God’s Gift of Righteousness
Lesson 9 Notes: Romans 5:12-21
“Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.” (Romans 5:18)
We navigate life alongside people with varying interests, deep beliefs, and embedded values. While we share certain commonalities, sharp differences can divide us when we follow our own agendas. Consider musicians who gather with their instruments. Separately, musicians each playing their own music on their own instruments at the same time is discordant. But when these instruments—wind, brass, string, and percussion—are played together, led by a master conductor, a symphony results. Without God’s intervention and guidance, we walk this world in dissonance with God and one another due to our inherited sinful nature. Our relationship with Christ brings us into sweet harmony with God.
Paul addressed the chaos created by sin by contrasting one man—Adam—with one man—God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Adam’s fall into sin not only impacted his relationship with God but also brought dire consequences to all of humanity. In Adam, all people inherited sin and death. But God, in grace and love, promised a Savior to deliver humanity from sin’s death grip.1 Apart from Jesus, no escape from condemnation, sin, and death exists. Through Him came justification, salvation, and eternal life. Christ’s gift of righteousness triumphs over Adam’s sin.
1. Promise of a Savior: Genesis 3:15
Adam’s Ruin – Romans 5:12-14
Sin—everything in thought, word, and deed that is contrary to the will of God—entered the world through Adam. As a result, death followed for all people. To help us understand humanity’s peril and God’s solution, Paul explained sin’s entry into the world1 and contrasted interesting parallels between Adam and Christ. His developing exposition helps clarify the difficult truth that all people sin.
Secular thought rejects or minimizes the idea of sin. A common viewpoint says, “nobody’s perfect” and defines sin as a flaw or imperfection that can be overcome with the right help. Scripture speaks differently, and rightfully, of sin. Paul presented God’s view: Sin afflicts all people and leads to the tragic consequence of death.
Sin Entered Through Adam – The world God created was altogether good.2 Still, even with the physical wonders we see in today’s world, earth’s original beauty is marred with the decay and destruction brought by sin.3 Sin is described in verse 12 not as something created but as an intruder into God’s good creation. Sin entered the world through the one act of the first man, Adam,4 resulting in immediate ruin.
Death Entered Through Sin – Neither sin nor death are natural. God created Adam and Eve to live harmoniously with Him in pristine perfection. But He gave Adam free choice, and Adam chose sin. How is it that Adam’s sin affects all people? At creation, God appointed Adam as humanity’s representative. Adam’s very name means “man” or “human.” Adam’s obedience or disobedience to God’s command would count for all people. Similarly, government officials represent their districts; ambassadors negotiate for their nations; armies fight on behalf of citizens at home. The actions of these representatives determine the outcome for their entire nation. Adam’s actions had consequences for all who would come after him. His obedience would have secured blessing and life; God judged his disobedience with spiritual and physical death,5 just as He said He would.6 From Adam, sin and death passed to all his descendants—all of humanity throughout time.7
Death Came to All People – Because Adam sinned, all people inherit a nature inclined toward sin and a world already broken by it. Death—both physical and spiritual—is the consequence. In this world, sin wages war against us, and death is our enemy.8 Sin and death remain unyieldingly opposed to Jesus and the life He gives until He returns to destroy them forever.9 Paul stated that when Adam sinned, “death came to all people, because all sinned.” Adam’s choice set the destiny of all his descendants. Sin has so pervaded human nature that “there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; no one who seeks God.”10 All humanity not only shares Adam’s sin and continues his legacy through continued sin but also shares sin’s punishment—death.
Paul expressed an essential truth in verse 12: “Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people, because all sinned.” Aware that the words “because all sinned” might cause confusion, Paul paused to explain. Death is God’s judgment for sin, which breaks God’s law. However, even before God gave the law, people died.
Paul presented a critical argument by discussing sin’s impact “from the time of Adam to the time of Moses.” The Jews in Paul’s day defined sin as breaking the law’s commands. Yet the question arises: What about the people who lived before Moses and did not yet know God’s law? From Adam to Moses, people still sinned and died. Cain murdered.11 Abraham lied.12 Jacob deceived his father and stole his brother’s blessing.13 History records death’s repeated drumbeat, with only two exceptions: Enoch and Elijah.14 These men were taken by God without experiencing the usual process of death, in demonstrations of God’s mighty power. Otherwise, death, sin’s immediate and comprehensive consequence, reigned. Before God gave Israel’s laws to Moses, all people died. This clarification would have helped Paul’s readers in Rome but also helps us understand death’s stranglehold on humanity—from Adam to Moses, to when Paul lived, and still today.
The end of verse 14 begins Paul’s striking parallel between Adam and Christ. Adam is “a pattern of the one to come.” One man, Adam, represented us in sin, and one Man, Christ, can represent us in righteousness. Because God imputed or attributed Adam’s sin to his descendants, God may justly impute or credit Christ’s righteousness to those He saves. No one hates sin more than God, but no one loves people more than God. He sent His Son, who lovingly began His earthly life in the womb, grew up as a man of sorrows, suffered, and died to make new, eternal life possible for an entire world of people.
Christ’s Superiority – Romans 5:15-19
Paul next explained how God’s gift in Christ is far superior to our original union with Adam. Untold harm came to all humanity through Adam’s sin. When Jesus became the representative of everyone who trusts Him, He brought infinitely more than Adam destroyed.
In direct disobedience to God’s command, Adam took the fruit from Eve and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Many died due to Adam’s trespass, which brought judgment and condemnation for all.15 By Adam’s trespass, people became sinners, and death reigned. Sin’s harmful impact, passed to all from Adam’s trespass, touches every person. We experience sin’s damage personally and universally.
As Paul contrasted Adam with Christ, he stated that “the gift is not like the trespass.” What an understatement! Jesus brought a gift greater than death’s reign—He brought righteousness. He lived the perfect life we could not and took sin’s punishment of death upon Himself. God imputed our sins to Jesus and Jesus’s perfect righteousness to us. Because of Adam, we die physically, but because of Christ, we will live eternally with Him in glory in the new heaven and new earth.16 Jesus’s promise of life brings comfort throughout generations. Sin remains a terrible enemy, but Jesus, our great Savior, defeated sin and brought us forgiveness. Jesus’s greater gift comes by grace.
God’s incomparable gift of righteousness supersedes Adam’s sin, which brought humanity condemnation and judgment. God’s gift followed many trespasses by many people and brought justification. Once justified, believers are declared indisputably righteous, their sins forgiven and sin’s power over their lives destroyed. A believer lives free from God’s condemnation by Jesus’s saving sacrifice on the cross. Sin’s cost was great, but Christ’s salvation is greater.
Adam’s trespass introduced sin’s reign of death over all people. But Paul states how much more believers receive through God’s abundant grace and His gift of righteousness. All who trust in Jesus will reign in life through Him. Out of great love for the world, God sent Jesus to pay sin’s price in full—once, for all people. Jesus Christ, fully man and fully God and perfectly sinless, alone could represent humanity and defeat sin’s hold over us forever. The price Jesus paid to redeem humanity brought Him great suffering. He not only brings life but much more. Jesus brings abundant life on earth that overflows with blessings in eternal life with Him.
Verse 18 opens with a reminder that one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people. Paul rejoined his thoughts from verse 12, which reveal our desperate need as sinners. In Adam, all sin and fall short of God’s glory.17 God could rightly have permitted all people to die without any hope of salvation. Instead, God’s grace overflowed. God’s grace lies beneath His gift of justification. Paul emphasized God’s resulting grace by saying, “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.”
God does not justify based upon any work other than that of Jesus Christ. Justification is by grace alone received through faith alone by Christ’s merit and perfect obedience alone. Through justification, God, as judge, declares believers in right standing with Him. Christ’s sacrifice perfectly satisfies His justice. In ourselves, we are not just. But God made a way for sinners to come to Him. Jesus Christ died for our sins. He paid the debt we owed by taking our punishment and then crediting His righteousness to us. God’s gift comes through the channel of human faith but is entirely by His grace. We deserved wrath, but God’s grace gives us life.
Paul compared the disobedience of one man, Adam, to the righteous and obedient act of Jesus, also one man. Jesus lived a perfect human life, actively and perfectly obeying the law of Moses. He willingly obeyed His Father and took the cross on our behalf. Jesus’s one act of obedience overrules Adam’s one act of disobedience for all who trust Him for salvation. Jesus’s atoning death made many—those who believe—righteous because the Father credits Jesus’s righteousness to every believer’s account. Through this means, we are born anew into everlasting life.
Overflowing Goodness to the Undeserving
Paul presented the very bad news that every person throughout time shares in Adam’s sin and deserves sin’s condemnation—death. Rome’s believers could certainly agree with Paul that all people sin. So can we. Not one of us has encountered a perfect person on this earth. None exists. Many of God’s chosen people, the Jews, believed they had earned God’s unique blessings through the law given to Moses. But keeping the law did not save anyone from physical death, for all died. Furthermore, no sinner can uphold God’s righteous standards. From this backdrop of doom, Paul illuminates God’s saving grace.
Grace is God’s favor toward the undeserving. In His grace, God sent Jesus, whose perfect life and sacrificial death pour forth abounding grace to all undeserving, rebellious sinners who will believe.1 Grace cannot be earned by any person in any way—only Jesus could die to save us.2 Grace is costly to God but freely offered to people who deserve His wrath. Paul wove God’s immeasurable grace throughout his presentation of justification through faith alone.3 Grace makes God’s gift of righteousness possible. Knowing that sin unites all people with Adam makes God’s gift of grace even sweeter. Grace offers sinful people access to Jesus by faith apart from the law. Grace brings us from death to life everlasting. God’s grace is truly amazing.
To disregard God’s grace means continuing to strive for His acceptance and forgiveness through personal merit. Regardless of good words, kind acts, a responsible work ethic, or charitable giving, we find ourselves greatly lacking before our holy God. We fail to see what we need most—Jesus, His merit, and the ability to follow in God’s ways.
Realizing the depth and extent of God’s grace leaves us amazed by Him and His plan of salvation. Fully humbled, we offer praises to our holy God, who reaches from heaven to gather us into His forgiving arms. God abundantly provides all that eternal life with Him requires through our faith in Jesus. We live each day grateful for God’s loving grace, which we cannot earn but only receive by believing in Him and trusting His promises.
Grace’s Reign – Romans 5:20-21
After drawing out contrasts between Adam and Christ, Paul explained the relationship between the law and grace. He also highlighted the increase of grace throughout a believer’s life and what that means to God’s people. God’s grace supremely overcomes sin and death. Grace brings righteousness and eternal life through Jesus.
Paul stated that God gave the law so the trespass might increase. Our upcoming study in Romans 7 will help us better understand Paul’s point.
Paul cast a brilliant light against the background of sin. Grace shines like a bright beacon on a stormy night that cuts through sin’s doom over the world. Paul proclaimed that “where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” Grace truly exceeds any single sin and all sin combined. Though sin increases in our lives, grace abounds deeply and in a far more sweeping manner.
Paul introduced a picture of two rival kingdom reigns to compare the power of sin and the power of grace. One kingdom is ruled by a tyrant who entered our world and established ruthless control over all people. The other kingdom is governed by a gracious ruler who came to save all people from the tyrant’s control.19 The tyrant, of course, is sin. Grace is the ruler who came to save from sin and death.
We think of grace as tender, but grace exudes God’s power. Grace powerfully takes the initiative to save. On the other hand, sin is a thief and a swindler. Sin promises pleasure and rewards by fostering the lie that God and His provisions leave us deprived. There is no more damaging deception. Sin promises what it cannot deliver and takes everything from us. Sin reaches out to snatch our very lives and everything that is true and good.
God’s grace through Christ is so different! Jesus overcame our union with Adam and sin. At a cost we can scarcely describe, Jesus paid sin’s debt, providing the only possible way for justification by God. With grace and mercy, God awakens people dead in sin and invites them to come to Him, repent, and believe. Without any merit of their own, those who believe in Christ are credited with His gift of righteousness. Believers are forever sealed by His Holy Spirit and will live in blessed glory with Him for eternity. The riches of the gospel can hardly be captured in human words. Yet, with grateful hearts, we can look to Jesus, our Savior, and live—really live! Christ’s gift of righteousness triumphs over Adam’s sin. Jesus truly is our mighty Savior, our heavenly friend, and our everything in between.
|
In Adam’s Family by Birth |
In Jesus Christ’s Family by Rebirth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Take to Heart
When Adam exercised his will to choose sin, he did so for all people throughout time. Adam passed on to all of us the preference and propensity to rebel and sin. Sin’s reign through Adam results in death for all people. Every person is born into sin, with a sinful nature that yields sinful thoughts, words, and actions. Every person needs a Savior to overcome sin in their lives. Paul contrasts Adam’s sin with God’s gift of righteousness. The sin of the first man enveloped humanity, but the obedience of one Man, God’s own Son, brings life to all who turn to Him in faith. Jesus came from heaven and accomplished the unthinkable. He took our sin upon Himself and gave believers God’s righteousness in exchange. We truly are saved by God’s grace!
God bestowed His righteousness upon His people through His gift of grace. Born into sin, we were once without hope, in complete discord with the Creator of all life. Through God’s grace, believers are credited with His righteousness and are restored to a harmonious relationship with Him. Jesus was born and lived entirely without sin. Because of Jesus, a believer’s life is no longer controlled by sin. Instead, God extends amazing grace to all who believe. God’s grace is our triumph, our gift, our everything.
We live in a world rife with sin. Sin’s curse casts the shadow of thorns and decay on the beauty and order of God’s handiwork in creation. Adam’s choice to sin was passed down to all people. Paul explained that even without the clear terms of God’s law to define sin, the people who lived between Adam and Moses committed evil and died. While we can see the visible damage sin causes in our world and others, we easily ignore or excuse the sin that lurks within us. Unless we acknowledge the universal impact and personal toll of sin and death that came through our ancestor Adam, we will not grasp the wonder of salvation that God offers through Christ. We can easily agree we share humanity’s general sinfulness, but how does God reveal your specific sin? In what areas of your life has the Holy Spirit pointed to specific sinful attitudes or actions? Knowing God’s righteous standards raises our awareness of personal sin and our need for God’s grace. When we let go of sins that encumber us, we can experience forgiveness and grow in righteousness. Though sin wreaks havoc around us, God offers a steady flow of His grace to needy people. God did not leave us stuck in Adam’s sin; He abundantly provided grace and righteousness through His Son.
Adam served as our human representative, passing along his choice to sin to all people. In an infinitely and eternally greater way, Jesus represented believers as God’s sacrifice for sin. Jesus’s death brings grace and more grace to all who believe in Him. One man’s sinful disobedience brought death, while one Man’s fully obedient life defeated death. People either live in union with Adam and die or embrace justification through Christ and live forever—there is no middle ground. Have you accepted God’s gift of righteousness through Christ? If not, now is the time to turn to Him, repent, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide your every step. If you have, how apparent is your relationship with Christ to the world around you? What might your attitude, actions, and responses to others reveal about your belief in Christ? Jesus gives us the gift of grace and righteousness, which is greater than our sin.
“Grace” is a word commonly spoken in Christian circles. However, our familiarity with the word can shrink our wonder at all it means. Do you realize that you do not deserve any or all of the grace God has given you? The truth of salvation in Christ should continue to inspire awe and amaze us. Why would God so love people who turned away from Him and ignored His good gifts? In abundant, overflowing grace, God not only felt compassion for a world of sinners, but sent His own perfect Son into that world to die a gruesome death to pay sin’s penalty. God graciously declares redeemed sinners whole and perfect, covered in righteousness—not their own, but that of His Son. In grace, God generously gives spiritual riches to the poor and needy, strength to the weak, and rest to the weary. God’s grace incorporates His perfect love, invincible power, and endless resources. In grace, God meets our needs, small and great. God’s grace brings victory and triumph into a believer’s life. How will you allow God’s infinite grace to flood your heart with joyful worship and fresh wonder?
John Newton was a man who knew he deserved God’s judgment, not His grace. Newton’s role as a trader of enslaved people in the 18th century brought degradation to many. However, when the gospel reached his sinful heart, Newton fervently preached the greatness of the grace he had received. He helped William Wilberforce, the Christian who led the battle to end slavery in the British Empire, to found what is now commonly known as the Anti-Slavery Society, and he published personal confessions of his previous involvement in the trade. He also wrote many well-loved hymns. The best known of his hymns sings his own story:
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found—
Was blind, but now I see.20
We need to remember that without Christ, we remain lost, blind, and broken. But like John Newton, we can celebrate being found and given eyes to see. We can celebrate God’s grace. How will you thank God for His grace to you?
1. Sin’s entry: Genesis 3:1-7; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22
2. God’s creation: Genesis 1
3. Decay in creation: Romans 8:20-22
4. First man’s sin: Genesis 3:1-10
5. Death: Genesis 3:11-24; Romans 3:9-11; Ephesians 2:1-3
6. God’s judgment: Genesis 2:16-17
7. Death follows Adam: Genesis 5:5-31
8. Sin and death: 1 Corinthians 15:21-25; 1 Peter 2:11
9. Defeat of sin: John 10:10; 1 Corinthians 15:54-57; Revelation 20:14; 21:27–22:5
10. No one righteous: Romans 3:10-11
11. Cain and Abel: Genesis 4:1-12
12. Abraham’s lies: Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-18
13. Jacob and the blessing: Genesis 26:34–27:40
14. Enoch and Elijah: Genesis 5:24; 2 Kings 2:1-12
15. Impact of Adam’s trespass: Genesis 3
16. Eternal glory with Christ: Romans 8
17. Fall short: Romans 3:9-11, 23
18. Shall not covet: Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21; Romans 7:7
19. Saved from sin’s kingdom: Colossians 1:13-14
20. John Newton, “Amazing Grace” (public domain, 1779).
© BSF 1999, 2006, 2017, 2026 (This material may be downloaded from mybsf.org or bsfonline.org and used by BSF class members in connection with their personal BSF class studies. It may not be otherwise reproduced without BSF’s written permission.)
All Scripture quotations in this publication are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ® NIV ® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.