Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Romans 5:13

"for until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law." — Romans 5:13 (ASV)

The dash at the end of v.12 (NIV) is intended to indicate that the comparison that Paul launched with his “just as” is not carried through. In view of what follows, the complete statement would have run something like this: “Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned, so righteousness entered the world by one man, and life through righteousness” (cf. v.18, which sums up vv.15–17). Throughout the passage the thought is so tremendous that it proves intractable from the standpoint of expressing it in orderly sequence. The thought outruns the structural capacity of language.

Judging from the use of “for” at the beginning of v.13, these next two verses are intended to support and explicate v.12. From Adam to Moses the law was not yet given, so sin was not present in the sense of transgression. The human race did not have a charge from God similar to that which Adam had and violated. But the very fact that death was regnant during this period is proof that there was sin to account for death, seeing that death is the consequence of sin. The sin in view here was the sin of Adam, which involved all his descendants. Death in this case means physical death, which suggests that the same is true in v.12. This agrees with Paul’s treatment of the subject of death in 1Colossians 15 (see especially v.22).

Adam is described as “a pattern of the one to come.” “Pattern” translates the word typos (GK 5596), often rendered “type.” It may seem strange that Adam should be designated as a type of Christ when the two are so dissimilar in themselves and in their effect on humankind. But there is justification for the parallel. The resemblance is that Adam and Christ each communicated to those whom he represented that which belonged to him (“sin” and “righteousness” respectively). In other words, what each did involved others. “The one to come” is to be taken from the perspective of Adam and his time; it has no reference to the second coming of Christ (cf. Matthew 11:3).