The -IONS of The Story

Paul had a great gift for condensation, summarization and juxtaposition.  In Romans 5, he began with Adam, the first man, and painted in broad strokes the story of God's ongoing relationship with mankind.  In so doing, he threw a lot of multi-syllabic words around and contrasted theological concepts by presenting them in the same sentence (e.g. the "So...but" statements in vs. 15-21).  I'm going to use Paul's literary devices today to put Romans 5 in a more chronological order.  So, grab your Bibles and let's deconstruct Romans 5 together. (All scriptural references are from the NET.)

Collaboration
The first -ion is not explicitly mentioned in Romans 5.   But, I'm going to start with it because it is integral to "The Story".  In Genesis 1:26, the Hebrew is translated as this:
And said Elohim, "Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness..."
"Elohim" in the Hebrew is a plural noun, as reflected in the pronouns "our" which follow it.  The Name encompasses Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all of whom collaborated in the creation of the first man.

Transgression

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 (5:12)

This refers to Adam's disobedience and sin in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3).  Adam's and Eve's disobedient acts caused all of their descendants (all the rest of humanity) to be born with a "sin nature".

Condemnation

For judgment, resulting from the one transgression, led to condemnation (5:16b)

Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression (5:18a)

What was the condemnation that came from Adam's sin?  God's judgment: death, both physical and spiritual (6:23).

Degradation

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.
Romans 5:14

The whole of human history can be divided into three epochs:  before the Law, under the Law nad under Grace.  There were 11 generations between Adam and Noah.  That translates to 1100 years.  (Remember, before The Flood people lived for hundreds of years.)  During those centuries, mankind became so evil and the human bloodlines so corrupted by the disobedience of fallen angels that the Messianic bloodline itself was nearly lost!  It was because of this that God had to destroy the world, except for Noah's family, through which the Messianic bloodline would continue.  The spiritual battle was extremely intense in those days.
From Noah to Moses were 15 generations.  Noah built the ark because he believed God.  It was his faith in God which saved his family, according to God's plan.  Abraham, likewise, believed God, and it was credited to his spiritual account as righteousness.
By and large, though, during these 26 generations, mankind floundered, wallowing in spiritual death.

Written Revelation
The first written revelation God gave to mankind was the 5 books of the Law, also called The Pentateuch.  God chose Moses as the one to pen these books, which have guided Judaism (and later, Christianity) for millennia. The rest of the Old Testament followed, as God's further revelation. Paul reveals the purpose of The Law in vs. 20:

Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase

In other words, the Law revealed mankind's lawlessness to a greater degree.  The Law gave an "impossibly high" standard, which pointed out just how fruitless it was for people to try to "be good enough" to satisfy a holy God.

On that "happy note" (NOT! lol) we will stop for today.  Tomorrow we will get to the most-excellent news of Romans 5 ---  Propitiation, Justification/Reconciliation, Elevation, Sanctification and Glorification!

Elohim, my Triune God, thank you for Your magnificent Story!  In Jesus' name, amen.