5:14 death reigned. All people were subject to death before the law of Moses was given.

a type of the one who was to come. Adam, the first man, was the divinely appointed head of the whole of humanity, and his sin forfeited righteousness for all those he represented (“all men,” vv. 12, 18; the “many,” vv. 15, 19). In the same way, God made Christ the representative head of a new humanity so that His obedience to death might gain their justification. Inherent in this teaching is the thought that the restoration provided in salvation must follow the pattern, but reverse the content, of the original constitution of humanity before God (1 Cor. 15:45–49; Heb. 2:14–18).