Commentary on Romans 5:12-19

His name was Mr. Steve Moore, and he was the honors English Literature teacher during my junior year at Crete-Monee High School in Crete, Illinois. Mr. Moore was brilliant, seemingly performing in a role far below his true potential—at least, that was what all his students believed. One day, someone leaked that Mr. Moore had been on the game show Jeopardy! and had won a game or two. In the next class, students dared each other to ask if this growing rumor was true. 

My friend Perry and I debate to this day, some 37 years later, which one of us asked Mr. Moore; both of us claim bragging rights. Regardless of who did it, when the question was finally asked, Mr. Moore, face flushed red, said, “Mr. Gibson” in my version and “Mr. Clay” in Perry’s, “I think our class time would be better served if we stick to the lesson.” In our minds, he was a rock star and a Jeopardy! champion! 

I mention Mr. Moore not only because he was the man who taught me English Literature and encouraged me to explore texts that otherwise wouldn’t have interested me, but also because he shared his love for writing and convinced me I could excel at it someday. 

One day, Mr. Moore, while handing out graded papers for a weighted assignment, skipped my desk and handed out the rest of the papers. Embarrassed and being the class clown, I made a joke to ease my embarrassment that also made the other students laugh. Without looking up, Mr. Moore invited me to stay after class to meet with him personally to get my grade. When the bell rang and the students mockingly filed out of the room, Mr. Moore, without raising his voice, explained that this paper did not reflect my true work because it contained many uncharacteristic mistakes. He then said something I will never forget: “You never turn in a final copy without first writing a rough draft. Because in your final copy, you are able to fix all the flaws.”

Paul, knowing that Spain was a scintillating galaxy of intelligence, a place of culture and evolving thought, endeavored to take the gospel there. To do this, he decided to set up camp in Rome. Consequently, he sent and commended Phoebe from the church at Cenchreae to deliver and interpret his letter, which would become the book of Romans, before he arrived. He wanted to ensure that the people were exposed to his teaching and that everyone was learning and preaching the same theological strand of the gospel. As a result, Romans is one of the most theological books in the Bible, and it is considered by many scholars to be the seminal or groundbreaking work on systematic theology. 

From the very beginning of the book, Paul discusses foundational theology. As we scan through chapter 1, Paul asserts, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone, Jew or Gentile.” By verse 19, he assures us that even if someone has never read the gospel, God has revealed himself in nature, leaving people without an excuse. 

Paul continues this no-excuse idea in chapter 2 by talking about God’s judgment for sin and the tendency of some Jews who keep the law to feel spiritually superior to those who have not. But he levels the playing field in chapter 3 when he reminds us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” He then posits to us that God remains faithful to us, as Jesus took our punishment so that all who have faith in him would be justified. 

In chapter 4, Paul reminds us that we were bequeathed this faith from Abraham, and by the time we pull into the parking lot of chapter 5, Paul says that because of this justification through our faith, we experience grace. He also suggests that there is a relationship between sin and grace, and that is where we bump into our text for today. 

Paul contrasts sin and grace by placing them in the personhood of two of the most prominent figures in the Holy Scriptures. He brings Adam to center stage, a place he has not been since Genesis, and reintroduces him as sin’s escort into the world. This is a powerful indictment, one that, in ways, contradicts what Paul wrote in the 13th and 14th verses of the second chapter of his first letter to Timothy, where he names Adam’s wife Eve as the sin culprit. Paul says here that it was Adam who brought sin and, thereby, death into the world. It is because of the mistakes Adam made that sin entered the world and death came to everyone.

Then Paul shifts focus from the sin part of the equation and also changes the person representing it. Paul states that just as sin and death entered the world through Adam, God’s gift of grace entered through Jesus Christ. He explains that Adam brings condemnation to everyone because God’s law was given to reveal humanity’s sinfulness. However, the more people sinned, the more God’s love produced even more grace for us, and God’s grace was greater than the sin. This suggests that, in a sense, although Paul calls Adam a “type” of Christ, it was God’s grace in Jesus that fixed all the flaws, mistakes, and deficits caused by Adam’s sin. I now realize that if Adam is indeed a type of Christ, he was probably just a rough draft compared to Jesus’ final version. Amen and Ase’.