Romans 5:12-21 Part One
12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15But 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! 16Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17For 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.
18Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This portion of Romans is titled – “Death through Adam & life through Christ”.
What Paul is showing us here is our union as humans that we have with Adam (Human) both in our sin and our death and also our union with Christ as believers through our faith in Him which by Gods grace gains us our salvation.
Let’s start by taking a look at our union with Adam in our sin and death. We see this in Genesis chapter three.
The fall of Man (Genesis 3:1-24)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die." (Physical death and spiritual death)
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (At this point all they knew was good)
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
11 And God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." (Just like a man always trying to blame his faults on his wife)
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity (To be against, at war with)
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers,
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ’You must not eat of it,’
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us (Trinity), knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Romans 5:12 - "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned"
Expound
Why is it if Eve was the one who took the apple from the tree was it that Adam was given the blame?
1 Corinthians 11:3 - "Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God."
Men are the head of the Christian household. We have to take responsibility as the head of the household for all the things that happen in our families.
Men if you are not being the head of the household you need to start because you will be the one that is held accountable.
Woman you need to let your husbands be the head of the household and if he is resistant then make him.
Sin entered the human race from Adam and from that sin also brought death to us also.
We started out in Adam pure, sinless and made to live forever. But after Adam had sinned then entered in to us the imperfection of sin and in that brought us death. Also our perfect soul no longer perfect and sinless was then doomed to hell.
Romans 5:12 - "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned"
Notice here it doesn’t say for some men came death, but it says ALL men (for all humans) came death. Death would come physically and death would come spiritually for all people from the time of Adam on until the end of time.
Romans 3:23 - "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
Genesis 3:15 - "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers"
We now we will be battling with sin in our lives from the day we are born till the day we die. Sin will always be there with us.
That was our fate that came through Adams sin. Sin is now a part of us, and we a part of sin.
Romans 5:14 - "Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come."
Remember that the law was not brought about until the time of Moses, but that did not matter, even though there was not at that time the written law yet we were still sinners and that sin still brought us death.
Who is the one to come? Jesus
God made Adam sinless and perfect in every way at the start. So God needed to bring someone who could fulfill that perfection that Adam couldn’t. He needed to bring Christ, both man and God so that He could not be deceived like Adam was. So this way we could be reconciled and returned to the place God had originally attended us to be, with Him.
God walked the earth when the earth was pure, Genesis 3:8 “Then Adam and Eve heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day” but once sin had corrupted the earth we really don’t see God taking to many walks here any more. I think He feels a little more comfortable in heaven where it is nice and clean.
