Calvinists love the book of Romans, believing it strongly supports their doctrine of Total Hereditary Depravity, particularly chapter 5. I suggest their reading of Romans 5 fails to grasp the true teaching of the apostle Paul (and the rest of Scripture). Advocates of the depravity doctrine often cite several verses in this chapter:
- Romans 5:12, “…through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…”
- Romans 5:15, “…by the one man’s offense many died…”
- Romans 5:18, “…through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation…”
- Romans 5:19, “…by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…”
Without careful study, one might conclude we died “in Adam” – that his specific sin brought spiritual death to every infant born thereafter. But there is a phrase at the end of verse 12 that serves as the master key to the entire context. Paul’s point is not that we inherited a sinful nature from Adam (as Arminius suggested) or the legal guilt of his sin (as Calvin taught). While death indeed entered the world through Adam’s transgression, the apostle explicitly stated that it spread to all men, not because of Adam’s sin, but “because all sinned.”
Because All Sinned – Romans 5:12
Sadly, many commentators acknowledge those final three words of verse 12 only to dismiss their force. For instance, B.W. Johnson claims,
“The personal sins of responsible persons are not now spoken of, but all the race sinned in Adam, its representative, infants, idiots, and all. Hence all die.”
The “Amen” chorus is massive – including names like Albert Barnes, Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley, Adam Clarke, Matthew Henry – all declaring in unison that we die not because of our own actions, but exclusively because of Adam’s.
If Paul merely had physical death in mind in Romans 5:12 their argument might carry some weight. Adam’s sin certainly brought physical death by barring access to the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:19, 22-24). The spread of physical death to all is a function of a fallen physical world – there is no “guilt” to be charged against the “infants, idiots, and all.”
However, Paul is not simply addressing physical death; he speaks of spiritual death. God told Adam, “…in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Adam lived another 930 years, but he died spiritually that day. The correlation between personal sin and spiritual death is the heartbeat of Paul’s message (Romans 6:23; cf. Ezekiel 18:4-32; 33:11, 13-16, 18-19; Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13).
We are told that Adam is our federal or universal head, our representative before God. I do not dispute that Adam stands as a representative of mankind – the latter verses of the context (v 18-19) establish that affiliation. It is the “first Adam / second Adam” concept which Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15. The question is not if but how. Is Adam our head by imputation or imitation? Calvinists read imputation into verses 15, 18, 19 – the idea that Adam did the deed and we inherently suffer the judicial consequences.
Imputation or Imitation?
What does “imputation” refer to? Robert Hawker’s Poor Man’s Concordance (1828) defines it as “to charge a thing upon a person whether guilty or not.” In the context of our relationship to Adam, M.G. Easton, in his Illustrated Bible Dictionary, states: “the sin of Adam is imputed to all his descendants, i.e., it is reckoned as theirs, and they are dealt with therefore as guilty.” Under the heading of “imputation,” the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, explains,
“…when God is said ‘to impute sin’ to anyone, the meaning is that God accounts such a one to be a sinner, and consequently guilty and liable to punishment … It is not meant that Adam’s sin was personally the sin of his descendants, but that it was set to their account, so that they share its guilt and penalty.”
It seems exceptionally unfair for God to charge those who did not commit the crime with the guilt and penalty associated with it. If such were to occur in a human court, the masses would cry foul. Beyond the glaring malfeasance of holding people accountable for what they did not do, this Calvinistic concept of imputation simply does not match what the Scriptures say. It may be necessary to support Total Hereditary Depravity or Original Sin, but it does not agree with the teaching of Scripture, including Romans 5.
Paul affirmed, “until the law, sin was in the world” (verse 13) and that “death reigned from Adam to Moses” (verse 14). Sin existed in the world before the Law of Moses came – not merely Adam’s sin, but individual sin. Before the Mosaic Law ever codified them, people practiced lying, murder, adultery, and other sins, and God counted those acts against them. They did not sin “according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam” (v 14b) – none of them ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – but that does not mean there was no violation of law.
God clearly stated to Cain, “sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Genesis 4:7). Those between Adam and Moses could not break the law Adam broke – the tree was gone. They could not break Moses’ Law – it had not yet been given. However, they were not without sin. There is clear evidence of a universal moral law, and sin offerings existed long before Moses (Job 1:5).
Statements in verses 15-17 might appear to support the imputation view:
- “…if by one man’s offense many died…” (verse 15)
- “…the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation…” (verse 16)
- “…if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one…” (verse 17)
But these verses do not say we died in Adam. They acknowledge that Adam’s sin was the doorway through with death and condemnation entered the world. The “how” and “why” that death spread to all is already given in verse 12 – “because all sinned.”
When we reach verses 18, this imputation approach creates a logical catastrophe. Paul writes that judgment came εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους – “to all men” – through Adam, and in the very same breath says the free gift came εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους – “to all men” – through Christ. The phrase is identical in both halves of the verse. Paul structures the statement with an explicit “just as … even so” parallel. If unconditional imputation is the mechanism in Adam, then consistency demands the same in Christ. If Adam’s sin is legally imputed to every human without their choice, then Christ’s righteousness must be legally imputed to every human without their choice. This would necessitate universalism – a doctrine Calvinists (and the Bible) reject.
Under an imitation understanding, however, the parallel remains intact: all who imitate Adam’s rebellion die, and all who imitate Christ in obedient faith live.
The phrase “were made sinners” in verse 19 does not require the imputation of Adam’s personal guilt. The verb κατεστάθησαν can denote appointment, establishment, or being brought into a condition without specifying the mechanism by which that condition is entered. Paul does not say we were made sinners “in Adam,” but that through his disobedience the many were constituted sinners – a reality which verse 12 explains occurs “because all sinned.”
The Testimony of the Language in Romans 5
The New Testament word often rendered “imputed,” “accounted” or “reckoned” is λογίζομαι. One theological reference work argues:
“…in the N.T. λογίζομαι, is employed in the Scriptures to designate any action, word, or thing, as accounted or reckoned to a person; and in all these it is unquestionably used with reference to one’s own doings, words, or actions, and not with reference to those of a second person.”
Notably, λογίζομαι does not appear in Romans 5, though it occurs multiple times in Romans 4. The word rendered “imputed” in Romans 5:13 is ἐλλογέω, a bookkeeping term meaning “to set to one’s account” (Thayer). This word appears only here and in Philemon 1:18, where Paul offers to have any debt belonging to Onesimus charged to his own account. That was a voluntary imputation – quite different from the involuntary model proposed by Original Sin or Total Hereditary Depravity.
Returning to Romans 5:12, the Greek ἐφ’ ᾧ means “because.” The Old Latin rendered it in quo (“in whom”), a translation that significantly influenced Western formulations of Original Sin. Had the translators rendered ἐφ’ ᾧcausally, they would have used in eo quod (“in that” / “because”). If “in whom” were correct, it would naturally refer to Adam. But “because” explains the prior clause: death spread to all men because all sinned. Translating the Latin in quo back into Greek would yield ἐν ᾧ – not what the inspired apostle wrote.
While a few English translations preserve the Latin reading (Douay-Rheims, Wycliffe, Knox) most follow the Greek text and render it “because all sinned.” The Reformation movement didn’t remove all the appendages of Catholicism. Rather than abandoning the doctrine of Original Sin, it was tweaked and rebranded Total Hereditary Depravity. While the terminology changed, the reliance on the Latin thought over the Greek text remains.
The Testimony of History
The understanding that “because all sinned” refers to individual sin is not some modern innovation. Early Greek commentators – native speakers of the New Testament language and predating later Western theological developments – saw no doctrine of imputed guilt in Romans 5:12.
Clement of Alexandria wrote:
“Neither praise nor condemnation, neither rewards nor punishments, are right, if the soul does not have the power of inclination and disinclination and if evil is involuntary.”
John Chrysostom stated:
“What then? Did all die in Adam? Yes; for all have sinned. But he did not say, because Adam sinned; but because all sinned … It is not that one sinned and another was punished… but that they themselves also sinned.”
Theodoret of Cyrus wrote:
“He did not say that death passed upon all men because of the transgression of Adam, but because all sinned.”
Serverian of Gabala likewise affirmed:
“Death came upon all men because all sinned. For Adam brought in death, but each person by his own sins confirms the sentence.”
Even Ambrosiaster, a Latin commentator before Augustine, noted:
“Death passed to all men, because all have sinned in imitation of Adam.”
Conclusion
The Scriptures and the earliest witnesses agree – sin is not a biological inheritance, nor a legal debt transmitted from a distant ancestor. Adam opened the door through which sin and death entered the human experience, but each person walks through that door on his own volition and by his own transgression. We are not born condemned for a crime we did not commit; we are condemned because we have confirmed Adam’s sentence by our own hand.
Yet, Romans 5 does not end in despair. Paul declares:
“…where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21)
The problem is personal sin – and the solution is personal faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ. May we turn to Him, obey His word, and trust in His abundant grace.
Works Referenced
Primary Sources & Ancient Commentaries
- Ambrosiaster. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans 5:12. In Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL) 81.1:163.
- Clement of Alexandria. Stromata (Miscellanies) 1:17. In Patrologia Graeca (PG) 8:801.
- John Chrysostom. Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans 10 (on Romans 5:12). In Patrologia Graeca (PG) 60:474–475.
- Severian of Gabala. Fragments on the Epistle to the Romans (on 5:12). In Karl Staab, Pauluskommentare aus der griechischen Kirche (Münster: Aschendorff, 1933), 220.
- Theodoret of Cyrus. Interpretation of the Epistle to the Romans (on 5:12). In Patrologia Graeca (PG) 82:100.
Biblical Dictionaries & Reference Works
- Easton, M.G. Illustrated Bible Dictionary and Treasury. (1897).
- Hawker, Robert. The Poor Man’s Concordance and Dictionary. (1828).
- Johnson, B.W., The People’s New Testament. (1891).
- McClintock, John, and James Strong. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. (1867).
- Orr, James. International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia. (1915).
- Thayer, Joseph Henry. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. (1889).
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