{10} Wherefore, as by {l} one man {m} sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, {n} for that all have sinned:

(10) From Adam, in whom all have sinned, both guiltiness and death (which is the punishment of the guiltiness) came upon all.

(l) By Adam, who is compared with Christ, and similar to him in this, that both of them make those who are theirs partakers of that which they have: but they are not the same in this, that Adam derives sin into them that are his, even into their very nature, and that to death: but Christ makes them that are his partakers of his righteousness by grace, and that to life.

(m) By sin is meant that disease which is ours by inheritance, and men commonly call it original sin: for so he calls that sin in the singular number, whereas if he speaks of the fruits of it, he uses the plural number, calling them sins.

(n) That is, in Adam.

People's New Testament

5:12 Wherefore. The section which now follows is one of the most difficult in the Bible to explain clearly in the compass of a few words. It opens up one of the profoundest questions of theology. The wherefore refers to the reconciliation (atonement) of Christ spoken of in Ro 5:11. Christ's work of atonement and the effect of Adam's sins are contrasted.

As by one man. By the sin of Adam.

Sin entered into the world. The world of mankind is meant.

Death by sin. Death was led in by sin. Had there been no sin, there had been no death. The tree of life stood in the midst of the garden (Ge 2:9).

So death passed upon all men. As the result of one man's sin.

For that all have sinned. The personal sins of responsible persons are not now spoken of, but all the race sinned in Adam, its representative, infants, idiots, and all. Hence all die.

Wesley's Notes

5:12 Therefore - This refers to all the preceding discourse; from which the apostle infers what follows. He does not therefore properly make a digression, but returns to speak again of sin and of righteousness. As by one man - Adam; who is mentioned, and not Eve, as being the representative of mankind. Sin entered into the world - Actual sin, and its consequence, a sinful nature. And death - With all its attendants. It entered into the world when it entered into being; for till then it did not exist. By sin - Therefore it could not enter before sin. Even so - Namely, by one man. In that - So the word is used also, 2Cor 5:4. All sinned - In Adam. These words assign the reason why death came upon all men; infants themselves not excepted, in that all sinned.

King James Translators' Notes

for that: or, in whom

Scofield Reference Notes

[2] Wherefore

The "wherefore" relates back to Rom 3:19-23 and may be regarded as a continuation of the discussion of the universality of sin, interrupted Rom 3:24-5:11 by the passage on justification and its results.

[3] have sinned

The first sin wrought the moral ruin of the race. The demonstration is simple.

(1) Death is universal (Rom 4:12,14), all die: sinless infants, moral people, religious people, equally with the depraved. For a universal effect there must be a universal cause; that cause is a state of universal sin (Rom 5:12).

(2) But this universal state must have had a cause. It did. The consequence of Adam's sin was that "the many were made sinners" (Rom 5:19)--"By the offence of one judgment came upon all men unto condemnation" (Rom 5:18).

(3) Personal sins are not meant here. From Adam to Moses death reigned (Rom 5:14), although, there being no law, personal guilt was not imputed (Rom 5:13). Accordingly, from Gen 4.7 to Ex 29.14 the sin-offering is not once mentioned. Then, since physical death from Adam to Moses was not due to the sinful acts of those who die (Rom 5:13), it follows that it was due to a universal sinful state, or nature, and that state is declared to be out inheritance from Adam.

(4) the moral state of fallen man is described in Scripture Gen 6:5 1Ki 8:46 Ps 14:1-3 39:5 Jer 17:9 Mt 18:11 Mk 7:20,23 Rom 1:21 2:1-29 3:9-19 7:24 8:7 Jn 3:6 1Cor 2:14 2Cor 3:14 4:4 Gal 5:19-21 Eph 2:1-3,11,12 4:18-22 Col 1:21 Heb 3:13 Jas 4:14 1Cor 15:22.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Ro 5:12-21. Comparison and Contrast between Adam and Christ in Their Relation to the Human Family.

(This profound and most weighty section has occasioned an immense deal of critical and theological discussion, in which every point, and almost every clause, has been contested. We can here but set down what appears to us to be the only tenable view of it as a whole and of its successive clauses, with some slight indication of the grounds of our judgment).

12. Wherefore-that is, Things being so; referring back to the whole preceding argument.

as by one man-Adam.

sin-considered here in its guilt, criminality, penal desert.

entered into the world, and death by sin-as the penalty of sin.

and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned-rather, "all sinned," that is, in that one man's first sin. Thus death reaches every individual of the human family, as the penalty due to himself. (So, in substance, Bengel, Hodge, Philippi). Here we should have expected the apostle to finish his sentence, in some such way as this: "Even so, by one man righteousness has entered into the world, and life by righteousness." But, instead of this, we have a digression, extending to five verses, to illustrate the important statement of Ro 5:12; and it is only at Ro 5:18 that the comparison is resumed and finished.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:12-14 The design of what follows is plain. It is to exalt our views respecting the blessings Christ has procured for us, by comparing them with the evil which followed upon the fall of our first father; and by showing that these blessings not only extend to the removal of these evils, but far beyond. Adam sinning, his nature became guilty and corrupted, and so came to his children. Thus in him all have sinned. And death is by sin; for death is the wages of sin. Then entered all that misery which is the due desert of sin; temporal, spiritual, eternal death. If Adam had not sinned, he had not died; but a sentence of death was passed, as upon a criminal; it passed through all men, as an infectious disease that none escape. In proof of our union with Adam, and our part in his first transgression, observe, that sin prevailed in the world, for many ages before the giving of the law by Moses. And death reigned in that long time, not only over adults who wilfully sinned, but also over multitudes of infants, which shows that they had fallen in Adam under condemnation, and that the sin of Adam extended to all his posterity. He was a figure or type of Him that was to come as Surety of a new covenant, for all who are related to Him.