Death and Life
Romans 5:18–21
Romans Lesson #063
June 7, 2012
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Life and death are continuously contrasted in Scripture. We start in Genesis 2:17 where God laid down the penalty for disobedience to Him. “… for in the day [at that time] that you eat from it you will surely die.” The idiom in the Hebrew is that this is something that is definitely, emphatically going to happen; you will definitely die at that moment. The death that comes on the human race came at the instant of Adam’s decision to eat of that fruit, and it was a qualitative death that separated the creature from his Creator so that he could not have a relationship with Him. He was still physically alive but a separation had occurred so that he no longer has source of life—like taking a fan and unplugging it from the wall: it is no longer plugged into the power source but the blades keep spinning for a while and there will be the appearance of life but there is no life there anymore. Death has occurred and it is just winding down.
Adam was instantly separated from God. And as we see in Romans where there is the emphasis on using the male gender in the nouns it is showing that it is Adam’s sin, not Eve’s, that is the determinative one because Adam was set up by God to be the federal head or representative head of the human race.
Once Adam dies there is the situation where the human race has the appearance of life but is really dead. This is why there is this corruption that leaks out and impacts government, nations, families, marriage, etc., because they are basically corrupt on the inside, and unless they turn to the solution to be regenerated and made alive all that is produced is just death. Everything is corrupted by that, so the decision for the human race becomes, are you going to live or are you going to die? Are you going to choose life or are you going to choose death? This is what we see in passages in the Old Testament.
For example, in Moses’ parting words to the Israelites before he went up on Mount Nebo where he died he said to them: Deuteronomy 30:19 NASB “I call heaven and earth [the inhabitants] to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.” In the Mosaic Law there always had to be two witnesses to confirm any legal statement.
This is what Paul is getting at in terms of the implication of justification. Every day we have the option to choose life or death—not eternal condemnation in terms of death but in terms of whether we are going to experience the fullness, the richness of the spiritual life that God has given us at the moment of salvation, or whether we are going to experience the opposite which is sometimes referred to as carnal death (separation from God because of sin) or temporal death which relates to the ongoing and lengthy time period in carnality in which we are separated spiritually from the source of life because of sin. This is what Paul talks about when he comes to Romans 6:23 when he says that the wages of sin is death. It is carnal death and temporal death, not eternal condemnation. Then he says in contrast as a reminder of the gift of God is eternal life: “… but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We have been given this gift and we are squandering it if we are not living and exploiting it.
Jeremiah 21:8 NASB You shall also say to this people, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.’” Every moment we go through life we constantly decide: human viewpoint or divine viewpoint, are we going to live on the basis of death or the basis of life?
Proverbs 13:14 NASB “The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, To turn aside from the snares of death.” Notice the parallel between that and 14:27, “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, That one may avoid the snares of death.” The only difference is that in 13:14 it says “the law/teaching of the wise” and in 14:27 “the fear of the LORD.” Everything else is the same. So what is the relationship between the law of the wise and the fear of the Lord? Remember what Solomon wrote in chapter one? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” So the way of the wise = the person who fears the Lord in their life. Following our sin nature always leads to the snares of death—not eternal death but temporal death.
In Romans 5:18, 19 Paul has ended the parenthesis and he goes back to his main thought. He is now going to connect for us Adam’s sin and condemnation with Christ’s obedience with Christ’s obedience and justification as the foundation for our spiritual life.
There are people who really do believe that Genesis 2:17 is talking about physical death. Physical death is included within as an implication of that word in Genesis 2:17 but the reality of what happened “that day” is that he separated from God. In Ephesians 2:1 is says “you were born dead in your trespasses and sins.” So it is clearly talking about being physically alive and spiritually dead. Physical death is a consequence of that spiritual death. When Adam sinned the plug got pulled, and every descendant of Adam is born with that plug pulled. There is an appearance of life but there is no life there. The second death is the eternal punishment for those who do not solve the spiritual death problem in this life. Then there is operational death which is when a person is out of fellowship and is just living on the basis of their sin nature. There is positional death which is our identification with Christ in His death. There is temporal death, which is another way of looking at being out of fellowship. Then there is sexual death.
Ephesians 2:1 NASB “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins…[5] even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” This is a non-physical use of the word “dead.”
Romans 5:12 NASB “Therefore, just as [for this reason] through one man sin entered into the world, and [the] death through sin, and so [the] death spread to all men, because all sinned—” The death is talking about that initial death in Genesis 2:17 that spreads to all men. But it spreads to all men through the sin of the original sinner, Adam.
Romans 5:13 NASB “for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” This refers to personal sin; it is not imputed when there is no law. Because there wasn’t a statement that X was wrong then you’re not being punished for your personal sins. So why were they being punished? Why were they under condemnation? It was because of Adam’s sin; they were condemned for Adam’s sin.
Romans 5:14 NASB “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those [everybody] who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.” Cain did not sin in the likeness of Adam, but he was born spiritually dead. Then Paul makes the connection that Adam is a type or a picture of the one who was to come.
The use of the article in every reference to death in Romans 5 and 6, and most of the ones in Romans 7, is called the article par excellence. It is used when there is a specific thing that represents a class of things. It can refer to something that is the best in the class or things that are the worst in the class of things. One grammar points out: If the lexical nuance of that particular class suggests it (it could be the worst) in essence the article par excellence indicates the extreme of a particular class. When Paul said “I am the chief of sinners,” he uses that kind of an article to indicate he is at the extreme end of the category. It could be that he is the best of sinners, but he is the worst of sinners. It doesn’t mean excellence, it just means it is representing the extreme good or bad of a class.
We have seen that there are three categories of sin: Adam’s sin, individual personal sins, and the sin nature. The point that Paul is making is that we are not condemned for personal sin, we are not condemned for the sin nature; we are condemned for Adam’s sin which is imputed to every one of his descendents. They inherit a sin nature physically but it is Adam’s guilt that is imputed to that sin nature.
So the point that Paul is making in these verses 13 and 14 is that there was no law from Adam to Moses, nevertheless everyone from Adam to Moses was born spiritually dead—not because of what they did but because of what Adam did. Therefore since they did not sin in the sense of a breech of law their spiritual death must be the result of a greater sin, and that is the death that goes back to the penalty for Adam for his sin. “ … 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.” The word “offense” is a translation of the Greek word PARABASIS. It is emphasizing not sin per se but a type of sin, a transgression of the law.
Romans 5:17 NASB “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one …” Notice it is the one man’s offence. The word for man is ANTHROPOS, meaning one human being. But it is “one” and then subsequent pronouns are in the male gender so it is clearly talking about Adam, not Eve. “… much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” That is our connection and foundation of justification.
Now Paul goes back to making this conclusion, the same one he was making in 5:12 where he said: “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—” Through one man sin entered into the world is the thought he picks up and expands in verse 18. Romans 5:18 NASB “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation …” In the NKJV the word “judgment” is used and inserted in italics. That is because there is no word for judgment in the Greek text. It says “through one man’s offense,” and then there is an implication, “to all men, resulting in condemnation.” The word translated “condemnation” is the Greek word KATAKRIMA, which can be translated simply as “punishment,” a judgment that is applied.
It is common that when we read in contexts like this the word “condemnation” the thing that jumps to our mind is eternal condemnation. But that is not necessary and it really isn’t what the core meaning of the word is. The core meaning of the word is simply facing a punishment, and that punishment can be temporal or eternal. Here we have a parallelism that is being set up. The one man’s offence results in punishment, even so through one man’s righteous act—and this is an important phrase here because it uses a different word for righteousness that has to do with actions and doing something; so it is talking about the qualification of the Lord dying on the cross for our sins—“the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” So what he is talking about here is that this is where he is making his transition to talk about the fullness of life in Romans 6. So the “life” here shouldn’t really be translated justification but the action of righteousness in life. It isn’t talking about phase one justification, and so the life here and the punishment have to be talking about what is experienced in phase two or during life after salvation.
What we have in this verse is a contrast between Adam and Christ. We have one man’s act of disobedience and one man’s act of obedience. But the word that is used there for obedience is one that doesn’t have to mean just one act, it is referring not to what He does on the cross but what He does in terms of His life prior to the cross. Remember the life of Christ isn’t related to His atonement, it is related to the precedent He is setting, the pattern He is demonstrating for our spiritual life. So when Paul is making this transition here he talks about how Adam’s act of disobedience impacts all human beings and results in punishment—temporal punishment because now they are living in a fallen world, they have marriages that are rotten, they have kids that are rebellious and disobedient, etc. They are experiencing all manner of rot in life simply because of the impact of sin and death. Because everybody is spiritually dead they are experiencing the consequences of this kind of death. We are living in a dead world and we are living in a world that is characterized by dead people, dead institutions and dead things, who have denied the source of real life. This is contrasted to the one man’s obedience that is the basis for His free gift.
The one man’s offence—verse 17 and repeated in verse 18—(Adam’s offence) doesn’t imply any volition there. But the phrase “the free gift” … When Adam broke God’s commandment it automatically had consequences for all human beings, but when Jesus is obedient it doesn’t automatically apply to everybody. The fact that Paul shifts to using the term “free gift” shows that there is a volition act that must come into play; there must be a reception of that free gift—acceptance or faith in Christ. “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness [or, one man’s righteousness] there resulted justification of life to all men.” The word there translated “justification” is the word DIKAIOSIN, and in Greek it is that suffix (OSIN) that indicates an action. So it is not DIKAIOSUNE, which is the noun related to justification and righteousness, which is the declaration of righteousness, but this is an action that comes as a result of a person being declared righteous. So we are moving from the state of forensic justification to the foundation for experiential righteousness. So we could say this verse ends, “results in righteousness in life.” The focus is now shifting to the production of experiential righteousness.
Romans 5:19 NASB “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners …” They are sinners, they become corrupt and are fallen, and they are born separated from God. “… even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous,” talking about a future event and their declaration of righteousness and justification. He goes back and forth because he is making this transition, so he talks about justification righteousness, then experiential righteousness, because he is moving in his discussion that there is an intrinsic relationship between positional righteousness and experiential righteousness. This is not the kind of intrinsic relationship that you get out of Reformed theology which says that if you are declared righteous you will automatically produce experiential righteousness. That is one of the problems in lordship salvation, that then you can judge whether or not a person is truly saved by whether or not they are performing works that are in keeping with justification. What we are saying here is that there is an intrinsic connection and that because you are now a new creature in Christ with positional righteousness you are saved for a reason, and that is to produce experiential righteousness. You can’t have experiential righteousness unless you are first positionally righteous. And because you are declared positionally righteous there is an expectation and a responsibility to move beyond phase one justification to phase two sanctification, being saved from the power of sin, so that you can have experiential righteousness in your life.
So this is a transformation also in the concept of life that sees this not just as noting life without end in heaven but a newness or quality of life which is what Paul begins to talk about when we get to Romans 6:4 NASB “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” This is the shift. This newness of life is real life as opposed to living with a pseudo life, a physical life without a spiritual dimension or quality to it.
Romans 5:20 NASB “The Law came in so that the transgression PARAPTOMA would increase …” now you have 613 commandments to break! So there are a lot more overt ways to sin. What God is doing by giving the Law is exposing how sin permeates every aspect of life, so now sin abounds because there are more ways to sin. “… but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” Because there were more ways that people could sin God is exposing all of the dimensions of sin and at the same time God is expanding grace toward man.
Romans 5:21 NASB “so that, as sin reigned in death …” That is, had dominion or power or authority in the status of spiritual death. “… even so grace would reign [potential] through righteousness to eternal life …” This is not talking about getting justified. He has covered that in vv. 3, 4. We have moved away from justification righteousness to sanctification righteousness, and so he is talking now about grace can reign through righteousness in the life of the believer to “eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is not eternal life in the sense of ongoing life without end but it is the same idea that we have coming up at the end of the chapter, that the wages of sin, i.e., that if you are a believer and you are living in carnality, what you are going to reap is carnal death; it is not going to have value.
Romans 5 ends with the same concept that chapter six will end with because that is what he is driving toward, challenging us to have lives that reflect eternal life—a quality of life in this life that is beyond anything that anyone can ever imagine, because this is what Jesus has promised us.