The Advantages Accruing to the Race from the Fall
Romans 5:15
But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God…


How common and bitter is the outcry against our first parent for the mischief he entailed on his posterity; and it were well if the complaint ended there, but it glances from Adam to his Creator. "Did not God foresee that he would abuse his liberty, and know all the baneful consequences of the act? Why, then, did He permit it?" Because He knew that "not as the offence, so is the free gift"; that the evil resulting from the former was not as the good resulting from the latter, not worthy to be compared with it. If Adam had not fallen —

I. CHRIST HAD NOT DIED AND THE WORLD HAD MISSED THE MOST AMAZING DISPLAY OF GOD'S LOVE. So —

1. There could have been no such thing as faith in God thus loving the world; nor faith in Christ as "loving us, and giving Himself for us"; nor faith in the Spirit as renewing the image of God in our hearts.

2. The same blank could have been left in our love. We might have loved God as our Creator and Preserver, but we could not have loved Him under the nearest and dearest relation. We might have loved the Son of God as being "the brightness of His Father's glory," but not as having borne our sins. We could not have loved the Spirit as revealing to us the Father and the Son, as opening our eyes and turning us from darkness to light, etc.

3. Nor could we have loved our neighbour to the same extent: "If God so loved us we ought to love one another."

II. WE HAD MISSED THE INNUMERABLE BENEFITS WHICH FLOW THROUGH OUR SUFFERINGS. Had there been no suffering, a considerable part of religion, and in some respects the most excellent part, could have had no place.

1. Upon this foundation our passive graces are built; yea, the noblest of them — the love which endureth all things. Here is the ground for resignation, for confidence in God, for patience, meekness, gentleness, long suffering, etc.

2. These afford opportunities for doing good which could not otherwise have existed.

III. HEAVEN WOULD HAVE BEEN LESS GLORIOUS.

1. We should have missed the fruit of those graces which could not have flourished but for our struggle with sin here. Superior nobleness on earth means superior happiness in heaven.

2. We should have missed the reward which will accrue to innumerable good works which could not otherwise have been wrought, such as relief of distress, etc.

3. We should have missed the "exceeding and eternal weight of glory" which is to be the recompense of our light affliction.

IV. OUR SALVATION WOULD HAVE BEEN LESS SECURE. Unless in Adam all had died, every man must have personally answered for himself, and, as a consequence, if he had once sinned there would have been no possibility of his rising again. Now who would wish to hazard eternity on one stake? But under the economy of redemption if we fall we may rise again. Conclusion: See, then, how little reason there is to repine at the fall of our first parents, since here from we may derive such unspeakable advantages. If God had decreed that millions should suffer in hell because Adam sinned it would have been a different matter; but on the contrary, He has decreed that every man may be a gainer by it, and no man can be a loser but through his own choice.

(J. Wesley, M. A.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: 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.

WEB: But the free gift isn't like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.




The Abounding Life
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