July 11 - Romans 5:12

Pastor Tritten · July 11 - Romans 5:12

 

Paul’s Epistle to the Romans

July 11, 2021

Opening Prayer

Psalm 119  

¹⁵³ Look on my affliction and deliver me,
    for I do not forget your law.
¹⁵⁴ Plead my cause and redeem me;
    give me life according to your promise!
¹⁵⁵ Salvation is far from the wicked,
    for they do not seek your statutes.
¹⁵⁶ Great is your mercy, O Lord;
    give me life according to your rules.
¹⁵⁷ Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
    but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
¹⁵⁸ I look at the faithless with disgust,
    because they do not keep your commands.
¹⁵⁹ Consider how I love your precepts!
    Give me life according to your steadfast love.
¹⁶⁰ The sum of your word is truth,
    and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

Prolegomena

A key concept/theological term for our conversation today: Vicarious Atonement – salvation through a representative in whom we participate.

Romans 5:12-14

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— ¹³ for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

v. 12-13

Through one “man” – there are two words in Greek that traditionally get translated as “man”.

-        Anthropos – a man, specifically, a male human being or, generically, a person, human being – the root word of anthropology – the study of humanity.

-        Anair – exclusively, a male human being.

This passage is focused on humanity and not merely on Jesus’ maleness.

-        Note: it is not that Jesus’ being male does not matter. But his maleness is part of his humanity.

Who does this text blame for the fall into sin?

Why?

-        Genesis 2:17 – “You must not eat from the tree …”

-        Genesis 2:18 – “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

o   Helper, in Hebrew, is ezer – almost exclusively used of God in the Scriptures. The English does not capture the full significance.

-        Genesis 3:1 – [The serpent] said to the woman, “Did God actually say …”

-        Genesis 3:6 - … and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

 

Sin entered the world through one man’s action.

 

Death entered the world through sin.

-        A Unitarian funeral