(Verse 8.) But God commendeth His love toward us. He commends His love in this way: by being well disposed even now towards His enemies, and sending one to save them, though they certainly do not deserve it.

(Verse 9.) Because if, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, much more, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. He says this: if God allowed His Son to be put to death for sinners, what will He do for those who have been justified, if not keep them from wrath, that is, keep them safe from the mockery of the devil, so that they may be secure on the day of judgement, when vengeance begins to lay waste the unbelieving? For because the goodness of God wills that none should perish, He gave a most worthy death, so as to add dignity and glory to those who understand God’s grace towards them, and to heap up punishment on the ungrateful. The ungrateful are those who, when God calls, refuse, rejecting God’s grace so as to remain in their chosen course of error and malice.

(Verse 10.) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved in His life. It is plain that if God gave up His Son to death in order to reconcile us to Himself, how much more will He save in His life those who have been reconciled? For He who does good to His enemies cannot fail to love His friends. For if the Saviour’s death profited us while we were still ungodly, how much more will His life profit us now that we are justified, since He rose from the dead? For as His death rescued us from the devil, so too His life will deliver us from the day of God’s judgement.

(Verse 11.) And not only so, but we also glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation. He teaches that we must not only give thanks to God for the salvation and security we have received, but also glory in God through Christ Jesus, who has deigned that we, from being ungodly and enemies, should be called His friends; so that we may rejoice that we have obtained every benefit through Christ, and that, since we have come to know God through Him, we may glory in Him and render Him honour equal to that of God the Father, as He Himself, a sufficient witness on His own behalf, declares: That they may honour the Son, He says, even as they honour the Father (John 5:23). After the providence of God the Father, then, and the gift He gave through Christ, in order to make the person of the Son dear to us — since through the one Christ we have been redeemed by the one God the Father — he added:

(Verse 12.) Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned. Since above he has shown, in the order of truth, the grace of God given through Christ, he now sets out that same order of the one God the Father through the one Christ His Son: that as one, Adam — that is, Eve, for she too is Adam — sinned in all, so the one Christ, the Son of God, overcame sin in all. And because he is showing the purpose of God’s grace towards the human race, he began from Adam, who sinned first, in order to show the very beginnings of sin, and so to teach that the providence of the one God restored through one what through one had fallen and been dragged down into death. This, then, is the one through whom we have been saved, and to Him we owe that reverence which we owe to God the Father, by the Father’s own will. For the same Apostle says in another place: He that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God (Romans 14:18), although it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve (Deuteronomy 6:13). If, then, the Law says that God alone is to be served, and the Apostle commands that Christ be served, Christ is within the unity of God, and is not a God unequal or other; since, while the Law says that God alone is to be served, he who serves Christ is declared to please God, Christ plainly being served together with Him. Therefore, as by one man sin entered into this world, and death by sin, so too through the one Christ came the condemnation and death of sin, bestowing eternal life, as he declares further on. In whom, that is, in Adam, all have sinned. He said “in whom”, though he is speaking of the woman, because he referred not to the individual but to the race. It is plain, then, that all sinned in Adam as in a lump; for he himself was corrupted by sin, and all whom he begot were born under sin. From him, therefore, all are sinners, because from him we all are. For he lost the benefit of God when he transgressed, and became unworthy to eat of the tree of life, so that he died. Now death is the dissolution of the body, when the soul is separated from the body. There is also another death, which is called the second, in Gehenna; this we do not suffer through the sin of Adam, but it is acquired by our own sins, with his sin as the occasion. From this the good are free; only that they were in the underworld — but in the upper part, as in a place of freedom — being unable to ascend to heaven; for they were held by the sentence given in Adam, the handwriting in the decrees which was blotted out by the death of Christ (Colossians 2:14). Now the sentence of the decree was that the body of the one man should be dissolved upon the earth, while the soul, held fast in the bonds of the underworld, should suffer exile.

(Verse 13.) For until the law sin was in this world: but sin was not imputed when there was no law. He says that all sinned in Adam, as I have recalled above, and that until the Law was given sin was not imputed; for men thought that they sinned with impunity before God, though not before men. For the natural law had not grown altogether numb, since they were not ignorant that what they did not wish to suffer they ought not to do to others. Indeed sin was so far from unknown among men that Jacob, when his father-in-law Laban was searching his goods for his idols, judged worthy of death the one with whom the theft should be found (Genesis 31:30–32); and Joseph, though through a false accusation, was nevertheless shut up in prison as guilty (Genesis 39:20); and Pharaoh’s baker and butler likewise suffered for an offence (Genesis 40:3); and Moses, when he had killed the Egyptian, was afraid of the law (Exodus 2:12). How, then, was sin not imputed when there was no law? Or how was it punished, if no law was known? The natural law has always existed and was never unknown; but it was thought to have authority only for a time, and not to make men guilty before God as well. For it was not known that God would judge the human race, and for this reason sin was not imputed, as though sin were not known to God; men were asserting that God took no heed. But when the Law was given through Moses, it was made plain that God cares for human affairs, and that those who do evil, even if for whatever reason they escape in the present, will not go unpunished. For if among themselves, with justice or nature as their teacher, they judged that sins should not go unavenged, how much more ought they not to have been ignorant that God, whom they knew to be the maker of the world, would call these things to account? Inasmuch as Sodom and Gomorrah were sentenced to perish by fire (Genesis 19:24) — a thing which oblivion had indeed covered over, but which Moses, to establish that God would be judge, made plain by writing it down. But when, leaving God aside, they began, depraved in mind, to receive images in the place of God’s honour, they trampled on that part of the natural law which is the first. For the natural law has three parts. The first is this: that the Creator, once known, should be honoured, and that His glory and majesty should not be ascribed to any created thing. The second part is the moral: that is, that one should live well, under the governance of self-restraint; for it befits a man who has knowledge of the Creator to rein in his life by law, so that his knowledge may not be in vain. The third part is the part that teaches: that the knowledge of God the Creator, and an example of conduct, should be handed on to others, so that they may learn how merit is laid up with the Creator. This is true and Christian wisdom.

(Verse 14.) But death reigned from Adam until Moses. Since sin was not imputed before the Law was given through Moses, as I have said, death reigned by the very impunity of its usurpation, knowing that men were given over to it. Death therefore reigned in the security of its dominion, as much over those who escaped for a time as over those who paid the penalty for their evil works even here. For it saw that all were its own, because whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin (John 8:34); and thinking that they got off unpunished, they sinned all the more, being readier, however, for those sins which the world fostered as if they were lawful. At this Satan rejoiced, secure that he held in his possession man, forsaken by God because of Adam. So death reigned over them that had sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come, as we shall show in what follows. It is plain, then, that death did not reign over all, since not all sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, that is, not all sinned in contempt of God. And who are they who sinned in contempt of God, but those who, neglecting the Creator, served the creature, setting up for themselves gods to worship, to the injury of God? This is why the devil rejoiced in them, because he saw that they had become his imitators. For Terah the father of Abraham, and Nahor and Laban, claimed gods of their own. And the sin of Adam is not far from idolatry; for he transgressed thinking that, though a man, he would become God. He judged that what the devil urged would profit him more than what God commanded, setting the devil in the place of God; and so he was made subject to the devil. In like manner these too, passing over God to serve the creature, sin in a similar way, though not in the same way; for a likeness usually has something unlike in it. Nor can it be said that those who sinned, not by transgressing against God but under the natural law, were like Adam, who received the commandment not to eat of the tree (Genesis 2:16). For whoever understood, whether by what had been handed down or by natural judgement, and worshipped God, granting to no one the honour of His name and majesty — if he sinned, since it is impossible not to sin, he sinned under God, not against God, whom he perceived to be his judge; and therefore death did not reign over such men. But it reigned, as I have said, over those who served the devil under the guise of idols. Because the Law had not been promulgated with authority, they could not foresee that God would be judge. For the greatest part of the world did not know that God would be judge; but there were very few over whom death did not reign. Those over whom it reigned were, after this death which is called the first, received by the second, for punishment and perdition to come. But those over whom it did not reign, because they had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, were kept in hope for the coming of the Saviour, in a place of freedom; as we read of Abraham, that although he was in the underworld, he was set apart by a long distance, so that there was a great gulf between the righteous and sinners (Luke 16:26). If there was a great gulf between the righteous and sinners, how much more between them and the ungodly, so that there was refreshment for the righteous, heat for sinners, and burning for the ungodly, and what each deserved should not be hidden even before the judgement? And so death reigned over them, because it saw that the works of its cunning had served to bring them to punishment as enemies. For it was not hidden from him that man had been made in the world for this purpose, to proclaim the rule of the one God, against which Satan had transgressed.

And yet it is said that the Greek does not put it so carefully; for it is said to be written there that death reigned even over those who did not sin after the similitude of Adam’s transgression. Here he seems to have taken in everything, so as to say that, since death, that is, dissolution, came about through the envy of the devil, death reigned even over those who did not sin; for they die, which is what Satan desires. If that were true, it ought not to have been said, “Death reigned from Adam until Moses”, if it reigns over all from the beginning to the end. Or perhaps he made stages: that it reigned from Adam to Moses, and from Moses to Christ, and from Christ to the end. But to what use would such a way of speaking serve, when he is not shown to have spoken so? For he said: Death reigned from Adam until Moses, because the Law had not been made manifest, so that, when the Law had been given, men might live under its authority, knowing what to beware of, so that death should not reign over them. Can it be said, then, that death reigned over one who before the Law kept, with nature as his guide, what the Law afterwards commanded? For see what is written about it: Sin, he says, was not imputed when there was no law; and he added: But death reigned from Adam until Moses — that is, in the time when there was no Law. And since death reigned before the Law was given, it fits that it should be said to have reigned over those who sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, as we have recalled above. For just as after the Law was given death reigned over those who served idols or fornication in contempt of the Lawgiver, so before the Law death certainly did not reign over those who perceived beforehand the sense of the Law and honoured its author; for death is said to have reigned precisely because the knowledge of the one God had vanished from the earth. Accordingly, the Law when it was given began thus: I am, He says, the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods beside me; and thou shalt not make unto thee any idol, nor any likeness (Exodus 20:2–4). The Law was given, then, so that death should not reign; so that, the former sins being abolished, the human race might obey the one God. Hence the same Apostle says in another place: Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it (Romans 6:12). By saying this he shows that death reigns even now, if the Law is despised. For what is the reign of death, but when its will is done at its command, to the ruin of the one who obeys — a rule whose chief will is idolatry?

And yet the Greek manuscripts are urged against us as if they did not themselves disagree with one another; this is the work of a love of contention. For when a man cannot win by his own authority, he corrupts the words of the law, so as to put forward his own sense as though it were the words of the law, so that it may seem to be not reason but authority that decides. It is established, moreover, that long ago certain Latin manuscripts were translated from old Greek ones, which the simplicity of those times kept uncorrupted and which it attests. But after minds began to depart from concord, and, with heretics stirring up trouble, to be wrenched about by disputes, many things were altered to suit human sense, so that the text should contain what seemed right to a man; which is why even the Greeks themselves have differing manuscripts. But I judge that reading to be the true one in which reason, history and authority are all kept; for the readings that are found fault with in the Latin manuscripts today are found set down in just this way by the ancients — Tertullian, Victorinus and Cyprian.

The reign of death, then, first began to be destroyed in Judaea, because in Judaea is God known (Psalm 76:1); but now it is being destroyed daily among all the nations, as, in great part, sons of the devil become sons of God. So death did not reign over all, but over those who sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, as I have recalled above. And Adam is the figure of him that was to come for this reason: that even then God decreed in a mystery to amend through one, Christ, what had been sinned through one, Adam; as is said in the Apocalypse of the apostle John: The Lamb, he says, which was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Then he added:

(Verse 15.) But not as the offence, so also is the gift. Because he had said that the one Adam is the figure of the one Christ, so that it should not be thought that he meant Adam’s case to be of the same kind as Christ’s, he says: But not as the offence, so also is the gift; for Adam is the figure of Christ only in this, that what one sinned, one amended. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift in the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto more. That is: if through the offence of one many are dead, imitating his transgression, much more has the grace of God and the gift abounded unto more, who take refuge in it. For more obtain grace than died through the offence of Adam. From this it is plain that he was not speaking of this death which is common to all; for absolutely all die, and yet not all obtain grace. Nor is it meant that death reigned over all, but over those who died through the offence of Adam, whom he says sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression. These are the ones of whom he says that many died through the offence of one, but that the grace of God abounds unto more; because the grace of God abounded both in those who are said to have died through the offence of Adam, by sinning in like manner, and in those who did not sin after this similitude of Adam’s transgression. And those who, through their father’s sin, were by God’s sentence in the underworld — on them the grace of God abounded at the Saviour’s descent, granting pardon to all, when they were carried up into heaven in triumph.

(Verse 16.) And not as it was by one sin, so is the gift: for the judgement was by one to condemnation, but the gift is of many offences unto justification. It is plainly different; for through the one sin of Adam those were condemned who sinned after the similitude of his transgression, whereas the grace of God through Christ justified men not from one offence but from many, by giving them the remission of sins. He says this to the glory of the mercy of God and of Christ: that although through the offence of Adam many are held by the second death in the lower part of the underworld, yet the gift of God’s grace, when it would have been just for them to be punished, not only pardons them but justifies them.

(Verse 17.) For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift and of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. It must be observed that the sense is one and the same and differs in nothing. For he says that death reigned, not that it reigns; because those who have understood the judgement of God through the Law have been taken out of its dominion. It reigned, then, because without the manifestation of the Law the fear of God was not on the earth. This, then, is the sense of what went before: that since death reigned from Adam to Moses over those who sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, much more does grace reign, by the abundance of God’s gift, unto life through the one Jesus Christ. For if death reigned, why should grace not reign the more, which justifies far more than those over whom death reigned? How much more must grace be believed to reign, which confers life through Christ?

(Verse 18.) Therefore as by the offence of one upon all men unto condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one upon all men unto justification of life. That is: as through the offence of one all who sinned in like manner deserved condemnation, so too in the righteousness of one all who believe will be justified. But if any think that this condemnation is universal, they will in the same way take the justification to be universal too. But that is not true, because not all believe.

(Verse 19.) For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Those whom he called “all” above he here signifies as “more” and “many”; for many, not all, followed the offence of Adam by transgressing, and many, not all, will be made righteous through faith in Christ. Death, therefore, did not reign over those who did not sin after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.

(Verse 20.) Moreover the law crept in, that the offence might abound. It can be said in reply: Then the Law ought not to have been given, so that sins should not increase; for if there was less sin before the Law, there was no need of a law. But the Law was plainly necessary, to show that sins are imputed before God which men believed could be committed with impunity, so that thereafter they might know what they ought to avoid. Hence the prophet Isaiah says: The law, he says, was given for a help (Isaiah 8:20); so that, since the seeds of righteousness are in some way implanted in nature itself, the Law was added, by whose authority and teaching the natural disposition might advance to bearing the fruit of righteousness. For as a newborn life perishes unless it has nourishment to cherish it as it grows, so too the natural disposition to righteousness, unless it has something to look to and revere, does not easily advance, but sickens and gives way to the sins that come upon it. For it is weighed down by the habit of sinning, so that it cannot grow into fruit, and in this way it is extinguished. It was with foresight, then, that the Law was given for a help, as the prophet testifies; but the people, following their old habit, multiplied their sins. By the very practice of it they began to sin more than they had sinned before; and so it came about that, when the Law had been given, sins did not diminish but abounded. For the Apostle is showing what resulted when the Law was given, not what the Law did. But how did sins increase through a fault of the Law, which threatened so that men should not sin? And yet it is said to have crept in that sin might abound. It is true, because it entered as though it would be of benefit, and humbly; but afterwards it began to lord it over those whom it had commanded not to sin, and who sinned. For the Law began to show the abundance of sins, since the things it had forbidden were done more than they had been done before. In this sense, then, the Law was given that the offence might abound. For the Apostle, in commending faith, through which sins are certainly blotted out, said that the Law brought it about that sin abounded, as I have said above; because it was not given that sins might be abolished, but that they might abound: for it both showed men to have been sinners before the Law, and after the Law held all men guilty. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. It is plain that, when sin abounded, grace abounded much more, when the gift of God came by promise and covered the sins of all, so that the envy of the devil might grieve to find that it had achieved nothing. For when the Law had been given for man’s benefit, the devil set about overturning it by urging what was forbidden, so that what had been given to do good should work the contrary, the commandments being despised, and there should come from the Law not benefit but judgement unto punishment. Then God, who is just and merciful, in order to empty out the glory which the devil had sought from his triumph over man, decreed that His Son should come, who would forgive all sins, so that there should be greater joy from the gift of grace than there had been mourning from sin. For the joy of God’s gift profits even those over whom Satan could not triumph; and so grace did much more abound over the sin which Satan had urged.

(Verse 21.) That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin reigned, seeing its work profit sinners unto death, and in this it gloried. In like manner, grace is to reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord: so that, as sin reigned, having begun through Adam, so grace reigns through Christ. And grace reigns through righteousness in this way: if, having received the remission of sins, we follow righteousness; so that grace, seeing that it has fruit in the good whom it has redeemed, may reign unto eternal life, knowing that we shall be eternal. Grace therefore abounds the more, because sin reigned for a time, but grace reigns for ever. For when grace reigns, it is the kingdom of God, just as, when sin reigned, it was the kingdom of the devil. Yet he refers everything to Christ, so that all the grace of God may be learned from Christ. So he answers to the sense above, saying: