Right-ness

Romans 5:17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.(ESV)

Sometimes it helps me to write this out like-so:

Adam (and thereby man) chose "other than God" which itself was sinful, and led to more sin by: corrupting his heart and his body. Sin separated us from God. He was given death, and eventually (of himself) would be given eternal punishment for his rebellion.

Jesus chose God with every decision, and ultimately paid for the sin of human beings who rebelled. This leads to less sin and an increase of purity in our heart and our bodies. Positionally we are reunited with God. We are given life, and eventually eternity with Christ in heaven.

So how is this equation unequal? How will grace and the free gift of righteousness much more allow us to reign in life then how death reigns because of sin?


Adam wasn't exactly in a state of "non-righteousness/non-sin". He was in the presence of God so he was clearly not sinful in the least before the fall. You can't be "non sinful" and somehow be less than totally righteous. You are one or the other, sinful or totally right.

Well, we aren't just given positional righteousness, we are also given rewards in heaven for obedience that is totally Christ-driven. We are told we can reign with Christ in heaven. We will get perfect bodies and be triumphant over our enemies (again, Christ is the only one who triumphed over anything). And as for righteousness, we weren't made right once, then we can sin and break it. But we are right for all time, with Jesus' righteousness that he earned, not us. Its a different thing to be given the righteousness of someone perfect, who invented the term.