Many Were Made Sinners (Romans 5:19)

2025-05-10

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)

The part I will consider for this post is that the Word says that “many were made sinners.” The misconception that we often have is that we were made sinners because we sin. The reality is that we sin because we are sinners by nature.

We were made sinners because Adam sinned, not because we sinned, according to this verse. This does not undermine our responsibility before the Lord. Nonetheless, this is a scriptural fact.

By the blood of Jesus Christ, we have the forgiveness of sins. This forgiveness did not change our nature as sinners though. This is why we also needed to die with Christ. “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3).

The Scriptures tell us the following: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). In Adam, we die without any promise except for judgment. In Christ, we are already dead with Christ, with the Savior having borne our judgment. But with that death we are promised life and are made truly alive.

This does not mean that sin is dead or that it has been removed from our experience; else, the Scripture would never give us the warning, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (Romans 6:12).

With all this in mind, this is a warning and a reminder to both me and anyone listening or reading right now. In ourselves, there is no hope of us to keep from sinning. We must continually be before the Lord, saying, Lord, I cannot, but you can. The knowledge that we are sinners by nature must always be before us, leading us to a deeper dependence on God and the eternal Christlife He has given us.