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"15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!" ~ Romans 5:15-17
Today, we return to our study of Romans 5. As we have pointed out before, the theme of Romans 4-5 is salvation or justification by faith. In today's passage we see that the rebellion of Adam produced death, whereas the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ rendered justification and eternal life.
In addition, we see that the Law of Moses rendered an increased understanding of sin and its effects. In context, the Apostle Paul draws a contrast between Adam and Christ in order to help us to understand more deeply how helpless we were before trusting Christ as our Savior.
In v.15 of today's passage we read, "But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!"
In all of his New Testament writings, the Apostle Paul mentions Adam seven times. Sin entered the world when Adam made his choice, then death, and death spread, then death reigned. Through one man's choice catastrophic change encroached upon all mankind. And, we are still to this day experiencing its repercussions.
Since all of mankind was born in Adam, sin and death is our reality and eternal life has never been an option for us. When we were born, we had not the ability to choose between life and death. In fact, we didn't understand that we were sinners, locked in the cage of sin until something happened causing us to consider the most important questions of life. We sin because we were born with the nature to sin.
Once we began to understand that we were sinful, we had a choice to turn away from ourselves to God for His help. When we began to understand the gospel, we had another choice to believe in the free gift offered to us through the second person of the Godhead. Once we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we began to discover that our worth and acceptance is only realized through Him.
As we grow in our understanding of sin and ourselves, we quickly realized that the Lord Jesus is not an idea. He is a person who invites those who are weary and broken enough to cry out for the love and forgiveness and grace and mercy and rest from the God of the Bible.
In v.16 of today's passage we read, "Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification."
Adam's single sinful choice brought in judgment and death. He trespassed once and brought death to all mankind. In like manner, Christ died once bringing justification to all humble enough to place our faith in Him. That is the contrast between Adam and the Lord Jesus. Adam trespassed once and brought death to all while the Lord Jesus died once and brought life to the willing. Not only did Adam’s act sentence mankind to sin and corruption, it delivered condemnation. On the other hand, Christ's work on the cross resulted in our justification and sanctification.
In v.17 of today's passage we read, "For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!"
Adam's decision to put himself on the throne of his heart permitted the efforts of the enemy to reign over everyone in the whole human race. This means not only did death come to us at the end of our lives, but death and it corruption reigns throughout our lives.
The death that came through Adam is the absence of life. It is emptiness, loneliness, misery, depression, boredom and restlessness. The life the Lord Jesus delivers to those who believe in Him is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. The life of the Lord Jesus brings vitality and fulfillment. This parallel is given so that we might see how much more we have in Christ than we ever had in Adam.
The results of the free gift of forgiveness completely overpowers the results of sin. Whereas sin set us against God, righteousness through Christ made us right with God. Then, God began the process of setting us free from the false definitions of ourselves and our lives that we had once embraced.
This freedom that God has delivered to our souls now is making us more honest and authentic. This freedom informs us that it is okay to be honest about our sinfulness, even though God has declared us perfect in His eyes through His Son. Now, life is no longer about us, it is about Him. When we live in concert with God's definitions of all things we are effectively saying, "To Him be all of the glory!"
