Audio commentary on this verse

Note 6 at Ro 5:19: Some people think it is our individual acts of sin that make us sinners, but that is not what Paul was saying in these verses. These scriptures clearly state that Adam's one sin made all people sinners (see note 17 at Joh 8:44). It is man's sin nature that produces sins, not their sins that produce a sin nature.

Therefore, those who are trying to obtain righteousness through their actions are totally missing the point. Even if they could stop all their individual sins, they could not change the sin nature that they were born with. That's the reason people must be born again (see note 2 at Joh 3:3).

Note 7 at Ro 5:19: These scriptures should provide the ultimate argument for righteousness by faith to everyone who believes the Scriptures to be inspired by God. Paul repeatedly said that believers are made righteous through faith in Christ, independently of their actions, in the same way that all were made sinners, not through their individual sins, but through Adam's one sin.