Romans 5 is the central Original Sin prooftext so today we’re going to dig in and look at what it says. As we mentioned in our first episode Augustine used Romans 5:12 as the cornerstone text for his doctrine of concupiscence, original sin, and infant depravity. First we need to set the context of Romans before we exegete the text.
Context of Romans
Romans is a pastoral (Shepherding) letter that does contain theology. The theology in the letter is to service Paul’s purpose in the Roman church (Lived theology and a lived gospel).
Summary and connections to Original Sin in Romans 1-4
As we have seen the narrative is that Jesus is the truly faithful Human and Jew. Because of his faithfulness and our faith in him we are reconciled to God and to our vocation as Imagers. (All have sinned and missed that Mark).
· There are a lot of connections and allusions to Adam and the image of God but it never says anything about transferred guilt but Romans 1 actually shows how God’s wrath (“handing over”) leads to death just like in Eden.
· Romans 2 says that pagan gentiles can do the things of the Law instinctively though they do not have it. This goes against total depravity.
· All HAVE sinned (become sinners) they are not born sinners. But a better way to take this is that both Jews and Gentiles have gone off course from God’s original plan in the garden.
· All of these arguments are to show how Jews and Gentiles are on an equal plain and need to come to unity in Jesus to truly live out the kingdom in their church.
Romans 5:12-21
All of Romans 5:12-21 is a contrast of 2 ways- Adam or Jesus… the way of life or the way of death:
o We saw that the thing Adam brought was death through his sin
o We do not inherit Adam’s sin but we are born into mortality
o We become sinners when we sin and Adam introduced these systems of sin into the world by our expulsion from Eden
o Sin and Death are seen as Powers that enslave us. We all need saving from death and from sin
o Jesus defeats these Powers as the 2nd Adam and brings life.
o The entire narrative of Romans up to Romans 5 is about “glory”- the image of God. The purpose of this life is for the purpose of being conformed to his image (Romans 8)
o We can walk this way through the life of the Spirit
Original sin?
o Where is original sin and total depravity here? It is completely absent!
o The only way you can get there is through reading Romans out of context.
o We see that death is the focus and the thing that needs to be dealt with in order to get to the restoration of glory!
Original Context:
o The pastoral context of Romans is not just about some abstract theologies of original sin and total depravity, or a road to individual salvation (Romans road).
o Paul exhorting the Roman house churches to live out the way of Jesus in unity instead of the divisions of the Weak and the Strong. He wants them to be conformed into Christ’s image and live out the gospel under Jesus’ kingship- GLORY and GLORIFICATION.
o This message is also for us today- Choose the Life and Way of Christ and live in it (the Truth)!
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