12 So then, just as sin entered into the cosmos through one person, and consequently, by means of this sin, death, even so death came to all people—because all sinned. 13 For up to the time when the Torah was given to Moses, sin was in the world.
Objection: But in the absence of the Torah we can’t recognize sin.
Response: 14Well, against this, it is clear that death nevertheless ruled from Adam until the time of Moses, even over all those who did not sin in the precise manner of Adam, who transgressed a command.
At any rate, Adam was an imprint from the template that is the one who is coming—15although the gift of the coming one is very unlike the transgression of Adam in certain key ways.
Everyone dies ultimately as a result of the transgression of that single figure, but the gift of God is vastly superior, namely, the gift of the one person, Jesus the Messiah, that overflows to everyone who dies. 16 This was certainly not like the “gift” that came to us by way of that first person who sinned. On the one hand, a judgment flows through the one person resulting in a death sentence. But a great benefaction flows through the transgressions of everyone resulting in a sentence of release. 17 So even if death rules through one figure, originally by way of that single programmatic person’s transgression, it is immeasurably superior that those receiving the gift poured out—the gift of deliverance—rule in life by way of that other single programmatic figure, Jesus the Messiah.
18 Returning to my point above then: Just as all people ended up sentenced to death through a single programmatic person’s misdeed, so also all people ended up released and alive through the other single programmatic person’s correct deed, so to speak. 19 For just as through the disobedience of one person everyone was made a sinner, so also through the obedience of one person everyone was made righteous. 20 The Teachings of Moses entered this situation—and resulted in yet more sin! But at least where sin was multiplied, the gift multiplied still more, 21 so that just as sin rules through death, the gift rules through the deliverance that leads to eternal life through Jesus, the Messiah, our divine ruler.