Romans 5:17

That one man, Adam, he did something bad, so now lots of people die. But that other man, Jesus Christ, he did something good, so now lots of people will live with God for ever. God is really good to them now, and he makes them good too. Yes, Jesus did a much better thing for us than Adam did.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

In Context

16That new life that God gives us is a lot different from the trouble we got from Adam. Adam did one bad thing, and God said that he was guilty. And he died. So now we all do bad things, and we get trouble. But we get something really good from Jesus. Even though we did bad things, God says we are all right.

18Adam went wrong, and after that, everybody did bad things. So God had to punish everybody. But then Jesus did something really good, so after that, God will not punish us, but he will let us live with him for ever.

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Cross References

Genesis 3:19You will work very hard to get your food, so you will get hot, and you will sweat a lot. And later on, you will die. I made you from the dirt, and after you die, your body will turn back into dirt.”

Matthew 25:34Then I will say to the people on my right-hand side, ‘Come on, you mob. My father is happy with you, so you can be in his family. A long time ago, at the time when he made the world, he made a good place for you. It is ready for you now.

Romans 5:12Think about the story about Adam. God told him, “If you eat any fruit from that tree, you will die.” Then Adam did the wrong thing, he ate that fruit, so he died. And it’s the same for everybody now. We are all from Adam. We are all in his family, and we all do wrong things, so we all die.

Romans 6:23That’s how it is. If we do bad things, we will get our pay for doing those things. We will die. That’s all the pay we will get. But if we join up to our leader, Jesus Christ, God will give us properly good life. We will live with him for ever.

1 Corinthians 4:8You think you know everything, and you think you don’t need to learn anything more, but you are wrong. You think that you are spiritually rich, but you are not. You think you have a lot of power, like you think you are big bosses, and you think that we haven’t got any power, but you are wrong again. You know, it would be good if you had God’s power so that you can be big bosses for him, and Apollos and me can be bosses with you, but that is not the way it is.

1 Corinthians 15:49You see, the bodies that we have now are like Adam’s body. He was the 1st man, and God made him out of the ground. But our spiritual bodies will be different. They will be like Jesus’s body. He is the man that came from heaven.

Matthew Henry on Romans 5:7-21

The First and the Second Adam; The Influence of Grace. ( a. d. 58.) 6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the… Read the whole commentary →

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