“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”
(Romans 5:18).
A.E. Saxby, in God in Redemption,1 gives us a wonderfully logical reason for rejecting
the notion that God will condemn anyone to eternal damnation and suffering, and
rather proves that He has provided for the salvation of all mankind.
He says,
If a human act was effectual for ruin, how much more shall a Divine act be effectual for
salvation?
How quickly we believers will latch on to some fragment of a verse, in a whole context, to
prove a negative perception and then propagate it as truth, to the total exclusion of the whole
context of the doctrine being presented.
Why do we so easily jump to conclude all men to condemnation, but find it so terribly difficult
to accept with the same unabashedness the accompanying text which says that “the free gift
came upon all men unto justification of life”?
How can anyone think that as the first Adam’s act could bring about the “ruin” of all of his
descendants, that the second Adam’s act was nowhere near as efficacious to provide the
remedy whereby all of those descendants would be rescued from such a penalty? It’s really
quite an illogical act of mental gymnastics to interpret Romans 5 that way.
It is rather amazing that we never consider that as sin abounded in its effect on all of the first
Adam’s posterity, God’s “grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20).
Thus, if the first Adam’s act was so powerful as to affect the ruin of all of his future generations,
how much less of an effect would God’s grace be through the redeeming act of the Second
Adam, that even one of those offspring could be eternally lost forever to the loving grace of
His Creator and Father?
It is too much to comprehend that we serve a God and Father so callous to the welfare of
His creation, that He would allow any one of His dear creatures to go unprovided for in the
eternal plan of His “great love wherewith He loved us.”
Note: 1. God in Redemption by A.E. Saxby, reprinted by Bible Student’s Press (2008).
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