Romans 5
I wanted to make these remarks in a much more careful and classically exegetical way, but my impatience runneth away with me and I decided to jump right in, heedlessly.
In Romans 5 Paul deals with the problem (of his own making) that while he says Christ has conquered sin and death, there still seems to be plenty of sin and death around. The hope of the Christians is well founded he says: "Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." So that gift of the HS, you might say, is the down payment on the life believers receive through the work of the cross, and the justification effected by Christ's death for us, through the grace of God and not through our own merit.
So far, fine. This is Pauline thinking, no doubt of that.
Now starting in Verse 12 is a mixed up argument. Let's follow along.
5:12 Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned --
Sin entered the world because Adam sinned; death followed the sin; and therefore death spread to everyone because all men sinned. Hmmm. Well, this is a bit strange I think. We have sin and death like a plague, a highly infectious plague, and once in the world, you're done for.
5:13 sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
Now we are informed that sin entered the world with Adam, and was in the world before Moses, but that before the Mosaic Law, sin is not counted. So the sin is out there but all the folks before Moses, though sinners, can't be charged with sinning because the law was not yet in effect. Quite the neat rabbinical loophole, huh? So Cain killing Able was sinful? ....or not? Cain should have said, "Show me where it says I cannot kill my brother" instead of the "not my brother's keeper" plea.
5:14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Adams's sin = disobedience. Even folks who figured out other sins to commit were under death's rule before Moses. Adam is a type, or forerunner, of Jesus. Jesus will be the obedience "do-over" for Adam, and this will set everything straight.
5:15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
Here Paul starts to slide into incoherence. What he wants to do is to set up a perfect parallelism.
Adam : Jesus
Sin : Justification / Righteousness (should be Virtue, or similar)
Death : Life
His clumsy Jewish language of justification or righteousness is not really the opposite of sin, so Paul begins to flounder, substituting "trespass" for sin and "free gift" as its opposite. Sin and trespass are presumably understood as actions or behaviors that are morally bad. The opposite of that should be 'virtue', or perhaps 'good works' (horrors!!) though of course Paul can't say THAT. So trespass is set up as the antonym to "free gift." But the free gift is acquittal, or vindication,-- unmerited justification before God of a sinful believer-- so its opposite should be condemnation.
5:16 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
Now poor Paul goes off on a tangent further weakening his parallelism, stating frankly that the free gift is not like the trespass, but has a cool feature of literary interest, namely that one man (Adam) sinned and consequently many died, while one man died (Jesus) and many were given the gift of life.
5:17-19 If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.
Verses 17, 18, and 19 just recite the Adam // Jesus parallelism in a variety of ways.
5:20-21 Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The theme of the law as the cause of sin, or a spur to increased sin, is emphasized, along with the odd silver lining that because there was more sin, when Jesus arrived there was even more grace. So hooray!!! More grace! In the next chapter Paul will try to extricate himself from the seeming implication that more sin is good, because it occasions more grace when forgiven.
Paul consistently preaches that sin is caused by, or occasioned by, or somehow brought into the world by, the command of God not to sin (e.g. the Law, the command to Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge). How this can be maintained without the implication that God himself is the cause of sin, and of evil in the world, is hard to see. Paul seems to fan the flames of the theodicy problem rather than provide a solution to it. Is there an "Evil God of the World" lurking here? Why is Satan and the snake and even Eve not mentioned? Why is repentence not a pre-condition of the "free gift"?
It is hard, and worthwhile, to follow along the Apostle's thinking, and see if sense can be made of it. It is no use pretending that Paul is always clear, or even coherent, because he isn't. There are many gnostic ideas lurking here in Romans and even more in 1 Corinthians. The main gnostic theme, of the sin of the primordial man and the Gnostic Redeemer from above, is played out in Romans 5.
In Romans 5 Paul deals with the problem (of his own making) that while he says Christ has conquered sin and death, there still seems to be plenty of sin and death around. The hope of the Christians is well founded he says: "Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." So that gift of the HS, you might say, is the down payment on the life believers receive through the work of the cross, and the justification effected by Christ's death for us, through the grace of God and not through our own merit.
So far, fine. This is Pauline thinking, no doubt of that.
Now starting in Verse 12 is a mixed up argument. Let's follow along.
5:12 Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned --
Sin entered the world because Adam sinned; death followed the sin; and therefore death spread to everyone because all men sinned. Hmmm. Well, this is a bit strange I think. We have sin and death like a plague, a highly infectious plague, and once in the world, you're done for.
5:13 sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
Now we are informed that sin entered the world with Adam, and was in the world before Moses, but that before the Mosaic Law, sin is not counted. So the sin is out there but all the folks before Moses, though sinners, can't be charged with sinning because the law was not yet in effect. Quite the neat rabbinical loophole, huh? So Cain killing Able was sinful? ....or not? Cain should have said, "Show me where it says I cannot kill my brother" instead of the "not my brother's keeper" plea.
5:14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Adams's sin = disobedience. Even folks who figured out other sins to commit were under death's rule before Moses. Adam is a type, or forerunner, of Jesus. Jesus will be the obedience "do-over" for Adam, and this will set everything straight.
5:15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
Here Paul starts to slide into incoherence. What he wants to do is to set up a perfect parallelism.
Adam : Jesus
Sin : Justification / Righteousness (should be Virtue, or similar)
Death : Life
His clumsy Jewish language of justification or righteousness is not really the opposite of sin, so Paul begins to flounder, substituting "trespass" for sin and "free gift" as its opposite. Sin and trespass are presumably understood as actions or behaviors that are morally bad. The opposite of that should be 'virtue', or perhaps 'good works' (horrors!!) though of course Paul can't say THAT. So trespass is set up as the antonym to "free gift." But the free gift is acquittal, or vindication,-- unmerited justification before God of a sinful believer-- so its opposite should be condemnation.
5:16 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
Now poor Paul goes off on a tangent further weakening his parallelism, stating frankly that the free gift is not like the trespass, but has a cool feature of literary interest, namely that one man (Adam) sinned and consequently many died, while one man died (Jesus) and many were given the gift of life.
5:17-19 If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.
Verses 17, 18, and 19 just recite the Adam // Jesus parallelism in a variety of ways.
5:20-21 Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The theme of the law as the cause of sin, or a spur to increased sin, is emphasized, along with the odd silver lining that because there was more sin, when Jesus arrived there was even more grace. So hooray!!! More grace! In the next chapter Paul will try to extricate himself from the seeming implication that more sin is good, because it occasions more grace when forgiven.
Paul consistently preaches that sin is caused by, or occasioned by, or somehow brought into the world by, the command of God not to sin (e.g. the Law, the command to Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge). How this can be maintained without the implication that God himself is the cause of sin, and of evil in the world, is hard to see. Paul seems to fan the flames of the theodicy problem rather than provide a solution to it. Is there an "Evil God of the World" lurking here? Why is Satan and the snake and even Eve not mentioned? Why is repentence not a pre-condition of the "free gift"?
It is hard, and worthwhile, to follow along the Apostle's thinking, and see if sense can be made of it. It is no use pretending that Paul is always clear, or even coherent, because he isn't. There are many gnostic ideas lurking here in Romans and even more in 1 Corinthians. The main gnostic theme, of the sin of the primordial man and the Gnostic Redeemer from above, is played out in Romans 5.
posted by SkipChurch at
12:08 PM
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