Commentary on Romans 5.12–5.21

“Therefore, as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, so death passed through to all men, in whom all sinned.” Since above he has shown the grace of God given through Christ according to the order of truth, he now declares the very order of the one God the Father through the one Christ his Son; so that, as one Adam, that is, Eve (for she too is Adam), sinned in all, so one Christ the Son of God conquered sin in all. And because he is showing the purpose of the grace of God toward the human race, he began from Adam, who sinned first, in order to show the very beginnings of sin; to teach that the providence of the one God restored through one what through one had fallen and been drawn into death. This, then, is the one through whom we are saved, and to him we owe the reverence we owe to God the Father, as he himself wills. For the same apostle says in another place: “Whoever serves Christ in these things pleases God” (Rom 14:18); though it is written: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone you shall serve” (Deut 6:13). If, then, he says that God alone is to be served, and commands that Christ be served, Christ is in the unity of God, and not an unequal or another God; since, while the law says that God alone is to be served, one who serves Christ is declared to please God, as being one with him. Therefore, as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, so also through one Christ came the condemnation and death of sin, providing eternal life, which he declares below. “In whom,” that is, in Adam, “all sinned.” He said “in whom” (masculine), though he is speaking of the woman, because he referred not to the individual but to the race. It is plain, then, that all sinned in Adam as in a lump; for he himself was corrupted by sin, and those whom he begot were all born under sin. From him, then, all are sinners, because we are all from him; for he lost the benefit of God when he transgressed, being made unworthy to eat of the tree of life, so that he died. Death is the dissolution of the body, when the soul is separated from the body. There is also another death, which is called the second, in Gehenna, which we do not suffer by the sin of Adam, but which is acquired by occasion of it through one’s own sins. From this the good are free; only they were in the underworld, but in the upper part, as in a free place, since they could not ascend to heaven; for they were held by the sentence given in Adam, the bond in the decrees which was blotted out by the death of Christ (Col 2:14). And the sentence of the decree was that the body of each man should be dissolved on earth, while the soul, held by the bonds of the underworld, would suffer destruction.

“For until the law sin was in this world; but sin was not reckoned when there was no law.” He says that all sinned in Adam, as I mentioned above, and that until the law was given sin was not reckoned; for people thought that they sinned with impunity before God, though not before men. For the natural law had not become wholly numb; for they were not ignorant that they ought not to do to others what they did not wish to suffer. For sin was so far from unknown among people that Jacob, when his father-in-law Laban looked for his idols with him, judged worthy of death the one with whom the theft was found (Gen 31:30ff.); and Joseph, though through slander, yet was shut up in prison as guilty (Gen 39:20); and the baker and the cupbearer of Pharaoh were likewise put there for an offence (Gen 40:3); and Moses, after killing the Egyptian, was terrified by the law (Exod 2:12–15). How, then, was sin not reckoned when there was no law? Or how was it punished, unless a law was known? The natural law always exists, and was never unknown; but it was thought to have authority only for the time being, and not to make people guilty before God. For it was not known that God would judge the human race; and therefore sin was not reckoned, as though sin were not known to God, since they asserted that God was unconcerned. But when the law was given through Moses, it was made manifest that God cares for human affairs, and that it will not go unpunished for those who do evil, though for whatever reason they escape at present. For since even among themselves, with justice or nature as teacher, they judged sins, how much more ought they not to have been ignorant that God, whom they knew to be the Maker of the world, would require these things? Seeing that Sodom and Gomorrah were condemned to perish by fire (Gen 19:24), which time had indeed covered over; but Moses, to confirm that God is judge, made it manifest by writing. But when, setting God aside, they began to receive images in the honour of God, depraved in mind, they trampled on that part of the natural law which is first. For the natural law has three parts. The first is this, that the Creator, once known, be honoured, and his glory and majesty not be assigned to any of the creatures. The second part is moral, that is, that one live well, with moderation governing; for it befits a man who has knowledge of the Creator to rein in his life by law, lest his knowledge be in vain. The third part is the teaching part, that the knowledge of God the Creator and an example of conduct be handed on to others, so that they may learn how merit is laid up with the Creator. This is true and Christian prudence.

“But death reigned from Adam until Moses.” Since sin was not reckoned before the law was given through Moses, as I said, death reigned by the very impunity of its usurpation, knowing that they were devoted to it. Death reigned, then, with the security of its lordship, both over those who escaped for a time and over those who even here paid the penalty for their evil works. For it saw that all were its own; for “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34); for thinking that they went unpunished they offended the more, being readier for those sins which the world nourished as if lawful. At this Satan rejoiced, secure that because of Adam he held in his possession man abandoned by God. “Death reigned, then, over those who sinned in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one to come”: which we shall show in what follows. So it is plain that death did not reign over all, since not all sinned in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, that is, not all sinned in contempt of God. And who are those who sinned in contempt of God, except those who, neglecting the Creator, served the creature, setting up gods for themselves to worship, to the injury of God? Therefore the devil rejoiced in them, because he saw that they had become his imitators. For Terah the father of Abraham, and Nahor and Laban, claimed their own gods for themselves. And the sin of Adam is not far from idolatry; for he transgressed thinking that he, a man, would become God. For he judged that what the devil persuaded would profit him more than what God commanded, putting the devil in the place of God; hence he was also made subject to the devil. Similarly these too, passing over God while they serve the creature, sin in a like way, not the same; for a likeness must have something unlike. For it cannot be said that those who sinned, not transgressing against God but within the natural law, received the command not to eat of the tree as Adam did (Gen 2:17). For one who understood God, whether from tradition or from the evidence of nature, and venerated him, sharing the honour of his name and majesty with no one, if he sinned (for it is impossible not to sin), sinned under God, not against God, whom he perceived as judge; and therefore death did not reign over such a one. But over those, as I said, it reigned who under the form of idols served the devil. Because the law had not been promulgated with authority, they could not perceive beforehand that God is judge. For the greatest part of the world did not know that God would be judge; but there were very few over whom death did not reign. Those over whom it reigned were, after this death which is called the first, taken by the second, to punishment and future perdition. But those over whom it did not reign, because they did not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, were kept in hope for the coming of the Saviour in a free place; as we read of Abraham, that though he was in the underworld, he was nevertheless separated by a long interval, so that there was a great chasm between the righteous and sinners (Luke 16:26). If there was a great chasm between the righteous and sinners, how much more between the ungodly, so that for the righteous there should be refreshment, for sinners heat, and for the ungodly burning; so that before the judgment it would not be hidden what each deserved? And therefore death reigned over them, because it saw that the works of its cunning had brought them to punishment as enemies. For it was not hidden from it that man was made in the world in order to proclaim the rule of the one God, against which Satan transgressed. And yet in the Greek it is said not to be put so carefully; for it is said to be written that death reigned even over those who did not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam. For here he seems to have embraced the whole, so that, since death, that is, dissolution, came about through the envy of the devil, he says that death reigned even over those who did not sin; for they die, which is what Satan desires. If this were true, it ought not to have been said, “Death reigned from Adam until Moses,” if from the beginning to the end it reigns over all. Or perhaps he made grades, that it reigned from Adam until Moses, and from Moses until Christ, and from Christ until the end; but to what use would this expression serve, since it is not shown that he spoke so? For he said, “From Adam death reigned until Moses,” because the law had not been made manifest, so that, when the law was given, they might live under its authority, knowing what to beware of, lest death reign over them. Can it be said, then, that death reigned over one who before the law kept, with nature as guide, what the law afterwards commanded? For see what is written about it: “Sin,” it says, “was not reckoned when there was no law”; and he added, “But death reigned from Adam until Moses,” certainly in the time when there was no law; and it is fitting that, since death reigned before the law was given, it should be said to have reigned over those who sinned in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, as we mentioned above. For as after the law was given death reigned over those who served idols or sexual immorality, despising the lawgiver, so too before the law it certainly did not reign over those who perceived beforehand the sense of the law, honouring its Author; for it is said to have reigned because the knowledge of the one God had vanished from the earth. Indeed the law, when given, began thus: “I am,” it says, “the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods besides me; and you shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness” (Exod 20:2–4). The law, then, was given so that death might not reign; so that, former sins being abolished, the human race might obey the one God. Hence the same apostle says in another place: “Let not sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey it” (Rom 6:12). By saying this he shows that death reigns even now if the law is despised. For what is the reign of death but when its will is done, while it commands, to the ruin of the one who obeys; and the will of its command is the head of idolatry? And yet the Greek manuscripts are cited against us, as though they did not disagree among themselves; which is what the zeal for contention does. For since someone cannot use his own authority to win, he adulterates the words of the law, so as to assert his own sense as if it were the words of the law, so that not reason but authority seems to prescribe. Now it is agreed that formerly certain Latin manuscripts were translated from old Greek manuscripts, which the simplicity of the times preserved uncorrupted and attests; but after people, departing from concord in their minds and with heretics causing disturbance, began to be twisted by questions, many things were changed to suit human sense, so that what seemed right to a person might be contained in the writings; whence even the Greeks themselves have differing manuscripts. I judge this to be true, when reason, history and authority are observed: for what is criticized today in Latin manuscripts is found so set down by the ancients, Tertullian, Victorinus and Cyprian. First, then, the reign of death began to be destroyed in Judaea, because “God is known in Judaea” (Ps 76:1); but now it is destroyed daily in all nations, while for a great part, from sons of the devil they become sons of God. And so death did not reign over all, but over those who sinned in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, as I mentioned above. Adam is the type of the one to come for this reason, that already then in mystery God decreed to amend through one Christ what had been sinned through one Adam, as is said in the Apocalypse of the apostle John: “The Lamb,” it says, “who was slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). Then he added:

“But not as the offence, so also the gift.” Because he had said that the one Adam was a type of the one Christ, lest he be thought to have signified the case of Adam to be such as that of Christ, he says, “But not as the offence, so also the gift”; for Adam is a type of Christ only in this, that what one sinned, one amended. “For if by the offence of one many died, much more has the grace of God and the gift in the grace of one man Jesus Christ abounded to more”: that is, if by the offence of one many died, imitating his transgression, much more has the grace of God and the gift abounded to more who flee to him. For more obtain grace than died by the offence of Adam. Hence it is plain that he did not signify this death which is common to all; for absolutely all die, and yet not all obtain grace. Nor is it signified that death reigned over all, but over those who died by the offence of Adam, whom he says sinned in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. These are those of whom he says that by the offence of one many died, while the grace of God abounds to more; because the grace of God abounded both to those who are said to have died by the offence of Adam, sinning in like manner, and to those who did not sin in this likeness of Adam’s transgression. And those who, by the ancestral sin, were in the underworld by the sentence of God, the grace of God abounded to them at the descent of the Saviour, giving pardon to all, when they were taken up to heaven with triumph.

“And not as through one sin, so also the gift: for the judgment from one was to condemnation, but the gift from many offences to justification.” It is plainly different, because by the one sin of Adam those were condemned who sinned in the likeness of his transgression; but the grace of God through Christ justified people not from one offence but from many, giving them remission of sins. He says this to the magnificence of the love of God and of Christ; so that, while by the offence of Adam many are held by the second death in the lower underworld, yet the gift of the grace of God, though it would have been just for them to be punished, not only pardons them but justifies them.

“For if by the offence of one death reigned through one, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift and of righteousness reign in life through one, Jesus Christ.” It must be observed that the sense is one and differs in nothing; for he says that death reigned, not that it reigns, because those who understood the judgment of God through the law were taken out of its rule. It reigned because, without the manifestation of the law, there was no fear of God on earth. The sense, then, is the former one: that since death reigned from Adam until Moses over those who sinned in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, much more may grace reign by the abundance of the gift of God unto life through one, Jesus Christ. For if death reigned, why should not grace reign the more, which justifies far more than those over whom death reigned? How much more must grace be believed to reign, which confers life through Christ?

“Therefore, as through the offence of one upon all men unto condemnation, so also through the righteousness of one upon all men unto justification of life”: that is, as through the offence of one all who sinned in like manner deserved condemnation, so in the righteousness of one all who believe will be justified. But if any think that this condemnation is general, they will in like manner take the justification as general. But this is not true, because not all believe.

“For as through the disobedience of one man more were made sinners, so through the obedience of one many will be made righteous.” Those whom he called “all” above he here signifies as “more” and “many”; for more, not all, followed Adam’s offence by transgressing; and many, not all, will be made righteous through faith in Christ. Death, then, did not reign over those who did not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam.

“But the law came in secretly, so that the offence might abound.” It can be said in reply: Then the law ought not to have been given, so that sins would not increase; for if before the law there was less sin, there was no need of the law. Plainly the law was necessary, to show that sins are reckoned before God which were believed to be done with impunity, so that thereafter they might know what they ought to avoid. Hence the prophet Isaiah says: “The law,” he says, “was given as a help” (Isa 8:20); so that, since seeds of righteousness have in a way been planted in nature itself, the law was added, by whose authority and teaching the natural disposition might advance to bearing the fruit of righteousness. For as a birth perishes unless it has nourishment by which it is cherished and grows, so the natural disposition to righteousness, unless it has something to look to and revere, does not easily advance, but sickens and yields to the sins that come upon it. For it is pressed down by the habit of offending so that it does not grow into fruit, and by this it is extinguished. The law, then, was given providently as a help, as the prophet testifies; but the people, following its old habit, multiplied sins. For by the very use it began to sin more than it had sinned before; and so it came about that when the law was given sins did not lessen but abounded: for the apostle shows what resulted from the law’s being given, not what the law did. But how did sins grow by a fault of the law, which threatened lest one should sin? Yet it is said to have come in secretly so that sin might abound. It is true, for it came in as if to be of profit, and with humility; but afterwards it began to rule over those whom it had commanded not to sin, and they sinned. For the law began to show the abundance of sins, when the things it had forbidden were done more than they had been done. In this way, then, the law was given so that the offence might abound. For the apostle, commending faith, through which sins are certainly blotted out, said that the law brought it about that sin abounded, as I said above; because it was not given so that sins would be abolished, but so that they would abound, since it both showed people to be sinners before the law and held all guilty after the law. “But where sin abounded, grace superabounded.” It is plain that when sin abounded grace superabounded, since the gift of God came from the promise and covered the sins of all, so that the envy of the devil might grieve that it had gained nothing. For since, when the law had been given for human benefit, the devil worked by persuading to unlawful things to turn it upside down, so that what had been given to profit should profit to the contrary, while the commandments were despised, so that from the law came forth not benefit but judgment for punishment; then the just and merciful God, to empty the glory which the devil had sought from triumphing over man, decreed that his Son would come, who would forgive all sins, so that the joy from the gift of grace might be greater than the grief from sin had been. For the joy of the gift of God profits even those over whom Satan could not triumph; therefore grace superabounded over the sin which Satan persuaded.

“So that, as sin reigned unto death, so also grace may reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Sin reigned in seeing that its work brought sinners to death, in which it gloried; in like manner, so that grace may reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that, as sin, begun through Adam, reigned, so also grace through Christ. Grace reigns through righteousness in this way: if, having received remission of sins, we follow righteousness; so that grace, seeing that it has fruit in the good whom it redeemed, may reign unto eternal life, knowing that we will be eternal. Grace, then, superabounds, because sin reigned for a time, but grace for ever. For it is the kingdom of God when grace reigns, as it was the kingdom of the devil when sin reigned. Yet he refers the whole to Christ, so that all the grace of God may be learned from Christ. To the sense above, then, he responds, saying: