Romans 5:10-16

¹⁰It is like this. We were God’s enemies, then his son Jesus died for us, so now we are God’s friends. And that’s not all. Now that we are God’s friends Jesus lives in us and saves us.

¹¹So we are really happy now, because Jesus has saved us and made us good friends with God.

¹²Think about the story about Adam. God told him, “If you eat any fruit from that tree you will die.” He did wrong, he ate that fruit, so he died. And that is the way it is with all of us people now. We all came from Adam, we all do wrong, and so we all die.

¹³All the people that came from Adam did wrong in one way or another, so they all died at some time. This was the way it was before Moses came and wrote down the Law, everybody died. And it is just the same now after the law came, everybody still has to die. Before the law came, if somebody did wrong, nobody could point to a law to show that it was wrong. But they all died, so we know they all did wrong, even though they didn’t do it the same way as Adam did.

¹⁵Jesus Christ came later, and he did something a lot different from the wrong thing Adam did. That one man, Adam, he went wrong, so many people have to die. But this other man, Jesus Christ, he is different. He makes many people alive. God gives us this life. He is very good to us even though we are not good enough for him. Jesus did much more for us than Adam did.

¹⁶And we get something from Adam that is a lot different from the good thing that God gives us. Adam did just one bad thing, and from that now we all go wrong, so God has to punish us. But what God did is different. He is good to us and gives us life. It doesn’t cost us anything. So he will not punish us but he will call us his friends.