That as sin hath reigned to death; so also grace might reign by justice unto life everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“" Whose grace, if not of that God from whom also came the law? Unless it be, forsooth, that the Creator intercalated His law for the mere purpose of producing some employment for the grace of a rival god, an enemy to Himself (I had almost said, a god unknown to Him), "that as sin had" in His own dispensation "reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto (eternal) life by Jesus Christ," His own antagonist! For this (I suppose it was, that) the law of the Creator had "concluded all under sin," and had brought in "all the world as guilty (before God)," and had "stopped every mouth," so that none could glory through it, in order that grace might be maintained to the glory of the Christ, not of the Creator, but of Marcion! I may here anticipate a remark about the substance of Christ, in the prospect of a question which will now turn up.”

“This he says to show that the latter ranks as a king, the former, death, as a soldier, being marshalled under the latter, and armed by it. If then the latter (i.e. sin) armed death, it is plain enough that the righteousness destructive hereof, which by grace was introduced, not only disarms death, but even destroys it, and undoes entirely the dominion thereof, in that it is the greatest of the two, as being brought in not by man and the devil, but by God and grace, and leading our life unto a goodlier estate, and to blessings unlimited. For of it there will never be any end (to give you a view of its superiority from this also). For the other cast us out of our present life, but grace, when it came, gave us not the present life, but the immortal and eternal one. But for all these things Christ is our voucher. Doubt not then for thy life if thou hast righteousness, for righteousness is greater than life as being mother of it.”

“After the Apostle has shown that through the gift of grace sin is taken away, which had entered into this world through Adam, here he shows that through the grace of Christ sin is removed, which had abounded when the law supervened. Concerning this he does two things. First, he sets forth the abundance of sin, which was through the law; second, the absolution of sin, which is through the grace of Christ, at the place "where sin abounded," and so on. He says therefore first: it has been said that through the obedience of one man many are made just, but the law was not able to do this; rather, the law entered in besides, that sin might abound the more. Concerning this saying of the Apostle, a twofold difficulty arises. First indeed concerning his saying that the law entered in besides — that is, entered secretly after original and actual guilt, or after the natural law, as the Gloss says. For the law did not enter secretly but was given openly, according to John 18:20: "I have not spoken in secret." It must be said therefore that although the legislation itself was given openly, yet the mysteries of the law were hidden, and especially as to God's intention in giving the law — that it should show sin, not heal it — according to what follows below at Romans 11:34: "Who has known the mind of the Lord," and so on. It can also be said that the law entered in besides, that is, entered as it were in the middle, between the sin of man and the gift of the grace of Christ, both of which he had said above passed from one to many. The second difficulty, however, concerns his saying that the law entered in besides that sin might abound. For thus it seems that the abundance of sin is the end of the law, and so it follows that the law is evil, since that whose end is evil is itself also evil; and this is against 1 Timothy 1:8: "We know indeed that the law is good," and so on. To this, however, the Gloss responds in three ways. First indeed, that we should say that the word "that" is not placed causally, but consecutively. For the law was not given for this purpose, that sin might abound; rather the law, as far as it was in itself, forbade sin, according to Psalm 118:11: "In my heart I have hidden your words, that I may not sin against you." But, the law having been given, an abundance of sins followed in two ways. In one way, as to the multitude of sins. For although the law pointed out sin, it did not take away the concupiscence of sin. But when that which someone desires is forbidden to him, he burns the more vehemently with desire for it, just as a river, when an obstacle is placed against it, flows the more strongly and breaks the obstacle. Of which the reason can be threefold. One indeed, because that which lies within a man's power, no one reckons as great, but that which is outside a man's power is apprehended by man as though it were great. But the prohibition of what is desired places that which is forbidden as it were outside a man's power, and therefore desire burns the more toward the desired thing while it is forbidden. The second reason is that interior affections, when they are retained within, so that they are not led outward, are for this very reason more inflamed within; as is clear in sorrow and anger, which, while they are kept shut up within, are increased the more; but if they proceed outward in any way, their force is diminished. But prohibition, on account of fear of punishment, compels a man not to bring his desire out into external acts, and therefore that very desire, retained within, is the more inflamed. The third reason is that what is not forbidden to us we apprehend as something that can be done whenever it pleases us, and therefore many times, when the opportunity exists, we avoid it; but when something is forbidden, it is apprehended by us as something that cannot always be had by us, and therefore when an opportunity is given of obtaining it without fear of punishment, we are the more eager for it. And hence it is that, the law having been given, which forbade the use of concupiscence and yet did not mitigate the concupiscence itself, that very concupiscence led men to sins more fervently. Hence it is said in Ezekiel 5:5f.: "This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and the countries round about her; and she has despised my judgments, so as to be more wicked than the nations." But according to this it seems that every human law, which does not confer grace diminishing concupiscence, makes sins abound — which is contrary to the intentions of lawgivers, since they aim at this, that they may make citizens good, as is clear from the Philosopher, in Ethics II. But it must be said that the intention of human law is one thing, and that of divine law another. For human law is referred to human judgment, which concerns exterior acts; but divine law is referred to divine judgment, which concerns the interior movements of the heart, according to 1 Kings 16:7: "Man sees the things that appear, but God looks upon the heart." Thus, then, human law attains its intention, in that through prohibition and the threat of punishment it prevents the exterior acts of sin from being multiplied, although the interior concupiscence is increased the more; but as regards divine law, even the interior evil desires are imputed as sin, and these abound when the law forbids but does not take away concupiscence. It must be known, however, that, as the Philosopher says in Ethics X, the prohibition of law, although it restrains those who are badly disposed from exterior sins by fear of punishment alone, yet it induces certain well-disposed persons through love of virtue. But this good disposition, as to a certain extent, can be from nature, but its perfection is only through grace; from which it happens that, even with the old law given, sin does not abound in all, but in the majority. Some indeed, with the law forbidding and grace further assisting, at length arrived at the perfection of the virtues, according to Ecclesiasticus 44:1: "Let us praise glorious men," etc., and further on: "men great in virtue." Secondly, sin abounded the more with the law supervening, as to the gravity of the guilt. For sin was more grave where transgression was added, not only of the law of nature, but also of the written law. Hence it was said above at Romans 4:15 that "where there is no law, neither is there transgression." Secondly, however, it can be answered, as it is said, that the word "that" be taken causally, yet in such a way that the Apostle is speaking of the abundance of sin according as it is in our knowledge, so that the sense is: the law entered in besides that sin might abound, that is, that sin might be more abundantly known, according to the manner of speaking whereby a thing is said to come to be when it becomes known. Hence it was said above, that "through the law comes the knowledge of sin." In a third way it can be explained such that the word "that" be taken causally, yet in such a way that the abundance of sin is not understood as the end of the law entering in besides, but rather that which follows from the abundance of sin, namely the humbling of man. For with the law entering in besides, sin abounded, as was said in the first exposition. From this abundance of sin, indeed, it followed that man, recognizing his own weakness, should be humbled. For proud man used to say, presuming on his own strength: there is no lack of one to fulfill, but a lack of one to command, according to Exodus 24:7: "All things that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient." But when, the law having been given, a multitude of sins followed, man came to know his own weakness for keeping the law, according to Wisdom 9:5: "A weak man, and of short time," and so on. The intention, therefore, of God giving the law does not terminate at the abundance of sins, but at the humility of man, for the sake of which he permitted sins to abound. Thus, then, because this was hidden, he says pointedly, with regard to this, that the law entered in besides. But because here the matter treated is the law and the end of the law, two things occur to be considered. First indeed, in how many ways law is said; second, what the end of the law is. Concerning the first, it must be known that law, in one way, is said of the whole Scripture of the Old Testament, according to John 15:25: "that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law: They have hated me without cause," although this is written in the Psalm. Sometimes, however, law is said of the Scripture of the five books of Moses, according to Deuteronomy 33:4: "Moses commanded us a law." Thirdly, the Decalogue of precepts is called law, according to Exodus 24:12: "I will give you two tables of stone, and the law and the commandments which I have written, that you may teach." Fourthly, the whole content of the ceremonial precepts is called law, according to Hebrews 10:1: "The law, having a shadow of the good things to come." Fifthly, some special ceremonial precept is called law, according to Leviticus 7:11: "This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings." Here, however, law is taken by the Apostle commonly, as regards the whole teaching of the law of Moses, that is, as regards the moral and ceremonial precepts, because, namely, through the ceremonies of the law grace was not given, by which man might be helped to fulfill the moral precepts with concupiscence diminished. Concerning the end of the law, however, it must be known that among the people of the Jews there were three kinds of men, as also in any other people, namely the hard, that is, sinners and rebels, those making progress, and the perfect. As regards the hard, then, the law was given as a scourge — both as to the moral precepts, to the observance of which they were compelled by the threat of punishment, as is clear in Leviticus 2, and as to the ceremonial precepts, which were multiplied for this reason, lest it be permitted to them to add another worship to strange gods. Exodus 20:34: "With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will reign over you." But for those making progress, who are called the middling ones, the law was a tutor, according to Galatians 3:24: "the law was our tutor in Christ." And this both as to the ceremonial precepts, by which they were held to divine worship, and as to the moral precepts, by which they were advanced toward justice. For the perfect, however, it was, as to the ceremonial precepts indeed, a sign, according to Ezekiel 20:12: "I gave them my sabbaths, that they might be a sign between me," and so on. But as to the moral precepts, it was a comfort, according to what follows below at Romans 7:22: "I delight in the law of God according to the inward man." Then, when he says "where sin abounded," etc., he shows how, through grace, the abundance of sins is taken away. And first he sets forth the abundance of grace; second he shows the effect of abounding grace, at the place "that as sin has reigned," and so on. He says therefore first: it has been said that, with the law entering in besides, sin abounded; nor is the divine purpose concerning the salvation of the Jews and of the whole human race impeded on this account, because where sin abounded — namely in the human race, and especially among the Jews — grace also abounded the more, namely the grace of Christ forgiving sins. 2 Corinthians 9:8: "God is able to make all grace abound in you." Of what is said here, a twofold reason can be assigned. One indeed from the effect of grace. For just as only a strong and efficacious medicine heals the greatness of a disease, so an abounding grace was required in order to heal the abundance of sins. Luke 7:47: "Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much," and so on. Another reason can be taken from the disposition of the sinner, who, while he recognizes the greatness of his sins, sometimes indeed despairs and grows contemptuous, according to Proverbs 18:3: "The wicked man, when he has come into the depth of sins, grows contemptuous," etc.; but sometimes, through divine help, from the consideration of his sins he is the more humbled, and obtains a greater grace, according to Psalm 15:4: "Their infirmities were multiplied: afterward they made haste." Then, when he says "that as sin has reigned unto death," etc., he shows the effect of abounding grace, which indeed corresponds by opposition to the effect of sin. "That," namely, as sin, introduced through the first man and abounding through the law, "has reigned," that is, obtained full dominion over men, and this even to the point of leading them into temporal and eternal death — below, Romans 6:23: "the wages of sin is death" — "so also the grace of God might reign," that is, might fully have dominion in us, "through justice," namely which it works in us; above, in the same chapter: "justified freely through his grace." And this even to the point of leading us into eternal life, according to what follows below at Romans 6:23: "the grace of God, life everlasting." And all this is "through Jesus Christ our Lord," who is the giver of grace, according to John 1:17: "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ," and also of justice, 1 Corinthians 1:30: "who was made unto us justice from God," and the giver of eternal life, John 10:28: "I give them life everlasting."”

“That as sin hath reigned unto death,.... This is another end of the law's entrance, or rather an illustration of the grace of God, by comparing the reigns of sin and grace together: sin has such a power over man in a state of nature, as amounts to a dominion; it has not only an enticing, ensnaring power, to draw into a compliance with it, and an obstructive power to hinder that which is good, and an operative one of that which is evil, and a captivating, enslaving one to the same; but it has a kingly, governing, and commanding power: its dominion is universal as to men, and with respect both to the members of the body, and faculties of the soul; it is supported by laws, which are its lusts; and has its voluntary subjects, to whom it gives wages; its reign is very cruel and tyrannical; it is "unto death" corporeal, moral, or spiritual, and eternal. The ancient Jews often represent sin in the same light; they frequently speak (h) of , "the corruption of nature reigning" over men; and say (i): that he is "a king" over the several members of the body, which answer to him at the word of command. "The old and foolish king" in Ecc 4:13, is commonly interpreted by them of sin; which they say (k) is called "a king", because he rules in the world, over the children of men, and because all hearken to him: it is a petition much used by them (l), "let not the evil imagination or corruption of nature "rule" over me:'' and on the other hand, they represent grace, or a principle of goodness, as a king, reigning over the corruption of nature; thus interpreting these words, "my son, fear thou the Lord and the king", they ask (m), "who is the king? the king (say they) , is "the good imagination", or principle of goodness, who reigns over the evil imagination, which is called a king.'' And in another place (n) they say of a good man, that he , "caused the good imagination to reign" over the evil one; with which in some measure agrees what follows: even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord; by grace is meant, either grace as it is in the heart of God; which reigns or bears sway in man's salvation in all the parts of it, "through righteousness"; consistent with the justice of God, in a way in which that is glorified, through the redemption of Christ: it reigns "unto eternal life"; grace has promised, prepared it, and makes meet for it, and will introduce into it, and freely give it: it reigns "by Jesus Christ"; grace reigns by him, righteousness, or justice, is glorified by him, and eternal life is in him, through him, and by him: or grace as it is in the hearts of converted persons, is meant where it reigns, has the dominion, is the governing principle, and that in a way of righteousness and true holiness; and will reign until it is perfected in glory, or is crowned with eternal life; all which are by Jesus Christ, namely, grace, righteousness, and life. (h) T. Bab. Succa, fol. 52. 1. & Sanhedrin, fol. 91. 2. (i) Abot. R. Nathan, c. 16. fol. 5. 2. Targum in Eccl. ix. 14. Midrash Koheleth, fol. 80. 1. (k) Zohar in Gen. fol. 102. 1. Midrash Koheleth, fol. 70. 2. Caphtor, fol. 20. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 14. 4. Jarchi in Eccl. iv. 13. (l) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 60. 1. Shaare Zion, fol. 73. 1. Seder Tephiltot, fol. 3. 1. Ed. Basil. (m) Bemidbar Rabba, fol. 218. 1. (n) Midrash Koheleth, fol. 78. 3. Next: Romans Chapter 6”

“That as sin hath reigned unto death - As extensively, as deeply, as universally, as sin, whether implying the act of transgression or the impure principle from which the act proceeds, or both. Hath reigned, subjected the whole earth and all its inhabitants; the whole soul, and all its powers and faculties, unto death, temporal of the body, spiritual of the soul, and eternal of both; even so, as extensively, deeply, and universally might grace reign - filling the whole earth, and pervading, purifying, and refining the whole soul: through righteousness - through this doctrine of free salvation by the blood of the Lamb, and by the principle of holiness transfused through the soul by the Holy Ghost: unto eternal life - the proper object of an immortal spirit's hope, the only sphere where the human intellect can rest, and be happy in the place and state where God is; where he is seen As He Is; and where he can be enjoyed with out interruption in an eternal progression of knowledge and beatitude: by Jesus Christ our Lord - as the cause of our salvation, the means by which it is communicated, and the source whence it springs. Thus we find, that the salvation from sin here is as extensive and complete as the guilt and contamination of sin; death is conquered, hell disappointed, the devil confounded, and sin totally destroyed. Here is glorying: To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to God and his Father, be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen. Hallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth! Amen and Amen. What highly interesting and momentous truths does the preceding chapter bring to our view! No less than the doctrine of the fall of man from original righteousness; and the redemption of the world by the incarnation and death of Christ. On the subject of the Fall, though I have spoken much in the notes on Genesis, chap. 3, yet it may be necessary to make a few farther observations: - 1. That all mankind have fallen under the empire of death, through this original transgression, the apostle most positively asserts; and few men who profess to believe the Bible, pretend to dispute. This point is indeed ably stated, argued, and proved by Dr. Taylor, from whose observations the preceding notes are considerably enriched. But there is one point which I think not less evident, which he has not only not included in his argument, but, as far as it came in his way, has argued against it, viz. the degeneracy and moral corruption of the human soul. As no man can account for the death brought into the world but on the ground of this primitive transgression, so none can account for the moral evil that is in the world on any other ground. It is a fact, that every human being brings into the world with him the seeds of dissolution and mortality. Into this state we are fallen, according to Divine revelation, through the one offense of Adam. This fact is proved by the mortality of all men. It is not less a fact, that every man that is born into the world brings with him the seeds of moral evil; these he could not have derived from his Maker; for the most pure and holy God can make nothing impure, imperfect, or unholy. Into this state we are reduced, according to the Scripture, by the transgression of Adam; for by this one man sin entered into the world, as well as death. 2. The fact that all come into the world with sinful propensities is proved by another fact, that every man sins; that sin is his first work, and that no exception to this has ever been noticed, except in the human nature of Jesus Christ; and that exempt case is sufficiently accounted for from this circumstance, that it did not come in the common way of natural generation. 3. As like produces its like, if Adam became mortal and sinful, he could not communicate properties which he did not possess; and he must transmit those which constituted his natural and moral likeness: therefore all his posterity must resemble himself. Nothing less than a constant miraculous energy, presiding over the formation and development of every human body and soul, could prevent the seeds of natural and moral evil from being propagated. That these seeds are not produced in men by their own personal transgressions, is most positively asserted by the apostle in the preceding chapter; and that they exist before the human being is capable of actual transgression, or of the exercise of will and judgment, so as to prefer and determine, is evident to the most superficial observer: 1st, from the most marked evil propensities of children, long before reason can have any influence or control over passion; and, 2ndly, it is demonstrated by the death of millions in a state of infancy. It could not, therefore, be personal transgression that produced the evil propensities in the one case, nor death in the other. 4. While misery, death, and sin are in the world, we shall have incontrovertible proofs of the fall of man. Men may dispute against the doctrine of original sin; but such facts as the above will be a standing irrefragable argument against every thing that can be advanced against the doctrine itself. 5. The justice of permitting this general infection to become diffused has been strongly oppugned. "Why should the innocent suffer for the guilty?" As God made man to propagate his like on the earth, his transmitting the same kind of nature with which he was formed must be a necessary consequence of that propagation. He might, it is true, have cut off for ever the offending pair; but this, most evidently, did not comport with his creative designs. "But he might have rendered Adam incapable of sin." This does not appear. If he had been incapable of sinning, he would have been incapable of holiness; that is, he could not have been a free agent; or in other words he could not have been an intelligent or intellectual being; he must have been a mass of inert and unconscious matter. "But God might have cut them off and created a new race." He certainly might; and what would have been gained by this? Why, just nothing. The second creation, if of intelligent beings at all, must have been precisely similar to the first; and the circumstances in which these last were to be placed, must be exactly such as infinite wisdom saw to be the most proper for their predecessors, and consequently, the most proper for them. They also must have been in a state of probation; they also must have been placed under a law; this law must be guarded by penal sanctions; the possibility of transgression must be the same in the second case as in the first; and the lapse as probable, because as possible to this second race of human beings as it was to their predecessors. It was better, therefore, to let the same pair continue to fulfill the great end of their creation, by propagating their like upon the earth; and to introduce an antidote to the poison, and by a dispensation as strongly expressive of wisdom as of goodness, to make the ills of life, which were the consequences of their transgression, the means of correcting the evil, and through the wondrous economy of grace, sanctifying even these to the eternal good of the soul. 6. Had not God provided a Redeemer, he, no doubt, would have terminated the whole mortal story, by cutting off the original transgressors; for it would have been unjust to permit them to propagate their like in such circumstances, that their offspring must be unavoidably and eternally wretched. God has therefore provided such a Savior, the merit of whose passion and death should apply to every human being, and should infinitely transcend the demerit of the original transgression, and put every soul that received that grace (and All may) into a state of greater excellence and glory than that was, or could have been, from which Adam, by transgressing, fell. 7. The state of infants dying before they are capable of hearing the Gospel, and the state of heathens who have no opportunity of knowing how to escape from their corruption and misery, have been urged as cases of peculiar hardship. But, first, there is no evidence in the whole book of God that any child dies eternally for Adam's sin. Nothing of this kind is intimated in the Bible; and, as Jesus took upon him human nature, and condescended to be born of a woman in a state of perfect helpless infancy, he has, consequently, sanctified this state, and has said, without limitation or exception, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. We may justly infer, and all the justice as well as the mercy of the Godhead supports the inference, that all human beings, dying in an infant state, are regenerated by that grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men, Tit 2:11, and go infallibly to the kingdom of heaven. As to the Gentiles, their case is exceedingly clear. The apostle has determined this; see Rom 2:14, Rom 2:15, and the notes there. He who, in the course of his providence, has withheld from them the letter of his word, has not denied them the light and influence of his Spirit; and will judge them in the great day only according to the grace and means of moral improvement with which they have been favored. No man will be finally damned because he was a Gentile, but because he has not made a proper use of the grace and advantages which God had given him. Thus we see that the Judge of all the earth has done right; and we may rest assured that he will eternally act in the same way. 8. The term Fall we use metaphorically, to signify degradation: literally, it signifies stumbling, so as to lose the centre of gravity, or the proper poise of our bodies, in consequence of which we are precipitated on the ground. The term seems to have been borrowed from the παραπτωμα of the apostle, Rom 5:15-18, which we translate offense, and which is more literally Fall, from παρα, intensive, and πιπτω, I fall; a grievous, dangerous, and ruinous fall, and is property applied to transgression and sin in general; as every act is a degradation of the soul, accompanied with hurt, and tending to destruction. The term, in this sense, is still in common use; the degradation of a man in power we term his fall; the impoverishment of a rich man we express in the same way; and when a man of piety and probity is overcome by any act of sin, we say he is fallen; he has descended from his spiritual eminence, is degraded from his spiritual excellence, is impure in his soul, and becomes again exposed to the displeasure of his God.”

“That as sin--Observe, the word "offense" is no more used, as that had been sufficiently illustrated; but--what better befitted this comprehensive summation of the whole matter--the great general term sin. hath reigned unto death--rather, "in death," triumphing and (as it were) revelling in that complete destruction of its victims. even so might grace reign--In Rom 5:14, Rom 5:17 we had the reign of death over the guilty and condemned in Adam; here it is the reign of the mighty causes of these--of SIN which clothes Death a Sovereign with venomous power (Co1 15:56) and with awful authority (Rom 6:23), and of GRACE, the grace which originated the scheme of salvation, the grace which "sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world," the grace which "made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin," the grace which "makes us to be the righteousness of God in Him," so that "we who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness do reign in life by One, Jesus Christ!" through righteousness--not ours certainly ("the obedience of Christians," to use the wretched language of GROTIUS) nor yet exactly "justification" [STUART, HODGE]; but rather, "the (justifying) righteousness of Christ" [BEZA, ALFORD, and in substance, OLSHAUSEN, MEYER]; the same which in Rom 5:19 is called His "obedience," meaning His whole mediatorial work in the flesh. This is here represented as the righteous medium through which grace reaches its objects and attains all its ends, the stable throne from which Grace as a Sovereign dispenses its saving benefits to as many as are brought under its benign sway. unto eternal life--which is salvation in its highest form and fullest development for ever. by Jesus Christ our Lord--Thus, on that "Name which is above every name," the echoes of this hymn to the glory of "Grace" die away, and "Jesus is left alone." On reviewing this golden section of our Epistle, the following additional remarks occur: (1) If this section does not teach that the whole race of Adam, standing in him as their federal head, "sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression," we may despair of any intelligible exposition of it. The apostle, after saying that Adam's sin introduced death into the world, does not say "and so death passed upon all men for that Adam "sinned," but "for that all sinned." Thus, according to the teaching of the apostle, "the death of all is for the sin of all"; and as this cannot mean the personal sins of each individual, but some sin of which unconscious infants are guilty equally with adults, it can mean nothing but the one "first transgression" of their common head, regarded as the sin of each of his race, and punished, as such, with death. It is vain to start back from this imputation to all of the guilt of Adam's first sin, as wearing the appearance of injustice. For not only are all other theories liable to the same objection, in some other form--besides being inconsistent with the text--but the actual facts of human nature, which none dispute, and which cannot be explained away, involve essentially the same difficulties as the great principle on which the apostle here explains them. If we admit this principle, on the authority of our apostle, a flood of light is at once thrown upon certain features of the divine procedure, and certain portions of the divine oracles, which otherwise are involved in much darkness; and if the principle itself seem hard to digest, it is not harder than the existence of evil, which, as a fact, admits of no dispute, but, as a feature in the divine administration, admits of no explanation in the present state. (2) What is called original sin--or that depraved tendency to evil with which every child of Adam comes into the world--is not formally treated of in this section (and even in the seventh chapter, it is rather its nature and operation than its connection with the first sin which is handled). But indirectly, this section bears testimony to it; representing the one original offense, unlike every other, as having an enduring vitality in the bosom of every child of Adam, as a principle of disobedience, whose virulence has gotten it the familiar name of "original sin." (3) In what sense is the word "death" used throughout this section? Not certainly as mere temporal death, as Arminian commentators affirm. For as Christ came to undo what Adam did, which is all comprehended in the word "death," it would hence follow that Christ has merely dissolved the sentence by which soul and body are parted in death; in other words, merely procured the resurrection of the body. But the New Testament throughout teaches that the salvation of Christ is from a vastly more comprehensive "death" than that. But neither is death here used merely in the sense of penal evil, that is, "any evil inflicted in punishment of sin and for the support of law" [HODGE]. This is too indefinite, making death a mere figure of speech to denote "penal evil" in general--an idea foreign to the simplicity of Scripture--or at least making death, strictly so called, only one part of the thing meant by it, which ought not to be resorted to if a more simple and natural explanation can be found. By "death" then, in this section, we understand the sinner's destruction, in the only sense in which he is capable of it. Even temporal death is called "destruction" (Deu 7:23; Sa1 5:11, &c.), as extinguishing all that men regard as life. But a destruction extending to the soul as well as the body, and into the future world, is clearly expressed in Mat 7:13; Th2 1:9; Pe2 3:16, &c. This is the penal "death" of our section, and in this view of it we retain its proper sense. Life--as a state of enjoyment of the favor of God, of pure fellowship with Him, and voluntary subjection to Him--is a blighted thing from the moment that sin is found in the creature's skirts; in that sense, the threatening, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," was carried into immediate effect in the case of Adam when he fell; who was thenceforward "dead while he lived." Such are all his posterity from their birth. The separation of soul and body in temporal death carries the sinner's destruction" a stage farther; dissolving his connection with that world out of which he extracted a pleasurable, though unblest, existence, and ushering him into the presence of his Judge--first as a disembodied spirit, but ultimately in the body too, in an enduring condition--"to be punished (and this is the final state) with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." This final extinction in soul and body of all that constitutes life, but yet eternal consciousness of a blighted existence--this, in its amplest and most awful sense, is "DEATH"! Not that Adam understood all that. It is enough that he understood "the day" of his disobedience to be the terminating period of his blissful "life." In that simple idea was wrapt up all the rest. But that he should comprehend its details was not necessary. Nor is it necessary to suppose all that to be intended in every passage of Scripture where the word occurs. Enough that all we have described is in the bosom of the thing, and will be realized in as many as are not the happy subjects of the Reign of Grace. Beyond doubt, the whole of this is intended in such sublime and comprehensive passages as this: "God . . . gave His . . . Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not PERISH, but have everlasting LIFE" (Joh 3:16). And should not the untold horrors of that "DEATH"--already "reigning over" all that are not in Christ, and hastening to its consummation--quicken our flight into "the second Adam," that having "received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, we may reign in LIFE by the One, Jesus Christ?" Next: Romans Chapter 6”