Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Five
TWO DYNASTIES
Scripture Reading: verses 18-21
THEREFORE AS BY THE OFFENCE OF ONE JUDGMENT CAME UPON ALL MEN TO CONDEMNATION; EVEN SO BY THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF ONE THE FREE GIFT CAME UPON ALL MEN UNTO JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE. FOR AS BY ONE MAN’S DISOBEDIENCE MANY WERE MADE SINNERS, SO BY THE OBEDIENCE OF ONE SHALL MANY BE MADE RIGHTEOUS. MOREOVER THE LAW ENTERED, THAT THE OFFENCE MIGHT ABOUND. BUT WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND: THAT AS SIN BOTH REIGNED UNTO DEATH, EVEN SO MIGHT GRACE REIGN THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO ETERNAL LIFE BY JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.
The subject before our attention in this passage is the superiority of God’s grace over sin and death. The keynote is: “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”
Throughout this entire chapter, we have been noticing how the words “much more” have given character to the ascending scale of divine truth. Paul has been mounting a golden stairway of truth and each step takes us higher into the serene realm of God’s excellent blessing. However, let us remember that we are still viewing a courtroom scene where man, the criminal, has been passing under review; where he has been proven guilty and is now justified. The particular moral issue now before the court is the question of death – its origin, effect, and annulment.
The eighteenth verse asserts that by the offence of one man, judgment and condemnation came upon all men. Through Adam’s transgression we have been constituted sinners – sinners by nature and practice. Adam is our federal head, so, as men after the flesh we are corrupt in the inner springs of our being. Moreover these inner springs are making themselves known by our actions. Thus by nature and practice we are condemned criminals in the presence of the Judge, our God. The condemnation is the death sentence – eternal death.
However, instead of meting out inexorable justice and banishing us from His presence forever, God, our Judge, comes forward with a free gift, and Paul, the lawyer for the defense, says:
Even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Two contrasting acts are presented here for our attention. The first is the offence or sin of Adam, which was disobedience against God. The second was the act of obedience which the Lord Jesus Himself performed on Calvary’s tree, where He became the sin bearer in obedience to His Father’s will. It is because of His work on the Cross that God can hand to us the free gift of justification of life. Now the dark gloom of the courtroom, which had been shadowed by the prospect of condemnation, is gilded by the bright sun-light of redemption’s glory, even life from the dead. It is as though the condemned criminal stood before the Judge, his head hung in shame, the death sentence about to be pronounced and the dark prospects of the gallows before him. Suddenly into the darkened gloom of this courtroom the glad news is brought that because of the love of the Judge’s heart, His own Son has given His life for the criminal, and he may go free of all charges. Instead of looking forward to death, he now looks forward to abundant life. That is “justification of life.” He has been given a new life, untarnished by the condemnation of sin. But such is presented as a free gift on the principle of grace as it is here recorded: “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”
The magnanimous grace of God intervenes in two different ways. First, the grace of God gives His beloved Son, who becomes the victim to die in the criminal’s stead. Secondly, the grace of God comes in, forgiving the criminal his sin because of the work of expiation on the part of the One who has died. So the magnificence of God’s grace is that it swallows up, covers over, buries the criminal’s sin in the depths of the sea. But it also goes further, extending a new life, even the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus, the One who died for him and rose again. All this is substantiated to us in that wonderful passage in 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul outlines the Gospel by which we are saved: “How that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” Thus the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord has been put on indelible record that every believer should assuredly know the entire sin question has been settled. Like a flood tide, the superabundant grace of God comes forth, swallowing up everything before it, and bringing endless blessing to the true believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, so “where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound.”
As a consequence of all this, the last verse of Romans 5 comes in with double assurance: “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Here we have brought before us two dynasties – first the reign of sin unto death, then the reign of grace unto right-eousness. Keep in mind there is the kingdom of darkness as well as the kingdom of the Son of God’s love – the power of darkness and the power of God unto salvation.
These are the two dynasties set in juxtaposition in this verse. It is tragically true that sin reigns unto death, for the wages of sin is death. In the life of man here on earth we see the dominating principle of sin and realize its logical issue is the grave. The mark of death is on us all because we are all sinners. That is a terrible reign; it is a power we cannot combat as long as sin is here. However, in this verse another kingdom is brought into view, the kingdom where grace reigns. Here the dominating principle is grace, not sin. It is the grace which is given to us as a free gift from God Himself, and, through Jesus Christ our Lord, it will go on to triumph unto righteousness. Its present confirmation is the righteousness of God which is imputed to us, justifying and clearing us from guilt – its final confirmation is eternal life in a world of unclouded bliss, out of which sin has finally been banished and overcome. This is all accomplished through Jesus Christ our Lord.
