Is it just me or did Paul just say "now that we've been reconciled, imagine how much more we'll be saved! And we also boast about being reconciled!" It's like he skated over reconciliation to make a point about salvation, only to come back and reiterate the importance of reconciliation.
vs 12
This one verse really sums up the human-wide nature of sin. But it is a little circular. Sin came into the world by one man. With sin came death. "In this way", says Paul, death came to all people because all sinned.
Wait, what? Didn't you just say that sin came into the world through one person? How is it that "in this way" all sinned? In what way?
Well, it's in the way of God's creation through one man. Whether you believe in a literal Adam or you think Adam is a metaphor for all humanity (Adam means "humanity" in Hebrew), you're actually stuck with this - because even if Adam wasn't real, he still represents the universal fall of humanity from God by sin.
vs 13
The TNIV has made Paul Irish!
They also make the financial language sound very, very financial.
The first half of this verse sounds historical - it uses was and talks in the past tense about stuff that did happen (sin coming into the world before the Law did).
But the second half sounds more philosophical - it's in the present tense. That's because we need to complete the argument that occurs in verse 14.
vs 14
The fact is that even though there was no law to charge against people, everyone between Adam and Moses still died. Remember that the law did not create sin - sin came first. The law exists to make us aware of sin, but it doesn't create sin.
vs 15
Wait, so how is the gift not like the trespass? The result of death coming through one man is universal. But the grace that comes from one man, Jesus, isn't universal. Is that the difference he's highlighting? Probably not, in that he uses the same word twice (polus - many) to describe each.
The only thing I can think is that Paul is saying that the universalism of sin is the cause of man, while the overflowing of God's gift of grace to many is from God, albeit through Christ.
vs 16
That is an interesting contrast - it only took one sin to infect the whole world. But even after an uncountable number of sins over the many generations of humanity, it only took one person's obedience to bring justification.
vs 17
I'm not sure how the reigning gets transferred from death (reigning through Adam) to those with life reigning in life? Wouldn't it be life reigning through them? Apparently not. It is sensical in a way - those scheduled for death are not really in a position to reign over anything. But those who are given life, through grace and righteousness, are fit to reign.
vs 18
This sounds like the gift and the trespass are much more similar than Paul was making out - both come from a single act.
vs 19
This seems repetitious to me.
vs 20
I'm guessing trespass increases for a couple of reasons when a law actually is written. Firstly, there would be things people did beforehand that weren't considered trespass, but then were made unlawful - like wearing clothing made of two types of cloth, or eating shellfish.
Secondly, as Paul points out later, when our sinful nature sees a law, it instantly wants to break it.
The fascinating thing, then, is that through this cycle of evil, God is able to make his grace, and therefore how awesome he is, grow in ever-increasing amounts above and beyond how evil is growing. So if you look at the world and think "Wow, it's getting crappier by the minute", then realise that God's awesomeness is actually growing faster!
vs 21
This is another contrast - sin reigned through death - grace will reign through life. Death has a morbid finality about it. So to ensure that grace is ever-increasing beyond sin, grace has to reign through a much more final (and cheery) result - eternal life.
This makes me understand the power of the resurrection so much more than I have before. Death is a finality to us. We think we die, and that's it. But with God showing that he can resurrect people from the dead, he shows that death has no need for finality - that the default situation for a living being is life, and that they should spend far more of their existence alive than dead.
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