How could the sacrifice of Jesus singlehandedly impact the world?
12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam…
Romans 5:12-14b (ESV)
In the previous section (Rom.5:1-11), Paul makes a bold statement that through Jesus, the barrier between God and us has been removed, allowing us to have confidence in our future glory. This is a big claim, so Paul anticipates some realistic questions: How can Jesus’ one act of sacrifice have such a huge impact on all of us? How can it overcome the power of sin and death in the world?
Paul answers these questions by explaining how Jesus’ sacrifice addresses the deep effects of sin in humanity. In Romans 5:12, he uses a three-stage chain reaction to describe human history up until Christ. First, sin entered the world through one man, Adam. Second, death came because of sin as its penalty. Third, death spread to everyone because all sinned.
When Paul says, “because all sinned,” he uses a specific verb tense (aorist) that points to a single past action. This means that Paul believes the whole human race sinned in one act in the past. He’s not just saying we all sin individually as Adam did, but that we all sinned in Adam’s single act of disobedience.
In Romans 5:13-14, Paul clarifies this point. He notes that between Adam and Moses, there wasn’t a formal law from God yet. He says, “sin is not counted where there is no law” (a clearer translation in the ESV). This doesn’t mean people before Moses had no guilt, because in Romans 2, Paul explains that people have God’s law written on their hearts. They still had a basic understanding of right and wrong.
Paul’s main point is that guilt and responsibility increase with knowledge. Before Moses, people didn’t break explicit commands from God like those who lived after the law of Moses was given. Even so, everyone still died. This shows that death wasn’t just the result of breaking specific laws.
Paul’s logic is that death affects everyone—nice people, mean people, ignorant people, and knowledgeable people alike. Even infants who haven’t deliberately sinned still die. Paul is saying that if death is the punishment for sin, why does everyone die, no matter their individual actions? His answer is that we all sinned in Adam. Even if people didn’t break specific commands, Adam did, and we are all implicated in his sin and its consequences. (This is known as the “Original Sin” in theology).
To sum up, Paul explains that we can’t blame Adam without acknowledging our shared involvement in his sin. Because we were all “in Adam” when he sinned, we share in the consequences of his sin. This understanding sets up how Jesus’ sacrifice can reverse the effects of Adam’s sin for everyone.
How have you experienced the effects of sin and death in your own life, even when you didn’t deliberately choose to sin? Do the effects of sin and death manifest in the world around us too?
[The ideas for this week’s materials on Romans 5:12-21 were drawn from Tim Keller’s book “Romans 1-7 for You“]
I have experienced the effects of sin and death in my own life, even without deliberately choosing to sin, because sin is an inherent part of our human condition. Despite my efforts to live in obedience to God, I am still affected by sin simply because I am a descendant of Adam. This original sin means that I share in the consequences of Adam’s disobedience, including death’s inevitability.
The effects of sin and death are evident in the world around us. We see suffering, injustice, and moral failures that impact everyone, regardless of individual choices. This shared human experience underscores the pervasive nature of sin and its impact on all of creation. Thus, sin’s influence extends beyond personal actions and decisions, manifesting in both individual lives and the broader world.
I experienced the effects of sin and death in my own life from a very early age. My mom died when I was four years old from complications due to her alcoholism. At that time, I was sent to live with my sister. When I was thirteen, my dad remarried and moved out of state, and very shortly after that he had his first stroke. When I was sixteen I got the news that he passed away. Shortly after that, (within less than a year,) we found out that my brother had a brain tumor, and he died within 6 months. All of this was very confusing to me at the time- I would say especially my brother. My mom and dad passed away as a consequence of their lifestyles, but my brother was what I would have considered to be “a good man,” (perhaps the best I ever knew.) He was only thirty years old, and had just started a family. I couldn’t understand why his life would be taken from him. I have had multiple experiences of the effects of sin and death in my life since then, which would just be too much to list here. When I first became a believer, and began to learn about the concept of “original sin” and the fallen state of the world, it made a lot of sense to me. I had seen it, experienced it, and had come to know it quite well. I’ve seen the evil and the ugliness of man and this world firsthand, most especially during my time living on the streets. I had no more illusions that man was “basically good,” including me. Today, it is quite easy to see the effects of this in the world around us, and I am completely and utterly convinced that Jesus truly is our one and only hope.
When we suffer the consequences of sin, if we clearly see that it is the consequences of our sin that we suffer, I think we would not feel that it is unjust (God built into us a sense of right and wrong and a sense of justice). Sometime though we are in the midst of events that seem out of our control and not of our own making and in time like that we cry out to God about the injustice of it all. We didn’t deliberately sin and yet we suffer the consequences of the sins created by others! Why for example did David’s 1 week old son from Bathsheba died because of what David did when God should have punished David twice over for his own sins (David’s adultery and murder of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah both deserved the penalty of death). I would like to revisit the death of the child in a bit but let’s continue with today question.
I have at time been in situation that I felt at first to be not of my own making. I would blame others and cry out against the injustice of the situation. I didn’t do anything wrong so why am I suffering so? But when I reflected on whether it is fair for me to suffer the consequences of these sins, I think of moments in the past that I may have sins that caused consequences, sometime unknown to me and sometime unintentional. Maybe ripples of those actions effected others and caused great pains even years or decades later. Am I so innocent? I think not, so do I deserve the punishments that I suffer now? I think so, God justice may not be immediate but it is inevitable. Psalm 51:3-4: “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” But let’s not despair when the Lord correct us and punish us for our sin because He does it out of love. Hebrews 12:5-7: “And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.’ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?”
But still is it just for God to punish me later for something I didn’t do – is the punishment fitting the crime or even related to the crime? Maybe we might agree that we should be punished for what we do but what about what we didn’t do – maybe there is something happening now that we didn’t feel is something of our making. I am sure that there are circumstances where we are suffering other’s sins but for me personally, when I looked at the things that have happened to me, if I look back far enough, I can pin point the moment in time where I could have avoided the situation that I’m in by a choice that I made. Each time I reflected on the options God gave me and each time I will admit that the options I chose were not the best for me but God allow me to make the choice and if I chose wrongly, He NEVER wasted the choice and instead use that opportunity to teach me something and at the same time He is using me to do something else to move His plans along – Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” – I see that absolutely and I clearly see His work each time in my own circumstances. So even when I don’t immediately see the reason for my suffering at the moment, if I take time to reflect I can always seen my own complicity in it at some point in the past. What comfort me is to see His work in the situation and when I can recognize Him, I am always comforted because I trust in the Lord’s love for me. If I don’t immediately see Him then maybe my relationship with Him is not strong enough and I need to deepen that relationship.
Back to the story of the child of David who died after 1 week of life through no fault of his own. I think the death of the child was great suffering for the parents but imagine that the child is spared the suffering that he might have to deal with because of David’s sin. He went to join with the Father and his sins are all forgiven (we can debate about whether that’s true because the child was not baptized – I chose to believe that God can forgive and save who He chose regardless any rules) – it seems that the child is incredibly blessed!