<p>5:17&nbsp;<i>For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned on account of the one man</i>- This again highlights the superabundance of the grace received. By Adam&rsquo;s sin, we became reigned over by death; by Christ, we sinners, we who are like Adam, not only become free from death and shall live eternally, but we shall &ldquo;reign&rdquo;, as rulers in God&rsquo;s future Kingdom (Lk. 19:19; Rev. 5:10). Note the contrast so far in these verses is between Adam and Christ, and between Adam&rsquo;s sin and&hellip; Christ. We expect the connection to be between Adam&rsquo;s sin and Christ&rsquo;s righteousness and obedience. This is the connection made later, but for now, we simply read of Christ as the counterpart to both Adam and Adam&rsquo;s sin. It wasn&rsquo;t so much one act of obedience which countered Adam&rsquo;s one sin; rather was it a life lived, a character developed, a person, rather than a single act of obedience, as perhaps implied by the legalism of Judaism, whereby one sin could be cancelled out by an act of obedience. The reality however is that Adam&rsquo;s one sin was no mere casual infringement which had no significant consequence- &lsquo;just&rsquo; one sin leads to all the death and suffering which Adam&rsquo;s sin brought. Our sins are to be understood in the same way. Adam must have held his head in his hands as he stood somewhere eastward in Eden, and sobbed to the effect &ldquo;My God, what have I done&hellip;&rdquo;, and from tear filmed eyes looked out upon a creation starting to buckle and wrinkle. If we accept Paul&rsquo;s point that Adam is everyman 5:12, that whilst we suffer because of what he did, this is because we would have done the same if in his shoes&hellip; then we will feel the same for our falls, our slips, our rebellions, our sins.</p><p><i>Much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life on account of the one man, Jesus Christ</i>- For the Macedonians &ldquo;the abundance of their joy&hellip;&nbsp;abounded unto the riches of their liberality&rdquo; (2 Cor. 8:2). Their joy for what the Lord had done for them, for the &ldquo;abundance&rdquo; s.w. of His grace and giving to them (Rom. 5:17), led to their giving to the poor.<br />Throughout Romans 5, Paul makes a seamless connection between the reign of God's grace now, and our future reigning in the literal Kingdom of God to be established materially upon earth at the Lord's return: Grace reigns&nbsp;<i>unto&nbsp;</i>eternal life, i.e. the result of the reign of grace now is eternal life in the future (Rom. 5:21)... and thus &quot;the ones receiving the abundance of the grace and of the free gift of the righteousness in life&nbsp;<i>will</i>&nbsp;reign through the one, Jesus Christ&quot; (Rom. 5:17). Elsewhere, Paul clearly understands the idea of future reigning as a reference to our ruling in the future Kingdom of God. This is a very real and wonderful hope which we have, and is indeed part of the Gospel. &quot;Israel&quot; means something like 'God rules' (Gen. 32:22-28); His people are those over whom He rules. We therefore are under His Kingdom now, if we accept Christ as King over our lives.</p><p>Rom. 5:17,21 draws a parallel between Adam's sin and ours. His tragedy, his desperation, as he looked at his body, at his wife, with new vision; as his wide eyes wandered in tragedy around the garden: all who fall are in that position, eagerly reaching out to the clothing of the slain lamb.</p>