ROMANS 5: 12—21. 129

with the latter, the ground or reason for which it is done. As the geni- tive is used here and in the following verse, it may be argued that Paul does not mean to say that the offence of Adam was the ground of our condemnation, but that it was the occasion of it merely ; or, in general terms, the cause of it, without indicating the nature of that cause. While it is admitted that the preposition in question, with the genitive, properly indicates the means to an end, yet, from the nature of the case, that means may be the ground or reason on which any thing is done. Thus, in v. 12 of this chapter, Paul says " death was by sin," i. e. sin was the means or cause of death, yet it was such by being the ground or reason of its infliction. The sense, therefore, is accurately expressed by saying ' death was on account of sin.' In ch. 3 : 24 we are said to be justified "through the redemption" of Christ, i. e. hy means of it; yet here the means is of the nature of the ground or reason of our justifica- tion. The same remark may be made in reference to the frequent phrases "through his blood," Eph. 1 : 7. Col. 1 : 14, &c. ; " through his death," Rom. 5 : 10. Col. 1 : 22 ; "by the cross," Eph. 2 : 16, &c. ; " by the sacrifice of himself," Heb. 9 : 26 ; " through the offering of the body of Jesus," Heb. 10: 10; in all these, and a multitude of similar cases, the preposition in question retains its appropriate force with the genitive, as indicating the means, and yet in all of them the means is the ground or reason. Thus also, in this immediate connexion, we have the expres- sions " hy the righteousness of one" all are justified ; and " hy the obe- dience of one shall many be made righteous." We have, therefore, in this single passage no less than three cases, vs. 12, 18, 19, in which this preposition with the genitive indicates such a means to an end, as the ground or reason on account of which something is given or performed. All this is surely sufficient to prove that it may^ in the case before us, express the ground why the sentence of condemnation has passed on all men. That such, in this connexion, must be its meaning, appears, 1. From the nature of the subject spoken of. To say that one man has been corrupted by another, may indeed express very generally that one was the cause of the corruption of the other, without giving any informa- tion as to the mode in which the result was secured. But to say that a man was justified by means of a good action, or that he was condemned by means of a bad one; or, plainer still, in Paul's own language, that a condemnatory sentence came upon him by means of that action ; accord ing to all common rules of interpretation, naturally means that such ac- tion was the reason of the sentence. 2. From the antithesis. If the phrase "by the righteousness of one all are justified" means, as is ad- mitted, that that righteousness is the ground of our justification; the opposite clause, " by the offence of one all are condemned," must have a similar meaning. 3. The point of the comparison, as frequently re- marked before, lies in this very idea. The fact that Adam's sin was the occasion of our sinning, and thus incurring the divine displeasure, is no illustration of the fact that Christ's righteousness, and not our own