Question
In Romans 5:16 Paul is talking about atonement, what does he mean when he says “but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification”? Is he merely stating the fact that Christ’s death covered many offenses or is it of something else? I ask this because I am trying to get the context down from the previous statement where Paul is contrasting the verse with “for the judgement was by one to condemnation”.
Response
What Paul declares in verse 16 is the second of two distinguishing issues he points as he teaches us the doctrine of the “at-one-ment” we now have with God through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. And what God wants us to understand and appreciate about our ‘at-one-ment’ with Him through Christ is that it is an eternally secure thing. We are permanently ‘at-one’ with Him “in Christ.”
As Paul teaches, the Lord Jesus Christ in doing His work of providing “atonement” with God for us did not simply reverse what Adam did. If He did simply reverse what Adam did, then all we possess having trusted Him as our Saviour is the same kind of probationary relationship with God that Adam had before he sinned. And if that’s the case, then just as it was with Adam so also would it be with us. That is, as soon as we would sin as a Christian we would lose our relationship and once again become an enemy of God. But as Paul says regarding what Christ did, “But not as the offence, so also is the free gift.” What Christ did for us and the “free gift” we receive because of it, is not simply the reversal of what Adam did, nor did we receive the repossession of what Adam originally had. Therefore “in Christ” we do not simply possess conditional righteousness and a probationary life-relationship with God like Adam originally had, but we possess the gift of God’s righteousness and a permanently fixed ‘at-one-ment’ with God, which is what Christ Himself possesses.
It is the two distinguishing issues that Paul describes in verses 15-17 that sets all of this forth and teaches us the reality of it.
The first distinguishing issue in verse 15 sets forth the aforementioned fact that “the free gift” that we received in view of Christ’s work is abundantly more than what Adam originally had. And it is. The “gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ” is the gift of the righteousness and life that Jesus Christ Himself possesses. And this is much more than the conditional righteousness and probationary life that Adam originally possessed. Therefore, Christ in His ‘at-one-ment’ work for us did not simply reverse what Adam did, and we do not simply have the repossession of Adam’s original conditional righteousness and probationary life. If we did, then there would be no eternal security for us. But since restoration to Adam’s original status is definitely not what we possess, then there is eternal security for us “in Christ.”
But not only that, the second issue in verse 16 sets forth the fact that the judgment of God’s Justice in giving us “the free gift” unto justification is actually greater than the judgment of His Justice that established our former condemnation in Adam. This is because the judgment to condemnation was in response to just one sin. But in contrast to that, as Paul says, “the free gift is of many offences unto justification.” That is, the judgment of God’s Justice in justifying us is in response to many offenses, not just one. Hence, the judgment of God’s Justice unto our justification is that much many times more sure in its results than even the judgment unto condemnation was. And so as Paul in essence says, as he further amplifies upon this second issue in verse 17, ‘If the results of God’s judgment to Adam’s one sin was the issue of death reigning by one, (i.e., if such certainty of reigning could be produced by God’s Justice responding to just one sin); then much more we which receive “abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (in view of the fact that the reigning of grace unto eternal life has been established by God’s Justice responding to many offences;).’
Hence, our ‘at-one-ment’ with God is not only eternally secure because it is “in Christ” and not simply in what Adam originally had, but it is eternally secure because it has been established by an act of God’s Justice which is even greater than that which established condemnation.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
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