The verses referred to read: “Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” The one through whom condemnation came upon all, it need not be said, was Adam. His disobedience was his transgression by which death came into the world. The “many” who were made sinners by his disobedience, were all his posterity, the entire human race. The one whose obedience is brought to view was the second Adam, Christ. His obedience was the acts by which he provided a sinless, and therefore an efficacious, offering for all the world. The “many” who are made righteous by his obedience, are—how many? This is the question. Is this second many as comprehensive as the first? Does it like the first include the whole race? If so, are not all men to be made righteous, and so all to be saved, through Christ? And is not then universal salvation the result? Or, on the other hand, since it appears from other texts that only a few, comparatively, will reach that degree of righteousness through Christ that will entitle them to salvation, can the second “many,” that are to be made righteous, be limited to that number while the first is unlimited? The statement of verse 18 seems to cut off positively the idea of limiting one of the terms and not the other. It says that judgment came upon all men to condemnation, and also that the free gift came upon all men to the justification of life. Here the same expression “all men,” is used in both terms of the proposition. So the many that are made sinners, and the many that are made righteous, must include the same number. All the race are made righteous by the obedience of one, Jesus Christ. Then is not Universalism the result? It would be altogether too hasty to so conclude, before we inquire in what respect, and to what extent, all men are made sinners, and in what respect, and to what extent, all are made righteous by Christ; for here is a point upon which, after all, everything may turn. When God commanded Adam not to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the penalty he attached to disobedience was suspended upon no conditions. Adam transgressed and the penalty was inflicted. He became possessed of a mortal dying nature. He could bequeath to his posterity no higher nature than he possessed; hence the unborn millions of the race were involved with him in the effects of that penalty, and all became subject to death. Who are subject to death? Those who are in some sense sinners; for death is the direct result of sin. But from whose sin does the death we experience in this life result? From our own personal sins, or from those of some other person? Not from our own; for no person now suffers the first or temporal death as the penalty for his own personal sins. He may, to be sure, so violate the laws of his physical nature, as to hasten the stroke of death, or he may so offend against high Heaven that God is compelled to cut short in wrath his guilty career. But this only brings on his death a little sooner than it would otherwise occur. This does not affect the fact that death stands forth as the lot to which we all are doomed, and that, too, irrespective of character. The righteous die as well as the wicked; those who try to live in strict obedience to moral and physical law, as well as those who wildly and recklessly transgress them. From whose sin, then, does death come upon us? Answer: From the sin of Adam. We die because Adam sinned. Just in this respect, and just to this degree, therefore, are we made sinners by Adam, that we are involved in the result of his transgression. Just to this degree “judgment has come upon all men to condemnation,” for this one man’s sin. But it goes no farther; for we are not held on our own personal account, as transgressors on account of the sin of Adam. But now the curtain rises, and a new scene is disclosed to our view. Christ steps upon the stage and offers his intervention in behalf of the human race. Had he not come to our assistance, death would have been the extinction of Adam and all his posterity. Our lot would have been one of hopeless despair, and as death closed the scene, that would have been our final end. Then the consequences of Adam’s sin to us, instead of being temporary would have been eternal. But the love of God has arranged in our behalf that our eternal destiny shall not be determined by the action of another but by our own personal course of life. Hence it has been provided through Christ that the race should be placed upon a new probation, and every man determine by his own obedience or disobedience, what his final doom should be; and it is further provided, to make salvation possible, that when we sin, since we labor under the disadvantage of having inherited from Adam a fallen nature, the sentence shall not stand absolute and inexorable against us, but may be averted, if we will seek pardon for our offense through Jesus Christ. With this provision, and on these conditions, the history of our race has progressed for six thousand years from the expulsion of our first parents from the garden of Eden. And every individual is answerable for his course of life, and the use he makes of the privileges within his reach. And so the apostle has written: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Cor. 5:10. And again, in Rom. 14:12, he says, “So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.” The good and bad, according to these Scriptures, are alike to give account of themselves, and receive their just deserts for the things done in the body. But this account we do not render up in this life. Before the judgment seat of Christ we do not stand in this state of existence. How, then, is this to be brought about? It can be done only by a restoration of all from the grave. A resurrection from the dead of the whole human family, irrespective of character, is the absolutely unavoidable sequence of the work which Christ has undertaken for fallen men. As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive. And when we are made alive by the resurrection, we are released from all the effect of Adam’s sin upon us. Every one can then say, I was made subject to death by Adam’s sin; and I died. But all that is past; the power of that death is broken, and I am placed back again upon the plane of life. I now stand just as I should have stood, if Adam never had sinned, my future now depending wholly upon my individual character. And those who are then found righteous either because they have never violated the law, or because they have secured through Christ forgiveness for all their transgressions, will live forever, while those who have failed, will for their sins come under the same penalty that was pronounced upon Adam for his sin, namely, death; and no release being provided from this death, it will be eternal. With these facts before us, the application of Rom. 5:18, 19, can be made in few words. We have seen that all are made sinners by Adam only so far as to be involved in death in consequence of his sin. And we have also seen that all are to be released by Christ from those consequences. So far then all are made righteous by Christ. We are made righteous just as far as we are made sinners, and no farther. All the world are included in both declarations. But none are made sinners in Adam so far as to insure their eternal ruin; and none are made righteous in Christ, irrespective of character, so far as to secure their eternal salvation.