CHRIST VERSUS ADAM; OR, THE "MUCH MORE" SALVATION

The fifth chapter of Romans mentions five times the "much more" salvation that comes to fallen man from an atoning Savior. Rom. 5:12-21 is regarded as the most difficult passage in the New Testament. It has been made needlessly difficult by the preconceived notions and theological opinions that people have read into the passage to make it support their views. May God keep us from doing this, and lead us into the truth.

At the outset we would call attention to the striking fact, as it seems to us that the Greek noun for sin (Hamartia) is found thirty-six times between Rom. 5:12 and Rom. 8:10, and in twenty-nine of these times it has the definite article, "the" before it, and is always in the singular number. We cannot help believing that the expression, "the sin," "the sin," so often repeated, means a particular kind of sin, namely, "indwelling sin," "inherited sin," "the sin-principle," "depravity." In several of the other seven times, when it has no article, it manifestly means actual sin.

We are the more convinced of this because over and over again it is personified as an abiding state, as a reigning queen, as a phantom man, as a slave driver or master, as a murderer, as a body of corruption, as a ruling tendency. Now it would be unnatural and unlikely to personify a sinful act, existing but an instant and then done with. It would be natural and quite probable that, if the apostle were discussing the effect of the abiding PRINCIPLE OF SIN in an individual or in humanity, he would personify it, precisely as he has done. The definitions of the word in a Greek lexicon give this double meaning. The first set of definitions is -- "error, offence, sin." The second set is -"a principle or cause of sin, proneness to sin, sinful propensity." Manifestly, it is "the principle of sin" that the apostle is referring to where the definite article is used.

Bearing this fact in the sin will throw much light on these four wonderful chapters in Romans.

1. Because it makes Paul's argument more lucid.

2. Because it brushes away, as so many theological fictions, the cobweb theories that a perverted theology has spun from these verses.

3. Because sanctification, so often referred to, and actually named in these chapters, means the destruction of this sin-principle, the cleansing of the nature from this inherited depravity.

4. Because it is exactly this proneness to sin, inherited from Adam, which makes the awful conflict with right reason or conscience, aroused and illuminated by the Holy Spirit and the law of

God, so vividly described by the apostle. It is precisely from this internal strife, this civil war in the breast, that the sanctifying Christ and the Holy Spirit deliver us.

Verse 12. "Therefore, as through one man the sin [principle] entered into the world, and the death [principle] through the sin [principle]; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned."

Says Dr. Whedon in his Commentary: "By the sin, many understand the state of sin (sometimes called corruption) into which man has fallen as a nature. And no doubt there is a state of evil as well as evil action, which in the Scriptures is called sin. Sin is not in action alone: there may be a permanently wrong and wicked state of the sin." Dean Alford says: "The kind of sin spoken of in this whole passage is both original and actual." Godet: "The apostle is speaking of the principle of revolt whereby the human will rises against the divine in all its different forms and manifestations." He again calls it "The corrupt inward disposition." "The definite article," says Lange, "before hamartia and also before thanatos denotes sin and death as a power or principle which controls man, and reveals itself in hereditary corruption and in every form of actual sin." Sin is personified as a fearful tyrant who acquired universal dominion over the human race; he "reigns in death," ver. 21; "works death in us," 7:13; "lords it over us," 6:14; "works all manner of lust," 7:8; "deceives and slays the sinner," 7:11.

Augustine and Calvin make it mean "original sin or natural depravity." Koppe, Olshausen, Webster, and Wilkinson say it means "Sinfulness; sinfulness personified; a sinful disposition."

With such ample endorsement in the world of scholarship we are sure of our ground, and we shall see exactly what Jesus undertakes to do for us, and what sanctifying grace can effect in the life.

According to the Bible, Adam's immortality was supernatural. Just so, his holiness was supernatural, "being superinduced by the blessed indwelling and communion of the Divine Spirit." Sin drove the Spirit from him, and introduced "the sin-principle"; and "the sin-principle" introduced "the death-principle" which, by the law of heredity and propagation, became a race inheritance and a race calamity. Adam's act of disobedience deranged his moral constitution. God, law, conscience, reason, were no longer supreme. Self, submission to temptation, proneness to indulge the sensibilities against the protest of the reason, took the ascendant. That changed condition of soul brought the loss of the Spirit and the incoming of "the death principle." Being hereditary, it has passed on from generation to generation. Whatever may be the suitableness of the term, "original sin," Scripture, consciousness and experience attest the mournful fact of man's depraved state, corrupt nature, and consequent subjection to death.

Here we meet a number of theological speculations: (1) "Death" here is said to mean physical, spiritual and eternal death. (2) It is further declared to be a penalty inflicted upon each member of the race of Adam. (3) But, say some theologians, there could have been no such penalty without personal guilt and fault. (4) Therefore, we were all in some real sense guilty. "In Adam's fall we sinned all."

But how could we have all sinned in Adam?

1. Some adopt the "Realistic Theory" of Augustine and Jonathan Edwards, that billions of human beings were germinally in Adam and wickedly sinned when he sinned. Or we had an existence in Adam, "not as persons but as a simple essence" (Augustine), and are generally involved in the responsibility of the individual.

2. Origen held the notion that we all had a pre-existence, and sinned in our previous state -a notion held also by Dr. Edward Beecher and Julius Muller.

3. Others held the Representative and Federal Headship Theory in various forms. Adam stood as our legal representative, and the sin he committed thousands of years before we were born is held to be justly imputed to us, and we are justly punished for it.

4. Others have been so illogical as to hold to both the realistic and the representative theories, which are mutually exclusive.

Other variations of these theories might be named. They all appeal to this passage of Scripture for proof, and deny to their rivals any standing in Rom. 5:12-21. This fact makes it immensely probably that neither of them has any support here.

They are theological speculations and fictions that are horrible reflections on the justice and goodness of God. They are without any sure foundation in Scripture or sound reason, and are more unsubstantial than moonshine.

There is another view which accounts for all the facts without affronting man's moral sense or casting any reflections upon the goodness and justice of God. It is called The Theory Of The Genetic Transmission Of Depravity. It is the familiar "law of heredity" that "like produces like." Adam propagated his depravity, and it has been propagated through all generations. His sin was not in any sense our fault; the natural consequence of it -- sickness and death -- was not a penalty for a sin for which we never could have been responsible. It is only our misfortune, which has befallen us through the working of natural and most holy and beneficent law of God.

"Death passed unto all men, for that all sinned." The word "all" does not mean strictly "all" here, as in many other passages of Scripture. Matt. 3:5: "Then went out unto him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him." Now, absolutely all did not go, especially the babies, to be baptized. Theologians have argued that if "all" sinned and so died, then the babies who died during past ages must have sinned; therefore they either sinned in Adam or his sin was imputed to them.

But there is no need of any such forced and unnatural, not to say absurd, argument. St. Paul was simply using language in a popular way, as we all do; and little children died, not because they had sinned in some fanciful imaginary way before they were born, but because they were born with the sin-principle in them, and therefore also with the death-principle in them.

But to match this awful misfortune God gave us the grace of an atoning Savior, and we shall see in this discussion that if we became depraved and sinful through Adam we can have a "much more" salvation through Christ. We can become Justified and Sanctified.

"For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless the death [principle] reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come" (Rom. 5:13,14).

In verse 12 the apostle stated one side of a comparison, but does not state the other side till the eighteenth verse. The intervening five verses are logically a parenthesis. The apostle tells the Jews that antithesis is not narrowed to the period of the Mosaic law alone, but covers the whole of human history and the whole race.

In the period between Adam and Moses men did not have the written law of the Israelites, nor the single specific command that Adam had. Had there been no law of any kind there would have been no actual sin. ("Sin" is without the article in verse 13.) Nevertheless, the sin-principle existed and the death-principle reigned. There was the light of nature, described in the first and second chapters, and also what light came to them, handed down by tradition. The light they did not follow. The sin-principle generally reigned, and death and ruin followed in its train.

The expression "death reigned" is very striking. It is a personification of death as a monarch, having dominion over all that period and over all those generations. Under his dark and withering reign men went down to death, conquered by the "king of terrors." "Were it not for the atoning Savior and His mighty Gospel of full salvation, this dread power would bring unmitigated woes upon the earth, and his silent tread and resistless sceptre would cause only desolation and woe for ever."

Adam is a "figure of Him that was to come." That is, there may be instituted a comparison between the results of Adam's sin and Christ's atonement. It is mainly by way of contrast that the comparison is instituted as the following verses show:

Verse 15: "For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many.

This is a contrast in quality.

(1) It was trespass in one: it was holiness in the other.

(2) A curse came through the one: grace came through the other; and it abounded "much more," so that greater benefits have resulted from the work of Christ than evils from the fall of Adam.

Verse 16: "And not as through one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment came of one unto condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses unto justification."

The contrast here is in numbers.

(1) The sin was of one man: the grace comes to all men.

(2) The judgment was for one sin: the grace is offered to cover the multitude of sins of the multitude of men.

Verse 17: "For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; MUCH MORE shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, even Jesus Christ."

The contrast here is in result.

(1) The trespass of Adam brought death: but the grace of Christ brings life.

(2) The ravage of death is limited: but they who receive the abundance of grace in Christ shall reign in life "much more" -- even for ever.

And it is a gift, to be received voluntarily and freely. To infants and irresponsible beings the grace and gift are unconditional. To free agents it is offered gratuitously. Nothing but man's voluntary rejection of the offer can deprive him of eternal life through Christ.

Verse 18: "So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life."

(1) Adam committed one trespass: Christ forgives many trespasses.

(2) Adam brought judgment: Christ brought justification.

(3) Adam's curse fell upon "all men": Christ's free gift came to "all men."

It is difficult to believe that God would have allowed our first parent to propagate a depraved race, if He had not provided for its cure by the atonement of Christ. So grace was provided on the day of the fall, before a child was born; and the curse and the cure have come together down the ages.

As the work of Christ does not wholly save the race unless it is embraced by personal faith, so the deed of Adam, while it brings sorrow and loss, does not bring criminality and final ruin unless there is some wicked conduct of our own. It is not any imaginary imputed sin that destroys us, but our own "many trespasses" (verse 16). We must act to be damned by Adam: we must act to be saved by Christ.

Verse 19: "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners even so through the obedience of the One shall the many be made righteous."

Here we will let Alford speak: "By the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners (not 'were accounted as,' not 'became so by imputation,' nor 'were proved to be' -- the kind of sin spoken of in this whole passage is both original and actual -- but 'were made sinners'), actual sinners by practice. So by Christ shall the many be made righteous; not by imputation merely, any more than in the other case, but shall be made really and actually righteous, as completely so as the others were made really and actually sinners. Man in Christ and united to Him is made righteous, not by a fiction, nor by imputation only of Christ's righteousness, but by a real and living spiritual union with a righteous Head, as a righteous member, righteous by means of, as an effect of, the righteousness of that Head, but not merely righteous by transference of the righteousness of that Head."

Reader, to be made "actually righteous" by Christ means to be sanctified; means to have "the sin," inherited from Adam, taken away by the mightier Christ.

Verse 20: "And the law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where the sin abounded, the grace did abound more exceedingly..."

When the law came it deepened the sinfulness of sins, aggravated the carnal nature of men, and stirred them to trespass still more. But where sins multiplied, grace in Christ abounded much more.

The Gospel offers full pardon for all that is past. All the transgressions for which the soul is condemned to death are forgiven freely. And more, the Holy Spirit is sent by Christ to cleanse the heart from the indwelling sin, and impart His gifts and graces, and prepare for service here and heaven hereafter.

Thus the grace of the Gospel not only redeems from death and restores to life, but brings the soul into such a relationship with God, and such a glorious character and destiny, as we have no authority to believe ever would have been ours, nor even Adam's, if he had never sinned. So the abounding sin is over-matched by the abounding grace.

Verse 21: "That as the sin reigned in death, even so might the grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Here, as Dr. Maclaren observes, we have "The warring Queens. The Sin and the Grace are both personified. They stand face to face, and each recognizes as her enemy the other. The one has established her dominion: 'The Sin hath reigned.' The other is fighting to establish hers: 'That the Grace might reign.' And the struggle is going on in the heart of each of us. The Sin stands there, a hideous hag. The Grace stands here, in all her gestures, dignity and love. This antagonist Queen is nothing but the love of God in exercise to sinful men."

And how can this Divine Queen give us a "much more" salvation, unless she can conquer and destroy that old hag of sinful propensity? But exactly this is her self-allotted task. She proposes to sanctify us, and "reign through righteousness unto eternal life." This is the real need of the world. Says Dr. Maclaren, "The thing that the world wants is to have sin dealt with ... in the way of drying up its source and delivering men from the power of it. Unless you do that you but pour a bottleful of cold water into Vesuvius and try to put the fire out with that. You may educate, you may cultivate, you may refine; you may set political and economical arrangements right in accordance with the newest notions of the century: and what then? Why, the old thing will just begin over again, and the old miseries will appear over again, because the old grandmother of them all is there, 'the sin' that has led to them. You may have high education, beautiful refinement of culture and manners; you may give everybody 'a living wage,' and the world will groan still because you have not dealt with the taproot of all the mischief. You cannot kill an internal cancer with a plaster on the little finger; and you will never stanch the world's wounds until you go to the Physician, Jesus Christ, that takes away 'the sin' of the world. What each of us wants, before we can see the Lord, is that something shall lay hold of us, and utterly change our natures, and express from our hearts that black drop that lies there tainting everything."

Precisely that is what Jesus proposes to do, and must do, or His salvation is a failure.