contrasts the “dominions” of Adam’s act and Christ’s act.
In the former, sin reigned as king in spiritual death while, in the latter, grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life.
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, “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”
Romans 5:21, “So that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“Grace” is the noun charis (xavri$) (khar-ece), which 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.
Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
“Sin” is the noun hamartia (a(martiva) (ham-ar-tee-ah), which refers to the sin nature since the word is being personified by the verb basileuo, “to reign as a king or tyrant.”
The sin nature is personified by Paul throughout Romans in that not only does he teach that sin “reigns” (5:20; cf. 6:13-14), but that it also can be “obeyed” (6:16-17), it pays wages (6:23), it seizes opportunities (7:8, 11), it “deceives” and “kills” (7:11, 13).
“Personification” is the ascribing of human characteristics or actions to inanimate objects or ideas or to animals.
In Romans 5:20, Paul is ascribing the human action of reigning to the sin nature.
“Reigned” is the verb basileuo (basileuvw) (bas-il-yoo-o), which means that the sin nature “has reigned as a cruel tyrant” over the entire human race because of Adam’s transgression.
“In death” means that the sin nature reigned “in the sphere of” or the “dominion of” or the “realm of” spiritual death.
Romans 5:21, “So that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“Through righteousness” indicates that the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to the sinner when the sinner exercises faith in Christ is the instrument or means by which the grace of God reigns.
Man’s relative righteousness falls infinitely short of God’s absolute righteousness in the Person of Christ.
Isaiah 64:6, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
The righteousness of God can never be attained by anyone through human power and dynamics or by keeping the Mosaic Law but rather it is received as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ who is the righteousness of God incarnate.
The works of the Law can never attain the righteousness of God (Titus 3:5).
Titus 3:5-7, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to {the} hope of eternal life.”
1 Corinthians 1:30, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.”
Romans 5:21, “So that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“To eternal life” indicates that eternal life is the result of the grace of God reigning through righteousness, i.e. being imputed to the sinner through faith in Christ.
The eternal life of God does not simply emphasize that it is a life that never ends but it is also a particular quality of life.
It is a life in which the believer has knowledge of the Trinity in an experiential sense of personally encountering them through the process of fellowship as They are revealed in the pages of Scripture and prayer by God the Holy Spirit.
It also involves being affected by this encounter with the Trinity resulting in the gaining of practical spiritual wisdom and more of the character of Christ.
In Romans 5:21, as was the case in Romans 5:17-18, the noun zoe refers to the eternal life of God that the believer received the moment he exercised faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Eternal life is an attribute of God.
Since, each member of the Trinity is co-equal, co-infinite and co-eternal, each also is eternal life: (1) God the Father is eternal life (Jo. 5:26; 6:57; 1 Th. 1:9). (2) The Word of God is eternal life (Jn. 5:26, 6:35 Phlp. 2:16; 1 Jo. 1:1) (3) The Holy Spirit is eternal life (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 a 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.”
The Lord Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God and therefore He is also the incarnate eternal life of God and to reject that He is God is to reject eternal life.
John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’”
Romans 5:21, “So that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“Through Jesus Christ our Lord” emphasizes that the grace of God reigning through the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, which results in eternal life for the sinner is accomplished “through the personal intermediate agency of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
This prepositional phrase emphasizes the personal intermediate agency of Jesus Christ our Lord whose spiritual death set the sinner free from the tyranny of sin and spiritual death.
In fact, throughout Romans chapter five the preposition dia, “through” is continually employed by Paul with vary words in the genitive case in order to emphasize the Mediatorship of Jesus Christ: “through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1), “by whom” (Romans 5:2), “through Him” (Romans 5:9), “through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10), “through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:11), “through whom” (Romans 5:11), “through the One” (Romans 5:17), “through the One” (Romans 5:18), “through the One’s obedience” (Romans 5:19) and “through Jesus, who is the Christ, who is our Lord” (Romans 5:21).