Text -- Romans 5:2-21 (NET)

5:2 through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. 5:3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 5:4 and endurance, character, and character, hope. 5:5 And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 5:7 (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.) 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 5:9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? 5:11 Not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.

The Amplification of Justification

5:12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned– 5:13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law. 5:14 Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the coming one) transgressed. 5:15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many! 5:16 And the gift is not like the one who sinned. For judgment, resulting from the one transgression, led to condemnation, but the gracious gift from the many failures led to justification. 5:17 For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ! 5:18 Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people. 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous. 5:20 Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more, 5:21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Rom 5:2

¹ tn Or “exult, boast.”

NET Notes: Rom 5:3

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

NET Notes: Rom 5:5

¹ tn The phrase ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ (Jh agaph tou qeou, “the love of God”) could be interpreted as either an objective genitive (“our love for God”), subjective genitive (“God’s love for us”), or both (M. Zerwick’s “general” genitive [Biblical Greek, §§36-39]; D. B. Wallace’s “plenary” genitive [ExSyn 119-21]). The immediate context, which discusses what God has done for believers, favors a subjective genitive, but the fact that this love is poured out within the hearts of believers implies that it may be the source for believers’ love for God; consequently an objective genitive cannot be ruled out. It is possible that both these ideas are meant in the text and that this is a plenary genitive: “The love that comes from God and that produces our love for God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (ExSyn 121).

² sn On the OT background of the Spirit being poured out, see Isa 32:15; Joel 2:28-29.

NET Notes: Rom 5:7

¹ sn Verse 7 forms something of a parenthetical comment in Paul’s argument.

NET Notes: Rom 5:9

¹ tn Grk “having now been declared righteous.” The participle δικαιωθέντες (dikaiwqente") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

² tn Or, according to BDF §219.3, “at the price of his blood.”

³ tn Grk “the wrath,” referring to God’s wrath as v. 10 shows.

NET Notes: Rom 5:11

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

² tn Or “exult, boast.”

NET Notes: Rom 5:12

¹ tn Here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpou") has been translated as a generic (“people”) since both men and women are clearly intended in this context.

² tn The translation of the phrase ἐφ᾿ ᾧ (ef Jw) has been heavily debated. For a discussion of all the possibilities, see C. E. B. Cranfield, “On Some of the Problems in the Interpretation of Romans 5.12,” SJT 22 (1969): 324-41. Only a few of the major options can be mentioned here: (1) the phrase can be taken as a relative clause in which the pronoun refers to Adam, “death spread to all people in whom [Adam] all sinned.” (2) The phrase can be taken with consecutive (resultative) force, meaning “death spread to all people with the result that all sinned.” (3) Others take the phrase as causal in force: “death spread to all people because all sinned.”

NET Notes: Rom 5:13

¹ tn Grk “for before the law.”

² tn Or “sin is not reckoned.”

NET Notes: Rom 5:14

¹ tn Or “pattern.”

² tn Or “disobeyed”; Grk “in the likeness of Adam’s transgression.”

NET Notes: Rom 5:15

¹ tn Grk “but not as the transgression, so also [is] the gracious gift.”

² sn Here the one man refers to Adam (cf. 5:14).

NET Notes: Rom 5:16

¹ tn Grk “and not as through the one who sinned [is] the gift.”

² tn The word “transgression” is not in the Greek text at this point, but has been supplied for clarity.

³ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

⁴ tn Or “falls, trespasses,” the same word used in vv. 15, 17, 18, 20.

NET Notes: Rom 5:17

¹ sn Here the one man refers to Adam (cf. 5:14).

NET Notes: Rom 5:18

¹ tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

² tn Grk “[it is] unto condemnation for all people.”

³ tn Here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpou") has been translated as a generic (“people”) since both men and women are clearly intended in this context.

⁴ tn There are no verbs in the Greek text of v. 18, forcing translators to supply phrases like “came through one transgression,” “resulted from one transgression,” etc.

⁵ sn One transgression refers to the sin of Adam in Gen 3:1-24.

⁶ sn The one righteous act refers to Jesus’ death on the cross.

⁷ tn Grk “righteousness of life.”

NET Notes: Rom 5:19

¹ sn Here the one man refers to Adam (cf. 5:14).

² tn Grk “the many.”

³ sn One man refers here to Jesus Christ.

⁴ tn Grk “the many.”

NET Notes: Rom 5:20

¹ tn Grk “slipped in.”

² tn Or “trespass.”