Once justified, then, on the ground of our faith, let us enjoy peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,✻

as it was through him that we have obtained access, by faith, to that grace in which we stand. We are confident in the hope of attaining glory as the sons of God;

nay, we are confident even over our afflictions, knowing well that affliction gives rise to endurance,

and endurance gives proof of our faith, and a proved faith gives ground for hope.

Nor does this hope delude us; the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom we have received.

Were that hope vain, why did Christ, in his own appointed time, undergo death for us sinners, while we were still powerless to help ourselves?

It is hard enough to find anyone who will die on behalf of a just man, although perhaps there may be those who will face death for one so deserving.

But here, as if God meant to prove how well he loves us, it was while we were still sinners

that Christ, in his own appointed time, died for us. All the more surely, then, now that we have found justification through his blood, shall we be saved, through him, from God’s displeasure.

Enemies of God, we were reconciled to him through his Son’s death; reconciled to him, we are surer than ever of finding salvation in his Son’s life.

And, what is more, we can boast of God’s protection; always through our Lord Jesus Christ, since it is through him that we have attained our reconciliation.

It was through one man that guilt came into the world; and, since death came owing to guilt, death was handed on to all mankind by one man. (All alike were guilty men;✻

there was guilt in the world before ever the law of Moses was given. Now, it is only where there is a law to transgress that guilt is imputed,✻

and yet we see death reigning in the world from Adam’s time to the time of Moses, over men who were not themselves guilty of transgressing a law, as Adam was.) In this, Adam was the type of him who was to come.

Only, the grace which came to us was out of all proportion to the fault. If this one man’s fault brought death on a whole multitude, all the more lavish was God’s grace, shewn to a whole multitude, that free gift he made us in the grace brought by one man, Jesus Christ.

The extent of the gift is not as if it followed a single guilty act; the sentence which brought us condemnation arose out of one man’s action, whereas the pardon that brings us acquittal arises out of a multitude of faults.

And if death began its reign through one man, owing to one man’s fault, more fruitful still is the grace, the gift of justification, which bids men enjoy a reign of life through one man, Jesus Christ.

Well then, one man commits a fault, and it brings condemnation upon all; one man makes amends, and it brings to all justification, that is, life.

A multitude will become acceptable to God through one man’s obedience, just as a multitude, through one man’s disobedience, became guilty.

The law intervened, only to amplify our fault; but, as our fault was amplified, grace has been more amply bestowed than ever;

that so, where guilt held its reign of death, justifying grace should reign instead, to bring us eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.