{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050653.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050653.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050653.htm","text":"Chapter 46.\u2014The Reign of Death, What It Is; The Figure of the Future Adam; How All Men are Justified Through Christ.\nBut what else is meant even by the apostle\u2019s subsequent words? For after he had said the above, he added, \u201cFor until the law sin was in the world,\u201d 2289 as much as to say that not even the law was able to take away sin. \u201cBut sin,\u201d adds he, \u201cwas not imputed when there was no law.\u201d 2290 It existed then, but was not imputed, for it was not set forth so that it might be imputed. It is on the same principle, indeed, that he says in another passage: \u201cBy the law is the knowledge of sin.\u201d 2291 \u201cNevertheless,\u201d says he, \u201cdeath reigned from Adam to Moses;\u201d 2292 that is, as he had already expressed it, \u201cuntil the law.\u201d Not that there was no sin after Moses, but because even the law, which was given by Moses, was unable to deprive death of its power, which, of course, reigns only by sin. Its reign, too, is such as to plunge mortal man even into that second death which is to endure for evermore. \u201cDeath reigned,\u201d but over whom? \u201cEven over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam\u2019s transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come.\u201d 2293 Of whom that was to come, if not Christ? And in what sort a figure, except in the way of contrariety? which he elsewhere briefly expresses: \u201cAs in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.\u201d 2294 The one condition was in one, even as the other condition was in the other; this is the figure. But this figure is not conformable in every respect; accordingly the apostle, following up the same idea, added, \u201cBut 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.\u201d 2295 But why \u201chath it much more abounded,\u201d except it be that all who are delivered through Christ suffer temporal death on Adam\u2019s account, but have everlasting life in store for the sake of Christ Himself? \u201cAnd not as it was by one that sinned,\u201d says he, \u201cso is the gift: for the judgment was from one to condemnation, but the free gift is from many offences unto justification.\u201d 2296 \u201cBy one\u201d what, but offence? since it is added, \u201cthe free gift is from many offences.\u201d Let these objectors tell us how it can be \u201cby one offence unto condemnation,\u201d unless it be that even the one original sin which has passed over unto all men is sufficient for condemnation? Whereas the free gift delivers from many offences to justification, because it not only cancels the one offence, which is derived from the primal sin, but all others also which are added in every individual man by the motion of his own will. \u201cFor if by one man\u2019s offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ. Therefore, by the offence of p. 302 one upon all men to condemnation; so by the righteousness of one upon all men unto justification of life.\u201d 2297 Let them after this persist in their vain imaginations, and maintain that one man did not hand on sin by propagation, but only set the example of committing it. How is it, then, that by one\u2019s offence judgment comes on all men to condemnation, and not rather by each man\u2019s own numerous sins, unless it be that even if there were but that one sin, it is sufficient, without the addition of any more, to lead to condemnation,\u2014as, indeed, it does lead all who die in infancy who are born of Adam, without being born again in Christ? Why, then, does he, when he refuses to hear the apostle, ask us for an answer to his question, \u201cBy what means may sin be discovered in an infant,\u2014through the will, or through marriage, or through its parents?\u201d Let him listen in silence, and hear by what means sin may be discovered in an infant. \u201cBy the offence of one,\u201d says the apostle, \u201cupon all men to condemnation.\u201d He said, moreover, all to condemnation through Adam, and all to justification through Christ: not, of course, that Christ removes to life all those who die in Adam; but he said \u201call\u201d and \u201call,\u201d because, as without Adam no one goes to death, so without Christ no man to life. Just as we say of a teacher of letters, when he is alone in a town: This man teaches all their learning; not because all the inhabitants take lessons, but because no man who learns at all is taught by any but him. Indeed, the apostle afterwards designates as many those whom he had previously described as all, meaning the self-same persons by the two different terms. \u201cFor,\u201d says he, \u201cas by one man\u2019s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.\u201d 2298","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: On Marriage and C...","type":"page"}