950

$205 V

Christ

and Adam

Man and Humanity

in

Romans 5

Karl Barth
With an Introduction by Wiihelm Pauck

The most

influential Protestant

modern times
reveals the central theme
thinker of

of his thought

COLLIER BOOKS

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OF FLORIDA

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COLLEGE LIBRARY

Christ

and Adam

MAN AND HUMANITY

IN

ROMANS 5

KARL BARTH

WM%1

im
Man

mm

and Humanity

Translated by T. A.

in

Romans 5

SMAIL

COLLIER BOOKS
NEW YORK, N.Y.

This Collier Books edition is published

by arrangement with Harper & Brothers
Collier

Books

is

a division of

Collier Publishing

The Crowell-

Company

First Collier

Books Edition 1962

is a translation of Karl Barth's Christus und Adam

nach Romer 5 published in 1952 by the Evangelischer Verlag

This work

in Zollikon-Zurich

Copyright

1956, 1957, by Harper

All rights in this

book

are reserved.

&

Brothers

No

part of the

book may

be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in critical articles

Hecho en

los

and reviews.

E.E.U.U.

Printed in the United States of America

INTRODUCTION
WILHELM PAUCK

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in

2011 with funding from

LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/christadammanhumOObart

The fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans,

on which Barth here fixes his attention, has been of
importance

special

was

thought. It

the

in

history

of

Christian

largely through the influence of

Augustine that certain of Paul's ideas expressed in

this part of his

most powerful

letter

major role in the theology of

and in

5:5

came

Roman

to play a

Catholicism

that of the Protestant Reformation.

"the love of

by the Holy

God

Spirit"

is

versions

is

shed abroad in our hearts

furnished the Scriptural basis

for the theology of grace

in relation to the

and the sacraments,

word ekkechutai which

translated

Romans

by

"is

chiefly

in later

shed abroad" but was

rendered in the Vulgate by infusa est ("was

fused").

Furthermore,

Romans 5:12

sin

came

into

man and death through sin,

to all men because all men

the world through one

and so death spread

"As

in-

Introduction

became

sinned"

the Scriptural keystone of the doc-

trine of original sin.

and

its

The teaching that Adam's sin

is passed on to all men was

penalty (death)

explained by

way

of an exegesis of these words, es-

pecially in connection with the fact that the phrase

"for that" (eph'ho),

meaning "because," appeared in

the Vulgate translation as "in quo" ("in whom").

Hence

the words of the Apostle were understood to

mean that, in view of the fact that all men sin in

Adam, sin and death entered the world through him.

On

the basis of this teaching, the Pauline concep-

tion of the

the other

two humanities, one headed by Adam and

by Christ (Rom. 5:12-21), then assumed

special significance in relation to the doctrine of the

atonement.
In

this essay,

Barth does not deal with

doctrines. His interest

lation

is

between Christ and

derstood

it.

all

these

concentrated upon the re-

Adam

as the Apostle un-

By-passing the entire exegetical and

theological tradition built

upon

this

chapter of the

Pauline Epistle, Barth offers an entirely

new and

unprecedented interpretation of the conception of

man implied in the Apostle's

view of the relation be-

tween Christ and Adam.

The

treatise

must then be read

considerations:

in the light of three

Introduction
(1) It is

famed

fifth

a contribution to the interpretation of the

chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

(2) It is

an example of Barth's

method.

(3) It illumines the significance of

that

central

distinctive exegetical

a theme
crowning systematic
achievement, the Church Dogmatics, 1
Let us briefly deal with these three topics:
is

in

Barth's

(1) The fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans

presents special difficulties to the exegete
not only

because of the intricate reasoning of its author,

the
Apostle Paul, but chiefly on account of the
parallel

between Adam and Christ which Paul introduces

in
connection with his argument about the universal
sinfulness of

men, both Jews and Gentiles. The curse

of sin, he says, cannot be undone by

of the law but only through divine

human works

justification that

must be received in faith.

iThis work, begun in 1931,

is designed to consist of five vol6 Doctrine f th * Word of God. H. The

Doctrine of
Doctrine of Creation. IV. The Doctrine of Recon-

^J
J
God. m. The
1

V. The Doctrine of Redemption. To date, these

volumes have been published in several parts: I, 1 and
2; H, 1 and
2; m, 1-4; rv, 1 and 2. Other parts of IV and V are in
preparaciliation.

tion.
group of Scottish theologians is now engaged in the
task
of translating the entire work. To date,
editions in English have
been published in 1956 and 1957 respectively,
of I, 1 and 2,
and IV, 1, by Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York. Otto Weber
has provided an "introductory report" on
I, 1 to m, 4; see

Karl Barths Church Dogmatics

Press, 1954).

(Philadelphia:

Westminster

Introduction

The reasoning

of the Apostle, always subtle,

is

particularly difficult to follow in this passage, especially in the

second part of the chapter,

Here Adam is
come." He by

pictured as the "type of

whom

sin,

entered into the world

figures the

w.

is

to

and consequently death,

seen as the one

is

12-21.

him who

who

pre-

Redeemer through whose death and resmankind is saved. The Apostle thus

urrection all

appears to think of two heads of humanity:

Adam,

and
by whose disobedience many were made
Christ, by whose obedience many are to be made
righteous (Rom. 5:19). Indeed, Adam is viewed as
the head of sinful mankind that is doomed to die and
sinners,

Christ as the head of a

promise of eternal

new humanity

that has the

life.

In the course of Christian history, Barth implies,

these ideas linking men's predicament of sin with

Adam,

the

first

sin with Christ,

hope of freedom from

receive a stress far removed

man, and

came

to

their

from the intention and meaning of Paul: Adam, as

the father of the race, was viewed as the originator

upon him, through the sexual

all manAugusrecall
to
perdition,"
of
kind became a "mass

of sin. In dependence

connection of one generation with another,

tine's

words.

By

heredity,

men were

supposed to be

inescapably caught up in "original sin"; the "sin of

10

Introduction

was

the origin"

those
to

who

felt to taint all its

members. Only

"put on the Lord Jesus Christ" could hope

be liberated from the "curse of Adam." Thus

became the

particular Pauline passage

this

one

basis of

of the most powerful and influential doctrines in the

men

history of Christendom: the union of all

Adam,

the

sinner, in

whom

they

in

all

find their

Although surprisingly Barth makes no

direct ref-

first

condemnation.
erence to this historic teaching, he evidently has

mind throughout
purpose

is

his

to correct this age-old tradition

ing out that Paul

is

it

in

commentary. Barth's prime

by point-

not correctly understood unless

one recognizes that the Apostle sees Christ as the

true head of all humanity, Adam included
the tri-

umphant head of that humanity which, beginning

with Adam's transgression, is doomed to death, because

all its

members have sinned and do

sin like

Adam.
(2)

The method

of exegesis which Barth employs

in the present essay has the

the

many exegetical

tom

essays

same

which

to include in his large

flavor

it

and

cast as

has been his cus-

dogmatic work.

He

tries

to think through closely the

tions of the Biblical text.

plain

what the

meanings and affirmaHis one purpose is to make

Biblical authors

11

wanted to

say.

He

Introduction
therefore pays strict attention to the context of the

passage he has to expound, taking every word with

utmost seriousness. Persuaded that the message of

the Bible constitutes a unity, he carefully tries to

bring the whole Bible to bear upon each of

He

its

does not choose to interpret the Bible

cally,

though he does not hesitate to use

insights about the origin

and the

parts.

histori-

historical

original purpose of

the individual Biblical works.

In

this essay,

entirely

upon

he concentrates

his attention almost

the passage at hand.

Only occasionally

does he glance at other books of the Bible

(e.g., 1

Cor. 15 :21-22; 45-49, where Paul also relates

Adam

and Christ to each other). He does not refer to other

commentators (although it is apparent that he is
mindful of the work of some of them). He refrains
entirely from an inquiry into the sources of Paul's
ideas, terms, and forms of speech. Nor does he compare the teachings of the Apostle with those of his
contemporaries and his predecessors and followers.

He

therefore does not

seem

cance to the evidence that

literature that

of

Adam's

fall

one

it is

any

signifi-

in Jewish Rabbinic

finds for the first time the story

so interpreted as to explain the origin

of the fact that

any

to attribute

all

men

sin.

Nor does Barth

interest in the evidence purporting to

12

display

prove

Introduction
that the idea of the connection

death of
first

Adam

and

between the

and

sin

that of his descendants

was

advanced in such writings as the Wisdom of

Solomon and the Books of Enoch. 2 Moreover, he

pays no attention to the question of how Paul's con-

Adam may

ception of Christ as the second

be

re-

lated to similar ideas of his contemporary Philo, the

Alexandrian Jewish philosopher, or

how

it is

to

be

understood in the light of the early Christian interpretation of Jesus as the "Son of

Man,"

etc.

We must assume that Barth does not take account

of such problems because he
interpret the Epistle to the

of historical exegesis.

is

not concerned to

Romans

in the

manner

For him the Epistle

is

first

and foremost part of the canon of the New Testament to which, according to his view, Christian theology must orient itself as to the Word of God.
(3)

There

is

a close relation between the thesis of

and one of the basic themes

Church Dogmatics. This grand work is

this exegetical treatise

of Barth's

conceived as a theology of God's Word, that

is,

the-

ology that deals with God's revelation in Jesus Christ

2

The Ideas of the Fall and of Original Sin (2nd

York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1929).
3 Cf., e.g. Elias Andrews, The Meaning
of Christ for Paul
(Nashville and New York: Abingdon Press, 1949), pp. 93 ff.
N.

ed.

P. Williams,

New

13

Introduction
as

it is

attested in the Bible. In

theme, the Dogmatics

is

method and basic

set in opposition to

every

brand of natural theology whether found in

Roman

Thomism or modern Protestantism:

Barth's

Catholic

magnum opus does not proceed from man's knowledge of God and does not undertake to explain the
meaning of the Christian gospel in the light of man's
religion: it avows itself an exposition of God's disclosure of himself in Jesus Christ

and of

implied therein for the understanding of

his cosmos. Barth, therefore, does not

man

all

that

is

man and

move upwards

God, but downwards from God, or

rather Christ, to man, and he erects his theology on
the doctrinal foundations of the Word of God, the
from

Trinity
It is

to

and the Incarnation.

a system of thought intended to be Biblical

through and through. In the course of time,

become more and more

Christ Jesus
tion,

is

Christological:

it

has

The man

the key to the understanding of crea-

reconciliation

and redemption, and of the

nature and destiny of man.

Barth has never deviated from the course he thus

set for himself.

Hence he has not hesitated

to forsake

time-honored modes of theological thought rather

than modify his basic principle in any way; in
respects, insists Barth, Jesus Christ, the

14

all

Son of God

Introduction

made Man, and

only He is the "light in which we

see light" (Ps. 36.9). Finding himself compelled by
the Biblical witness to ground all doctrines in Chris-

he develops the doctrine of creation on the

{Church Dogmatics HI, 1) and

tology,

basis of soteriology

he radically rethinks the doctrine of predestination

by focusing its meaning on the person of Christ
In the same way, he constructs the doctrine
of man: human nature must be understood
in the
(III, 2).

light of the nature of Christ.

Adam

scendants, that

history, its beginnings

and
its

its

is, all

endings,

human

its fallings

and

and

de-

all his

risings, its sin

and

redemption, must be seen under the aspect of

Jesus Christ in

whom God became Man,

that

is,

in

whom God

has declared himself incontrovertibly,

unchangeably for man.

We

must

realize that this Christological view of

implies a radical departure from all ordinary
general doctrines of man, including the

man

traditional

theological "anthropologies."

According to Barth,

man and mankind must

be interpreted in terms of Adam, that

is,

not

in the light

of biological or historical or philosophical

conceptions of human nature. Rather, the only
indispensable precondition for

nature

is

an understanding of human
the fact of God's revelation of Himself
in
15

Introduction
the

man

Nor dare we regard

Jesus.

the "perfect" or "ideal"

children of

Adam, nor

as such

He who

the source of our knowledge of the

God has made."

It is still

man

one of the

head of a new human-

upon or supersedes the race begun

is "the revealing word of God, is

ity that follows

by Adam.

man and

as the

Jesus himself as

(Ill, 2, p.

human

47.)

more important

that Barth's doctrine of

involves also a reinterpretation of traditional

theological anthropology.

He

agrees that the con-

demnation lying upon mankind because of

of

nature

Adam,

other

the

man)

first

one of the

is real. Its

race,

and

sin (that

that of every

gloom and doom may not be

minimized. But because there

is

a higher order of

humanity than that of Adam, an order disclosed in

God's election of

man in Christ,

the burden of man's

and death can never be the first or primary

word about man's nature and destiny nor the key to
sin, guilt

the understanding of them. For, because in Christ

God

has become

Man

in Christ,

Man

and because God has chosen

nature and human life must
upon a foundation that can never

human

be seen as resting

man is grounded upon

God and no human defiance of the

be shaken. The destiny of

the promise of

ends for which the world was created, can undo

The reader

it.

of the following essay should keep

16

Introduction
these teachings of Barth in mind.

He

whose 800 pages

matics,

them

will find

extensively treated in Vol. Ill, 2 of the

Church Dog-

constitute but a single

"The Creature."

chapter, entitled

Barth again directs his attention to anthropology

in Vol. IV,
lation.

He

1,

which has recently appeared in

trans-

devotes part of a chapter entitled "Jesus

Lord

Christ, the

as Servant" to a discussion of

Pride and Fall of

Man." Here he makes

"The

specific use

of the teachings of

Romans

closely paralleled

by the exegesis offered in

little

essay.

When

the

much

What he

has to say

is

this

A summary of his exposition may prove

Thus he

helpful.

5.

writes:

word

used

"all" is

(in

Romans

5:12),

it is

what we mean by the

word "history." The verdict that all have sinned certainly implies a verdict on that which is human history
apart from the will and word and work of God
and
a knowledge of the sin and guilt of man in the light of
the word of grace of God implies a knowledge that this
history is, in fact, grounded and determined by the pride
very

to the point to think of

of

man

[p.

505].

ence. This does not

control.

History

mean

its

concluded in disobediit is

outside of divine

which God made

and with a view to him, cannot cease to
center and goal in him. But in the light of this

The

history of the world

in Jesus Christ,

have

is

that

17

Introduction
goal and center

corruption

What

[p.

God

506].

cannot say Yes but only

.

No

to

its

the obviously outstanding feature of world

is

[It] is the all-conquering monotony

the
monotony of the pride in which man has obviously always lived to his own detriment and that of his neighbor,
from hoary antiquity and through the ebb and flow of his
later progress and recession both as a whole and in deand will most
tail, the pride in which he still lives
certainly continue to do so till the end of time.
The Bible gives to this history and to all men in this
The name
sense the general title of Adam [p. 507].
of Adam the transgressor sums up this history as the
history of mankind which God has given up, given up
and
this is
to its pride on account of its pride

history?

the explanation of

reason

why

its

staggering monotony, this

there never can be any progress

is

it

the

con-

tinually corresponds to his history. ... It constantly re-

enacts the

little

scene in the Garden of Eden. There

never was a golden age. There

back to one. The

first

is

man was

no point

in looking

immediately the

first

sinner [p. 508].

Who
all are,

Adam? ... He was in a trivial form what we

man of sin. But he was so as the beginner, and

is

(first among equals).

mean that he has bequeathed to us as his
that we have to be as he was. He has not poisor passed on a disease. What we do after him

therefore as primus inter pares

This does not

heirs so

oned us
is not done according to an example which irresistibly
overthrows us, or an imitation of his act which is or18

Introduction

No one has to be Adam.

and on our own responsibility [p. 509].
and he are reached by the same Word and judg-

dained for

all

his successors.

We

are so freely

We

ment of God

What

in the

Adam

is

same

way [p. 510].

What is to him the

direct

to Paul?

relevant

thing in this primitive representative of humanity

he is the one man

by whom "sin entered into the world and death by sin;
and so that death passed upon all men because all have
sinned."
But how does he know it?
Where has
he found this? ... In Gen. 3, of course. But how could
Gen. 3 become to him, as it obviously is, the divine
Word which is decisive and normative and authoritative
for his whole understanding of mankind and the history

The fact

of

Rom.

that according to

5: 12,

man?

According to the text of Rom. 5:12-21 there is only

one answer to this question. In that first and isolated
figure ... in that great and typical sinner and debtor at
the head of the whole race, in that dark representative
of all his successors that bear his name, he recognized
quite a different figure. This other, too,

came

directly

from God, not as a creature only, but as the Son of God

and himself God by nature. He, too, was a sinner and
debtor, but as the sinless and guiltless bearer of the sin
of others, the sins of other men. He, too, is the representative of all others.
He was not the primus inter
pares in a sequence. He represented them as a genuine
leader, making atonement by his obedience, covering
their disobedience, justifying them before God (Rom.
.

5:18,19).

19

Introduction
This Pauline argument is usually called the parallel
between Adam and Christ. But at the very least we
ought to speak of the parallel between Christ and Adam
For [Paul] knew Jesus Christ first and then
[p. 512].
Adam. ... In the unrighteous man at the head of the
old race he saw again the righteous man at the head of
the new.
The former is like the rainbow in relation
.

is only a reflection of it. It has no independent existence. It cannot stand against it. It does not
balance it. When weighted in the scales it is only like a

to the sun. It

... Is it not clear who and what is the primus

and who and what the posterius [later]? Even
when we are told in 1 Cor. 15:45 that Jesus Christ is
feather.
[first]

the eschatos

Adam

Such

Adam

is

is

is

low.

this

does not

of Gen. 3 he

first

[p.

and true

mean
is

the

Adam

of

513]. 4

man and humanity and of

Christ.

In a brief Introduction,
criticisms

the

only a type ...

Barth's view of

and

Adam

first

second, but rather that he

which the other

Adam]

[the last

that in relation to the

it is

hardly proper to offer

and evaluations of the work

The reader must,

that

is

to fol-

therefore, judge for himself

whether Barth has rightly read and understood what

Paul wrote to the

drawn

Romans and whether he

has

the right conclusions for a true interpretation

of the Christian faith.

4 From The Doctrine of Reconciliation, Pt. I, Vol. IV of Church
Dogmatics by Karl Barth. Reprinted with the permission of

Charles Scribner's Sons.

20

ROMANS

5:12-21

[Greek transliteration from Nestle

12

eis

Dia touto hosper

ton

kosmon

atos, kai

di'

text.]

henos anthropou he hamartia

eiselthen, kai dia tes hamartias

houtos

eis

ho than-

pantas anthropous ho thanatos diel-

ho pantes hemarton: M achri gar nomou

hamartia en en kosmo, hamartia de ouk ellogeitai me
ontos nomou; 14 alia ebasileusen ho thanatos apo Adam
mechri Mouseos kai epi tous me hamartesantas epi to
homoiomati tes parabaseos Adam, hos estin typos tou
then, eph'

mellontos.
15

ei

All'

oukh hos

to paraptoma, houtos to charisma;

gar to tou henos paraptomati hoi polloi apethanon,

polio mallon he chads tou

te

Theou

kai he dorea en chariti

tou henos anthropou Iesou Christou eis tous pollous

eperisseusen. 16

Kai oukh hos di' henos hamartesantos

gar krima ex henos eis katakrima,
to de charisma ek pollon paraptomaton eis dikaioma.
17
Ei gar to tou henos paraptomati ho thanatos ebasileusen dia tou henos, polio mallon hoi ten perisseian tes
charitos kai tes doreas tes dikaiosunes lambanontes en
zoe basileusousin dia tou henos Iesou Christou.
to dorema; to

18

men

Ara oun hos

anthropous

eis

di'

henos paraptomatos eis pantas

di' henos dikaio-

katakrima, houtos kai

22

ROMANS

5:12-21

[English translation from the Revised Standard Version.]

12

Therefore as sin came into the world through one

man and death through sin, and so death spread to all

13
men because all men sinned
sin indeed was in the

world before the law was given, but sin is not counted
where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam
to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the
transgression of

was

Adam, who was a

type of the one

who

to come.

15

But the

free gift

is

grace of

man

God and

if many
much more have the

not like the trespass. For

died through one man's trespass,

the free gift in the grace of that one

Jesus Christ abounded for many.

16

And

the free

For the
judgment following one trespass brought condemnation,
gift is

not like the effect of that one man's

but the free

17

gift

following

many

sin.

trespasses brings justifi-

because of one man's trespass, death

reigned through that one man, much more will those
cation.

who

If,

receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of

righteousness reign in

life

through the one

man

Jesus

Christ.
18

for

Then

all

as one man's trespass led to condemnation

men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to

matos

eis

pantas anthropous

19
eis dikaiosin zoes;

hosper

gar dia tes parakoes tou henos anthropou hamartoloi

katestathesan hoi polloi, houtos kai dia tes hypakoes

tou henos dikaioi katastathesontai hoi polloi.

20

Nomos

de pareiselthen hina pleonase to paraptoma; hou de

epleonasen he hamartia, hypereperisseusen he charis,
21
hina hosper ebasileusen he hamartia en to thanato,
houtos kai he charis basileuse dia dikaiosunes eis zoen
aionion dia Iesou Christou tou kuriou hemon.

24

acquittal

and

life

for

all

men.

19

For

as

by one man's

many were made sinners, so by one man's

obedience many will be made righteous. 20 Law came in,

disobedience

to increase the trespass; but

abounded

all

the more,

21

where

sin increased, grace

so that, as sin reigned in

death, grace also might reign through righteousness to

eternal

life

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

25

CHRIST

AND ADAM:

MAN AND HUMANITY

IN

ROMANS

Romans 5:12-21, along with

of the chapter,

the

is

first

the

first

eleven verses

of a series of passages in

which Paul develops the main theme of the

of the epistle, as

1:16-17. There

it is

it is

first

stated in the key verses

made

part

Rom.

clear that the gospel

is

the revelation of dikaiosune (righteousness) 1 also

[Rom. 4:25
and 5:18]) and dikaioma (righteous decision [Rom.

called dikaiosis (justification; acquittal

5:16])

i.e.,

decision of

edges

it

the revelation of the final righteous

God, which,

in faith,

the

is

dynamis Theou
full

eis soterian.

Paul brings out the

though the context

theme and the way

it is

is different,

the

treated are the same.

in the original text have been translithave been added in parentheses where helpEd.
for comprehension.

Greek words appearing

erated. Translations
ful

who acknowl-

implications of that statement in chapters 5-8,

in each of which,

for everyone

power of God unto salvation

29

Adam

Christ and

The
is

laid

as follows in

effective for us

grasp of

it

faith),

no

1-11:

when

and

in faith {dikaiothentes ek pisteos, justified

Him

God

with

has reached

its

(v.

limit

1),

thing

is

expressed in

v.

our strug-

and so can go

farther, the lordship of sin over us

The same

this right-

to us

through our acknowledgment and

we have peace

gle against

w.

God becomes known

eous decision of

by

arguments of chapter 5

basis of the detailed

down

10,

broken.

is

"we are now

"we have now re21 where we are

told that every alien lordship has now become for
us a thing of the past. The clearest description of
reconciled with God"; in

11,

v.

ceived reconciliation"; and in

how this righteous

is

God has been effected

which the love of God Him-

decision of

in v. 5, according to

self,

His love toward

our hearts. That

v.

this

us,

has been poured forth into

has happened

is

the presupposi-

tion of our future salvation before the

wrath (w. 9-10); and, on

relation to the present,

it is

its

and

we

and

in

the presupposition of our

hope of partaking in God's

ing to 3:23)

judgment of

positive side,

glory, of

which (accord-

must, as sinners, have completely

finally fallen short.

That

is

what has happened

wherever God's righteous decision has been ac-

knowledged and grasped in

righteous decision

faith.

and the gospel

30

That

is

why

that reveals

it

this

are

Adam

Christ and

called (1:16) "God's saving power."

That

we

not

glory in such hope

put to shame

(v. 5).

(v. 2). It will

make

why

us be

on this presupposition, even

For,

we can

in our present afflictions

they can only

is

let

only glory, because

more

us the

steadfast,

can only

provide us with assurance, can, in this indirect way,

serve only to

summon

us

the

all

more

make peace with God for believers,

to

God,

because
is,

to

hope (w.

God's righteous decision has such power to

3-4).

to
it

to reconcile

pour forth God's love into

their hearts,

has been carried out in Jesus Christ,

quite uniquely

(v. 7),

the

them

who

way by which we gain

we have taken
our stand. For God's love toward us commends itself in this (v. 8), that Christ died for us while we
access to the grace in which

were
(v.

still

6),

weak

still

(v. 6), still

enemies

waited for us, but has

(v.

(v.

2)

sinners (v. 8),

10).

come

to

It

still

godless

has therefore not

meet us and gone be-

fore us. In sovereign anticipation of our faith

has

justified

Christ. In the death of His

on our behalf

Son God has intervened

in the "nevertheless" of His free grace

in face of the apparently insurmountable

our revolt and resistance (w. 9-10). So

peace, so reconciled us, so

ward

us.

God

us through the sacrificial blood of

Because

God

power of

He has made

commended His

love to-

in Jesus Christ so exercises

31

Christ and

Adam

His sovereignty on our behalf, because this

love of

God poured

forth through the

is

Holy

the

Spirit

our hearts, we have for our future only the bold

in

word sothesometha "we

and there

is

existence.

On

His

life

faith in

nothing

shall

left to

be saved" (w. 9-10),

us but to glory in our

the death of God's

as the Risen

One

(v. 10).

Son there follows

When we

put our

God's righteous decision carried out in Him,

we immediately become sharers in Christ's triumph

"how much more" {polio mallori).

In

Paul uses

this context

Christ died for us

much more

shall

cation which

is

this

phrase twice: "Since

when we were

we"

on

how

yet sinners,

the ground of our

"be

justifi-

already objectively complete

Him" (w. 8-9); and "Since, when we were

yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the
death of His Son, how much more shall we, as the
saved by

reconciled, be saved in His risen life"

it is

explicitly

made

clear that this

reconciliation to salvation

is

(v.

Here

10).

argument from

logically

based upon

the fact that Christ has not only died but has also

of us

lies salvation,

andsince,

shared His death,

we must now

share His

risen.

Him

Ahead

as well

we can do nothing but

having
with

life

glory in

it.

particular, the stupendous fact that the believer

and must glory in

his existence has

32

its

In

may

ground and

Adam

Christ and

meaning

here.

We

glory in our hope

God"

glory "in
(v. 2).

(v.

11)

when we

Put concretely, that means

we glory "through our Lord Jesus," through His

voice, we glory in the glory which,

that

mouth and His

as the resurrected

from the dead,

He

proclaims. His

upon the righteous decision of

and because He lives,
this peace, and our reconciliation, and the pouring
forth of the love of God in our hearts, mark a point
in our journey beyond which there is no turning
back, going on from which we have only one future,
and in which we can only glory. His resurrection is
risen life sets the seal

God

effected in His death,

the supreme act of God's sovereignty; henceforth

bound

are

to live

It is clear that

and think

its light.

although Paul sees Christ as be-

longing together with

Him

in

God and

His work, he also

from God, and speaks,

of His human nature. It is clear that he puts the

sees
too,

man

as distinguished

Jesus in His dying

and himself and

all

and

other

rising

men

on the one

the other side. It

as a

human

is

clear that

individual

side,

(here, in the first

place, believers), with their past, present,

on

we

and

future,

he speaks of

Him

and describes Him as such

with unmistakable emphasis. But the existence of

this

human

individual does not therefore exhaust

self in its individuality.

The very
33

it-

existence of this

Adam

Christ and
individual
cision

is

identical with a divine righteous de-

which potentially includes an

indefinite multi-

tude of other men, so as to be manifest and effective

in those

who

believe in

Him

in a

way

that

is

abso-

and
them with God through His death.
That means that in His own death He makes their
peace with God before they themselves have decided for this peace and quite apart from that decislutely decisive for their past, present,

He

future.

reconciles

ion. In believing, they are only

conforming to the

them that has already been made in

Him. What matters most to them is that they are no
decision about

longer the enemies of

ahead of them

is

God

that they

once were;

future salvation instead of certain

condemnation in the judgment of God's wrath; they

have, also, the certain hope of sharing in God's

own

glory and can only glory in existing in such a hope.

All that

is

due, not to their resolving and disposing,

which rather tended in precisely the opposite

tion,

but to the fact that

in spite of them,

was

it

when He

direc-

settled without

and

died on Golgotha and

was raised up from the grave

in the garden of Joseph

of Arimathea. In believing in

Him they

edging that

when He

are acknowl-

died and rose again, they too,

died and rose again in Him, and that, from

their life, in its essentials,

34

now

on,

can only be a copy and

Christ and

image of His.
their hearts

mean

that

It is

when

them, and

Adam

He who

this love of

is

through the Holy

He is in them and

God's love toward

God

poured forth in

is

can only

Spirit, that

they in

Him

and

that

happens quite independently of any prior love

ward God from

this

their side. Afterward,

to-

and because

has happened, they are of course asked about

that also.

But

this

they glory even

through

human

Him

(v.

must be understood quite

now

literally:

"through Him," and only

11), in

echo of the new glory of

existence proclaimed through His mouth.

Apart from

that,

nothing in

human

and of themselves, there would be

existence in

which they could

glory.

Such then

is

the status of this

He is an individual in
only beside Him and
most

such a

dividuality

is

also

human

individual.

that others are not

along with Him, but in their

critical decision

God, they are

way

and

about their relationship to

first

of all in

Him. His

in-

such therefore that with His being and

and dying, a decision is made

which at first is simply contrary to

doing, with His living

about them
their

own

also,

decision,

and which afterward they can

only acknowledge and carry out in their

cision.

He pleads their cause,

not merely as

His own, but, in and with His

35

own

cause,

own
if it

He

de-

were

in fact

Adam

Christ and

He

pleads theirs.

does that in such measure that

might well be asked

uality could

remain

how He

from them. But

distinct

ap-

it

pears that His individual distinctness from them

preserved by the unique

it

Himself in His individ-

way

in

which

He

is

identifies

Himself with them. And, at the same time, the prece-

dence in origin and status between

Him and them

remains intact and irreversible. His function remains

that of giving, theirs of receiving; His of leading the

way, theirs of following. His position remains unchangeably that of original, theirs of copy.

He

re-

mains unmistakably distinguished from any of them.

however,

It is,

become

tionships

first

in

w.

12-21 that these rela-

quite clear. In this second half of

the chapter, Paul goes farther than in the

by

setting the

the

new

point

is

one man

Jesus Christ
the

same material

and so

is

the

first

in a wider context.

half

Here

that the special anthropology of

men in
constitutes the secret of "Adam" also,
norm of all anthropology. Paul now
the one

man

for all

men,

all

makes a fresh start with the question of the past out

of which believers have come and in which they still
have a part, and at the same time he takes up again
the question of the totality of

men whom,

in

w.

Christ and

6-10 he had

first set

Adam

over against Christ as weak,

sinners, godless, enemies.

V. 12 has usually been taken as an anacoluthon. 2

More probably

it

should be taken as a kind of head-

ing to what follows.

For

this

reason (dia touto) are

we such as w. 1-11 described us, for this reason

shall we be saved by sharing in the risen life of Jesus
do we glory

Christ, for this reason

through

Him

ners, godless,

namely,

in our

hope

that already as weak, sin-

and enemies, already as children and

Adam, and so in the past from which we

came, we were not completely beyond the reach of

heirs of

the truth of Jesus Christ, but stood in a definite (even

if

negative) relationship to His saving power. V. 12

out this negative relationship. "As through one

sets

man

sin has

death,
all

broken into the world, and through

and as death has spread

men have

ship between

sinned"

Adam

to all

sin

men, for that

in other words, the relation-

and

all

of us then, in the past,

corresponds to the relationship between Christ and

all

of us now, in the present. Because of that corre-

spondence
2

it is

true, as

Paul has already emphasized

"A

sentence or expression in which the latter part does not

begun in the first part"
(Webster), a mannerism characteristic of Paul's way of speak-

syntactically carry out the construction

ing,

probably because he dictated his

37

letters.

Ed.

Adam

Christ and
in

w.

still

living in the

cause of

it,

back

unredeemed past with

even in that past

forsaken and

much

we were not completely

it, we can now look

Because of

lost.

at that past with

fore "so

we were
Adam. Be-

died for us while

6, 8, 10, that Christ

good cheer

and can

there-

the more" glory in our present, and

in the future that opens out

from

it.

We

were

not,

even then, in an entirely different world. Even then,

we

existed in

an order whose

significance

course just the opposite of that of the

Christ, but

When we

which had the same

look back

was of

Kingdom

we must and we may

nize the ordering principle of the

of

structure.

Kingdom

recog-

of Christ

even in the ordering principle of the world of Adam.

Even when we were weak,

though

we were

sinners, godless, enemies,

traveling in a very different direc-

tion, the rule of the

indeed the same as

road strikingly resembled

the one

was

we know now. Between

our former existence outside Christ and our present

existence in

Him

there

is

a natural connection.

former existence outside Christ

stood, already a

still

is,

Our

rightly under-

hidden but real existence in

Him. Because of that, we dare to confess that we

have peace with God, we dare to glory in our future

we who

salvation

day are

still

the

still

have that

past,

we who

to-

same men who were once weak,

38

Adam

Christ and
godless,

sinners,

and enemies. Our past cannot

frighten us: in spite of

into account,

we

are

it,

still

and even taking

it

fully

allowed and required to

confess our reconciliation and glory in our salvation,

just

because our past as such

ship between

Adam

and

namely,
was

the relation-

of us

all

already

ordered so as to correspond to our present and future

namely,
That

us.

the relationship between Christ and all of

is

what

made

is

clear in the heading in

v. 12.

The meaning of
between

the famous parallel (so called)

"Adam and

Christ,"

which now

follows,

is

Adam

and us

is

not that the relationship between

the expression of our true
that

and

original nature, so

we would have to recognize in Adam

the funda-

mental truth of anthropology to which the subsequent relationship between Christ and us would have
to

fit

and adapt

itself.

The

relationship between

Adam

and us reveals not the primary but only the

secondary anthropological truth and ordering princi-

ple.

The primary anthropological

principle,
ship, is

which only mirrors

made

truth

itself

and ordering

in that relation-

clear only through the relationship be-

tween Christ and us.

Adam

is,

as

typos tou mellontos, the type of

is

said in v. 14,

Him who was

come. Man's essential and original nature

39

is

to

to

be

Christ and

Adam

found, therefore, not in

Adam

Adam we

it

can only find

but in Christ. In

Adam

prefigured.

can

therefore be interpreted only in the light of Christ

and not the other way round.

This then

is

Adam and

our past

we

in his relationship to us,

Adam. This

is

the history of

all

of us,

in our relationship to

man and

of humanity

outside Christ: the sin and death of a single

Adam,

the

sents the

man who

own

in his

Adam

person

whole of humanity, the

man

is

in

man, of

and reprewhose de-

and destiny the decisions and destinies, the

and the death of all the other men who come

cision
sins

him, are anticipated.

after

It is also

these others has lived his

own

sins,

own

and has had to die

the lives of all other

the repetition

his

true that each of

life,

has sinned his

own death. Even

so,

men after Adam have only been

and variation of

his life, of his begin-

ning and his end, of his sin and his death. That

our

past.

So were we weak,

sinners, godless,

is

and ene-

Adam in us and ourselves in Adam,

and the many, in the irremovable distinctness of the one over and against the others, in the
irremovable unity of the others with the one. But

mies, always

the one

now our

past existence without Christ has no inde-

pendent status or importance. Because

tuted

by

this

it

was

consti-

double relationship between the one

40

Christ and

and the

others,

it is

now

Adam

only the type, the likeness,

shadow of our present existence,

by the relationship between the One Christ and the many others and by
the grace of God and His promise of life to men.
Now the way in which our past was related to Adam
can be understood only as a reflection and witness
of the way in which our present is related to Christ.
Human existence, as constituted by our relationship
with Adam in our unhappy past as weak, sinners,
godless, enemies, has no independent reality, status,
or importance of its own. It is only an indirect witness to the reality of Jesus Christ and to the original
and essential human existence that He inaugurates
and reveals. The righteous decision of God has fallen
upon men not in Adam but in Christ. But in Christ
the preliminary

which

it

to

is

itself

constituted

Adam, upon our relationship

him and so upon our unhappy past. When we

has also fallen upon

we

also

know Adam

belongs to Him.

The

relationship that existed be-

know
tween

Christ,

Adam and

us

is,

as the

according to

tionship that exists originally

and

v. 12,

essentially

one who
the rela-

between

Christ and us.

Paul's next point can best

passing

on from

v.

be understood by

12 straight to

41

w.

first

18-19, and then

Christ and
to v. 21.

Adam

These verses contain the

parallel

V.

itself.

"As one man's trespass led to condemnation for

all men, so one man's righteous act (dikaioma) leads
to the righteous decision which brings pardon and
18:

the promise of

which leads

life (dikaiosis

zoes,

lit.:

justification

men." V. 19: "As by the

to life) for all

one man's disobedience many were accounted

ners before God, so by one man's obedience
shall
is

be accounted righteous."

And then v.

21, which

a summary of the whole: "As sin reigned

held sway over

all

men)

sin-

many
(i.e.,

in death, so through the

righteous decision grace reigns unto eternal

life

through Jesus Christ, our Lord." The parallel must

first

be seen as such. In both cases there

and in both, the many,

the one,

inaugurates, represents,
all

all

who by what he

men who come

is

men. Here, in Adam,

is

and reveals what the many,

have to be

after him, will also

and do and undergo. But

less

the one,

and does and undergoes,

here, in

the many, all men, not one of

or the

is

Adam,

them the

penalized because he

is

are also

less guilty

not himself the

one, but each rather finding himself completely in

what the one

is

and does and undergoes, and recog-

nizing himself only too clearly in him. There, in

Christ,

who

is,

for the

first

time in the true sense, the

stands, as such, for all the others.

He

also

One

is

the

Christ and

Adam

Inaugurator, Representative, and Revealer of what

through

Him the many, all men shall

and receive. And there, also for the first

Him and

also be, do,

with

time in the true sense, are the many,

one of them
is

less righteous

all

men, not

or less blessed because he

not himself the One, but each rather rinding and

One who

recognizing himself again in what this

takes his place

and

is,

does,

and has received. As

the existence of the one, here in

Adam,

in

the result

for the

many,

with

the destiny of death; so again, in the exist-

it,

all

men,

is

the lordship of sin, and,

ence of the One, there in Christ, the result for

men

is

righteous decision and the promise of eternal

That
laid

is

down

life.

a general summary of the relationships

in

complete. In
this

all

the lordship of grace exercised in the divine

w.
1

18-19, 21.

The

parallel

Cor. 15:21-22 also, Paul

is

formally

first

makes

formal parallel clear: "As death came through

one man, so also the resurrection came through one

man. For as in
be made

Adam

alive."

That

and man
Adam
"Adam and
from

with

sides

us"

all

are

all die,
is

so in Christ shall

the situation of

there with Christ.

of us"

man

Thus both

and "Christ and

all

43

of

we
connection when

the start closely connected, and

immediately become aware of that

all

here

Christ and

we

see that the

bound us

to

same formal

Adam now

This formal parallel

Taken by

concern.

relationship that once

binds us to Christ.

however, not Paul's only

is,

itself, it

leaves the material rela-

and

tionship between Christ

We

Adam

Adam

still

undefined.

do not know whether, on one side or the

other, there is an essential priority and an inner
superiority that would make Christ the master of
still

Adam

Adam

or

the master of Christ. Perhaps sin

and death are as strong

and

as grace

they will ultimately prove stronger.

an open question whether

more about

Adam who
pears in

Adam

It

life.

Perhaps

remains

or Christ

the true nature of man. Perhaps

embodies basic human nature as

all its

only embodies

many
it

one form in which

it

is

ap-

appears

us the truth about Christians, whereas

tells

us the truth about

5,

it

it

men: perhaps Christ only

tells

Rom.

us

possible forms whereas Christ

in the

in Christian or religious

again at

still

tells

we

all

Adam

men. But when we look

find that Paul does not deal

with the formal parallel between the two sides in

isolation,

tionship

but in a context where their material rela-

is

made unambiguously

18-19, 21, Paul does not leave

whether
to

clear.

it

Even

in

w.

an open question

Adam is prior to Christ or Christ is superior

Adam. He does not

leave the two side by side in

44

Christ and

Adam

a merely formal relationship.

him
in

to

show

It is

not enough for

that life in Christ helps to explain life

Adam. He

is

also concerned to

make

quite clear

two formally paralno uncertainty can remain.

have already seen that on both sides there is

the material relationship of these

lel sides,

We

so that

the formal identity of the one

is

human

nature which

not annulled or transformed even by

reaching that conclusion

we

are

bound

sides.

For what we have

rest of us is

it

upon the

between the two

said about

only valid because

Adam

and the

corresponds with

what we already know about Christ and the

rest of

who vouches for the authenAdam and not Adam who vouches for the

us so that
ticity of

in

to recognize

that the formal identity itself depends

greatest possible material disparity

But

sin.

it is

Christ

authenticity of Christ.

Adam is lower than the

Adam counts for less than

Therefore the status of

status of Christ, the sin of

the righteousness of Christ. So also the relationship

of the

many

to

Adam

is less

other relationship to Christ.

significant

The only

than their

thing that

is

common to both relationships is that in two different

contexts true human nature is revealed, and that in
two

different

ordering of

ways

God

it is

its

shown

to

be subject

to the

Creator. But to discover this

45

Christ and

common factor

Adam
sides,

we have

to take into account the decisive difference

between

that connects the

two

them. And this difference is that our relationship to

Adam is only the type, the likeness, the preliminary

shadow of our

human

The same

relationship to Christ.

nature appears in both but the humanity of

Adam is only real and genuine in so far

and corresponds to the humanity of

as

it

reflects

Christ.

"The first man is of the earth, earthy, the second

is from heaven." That is how Paul puts it in 1

man

Cor. 15:47. Christ

is

true

is

man only because he is below and

because his claim to be the

of humanity like Christ
truly

Adam is beneath. Adam

above,

men because we,

"first

is

like

not above,

man" and

only apparent.

Adam,

the head

We

are

are below and not

above, because Adam's claim to be our head and

to

make

We

us

are real

because

members

men

Adam

in his

is

priority

Our

is

not our head and

members, because above

Christ.

body

only apparent.

in our relationship to

Adam

we

Adam, only
are not his

and before

Adam is

relationship to Christ has an essential

and superiority over our relationship

to

Adam. He is the Victor and we in Him are those

who are awaiting the victory. Our human nature is
preserved by sharing Adam's nature, because
Adam's humanity

is

a provisional copy of the real

46

Christ and

humanity that
dren and

And

in Christ.

is

heirs, in

Adam
Adam's

so as

chil-

our past as weak, sinners, godless,

and enemies, we are in this provisional way still men

whose nature reflects the true human nature of
Christ.

And so, because our nature in Adam is a pro-

visional

copy of our true nature in Christ,

structure can

and must even

in

its

its

formal

perversion be the

same.

The whole argument

character of

Adam

turns on this provisional

and of our human nature in its

relation to him. Right

from the

start

we have

to take

account of the essential disparity between him and

Christ, and between our bond with him and our
bond with Christ. This is not a case of right against
right, but of man's wrong against God's right, not of
truth against truth, but of man's He against God's
truth. It is not even a case of power against power,

but of man's powerlessness against God's power.

Least of

all is it

a case of

of this world against

man

God

God

Goda god
but simply

against

the Creator

one God, and, on the other side,

the same one God for man. That is why we cannot

of

against the

rest content

with the formal parallel and

why

the

question about the priority and superiority of one

side over the other

The main

point of

can only be answered in one way.

Rom. 5:12-21
47

is

that here

man

Christ and
stands against

God

Adam

ness,

Christ.

God's work, and so be the precursor of

Even

in his

bad relationship

Adam, he

to

remains man, and the structure of his nature

such that

good

it

can find

its

meaning and

is

and death

his nature is

still

essential disparity

between

life.

Adam

guilt

is

and punishment we incur

Our

life

the point which Paul

the middle section,

w.

15-17.

when we compare man's

in

own

dark shadows of the grace and

is

is

be

how the
is

con-

relationship

a subordinate relationship, because the

independent reality of their

That

That

nature
will

it

and Christ

tained within their formal identity.

Adam

the lord-

human

the image and likeness of what

under the lordship of grace and

is

fulfillment in

Even under

relationship to Christ.

ship of sin

and so

to

his powerless-

and Adam's child he must be the mirror that

reflects

his

even in his

that,

and

lie,

he must be a witness for God, that even as

Adam

still

way

in such a

opposition, his wrongness, his

we

is

The

Adam

find in Christ.

making

is

that

Adam

with

two are

for-

really the greatest

and

his relationship to Christ, although the

is

clear in

point here

relationship to

mally symmetrical, there

have no

but are only the

most fundamental disparity between them. It should

be noticed that this passage comes before w. 18-19,
48

Christ and
in

which the

parallel

is

Adam

developed. Paul himself has

not adopted our procedure of getting a clear outline

upon the formal

identity of the two sides and then going on to explain
their essential disparity. What he sees and says first

of the whole by

is

concentrating

first

rather that our relationship to

different

Christ. It is

comes

Adam is completely

from and subordinate to our relationship

by

first

to

emphasizing the disparity that he

to recognize the identity as well.

The

parallel

between the one and the many, the heis and the
polloi,

on both

sides in

w. 18-19

is

introduced as a

corollary of the disparity between them, as the in-

oun) of v. 18 shows. Paul sums

up that disparity in two statements which have the
same construction, and which taken together make

ferential "then" (ara

his

meaning

The

first

clear.

of these

is

in v. 15a:

ptoma, houtos to charisma

same with grace as

other words, grace
spite of the

Adam

is

it is

is

oukh hos

not the

with the transgression." In

not to be measured by

sin; in

formal identity between them, the sin of

not comparable with the grace of Christ.

V. 15b gives the reason for

this statement. It

course, true that the sin (paraptoma

the one

to para-

literally: "It is

its

of

peccatum) of

Adam, brought about the death of

not only as

is,

the many,

consequence but as something directiy

Christ and

involved in
sin,

itself. It is

Adam

true that there

and

then, with

men

death also broke into the world of

(v. 12),

and then the many died, even before

they were born. But over and against that stands the
so that there

other truth that in the grace of the other One, the

man

Jesus, the grace of

God

overflowed upon these

many who were already dead in and with the

of Adam. Why "overflowed"? Because Adam's
is

only Adam's

the grace of
it

sin,

it

sin

but the grace of Jesus Christ

God and

overflowed,

sin

His

And

gift.

prevailed,

it

is

so eperisseusen,

was greater than sin.

is compared with the

Thus, when the work of Christ

work

of

Adam, though

they are formally identical,

yet the difference between

them

is

the radical, final,

and irremovable difference between God and man.

That is why v. 15a said that the grace (charisma)

was not

to

be measured by the transgression (para-

ptoma). That

Paul
to all

is

is

why

the opposite alone

not denying that Adam's sin

still

is

possible.

brings death

men, but he is affirming that the grace of Christ

has an incomparably greater power to

dead men
truth in

alive.

He

is

Adam, but he

is

saying that

nate truth that depends for

spondence with the

make

these

not saying that there

its

it is

validity

is

no

a subordi-

on

its

corre-

final truth that is in Christ.

The second of our two statements

50

is

in v. 16a: kai

Christ and

Adam

oukh hos di'henos hamartesantos to dorema litnot the same with the gift [given us
through the grace of God] as it is with what has
come upon us through the one who sinned." In other
words, the result of grace is not to be measured by
erally: "It is

the result of sin; in spite of the formal identity be-

tween them, the

effect of

Adam's

sin

ble with the effect of Christ's grace.

argument in w. 166-17
v. 15. It is

is

more

is

not compara-

The supporting

detailed than in

arranged in two contrasts between Christ

and Adam, the

first

of which prepares the

way

for

the second. V. 16b contains this introductory contrast.

first

What has come upon

sinned (ex henos)

is

us through the one

evitably led to punishment (katakrima). In

him we

who

judgment (krima) which

in-

and with

and condemned. That is

the result of sin. What that means in practice will
be explained more closely in v. 17. In v. 16b it is
first

are found guilty

contrasted with the completely different result

of grace. Grace {charisma) enters in just at the point

where the work of

sin,

which started

in the one, has

been completed in the many, so that in

ship to the one all
guilty

and

their relation-

men have now sinned and become

ripe for

condemnation

where grace makes

its first

(v. 12).

contact with

The place

men

is

in

the transgressions of many, the paraptomata pollon,

51

Christ and

and

that

that all

the very place

is

men

are guilty in

Adam

where

sin justifies its claim

and with Adam, and ren-

Adam's condemnation.

ders them liable to

not

It is

strange that sin should bring judgment and judg-

ment condemnation in its

train.

that at the precise point

where

men under condemnation,

But

it is

sin

very strange

has brought

all

grace should intervene,

so that what actually follows the paraptomata pollon

(the transgressions of

of

sin,

but

its

Paraptomata
after

many)

is

not the condemnation

very opposite, the pardon of God.

dikaioma, pardon,
sin

the pardon

which the katakrima that follows the krima

not taken into account any more. "There

is

is

now

no condemnation {katakrima) for those

who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). But how can
therefore

sin lead to

pardon,

ptomaton

eis

how can we

into justification)? Is
to

pardon from

sin?

it

not impossible to find a

understand

men. But

how

it is v.

statement in

v.

it is

condemnation,

sin leads to

easy to understand
it is

impossible to

grace can lead to pardon for sinful

17 that gives the real reason for the

16a. It should be noted that v. 17

has the same grammatical construction as

ei

way

V. 166 leads us to the question

by showing us that although

how

pass ek pollon para-

dikaioma (from many transgressions

gar to tou henos paraptomati. ...

52

(if

v.

156:

through one

Adam

Christ and

.). The thing, on the one

we can understand, and the thing, on the
that we cannot understand, are now named.

man's transgressions.

side, that

other,

The

two

external disparity of the

dicated in v. 166,

is

now

is this

By

through that one

and

as well,

sin

and grace

set to

that

is

it is

the lordship

the transgression of the one that lord-

and is now being

ship has been established

And

is in-

katakrima, this punishment or con-

demnation? Paul's answer

of death.

which

explained by bringing out

what actually happens when

work among men.

What

sides,

all

the

it is

more

exercised.

many
many also

lordship over the

so because the

have sinned, each for himself. To say that death

men is not the same as to say, with

156, that all men have died. It emphasizes that
death is an objective and alien power that is now

rules over all

v.

exercising

its

lordship over man. Death, like sin,

an intruder into human

for

man's world

it

it

in the original

had no place

broke into the world

by which

life;

(v.

could claim

12),
all

man's

is

not so

much God's

sin; it is rather

all.

When

death found the

men. That

pens when as a result of his sin

Death

at

man

is

is

sin

way

what hap-

condemned.

direct reaction against

men
Book of

God's abandoning of the

who have abandoned Him. Think

53

is

scheme

of the


Christ and

Adam

Judges; as soon as Israel turns to strange gods,

it is

immediately abandoned to the hostile power of alien

peoples.
tection,

With God's rule there goes also God's proand when Israel cast off that protection, its

danger and helplessness are immediately

made clear.

means in practice for man's sin to

be condemned. Through the one who sinned there
has come upon us the unnatural oppression and constraint of death, which becomes inevitable where
man has cast off his obedience to God. As we saw
in v. 16b, the logical connection between sin and
That

is

what

it

condemnation
cal

unnatural that
Its

is

easy to understand, but the practi-

outcome of death ruling over human

it is

life is

impossible to understand

complete contrast to that

is

it

so

at all.

the practical signifi-

cance of the dikaioma (righteous decision, justifying

act).

Here grace overflows on

all

men

(v.

15b) and

they receive the dorea tes dikaiosunes, God's free

gift

of righteousness, and the result

is

that instead of

death ruling over them, they themselves are going

to rule in life with

Men who

God

en zoe basileusousin.

are already under the alien lordship of

death and are already dead in their sins, are rescued

from that situation and transferred into a completely
different situation, in

which instead of dying an

death, they will live their

own

54

true life

and so

alien
will

Christ and

Adam

not be slaves but lords. This

the situation which

is

has already been described as our future salvation

and

in vv. 9-10,

We

glory in v. 2.

hope of sharing in God's

as our

have already seen that where the

act) intervenes on the krima

no more katakrima (condemnation). But now we can go farther than this: the
dikaioma is the dikaioma of God. And so there goes
with it hope, the greatest hope of all, the hope of the
glory of God, the hope of the basileuein en zoe (ruling in life)
of living the true kingly life of man.

dikaiomo (righteous
(judgment), there

is

This hope, though

condemned
is

come

the natural result of God's pardon,

this

hope

the

man who

is

the natural condition of

is

men

indeed marvelous that

it is

to death should ever

to enjoy

and

man, that

righteous in the eyes of God.

is,

glory of

and the

is

the difference between the result of

we saw

between

and pardon

sin

namely, the free

result of grace,

dorema. As

it is

all.

the

6b, the logical connection

is

impossible to understand,

so natural that

out any difficulty at

gift,

in v.

but the practical result that

lives

man

hope of sharing the

God?

This, then,
sin

this

of

What

could be more obvious than that a righteous

should be able to live in

it,

to live in

it

man

receives

life

and

can be understood with-

We can now see the disparity

55

Adam

Christ and

between the

result of grace

so once more, in a

and the

new way,

result of sin,

and

the disparity between

man in Adam and man in Christ.

noted that here also there

It should be clearly
no question of denying

is

or annulling the truth in

Adam. Paul both

back to the place where death

looks

ruled, ebasileusen, as

men

well as looking forward to the place where

rule, basileusousin, in life (v. 17).

He has

will

accurately

recognized and explained both results in their inner

nature and at the same time has given each
place.

one

For the two

results are quite different.

between

side the logical connection

death

is

come

of the rule of death

its

due

On the

sin

and

unmistakably obvious, but the practical outis

impossibly strange:

while on the other side the logical connection be-

tween sin and pardon

the material

is

completely miraculous and

outcome of men

living their true life is

natural and true to the fundamental nature of man.

These glaring contrasts make the difference between

the two results quite plain.

destroy
it,

human nature,

so that

grace,

and

it is

that

The

result of sin is to

the result of grace

obvious that sin

it is

is

is

to restore

subordinate to

grace that has the

last

word

about the true nature of man.

We may sum up Paul's two arguments for the disparity between Christ

and
56

Adam

as follows:

The

Christ and
first is

of the
side

His

in v. 15, the second in

first

it is

man who

Adam,

16-17; the nerve

that on the one

and on the other God in all

acts,

is

the nerve of the second

argument

with Christ
with

w.

and shorter argument

finality;

tailed

Adam

is

is

and more de-

that although our relationship

formally the same as our relationship

yet in external context, internal content,

in logical structure

and

outcome, the two

and diametrically opposed.
But we have not yet noticed an important element
in practical

are completely different

in this central section of the passage.

At

sight

first

it

appears to be of no importance, but to consider it

will bring to light yet another essential factor in this
situation. This is the polio mallon, the

more," which

up again
is

first

appears in

in the important

w.

w.

"how much

9-10 and

is

taken

15-17. This formula

the key to the relationship of the two sides

the meaning of the contrast between them.

and

The

to
re-

markable thing about it is that it both connects its

two terms and subordinates the one to the other. So
in this case it both presupposes and affirms the identity of the two sides, and at the same time uses this
presupposition to

make

their disparity clear.

Whenever it is possible to use the phrase "much

more" in comparing one thing with another, we are
dealing with two things that

57

fall

under the same

Christ and
ordering principle, which
in lesser degree

on

on

is

Adam
valid

the one side,

and recognizable

and

in greater de-

was not first valid on one

side, it could not be "so much more" valid on the
other. If it was not first clearly recognized on one
side, it could not be "so much more" clearly recognized on the other. In our context, the first term in
gree

the other. If

the comparison

Adam,

is

it

the entire realm of the truth in

in which, according to

w.

15-17, the

many

die in the transgression of the one, because through

the transgression of the one death has gained lord-

men. About this truth in Adam the

makes one thing clear. It tells us that
it stands under the same ordering principle as the
truth in Christ, and that even though the truth in
ship over

all

polio mallon

Adam

is

subordinate to the truth in Christ, yet in

it

and can be recognized.

To understand why this can and must be so, we
have to refer back to the use of the same formula in

that principle

w.

is

valid

9-10. There the

which

is

first

term of the comparison,

put, so to speak,

on

the left-hand side,

is

our reconciliation through the death of Christ when

we were still weak, sinners, godless, and enemies.

Since, we are told in w. 9-10, this first term on the
left-hand side is valid, "how much more" valid is
the second term

on

the right-hand side, which

58

is

our

Christ and

Adam

hope of salvation through the resurrection of Christ

from the dead. And so both reconciliation and salvagrounded on the same ordering

tion are

and both

find a

common

validity in the

Christ, in the humiliation

man.

And

within that

and exaltation of

work

because

we

He

them

stands, for

are sure that Christ achieved our

reconciliation that
that

one

this

of Christ both can be

recognized, the distinction between

it is

principle,

one work of

we can be

"so

much more"

sure

has achieved our salvation as well. In

15-17 the

first

term on the left-hand

w.

side, the sin of

Adam and its result, seems to have nothing in common with the second term on the right, the grace of
and the gift it brings. In fact the one
seems as different from the other as darkness is from
light. But here, as before, the polio mallon forms a
bond and a link and points to an ordering principle
Jesus Christ

that can connect even such opposites as these.

it

is

because polio mallon

w. 9-10, that
w. 15-17.

terms in
sites of

The death and

it

first

And

connects the two

can also connect the oppo-

the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

our reconciliation through His blood on the one

hand, and our hope in the power of His life on the
other, are
it is

two aspects

true

of

one

two

very different aspects,

single action.

59

For that reason, in

Christ and

w. 15-17
there

is

not enough merely to distinguish

also, it is

the truth in

Adam

from the truth in

Christ.

Because

a valid and recognizable connection between

Christ's death for sinners

to

Adam

men, there must

also

and His

rising to bring life

be a valid and recognizable

Adam in whom men sin and

and Christ in whom they are pardoned and made

connection between
die

alive.

The only connection between

Adam

is

From

that for

Adam

Christ died

Christ

and

and rose again.

Adam, as such, no way leads to the

way from krima (judgment) to
dikaioma (righteousness), no way from katakrima
(condemnation) to soteria (salvation), no way from
death to life. If we looked from left to right, we
would find every attempt to move in that direction
frustrated, every door closed. If we could regard
the sin of

grace of Christ, no

Adam and

our participation in his

nation as an isolated and

it

would be impossible

sin

and condem-

self -centered

to find there

whole, then

any connection

with Christ and our participation in His grace and

life.

But so to regard

Adam

Adam

is

impossible. Paul does

how he is connected with

Christ; he goes to Christ to see how He is connected
with Adam. Already in w. 9-10 he has looked back
not go to

at

to see

our unhappy past, and in so doing has brought

60

it

Christ and

Adam
and

into positive relation with our present

which

mon

seemed

at first sight

with

at

it

all.

The

to

future,

have nothing in com-

present and future belong to

Christ and in belonging to Christ they are connected

with the past, because the past contains not only

Adam's

and Adam's death, not only our weak-

sin

and enmity,

ness, sin, godlessness,

reconciliation to

God.

invaded the world of

self,

that Paul

two, a
self

way

and

our

it

because Christ has thus

It is

Adam

and claimed

it

for

Him-

can find a connection between the

that leads

all believers,

from

Adam

prosagoge

in fact stand [v. 2]).

not treat the truth in

Thus

Adam

in
as

to Christ for him-

eis ten

en he hestekamen (an access to

we

contains also

it

and through

the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,

this

charin tauten,

grace in which

w. 15-17 Paul
though

it

can-

were inde-

pendent and self-contained. The truth in Christ will

not allow

it

to

be

that, for Christ

has challenged the

and death to rule over Adam's world,

by invading that world and making it His own. Only
by overlooking or forgetting the truth in Christ

right of sin

which has broken into the world of Adam, could we

judge the truth in

Adam

light. It has, of course,

no

to

be absolutely without

light of its

drawn into the light by the fact

risen from the dead. And when
61

own. But

it is

that Jesus Christ

is

that light shines,

it

Christ and

Adam

shows us the cross on which the same Jesus Christ

suffered and died for the sin of Adam and the sin
of

all

Adam

men, and by which

and

all

men

reconciled and pardoned and can rind again the

reopened way to

life

are

now

with God.

The same Jesus Christ is already involved in the

Adam, which in our treatment of polio
mallon we put on the left-hand side of the comparitruth in

son.

He

is

already in the midst of the world of sin

and death, which

is

power and our knowledge

for our

a closed circle beyond whose bounds

pass. In that

world

He

is

we cannot

already King, secretly in

He disputes Adam's mismake valid against Him

a distinct truth of his own. He disputes also the right
of all others, who have sinned with Adam. He steps
His humiliation. Already

erable right to represent and

into

Adam's place and

into our place with the claim,

the right, and the power, to

make our

sin

and our

death His responsibility, and so to pronounce God's

pardon and remove the katakrima from the world,

bringing in instead of

the promise in power. Be-

it

cause the truth in Christ has this superiority in power

over the truth in

one ordering

Adam,

principle.

the

two stand together under

That

to relativize the opposition

is

why

it is

between them in such a

remarkable way by the polio mallon of

62

legitimate

w.

15-17.

Christ and

And

that

is

why

it is

Adam

relevant to go

to point out the formal parallel

and the

(one)

polloi

on

in

w.

15-19

between the heis

(many) on both

sides.

That

no mere playing with words and ideas,

because the one Jesus Christ who took Adam's place
in His death on the cross, has thereby entered into

parallel is

Adam, and,
Adam, He died also for
in Adam. He has thereby

the closest possible relationship with

since, in

the

dying for the one

many who had

sinned

entered into the closest possible relationship with

them.

The parallel between Adam and Christ in the conw. 18-19 is justified and made neces-

struction of

sary

by the

fact that although

Adam

has no power

to identify himself with Christ, Christ has the

power

(w. 15-17) to identify Himself with Adam, and so

upon which the

two sides
a way from Adam

to establish the formal identification

parallel rests.

The

close relationship of the

by trying to find
by seeing that Christ has found the
only way to Adam by His cross. And since Christ
has passed from His side into the world of Adam,

is

established, not

to Christ, but

Adam

is

now

free to pass into the

world of Christ;

and opened the

doors and Adam can pass from sin to pardon from
death to life. Of this direct connection opened up
Christ has

removed the

barriers

63

Christ and

between the two

w.

sides,

Adam

Paul makes legitimate use in

18-19.

The

significant phrase polio

explained on

only joins

its

its

mallon has

other side as well.

now to be

The formula not

terms together but also subordinates

Whenever it is possible to use the

phrase "so much more" in comparing one thing with
another, we are dealing with two things that fall
under the same ordering principle, which is valid
and recognizable in lesser degree on the one side
and in greater degree on the other. Since it is already
valid and recognizable even on the first side, it must
be "all the more" valid and recognizable on the other
side as well. For if it is already valid and recognizable on the one side, where its presence is a mystery,
how could it not be ever "so much more" valid and
recognizable on the other side, where this mystery
does not arise? The second term of the comparison
one

to the other.

w.
God which in the one Jesus
Christ overflows upon the many who had sinned and
were dead in Adam; it is the incomprehensible yet

is

in our case the truth in Christ described in

15-17;

it is

the grace of

unmistakable and irrevocable dikaioma (justifying

act)

which

first

begins to operate in relation to the

paraptomata ton pollon (transgressions of the many);

it is

the expectation of a kingly

64

life

in the glory of

Christ and

God

the

life

Adam

that has taken the place of the kata-

krima (condemnation) which inevitably threatened

man. The polio mallon makes clear that we can "all
the more" surely recognize the validity of this truth
in Christ, because

it is

already recognizable even in

the subordinate world of

Adam, where it seems so

questionable and open to doubt. If the truth in Christ
holds good in the dark and alien world of Adam,
"how much more" does
Christ,

where

it

really

it

hold good in the world of

and

originally belongs! If

can shine in the darkness where

for

it

to shine,

it

shine in the

can be

here with Christ, because

we can

be sure of
indirect

it

We

it

it

belongs!

there with

it

seems impossible

"how much more" can

brightness to which
surer of

it

Adam, even

if

the

all

already

only in an

and subsidiary way.

To understand this we have to go back once more

same formula in w. 9-10. There,

to the use of the

the second term of the comparison

is

zoe

(life)

resurrection of Christ, the future salvation

us,
is

and our hope of sharing

it

in the glory of

the grace in which, according to v. 2,

the

brings

God.

It

we have

taken our stand. And, says

the

more"

certain,

our

comparison
death

w. 9-10, this zoe is "all

because the other term of the

reconciliation

when we were weak,

65

through

Christ's

sinners, godless,

and

Christ

enemies

is

and

Adam

already certain and sure.

might reply that

To

that

by no means sure or

it is

we

certain

that Christ's death has brought reconciliation to

men; the world is still as ignorant as ever of what

Christ did for men. Men are still sinners, who do
not

know

that Christ died for

them and

are therefore reconciled sinners; sinners,

no thankful response
rejecting

it:

and commit

sinners
all

to

God's grace, but

who

still

that they

who make
still

go on

cry "Crucify Him!"

over again the very sins that Christ

bore away, sinners

who

all

over again

selves liable to the death that

He

make them-

suffered for them,

and from which they have already been rescued by

His death on the cross. That
that

is

the real dark mystery

surrounds our reconciliation,

which Christ

claims to have accomplished once and for

the heart of the mystery

is

that

we

all.

And

are thus left in

our ignorance, because here amidst the sin of the

world even Christ Himself seems to win no triumph,

but

is

present in His complete humiliation. This

the place where sinful

where we
against

in

man, where Church and

is

State,

our ingratitude, successfully stand out

Him. There

is

nothing there to stop us. Noth-

ing happens to open our eyes, to rescue us from our

its course. The krima (judgpronounced and not revoked, the katakrima

ignorance. Sin takes

ment)

is

Christ and

Adam

(condemnation) follows with a relentless logic that

is

only too easy to understand. Christ suffers, dies,

and

is

buried

But we have forgotten the very thing that we

ought not to forget namely, that it was at the very

moment when

happened that we were reconand that our reconciliation is no less real or

ciled,

this

was how it came about. On the

we had been reconciled amidst the

valid because that

contrary, unless

darkness of the mystery of

been reconciled

He
He

at

all.

sin,

we could

not have

Is Christ less Christ

present only in His humiliation?

How

because

can
be completely Christ except in His complete

is

humiliation?

And

is

He

else

not completely Christ here,

He is abandoned
who is for
were He not also thus

because here in His utter loneliness

by

all?

all?

How

else could

Could He be

He be

exalted,

the Christ

Must not He always be acknowledged,

even in His exaltation, as the Christ who was humili-

humiliated?

ated by

all, and also by us, and so as the Christ who

was humiliated for all and also for us? Is it surpris-

ing that here our relation to

rance?
to die

Would we be
and did

the only

and

way

real.

in

This

Him

is terrible

the sinners for

igno-

whom He had

were otherwise? No, this is

which our reconciliation can be valid

die, if it

is

the only

67

way

in

which there can

Christ and

Adam

break in upon the dark world of sin the

light of

Easter Day. In that darkness our reconciliation has

taken place, God's righteous decision has been car-

Adam's pardon and ours has been pronounced in spite of his sin and the paraptomata ton
ried out,

pollon (transgressions of the many). God's decision

been made completely and entirely

for us has here

in opposition to us. "All

astray;

we have

we

but the Lord hath laid on

The

all" (Is. 53:6).

uity

have gone

like sheep

turned every one to his

Him

place where

must be a dark

place.

But

own way,

the iniquity of us

He

bore our iniq-

into that darkness

there shines the bright light of Easter, because there

He

bore our iniquity for our salvation and to the

glory of God.

And

if,

when it is seen in that light,

is made bright, "how much

even our unhappy past

more" bright

is

our present over which the

Easter shines without any darkness at

brightness shines also

on our

and subsequently we have

to

all.

light of

For

its

past, so that indirectly

acknowledge that here

was done without us and

and so, in reality, for us) Christ's decisive work, which has absolute superiority over
Adam's work and all its results for ever, has been
performed. That happened in the humiliation of
Christ, in which He is to all eternity our Saviour and
in the darkness (where all

in spite of us

68

Christ and

King.

Lord.

happened in His blood in the power of

It

which

Adam

He intercedes for us as the Risen and Exalted

And so, if the light of Easter, falling indirectly

on our

makes

past,

clear that in that past our sal-

it

vation and hope have their eternally unshakable

"how much more" sure and certain

salvation and hope when we see them in

foundation,
that

same

light's direct

From

that

and unreflected

are
the

blaze!

we can go on to understand the signifiw. 15-17. In these verses

cance of polio mallon in

also, the

cause the

second term
first

sure. This first

is "all

term on the

term here

the

left is

is

more"

certain, be-

already certain and

Adam's

sin,

of which

we

have become guilty by our sinning in Adam, and

Adam's death, which by our sinning we also deserve

to die. Again at a first glance we have good reason
to be surprised. Would not "how much less" be more
in place than Paul's astonishing "how much more"?

How can we be sure of God's grace in this situation?

On the contrary, could anything make us surer of
the disgrace of

goge

eis ten

man? Where

is

there here a prosa-

charin (access to grace)? Here the weak,

the sinners, the godless, the enemies, are clearly

their

of

is

own

ground, and the only thing

is

sure

Here the only thing that

the monotonous alternation of

the wrath of God.

seems appropriate

we can be

on

69

Adam

Christ and

accusations and threats that

is

found in so many

"Adam

prophetic passages of the Old Testament.

and

us," taken

by

an endless chapter which

itself, is

makes completely comfortless reading. But,

have seen,

this

chapter

is

just as the

Old Testament

Here, too,

we must not

the whole truth in

not to be read by

itself.

is

stands.

hood, and only in the fact that

truth in Christ has

we

see

any

Adam's world

we

world,

it

discover

16,

is

By

which

itself it is false-

it is

validity at

related to the
all.

But when

in the context of Christ's

how

its

ently endless accusations

at last

we

itself,

forget the context in

Adam

as

not to be read by

isolation

and

and the appar-

threats against

it

can

be brought to an end. Who, according to

v.

man on whom God's grace has overflowed

The man who is already dead in Adam's
fall. It is to these dead men that God's grace

the

in Christ?
sinful
is

shown.

Who

are those who, according to v. 16,

power? The many who

are justified through God's

by

their transgressions

condemnation of
these

have shown that the

Adam

condemned men

is

by

that

are those who, according to

te

zoe (those

over

whom

who

right their

God

has

v. 17,

guilt

own.

justified.

It is

Who

are basileusontes

will reign in life)?

The very men

death became the uncontested king.

70

and

It is

Adam

Christ and

the slaves of death that are to

become

the lords of

life.

Behind the

On

those sinful

said.

enslaved men, are not alone, but Jesus Christ

ners,

self

who was

crucified

with

Adam

and

and

it is

for

all.

And

their self-will

and

their

self-sufficiency that are the mystery; the sin of

that

Him-

and has

heirs

them once and

He is in their midst,

in

sin-

thieves,

willing to identify

his children

identified Himself with

since

between the two

was

in free obedience

is

and

the midst of them, the Friend of publicans

who

no

there lies

the contrary, these are things

As we saw in w. 9-11,
and dying men, those condemned and

and must be

that can

w. 9-10

antithesis of

frivolous dialectic.

Adam,

Adam a mystery, itself

Men who share the sin of

makes His presence with

becomes mysterious.

Adam
Christ,

have become

men who

Christ. It

is

men who

belong to

share the grace of

Adam now

belong to

once more from the Risen and Exalted

Christ that the fight breaks through the darkness to

shine on

Adam

and

his children

and

heirs.

He who

and He who
identified Himself with those who shared in Adam's
sin. That is why His light is so penetrating. That is
why it reveals sinners and dying men as those on
whose behalf Christ intervened on the cross. That is
rose

is

also

He who was

71

crucified,

Adam

Christ and

why

it

and

reveals righteous

ourselves

we can

cause

it

human

points

beyond

sin

Adam

of

its

is

valid,

it

in

lishes its

own

is

its

and

can stand only be-

comfortless message

to the truth in Christ,

superiority.

The

truth in

not because of any intrinsic quality

own, but only in

Christ which

own

its

and death

which towers over

Adam

men where by

see nothing but these sinful

dying men. The truth in

about

living

above

its

relationship to the truth in

it;

the truth in Christ estab-

validity in

its

relation to

what

lies

be-

it, by making the truth in Adam transparent,

and turning it into a reflection of itself. But now it
is no longer from that reflection that we recognize

low

the truth.

Now we know it not only in the

context of

Adam's fall where it is surrounded by so much mysThe truth is transparent and reflected in this

tery.

mysterious context because in faith

we know

the

Risen and Exalted Lord.

Because we know Christ the Conqueror, we can

also

Christ the Crucified. Because we know

and ourselves as men who are pardoned and

know

Adam

who are going to share God's glory, we can also

know Adam and ourselves as sinners who were once
condemned to die. Now we live in the full light of the
truth of Christ. Because of that the one who is our
Head is not the captive, but the Liberator. Because
72

Adam

Christ and

Adam's

of that we, the many, are not

but those

whom

Christ has set free.

fellow captives,

Now it is

not for

us either to be dismayed by the hopelessness of the

truth in

Adam

(when viewed in

make

perversely to

it

isolation) or to try

look better than

has already been brightened

just as

it is.

it is

Now we look into

bright. Now we know

entire hopelessness.

which has made

is reality

and

it

truth in

Adam, and

Now

in all

it

its

the light
that there

so there must

all

more be reality and truth in Christ. Now is Christ

risen
and by His resurrection He has revealed to
the

us the victory and the reconciliation

He

has already

achieved in the hiddenness of His death on the cross.

Now we know

that

He

has reconciled us, because

even when we were dead in

sin,

He

died to save us

from judgment and condemnation and

end of the power of death. Now,

present, the time of the Messiah, has

has delivered the past from

by revealing

make
men.

it

its

it is

dawned, and

emptiness and lostness

the present a time of grace

even when

make an

as the time in which Christ died to

And if the truth in

the world of

to

after that past, the

and pardon

Christ can prove

its

for

validity

hidden amidst the sin and death of

Adam, "how much more" does

it

hold

good in the world of grace and life where it properly

and originally belongs! If in the light of Easter we
73

Christ and

Adam

can see Christ amidst the darkness of Adam's world,

"how much more" clearly can we see Him

own world where that light has its source!
truth in Christ
tion

it

valid

is

and recognizable

in His
If the

in the reflec-

"how much more" valid

when it is seen, not in an in-

casts into the past,

and recognizable

it is

direct reflection, but clearly

and

directly in all

its

present reality and power!

We

now

can

bring together what

from w. 15-17 about the

Christ and
tial

and

Christ.

essential disparity

learnt

between

Adam. Our unity with Adam is less essen-

less significant

than our true unity with

On both sides there are the same formal rela-

tionships between the

sides

we have

one and the many, so that both

have the same ordering principle. But within

that formal identity,

Adam

is

subordinate, because

he can only be the forerunner, the witness, the preliminary shadow and likeness, the typos (type)
14] of the Christ

who

is

to

come. Because he

[v.

is that,

really like Christ,

w. 18-19 and 21

can go on to draw a valid and

significant parallel

because he

is

between the two. The polio mallon (much more) of

w.

15, 17, in

clear that the

its first

two

way. But within

disparity.

meaning, has already made

sides

this

do belong together

in that

belonging together there

For Christ who seems

74

to

come

it

is

second,

Christ and
really

first, and Adam who seems to come

comes second. In Christ the relationship

comes

really

first

Adam

between the one and the many

is

Adam

depends for

Christ.

And

true

and

its

reality

Our

relationship to

on our

relationship to

that means, in practice, that to find the

essential nature of

to

Adam the fallen man,

is

fallen has

In

Adam

is

and points

We

only true

w. 13-14 and

relation to the

have to correct and interpret

man

to the original

sider the disparity

makes the

to look not

whom what

Adam by what we know of Christ,

what we know of
flects

man we have

but to Christ in

been cancelled and what was original

has been restored.

because

Adam it

original, in

is

only a copy of that original.

in so far as

humanity of

in v. 20, Paul goes

between

Law, and

Adam

it is

biguously clear.

It is

two

way

re-

to con-

and Christ in

in this

relationship between the

on

he

Christ.

its

that he

sides

unam-

in this passage about the

Law

Adam's significance as typos tou mellontos (a

type of the coming one) is first recognized. Between
Adam and Christ there stands Moses. Between the
sin and death of man, on the one side, and the grace
of God, on the other, there stands the revelation of
that

God's will to His people

Israel.

What

effect

Law of Moses have on the relationship

Adam and Christ? Does the intervention of
75

does the

between
the

Law


Christ and

between them destroy

and make

all

radically false

that Paul

is

Adam

their relationship to

each other

that has already

been said about

and wrong?

these two questions

It is

and answering

facing

in

it

w. 13-14 and

20.

When God

reveals Himself through

when Paul

people Israel

Moses

to His

speaks of Moses he

is

thinking of the entire content of the Old Testament

He again

confronts

cording to Gen.

3,

man

in the

hidden, forgotten truth that

as, ac-

all

human

history is

God's covenant with man,

essentially the history of

is

same way

he once confronted Adam. The

revealed and openly proclaimed in the history of

Israel by the mouth of Moses and the prophets.

Here God reveals Himself explicitly and over and

over again in the midst of the daily

ence of men. Here

in Paradise

life

and experi-

man lives once again

like

Adam

in a special, indeed in a unique way,

in a holy place. Here man

by the manifestation of God's
favor toward him and also by the restraint of God's
command upon him.

in God's presence,

himself

The
with

is

and so

sanctified

history of Israel

Adam

and

of

is

the story of God's dealings

Adam's

dealings with

God

expanded so that it covers the continuing life of a

whole people; the story of Adam is the history of
76

Christ and

Adam

Israel contracted into the life story of a single

For both
Israel,

in the story of

Adam

and

man.

in the history of

man's response to God's revelation is the same.

In both he

himself be enticed

lets

away by the voice

of the stranger, he rebels against the

God who

has

been revealed to him, he becomes disobedient and

made

subject to the

happens when

nations to reveal to
is

power of death. That

God chooses
it

is

is

what

Israel out of all the other

alone His will for men. That

what happens among the people

in

vealed that the history of humanity

is

whom

it is

re-

the history of

God's covenant with man. Here in Israel are revealed

the paraptomata ton pollon (transgressions of the

many) and

the inevitable krima (judgment) and

katakrima (condemnation) that follow in their

The whole

history of Israel in all

revelation of man's sin, epi to

Adam

baseos
sion

[v.

committed by
it

become so

all its

Adam's

(in the likeness of

14]) in

stages

its

homoiomati

tes

train.
is

the

para-

transgres-

shameful identification with the sin

Adam

in

Gen.

3.

Nowhere

else

does

plain that the history of humanity, for

changes and progress,

is

always and every-

where the history of the sin and condemnation of

men. The place where God sets man apart for Himself in

such a special way, where

present and gracious, where

77

He

He makes

is
it

so specially

so specially

Adam

Christ and

what He

clear

will

have of him,

is

the very place

where, in the light of God's Law, sin ellogeitai

literally, is

to account. Here,

record that

corded that

God
man

where

it is

once and for

gracious,

is

a sinner. That

it

is

Israel allows

God's dealings with Israel make

either to conceal or to explain

true.

sinful,

hard as

it is

The Old Testament

tion in that

it

put on

a conclusion

no escape.
it

impossible

away the

fact that

for us to admit that that

is

presents this

all

has also to be re-

is

from which the history of

man is

that

Word

is

verdict

because

it

burdensome truth without

is

It is

represents Israel as a people

completely perverted and

on man

is

witness to God's revela-

concealment or extenuation, naked and bare.

God's

13)

(v.

substantiated as such, registered, laid

same

the

lost,

because

its

as the verdict of the

prophets in their endless accusations and threats.

Not

that other peoples

Adam, not

that

shared Adam's

have not also sinned in

humanity outside
fall.

Israel has not also

Paul does not say a single word

to suggest that the Jews

were or are worse than the

others, or that the others

were or are better than the

Jews.

On

the contrary, he has explicitly reminded

us: achri gar

in the

nomou hamartia en en kosmo:

world before the

Law

any question of that special and

78

sin

was

came, before there was

visible recapitula-

Christ and

Adam

tion of the history of

In

v.

in the election of Israel.

12, Paul already has

have sinned," that

is

Adam's

There

sinful act.

Adam
made

clear that "all

it

have repeated

to say, that all

is

no excuse

for

any pre-

sumption on the part of Gentiles who lack the

tinction of the Jews,

no excuse

for scorning the

dis-

Jews

although they

who were honored by this distinction

were smitten by

Adam
sinful

it

Death ruled already apo

as well.

mechri Mouseos (from

men;

just as

much

to

as in Israel itself (v. 14).

mata were and are committed

places,

Adam

Moses) over

ruled over the Gentiles around Israel,

it

The parapto-

at all times

and

in all

and so the krima and the katakrima apply

not only to Israel but to

all

men. The special thing

that happens only in Israel, the thing that distin-

guishes

it

from

its

that here only there

ciousness of

predecessors and neighbors,

is

is

a clear revelation of the gra-

God and

the sinfulness of man. Here

only the ellogein (laying to account) takes place; the

whole history of

Israel

is

a unique working out of

this ellogein, this substantiating

human
That

and

registering of

sin.
is

something that cannot be said about the

men and peoples before and around

Israel. There also men have sinned, and so there also
death rules. But there is no Law there, no revelation

history of the

79

Christ and
of God's will to

make

show us

known

it

Adam

this sinning as

that death

upon men: hamartia de oukh

nomou
law

(sin is

[v. 13]).

ellogeitai

not laid to account

There

men can

what

it is,

to

God's condemnation

is

live

when

me

there

ontos
is

no

out their lives with-

out having their ideals and errors disturbed. There

their history

and

tion

can be interpreted as history of

political history.

understand

it

it

are not compelled to

in terms of God's grace

struggling against
terpret

We

civiliza-

and man's

sin

the facts do not force us to in-

it,

in these terms

and

and these terms alone. There

it is an open question whether it is for the

good of those concerned or not it is not revealed
that man's history is the history of his broken cove-

nant with God. There man's sin can always be concealed and extenuated and there are
of the truth by which

not from

men

the wrath of

fully

many

evasions

escape only too success-

God, which is inesbut from the

capable there and everywhere else

from the burning realization that

the misery which men suffer is a punishment for their
sins and so cannot be escaped at all. There men are

knowledge of

it,

not compelled to see the cleavage that runs through

human

existence

ments. There in

and through

all

all

human

achieve-

the triumphantly successful un-

dertakings by which

man

tries to extricate

80

himself

Christ and

from

difficulties

Adam

and help himself on in the great soand politics there is

called progress of civilization

proof that this cleavage has not been seen, that

caused no real suffering,

the worst, there
in a

little

is

touch of tragedy which never

cleavage and to the

through. Here a

down

comedy

man

can

its reality

fails to

lead

of the severity of the

that

live,

it

needs to help

it

although here too he

has sinned and here too he must

things stand

has

worst comes to

that, if the

always an escape from

to the liberal toning

it

That

die.

where hamartia oukh

is

how

ellogeitai (sin is

is what can and must hapno Law. Here there can be no

sinning epi to homoiomati tes parabaseos Adam
(like Adam's transgression [v. 14]). Adam's sin is,

not laid to account). That

pen where there

is

indeed, repeated there but

is

not an open, explicit,

conscious repetition of his rebellion against God.

Where

there

is

no

calling,

it

there

no

is

can be no sin com-

election, there

mitted in unfaithfulness to

it.

Where

there

is

no

cannot be slighted and disgraced. Where

unsanctity.

sanctification, there is

no

no
com-

desecration,

Where God has given no

explicit

mandment, there can be no high-handed transgression. Where there are no prophets, there can be no
accusations and no threats. The sins of men outside
Israel are, then, the same, and yet not the same, as
81


Christ and
the sin of
these

men

Adam

men

the

Adam

same because what

also do, but not the same, because these

are not confronted with

and so

Adam did,

act,

not

less badly,

God,

as

Adam

was,

but in complete ignorance

what they do.

of the badness of

This situation gives rise to a problem with which

Paul

now

of the

has to deal. Does not the undeniable fact

mean

Law

of the special revelation of God's will

in Israel

radical separation between the sin

Adam

and the grace of Christ, and does

destroy the relationship between them and

of

it

not

invali-

common ordering principle that they both

share? Where God reveals Himself, the truth comes
to light. God reveals Himself in the Law, and the
date the

comes to light in this revelation is that the

place where God reveals His covenant with man as
the meaning of His will as Creator is the very place
truth that

at

which He and

man

fall

Where God's grace becomes

so hopelessly
so specially

plicitly great,

where in the election and

Israel, in the

mission of Moses,

distinction

is

sin.

calling of

extraordinary

conferred upon man, just there the only

result is a special

of

this

apart.

and ex-

There

abounding

sin ellogeitai

pleonazein

(is

(v.

20)

laid to account),

its

human life is openly exposed and made unmistakably plain. Here we are dealing with the optireality in

Christ and

mum

of God's

good

Adam

toward the creation. What

will

God

more could be expected or desired of

He should

turn toward

Israel as its

men as He has

as

nowhere

years of

it!)

fruitless toil

turned toward

covenant Lawgiver and Lord?

in Israel the only result

that

is

it

than that

And here

becomes obvious,

else,

with what consistency (a thousand

man
God

stretches out His

turns his back

on Him, with what

arms to a notori-

God

ously rebellious and perverse generation. Here

can have nothing to say to

said to

man

but what

him through the prophets of Israel in

He

has

all their

accusations and threats.

And if that is true of the green wood, what hope is

there for the others,
still sin,

but

in the great

hope

is

who have

who have no

sinned like Israel, and

part in Israel's distinction,

measure of grace that

it

What

received?

there for the multitude of Gentiles in

whose

midst Israel was only an inconsiderable minority?

Under

these circumstances can

we

say that God's

revelation achieved anything except the manifestation of His righteous wrath against

circumstances,

is it

not the Gentiles

nate, since they at least

blindly

these

are fortu-

have had no such revelation,

and have been spared the

burdensome service of God

They can

men? In

who

dream

fearful

their

83

knowledge and

that Israel

had

to bear?

dreams; they can pur-

Adam

Christ and

sue their political conquests and their dreams; they

can pursue

and

their political conquests

vances in civilization.

their ad-

They can go to meet the

in-

coming destruction unaware of what lies

it coming and knows how
dreadful it will be. But if that is so, it means that,
although God's grace is present and effective in Is-

evitable

ahead, while Israel sees

rael in a unique way, His encounter with

what was already

Israel only confirms

dise, that

man

is

fellowship with

he

is

in

neither capable nor worthy of the

God

for

radically separated

of his guilt, there can be

which he was created, that

from God's grace. Because

no

positive relationship be-

Law which came

tween him and God. Even the

two together can only be the

to bind the

man

clear in Para-

final

in

and

impassable barrier that keeps them apart.

God

exists

and

lives

and

is

gracious, but

man

is

without God, and against Him, and has fallen into a

graceless existence, that can only
tion. If that

and with

it

were

the whole

have been written

on the

all,

basis of

New

his destruc-

Romans,

Testament, could never

or could have been written only

an optimistic

timism would serve only to

And when

end in

the fifth chapter of

illusion

make

the revelation in the

it

whose very opmore fearful.

the

Law was

completed

in the appearance of the Messiah, did not Israel

84

Christ and
reject

and crucify

Him and

firmation of all that

prove

were

alienation

its

Adam

so provide the final con-

had done

it

in

its

history to

from the grace of God?

If that

then the Old Testament promise of future

all,

grace would also be an illusion without any substance at

all.

For of what future grace could any-

thing else be expected than that

bring in

its

train

(abounding) of

What

the

human

should once more

sin?

has Paul to say to that?

cedes the fact that the

it

corresponding pleonazein

Law

He first

simply con-

reveals man's sin, in v.

nomos de pareiselthen hina pleonase to paraptoma (lit. the law has slipped in in order that the
transgression might abound). "The Law has come in
20a:

between"

i.e.,

between

man and God, between

the great barrier between
sion should
greater than

become
it is

Adam and
sin

them
not

great"

where there

Christ,

and grace;

is

between

it is

in fact

"that the transgressmaller, but great,

no Law, no

election,

and no covenant, no calling and no grace, greater

than anywhere else outside Israel, so great that it
becomes objectively impossible not to recognize it,
so great that in the life and destiny of the Jews it
becomes a factor in world history, something that
even the blindest and deafest Gentiles have to recognize

and deal with, though in dealing with

85

it

they


Adam

Christ and

misunderstand

it

by making

semitism, for hating the Jews.

it

an excuse for

between so that the transgression

but remains manifest
sion of

of

anti-

The Law has come

is

in

not covered up,

as manifest as the transgres-

Adam. The remarkable proof of the existence

God which Frederick

have offered to

the Great's doctor

is

said to

his loyal master is established for all

time. 3

The Holy

Scriptures of Israel are an

proof of what happens

comparison with

unambiguous

when man opposes God. In

this proof, all positive proofs of

God's existence that Gentiles have produced in their

ignorance or denial of God's revelation have no
value at

all.

but that

is

This

is,

of course, only a negative proof,

what makes

pelling. It is not

it

so genuine

and so com-

a proof of man's devising, for

it is

human thinking but on the factual wita part of human history to the revelation of

based not on
ness of

God. In the history and destiny of the Jews, which

takes place in the midst of world history, and yet is
so different from the rest of world history that other

nations have to recognize the uniqueness of

3

it

in

"Frederick the Great once asked his personal physician Zimof Bragg in Aargau: 'Zimmermann, can you name me
a single proof of the existence of God?' And Zimmermann replied, 'Your Majesty, the Jews!'"
Barth, Dogmatics in Outline, Eng. translation, p. 75.
Tr.

mermann

Christ and
that there

Adam

proof that the history of the world

is

human

not in the exclusive control of

human

achievement, but that in

Will that

is

not man's

will,

it

there

One who

is

thought and
at

is

is

work a

man's op-

ponent in the game and whose moves are secret and

impossible to control.

God

proof of

The Jew who provides

this

provides at the same time proof of his

own sin and his own fall.

The Jew

is

the paraptoma (transgression) that

abounded. The only thing that his history can reveal

is

man's rebellion; the only thing that

reveal

standing

his destiny

can

man's misery. The antisemitic misunder-

is

is

natural and quite understandable. But

that does not alter the fact that the mission of the

Jews

is

to represent in themselves

and human

suffering

the only genuine

and so

human

and convincing proof that

provide of the existence of God.

The

sin of

the guilt and punishment that follow

pleonazein,

man

rebellion

to provide in themselves

man can
man and

can abound,

it

and can be revealed in the midst of hu-

history:

that

is

what happened in the Old

Testament and in the subsequent history of Israel

through the intervention of the Law.

what had
intervene.

to happen.

The wound had

not be healed.

And that was

Law had to

That was why the

Adam

had
87

to stay
to

open or

remain

it

Adam

could
or he

Adam

Christ and

could not be reconciled. That

in the

first

sentence of

bold assertion that he,

what Paul concedes

is

20

or, rather, that is the

who

is

himself an Israelite,

v.

makes against the way in which

his

misunderstood their election and

own

the antisemitic error which was not

in his day. It
ple, to

was

people have

calling,

and against

unknown even

inevitable that God's chosen peo-

whom He gave the Law,

should achieve noth-

ing but the final and absolute pleonazein (abounding) of the sinfulness of man.

That being

what

so,

is left

of the glory of the

chosen people? There remains to

God's grace, which

it

it

only the glory of

never deserved and to which

it

never responded by showing any faithfulness or constancy or gratitude that might have fulfilled the cove-

nant between

remains to

be for

all

it is

it

and God. The only glory that

that, in spite of itself, it is

and

will

time the called and elected people of God.

But what, on the other hand,

is left

of

and hate of the other nations against

all

the scorn

Israel?

What

advantage have they over the Jews, except that they

are not Jews, and are not distinguished by God's
special revelation of grace,

as

what they

judgment or

and so are not exposed

are, so

do not have

suffer

under

his

88

to five

under God's

wrath? They are not

Adam

Christ and
4

Ahasver, they have somewhere to

are untroubled, while the

makes trouble

so

Jew

is

for himself

call

and

How can their scorn and hate of the

when
open

the

Jew

is

his fellow

Jew be

men.

justified,

only the bearer and exponent, the

sign, of the sinful life that they

themselves are

and of the hidden destiny that they

secretly living
will

"home"; they

always troubled, and

have to endure? The

sin which becomes great in

Jew is their own sin, except that
endowed with grace, are spared such

the existence of the

they, being less

an abounding of

sin

sin is not revealed so clearly

among them. Should

they not be grateful to the Jews

because they have borne the burden of God's grace

alone and kept
other

all

it

But to see

that, they

what Paul goes on

sen

from

greater."

upon, and crushing,

would have to understand

hou de epleona-

to say in v. 20b:

he hamartia,

"Where

falling

men?

hypereperisseusen

he charis

became great, grace became much

Where that is not recognized, the Jew must

sin

go on stubbornly asserting
the Gentiles,

his

own

superiority over

and the Gentile must go on despising

the Jews. For without this further knowledge, neither

can see that

4

sin has

become

The Wandering Jew of

great through the inter-

the legend.Tr.

Christ and

Adam

vention of the Law. Without this further knowledge,

the

Jew does not

see

because he persists in his

it,

bellion against grace

and cannot possibly

be convinced, even by

his

own Holy

let

re-

himself

and

Scriptures

the whole experience of his history, that God's judg-

ment pronounces him

guilty of sin.

further knowledge, the

And without

non-Jew does not see

it,

this

be-

cause without the revelation of God's grace, he cannot possibly understand that Israel's sin

exposure of the sin of

tiny

men, and that

all

proof of the existence of God. Without the

is

knowledge that grace became much greater

place where sin
alike

the

is

Israel's des-

became

Jew and non-Jew

so great,

must remain blind

at the

to the truth about

each

other.

But what does

it

mean

to say that grace

much

greater at the very place

great?

From

where

the whole context of the chapter, Paul

must have been thinking here of one

people of

sin

became
became

Israel,

which

is

thing.

convicted by the

The

Law

of

rebellion against God's grace, the people that has

offered

its

covenant-Lord and Lawgiver nothing but

unfaithfulness

and disobedience,

this stock that

has

been cut down right to the ground and has withered

away, has been awakened to new
lous act of

God

in

its

by a miracumidst, for from it there has

90

life

Christ and

Adam

sprung up the new shoot, Jesus Christ. Out of Israel

comes the Christ who bears but also bears away the
guilt of Israel and the guilt of all men in His death;

He shows how serious that guilt

God, but He also annuls it, and

is

so

in the sight of
is

Himself the

and of the

forgiveness of all the sins of the past

He

present;

is

the righteous man.

And

out of Israel

comes the Christ who, having endured the punishment and death of Israel and of all men, makes an
end of death in His resurrection, so that

it

does not

have to be endured any more, and so becomes Himself the

pledge of deliverance from every trouble of

the past

That

is

where

and of the present; He is the living man.

grace becoming much greater at the place

sin

became

so great. In Christ sin

abounded

but grace abounded even more.

Jesus Christ was a Jew. That

is

the fact which at

Jewish pride and

one stroke makes nonsense of

all

of

all

so

He also was subjected to

was a Jew and

Law. He also was set

antisemitic scorn. Jesus Christ

the

where God's grace reveals man's sin.

But there is more to it than that. He was the only
one who completely and genuinely stood in that
place; He was the Jew. There is no other Jew like
in the place

Him

because

He

porated in His

alone of His

own

own free will

man who

person the

91

incorrebels

Christ and
against

God and

Adam

has to bear God's wrath. There

substitution of Israel for other peoples.

that

compared with the

Israel, beside

is

But what

a
is

substitution of Christ for

His acceptance of the mission of the

Jews? All other Jews have in the end only endured

He and He

alone freely and of His

upon Himself. Not only was
Christ Israel, He chose to be Israel
and to be the
Israel that was subject to the Law and that through
the Law was accused and convicted of its sin. And
just in that way He was Israel's Messiah, the Israelite, whose coming was the expectation and goal of
all Israel's history. And yet He was a Messiah whom
no Israelite father could beget as his son, for He
could only be God's Son and as such had to be enthat mission, but

own

initiative

took

it

grafted into Israel from the outside as the beginning

of the new, true Israel of God. In this preeminent

way He was a Jew. By

freely submitting Himself to

Law He fulfilled it. And He submitted Himself

to the Law in order that he might take upon Himself

the

and Israel's punishment, and so the hidsin and the secret condemnation that were revealed in Israel but that belonged to all men. He
took that sin and that punishment upon Himself
when He was pronounced guilty and put to death
and because it was as Son of God that He bore them,
Israel's sin

den

Christ and

He took away the

That

is

and the punishment from men.

something no other Jew has done, that

something

work

sin

Adam

He

has done and

He

alone.

That

is

His

is

Jew par excellence, as "Jesus of NazKing of the Jews." That is how grace became so much greater in the very place where sin
had become so great where it had been clearly revealed as homoioma parabaseos Adam (like Adam's
as the

areth, the

transgression).

But there

is

another side to

v.

20 which must now

be explained. Here the notorious rejection of Christ

by the Jews can be seen in a new

light.

The appear-

ing of Christ can and must certainly be understood

as the last
Israel.

and perfect stage of God's revelation to

Jesus Himself often ranged Himself with

John the Baptist and

whom

Israel rejected

more God

all

him

the prophets before

and put

to death.

Now

once

stretches out His hands, "Last of all

sent his son to

them

son' " (Matt. 21:37).

brews: "By

many

saying, 'They will respect

he

my

So also the beginning of He-

God

tokens and in various ways

spoke of old to the fathers through the prophets, but

on

this last

whom

day he has spoken

to us through the son

he has appointed heir" (Heb.

1). It is

true that the Jews laid violent hands

upon

and Heir and so

own

finally rejected their

93

quite

this

Son

Messiah.

Christ and
It is quite true that

Christ, grace

showed
tory

it

when, with the appearing of

abounded, Israel once again and finally

itself to

abounded.

be the people in

final

whom Adam's

here at the end of

It is true that

gave

Adam

sin

its his-

proof of the opposition between

God's will and man's will that had been the theme
of

all its

The

history under the

implication that

Law.

it is

therefore accursed of

God and the proper object of man's hate and scorn is

for the

same reason completely

unjustified.

was

Nothing

else

invalid

and

utterly

could have happened.

It

inevitable that the people of the revelation

should once again confirm

The time when God

its

opposition to God.

sealed the covenant with Israel

by Himself intervening on man's behalf and so made

His grace to overflow, was bound to be the time
when Israel finally disowned the covenant and
proved itself absolutely unworthy of the grace of
God. The whole dark story of the Old Testament is
only the prelude to this final act of rebellion whereby
Israel rejected its Messiah who had come in superabounding grace to reconcile it with God. But in
thus rejecting Christ Israel acted as the representative of all other

men. Here, as in

its

whole

history,

it

has only done what every other people would also

have done had

it

received the same revelation of

94

Christ and

And

God's grace.

was only by

all this

Adam

was

inevitable because

it

rejecting Christ that Israel could serve

was to
and death were to be removed from
the world, Christ had to be condemned as a sinner
and had to die. If God was to show mercy to man by

the gracious purposes of God. If grace

abound,

if

sin

saving him from sin and death, and

time

He was

to

if

at the

same

honor His own righteousness as

He had to intervene on
He had to come to man's rescue and let

man's Creator and Lord,

man's behalf,

Himself be condemned as a sinner and put to death

on

was what happened in Jesus

is how in Him grace became greater
than sin. God did not rest content with making
known His will in the Law, but in and with the Law
He made known His promise that was greater than
the Law, His promise to intervene on behalf of the
men who had sinned against Him and made themselves liable to suffering and death. And that divine
the cross. That

Christ and that

intervention

is

the hyperperisseuein ("superabound-

ing") of the grace of

God.

For a thousand years

sand years

God was

Israel sinned, but for a thou-

faithful, so that the

ment

is

of

its

Messiah;

to

be gracious, and so

Old Testa-

not just the dark prelude to Israel's rejection

it is

also the witness of

it is

95

God's promise

the prelude to God's act

Adam

Christ and
of intervention in which

open shame of
men. That

any

illusion

is

Israel

why

He

the

upon Himself the

shame of all

takes

and the

secret

Old Testament can without

look forward to the promised grace of

God. God does not

rest content

with demanding

man faithful allegiance to the covenant He has

made. For man is unfaithful and his response to the

from

covenant
that

to crucify Christ

and

to give final proof

he deserves nothing but the wrath of God. But

in His

man

is

Son God provides

this

has failed to provide.

fulness of the

man

Jesus

human faithfulness that

so the human faith-

And

is

the hyperperisseuein of

the grace of God. But to show this faithfulness God's

Son must take man's place and bear man's shame
and suffer man's death. It is God's will that that
shame should be removed. But no other than He
Himself is able to remove it. God does not will the
death of the sinner, but rather that he should be
converted and live. But that he should be converted
and live can only be God's work, and so to complete
that work God Himself takes man's place as a sinner
who is condemned to die. And so the Jews, when
they condemned Christ to a sinner's death, were in
fact carrying out the good, righteous
will of

God. They did

it

as completely

and merciful
unworthy and

completely blameworthy instruments. In doing

96

it

Christ and

Adam

they showed once again and finally that they themselves

and

man

in general, for

whom

in their

they were substitutes, were transgressors

who

way
fully

deserved to be condemned. But they did it. The

pleonazein (abounding) of sin was indispensable if
the hyperperisseuein ("superabounding") of grace

was

And

to follow.

fulfilled

when

indispensable condition was

this

the Jews

handed over Christ

to a sin-

ner's death.

When God came to reconcile man,

was no

act of

will): it

was on the contrary

was what man had

good

man's response

by gratia praeveniens (prevenient grace) and co-operating with it

on the basis of a still intact liberum arbitrium (free

And

that

really to let Himself

that

He

this

pleonazein of

sin.

do here, if God was

be covered in human shame, so

could destroy

for the sake of His

tion of

will stimulated

it

own

to

and win the victory over

it

righteousness and the salva-

men. Here clearly

man had

to act

operate and he did act and co-operate

and co-

when

Israel

and thus brought its transgressions

measure. That was of course the act of a

rejected Christ
to their full

who stood under the curse of God, and that

was hateful and despicable in the highest degree.
But there is something else we must now add to that.
Through this act of this people God has taken their
people

97

Christ and

Adam

upon Himself in His Son and so has Himself

become hateful and despicable on their behalf and
in their stead. If this people had not acted in this
way, the Son of God would not have borne the curse
of sin and the hatefulness and shame of men.
The accusation against the Jews over their rejeccurse

tion of Christ
either

God

it is

is

in the last resort invalid because

completely null and void or

it falls

upon

Himself. In doing as they did they were ac-

quitted

from the

guilt

and punishment that

their

action deserved by God's action in bearing their guilt

and punishment on
acted as they did,

their behalf. If they

God would

had not

not have borne their

and punishment and they would not have been

acquitted at all. For what they did to Christ the Jews
cannot be excused, but neither can they be accused
or condemned. "Who will bring any accusation
guilt

against God's elect?" cried Paul the

passage,
his

own

and there he was

Jew

in a later

certainly thinking also of

people, God's chosen people,

who were

par

excellence the sinners

who

deserved death. "It

is

God

Who

will

condemn them?

It

is

that justifies them.

Christ that died, nay rather

up,

who

is at

tercession for

who

has been raised

hand of God, who makes inus" (Rom. 8:33-34). The death and

the right

resurrection of Christ

make nonsense
98

of Jewish

Adam

Christ and

pride, but they also take every possible justification

for antisemitism

away.

Jewish, and

possible to be anti- Jewish, only

when

it

is

It

possible to be pro-

is

some reason men are not aware how

through the act of the Jews God took upon Himself
man's guilt and shame, how the Jews were the
for

instruments of the hyperperisseuein ("superabounding") of God's grace amidst the pleonazein (abounding) of the sin of man. When we are aware
of

that,

the only relevant

ship of Jews

understands

But

20

way

of understanding the relation-

and non-Jews
it

in

Rom.

is

the

way Paul

himself

9-11.

needs to be interpreted in yet a

Paul spoke of the pleonazein or
hyperperisseuein of grace, he always thought not
only of God's grace breaking through into the world
v.

third way.

of sin

still

When

and death

in the death

and resurrection of

Christ; he always thought also of the breaking down

of that middle wall of partition which had limited

God's revelation to Israel only and prevented

being

made known

to all

men.

He

of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit

The death and resurrection of Jesus

it

from

thought, in fact,

upon

Christ

all flesh.

mean that

God has now ceased to be the God only of the Jews,

and has openly revealed Himself as the God of the
Gentiles and so of all men. He has now ceased to be

Christ and

God

Adam

only inside Israel, and has become

side Israel as well,

and both outside and

the same. Here also

all

barriers

now been

out-

He is

have been broken

taken away. The covenant was

down

the beginning a covenant with

God

inside

all

secretly

men, and

from

it

has

revealed as such through the outpouring

of the Holy Ghost.

God's grace was and

but for

all

men.

not for one people only

is

When Israel received that revelation

not for

only but that

it

received

it

in trust for all other peoples.

it

itself

And

it

might hold

so the sin that

has been revealed in Israel's history and in Israel's

rejection of Christ

is

not only

And when God in

its

own

sin but the sin

shame
was not only on
behalf of Israel but on behalf of all men. And so the
hyperperisseuein of God's grace means not just the

of all men.

Christ bore the

of Israel, that gracious intervention

reconciliation of the Jews but the reconciliation of

the Gentiles too. But where

the Gentiles

seems

come

in?

at first sight to

is

the link here?

How do

The pleonazein

of man's sin

be

work of the

entirely the

Jews, seems indeed to be their conflict with their

Messiah.

How

then can the hyperperisseuein of

grace become something that affects

answer
pels.

is

all

men? The

given in the Passion narratives of the Gos-

All of them emphasize that the crucifixion of

100

Christ and
Christ

while
tion

is

not directly the work of the Jews, but that,

it is

is

Adam

certainly instigated

the

work

by the Jews,

Roman

of the

its

execu-

Governor, Pontius

and

his subordinates, and so the work of the

The Jews "handed over" Jesus to be crucithat is the technical term used by the New

Pilate,

Gentiles.

fied

Testament to describe the part played by the Jews.

Their sin became great in that they expelled Jesus

from the sphere of the holy people and gave him up

to the unclean Gentiles outside.

And

was

it

at the

hands of these unclean Gentiles, who were not

elected and not called, at the hands of those who,
according to Eph. 2:12, "were without
world," that

He was hung on

God

the gallows

not

side Jerusalem, but outside the city gates.

that highly significant

way He came

in the

for the

And

first

in

time

to the Gentiles. And because that was the way

came, they also had a part in the pleonazein of
rael's transgression as the

in-

He
Is-

executioners of the Jewish

And like the Jews they also had a part that

did not call for any positive co-operation or good

Messiah.

will.

By

the

way

they acted, they

made

it

obvious

were no better than the Jews.

Since Cain's murder of Abel the flagrant

that they

the notorious outrages of world history

sins and
had always

been the responsibility of Gentiles rather than Jews.

101

Adam

Christ and

More was required of the Jews than of the Gentiles,

but if we could forget this greater requirement, we
might, in retrospect, wonder whether the accusations

and

might not have been

threats of the prophets

more

justly

aimed

at the Gentiles,

whose

sins

were

often worse than the sins of the Jews. But however

that

may

be,

and however one apportions the guilt

between Jews and Gentiles, it is still

for Jesus' death

true that in the condemnation

and execution of Jesus

the Gentiles are actively involved.

And the

part they

play there shows that they are the flagrant sinners,

the direct murderers of Christ.

The first

has dealings with God's Son

called Pilate.

is

nounces the judgment by which Jesus

ner and by which

He

has to

execution of that judgment.

Christ's grave.

act

He

is

die.

He

Gentile

is

He pro-

made a

He

who
sin-

orders the

sets the

watch on

responsible for completing the

which the Jews are equally responsible for be-

ginning. Is then his handwashing only hypocritical

and

useless? Perhaps

saying of

they

not

Luke 23:34

know

The

"Father, forgive them, for

not what they do"

not to the Jews,

ground

as simple as that.

it is

later,

who

first

refers in its context

re-emerge from the back-

but to the Gentiles

out the actual crucifixion.

It is

only to them for they are the

102

who have

carried

indeed applicable

men whom

Paul de-

Christ and

Adam

scribes in

w.

Law and

so were not convicted of their sin,

13-14, the

their ignorance did not

against

God. They did

were doing.

men who
know

sinned without the

that they

not, in fact,

And it is for them

that

who

in

were sinning

know what they

Christ now prays

what they have done may be forgiven them.

Does that mean that Christ died for these Gentiles

that

and for the

mean
them

that

sin that

He

abounded

in

them? Does that

has taken sin and death away from

from the Jews? That was what Paul

believed and what the whole New Testament believes. That was what was revealed to the
Apostles on
the day of Pentecost. There are several good reasons
as well as

why Pilate's name should have a place in the Creed.

One of them is that he was the Gentile who received
Jesus from the hands of the Jews. When He came
to
be

judged and executed by Pilate, Jesus, the Jewish

Messiah, became the Saviour of the world, and could
later be proclaimed as such in the missionary preaching of the Apostles.
tainly not

an act of good

heathen world.
ter

What was done

On

will

there was ceron the part of the

the contrary: in Pilate's encoun-

with Jesus, the Gentiles at the eleventh hour

recapitulated in themselves the whole history of Israel,

made in due form common

103

cause with the Jews

Christ
against

and

God, and so came

and shame.

Adam

to share Israel's curse

and

hatefulness

At

moment

the very last

before the door was

non-Jews in the person of Pilate man-

closed, the

aged to enter into the very heart of the revelation in

the

Law,

and

its

was on the point of reaching its goal

end. This happened that they might in due
as

it

form have a share in the pleonazein (abounding) of

the transgression, and might show beyond all doubt
that they are no better and no worse than the Jews
(w. 13-14). They are also the instruments by which

God

accomplished his righteous and merciful will

men. They now cease to be

mere spectators and become fellow workers in this
for the salvation of

critical event.

could

it

They

how

also co-operate as sinners

be otherwise?

and

so they also are in-

cluded in God's gracious purpose in

this event, the

reconciliation of the world with Himself. This

merely a religious reconciliation, but, in

is

not

all serious-

ness, the reconciliation of the world, for the Passion

make it clear how, through Jesus, Pilate

and Herod were reconciled, and Pilate and the Jewish churchmen worked hand in glove once more.

narratives

From now

who have no Law

now on, there is no

on, even the Gentiles

are without excuse, but, from

accusation or condemnation against them because

104

Christ and

Adam

and resurrection of the Saviour of the

world have taken their guilt and their condemnation
the death

away. For

now

they have openly shared in the

pleonazein of the transgression.

transgression

became

come very much

"But where the

great, just there grace has be-

greater."

And

so they also have a

share in the hyper perisseuein ("superabounding") of

grace.

God

is

now

revealed not only as the

Jews but also as the

God

God

of the

of the Gentiles. Pontius

The outbecame ob-

Pilate certainly does belong in the Creed.

pouring of the Holy Spirit upon

jectively possible

through what

all flesh

this

did with his guilty-innocent hands.

at the

Pontius Pilate

He who

suffered,

hands of unclean Gentiles, died and rose

again, for unclean Gentiles, as well as for clean

Jews, that they might be reconciled to God.

the Advocate for

all flesh. It is

He

is

not the missionary

preaching of the Apostles that

first

makes Him

Saviour of the world. That preaching can only witness to

One who

has already died at the hands of

both Jews and Gentiles and has in His resurrection

revealed the whole world's reconciliation to God.

What have we

learned from

w. 13-14 and 20?

They have shown us that between the sin of Adam

and the grace of Christ there is a barrier which man
105

Christ and
is

unable to cross. But

Adam

God

has espoused man's

He has done that by electing Israel and giving

He has done it by causing His own Son
become man as an Israelite and by making Him

cause.
it

to

His Law.

subject to the
act of

Law. But man, confronted with

God, has revealed that both

Gentile, he

in rebellion against

is

embraced man's cause in

as

God.

this special

this

Jew and

as

When God
and unique

way, man's reaction proved conclusively that he was

still

is

the

Adam

he had been from the beginning. He

not willing to cross the barrier that divides sin

from grace. His contribution

and

crucifixion of the

is

Messiah of

the Saviour of the world. But

only the rejection

Israel,

God

who

also

is

has crossed this

Where man has refused, God has not

He Himself has come to the rescue of

the

man

has

barrier.

fused.

men who
done

Law

ill.

refused.

That

in Israel.

is

He

has done well what

the secret of His revelation in the

That

is

the secret of the closing

completion of that revelation in Jesus Christ.

takes man's transgression seriously

Himself:

He

re-

by taking

it

and

God
upon

Himself becomes the sinner and dies in

man's place and so makes both sin and death pass

away.

Adam

and Christ are thus distinguished from

each other. The history of Israel under the

106

Law

Christ and

shows that there

is

Adam

no way from the

sin of

Adam

is a way from
Adam. The Law

to

the grace of Christ, but that there

the

grace of Christ to the sin of

ex-

Adam from the grace of Christ, but by fulfilling the Law Christ can take upon Himself Adam's
sin. Adam excludes Christ: but Christ includes
Adam. Adam does not become Christ, but Christ,
cludes

without ceasing to be Christ, and indeed just be-

He

Adam

And

Christ,

becomes

because Christ thus

identifies

Himself with Adam's

Adam

the sinner becomes a

cause

sin

is

and Adam's death,

as well.

witness to Christ, the Reconciler, typos tou mellontos (a type of the

we

one to come

[v. 14]).

That

is

what
and

learn about the relationship between Christ

Adam
them.

Law

from the

And so

retract

what

superiority

the sin of

is

and

midway between

that stands

to take the

Law into

said in the rest of

account

Rom.

is

not to

5 about the

priority of the grace of Christ over

Adam. To know what

the

Law means

is

rather the strongest, and, for Paul, the decisive proof

that

Adam is subordinate to Christ, and that our reAdam is less essential than our relation-

lationship to

ship to Christ.

Jesus Christ

is

the secret truth about the essential

nature of man, and even sinful

107

man

is still

essentially

Christ and
related to

Rom.

Him. That

what we have learned from

5:12-21.

Now we

We

is

Adam

summarize our conclusions:

shall try to

have seen how, according to

Christ
such,

is

He

w.

is

clearly the representative of

mined multitude of other men. In His

tiny

1-11, Jesus

a sharply-defined individual, and how, as

He represents and

an undeter-

life

anticipates their life

and des-

and

their

destiny so that they, without ceasing to be distinct

must make

their life an image and reand must work out the destiny
that overtook them in Him. They have to identify
themselves with Him, because He has already identified Himself with them. There is no question of any
merging or any confusion between Him and them,

individuals,

flection of His life

but neither can there be any question of any abstraction or separation.

and so they

The
is

He

in His individuality

is theirs,

in their individuahty can only

ineffaceable distinction between

be His.

Him and them

the guarantee of their indissoluble unity with

They

as receivers are subordinated

bly related to

Him

and

as Giver; they as

Him.

yet indissolu-

members

subordinated and yet indissolubly united to

are

Him

as

Head.

But w. 1-11 only speak of Jesus Christ and those

believe in Him. If we read that first part of the

who

108

Adam

Christ and

chapter by

itself,

we might

come to the
manhood is signifi-

quite easily

conclusion that for Paul Christ's

cant only for those

who

are united to

Him

in faith.

We would then have no right to draw any conclusion

about the relationship between Christ and

man

as

what Paul says about the "religious" relationship between Christ and Christians. We could
such, from

not then expect to find in the

manhood

of Christ the

key to the essential nature of man.

But in w. 12-21 Paul does not

limit his context to

Christ's relationship to believers but gives funda-

mentally the same account of His relationship to

men. The context

world

history,

is

from

all

widened from Church history

to

Christ's relationship to Chris-

should be

tians to His relationship to all

men.

noted that in these verses there

no further mention
and that

is

It

of faith or even of the gift of the Holy Spirit,

the

first

w.

1-1

person plural which

1 is

is

continually used in

here (with the exception of the

last

phrase

of v. 21) replaced by a quite general third person

plural.

What

is

said here applies generally

and uni-

and not merely to one limited group of

men. Here "religious" presuppositions are not once
versally,

hinted

at.

The

fact of Christ is here presented as

something that dominates and includes

all

nature of Christ objectively conditions

109

men. The

human

na-

Christ and

Adam

and the work of Christ makes an objective

ture

ference to the

life

and destiny of

Christ grace overflows

pardon and
prospect of

justification
life

put in

it is

v.

dif-

men. Through

all

upon them, bringing them

and opening before them a

with God. In short, "grace rules," as

21.

And

all

that

is

in exact corre-

human nature in its

objective relationship to Adam. There sin rules, in
exactly the same way, and all men become sinners
and unrighteous in Adam, and as such must die. The
spondence to what happens to

question about what

is

it

means

ship to

for

man

Adam is

mark of the ChrisWhat we are told is what

the special

tian is just not raised at

all.

as such that his objective relation-

subordinate to and dependent upon

and included

in his objective relationship to Christ.

The question

raised here

concerns

as distinct

from w. 1-11

the relationship between Christ and all

men.
Paul had obviously no intention of fathering an
idle

and

arbitrary speculation

ject. If

when

in this passage

this further

account of the same sub-

we have understood

the dia touto (therefore)

he passed on to

of v. 12 rightly, his intention

was rather

to consoli-

date the special account he had already given of the

and faith, by placing it

and more general context. Our standing

relationship between Christ

in this wider

110

Christ and
as believers

have described

as vv. 1-11

is

our standing as

men

is

Adam

w.

as

relationship to Christ as believers

Him

prior relationship to

because

is

Our

it.

based upon our

Adam's children and

as

For even when we were,

heirs.

it,

12-21 describe

words of

in the

w.

and enemies, Christ

1-11, weak, sinners, godless,

died for us and so brought us into His

Kingdom and

under His power.

We
tians,

have come
because

was nothing

that there
in

Him. What

is

and Chris-

to Christ as believers

we had

come from

already

else for us to

said in

w.

1-11

is

Christ, so

do but believe
not just

"reli-

gious" truth that only applies to specially talented,

men;

specially qualified, or specially guided

men, whether they know

truth for all

surely as they are all

its

it is

tian
is

is

heirs.

described in

w.

The

1-11,

basis the fact that the Christian sphere

not limited to the "religious" sphere.

What

is

human. Nothing

in true

human

is

Chris-

secretly but fundamentally identical with

universally

is

or not, as

Adam's children and

assurance of Christians, as

has as

it

it

what

nature

can ever be alien or irrelevant to the Christian; nothing in true

human

nature can ever attack or surpass

or annul the objective reality of the Christian's union

with Christ.

Much in

true

human

nature

to "religion," but nothing in true

111

is

human

unrelated

nature

is

Christ and

Adam
we

unrelated to the Christian faith. That means that

can understand true human nature only in the

of the Christian gospel that

stands above and

and

second. So

is

is first,
it is

we

and

usually assumed, his true

human

Adam

in Christ.

and

human

not, as

is

original nature;

at all in so far as

corresponds to essential

stands below

Christ that reveals the true

nature of man. Man's nature in

only truly

For Christ

believe.

Adam

light

it

reflects

nature as

it is

is

it is

and

found

True human nature, therefore, can only

be understood by Christians

who

look to Christ to

discover the essential nature of man. Vv. 12-21 are

revolutionary in their insistence that what

Christians must also be true of
principle that has

human

is

true of
is

To

all

reject this passage as

tantamount to denying that the

nature of Christ

true nature of

is

men. That

an incalculable significance for

our action and thought.

empty speculation

all

is

the final revelation of the

man.

What Rom. 5:12-21 is specially concerned to

make clear is that man as we know him, man in
Adam who sins and dies, has his life so ordered
that he

is

both a distinct individual and, at the same

time, the responsible representative of

of

all

other men. In the same

112

way

humanity and

there are

no other

Adam

Christ and

responsible representatives of humanity than individual men.

We

fellow men.

men

are.

are what

And

Man

is

Adam was and so are all our

Adam is what we and all

the one
at

once an individual and only an

individual, and, at the

same

losing his individuality,

sentative of all

always for

all

men. He

time, without in any

is

it

way

the responsible repre-

always for himself and

is

men. That being

foundation? Is

this

he

can we build on

so,

true that essential

human

na-

must always be the existence of the man in

ture

humanity and of humanity in the man?

nize that,

first,

many who
sinful

only in relation to

in that

recog-

and the

are like him, and so only in relation to

and dying men

understood

We

Adam

man

But have we
when we understand him

like ourselves.

correctly

way? Could not

all

that

be quite wrong?

Might not humanity be a corporate personality of

which individuals are only

insignificant manifesta-

tions or fragmentary parts?

Or might not

the whole

notion of humanity be a fiction, and the reality consist

only of a collection of individuals each essen-

tially

unrelated to the others and each responsible

Rom. 5:12-21 points in neither of

If we base our thinking on this pas-

only for himself?

these directions.
sage,

we can have

nothing to do with either collec-

113

Adam

Christ and

on the one hand or individualism on the other.

tivism
It

But how does

about
is

man in neither of these ways.

understands the true

its

own

this

it

Adam

definite

man? For

it

and so with corrupt

might seem questionable to base such

about the true nature of

definite statements

upon our knowledge of him. What

ity for

be so

to

interpretation of the true

dealing expressly with

man, and

come

passage

is

man

Paul's author-

basing a categorical conclusion about the

structure of

human

nature upon nothing sounder

than his knowledge of fallen

Paul dares to draw

this

man? We have

seen that

conclusion because he sees

Adam

not in isolation but in his relationship to

Christ.

And for him

sent

two

For in
valid

Christ

and

that case the doubt as to

would

still

and

w.

do not repre-

human nature.

which was ultimately

the tone of

arise

shows that Paul has no doubts

in

Adam

conflicting interpretations of

13-14 and 20, where

at
it

all.

is

w.

shown

is

is

that the

formal correspondence and identity between

and Christ

1-11

The answer

Adam

based upon their material disparity. In

the encounter between

and power, and

parity of status

Adam
and

can be compared.

them Christ has more

less.

It is

only in

right

this dis-

in this disproportion that they

Adam

is

114

subordinate to Christ,


Christ and

and not Christ

Adam. And

to

nate to Christ, then

uine

human

Adam

Adam

if

Adam

is

subordi-

represents true and gen-

nature in so far as he shows us the

man

humanity and humanity in the man. Whatever

in

else in his representation of

be accounted for by

to

human

its later

nature

corruption and ruin,

this

ordering principle at least belongs to

tion

and character

as created

may have
its

condi-

and untouched by

sin.

For the subordinate representation of human nature

in

Adam here corresponds to its primary

man is in humanity

tion in Christ. In Christ also, the

and humanity
difference:

is

in the

representa-

man. With one important

Adam is not God's Son become man,

and

so he cannot, like Him, be man, and at the same

time be over
sent the

all

but only as one

all

men. Adam, as the one, can repre-

many; he as man can represent humanity

among others. Thus he can represent

same way that each of

the others only in the

them can represent him.

Adam

ority of status over other

has no essential pri-

men.

He

cannot be their

lord and head; he cannot determine their

their destiny.

He

and

and destiny

he

man among

in himself, only in so far as

many

life

can anticipate their life

is

others, only in so far as

the

he

first

is

primus

pares. The polio mallon (much more) of

115

inter

w. 15-17

Christ and

marks

this difference.

Where it

what remains of the

Christ

is

In

is

taken into account,

theirs.

Adam

between

identity

and

many on both

the unity of the one and the

deeds and their deeds, of his condition

sides, of his

and

Adam

In this unity Christ

this unity of the

is,

like

one and the many

Adam, man.

Adam

is

the

type and likeness of Christ, although formally he

differs

from Christ because he

in this unity,

not lord and head

is

and materially he

because his nature

is

from Him,

differs

perverted by

But

sin.

this unity,

as such, belongs not to the perversion of his nature

but to

no

its

original constitution.

arbitrary assertion,

and he

when he presupposes

self

even in Adam.

He

And

is

makes

so Paul

not deceiving him-

this unity as

simply given

does so because he has found

it

given first and primarily in Christ.

Christ

is

who

is

true

man

we have

in the condition

and

all

sense,

and

it is

to recognize true

and character

and created by God. To

this unity of

man and

terms of

this unity,

we

it

in

it

in His hu-

nature

was willed

When we

inquire

seek an answer in

on firm ground,

116

man
He is

there certainly belongs

man and

are

of us.

human

which

humanity.

about the true nature of

also a

is

Adam

an absolute

in

manity that

He

not only God's Son;

not a sinner like

in so far

Christ and
as even sinful

man,

whom

back, as far as this unity

Adam
we know,

reflects

concerned, the

human

alone

is

nature of Christ and so has not ceased to be true

man and

has not ceased to show man's true nature

to us.

117

INDEX

Index

Adam: formal resemblance

of,

to Christ, 42-48, 63; indi-

and humanity of,

and Israel, 76 f.;

viduality

112

f.;

74,

44-51,

55,

64

112L;

105f.,

"type" of Christ, 9

f.,

39

f.,

as

Anthropology; see Man,

Doctrine of
Antisemitism, 86, 88

f.,

98 f.
Atonement, Doctrine

90

105; see also Death;

Christians, 45, 108-12

Christology, as basis of theology, 14

f.

9,

n.,

Condemnation, 51-54, 70

of, 8

Covenant, the, 76-79, 94

f.;

f.;

ff.;

Death: of Christ, 31, 34, 5863, 65-72, 96, 100 f.; lord-

41-48, 63; humilia-

34

Man;

Resurrection

Church Dogmatics,

and formal resemblance to

ality of,

f.,

13-16, 17

Christ: faithfulness of, 95

tion of, 67, 97

Adam, 19

f.,

Augustine, 7, 10

Adam,

Ill; material su-

universality of, 10, 45, 99-

f.,

46 f., 74 f., 107 f., 116;

and world history, IS; see
also, Man, Sin

f.,

37 f ., 43-49, 58 ff., 64, 74,

105 f., 114 f.; representative humanity of, 11, 18 f.,
34,42,47,75, 107, 114 ff.;

material subordination to
Christ,

37

periority, to

ship of, 48, 53-57,

70

f .,

individu-

78

f.;

as penalty of sin, 7,

Kingdom

10

f.,

49

121

Index
Judgment, 51, 54, 59
Justification, 29-32

Easter, 68 f

Election, 16

Enoch, Books
11

of, 13

method

Exegesis,

8 f .,

of,

Law:

fulfilled

by

Christ, 90-

93; as revelation of sin, 85,

f.

105
Frederick the Great, 86

f.

Life, as gift of grace,

70
Love, of God, 30

54

f.,

15

f.,

60, 65,

ignorance

Gentiles:

of,

79-

82, 102; reconciled

Christ, 103

ff.;

Christ by, 100

rejection of

Man:
36

ff.

f.;

power

69
17

ogy

91

40, 79

f.,

f.;

f.,

94; world, 18

86

37-48, 109-

f.,

72-75, 107

f.,

114-

Natural theology, 15 f.
New Testament, 13, 84

f.,

Old Testament, 70, 76 f.,

84 f.
One and Many, 42, 49, 62,

101

Hope, 30, 55, 65

75 f.; glory of, 88;
and Adam, 76 f.; as repre-

70, 72-75

Israel, 54,

sentative of
ff.,

f.,

of,

History: of Israel, 76
f.,

of,

result of, 50-58; theol-

sin,

8,

relationship of, to

16; relationship of, to

Christ, 15 f., 34-45, 55-64,

50-58, 89-97, 105

over

doctrine of,
ff.;

Adam, 17

Grace: of Christ, 58 f., 71 f.;

to Israel, 82 f., 88 f.; lordship of, 44, 48;

f.

by

human

sin,

Original sin, 7, 10, 13, 18

f.

53, 55, 62

f.

87

94, 100; revelation to,

79, 82 f

Pardon, 51

f.,

Philo of Alexandria, 13
Pontius Pilate, 101-05

Jews: as proof of existence of

God,

86

f.;

rejection

of

Reconciliation,

30,

58-62, 65

104

Christ by, 93-99

122

f.,

32-34,
f.

Index
Reformation, 7

10,

32

Resurrection,

ff.,

13,

18

f.;

results of,

50-58, 69

58-60,

65-73
Righteous Decision of God,
30-32, 34

Roman

41, 54

f.,

f.

Thomism, 14
Truth, in Christ and in

Adam,

Catholicism, 7, 14

50, 57-62, 65, 70-

74
Salvation, 30-33, 58
Sin: of

40,

Adam,

49

f.,

7,

58

10

f.,

f.,

65

f.,

18

68

f.,

of Gentiles, 79-82, 100

f.,

ff.;

of Israel, 76-88; mystery

of,

65

f.,

71

f.;

Vulgate, the, 7 f

81;

original, 7,

Wisdom

Word

of Solomon, 13
of God, 13 ff., 18 f.

Wrath of God,

123

69, 80, 83

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