Romans 5:12
12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the coming one) transgressed. 15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many! 16 And the gift is not like the one who sinned. For judgment, resulting from the one transgression, led to condemnation, but the gracious gift from the many failures led to justification. 17 For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ! 18 Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be constituted righteous. 20 Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,
4 Ezra 3:21
2 Esdras19 Your glory passed through the four gates of fire and earthquake, wind and frost; and you gave the commandments of the law to the Israelites, the race of Jacob. 20 But you did not take away their wicked heart and enable your law to bear fruit in them. 21 For the first man, Adam, was burdened with a wicked heart; he sinned and was overcome, and not only he but all his descendants. 22 So the weakness became inveterate. Although your law was in your people’s hearts, a rooted wickedness was there too; so that the good came to nothing, and what was bad persisted. 23 Years went by, and when the time came you raised up a servant for yourself, whose name was David. 24 You told him to build the city that bears your name and there offer to you in sacrifice what was already your own. 25 This was done for many years; until the inhabitants of the city went astray, 26 behaving just like Adam and all his line; for they had the same wicked heart.
Notes and References
"... In 4 Ezra, a primary concern is what is called “the evil heart” (3:21, 26; 4:4; 7:48) and the ability of the Law to counter its effects. The seer, called Ezra, wonders whether the Law is sufficient to overcome the problem: “For the first Adam, burdened with an evil heart, transgressed and was overcome, as were also all who were descended from him. Thus, the disease became permanent.” He then adds the following interesting observation: “the Law was in the people’s heart along with the evil root, but what was good departed, and the evil remained” (3:21-22). Thus, Ezra complains that when God gave the Law to Israel he did “not take away from them the evil heart, so that your Law might bring forth fruit in them” (3:20; compare 7:48; 9:36). This sounds almost Pauline! The angel (Uriël) sent to converse with Ezra about such matters, who speaks for God and thus probably represents the views of the author of the book,38 responds that though the number of those saved will indeed be few, those who have kept the Law “perfectly” (7:89) will receive the award of “immortality” (7:13, 97, 113). It is “for this reason, [that] the Most High has made not one world but two” (7:50), to give people the opportunity to prove themselves in this age and to receive their proper reward in the age to come ..."
de Boer, Martinus C. Apocalyptic Paul: Cosmos and Anthropos in Romans 5-8 (pp. 15-16) Baylor University Press, 2013