1 Because we trusted in Christ, the record of our sins has been erased { God has erased the record of our sins}. So we now have a peaceful relationship with God because of our trust in what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. 2 Because of what Christ has done, God has also enabled us to begin experiencing his continually acting toward us in ways that we do not deserve. Also, we rejoice because we are confidently expecting that God will gladly show us how great he is. 3 We rejoice even when we suffer as a result of our trusting in Christ, because we know that when we are suffering, the result is that we learn to endure things patiently. 4 And we know that when we endure things patiently, the result is that God approves of us. And when we know that God approves of us, the result is that we confidently expect that he will do great things for us. 5 And we are very confident [PRS] concerning the things that we wait expectantly for, because God loves us very much. His Holy Spirit, who has been {whom he has} given to us, causes us to understand how much God loves us.

6 When we were unable to save ourselves, it was Christ who, at the time that God chose, died on behalf of us ungodly people. 7 Rarely would anyone die on behalf of another person, even if that person were righteous, although for a good person perhaps someone might be courageous enough to die on behalf of such a person. 8 Nevertheless, as for God, the way he showed us that he loves us is that Christ died on our behalf while we were still rebelling against God. 9 The record of our sins has been erased { God has erased the record of our sins} because of what Christ accomplished when his blood [MTY] flowed when he died. So it is even more certain that we will be saved by Christ {that Christ will save us} from God's punishing us eternally [MTY]. 10 Even when we were acting hostilely towards God, he enabled us to have a peaceful relationship with him as a result of his Son dying for us. So it is even more certain that we will be saved {Christ will be able to save us} from God's punishing us [MTY] because he is alive again and because God has enabled us to have a peaceful relationship with himself. 11 And that's not all! Now we also rejoice about the things that God has done for us because of our Lord Jesus Christ dying for us and enabling us to have a peaceful relationship with God.

12  What you can learn from what I have written so far is as follows: All people are sinful [PRS], and that is the result of Adam, the first man whom God created, sinning long ago. Adam died [PRS] because he sinned. So, all people who have lived since then die, because it is as though all people sinned when Adam sinned. 13  People in [MTY] the world sinned before God gave his laws to Moses. But people are not considered by God { God does not consider people} to be guilty for their sins if there is no law stating that what they did was sinful. 14 But we know that from the time when Adam lived until the time when Moses lived, all people sinned, and they died as a consequence [PRS, MET]. Even people who sinned differently from the way Adam sinned, died. Adam's sin affected all people, just like what Christ did, the one who came later, can affect all people. 15 But the results of God's erasing the record of our sins as a gift to us are not like the results of Adam's sinning. The result of one man, Adam, sinning was that many/all people have died. But it is certain, however, that many people have abundantly experienced God's acting kindly toward them in a way they did not deserve. It is also certain that they have experienced God's erasing the record of their sins as the result of one man, Jesus Christ, acting kindly toward them/towards them in a way they did not deserve. 16 And there is another way in which God's freely erasing the record of our sins is not like the results of Adam's sinning. One person, Adam, sinned. As a result, God declared that all people deserve to be punished. Many people sinned. But what God did was that he erased the record of their sins without their earning it. 17 All people die [MET, PRS] because of what one man, Adam, did. But now many of us experience that God has abundantly acted towards us in ways we did not deserve, and we experience that he has erased the record of our sins without our earning it. It is also very certain that we will rule with Christ (OR, share the glory of Christ's being king), in heaven. This will happen because of what one man, Jesus Christ, did for us.

18 So, because one man, Adam, disobeyed God's law, that resulted in all people deserving to be punished {that God punish them}. Similarly, because one man, Jesus, acted righteously by obeying God when he died, the result was that God is able to erase the record of all people's sins and enable them to live eternally. 19 It was because one person, Adam, disobeyed God that many/all people became sinners. Similarly, it is because one person, Jesus, obeyed God when he died that the record of many people's sins will be erased {that he will erase the record of many people's sins}. 20  God gave [PRS] his laws to Moses [PRS] in order that people might realize how greatly they had sinned; but as people sinned more, God continued to act even more kindly toward them, in a way that they did not deserve. 21 He did that in order that just like people everywhere inevitably sin, which results in their dying [MET, PRS], people everywhere might inevitably experience God's acting kindly towards them in a way they do not deserve [MET, PRS] by erasing the record of their sins. The result is that people can live eternally because of what Jesus Christ our Lord did for them.