Romans 5:15-17. The parallel has been suggested, but the points of difference are brought out before the correspondence is fully stated (Romans 5:18-19). The symmetry of the clauses will appear from the following arrangement of the passage:

Romans 5:15 But not as the fall (trespass)

So also is the free gift

Of the one man

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. Romans 5:16 And not as through one that sinned

so (is) the gift:

for the judgment (came)

from one (man or trespass)

unto condemnation,

but the gracious gift (came)

from many falls (trespasses)

unto a righteous act (or verdict). Romans 5:17 For if by the fall (trespass) of the one

death reigned

Through the one;

much more

will they who receive the abundance

of the grace and the gift of righteousness

reign in life

through the one Jesus Christ. The question arises whether ‘much more' expresses a stronger degree of evidence or a higher degree of efficacy. In Romans 5:16-17 the former is certainly preferable, and probably in Romans 5:15 also. It is not that more are saved than are lost, this cannot be; nor yet that what is gained is more than what is lost, though this is true enough; but the character of God, from a Christian point of view, is such that the comparison gives a ‘much more' certain basis for belief in what is gained through the second Adam than in the certainties of sin and death through the first Adam.

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Old Testament