Dialogue…

I am in some discussion with a young man on Facebook. I am writing this for him, but also to specifically deal with a passage that is often quoted, misquoted, concerning the doctrine of the Active Obedience of Jesus Christ. I have dealt with this teaching in other posts before this, so I don’t want to hash that out here. However, the general summary of that teaching was repeated back to me by this gentleman, and it goes something like this:

“You need both forgiveness of sins (the imputation of our sin to Christ) and the provision of righteousness (the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us). Jesus as our substitute must not only pay our penalty but must also obey all the positive demands of the law (Mosaic). These include the positive demands of the law and the penal sanctions, this is why our Lord came to “fulfill” the law and the prophets.”

The idea is that sin must be paid for and righteousness restored. Sin was paid for at the cross of Christ (Passive Obedience), but the righteousness was completed in the obedience of the Son of God to the Mosaic Law (Active Obedience). It is this righteousness that is imputed to the elect sinner, so they say. 

There is much sordid history with this doctrine, and I really don’t want to go through that here. Besides, there are men better than myself to do that. However, what I do know, I want to write down here for clarification. 

Romans 5:18-19

This passage is the crux interpretum, at least as far as a summary is concerned. It is obvious that there are many other biblical texts going through Paul’s mind as he penned these words. I can hear Genesis 1-3, Isaiah 53, Matthew 27, and others. Paul is writing a summary here of what exactly happened between Adam and Christ. That is to say, what did each man/Man accomplish, and how does that affect the elect sinner?

The way that I want to structure this post is by demonstrating the proper exegesis of these two verses, and then explaining them, and then drawing conclusions. It is likely that this will be a 2-3 part post. 

Exegesis

Parsing

Word	Parse	Meaning	Notes
V.18
Ἄρα	Resultant strong	Therefore	Shows conclusion, or deduction from previous statements.
οὖν	Inferential	Therefore	Double inference
ὡς	Comparative	As
διʼ	Prep instrumental	Through	Causal?
ἑνὸς	Cardinal	One
παραπτώματος	Msnom	A transgression
εἰς	Prep	Into
πάντας	Mplacc	All ones
ἀνθρώπους	Mplacc	Men
εἰς	Prep	Into	Locative
κατάκριμα	Msnom	A judgment	Condemnation-the final act of judgment
οὕτως	Manner, coordinated	Manner
καὶ	Conj, coordinating	And	Also?
διʼ	Instrumental	Through	Because of?
ἑνὸς	Msnom, cardinal	One man
δικαιώματος	Nsgen	Of righteousness/a righteous thing
εἰς	Prep	Into
πάντας	Mplacc	Of all
ἀνθρώπους	Mplacc	Men
εἰς	Prep	Into
δικαίωσιν	Nsacc	A righteousness
ζωῆς	Msgen of reference	Of life	Appositional
V.19
ὥσπερ	Adverb	Just as
γὰρ	Conj	For	Explanatory
διὰ	Instrumental	Through	Because of?
τῆς παρακοῆς	Fsgen	Of the obedience
τοῦ ἀνθρώπου	Msgen of reference	Of the man
ἑνὸς	Msnom	One man
ἁμαρτωλοὶ	Mplnom	Sinners
κατεστάθησαν	3pl apassind	They were constituted	Not forensic, but actual- see TDNT
οἱ πολλοί	Mplnom	The many
οὕτως	Adv manner	In manner
καὶ	Conj	Also
διὰ	Instrumental	Through	Because of?
τῆς ὑπακοῆς	Fsgen	Of the obedience
τοῦ ἑνὸς	Msgen	Of the one	Cardinal
δίκαιοι	Mplnom	Righteous ones	Just ones
κατασταθήσονται	Mplnom ppassptcple	Being constituted/set down
οἱ πολλοί	Mplnom	The many ones

This table demonstrates the lexical work, very generally, of the Greek text of these two passages. For this, I have used the UBS5 version. There are four columns, and an appropriate number of rows for each word. 

The first column is the Greek word as found in the UBS5 text. I will not be dealing with any variants issues here, or in these posts. The form of each word is as found in the text. 

The second column is the parsing of those words. It is in shorthand, but if one is familiar with Greek studies, he can figure them out. The general arrangement is: gender, number, case for nouns. And for verbs, person, number, tense, voice, mood. If a word is a particle, conjunction, participle, or some other particle/adverb/adjective, I note it here. 

The third column is the translation, according to the word. I do not regard the context here, but strictly the translation of the word as it stands alone. This helps in accuracy when I do have to consider the context (syntax phase).

The fourth column is used for problems, notes, cross references, quotations, observations, etc… 

This the beginning of almost all my studies. I rarely begin a new study without doing this table in some form.

Sentence Diagram

This is the next step in the process. This is a sentence diagram and I do this because it shows the relationship between words. The order of the sentence is by the parts of speech, not the macro-speech-act, as it were (which is a misnomer). That is to say, this sentence diagram is based upon the normal parts of speech of any language: subject, verb, direct object. Other parts of speech are put in accordingly; adjective, adverb, participles, conjunctions, indirect objects, etc… 

This step shows me, unequivocally, what the Holy Spirit and human author are thinking in the text. The meaning of the verse usually becomes fairly clear at this point. This is not a block diagram because a block diagram assumes too much in order to organize it. I strictly use a sentence diagram in order to organize the sentence. 

Once I have all of this, I begin to analyze the verse(s) with the data these provide me. By the way, it is usually in these two stages, by comparing them, that I catch my mistakes in translation. That objectivizes the process to keep presuppositions from creeping in. 

For example, I can see that there are no predicates (verbs) in v. 18. There is a verb in v. 19. So, likely, given the obvious flow of thought (which is based upon the use of similar wording and organization in vv. 18-19), the verb in v. 19 should be supplied to v. 18. In other words , in Paul’s mind, vv. 18-19 are together in organization, and, therefore, he intends us to bind them together in interpretation. 

Summary

Once I have done this work, I consult technical lexical resources. These would include TDNT, Word Pictures In The New Testament (Robertson), grammars (old ones), and other good technical works. I need to say at this point, I almost never consult the modern linguistic (Discourse Analysis) works that are very popular today: Wallace, Mounce, Runge, Levinsohn, and others. They notoriously assume too much to be useful. Further, I have seen no benefit to the text to adhere to DA. I am not convinced it is in the “fabric of the text,” as they claim. 

The words and the syntax are almost always sufficient to get the flow of the mind of the writer. However, usually my curiosity gets the better of me, and I will sneak a peak in commentaries to see what some may have concluded depending upon what I see in these steps. 

But, overall, this the right way to study. This method is determined by the text itself, and is required if one truly adheres to Inerrancy. 

Meaning:

Romans 5:18 (UBS5)
18 Ἄρα οὖν ὡς διʼ ἑνὸς παραπτώματος εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους εἰς κατάκριμα, οὕτως καὶ διʼ ἑνὸς δικαιώματος εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους εἰς δικαίωσιν ζωῆς·

As a result of the context, beginning in v. 12, Paul writes that a single transgression rendered all men dead to God (v. 12). God had promised to kill Adam if he ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam ate, and God condemned him. As a result (Ἄρα, εἰς), and by only one act, all men are condemned by God, and rightly so. 

By comparison (οὕτως καὶ), (διʼ-“through,” or “because of.” I favor “because of from the use of the verb) the “one (act) of righteousness” accomplishes something, presumably different. 

Romans 5:19 (UBS5)
19 ὥσπερ γὰρ διὰ τῆς παρακοῆς τοῦ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου ἁμαρτωλοὶ κατεστάθησαν οἱ πολλοί, οὕτως καὶ διὰ τῆς ὑπακοῆς τοῦ ἑνὸς δίκαιοι κατασταθήσονται οἱ πολλοί.

In like manner (ὥσπερ – as the comparison of v. 18), because of the disobedience (single act-v. 18) of the one man, Adam, there resulted the condemnation of God upon all men. This one act resulted in the judgment and condemnation by God, which was promised Adam. The verb “appointed” is better translated “constituted” with the idea of the constitution of the people in view here. The verbs does not indicate a legal or forensic appointment by the decree of God. Verse 19 is a continuation of v. 18, remember. The resultant condemnation to all men is the “appointment,” or “constitution,” of the people by the sin of Adam. 

“So also (οὕτως), because of the (single act of) obedience of the one Man, Jesus Christ, there resulted the “constitution” of the many into righteousness. That is, the many who were set down/constituted as condemned in Adam are now set down/constituted as righteous in Christ. Looking ahead, this is why we can be called “saints” even though we are not perfected in righteousness as far as our bodies are concerned. 

Conclusion

I think this gives us enough for now. I hope this is helpful. I would say that unless a pastor is working through the text in this manner, he is not working at all. The Scripture has been given to us in real language and in real history. I believe this conviction must drive our exegesis. Please note that up to this point, I am not concerned with commentaries, theologies, nor ideals of other writers. I am only working with the text itself.