How the Many Were Made Sinners
…earth, while life had no share of strength. For much more will those who have the grace that comes through Christ and the gift of righteousness from the bounty above shake off the power of death and reign together with Christ, who gives life to all things (Romans 5:17).
“Therefore, as through one trespass there came condemnation for all people,” and so on (Romans 5:18). To the thoughts already set out the inspired Paul adds, as it were, the conclusion, saying, “Therefore, as through one trespass,” and what follows. For we were condemned in Adam, as I said before, and death, which came from the curse, passed as from the first root into all that sprang from it. But we have been justified and have sprouted again into life, since Christ was justified on our behalf. For our forefather disregarded the commandment given to him, offended God, and underwent what comes from divine wrath, for he slid into corruption. Then sin also burst into human nature; and so the many were made sinners (Romans 5:19), that is, those throughout the whole earth.
But someone might say: Yes, Adam slipped, and because he disregarded the divine commandment he was condemned to corruption and death. But then how were the many made sinners because of him? What are his failings to us? And how at all were we, who had not yet been born, condemned along with him? And this although God says, “Fathers shall not die for their children” (Deuteronomy 24:16), nor children for their fathers; “the soul that sins, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20). What, then, would be the way of our defence? Certainly, “the soul that sins, it shall die”; but we became sinners through Adam's disobedience in the following way.
He had been made for incorruption and life, and in the paradise of delight he lived a life fit for the holy. His mind was wholly and constantly taken up with the vision of God, and his body was in calm and stillness, with every shameful pleasure at rest, for there was no tumult of unruly impulses in him. But when he fell under sin and slid into corruption, from then on pleasures and impurities rushed into the nature of the flesh, and the law that rages in our members sprang up (Romans 7:23). So nature caught the sickness of sin through the disobedience of the one, that is, Adam. In this way the many were made sinners (Romans 5:19): not as having transgressed together with Adam, for they did not yet exist at all, but as being of his nature, which fell under the law of sin.
Just as, then, human nature fell sick with corruption in Adam through disobedience, and so the passions slipped into it, so it has been set free again in Christ; for he became obedient to God the Father (Philippians 2:8) and committed no sin (1 Peter 2:22).
“The law came in, so that the trespass might increase” (Romans 5:20). Someone, he says, will reasonably argue along these lines and say: Adam “was a type of the one to come” (Romans 5:14), and just as we were made sinners in him through the transgression, so in Christ we have been justified through obedience. Then, he says, the justification in Christ should have appeared to those on earth with nothing coming in between.
Greek
γῆς τὸν δι' ἑνὸς θάνατον, εὐσθενείας γεμὴν ἀμοιρῆσαι τὴν ζωήν· πολλῷ γὰρ μᾶλλον οἱ χάριν ἔχοντες τὴν διὰ Χριστοῦ καὶ τὴν τῆς δικαιοσύνης δωρεὰν ἐκ φιλοτιμίας τῆς ἄνωθεν, ἀποσείσονται μὲν τοῦ θανάτου τὸ κράτος, συμβασιλεύσουσι δὲ τῷ ζωοποιοῦντι τὰ πάντα Χριστῷ. 186 Ἄρα οὖν ὡς δι' ἑνὸς παραπτώματος εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους εἰς κατάκριμα κ.τ.λ. Προσεπάγει ταῖς προκειμέναις ἐννοίαις ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος οἱονεὶ τὸ συμπέρασμα καί φησιν Ἄρα οὖν ὡς δι' ἑνὸς παραπτώματος καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. κατακεκρίμεθα μὲν γὰρ, ὡς προεῖπον, ἐν Ἀδὰμ, καὶ ὡς ἐκ ῥίζης τῆς πρώτης εἰς ἅπαν διέβη τὸ ἐξ αὐτῆς, γενόμενος ὁ ἐξ ἀρᾶς θάνατος· δεδικαιώμεθα δὲ καὶ ἀνεβλαστήσαμεν εἰς ζωὴν, δικαιωθέντος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ. ἀφειδήσας μὲν γὰρ τῆς αὐτῷ δοθείσης ἐντολῆς ὁ προπάτωρ, προσκέκρουκε τῷ Θεῷ καὶ ὑπομεμένηκε τὰ ἐκ θείας ὀργῆς· κατώλισθε γὰρ εἰς φθοράν· τότε καὶ εἰσήλατο τὴν ἀνθρώπου φύσιν ἡ ἁμαρτία· οὕτω καὶ ἁμαρτωλοὶ κατεστάθησαν οἱ πολλοὶ, τουτέστιν οἱ ἀνὰ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν. Ἀλλ' εἴποι τις ἄν Ναὶ παρώλισθεν ὁ Ἀδὰμ, καὶ τῆς θείας ἀλογήσας ἐντολῆς, φθορᾷ καὶ θανάτῳ κατεδικάζετο· εἶτα πῶς ἁμαρτωλοὶ δι' αὐτὸν κατεστάθησαν οἱ πολλοί; τί πρὸς ἡμᾶς τὰ ἐκείνου πταίσματα; πῶς δὲ ὅλως οἱ μήπω γεγενημένοι καταδεδικάσμεθα σὺν αὐτῷ; καίτοι Θεοῦ λέγοντος "Οὐκ ἀποθανοῦνται πατέρες ὑπὲρ τέκνων," οὔτε τέκνα ὑπὲρ πατέρων, "ψυχὴ ἡ ἁμαρτάνουσα αὕτη ἀποθανεῖται·" τίς οὖν ἂν γένοιτο πρὸς ἡμᾶς τῆς ἀπολογίας ὁ τρόπος; οὐκοῦν ψυχὴ μὲν ἡ ἁμαρτάνουσα αὕτη ἀποθανεῖται· ἁμαρτωλοὶ δὲ γεγόναμεν διὰ τῆς παρακοῆς τοῦ Ἀδὰμ διὰ τοιόνδε τρόπον· πεποίητο μὲν γὰρ ἐπὶ ἀφθαρσίᾳ καὶ ζωῇ, ἦν δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ ὁ βίος ἁγιοπρεπὴς ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ τῆς τρυφῆς, ὅλος ἦν καὶ διὰ παντὸς ἐν θεοπτίαις ὁ νοῦς, ἐν εὐδίᾳ δὲ καὶ γαλήνῃ τὸ σῶμα, κατηρεμούσης ἁπάσης αἰσχρᾶς ἡδονῆς· οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἐκτόπων κινημάτων θόρυβος ἐν αὐτῷ· ἐπειδὴ δὲ πέπτωκεν 5 ὑφ' ἁμαρτίαν, καὶ κατώλισθεν εἰς φθορὰν, ἐντεῦθεν εἰσέδραμον τὴν τῆς σαρκὸς φύσιν ἡδοναί τε καὶ ἀκαθαρσίαι, ἀνέφυ δὲ καὶ ὁ ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἡμῶν ἀγριαίνων 187 νόμος. νενόσηκεν οὖν ἡ φύσις τὴν ἁμαρτίαν διὰ τῆς παρακοῆς τοῦ ἑνὸς, τουτέστιν Ἀδάμ· οὕτως ἁμαρτωλοὶ κατεστάθησαν οἱ πολλοὶ, οὐχ ὡς τῷ Ἀδὰμ συμπαραβεβηκότες, οὐ γὰρ ἦσαν πώποτε, ἀλλ' ὡς τῆς ἐκείνου φύσεως ὄντες τῆς ὑπὸ νόμον πεσούσης τὸν τῆς ἁμαρτίας. ὥσπερ τοίνυν ἠῤῥώστησεν ἡ ἀνθρώπου φύσις ἐν Ἀδὰμ διὰ τῆς παρακοῆς τὴν φθορὰν, εἰσέδυ τε οὕτως αὐτὴν τὰ πάθη, οὕτως ἀπήλλακται πάλιν ἐν Χριστῷ· γέγονε γὰρ ὑπήκοος τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρὶ, καὶ οὐκ ἐποίησεν ἁμαρτίαν. Νόμος δὲ παρεισῆλθεν, ἵνα πλεονάσῃ τὸ παράπτωμα. ∆ιαλογιεῖταί τις, φησὶ, κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἐκεῖνό που καὶ λέγει "Τύπος ἦν τοῦ μέλλοντος" ὁ Ἀδὰμ, καὶ ὥσπερ ἐν ἐκείνῳ κατεστάθημεν ἁμαρτωλοὶ διὰ τὴν παράβασιν, οὕτως ἐν Χριστῷ δεδικαιώμεθα δι' ὑπακοῆς. ἔδει τοίνυν μεσολαβοῦντος, φησὶν, οὐδενὸς τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ δικαίωσιν τοῖς ἐπὶ γῆς ἀναφαίνεσθαι·