Romans Chapter 5

Vs. 1…Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

This is the glorious truth of the Gospel of Christ---Justification Peace with God. This is God’s attitude toward the believer. This reminds me of the story of Jacob and Esau in Gen. 33:10. Jacob did not know that Esau had reconciled with him and in Jacob’s thinking Esau was going to kill him. The so called church has perpetrated this same thinking today among so called Christians; they are told that unless they deal with their sins by confessing, repenting and turning from them, God is displeased with them and will not bless them. Here in Romans 5:1 Paul is exposing the foolishness of that teaching. The grace doctrine of RECONCILIATION is the first great blessing a sinner should be confronted with. To believe that God justice has been satisfied through the death of Christ on the Cross when it comes to our sins immediately brings the benefit of JUSTIFICATION---this in turn results in PERMANENT PEACE WITH GOD!!! ALL OUR SINS WERE IMPUTED TO JESUS CHRIST 2,000 years ago. The only thing God is imputing to sinners today is THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST. He does this the moment they believe the doctrine of reconciliation. Ignorance of reconciliation or rejection of the doctrine of reconciliation means you will be forever “dealing” with your sins and thus forfeit the SPITITUAL BLESSING OF PEACE WITH GOD. It is a forever unchangeable attitude of God toward the sinner. God is satisfied ONLY when we take Him at His Word. 

Self-righteous “Christians” mock the teaching of grace reconciliation by calling it a license to sin or “greasy grace”. They fail to understand the first concept of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their carnal pride nature wants to contribute something toward their salvation. That is “salvation” based on human performance; it is human righteousness. TRUE GRACE is not a set of crutches to help a man walk through life better; it is a stretcher. We are not just disabled when it comes to pleasing God by our performance; we are totally impotent to do something that would cause God to decide to righteousify/save us. According to Rom. 3:10 this is a problem we all have. Verse 6 in chapter 5 of Romans corroborates this truth… For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly (not just the elect as Calvinist’s teach). If all we had to do was “straighten up” and become obedient in order to gain a favorable status with God, Christ’s death would have been totally unnecessary. God could have just forgiven us because He is God. The truth is, if people were capable of straightening up and getting serious about giving their lives to God, God would have been guilty of the murder of His Son. There is more to salvation than asking a person to believe that Christ died for them. Telling a person about the death of Christ presumes that they understand that “they are without strength”. The Law Program was given to Israel to show them that “they were without strength”. We can not effect change in our own selves in order to gain approval before God. Therefore, before the foundation of the world, the God-Head devised a plan to righteousify a man which would not violate Divine Justice…To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.  (Rom. 3:26) Therefore, the first thing God dealt with before He dealt with the righteousifying/justifying people was His own justice. The death of Christ on the Cross was God dealing with His own divine justice. In man’s thinking God could have declared a person justified because He is God and He can do anything He wants, any time He wants. Right? No! Because God is JUST (He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. Deut. 32:4) He satisfied the demands of His perfect justice in the person of Jesus Christ concerning our sins. THEN He was free to justify or righteousify those “which believe in Jesus”.

This is why it is so important for an ambassador of Jesus Christ to be able to explain the difference between the doctrine of reconciliation and justification. Just asking a person if they believe that Jesus died for them and rose from the dead (as preachers do today) WILL NOT RESULT IN THAT PERSON BEING SAVED/RIGHTEOUSIFIED. IT IS ONLY BECAUSE GOD’S JUSTICE WAS SATISFIED AT THE CROSS CONCERNING OUR SINS that God is free to join a sinner to His Son the moment he/she believes the work Christ accomplished on his/her behalf. Do you believe that God’s Son satisfied the Father’s justice concerning your sins? Then you are justified/righteousified/saved. This is a “gift declaration of righteousness”.

Peace on a human level from man to man is based on the deeds, words and attitudes of those around us. If you do something or fail to do something that offends those around you, the peace will be broken. Not so with God. God’s behavior or response to us is not conditioned on our behavior toward Him. God has a non-fluctuating attitude toward us based not on our performance toward God, but based on our belief toward the work of His Son on the Cross concerning our sins. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Col. 3:3) God’s attitude toward His Son does not change from day to day and we are hid with Him in God. Israel will one day enjoy this same blessing that we enjoy today as grace believers. (Jer. 31:33-34…But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. [34] And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.) In order for the nation of Israel to enjoy this New Covenant, they will have to make a proper CONFESSION, as a nation…If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; [41] And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: [42] Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. (Lev. 26:40)

Daniel made a proper confession…And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; [5] We have sinned, (Daniel is not confessing his personal sins; it is the Nation he is talking to God about) and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: [6] Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. [7] O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.  (Dan. 9:4-7)

The Apostle John urged Israel to make the confession God required…If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)

Paul tells us (grace believers) that we get the benefit of Israel’s future “peace with God” RIGHT NOW. The doctrine of reconciliation and justification when properly understood and believed results in SECURITY… Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. [10] For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Rom. 5:9-10) Therefore Paul determined that taking a financial offering for the Kingdom believers in Jerusalem was a grace duty… For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things. (Rom. 15:27)

Vs. 2… “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”  The grace that saves the sinner is accessed by faith and it (grace) is the only provision for a world of lost sinners whereby a sinner can STAND and REJOICE. This  wonderful provision of Grace can cause us to face real life which will include the following realities:

Vs. 3-5…“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; [4] And patience, experience; and experience, hope: [5] And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

Vs. 7-8…“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. [8] But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  If a man killed one of your loved ones and in an attempt to escape he fell in a pool of water and was drowning, would you attempt to save him? I doubt it! You would probably say “this is the Lord’s way of getting even with him for murder”. We attribute a lot to the Lord in our daily lives don’t we? Well, verse 8 says God demonstrated His “action love” (love not driven by emotions which is how we live our lives of “love”) AT THE VERY TIME WE WERE SINNERS (not at the time we were sorry for our sins or repenting of our sins or desiring to live better, etc.) by what Christ did with the sins of the world at the Cross. God imputed them to His Son in order to satisfy HIS OWN DIVINE JUSTICE. The God-Head provided for mankind’s  sin long before we were created…Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, (II Tim. 1:9). God gave man a free will and knew in advance what man would do with it; therefore He had this plan of resolving man’s sin dilemma. God’s gift declaration of righteousness was based solely on the death of Christ on the Cross. There are three righteousnesses discussed by the Scriptures: 1. Man’s unrighteousness. 2. Christ’s death at Calvary proved Christ’s righteousness. 3. Joining unrighteous man to Christ’s perfect righteousness proves God’s righteousness. That joining of man to Christ is based on the work of Christ entirely. Will you believe it? You did not have to believe anything all for Jesus Christ to satisfy the Father’s justice where our sins were concerned. That was accomplished for the entire world when Christ became sin for us at Calvary. All sins were taken away when God imputed them to His Son on the Cross. You do have to believe in what Christ accomplished for you where our sins are concerned in ORDER TO BE JOINED TO THE PERSON OF HIS SON. THE ISSUE IS NOT DO YOU BELIEVE THAT CHRIST DIED FOR YOUR SINS IN ORDER TO BE SAVED; IT IS DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT CHRIST ACCOMPLISHED WHERE THOSE SINS WERE CONCERNED. 

Now, in II Cor. 5:17-21 God explains the details of what was going on AT THE CROSS when He says that He was “reconciling the world unto himself…not imputing their trespasses unto them”. This work of reconciliation was God CHANGING THE STATUS of both Jews and Gentiles concerning their sins. When you get to Acts chapter 9, God had declared both the Gentile Nations and the Nation of Israel reprobate in their thinking (Rom. 1:28). Therefore, God in His grace and mercy imputed the sins of the world to His Son and chose to invite “whosoever will” to believe this “good news” (new status of total forgiveness to all the world). The moment a sinner believes this good news, God baptizes you into Christ’s death (death baptism replaces water baptism) (Rom. 6:3… Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?); He puts you into a union with His Son (Col. 1:27…To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:); He gives you a gift declaration of His Son’s righteousness (II Cor. 5:21… For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.); He circumcises you (not physical or of the heart; Col. 2:11… In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:).

This is what God has done and promises to do for all who simply take Him at His word concerning our sins. This is what Paul means when he says “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself”. Based on this information and explanation, Paul begs us to “be ye reconciled to God”. So what is our part of the equation? How do we reconcile with God? He is not telling us to find a way to be reconciled to God; He is telling us to ACCEPT IT not to BECOME IT!!! It means to UNDERSTAND what God has freely offered the world based on the work of His Son at Calvary. It means to GET YOUR THINKING STRAIGHTENED OUT. We want to know what we can do in order to be saved and so-called preachers of every religious denomination will present you with an endless array of INACCURATE STEPS: ask Jesus into your heart; ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins; pray the sinner’s prayer; give your life to Jesus; make a commitment to God; repent and turn from your sins; get right with God, etc. These “steps to salvation” will lead a soul to hell. Genuine salvation is the result of someone telling us the Gospel of Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:1-4) and then giving us the meaning of the “Gospel”…God has done all that is necessary for sinners to be saved; He forgave their sins 2,000 years ago by Christ’s death on the Cross in our behalf. The focus of the unsaved should never be “what must I do to be saved”; it should be “Thank God for what He has already done through Christ”. When we align our thinking with God’s in this way, we are obeying the command to “be ye reconciled to God”.

Let me come at this matter of salvation another way. Getting people to say they believe that Jesus died on the Cross for their sins does not save them. The salvation of the Ethiopian Eunuch is very instructive. He was reading his Bible; he was reading a great passage dealing with the death of Christ on the Cross; however, Phillip ask him the KEY QUESTION IN SALVATION… And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? (Acts 8:30) Also, there is a reason the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to include the words “according to the Scriptures” in I Cor. 15:3 when talking about “Christ died for our sins”. God does not want us to ignore the phrase---Christ died for our sins---nor does He want us to attach whatever meaning we choose. Christ died for our sins…according to the Scriptures. The only acceptable interpretation of the death of Christ for our sins is the one God wrote in the Bible. Therefore, let’s get busy understanding it for ourselves and proclaiming it to others. 

Vs. 9…“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”  Paul is reminding the Roman saints that in addition to the reconciliation of the world discussed in vs. 8-9 which brought the forgiveness of sins; as a result of them believing that component of the gospel, they had been justified (God’s gift declaration of righteousness) which resulted in them never having to experience the wrath of God. We have “much more” than just having our sins forgiven---as great as that is---we have been delivered from wrath.

Vs. 10-11…“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.  [11] And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”  Once again Paul restates that RECONCILIATION is different from JUSTIFICATION; but reconciliation is the basis by which we are offered justification. Reconciliation was accomplished when we were “enemies”; not at the point where we are willing to turn our lives over to Jesus. Here is another one of Paul’s “much more”: given the fact that the world has already been reconciled to God (what a blessing that is) yet that is not salvation in and of itself. We are saved by his life (Jesus life). Just as important as the death of Christ on the Cross is the grace truth that He rose from the dead. Both must be believed. The resurrection was God’s proof to man that Jesus satisfied the Father’s divine justice. It all passed the Father’s approval. He will now graciously receive any sinner who takes Him at His word.

There are several different reconciliations in the Bible. The word itself means “a change in status”.

1. Worldwide reconciliation of God to the world where sin is involved---reconciling the world to Himself by Christ’s Cross work concerning our sins. (II Cor. 5:18-21) Prior to this change in status with God, the world had been turned over to reprobate minds (Jew and Gentile).

2. Individual reconciliation---man God-ward where a sinner changes his thinking about his sins and believes what God has said about sin through the work of Christ on the Cross. This change in status is called justification.  

3. Nation to Nation reconciliation---the setting aside of national distinctions. (Gal. 3:28 & Eph. 2:14) All nations must come to God the same way in the dispensation of grace. That is not true in TIME PAST.

4. New Creature reconciliation---those who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ are given a new status in that they are placed into the person of His Son. (Eph. 2:15-16) “One new man”.

5. Israel in the Kingdom reconciliation. God will once again change Israel’s status and place Israel as prominent among the Gentile nations. Zech. 8:31… Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.

6. Headship reconciliation--- Col. 1:20… And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.  All governing heads (Israel and the church) will take their instructions from the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible is the story of two men and the people who are related to these two men. Paul identifies these two men in I Cor. 15… For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (vs. 22); And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. (vs. 45); The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. (vs. 47)  Adam and the Lord Jesus Christ are the two men who form two races of people. Everyone who has ever lived has an identity in one of these two men. You are related to one or the other but not both at the same time. The issue in eternity is not which church did you attend or how good you were or how many sins did you commit or did you ask Jesus into your heart; it is which man you are identified with. Paul is going to compare and contrast these two men and two races in the following verses.

Adam and the reign of death:

 Vs. 12-14…“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: [13] (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.[14] Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.  

Three things resulted from Adam’s transgression:

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world”…

1. Sin entered into the world. Paul already told us in Rom. 3:23 that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He is putting us on notice that everyone has a “sin nature disease” inherited from Adam. Sin is not primarily the unacceptable things we say and do; it is what we are. We sin because we are SINNERS; not the reverse. Therefore, we are constantly coming short of God’s rightness.

Verse 12 is not saying that Adam was the first “created being” to ever sin. Lucifer was the first “created being” that sinned. Neither is it saying that Adam was the first “human being” to ever sin. Eve ate of the forbidden fruit before Adam according to Genesis 3. So, what is Paul saying? That it was Adam by which sin was passed down to people. It was the male of creation by which sin was passed on. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Rom. 3:19)

“and death by sin”…

2. Death. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23)  There are several kinds of death discussed in the Bible but they all share a common characteristic--- “separation”. Isaiah 59:2 is an excellent example of how God would have us think about death… “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” 

• Physical death is the one we are most familiar with and it is the most painful one. In Luke 8:52-55 we find physical death defined as the spirit separated from the body. Jesus called the spirit back into the girls body and she sat up.
• Spiritual death is another type of death defined in Eph. 2:1-2 as separated from God. “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” This spirit that works in the children of disobedience is what it means to be “in Adam”. That spirit worked in the Ephesians and made them the “walking dead”. Every child comes into this world spiritually dead or in a “separated from God status”.  

The Ephesians saints were unique in that they had lived part of their lives in TIME PAST when… That at that time ye were without Christ (separation), being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel (separation) and strangers from the covenants of promise (separation), having no hope (separation), and without God in the world (separation):  They were no longer in that condition because they had obeyed the Gospel of Christ. To believe the Gospel is to obey the Gospel; to obey the Gospel is to believe the Gospel.  But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? (Rom. 10:16) O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? (Gal. 3:1)

How do we know that the Ephesian people Paul is writing to had heard and believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and had been taken out of their “separated from God status? Verse 13 gives the answer… But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.  “In Christ Jesus” means you no longer have the same identification you once had. At the point of your belief of what the Lord Jesus accomplished at Calvary concerning God’s justice and mankind’s sin (reconciliation), you became a “new creature” (II Cor. 5:17). You took on a brand new identification at the point of your belief. Your former identification in Adam means you were spiritually dead. The moment you are justified by believing the Gospel, God no longer views you in that manner. You have a new identification in the SECOND ADAM.

Spiritual death is also discussed in II Cor. 5:14-17… For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: [15] And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. [16] Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. [17] Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Those who now “live” (had their status changed from spiritual death to spiritual life) are those who are “in Christ”. At the point of our belief of what Christ accomplished concerning God’s justice and our sins at Calvary, we are immediately joined to the person of God’s Son. God views us in a totally new way. Gal. 3: 26-27 assures us of this truth… For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. [27] For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. This is a baptism that nothing to do with water; it has nothing to do with your pastor; or making a public profession of your faith; or joining the church. The Holy Spirit joins us to Christ, so what is Christ’s is now ours. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (II Cor. 5:21) Although Christ’s death availed for everyone, not everyone will take on this new identity of the Second Adam. The requirement for that new identity is BELIEF of what Christ accomplished for us at Calvary concerning our sins.

Reconciliation has to do with God’s justice being satisfied for sin (all of them for all the world). Hebrews 9:26 assures us of that… For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.  Jesus’ sacrifice put away sin; not His sacrifice plus something you add to that sacrifice. Christ did not appear to put away sinning; that still is occurring today. He appeared to pay for all that sinning, past, present and future. God is satisfied or reconciled with what Christ did. If Christ’s death was insufficient to pay for those sins, then Christ would have to die again. That is not going to happen. The issue is not will God forgive me now if I ask Him to; the issue is what God did back then regarding our sins. If there is one major or minor sin that I might commit now or in the future that Christ’s death has not already forgiven, then Christ’s death was insufficient… Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Heb. 1:3) When it comes to sins, Jesus didn’t need our help in putting them away by confessing. Adam’s decision in the Garden affected us though we had nothing to do with it. Similarly, Jesus’ decision at Calvary affected us though we had nothing to do with it. 

Justification has to do with the God’s judicial decree of righteousness. 

Reconciliation was accomplished at Calvary.

Justification is accomplished at the moment one believes the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The question today is not “have you asked God to forgive you of your sins?”; it is “does God see you in the righteousness of His Son?”  

Those who remain in their “separated from God status” have a terrible future… In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: [9] Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (II Thess. 1:8-9)

“and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”…

3. Death passed upon all men. Adam died in a different way than physical death in the day that he rebelled by eating of the forbidden fruit. Although the process of dying started the day Adam sinned, he died in the sense of the “separated from God” condition. The aging process we all experience is proof positive that we are all identified with the first Adam. We are stuck with the results of Adam’s choice in the Garden even today in that he was the federal head (representative) of the entire human race. Don’t get too worked up about the “unfairness” of this arrangement because God put a fully mature, totally innocent man on trial in a beautiful Garden; not a young teenager, with a sin nature, growing up in a single parent home and living in a housing project to see if he would sin. Adam, under the best of circumstances, sinned and so “death passed upon all men”. So the deck was stacked against us before we were ever born. Now before you start blaming God, don’t forget that before we were ever born God made a provision IN CHRIST at the Cross that put us in a new STATUS. That new status is called RECONCILED. Because the world was reconciled to God by Christ satisfying God’s justice and bearing our sin debt, we can now be taken out of Adam and placed IN CHRIST the moment we believe what Christ did on the Cross. This new standing “in Christ” is called JUSTIFICATION. So, Adam messed things up for us all without our participation or approval; so the Lord Jesus Christ straightened things up for us all on the Cross without our participation or approval. The moment we believe this Good News message our relationship with God is on the up and up. This is explained in the following verses:

Vs. 15-17…But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. [16] And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. [17] For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) The gift has been purchased for all but a person must RECEIVE the gift that is offered in order to be identified with the Second Adam.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Rom. 1:16)

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (Rom. 3:22)

To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.  (Rom. 3:26)

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.  (Rom. 4:5)

“For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.[14] Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses”… We do not have a lot of details about how God dealt with those who lived from Adam to Moses (pre-law). Some have referred to this period of time as the dispensation of conscience. Despite the fact that God was gracious enough to not impute their sins to them because they were not under a law contract, the consequence of Adam’s transgression was still being experienced in the world of people---death was still reigning.

From Adam to Moses ("when we were yet without strength") we have the reign of death through Adam (vs. 6,14).

From Moses to Christ ("while we were yet sinners") we have the reign of sin through the Law (vs. 8,20,21).

From Christ to the Present ("when we were enemies") we have the reign of grace, through Christ (vs. 10,20,21).

“even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come”… Adam was the federal head or representative of the entire world of people. He was not “the figure” of Christ in regard to sin. Every person since Adam has inherited a sin nature at birth and has had to live in a sin cursed world. Therefore, no one has ever sinned in a similar fashion as Adam. Adam is “the figure” of him (Jesus Christ) in that Adam got us all into trouble with God, Jesus got us out of trouble with God.    

“But not as the offence… And not as it was by one that sinned”  Paul is using contrast here to prove his point. In other words, Paul is saying when it comes to Adam and Jesus there are some similarities and some contrasts. The first similarity is between “one and many” and “death and grace”… “For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.” Adam’s transgression (one man) resulted in “many” being dead (how many is many? ALL! see vs. 12). Similarly, the death of Christ (one Man) extended to that same “many” (that Adam affected with his transgression) the gift of grace. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (Titus 2:9).

Now the contrast is this---Adam’s transgression brought sin and death to all men BUT Christ’s death on the Cross does not result in universal salvation. Christ’s death on the Cross does not affect all mankind in the same way that Adam’s sin affected all mankind. The gift of grace is made available to all men (reconciliation) (similar to Adam’s sin passed on to all men); HOWEVER, it is applied only to those who believe what Christ did about their sins at the Cross. You must receive it. That is the contrast.

The second contrast is between condemnation and justification found in vs. 16…And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.  Paul is saying that condemnation was brought about by one man committing a single act of sin; but Jesus death on the Cross fully satisfied God’s justice for all the sins of all the world (many offences). Those who take God at His word concerning our sins are justified (declared righteous). Who gets this free gift? HERE IS THE CONTRAST---those who receive the gift… For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ (vs. 17).

There is a third contrast in vs. 17. It is death’s reign versus reigning in life (not life’s reign). It is “they who receive” the abundance of grace shall reign. To reign is to overrule and prevail in the face of opposition. The gift was provided for everyone but only they who RECEIVE shall reign in life. To receive means to believe…Rom. 3:22.

The only condition to reign in life is to believe the Gospel.. We are to stand in that grace…By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  (Rom. 5:2) This is our position in Christ. (Col. 1:27)  This reigning in life is what the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is all about… For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Rom. 8:2)

Vs. 20-21... Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: [21] That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

 As Saul, “being exceedingly mad" against the disciples, persecuted them even unto “strange cities" (Acts 26:11), God stepped in to intervene. While on his way to Damascus, "yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" (9:1), he was overtaken and saved by the very One whom he had so viciously persecuted. Surely God had responded to the abounding sin of man with His overabounding grace! Little wonder the Apostle says of this: "And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant ....

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus come into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief' (I Tim. 1:14-16). But it is even more significant that the Apostle continues to say: "Howbeit FOR THIS CAUSE I OBTAINED MERCY, THAT IN ME FIRST JESUS CHRIST MIGHT SHOW FORTH ALL LONGSUFFERING, FOR A PATTERN TO THEM WHICH SHOULD HEREAFTER BELIEVE ON HIM TO LIFE EVERLASTING.”.