9Therefore, to much more, having been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through Him, 10for, if being enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, to much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life, 11and not only [that], but [we are] also ones reveling in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
12Therefore, just as the sin (and the death through the sin) entered into the world through one man, thus also the death passed into all men because all sinned, 13for sin was being in [the] world until law (but sin is not being imputed to ones not being of law), 14but the death reigned from Adam until Moses, even upon the ones not sinning upon the likeness of the trespass of Adam, who is a type of the One about to [be]; 15but the free gift [is] not as the sin, for if the many died by the sin of the one, to much more the grace of God and the gift by grace abounded into the many by the one man, Jesus Christ, 16and the gift [is] not like [that which is] through [the] one who sinned, for on the one hand, the judgment [is] out of one into condemnation, but the free gift [is] out of many sins into justification (acquittal); 17for if the death reigned through the one by the sin of the one, to much more will those ([the] ones receiving the abundance of the grace and the gift of justification) reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 18Consequently, therefore, as through one sin into all men into condemnation, thus also through one act of righteousness into all men in justification (acquittal) of life. 19Just as the many were made sinners through the disobedience of the one man, thus also the many will be made righteous ones through the obedience of the One, 20but law snuck in in order that the sin might abound, but the grace overflowed when the sin abounded, 21 in order that just as the sin reigned by the death, thus also the grace might reign through the righteousness into eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is a very significant passage for me personally. From the time the Lord saved me, I very much enjoyed studying the Bible. Early on, someone showed me how to use a Strong’s Concordance where I could look up the very Greek and Hebrew words upon which our English translations are based. With this tool, I could begin to understand what those words meant. Then too I discovered Vine’s Expository Dictionary which provided much more extensive understandings of the words. I found repeatedly that what they meant was nothing different than what our English translations say – only more. I found the original words of the Bible to be pictures in themselves and, in those pictures, I found profound truths to understand God and to live by.
I went along several years in the delight of those studies. Then, at some point, I came to Romans 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,…” As I studied the passage and read various commentaries, I saw great controversy over the meaning of this passage (including the entire section of vv.12-21). However, the controversies didn’t center on the meanings of the words themselves, but rather in the grammar. Writers were appealing to the tense of the verb “for that all have sinned.” It is an aorist, they cried, and I of course had no idea what they meant.
I realized at that point that it’s not just word meanings which are different from one language to another. It’s not just that they have a different word for “tree.” It is also true that they may have a very different way of even expressing their thoughts. We call it their grammar, their way of structuring sentences in order to communicate meaning to one another. For instance, in English, we put our adjectives first and say it is a “blue house.” In Spanish their adjectives rather follow their nouns and they literally say it is a “house blue.”
As another example, in English our word order is very important. If we say, “The boy hit the ball,” we all understand from the very order of the sentence, it is clearly the boy doing the hitting and it is the ball that gets hit. In Greek, the sentence can read in literally any order, “The ball hit the boy,” “Hit the ball the boy,” “Hit the boy the ball,” “The ball the boy hit,” and yet, in the Greek grammar, everyone hearing would know exactly what we mean. In our English, we use word order to make sense of what we’re saying. Because word order isn’t important to Greeks, they can use it for emphasis. In their grammar, they can put a word first in the sentence and then everyone knows they mean to emphasize it. An example of this comes in James 5:16 where we translate it something like, “The prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much.” Actually, in Greek, it says something more like, “Much the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes.” You see the difference – what James was wanting to emphasize was the “much,” so he put it as the very first word in the sentence. In this case, we can do that in English too, but it is more of a narrative device than how we would normally express ourselves.
What I realized that day, pondering Romans 5:12, is that there was another entire treasure trove of truth to be found in not only understanding the original words of the Bible but also by understanding the grammar of how those words fit together. I didn’t know how I could ever gain such skills, but I immediately wished I could.
Not long after that, the Lord of course provided me the opportunity to actually study Greek and Hebrew. What I found was in fact a treasure trove! Now some 30 years later, here I sit, pondering that exact same passage, Romans 5:12, only now I know exactly what all these guys are talking about. I don’t have to believe a word they say. I can translate the passage myself. I can understand not only the word meanings but the very way the sentences are arranged in the Greek language. I can hear the guys’ arguments and decide for myself whether I think what they’re saying is valid.
Now, I must say, after spending a few weeks studying the passage, once again, it doesn’t mean anything that isn’t obvious in English. Whether you know Greek and Hebrew or not, you can read it and it means what it says. The difference for me is not in what it says, but in my own personal confidence that I know what it says. No one is going to cower me with all their crowing about aorists. I know what it says. I know what it means. I have to say, words cannot express the joy I gain from that confidence.
And so here I am.
After some 30 years, I return to what is supposed to be one of the “most difficult” passages in the Bible. Frankly, what I find is that it isn’t difficult at all. Once again, you can read it in English (especially all of verses 12-21) and it means just what it says. The Greek (for me) only confirms that what we have are perfectly good English translations. The problem, it turns out, is not in understanding what it says, but rather, in letting it say what it says! I like what Butler wrote, “The passage is regarded by expositors as beset with more difficulties perhaps than any other in the New Testament, and more controversy has grown out of it. This arises not so much from any difficulty in the passage itself, as from the attempts to make it support favorite theories.”
Yes, “from the attempts to make it support favorite theories.” That is precisely the problem. The very first thing anyone needs to understand when they turn to the Bible is that it is God’s Word. Not ours. The challenge of exegesis ought to be to determine exactly what God says (and what He does not). How tragic that men who would call themselves theologians would turn this into a “difficult” passage, not because the meaning isn’t clear, but rather because they don’t like that meaning!
And so here I am.
I love this.
I love the freedom of being able to read and study the Bible and sincerely try to simply let God say what He says, then figure out what that means in my own life and thinking. The truth is you can all do that in the plain, simple English. For myself, however, I am an engineer. I love to pull things apart to see how they fit together. I can’t be happy until I’ve dug to the bedrock, until I’ve turned every stone I know there is to turn, until I’m confident I do understand.
And so here I am.
I love this.
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