Romans 5:19

The sense of this verse has been determined by what precedes. The γὰρ connects it closely with the last words of Romans 5:18 : “justification of life; for, as through, etc.”. ἁμαρτωλοὶ κατεστάθησαν : “were constituted sinners”. For the word κατεστ. cf. James 4:4; 2 Peter 1:8. It has the same ambiguity as the English word “constituted” (S. and H.); but we cannot say, from the word itself, whether the many constituted sinners, through the one person's disobedience, are so constituted immediately and unconditionally, or mediately through their own sin (to be traced back, of course, to him); this last, as has been argued above, is the Apostle's meaning. οὕτως καὶ διὰ τῆς ὑπακοῆς τοῦ ἑνός : the application of τῆς ὑπακοῆς has been disputed. By some (Hofmann, Lechler) it is taken to cover the whole life and work of Jesus conceived as the carrying out of the Father's will: cf. Philippians 2:8. By others (Meyer) it is limited to Christ's death as the one great act of obedience on which the possibility of justification depended: cf. chap. Romans 3:25; Romans 5:9. Both ideas are Pauline, but the last seems most congruous to the context and the contrast which pervades it. δίκαιοι κατασταθήσονται : “shall be constituted righteous”; the futureshows again that Paul is dealing with experience, or at least with possible experience; the logic which finds the key to the passage in Bengel's formula, Omnes peccarunt Adamo peccante, would have written here also δίκαιοι κατεστάθησαν. It is because Paul conceives of this justification as conditioned in the case of each of the πολλοί by faith, and as in process of taking place in one after another that he uses the future. A reference to the Judgment Day (Meyer) is forced: it is not then, but when they believe in Christ, that men are constituted δίκαιοι.