Romans 5:20-21 in Various Translations (Grace)

"Now we find that the Law keeps slipping into the picture to point the vast extent of sin. Yet, though sin is shown to be wide and deep, thank God his grace is wider and deeper still! The whole outlook changes - sin used to be the master of men and in the end handed them over to death; now grace is the ruling factor, with righteousness as its purpose and its end the bringing of men to the eternal Life of God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Phillips)


"All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life - a life that goes on and on and on, world without end." (The Message)


"Law slipped in to aggravate the trespass; sin increased, but grace surpassed it far, so that, while sin reigned the reign of death, grace might also reign with a righteousness that ends in life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Moffatt)


"When the law came into the picture, sin grew and grew; but where sin has spread, grace is there to cut it down and defeat it. No matter how much sin crept in, there was always more grace. In the same way that sin has reigned in the sphere of death, now grace reigns through God's restorative justice, eclipsing death and leading to eternal life through Jesus, the Liberating King, our Lord." (The Voice)


"But law came in, in order that the offense might abound; but where sin abounded grace has overabounded, in order that, even as sin has reigned in [the power of] death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Darby)


"The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Holman Christian Standard Bible)


"The law came to make sin worse. But when sin grew worse, God's grace increased. Sin once used death to rule us, but God gave people more of his grace so that grace could rule by making people right with him. And this brings life forever through Jesus Christ our Lord." (New Century Version)


"Now the law came in as a side issue, in order that the trespass could increase, but where sin increased, grace was present in greater abundance, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Lexham English Bible)


"And the Torah came into the picture so that the offense would proliferate; but where sin proliferated, grace proliferated even more. All this happened so that just as sin ruled by means of death, so also grace might rule through causing people to be considered righteous, so that they might have eternal life, through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord." (Complete Jewish Bible)


"Now Scripture came on the scene to heighten the Fall; but wherever sin flowed, grace overflowed, in order that, as sin was king in the death realm, so might grace, through restoration to favor, be king in the spiritual life realm provided by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Cotton Patch)


I want to add that the word for grace used in these passages is defined in the Strong's as "the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life," as well as "acceptable, benefit, favor, gift, grace (-ious), joy liberality, pleasure, thank (-s, -worthy)." It is unmerited favor, yes, but also so much more. Our good friend and mentor Les defines grace as "the divine ability to do that which you could not, or would not, do before." Wow! What a word.


- Jesse