Romans 5:12-19

Romans 5:12-19 (WEB) Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come. But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.

🔑 Key Points

1. The Article Upon Which You Live or Die

Sproul recalls the Evangelicals and Catholics Together controversy: leaders were willing to affirm every gospel doctrine except one — the imputation of Christ's righteousness. But he insists there is no negotiating here: no imputation, no justification by faith alone; and no justification by faith alone, no gospel. What sounds like a technicality is the very marrow of the good news.

2. We Sinned in Adam — by Imputation

How can Paul say all sinned when Adam acted before any of us existed? Sproul rejects the idea that our souls were literally present in the Garden and argues for federal representation: Adam acted as the covenant head of the human race, and the guilt of his one offense was reckoned — imputed — to all whom he represented. The only way to make sense of Romans 5 is to understand that we sinned in Adam by imputation.

3. Death Proves the Imputation

Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression. Sproul distinguishes original sin (the corruption and inherited guilt we are born with) from actual sin (conscious violations of a known law). Infants who have committed no actual sin still die — and only Adam's imputed guilt explains why universal death is universal. The doctrine is not speculation; the graveyard is its evidence.

4. The Covenant of Works and Christ's Perfect Obedience

In the final analysis, Sproul says, everyone is saved by works — the question is whose works. Adam failed the covenant of works for all his children, but Christ, the last Adam, kept its terms perfectly from birth to cross. Justification by faith alone is shorthand for justification by Christ alone: His death pays our debt, and His lifelong perfect obedience becomes our righteousness. Sproul points to J. Gresham Machen's dying telegram, grateful for the active obedience of Jesus.

5. An Alien Righteousness Counts for You

If you strip away imputation, you strip away our only hope at the judgment seat: you either stand before God in your own righteousness (which Isaiah calls filthy rags) or in somebody else's. That is why Sproul says the more theology he learns, the less he is willing to trade — he will not negotiate the deity of Christ, justification by faith alone, or imputation. His one-line summary: 'Give me the imputation of Christ, or give me death.'

💬 Discussion Questions

If Adam's guilt could be imputed to the whole human race, why is it so hard to believe Christ's righteousness can be imputed to you?
Sproul calls imputation 'the article upon which you live or die.' In practice, whose righteousness do you actually lean on when you pray, when you fail, when you face death?
What difference does Christ's perfect life of obedience — not only His death — make to your assurance today?

📖 The Passage