Rom. 5:16. And the gift is not as the judgment for one who sinned; for the judgment for one transgression was unto condemnation, but the gift of grace was unto justification from many transgressions.
Christ, he says, brought benefit not merely to the same degree that Adam caused harm. If sin was so powerful that through the fall of one all his descendants were condemned, even though they themselves did not fall, then how much greater and more abundant will be the effect of the grace of God the Father upon many, and not only His, but also of His Son. And the gift of God cannot be equal to the condemnation through the one who sinned. For the "transgression," that is, the sin subject to condemnation, proceeding from Adam, led "to condemnation," that is, to death, and a multitude of sins always existed among his descendants, so that people were in the power of many sins and death. "But the gift of grace is unto justification from many transgressions," that is, grace not only blotted out that one sin, but also the other sins that followed after it; for it became our justification, granting us forgiveness of all transgressions committed after the fall.
Rom. 5:17. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Rom. 5:18. So then, as through the transgression of one man condemnation came upon all men, so also through the righteousness of One justification of life came upon all men.
If because one man ate from the forbidden tree, death came to reign, then how much more shall we, who have received the abundance and surplus of grace and have been justified, live and reign "through the one Jesus Christ," whose brethren we are, with whom we have been joined into one body, with whom we have been united as a body with its head. For we received not a simple or uniform good, so that there would still remain for us the possibility of doubting regarding the future: our blessings are the fruit of abundant grace. Imagine that someone has incurred a great debt and is cast into prison together with his wife and children, and then is not only freed from the prison and the debt, but also receives ten thousand talents, is brought into the royal palace, is deemed worthy of high honor, and becomes a son of the king. Exactly so it has happened with us. Therefore, says the apostle, concluding his thought, just as through the transgression of one man (what he called sin above, he now calls transgression, meaning Adam's sin) all people were subjected to a curse, so also through the justification of the one Christ, grace was poured out upon all people, giving them both justification instead of sin, and life instead of death.
Rom. 5:19. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Here, it would seem, there is a repetition; but in reality there is none. Above he said (Rom. 5:18): "as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification," and now he explains what the transgression of the one consisted of, and says that it was disobedience, through which many were made sinners, that is, subject to punishment and condemned to death; he also explains what the righteousness of the One, that is, of Christ, consists of, and says that it is obedience even unto death, and the death of the cross, through which obedience death was destroyed and we were freed from condemnation to it.
Rom. 5:20. Law came in besides, and so the transgression was multiplied. But where sin multiplied, grace abounded all the more.
After having proved that in Adam all were condemned, and in Christ saved, someone could probably have doubted and objected: what then was the law doing for so many years, if Christ justified us? "The law," he answers, "came in," that is, it was given for a time; it was not the chief and most essential need. And when it "came in," transgression was multiplied. For it gave many commandments; but all these commandments people transgressed, which is why transgression was multiplied. The particle "moreover" indicates the consequence.
The law was given for the diminishment and destruction of sin, but the opposite resulted, not because of the nature of the law, but because of the negligence of people. But whereas through the law sin multiplied, through Christ the grace of God appeared superabundantly, not only freeing us from sins, but also justifying and making us heavenly and adopting us to God. Therefore he did not say "abound," but "superabound," showing by this its great abundance.
Rom. 5:21. That as sin reigned unto death, even so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Having said that grace appeared superabundantly, the apostle, lest we be faithless, shows that such a manifestation of it corresponds to its purpose, and says: sin was the king, and death was the soldier armed by it. If sin reigned over us, having death as a kind of soldier, then all the more will grace reign in us, which imparts righteousness that destroys sin, and together with the destruction of sin also destroys death, and after the latter, justification. Thus, justification put to death the king, sin, and together with it death, and finally, eternal life was introduced.