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by
A.E. Saxby
from
his book
God
in Creation, Redemption, Judgment
and
Consummation(1)
The
closing verses of Romans 5 have been the standing perplexity of theologians.
Yet nowhere has the Holy Spirit written for our learning plainer conclusions,
and never has tradition been blinder than in the treatment of this magnificent
passage. Believe the passage as it stands, and the divine logic is irresistible.
It contains a comparison between the first and the last Adam. What
the first Adam was, and is, to the whole human race, the last Adam is,
and will be also, to the whole human race. This is the simple and grand
logic of verses 18 and 19. "Therefore as by
the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, EVEN
SO by the righteousness of One, the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life." Then there follows
a reiteration of the comparison with its Divine logic, so that the fact
might be stated again, not only as a climax in the purpose of redemption,
but as a future goal in the history of the working out of the redemption
of all men. "For as by one man's disobedience
the many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall the many be
made righteous." The insertion of the definite
article, which the Authorized Version unwarrantably leaves out before the
word "many" in
each case, emphasizes the fact for which it was originally placed there,
viz.-- that the company of the righteous is identical in person and number
with the company of the sinners to which the passage refers.
So that we have two phrases in these two verses, by which we can establish
beyond question the identity of those under discussion. These two phrases
are "ALL MEN,"
and "THE MANY." Of
this company it is declared in the first place, that "all
men" and "the
many" were made sinners and come into condemnation;
and in the second place, that "all men"
and "the many"
will be made righteous, not simply saved but made righteous. If this plain
simple language-- and God could not have made it plainer-- does
not mean what it says, but infers something quite the opposite, so that
the comparison used is not a true one, then we may well pause to ask how
ever it came about that on such a subject, and at such a climax in his
argument, Paul did not tell us exactly what he meant.
If he meant that all men would be influenced by Adam's sin hopelessly and
completely, but only some of the race would be affected actually by Christ's
cross, here was the place to make this difference once and for all clear.
Instead, however, he uses universal terms, and logical comparisons, which,
if the last suggestion is true, are not only bewildering but positively
untrue, without the faintest hint to the contrary.
The apostle does more than this. He introduces a vivid contrast. "But
NOT
AS the offence, SO ALSO is the free gift. For if through the
offence of one the many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift
by grace. which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto the many."
(Again the definite article should be placed where the Authorized Version
has omitted it, before the word
"many"
in this verse). Let the reader note that the contrast here is
in an absolutely opposite direction to the conclusions of ordinary theology.
Most of us were taught that there was such a contrast between the effect
of Adam's sin and Christ's righteousness that by the fall all were lost,
and by the Cross some would be saved. The contrast here in verse 15 is
the antipodes (direct opposite) of this conclusion. It is between the effect
of the acts of the two Adams, and is such a contrast that the grace of
God hath "MUCH MORE . . . ABOUNDED"
in the Cross over the act of the first Adam. "If
a human act was effectual for ruin, how much more shall a Divine act be
effectual for salvation." The Apostle repeats
this contrast later in the closing verse of the argument, when he sums
up with the words, "where sin abounded grace
did MUCH MORE ABOUND."
It is incomprehensible that such reckless language would have been chosen,
if the Apostle did not mean just what the words declare; especially in
the entire absence of any modifying or cautionary phrases. "The
compound word here implies, ‘not only abounding,' that is bursting forth
round about; round about all ages, round about all nations, round about
all sorts: but ‘superabounding'-- that surrounding all those rounds,
and with surplus and advantage over-flowing all: not only abounding grace,
abounding unto all, to the whole world, but grace superabounding: that
is, if there were other worlds, grace would bring salvation even unto them."
(Dr. Clarke).
The argument reveals the principle upon which God is working out His purpose
with the human race. It declares that the principle upon which God is working
to the redemption of all is the same principle by which the universal fall
of man came about. Through one man's sin the whole race was involved surely
and hopelessly. "Adam's offence did not merely
make it possible for men to sin and merit condemnation, it made it IMPOSSIBLE
for them to do otherwise."
Through another Man's righteousness therefore, even the Man of Calvary,
the human race was saved, as through Adam it was lost. And as all
men, born or yet unborn, will not escape the contamination and condemnation
of that act of sin in Eden, so to all men there will eventually come the
blessed results of that act upon Calvary.
When we catch the thought of the two federal headships, the logical issue
is so clear that the statement of the fact of redemption being co-extensive
with the fall in its reach and results, is so evident in the passage that
faith leaps to appropriate the truth .
The
subject of the federal headship of Adam and Christ has been put so clearly
by Pastor D. M. Panton that we cannot do better than quote at length from
his pen:-- "So the Holy Ghost says: ‘Through
one man'-- the fountain of human blood; the sample man, because no man
can deny that he too would have acted exactly as Adam did-- ‘sin entered
into the world, and death through sin;' entered, for both sin and death
are for ever aliens in the universe of God; ‘and so death passed unto all
men'-- traveled (Alford) like a submarine torpedo-- ‘for that all sinned'
(Rom. 5:12) in Eden. When God made Adam He made all men; for the race is
no aggregate of isolated and independent units, but an entity of organic
and dependent generations: and, since God made of ‘one blood' all the nations
of men, sin introduced anywhere is sin introduced everywhere. The fall
of Adam was the fall of souls at this moment not yet born; and the fact
of their sinning, when born, will for ever prove the truth of the doctrine."
"Upon this organic fall of all in the one God builds the whole structure
of redemption; for He takes this very principle of solidarity, which was
our ruin, and makes that solidarity the organ of the world's salvation.
‘For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners'--
sinners by a representative act, sinners by a fouled nature inherited,
sinners ourselves by active choice-- ‘EVEN SO'--
God taking the
solidarity which ruined as the solidarity which shall redeem-- ‘through
the obedience of the One shall the many be made righteous.' The helpless
fall of the race into death through the act of a lonely man is countered
by a helpless salvation for the entire race wrought by a Man as lonely
and unique. That is, God incarnate in human flesh, the Second Man, is so
organically one with the race as a race-- so the Son of man, not a son
of man-- that His righteousness is imputed to all as actually and as really
as is Adam's sin. The first Adam was the federal head of the race;
the last Adam is equally the federal head of the race; the first Adam,
the Iaw-breaker, is replaced by the last Adam, the law-fulfiller: the first
man acted for all mankind, and plunged the world into ruin; the Second
Man acted for all mankind, and lifted the World into salvation:
Adam
was the author of death to all: Christ is the author of life for all."
"The Holy Ghost says: ‘So then as through one trespass'-- for however
often Adam sinned afterwards, we fell only by one act that introduced
sin itself-- ‘the judgment came unto all men to condemnation;
EVEN
SO'-- God turning solidarity, the organ of condemnation, into solidarity,
the organ of grace-- ‘through one righteousness the free gift came unto
all men to justification of life.' As Adam ruined us through sin
foreign to us, without our fault; so Christ has saved us with a righteousness
foreign to us, without our merit: and the Holy Spirit thus rests our entire
redemption on the historical, actual, personal fall of the first man countered
by the historical, actual, personal death and resurrection of the Second
Man."
Elsewhere the same author, pursuing the same theme, writes "So,
as one man condemns all, the Other justifies all; and both these acts are
completely finished in Adam and Christ." And
again, "As we were lost in Adam six thousand
years before we were born, so we were saved by Christ two thousand years
before our birth. We are as helpless in our salvation as we were in our
fall."
It seems impossible, after such scriptural and logical reasoning, that
Mr. Panton can escape the glorious issue to which Paul conducts his readers
in this page. He succeeds, however, in doing so to his own satisfaction,
but only by giving a turn to the passage which is unwarrantable. He writes,
"It
is not (as in the Old Version) that the righteousness has come upon all
men, for then all men would have been saved; but it has come unto-- within
reach of, offered to, within the grasp of-- all men so that no man need
be lost." Mr. Panton has been obliged to do
three things here to get out of his dilemma. He had not been fair in his
use of the prepositions; he has given a meaning of his own to the preposition
"unto";
he has stated that which is not a fact.
It is correct to say that the preposition "upon"
should be "unto,"
but that is only half the truth. The fact is that all three prepositions
in the 18th verse are the same and should be "unto"
in each case. This shows that with the same force with which condemnation
comes unto all men, so the free gift will come unto all men. Secondly he
has given to the preposition "unto"
the meaning of "within reach of, offered to,
within the grasp of." It is clear that this
is not the meaning when the preposition is used with respect to the condemnation
coming to all men. Condemnation has not only come "within
reach of, or offered to, or within the grasp"
of all men, it has reached them and involved them every one without exception.
Also, in the majority of cases in the New Testament the preposition used
here has the force of arriving at some fixed destination.
Thirdly, the free gift has not been "offered
to" all men, neither in the past nor the present.
It has not come "within the grasp"
of all men. Indeed, there are millions even today who know nothing whatever
of the Gospel of Christ. The fact is, that in this magnificent passage
the Holy Ghost has left no loophole of escape from the Divine conclusion
of the ultimate salvation of all men. The terms of comparison and contrast
both point to it overwhelmingly. The words used indicate it unequivocally.
The very prepositions used make it unmistakable. Still further, to crown
the Divine logic, the word translated "life"
in verse 18 ("unto all men unto justification
of life"), is not the word used constantly
in the New Testament for physical, or natural life, but it is the word
repeatedly used in connection with Christ and His gift of life to men.
It is the word used in such passages as, "In
Him was life;" and "I
am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly."
Add to this, what has been pointed out, the entire absence in this passage,
or in the whole of Romans, of the threat of endless damnation, and you
have an affirmative witness unweakened by a single negative throughout
the whole passage.
The difficulties in the way of the acceptance of the literal interpretation
of this passage owe their existence to the following reasons, amongst others:---
1. The innate tendency of the human mind to choose the lesser
ideal of God. Instead of modifying the negative passages by those that
affirm a redemption co-extensive with the fall, the human mind has persistently
referred the opposite method, and modified this great passage. The first
thing to be removed, before the altered perspective of the Divine ultimate
is accepted is this tendency to gauge God by His attributes of justice
and righteousness, rather than by His nature which is Love. The former
are not sacrificed to the latter, but are means by which love realizes
its goal.
2. The confusion of the process of salvation with the goal.
All the dread warnings and threatened judgments of the new Testament have
to do with the process by which the goal is reached. The administration
of redemption is in the hands of the Son of God. Into His hands the
Father has delivered all things. (John 3:35). The failure to see this,
together with the incorrect translation of several of the pivotal words
which vitally affect the subject, have resulted in those activities of
Christ, as Judge of mankind, being projected into eternity, instead of
being kept within the bounds of His kingdom, which is strictly in time
and will be delivered up to the Father at the end of time.
3. The confusion of the special salvation of this age with the
general salvation of all men, to which God equally pledges Himself in His
word together with the salvation of the church. He is the "Savior
of the body." (Ephes. 5:23). He is also
the ‘the Savior of the world.' (John 4:42, I John 4:14, I Tim. 4:10).
These two distinct functions were present to the Lord's own mind when He
affirmed the certainty that "All that
the Father giveth Me SHALL COME TO ME,"
and with equal certainty declared that "I,
if I be lifted up from the earth WILL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME."
That
first company, who in this age are being thus drawn by wondrous ways of
grace from all classes and out of all conditions of men under circumstances
that reveal the sovereignty of God that lies back of their salvation, the
Saviour deliberately limited to the Father's will and choice. "No
man can come unto Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him."
He emphasized the selective character of their salvation in His prayer
in Gethsemane in His opening words "As Thou
hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to
as many as Thou has given Him."
Indeed, in
the survey of His work in that prayer, He just as deliberately limited
His petition then to that company, "I pray
not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me,"
while with them He links all who will believe on Him through their word.
(John 17:20). He does not leave out the world, however. His full
expectation of the world coming to Him is based upon the gathering of these
given ones to Himself in an indissoluble unity. (John 17:21).
It was given to Paul in particular to unfold in his epistles this twin
truth. He boldly declares that in the dispensation of the fullness of times
God will gather together in one all things in Christ, and that we in this
age who have "first trusted in Christ,"
have by sovereign grace been "predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will." (Ephes. 1:9-12).
The twin purposes of God revealed in Christ's own words in John's Gospel
appear here in the Apostle's writings. We have been accused of basing our
teaching on the Epistles. The charge is, in part, true, and, even so, this
is in keeping with the Lord's promise that when the Holy Spirit came He
would bring to the remembrance of the disciples all things whatsoever He
had said unto them. Here, then, in Paul's teaching is embodied the dual
purpose that was present in the perspective of the Lord Himself.
The same double issue of the Cross is again presented in the Colossians
epistle. The definite undertaking to fully reconcile all things eventually
by means of that Cross, is given side by side with the earnest of it in
the actual reconciliation of the believers of this age. (Col. 1:20-21).
As this was the inspiration of the Saviour's ministry, so it was of Paul's,
who rejoiced that the living God was the Saviour of all men, specially
of those that believe (1 Tim. 4:I0); and who therefore bent his energies
to the accomplishment of the first out-working of salvation, and endured
all things for the elects' sake that they might also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory,-- that special salvation
which carries with it the glories of the ages to come, in which the administration
of redemption, by means of judgment and grace, goes on apace under the
ministry of Christ and His church.
How sadly man has misunderstood this dual purpose and dragged the glorious
doctrine of election into the dust, is manifest in the distorted view of
predestination presented by the popular theology of the day. Basing
everything upon one sentence-- wrung from one passage, with utter disregard
for context, kindred passages, translation, or the words of Christ to the
contrary-- we are told that predestination simply means that God foreknew
who would believe and predestinated such for salvation! This is contrary
to every other utterance of God on this great subject. "Ye
have not chosen Me but I have chosen you"
was Christ's explanation of the matter, and Paul emphatically declares
that election was prior to, and independent of, the actions of the sample
case he gives of Jacob and Esau, "For the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that
the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, ‘The elder shall serve the younger.'
" The summing up of the Apostle's argument on this very point is "So
then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that sheweth mercy."
All is based upon God's "good, acceptable
and perfect will." Man would invert the order
and base all upon the fickle will of man, enslaved. by sin. (John 8:34).
Having mistaken the present purpose of God in this age so hopelessly it
is little wonder the larger issue is obscured altogether.
The distortion is due to the effort to explain away the apparent
favoritism of God for some, with his apparent rejection of others, and
to square the doctrine of election with the fundamental principle in God's
dealing with men that He is no respecter of persons. Thus grace is turned
into works, and faith, the gift of God, becomes the minimum of man's effort
that saves him. How far removed is this conception of the Gospel, to that
far-flung vision of grace which sees a chosen company gathered and perfected
in one age, that such may be the co-workers with Christ in His consummating
work in the ages to come, on behalf of the rest.
A thousand insuperable difficulties, involving God's character and impoverishing
Calvary's power and scope, attach to man's pitiable attempt to "steady
the ark of God." All such problems are solved
and crowned with inextinguishable glory, when it is seen that the election
of some is on the way to the inclusion of all. To the man first "called
alone" this principle was enunciated, when
God said to Abraham "I will bless thee . .
. and thou shalt be a blessing . . . and in thee shall all the families
of the earth be blessed."
______________________________________________________
Saxby, A.E., London, England,
God
in Creation, Redemption, Judgment and Consummation. Fallbrook,
California, Van-Del Press, Inc., Reprinted 1966
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