Gill on Romans 5:19:
"that as by Adam's sin all his posterity are made sinners, and so are brought under a sentence of condemnation; in like manner by the obedience of Christ, all his seed are made righteous and come under a sentence of justification of life: the persons made sinners are said to be "many", in opposition to the "one man", by whose disobedience they became so, and because there is an exception of one, even Jesus Christ; and mean all the natural descendants of Adam, who are many, and are so called, to answer to the subjects of justification in the next clause: what they are made sinners by, is "the disobedience of one man, Adam"; and by the first and single disobedience of his, in eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, by which they "were made sinners": the meaning of which is not, that they became sufferers for it, or subject to death on the account of it; the word used will not bear such a sense, but signifies men guilty of sin, and sometimes the worst and chief of sinners; besides, the apostle had expressed that before; add to this, that the sons of Adam could not be sufferers for his sin, or subject to death on account of it, if they were not made sinners by it, or involved in the guilt or it"
Jordan, you are aware that John Gill is a Calvinist aren't you? And not just a moderate Calvinist, some consider him a hyper-Calvinist.
You listen to Gill and you will get seriously messed up on doctrine. He interprets all scripture to agree with Calvinism, and Calvinism MUST believe in Original Sin. Without Original Sin Calvinism would collapse like a house of cards.
Jordan, you have to be consistent when reading Romans 5. Paul is using a form of parallelism, you have to treat both halves of each verse equally.
If Romans 5:19 is teaching that all men are unconditionally made sinners by Adam's one sin, then the other half of the verse MUST teach that all men are unconditionally made righteous by Christ's one obedience. That would be Universalism.
Please pay attention to the word "unconditionally" Jordan, that is of utmost importance to understand Romans 5. If Adam's sin is applied to all men without condition, then so must Christ's righteousness. This is the parallel form of argument Paul is using that you MUST follow to interpret this scripture properly.
In fact, this is the very verse that all Univeralists use as a proof text for their view. And truth be told, if we are unconditionally made sinners by Adam's sin, then they are 100% correct.
67. Paul represented the free gift of life as extending equally with sin. "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." (Rom. 5:18) This is a very important passage. It teaches us, that the free gift of eternal life shall extend equally with sin. On the one hand we are told, judgment came upon ALL MEN by sin. On the other we find, that "the free gift came upon ALL MEN unto justification of life." This free gift is eternal life, (see Rom. 6:23). But, for a further view of the argument of the apostle in this place, see section 68.
68. Paul also says, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." The same MANY that were made sinners, Paul declares "shall be made righteous." This certainly asserts the salvation of all sinners. Parkhurst, in his Greek Lexicon, says, [the Greek words for] the many, i.e. the multitude, or whole bulk of mankind, Rom 5:15, 19, in which text [the Greek words for the many] are plainly equivalent to [the Greek words for] ALL MEN, verses 12, 18". The learned Dr. Macknight is to the same purport. "for as [the Greek word for] THE MANY, in the first part of the verse, does not mean some of mankind only, but all mankind, from first to last, who without exception, are CONSTITUTED SINNERS, so THE MANY, in the latter part of the verse, who are said to be constituted righteous, through the obedience of Christ, mus mean ALL MANKIND, from the beginning to the end of the world, WITHOUT EXCEPTION." See his commentary on the place. The evident sense of the passage is this: For as THE MANY, that, the whole bulk of mankind were made sinners, so shall THE MANY, that is, the whole, the whole bulk of mankind, be made righteous. What can be plainer than this fact? We agree with the authors of the Improved Version, who say, "Nothing can be more obvious than this, that it is the apostle's intention to represent all mankind, without exception, as deriving greater benefit from the mission of Christ, than they suffered injury from the fall of Adam. The universality of the apostle's expression is very remarkable. The same "many" who were made sinners by the disobedience of one, are made righteous by the obedience of the other. If ALL MEN are condemned by the offence of one, the same ALL are justified by the righteousness of the other. These universal terms, so frequently repeated, and so variously diversified, cannot be reconciled to the limitation of the blessings of the Gospel, to the elect alone, or to a part only of the human race." -- Note on Rom. 5:19.
http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/univ3.html
No, we are conditionally made sinners when we sin as Adam sinned, and we are conditionally made righteous when we believe as Jesus believed.
Paul is simply explaining that Jesus is a type of Adam. As Adam brought the judgment of being judged "a sinner" upon us, and the condemnation for that judgment which is death, Jesus brought a judgment of being "righteous" upon us and the gift of eternal life through his faith and obedience in trusting his Father to raise him from the dead.
Romans 5 is not teaching Original Sin, verse 14 proves that;
Rom 5:14 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.
Romans 5:14 cannot be teaching Original Sin for two reasons;
#1 Paul mentions men from Adam to Moses only. If he were teaching Original Sin, then this death would have extended to ALL MEN.
#2 Paul very specifically says these men from Adam to Moses HAD NOT sinned after the similitude or likeness of Adam's sin. They were not in Adam's loins in the garden eating the forbidden fruit with him as Augustine falsely taught.
So, be careful who you listen to Jordan. There are a lot of Calvinists out there, in fact, there is a bit of Calvinist in your pastor who called me a "Pelagian", that is a term famous among Calvinsts. Very few non-Cals ever use this term. Pay attention.
Last edited by a moderator: