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12. Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men, because of which all sinned: —  13. for until the law sin was in the world;  but sin is not reckoned when there is no law.
14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is the type of him who was to come.  15. But the act of grace is not as the offense.  For if by the offense of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many.  16. And the gift is not as what came through the one who sinned.  For on the one hand the judgment came from one unto condemnation, but on the other hand the act of grace came from many offenses unto a righteous act.  17. For if, by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more shall those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.  18. So then as through one offense the judgment came unto all men to condemnation, even so through one righteous act the free gift unto all men to justification of life.  19. For as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one the many shall be made righteous.  20. But the law came in beside, in order that the offense might abound;  but where sin abounded, grace did superabound:  21. in order that, as sin reigned in death, even so also might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

5:12. Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men, because of which all sinned: —

The opening word of this verse, “therefore,” ties the subject of this verse to the subject of the previous verses: 9, 10, and 11. Paul is here beginning the explanation of the basis of salvation through faith and in particular reconciliation to God. In this and the following verses, it becomes clear that reconciliation is salvation from death to life. To show this, Paul goes back to the beginning of man, to Adam, and to his sin. He says three things about Adam:

(1) through Adam sin entered into the world ( 5:12a),

(2) and through that sin death entered into the world ( 5:12b), and

(3) and that death was spread unto all men ( 5:12c), to all of Adam’s descendants.  And because of this death all men have sinned           ( 5:12d).  

Let’s examine these in more detail.  5:12a. The first clause of this verse, “through one man sin entered into the world,” is a direct reference to the fall of man by Adam which is recorded in Genesis 3. This act of Adam was the entrance of sin into the world, that is, the human race. The word “entered” implies that sin came from outside of the human race. This external source of sin is, no doubt, Satan. This verse does not say but other Scriptures seem to indicate that sin apparently had its ultimate origin in him (John 8:44; compare with Isa. 14:12-14).  What was the nature of Adam’s sin? Was it disobedience, rebellion, or a transgression? It was all of these but something more. It was not merely something negative but something positive. It was idolatry. In Genesis 3:6 the explanation of Adam’s sin is given.

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.”

The woman saw that it was good for food — she had probably observed this many times before (Gen. 2:9); we have no record that the serpent told her that. She also saw that it was a delight to the eye. She had surely noticed this before also (Gen. 2:9). Neither of these appeals had previously made this fruit a temptation to her. It was the third element that made it a temptation to her: it was a tree to be desired to make one wise. The serpent added this element.

“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, ‘knowing good and evil'” (Gen. 3:5).

This was not a temptation to pride; it was a temptation to put wisdom and knowledge in the place of God. Adam’s sin was basically misplaced ultimate allegiance. It was not just unbelief but wrong faith: trust in that which was not God. The technical Biblical term for it is idolatry.

Idolatry is not just the worship of graven images of wood, stone, or metal (Col. 3:5; see also Eph. 5:5). The false gods whose worship is called idolatry are not always so crude or absurd. Many things such as wealth, society, the family, the state, democracy, power, experience, reason and science, etc., which are good in their proper place, may become false gods. These more sophisticated and civilized gods are not so easily identified as gods, but they are none the less gods when they take the place of ultimate allegiance in a man’s life. If anything, they are more dangerous and deceptive because they are not generally identified as gods.

In the case of the first man Adam, his sin was the rejection of the true God and the acceptance of knowledge and wisdom, that is, reason, as God. As important and good as these are in their proper place, they are not divine; they are not God. Adam’s sin is basically an idolatry of reason.

5:12b. The consequence of Adam’s sin is expressed in the next clause of Romans 5:12, “and death through sin.” God had given to Adam an explicit command, a prohibition, the transgression of which would result in death.

¹⁶“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may freely eat;  ¹⁷but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.'”    (Gen. 2:16-17 NAS)

At the serpent’s suggestion, Eve ate of the tree and gave it to her husband, Adam, who also ate (Gen. 3:6). Thus did Adam transgress God’s command and he died. In what sense did they die that day as a result of their transgression? Obviously they did not die physically. Since they did not die physically that day they must have died spiritually that day. This spiritual death is implied by the Hebrew experssion which is translated “you shall surely die” in Gen. 2:17 and which in the Hebrew is literally “dying you shall die.” That they died spiritually is apparent from the fact that they hid themselves from the presence of the God (Gen. 3:8) and eventually they were driven out of the garden away from the tree of life (Gen. 3:22-24).

As physical death is the separation of man’s spirit (person or self) from his body, so spiritual death is the separation of man’s spirit from God. It is the opposite of spiritual life, which is a personal relationship to God, fellowship and communion with God (John 17:3; 5:24; Eph. 2:1). Spiritual death is the separation, alienation, from God (Eph. 4:18; Col. 1:21). It is not something wrong inside of man, but a negative or wrong relationship between man and God. Spiritual death is like a barrier or iron curtain between man and God. Death is also a power. It is personified in the Scriptures as a king who reigns over the whole human race. Paul says, “by the offense of one, death reigned through the one”  ( Rom. 5:17; see also Rom. 5:14). Death as a kingly power separates man from God (spiritual death) and brings about eventually the separation of man’s spirit from his body (physical death). Physical death is the outward final expression and the natural concomitant of spiritual death (Psa. 88:3-5; Isa. 38:10-19).

5:12c. The effect of Adam’s transgression on the whole human race of Adam’s descendants is expressed in the next clause of Romans 5:12, “and so death passed unto all men.” Man today, Adam’s posterity, is thus different from Adam himself. As Adam was originally created, he was spiritually alive, walking in fellowship with God. There was no barrier between him and God. But this not true of us, his descendants. We are born separated from God, spiritually dead and in the process of dying physically. From birth we are in a state of alienation from God. Not because of anything we have done, but because of Adam. Thus

“¹³ sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.  ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam.”   (Rom. 5:13-14)

Man is spiritually dead not because of his own sins but because of Adam’s sin. This spiritual death along with physical death was transmitted unto all men from Adam.  Note that Romans 5:12 does not say sin passed unto all men but instead it says that death passed unto all men. It is death, not sin, that has been transmitted from Adam to his descendants. This verse contradicts the assumption of the doctrine of Original Sin which assumes that it is sin that has passed unto all men from Adam. Paul, however, teaches in this passage that it is death, not sin, that is passed unto all men (See also

verses 14 — “death reigned”,

verse 15 — “by the trespass of one the many died”, and

verse 17 — “by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one”.).

5:12d. The connection between Adam’s sin and the sin of his descendants is given in the last clause of this verse, eph ho pantes hamarton, “because of which all sinned.” The interpretation of this clause hangs on the meaning of the Greek prepositional phrase at its beginning, eph ho. This phrase is made up of a preposition epi and a relative pronoun ho. The preposition has several different meanings depending upon the immediate context and the case of the noun or pronoun with which it occurs. Its primary meaning is superposition, on, upon. Since the relative pronoun ho is in the dative case, the metaphorical meaning of ground, or reason seems best meaning here for the preposition epi. Thus it should be translated “on the ground of”, “by reason of”, “on the condition of”, “because of”. And the meaning of the relative pronoun depends upon its antecedent. In the Greek language, the relative pronoun agrees with its antecedent in number and gender. Here the relative pronoun is singular in number but it may be either masculine or neuter in gender. If the relative pronoun ho is taken as masculine and the word ho thanatos [the death] in the preceding clause, which is nearest noun in the singular and masculine, is taken as its antecedent, then the prepositional phrase eph ho would be equivalent to epi thanato [because of death]. In that case, the phrase should be translated “because of which” or “upon which condition.” With this meaning given to the prepositional phrase, the whole clause may be translated “because of which all sinned” and interpreted to mean that all men sinned because of death that has been transmitted to them from Adam. In other words, the transmitted death from Adam provides the grounds or condition upon which all men sin.

But how is it possible for all men to sin because of death? How does death lead to sin? This may be explained in the following way. Since man is born into this world spiritually dead, not knowing the true God personally, and since man by the structure of his freedom he must choose a god, then he will obviously choose a false god because he does not personally know the true God. Since the true God is not a living reality to him, and since he must have a god, man will choose some part or aspect of reality as his god, deifying it.

“…they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator…”   (Rom. 1:25).

Paul, writing to the Galatians, described this relationship of death to sin when he reminded them of their condition before they became Christians.

“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods”    (Gal. 4:8).

Not to “know God” personally as a living reality is to be spiritually dead. And a man is “in bondage to beings that are no gods” when he chooses them as his gods. He is in bondage to them because he does not personally know the only true God, that is, because he is spiritually dead. Thus man sins (idolatry, basically) because he is spiritually dead. This relationship between death and sin is what Paul is describing in this last clause of Romans 5:12. Because of death all men sinned. Spiritual death in the case of Adam’s descendants leads to sin; not the other way around.

The relationship of sin to death now after the fall is different from the relationship between them at the fall. At the fall, death was the result of sin (“through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin.” Rom. 5:12ab). This was established by the divine decree implicit in the command God gave to Adam (“for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Gen. 2:17 NAS). Adam’s sin was unique since it was the act of the head of the race; Adam’s position in the human race is unique, as Paul teaches clearly here in Romans 5:12-21 and also I Cor. 15:21-22, 44-49. His sin affected the human race in a way that the sin of no man after him has; it involved the whole race in death, spiritual and physical. Adam’s descendants do not have to sin to die, spiritually or physically. They are born into the world over which death reigns and are involved from birth in spiritual and physical death (As Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their dead” Matt. 8:22 KJV; Luke 9:60; that is, “let spiritually dead bury their physically dead”). Now since the fall, sin is the result of death. Since the fall, man does not have to sin to die but sins because he is already dead. Since the fall, this is the basic relationship between death and sin. Later, “the law came in beside” ( Rom. 5:20) and superimposed upon this basic relationship of sin-because-of-death (spiritual) the relationship of death-because-of-sin. “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:4, 20; see Deut. 24:16; Isa. 59:2). The law clarifies not only the nature of sin ( Rom. 3:20) that the basic sin is idolatry (Ex. 20:3) but also man’s responsibility for his sins (see the whole of chapter 18 of Ezekiel). But the law did not change the basic relationship: man sins because he is spiritually dead.

Man is not responsible for this condition of spiritual death inherited from Adam. The descendants of Adam are neither held accountable for the sin of Adam nor for the spiritual or physical death resulting from it ( Rom. 5:13-14). Both the natural and federal headship theories are incorrect here. Adam’s descendants are not guilty of Adam’s sin neither has his sin been imputed to their accounts. The doctrine of the imputation of Adam’s sin is nowhere taught in Scripture. In fact it is contrary to the explicit teaching of Scripture (Ezekiel 18:20; see also Deut. 24:16; Jer. 31:30). Adam’s descendants are only responsible for their own personal rejection of the true God and their ultimate commitment to a false god. Even though man is born into the world spiritually dead, alienated from God, not knowing God, he is not thereby exempt from responsibility for the choice of the wrong god. “For,” as Paul says in Rom. 1:20,

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;  so that they are without excuse.”    (Rom. 1:20)

This knowledge of the true God leaves man without excuse for his idolatry. But it does not save him because it is knowledge about the true God and not a personal knowledge of the true God. But even though a man is not responsible for becoming spiritually dead, he is responsible for remaining in the state of spiritual death when deliverance is offered to him in the person of Jesus Christ. If he refuses the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus, he must reap the harvest and receive the results of his decision, eternal death.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”    ( Rom. 6:23).

If a man refuses the gift of spiritual and eternal life in Christ Jesus and continues to put his trust in a false god, remaining in spiritual death, then after he dies physically, at the last judgment he will receive the results of his decision, eternal death, separation from God for eternity (Rev. 20:14; 21:6-8; Matt. 7:21-23). Thus there are three kinds of death: physical, spiritual and eternal death. He receives physical and spiritual death from Adam, but not eternal death. Man is condemned to eternal death not because of Adam’s sin but because of his own personal sin, his choice of a false god.

Even though man is born into the world spiritually dead, alienated from God, not knowing God personally, he has not lost his freedom of choice. He does not have a sinful nature which causes him to sin. Spiritual death has not done anything to man’s ability to choose. He neither lacks the alternatives to choose between nor the ability to choose. Then why does man sin, that is, why does he choose a false god? He chooses a false god because the true God is not a living reality to him. He knows about the true God ( Rom. 1:19-20) but he does not know him personally as a living reality. And lacking this personal knowledge, man does not have an adequate reason for choosing the true God. The true God Himself is the only adequate reason for choosing Him. He cannot be chosen for any other reason than Himself. For then He would not be God to that person but that reason for which he is chosen would be God. Only a living encounter with living and true God can produce the situation in which God Himself may be chosen. God Himself is the only adequate condition for the choice of Himself. Thus apart from the personal disclosure of God Himself man will usually choose as his god that which seems like god to him from the creation around him or from among the creations of his own hands and mind. Man does not necessarily have to sin, but he usually does. And spiritual death (in the absence of this personal disclosure of the true God) is not the necessary cause but the ground or condition of his choice of a false god. The Greek preposition epi translated “because” in this last clause means “on the basis of” or “on the condition of.” It does not imply any necessary causal connection between death and sin. Man sins by choice, not by necessity. Therefore, since all men are under the reign of death, all have sinned.

In this verse 12, Paul begins a comparison (“as”) that he does not complete. He breaks off the comparison for a digression in verses 13 and 14 to correct a possible misunderstanding of the last clause of this verse 12. In verse 18 and 19, Paul completes the comparison. A possible reconstruction of the missing part of the comparison to complete verse 12 would run something like the following:

“So God sent His Son [Christ] to die for all men, so that they might be made alive in His resurrection, because of which [life] shall all be set right [justified] by faith.”

5:13. for until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not reckoned when there is no law.

In this verse and the next, Paul breaks off the comparison he began in verse 12 and digresses to correct a possible misunderstanding of the last clause of verse 12. In these two verses, Paul teaches that men do not die because of their own personal sins but because of the sin of Adam. Paul is denying that death passed unto all men because all men sinned. (The usual translation of the last clause of verse 12, “because all sinned,” makes Paul appear to contradict himself here in verses 13 and 14.) Paul’s argument has three premises and the conclusion that is not explicitly stated. The first two premises are given here in verse 13 and third in verse 14. The first premise is, “For sin was in the world before the law was given.” Some commentators have a problem with this statement because they define sin in terms of the law, that is, sin is any want conformity or transgression of the law. And according to Paul’s statement in Rom. 4:15, “where there is no law, there is no transgression,” then before the law was given there would be no sin. So these theologians seek to solve the problem by introducing a law of nature written on the hearts of all men, misinterpreting Rom. 2:15, and contradicting the implicit premise of Paul in this verse that before the law there was no law. That is, if there was a law of nature written on the hearts of all, then all men could be held accountable for their sins, and thus die because of their sins, which is exactly opposite of what Paul is trying to prove. With this line of reasoning starting from the definition of sin in terms of the law everything gets very confusing and Paul appears to be obscure. The solution to their problem is very simple; do not define sin in terms of the law, but in terms of God, as Paul does in Rom. 1:21-23 (the basic sin is idolatry, trust in a false god), and no law is necessary for there to be sin, since the knowledge about God is known to all men, and leaves them without excuse ( Rom. 1:19-20). Now Paul’s argument is very clear. Sin was in the world before the law was given, that is, in a world where there is no law. Then Paul’s second premise, “but sin is not counted where there is no law,” leads to the conclusion that the men between Adam and Moses did not die because of their own personal sins. These men were not held accountable and thus did not die because of their sins because there was no law at that time to which they could be held accountable.

5:14. Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is the type of him who was to come.

In this verse, Paul states the third premise of his argument.  “Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s transgression.”  Here Paul uses the first two premises. Adam’s sin was the transgression of a God-given command, a divine law, the transgress of which brought death. Those from Adam to Moses did not have such a God-given command, a divine law, the transgression of which would have brought death; their sins did not lead to death like Adam’s sin. Yet death still reigned over them.  What is the point of Paul’s argument? What is the conclusion of this argument? The conclusion is that the men from Adam to Moses did not die because of their sins, but died because Adam’s sin. And what was true of them is also true of all men: death reigned through one man, Adam, over all men ( Rom. 5:17; I Cor. 15:22). Thus the last phrase of verse 12 cannot mean that death spread to all men “because all sinned” but “because of which [death] all sinned.” And what is true of Adam was true of Christ; for Adam was a type of Christ. As death came unto all men through Adam, so life comes unto all men through Christ. And as death resulted in sin, so life resulted in righteousness, the righteousness of faith. This similarity between Adam and Christ, leads Paul to point out the differences between Adam and Christ in next three verses.

5:15. But the act of grace is not as the offense.  For if by the offense of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many.

The reference in the previous verse to Adam being the type of Christ leads Paul to point out in this and in the next two verses the differences between Adam and Christ. Paul points out two differences: in this verse a difference of occasion or starting point and in the next verse 16 a difference of result.  In the opening clause of this verse 15, Paul tells his readers that he is going to deal with the differences between Adam and Christ.  “But the act of grace is not as the act of the offense.”  And that the difference between Adam and Christ is a difference of occasion.  “For if by the offense of the one many died, much more did the grace of God and gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded unto many.”  The act of the one man, Adam, is an offense by which many died, but the act of God is an act of the grace of God which gives a gift of life by the act of grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, through His death and resurrection.  And as by the act of offense of Adam many died, by the act of the grace of God in Christ the gift of life much more abounded to many, to all men.
The grace of God is God’s love in action.  See Eph. 2:5b where the parenthetical statement “by grace you have been saved” in Eph. 2:5b explains the statement made in verses Eph. 2:4 and 5a:

“^2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ^2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses,
made alive together with Christ.  (by grace you have been saved),”    (Eph. 2:4-5).

The parallelism in thought in verses Eph. 2:4-5a show that the grace of God is the act of the great love of God, who loved us, by which he has saved us, that is, “made us alive together with Christ”. God’s grace is more than His favor; it is His love acting to save us. By His grace, God saves us from death to life. Here in Rom. 5:15, Paul is also asserting that this abounding love of God has acted to make man alive to God. Paul will return to this idea of the abounding grace of God in verses 17 and 20.

5:16. And the gift is not as what came through the one who sinned.  For on the one hand the judgment came from one unto condemnation, but on the other hand the act of grace came from many offenses unto a righteous act.

In this verse, Paul goes on to a second difference between Adam and Christ.  “For the gift was not as what came through the one who sinned.”  Then Paul goes on to explain that that difference is a difference of result.  “For on the one hand the act of judgment came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but on the other hand the act of grace came from many offenses resulted in a righteous act.”  Paul returns to this difference of result in verse 18. Note that Paul is also here pointing out that the difference in results is because of the difference of starting point, “from one offense… from many offenses.” Judgment was occasioned by one offense which lead to the condemnation of many, but grace was occasioned by many offenses and lead to a single righteous act, the death and resurrection of Christ.

5:17. For if, by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more shall those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.

In this verse, Paul explains the basic difference between Adam and Christ. Adam brought death and Christ brought life. And the differences of occasion and result are expressions of this fundamental difference. Note the way that the difference between Adam and Christ is expressed. Concerning Adam Paul says, “by the offense of the one death reigned through the one.” But concerning Christ he says, “those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ,” not that life reigns through the one, Jesus Christ. This shows Paul’s understanding of life as personal relationship to God, and not as a new nature that man receives when he is regenerated. One enters into this personal relationship by receiving the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. The abundance of grace is God’s love acting abundantly to give righteousness, that is, to reckon the faith, which receives the abundance of grace, as righteousness. Here again we see expressed the two sides of the personal relationship between the believer and God; on God’s side God gives the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness and on man’s side man, the believer, receives this abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness by faith. And this gift of righteousness is not a quantity of merit that God places to the believer’s account, but it is faith which God reckons as righteousness ( Rom. 4:5), because faith really relates the believer rightly to God. Note that Paul again express the difference of degree between Adam and Christ by the phrase “much more.”

5:18. So then as through one offense the judgment came unto all men to condemnation, even so through one righteous act the free gift unto all men to justification of life.

In this and the next verse, Paul resumes the comparison he began in verse 12 but broke off when he digress in verses 13 and 14 to clear up the possible misunderstanding about the death passed unto all men because of Adam’s sin, and not because of men’s own sin. In this verse 18, he compares God’s reaction (“judgment”) of condemnation (God’s wrath) against man’s sin which came through Adam’s sin (“one offense”) with God’s action of putting all men into right relationship with Himself (life) through Christ’s righteous or saving act which provided the free gift to all men. Paul is not saying here that that all men are condemned because they all sinned in Adam, that is, that Adam’s sin was their sin. On the contrary, Paul has already said that they had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s transgression ( Rom. 5:14). Nowhere in his writings does Paul say that in Adam all sinned. But he does say that in Adam all die (I Cor. 15:21), and that death passed unto all men ( Rom. 5:12c) and because of that death all sinned ( Rom. 5:12d ERS). And God’s reaction of judgment to man’s personal sin is condemnation or wrath ( Rom. 1:18). Paul here in this verse sets that sin or offense of Adam in contrast to the righteous act of Christ; and Paul compares the effect of that righteous act with the effect of the offense of Adam: through Adam’s sin came judgement of condemnation of death unto all men but through Christ’s righteous act of His death and resurrection came the free gift unto all men of justification of life. That is, the free gift of life through the resurrection of Christ came unto all men by the preaching of the Gospel unto justification of life or putting them into a right personal relationship with God which is life and is through that gift of life. For righteousness comes from life just as sin comes from death. The justification of life is the act of putting one into a right personal relationship to God which is life; justification is basically salvation from death to life.

5:19. For as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one
the many shall be made righteous.

In this verse 19, Paul finishes his comparison between Adam and Christ by explaining the basis for the comparison in the previous verse 18.

“¹⁸ So then as through one offense [Adam’s sin]  the judgment came unto all men to condemnation [of death],  even so through one righteous act [Christ’s death and resurrection]  the free gift unto all men to justification of life.”  ¹⁹ For as through the disobedience of the one [Adam]  the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one [Christ]  the many shall be made righteous.”    (Rom. 5:18-19)

How were they made sinners? According to Rom. 5:12d (ERS), they are made sinners by the spiritual death that passed unto all men. All men were made sinners, not directly, but indirectly by Adam’s sin. They are sinners only directly by the spiritual death which they received from Adam. And how were they made righteous? By the spiritual life that passed unto all men through the preaching of the gospel, which is the power of God to save them ( Rom. 1:16) and to make them alive with and in Christ Jesus ( Eph. 2:4-5). Thus they are made righteous or set right with God by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus through the preaching of the gospel as they accept the gift of life by faith. For, just as sin comes out of death, so righteousness comes out of life, which the law cannot do; for the law cannot make righteous, that is. the righteousness of faith, since it cannot make alive ( Gal. 3:21).

According to the Augustinian theory of original sin, which is sometimes called the natural headship theory, not only did the whole human race corrupt itself in the first or original sin of Adam who is the natural head of the human race, but the whole race is guilty of Adam’s sin and has inherited the penalty of that sin, death. In the same way that the whole tribe of the Levites was in Abraham’s loins when he paid tithes to Melchizedek, and thus each Levite paid tithes with him (See Heb. 7:9-10), so each member of the human race was seed in Adam when he sinned, and thus each participated in the first or original sin by “seminal identity.” Because of the organic unity of the race in Adam, his act of sin was the act of every member of the human race, even though they were not conscious of this sin and were not even persons at the time. Following the Latin Vulgate translation of the last clause of Romans 5:12 in quo omnes peccaverunt (“in whom all sinned”), Augustine concluded that because all men literally sinned in Adam, their natural head, they are all guilty and have all inherited the penalty of that sin — physical, spiritual and eternal death. Men are under condemnation not only because of their own personal sins, which each commits as an expression of his sinful nature, but because of the guilt of the original sin in which they participated in Adam before they were born. Thus the Augustinian theory explains the transmission of the first sin by Adam (the original sin) to each member of the human race by the principle of inheritance of sin. By procreation all men have inherited Adam’s guilt and have a sinful nature.

Those who accept this theory of the inheritance of sin appeal to this verse (Rom. 5:19) to support this theory. They translate the verb kathistemi, which is here translated “made”, to mean “to constitute” and that Adam’s descendants were constitued by nature sinners. But as Lenski says,

“Through the disobedience of the one man the many were constituted sinners, ‘set down’ as sinners. The moment that the one act of diobedience on Adam’s part was committed it place the many, none of whom were yet born, in the position of sinners. Thus the universal result, the verdict of condemnation.”

R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans
(Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), pp. 380-381.

But as Charles Hodge writes,

“kathistemi never, in the New Testament, means to make, in the sense of effecting, or causing a person or thing, to be in its character or nature other than it was before. kathistenai tina hamartolon does not mean to make one sinful, but to set him down as such, to regard or appoint him to be of that class.”

Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1886, 1980), p. 173.

Thus the interpretation of the verb in Rom. 5:19 “to make sinful” is rejected by those Reformed theologians who accept a theory that is based on the principle of imputation. After the Reformation, the Protestant Reformed Covenant theologians developed the Federal Headship theory, or theory of immediate imputation, to explain Adam’s relationship to the rest of the human race. They used this verse (Rom. 5:19) to support their theory of immediate imputation. This theory employs the principle of imputation to explain the transmission of sin. According to this theory, God appointed Adam to be the federal head or legal representative of the whole race. God then entered into a covenant of works with the whole race through Adam as their legal representative. According to the terms of this covenant of works God promised to bestow eternal life upon Adam and the entire race if he, Adam, as federal head, obeyed God. On the other hand, God threatened the punishment of death, that is condemnation and a sinful corrupt nature, upon the whole race if he, Adam, as their federal head, disobeyed. Now since Adam sinned, God reckoned his descendants as guilty, under condemnation to eternal death. Adam’s sin is thus imputed to each member of the race as his own guilt. And because of this imputation of guilt, each member of the race has received a sinful or corrupt nature. This sinful nature, which is itself sin, causes invariably acts of sin. And each man in addition to the racial guilt is also guilty for his own personal sins. Thus men carry a double burden of guilt, of both objective and subjective guilt and condemnation. Thus Protestant Reformed theology explains the transmission of the first sin by Adam to each member of the human race by the principle of imputation. By interpreting the death passed onto whole human race referred to in Rom. 5:12 as the punishment and condemnation for the sin committed by the whole human race in Adam who acted as their federal head and legal representative, the principle of imputation appears to avoid contradicting the Scriptures which say that death, not sin, is passed onto all men ( Rom. 5:12; see also Rom. 5:14-15, 17; I Cor. 15:21-22). But in spite of this exegetical device, the principle of imputation still assumes that it is sin which is transmitted from Adam to his descendants. It differs from the principle of physical inheritance of sin only on the method of transmission of the sin. Adam’s sin is imputed to each member of the human race as his own guilt. And because of this imputation of guilt, each member of the human race has received a sinful or corrupt nature. Thus each man sins because of this sinful nature. Thus the principle of imputation also assumes that the connection between Adam’s sin and the sins of his descendants is really the transmission of sin from Adam to his descendants.  But this principle of imputation of Adam’s sin to all the human race is not taught anywhere in the Scriptures. It has been asserted that Romans 5:19 teaches this principle of imputation.

“For as by one man’s disobedience many where made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” (Rom. 5:19)

But the Greek verb kathistemi here translated “made” does not mean “to impute”, that is,”to place on one’s account.” The root meaning of this Greek verb means “to set down”. It occurs 22 times in the New Testament and is never translated “to impute”. It is translated “to appoint” (Acts 6:3); “to make ruler” (KJV) or “to put in charge of” (NAS) (Matt. 24:45, 47; 25:21, 23; Luke 12:14, 42, 44; Acts 7:27, 35); “ordain” (KJV) or “appointed” (NAS) (Titus 1:5; Heb. 5:1; 8:3). The KJV translates it “make” six times (Luke 12:14: Acts 7:10; Rom. 5:19 [twice]; Heb. 7:28; II Pet. 1:8). The remaining four occurence are translated variously in KJV (Acts 17:15 “conducted”; Heb. 2:7 “set”; James 3:6; 4:4 “is”).