Dual PanelLife in Christ
1THEREFORE, now that we have been justified through faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2who has given us access to that grace in which we now live; and we exult in the hope of the divine glory that is to be ours.
3More than this: we even exult in our present sufferings, because we know that suffering is a source of endurance,
4endurance of approval, and approval of hope.
5Such hope is no fantasy; through the Holy Spirit he has given us, God's love has flooded our hearts.
6It was while we were still helpless that, at the appointed time, Christ died for the wicked.
7Even for a just man one of us would hardly die, though perhaps for a good man one might actually brave death;
8but Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, and that is God's proof of his love towards us.
9And so, since we have now been justified by Christ's sacrificial death, we shall all the more certainly be saved through him from final retribution.
10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, now that we have been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life!
11But that is not all: we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus, through whom we have now been granted reconciliation.
12What does this imply? It was through one man that sin entered the world, and through sin death, and thus death pervaded the whole human race, inasmuch as all have sinned.
13For sin was already in the world before there was law; and although in the absence of law no reckoning is kept of sin,
14death held sway from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned as Adam did, by disobeying a direct command -- and Adam foreshadows the man who was to come.
15But God's act of grace is out of all proportion to Adam's wrongdoing. For if the wrongdoing of that one man brought death upon so many, its effect is vastly exceeded by the grace of God and the gift that came to so many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.
16And again, the gift of God is not to be compared in its effect with that one man's sin; for the judicial action, following on the one offence, resulted in a verdict of condemnation, but the act of grace, following on so many misdeeds, resulted in a verdict of acquittal.
17If, by the wrongdoing of one man, death established its reign through that one man, much more shall those who in far greater measure receive grace and the gift of righteousness live and reign through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18It follows, then, that as the result of one misdeed was condemnation for all people, so the result of one righteous act is acquittal and life for all.
19For as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous.
20Law intruded into this process to multiply law-breaking. But where sin was multiplied, grace immeasurably exceeded it,
21in order that, as sin established its reign by way of death, so God's grace might establish its reign in righteousness, and result in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.