Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Five
MUCH MORE THAN
Scripture Reading: verses 14-17
It may seem that these verses present a somewhat intricate argument, but we should keep in mind they deal with a difficult and involved subject; a subject of paramount issue in the affairs of men – a problem of the why and wherefore of death itself.
We so often speak of people “dying a natural death” that we seem to forget the fact that all death is unnatural. Our God is a living God and He takes delight in flooding the scene of His operations with life, peace, joy, and abundance. Therefore, death is unnatural. Here Paul is sifting all the evidence, getting at the root of this universal enigma. He wants to find the underlying cause of this tragedy of death that stalks the earth.
Tracing it back to its origin, he sets before the court the entrance of death, occasioned by one man; a federal head because he calls him “a figure of Him that was to come.” Immediately this is announced, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself comes into evidence, and we have two federal heads, Adam and Christ – the first man and second Man, the first Adam and last Adam. These are terms used throughout the New Testament to present this striking contrast.
When we speak of a federal head, we mean that Adam is looked on here as one from whom the human race sprang. Through him we inherited a fallen nature, a tendency toward sin, a corrupt imagination. Thus, by inherited nature we are first of all sinners. Through the disobedient act of one man the many were constituted sinners. In this passage it is not “many” in the sense that there are others that are not sinners; it is rather that “the many,” meaning the whole human race, have come under the curse as a result of the disobedience of “the one,” who is Adam. By way of contrast to this, we have the Lord Jesus Christ. He inaugurates another race; a race that partakes of His nature and has the righteousness of God imputed to it because of the superabundance of grace that has come in through Him.
In simple language, the two elements contrasted here are, in effect, the condemnation of the sentence of death imposed on the sinner by this court. On the contrary, the judges hand is mercifully extended, offering a free gift, and Paul points out that the free gift totally eclipses the sentence of condemnation. He says: “But not as the offence, so also is the free gift.” God is not only canceling our debt by this free gift, but through the superabundance of His grace He is setting us up in a position totally superior to any-thing we might have enjoyed in the old creation, even without sin. So again Paul, lawyer for the defense, brings into play a favorite expression in this passage, “much more then.” In verse 15 he says: “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.”
Once again we stand in the courtroom. God Himself, the Judge, is on the bench. We see the criminal brought nigh through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus on the Cross, and the criminal – forgiven, justified because Another has borne his penalty – stands before the Judge. Paul, the lawyer, stands to one side; he is speaking on behalf of both the Judge and the criminal, outlining the terms which God is imposing on this sinner He has brought near to Himself.
In His one hand as it were, the Judge holds the death sentence. In His other hand He has a free gift. He holds up the death sentence and we find it has been canceled. On it, as it were, is the crimson stain of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who has borne the penalty in order that the condemned sinner might be set free. The debt is paid, the sins are blotted out; the iniquity of the sinner has been laid on the Savior when He died on the Cross. Now He is risen and the Judge holds the canceled sentence in His hand.
But in the other hand he holds a free gift, and what is it? It is the superabundance of His grace that not only has accepted the cancellation of the debt so the sinner is forgiven, but His free gift is something beyond that, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” “Much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one Man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.” God Himself, the Judge, found such infinite satisfaction in the sacrificial work of His Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that not only is He willing to forget the sins of the criminal, but through infinite grace He is willing to accept him back in the very acceptability of His own beloved Son. That is the gift by grace that has abounded unto the many who acknowledge the Lord Jesus as their federal head by bowing the knee to Him, owning Him as Lord, and accepting His gracious Gospel.
Thus, in verse 16 Paul again insists: “Not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift.” We should not stop short by measuring the grace of God simply by His forgiveness of our sins. God might forgive our sins and yet not have us in His presence in the acceptability of His beloved Son. The grace of God far out-measures the canceling of the debt. It super abounds over the offence. The free gift is of many offences unto justification, for if by one man’s offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ. Here is the triumph of the Cross. We often sing in truth, “I’m only a sinner, saved by grace,” and surely that is the only right beginning. But let us not stop there. The free gift which God has given us far transcends the cancellation of our debt of sin; it includes the positive blessings of being arrayed in the best robe of heaven, a ring placed on our finger, shoes on our feet, a place in the Father’s house of joy and merriment, the fatted calf killed, and the glad words re-echoing in our ears: “This my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found.” The free gift far out-measures the mere forgiveness of our transgressions. It does that first, but like a mighty tide of exhaustless blessing, it goes on bringing us into the heights of everlasting bliss, brought about by One, Jesus Christ. The work of the Cross, perfectly completed by Jesus the Son of God, gives us a place accepted in the beloved One forever. We shall never be able to apprehend the superabundance of God’s grace.
