Romans 5:13-17 // Death, Sin and Law

(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. 15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) (Romans 5:13-17)

Here are the parentheses (brackets). Paul was talking about death coming into the world through sin and that because we have all sinned we are all subject to death. Let's go through it and try to make sense of it.

At the time before the law was given there was already sin in the world. Sin is not imputed when there is no law, unlike human laws, God doesn't hold you guilty if you didn't know you were breaking the law. Despite this death happened between Adam and Moses.

Enoch did not die, but he was the exception, and Moses must have been resurrected since he appears to Jesus (Matthew 17:3 etc). Since Moses was resurrected we could say that death ruled from Adam until Moses and then Moses was the first to be resurrected and death no longer ruled. But I'm not sure that's what Paul is meaning. I think he just means that although there was no written law from Adam to Moses there was still sin and death.

Death even came to those like Abel and Noah who did not commit the kind of sin that Adam did. Perhaps this refers simply to the sin of eating the fruit, but that seems a bit trivial. I think Paul is referring to the fact that Adam knowingly committed a deliberate act of rebellion against God's commandment (sin) and he is saying that even those who sinned out of ignorance and not rebellion, those who were exceptionally righteous by human standards... Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9b) even these died, ultimately because of Adam's sin.

This is interesting, it sounds like the doctrine of Original Sin, I suppose this is a passage used to support that teaching. But I don't think it can be taken to go as far as that, because the verse before the parentheses states ...and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: even if you never sinned the doctrine of Original Sin teaches that you would still die for Adam's sin. But Paul says we are all subject to death because we have all sinned. If he wanted to teach Original Sin he could have stated it much more easily.

Anyway, so even those who have never done any very "terrible" sins are still subject to death because they have done "small" sins which are still justly deserving of death, even though God might have been able to excuse them if not for Adam's rebellion that has set us as a race on a trajectory in opposition to God. Adam was the first man, he is the father of us all, but the real father of us all is our Creator God. I'm trying to understand the statement ...who is the figure of him that was to come. I assume it is saying that Adam is a type or symbol of Jesus who was to come, (and has now come) but I don't understand how this fits into the context. Maybe I am misunderstanding, and it is actually speaking of someone else.

Adam's sin affected all of us, even those people who have been exceptionally righteous. Jesus' righteousness and sacrifice for us is similar but different. It is similar because just like one man Adam caused this problem for all of us, one man Jesus solves it. It is different because Adam's sin does not automatically make me wicked, I make myself wicked; Jesus' salvation on the other hand automatically makes me righteous in a moment. Jesus Christ gives us so much grace that this is possible, he has done a lot more for us to be saved than Adam ever did to cause us to sin.

Think about the things Jesus has done to save me.