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Romans 6:5-7 – We Are Freed From Sin

Romans 6:5–7 is where Paul starts slowing down to show us how we should live now that Christ died for our sins, rose from the dead, and saved us by faith, not by our works.

In Romans 5 we learned the difference between being in Adam and being in Christ. Now in Romans 6 the big question is, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”

Since we’re saved by grace, do we just keep living in sin? Paul emphatically says no.

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Romans 6:5-7 – Transcript

Romans 5:21 ended by saying that grace reigns unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. Most people think eternal life starts after we die, but Paul begins to show us that in this dispensation, the dispensation of grace that we live in today, our eternal life starts now, when we first believed the gospel, that Christ died for our sins according to scripture, that He was buried and rose again according to scripture 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.

So the question becomes: how do we live in this sinful, corrupt body before the resurrection?

Paul answers that in Romans 6.

Last episode we looked at Romans 6:1–4 where Paul said we don’t continue in sin because we’re dead to sin.

But we’re still puzzled and we still ask, “Paul, what does that mean? I still struggle with sin.”

That’s why he spends chapters 6, 7, and 8 explaining how to live this new life.

In Romans 6:3–4 Paul brings up baptism, even though he hasn’t talked about it in the previous five chapters of Romans.

Many people think this is water baptism, but Paul explains it right here in Romans 6:3 saying,

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

This baptism is into Christ’s death, not water. Christ Himself had two baptisms—one in water by John, and one at the cross, His death. Paul’s talking about that death baptism. When we believe the gospel, we’re placed into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. That’s the Ephesians 4:5 ,

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Romans 6:4 says

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Should walk in newness of life. That word should matters.

Paul doesn’t say we automatically walk this way. We need to know something, reckon something, and yield something. The Christian walk doesn’t happen by accident.

Colossians 2:6 says the same thing:

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

We received Him by faith in His death and resurrection, and now we walk in that same truth. Romans 6 is explaining how.

So in Romans 6:5 Paul says,

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

This is the answer to the question, “How do we live now?” We live the resurrected life. We live out what Christ already did for us.

Paul keeps using words like “like as” and “likeness” to show a comparison. He’s saying: the way Christ died and rose again is now the pattern for how we walk.

This helps us understand what baptism means in Romans 6.

It’s important we look hard at what the Bible actually says relating to baptism because it’s a key factor in the answer to the question, “How do we live now?” How do we live the resurrected life?

Baptism always identifies us with something. Here Paul says we’re baptised into Christ’s death and Christ’s resurrection. That means we’re identified with what He did on the cross, not with water. There’s no likeness between water and Christ’s death. Our sins are washed by His blood, not by water.

This also shows that the baptism in Romans 6 cannot be the same as the baptisms in Matthew 3:11, where John preached water, Holy Ghost, and fire. John couldn’t preach “like as Christ died and rose again,” because Christ hadn’t died yet.

In John 4:1–2 Jesus’ disciples baptised with water, but they also didn’t know yet that Christ had to die and rise again. John 20:9 says,

For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

So they couldn’t preach what Paul does in Romans 6. In Acts 2 Peter preached repentance and water baptism, but he didn’t preach walking in newness of life by being baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection because that truth wasn’t yet revealed to them.

In Acts 1:8 Jesus said the apostles would receive power after the Holy Ghost came. In Acts 2:33 the Holy Ghost was poured out, and people could see and hear that baptism with tongues, miracles and signs.

But Paul in Romans 6 is not talking about visible power. He’s talking about walking in newness of life, which starts in our mind, not in outward miracles.

It’s a renewed and different way of how we think.

So the Romans 6 baptism isn’t the Holy Ghost baptism either.

Our baptism is us being likened or identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. Not like Christ doing miracles, but like Christ dying to sin and rising to new life. How do we know this happened?

By trusting Christ’s work on the cross. And how do we walk it out? By thinking the way Paul teaches in Romans 6–8: like as Christ died, we live as dead to sin; like as Christ rose, we live as risen with Him.

Paul uses another phrase in Romans 6:5, “planted together.”

That means joined, united, put together with Christ. That’s baptism: being immersed into something so we take on its likeness.

Baptised into His death in Romans 6:4, planted together in His death Romans 6:5 it’s the same truth in two pictures.

Paul’s showing that because we’re identified with Christ, we now walk like Him in His death and resurrection.

That’s the point Paul’s making in Romans 6.

Some Bible versions change “planted together” to “united,” and yes, we are united with Christ. But “planted” is the better word, because when you plant something, something grows out of it. Paul’s saying that because we were planted together with Christ in His death, something should come out of that which is new life, the resurrected life.

Water can’t make us like Christ. Our sins are washed by His blood, not by water. So the likeness Paul talks about can’t be water baptism.

It also cannot be the baptisms of Matthew 3:11 where Jesus says,

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

John preached water, Holy Ghost, and fire, but he could not preach “like as Christ died and rose again,” because Christ hadn’t died yet.

In John 4:1–2 Jesus’ disciples baptised with water, John 20:9 says,

For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

They also didn’t know yet that Christ must die and rise again.

In Acts 2 Peter preached repentance and water baptism, but he did not preach walking in newness of life by being baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection. That truth was not revealed to them at that point.

So let’s look briefly at this whole issue of water baptism. Does water baptism actually wash away sin and bring forgiveness and why do most churches teach that it does? This’s where history and tradition shaped doctrine not Scripture.

We should remember that for over 1,000 years, the Bible wasn’t the final authority for the church, so whatever the organised church taught about baptism became “the truth,” even though it didn’t come from Paul’s gospel.

When the Reformation happened, they corrected justification by faith — but they didn’t correct baptism theology. They kept the sacramental view.

The early church inherited Jewish, covenant, and kingdom practices.

John the Baptist preached water baptism for the remission of sins — but that was for Israel, under the kingdom gospel, before the cross, before the revelation of the Body of Christ.

Peter preached the same in Acts 2:38 — still Israel, still kingdom, still within the prophetic program before the mystery of the Body of Christ was revealed.

Most churches never separate Israel’s program and the kingdom gospel from the Body of Christ and Paul’s gospel of grace. They blend them together.

By the 300s–400s, the institutional church taught that water baptism regenerates and washes away sin and that its necessary for salvation.

This became official doctrine in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglicanism and many other Protestant movements.

Even churches that claimed “salvation by faith alone” often kept the old baptismal tradition without re‑examining the Scriptures.

Most churches assume “baptism” always means water but the Bible speaks of multiple baptisms, and only one is for the Body of Christ today.

Below this recording we have a list the baptisms that the bible speaks of. Mathew 3:11 speaks of three different baptisms in the one verse when John says he baptizes with water but The One coming after him (Jesus) will baptize with the Holy Spirit, and He’ll baptize with fire.

No — water baptism does not wash away sin or bring forgiveness, and the reason most churches teach that it is a carrying on of these historical and traditional teachings, a mixing of Israel’s program with the church’s doctrine.

If water could wash away sin, then Christ’s blood wouldn’t be enough, faith wouldn’t be enough and Paul’s gospel wouldn’t be enough.

But Paul says the opposite: faith in Christ’s death and resurrection is the only means of forgiveness.

Our baptism is to be like Christ in His death and resurrection. That means we’re a new man, a new creation in Christ with a new life and a new identity.

In Adam we’re fallen, condemned, and headed for death. In Christ we’re forgiven, righteous by faith, and alive unto God.

So the question becomes: where do we think your life comes from now? From our old flesh, our dreams, and our desires—or from Christ Himself? Our life is now His life, and that’s a spiritual reality even if we don’t always feel like it or walk in it. Paul says we should walk in it because it’s true.

Romans 6:5 uses the word resurrection for the first time in Romans. The 4 Gospels talk about being “raised up,” but “resurrection” is a standing, a position.

In John 11:24 Martha, talking to Jesus, said Lazarus would rise again “in the resurrection at the last day.” That was the Jewish hope—resurrection after death, after corruption is gone.

But Jesus told her something greater in John 11:25: resurrection life can touch you now because I AM the resurrection and the life.

That’s exactly what Paul teaches.

Christ is risen today, glorified with the Father as John 17:4–5 says. He revealed the mystery to Paul from that glory that He’s now in.

And Romans 6 tells us that we can live now in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection.

Ephesians 1:17–20 says the same thing.

The same power that raised Christ and set Him in heavenly places is toward us who believe. That’s the life we have now: a glorious, eternal, resurrected life in Christ.

Paul talks about the “unfathomable power of God” in Ephesians, and often we hear that and think, “What power is he talking about?”

Some days I’m so short on power that even picking up my coffee mug feels like weight‑training.”

The power he means is the same power Romans 6–8 explains: the power that raised Christ from the dead and now keeps us in Him so strongly that nothing can separate you from the love of God as Romans 8:35–39 states. Just like nothing can separate Christ from the Father now that He’s glorified, nothing can separate us from Christ because we’re in Him.

Colossians 3:1–3 teaches the same thing Paul teaches in Romans.

IF ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

How do we know we’re risen with Him? Because we were baptised into His death and resurrection as we’ve now seen in Romans 6:3–5.

Colossians says to seek things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. It says we’re dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God. That’s the same teaching as Romans 6–8. You won’t find this in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, or Acts 2.

They preach Christ’s resurrection, yes, but not us sharing in His death and resurrection life right now. That’s the fellowship of the mystery.

Colossians 1:27 says the riches of this mystery is Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Not just Christ dying for our sins, but Christ actually in us. How did He get in us?

The same way we got in Him—by His death and resurrection. We trusted the gospel, and God placed us in Christ, making us a new man with His life.

Ephesians 3:4–6 defines the mystery:

Whereby, when ye read (and that’s the words of the revelation Christ gave to Paul), Whereby, when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

How can we inherit with Christ? Because we’re identified with Him. How are we in His body? Because we’re baptised into Him. How do we partake of His promise? By the gospel—His death and resurrection. There’s no covenant here, no Israel here. This is mystery truth, and Paul’s teaching that same truth in Romans 6.

Romans 8:16-17 says

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

If we’re children, then we’re heirs of God and joint‑heirs with Christ.

That matches Ephesians 3:6.

Romans 8:18 says

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

The glory that will be revealed in us is far greater than our sufferings. Why do we get glory? Not because we earned it, but because we share in the likeness of His resurrection as we’ve been at pains to see in Romans 6:5. God identified us with Christ by grace, not by any work of our hands.

Romans 6:6 says this and because it’s a continuation of Romans 6:5 we’ll read them together.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Do you get the “Knowing this…”?

This means that the fact that we’ve been planted together in the likeness of his death, and that we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection relies on us knowing something.

We’ve got to know some doctrine to live this new life.

The Christian life starts with knowing what God’s done. Our old man is crucified with Christ and that old man is the Adam identity Paul described in Romans 5. We were born in Adam—that was the old man. Now we’re in Christ—the new man.

Romans 6:4-5 already said we should walk in newness of life and that new life comes from being planted together with Christ in His death and resurrection.

Before Paul, most people thought resurrection life only came after death. But Paul says we can live in that standing now. That’s the new man, the resurrected man in Christ and we live it by knowing it!

The Bible always calls something “old” only after God brings in something “new.”

Moses’ law wasn’t called the Old Testament until Paul said it in 2 Corinthians 3.

Hebrews 8:13 says the old is old only because something new has come. It’s the same idea here: Paul calls our old man “old” because he’s already told us about our new man—our new life in Christ.

So when Paul says in Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,” he means we should already understand what the new man is. Our old man is who we were before we were baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection. Our old man was in Adam—sin‑cursed, condemned and dead. Romans 5 clearly showed that.

In Adam came death and judgment; in Christ comes life and righteousness. That old man is destroyed because of Christ’s death and resurrection. But even though he’s destroyed, he still tries to wake up in the morning. You know that old man by his lusts, his corruption, and his desire to walk in death.

Ephesians 2:1–3 describes that old man,

AND you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

We were dead in sins, walking according to the world, following the prince of the power of the air, living in the lusts of the flesh and mind, and by nature a child of wrath. That was all of us. That’s the old man. But Ephesians 2:4–5 says,

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

That’s the new man.

Ephesians 4:22 says the old man is “corrupt according to deceitful lusts.” We only know corruption because we know what truth looks like. The old man is everything opposite of the new life in Christ.

Now, we mustn’t confuse the old man with our mortal body.

Our body is not the old man.

God bought your body as 1 Corinthians 6:13–20 says.

Our body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for our body. God raised up Christ and will raise us up too. Our body will be resurrected because we’re already in the likeness of His resurrection as Romans 6:5 states.

So Romans 6 is teaching that we have a new life because we were planted together with Christ in His death and resurrection. We’re a new man. Our old man is crucified. And now we should live out what God’s already made true. The Christian life starts with knowing these truths. Paul keeps saying, “Know ye not… knowing this…” because maturity begins with knowing what God has done. Only then can we walk in it.

So, Romans 6:6 says our old man is crucified with Christ, and to understand that we need to see the difference between the old man and the body. As we said our body is not the old man.

Yes, we had our body when we were in Adam, but the “old man” is the sin‑cursed identity we had in Adam, We had condemnation, judgment, death, and the desires of the flesh. Paul uses the word flesh to describe that old Adam nature, not the physical body we live in.

However, our body still matters to God. He wants us to use it for Him. That’s why 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 says our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and we’re bought with a price.

God bought our body, but He killed the old man. It’s like He bought the car and killed the driver. The old driver was Adam. The new driver is Christ’s life in us. We now live by the knowledge of who we are in Christ.

So when Romans 6:6 says the old man is crucified with Christ, it means the death we inherited from Adam is gone. Adam’s death only kills. But Christ’s death kills the old man and gives us new life. That’s why Paul calls this the crucified life.

Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ…”—that’s the old man. “…nevertheless I live…”—that’s the new man. “…yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” That’s our identity now.

This’s why early believers were called Christians—because Paul taught them they were identified with Christ in His death and resurrection, not in His earthly flesh.

Romans 6:6 shows the purpose of Christ’s death according to the mystery. Yes, He died for our sins as Romans chapters 3–5 teaches, but He also died so our old man could be put to death and we could walk in newness of life.

Colossians 2:12–13 says you were buried with Him in baptism and risen with Him by faith. We were dead in sins, but God quickened us together with Christ, meaning God gave us life out of that death.

Colossians 3:3 says, “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” In Adam we were dead, and in Christ we’re also crucified—but now our life is found in Him, not in ourself.

Grace doesn’t tell the old man to run free.

Grace kills the old man and moves our life source from Adam to Christ in heavenly glory.

Romans 6:6 continues: “…that the body of sin might be destroyed.”

The “body of sin” is the condemned Adam identity we once had. Romans 7:24 calls it “the body of this death.” By Romans 7 Paul understands he’s a new man in Christ, but he still lives in a mortal body that struggles. That’s why he cries out, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Romans 7:25 answers that question,

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:6 already gave the answer: the body of sin was destroyed by Christ’s death. Through Him this body of death was delivered, the old man crucified and resurrection life given to us.

Paul deals with the struggle in his body by knowing his old man is dead. The old man can’t condemn us or control us. It has no authority over us anymore. Yes it’s still hanging around, but it’s got no legal power over us as it did before.

Romans 8:13 says if we live after the flesh (that’s the old man), we will die. But if we, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body, we will live. That’s our situation, our identity now, after we believe the gospel, and it doesn’t matter what we feel.

Walking after the Spirit means there’s now no condemnation. Grace doesn’t give us permission to sin. Grace doesn’t let the old man run free. Grace kills the old man. Grace nails him to the cross. The law could only condemn sin; grace destroys the source of sin.

Romans 6:6 says the old man is crucified so “the body of sin might be destroyed.” We’re not currently “in Adam” until we die. We’re in Christ now. Our old man is dead now. That’s why Paul says “henceforth”—from this moment forward—we shouldn’t serve sin. Not later. Not after death. Now.

If we read Romans 6 and feel condemned, we’re reading it wrong. Paul’s not saying, “Try harder.” He’s saying, “We don’t serve sin anymore.” The old man may scream, and tempt, and pull at us constantly, at every turn but we can say, “I don’t work for you anymore.”

We’re in a world full of sin, but we’re not under its authority. We’re free to say no.

This is why Paul calls it deliverance. We’re still in the prison of this world, but the chains are broken. We’re free from sin’s power, even though sin is still everywhere around us.

Romans 6:7 says,

For he that is dead is freed from sin.

How are we dead? We’re dead with Christ. Crucified with Him. That means we’re freed from sin’s rule. We’re not free of sin’s presence, but free from its power to condemn us to eternal death.

This is victory, liberty and redemption.

Galatians 5:1 says,

STAND fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

We don’t go back under bondage—whether that’s the bondage of the law or the bondage of sin. We’re freed from both.

Grace gives you a new identity. God Himself declares us a new man. No other religion or philosophy can give us a new identity that’s real. Only God, the giver of life, can do that. He gives us eternal life, resurrection life, Christ’s life. That’s why we can say no to the old man. That’s why we can walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:6 ends by saying the old man is crucified “that henceforth we should not serve sin.” This is not a law command. It is a statement of freedom. We don’t serve sin anymore. We serve Christ. We’re dead with Him, risen with Him, and freed from sin’s power. That is the Christian life that Paul’s teaching.

Romans 3:24 first introduced the word redemption. Paul said we’re “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Redemption is more than paying for our sins. It means Christ delivered us and set us free and broke the power of sin, the law, and condemnation. That’s the same redemption Romans 6 is talking about—freedom from the old man and freedom from sin’s rule.

Colossians 1:13–14 says God delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His Son, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”

Redemption and forgiveness go together.

Titus 2:14 says,

Who (Christ) gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

The Peculiar people doesn’t mean an odd or strange people, but a people who belong to Him in a special way—not to the world or even to ourselves.

He didn’t just give us eternal life after death—He redeemed us now, freeing us from condemnation, judgment, and the sin of our old man, all of which Paul labours over telling us because of how critical it is to the way we think and the way we see ourselves while we’re still here in this body and still struggling in this world of sin.

Redemption means to release someone from the possession or the power of someone else. We’re no longer owned by sin. Yes, sin is still present in this world and in our flesh, but we’re not under its power. We’re redeemed today because the Spirit baptised us into Christ. That’s why baptism matters—not water, but the Spirit placing us into Christ’s death and resurrection.

Romans shows what you’re freed from.

Romans 3 shows we’re freed from the penalty of sin.

Romans 4 shows we’re freed from the imputation of sin. Imputation means God counts something to our account that didn’t originally come from us.

Romans 5 shows we’re freed from the curse of sin.

Romans 6 shows we’re freed from the dominion and the power of sin.

Romans 7 shows we’re freed from the law, which gave sin its strength.

Romans 8 shows we’re freed from the condemnation of sin.

This’s why Romans 6 is so important. Being in Christ, baptised into His death and resurrection, means we’re free from, we have liberty from, and we have victory over sin. It no longer rules over us. We’re not waiting for freedom in heaven after this present body dies, we have it now. Christ destroyed the old man, broke sin’s power, and gave us new life in Him. That’s redemption.

Romans 6:1-4 – Baptised Into Christ’s Death

In this episode we’re plunging in to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapters 6, 7, and 8 all deal with how a saved person actually lives now.

Romans 8 will later show how the Spirit helps us walk without condemnation, but Romans 6 starts with the big question: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Paul answers, “God forbid.” Then he says, “How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?”

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Romans 6:1-4 – Transcript

We finished Romans 5 last episode, which is a glorious chapter showing what we have freely in Christ. Romans 5:1 says we’re justified by faith. That whole chapter is about what God gives us — not what we earn.

It’s all grace. We’re not doing the work in Romans 5, we’re just receiving what Christ did.

That’s the difference between being in Adam and being in Christ. In Adam, death reigns. In Christ, grace reigns.

That’s a positional truth in this dispensation of grace, revealed through Paul.

A positional truth is something that’s true about where we stand with God. It’s not our feelings or our behaviour. It’s our place in Christ, even if we don’t always feel it. It’s our position, not our performance. It’s a truth because it’s what God says is true about us and He says we’re in Christ when we believed.

Now Romans 6:1 asks,

WHAT shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

The questions about our life here now, on earth, before glory.

Romans 5 told us what we have and Romans 6 asks what we do now that we already have those blessings.

The last chapter ended with Romans 5:20-21 saying,

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

The law came in and showed up sin. But grace overflowed all of it.

Christ appeared, and the kindness and love of God brought salvation through grace as Titus 3:4–7 says.

Romans 5:21 is the first time Paul mentions eternal life. And it’s not just life after death — it’s life now, in Christ.

Most people think eternal life starts after we die and Paul knows that, so Romans 6 starts with the question: If we’re justified by faith and have eternal life in Christ, what about now? Do we just keep living in sin because we’re still in this flesh? Is grace just for later? Or is it OK to just keep on living the most ragged life we can knowing we’re saved anyway?

Paul answers: “God forbid.” It’s the same strong answer he gave back in Romans 3. Back there, people said, “If our sin shows God’s righteousness, isn’t God unfair to judge us?” Paul said, “God forbid.”

Just because our sin makes God look good doesn’t mean He needs us to sin.

He’s righteous no matter what.

People slandered Paul, saying he taught, “Let’s do evil, that good may come.” But Paul said, “Their damnation is just” . That’s Romans 3:8. That’s not the gospel and it’s certainly not what Paul taught.

Romans 5 made it clear — what we do plays zero part when it comes to being in Adam or in Christ. Our works don’t put us in Christ. Christ’s work does.

So someone might think, “If I’m saved by grace, maybe I’m supposed to sin so grace can abound.” But that’s wrong. God didn’t need us to sin to show grace. He gave grace out of His love and righteousness.

So why do people ask, “Can we continue in sin?”

Because when grace is taught, people think it’s about doing whatever we want because we’re saved anyway.

Romans 6:15 asks it again:

What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

But that doesn’t register with the religious mind that thinks if we’re not under law, we’re allowed to sin. Paul says no — grace teaches us how to live.

Romans 4 and 5 taught that grace doesn’t depend on our actions. So now Romans 6 asks: Do we just keep living in sin? If grace reigns unto eternal life, why does death still reign in the world? People still die. People still sin. So they ask, “Don’t we still live in Adam?”

That’s the real question behind “Shall we continue in sin?” It’s not just rebellion — it’s confusion. Paul’s going to answer that in Romans 6.

In the last episode we drew the picture how that Adam sinned, and death reigned. Christ died and rose again, and now grace reigns through His righteousness.

That’s Romans 5. One man brought death, the other brought life. But people still think this’s just about eternity which is all after we die in the body and we’re still here in Adam in this life.

Paul says no. Grace doesn’t need sin to exist.

When Romans 6:1 asks, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” And Paul answers: “God forbid,” that phrase shuts the door. It’s a very strong no. Sin is not allowed or encouraged.

“God forbid” shows up 24 times in the Bible, 14 of those times are in Paul’s letters and 10 of those are in Romans.

The Apostle of Grace is the one saying “God forbid” the most. He’s not saying, “Well, if you have to…” He’s saying, “No way.”

Just because we’re saved and in Christ doesn’t mean sin’s okay now.

That idea gets nailed shut here.

There’re some who say “God forbid” is a mistake in the King James Bible because the word “God” isn’t in the Greek and that’s true — but it’s not a mistake.

Translation isn’t always word-for-word and we’ve discussed this before. Sometimes we need idioms to get the meaning across.

An idiom is a saying that doesn’t mean exactly what the words say. It’s a phrase people understand because of how it’s used, not because of the words themselves.

For example, “It’s raining cats and dogs.” Nobody thinks animals are falling from the sky. It just means it’s raining hard.

Or “Break a leg.” We know it doesn’t mean go and hurt yourself. It means “good luck.”

Or “Spill the beans.” Everybody knows it’s not about beans. It means “tell the secret.”

“God forbid” says it better than “Certainly not” or “May it never be.” It’s not wrong — it’s just strong.

So don’t let anyone tell you the King James messed up there. It’s not a mistake — it’s a choice. And it’s the right one.

Paul’s saying sin is never okay.

Romans 8:8 says,

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

So if we’re thinking we’re still in Adam, Paul says, “No — we’re in Christ.” Not just in eternity — now.

That’s a big deal. Being in Christ now wasn’t taught before.

Jesus said “abide in me” in John 15, but people didn’t understand it. Paul says you’re in Christ by the mystery — not by fruit, not by law, but by grace.

Ephesians 3:6 says the we’re fellow heirs, part of the same body, in Christ Jesus now!

So if we’re justified by faith, we’re not in Adam anymore.

We still live in the flesh, but we’ve been quickened with Christ, given life out of our inherited death, inherited from Adam.

The Holy Spirit sealed us and baptized us into His body. That’s something we have now.

But sin never glorifies God.

Romans 5:21 says grace reigns through righteousness — not through sin. Grace doesn’t need sin to exist. Grace was in Eden before sin ever showed up. God gave Adam and Eve everything by grace. Grace is what God does that we didn’t earn.

Grace reigns because of what Christ did — not because sin abounds.

He died, He rose, He conquered death. That’s why grace reigns.

Romans chapters 6, 7, and 8 will show us what life in Christ looks like.

Romans 6 says grace separates us from sin. Romans 7 says grace separates us from the law. And when our mind gets changed — when we realise we’re not under sin or law anymore — we start to live by grace. The law tried to separate people from sin, but Romans 7 says we’re dead to that too.

So, Romans 6, 7, and 8 all deal with how a saved person actually lives now. Romans 8 will later show how the Spirit helps us walk without condemnation, but Romans 6 starts with this big question: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” to which Paul answers in Romans 6:2,

God forbid. (Then he says), How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Up until we believed the gospel, we lived in Adam. Now we’re in Christ. So why keep living like we’re still in Adam? We don’t owe that old man anything. Paul calls “the old man,” our old life in Adam. That old man is dead. Grace doesn’t just save us — it gives us a new way to live now.

So the progression through Romans continues seamlessly through Romans 5 telling us of all the blessings we have in Christ to Romans 6 showing that grace also teaches us how to live in that new life. It’s not the law, it’s not our works, but Christ in us. This is the grace life.

Paul talks about this again in 2 Corinthians 5:15–17.

And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Since Christ died for all, those who live should not live unto themselves anymore. We don’t know any man “after the flesh” now. Even Christ we don’t know after the flesh anymore. That destroys a lot of Christianity that only focuses on Jesus’ earthly ministry. Paul says if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creature. Old things are passed away, all things are become new.

That’s exactly what Romans 6 is dealing with. The “old things” are Adam, sin, the flesh, the law. The “new things” are life in Christ. So when someone asks, “Shall we continue in sin?” Paul says no — that’s the old thing. You’re in newness of life now.

Paul also says we’re dead to sin in this passage of Romans 6:2.

Notice he doesn’t says we’re dead in sin. Dead in sin is Adam — that’s the whole world. Dead to sin is the believer. And notice he says “we are dead to sin,” meaning right now.

It’s not “will be dead to sin someday.” Not “after we die.” Not “after we get to glory.” Right now.

That’s why the question comes up: “If I’m dead to sin, why do I still walk in it?” Paul’ll answer that in this chapter.

But the truth is that our eternal life begins now. Our position in Christ begins now. Death is no longer the end for us. It’s just the last step before glorification.

Romans 5:11 said, “We have now the atonement.” Not later — now. Atonement means that the separation between us and God has been fixed and we’re reconciled back to Him.

Christ died, and we get the benefit of His death. His death is counted as ours. His death has paid our wages, the wages we’re due for sin which is death. That’s why we’re dead to sin. That’s why we have eternal life now and that’s why grace reigns.

Grace doesn’t reign because sin’s around. Grace doesn’t need sin. Grace was in the Garden before sin ever showed up. Grace reigns because of what Christ did — His death, His resurrection, His victory. Romans 6 will show how grace separates us from sin.

Romans 7 will show how grace separates us from the law. And Romans 8 will show how the Spirit helps us walk in that new life.

Paul’s been showing how in Adam we got everything Adam brought — sin and death — and in Christ we get everything Christ brought — righteousness and life.

That’s why he keeps saying we’re in Christ now. So when we ask, “How should we live?” Paul basically says, “Don’t you remember what we just learned? You’re dead to sin now. Why live in it any longer?”

In Adam, death was the end. Romans 5:12 says death came by one man. Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. Death used to be the final stop. But Christ died and rose again, and that changed everything. His death doesn’t just pay for our sins — it becomes the starting point of our new life. Death is no longer the thing that crushes us. It’s the doorway into walking in newness of life.

Paul will teach that the first step of the Christian life is to quote “reckon yourself dead”.

That sounds strange because death is what we’re trying to avoid. But Paul says Christ died, and we died with Him, so let’s start there. His gospel begins with death and resurrection. Under Israel’s covenants, Christ’s death was the final act of atonement. But for the body of Christ, His death is the beginning of our life.

Galatians 2:20 says,

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

That means sin and the law have no more power over us. Yes, we’re still living in this flesh, but our real life is Christ in us. And the life we now live, we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. If righteousness came by the law, then Christ died in vain — but He didn’t. His death’s the only way we live.

Many Christians don’t fully understand that Christ’s death was needed. That’s ignorance of Romans 5 and the mystery. The apostle Peter blamed Israel for killing their Messiah because he didn’t yet understand what Christ’s death would accomplish. It looked like a sad, necessary sacrifice, like killing a lamb. But Paul shows the glory of it.

Christ didn’t just die — He gave His death to me and you.

He performed the act so we could be crucified with Him and reap the benefits of now being freed from the judgment of sin and the penalty, eternal death.

Romans 6:7 says,

For he that is dead is freed from sin.

The good news is we’re freed from the consequences and the penalty of sin. Romans 6:8 says,

Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

Romans 6:11 says

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 7:4 says we’re dead to the law.

Romans 8:10 says,

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

The body’s dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life.

Colossians 3:3 says,

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

This sounds strange because in this world death is bad. But in Christ, death becomes something else.

That’s why believers don’t sorrow like those with no hope. Being “dead” in Christ means we don’t work to earn anything — dead people don’t work. Romans 5 already said we contribute nothing. We’re in Christ, and all the blessings as a result of that are ours by grace.

So Romans 6:2 asks, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” And the next verses explain what that means.

Paul says, “Know ye not…?” because he’s reminding believers of things they should already know: they’re in Christ, dead to sin, alive to God, and called to walk in that new life.

A lot of true ministry in the church today is reminding believers of what we have and what we are and that’s exactly what Paul’s doing when he says, “Know ye not…?” He’s reminding people of what they’ve already been taught.

Then he brings up baptism for the first time in Romans 6:4.

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Then right away people go directly to their church traditions of water, sacraments, ordinances, confession, tubs, pastors. But none of that came from Romans.

Paul never mentioned water once. What has he talked about?

Christ’s death, our faith, and us being in Christ. So when he says we were “baptised into Jesus Christ,” he means we were baptised into His death. That’s the whole point. Baptism is identification and we’re identified with Christ’s death.

He says “so many of us” because not everybody in Rome was saved. If you’re still in Adam, you’re not baptised into Christ’s death — you’re just dead in Adam’s sin. But if we believed the gospel (Romans 4–5), we’re in Christ, and that’s how we got baptised into Him. Not by water. Not by a priest. Not by a pastor. By faith.

Water isn’t mentioned in Romans at all. Paul barely mentions it anywhere. But he does talk about baptism in 1 Corinthians 12:13:

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

That “One body” is Christ.

That’s the same thing he’s saying in Romans 6. How were you baptised into Christ? “By one Spirit.” Not by water. Not by man. But by the Spirit of God.

Why do so many miss this? Through a failure to divide the Word of God correctly as per 2 Timothy 2:15. The result is one more case of seeing what Jesus and the 12 apostles instructed Israel and missing what Jesus, through Paul, instructed us, the Body of Christ, today.

Tradition and history replace the whole counsel of the Word of God.

But tradition and history isn’t the Bible.

For most of church history, the Bible wasn’t even the final authority. Remember that it wasn’t till the 1600’s that the Bible began to be available to every person, commoner and elite alike.

Even the Nicene Creed — which most churches claim — says “we believe in baptism for the forgiveness of sins.”

That’s water baptism saving you. Catholics believe that. The Orthodox church believes that. Lutherans believe that and a lot of ordinary Christians believe that. But, Paul never teaches that.

Romans 4–5 says salvation is by faith, not works, not rituals, and not water.

Yes, Jesus taught water baptism in Matthew 28. Peter preached it in Acts 2. John baptized with water. Israel had water ceremonies. But Paul is the apostle of grace, the apostle of the Gentiles, the one who received the revelation of the church. And Paul never commands water baptism for salvation or blessing.

The real question isn’t “When did the church begin?” was it with the disciples? If so wouldn’t the teaching they received from Jesus be the same for us today?

Well the real question is “When was the message of the church revealed?” How could anyone be the church when there was no message relating to it, no message that defined it?

The doctrine of the church is found only in Paul’s epistles. We can’t pattern the church after something that wasn’t revealed yet. Before Paul, nobody knew Romans 5 truth. Nobody knew about being in Christ, justified by faith alone and walking in newness of life.

So even if the church existed, they couldn’t live like it because the message wasn’t revealed yet.

That message was given to Paul directly by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself which we see in Acts chapter 9.

So when Paul says in Romans 6:3 that we were baptised into Christ’s death, he’s not talking about water. He’s talking about what he’d already taught, that Christ died for our sins, we’re justified by faith, we’re in Christ, and His death is counted as ours.

That’s how we get the all-important atonement which enables reconciliation back to God. That’s how we get eternal life. We’re baptised into His death by the Spirit the moment we believe.

Paul’s reminding them — and us — of what we should already know. We’re in Christ. We’re dead to sin. We’re dead to the law. We’re alive to God. And none of that came by water. It came by the gospel of Christ and the Spirit who put us into His body.

All this about baptism matters because people tend to turn back from the teachings to the church in Romans to the time before Paul and before this mystery dispensation of grace was revealed to him by Christ.

They grab water‑baptism instructions, given before the mystery was revealed, before Acts chapter 9, and try to squeeze them into them into the Body of Christ.

For everything else — salvation, Christian living, walking in the Spirit — they’ll go to Pauls epistles yet turn back to the time before the dispensation of grace, to the time of the law to pull water baptism out and try to force into the body of Christ.

Why?

Traditions of men, traditions of the organised church and it’s denominations, traditions that very often discount or outright reject the change in dispensation that happened as a result of Israel’s rejection of their Messiah.

How critical it is for us in the Body of Christ to recognise this change in God’s dealings with mankind.

Paul does teach baptism in Romans 6. But the Bible has more than one baptism, and not all of them are water and there’s a list below this recording of the different baptisms mentioned in the Bible.

Galatians 3:27 says,

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

That’s the same thing as Romans 6 — being identified with Christ. But how did we get baptised into Christ?

Galatians 3:26 tells us:

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” No water mentioned.

Ephesians 1:13 says,

In whom (Christ) ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

When we hear the gospel and believe it, we’ re sealed with the Holy Spirit.

That Spirit baptism puts us into the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13 says it this way,

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

That happens the moment we believe — not later, not after a class or after a ceremony.

Acts 8 shows something totally different.

The Samaritans believed, but didn’t receive the Holy Ghost until Peter came and laid hands on them.

That fits Israel’s kingdom program, not the body of Christ.

In the church today, we receive the Spirit when we believe — not by so called apostles laying hands on us, not by water, nor any other rituals.

Some churches say water baptism is needed for salvation, forgiveness, or membership. But that can’t be the body of Christ, because we’re placed into the body by the Spirit when we believe.

If a local church group wants a ceremony, fine, no one’s going to be damned for partaking in the ceremony but we should realise, through rightly divided study, that it’s not God’s baptism, it’s a ritual that man wants to hang on to from the time of the law, before this dispensation of grace that we live in today.

The Romans 6:3 baptism is simple.

It only becomes confusing when people bring church traditions into the text. Paul never mentions water in Romans. He hadn’t baptised anyone in Rome.

In 1 Corinthians 1:17 Paul’s writing to the Corinthians who had many problems with their spiritual walk. He’s trying to sort out the confusion and the wrong doctrine that had entered and corrupted what he’d first taught them. Remember, the letter to the Corinthians was written before the letter to the Romans.

Baptism was one of the doctrines the Corinthians were messed up about and Paul’s sorting them out. He says to them,

For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

He even says, in 1 Corinthians 1:14, “I thank God I baptized none of you… He says, “Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.”

If water baptism were required for salvation or forgiveness under Paul’s ministry, He could never have thanked God he didn’t do it.

That’d be like saying, “I thank God I didn’t get any of you saved”, and that’s nonsense, of course.

Paul’s commission was different from the commission given to Israel through Peter and the other 11. In Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:16, and Acts 2:41 we do see water baptism Paul wasn’t even saved then.

His gospel doesn’t include water baptism. His gospel was preached after the blinding of Israel, shown in Romans 11:25, and the introduction of this new dispensation of grace that was the result of Israel’s rejection of all that happened in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and early Acts.

His message is the preaching of the cross — the gospel of grace — and by that gospel the Spirit baptises us into Christ the moment we believe.

Jesus appeared to Paul (Acts chapter 9) and sent him personally with the dispensation of the grace of God — a message nobody knew before then. Paul was saved by grace without works, and he was sent to preach that same message to the Gentiles. That’s why he doesn’t bring up water in Romans.

The list included below shows different baptisms in the Bible. There’s more than one.

Many of them are dry, no water. That alone shows baptism doesn’t automatically mean water.

So when Romans 6 mentions baptism, and Paul hasn’t said a word about water, sprinkling, pouring, or dunking, it’s clear he’s talking about being identified with Christ, not a water ritual.

The only baptism he talks about is the one that puts us in Christ, not in Adam, identified with Christ and no longer identified with Adam — and that happens by faith, not by works or rituals.

We don’t get newness of life or the atonement by water. Some say you “touch the blood through the water,” but that’s just not in Scripture. Baptism means being immersed into something for identification. Israel used water to identify with ritual cleansing. They dunked themselves in mikvahs to show they were clean. But that was symbolic cleansing, not spiritual salvation.

If we’re baptised into Christ’s by the Holy Spirit, we’re identified with His atonement, redemption, and forgiveness — all the things churches wrongly try to attach to a water ritual.

John’s baptism was for forgiveness of sins, but he wasn’t preaching the cross. So baptism never meant to be a water only thing. It meant identification.

Romans 5 already taught that we’re either in Adam or in Christ. If we’re in Christ, we’re identified with Him. That’s baptism.

So when Paul says, “Know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” he’s saying: “Don’t you know you’re identified with His death?” That’s the whole point. If you’re in Him, you’re in what He did — and what He did was die.

Church tradition later tried to explain Romans 6:3 by saying water baptism symbolises Christ’s death. But Paul never said that.

The water‑symbol idea came centuries after Romans 6:3. Jesus isn’t water. Being baptized into Christ doesn’t mean being baptised into water. Paul says you’re baptised into His death in Romans 5 — the one act that brought life.

Jesus Himself had two baptisms.

Luke 3 shows His water baptism, where the Father said, “Thou art my beloved Son.” That identified Him with Israel. But in Luke 12:50 Jesus says,

But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

He’s talking about His death.

“How am I straitened” means to hold everything together till it was accomplished.

That’s the baptism Paul’s talking about. If Jesus had a water baptism and a death baptism, and Paul says you’re baptised into His death, it’s obvious which one he means.

Water never put anyone into Christ. The Spirit does. Water never gave atonement. Christ’s blood does. Water never made us dead to sin. Christ’s cross does. The only baptism we need is the one Christ accomplished — His death — and the Spirit places us into that the moment we believe.

So let’s read Romans 6:3-4 together,

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

We’re identified with Christ, His death, His burial, and His resurrection. We’re buried with him by baptism into death.

Why?

Because if we’re in Christ, then what He did counts for us. He died — so we died. He was buried so we were buried. He rose so we rose to have newness of life.

Paul’s taking everything he taught in Romans 5 about being “in Christ” and now applying it to how we live. If we’re in Him, then you walk in the life He gives.

Some say the burial here is water. But if the burial is water, then the resurrection must be you coming up out of the water — but that doesn’t give new life. Romans 6:4 says our new life comes from Christ being raised by the glory of the Father. That’s God’s work, not yours.

Colossians 2 teaches the same thing. The whole chapter says we’re complete in Christ.

Colossians 2:10,

And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

We don’t need ordinances or rituals.

Colossians 2:12 says we’re,

Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

That’s not the operation of a minister or a ceremony. God does it. The same God who raised Christ from the dead is the one who gives us life. That’s why Paul says in Romans 8 that the Spirit who raised Christ will quicken our mortal body.

This’s the whole point: in the body of Christ there are no priests, no spiritual superiors. Christ is the Head. We’re the body. God does the saving, the sealing, the baptizing, the raising. We preach the gospel — He does the work.

So the question was in Romans 6:1, “Shall we continue in sin?”

Paul says, “How can we? We’re dead to it.” Why dead? Because we died with Christ. And if we died with Him, we also live with Him. That’s the life we walk in now — His life in us.

Paul isn’t really trying to teach a whole doctrine of baptism. He’s reminding us who we are. We have new life, eternal life now. So, the life we live in the flesh is the life of Christ. That’s how we live by grace. And Romans 6 is going to keep building on that and showing the mechanics of how we walk in that new life while we’re still here in a corrupted world in corrupted flesh.

Romans 5:15-21 – One Man Death – One Man Life

Romans 5 begins to explain our identity, who we are in Christ.

Later epistles like Ephesians and Colossians expand this, but Romans 5–8 lays the foundation. If we misunderstand Romans 5, we’ll misunderstand Romans 6–8, and that leads to all kinds of doctrinal errors and that’s precisely what’s happening in the body of Christ.

This chapter explains how we receive blessings in Christ, just as we received the curse in Adam. Adam gave us death; Christ gives us life. Adam gave us condemnation; Christ gives us justification.

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Romans 5:15-21 – Transcript

Romans 5 also begins to explain our identity, who we are in Christ.

This chapter explains how we receive blessings in Christ, just as we received the curse in Adam. Adam gave us death; Christ gives us life. Adam gave us condemnation; Christ gives us justification.

Religion says we’ve got to work to earn God’s favour. Romans 5 says the opposite. We receive blessings when we’re in Him, not because we performed well. God places us into Christ by faith, and all the riches of Christ become ours.

This is why universalists misuse Romans 5.

Universalism is the belief that in the end God ‘ll save everyone, because Christ’s work guarantees salvation for all people, but Scripture ties salvation to faith in Christ, not automatic inclusion, so universalism skips the part God Himself requires.

They read that Christ’s work affects “all,” but they ignore Romans 5:1—“being justified by faith.” Only those who believe are in Christ.

Covenant theologians also get tangled up here.

A covenant theologian is someone who believes God deals with all people through a few big covenants, and they read almost the whole Bible—including the church—through those covenant promises made to Israel.

They try to force Adam and Christ into covenant systems that Paul never teaches.

Paul’s not talking about covenants; he’s talking about two men, Adam and Christ, and two positions—death or life.

Romans 5:12 begins the argument:

Wherefore, (and that connects to Romans 5:11), Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Then Romans 5:13 opens this giant parenthesis or detour that runs through to verse 17 by stating,

(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

In this detour Paul pauses the initial theme to explain that sin existed before the law.

From Adam to Moses there was no written law, yet sin and death were everywhere.

The flood proves that. Romans 2 says Gentiles without the law still had a conscience. So the problem was never just breaking commandments. The problem was being in Adam, spiritually dead and that’s what Paul’s clarifying here.

Then we moved to Romans 5:14 which shows us,

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Death still existed as a result of sin during the age when there was no law. With the single exception of Enoch, death came on all mankind.

These people didn’t die because they’d transgressed the clear command of God, as Adam did. Adam had a direct command from God. No one else had that command, yet they all still died.

Why? Because they inherited death from Adam. They were born spiritually dead. Their works—good or bad—couldn’t change that. They didn’t die because they broke Moses’ law; they died because they were born in Adam.

Then we see Adam “is the figure of him that was to come.” Adam is a type of Christ. He’s the head of the old creation; Christ is the head of the new creation. Adam’s one act affected all who’re in him; Christ’s one act affects all in Him.

And now, Romans 5:15 begins the comparison:

But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

Adam’s one act brought death to many; Christ’s one act brings grace to many.

This is the contrast between the offense of Adam and the free gift of Christ. By the trespass or the offence of the first man, the many died. The many here refers, of course, to Adam’s descendants. Death here includes spiritual as well as physical death.

In contrast, the free gift abounds much more to the many than the offence.

The free gift is the incredible manifestation of the grace of God abounding to a race of sinners. It’s made possible by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ.

It was amazing grace on His part to die for His rebellious creatures. Through His sacrificial death, the gift of eternal life is offered to the many.

The two manys in this verse do not refer to the same people.

The first many includes all who became subject to death as a result of Adam’s trespass. The second many means all who become members of the new creation, the Body of Christ of which Christ is the Head. It includes only those to whom God’s grace has abounded—that is, true believers, those that Romans 5:1 describes, those being justified by faith.

While God’s mercy is showered on all, His grace is appropriated only by those who trust the Saviour.

Romans 6:23 summarizes the whole idea,

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

That’s exactly what Romans 5’s explaining—death through Adam, life through Christ.

Paul’s language gets heavy because he keeps saying “not as this… but as that…” and the suchlike. He’s showing similarities and differences between Adam and Christ.

Adam’s act affected all who were in him just as Christ’s act affects all who are in Him. Adam brought condemnation; Christ brings justification. Adam brought death; Christ brings life.

As a side note here, Romans 5 is the doorway into Romans 6 where Paul introduces baptism and he’s not talking about water. He’s talking about identity, being baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection. If we misunderstand Romans 5, we’ll think Romans 6 is about water rituals. But Paul’s explaining our spiritual position, not ceremonies.

Romans 5 is Paul taking the simple truth of Romans 6:23,

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord…

And he’s stretching it out to show why it’s true. 1 Corinthians 15:22 says it plainly,

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

That’s the short version.

But Paul gives the details, in fact he hammers home the details, coming at this main point from many angles, so we can understand the foundation of our salvation and our union with Christ.

How sad it is that so much modern preaching rejects the critical book of Romans. Oh, they pick the famous verses but the context of the whole book and its importance to the church today is so often missed.

On to Romans 5:16-17,

And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

This’s another important contrast between Adam’s sin and Christ’s gift. The one offense of Adam brought God’s inevitable judgment, and the verdict of that judgement was “Condemned.”

On the other hand, the free gift of Christ dealt effectively with many offenses, not just one, and resulted in the verdict “Acquitted.”

Paul highlights the differences between Adam’s sin and Christ’s gift, between the terrible havoc wrought by one sin and the tremendous deliverance wrought from many sins, and finally between the verdict of condemnation and the verdict of justification.

Romans 5:15–17 explains the comparison.

Adam committed an offense—one act that brought sin and death. Christ performed an act of grace—His death on the cross—which brings justification and life.

Both are “one man” acting for many, but the results are opposite. Adam had everything to lose and lost it. Christ had everything and gave it for others.

We have a chart below this recording which shows these comparisons.

Paul’s point is simple:

– Everyone born in the flesh is in Adam.

– Everyone who believes the gospel is placed in Christ.

Just as we received death, condemnation, and corruption from Adam without doing anything, we receive righteousness, life, and blessing from Christ without earning anything.

Notice Paul says “they which receive abundance of grace.” The gift must be received by faith. Everyone born in the flesh is in Adam automatically. No faith required. But to be in Christ, you must believe the gospel. When you believe, God places you in Christ, and you receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.

That’s the mystery of our union with Him.

Romans 5:15–17 breaks it down to this:

– One act (Adam’s sin vs. Christ’s cross)

– One imputation (condemnation vs. justification)

– One result (death reigning vs. grace reigning through righteousness)

This’s why Paul can say in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” Romans 5 shows the whole structure behind that truth.

So what is the free gift Paul keeps mentioning?

Romans 3 already explained it: being justified freely by His grace (Romans 3:24). Justification is a gift, not a wage. It’s God counting us righteous because of Christ’s work, not our own. The work was still required! The wages for sin, which is death, still had to be paid, but we couldn’t pay it and still live. If we were going to escape eternal death it would take someone totally without sin to pay that death wage for us, on our behalf. And, since we’re incapable of contributing anything at all to that process, the result of that payment on our behalf which is our justification, no longer guilty, had to be a free gift to us.

Now we can either receive that free gift or reject it.

If we want to receive it the mechanism, the tool we must use is faith. Simply believing, trusting that the words God spoke were true. The words we trust in is the Gospel that’s clearly outlined in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4,

For I (Paul) delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

Romans 4 showed this with Abraham—God counted his faith for righteousness. Romans 5 now shows how this gift comes to us through Christ, the “last Adam.” by grace through faith.

Grace is something done for us that we could never do for ourselves. Christ died, was buried, and rose again so that righteousness could be imputed to sinners. That’s why you don’t find the gospel of the grace of God before the cross—it couldn’t be preached until the work of the cross was finished.

Romans 5:18,

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

The offense of Adam brought condemnation to all men, but the righteous act of Christ brought justification and, as a result of that justification, life to all.

The righteous act was not the Savior’s life, His Words, His miracles or His keeping of the law. It was His death on Calvary, His life given willingly as a substitution for our death penalty.

That’s what brought the justification that results in life—and He brought it to all men and all men must choose either to receive that free gift of justification for life or to reject it and pay the price himself.

Paul’s gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 begins with Christ dying for our sins.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John begin with Christ’s birth and His ministry to Israel.

Paul begins with Christ’s death because that’s where the free gift was purchased. And Romans 5 explains how that gift is applied: by placing us in Christ, just as we were once in Adam.

Romans 5 also shows us that the gift comes “by grace,” and it’s received “through faith.” It’s from God, not from us.

Ephesians 2:8–9 gives the short version,

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Romans 5 is the long explanation of how God can give this gift and why it’s righteous for Him to do so.

Paul then argues in Romans 5:19,

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

He’s showing us that if one man’s sin can bring death to many, much more can one Man’s gracious act bring life to many.

Christ is not only man—He’s God manifest in the flesh—so His one act has far greater power than Adam’s fall.

That’s why Romans 5:20-21 continues,

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Adam lost everything; Christ gives far more than Adam ever lost.

This gift is not John 3:16’s “God gave His Son” in the sense of sending Him into the world. That’s true, but Romans 5’s talking about the gift that comes from Christ’s finished work—His death, burial, and resurrection. The gift is tied to the cross, not the manger. Without Christ’s death for sins, there is no grace, no gift, no justification.

We cannot pay for a free gift. If we try to earn what God gives by grace, we deny Christ’s work and make His cross vain or futile.

Galatians 2:21 says,

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Trying to earn salvation frustrates the grace of God. The same is true on the Adam side. We can’t undo the condemnation we inherited from Adam. We can’t say, “I’ll take care of my own sins.” We’ve already inherited death from Adam. We were born into it and that’s why every person dies. We only live once, then we die, and then comes judgment says Hebrews 9:27.

Our death is because of Adam’s sin; our judgment is for our own sins.

Under the law, sin abounded. Under Christ, grace abounds far more. Christ was born under the law and died under the law, but His death brought grace that the law could never give.

To this day people think Jews or Christians have standing with God because of flesh, heritage, or law‑keeping. But Romans 5 destroys that idea. All are children of Adam, Jew and Gentile, and all are condemned in Adam.

Only in Christ is there life.

Grace abounded because Christ died and rose again. God dispensed grace through that one act. Paul was given the revelation of what that death accomplished. And now, in this dispensation of grace, God saves sinners—Jew or Gentile—by faith alone, not by the law, not by covenants, not by works.

So, let’s summarise Romans 5.

Paul reminds us that sin existed before the law.

From Adam to Moses there was no written law, yet sin and death filled the world. The flood proves that. Romans 2 says Gentiles without the law still had a conscience. So the problem wasn’t law-breaking—it was being in Adam, spiritually dead and cut off from God.

Death reigned even over those who didn’t sin like Adam did. Adam had a direct command from God. His children didn’t. Yet they still died because they inherited death from him. The point is that we receive from Adam simply by being born. We didn’t choose it and we didn’t earn it. We got it just because we were “in Adam.”

That’s the foundation for understanding how salvation works. If one man’s sin can bring death to all who come from him, then one Man’s righteousness can bring life to all who are placed in Him. That’s why Paul keeps stressing “one man.” He’s showing how something done by another can be accounted to us.

One man’s offense brought death to all; one Man’s gift brings life to all who believe.

That’s the foundation for Romans 6, where Paul will say, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.”

This free gift required the cross, not our works or our behaviour.

Romans 5 is explaining how humanity receives death (in Adam) and how humanity receives life (in Christ).

We were in Adam before we ever did anything. And if we believe the gospel of the grace of God, we’re in Christ before we do anything.

It’s by faith, not by our works. It’s His work, not ours that makes us reconciled to God and who we are now. That’s our union with Christ, our fellowship with him.

Romans 5:11 showed us that we now have the atonement—we are made one with God through Jesus.

Then in verse 12 Paul goes back to Adam: by one man sin entered, and death by sin, so death passed upon all.

Verses 13–17 are a big bracket where Paul explains how one man’s act can affect many. Then in verse 18 he picks the thought back up: as by the offence of one, judgment came on all to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came on all to justification of life.

So by Adam’s one act, all of us were made sinners and condemned. By Christ’s one act, all who are in him are justified and given life. God set it up with one man at the start so he could also save through one man.

God, in His wisdom, let one man’s disobedience make many sinners, so that one man’s obedience could make many righteous (Romans 5:19).

This takes us out of the picture when it comes to earning righteousness. We didn’t work to get Adam’s condemnation—you were just born. In the same way, we don’t work to get Christ’s righteousness—we receive it by faith. That means righteousness and life can reign over people who still fail, because it’s not based on their obedience, but on His.

Second Corinthians 5:21 sums it up,

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

He was made sin at the cross. We’re made righteous—that’s the gift. Romans 5 is Paul unpacking that and showing us the bits: by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners; by one man’s obedience many shall be made righteous. It’s not by following Jesus’ life as a pattern to earn something, but by trusting what He already did.

Romans 5 teaches that the law doesn’t make people sinners—it only shows them they already are.

Romans 3 says the law gives the knowledge of sin.

Removing laws doesn’t remove sin; it only hides it. The truth is we’re sinners because of Adam, not because we first broke a command. Adam’s one sin made us a fallen people, and Christ’s one obedience—His death on the cross—brings justification. Salvation is not our obedience; it’s His.

Philippians 2:6–8 shows why Christ’s obedience has power.

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

God can’t die, but man can. So God became man in Jesus so He could die and then give God’s eternal life to all who believe. Adam broke God’s command and brought death; Christ obeyed unto death and brought life.

Romans 5:19 says by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many shall be made righteous. That righteousness is not our own—it’s imputed, or accounted to us by faith. Romans 5:20 says the law entered later, not to give life, but so the offence might abound. God didn’t give the law to fix man; He gave it to expose man.

Israel was told, “Do this and live,” but none of them could keep it. If a law could give life, righteousness would have been by the law as we see in Galatians 3:21-22,

Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Paul shows that death reigned from Adam to Moses even when there was no law. That proves sin is deeper than breaking commandments—it’s a spiritual death inherited from Adam. The law only made sin more obvious. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

Romans 5 ends by showing that the law could not stop sin or death, but grace through Jesus Christ overcomes both.

In Adam we were condemned, but in Christ we receive righteousness and eternal life as a free gift. That is why Paul says in Romans 5:21 that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul says the Scripture was given so people would know the truth about sin. God already knew, but man didn’t.

Once the law and the Scriptures came, it was clear that all are under sin and we saw that in Romans 3:10, 23.

Why? So that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ could be given to them that believe (Romans 3:22). Before faith came, Israel was kept under the law, shut up unto the faith that would come later.

The wonderful passage of Galatians 3:21–25 shows how the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ so we might be justified by faith. But after faith comes, we’re no longer under that schoolmaster.

That’s why Paul keeps saying we’re not under the law now. The law shows sin, but it can’t give life. It never fixed anybody. It only made sin abound by showing it up.

After being given the law directly by God, Moses didn’t even get down the mountain before Israel broke the commandments.

The law entered so the offense might abound, not so life would abound. Life comes only through Christ.

So Romans 5 ends by saying that as sin reigned unto death, grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s the whole point. Adam brought death. Christ brings life. The law only made sin recognisable. But grace overflows all of the law. And now, being in Christ, we stand in that grace, justified, reconciled, and alive forever.

Paul says this in 1 Timothy 1:16,

Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

God dispensed His grace through the revelation given to Paul, so all men can be justified by faith in Christ.

In Ephesians 3:1–2 we see,

FOR this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:

This grace was given to Paul for us.

This isn’t just theology—God actually poured out grace in history. That’s why Paul’s gospel is all about Christ, not about Paul himself.

Romans 5:21 says that just like sin reigned unto death, now grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. That’s why God isn’t judging the world right now, at this time, in this dispensation. Christ’s one act on the cross opened the door for grace to be offered to all.

Judgement will come when this dispensation of the grace of God is over but right now we’re living in the period that 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 speaks of,

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

Romans 5 ties it all together like this (and as we’ve already said we have a comparison chart showing this below this recording):

– Adam’s one act brought sin, death, and condemnation.

– Christ’s one act brings righteousness, life, and justification.

– What you received in Adam came by birth.

– What you receive in Christ comes by faith.

This is the heart of the gospel of the grace of God.

Before we close out this episode, I urge you to have a listen to the article we’ve just broadcast called “Was Jesus God”.

For us to properly understand the gift that Romans 5 speaks of, along with every other writing in scripture, we must know who Jesus Christ really is. The Bible says He’s God, God manifest in man’s flesh.

If that’s not true the Bible is useless and there’s no Christianity, no salvation from sin and no hope other than this world and this life.

However, many people, even many claiming to be Christians, don’t believe that Jesus was God.

This article will hopefully help to answer the question, “Was Jesus God”?

In the next episode we’ll be in Romans 6 which starts with the natural question: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”

If we’re saved apart from our own works can’t we just go on living in as much sin as we want as long as we believe? Paul explains that and shows what a saved and justified person’s life would look like.

Also, when we learn we’re justified by faith without the law, our flesh wants to run back to rules. But Paul says no—we’re not under the schoolmaster anymore. We’re in Christ and we live by the new life He gave us, not by the old law.

May God bless you till the next episode.

Romans 5:12-14 – How Adam Bought Death

Romans 5:12–14 sits right in the middle of Paul showing us all the riches God gives us by His grace when we’re justified by faith.

Romans 5:1 starts with, “Being justified by faith, we have…” and then Paul lists all these blessings. We’re justified by faith when we believe Christ died for our sins and rose again, then God declares us righteous based on that faith alone which sets us apart from the world, separated or sanctified unto Him, and that gives us great spiritual blessings.

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Romans 5:12-14 – Transcript

Romans holds a unique place in Scripture because it gathers the major themes of the entire Bible into one clear, Spirit‑guided explanation, while also shedding light on truths that were only partially understood before.

In its sixteen chapters, Paul walks through humanity’s fall in Adam, God’s answer in Christ, the purpose of the law, the meaning of faith, the nature of salvation, the place of Israel, the identity of the Church, and the hope of future glory.

Doctrines that appear in pieces throughout Genesis, the prophets, the Gospels, and the Jewish epistles are brought together and explained with precision.

Romans doesn’t replace the rest of the Bible—it reveals how all of it fits together and the integration of the ages, the dispensations of God’s plan.

That’s why believers through history have treated it as the clearest summary of God’s redemptive plan and the key that unlocks many truths that would otherwise be difficult, if not impossible, to grasp. Countless millions have found freedom and understanding through the book of Romans.

It’s the key book, the most important book of the bible for the church, The Body of Christ today.

Romans 5:12–14 sits right in the middle of Paul showing us all the riches God gives us by His grace when we’re justified by faith.

Romans 5:12 reads,

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

We see that, again, as we enter this passage, we’re entering into another series of integrated arguments where Paul explains a concept more fully by using the words “wherefore”, “nevertheless”, “for if”, “therefore” and moreover”, tying in these deeper explanations of the main theme.

We also notice in this passage that Romans 5:13 through to Romans 5:17

is one big parenthesis, or a detour if you like, from the main point in order to explain more deeply the subject being talked about.

We could read from Romans 5:12 then go directly to Romans 5:18 to see the point, the whole subject, but then if we did that we’d be confronted with more therefores and moreovers that expand on the thought even more, and we’d also lose the treasures of those detours that help us understand the subject more completely.

Romans 5:12 starts with a “wherefore” which means it’s a continuation of the previous verse, Romans 5:11, which, in turn, starts with “and not only so, which means it’s a continuation of verse 10, which begins with “for if” connecting it to verse 9. The book is a whole series of these connections that tie together not only the verses but entire chapters together.

The chapter and verse divisions of the bible are a great help to bible study but we must be aware that they don’t separate a theme which often exists through many verses and chapters and Romans is a perfect example of this.

We’ve got to recognise the integration of the whole book and, in fact, the whole bible. If we don’t we end up with a massive collection of individual verses which, although they can be useful, and may be a statement of truth within themselves, they won’t let us understand the whole integrated message and this’s where a heap of confusion comes into the church.

As we’ve often discussed before, this method of explaining a deeper meaning within a subject is Paul’s style, which, when we know how to handle it, clarifies many issues within a main point.

Up until now Paul’s been talking only about Jesus Christ and how He died for us while we were sinners in verse 9, how we’re saved from wrath through Him, and reconciled by His death in verse 10 and how we’ve received the atonement in verse 11.

Then suddenly in verse 12 he brings up Adam.

Why?

Paul’s explaining to us why this one Man, Jesus Christ, who is the fullness of God, and is fully God and fully man, could bring righteousness, atonement, and life to the whole world without the law, without Israel and without covenants as we’ve seen in Romans 4, and this is where Adam is vital to our understanding.

As Adam brought sin and death into the world, Christ brings life and righteousness.

This way of explaining salvation is something we don’t find before Paul’s epistles. Today it seems normal to say “Adam brought sin, Christ brings salvation,” but that understanding comes from Paul’s revelation from Jesus Christ Himself. Without Romans 5 and Paul’s letters, we wouldn’t know this connection.

Before Paul, the Bible showed Adam brought sin, and God chose Israel to deal with sin through the law, sacrifices, and their Messiah.

But Paul’s already shown that we don’t need Israel or the law to be justified.

We’re justified by God’s grace through faith. And just like one man (Adam) brought sin, one Man (Christ) brings all these blessings.

Paul also shows our problem is bigger than breaking God’s law.

Yes, sin is breaking the law, not obeying God’s commands and not blessing what God blesses. But sin goes much deeper. Sin affects our nature, not just our actions. That’s why 2 Timothy 1:9-10, says God saved us “not according to our works” but by His purpose and grace given in Christ before the world began, now revealed through Christ who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

It’s not “How do we get people to do right?” It’s “How can people live forever?” which’s a much bigger issue.

Christ doesn’t just fix Israel’s covenant problems. He fixes the problem that goes all the way back to Adam, the first man and without Paul’s revelation of the mystery, we wouldn’t understand Adam’s connection to Christ.

Romans 5:12 says “by one man”, meaning Adam was a real man. This, of course, teaches against ideas of evolution with no single first man. It also shows the creation of male and female (as Jesus said in Matthew 19:4 and Mark 10:6). And it shows man is not like angels.

Sin entered the world by man, not angels. The devil sinned first, but sin didn’t enter the world until Adam sinned, because God gave dominion of the earth to man though Adam. Angels don’t reproduce, but man does, so Adam’s sin, the nature of sin, passed to all descendants of Adam right down to you and I today, along with our descendants.

God made one man and one woman, and they had children, and that’s how we all got here. We weren’t there in the beginning, but Adam and Eve were.

So when Romans 5:12 says “by one man sin entered the world,” that tells us something important. Sin came in through a man, and the solution also had to come through a Man.

Paul talks more about Adam and creation than anybody else in the New Testament. For example, in Colossians 1:16-17, he says this,

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

All things—visible and invisible, principalities and powers—were created by Christ.

Genesis 1 tells of the material creation, but Paul shows there were spiritual things created too, things not listed in the Genesis six days account.

In Ephesians 3:9, Paul says,

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

Genesis says God created, and Jesus is God, but Paul makes it clear that Christ Himself is the Creator.

This matters because the same Christ who created everything is the One who brings life and immortality (2 Timothy 1:10). Before the world began, God already purposed salvation through this Man.

God didn’t create humanity and then later figure out how to become human. He made man in His image because He already planned that the image of God—Jesus—would one day become a Man. That’s why humans can bear God’s image, but rocks, trees, and animals cannot.

Paul also talks about creation in a way that shows why evolution doesn’t work. Evolution can’t explain angels, souls, or spiritual reality. God is Spirit, and the spiritual world came before the material. Evolution denies spiritual reality. If we believe everything came by natural selection, then we can’t believe in a soul or a spiritual judgment before God.

Paul reveals these spiritual truths so we can think about them correctly.

In Genesis 3, Eve ate the fruit first. So why does Paul say sin came by Adam?

This’s where people get confused. Some even twist the story to say Eve was wiser, or that the story is “pro‑female,” or that women brought humanity forward, and that isn’t new. It was common amongst pagan religions. Ephesus had a huge temple to Artemis built on that idea.

Timothy lived in Ephesus, and Paul warned him in 1 Timothy 2 about false teaching influenced by that culture. When Paul says he doesn’t allow a woman to teach or usurp authority, he’s talking about wrong doctrine in the assembly based on these pagan ideas.

Paul tells men to be quiet too when they teach wrongly. His point isn’t that man was created first so woman must be silent. His point is in verse 14 (1 Timothy 2:14) where we see that “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived…”

The Bible teaches we all came from one man, Adam, not one woman. That doesn’t glorify man, because it’s the man who brought sin and death into the world.

In 1 Timothy 2:14, where Paul says that Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, he’s pointing out that she was tricked, deceived, by the serpent as Genesis 3 shows us, but that Adam sinned knowingly.

That’s why sin is counted to Adam, not Eve.

Maybe Eve didn’t hear God’s command directly, because in Genesis 2 God spoke to Adam, not Eve.

Eve was deceived but that’s not the same as breaking a known command, and since the command was given to Adam, his sin is the one that counted. Eve could eat, but Adam had the rule.

Maybe Eve shouldn’t have acted on her own and gone to Adam and put the matter before him. Instead of that, she allowed herself to be deceived by Satan and she also fell into transgression.

The Bible simply teaches that Adam sinned.

That’s why Romans 5:12 says, “By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin.” Not by Eve. Not by deception. By Adam. God told Adam directly not to eat. Scripture never shows God giving that command to Eve.

Job even mentions Adam.

In Job 31:33, Job says he didn’t hide his sin “as Adam.”

Adam sinned, then hid, making fig leaves and hiding from God. That’s human nature— to sin and then deny it. Paul already proved in Romans chapters 2–3 that all the world is guilty. In Romans 5 he explains why, because we all come from Adam, and we all inherited the sin nature that was in him.

Because all humanity comes from one man, there’s no Jew or Gentile in Adam. Adam wasn’t an Israelite and there were no covenants, no temple, no law. When Paul goes back to Adam, he sets aside the whole Jewish system to show the root problem which was that sin entered humanity through one man, and the Savior had to be one Man too—Christ—who brings righteousness to all – like Adam brought sin to all.

Paul also makes clear that sin did not enter before Adam. All theories about pre‑Adam worlds, pre‑Adam people, or sin before Adam have no Scripture behind them. Sin entered by Adam, and death came with it.

Romans 5:12 teaches that sin affects all of us, completely—mind, body, heart, thoughts, everything we do. The life we inherited from our fathers is corrupted. Sin destroys what God made for life and blessing. Some people say our bodies die but our souls stay pure, or that we can reach righteousness by our own mind. But Scripture says sin touches every part of us. That’s why we need a quickening Spirit to save us, which is the Spirit which brings life out of death.

Sin is the reason for death, and it’s also the reason for pain, suffering, judgment, injustice, poverty, and all the evil in the world. People ask, “Why did God make the world this way?” He didn’t. Sin corrupted it.

Paul says death came by sin, and death has “passed upon all men.” Death is universal. Everybody dies.

People today try to deny sin and try to chase life through science or some sort of enhanced spirituality without even knowing what life or death really is. But Hebrews 9:27 says it plainly,

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

If death is universal, then sin is universal, and that means the problem is bigger than Israel and bigger than the law or our sorry attempts to “be good”.

The law can’t fix death. Sin came before the law.

Telling a broken thing to “do right” doesn’t fix it. If the inside is corrupted, commands won’t help. So the solution must be beyond Israel and beyond the law.

That solution is Jesus Christ. Adam’s sin caused death; Christ brings life. Christ came to save all mankind, to bring heaven and earth together in Him.

Romans 5:12 says sin entered by one man, and death by sin, and death passed upon all because all sinned. We’re genealogical descendants of that one man.

In Genesis 1:27, God made Adam in His own image. But in Genesis 5:3, Adam’s son was born in Adam’s image—a fallen image.

So we all inherit corrupted life from Adam and that’s why we all die.

People argue about Genesis, saying chapter 1 and 2 contradict each other, but they don’t. Genesis 1 gives the creation days; Genesis 2 gives the story of the garden. The same writer wrote both. The real question is: how did Adam die?

God said in Genesis 2:17,

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Adam and Eve ate in Genesis 3, but they didn’t drop dead that moment. They lived long enough to be cast out, have children, and grow old. So what was the death that happened that day?

In Genesis 3:3 Eve told the serpent God had said not to touch the tree, even though God never said that.

The serpent denied death and promised “your eyes shall be opened… ye shall be as gods.”

She ate and didn’t fall over dead, so she may have thought nothing happened. But Scripture explains there’s physical death and spiritual death.

In Ezekiel 18:4 God says,

Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they lost their fellowship with God. They were no longer justified. Their communion with God was broken.

Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 2:14

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

That spiritual understanding was cut off in Genesis 3. That’s why they were driven out of the garden—so they wouldn’t eat the Tree of Life while spiritually dead. Angels who sinned had no hope, but God let Adam and Eve live in the flesh so they could be redeemed. God even replaced their fig leaves with animal skins, showing the first sacrifice.

So when Adam brought sin into the world, the death that came was both physical and spiritual. Physical death came later, but spiritual death came that exact same day. They lost access to the Tree of Life and to God Himself. That’s the death Romans 5 is talking about, and that’s why we need Christ, the One who brings life where Adam brought death.

In Romans 5:9–11, Paul says that in Christ we now have atonement, we’re reconciled, we have forgiveness, we’re saved from wrath and we have eternal life because our spirit’s made alive.

But in Adam, we only have death.

So, when Paul says in Romans 5:12,

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

He’s laying the foundation for the next chapters which have to do with the difference between the old man, the one in Adam and the new man, the one in Christ. The old man is fallen and dead in sin while the new man is justified by faith.

Paul says death passed upon all men.

Do we die because we personally sinned? The wages of sin is death, yes, but even babies die and they haven’t committed sins, yet they die because they inherited death from Adam.

We’re not sinners because we sin. We sin because we’re sinners by nature and we’re born that way.

Some old teachings said people are born innocent until they sin. But Scripture shows we were broken the day we were born, because we were born in Adam. The life we inherited is not eternal life. Every person born eventually dies, showing that our life’s corrupted.

Does the fact that “all have sinned” mean we were somehow inside Adam, choosing sin with him? No. That would be unjust. God says He does not hold children guilty for their father’s sins as we see in a number of places especially Ezekiel 18:20 and Deuteronomy 24:16.

Adam is our father, but we weren’t there in the garden. We’re guilty for our own sins, not Adam’s. Paul already covered that in Romans 1–3.

So why bring up Adam?

Because Paul’s showing that we’re not sinners only because of our actions. We’re sinners because we were born spiritually dead. We sin because we’re sinners.

Our first sin came from a broken nature. We were born disconnected from God, and sin naturally follows.

This is what people call original sin. Adam, the first man, made sinners by his sin.

Romans 5:19 says, “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” Adam didn’t force us to sin, but when he fell and had children, those children were born in his fallen image which we see in Genesis 5:3.

A newborn baby hasn’t done anything right or wrong yet, but they will die because they’re descended from the man who brought death into the world through sin, Adam.

We do not inherit Adam’s guilt.

We inherit Adam’s corrupt, broken, mortal nature. A fallen creature cannot produce an unfallen, eternal one. That’s why every child, no matter how sweet, will one day die.

Ever since Adam, sinners are born, sinners sin, and sinners die. That’s our nature. And when a person finally faces that, they often blame God. They ask “If there is a God, why did He make us this way?”

But God didn’t make the world this way. Sin did. And God showed His love by sending Christ to die for us, while we were yet sinners, as Romans 5:8 says, all to save us from the power and the consequences of that sin.

Christ came to fix what Adam broke. Adam brought death; Christ brings life. In Christ we can be spiritually quickened, or made alive, forgiven, reconciled, and given wisdom Adam never had after he fell.

Salvation isn’t just a religious idea—it’s God rescuing us from the ruined condition we’re born into.

Like giving a broken child education, food, and help, Christ lifts us out of Adam’s curse and gives us blessings from heaven.

In Christ we inherit what He has—eternal life, glory, resurrection.

In Adam we inherit death. Humanity’s under Adam’s curse, and then we add our own sins on top of it.

Scripture teaches this everywhere.

Psalm 14 says none are righteous. Psalm 39:5 says that even at a man’s best state he is vanity or empty. Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

This starts at birth. Parenting and nurturing tries to help, but children are still born sinners. Even with every advantage, they still choose wrong.

1 Corinthians 2:14 says that the natural man cannot know the things of God while Romans 3:10 says none are righteous.

Romans 7:24 shows Paul crying out, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” And the answer in Romans 7:25 is Jesus Christ our Lord.

So when Romans 5:12 says “death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,” it means God doesn’t hold us guilty for Adam’s sin, but we still suffer the death and corruption that came from him.

We’re responsible for our own sins, but we’re born spiritually dead because of Adam.

Then Paul continues in Romans 5:13 and here’s where the parenthesis, or the detour starts,

(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

He’s showing the timeline. Sin entered in Genesis 3 through Adam. The law came much later at Mt Sinai through Moses.

Sin and death were already here long before Moses. That’s why the law cannot fix the problem. The root is Adam, and the solution is Christ.

Romans chapter 2 told us that if there’s no law to break, then there’s no transgression of that law. In Romans 3:20 he tells us the law brings the knowledge of sin.

Religious thinking says, “You’re a sinner because you broke the commandments.” But Paul’s showing that the law only reveals that we’re a sinner. It’s not what made us a sinner. We’re a sinner because of Adam.

From Adam to Moses there was no written law. Genesis moves fast through this time—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob—and then in Exodus the law’s given and Israel becomes a nation. But Paul goes all the way back before Israel and before the law to show where the real problem started. Sin didn’t begin with Moses. Sin began with Adam, the first man. And from Adam to Moses, sin was still in the world even though there was no law.

Paul destroys the thinking that sin only exists when there’s a command to break by saying sin was present without the law.

Just read Genesis—Cain killing Abel, the wickedness before the flood, the whole world judged in Noah’s day. God judged sin long before the law of Moses. So the problem’s not Israel’s law. The problem is humanity itself, going back to Adam.

When Paul says here in Romans 5:13 that “Sin is not imputed where there is no law.” That doesn’t mean God ignored sin. The flood proves He didn’t. It means man didn’t fully recognize his sin. The law shows sin clearly, but it isn’t the only way to know sin.

In Romans 2, Paul says Gentiles without the law still perish without the law because they have a conscience. God wrote the work of the law in their hearts. Adam hid from God because he knew he sinned. People know right and wrong inside.

So the issue isn’t the law. It’s a spiritual problem.

In Romans 5:14, still in this parenthesis. Paul says,

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Adam sinned by breaking a direct command: “Don’t eat from the tree.” No one else had that command. Yet they still died. Why? Because they were sinners by nature, spiritually dead children, descendants of Adam.

Adam’s sin was unique. He was sinless when he sinned. You and I are sinners who sin—that’s expected of fallen people, but Adam didn’t have a sinful nature to start with. He chose to disobey God. We never sinned the way Adam sinned, yet we still die because we inherited his corrupted life.

The life we receive from Adam is a life that ends in death, both physical and spiritual.

God gave man the ability to produce life, but after Adam sinned, the life he passed on was broken meaning every person born eventually dies.

But the life that comes from Christ is eternal.

1 Corinthians 15:45 says this,

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam (Christ) was made a quickening spirit.

Christ is a quickening or life giving spirit.

He makes dead spirits alive. In Adam we’re all spiritually dead, and only Christ can give resurrection life, eternal life.

Adam was made alive, but he brought sin and death into the world.

“The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” according to Ezekiel 18:4 and 18:20 Christ, the last Adam, is a quickening Spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:1-2 says,

FOR we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

This speaks of our present mortal body as our earthly house, this tabernacle or tent. A tent’s not a permanent dwelling. It’s a portable one for pilgrims and travellers.

Christians look forward to death—not because we hate life, but because we know that when this earthly body dies, we have “a house, a body, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

We groan in these weak bodies. Life in the flesh is burdensome, corrupted, falling apart.

But Paul says we’re not wishing to be “unclothed” or not wishing for no life at all. Instead we’re longing to be clothed with better life, eternal life, like trading tattered clothes for a perfect new suit. That shows the difference between Adam and Christ.

In Adam something’s missing. Communion with God, access to eternal life. Adam lost that, and every child born after him’s missing it too. In Christ we regain what Adam lost and immortality is brought to light through the gospel.

So, in Romans 5:14, Paul says death reigned even over those who “had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.”

Adam sinned by breaking a direct command. No one else had that command. Yet all still died because all inherited Adam’s fallen condition. Then Paul says Adam “is the figure of him that was to come.” Adam is a type—a picture—of Christ.

The Bible uses figures and shadows, but it also defines them so we don’t invent our own.

Jeremiah 18:6 for example says this,

O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD . Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

God says Israel is the clay and He is the potter. That figure is about Israel, not the church.

In Isaiah 5:7 we read,

For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: …

The vineyard is “the house of Israel.”

In Hebrews 9:24, the earthly temple is a “figure of the true” in heaven.

In Hebrews 10:1, the law is a “shadow of good things to come,” and the sacrifices are shadows of Christ.

Jesus Himself used this pattern in Matthew 12:40: “As Jonah was… so shall the Son of Man be”.

Stephen used it too in Acts 7, showing how Israel rejected Joseph just like they rejected Christ.

So when Paul says Adam is a figure of Christ, he means Adam’s one act affected all humanity, and Christ’s one act also affects all humanity.

Adam came before Israel, before the law, before sin entered. Yet he’s still a picture of Christ—the One who would undo what Adam did and bring life where Adam brought death.

Adam being a figure of Christ goes far beyond the shadows in the law. Colossians 2:17 says that meats, drinks, holy days, and Sabbaths are only shadows, but the body is Christ.

Adam’s figure is older and greater than all those patterns. Hebrews talks about shadows in the law, but Adam’s picture reaches back before Israel, before Moses and before the law itself.

In Romans 5:18, Paul sums up his point,

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

By one man, Adam, all became sinners. By one Man, Jesus Christ, all who believe become righteous and live. Paul shows the parallel: by Adam came sin and death; by Christ comes righteousness and life.

Adam and Christ share many similarities as figures.

Both were men.

Both had God as their Father.

Both were made without sin.

Both had bodies of flesh and blood.

Both were named by God and bore God’s image.

Both could have lived forever.

Both were offered dominion over the world.

Both were given a command. Both spoke with God in a garden. Both were under a law.

Both faced a choice that affected all humanity.

Both were cursed.

Both bore thorns.

Both died because of sin.

Both died by a tree.

Both brought imputation on all.

Both brought something that would reign over the world.

And both obtained something no one else could.

Paul uses Adam, not Israel or Moses, to explain our position in Christ.

If we understand the Adam problem, we understand why Christ had to come—and how His one act fixes everything Adam broke.

That’s what Paul is revealing in Romans 5.

Before we finish, I urge you to have a listen to the article we’ve just broadcast called “Was Jesus God”.

If that’s not true the Bible is useless and there’s no Christianity, no salvation from sin and no hope other than this world and this life.

However, many people, even many claiming to be Christians, don’t believe that Jesus was God.

This article will hopefully help to answer the question, “Was Jesus God”?

Tag Archive for: Eve

Romans 6:5-7 – We Are Freed From Sin

Romans 6:5-7 – Transcript

Romans 6:1-4 – Baptised Into Christ’s Death

Romans 6:1-4 – Transcript

Romans 5:15-21 – One Man Death – One Man Life

Romans 5:15-21 – Transcript

Romans 5:12-14 – How Adam Bought Death

Romans 5:12-14 – Transcript

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