Paul’s Letter to the Romans: Chapter 5:12-21–Adam and Christ, What is Paul Really Talking About? (Spoiler Alert: Not Original Sin or the Historicity of Adam) (Part 10)

We now come to Romans 5:12-21, a section, ironically that is often used by young earth creationists to argue for the historicity of Adam. The argument basically goes like this:

1. Since Paul refers to Adam, and since Paul is inspired by God, and since God cannot lie, therefore there must be a historical Adam.
2. Since Paul draws a comparison/contrast between Adam and Christ, therefore Adam must be a historical person, because you can’t compare a historical person to a non-historical person—if Adam isn’t “real,” then Jesus can’t be “real.”
3. If Adam wasn’t a historical person, then you’re denying original sin—if you say Adam wasn’t “real,” then you’re denying the reality of sin. And if there is no sin, then why did Christ die?

Needless to say, there are a host of things wrong with such an argument. Indeed entire posts could be written to address the faulty logic in this argument, but I really don’t want to do that. Instead, I wish to just do some exegesis, and take you through Paul’s argument. If you realize what Paul is actually arguing, you will be able to see that none of the young earth creationist argument is even relevant to what Paul is saying. It is, in fact, reading into Paul’s letter something Paul wasn’t addressing at all.

So let’s begin.

Adam vs. Christ
After having laid out his “Already/Not Yet” Worldview perspective in 5:1-11, Paul uses the rest of Romans 5:12-21 to further illustrate this perspective by drawing a comparison/contrast between Adam and Christ. Now it must be pointed out that Paul is not talking about the concept of “original sin” here. He’s not trying to explain where sin came from and exactly how it came into the world. Rather, he is using the figure of Adam to explain the reality of sin in the world.

By using the figure of Adam, Paul is first stating the obvious in 5:12: everyone sins (in that sense, we are all “in Adam”), and the evidence that sin is in the world is that everyone dies. But even that isn’t the point of his argument—all that is just a given. Paul’s point in 5:12-21 is rather to argue for the universality of salvation in Christ. In other words, Paul is showing how much greater the work of Christ is compared to Adam. Therefore, if the sin of Adam (i.e. everyone’s sin) has affected everything in creation, bringing death to all, how much greater is the effect that Christ’s work brings about. That, by the way, is what this icon is showing: the Resurrected Christ triumphant over death, by raising up humanity as seen in the figures of Adam and Eve.

What’s the Torah Got To Do With It? Think Speed Limits…
Now, there is a very interesting aside in 5:13-14, that actually isn’t an aside—it pretty much is one of the main points Paul has been making all along in Romans. In these verses, Paul goes out of his way to show that everyone has sinned, even those Jews who possess the Torah. Paul also points out that sin was in the world even before the Torah was given through Moses, but that it wasn’t “reckoned” until the Torah. What does this mean? An analogy will help…

Let’s say there were no “school speed limit signs” put up around any elementary school in the country. In fact, let’s say there were no speed limit signs at all. And so, let’s say, right as school was getting out, you found yourself driving past an elementary school, and since there were no speed limit signs—much less any school speed limit signs—you blew right past that school at 75 MPH, and in the process you hit and killed five children.

Technically, you have not broken any laws, for there were no speed limit laws to break. But what you’ve done is certainly wrong and you know it would be certainly wrong and reckless—you’ve certainly sinned. Furthermore, what you’ve done as brought about death. After that happens, speed limit laws are enacted, and school speed limit signs are put up around all elementary schools: 25 MPH. And so, next time, even though you only blow past a school at 40 MPH, a police officer pulls you over and gives you a ticket. You have now broken the law, and are now being penalized in order to try to prevent you from being reckless and bringing death in the future.

Paul says that is kind of what the Torah is like, and what the reality concerning sin is. Sin has been in the world since the beginning, and death has been there right along with it. But with the Torah, the “speed limit signs” had been put up to clearly mark out precisely what sin was and what its effects are. The Torah put in “legal language” what should have been already obvious. The only difference is that now, with the legal code in place, formal punishment could be enacted. With the Torah, you aren’t just sinning, but your sin is a specific kind—you’ve transgressed (i.e. broken a specific law). In any case, everyone has sinned, even if it wasn’t the exact same sin of Adam (i.e. eating the fruit). We all sin, and we all suffer death because of it. And notice too, Paul says that death (not sin) “reigned” from Adam to Moses (Moses obviously represents the giving of Torah). Yes, we all sin, but what reigns in our life is death.

Because of our sin, we are living corpses, in bondage to decay and death. The Torah just points that out. That’s Paul’s point.

But Then There’s the Good News!
But Paul isn’t going to leave us hanging in that kind of despair. In 5:15-17, he goes about setting up a key contrast between “transgression” (παράπτωμα)—which is the concrete, “reckoned” expression of sin, and “gift” (χάρισμα)—which is the concrete expression of God’s grace. And Paul’s point is simple:

1. If transgression came through one man to many, how much more does “gift” come through one man to many;
2. If the judgment of one man’s transgression is condemnation, then the “grace-gift” offered through Christ after many transgressions is righteousness;
3. And therefore if death reigned through the transgression of one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

In other words, as bad as sin and death in Adam is, in Christ not only is all that wiped away, but things get infinitely better. In this Old Age in which death reigns, we are slaves to sin—there is a hierarchy: death is king and we are slaves. But in the New Age, life reigns through Christ’s gift of grace; and though we are “slaves” to righteousness, that simply means that we are serving and reigning with Christ—there is no hierarchy: there is unity with Christ in which we share in his life.

That certainly is Good News.

Romans 5:18-21 is somewhat of a redundancy. But Paul is clearly so passionate about just how good this Good News of Christ, that he tends to get carried away. The point, therefore, of this entire passage, can be seen in 5:20-21:

1. When Torah was introduced, transgression (which is a specific category of sin) increased.
2. But wherever sin increased, Christ’s super-abundant grace overflowed.
3. Therefore, for those who receive the overflow of grace, Christ’s work supersedes the work of Adam. Christ’s grace simply doesn’t negate the sin of Adam, it goes over and above it, thus bringing about something far better.

So What About that Whole Historical Adam Argument?
So, now that we know Paul’s argument in Romans 5:12-21, we should be able to look back to those young earth creationist arguments involving Adam in Romans 5:12-21, and conclude that none of those arguments are relevant to what Paul was getting at.

• Is it logical to assume that since the Bible is inspired, that only historical people can be mentioned?
• If there was no historical Adam, perhaps instead of accusing God of lying, we should think, “Hey, maybe we were the ones misunderstanding the passage!”
• Is it logical to claim that someone cannot draw a parallel between a historical person and a non-historical person in a story?
• Who in their right mind is going to deny the reality of sin and death if Adam isn’t a historical person?
• More importantly, is Paul even making an argument for the historicity of Adam in the first place? If not, then isn’t it really dangerous to project our assumptions back onto a text that isn’t addressing that issue at all?

If we truly believe the Bible is inspired, we need to be faithful readers and allow Paul to make the argument that he intended to make. When we project our assumption back onto the text and try to make it fit our pre-conceived notions, we’re not doing anyone any good.