Paul Now Describes Man's Oneness With Adam In Judgment And Compares It With The Believer's Oneness With Christ In Deliverance (5:12-21).
This passage can be seen as summarising all that has gone before, whilst also introducing new concepts that lie ahead. It is transitional. Here Paul enters into the depths of the world's sin, and of God's provision for that sin through Christ, as dealt with in Romans 1:18 to Romans 4:25. But at the same time his words lead into what lies ahead as he considers the reign of sin over men's lives. These verses demonstrate the sinfulness of all men from the beginning, and contrast it with the remedy that God has provided in Christ (Romans 1:18 to Romans 5:11). They then lead into the idea of man's bondage to sin, and the way of release through Christ which will be described from Romans 6:1 onwards.
It commences by taking up the earlier theme of Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:23, and emphasising that ‘all have sinned'. In order to do this Paul goes back into history and demonstrates that all men have sinned, because all are sons of Adam. And they did that in a time when there was no Law. Thus there was at that time no distinction between Jew and Gentile. And the corollary is that the same is true now. Now also there is no longer a thought of a distinction between Jew and Gentile. All participate equally in Adam's sinfulness and are therefore seen as one in him, for they are descended from him. The whole world thus shares in the same problem, and none can escape it. And that includes Jew as well as Gentile. He will then go on to say that in the same way all who would be saved have to participate in the righteousness and obedience of Christ (Romans 5:17-19; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:2). There is no alternative. There is no other way of avoiding sin and death, the two tyrants which lord it over mankind. We must choose between Adam or Christ.
In both cases there is imputation and impartation. Adam's sin is in some way imputed to us, although it should be noted that that is because we ourselves sin, as is evidenced by the fact that we die (Romans 5:13-15). And yet Adam's sin is also seen as imparted to us because we were made actual sinners through the sin of Adam (Romans 5:12). It should be noted what imputation here means. It signifies ‘sharing in the blame for sin'. It does not indicate the direct forensic application to men of Adam's sin. This is evident from the fact that had they had the Law sin would have been ‘imputed' to them by the Law. (‘Sin is not imputed where there is no law'). The idea of imputation here therefore is that of putting the blame where it belongs, on those who sinned because they were affected by Adam's sin. It is not saying that they bore the guilt of Adam's own sin.
In a parallel fashion we can be looked on as righteous as Christ's righteousness comes upon us (Romans 5:18), and this through our benefiting from His obedience (Romans 5:19). As a consequence we are to ‘reign in life through Christ', something which requires imparted righteousness, although only through the grace of God (Romans 5:17; Romans 5:20-21).
Thus the theme of the second part of this passage is that as in Adam all struggle and die, as a result of their connection with Adam, so in Christ will all who are connected with Him be made spiritually alive, and reign in life. A secondary theme, lying in the background, might be seen as the indication that, when we get down to the foundations, the Law is of secondary (although real) importance. It neither initially caused the condemnation of mankind (Romans 5:13), nor could it provide a way of escape from sin (Romans 5:20-21). All it could do was bring man's many transgressions into the open. It was a half way measure.
This passage can thus be divided into three sections:
1) The first emphasises the fact of universal sin and death. Adam brought sin and death for all into the world because all have sinned (12-14). Death therefore reigns.
2) The second emphasises the difference that God has made by acting in grace, and through providing the gift of righteousness. For in contrast to Adam's bringing of sin into the world, Jesus Christ has brought into the world three things. Firstly the free gift of true righteousness (Romans 5:16-19), thereby offering to those who believe in Him acceptability with God through ‘justification', through ‘being accounted as righteous' (Romans 5:16), thus dealing with the penalty of sin; secondly the ability to reign in life through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17), thus dealing with the power and grip of sin; and thirdly the final right to eternal life (Romans 5:18) which is again ‘through Jesus Christ our LORD' (Romans 5:21), which will result in deliverance from sin in every way. Thus it is our LORD Jesus Christ Who has dealt with the problem of death, the final consequences of sin, and all this as a result of His obedience (15-19).
3) The third introduces the effect of the introduction of the Law. The Jew might well be asking at this stage, ‘but what about the Law?' Paul's reply is that the entrance of the Law in fact simply made man's sin to abound. Fortunately, however, God intervened and His grace abounded even more. So while sin reigned, resulting in death, grace reigned through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (20-21).