Romans 5:14

1stcenturylady

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Adam sinned WILLFULLY. Numbers 15 from verse 22 on shows there are sins that are UNINTENTIONAL which can be covered by sacrifice. But there was no sacrifice for sins committed PRESUMPTUOUSLY/WILLFULLY - they killed them.

1 John 1:7 shows the unintentional sins (the only type that could be committed while walking in the Spirit) are automatically cleansed.
 
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hedrick

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Remember, he's speaking of the role of the Law. Adam's sin violated a commandment from God. I suspect those whose transgressions are like Adam's are Jews who violated the Law, i.e. a command from God. So his point is that both Jews, who violated the Law, and Gentiles, who didn't have any command, are involved in sin and death.

Adam is the figure of Christ, because Christ is thought of as a second Adam. Why? Adam is the ancestor of mankind, who descend from him physically. Christ is the ancestor of the renewed mankind, who are tied to him by faith.
 
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WrongClub_Lucius

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Can anybody explain to me who the ones who have not sinned are in tthe Romans 5:14 verse?

Going further, who is the one who is the figure of him that is to come?

I think this passage (combined with what comes before and after) is a special insight. It is a crack in the traditional narrative that made me desire to find out the true story hidden behind the facade.

In the verse before, Paul says that sin was in the world before the law was given, but people were not held accountable for their sins. This is one of several instances where the Bible indicates that God holds us accountable for what we know.

The sin of Adam (and Eve...don't want to be sexist! :) ) is usually characterized as disobedience, but I think we are mistaken to say that Adam and Eve merely "disobeyed" God's commandment by eating the fruit. Tradition teaches that this "disobedience" ruined creation, but that doesn't add up. It's overkill. And what kind of God would arbitrarily say not to eat one fruit, and give such drastic consequences? And what is Satan's role? Because there are two trees, and because Satan is giving a hard sell on eating the fruit of one of them, I think we need to understand that the fruit represents something far more profound than merely "disobedience."

Romans 1:21 says, "Knowing God, they did not worship him as God..." I think he summarizes the story of the Garden. Adam and Eve knew God, but they chose Satan over God.

We know Satan is "the father of lies", and I believe the sales pitch he gives to Adam and Eve is this lie. He says, "You can be like God, knowing good and evil." To accept this lie is to deny God, because God claims a unique knowledge of good and evil, justice, wisdom, etc. This is his claim to the throne, a claim that Satan is attacking. So for Adam and Eve to decide that they can be like God is to join the rebellion.

People who did not sin in the manner of Adam are likely those who acknowledge God, but still lived imperfect lives. It seems clear that God left humanity to learn what is good and evil on their own, because they believed they could attain such knowledge. We see this in various places, like the way God didn't judge or condemn Cain for killing Abel. Good and evil still existed, and even those with the best intentions likely stumbled into doing evil without knowing it. Even those who acknowledged God genuinely didn't know what was evil all the time, so they sinned. And God didn't hold them accountable for it, because they didn't know better.


The last part-- "...of the transgression of Adam, who is the type of him who is to come." Based on grammer alone, I'd say it almost sounds like an anti-christ reference, if we remember Adam's sin and rejection of God. But he also describes how sin came through one man, and salvation came through one man...but Jesus had already come. My translation seems to use a future tense, so what comes after Paul? It isn't clear to me.
 
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