The Reign of Death

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

THE REIGN OF DEATH

Rom 5:12-14

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

NIV

Here is a theological question. Did God know in advance that Adam would disobey his command about not eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil before he formed Adam from the clay of the earth and breathed life into him? Nevertheless, Adam was supposed to be the perfect man created in the image of the perfect God. Paul says that Adam was a pattern of the one to come, who would be the Christ, Jesus, who was perfect because he was God incarnate. Now, as we are first and foremost, we are descendants of Adam because we are the human form that God created in Adam. However, even in this fleshly form, we have the knowledge of God within us as he put it there from the beginning. This brings us to the fact that we also, like Adam, have the knowledge of good and evil, and thus we can choose and because we are like Adam, we have sinned, we have engaged with evil, so death has been reigning in all of mankind from the time of Adam to the time of Moses. It is interesting that the point is made that even though there were some who never broke a command of God like Adam did, death still reigned in their lives, because they were descendants of Adam, as we are. Therefore, we can only conclude that death reigns in us, in our bodies because we, like all men, have sinned. It is also interesting, like what Paul said in chapter 3, that sin was in the world before the law was given to Moses, and because sin was before the law, God did not take into account their sin. However, their sin still caused death to reign in them. But we live after the law, so what does that mean for us? It would seem the main difference between those who lived prior to the law, and us is that we have the evidence of what sin is because the law exposes our corruption. What appears to be the truth is that before the law, even though man had the knowledge of good and evil and chose evil over good, sin, or disobedience to God, even some suppressed the truth about God. Yet, God did not hold that sin against them. We have to conclude that there was no perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sin. We also should note this was the case all the way up until the time of Jesus. When Paul uses the phrase from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, he is simply saying from the time of creation until the time the law was given. Death reigned in all of us until the time of Jesus. Here is where we get freed from the reign of death and now life reigns within us. We have been given life through faith in Jesus Christ, for he is the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Are we perfect yet? No, sin is still within us, simply because we are human, unable to attain perfection no matter how much we try to live according to the word of God. The difference between us believers and those who have yet believed in the focus of our lives. They focus on sin, although they refuse to acknowledge sin, and we focus on Jesus. We want to do good, but do not always do good, and we do not want to do evil, but we still do that which we do not want to do. It is a conundrum. How can we say we love the Lord, and we want to do good, and still do not? How can we say we do not want to sin, and yet we do? The only conclusion we can come to is we will never be perfect on this side of heaven. However, we have Jesus, and we live under the grace of God, rather than under the law of God, for Jesus fulfilled all the laws, even if he did not cancel them. The law still shows us our need for the grace of God, for Jesus is our redeemer and Savior.