For now the glorious Coming One, the Seed of the Woman, the blessed Lord of the Promise, rises on the view, in His likeness and in His contrast. Writing to Corinth from Macedonia, about a year before, St Paul had called him (1 Cor. xv. 45, 47) "the Second Adam," "the Second Man"; and had drawn in outline the parallel he here elaborates. "In Adam all die; even so in Christ all shall be made alive." It was a thought which he had learned in Judaism,[77] but which his Master had affirmed to him in Christianity; and noble indeed and far-reaching is its use of it in this exposition of the sinner's hope.
[Sidenote: Ver. 15.] =But not as the transgression, so the gracious gift (χάρισμα). For if, by the transgression of the one, the many,= the many affected by it, =died, much rather did the grace of God.= His benignant action, =and the gift,= the grant of our acceptance, =in the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ,= ("_in_ His grace," because _involved in_ His benignant action, in His redeeming work) =abound unto the many= whom it, whom He, affected.
We observe here some of the phrases in detail. "_The One_"; "_the One Man_":--"_the_ one," in each case, is related to "_the_ many" involved, in bane or in blessing respectively. "The One _Man_":--so the Second Adam is designated, not the First. As to the First, "it goes unsaid" that he is man. As to the Second, it is infinitely wonderful, and of eternal import, that He, as truly, as completely, is one with us, is Man of men. "_Much rather did_ the grace, and the gift, _abound_":--the thought given here is that while the dread sequel of the Fall was solemnly _permitted_, as good in law, the sequel of the divine counter-work was gladly _sped_ by the Lord's willing love, and was carried to a glorious overflow, to an altogether unmerited effect, in the present and eternal blessing of the justified. "_The many_," twice mentioned in this verse, are the whole company which, in each case, stands related to the respective Representative. It is the whole race in the case of the Fall; it is the "many brethren" of the Second Adam in the case of the Reconciliation. The question is not of numerical comparison between the two, but of the numerousness of each host in relation to the oneness of its covenant Head. What the numerousness of the "many brethren" will be we know--and we do not know; for it will be "a great multitude, which no one can number." But that is not in the question here. The emphasis, the "_much rather_," the "_abundance_," lies not on the compared numbers, but on the amplitude of the blessing which overflows upon "the many" from the justifying work of the One.
He proceeds, developing the thought. From the act of each Representative, from Adam's Fall and Christ's Atonement, there issued results of dominion, of royalty. But what was the contrast of the cases! In the Fall, the sin of the One brought upon "the many" judgment, sentence, and the reign of death over them. In the Atonement, the righteousness of the One brought upon "the many" an "abundance," an overflow, a generous largeness and love of acceptance, and the power of life eternal, and a prerogative of royal rule over sin and death; the emancipated captives treading upon their tyrants' necks. We follow out the Apostle's wording:
[Sidenote: Ver. 16.] =And not as through the one who sinned,= who fell, =so is the gift;= our acceptance in our Second Head does not follow the law of mere and strict retribution which appears in our fall in our first Head. =(For,= he adds in emphatic parenthesis, =the judgment= did issue, =from one= transgression,[78] =in condemnation,= in sentence of death; =but the gracious gift= issued, =from many transgressions,=--not indeed as if earned by them, as if caused by them, but as _occasioned_ by them; for this wonderful process of mercy found in our sins, as well as in our Fall, a _reason_ for the Cross--=in a deed of justification.)[79]= [Sidenote: Ver. 17.] =For if in one transgression,[80]= "_in_" it, as the effect is involved in its cause, =death came to reign (ἐβασίλευσε) through the one= offender,[81] =much rather those who are receiving,= in their successive cases and generations, =that (τὴν) abundance of the grace= just spoken of (ver. 15: χάρις, ἐπερίσσευσε), =and of the free gift of righteousness,= of acceptance, =shall, in life,= life eternal, begun now, to end never, =reign= over their former tyrants =through the One,= their glorious One, =Jesus Christ.=