Let’s read Romans 5:12-14, “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: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” (King James Version). These verses must be studied together to see the truth of verse 14, yet we will look at them separately to see the “flow of truth.” May the Lord bless the truth that we do see to every reader.

In verse 12 we saw that “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, because all sinned.” Who was that one man and what was his sin that brought death into the world? That man was ADAM and his sin was eating of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. God had given Adam one COMMANDMENT seen in Genesis 2:16, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” We know that Adam disobeyed that one commandment by eating of the tree (Genesis 3:6) and the “death sentence” was then pronounced upon him in verses 17-19. Because he acted for all mankind (as the Federal Head of the human race), this death sentence (of physical death) was passed on to all who would be born into the human race.

In verse 13 we read “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Here we learn that sin, which began with Adam, was manifested throughout the world. In other words, all human beings were sinners and thus they sinned (see Romans 3:23). Yet they did not have a commandment from God until the Ten Commandments were given to Moses at Mount Sinai so sin was not IMPUTED. What does that mean? The word “imputed” in this verse means “charged” which means God was not “charging them with breaking a definite commandment” since there was no commandment given to them. Sin did EXIST but sin did not take on the form of a TRANSGRESSION, which is disobeying a known law and being charged with breaking that law.

In verse 14 we see that sin still had a penalty; namely, DEATH. “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam.” One has said, “Yet DEATH did not take a holiday during the age when there was no law” (William MacDonald). People were still sinning and death was the penalty, even though they had not broken a known commandment like Adam did. We read in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of SIN is DEATH” and thus all people died because of SIN. We saw in verse 12 the words “sin entered the world, and DEATH BY SIN.” The solemn truth is we have all been born sinners (Psalm 51:5); we are all part of a sinful race with a sinful nature (Romans 5:19 and 7:14-17). This poison called SIN was injected into the human race through Adam’s sin, and thus DEATH affects every person. Mr. H. A. Ironside had this to say on this portion in his commentary on Romans: “Even where there was no willful sin, as in the case of infants and irresponsible persons, death reigned, thus proving that they were part of a fallen race federally involved in Adam’s sin and actually possessing Adam’s fallen nature.”

In closing, I would encourage all our readers to read on in Romans 5:15-20 to see that there is another MAN, the Lord Jesus Christ, who acted on behalf of others to bring them JUSTIFICATION and ETERNAL LIFE. Adam DISOBEYED God and plunged the whole world into SIN and DEATH; Christ OBEYED God (see Philippians 2:5-8) so believing sinners could “be made RIGHTEOUS” (verse 19).  (DO)  (687.3)