R O
M A N S
CHAP. V.
The
apostle, having made good his point, and fully proved justification by faith,
in this chapter proceeds in the explication, illustration, and application of
that truth. I. He shows the fruits of justification, ver. 1-5. II. He shows
the fountain and foundation of justification in the death of Jesus Christ,
which he discourses of at large in the rest of the chapter.
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Justification
and Its Effects.
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A. D. 58.
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1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we
have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of
the glory of God. 3 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.
The precious benefits and privileges which flow from justification are such as
should quicken us all to give diligence to make it sure to ourselves that we
are justified, and then to take the comfort it renders to us, and to do the
duty it calls for from us. The fruits of this tree of life are exceedingly
precious.
I. We have peace with God, v. 1. It is sin that breeds the
quarrel between us and God, creates not only a strangeness, but an enmity; the
holy righteous God cannot in honour be at peace with a sinner while he
continues under the guilt of sin. Justification takes away the guilt, and so
makes way for peace. And such are the benignity and good-will of God to man
that, immediately upon the removing of that obstacle, the peace is made. By
faith we lay hold of God's arm and of his strength, and so are at peace, Isa.
xxvii. 4, 5. There is more in this peace than barely a cessation of enmity,
there is friendship and loving-kindness, for God is either the worst enemy or
the best friend. Abraham, being justified by faith, was called the friend
of God (Jam. ii. 23), which was his honour, but not his peculiar honour:
Christ has called his disciples friends, John xv. 13-15. And surely a
man needs no more to make him happy than to have God his friend! But this is through
our Lord Jesus Christ--through him as the great peace-maker, the
Mediator between God and man, that blessed Day's-man that has laid his
hand upon us both. Adam, in innocency, had peace with God immediately; there
needed no such mediator. But to guilty sinful man it is a very dreadful thing
to think of God out of Christ; for he is our peace, Eph. ii. 14, not
only the maker, but the matter and maintainer, of our peace, Col. i. 20.
II. We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, v.
2. This is a further privilege, not only peace, but grace, that is, this
favour. Observe, 1. The saints' happy state. It is a state of grace, God's
loving-kindness to us and our conformity to God; he that hath God's love and
God's likeness is in a state of grace. Now into this grace we have access prosagwghn--an
introduction, which implies that we were not born in this state; we are by
nature children of wrath, and the carnal mind is enmity against God;
but we are brought into it. We could not have got into it of ourselves, nor
have conquered the difficulties in the way, but we have a manuduction, a
leading by the hand,--are led into it as blind, or lame, or weak people are
led,--are introduced as pardoned offenders,--are introduced by some favourite
at court to kiss the king's hand, as strangers, that are to have audience, are
conducted. Prosagwghn eschkamen--We
have had access. He speaks of those that have been already brought out of
a state of nature into a state of grace. Paul, in his conversion, had this
access; then he was made nigh. Barnabas introduced him to the apostles
(Acts ix. 27), and there were others that led him by the hand to
Damascus
(v. 8), but it was Christ that introduced and led him by the hand into
this grace. By whom we have access by faith. By Christ as the author
and principal agent, by faith as the means of this access. Not by Christ in
consideration of any merit or desert of ours, but in consideration of our
believing dependence upon him and resignation of ourselves to him. 2. Their
happy standing in this state: wherein we stand. Not only wherein we
are, but wherein we stand, a posture that denotes our discharge from guilt; we
stand in the judgment (Ps. i. 5), not cast, as convicted criminals, but
our dignity and honour secured, not thrown to the ground, as abjects. The
phrase denotes also our progress; while we stand, we are going. We must not
lie down, as if we had already attained, but stand as those that are pressing
forward, stand as servants attending on Christ our master. The phrase denotes,
further, our perseverance: we stand firmly and safely, upheld by the power of
God; stand as soldiers stand, that keep their ground, not borne down by the
power of the enemy. It denotes not only our admission to, but our confirmation
in, the favour of God. It is not in the court of heaven as in earthly courts,
where high places are slippery places: but we stand in a humble confidence of
this very thing that he who has begun the good work will perform it,
Phil. i. 6.
III. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Besides the happiness in
hand, there is a happiness in hope, the glory of God, the glory which
God will put upon the saints in heaven, glory which will consist in the vision
and fruition of God. 1. Those, and those only, that have access by faith into
the grace of God now may hope for the glory of God hereafter. There is no good
hope of glory but what is founded in grace; grace is glory begun, the earnest
and assurance of glory. He will give grace and glory, Ps. lxxxiv. 11.
2. Those who hope for the glory of God hereafter have enough to rejoice in
now. It is the duty of those that hope for heaven to rejoice in that hope.
IV. We glory in tribulations also; not only notwithstanding our
tribulations (these do not hinder our rejoicing in hope of the glory of God),
but even in our tribulations, as they are working for us the weight of glory,
2 Cor. iv. 17. Observe, What a growing increasing happiness the happiness of
the saints is: Not only so. One would think such peace, such grace,
such glory, and such a joy in hope of it, were more than such poor undeserving
creatures as we are could pretend to; and yet it is not only so: there
are more instances of our happiness--we glory in tribulations also,
especially tribulations for righteousness' sake, which seemed the greatest
objection against the saints' happiness, whereas really their happiness did
not only consist with, but take rise from, those tribulations. They
rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer, Acts v. 41. This being
the hardest point, he sets himself to show the grounds and reasons of it. How
come we to glory in tribulations? Why, because tribulations, by a chain of
causes, greatly befriend hope, which he shows in the method of its influence.
1. Tribulation worketh patience, not in and of itself, but the powerful
grace of God working in and with the tribulation. It proves, and by proving
improves, patience, as parts and gifts increase by exercise. It is not the
efficient cause, but yields the occasion, as steel is hardened by the fire.
See how God brings meat out of the eater, and sweetness out of the strong.
That which worketh patience is matter of joy; for patience does us more good
than tribulations can do us hurt. Tribulation in itself worketh impatience;
but, as it is sanctified to the saints, it worketh patience. 2. Patience
experience, v. 4. It works an experience of God, and the songs he
gives in the night; the patient sufferers have the greatest experience of the
divine consolations, which abound as afflictions abound. It works an
experience of ourselves. It is by tribulation that we make an experiment of
our own sincerity, and therefore such tribulations are called trials. It
works, dokimhn--an
approbation, as he is approved that has passed the test. Thus Job's
tribulation wrought patience, and that patience produced an approbation, that
still he holds fast his integrity, Job ii. 3. 3. Experience hope.
He who, being thus tried, comes forth as gold, will thereby be encouraged to
hope. This experiment, or approbation, is not so much the ground, as the
evidence, of our hope, and a special friend to it. Experience of God is a prop
to our hope; he that hath delivered doth and will. Experience of ourselves
helps to evidence our sincerity. 4. This hope maketh not ashamed; that
is, it is a hope that will not deceive us. Nothing confounds more than
disappointment. Everlasting shame and confusion will be caused by the
perishing of the expectation of the wicked, but the hope of the righteous
shall be gladness, Prov. x. 28. See Ps. xxii. 5; lxxi. 1. Or, It maketh
not ashamed of our sufferings. Though we are counted as the offscouring of
all things, and trodden under foot as the mire in the streets, yet, having
hopes of glory, we are not ashamed of these sufferings. It is in a good cause,
for a good Master, and in good hope; and therefore we are not ashamed. We will
never think ourselves disparaged by sufferings that are likely to end so well.
Because the love of God is shed abroad. This hope will not disappoint
us, because it is sealed with the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of love. It is the
gracious work of the blessed Spirit to shed abroad the love of God in the
hearts of all the saints. The love of God, that is, the sense of God's
love to us, drawing out love in us to him again. Or, The great effects of his
love: (1.) Special grace; and, (2.) The pleasant gust or sense of it. It is
shed abroad, as sweet ointment, perfuming the soul, as rain watering it
and making it fruitful. The ground of all our comfort and holiness, and
perseverance in both, is laid in the shedding abroad of the love of God in
our hearts; it is this which constrains us, 2 Cor. v. 14. Thus are we
drawn and held by the bonds of love. Sense of God's love to us will make us
not ashamed, either of our hope in him or our sufferings for him.
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The
First and the Second Adam; The Influence of Grace.
A. D. 58.
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6 For when we were yet without strength, in due
time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 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. 9 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.
11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. 12 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. 15 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.) 18
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came
upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous. 20 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.
The apostle here describes the fountain and foundation of justification, laid
in the death of the Lord Jesus. The streams are very sweet, but, if you run
them up to the spring-head, you will find it to be Christ's dying for us; it
is in the precious stream of Christ's blood that all these privileges come
flowing to us: and therefore he enlarges upon this instance of the love of God
which is shed abroad. Three things he takes notice of for the explication and
illustration of this doctrine:-- 1. The persons he died for, v. 6-8. 2.
The precious fruits of his death, v. 9-11. 3. The parallel he runs
between the communication of sin and death by the first Adam and of
righteousness and life by the second Adam, v. 12, to the end.
I. The character we were under when Christ died for us.
1. We were without strength (v. 6), in a sad condition; and,
which is worse, altogether unable to help ourselves out of that
condition--lost, and no visible way open for our recovery--our condition
deplorable, and in a manner desperate; and, therefore our salvation is here
said to come in due time. God's time to help and save is when those
that are to be saved are without strength, that his own power and grace may be
the more magnified, Deut. xxxii. 36. It is the manner of God to help at a dead
lift,
2. He died for the ungodly; not only helpless creatures, and therefore
likely to perish, but guilty sinful creatures, and therefore deserving to
perish; not only mean and worthless, but vile and obnoxious, unworthy of such
favour with the holy God. Being ungodly, they had need of one to die for them,
to satisfy for guilt, and to bring in a righteousness. This he illustrates (v.
7, 8) as an unparalleled instance of love; herein God's thoughts and ways were
above ours. Compare John xv. 13, 14, Greater love has no man. (1.) One
would hardly die for a righteous man, that is, an innocent man, one
that is unjustly condemned; every body will pity such a one, but few will put
such a value upon his life as either to hazard, or much less to deposit, their
own in his stead. (2.) It may be, one might perhaps be persuaded to die for
a good man, that is, a useful man, who is more than barely a righteous
man. Many that are good themselves yet do but little good to others; but those
that are useful commonly get themselves well beloved, and meet with some that
in a case of necessity would venture to be their antiyucoi--would
engage life for life, would be their bail, body for body. Paul was, in
this sense, a very good man, one that was very useful, and he met with some
that for his life laid down their own necks, ch. xvi. 4. And yet
observe how he qualifies this: it is but some that would do so, and it is a
daring act if they do it, it must be some bold venturing soul; and, after all,
it is but a peradventure. (3.) But Christ died for sinners (v.
8), neither righteous nor good; not only such as were useless, but such as
were guilty and obnoxious; not only such as there would be no loss of should
they perish, but such whose destruction would greatly redound to the glory of
God's justice, being malefactors and criminals that ought to die. Some think
he alludes to a common distinction the Jews had of their people into 
(ndyqym)--righteous, 
(hsdym)--merciful (compare Isa. xvii. 1), and 
(rssym)--wicked. Now herein God commended his love, not
only proved or evidenced his love (he might have done that at a cheaper rate),
but magnified it and made it illustrious. This circumstance did greatly
magnify and advance his love, not only put it past dispute, but rendered it
the object of the greatest wonder and admiration: "Now my creatures shall
see that I love them, I will give them such an instance of it as shall be
without parallel." Commendeth his love, as merchants commend their
goods when they would put them off. This commending of his love was in order
to the shedding abroad of his love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. He evinces
his love in the most winning, affecting, endearing way imaginable. While we
were yet sinners, implying that we were not to be always sinners, there
should be a change wrought; for he died to save us, not in our sins, but from
our sins; but we were yet sinners when he died for us. (4.) Nay, which is
more, we were enemies (v. 10), not only malefactors, but
traitors and rebels, in arms against the government; the worst kind of
malefactors and of all malefactors the most obnoxious. The carnal mind is not
only an enemy to God, but enmity itself, ch. viii. 7; Col. i. 21. This
enmity is a mutual enmity, God loathing the sinner, and the sinner loathing
God, Zech. xi. 8. And that for such as these Christ should die is such a
mystery, such a paradox, such an unprecedented instance of love, that it may
well be our business to eternity to adore and wonder at it. This is a
commendation of love indeed. Justly might he who had thus loved us make it one
of the laws of his kingdom that we should love our enemies.
II. The precious fruits of his death.
1. Justification and reconciliation are the first and primary fruit of the
death of Christ: We are justified by his blood (v. 9), reconciled
by his death, v. 10. Sin is pardoned, the sinner accepted as
righteous, the quarrel taken up, the enmity slain, an end made of iniquity,
and an everlasting righteousness brought in. This is done, that is, Christ has
done all that was requisite on his part to be done in order hereunto, and,
immediately upon our believing, we are actually put into a state of
justification and reconciliation. Justified by his blood. Our
justification is ascribed to the blood of Christ because without blood
there is no remission Heb. ix. 22. The blood is the life, and that
must go to make atonement. In all the propitiatory sacrifices, the sprinkling
of the blood was of the essence of the sacrifice. It was the blood that
made an atonement for the soul, Lev. xvii. 11.
2. Hence results salvation from wrath: Saved from wrath (v. 9), saved
by his life, v. 10. When that which hinders our salvation is taken
away, the salvation must needs follow. Nay, the argument holds very strongly;
if God justified and reconciled us when we were enemies, and put himself to so
much charge to do it, much more will he save us when we are justified and
reconciled. He that has done the greater, which is of enemies to make us
friends, will certainly the less, which is when we are friends to use us
friendly and to be kind to us. And therefore the apostle, once and again,
speaks of it with a much more. He that hath digged so deep to lay the
foundation will no doubt build upon that foundation.--We shall be saved
from wrath, from hell and damnation. It is the wrath of God that is the
fire of hell; the wrath to come, so it is called, 1 Thess. i. 10. The
final justification and absolution of believers at the great day, together
with the fitting and preparing of them for it, are the salvation from wrath
here spoken of; it is the perfecting of the work of grace.--Reconciled by
his death, saved by his life. His life here spoken of is not to be
understood of his life in the flesh, but his life in heaven, that life which
ensued after his death. Compare ch. xiv. 9. He was dead, and is
alive, Rev. i. 18. We are reconciled by Christ humbled, we are saved by
Christ exalted. The dying Jesus laid the foundation, in satisfying for sin,
and slaying the enmity, and so making us salvable; thus is the partition-wall
broken down, atonement made, and the attainder reversed; but it is the living
Jesus that perfects the work: he lives to make intercession, Heb. vii.
25. It is Christ, in his exaltation, that by his word and Spirit effectually
calls, and changes, and reconciles us to God, is our Advocate with the Father,
and so completes and consummates our salvation. Compare ch. iv. 25 and
viii. 34. Christ dying was the testator, who bequeathed us the legacy; but
Christ living is the executor, who pays it. Now the arguing is very strong. He
that puts himself to the charge of purchasing our salvation will not decline
the trouble of applying it.
3. All this produces, as a further privilege, our joy in God, v.
11. God is now so far from being a terror to us that he is our joy, and our
hope in the day of evil, Jer. xvii. 17. We are reconciled and saved
from wrath. Iniquity, blessed be God, shall not be our ruin. And not
only so, there is more in it yet, a constant stream of favours; we not
only go to heaven, but go to heaven triumphantly; not only get into the
harbour, but come in with full sail: We joy in God, not only saved from
his wrath, but solacing ourselves in his love, and this through Jesus Christ,
who is the Alpha and the Omega, the foundation-stone and the top-stone of all
our comforts and hopes--not only our salvation, but our strength and our
song; and all this (which he repeats as a string he loved to be harping
upon) by virtue of the atonement, for by him we Christians, we believers, have
now, now in gospel times, or now in this life, received the atonement,
which was typified by the sacrifices under thee law, and is an earnest of our
happiness in heaven. True believers do by Jesus Christ receive the atonement.
Receiving the atonement is our actual reconciliation to God in justification,
grounded upon Christ's satisfaction. To receive the atonement is, (1.)
To give our consent to the atonement, approving of, and agreeing to, those
methods which Infinite Wisdom has taken of saving a guilty world by the blood
of a crucified Jesus, being willing and glad to be saved in a gospel way and
upon gospel terms. (2.) To take the comfort of the atonement, which is the
fountain and the foundation of our joy in God. Now we joy in God, now
we do indeed receive the atonement, kaucwmenoi--glorying
in it. God hath received the atonement (Matt. iii. 17; xvii. 5; xxviii. 2): if
we but receive it, the work is done.
III. The parallel that the apostle runs between the communication of sin and
death by the first Adam and of righteousness and life by the second Adam ( v.
12, to the end), which not only illustrates the truth he is discoursing of,
but tends very much to the commending of the love of God and the comforting of
the hearts of true believers, in showing a correspondence between our fall and
our recovery, and not only a like, but a much greater power in the second Adam
to make us happy, than there was in the first to make us miserable. Now, for
the opening of this, observe,
1. A general truth laid down as the foundation of his discourse--that Adam was
a type of Christ (v. 14): Who is the figure of him that was to come.
Christ is therefore called the last Adam, 1 Cor. xv. 45. Compare v.
22. In this Adam was a type of Christ, that in the covenant-transactions that
were between God and him, and in the consequent events of those transactions,
Adam was a public person. God dealt with Adam and Adam acted as such a one, as
a common father and factor, root and representative, of and for all his
posterity; so that what he did in that station, as agent for us, we may be
said to have done in him, and what was done to him may be said to have been
done to us in him. Thus Jesus Christ, the Mediator, acted as a public person,
the head of all the elect, dealt with God for them, as their father, factor,
root, and representative--died for them, rose for them, entered within the
veil for them, did all for them. When Adam failed, we failed with him; when
Christ performed, he performed for us. Thus was Adam tupoV
tou mellontoV--the figure of him that was to
come, to come to repair that breach which Adam had made.
2. A more particular explication of the parallel, in which observe,
(1.) How Adam, as a public person, communicated sin and death to all his
posterity (v. 12): By one man sin entered. We see the world
under a deluge of sin and death, full of iniquities and full of calamities.
Now, it is worth while to enquire what is the spring that feeds it, and you
will find it to be the general corruption of nature; and at what gap it
entered, and you will find it to have been Adam's first sin. It was by one
man, and he the first man (for if any had been before him they would have
been free), that one man from whom, as from the root, we all spring. [1.] By
him sin entered. When God pronounced all very good (Gen. i. 31) there
was no sin in the world; it was when Adam ate forbidden fruit that sin made
its entry. Sin had before entered into the world of angels, when many of them
revolted from their allegiance and left their first estate; but it never
entered into the world of mankind till Adam sinned. Then it entered as an
enemy, to kill and destroy, as a thief, to rob and despoil; and a dismal entry
it was. Then entered the guilt of Adam's sin imputed to posterity, and a
general corruption and depravedness of nature. Ef w--for
that (so we read it), rather in whom, all have sinned. Sin entered
into the world by Adam, for in him we all sinned. As, 1 Cor. xv. 22, in
Adam all die; so here, in him all have sinned; for it is agreeable
to the law of all nations that the acts of a public person be accounted theirs
whom they represent; and what a whole body does every member of the same body
may be said to do. Now Adam acted thus as a public person, by the sovereign
ordination and appointment of God, and yet that founded upon a natural
necessity; for God, as the author of nature, had made this the law of nature,
that man should beget in his own likeness, and so the other creatures. In Adam
therefore, as in a common receptacle, the whole nature of man was reposited,
from him to flow down in a channel to his posterity; for all mankind are made of
one blood (Acts xvii. 26), so that according as this nature proves through
his standing or falling, before he puts it out of his hands, accordingly it is
propagated from him. Adam therefore sinning and falling, the nature became
guilty and corrupt, and is so derived. Thus in him all have sinned. [2.] Death
by sin, for death is the wages of sin. Sin, when it is finished, brings
forth death. When sin came, of course death came with it. Death is here put
for all that misery which is the due desert of sin, temporal, spiritual,
eternal death. If Adam had not sinned, he had not died; the threatening was, In
the day thou eatest thou shall surely die, Gen. ii. 17. [3.] So death
passed, that is, a sentence of death was passed, as upon a criminal, dihqen--passed
through all men, as an infectious disease passes through a town, so that
none escape it. It is the universal fate, without exception: death passes upon
all. There are common calamities incident to human life which do abundantly
prove this. Death reigned, v. 14. He speaks of death as a mighty
prince, and his monarchy the most absolute, universal, and lasting monarchy.
None are exempted from its sceptre; it is a monarchy that will survive all
other earthly rule, authority, and power, for it is the last enemy, 1 Cor. xv.
26. Those sons of Belial that will be subject to no other rule cannot avoid
being subject to this. Now all this we may thank Adam for; from him sin and
death descend. Well may we say, as that good man, observing the change that a
fit of sickness had made in his countenance, O Adam! what hast thou
done?
Further, to clear this, he shows that sin did not commence with the law of
Moses, but was in the world until, or before, that law;
therefore that law of Moses is not the only rule of life, for there was a
rule, and that rule was transgressed, before the law was given. It likewise
intimates that we cannot be justified by our obedience to the law of Moses,
any more than we were condemned by and for our disobedience to it. Sin was in
the world before the law; witness Cain's murder, the apostasy of the old
world, the wickedness of Sodom. His inference hence is, Therefore there was a
law; for sin is not imputed where there is no law. Original sin is a
want of conformity to, and actual sin is a transgression of, the law of God:
therefore all were under some law. His proof of it is, Death reigned from
Adam to Moses, v. 14. It is certain that death could not have
reigned if sin had not set up the throne for him. This proves that sin was in
the world before the law, and original sin, for death reigned over those that
had not sinned any actual sin, that had not sinned after the similitude of
Adam's transgression, never sinned in their own persons as Adam did--which
is to be understood of infants, that were never guilty of actual sin, and yet
died, because Adam's sin was imputed to them. This reign of death seems
especially to refer to those violent and extraordinary judgments which were
long before Moses, as the deluge and the destruction of Sodom, which involved
infants. It is a great proof of original sin that little children, who were
never guilty of any actual transgression, are yet liable to very terrible
diseases, casualties, and deaths, which could by no means be reconciled with
the justice and righteousness of God if they were not chargeable with guilt.
(2.) How, in correspondence to this, Christ, as a public person, communicates
righteousness and life to all true believers, who are his spiritual seed. And
in this he shows not only wherein the resemblance holds, but, ex abundanti,
wherein the communication of grace and love by Christ goes beyond the
communication of guilt and wrath by Adam. Observe,
[1.] Wherein the resemblance holds. This is laid down most fully, v.
18, 19.
First, By the offence and disobedience of one many were made sinners, and
judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Here observe, 1. That Adam's
sin was disobedience, disobedience to a plain and express command: and it was
a command of trial. The thing he did was therefore evil because it was
forbidden, and not otherwise; but this opened the door to other sins, though
itself seemingly small. 2. That the malignity and poison of sin are very
strong and spreading, else the guilt of Adam's sin would not have reached so
far, nor have been so deep and long a stream. Who would think there should be
so much evil in sin? 3. That by Adam's sin many are made sinners: many,
that is, all his posterity; said to be many, in opposition to the one that
offended, Made sinners, katestaqhsan.
It denotes the making of us such by a judicial act: we were cast as sinners by
due course of law. 4. That judgment is come to condemnation upon all those
that by Adam's disobedience were made sinners. Being convicted, we are
condemned. All the race of mankind lie under a sentence, like an attainder
upon a family. There is judgment given and recorded against us in the court of
heaven; and, if the judgment be not reversed, we are likely to sink under it
to eternity.
Secondly, In like manner, by the righteousness and obedience of one
(and that one is Jesus Christ, the second Adam), are many made righteous,
and so the free gift comes upon all. It is observable how the apostle
inculcates this truth, and repeats it again and again, as a truth of very
great consequence. Here observe, 1. The nature of Christ's righteousness, how
it is brought in; it is by his obedience. The disobedience of the first Adam
ruined us, the obedience of the second Adam saves us,--his obedience to the
law of mediation, which was that he should fulfil all righteousness, and then
make his soul an offering for sin. By his obedience to this law he wrought out
a righteousness for us, satisfied God's justice, and so made way for us into
his favour. 2. The fruit of it. (1.) There is a free gift come upon all
men, that is, it is made and offered promiscuously to all. The salvation
wrought is a common salvation; the proposals are general, the tender
free; whoever will may come, and take of these waters of life. This free gift
is to all believers, upon their believing, unto justification of life.
It is not only a justification that frees from death, but that entitles to
life. (2.) Many shall be made righteous--many compared with one, or as
many as belong to the election of grace, which, though but a few as they are
scattered up and down in the world, yet will be a great many when they come
all together. Katastaqhsontai--they
shall be constituted righteous, as by letters patent. Now the antithesis
between these two, our ruin by Adam and our recovery by Christ, is obvious
enough.
[2.] Wherein the communication of grace and love by Christ goes beyond the
communication of guilt and wrath by Adam; and this he shows, v. 15-17.
It is designed for the magnifying of the riches of Christ's love, and for the
comfort and encouragement of believers, who, considering what a wound Adam's
sin has made, might begin to despair of a proportionable remedy. His
expressions are a little intricate, but this he seems to intend:--First,
If guilt and wrath be communicated, much more shall grace and love; for it is
agreeable to the idea we have of the divine goodness to suppose that he should
be more ready to save upon an imputed righteousness than to condemn upon an
imputed guilt: Much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace. God's
goodness is, of all his attributes, in a special manner his glory, and it is
that grace that is the root (his favour to us in Christ), and the gift is by
grace. We know that God is rather inclined to show mercy; punishing is his
strange work. Secondly, If there was so much power and efficacy, as it
seems there was, in the sin of a man, who was of the earth, earthy, to condemn
us, much more are there power and efficacy in the righteousness and grace of
Christ, who is the Lord from heaven, to justify and save us. The one man
that saves us is Jesus Christ. Surely Adam could not propagate so strong a
poison but Jesus Christ could propagate as strong an antidote, and much
stronger. 3. It is but the guilt of one single offence of Adam's that is laid
to our charge: The judgment was ex enoV eiV
katakrima, by one, that is, by one offence, v.
16, 17, Margin. But from Jesus Christ we receive and derive an abundance
of grace, and of the gift of righteousness. The stream of grace and
righteousness is deeper and broader than the stream of guilt; for this
righteousness does not only take away the guilt of that one offence, but of
many other offences, even of all. God in Christ forgives all trespasses, Col.
ii. 13. 4. By Adam's sin death reigned; but by Christ's righteousness
there is not only a period put to the reign of death, but believers are
preferred to reign of life, v. 17. In and by the righteousness
of Christ we have not only a charter of pardon, but a patent of honour, are
not only freed from our chains, but, like Joseph, advanced to the second
chariot, and made unto our God kings and priests--not only pardoned, but
preferred. See this observed, Rev. i. 5, 6; v. 9, 10. We are by Christ and his
righteousness entitled to, and instated in, more and greater privileges than
we lost by the offence of Adam. The plaster is wider than the wound, and more
healing than the wound is killing.
IV. In the last two verses the apostle seems to anticipate an objection which
is expressed, Gal. iii. 19, Wherefore then serveth the law? Answer, 1. The
law entered that the offence might abound. Not to make sin to abound the
more in itself, otherwise than as sin takes occasion by the commandment, but
to discover the abounding sinfulness of it. The glass discovers the spots, but
does not cause them. When the commandment came into the world sin revived, as
the letting of a clearer light into a room discovers the dust and filth which
were there before, but were not seen. It was like the searching of a wound,
which is necessary to the cure. The offence, to
paraptwma--that offence, the sin of Adam, the
extending of the guilt of it to us, and the effect of the corruption in us,
are the abounding of that offence which appeared upon the entry of the law. 2.
That grace might much more abound--that the terrors of the law might
make gospel-comforts so much the sweeter. Sin abounded among the Jews; and, to
those of them that were converted to the faith of Christ, did not grace much
more abound in the remitting of so much guilt and the subduing of so much
corruption? The greater the strength of the enemy, the greater the honour of
the conqueror. This abounding of grace he illustrates, v. 21. As the
reign of a tyrant and oppressor is a foil to set off the succeeding reign of a
just and gentle prince and to make it the more illustrious, so doth the reign
of sin set off the reign of grace. Sin reigned unto death; it was a
cruel bloody reign. But grace reigns to life, eternal life, and
this through righteousness, righteousness imputed to us for
justification, implanted in us for sanctification; and both by Jesus Christ
our Lord, through the power and efficacy of Christ, the great prophet,
priest, and king, of his church.
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