<p>5:18 <i>So then. As through one act of sin the judgment came to all men to condemnation, even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came to all men to justification of life</i>- This verse could be ended with an exclamation mark and be read as a summary, exclaimed in joy and wonder, of the preceding argument. &ldquo;Justification of life&rdquo; could be a legal term concerning how a person condemned to death has received &ldquo;life&rdquo; through being declared right.&nbsp;</p><p>Perhaps we feel that our preaching somehow lacks a sense of power and compulsion of others. Try explicitly telling them about the cross. The apostles recounted the fact of the cross and on this basis appealed for people to be baptized into that death and resurrection. There is an impelling power, an imperative, in the wonder and shame of it all. Joseph saw the Lord&rsquo;s dead body and was compelled to offer for that body to be laid where&nbsp;<i>his&nbsp;</i>dead body should have laid. In essence, he lived out the message of baptism. He wanted to identify his body with that of the Lord. He realized that the man Christ Jesus was truly his representative. And so he wanted to identify with Him. And properly presented, this will be the power of response to the preaching of the cross today. &ldquo;Through one act of righteousness the cross the free gift came unto all men to justification of life&quot; (Rom. 5:18)- yet &ldquo;all men&quot; only receive that justification if they hear this good news and believe it. This is why we must take the Gospel &ldquo;unto all men&quot; (surely an allusion to the great commission)- so that, in that sense, the wondrous cross of Christ will have been the more &lsquo;worthwhile&rsquo;. Through our preaching, yet more of those &ldquo;all men&quot; who were potentially enabled to live for ever will indeed do so. This is why the Acts record so frequently connects the preaching of the cross with men&rsquo;s belief. Negatively, men do not believe if they reject the &ldquo;report&quot; of the crucifixion (Jn. 12:38,39).&nbsp;</p>