Reign of Sin vs Reign of Grace Part 1
*Note: At 14:39 in the audio, it will sound like the audio "skips." Two audio sections had to be joined.
Excerpt from Sermon:
If you ever wanted to take a course on theology or doctrine, today and next Sunday will give some themes and terms that you would learn. I will be honest, what we will be going over today and next Sunday can be some of the most difficult passages in the Bible and hard for some to comprehend and understand, so my attempt is to explain our selected scripture in detail as much as possible. Having said that, let us be humble enough to recognize that His word He has given us is God breathed and it is ok to not know it all. We as Believers need to set our egos and pride aside and need to be comfortable with accepting the fact that we do not know it all and realize there are mysteries still in the Bible.
Up to the point of the scripture we will be examining, Paul has been using the antithetical analogy, an analogy of opposites, of the First Adam’s act and the Last Adam’s (or Second Adam), Jesus Christ’s, act. Because of Adam’s disobedience, all humanity is condemned to death, but because of Christ’s obedience, many are pardoned and are given eternal life. In verses 12-17, Paul has been contrasting the one act of Adam and the one act of Christ. In verses 18-19, Paul is summarizing the analogy of Adam and Christ of the previous verses.
Before I begin on verse 18, I want to explain Federal Headship, or also known as Covenantal Headship. Federal Headship is what theologians refer to as a relationship in which an individual represents a larger group and the actions of the Representative are imputed onto the larger group. This idea is central to Paul’s argument in Romans 5:12–21. Three doctrinal areas that directly support this view is Total Depravity, the Virgin Birth, and Substitutionary Atonement. For the doctrine of Total Depravity, Adam, the Federal Head of mankind, he represented all his posterity in the Garden of Eden and when Adam sinned in Genesis 3, all of Adam’s descendants “died through one man’s trespass” (Romans 5:15). Since all humans were “made sinners” (Romans 5:19) because of Adam’s sin, we are not born with a blank slate but rather are “brought forth in iniquity” as David laments in Psalm 51. And because the wages of sin is death, Adam’s single act of disobedience condemned all of his descendants to physical, spiritual, and eternal death.
The doctrine of the Virgin Birth, a second important biblical truth related to Federal Headship is Jesus’ virgin birth. Federal Headship implies that no man born in Adam could ever be our Savior. Any son of Adam would inherit Adam’s sin and would thus immediately be disqualified as our Savior. But because Jesus has no human father, he did not inherit the depravity passed down from Adam that has plagued the rest of mankind. He was neither a sinner by nature—because he did not have a human father—nor was he a sinner by choice—because he was God incarnate and perfect. The virgin birth makes Jesus an exception to Adam’s Federal Headship and moreover makes him uniquely qualified to be our Savior.
The solution to our total depravity is not found in the virgin birth but in the doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement. Substitutionary Atonement is the glorious truth that Jesus died in the place of sinners. On the cross, Jesus takes upon himself all his people’s sin and in exchange gives them His perfect righteousness. In the same way that the first Adam represented all his posterity, and all his posterity were credited with his disobedience, Jesus, the Second Adam, represents all his people. Therefore, all his people are credited with his perfect obedience. Adam’s sin brought death and condemnation for all men, Christ’s righteous life and substitutionary death for sinners brought eternal life for “All that the Father gives Me” (John 6:37a).
In verse 18, some point to Paul’s use of the phrase ‘life to all men’ as an argument for universal salvation, but it is obvious in Paul’s epistle that this is not the case. Paul has made it very clear in previous verses that salvation is for Believers such as Romans 1:16-17 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” And in Romans 3:22, “Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.”
Second, in the previous verse, verse 17, Paul states, ‘much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.’ Third, in a passage similar to Romans 5:18, William Hendriksen in his commentary on Romans, he says ‘the apostle himself explains what he means by “all” or “all men” who are going to be saved and participate in a glorious resurrection and that passage is 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward those who are Christ’s at his coming”. Here it is clearly stated that the “all” who will be made alive are “those who are Christ’s”, that is, those who belong to him.
Last, we still need to ask ourselves why Paul would use this term “all” in verse 18. To understand why, we need to really read the entire epistle and see, as Hendriksen puts it, “Paul is combating the ever-present tendency of Jews to regard themselves as being better than Gentiles. Over against that erroneous and sinful attitude he emphasizes that, as far as salvation is concerned, there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.” One selection of scripture is Romans 3:28-30, “28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.” So, you can see that Paul is at a constant battle with the Jews. [Other verses in Romans are: 1:16, 17; 2:7–11; 3:21–24, 28–30; 4:3–16; 9:8, 22–33; 10:11–13; 11:32; 15:7–12; 16:25–27.]
One last way to look at the same concept of what Paul is saying, using an encompassing term as “all”, and referencing the Jews is in John 3:16 when Jesus is talking to a Jew, Nicodemus, and uses the word “whoever”. When Jesus told Nicodemus “whoever”, He was telling Nicodemus that it was not just the Jews that were in God’s plan of salvation but also Gentiles. It was a rebuke to the Jews.
If you break down these two verses, it boils down to two things: Adam’s one act of transgression that was disobedience, which equals death and Christ’s one act of righteousness that was obedience, which equals life. If you think about it, God gave Adam one restriction, one commandment, or one decree, if you like, and he could not even obey it, which led to destruction and death. Christ, God in the flesh, came to Earth, lived for 33 years, obeyed the whole Mosaic Law like God called for, was obedient into death, suffered and died, which brought eternal life for those that believe in the resurrected Christ.
Christ lived the life that we are supposed to live, a holy and righteous life. Through Christ’s perfect obedience, His righteousness is imputed, accredited to us, so we are justified in God’s eyes. Christ lived the life that we are supposed to live.