Our Legal Justification

King James Version

Romans 5:12
   Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
New English Version

Romans 5:12
   Mark what follows.  It was through one man [Adam] that sin entered the world, and through sin death, and thus death pervaded the whole human race inasmuch as all men have sinned.

Genesis 2:16-17
   And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:   But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

   When Adam and Eve violated this condition they did surely die that very day.  Spiritually they died.  They no longer had the nature of God abiding within them.  They were no longer "body, soul, and spirit" beings in God's category.  They still had life.  They had growth life as do plants and they had soul life (moving breathing life) as do all living creatures.  But they no longer had spiritual life.  This was the fall of mankind.  This event left ALL mankind dead spiritually.  All mankind, through Adam's disobedience to God's command, was now in violation of the spoken Word of God.
 

King James Version

Romans 5:13
   For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed [charged] when there is no law.
New English Version

Romans 5:13
   For sin was already in the world before there was law, though in the absence of law no reckoning is kept of sin.

   Mankind was in violation of God's spoken command and thus sin was in the world due to Adam's disobedience.  But God's Word was not yet written.  The written "law" was not yet in the world and therefore mankind had not yet been legally charged with breaking the law.  The consequence of Adam's breaking the spoken command of God (spiritual death) had passed on to men and women but there was no legal charge of breaking the law because the law of God had not yet been written.
 

King James Version

Romans 5:14
   Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
New English Version

Romans 5:14
   But death held sway from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned as Adam did, by disobeying a direct command--and Adam foreshadows the Man who was to come.

   With Moses came the written law.  But the consequence of Adam's disobedience [spiritual death] reigned - held sway - in all mankind from Adam to Moses.  Only by the obedience of a righteous man could the consequence of Adam's sin be removed.  The world needed someone to pay for Adam's crime in order to be redeemed from the consequence of Adam's sin.
 

King James Version

Romans 5:15
   But not as the offence, so also is the free gift.  For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
New English Version

Romans 5:15
   But God's act of grace is out of all proportion to Adam's wrongdoing.  For if the wrongdoing of that one man brought death upon so many, its effect is vastly exceeded by the grace of God and the gift that came to so many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.

   Jesus Christ came and walked a perfect walk before God.  He always obeyed God - even unto death.  He paid for Adam's crime.  The result of Jesus Christ's act was that ALL mankind has been given the opportunity to receive the gift of holy spirit.  Eternal spiritual life!  This gift is free to us because Jesus Christ paid the legal price for it.  And this gift is OUT OF ALL PROPORTION to the consequence of Adam's disobedience.  All you have to do is accept Jesus Christ's substitution for you and believe that God raised him from the dead and you too are raised to eternal spiritual life.  Even if you never walk righteously before God, if you have accepted Jesus Christ's action on your behalf [made him Lord and believed that God raised him from the dead - Romans 10:9-10] God graciously gives you His free gift of spiritual life for all eternity.  It may seem like a severe consequence that men and women received spiritual death for Adam's sin, yet the gift of spiritual life that we can receive today because of Jesus Christ's obedience is out of all proportion to that consequence.
 

King James Version

Romans 5:16
   And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
New English Version

Romans 5:16
   And again, the gift of God is not to be compared in its effect with that one man's sin; for the judicial action, following upon the one offence, issued in a verdict of condemnation, but the act of grace, following upon so many misdeeds, issued in a verdict of acquittal.

   The judicial action - God's judgment - resulting from Adam's crime was a verdict of condemnation - GUILTY!  The punishment: spiritual death upon all mankind.  But after many many acts of disobedience by mankind toward God, Jesus Christ's obedience to God resulted in a judicial judgment of acquittal - NOT GUILTY! - for all mankind - the result was the free gift of spiritual life for all mankind.
 

King James Version

Romans 5:17
   For if by one man's offence death reigned by one: much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
New English Version

Romans 5:17
   For if by the wrongdoing of that one man death established its reign, through a single sinner, much more shall those who receive in far greater measure God's grace, and his gift of righteousness, live and reign through one man, Jesus Christ.

   Death had rule over all of us because of one man's [Adam's] law breaking; and life rules for those who believe because of one man's [Jesus Christ's] obedience to God.  What a tremendous gracious gift we have been given!
 

King James Version

Romans 5:18-19
   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.
   For as by one man's [Adam's] disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one [Jesus Christ] shall many be made righteous.
New English Version

Romans 5:18-19
   It follows, then, that as the issue of one misdeed was condemnation for all men, so the issue of one just act is acquittal and life for all men.
   For as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the one man [Jesus Christ] the many will be made righteous.

   The legal judgment resulting from Adam's act was a judgment of guilty for all mankind.  The legal judgment resulting from Jesus Christ's act was a judgment of acquittal [NOT GUILTY] for all men.  Adam's act made us all criminals - sinners.  Jesus Christ's act made us all righteous - right before God.
 

King James Version

Romans 5:20-21
   Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound.  But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
   That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord
New English Version

Romans 5:20-21
   Law intruded into this process to multiply lawbreaking.  But where sin was thus multiplied, grace immeasurably exceeded it, 
   in order that, as sin established its reign by way of death, so God's grace might establish its reign in righteousness, and issue in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

     Once the law was written the lawbreaking of Adam was multiplied because it was spelled out in written legal terms and the verdict of death reigned.  But the verdict of acquittal and the gift of eternal life given us by the grace of God as a result of Jesus Christ's righteous act immeasurably exceeds Adam's sin.  Today God's grace reigns for those of us who believe.

    We have been legally justified.  Justification is "just as if you never sinned."  It is that verdict of acquittal - not guilty - issued by God, the righteous judge, as a result of Jesus Christ's obedience to His Word.  Today, we stand righteous before God on legal grounds and we have eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

March, 1999
URL http://www.cortright.org/justify.htm
Michael Cortright