The Apostle Paul did not believe that human beings are basically good people who do bad things. The opening chapters of his epistle to the Romans are dedicated to the proposition that, with the exception of Jesus Christ, every human being is by nature unrighteous, guilty, and worthy of death. “All, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,” Paul concludes (Rom. 3:9).

This bleak and unsparing portrait of humanity raises at least two questions: Why is it that we see no exceptions to universal human depravity? Is there any hope for sinners who stand under the righteous condemnation of God and who are helpless to extract themselves from the divine judgment?

Paul answers both of these questions in an unexpected way in Romans. Our plight as sinners can be traced ultimately back to Adam. Our only hope as sinners lies in the second Adam, Jesus Christ. In Romans 5:12–21, the Apostle helps us to see how the work of each man, Adam and Jesus, affects human beings today.

In Romans 5:14, Paul says that Adam “was a type of the one who was to come,” that is, Jesus Christ. Like Jesus, Adam was a true, historical human being. While Jesus is no mere man, He is a true man. Paul here affirms a correspondence between Adam and Jesus. It is in 1 Corinthians that the Apostle provides language that helps us better understand their relationship. If Adam is “the first man,” then Jesus is “the last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45). Adam is “the first man”; Jesus, “the second man” (v. 47). Adam and Jesus are representative men. None stands between the first man and the last Adam. And none follows Jesus, the second man. Every human being in every time and place of the world, Paul tells us, stands in representative relation either to Adam or to Jesus (see vv. 47–48). It is in the context of this relationship that what the representative has done comes into the possession of the represented.

In Romans 5, Paul sets these representative relationships under the microscope. The Apostle wants us to see how it is that Adam’s “one trespass” affects all those who are in Adam. He does so to help believers (those who are “in Christ”) see how it is that Christ’s obedience and death affect them.

Some of the most important terms that Paul uses in Romans 5:12–21 derive from the courtroom. Against the “condemnation” that belongs to those who are in Adam stands the “justification” that belongs to those who are in Christ (vv. 16, 18). The word often translated “made” in verse 19 (“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” [emphasis added]) is more precisely rendered “appointed.” Paul’s point in this verse is neither that Adam’s sin transforms us into personally sinful people, nor that Jesus’ obedience transforms us into personally righteous people. His point here is that, in light of Adam’s disobedience, those whom Adam represents belong to a new legal category (sinner). In similar fashion, it is because of Jesus’ obedience that His people are granted entrance into a new legal category (righteous).