The Blessed Contrast
THE BLESSED CONTRAST
ROMANS 5:18-21
Paul concludes his contrast between the effects of the work of Adam and the work of Christ.
The conclusion, then, is: “As through one offense the result for all men was condemnation, so also through one righteous act the result for all men is justification and life.” The comparison or contrast between Christ and Adam is closed, but the Law intruded into the situation (5:20). Sin, Paul means, preceded the Law. The condemnation which fell on sin was earlier than the Mosaic Code. The Law came to sharpen the realization of sin. See Galatians 3:19ff. and the expansion of this concept in 7:7ff. of this letter. The Law made the realization of need, along with the conviction of sin, sharper, but it followed that grace was simultaneously more vividly laid hold of as God’s embracing and sufficient answer and remedy. Paul’s own sense of triumph and gratitude rises to its climax as the chapter ends, and the close is almost a doxology.
The skill with which Paul puts the Law in its proper place should be noted. He has not lost sight of his Jewish audience, nor of the imaginary objector, who will appear again in the opening verses of chapter 6. He will not discuss the Law summarily. Nor is it his place to deal with it as sovereignly as Christ did. He merely concentrates on showing, both in the context of Adam and of Abraham, that before and without the Law, the elements of the situation and the essentials of the problem were the same. Paul was deeply concerned with history.
In 5:18: “condemnation for all men … life for all men” refer to “all in Adam” and “all in Christ” respectively. Paul uses a vivid word in 5:20 which literally might run: “the Law came sideways in …,” usefully interrupting a moving flow of history. The reference is to the historic giving of the Law. Once it was given, sin was apparent, no longer hidden, but defined, diagnosed and “multiplied.” Grace became a dire necessity, an urgent need. Hence the vital linking of the Testaments.
Meditation In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress: “The last words of Mr. Honest were, Grace reigns. So he left the world.”