Romans 5:16

And not, &c. The line of thought here is less difficult if we take Romans 5:17 in close connexion, and read the words from "for the judgment" to "unto justification" as a parenthetic statement of the two facts before us. We may then paraphrase Romans 5:16-17 thus: "The Gift, in wonder and greatness of quality, far exceeds the Ruin, though each is the result of one Person's act: (for, as we know, the sentence and execution wasthe result of one man's one sin, while the atonement and justification is the result, in a sense, of many men's many sins:) I say the Gift exceeds the Ruin; for while the result of Adam's sin was just the lawful reign of death over menas sinners, the result of Christ's work shall be not a mere reversal of this, but the reign of justified menover death in glory."

And not, &c. The Gr. here is more exactly, And not as by means of the sinning of one, [is] the gift: for the sentence [resulted] from one [person] unto condemnation; but the boon [resulted] from many offences unto acquittal. Here the "one" is plainly Adam; and the contrast is between his one-ness, and that of his sin, and the manyoffences of his many sons. St Paul estimates the greatness of the pardon of all the sins of all the justified from the tremendous legal results of the one sin of Adam. Such is sin, that Adam's sinbrought death on all men; such is grace, that innumerable sinsare, through the Propitiation, "abundantly pardoned." The phrase above, "resulted from," has of course a different bearing in the two clauses. The first sin was the strictcause of the sentence; while the "many offences" "caused" the boon, only as calling forththe mercy. "The sentence … unto condemnation;" "the boon … unto acquittal:"in each of these phrases the last word explains the first: the sentence amounted tosentence of death; the gift was nothing less thanacquittal. The hereditary guilt and doom of the Fall is very distinctly taught in this verse. The sentence of death on man as man came "by means of the sinning of one," in a sense expressly distinguished from the guilt of the "many offences" of the many.