THE BOOK OF ROMANS CHAPTER 5:12-21
THE TWO ADAMS CONTRASTED

These remaining verses are some of the most enlightening and critical for the understanding of what Christianity is, starting with Adam’s demise in the Garden of Eden and the following consequences and promise of God to the Second Adam.  

We spoke earlier about how our faith must be established on Biblical facts not feelings. Some Biblical facts in verse 12… “Wherefore, as 1) by one man (Adam) 2) sin entered (from outside) into the world, and 3) death by sin; and so 4) death passed upon all men, 5) for that all (men) have (the word ‘have’ not in Greek) sinned…” By one man; Adam, sin entered into God’s RE-created world 6000 years ago; thereby becoming the heavens and earth which are now, by the same word (as the original creation and) are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant — of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” [2nd Peter 3:7-8]

  1. The first Adam was tested by the one law and failed. He forfeits innocence and receives condemning conscience. He receives judgment in the penalty of death for his willful disobedience. He and his seed, for an Age after him (up until the Law of Moses) were subject to trial according to the ‘law of condemning conscience’ according to the sentence of the Garden judgment, which resulted in all their deaths. Showing that Death reigns. 
  2.  Sin;  (the verb/the action in the Greek ‘humartia’ is to miss or wander from the right path; to go; or do, wrong) entered in to this world ; having not been here, was introduced by satan. The Angel Lucifer, was the first recorded in Scripture to do what is called ‘sin’. He, being now irreconcilably unrepentant, remains THE original Sinner; with many types of sinning, having had a fuller knowledge of God’s Will. (The noun for sin in the Greek ‘paraptoma’; a falling aside, when one should have stood upright. Hence morally a fall, a falling aside from truth and equity; a fault, or trespass.)  Sin is accredited to him. Because of him in the first place, and Adam’s willful transgression in the 2nd place, sin entered this Re-Created world, and Adam (and Eve) became the first human sinners. 
  3. Death came as a result of Adam’s sin. Death is the severe penalty of Law given according to the notice that Adam had previously received.
  4. Death is perpetuated in all mankind because we all are Adam’s seed (we were in his loins; from him).
  5. Death is perpetuated; because we all sinned in him. The fact that all men continued to die effectively proves they had sin in them. For death is the penalty of sin and answers to the sentence and proof of law broken. How is this explained? That men are the seed of fallen Adam and as such inherit the condemned fallen nature of Adam is true enough, for it is the Law of Genesis; in that every seed must produce after its own kind (compare Genesis 1:11 to 1st Corinthians 15 which has in view the resurrection). But this does not completely address Paul’s statement of facts moving forward, in how it relates to the comparison of the Two Adams’ imputations of sin and righteousness. There is something to be said about corporate humanity; corporate sin, and corporate righteousness. Truth of corporate humanity is found in Adam. We are all imputed death, and then in Jesus Christ we may all have imputed life (more to be said on this matter in this lesson). It should at least be understood that we as humans come from one seed, and we therefore answer one to another corporately. Whereas Angels are all singular in nature, and are individuals unto themselves.

VERSE 12-13 “For until the Law (of Moses) sin (that entered through Adam) was in the world; now sin (and its penalty of death) is not reckoned, where there is no law.” The Law here means Moses’ Law. Before which there was only the trespass by one man, of one law, with the penalty of death. There were numerous and grievous sinners and sins but their eventual deaths were a result of Adam’s trespass, not a reckoning of their own sins. Not having heard of the law or its breaking, does not mean they had no light. All then as now should have humanity. If they have not humanity, it’s sin against their own conscience, for all men of fallen Adam were of enlivened conscience, with full understanding of respect. These died under the penalty of Adam’s sentence but will be judged for their humanity or inhumanity at the Resurrection from the place of the dead. (Romans 2)

VERSE 14  “Nevertheless Death reigned from Adam to Moses (on the basis of Adam’s law and one sin), even over those that sinned not additionally in the likeness of the trespass  of Adam; who is the figure (Jesus bearing the form of Adam; Paul is introducing the idea of the positive side of the benefit of corporate humanity) of the future Adam. The sin of Adam was to have taken of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Although it was the one sin none of his seed after him could have committed, yet all his seed after him died under the penalty of his one transgression (being of his DNA). Nevertheless death reigned for the entire ‘Age of Conscience’ only without the Law of Moses for 2500 years. Now with God establishing Israel as His People, He put them essentially in the same type of circumstance as the first Adam. Moses was given the Law of 613 commands with threats and promises to 2 or 3 million Israelites, and sin abounded, death got even a tighter grip on all mankind. In the increase of commands and comprehension of God’s Holiness, comes the sins now to be reckoned on the sinners. It’s God’s further revealing to man the futility of fallen man’s justifying himself by keeping Law. But in the revealing of sin, He held forth the greater standard of grace to be given in the promised future Messiah /Second Adam of a new spiritual DNA. 

VERSE 15 “But not as the offense (the ‘gift’ of transgression from Adam), so also is the free gift (justification by an act of His Grace). For if through the offense 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.” The first sentence gives the first great difference in the two Adams’ seed. That is, in the seed of the first Adam, he passed on sin and death and condemning conscience as sinners to them all, but in the Second Adam, not all will receive the gift of righteousness and eternal life but only those that accept God’s Righteousness through His Son’s offering shall receive life out from under death’s reign.

Adam’s failure in faithfulness and offense of being unrighteous and its ramification to him and the imputation of sin and death to his seed is testimony of God’s severe Justice. It is here contrasted with His abundant graciousness demonstrated in the rewarding of the Second Adam’s living and dying in perfect Righteousness with the gift of imputation of justified righteousness to all Christ’s seed, in the power of regeneration. There being an imputation of sin by Adam and an opportunity for an imputation of righteousness by Christ. Jesus Christ, being in the form of Adam, being born a Man, was thereby able to fulfill the positive side of the principal of corporate humanity, and being not legally subject to the Adamic (nor Mosaic) curse as was the other seed of Adam, who returned to the dust of the Earth from whence he came, as the Second Adam was not of the dust, having come from Heaven, He was Resurrected out of Death and returned unto Heaven. 

The Law of Moses had been set aside now so that the gift of righteousness by grace and pardon might come in to all mankind; though not all accept it. Regardless, all men are bound to Adam and the curse of eternal death by body generation or DNA…and it is only by faith we are bound in union to Christ in re-generation unto eternal life. (Romans 8:10… “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”)

So in the First Adam we have:

  1. Sin entering 
  2. Death 
  3. Death reigning under the trial of men in the Age of Conscience only.

In the Second Adam we have:

  1. God’s Righteousness entering in 
  2. His bearing of sin under the trial of the Law of Moses
  3. His Resurrection unto life from among the dead with Grace and mercy to reign in His seed.

Grace (the divine power of God) is now to reign in two phases; over sin and then the sin nature. First over sin in the gift of righteousness by merely receiving by faith the propitiation of Jesus unto right-standing with God where then eternal life is secured. And secondly, in the trial under the present Age of grace and mercy, under the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, walking and working out of our righteousness through faithful service in the newness of life in overcoming the sin nature through the administration in the gift of the power of the Holy Spirit, unto the eternal glory of God. Continuing with verse 15…“…much more the grace (offer) of God which is by one man, Jesus (declares His incarnation into humanity) Christ (declares Him as the Righteous One), hath abounded unto (for the attainment of) many”…(the many from Pentecost to His Second Coming is in view).

VERESE 16 “And not as it was by one (the First Adam) that sinned (where the ‘gift’ of condemnation into the conscience inside came upon all the First Adam’s seed), so is the gift (endowment founded on the Second Adam): for the judgment (by God) was by one (transgression) to condemnation (on the outside), but the free gift (of imputed righteousness) is of (or after) many offenses (not only the grace for the forgiveness of the giving entrance to sin into this world, through that one trespass {Adam’s sin}, but the forgiveness of the multitudes of sins at regeneration, and the provision for forgiveness of multitudes of sins after regeneration) unto justification (outside of the condemnation of the Law).”

VERSE 17 “For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive (take by faith the) abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall (speaks to the future) reign in (Millennial resurrected) life by one, Jesus Christ.” (See Matthew 11:12, the kingdom is taken by force.) The 15th and 16th Verse have mostly the free gift of justification through receiving grace through Christ’s offering in view; this is by bringing them out from under the ‘reign’ of Death the 14th Verse. This reign is over those who are under law; “For without the law sin is dead”. Being saved from eternal death is being out from under the law and its condemnation. Paul after telling us all the blessings of justification from sin (the minor grace), now begins to go on to the more difficult subject of our sin nature (in the major grace we are enabled to fight against the sin nature). The sin nature which continues to abide within even after our redemption and forgiveness of inherent sin in Adam. As now the 17th verse speaks of those who are justified, but more so in that they much more take (in the present tense/ongoing) the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness that they might reign in ‘life.’ This attitude speaks of the knowledge of the gift as contrast with the prize/reward and their will in the pursuit of reigning with Christ at His Second Coming (reigning in this life being forbidden in 1st Corinthians 4:5-8). There is no abundance of grace needed for imputed justification; it is the same amount of grace for all who wish to be justified. (These abundant takers of grace might be better understood by considering the 5 wise virgins.) 

Adam has brought in the reign of Death over all; as all mankind is under the Garden sentence of the law, and thereby under the reign of Death. Christ is to bring in the reign of life in grace but there is a distinction between those merely justified and those who are faithfully obedient to Christ after being justified. (Matthew 7:21…“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” And Revelation 22:12… “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”) These faithfully obedient shall reign in resurrected life with Christ in Millennial Kingdom. They will for the most part come out of from the great mass of the dead in Hades; those physically dead but spiritually alive in Christ. They are the worthies of Luke 19, Matthew 25 and Revelation 20:4-6 who took the abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness; in that they, by drawing upon the abundance of grace, ruled over the sin nature within. They come up from below in the likeness of the Seed delivered completely forever from death’s reign and will reign now in glorious life with Christ in His Kingdom.

THE TWO ‘RESTS’ CONTRASTED and THE TWO ASPECTS OF BEING SAVED 

Adam entered into his work in the Sabbath rest of God on the 7th 24 hour day. God had made provision that Adam should not ever die and should reign as king in his kingdom. (Genesis 3:22-23) That Day was the day we refer to as Saturday which was representative of the first day of seven 1000 year ‘Days’ (see Psalm 90:4 and 2nd Peter 3:8 which says that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”) of the restorative work of the first Adam to replenish the Earth and to bring it back into a resemblance of its former state of Genesis 1:1 before the chaos of Genesis 1:2.  The command to Adam to rule over and replenish the earth being in Genesis 1:28…“…Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”   That Sabbath ceasing of the work of God, along with Adam’s delegated work was lost in his trespass of the one Commandment of God. Adam’s defeat was a result of the temptation by the Serpent/Devil in Adam’s attempt to elevate himself (same as satan’s sin of pride). The penalty for the trespass was degradation and was clearly understood from the giving of the Command “…for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”  That day being in the Shabbat/Sabbath (meaning a ceasing, stopping from activity, resting) Day of God, literally as it was the 7th 24 hour day when God ceased his Work and the clock started on what had been determined Adam’s restorative work to be; 7000 years. It was then when Death entered and began to reign over all Earth’s Re-Creation; as said before; Adam gained the knowledge of good and evil but without the power (grace) to do good and rule over evil.

Jesus, the Second Adam obediently entered into this World of sin, “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. [Philippians 2:7-8] “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” [1st John 3:8] 

And having conquered death, God raised Him out of death, and He more than recovered Adam’s lost kingdom.  “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” (Revelation 1) “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man (the First Adam) came death, by man (the Second Adam) came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming… (this passage is from 1st Corinthians 15:20-26 but stop for a moment at the end of the 23rd verse to consider these 4 verses {verses 20-23} before finishing our full passage).

Death still reigns over all especially over the dead. Death is both a geographic locale as well as a state of being. Death and its reign is not just descriptive of our bodies’ death; in that all of us as Adam’s seed die in that way, but Death also reigns over the soul after the body is removed and goes back to dust. The soul under the penalty of Adam’s death sentence, then being cut off from those living on the earth, is then incarcerated in that place where God has made provision for all men’s souls under this present reign of Death; that is in Sheol/Hades, in the center of the Earth, where Death is not only a state of being, but a place of incarceration. So it is, Death then yet reigns over all the souls of men passed from this Earth after the body’s death. And although Jesus, being victorious over Death, has the keys to Hades and Death, yet in this ‘Age of trial’ of saved men in this Age of Grace and Mercy determined by God as the special calling out of the Second Adam’s Bride from His Body (His side Acts 15:14 with Revelation 19:7), death on Earth and Death in Hades still reigns over all men. 

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death according to  1st Corinthians 15:26. Scripture tells us Death and its reign will be until the 7th 1000 year Day is completed. It is then, after the Millennial reign of Christ, when “Death and hell (Death and Hades being emptied) were cast into the lake of fire. This (lake of fire ) is the second death” (where, after the 2nd resurrection White Throne Judgment, those condemned will be finally cast). (Revelation 20:11-15) 

THE TWO ASPECTS 

The Second Adam, being tried and tested under the Law during life, having been faultless yet condemned unto death; Death could not then justly hold Him nor should His Body see its Corruption back to dust. He arose from Hades on the third day, being at the end of the 4th 1000-year Day, leaving three 1000 year Days to be fulfilled. The Second Adam, in contrast to the First Adam, having been declared the Righteous One, being then granted all authority and judgment in this World, in the greater similitude of the first Adam’s, and was thereby appointed to finish the 3 Days remaining of the seven-1000 Days’ work appointed to the First Adam. (Christ takes up the work delegated to First Adam.)

But now the Father and the Second Adam’s Work has two aspects:  

1) This Work that has been over these past 2 Days (Hosea 6:2 two thousand years, the 5th and 6th 1000 year Days) with the 3rd Day in view. These two Days’ work being in the calling out of a people especially as a Bride worthy; who took the abundance of grace and were declared overcomers, so that they might rule with the Coming King of kings; in the glory-filled life of the First Resurrection, out from among the dead in Hades, over this World. “…in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight” (Hosea 6:2 being a Messianic reference). This is now God’s Shabbat/Sabbath; the ceasing again from His Work for the 1000 year ‘7th Day’ while the Second Adam faithfully and completely takes dominion with His Eve in the Ruling and replenishing work of Adam and Eve appointed to them by God in the Garden of Eden. As now the Son of Man takes Dominion not only in the Earth over the fish, the birds and every living thing, but now over the heavens associated with this World/cosmos as well, as He casts the spirits; the destroyers of the re-created earth into the Pit for the duration of the 7th Day. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season….And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” [Revelation 20:1-3;7-10] Now the 17th Verse then has the first aspect of the 3rd Day of the Work of Second Adam in view.

The 2nd aspect has to do with the 21st Verse… “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life (not just quantity but quality of eternal living is in view as well) by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Now we have discovered the Reign of Death verse 14 and the Reign of life verse 17 where the word eternal is not mentioned, as it is in the Millennium/only temporal. Now the 21st Verse holds out to us the reality of the eternal reign of grace in life. The eternal aspect of Grace comes first into view in the foreboding Second Resurrection where all the remaining in Hades and Death are brought up in final Judgment which determines their eternal state; either to enter into the eternal life and Kingdom of God or eternal 2nd death/Death. (Revelation 20:12-15)   

Now to finish 1st Corinthians 15:20-26… Verses 24-26…“Then cometh the end, when he (the Second Adam) shall have delivered up the kingdom (of this World) to God, even the Father (after the Millennial reign); when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” The Almighty God has completed His Work; the restoration of all things. His Justice and Anger are appeased; His dealings with satan and this World are finished. Grace shall reign, law becomes of no consequence, as the superiority of righteousness prevails over the baseness of sin in Eternal living (knowledge of good and evil with the power now to do it) as the power of Death has been destroyed.

Grace is presently at work, but the fullness of Grace work is realized in Resurrection/eternal living in the 8th Day (that’s when Grace rules; Romans 5:21). The first Adam’s testimony is; if I had trusted in God He would have granted me the grace/power unto righteousness. The Second Adam’s living testimony is; faithfulness brings the power of the Holy Spirit of God unto the security of eternal righteousness. Eternal Innocence lost, but Eternal Grace righteousness in Christ is finally discovered. The effect of Christ’s Righteousness in Life in incorruptibility and immortality has then appeared. The Grace and righteousness life now eternally reigns in the Eternal City.

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