So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Parallel translations
- WEB that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- KJV That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
- BSB so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- NKJV so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- NASB so that, as sin reigned in death, so also grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
As sin reigned in death, grace now reigns through righteousness to eternal life in Christ. Grace has dethroned sin and brings everlasting life.
Overview
Paul concludes the Adam-Christ comparison by depicting two reigns: sin ruled through death, but now grace reigns 'through righteousness' to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ's righteous work establishes the rule of grace. This climactic verse crowns the chapter with the assurance of eternal life secured in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Titus 2:11For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
- John 1:16–17From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.
- Rom 5:14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.
- Rom 6:14For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
- Rom 6:23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Rom 8:10If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
- Rom 5:12Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.
- Rom 5:17For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
- Heb 4:16Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.
- 2 Pet 1:1Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
- Rom 4:13For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
- 1 Jn 2:25This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.
- 1 Pet 5:10But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
- 1 Jn 5:11–13The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
- Rom 6:16Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
- Rom 6:12Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
- John 10:28I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 5:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.