Catholic priest and theologian, Patrick Boylan (as far as I know, no relation!) who was a professor of Eastern Language at University College Dublin and Sacred Scripture and Oriental Languages at the Pontifical University of Ireland (my alma mater) wrote the following about Rom 5:19:
Paul here elucidates v. 18—explaining the meaning of παραπτωμα and δικαιωμα, and of κατακριμα. The παραπτωμα is Adam’s παρακοη—or sin of disobedience: opposed
to it is the υπακοη, the
obedience, of Christ (= the δικαιωμα; for,, Christ as υπηκος, cf. Phil. ii. 8; Gal. iv. 4).
The κατακριμα is elucidated by αμαρτωλοι κατεσταθησαν
οι πολλοι and the δικαιωσις
ζωης by δικαιοι κατασταθησοναι οι, πολλοι.
Καθισταναι does not indicate a mere
forensic or juristic result. As men were actually made sinners by Adam’s
disobedience, so they are made just by Christ’s obedience. When Paul says that all are made just by Christ’s death, he
does not imply that each individual human being is actually justified through
the death of Christ. It is to be remembered that Paul is here making a contrast
. . . The future κατασταθησονται
does not imply that the justification is purely eschatological, but that it is
a process which goes on continuously among men. There may be in the future
tense, also the hint of an eschatological aspect—a hint, that is, of the
official manifestation of the just at the Great Judgment. (Patrick Boylan, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans:
Translation and Commentary [Dublin: M.H. Gill and Son, Ltd., 1934, 1947], 92-93,
emphasis in bold added)
Further Reading
Response to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness
