The Reigns of Sin and Grace…Romans 5

That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.(Romans 5:21)

Paul has been making the point that Adam and Jesus are comparable in their effect on the human race. They alone were each able to do something that effected the whole human race. The first Adam defied God in the garden, as our representative, he basically said,”Not your will but mine be done!” as he grasped after godhood.

Adam’s one act of disobedience plunged the whole human race under condemnation and judgment from God.By him death came upon all of us, and though we have all sinned individually, his sin was imputed to the whole race. God summed up the whole race in this one man, he became our representative in sin and judgment.

But in  the same Divine logic, God has given us a second Adam, the Lord Jesus. Jesus, the second man, and the last Adam (there will never be another), is the beginning of a new Creation.”Behold I make all things new” saith the Lord.

In the garden,(of Gethsemane), he reversed the failure of the original Adam. When He was tempted of the serpent, he “didn’t regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself…” praying to the Father, “not my will but thine be done!”.

As our new representative , he went to the cross, summing up in himself all of the cursed children of Adam, bearing us as a representative, to the death and judgment which we deserved, for as our representative, Our sins were imputed to Him.

The cross is the biggest negative ever for the whole of the race was crucified, the sons of Adam were canceled out, judged and condemned.

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again (2 Corinthians 5:13-14)

If the first Adam’s sin can be imputed to us, than the Last Adam’s obedience can likewise be imputed to those who believe into Him.

When the first Adam sinned, he died , and we died with him. He didn’t die physically until 930 years later, but he died spiritually. His sin and death brought all of us into a “reign of sin and death”,which has ruled over all of humanity ever since. Everyone sins, and everyone dies, and all fear death, knowing deeply that death is a penalty, a judgment upon sin.

The Law couldn’t give us life, it couldn’t counter the reign of sin and death. God’s Law , beautiful and perfect as it is can only intensify the problem of sin, for  making us aware of the ‘sinfulness of sin’ is not the same as changing our nature, and giving us power over sin.”In Adam” we are by birth, under the Reign of death, only dying can take us out of our union with Adam.

But those who believe in the last Adam,have died. Jesus’ death is our death, his resurrection is ours also. We who believe have been born again, into a totally different reign, the reign of grace and Life!

…much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.(Romans 5:17)

Both Sin and Grace are more than acts, decisions, gifts, they are actual states of being! That is why the book of Proverbs says that even the plowing of the wicked is sin! To be “in Adam” is to be under a reign, a power and authority, in which everything you do is sin, all becomes death, for the whole existence is estrangement from God!

But to “Receive the abundance of grace and the gift of Righteousness” is to come under an entirely different authority, a power and reign of life and faith, it is the kingdom of God. For all the abundance of sin and it’s effects, there is an even greater counter supply of Life and Righteousness, for what God did through Jesus is greater than what Satan tried to do through Adam.

…But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.(Romans 5:20-21)