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Once we have grasped this, it will help us considerably to understand the Apostle's
argument in Rom. 5: which centres round the words "many" and "all". Otherwise these
words constitute a real problem which makes verses 15-19 very difficult to interpret. Just
as "they are not all Israel which are of Israel", so, bearing in mind what we have seen
regarding the two seeds, we can say "they are not all in Adam that are of Adam".
As Charles H. Welch says:
"There are men who, though `of Adam', are not `in Adam'; such was Cain. For all
`in Adam' Christ became Kinsman-Redeemer, and their names are in the book of life.
We shall find in Rom. 5: that the interchange in the use of `all' and `many' is because at
one time the whole of the true seed are in view by themselves, `all', and at another, the
whole of the physical descendants of Adam, when the true seed are differentiated and
spoken of as `the many'. Just as one star differs from another, though both be in glory, so
we shall find that, when it is a question of `receiving' and `reigning', `many' is used, but
when it is a matter of justification unto life, `all' is the word employed. When once we
see that `all in Adam' does not include all that are `of Adam', every text of Scripture can
be accepted at its full value. We do not become Universalists and spoil the insistent
teaching of Scripture concerning the Kinsman-Redeemer. We have no need to alter the
wording of I Cor. 15: 22. All `in Adam' and all `in Christ' are co-extensive. Only by
closing our eyes to the divine principle of Rom. 9: 5-7 can we assert that `all Israel' of
Rom. 11: is as universal as the physical connection" (Just and the Justifier, p.107).
We can now approach the section of the epistle covered by verses 12-21:
"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and
in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--for before the law was given, sin
was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless
death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not
sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the One to come"
(verses 12-14, N.I.V.).
The insistence here is upon two opposite words, death and life. Why do human beings
die? What is the cause of death? Did God create men and purpose that they should die?
Such a thought makes nonsense of the divine plan. There is no satisfactory explanation
of the origin of death except that contained in verse 12. Adam's obedience was put to the
test by God. He was given an explicit command and disobeyed it in spite of God's
warning. By this act the virus of sin entered into him and it spread to all his descendants
with its inevitable end--death. In the light of Scripture death is always seen as
something hideous, an enemy right to the last. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is
death" (I Cor. 15: 26). Men may try to glorify death and dress it up in attractive colours,
but God regards it as an enemy to His divine plan right to the end, and this enemy with its
root cause sin, must be eliminated if ever that tremendous plan is going to reach its
glorious fulfillment.
Paul points out that those who lived from Adam to Moses did not have specific
statutes as Adam had, or as those later given through Moses. Therefore, they were not
like Adam who broke a specific commandment of God. Yet death was there just the
same, which proved that sin was present but it was not charged against men at that time
by God, for the absence of a code of law, a divinely given norm affects the way God