14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. (Romans 5:14 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
The apostle had asserted, That sin was in the world before the written law of Moses; here he proves it thus: “Death, the wages of sin, did reign in the world, and had power over all mankind from Adam to Moses; therefore sin was in the world from Adam to Moses.” By them that have not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, infants are generally understood; the guilt of Adam’s sin is imputed to them, or else death could have no power over them.
The argument runs thus: Death is a punishment of sin, but infants die who never sinned actually, therefore they die for Adam’s sin: Sin brought mortality into their nature, and the wages of sin is death: They brought a sinful nature into the world with them, which God gave the Jews of old an intimation of, by appointing the sacrament of circumcision signifying that infants brought something into the world with them, which was early to be cut off; he also signifies the same to us Christians, by appointing the ordinance of baptism for children, which he calls the laver of regeneration: Now, a laver supposes uncleanness; what is pure, needs no laver.
Learn hence, That infants, as soon as they live, have in them the seeds of death: Sin is the seed of death, the principle of corruption. God does infants no wrong when they die: their death is of themselves, for they have the seeds of death in themselves. All death is the wages of sin, and therefore can be no injustice to the sinner; thus death reigned from Adam to Moses, yea, even to this day; and, like an insatiable tyrant, will continue to reign and slay universally and beyond number from the infant to the aged, from the dunghill to the throne, sparing neither age nor sex, neither great nor small, neither sacred nor profane.
From whence to the end of the chapter, the apostle enters upon a comparison between Adam and Christ, whom he here calls a figure or resemblance of him that was to come, that is, of Christ. As Adam was the root of sin and death to all his natural seed, so Christ is the root of holiness and life to all his spiritual seed.
As by the first Adam sin came, and by sin death came upon all men; so by the second Adam came righteousness, and by righteousness life on all believers. As the first Adam merited death, so the second Adam life for all his offspring: Thus, Adam was the figure of him that was to come.