https://youtu.be/7jKAOQ5OKsM
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans last time we completed
Rom 5:12; with the Expanded Translation: "For this reason, just as through one man (Adam) the sin (nature) entered into the world, and the death (spiritual) through the sin (nature); and in this way the death (spiritual) spread to all men, because all sinned (when Adam sinned)."
We see from this verse that spiritual death is lack of relationship with God's integrity in the status of being cut off from God's attributes. Spiritual death results from mankind rejecting, opposing and making war on God just like satan did.
Spiritual death is the result of God's righteousness rejecting and condemning both the principle of the old sin nature trend as well as the original sin itself.
Righteousness demands righteousness. Spiritual death is God's judging, condemning the old sin nature, its function and personal sin. Justice demands justice. God's justice executes what God's righteousness demands and man's unrighteousness demanded condemnation and death.
Spiritual death is an impassable barrier between God and man that was established by God's justice at the moment the original sin occurred to protect God's perfect integrity from being compromised.
Spiritual death is an impassable barrier that is perpetuated throughout human history. It is a barrier that can only be removed when God's perfect integrity is satisfied.
The removal of the barrier demands both the function of God's justice in removing all of mankind's sins as an issue by judging them when Jesus Christ was carrying them on the cross that is followed up with God imputing His own righteousness to anyone in the human race who simply believes in Jesus Christ.
Spiritual death is perpetuated through physical birth. We are born physically with a biological body and a human soul but have spiritual death because of the imputation of the penalty of Adam's original sin and the sin nature.
At the moment of human life the human race is also spiritually dead with no relationship with God's integrity and no possibility of direct blessing from God's justice. The barrier is so great that man cannot move it, break through it, climb over it, or tunnel under it.
God's justice of established the barrier there so the removal of the barrier requires another act of judgment from God's justice. That judgment occurred with the judgment of our personal sins in Jesus Christ on the cross.
The justice of God judged our sins in Jesus Christ on the cross; the justice of God judged what the justice of God had condemned so our blessing from God comes exclusively through Jesus Christ,
Adam's sin was a corrupting principle that was transmitted into the entire human race through procreation. The reason we are born with an old sin nature and under spiritual death is because given the same test we would have done exactly what Adam did.
In this sense Adam is a better man than any of us. If he failed, we would likewise have failed. He did fail so God's justice imputes it to all of us.
We are under God's justice and that same justice provides blessing where the curse and condemnation of sin existed in the human race because God always has a plan to overrule the curse and turn the curse into a blessing. Jesus Christ was His overruling plan.
Rom 5:13; "For until the law sin was in the world." The explanatory use of the postpositive conjunctive particle "gar" (for) with the adverb "achri" (until) used as an improper preposition. The object of the adverb is the genitive of "nomos" (law).
It is translated literally, "For until the law (was given)." The verb is implied by the syntax. The subject is the nominative singular of "hamartia" (sin). Then we have the perfect active indicative of the verb "eimi" (was) from the verb to be, to exist, sometimes and to come to be.
The imperfect tense is the imperfect of duration that contemplates the process of sin as having gone on in the past up to the time denoted by the context without any implication regarding whether or not the process has been completed.
The active voice: the sinfulness of man produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrinal reality. "For until the Law sin was in the world."
This means that the principle of sin continued from the fall of Adam to the time of Moses, and that every person who ever lived committed personal sins during that time even though there was no Law. That means that with or without the Mosaic Law mankind has always been committing personal sins.
This tells us that the Mosaic Law is not a restrainer of sin; it is simply a declarer or a communicator of sin. The Law defines personal sin for us but it doesn't prevent us from committing personal sin.
The Mosaic Law simply defines personal sin and relates it to a penalty. Personal sin is the principle of doing things that are contradictory to God's integrity, followed by the practice of doing those things.
So that sin in the singular always deals with the principle or predicate of sin and in the plural (sins) describes the practice of or the commission of personal sins.
"in the world" "en" (in) plus the locative of "kosmos" (world). The principle of sin was there, the function and practice of sin was there, and but Mosaic Law didn't restrain it. Furthermore, people were saved, but the Mosaic Law didn't cause it. With or without the Mosaic Law every person is born spiritually dead.
The imputation of Adam's sin is the basis of our condemnation. Therefore by God's justice imputing Adam's sin to all of to us places all us into the pit of spiritual death.
God could extract us from the pit of spiritual death by taking our personal sins that had not been judged by God's justice and imputing them to Jesus Christ on the cross instead of us so that God's justice could judge our personal sins in Jesus Christ and get us out of our impossible situation.
This is perfect justice. Personal sin existed in the world from Adam to Moses but personal sin was not the basis for condemnation from God's justice.
The basis for condemnation from God's justice was/is the imputation of Adam's sin plus the receiving Adam's trend toward sin (the old sin nature). This means that all unbelievers commit sin from the status of spiritual death.
Spiritual death is the cause of personal sins but personal sins are not the cause of spiritual death.
"but sin is not imputed when there is no law" the nominative singular subject from "harmartia (sin). The singular gives us three possibilities for the meaning of the word it could refer to imputed sin, the old sin nature, or the principle of personal sin.
In this case we have the principle of personal sin. The negative "ou" (not) plus the present passive indicative of "ellogeo" (impute) that means to impute, charge or indict. The historical present tense emphasizes a past event by viewing it as though it is occurring in the present.
The passive voice explains us that personal sins receive the action of the verb of not being imputed or charged. Our personal sins are not charged to us.
The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality.
Plus the genitive absolute "nomos" (sin) in the genitive as the subject plus the present active temporal participle "eimi" (existing or being) with the negative "me" (not) so it says when the law did not exist."
Expanded Translation Rom 5:13; "For until the law the sin nature was in the world, and imputed sin was in the world: but personal sin was not imputed when the law did not exist."
This verse emphasizes the fact that entire human race sinned when Adam sinned. The basis for God's justice condemnation of man' is the imputation of Adam's sin, as well as the possession of the old sin nature that is propagated genetically from Adam's sin trend at birth.
We are therefore born spiritually dead as the result of God's judgment of Adam's original sin. The basis for our condemnation is imputed sin and inherent sin not the personal sins we commit.
People who lived from Adam to Moses committed personal sin but their personal sins were never the basis for their condemnation.
Adam's original sin was imputed to every person in the human race but their personal sins were not imputed to them instead they are all imputed to Jesus Christ on the cross.
At the cross all personal sins, past, present, and future were imputed to Jesus Christ and then judged by God's justice as God's overruling grace provision for the salvation of humanity.
Condemnation comes into the human race at physical birth through the imputation of Adam's sin and the possession of Adam's genetically formed sin nature.
Because of this every member of the human race, except the humanity of Christ, is born spiritually dead. Eph 2:1-5;
That means we were spiritually dead and had a genetically formed old sin nature at birth before we ever committed a personal sin.
We see from this that condemnation from God's justice and spiritual death was because of Adam's original sin not because of our personal sins.
The doctrine of imputation explains the imputation of Adam's original sin to condemn the entire human race, as an act of God's perfect justice following the trial outside of the garden.
This means that our condemnation does not come from the imputation of our personal sins to us and that also means that our personal sins are not the issue in our salvation. Rom 5:12;
It is imperative that we understand that personal sins are not imputed to the sinner and that they were imputed until the cross.
On the cross Jesus Christ not only bore our sins as a result of imputation but was also judged for our sins as the means of our salvation.
This means that God's justice judged Adam's sin in the garden for condemnation and our sins on the cross for justification. Adam's sin was imputed to us at birth that resulted in our spiritual death the acquisition of the old sin nature and condemnation.
All personal sins past, present, and future committed by the entire human race were imputed to Jesus Christ on the cross so that any member of the human race could be born again, be forgiven, and given God's righteousness along with eternal life by simply believing in Jesus Christ.