Q. Why Is the Change From " Offense" to " Sin " in 5:20?

Ans. Because the law did not produce the sin; that was there already. It only brought it out as offense; and if in is in our hearts it is no less offensive to God there in the dark than when He brings it out into the light. " Transgression " gives the thought of overstepping a boundary line; " offense " is more its aspect as against the one who has established the boundary. We have grace reigning righteously here, and sin is a barrier for God to bless. Righteousness is; where people take the ground of righteousness He cannot bless. He must have "truth in the inward parts " as to our condition; in other words, repentance,.
Chap. 6. It is important to see that it is a practical question all through here. The objections are, " Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? " and " Shall we sin because we are not under the law? "
People tell tales on themselves when they say, " If we are saved once for all, we can do as we like," for they tell us what they do like. But God has no pleasure in our doing what we do not like, and He has His own way of changing our liking.
Looking at the Passover (Ex. 12) we find the judgment of God, and what meets that. At the Red Sea it was a question of the enemy, and God coming in to deliver them from his power. We find the key to that Red Sea deliverance here in ver. 14, etc.
Salvation in Scripture is not only from guilt and wrath-that is what we have had hitherto (the Passover truth)-but from the power of sin as well (the Red Sea truth). Israel, in Ex. 15, sing the song of salvation for the first time. " The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea "-all the power that held them in bondage (ver. 2). Mark, it is not, we ought to be dead, but are. It is plain that if we are dead to sin, we cannot live in it. This is not what we find but what we "reckon," which is the same word as "count" or " impute." I do not reckon what I find but what I do not find. If I look at myself, I could not say " I am dead to sin; " if I look at Christ's work for me, I can.
We must not think that experience is a great deal surer than faith, but the contrary. God does not say that we are dead. in ourselves, but that we are " dead to sin" because Christ is. "Be reckoning" is the force of the word here.
Verse 4. Now he falls back upon their baptism. " Baptism unto Christ was baptism unto His death." If we turn to Matt. 3 we shall find the meaning of this. The Baptist addresses himself to a people whom God has declared "not His" (Hos. 1),they have lost their place as His by their iniquity. John in his testimony stands apart from them; he is found outside, in the wilderness, his very raiment and food attesting that he would not be debtor to them in anything. They all come out to him to be baptized of him in Jordan. Jordan is the river of death, they are baptized unto death, confessing the sins which brought them there. That was the baptism of repentance.
Their repentance was owning that all was over with them because of their sins. Then Jesus comes and puts Himself along with them; takes His place in death with those who are taking their place there. It is not for Him the baptism of repentance, but to fulfill all righteousness. Righteousness for us is fulfilled in what that figures. " I have a baptism to be baptized with" refers to His death.