Romans 5:15
But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
The details of the parallelism between Adam and Christ (begun by Paul in v. 12 with the words “just as”) are given in verses 15-17. The apostle made clear the contrastive nature of the parallelism by stating, But the gift (charisma, “grace-gift”) is not like the trespass. What Christ “gives” contrasts with what Adam did, his “trespass” (paraptoma, “false step”; also mentioned in 4:25; 5:16-18, 20). The point of the first contrasting parallel is the degree—how much more. The trespass of the one man brought physical death to the many, in this case the entire human race to date with two exceptions—Enoch and Elijah. By contrast, God’s grace—and the gift (viz., righteousness, as stated in v. 17; cf. v. 16) that came by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ—abounded to the many! If this latter “many” is identical with the first (the many who died, which is possible, but is not required by the text) and constitutes the entire human race, then “God’s grace and the gift” by means of “grace” abound in the sense of reaching and being available to all people, but not necessarily being appropriated by all.
Excerpt from:
Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-c1985). The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
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