ROMANS UNWRAPPED 81

                     SIN ENTERED INTO THE WORLD

"Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned."   Romans 5v11

Yesterday we saw the importance of "one man," how that through one man sin and all its consequences entered the world, and how another man would take it away.   It is important to notice the change that is introduced in the epistle from this verse.   Until now the emphasis has been on sins (plural), from here on he talks about sin (singular) and the difference is evident; we must understand this distinction.   When he speaks of sins (plural) he is referring to individual acts of sin committed in mass in the world, when he speaks of sin (singular) he is thinking of the root principle of sin.   Rather than the fruit he is thinking of the root if we take an analogy from trees.

Previously, as we have mentioned, he has been thinking of the acts of sin, transgressions, offences against God committed by human beings.

• 1 v 18   -   "The wrath of God is against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men."
• 1 v 29   -   "Being filled with all unrighteousness."
• 2 v  1    -   "You that judge are doing the same things."
• 2 v  6    -   "Treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath."
• 2 v 16   -   "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ."
• 2 v 17-29    The sins of the Jews are enumerated.
• 4 v 25   -   "He was delivered for our offences."

In this next section 5 v 12 - 8 v 13 he looks now at the question of sin

• 5 v 12   -   "Sin entered into the world."
• 5 v 13   -   "Sin was in the world."
• 5 v 20   -   "Sin abounded."
• 5 v 21   -   "Sin reigned."

He continues referring to this principle of sin, even the personification of sin, in the later chapters (please refer to chapter 6v1; 6v6; 6v7; 6v12; 6v14; 6v17; 6v18; 6v20; 6v23; 7v11; 7v13;7v14).

Paul is now focusing on the root principle of sin that exists in every human being from birth.   We are not sinners because we commit acts of sin, we commit acts of sin because we are sinners.   The tree will always bear its own fruit.   We are sinners by link to Adam, and therefore we will sin.

"Sin entered into the world";  the idea is that sin invaded the world and has become a very powerful force in human existence such that he can say that "sin reigned".   He views sin as a powerful and all pervading monarch who has strutted about this world since its beginning, playing havoc wherever it goes.   This is important to understand, because in our salvation,  our justification,  whilst God removes the penalty against our sins, the principle of sin still remains within us, the only difference being that we now have opposing natures within us.   The sceptic world would describe that as

schizophrenia, but this is the reality of life in Christ Jesus.   Better to have two opposing natures for good and evil than only one that is leading you to eternal destruction if you remain as you are under Adam.  

Paul now sets about explaining this mighty doctrine.   He says in verse 12 "sin entered" then "death was passed."   The end result of sin is death, whether physical death, which is what is in mind here, or spiritual death which is separation from God, both now and forever.   The evidence that sin is in the world as a powerful force is evidenced by the fact that we all die.   The account in the early chapters of Genesis makes it clear that death was the pronouncement of the judgement of God on human kind as a result of sin.   He makes this basic statement in verse 12 about the universality of sin, and consequently the universality of death, and in the next verses proceeds to explain that.   Verses 13-17 are in a parenthesis in which he explains two things; firstly, how it is that the one sin of Adam has brought condemnation on all of us; and secondly, what it means that Adam is a type of Christ.   In verse 18 to the end he continues his theme, so the passage could read like this
"wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned; therefore as by one offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."

So Paul is establishing clearly in our minds that one man's disobedience brought death on us all as a judgement from God, and that another Man's obedience will bring life as a gracious favour from God.

We all take sin far too lightly.   We accept it as part of life, we shrug our shoulders saying that its just life.   If you look back at the sin of Adam that has brought such consequences into the world affecting all of us, we would conclude that there have been worse sins committed.   What did Adam do?   He took a fruit that God had forbidden - the proverbial "forbidden fruit".   Adam lived in a paradise surrounded by plenty, of which he was freely able to partake.  God left one tree as a test of obedience, Adam failed the test.   One sin, no matter how trivial, is a sin against an eternal glorious God.   No matter that this one sin has led to far worse sins, and God knew exactly the nature of sin, even one act of disobedience is unacceptable to God if He is to have fellowship with human beings.   We need to get our thinking caps on in relation to sin.   Sin is heinous to God, no matter how trivial; the Bible says the very thought of foolishness is sin, and where does that standard leave us all?

Sin invaded the world, and for a time reigned in the world without a rival, but the story here is how a gracious God, and that an offended God, has intervened in grace, and he will end this glorious section of God's word with the amazing truth  "that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

SIN REIGNED .........GRACE REIGNS!

Tomorrow how Adam's sin affected us all.