Chapter 14 | The Most Important Equation in the Universe

In this chapter we’ll focus on the contrasts Paul makes between the sin of Adam and the single act of righteousness by Yeshua the Christ as outlined in Romans 5. This constitutes another of Paul’s core presuppositions behind the work that God is doing in and through Christ our Lord. As we dig into the details, we must consider its alignment with Paul’s other presuppositions, as we’ll reference them throughout this chapter and the next.

• [P1] The New Creation in Christ, as the way, the truth, and the life, was established before the foundation of the world. This signifies the proactive and thoughtful character of God who sees things before they happen and knows the hearts of men. Though it doesn’t appear that way on the surface, the events in the Garden of Eden were not unexpected, nor do they indicate in any way that his will and purpose would be left to chance.[1]
• [P2] Humanity and creation were subjected to futility in hope. Essentially, that hope is expressed most visibly in the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. God is faithful and certain that his son will lead the vast majority of humanity into obedience through faith before Christ hands his kingdom over to the Father.[2]
• [P3] God’s righteous judgment, as expressed in and through Yeshua the Christ, concludes in mercy, not wrath. Though wrath serves a purpose, God does not rely on it as the final expression of his righteous judgment. The final expression is one of mercy.[3]
• [P5] The Son of God succeeded where Adam could not. The grace of God expressed in his son, our Lord, can hardly be over emphasized. Clearly, that grace was intended to be poured out for our benefit and according to God’s will before Adam was created. This shines a different light on the events of the garden and Adam and Eve’s role in them. The introduction of sin and death came through Adam, but the promise and assurance of righteousness and eternal life comes only through the Son of God. The role of Savior was never intended for the man of dust, but was established for he who came from heaven, a life-giving spirit.[4]
• [P6] Yeshua, the Christ is the firstborn to glory. That the Son of God can redeem all humanity by his blood is core and essential to the gospel of the kingdom of God. It is only by the removal of sin, Christ’s resurrection from the dead, the exercise of faith, and the gift of the Holy Spirit that there is any hope some would follow him into glory.[5] Those following him initially are called the firstfruits of salvation.[6] Being the first, they are not the only.
• [P8] This leaves Christ alone as our source for the eternal inheritance and new creation demonstrated in his resurrection to glory and being seated in authority at God’s right hand. In this we are called to be co-heirs with Christ.[7]
• [P10] Christ our Lord has completed his salvific work for all humanity. His blood is sufficient to redeem all wicked and disobedient sinners. This is exemplified in his relationship and commitment to the descendants of Israel. When applied to the Gentile nations who behaved in like manner, this leaves us with two fundamental questions:

• What separates the saved from the unsaved? The will and grace of God, and time.
• What work remains for Christ to complete? To lead all who are willing into the obedience of faith. He achieves this through wrath for correction, resurrection to mortal life, and a calling to repentance. Those willing to repent, he gives a new heart and a new spirit. Those unwilling to repent are cast into the lake of fire – destroying body and soul.[8]

 

With these fundamental perspectives as the basis for what Paul sees as the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, this final presupposition seems very appropriate and fitting: the grace of God is greater-than the sin of humanity (Gg > Hs).

Let’s continue by delving into Paul’s claim as outlined in Romans 5. Then we will look at the impact this realization has on our understanding of the work of Christ and how it has been largely overlooked through most of Christianity’s history.

Trespass through Adam, Free Gift through Christ

In Romans 5:12-21 (ESV throughout), Paul contrasts the trespass of Adam with the free gift of God, he makes a general relationship between the attributes relating to both Adam and Christ. We can see this by taking the natural reading in its context as intended by the author. We might better visualize these attributes by showing them in a table.

 

Attributed to Adam/Humanity	Attributed to God and Christ
Death Sin Condemnation Trespass Disobedience Under Law (or command)	Free gift by grace Justification Life for all Gift of righteousness Abounding in grace Eternal life

 

Paul establishes a connection for these attributes applied to Adam and applies them to humanity as a whole. Though one may lead to another, with the outcome being condemnation and death, they generally represent the condition in which people find themselves [P2] and from which they need to be redeemed in order to be true children of God in the image and likeness of Christ. [P5,P8,P10]

 

By contrast, within the work that God is doing in Christ, there is a relationship for these divine attributes (though one leads to another). The outcome contrasts the condemnation and death on humanity’s side with righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. (Romans 5:15)

 

Let’s make some observations about what the author is saying:

• The free gift is not equal to the trespass
• The many died through one man’s trespass is contrasted with the grace of God and the free gift
• The grace of God and the free gift are said to be much more than (greater-than) the many who may have died through one man’s trespass.
• The grace of Jesus Christ abounds for the many.

 

It’s important to note that the discussion and contrast is applied at the collective level where Adam represents all humanity, the many. In the same context, the grace of God and the free gift of Christ also apply to the many. Though this speaks to the universal availability of the free gift through Christ, it doesn’t guarantee the universal application of it without exception; there are conditions (vs 17). Paul continues to build on the power of the free gift by contrasting further the result of one man’s sin with the result of one man’s free gift.

And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. (Romans 5:16)

 

Some observations:

• The free gift is not equal to the result of the one man’s sin.
• Paul is acknowledging that one trespass brought condemnation, but he doesn’t go into the details of how that occurred. That understanding is arrived at through discerning the mysterious work of God in Christ.
• God’s judgment of the one trespass opened the door to condemnation (death); your sin will lead to a death of judgment. [P2] This is appropriate considering God’s command; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Genesis 2:17). As a result, all humanity remains under God’s righteous judgment.
• Yet in contrast, God’s free gift, which followed many trespasses, brings justification through Christ Jesus for many (vs 15). [P5,P8,P10]

 

Note that the judgment which came about as a result of one’s trespass brought condemnation (the second death) upon humanity. This is consistent with Christ’s claim that – whoever does not believe is condemned already (Fourth Gospel 3:18). The condemnation already exists. It existed for Adam in his given nature even before he ate of the fruit,[9] and then again because of the command – for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Genesis 2:17).

As we can see, Adam is not alone in his trespass nor in his opportunity for reconciliation.

For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17)

 

Observations:

• Death reigned (in the world) due to one man’s trespass
• For those who receive it, grace and the free gift reign in life due to Christ’s righteousness; this is the condition
• The result of receiving the grace and the free gift has much more power than the promise of death, which results from the one man’s trespass.

 

Since all share in the nature of Adam, having come from him, all likewise share in the condemnation. Since all share in the knowledge of good and evil, all are under the same command and its resulting condemnation that exists in the second death, the death of judgment. That is as it’s intended. [P2,P3]

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19)

 

Observations:

• One trespass leads to condemnation for all. Adam’s disobedience brought all humanity under the judgment of God’s command – in dying you shall surely die.
• One act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. By receiving Christ, you can choose to live. [P6]
• Adam and Eve’s choice and exposure to the knowledge of good and evil results in all having the same capacity to be sinners. Like the law given to Israel, the knowledge of good and evil reveals sin for what it is. [P2] In this way, many were made sinners through the knowledge of what constitutes sin.
• Obedience of the one, Christ, results in many being made righteous, and this through the obedience of faith. [P1,P5,P6,P10]
• This fits precisely with Paul’s later claim in Romans 11:32 – For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Adam and Eve’s choice brought humanity under God’s judgment, which came through disobedience. The work of God in Christ is God’s mercy expressed as a gift of righteousness and the completion of the new creation. This was Christ’s role before the foundations of the world were set in place. [P1,P2,P5,P10]

 

A clarification is necessary for the judgment brought upon all humanity through Adam. The first death comes from what Adam is, mortal. The second death of judgment comes from what Adam did. Both of these deaths require the resolution made available in the last Adam. God intended and has provided a remedy through his grace and free gift, that all might be justified in Christ.

Now the law [command] came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 5:20-21)

 

Observations:

• The law, the command, increased awareness of sin, and sin reigned in death. This was true for Israel at Sinai. It’s also true for Adam and Eve in that through the knowledge of good and evil, they’re exposed to the full scope of what constitutes sin and righteousness; [P2] what we call morality.
• Grace abounded more than (greater-than) sin. This is at the heart of the mystery of God in Christ, in that there could never be sufficient sin among humanity to overcome God’s gift of grace in Christ. [P5,P8,P10]
• For those who receive it, that grace reigns through righteousness (in Christ) and leads to eternal life. Coincidentally, that leaves Christ as the resolution for what humanity would lack in their God-likeness (image of God), as expressed by the two trees in the garden; righteousness and eternal life (immortality). [P8]

 

Within these verses, Paul is making multiple contrasts, each with its own relationship. It will be helpful to view them altogether in a table.

Adam/Humanity	Operator	Jesus Christ
The trespass	Not equal	The free gift
Many died through one man’s trespass	Less-than	The grace of God and the free gift
The result of that one man’s sin	Not equal	The free gift
The one trespass brought condemnation (second death)	The latter negates the former	God’s free gift brings justification through Christ Jesus
Death reigned (in the world) due to one man’s trespass	Less-than	Grace and the free gift reign in life due to Christ
One trespass leads to condemnation for all	The latter negates the former	One act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all
Disobedience of one reflects that all are sinners	The latter negates the former	Obedience of one enables many to be made righteous
The law (command) increased sin	Less-than	Grace abounded more than sin
Sin reigned in death, the death of judgment	The latter negates the former	Grace reigns through righteousness and leads to eternal life

 

When contrasting the two acts, Adam’s versus Christ’s, Paul is clarifying that the grace of God and the free gift in Christ (the one) is greater-than the sin and disobedience of humanity (the many). This results in an inequality between the two. This explains Paul’s claims elsewhere in the book of Romans, and it should challenge our viewpoint on some traditional views of the work Christ is doing on humanity’s behalf.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
(Romans 8:1-2)

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
(Romans 11:32)

Impacts of this realization

One consideration that arises from this realization is that God’s grace and life in Christ overwhelm, exceed, and smother sin and death. From this perspective, we can come to fully appreciate the revelation received by Paul and others:

• There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ because they have received God’s gift of grace. Through the work of his son, God condemns the sin that condemned humanity, though it is applied conditionally.[10]
• Christ’s work sets all those willing to believe free from condemnation – the law of sin and death.[11]
• Christ’s work in the law of the Spirit fulfills the righteous requirement of the written law; codifying that the wages of sin is death.[12]

 

These things we as Christians should be well aware of, with our hope firmly established in them. Yet the work of Christ is not complete until he hands the kingdom over to the Father, where all who are willing to surrender to the obedience of faith in the Lord of lords will likewise reap the rewards of that faith – eternal life and immortality in the kingdom of God. The death of the Son of God, so critical to the redemptive work of God, was established and ordained before the foundations of the world. Since redemption is achieved by God’s grace and righteous judgment, clearly they precede the resulting redemption.[13] Certainly, free will is a factor. With Yeshua the Christ being the only source of eternal life and immortality, our tree of life, one must believe that he is the Son of God and the source of that life in order to receive it. This constitutes the fullness of God’s righteous judgment on behalf of those whom he willingly subjected to futility through the command of exception and resulting disobedience.

 

The idea that death satisfies God’s righteous judgment is a challenging idea. Yet it is that presupposition which is at the heart of Paul’s thinking in Romans 5 and elsewhere. Because Paul is relating all the attributes applied to Adam (and humanity as a whole), to overcome any one of them is to overcome them all; sin, death, condemnation, trespass, disobedience, the law (command).

In Paul’s thinking, Christ has already done this for all humanity, not just those now being called into his righteousness.[14]

• God’s free gift in Christ brings justification that negates the condemnation that arises by Adam’s trespass of the command and the sin that dwells within us. It is Christ’s righteousness that leads to justification and life for all.
• The obedience of Christ is an expression of God’s grace which reigns through righteousness, and it negates Adam’s disobedience and the disobedience of all who’ve been sinners since.
• The righteousness exhibited in Christ, which leads to eternal life, negates sin and death and the law (or command), which increases our awareness of sin and its consequences.

 

All that remains is for Christ to lead all those who are willing to choose life for themselves and others over the sin and death to which they’re already subjected into the kingdom of the Father. However, not everyone will embrace the light of life in Christ our Lord; they prefer the darkness.

 

For the disobedient and unrepentant who choose condemnation, their end is death, the second and final death, from which there is no hope of resurrection.[15] This is an expression of God’s grace and mercy as well, in that those who deny the source of life will have their life removed, and they will not be forced to live all eternity in, what is for them, a lie. This fulfills God’s righteous judgment as expressed in Romans 11 – For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. (Romans 11:32)

How does this second death fulfill God’s righteous judgment, you might ask?

• The judgment in the original command to Adam and Eve was – in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.[16] It’s been thought that this referred to either the first death common to man or to spiritual death. Yet neither of these holds up entirely when viewed against the larger context of God’s work in Christ. The question I ask is – what death does Christ’s sacrifice save us from? Clearly, this is the second death, the death of judgment.[17] The eternal inheritance promised to those in Christ assures us of a resurrection to glory from the first death common to mankind. Yet this glorious inheritance does more. It ensures us that the second death has no power over those glorified, those receiving immortality. Our victory over both deaths is complete.[18]

From this, we can conclude that the death God had in view in his command to Adam was not our knowledge and awareness of the first death alone, but primarily it was the reality of the second death of judgment. It is only this second death that represents true separation from God.[19]

 

• Likewise, Ezekiel reports God’s justice when he declares that a man will bear his righteousness alone or his injustice alone. They will not be passed onto his children. More importantly, God claims that – Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die. (Ezekiel 18:4,20)

Again, the context is not the first death, but applies fully to the second death, since that is the death that follows Christ’s righteous judgment. Many who’ve died and are buried will not come into his judgment until this final resurrection to judgment.[20]

 

• Not surprisingly, in Romans 6, Paul contrasts again the two states offered to humanity; sin and death versus righteousness and life eternal.

• One who has died has been set free from sin (vs 7). Death has fulfilled God’s judgment of sin.
• This is reflected in part by our death in Christ through baptism (vs 3-4), yet we are not exempt from the first death common to mankind.
• Death also frees any sinner, since the wages of sin is death (vs 21,23), an expression of mercy and grace on God’s part for the unrepentant who reject the life in Christ.

 

In Paul’s context here, both deaths are referred to, but not simultaneously. For example, concerning the death represented by baptism, this appears to be referring to the first death. It is the death that precedes judgment and newness of life for the believer. We enter into both judgment and new life when we surrender our mortal lives to Christ and begin to grow into the new creation; the old man dies.[21] It is only through the promised resurrection to glory that we are born fully into that new creation shown in Christ and overcome the second death as well.[22] As one who walks in Christ, we see a form of judgment daily as the Holy Spirit leads us out of darkness and into his glorious light. For all others, when Paul claims that the end of those things is death and the wages of sin is death,[23] he’s speaking primarily of the second final death; they remain under the death of judgment.

 

What we see from this is that those who, after the final judgment, reject Yeshua the Christ will find their names missing from the Book of Life. As our Lord declares in the Fourth Gospel – Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (Fourth Gospel 3:18). The basis for that condemnation, which exists since Adam, is death under God’s righteous judgment inherent in the command of exception – the second death.

 

With the unrepentant destroyed in the second death, our Lord then destroys death and Hades (the grave) as well. No longer will death reign over humanity or have a role in God’s creation from that day forward. It is then when Christ completes the work given to him before the foundation of the world and hands the glorified kingdom over to the Father; a new heaven and a new earth.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)