Peace and Hope

¹So, because we’ve been made right with God through faith, we now have peace with him through our Lord Jesus Christ.

²Through him we have access, by faith, to that grace in which we are established, and we pride ourselves in the hope of the glory of God.

³We’re full of joy because we expect to share in God’s glory. And that’s not all. We’re full of joy even when we suffer.

⁴We know that our suffering gives us the strength to go on, and that produces character. Character produces hope,

⁵and hope will never make us ashamed. That’s because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

⁶At just the right time, when we had no power of our own and we weren’t honoring God, Christ died for us.

⁷Usually someone wouldn’t even die for an honest person, although they might be willing to die for a person of great virtue.

⁸But Christ died for us while we were still sinners. That’s how God has shown his love for us.

⁹All the more so, having already been shown by his blood to be in the right, we will be saved from wrath through him.

¹⁰Once we were God’s enemies, but we were brought back to him through the death of his Son. And now that God has brought us back, how much more will we be saved through the life of his Son!

¹¹And that’s not all. We are filled with joy from God because of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of him, God has brought us back to himself.

Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ

¹²Sin came into the world through one man, and death came into the world through that sin. As a result, death affected everyone. It was just as if every person had sinned.

¹³There was sin in the world before the law was given. But before the law, people’s sins weren’t held against them.

¹⁴Still, everyone from the time of Adam to the time of Moses was under the power of death. That even included people who didn’t sin by breaking a command from God, the way Adam did. But Adam also gives us a picture of how the Messiah could come and do something that would affect everyone.

¹⁵However, the gift is not like the crime. If many died because of one man's transgression, how much more abundant is the gift of God's grace, which is offered to many by one man, Jesus Christ.

¹⁶The result of God’s gift is different from the result of Adam’s sin. After that one sin, judgment came, and people were found guilty. But after many sins, God’s gift came, and it made people not guilty.

¹⁷Because of the one man who sinned, death ruled over all people. But because of another man, people will rule in life. That man is Jesus Christ, and he gives freely and abundantly to make people right with God.

¹⁸Because of the wrong thing one man did, all people were found guilty. But now, because of the right thing another man did, all people are declared not guilty and live.

¹⁹Because one man did not obey, many people were made sinners. But because another man did obey, many people will be made right with God.

²⁰When the law was introduced, sin got worse, because now people were doing things that they knew were wrong. But when sin got worse, God poured out an even greater abundance of grace.

²¹When sin ruled, it brought death. But when grace rules in the lives of those who are right with God, it brings eternal life. This is all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done.