How many sins must one commit in order to be condemned? In Romans 5.16 Paul states, “And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass [sin] brought condemnation, but the free gift [salvation] following many trespasses [sins] brought justification.”
This verse carries the contrast between the effects of Adam’s sin and the effects of God’s work in Christ. Here is found between the “one sin” that brought condemnation, that is, the sin of Adam in eating from the forbidden tree, and the “many trespasses,” which Adam and all who followed him have committed but which are atoned for by the blood of Christ.
For the sake of argument, suppose the one sin of Adam in eating of the forbidden tree turned out to be the only sin Adam ever committed, and if no one who came after him in all the long ages of human history (including Eve and Cain and Abel and all the rest of mankind down to and including ourselves and our contemporaries) ever committed another sin in thought, word, or deed, it would still have been necessary for Jesus to die to save us. Since we are condemned for Adam’s sin, we would still need a Savior to rescue us from that original sin and God’s consequent condemnation.
But that is not the situation! Adam’s one sin did bring condemnation to all, from which Christ alone has redeemed us. But Adam’s one sin was not the only sin Christ died for. Adam, having become a sinner, sinned many more times before he died. And Adam’s many sins were followed by countless billions of sins by countless billions of sinners, all of whom added their own evils, arrogance, brutality, malice, and other vices to the grim moral history of mankind.
What is the essence of human history? From God’s point of view, is it not what Paul has already summarized in Romans 1.29-32? “They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also give approval to those who practice them.”
Since Christ died for such a vast accumulation of sins, is it any wonder that Paul marvels in Romans 5 how “judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.”
Maranatha!
(mar-uh-nath-uh – “Our Lord Comes”) Pastor Steve can be reached at PastorSteve@MaranathaBibleChurch.org