Romans 5:18, commentary and pictures

As by one man's disobedience judgment and condemnation came upon all people, so by one man's righteousness the free gift comes upon all people unto justification of life. Adam stood as representative of the race, and by his revolt he lost Eden and divine favor and plunged his descendants into sin, guilt, death and bondage under condemnation. Christ as the second Adam took fallen humanity without its sinfulness, bore its guilt and debt, and where the first Adam stumbled and fell He resisted every temptation and overcame, redeeming Adam's failure. His sinless life and spotless death uphold God's unchangeable law, pay the debt for transgression, and His righteousness is credited to the repentant so they are pardoned, accepted as innocent, restored to God's image and given promise of eternal life. The gift saves all who receive Christ by faith as personal Saviour, but what is life to the believer is death to those who refuse Him, and those who believe in His strength may obey God's law, overcome temptation, and regain what was lost in Adam.

Contrast Stated Plainly

One man's offense brought judgment and condemnation upon all people, and in exact parallel one man's righteousness brought the free gift unto justification of life upon all people. Through the righteous act of the one Redeemer the free gift extends justification that leads to life for all, and He alone can pardon transgression and justify repenting sinners. In pardoning He restores the moral image of God in them and joins the humble, contrite soul to Himself in peace with God. He is strength and hope and salvation to churches, families, and individuals, the great shepherd who never misleads His flock, with all power in heaven and earth given to Him as the Lord our Righteousness. Grace is His character and does not abolish the law, for the law is the transcript of God's character presenting righteousness in contrast with unrighteousness, giving knowledge of sin and condemning the transgressor while having no power to save, restore, or pardon. Pardon comes through Christ, who lived the law in humanity, for God's character is Christ's character, and humanity's only hope is in the substitute God provided to reconcile the world to Himself, made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Through His death people are reconciled to God and through His life they are saved, receiving atonement through Him and rejoicing in God. As second Adam He redeemed humanity from the results of Adam's fall and overcame the enemy, so that through His strength people can overcome and receive eternal life, and His work redeems Adam's failure.

The next verse explains the contrast, that by one man's disobedience many were made sinners and by one man's obedience many are made righteous. This contrast is the mystery of faith and the righteousness of Christ.

The verse binds law and gospel together in a perfect whole, with Christ's gift meeting the condemnation brought by sin to give justification and life. It belongs to the testimony to be sounded throughout the length and breadth of the world so that all may discern the light and walk in the light. It is a precious scripture to be impressed upon every heart opened to receive it, giving light and understanding to the simple who are contrite in heart. Receiving Christ is more than nominal belief or legal religion, but belief to a purpose that appropriates God's richest gifts and gives them to others, by which believers receive grace and become His children.

Adam's Offense and Condemnation

Adam stood as representative for himself and for all his posterity under a requirement of perfect obedience to God, with the promise that if he preserved allegiance through the great trial his obedience would secure acceptance and favor, establish him forever in holiness and happiness, and extend those blessings to all his descendants, but his revolt against the law made all his descendants sinners under condemnation.

Both Adams were free moral agents responsible for their own conduct, and the first Adam by his own free will abused his freedom, allowed appetite to overcome him, disobeyed, lost his innocence, became a sinner, and separated himself from the favor of God. He was furnished with a holy, sinless, pure, undefiled nature and was in every way more favorably situated than Christ would be, abundantly supplied with everything he and Eve required in Eden where everything in nature was pure and undefiled. To test loyalty God prohibited eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and Satan insinuated doubts of God's wisdom and accused God of selfishness over that prohibition. Eve fell under temptation and Adam accepted the forbidden fruit from his wife's hand, listening to the suggestions of the enemy and falling under the smallest test of obedience, yielding to a small temptation, falling from integrity, and opening the floodgates of woe and condemnation upon the world.

Sin is not measured by the greatness of the act but by being at variance with God's expressed will in the least particular. Such variance proves sin reigns in the heart, revealing a divided heart, communion with the enemy, cherishing his attributes, virtual denial of the Holy Spirit, and rebellion against God's law.

By that disobedience Adam lost divine favor, forfeited heaven for man, lost Eden, separated man from God, and plunged the race into hopeless misery, sorrow, wretchedness and death. Man by nature is fallen and stands under the just condemnation of a holy God, under the sentence of His transgressed law, helpless, degraded, ignorant, hopeless and ready to perish. That fall cut people off from God, sold them to the enemy, and brought them under bondage to the law under sentence of death.

All children receive from Adam an inheritance of disobedience, of guilt and death, receiving guilt and the sentence of death through him. The bias to evil that followed the fall did not come from God giving human beings a new order of energies and passions, for God did not implant sinful propensities in the race. That bias can be overcome through the cultivation of righteous principles, unto restoration of the moral image of God and reshaping of character.

Adam's sin does not excuse staying in inherited natural defects and tendencies or acting them out without blame and without personal guilt involved. Sufficient grace and power are given in the perfect sacrifice of the One on Calvary, a whole Saviour given to the fallen race, to work away from natural defects and tendencies and to live up to God's standard in advancing divine life. To plead inability on the ground that the tendencies came from Adam casts reproach on God as if He is to blame for providing too little.

After the fall Satan claimed the whole human family on the ground of Adam's transgression, bringing the whole race under his control. He exercises his power over them in calamities and diseases, reproaches God as merciless, and spreads the sentiment and claim that God's law cannot be kept by any man after Adam's disobedience.

Christ's Righteousness and Life

As Adam's fall in the garden of Eden brought sin and condemnation and death upon all, so by the righteousness of Christ, who in the garden of Gethsemane drank the bitter cup of suffering and death, the free gift came upon all unto justification of life. Christ is the second Adam, head, substitute, Advocate and Redeemer, who clothed His divinity with humanity without leaving His divinity, took human nature from childhood to manhood, was born a babe in Bethlehem laying aside royal robe and crown, and stood at the head of the fallen race to reconcile man to the Father and bring man back to obedience. With divinity and humanity combined He reaches the race with a human arm while His divine arm grasps the Infinite, and His name is the link uniting man to God and God to man. As head and substitute He met the claims against humanity through His life and sacrifice, making salvation and restoration available to all who believe, giving every person opportunity to know God and His law, giving probation and placing them on trial, teaching obedience in His own nature, and elevating humanity in moral value with God. He honored the law and gave it dignity rather than destroying it by suffering for transgression and paying the debt for past transgressions as the accepted sacrifice, and at His baptism heaven was opened to man and heaven and earth were united again.

He took fallen, degenerate, sinful human nature and its infirmities upon Himself in order to associate with fallen humanity and come down to the level of those He wished to save. In Himself He was ever pure and undefiled, with no guile or sinfulness, no evil propensity and no taint of sin, though Adam was created pure and sinless but fell and his descendants were born with propensities to disobedience. In His own character and in a life of pure, disinterested benevolence, pleasing not Himself but going about doing good, He manifested the character of God to the world, held fast to God and His word, and trusted His Father without wavering while facing temptation as humans do yet never yielding.

Bearing the world's sins and the guilt, iniquity and debt of transgression, He was made sin though He knew no sin, was counted a transgressor, took the transgressor's sentence of death, and endured judicial punishment for sin to redeem from the curse of the law. Because He alone was sinless He could make an acceptable atonement for humanity, and His suffering for the world's sins was proportionate to the greatness of His purity and the magnitude of human sin. He bore the sins, infirmities and weakened condition of humanity after generations of decline, and humbled Himself to reach fallen people and lift them from sin's degradation. Only the Son of God who created man could make atonement for him, for God's law is the foundation of His government in heaven and on earth and not one precept could be abrogated or changed to meet man in his fallen condition, and even the life of an angel could not be accepted as a sacrifice for its transgression or remove sin's stain or restore what humanity had lost. The race could be saved from eternal death only through the Son of God bearing the punishment of disobedience, with the guiltless suffering for the guilty and God the Father accepting the death of His Son to save a guilty, rebellious race, since man could never rescue and restore himself and a ransom had to be procured by great means through divine benevolence and immeasurable sacrifice. His suffering on the cross shows the terrible consequence and cost of breaking God's law and His love in opening the way to pardon, life, restoration to the garden and the tree of life, and immortality.

As both offering and Offerer, priest and victim, with power in Himself to lay down His life and take it up again, He purchased the world by taking human nature as a ransom, with His humanity taken into union with Deity which gave His life in human flesh and His death on the cross as a spotless offering value to procure grace for the sinner. His atonement sealed forever the everlasting covenant of grace, fulfilling every condition for God to freely communicate grace to the human family and breaking down every barrier so that grace, mercy, peace and love in their freest fullness reach even the most guilty of Adam's race. His righteousness is credited and imputed to people so that through His merits they may be accepted by God as innocent and pardoned, justified from sin though unworthy and undeserving, joined to Him in peace, restored in His moral image, made partakers of the divine nature, given moral power to overcome sin, and promised eternal life. This life is received by faith in the Son of God, for Christ was made sin so that people may become righteous in Him, and where Adam failed Christ endured the test and conquered on behalf of the human race to give a fresh opportunity to return to loyalty to God by keeping His law. Through His name people can also overcome the foe for themselves, and His sacrifice upholds the honor of God's unchangeable law and government and settles the charge that justice and mercy conflict.

Through the righteous act of one person, the Redeemer, God extends a free gift bringing justification that leads to life for all people, and through Christ's death people are reconciled to God and through His life they are saved, receiving atonement and rejoicing in God. Jesus alone can pardon transgression and sin and justify repenting sinners, restoring the moral image of God in them and joining the humble, contrite soul to Himself in peace with God. He is the Lord our Righteousness, the strength and hope and salvation of churches, families and individuals, the great shepherd of the sheep who never misleads His flock, with all power in heaven and earth given to Him. He undertook to redeem humanity as its substitute and surety, bearing the guilt and wrath that disobedience would otherwise bring upon people, and consented to take upon Himself the work of restoration and offered Himself as a substitute in order that the race cut off from God with no hope may be brought back into the favor of His Father. Elevation to the highest position comes only through the merits of the blood of Christ and must be accepted, for if Adam had refused Jesus Christ as a substitute elevation would have been impossible.

Second Adam Redeems Failure

Christ took fallen Adam's place, beginning where the first Adam began and where ruin began, passing over the same ground where Adam stumbled and fell to face the test Adam failed. That test included appetite, and the three leading temptations by which humanity is beset. In the wilderness He met the same point at which Adam fell and won the victory as humanity's substitute, redeeming Adam's disgraceful failure and fall.

He endured a test more severe than Adam's, bearing the sins, infirmities and weakened condition of the fallen race after generations of decline. In the wilderness temptation He met a conflict a hundredfold stronger than any temptation upon the race, carrying man's weakness while resting wholly upon God's power. Satan came to Him as an angel of light to induce Him if possible to commit sin and place the race entirely under evil's dominion.

His circumstances were much less favorable than Adam's in Eden, for He stood amid the weakness and degeneration of four thousand years, surrounded by intensely subtle and misleading influences in the midst of sinners. Though created pure Adam fell and his descendants were born with propensities to disobedience, yet Christ, with no evil propensity, held fast to God and His word without wavering. He resisted every temptation, never yielded, did not become sin's bondslave, maintained His innocence, and remained ever sinless.

He stood where Adam stood and overcame where Adam failed, conquering on humanity's behalf, defeating Satan, and redeeming Adam's disgraceful failure and fall. His long fast and single-handed conflict in the wilderness with the prince of darkness, watched with intense interest by angels, decided whether Satan or the Redeemer would conquer and decided human salvation. Adam yielded to a small temptation in Eden and opened the floodgates of woe and condemnation, while Jesus met a most powerful series of temptations in all points as men are tempted and stood the test in man's behalf.

Had He transgressed the law in one point He would have been a sinner and His offering a failure unable to lift condemnation, but the enemy overcame Him in not one point, so His sinless righteousness secures justification of life for all. By that victory He proved false Satan's boast that humanity could not keep God's law after Adam's disobedience. He conquered to testify to unfallen worlds and to fallen humanity that men can keep God's commandments through divine power granted from heaven, keeping the law Himself to show that man can keep it and opening abundant grace so everyone who puts the will on God's side can overcome.

God's law is so sacred and immutable that not one jot or tittle of it could be changed or abrogated to meet man in his fallen condition or to excuse sin. Not even an angel's life could be accepted as sacrifice for its transgression, so Christ had to come, clothe divinity with humanity, live the law, and by His death make it possible for man to be restored to the favor Adam lost. By redeeming what was lost He placed the race on vantage ground with God, giving a second trial and probation with the privileges and freedom of choice of a free man. That gift postponed the day of final arraignment so man is bound over to appear at God's bar, saved the race from immediate death, gave Adam and Eve and their posterity a probation to return to allegiance, and at immense cost opened liberty from sin's bondage.

As soon as man sinned He took up the work of redemption, taking man's guilt upon Himself as substitute and surety to provide a way of escape by which the guilty race might return to loyalty. In the fullness of time He took humanity's nature without its sinfulness and assumed the position of humanity's head and mediator. He fought the battle in Adam's likeness, enduring every test and temptation any man will ever meet, and He calls men to travel His path of resistance and full dependence upon God as He depended on Deity. Man is to look to Him and not to any human as supreme in counsel and unerring in wisdom, denying self, enduring test and trial, and overcoming as He overcame.

Law Grace and Justification

Romans 5:18 shows grace to be Christ's own character, and that grace does not abolish God's law. The law is the transcript of God's character, the great moral standard presenting His righteousness in contrast with unrighteousness, a mirror that convicts of sin by revealing defects of character and making sin appear exceeding sinful. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and its province is to condemn the transgressor, but it has no power to save and restore, no power to pardon the transgressor or to help him, so that sinners would have been left helpless and undone without Christ. Pardon comes only through Christ, who lived the law in humanity, for God's character is Christ's character, and man's only hope is in the substitute provided by God, who gave His Son to reconcile the world to Himself, made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, becoming by a sinless offering the propitiation for sins able to speak pardon to the sinner and leaving an open door through which every sinner can approach God unto justification of life.

Adam's transgression forfeited heaven and separated man from God, and the Son of God clothed His divinity with humanity and came to die because of that transgression, to reconcile man to the Father and bring man back to obedience to God's law. He honored the law and gave dignity to it rather than destroying it, by suffering for transgression and paying the debt for past transgressions as the accepted sacrifice. Where Adam failed, Christ endured the test and conquered on behalf of the human race, and His obedience in humanity counted as righteousness for His people gives a fresh opportunity to return to loyalty to God by keeping His law. His sacrifice upholds the honor of God's unchangeable law and government and settles the charge that justice and mercy conflict, making salvation possible for those who repent and return to Him, for His death does not mean He did everything so man need do nothing, but man comes to God through Christ by doing the commandments, as shown when at His baptism heaven was opened to man and heaven and earth were united again.

By the offence of Adam just condemnation came upon all men, revealed in the loss of Eden, and by the righteousness of one, the Son of God stepping in and pledging His own life as the penalty for transgression, the free gift comes upon all men in a second trial, bearing the penalty of the law to give the sinner another chance and open a way to be reinstated in God's favor. This provision does not abolish God's law to give unconditional pardon, for the Father does not show benevolence at the expense of justice but maintains the principles of righteousness, lest the impenitent sinner be exalted in his sin and transgression be encouraged instead of abated. Man has violated God's law, and the blood of Christ avails only for those who return to allegiance to God and obey the law they have violated, for Christ will never become a party to sin, but by bearing past transgressions and imparting His righteousness He makes it possible for man to keep God's holy law. By disobeying God's commands man fell under the condemnation of the law, and this universal fall called for God's grace to appear in behalf of sinners, for without the fall the meaning of grace would never have been learned.

Grace is God's favor shown to undeserving human beings, not given to the sinless angels who obey all His commands and have never sinned, who are loved by God but know nothing of it because they have never needed it. Grace was not sought by man but was sent in search of man, and God rejoices to bestow it on everyone who hungers for it, not because they are worthy but because they are utterly unworthy, so that need itself is the qualification that gives assurance of receiving the gift. Through the righteousness of Christ the Christian who walks in implicit obedience holds a legal claim to eternal life that will stand the test of God's law. Traveling the only safe path close beside his Redeemer, with converted body and soul in harmony with God's law and daily renewed by grace, he is made rich by title to an immortal inheritance and rests his heart on the promise of full and free salvation, imperishable wealth, and a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory as an overcomer.

Receiving Gift by Faith

The free gift comes upon all unto justification of life, yet it saves all who repent and receive Christ by faith as personal Saviour and Redeemer, so that whoever believes in Him may not perish but have everlasting life. Receiving Christ is more than nominal belief or legal religion, for it is belief to a purpose that appropriates God's richest gifts and then gives them to others, making believers His children. The law and the gospel are bound together in a perfect whole in this truth, showing how Christ's gift meets the condemnation brought by sin.

This life is received by faith in the Son of God, because in His humanity He grasped divinity and overcame, so that human nature through faith is able to grasp the divine nature. He was made sin so that people may become righteous in Him, and those who share in His divine nature are promised eternal life. His atonement gives every person opportunity to know God and His law, but it does not mean everyone is saved, for the verse contrasts life for believers with death for the disobedient.

What is life to the believer is death to those who refuse His sacrifice, and upon impenitent transgressors who will not receive Him the sentence of eternal death is passed. To as many as receive Him and believe on His name power is given to become sons of God, connected with God and Christ as partakers of the divine nature. That leaves each person the choice whether to follow the example of the first Adam in yielding or to stand firm as the Redeemer stood in resisting temptation.

By standing in Adam's place to take the penalty of sin upon Himself, Christ secured another trial and a probation with the privileges and freedom to exercise God-given power of choice. Every son and daughter of Adam now lives in that other trial and probation, bound over to appear at the bar of God in the judgment. There all are tested and tried whether they will return to allegiance to God, with the day of final arraignment postponed. Through faith and obedience believing people may receive what the cross restores of what was lost in Adam and have access to the city of God.

Living the Restored Life

Romans 5:18 means that as Adam's offense brought condemnation and separation from God, Christ's righteousness brings the free gift unto justification of life, and His full obedience in humanity in perfect obedience to every precept makes it possible for people in His strength and in cooperation with God to obey also. He lived the law in human form though experiencing human weakness and temptation yet without sin, redeeming Adam's disgraceful failure and fall, answering condemnation and satisfying justice with the sins of all who receive Him charged to Him. His life gives a model and sample of law-keeping in humanity for all on earth to follow.

He came as the world's Redeemer to pass over the same ground where Adam fell, to meet Satan on his own ground and to stand alone as light in moral darkness, to reveal and to prove that men can keep the law of God against Satan's claim that no man could keep it after Adam's disobedience brought the race under his control. He came to give men the principles of truth and to teach them how to obey these principles, placing human beings on vantage ground, conquering where the first Adam failed, withstanding every temptation and living free from spot or stain of sin. When the Man of Calvary is lifted up sinners may see that all who will believe may be saved, and His suffering and crucifixion opened abundant grace so that every person who puts the will on God's side can be an overcomer, with Christ as the only hope.

Through His name, merits, and grace, and by cooperation with divine influence and dependence on Deity as He depended and rested wholly upon God's power, people can overcome the degradation of the fall, be linked to the Infinite through His divine nature, resist temptation, deny self, endure test and trial, and at last be crowned conquerors with Him. As Redeemer taking Adam's place and bearing the world's sins, He endured a more severe test and overcame the tempter on humanity's behalf, traveling the path of resistance and full dependence upon God in which He calls men to walk, so His righteousness credited to people is available for them also to overcome the foe for themselves. When the Father gave His Son to live and die for man He placed all the treasures of heaven at human disposal and gave every possible advantage for strength to withstand the temptations of the enemy, and His victory assures people that through divine help they too can overcome. His victory answers Adam's fall and reverses condemnation with the free gift unto life, so that as God gave power to Christ He gives power and angelic charge to all who take hold of the crucified and risen Saviour, none need go into iniquity, every son and daughter of Adam may come off more than conquerors, and there is no excuse for sin.

Through Him people must undergo a thorough transformation of soul, body, and spirit to regain the divine image and former estate lost by sin, with character reshaped and restored. The bias to evil that followed Adam's fall did not come from God implanting new sinful energies, passions, or propensities, and it can be overcome through cultivation of righteous principles, through obedience to God's law and faith in Christ by whom He began His work of conversion as soon as man transgressed. If obedient, the senses are no longer warped and twisted, the faculties no longer perverted and wasted on objects that lead away from God, but in and through grace bestowed by heaven words, thoughts, and energies may be purified, a new character formed, and the debasement of sin overcome. Those purchased by His humiliation and suffering are redeemed from the power of the enemy and placed on vantage ground where obedience is possible, so those bought with a price are to reach the standard God has set, glorify God in body and spirit which are His, not disappoint their Purchaser, and live thankful under blessing with His peace dwelling in their hearts.

What Adam by disobedience lost for himself and for the world, Jesus came to regain, offering His life as a ransom under sentence of death so that through His blood and obedience to God's law people may receive pardon and life, have God's favor, and be restored to the garden and the tree of life. Coming down to the level of those He wished to save, clothing divinity with humanity and taking sinful human nature upon Himself to associate with fallen humanity while ever pure and undefiled with no guile or sinfulness, in a life of pure disinterested benevolence pleasing not Himself but going about doing good He manifested God's character and showed Adam's failure could be overcome and what was lost in Eden regained. As second Adam paying sin's penalty and recovering what Adam forfeited, through Him humanity and the earth are to be restored, renewed and freed from sin and sorrow to fulfill God's purpose for the earth as the eternal home of holy, happy beings. Through His humiliation and death He brings life and immortality against the misery and death of Adam's fall, and Adam's own repentance and resurrection and return to Eden illustrate the hope of restoration through Christ, with the first and second Adams representing these opposing results.

That one disobedience in Eden in listening to the enemy carried infinite expense, leading the Son of God to leave the royal courts, take a humble place, be subjected to insult, rejection and crucifixion by those He came to bless, and be sacrificed to save man from the penalty, warning that God means what He says and man cannot set aside His commands with impunity. Therefore even partial observance of the Sabbath law is not accepted, and a life contradicting profession does worse to sinners than no profession because it causes loss of faith in Christianity. By accepting Christ as Saviour a person may be connected with God and Christ and become a partaker of the divine nature under guilt and sentence of death through Adam, and His example and grace enable parents to train their children as God's sons and daughters. Laying aside glory to clothe divinity with humanity without leaving divinity, bearing every trial of the human soul and far more according to His glorious character, standing in humanity as head to bear all battles and passing over where Adam fell to redeem the fall, He elevates with God every human being, carries humanity through as a commandment-keeping people giving testimony to the whole universe of heaven, and gives His nature to human nature so humanity may take His divinity. Through His death humanity can be redeemed and through God's power human beings can live without sin, as He took human nature, bore the sin of the whole world, and passed over the ground where Adam fell.

He began His work of conversion as soon as humanity transgressed so that through obedience to God's law and faith in Christ people may regain the lost image of God. His righteousness and perfect obedience provide the way to life and return to loyalty, and as substitute and surety bearing human sin He offers His righteousness so that through His merits sinners can be accepted and receive moral power to overcome sin. The law as the great moral standard and mirror convicts of sin by revealing defects but has no power to pardon or help, leaving sinners helpless and undone without Christ, but by living the law and making a sinless offering He became the propitiation able to speak pardon, impute righteousness so sinners are accepted as innocent with power to resist sin, bring to repentance and obedience, and leave an open door through which every sinner can approach God unto justification of life. At immense cost He gave opportunity for liberty from bondage and a second probation against sin's ruin, humbling Himself to reach fallen people in their sins, infirmities, and weakened condition after generations of decline, becoming sin though knowing no sin, to lift them from degradation. It is all due to Christ that man was given a second trial after Adam's fall, which He redeemed by withstanding every temptation of the wily foe, and this part He took is temperance. When the race fell all were cut off from God with no hope, but He consented to take the work of restoration upon Himself and offered Himself as substitute to bring the race back into the Father's favor, so elevation to the highest position comes only through the merits of His blood and must be accepted, for if Adam had refused Him as substitute elevation would have been impossible.