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 gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Romans 5:15-21 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come. 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 gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Parallel Translations
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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 gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification.
For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.
For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.
The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly;
that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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But the gyfte is not lyke as the synne. For yf thorow the synne of one many be deed: moche more plenteous vpon many was the grace of God and gyfte by grace: which grace was geven by one man Iesus Christ.
And the gifte is not over one synne as deeth cam thorow one synne of one that synned. For damnacion cam of one synne vnto condemnacion: but the gyft cam to iustify from many synnes.
For yf by the synne of one deeth raigned by the meanes of one moche more shall they which receave aboundance of grace and of the gyfte of rightewesnes raygne in lyfe by the meanes of one (that is to saye) Iesus Christ.
Lykewyse then as by the synne of one condemnacion cam on all men: even so by the iustifyinge of one cometh the rightewesnes that bringeth lyfe vpo all men.
For as by one mannes disobediece many be cam synners: so by the obediece of one shall many be made righteous.
But the lawe in the meane tyme entred in that synne shuld encreace. Neverthelater where aboundaunce of synne was there was more plenteousnes of grace.
That as synne had raigned vnto deeth even so might grace raygne thorow rightewesnes vnto eternall lyfe by the helpe of Iesu Christ.
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But yet the gift is not so, as is the offence: for if through the offence of that one, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man Iesus Christ, hath abounded vnto many.
Neither is the gift so, as that which entred in by one that sinned: for the fault came of one offence vnto condemnation: but the gift is of many offences to iustification.
For if by the offence of one, death reigned through one, much more shall they which receiue that abundance of grace, and of that gift of that righteousnesse, reigne in life through one, that is, Iesus Christ.
Likewise then as by the offence of one, the fault came on all men to condemnation, so by the iustifying of one, the benefite abounded toward all men to the iustification of life.
For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by that obedience of that one shall many also be made righteous.
Moreouer the Law entred thereupon that the offence shoulde abound: neuerthelesse, where sinne abounded, there grace abounded much more:
That as sinne had reigned vnto death, so might grace also reigne by righteousnesse vnto eternall life, through Iesus Christ our Lord.
Cross-references (118)
- 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 (v17) For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made…
- Romans 5:18 (v19) So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 (v19) For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
- Romans 5:12 (vv15, 17, 18, 19, 21) Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned.
- 1 Corinthians 15:49 (v17) As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly.
Show all 100 cross-references
- Philippians 2:8 (v19) And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.
- 1 Corinthians 15:22 (v18) For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
- John 10:10 (vv17, 20) The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
- Romans 6:1 (v20) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
- Titus 2:11 (v21) For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
- 2 Timothy 2:12 (v17) If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us.
- Titus 3:3-7 (v20) For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating…
- Romans 6:14 (vv20–21) For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
- Psalms 25:11 (v20) For your name’s sake, Yahweh, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
- Ephesians 1:6 (v19) to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
- Romans 5:15 (vv18–19) 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…
- Romans 5:19 (v18) For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.
- Romans 6:23 (vv15, 17, 21) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Acts 13:39 (v18) and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
- Galatians 3:19-25 (v20) Then why is there the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise has been made. It…
- Ephesians 2:8 (v15) for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
- Revelation 22:5 (v17) There will be no night, and they need no lamp light or sun light; for the Lord God will illuminate them. They will reign forever and ever.
- Genesis 3:6 (v17) When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one…
- Romans 4:25 (v18) who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
- Romans 5:14 (v21) Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of…
- Hebrews 2:9 (vv15, 18) But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor,…
- Romans 4:15 (v20) For the law produces wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.
- Romans 8:10 (v21) If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
- 1 Timothy 2:4-6 (v18) who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the…
- Revelation 20:4 (v17) I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of…
- Revelation 20:6 (v17) Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God…
- John 1:7 (v18) The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him.
- John 1:16-17 (v21) From his fullness we all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
- Acts 13:38-39 (v16) Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins, and by him everyone who believes is…
- Romans 3:19-22 (v18) Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world…
- Philippians 3:9 (v17) and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the…
- 1 John 5:11 (v15) The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
- Revelation 3:21 (v17) He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.
- Isaiah 61:10 (v17) I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh! My soul will be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me…
- Luke 7:47 (v20) Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”
- Romans 3:19-20 (v20) Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world…
- Ephesians 2:1-5 (v20) You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world,…
- Isaiah 1:18 (vv16, 20) “Come now, and let’s reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red…
- John 12:32 (v18) And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
- Romans 5:17 (v21) For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the…
- 1 Timothy 1:14 (v17) The grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
- 1 Peter 2:9 (v17) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
- Revelation 5:9-10 (v17) They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
- Isaiah 43:25 (v16) I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
- Isaiah 44:22 (v16) I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
- Isaiah 53:10-12 (v19) Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He…
- Isaiah 53:11 (v15) After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of…
- Daniel 9:24 (v19) “Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make…
- Micah 7:18-19 (v20) Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger…
- Matthew 25:34 (v17) Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of…
- Romans 5:16-20 (v15) The gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to…
- Romans 5:20 (v17) The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly;
- 2 Corinthians 3:7-9 (v20) But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the…
- 2 Corinthians 9:15 (v15) Now thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!
- Ephesians 1:6-8 (v20) to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood,…
- James 2:5 (v17) Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he…
- 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (vv16, 20) Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor…
- 1 Timothy 1:13-16 (vv16, 20) although I used to be a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent. However, I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. The…
- 2 Peter 1:1 (vv18, 21) Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our…
- 2 Chronicles 33:9-13 (v20) Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the…
- Isaiah 43:24-25 (v20) You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your…
- Ezekiel 16:60-63 (v20) Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish to you an everlasting covenant. Then you…
- Ezekiel 36:25-32 (v20) I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols. I will…
- Matthew 9:13 (v20) But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
- John 3:26 (v18) They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, he baptizes, and…
- John 15:22 (v20) If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
- Romans 6:12 (v21) Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
- Romans 6:16 (v21) Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to…
- 1 Corinthians 4:8 (v17) You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also…
- 1 Corinthians 11:32 (v16) But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
- Galatians 3:10 (v16) For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things…
- James 2:10 (v16) For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
- 1 Peter 5:10 (v21) But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect,…
- 1 John 2:20 (v18) You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
- 1 John 2:25 (v21) This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.
- Revelation 1:6 (v17) and he made us to be a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
- Genesis 3:6-19 (v16) When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one…
- Genesis 3:19 (v17) You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall…
- Isaiah 55:7-9 (v15) Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him, to our God,…
- Jeremiah 3:8-14 (v20) I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce,…
- Ezekiel 16:52 (v20) You also bear your own shame yourself, in that you have given judgment for your sisters; through your sins that you have committed more…
- Daniel 12:2 (v15) Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
- Matthew 20:28 (v15) even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
- Matthew 26:28 (v15) for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.
- Luke 7:47-50 (v16) Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” He…
- Luke 23:39-43 (v20) One of the criminals who was hanged insulted him, saying, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!” But the other answered, and…
- John 3:16 (v15) For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- John 4:10 (v15) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would…
- John 10:28 (v21) I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
- Romans 4:13 (v21) For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness…
- Romans 7:5-13 (v20) For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death. But now we…
- Hebrews 4:16 (v21) Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need.
- 1 John 2:2 (v15) And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
- 1 John 4:9-10 (v15) By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is…
- 1 John 5:11-13 (v21) The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have…
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (118 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv15–21 15. But not as the offense, etc. Now follows…
15. But not as the offense, etc. Now follows the rectifying or the completion of the comparison already introduced. The Apostle does not, however, very minutely state the points of difference between Christ and Adam, but he obviates errors into which we might otherwise easily fall, and what is needful for an explanation we shall add. Though he mentions oftentimes a difference, yet there are none of these repetitions in which there is not a want of a corresponding clause, or in which there is not at least an ellipsis. Such instances are indeed defects in a discourse; but they are not prejudicial to the majesty of that celestial wisdom which is taught us by the Apostle; it has, on the contrary, so happened through the providence of God, that the highest mysteries have been delivered to us in the garb of an humble style, in order that our faith may not depend on the potency of human eloquence, but on the efficacious working of the Spirit alone.
He does not indeed even now expressly supply the deficiency of the former sentence, but simply teaches us, that there is a greater measure of grace procured by Christ, than of condemnation introduced by the first man. What some think, that the Apostle carries on here a chain of reasoning, I know not whether it will be deemed by all sufficiently evident. It may indeed be justly inferred, that since the fall of Adam had such an effect as to produce the ruin of many, much more efficacious is the grace of God to the benefit of many; inasmuch as it is admitted, that Christ is much more powerful to save, than Adam was to destroy. But as they cannot be disproved, who wish to take the passage without this inference, I am willing that they should choose either of these views; though what next follows cannot be deemed an inference, yet it is of the same meaning. It is hence probable, that Paul rectifies, or by way of exception modifies, what he had said of the likeness between Christ and Adam.
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But observe, that a larger number (plures) are not here contrasted with many (multis,) for he speaks not of the number of men: but as the sin of Adam has destroyed many, he draws this conclusion, — that the righteousness of Christ will be no less efficacious to save many.
When he says, by the offense of one, etc., understand him as meaning this, — that corruption has from him descended to us: for we perish not through his fault, as though we were blameless; but as his sin is the cause of our sin, Paul ascribes to him our ruin: our sin I call that which is implanted in us, and with which we are born.
The grace of God and the gift of God through grace, etc. Grace is properly set in opposition to offense; the gift which proceeds from grace, to death. Hence grace means the free goodness of God or gratuitous love, of which he has given us a proof in Christ, that he might relieve our misery: and gift is the fruit of this mercy, and hath come to us, even the reconciliation by which we have obtained life and salvation, righteousness, newness of life, and every other blessing. We hence see how absurdly the schoolmen have defined grace, who have taught that it is nothing else but a quality infused into the hearts of men: for grace, properly speaking, is in God; and what is in us is the effect of grace. And he says, that it is by one man; for the Father has made him the fountain out of whose fullness all must draw. And thus he teaches us, that not even the least drop of life can be found out of Christ, — that there is no other remedy for our poverty and want, than what he conveys to us from his own abundance.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv15–20 Adam and Christ are compared together in this respect,…
Adam and Christ are compared together in this respect, that both of them do give and yield to theirs, that which is their own: but herein first they differ, that Adam by nature hath spread his fault to the destruction of many, but Christ’s obedience hath by grace overflowed many.
That is, Adam.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv15–21 15 But not as the offence, so also is…
15 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.
Ver. 15. Many be dead] Many is here put for all, as all for many, 1Ti 2:3.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv15–21 But not as the offence, so also is the…
But not as the offence, so also is the free gift: q.d. But yet the resemblance betwixt the first and Second Adam is not so exact as to admit of no difference; differences there are, but they are to great advantage on Christ’s part: e.g. Compare Adam’s sin and Christ’s obedience, in respect of their efficacy and virtue, and you will find a great difference.
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: the obedience of Christ (which is the product of his grace and favour) is much more powerful to justification and salvation, than the sin of Adam was to condemnation. If the transgression of mere man was able to pull down death and wrath upon all his natural seed, then the obedience of one, which is God as well as man, will much more abundantly avail to procure pardon and life for all his spiritual seed. He doth not give the pre-eminence unto the grace of Christ in respect of the number, but of the more powerful efficacy and virtue.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv15, 18, 20 The apostle having noted the parity and resemblance between…
The apostle having noted the parity and resemblance between Christ and Adam in the foregoing verses; here he observes the disparity and difference betwixt them, and that in several advantageous particulars:
1. He compares the sin of Adam with the obedience of Christ, and shews that the sin of the one was not so pernicious, as the obedience of the other was beneficial; Christ’s obedience being more powerful to justification and salvation, than Adam’s sin was to death and condemnation: For if the transgression of Adam, who was but a mere man, was able to pull down death and wrath upon all his natural seed; then the obedience of Christ who is God as well as man, will be much more available to procure pardon and life to all his spiritual seed.
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2. There is a further observable difference betwixt Adam and Christ, as in respect of their person, so in respect of their acts, and extent of their acts. Thus Adam by one act of sin brought death, that is, the sentence of death upon the whole world (all mankind becoming subject to mortality for that one sin of his;) but it is many sins of many men, which Christ doth deliver from, in the free gift of our justification; absolving us, not only from that one fault, but from all other faults and offences whatsoever.
Learn hence, That the obedience of Christ extends itself not only to the pardon of original sin in Adam, but to all personal and actual sins whatsoever.
3. The apostle shews the difference betwixt them two, that is, the first and second Adam, as in respect of the effects and consequences of their acts; if by means of one man, and by one offence of that man, the whole race of mankind became subject to death, then much more shall reign with him in glory.
From the whole, note, The infinite wisdom, transcendant grace, and rich mercy of God to a miserable world, in providing a salve as large as the sore, a remedy as extensive as the malady, a sovereign antidote in the blood of the second Adam, to expel the poison and malignity of the sin of the first Adam.
Oh happy they! who having received from the first Adam corruption for corruption, have received from the second Adam grace for grace.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv15–21 But not as the offence, so also is the…
But not as the offence, so also is the free gift,.... By "the offence", or "fall", as the word signifies, is meant the first sin of Adam; by which he offended God, and fell from that estate in which he was created, and all his posterity with him; and by the "free gift" is meant, the righteousness of Christ, which justifies from that, and all other offences: now, though there is a great likeness between Adam and Christ; both are men, the first Adam is called "the one man", and so is the second Adam Jesus Christ; partly for the sake of the comparison between him and the first, and also to express the truth of his human nature; and because the Redeemer ought to be a man, though not a mere man; both are sole authors of what they convey to their respective offspring, Adam of sin, Christ of righteousness; both convey single things, Adam only one sin, not more, for when he had committed one sin, he broke the covenant made with him and his posterity, and so ceased in after acts to be a representative of them; Christ conveys his righteousness, or obedience to the law, without any additional works of righteousness of ours to complete it; and both convey what they do, "to all" their respective offspring: yet there is a dissimilitude between them, as to the manner of conveyance and the effects thereof; the offence or sin of Adam is conveyed in a natural way, or by natural generation, to all who descend from him in that manner; the righteousness of Christ is conveyed in a way of grace, to his spiritual seed: hence it is called, not only the "free gift", but "the grace of God, and the gift by grace", which is "by one man, Jesus Christ"; because of the grace of the Father, in fixing and settling the method of justification, by the righteousness of his Son; in sending him to work out one, that would be satisfying to law and justice; and in his gracious acceptation of it, on the behalf of his people, and the imputation of it to them; and because of the grace of the Son in becoming man, in being made under the law, yea, made sin and a curse, in order to bring in an everlasting righteousness; and because of the grace of the Spirit, in revealing and applying it, and working faith to receive it; for as the righteousness itself is a free grace gift, bestowed upon unworthy persons, so is faith likewise, by which it is laid hold on and embraced: and as there is a disagreement in the manner of conveying these things, so likewise in the effects they have upon the persons to whom they are conveyed; and the apostle argues from the influence and effect the one has, to the far greater and better influence and effect the other has:
for if through the offence of one many be dead; as all Adam's posterity are, not only subject to a corporeal death, but involved in a moral or spiritual, and liable to an eternal one, through the imputation of guilt, and the derivation of a corrupt nature from him: then
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much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many; that is, the righteousness of Christ, in which the grace of God is so illustrious, is much more effectual to the giving of life to all his seed and offspring; not barely such a life as Adam had in innocence, and which he lost by the offence, but a spiritual and an eternal one; which sheds the exuberance of this grace, which secures and adjudges to a better life than what was lost by the fall.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv15–21 Yet not - St. Paul now describes the difference…
Yet not - St. Paul now describes the difference between Adam and Christ; and that much more directly and expressly than the agreement between them. Now the fall and the free gift differ,
1. In amplitude, ver. 15.
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2. He from whom sin came, and He from whom the free gift came, termed also "the gift of righteousness," differ in power, ver. 16.
3. The reason of both is subjoined, ver. 17.
4. This premised, the offense and the free gift are compared, with regard to their effect, ver. 18, and with regard to their cause, ver. 19.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv15–21 Verse 15. But not as the offence, so also…
Verse 15. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift.] The same learned writer, quoted above, continues to observe:- "It is evident that the apostle, in this and the two following verses, is running a parallel, or making a comparison between the offence of Adam and its consequence; and the opposite gift of God and its consequences. And, in these three verses, he shows that the comparison will not hold good in all respects, because the free gift, χαρισμα, bestows blessings far beyond the consequences of the offence, and which, therefore, have no relation to it. And this was necessary, not only to prevent mistakes concerning the consequence of Adam's offence, and the extent of Gospel grace; but it was also necessary to the apostle's main design, which was not only to prove that the grace of the Gospel extends to all men, so far as it takes off the consequence of Adam's offence, [i.e. death, without the promise or probability of a resurrection,] but that it likewise extends to all men, with respect to the surplusage of blessings, in which it stretches far beyond the consequence of Adam's offence. For, the grace that takes off the consequence of Adam's offence, and the grace which abounds beyond it, are both included in the same χαρισμα, or free gift, which should be well observed; for in this, I conceive, lie the connection and sinews of the argument: the free gift, which stands opposed to Adam's offence, and which, I think, was bestowed immediately after the offence; Ge 3:15: The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. This gift, I say, includes both the grace which exactly answers to the offence, and is that part of the grace which stretches far beyond it. And, if the one part of the gift be freely bestowed on all mankind, as the Jews allow, why not the other? especially, considering that the whole gift stands upon a reason and foundation in excellence and worth, vastly surpassing the malignity and demerit of the offence; and, consequently, capable of producing benefits vastly beyond the sufferings occasioned by the offence. This is the force of the apostle's argument; and therefore, supposing that in the 18th and l9th verses, Ro 5:18; Ro 5:19 literally understood, he compares the consequence of Adam's offence and Christ's obedience, only so far as the one is commensurate to the other, yet his reasoning, Ro 5:15-17, plainly shows that it is his meaning and intention that we should take into his conclusion the whole of the gift, so far as it can reach, to all mankind."
For if, through the offence of one, many be dead] That the οι πολλοι, the many of the apostle here means all mankind needs no proof to any but that person who finds himself qualified to deny that all men are mortal. And if the many, that is, all mankind, have died through the offence of one; certainly, the gift by grace, which abounds unto τουςπολλους, the many, by Christ Jesus, must have reference to every human being. If the consequences of Christ's incarnation and death extend only to a few, or a select number of mankind-which, though they may be considered many in themselves, are few in comparison of the whole human race-then the consequences of Adam's sin have extended only to a few, or to the same select number: and if only many, and not all have fallen, only that many had need of a Redeemer. For it is most evident that the same persons are referred to in both clauses of the verse. If the apostle had believed that the benefits of the death of Christ had extended only to a select number of mankind, he never could have used the language he has done here: though, in the first clause, he might have said, without any qualification of the term, Through the offence of one, MANY are dead; in the 2nd clause, to be consistent with the doctrine of particular redemption, he must have said, The grace of God, and the gift by grace, hath abounded unto SOME. As by the offence of one judgment came upon ALL men to condemnation; so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon SOME to justification, Ro 5:18. As, by one man's disobedience, MANY were made sinners; so, by the obedience of one, shall SOME be made righteous, Ro 5:19. As in Adam ALL die; so, in Christ, shall SOME be made alive, 1Co 15:22. But neither the doctrine nor the thing ever entered the soul of this divinely inspired man.
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Hath abounded unto many.] That is, Christ Jesus died for every man; salvation is free for all; saving grace is tendered to every soul; and a measure of the Divine light is actually communicated to every heart, Joh 1:9. And, as the grace is offered, so it may be received; and hence the apostle says, Ro 5:17: They which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by Christ Jesus: and by receiving is undoubtedly meant not only the act of receiving, but retaining and improving the grace which they receive; and, as all may receive, so ALL may improve and retain the grace they do receive; and, consequently, ALL may be eternally saved. But of multitudes Christ still may say, They WILL not come unto me, that they might have life.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv15, 17, 18 Rom 5:15-16. But not as the offence, &c. —…
Rom 5:15-16. But not as the offence, &c. — The apostle now describes the difference between Adam and Christ, and that much more directly and expressly than the agreement between them. Now, the fall and the free gift differ, 1st, In amplitude, Rom 5:15; Romans 2 d, He, from whom sin came, and He from whom the free gift came, (termed also the gift of righteousness,) differ in power, Rom 5:16; Romans 3 d, The reason of both is subjoined, Rom 5:17; Romans 4 th, This premised, the offence and the free gift are compared with regard to their effect, Rom 5:18. And with regard to their cause, Rom 5:19. Not as the offence — The sin of Adam, and the misery that follows upon it; so also is the free gift — The benefit that arises to us from the obedience of Christ; that is, there is not a perfect equality and proportion between the evil that comes through Adam, and the benefit that comes by Christ: they are not equal in their influence and efficacy. For if through the offence of one many be dead — If the transgression of one mere man was effectual to bring down death, condemnation, and wrath upon all his posterity, or natural seed; much more the grace of God — His love and favour; and the gift — The salvation; by grace, which is by one man — Who, however, is God as well as man; even Jesus Christ — The divinely-commissioned and anointed Saviour; hath abounded unto many — Is more abundantly efficacious to procure reconciliation, pardon, righteousness, and life, for all that will accept them, and become his spiritual seed. The apostle’s design here is to compare Adam’s sin and Christ’s obedience, in respect of their virtue and efficacy, and to show that the efficacy of Christ’s obedience must needs be much more abundant than that of Adam’s sin. And not, &c. — As there is a difference in respect of the persons from whom these effects are derived, and the advantage is on the side of Christ; so there is a difference also in respect of the extent of the efficacy of their acts: thus, one sin brought condemnation; the mischief arose from one offence: here not only that one sin, but also many sins, — yea, all the sins of believers, — are pardoned, and their nature is renewed: so that the benefit exceeds the mischief. For the judgment — The guilt which exposed to judgment; was by one — Namely, by one offence; to Adam’s condemnation — Occasioning the sentence of death to be passed upon him, which, by consequence, overwhelmed his posterity: but the free gift — To χαρισμα, the gift of grace, is of many offences — Extends to the pardon not only of that original sin, but of all other personal and actual sins; unto justification — Unto the purchasing of it for all men, notwithstanding their many offences, and the conferring of it upon all the truly penitent that believe in Christ.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv15–21 But not as the offence - This is the…
But not as the offence - This is the first point of contrast between the effect of the sin of Adam and of the work of Christ. The word “offence” means properly a fall, where we stumble over anything lying in our way It then means sin in general, or crime Mat 6:14-15; Mat 18:35. Here it means the fall, or first sin of Adam. We use the word “fall” as applied to Adam, to denote his first offence, as being that act by which he fell from an elevated state of obedience and happiness into one of sin and condemnation.
So also - The gift is not in its nature and effects like the offence.
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The free gift - The favor, benefit, or good bestowed gratuitously on us. It refers to the favors bestowed in the gospel by Christ. These are free, that is, without merit on our part, and bestowed on the undeserving.
For if ... - The apostle does not labor to prove that this is so. This is not the point of his argument, He assumes that as what was seen and known everywhere. His main point is to show that greater benefits have resulted from the work of the Messiah than evils from the fall of Adam.
Through the offence of one - By the fall of one. This simply concedes the fact that it is so. The apostle does not attempt an explanation of the mode or manner in which it happened. He neither says that it is by imputation, nor by inherent depravity, nor by imitation. Whichever of these modes may be the proper one of accounting for the fact, it is certain that the apostle states neither. His object was, not to explain the manner in which it was done, but to argue from the acknowledged existence of the fact. All that is certainly established from this passage is, that as a certain fact resulting from the transgression of Adam, “many” were “dead.” This simple fact is all that can be proved from this passage. Whether it is to be explained by the doctrine of imputation, is to be a subject of inquiry independent of this passage. Nor have we a right to assume that this teaches the doctrine of the imputation of the sin of Adam to his posterity. For,
The apostle says nothing of it.
(2)That doctrine is nothing but an effort to explain the manner of an event which the apostle Paul did not think it proper to attempt to explain.
(3)That doctrine is in fact no explanation.
It is introducing all additional difficulty. For to say that I am blameworthy, or ill-deserving for a sin in which I had no agency, is no explanation, but is involving me in an additional difficulty still more perplexing, to ascertain how such a doctrine can possibly be just. The way of wisdom would be, doubtless, to rest satisfied with the simple statement of a fact which the apostle has assumed, without attempting to explain it by a philosophical theory. Calvin accords with the above interpretation. “For we do not so perish by his (Adam’s) crime, as if we were ourselves innocent; but Paul ascribes our ruin to him because his sin is the cause of our sin.”
(This is not a fair quotation from Calvin. It leaves us to infer, that the Reformer affirmed, that Adam’s sin is the cause of actual sin in us, on account of which last only we are condemned. Now under the twelfth verse Calvin says, “The inference is plain, that the apostle does not treat of actual sin, for if every person was the cause of his own guilt, why should Paul compare Adam with Christ?” If our author had not stopt short in his quotation, he would have found immediately subjoined, as an explanation: “I call that our sin, which is inbred, and with which we are born.” Our being born with this sin is a proof of our guilt in Adam. But whatever opinion may he formed of Calvin’s general views on this subject, nothing is more certain, than that he did not suppose the apostle treated of actual sin in these passages.
Notwithstanding of the efforts that are made to exclude the doctrine of imputation from this chapter, the full and varied manner in which the apostle expresses it, cannot be evaded. “Through the offence of one many be dead” - “the judgment was by one to condemnation” - “By one man’s offence death reigned by one” - “By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation” - “By one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners,” etc.
It is vain to tell us, as our author does” under each of these clauses respectively, that the apostle simply states the fact, that the sin of Adam has involved the race in condemnation, without adverting to the manner; for Paul does more than state the fact. He intimates that we are involved in condemnation in a way that bears a certain analogy to the manner in which we become righteous. And on this last, he is, without doubt, sufficiently explicited See a former supplementary note.
In Rom 5:18-19 the apostle seems plainly to affirm the manner of the fact “as by the offence of one,” etc., “Even so,” etc. “As by one man’s disobedience,” etc., “so,” etc. There is a resemblance in the manner of the two things compared. It we wish to know how guilt and condemnation come by Adam, we have only to inquire, how righteousness and justification come by Christ. “So,” that is, in this way, not in like manner. It is not in a manner that has merely some likeness, but it is in the very same manner, for although there is a contrast in the things, the one being disobedience and the other obedience, yet there is a perfect identity in the manner. - Haldane.
It is somewhat remarkable, that while our author so frequently affirms, that the apostle states the fact only, he himself should throughout assume the manner. He will not allow the apostle to explain the manner, nor any one who has a different view of it from himself. Yet he tells us, it is not by imputation that we become involved in Adam’s guilt; that people “sin in their own persons, and that therefore they die.” This he affirms to be the apostle’s meaning. And is this not an explanation of the manner. Are we not left to conclude, that from Adam we simply derive a corrupt nature, in consequence of which we sin personally, and therefore die?)
Many - Greek, “The many.” Evidently meaning all; the whole race; Jews and Gentiles. That it means all here is proved in Rom 5:18. If the inquiry be, why the apostle used the word “many” rather than all, we may reply, that the design was to express an antithesis, or contrast to the cause - one offence. One stands opposed to many, rather than to all.
Be dead - See the note on the word “death,” Rom 5:12. The race is under the dark and gloomy reign of death. This is a simple fact which the apostle assumes, and which no man can deny.
Much more - The reason of this “much more” is to be found in the abounding mercy and goodness of God. If a wise, merciful, and good Being has suffered such a train of woes to be introduced by the offence of one, have we not much more reason to expect that his grace will superabound?
The grace of God - The favor or kindness of God We have reason to expect under the administration of God more extensive benefits, than we have ills, flowing from a constitution of things which is the result of his appointment.
And the gift by grace - The gracious gift; the benefits flowing from that grace. This refers to the blessings of salvation.
Which is by one man - Standing in contrast with Adam. His appointment was the result of grace; and as he was constituted to bestow favors, we have reason to expect that they will superabound.
Hath abounded - Has been abundant, or ample; will be more than a counterbalance for the ills which have been introduced by the sin of Adam.
Unto many - Greek, Unto the many. The obvious interpretation of this is, that it is as unlimited as “the many” who are dead. Some have supposed that Adam represented the whole of the human race, and Christ a part, and that “the many” in the two members of the verse refer to the whole of those who were thus represented. But this is to do violence to the passage; and to introduce a theological doctrine to meet a supposed difficulty in the text. The obvious meaning is - one from which we cannot depart without doing violence to the proper laws of interpretation - that “the many” in the two cases are co-extensive; and that as the sin of Adam has involved the race - the many - in death; so the grace of Christ has abounded in reference to the many, to the race. If asked how this can be possible, since all have not been, and will not be savingly benefitted by the work of Christ, we may reply,
(1) That it cannot mean That the benefits of the work of Christ should be literally co-extensive with the results of Adam’s sin, since it is a fact that people have suffered, and do suffer, from the effects of that fall. In order that the Universalist may draw an argument from this, he must show that it was the design of Christ to destroy all the effects of the sin of Adam. But this has not been in fact. Though the favors of that work have abounded, yet people have suffered and died. And though it may still abound to the many, yet some may suffer here, and suffer on the same principle forever.
(2) Though people are indubitably affected by the sin of Adam, as e. g., by being born with a corrupt disposition; with loss of righteousness, with subjection to pain and woe; and with exposure to eternal death; yet there is reason to believe that all those who die in infancy are, through the merits of the Lord Jesus, and by an influence which we cannot explain, changed and prepared for heaven. As nearly half the race die in infancy, therefore there is reason to think that, in regard to this large portion of the human family, the work of Christ has more than repaired the evils of the fall, and introduced them into heaven, and that his grace has thus abounded unto many. In regard to those who live to the period of moral agency, a scheme has been introduced by which the offers of salvation may be made to them, and by which they may be renewed, and pardoned, and saved. The work of Christ, therefore, may have introduced advantages adapted to meet the evils of the fall as man comes into the world; and the original applicability of the one be as extensive as the other. In this way the work of Christ was in its nature suited to abound unto the many.
(3) The intervention of the plan of atonement by the Messiah, prevented the immediate execution of the penalty of the Law, and produced all the benefits to all the race, resulting from the sparing mercy of God. In this respect it was co-extensive with the fall.
(4) He died for all the race, Heb 2:9; 2Co 5:14-15; 1Jo 2:2. Thus, his death, in its adaptation to a great and glorious result, was as extensive as the ruins of the fall.
(5) The offer of salvation is made to all, Rev 22:17; Joh 7:37; Mat 11:28-29; Mar 16:15. Thus, his grace has extended unto the many - to all the race. Provision has been made to meet the evils of the fall; a provision as extensive in its applicability as was the ruin.
(6) More will probably be actually saved by the work of Christ, than will be finally ruined by the fall of Adam. The number of those who shall be saved from all the human race, it is to be believed, will yet be many more than those who shall be lost. The gospel is to spread throughout the world. It is to be evangelized. The millennial glory is to rise upon the earth; and the Saviour is to reign with undivided empire. Taking the race as a whole, there is no reason to think that the number of those who shall be lost, compared with the immense multitudes that shall be saved by the work of Christ, will be more than are the prisoners in a community now, compared with the number of peaceful and virtuous citizens. A medicine may be discovered that shall be said to triumph over disease, though it may have been the fact that thousands have died since its discovery, and thousands yet will not avail themselves of it; yet the medicine shall have the properties of universal triumph; it is adapted to the many; it might be applied by the many; where it is applied, it completely answers the end. Vaccination is adapted to meet the evils of the small-pox everywhere; and when applied, saves people from the ravages of this terrible disease, though thousands may die to whom it is not applied. It is a triumphant remedy. So of the plan of salvation. Thus, though all shall not be saved, yet the sin of Adam shall be counteracted; and grace abounds unto the many. All this fulness of grace the apostle says we have reason to expect from the abounding mercy of God.
(The “many” in the latter clause of this verse, cannot be regarded as co-extensive with the “many” that are said to be dead through the offence of Adam. Very much is affirmed of the “many to whom grace abounds,” that cannot, “without doing violence to the whole passage,” be applied to all mankind. They are said to “receive the gift of righteousness,” and to “reign in life.” They are actually “constituted righteous,” Rom 5:19 and these things cannot be said of all people in any sense whatever. The only way of explaining the passage, therefore, is to adopt that view which our author has introduced only to condemn, namely, “that Adam represented the whole of the human race, and Christ a part, and that ‘the many in the two members of the verse, refers to the whole of those who were thus represented.”
The same principle of interpretation must be adopted in the parallel passage, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.” It would be preposterous to affirm, that “the all” in the latter clause is co-extensive with “the all” in the former. The sense plainly is, that all whom Christ represented should be made alive in him. even as all mankind, or all represented by Adam, had died in him.
It is true indeed that all mankind are in some sense benefitted on account of the atonement of Christ: and our author has enlarged on several things of this nature, which yet fall short of “saving benefit.” But will it be maintained, that the apostle in reality affirms no more than that the many to, whom grace abounds, participate in certain benefits, short of salvation? If so, what becomes of the comparison between Adam and Christ? If “the many” in the one branch of the comparison are only benefitted by Christ in a way that falls short of saving benefit, then “the many” in the other branch must be affected by the fall of Adam only in the same limited way, whereas the apostle affirms that in consequence of it they are really “dead.”
“The principal thing,” says Mr. Scott, “which renders the expositions generally given of these verses perplexed and unsatisfactory, arises from an evident misconception of the apostle’s reasoning, in supposing that Adam and Christ represented exactly the same company; whereas Adam was the surety of the whole human species, as his posterity; Christ, only of that chosen remnant, which has been, or shall be one with him by faith, who alone ‘are counted to him for a generation.’ If we exclusively consider the benefits which believers derive from Christ as compared with the loss sustained in Adam by the human race, we shall then see the passage open most perspicuously and gloriously to our view.” - Commentary, Rom 5:15, Rom 5:19.
But our author does not interpret this passage upon any consistent principle. For “the many” in Rom 5:15, to whom “grace abounded” are obviously the same with those in Rom 5:17, who are said to receive abundance of grace, etc., and yet he interprets the one of all mankind, and the other of believers only. What is asserted in Rom 5:17, he says, “is particularly true of the redeemed, of whom the apostle in this verse is speaking.”)
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv15, 19, 20 But not as the offence, so also is the…
But not as the offence, so also is the gift, or the benefits which mankind receive by their Redeemer, Jesus Christ. For St. Paul here shews that the graces which Christ came to bestow upon men, and offers to all, are much greater than the evils which the sin of one man, Adam, caused. 1. Because, if by the offence of that one man, Adam, many, i.e. all died by original sin that descended from Adam, (the blessed Virgin mother by a special privilege being always excepted) much more that grace of one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many,[3] the comparison does not imply that more in number receive the grace of Christ, than were infected with sin; but that they who receive the graces which are offered to all, receive greater benefits than were the damages caused by the sin of Adam. For the judgment indeed was by one unto condemnation, or so as to make all guilty of one sin, that is, of original sin; and for other actual sins, men committed them by their own proper will; whereas the grace of Christ justifies men from many sins; that is, also from all sins which they have committed by their own malice. 2. Because by it, that is, by the offence of one man, death reigned in the world, and made all men liable to damnation; yet now by the incarnation of Christ, (which would not have been, had not Adam sinned) all they who are justified by the grace of their Redeemer, have Christ God and man for their head: he is become the head of that same mystical body which is his Church: they are exalted to the dignity of being the brothers of Christ, the Son of God; they are made joint heirs with him of the kingdom of heaven, and so by the grace of Christ have a greater dignity in this world, and shall be exalted to a greater and more eminent degree of glory in the kingdom of his glory for all eternity; which hath given occasion to the Church, in her liturgy, to cry out, as it were with a transport of joy, O happy fault, which hath procured us such and so great a Redeemer! See St. John Chrysostom,[4] hom. x. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Abundavit in plures; Greek eis tous pollous, in multos; so that it wis not to be taken comparatively for more, but absolutely for many, or for all; because all here are many, as in other places.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv15–21 But--"Yet," "Howbeit."
But--"Yet," "Howbeit."
not as the offence--"trespass."
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so also is the free gift--or "the gracious gift," "the gift of grace." The two cases present points of contrast as well as resemblance.
For if, &c.--rather, "For if through the offense of the one the many died (that is, in that one man's first sin), much more did the grace of God, and the free gift by grace, even that of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many." By "the many" is meant the mass of mankind represented respectively by Adam and Christ, as opposed, not to few, but to "the one" who represented them. By "the free gift" is meant (as in Rom 5:17) the glorious gift of justifying righteousness; this is expressly distinguished from "the grace of God," as the effect from the cause; and both are said to "abound" towards us in Christ--in what sense will appear in Rom 5:16-17. And the "much more," of the one case than the other, does not mean that we get much more of good by Christ than of evil by Adam (for it is not a case of quantity at all); but that we have much more reason to expect, or it is much more agreeable to our ideas of God, that the many should be benefited by the merit of one, than that they should suffer for the sin of one; and if the latter has happened, much more may we assure ourselves of the former [PHILIPPI, HODGE].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv15–21 15. Offence… gift—In QUALITY the former is evil, the…
15. Offence… gift—In QUALITY the former is evil, the latter is good. Much more then, a fortiori, should the latter abound rather than the former.
Grace—The divine cause.
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Gift—The divine effect.
Many— Literally, the many, that is, the mass of mankind.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv15–21 15. But not] Here, after the parallel of Adam…
15. But not] Here, after the parallel of Adam and Christ, is stated the glorious difference of the work of Christ. This occupies Rom_5:15-17.—The difference is, the vastly greater wonder of His Work and its Result.
offence] Lit. stumbling. Our word “offence” comes from the Latin for the same, and is so used here by E. V.
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if] Here (as in Rom_5:10,) the “if” nearly = “as.”
of one] Lit. of the one; the one personal Offender in view.
many be dead] Lit. the many died. See on “all have sinned,” (an exact parallel,) Rom_5:12. “The many:”—“many,” in contrast to their one forefather; “the many,” as those in question here. They are, in this case, all mankind.
much more, &c.] Here notice the respect in which Redemption is so far “in excess of” Ruin. Not in respect of numbers affected; because, on any theory, the redeemed are no more numerous than the ruined, who are the whole race. It is in respect of the quality of the cause and the effect. Redemption is a positive exercise of surpassing grace and love, resulting in a glorious and eternal reversal, in the subjects of it, of the previous ruin; indeed, more than a reversal, because it brings with it the exaltation given to the brethren of the Second Adam.—The “much more” here, and in Rom_5:17, is thus q. d., “The fall of the First Adam caused vast results of evil; the work of the far greater Second Adam shall much more cause vast results of good.”
the grace of God] His positive favour; whereas He merely let the law take its course at the Fall.
the gift, &c.] Lit. the gift in the grace of one Man, Jesus Christ. The “grace of Christ” is the loving favour to man shewn by Him in His work. The “gift” which was given “in” (i.e. practically “through,” or “by,”) that grace is the eternal life of the justified.—“The one Man:”—“Man” is emphatic, indicating the Lord’s position as the Second Adam, and, (as this Man is Jesus Christ,) the supreme greatness of the Second Adam.
hath abounded] Lit. did abound unto the many. The reference is to the historic fact of His Work. “The many:”—here again, “many” in contrast to the One-ness of their Head; “the many,” as the persons here in question. These here, (as e.g. Rom_5:13-19 explain,) are the justified. See below on Rom_5:18.—“Abounded:”—the idea is of Divine liberality in mercy, as opposed to the no more than legal justice of the condemnation.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv15–21 (15) Now comes the statement of the contrast which…
(15) Now comes the statement of the contrast which extends over the next five verses. The points of difference are thrown into relief by the points of resemblance. These may be, perhaps, best presented by the subjoined scheme:—
Persons of the action.One man, Adam.One Man, Christ.The action.One act of trespass.One act of obedience.Character of the action viewed in its relation to the Fall and Salvation of man.The great initial trespass or breach of the law of God.The great accomplished work of grace, or the gift of righteousness.Persons affected by the action.All mankind.All mankind.Proximate effect of the action.Influx of many transgressions.Clearing away of many transgressions.Ulterior effect of the action.Death.Life.The offence.—Perhaps rather, trespass, to bring out the latent antithesis to the obedience of Christ. (Ellicott.)
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One . . . many.—Substitute throughout this passage, “the one,” “the many.” By “the many,” is meant “mankind generally,” “all men.” Dr. Lightfoot quotes Bentley on the importance of this change: “By this accurate version some hurtful mistakes about partial redemption and absolute reprobation had been happily prevented. Our English readers had then seen what several of the Fathers saw and testified, that the many, in an antithesis to the one, are equivalent to all in Rom_5:12, and comprehend the whole multitude, the entire species of mankind, exclusive only of the one.” “In other words,” Dr. Lightfoot adds, “the benefits of Christ’s obedience extend to all men potentially. It is only human self-will which places limits to its operation.”
Much more.—Because God is much more ready to exercise mercy and love than severity, to pardon than to punish.
The grace of God, and the gift by grace.—The grace of God is the moving cause, its result is the gift (of righteousness, Rom_5:17) imputed by His gracious act to the many.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv15, 18, 19, 20 Vers. 15-17. But not as the trespass, so also…
Vers. 15-17. But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift. For if by the trespass of the one the many died (not, be dead, as in the Authorized Version. Observe also the articles before "one" and "many"), much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded unto the many. And not as through one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was of one (ex enov) unto condemnation, but the free gift is of (ek) many offences unto justification. For if by the offence of the one death reigned through the one, much more they which receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. The purport of these verses is (while keeping up the view of condemnation and justification being both derived to all from one) to show how the effects of the latter for good far transcend those of the former for evil. It is not easy, however, to explain the apostle"s exact intention in the contrasts which he draws. He seems to have written, after his manner, full of ideas which he did not linger to arrange in clear form. In ver. 15 the contrast between "trespass" (paraptwma) and "free gift" (carisma) seems to be the leading idea. The suggesting thought seems to be If (as has been shown) one man"s trespass had such far-reaching effects, much more must the grace of God (displayed also in One) have no less far-reaching effects. God"s grace must be more powerful than man"s trespass. And it is here asserted that it was so. The much more (pollw mallon) is best taken (as it must be in ver. 17) in a logical, not a quantitative sense; i.e. as enforcing the conclusion, not as intensifying the verb "abounded." So far the effects are not distinctly contrasted in respect to their extent; all that is implied in this verse is that both reach to the many (oi polloi), i.e. the whole human race collectively; unless, indeed, the verb eperisseuse implies excess of effect. It is to be observed that the phrase oi polloi does not here mean, as is usual in classical Greek, the greater part, but the multitude, mankind being regarded collectively. It depends, however, on the writer"s mental horizon whether the phrase, taken by itself, is to be understood as comprehending all. The consideration is of importance in the case before us. On the one hand, it may be contended that, in the first clause of the verse, "the many" must mean all, for that undoubtedly all died (cf. ver. 12, eiv pantav anyrwpouv o yanatov dihlyen), and that consequently all must be intended also in the second clause. So also in ver. 19, where it is said that dikaioi katastayhsontai oi polloi . And it may be said, further, that the drift of the whole argument requires the view of the effects of the redemption being at least coextensive with the effects of the fall. But, on the other hand, it is argued that St. Paul would not have used the phrase oi polloi in vers. 15 and 19 instead of pantev as in vers. 12 and 18, unless he had intended some difference of meaning, and that he varied his expression in order to avoid the necessary inference that all would be saved in fact. Certainly he teaches that the redemption is available and intended for all, as in ver. 18 where it is said to be eiv pantav anyrwpouv, eiv dikaiwsin ; and this, it may be said, is enough to satisfy the view of its effects (i.e. in purpose and potentially) being coextensive with the effects of the fall But it does not seem to follow that man"s resistance to grace might not come in as a bar to the entire fulfilment of the Divine purpose; and hence these passages cannot be pressed as conclusive for the doctrine of universal final salvation. But in vers. 16, 17 (to be taken together, ver. 16 being introduced by kai , so as to suggest a new idea, and ver. 17 being connected with it by gar) the extent to which grace thus abounded, so as to transcend the effects of the original transgression, is distinctly set forth. The thought of these verses may, perhaps, be expressed otherwise, thus: The one trespass of the one original transgressor did indeed render all mankind liable to condemnation; but the free gift in Christ annulled the effect, not only of that one trespass, but also of all subsequent trespasses of mankind; an immense debt, accumulating through the ages of human history, in addition to the original debt, was by that one free grant obliterated. And further, while the original trespass introduced a temporary reign of death, the free gift of righteousness introduced life, in which the partakers of the gift themselves triumphant over Death, who reigned before shall reign; and, as in ver. 15 the idea was that God"s grace must be more powerful than man"s sin, so here it is implied that life in Christ must be more powerful than death in Adam. Life means here (as elsewhere when the life in Christ is spoken of) more than the present life in the flesh more than the life breathed into. man when he first "became (egeneto eiv ) a living soul". (1Co_15:45) It means the higher life imparted by "the last Adam," who "became a quickening Spirit"; (1Co_15:45) eternal life with God, in the life of Christ risen, swallowing up mortality. (2Co_5:4; cf. also Joh_11:25) Thus the "free gift" not only reverses the far-reaching effects of the original transgression, but even transcends what is intimated in Genesis as given to man in Paradise before his fall.
The next two verses (18, 19), introduced by ara oun , are a summing up of what has been already said or implied.
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Vers. 15-17. The abounding life.
It is evident that all are condemned, because death reigns; and it is proved that the condemnation of all is through the sin of one, because even where no express law is, there is death. But we have hope in Christ. Is our hope valid? Does the justification through Christ reach over as wide a range as the condemnation through Adam? And is the consequent life to prevail coextensively with the death? The argument here is to prove the certainty of each coextension.
I AN ABOUNDING GRACE.
1. The originating cause of the condemnation was the
(1) severity of God;
(2) working because of trespass a trespass which was (literally) a fall through weakness;
(3) and working, for one trespass, death to all.
2. The originating cause of the justification is the
(1) grace of God;
(2) working by a gift of grace viz. Christ; and by the grace of this Christ a love unto death;
(3) and working because many trespasses call forth compassion. Surely, "not as the trespass, so also is the free gift.
II AN INDIVIDUAL APPROPRIATION OF THE ABOUNDING GRACE,
1. The participation in the sentence of condemnation was passive on the part of the many, for the sin of one the unchoosing heirs of a sad inheritance.
2. The participation in the decree of life is active on the part of many, for the sacrifice of the One they "receive" the grace of righteousness, laying hold of it by the voluntary activity of faith.
Infinite love is the fount of our life; and Jesus Christ, a Man, is he in whom all fulness dwells. The certainty is irrefragable. Do we make it ours? "As many as received him". T.F.L. (Joh_1:12)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv15–20 But not as the offence, so also is the…
Rom_5:15
But not as the offence, so also is the free gift.
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The offence and the free gift
1. The offence originated with man, the free gift in the grace of God.
2. The offence operated necessarily by a just law, the gift is free through Jesus Christ.
3. The offence results in death, the free gift abounds unto everlasting life. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The offence and the free gift
If from the offense of one--so insignificant in its way--there could go forth an action which spread over the whole multitude of mankind, will not the conclusion hold a fortiori that from the grace of God, and the gift through this grace of one man, acting on the opposite side, so powerful and rich as they are, there must result an action, the extension of which shall not be less than that of the offence, and shall, consequently, reach the whole of that multitude? If a very weak spring could inundate a whole meadow, would it not be safe to conclude that a much more abundant spring, if spread over the same space of ground, would not fail to submerge it entirely? (Prof. Godet.)
The first and second Adam compared in reference
I. To the universality of their influence. The first Adam destroyed all, the second has obtained grace for all--with this difference, that in the former case the ruin came inevitably, but the reception of the grace is suspended upon mans free choice.
II. To the intensity of their influence. The first Adam has by one sin given occasion to all sin; the second has by one act of grace expiated all sin--with this difference, that Adams sin in itself was not greater than any other sin, but the grace of Christ outweighs the aggregate guilt of all sin.
III. To the final results of their influence. The first Adam has subjected mankind to the bondage of death, the second confers upon all, who will receive it, dominion in life--with this difference, that the fulness of grace in Christ not only meets the curse in Adam, but far surpasses the grace originally conferred upon man. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Life in Christ contrasted with death in Adam
Note--
I. The intrinsic nature of the things here contrasted; and we shall see that if the one arrangement could be adopted by God, much more likely is it that the other would be also, as being more strictly congenial with all that we know of His glorious character. God might permit us to sin and suffer in Adam, with reference to some future good to come out of it: He might permit it in harmony with His wisdom, holiness, and love; but still He could have no delight in it for its own sake. Yet we find that He has seen it right to permit these things to transpire: how much more, then, may we believe in the arrangement of grace, by which salvation is brought to our ruined race! But how do we know the feelings of the Most High in reference to this matter? What reason have we for supposing that it pleases Him more to give us life in Christ than to see us die in Adam? We take our views from His own word (Exo_34:6-7; Psa_86:5; Psa_86:15; Psa_145:8-9; Eze_18:23; Eze_18:31-32; Eze_33:11; Joh_3:16; Joh_4:16). Say not, then, complainingly that God has permitted you to die in Adam, but rather believe that He delights to give you life in Christ.
II. That grace relates to a larger number of transgressions than did the first condemnation (Rom_5:16). The gift by one is quite unlike the sin by one, inasmuch as in the sin there was but one offence committed, and instantly judgment upon it; whereas, in the matter of the gift by grace, there is forgiveness ensured for many offences. Hitherto, we have been regarding the sin of mankind as one, and in that one sin all men became guilty before God. Let us, then, look at the nature and the number of our offences, all of which need to and can be forgiven through the atoning work of Christ. There are the sins of our ungodly life; there are also our sins since we entered on a godly career. We are daily guilty of omissions of duty, or grievous shortcomings in the mode of fulfilling our obligations. But beyond all this, there are positive faults and evils in the best of us. Yet--blessed be God!--these sins, however numerous, may be all pardoned through the blood of Christ; for the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
III. That grace is essentially a stronger principle than sin (Rom_5:17). Life is more mighty than death. The range of death is limited; it can only ravage that which already exists. But life is a creative power to whose possible achievements we can assign no limits. Death is a negative principle, life a positive one. Death is a condition of the creature, life has its source and fulness in the infinite Creator. Under the domination of death we are made its groaning and unwilling victims; but under the reign of life we are caught up to the throne, and share with gladness in the monarchs might and joy. (T. G. Horton.)
The grace of God
I. Transcends sin.
1. In its origin. Sin proceeds from the offence of one man and destroys many; grace proceeds from God through one man, Jesus Christ, and therefore not only reaches many, but abounds.
2. In its operation. One offence brought condemnation, but grace not only counteracts the effects of that one offence but of many others.
3. In its results. One offence brought death, but grace wherever received not only gives back life, but gives it more abundantly.
II. Is coextensive with sin.
1. It cannot reach further because it presupposes sin.
2. It does reach as far, because the free gift unto justification of life is unto all men, because the many made sinners might also be made righteous.
3. If grace anywhere fails it is not through any limitation of its action, but through the wilful impenitency of man. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Honey from a lion
This text affords many openings for controversy. It can be made to bristle with difficulties. It would be easy to set up a thorn hedge and keep the sheep out of the pasture, or to so pelt each other with the stones as to leave the fruit untasted. I feel more inclined to chime in with that ancient father against whom a clamorous disputant shouted, Hear me! Hear me! No, said the father, I will not hear you, nor shall you hear me, but we will both be quiet and hear what Christ has to say. Note--
I. The appointed way of our salvation is by the free gift of God. Salvation is bestowed--
1. Without regard to any merit, supposed or real. Grace is not a fit gift for the righteous, but for the undeserving. It is according to the nature of God to pity the miserable and forgive the guilty, for He is good, and His mercy endureth forever.
2. Irrespective of any merit which God foresees will be in man. Foresight of the existence of grace cannot be the cause of grace. God Himself does not foresee that there will be any good thing in any man, except what He foresees that He will put there.
3. Without reference to conditions which imply any desert. But I hear one murmur, God will not give grace to men who do not repent and believe. I answer, God gives men grace to repent and believe, and no man does so till first grace is given him. Repentance and faith may be conditions of receiving, but they are not conditions of purchasing, for salvation is without money and without price.
4. Over the head of sin and in the teeth of rebellion, God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, etc. Many of us have been saved by grace of the most abounding and extraordinary sort.
5. Through the one man Jesus Christ. People talk about a one man ministry. I was lost by a one man ministry when father Adam fell in Eden, but I was saved by a one man ministry when Jesus bore my sin in His own body on the tree.
II. It is certain that great evils have come to us by the fall.
1. We have lost the Garden of Eden and all its delights, privileges, and immunities, its communion with God, and its freedom from death.
2. We have been born to a heritage of sorrow.
3. We came into the world with a bias towards evil.
4. We are made liable to death, and are sure to bow our heads beneath the fatal stroke.
5. While we live we know that the sweat of our brow must pay the price of our bread.
6. Our children must be born with pangs and travail.
III. From the fall we infer the more abundant certainty that salvation by grace through Christ Jesus shall come to believers. For--
1. This appears to be more delightful to the heart of God. I can understand that God, having so arranged it that the human race should be regarded as one, should allow the consequences of sin to fall upon succeeding generations of men; but yet I know that He takes no pleasure in the death of any, and finds no delight in afflicting mankind. If God has so arranged it that in the Second Adam men rise and live, it seems to me most gloriously consistent with His gracious nature and infinite love that all who believe in Jesus should be saved through Him.
2. It seems more inevitable that men should be saved by the death of Christ than that men should be lost by the sin of Adam. It might seem possible that, after Adam had sinned, God might have said, Notwithstanding this covenant of works, I will not lay this burden upon the children of Adam; but it is not possible that after the eternal Son of God has become man, and has bowed His head to death, God should say, Yet after all I will not save men for Christs sake.
3. Look at the difference as to the causes of the two effects. Look at the occasion of our ruin--the offence of one--a finite being, who therefore cannot be compared in power with the grace of the infinite God; the sin of a moment, and therefore cannot be compared for force and energy with the everlasting purpose of Divine love. The grace of God is like His nature, omnipotent and unlimited. God is not only gracious to this degree or to that, but He is gracious beyond measure; we read of the exceeding riches of His grace. He is the God of all grace.
4. The difference of the channels by which the evil and the good were severally communicated to us. In each case it was by one, but what a difference in the persons!
(1) Let us not think too little of the head of the human family. Yet what is the first Adam as compared with the Second? He is but of the earth, earthy, but the Second Man is the Lord from heaven. Surely, then, if Adam with that puny hand of his could pull down the house of our humanity, that greater Man, who is also the Son of God, can fully restore us.
(2) Adam commits one fault and spoils us, but Christs achievements are many as the stars of heaven.
(3) Adam did but eat of the forbidden fruit, but Christ died. Is there any comparison between the one act of rebellion in the garden and the matchless deed of superlative obedience upon the Cross of Calvary which crowned a life of service?
5. From the text you may derive a great deal of comfort.
(1) A babe is born into the world amid great anxiety because of its mothers pains; but while these prove how the consequences of the fall are with us (in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children), they also assure us that the Second Adam can abundantly bring us bliss through a second birth.
(2) Inasmuch as we have seen the thorn and the thistle because of one Adam, we may expect to see a blessing on the earth because of the Second Adam. Therefore with unbounded confidence do I believe the promise: Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, etc.
(3) Did not the Lord say, In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread? Ought not your labour to be an argument by which your faith shall prove that in Christ Jesus there remaineth a rest for the people of God.
(4) Did the first Adam through his disobedience lift the latch for death? It is surely so. Therefore I believe with the greater assurance that the Second Adam can give life to these dry bones, can awake all these sleepers, and raise them in newness of life.
IV. If from the fall of Adam such great results flow, greater results must flow from the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ. Suppose that Adam bad never sinned, and we were unfallen beings, yet our standing would have remained in jeopardy. We have now lost everything in Adam, and so the uncertain tenure has come to an end; but we that have believed have obtained an inheritance which we hold by a title which Satan himself cannot dispute: All things are yours, and ye are Christs, and Christ is Gods. By the great transgression of Adam we lost our life in him; but in Christ we live again with a higher and nobler life. The Lord Jesus has also brought us into a nearer relationship to God than we could have possessed by any other means. We were Gods creatures, but now we are His sons. We have lost paradise, but we shall possess that of which the earthly garden was but a lowly type: we might have eaten of the luscious fruits of Eden, but now we eat of the bread which came down from heaven; we might have heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, but now, like Enoch, we may walk with God after a nobler and closer fashion. We are now capable of a joy which unfallen spirits could not have known--the bliss of pardoned sin. The bonds which bind redeemed ones to their God are the strongest which exist. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The love of God
is a love which gives another love; it is the grace of a Father giving the love of a Brother. (Prof. Godet.)
The advantages accruing to the race from the fall
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 Gods 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 Fathers 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.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv15–21 15–19. But not as the offence, so also is…
15–19. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. While Adam is a type of Christ, there is a great difference. One kills, the other makes alive. “If through the sins of the one the many (the world of mankind) died,” through the gracious gift of God, through one man, Jesus Christ, life has been given to the many. All will be raised at the last day.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv15–21 15. “Not as the offense so is also the…
15. “Not as the offense so is also the free gift; for if by the offense of one many died, much more the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded unto the many.” We have here the Greek phrase “the many,” in both cases used in a superlative sense. The simple meaning is, all died in Adam and all live in Christ (1Co 15:22), i. e., all died seminally in Adam and all live personally in Christ. When?
“Except every one be born from above (not again) he can not see the kingdom of God” (Joh 3:5).
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Here we see the absolute necessity of the new life on the part of every human being who shall enter God’s kingdom. “He tasted death for every one” (Heb 2:9), not “every man” as E. V. Christ not only certifies that all infants are in the kingdom, but holds them up as paragon members (Matthew 18). The prodigal son was born in his Father’s house, i. e., in the kingdom of God. Hence all are born there, as humanity is uniform.
Then when do we pass out of Adam into Christ? The moment soul and body united constitute personality, i. e., in the prenatal state, we are “born from above,” before we are born physically. The fall of Adam is seminal and the redemption of Christ personal. Hence all are fallen in Adam and redeemed in Christ. The death penalty of Adam’s transgression is physical, spiritual and eternal.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v21
Romans
THE WARRING QUEENS
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Rom 5:21.
I am afraid this text will sound to some of you rather unpromising. It is full of well-worn terms, ‘sin,’ ‘death,’ ‘grace,’ ‘righteousness,’ ‘eternal life,’ which suggest dry theology, if they suggest anything. When they welled up from the Apostle’s glowing heart they were like a fiery lava-stream. But the stream has cooled, and, to a good many of us, they seem as barren and sterile as the long ago cast out coils of lava on the sides of a quiescent volcano. They are so well-worn and familiar to our ears that they create but vague conceptions in our minds, and they seem to many of us to be far away from a bearing upon our daily lives. But you much mistake Paul if you take him to be a mere theological writer. He is an earnest evangelist, trying to draw men to love and trust in Jesus Christ. And his writings, however old-fashioned and doctrinally hard they may seem to you, are all throbbing with life-instinct with truths that belong to all ages and places, and which fit close to every one of us.
I do not know if I can give any kind of freshness to these words, but I wish to try. To begin with, I notice the highly-imaginative and picturesque form into which the Apostle casts his thoughts here. He, as it were, draws back a curtain, and lets us see two royal figures, which are eternally opposed and dividing the dominion between them. Then he shows us the issues to which these two rulers respectively conduct their subjects; and the question that is trembling on his lips is ‘Under which of them do you stand?’ Surely that is not fossil theology, but truths that are of the highest importance, and ought to be of the deepest interest, to every one of us. They are to you the former, whether they are the latter or not.
I. So, first, look at the two Queens who rule over human life.
Sin and Grace are both personified; and they are both conceived of as female figures, and both as exercising dominion. They stand face to face, and each recognises as her enemy the other. The one has established her dominion: ‘Sin hath reigned.’ The other is fighting to establish hers: ‘That Grace might reign.’ And the struggle is going on between them, not only on the wide field of the world; but in the narrow lists of the heart of each of us.
Sin reigns. The truths that underlie that solemn picture are plain enough, however unwelcome they may be to some of us, and however remote from the construction of the universe which many of us are disposed to take.
Now, let us understand our terms. Suppose a man commits a theft. You may describe it from three different points of view. He has thereby broken the law of the land; and when we are thinking about that we call it crime. He has also broken the law of ‘morality,’ as we call it; and when we are looking at his deed from that point of view, we call it vice. Is that all? He has broken something else. He has broken the law of God; and when we look at it from that point of view we call it sin. Now, there are a great many things which are sins that are not crimes; and, with due limitations, I might venture to say that there are some things which are sins that are not to be qualified as vices. Sin implies God. The Psalmist was quite right when he said; ‘Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned’; although he was confessing a foul injury he had done to Bathsheba, and a glaring crime that he had committed against Uriah. It was as to God, and in reference to Him only, that his crime and his vice darkened and solidified into sin.
And what is it, in our actions or in ourselves considered in reference to God, that makes our actions sins and ourselves sinners? Remember the prodigal son. ‘Father! Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.’ There you have it all. He went away, and ‘wasted his substance in riotous living.’ To claim myself for my own; to act independently of, or contrary to, the will of God; to try to shake myself clear of Him; to have nothing to do with Him, even though it be by mere forgetfulness and negligence, and, in all my ways to comport myself as if I had no relations of dependence on and submission to him-that is sin. And there may be that oblivion or rebellion, not only in the gross vulgar acts which the law calls crimes, or in those which conscience declares to be vices, but also in many things which, looked at from a lower point of view, may be fair and pure and noble. If there is this assertion of self in them, or oblivion of God and His will in them, I know not how we are to escape the conclusion that even these fall under the class of sins. For there can be no act or thought, truly worthy of a man, situated and circumstanced as we are, which has not, for the very core and animating motive of it, a reference to God.
Now, when I come and say, as my Bible teaches me to say, that this is the deepest view of the state of humanity that sin reigns, I do not wish to fall into the exaggerations by which sometimes that statement has been darkened and discredited; but I do want to press upon you, dear brethren, this, as a matter of personal experience, that wherever there is a heart that loves, and leaves God out, and wherever there is a will that resolves, determines, impels to action, and does not bow itself before Him, and wherever there are hands that labour, or feet that run, at tasks and in paths self-chosen and unconsecrated by reference to our Father in heaven, no matter how great and beautiful subsidiary lustres may light up their deeds, the very heart of them all is transgression of the law of God. For this, and nothing else or less, is His law: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.’ I do not charge you with crimes. You know how far it would be right to charge you with vices. I do not charge you with anything; but I pray you to come with me and confess: ‘We all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.’
I suppose I need not dwell upon the difficulty of getting a lodgment for this conviction in men’s hearts. There is no sadder, and no more conclusive proof, of the tremendous power of sin over us, than that it has lulled us into unconsciousness, hard to be broken, of its own presence and existence. You remember the old stories-I suppose there is no truth in them, but they will do for an illustration-about some kind of a blood-sucking animal that perched upon a sleeping man, and with its leathern wings fanned him into deeper drowsiness whilst it drew from him his life-blood. That is what this hideous Queen does for men. She robes herself in a dark cloud, and sends out her behests from obscurity. And men fancy that they are free whilst all the while they are her servants. Oh, dear brethren! you may call this theology, but it is a simple statement of the facts of our condition. ‘Sin hath reigned.’
And now turn to the other picture, ‘Grace might reign.’ Then there is an antagonistic power that rises up to confront the widespread dominion of this anarch of old. And this Queen comes with twenty thousand to war against her that has but ten thousand on her side.
Again I say, let us understand our terms. I suppose, there are few of the keywords of the New Testament which have lost more of their radiance, like quicksilver, by exposure in the air during the centuries than that great word Grace, which is always on the lips of this Apostle, and to him had music in its sound, and which to us is a piece of dead doctrine, associated with certain high Calvinistic theories which we enlightened people have long ago grown beyond, and got rid of. Perhaps Paul was more right than we when his heart leaped up within him at the very thought of all which he saw to lie palpitating and throbbing with eager desire to bless men, in that great word. What does he mean by it? Let me put it into the shortest possible terms. This antagonist Queen is nothing but the love of God raying out for ever to us inferior creatures, who, by reason of our sinfulness, have deserved something widely different. Sin stands there, a hideous hag, though a queen; Grace stands here, ‘in all her gestures dignity and love,’ fair and self-communicative, though a sovereign. The love of God in exercise to sinful men: that is what the New Testament means by grace. And is it not a great thought?
Notice, for further elucidation of the Apostle’s conception, how he sacrifices the verbal correctness of his antithesis in order to get to the real opposition. What is the opposite of Sin? Righteousness. Why does he not say, then, that ‘as Sin hath reigned unto death, even so might Righteousness reign unto life’ ? Why? Because it is not man, or anything in man, that can be the true antagonist of, and victor over, the regnant Sin of humanity; but God Himself comes into the field, and only He is the foe that Sin dreads. That is to say, the only hope for a sin-tyrannised world is in the out-throb of the love of the great heart of God. For, notice the weapon with which He fights man’s transgression, if I may vary the figure for a moment. It is only subordinately punishment, or law, or threatening, or the revelation of the wickedness of the transgression. All these have their places, but they are secondary places. The thing that will conquer a world’s wickedness is nothing else but the manifested love of God. Only the patient shining down of the sun will ever melt the icebergs that float in all our hearts. And wonderful and blessed it is to think that, in whatsoever aspects man’s sin may have been an interruption and a contradiction of the divine purpose, out of the evil has come a good; that the more obdurate and universal the rebellion, the more has it evoked a deeper and more wondrous tenderness. The blacker the thundercloud, the brighter glows the rainbow that is flung across it. So these two front each other, the one settled in her established throne-
‘Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell-’
the other coming on her adventurous errand to conquer the world to herself, and to banish the foul tyranny under which men groan. ‘Sin hath reigned.’ Grace is on her way to her dominion.
II. Notice the gifts of these two Queens to their subjects.
‘Sin hath reigned in death’ {as the accurate translation has it}; ‘Grace reigns unto eternal life.’ The one has established her dominion, and its results are wrought out, her reign is, as it were, a reign in a cemetery; and her subjects are dead. If you want a modern instance to illustrate an ancient saw, think of Armenia. There is a reign whose gifts to its subjects are death. Sin reigns, says Paul, and for proof points to the fact that men die.
Now, I am not going to enter into the question here, and now, whether physical death passes over mankind because of the fact of transgression. I do not suppose that this is so. But I ask you to remember that when the Bible says that ‘Death passed upon all men, for all have sinned,’ it does not merely mean the physical fact of dissolution, but it means that fact along with the accompaniments of it, and the forerunners of it, in men’s consciences. ‘The sting of death is sin,’ says Paul, in another place. By which he implies, I presume, that, if it were not for the fact of alienation from God and opposition to His holy will, men might lie down and die as placidly as an animal does, and might strip themselves for it ‘as for a bed, that longing they’d been sick for.’ No doubt, there was death in the world long before there were men in it. No doubt, also, the complex whole phenomenon gets its terror from the fact of men’s sin.
But it is not so much that physical fact with its accompaniments which Paul is thinking about when he says that ‘sin reigns in death,’ as it is that solemn truth which he is always reiterating, and which I pray you, dear friends, to lay to heart, that, whatever activity there may be in the life of a man who has rent himself away from dependence upon God-however vigorous his brain, however active his hand, however full charged with other interests his life, in the very depth of it is a living death, and the right name for it is death. So this is Sin’s gift-that over our whole nature there come mortality and decay, and that they who live as her subjects are dead whilst they live. Dear brethren, that may be figurative, but it seems to me that it is absurd for you to turn away from such thoughts, shrug your shoulders, and say, ‘Old-fashioned Calvinistic theology!’ It is simply putting into a vivid form the facts of your life and of your condition in relation to God, if you are subjects of Sin.
Then, on the other hand, the other queenly figure has her hands filled with one great gift which, like the fatal bestowment which Sin gives to her subjects, has two aspects, a present and a future one. Life, which is given in our redemption from Death and Sin, and in union with God; that is the present gift that the love of God holds out to every one of us. That life, in its very incompleteness here, carries in itself the prophecy of its own completion hereafter, in a higher form and world, just as truly as the bud is the prophet of the flower and of the fruit; just as truly as a half-reared building is the prophecy of its own completion when the roof tree is put upon it. The men that here have, as we all may have if we choose, the gift of life eternal in the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ His Son, must necessarily tend onwards and upwards to a region where Death is beneath the horizon, and Life flows and flushes the whole heaven. Brother! do you put out your whole hand to take the poisoned gift from the claw-like hand of that hideous Queen; or do you turn and take the gift of life eternal from the hands of the queenly Grace?
III. How this queenly Grace gives her gifts.
You observe that the Apostle, as is his wont-I was going to say-gets himself entangled in a couple of almost parenthetical or, at all events, subsidiary sentences. I suppose when he began to write he meant to say, simply, ‘as Sin hath reigned unto death, so Grace might reign unto life.’ But notice that he inserts two qualifications: ‘through righteousness,’ ‘through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ What does he mean by these?
He means this, first, that even that great love of God, coming throbbing straight from His heart, cannot give eternal life as a mere matter of arbitrary will. God can make His sun to shine and His rain to fall, ‘on the unthankful and on the evil,’ and if God could, God would give eternal life to everybody, bad and good; but He cannot. There must be righteousness if there is to be life. Just as sin’s fruit is death, the fruit of righteousness is life.
He means, in the next place, that whilst there is no life without righteousness, there is no righteousness without God’s gift. You cannot break away from the dominion of Sin, and, as it were, establish yourselves in a little fortress of your own, repelling her assaults by any power of yours. Dear brethren, we cannot undo the past; we cannot strip off the poisoned garment that clings to our limbs; we can mend ourselves in many respects, but we cannot of our own volition and motion clothe ourselves with that righteousness of which the wearers shall be worthy to ‘pass through the gate into the city.’ There is no righteousness without God’s gift.
And the other subsidiary clause completes the thought: ‘through Christ.’ In Him is all the grace, the manifest love, of God gathered together. It is not diffused as the nebulous light in some chaotic incipient system, but it is gathered into a sun that is set in the centre, in order that it may pour down warmth and life upon its circling planets. The grace of God is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him is life eternal; therefore, if we desire to possess it we must possess Him. In Him is righteousness; therefore, if we desire our own foulness to be changed into the holiness which shall see God, we must go to Jesus Christ. Grace reigns in life, but it is life through righteousness, which is through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So, then, brother, my message and my petition to each of you are-knit yourself to Him by faith in Him. Then He who is ‘full of grace and truth’ will come to you; and, coming, will bring in His hands righteousness and life eternal. If only we rest ourselves on Him, and keep ourselves close in touch with Him; then we shall be delivered from the tyranny of the darkness, and translated into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv15–21 But not as the trespass, so also is the…
But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift . [Thus far Paul has told us that Adam is the source of sin, condemnation and death, and that he is a type of Christ. In this fifteenth verse he qualifies the relation of type and antitype by a statement that their resemblance does not hold good in all respects, for the sin of Adam is not like the free gift of Christ when he offered himself upon the cross. Not only do these two acts differ in their very essence, one being the perfection of self-indulgence, with power to kill, and the other the perfection of self-sacrifice, with power to make alive; but, as might be expected, there is a world-wide difference, both as to the results, and as to the range or scope, and the certainty of the results. With these thoughts Paul now concerns himself.] 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 unto the many . [If Adam's one act of sin brought death upon the race, so that all men die because of his act, much more did the goodness or favor of God and the gift of life by the goodness or favor of one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many. We are here informed that the result of the sacrificial act of Christ fully reversed and nullified the effects of the act of Adam, and that it did even much more. The effect, in other words, had in all points as wide a range, and in some points a much wider range, than that of Adam's act. Without explaining how it is as wide-reaching as Adam's act, the apostle presses on to tell in what respects the act of Christ is wider. But, to avoid misunderstanding, we should pause to see how Christ's act equaled and nullified Adam's act. Adam, as progenitorial head of the race ( 1Ti_2:13 ; 1Co_11:8 ), involved, by his sin, all the race in natural death--death without any hope of a resurrection, much less of immortality. Christ, as creative head of the race, by his righteousness redeemed all from this natural death by accomplishing for all the resurrection of the dead. So far, the act of Christ merely cancels the act of Adam. If the act of Christ had had no wider effectiveness than this, it would have been insufficient for man's needs. It would doubtless have sufficed for infants, and others whom immaturity and mental incapacity rendered incapable of individual sin, but it would have fallen short of the needs of those who, in addition to their sin in Adam, had other sins of their own for which to answer. The hope of the world lies, therefore, in the "much more" which Paul states. Again, we should notice that if we had only Adam's sin to answer for, then the teaching of this passage would establish the doctrine of universal salvation, for Christ's act completely counteracted Adam's act. But there are other sins besides that first one committed by Adam, and other punishments besides natural death. It is in its dealings with those that the range of Christ's act exceeds that of Adam, and it is here also that salvation becomes limited. The resurrection (which nullifies the effect of Adam's act), though a form of justification precedes the hour of judgment, and hence can not be final justification, for the latter is the product of the judgment. Moreover, the resurrection which Christ effects, as federal creative head of the race, does not depend upon faith; for all, the believing and the unbelieving, the just and the unjust, have part in it. But the justification which comes after that resurrection depends upon other relations and provisions. In administering this final justification, Christ stands as the federal regenerative head (the headship which peculiarly pertains to the church, and not to the race-- Eph_1:22-23 ), and bestows it upon that part of the race which has been regenerated by faith. This headship, therefore, is conditional, and the salvation which depends upon it is not universal, but conditioned on faith. To illustrate by a figure, there are two doors which we must pass in order to inherit eternal life. The first is natural death. This door was closed for all by Adam, and opened for all by Christ. The second is the judgment. This door was closed for all having capacity to sin by their own individual sins, and opened by Christ for those who shall be justified through belief in him. Therefore, in teaching that Christ leads all through the first door, Paul has not taught universal salvation, for true, complete salvation lies beyond the second door. Justification from the sin of Adam is one thing, and final justification from our own sins is quite another.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21 one many
one many
the one the many died.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv15, 18 Parallelism and contrast:
Parallelism and contrast:
v. 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, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
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v. 16. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification.
v. 17. For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
The apostle here explains his statement as to Adam’s being a type of Christ. But not as the offense, the transgression, so also is the gift of grace, the gift which is freely provided for sinners in the Gospel, in its effects upon men. The emphasis upon righteousness and life, in which the salvation in Christ consists, is brought very strongly by the apostle. The fall is not like the gracious restoration. It is true, of course, that through the fall of the one, of Adam, the many, all the other people in the world, have become subject to death and have died; but, on the other hand, it is true, also, that the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ has much more, much more certainly, abounded to those same people, the many. The regrettable mistake, the transgression of the one man indeed had evil, terrible consequences, but the blessings procured by Christ are infinitely greater than the evils caused by Adam. And not only that, but the grace of God and that gift which is expressed in, consists in, the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, by which we have salvation, is much more certainly to be relied upon. The one thing has indeed happened—condemnation is come upon all men; but the other fact has such indubitable evidence on its side that we can safely place our trust in it in life and death. And closely connected with this thought is another: Not as through one that sinned the gift. On the side of the type, Adam, that which was done, which came upon all men, was occasioned by the one person that sinned. On the other side, in the antitype, in the gift of Christ, the same condition does not obtain. The sentence of condemnation which passed on all men for the sake of Adam was for one offense of one man, whereas we are justified by Christ for many offenses. For the judgment is from one man unto a sentence of condemnation, but the gift of grace from the trespasses of many unto a condition of righteousness, a judgment of justification. God judged the people, all men, and His finding has resulted in a sentence of condemnation on account of the one man, Adam. Since the sin of Adam has been imputed to all men, therefore the curse of sin, death, resulted as the consequence of the condemnatory sentence upon sin. On the other hand, the gift of grace has resulted in the condition of righteousness from the trespasses of many. That was the former condition of the many, of all men: they were in trespasses and sins, Eph 2:1. But that condition has now been left behind, and they have entered into a new, a different status, that of imputed righteousness, of justification, not only is the one transgression of Adam, which was imputed to them all, forgiven, but they are absolved from all their individual sins and transgressions, they have been pronounced just. This fact, that we are justified through Christ not only from the guilt of Adam’s first sin, but from our own innumerable transgressions, receives further confirmation: For if, through the trespass of one, death has reigned through the one, much more, much sooner, much more certainly, those that receive the abundance of the grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. On the one hand we have the type: Through the one man, Adam, through his offense or trespass, it has come to pass that death now has sovereign power on earth; his offense was the cause of death’s coming upon all men, his sin was the ground of the sentence of condemnation, which has been passed upon all mankind. But now, on the other hand, if this is really the case, therefore the other will happen all the more certainly, namely, that we shall reign in life. Eternal life is deliverance, liberty; it elevates those that receive it to a position of authority and dominion, 1Co 4:8; 1Co 6:2-3; 2Ti 2:12. This right and authority is transmitted to us because me receive by faith the abundance of the grace and of the gift of righteousness. The grace of God has abounded toward us, we receive it richly and daily; and it is the source of the gift of righteousness, righteousness itself being the gift offered and received. And all this is ours through Jesus Christ, for He it is that merited life for us, that has prepared the fullness of righteousness for us. And the dominion of life is much more certain than the dominion of death. Christ has not only repaired the damage inflicted by Adam, but also justified all men from their individual transgressions; and therefore it is much more certain that they that receive this incomparable gift and blessing of righteousness will reign in life than that the sin of the one has brought death to all the children of men. There is only one thing more certain to the believer, that has been justified through the merits of Christ, than the fact that he must die, and that is the fact that he will live and reign with Christ, in the life which is his by the free gift of God.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv16, 18, 20 For the gift is not like the outcome of…
For the gift is not like the outcome of that one man's sin
Here "the gift" refers to God's freely erasing the record of our sins. AT: "The gift is not like the result of Adam's sin" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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The judgment followed one trespass and brought condemnation, but the gift ... justification
Here Paul gives two reasons why "the gift is not like the result of Adam's sin." The "judgment of condemnation" implies that we all deserve God's punishment for our sins. AT: "Because on the one hand, God declared that all people deserve to be punished because of the sin of one man, but on the other hand" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification
This refers to how God makes us right with him even when we do not deserve it. AT: "God's kind gift to put us right with himself" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
followed many trespasses
"after the sins of many"
trespass of the one
This refers to the sin of Adam.
death ruled
Here Paul speaks of "death" as a king who ruled. The "rule" of death causes everyone to die. AT: "everyone died" (See: Personification and Metaphor)
translationWords
gift
sin
judge
condemn
trespass
just
die
righteous
Jesus
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv15, 17, 18, 20 5:15 Paul uses the word many in contrast with…
5:15 Paul uses the word many in contrast with one. Many does not always mean all, but it can include all people if the context suggests it. Clearly, the many who suffer death because of Adam includes everyone (see 5:12), but Paul makes it clear elsewhere that the many who receive the gift of forgiveness through Jesus Christ, sadly, does not include everyone (see 11:1-5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.