mors; atque ita in omnes homines mors pervagata
est. quandoquidem omnes peccaverunt:- (Nam usque ad legem peccatum erat in
mundo; peccatum autem non imputatur, quum
non est lex: - (For until the law sin was in the world:
but sin is not imputed when there is no law. - Sed regnavit mors ab Adam usque ad
Mosen, etiam in eos qui non peccaverunt ad - Nevertheless death reigned from Adam
to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
similitudinem prævericationis Adam, qui est
figura futuri.
after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who
is the figure of him that was to come.
12 Wherefore as, etc. He now begins to enlarge on the same doctrine, by comparing with it
what is of an opposite character. For since Christ came to redeem us from the calamity into which
Adam had fallen, and had precipitated all his posterity with him, we cannot see with so much
clearness what we have in Christ, as by having what we have lost in Adam set before us, though
all things on both sides are not similar: hence Paul subjoins an exception, which we shall notice in
its place; and we shall also point out any other difference that may occur. The incompleteness of
the sentence sometimes renders it obscure, as when the second clause, which answers to the former,
is not expressed. But we shall endeavor to make both plain when we come to those parts.^163
Sin entered into the world,etc. Observe the order which he keeps here; for he says, that sin
preceded, and that from sin death followed. There are indeed some who contend, that we are so
lost through Adam’s sin, as though we perished through no fault of our own, but only, because he
had sinned for us. But Paul distinctly affirms, that sin extends to all who suffer its punishment: and
this he afterwards more fully declares, when subsequently he assigns a reason why all the posterity
of Adam are subject to the dominion of death; and it is even this — because we have all, he says,
sinned. But to sin in this case, is to become corrupt and vicious; for the natural depravity which we
(^163) The beginning of this verse has occasioned a vast number of conjectures, both as to the connection and as to the corresponding
clause to the first sentence. Most agree in the main with Calvin on these two points. Hodge announces a similar view as to the
connection in these words, — “The idea of men being regarded and treated, not according to their own merits, but the merit of
another, is contrary to the common mode of thinking among men. The Apostle illustrates and enforces it by an appeal to the
great analogous fact in the history of the world.”
As to the corresponding clause, that it is found in the 18th verse, there is a common consent, — Pareus, Willet, Grotius,
Doddridge, Scott, Stuart, Chalmers, etc.; the intervening verses are viewed as parenthetic.
The phrase, , and also and , are sometimes used anticipatively as well as retrospectively, as their corresponding
particles are often in Hebrew. See note on Romans 2:1. That Paul uses in this way appears evident from Romans 4:16;
Romans 13:6; 1 Corinthians 11:10. It anticipates here, as I think, what is afterwards expressed by , as in Romans 4:16, by ,
in Romans 13:6, by , and in 1 Corinthians 11:10, by before angels. Then the meaning of the verse would be conveyed by
the following rendering, —
- For this reason — as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, even so death came on all men,
because all have sinned.
According to this view, the corresponding clause is in the verse itself. The sentiment of the passage is this, — through one
man sin entered and death followed; and death followed as to all mankind, because all had sinned. Then, according to his usual
manner, the Apostle takes up the last subject, “sin,” issuing in the death of all; and at the end of the Romans 5:14 he goes back
to “the one man,” Adam, who he says was a type of another: and this sentence is made the text of what follows till the end of
the Romans 5:19. Having before referred to the state of things before the “law,” in the two remaining verses he refers to the
bearing of the law on his subject, and shows that there is in Christ an abundant provision for the increase of sin occasioned by
the law.
So abundant is grace that it is fully sufficient to remove original sin, actual sins — its fruits, and the sins discovered by the
law, and by its means increased and enhanced. Hence superabundance is ascribed to it. — Ed.