1Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; 2through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; 4and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die. 8But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
11Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 12Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned. 13For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. 14Nevertheless 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.
15But 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. 16The gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift followed many trespasses to justification. 17For 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.
18So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. 19For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. 20The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly, 21that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul begins his presentation of the judgment of God on sin and humanity by the word "therefore" (δια τουτο, dia touto), a phrase showing a logical connection with what precedes, the issue of the believer's reconciliation with the Father through the death of His Son. Whether it refers back to verse 11 only, or to 5:1-11, or even further back is difficult to determine, but probably to verses 1-11.
The apostle then moves forward with his argument based on the preceding verses by saying that sin started with Adam and from this came death. Even though the law of Moses had not been given, there was a law of God that condemned human sin of humans that died between the time of Adam and Moses.
Paul's term "the one man" is carried throughout the passage, since the term "the one" is found in almost every verse in 12 through 21. Paul is not discussing the human nature infection with sin (original sin), or personal sins that everyone commits, but the sin of the head of the race, Adam, through whom all the human race are held guilty before God. Spiritual and physical death entered the human race.
There is the obvious problem that enters the mind of most, and that is why does God judge the entire race due to the sin of one man? This is especially so with the current emphasis on individual liberty and responsibility. Yet the Hebrew idea of solidarity is quite different. To the Jew, and Paul here, because Adam is our representative we are sinners, and because as a race we were in him.
Yet, the last portion of Paul's argument, reconciliation with God comes through the act of another man, Jesus the Messiah. Due to His one righteous act all who are in Him benefit from His act, as all who are in Adam were judged guilty by His act. Even more so, Paul argues, for the transgression of Adam brings death, but the righteous deed of Jesus abounds to eternal life.