Systematic Theology (Volume 2 of 3)

by Augustus Hopkins Strong

Verse 14. Nor could it have been personal and conscious violation of an unwritten law, for which death was inflicted; for death passed upon multitudes, such as infants and idiots, who did not sin in their own persons, as Adam did, by violating some known commandment. Infants are not specifically named here, because the intention is to include others who, though mature in years, have not reached moral consciousness. But since death is everywhere and always the penalty of sin, the death of all must have been the penalty of the common sin of the race, when πάντες ἥμαρτον in Adam. The law which they violated was the Eden statute, Gen. 2:17. The relation between their sin and Adam's is not that of resemblance, but of identity. Had the sin by which death came upon them been one like Adam's, there would have been as many sins, to be the cause of death and to account for it, as there were individuals. Death would have come into the world through millions of men, and not “through one man” (verse 12), and judgment would have come upon all men to condemnation through millions of trespasses, and not “through one trespass” (v. 18). The object, then, of the parenthetical digression in verses 13 and 14 is to prevent the reader from supposing, from the statement that “all men sinned,”that the individual transgressions of all men are meant, and to make it clear that only the one first sin of the one first man is intended. Those who died before Moses must have violated some law. The Mosaic law, and the law of conscience, have been ruled out of the case. These persons must, therefore, have sinned against the commandment in Eden, the probationary statute; and their sin was not similar (ὁμοίος) to Adam's, but Adam's identical sin, the very same sin numerically of the “one man.” They did not, in their own persons and consciously, sin as Adam did; yet in Adam, and in the nature common to him and them, they sinned and fell (versus Current Discussions in Theology, 5:277, 278). They did not sin like Adam, but they “sinned in him, and fell with him, in that first transgression” (Westminster Larger Catechism, 22).

Verses 15-17 show how the work of grace differs from, and surpasses, the work of sin. [pg 627]Over against God's exact justice in punishing all for the first sin which all committed in Adam, is set the gratuitous justification of all who are in Christ. Adam's sin is the act of Adam and his posterity together; hence the imputation to the posterity is just, and merited. Christ's obedience is the work of Christ alone; hence the imputation of it to the elect is gracious and unmerited. Here τοὺς πολλούς is not of equal extent with οἱ πολλοί in the first clause, because other passages teach that “the many” who die in Adam are not conterminous with “the many” who live in Christ; see 1 Cor. 15:22; Mat. 25:46; also, see note on verse 18, below. Τοὺς πολλούς here refers to the same persons who, in verse 17, are said to “receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness.” Verse 16 notices a numerical difference between the condemnation and the justification. Condemnation results from one offense; justification delivers from many offences. Verse 17 enforces and explains verse 16. If the union with Adam in his sin was certain to bring destruction, the union with Christ in his righteousness is yet more certain to bring salvation.

Verse 18 resumes the parallel between Adam and Christ which was commenced in verse 12, but was interrupted by the explanatory parenthesis in verses 13-17. “As through one trespass ... unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness ... unto all men unto justification of[necessary to] life.” Here the “all men to condemnation”—the οἱ πολλοί in verse 15; and the “all men unto justification of life”—the τοὺς πολλούς in verse 15. There is a totality in each case; but, in the former case, it is the “all men” who derive their physical life from Adam,—in the latter case, it is the “all men” who derive their spiritual life from Christ (compare 1 Cor. 15:22—“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive”—in which last clause Paul is speaking, as the context shows, not of the resurrection of all men, both saints and sinners, but only of the blessed resurrection of the righteous; in other words, of the resurrection of those who are one with Christ).

Verse 19. “For as through the one man's disobedience the many were constituted sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be constituted righteous.” The many were constituted sinners because, according to verse 12, they sinned in and with Adam in his fall. The verb presupposes the fact of natural union between those to whom it relates. All men are declared to be sinners on the ground of that “one trespass,” because, when that one trespass was committed, all men were one man—that is, were one common nature in the first human pair. Sin is imputed, because it is committed. All men are punished with death, because they literally sinned in Adam, and not because they are metaphorically reputed to have done so, but in fact did not. Οἱ πολλοί is used in contrast with the one forefather, and the atonement of Christ is designated as ὑπακοή, in order to contrast it with the παρακοή of Adam.

Κατασταθήσονται has the same signification as in the first part of the verse. Δίκαιοι κατασταθήσονται means simply “shall be justified,” and is used instead of δικαιωθήσονται, in order to make the antithesis of ἁμαρτωλοὶ κατεστάθησαν more perfect. This being “constituted righteous” presupposes the fact of a union between ὁ εἶς and οἱ πολλοί, i. e., between Christ and believers, just as the being “constituted sinners” presupposed the fact of a union between ὁ εἶς and οἱ πολλοί, i. e., between all men and Adam. The future κατασταθήσονται refers to the succession of believers; the justification of all was, ideally, complete already, but actually, it would await the times of individual believing. “The many” who shall be “constituted righteous”—not all mankind, but only “the many” to whom, in verse 15, grace abounded, and who are described, in verse 17, as “they that receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness.”

“But this union differs in several important particulars from that between Adam and his posterity. It is not natural and substantial, but moral and spiritual; not generic and universal, but individual and by election; not caused by the creative act of God, but by his regenerating act. All men, without exception, are one with Adam; only believing men are one with Christ. The imputation of Adam's sin is not an arbitrary act in the sense that, if God so pleased, he could reckon it to the account of any beings in the universe, by a volition. The sin of Adam could not be imputed to the fallen angels, for example, and punished in them, because they never were one with Adam by unity of substance and nature. The fact that they have committed actual transgression of their own will not justify the imputation of Adam's sin to them, any more than the fact that the posterity of Adam have committed actual transgressions of their own would be a sufficient reason for imputing the first sin of Adam to them. Nothing but a real union of nature and being can justify the imputation of Adam's sin; and, similarly, the obedience of Christ could no more be imputed to an unbelieving man than to a lost angel, because neither of these is morally and spiritually one with Christ”(Shedd). For a different interpretation (ἡμαρτον—sinned personally and individually), see Kendrick, in Bap. Rev., 1885:48-72.

No Condemnation Inherited.

	Pelagian.	Arminian.	New School.
I. Origin of the soul.	Immediate Creation.	Immediate creation.	Immediate creation.
II. Man's state at birth.	Innocent, and able to obey God.	Depraved, but still able to co-operate with the Spirit.	Depraved and vicious, but this not sin.
III. Effects of Adam's sin.	Only upon himself.	To corrupt his posterity physically and intellectually. No guilt of Adam's sin imputed.	To communicate visiosity to the whole race.
IV. How did all sin?	By following Adam's example.	By consciously ratifying Adam's own deed, in spite of the Spirit's aid.	By voluntary transgression of known law.
V. What is corruption?	Only of evil habit, in each case.	Evil tendencies kept in spite of the Spirit.	Uncondemnable, but evil tendencies.
VI. What is imputed?	Every man's own sins.	Only man's own sins and ratifying of this nature.	Man's individual acts of transgression.
VII. What is the death incurred?	Spiritual and eternal.	Physical and spiritual death by decree.	Spiritual and eternal death only.
VIII. How are men saved?	By following Christ's example.	By co-operating with the Spirit given to all.	By accepting Christ under influence of truth presented by the Spirit.

Condemnation Inherited.

	Federal.	Placean.	Augustinian.
I. Origin of the soul.	Immediate creation.	Immediate creation.	Immediate creation.
II. Man's state at birth.	Depraved, unable, and condemnable.	Depraved, unable, and condemnable.	Depraved, unable, and condemnable.
III. Effects of Adam's sin.	To insure condemnation of his fellows in covenant, and their creation as depraved.	Natural connection of depravity in all his descendants.	Guilt of Adam's sin, corruption, and death.
IV. How did all sin?	By being accounted sinners in Adam's sin.	By possessing a depraved nature.	By having part in the sin of Adam, as seminal head of the race.
V. What is corruption?	Condemnable, evil disposition and state.	Condemnable, evil disposition and state.	Condemnable, evil disposition and state.
VI. What is imputed?	Adam's sin, man's own corruption, and man's own sins.	Only depraved nature and man's own sin.	Adam's sin, our depravity, and our own sins.
VII. What is the death incurred?	Physical, spiritual, and eternal.	Physical, spiritual, and eternal.	Physical, spiritual, and eternal.
VIII. How are men saved?	By being accounted righteous through the act of Christ.	By becoming possessors of a new nature in Christ.	By Christ's work, with whom we are one.