5:14 Adam to Moses. Thus Adam is as real a person as Moses, and only the most extreme skeptics would dare to question the historical reality of Moses.

5:14 had not sinned. The only creatures in history who have not sinned like Adam (note Romans 5:12) are the animals. But death reigns over these also, because of Adam’s sin. In fact, the very ground was cursed, out of which all living bodies had been made, when their God-appointed steward sinned.

5:14 figure. The first Adam is thus a contrasting type of “the last Adam” (I Corinthians 15:45), the one bringing death into the world, the other bringing eternal life to the world. This typological theme is beautifully developed in Romans 5:15-21, but all this would be pointless if Adam were not uniquely the first man, and the father of all other men. In fact, God promised redemption through “Him that was to come” at the same time He pronounced the curse on Adam and his dominion (Genesis 3:15).