Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Romans 5:16 - 5:16
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift - “Another point of contrast may be mentioned.”
for the judgment - “sentence.”
was by one - rather, “was of one,” meaning not “one man,” but, as appears from the next clause, “one offense.”
to condemnation, but the free gift - “gift of grace.”
is of many offences unto justification - a glorious point of contrast. “The condemnation by Adam was for one sin; but the justification by Christ is an absolution not only from the guilt of that first offense, mysteriously attaching to every individual of the race, but from the countless offenses it, to which, as a germ lodged in the bosom of every child of Adam, it unfolds itself in his life.” This is the meaning of “grace abounding towards us in the abundance of the gift of righteousness.” It is a grace not only rich in its character, but rich in detail; it is a “righteousness” not only rich in a complete justification of the guilty, condemned sinner; but rich in the amplitude of the ground which it covers, leaving no one sin of any of the justified uncanceled, but making him, though loaded with the guilt of myriads of offenses, “the righteousness of God in Christ.”