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by Katie Erickson 

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned — To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:12-21)

Last week I wrote about our hope - the hope of the glory of God, and the hope that we will have salvation. In this week’s passage, Paul expounds on what he wrote in Romans 5:1-11. Really, this section is the basis for what Paul was saying previously. Our hope of sharing God’s glory is certain because we are in Christ, who has guaranteed life for us through His sacrifice.

But why was Christ’s sacrifice important, or even necessary? For a more in depth look at why Christ’s resurrection was important, go check out this post by my fellow blogger Charlie Wolcott.

Here, Paul takes a concept that his readers were familiar with and compares and contrasts it so they understand Jesus Christ better. The people in the church in Rome, whom Paul was writing to, understood that Adam was the first human being created. Because Adam (and Eve) sinned, the entire world has to suffer the consequences of sin and evil and living in a fallen world. Adam was just one man, but he brought sin into the lives of every person who has ever lived or will ever live. Sin is a universal problem, and it’s with us from birth.

 Paul explains this further using a literary device called a chiasm (pronounced KEY-as-m) in verse 12: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” For more on a chiasm, check out this blog post. It’s essentially like steps where you go up one side and down the other, and the steps on each side parallel each other. The short chiasm here is like this:

This proves Paul’s post of how sin and death came into the world. Adam sinned, death came as a result of sin, which spread to all people because all people sinned.

But, just like the one man of Adam brought sin into the world, the one man of Jesus Christ redeemed the whole world from that sin! The death of one perfect human being, who was also God, was enough to pay the penalty for every sin of every person who has ever lived. Jesus Christ was that person! He lived a perfect, sinless life on this earth, He died a horrible death to defeat death itself, and He was raised back to life to live forever. This is what Paul is saying in verse 18: “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.”

The person Adam is known as the “first Adam,” and Christ is known as the “last Adam” because he essentially un-did what Adam did. Even better than that, though, is that Christ’s sacrifice doesn’t just cancel out Adam’s sin, but it goes way beyond that! Verse 17 says, “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” Yes, we do still have to deal with sin while we’re in this world. Sin is still here, but as Paul wrote just before this, if we have faith then we have the assurance of perfect reconciliation and salvation from our sins!

So what is the point of all this? Paul’s conclusion of this section is in verse 21: “So that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Before Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death, sin and death reigned; now we have grace and righteousness, and the certain hope of eternal life through faith in Him. That’s what it’s all about!

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