The need for deliverance. Often when souls are converted they are initially full of appreciation, although still naive about the flesh. Time goes by and they sin, and sin again, and again…and discover the presence of indwelling sin (Rom. 7). They become shocked and afraid. They need to learn that the death and resurrection of Christ are sufficient to deliver them from sin. The way we find deliverance is outlined in these chapters. We learn in ch.6 that that the power of sin was broken at the cross, and we are dead to it; but we need to reckon it (“think it to be so”) as God does. Those coming from a legal background (ch.7) may try to obtain deliverance from sin through the Law; but this backfires and only makes the condition worse. We must learn to look completely away from ourselves and see Christ alone as our salvation. When a person has looked to Christ for salvation, they are indwelt by the Spirit of God, and receive the power to walk in “newness of life”. This is why Rom. 5:12 – 8:17 come in this order; it meets the need of the soul according to their experience.

 

Outline of Paul’s teaching on deliverance:

• The doctrine of deliverance from sin (Rom. 5:12 – 7:6)
  • Our transfer into Christ’s race (Rom. 5:12-21)
  • Identification with Christ means freedom from sin’s dominion (Rom. 6:1-23)
  • Identification with Christ means freedom from the Law’s dominion (Rom. 7:1-6)
• The experience of a soul under law leading to deliverance (Rom. 7:7-25)
• The results that flow from deliverance (Rom. 8:1-17)

• Justification declares a person judicially righteous.
• Sanctification makes a person practically holy. There is of course a positional aspect to sanctification in which a person is positionally holy, and that has nothing to do with their actions.

¶ 12 For this cause, even as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death; and thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: v.12 He leaves no stone unturned, and goes back to the beginning. Adam was made in the image of God, and fell. His descendants are made in Adam’s image (see Gen. 5:1, 3) and thus inherited the sin nature and the sentence of death. Death passing upon all men and all being sinners is a witness that Adam’s race fell when he fell. The fact that the woman sinned first then Adam followed (Gen. 3) shows that Paul is speaking of Adam in his role as the representative head of the human race, sometimes called a federal head. It is the same way he says that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek when Levi wasn’t even born; but he was “yet in the loins of his father” and Abraham acted as a federal head, on behalf of his posterity. The point of this verse is not to show that all are personally guilty; he spent Rom. 1 – 3 showing that fact. Rather it is to show that Adam’s fall generated (1) a race of sinners, and (2) the reign of death. The phrase (“all have sinned”) is in the aorist tense: showing Adam’s disobedience had a once-and-for-all effect on the race. This doesn’t make us responsible for Adam’s sins or the sin nature. For example: a young baby dies, not because it has sinned, but because it has a sin-nature, and the effects of its working in his body.

 

vv.13-17 are a parenthesis. Not only was Adam a federal head that acted to effect all in his race, but Christ is a federal head, and He too has acted to effect all in His race! Each has left an imprint on his race, though both races were not in existence at the time of their actions.

 

13 (for until law sin was in the world; but sin is not put to account when there is no law; v.13 Even 2500 years before the law was given, sin was in the world, but it was not counted as “transgression” or double sin, because there was no direct commandment to transgress. See John 15:22-24 for a similar principle.

 

14 but death reigned from Adam until Moses, even upon those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam’s transgression, v.14a Death reigned even over those who lived relatively “righteous” lives, who had not sinned in as open a way as Adam did, who broke a direct, God-given command.

 

14b who is the figure of him to come. v.14b Adam as the head of a fallen race is the figure of Christ as the head of a new race (Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:18; Heb. 1:6; 2:11-13; Rev. 1:5). Christ is called, “the last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45). He is the “last” Adam because no further races of men are forthcoming from God. Note: both heads acted before they had any posterity.

 

A Figure of Him to Come. In the next five verses, Paul shows various ways that Adam is a picture of Christ. Parallels and contrasts are brought out. WARNING: This section of Romans 5 can be very difficult to follow. Hang on tight because Paul is changing two things at once! He compares two things that contrast, then shows how the result is amplified with Christ.

vv.15-17 The three contrasts of the parenthesis are: (v.15) the objects, death or grace, (v.16) the standing of the soul, and (v.17) the result, either reigned over by death, or reigning in life. 

 

15 But shall not the act of favour be as the offence? For if by the offence of one the many have died, much rather has the grace of God, and the free gift in grace, which is by the one man Jesus Christ, abounded unto the many. v.15 Question: Does the “act of favor” done by Christ affect His race, as the “offense” committed by Adam affected his race? The answer is “Yes”. The wording is funny in the KJV. It means “it is like it but it is different”, or “it has corresponding features but it is opposite”. The word “abounded” shows that the magnitude of Christ’s work is far greater than that of Adam’s sin!

 

“if this”      ————— amplify ———–→ “then this”
Adam’s offense had a negative effect: it spread death to all in his race.	Christ’s death and resurrection had an enormous positive effect: it spread the grace of God and the free gift (of justification) to all in His race.

 

Two many’s. The first “many” refers to all under Adam’s headship, the whole human race. The second “many” refers to the new creation race under Christ. This is different from the two “all’s” in v.18. 

 

 

Adam’s disobedience resulted in a race of sinners.	Christ’s obedience (His whole life and death looked at as one unbroken act) resulted in a race of righteous men.