Boice: “... the federal way of dealing with us was actually the fairest and kindest of all the ways God could have operated. ”

 

Adam had been appointed by God to be the representative of the race so that if he stood, we too would stand, and if he fell, we would fall with him. Adam did fall, as we know. 

So death passed upon everyone.

“But isn’t that terribly unfair?” someone protests. “Isn’t it cruel for God to act in this fashion?”

... the federal way of dealing with us was actually the fairest and kindest of all the ways God could have operated. 

Besides, it was the only way it would later be possible for God to save us once we had sinned. In other words, federalism is actually a proof of God’s grace, which is the point the passage comes to (vv. 15 ff.).

It was gracious to Adam first of all. Why? Because it was a deterrent to his sin. God must have explained to Adam that he was to represent his posterity. That might have restrained him from sinning. A father who might be tempted to steal his employer’s funds (and would if only he himself were involved), might well decide not to do it if he knew that his crime would hurt his children if he should get caught. If something as limited as that can be a restraining influence, how much more would Adam’s knowledge that what he would do would affect untold billions of his descendants?

This way of operating is also an example of God’s grace to us, because to be tried in Adam was the best of all ways to stand trial. The great Charles Simeon of Cambridge wrote more than a century ago that if each human being were asked whether he would prefer to be judged in Adam or in himself, every thinking person would answer “in Adam.” After all, Adam faced only one temptation and that a mere trifle. He was not to eat of one tree. Besides, he was as yet unfallen. He did not have a sinful nature. He was possessed of his full faculties (which were undoubtedly superior to our own). He lived in a perfect environment and had a perfect companion. For our part, we are sinful, weak, and ignorant, and we live in a world filled with all kinds of temptations. Was it not merciful of God to judge us in Adam? Was God not gracious in that choice?

And there is this great fact as well: If God had chosen to judge us as each of us think we would like to be judged, that is, in and for ourselves with no relationship to any other person, then we would all inevitably perish. For our only hope of salvation is that we may also be judged in Christ, he being our representative, just as we have been judged in Adam. If we were like the angels who are entities in themselves, who do not exist in families and who have no relationship to one another, then there would be no hope for us, just as there is no hope for them. But because we have been judged in Adam, we may also be judged in Christ and be acquitted.

That is what happens for those who are called by God and joined to Jesus Christ through the channel of saving faith. We do not deserve it, but this is the way grace acts. It is grace from the beginning to the end.

James Montgomery Boice, Romans: The Reign of Grace, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991–), 567–568.