I certainly take it as a potential for all passage. But you helpfully, Scot, put it in terms of those in Adam and those in Christ. Paul’s concern here is not addressing universalism as Wright says.
Verse 17 does seem to attach conditionality here. This life in Christ is for those receiving it.
Previously Paul made it clear that wrath and indignation awaits those who are self-seeking and whose works are evil (Rom 2) as compared to glory, honor and peace for those who do good.

From a pre-pub manuscript I recently read on Arminian theology, I note that classic Arminians take the all in Christ as universal but then limit its application to the original guilt that all humans incur in Adam. Thus, what the atonement by Christ accomplishes for everyone is deliverance from original guilt.
As a five-point Calvinist, I find this classic Arminian perspective more coherent than the common four-point Calvinist proposal that everyone actually becomes guilty in Adam but that they only become provisionally justified in Christ. (Millard Erickson, on the other hand, posits a more coherent parallelism in his proposal that we participate in Adam’s sin when we appropriate it by our first act of conscious disobedience and that we participate in Christ’s life-giving when we appropriate it by faith. I have spelled out my concerns about Erickson’s proposal in _Who Can Be Saved?_, p. 78)
I am currently best satisfied with the orthodox Calvinist understanding of parallel headships of two corporate entities, in Adam and in Christ. All who are covenantally in Adam sinned and died in him and all who are covenantally in Christ are made alive by the obedience of Christ. This preserves the parallel between Adam and Christ and treats the actions of both of them as effective for those who are “in them.” We all start life “in Adam,” but by God’s grace a great number of us (perhaps most of the race) are enlivened by being united with Christ.

Terry,
Thanks for this.
I would only add that one need not be Calvinist to see federal headship in this passage. I would think a solid recapitulation theory of Christ’s work would do the same. No? I can’t imagine Paul thinking anyone being made alive without “faith.”

Mr. Aston.org » “Brings life for all” – from Jesus Creed

[...] “Brings life for all”: [...]

Scot,
I agree that faith is necessary for the experience of life (tho’ this is a point at which Neal Punt takes issue with me) but of course I see faith as God’s gracious gift to those whom he has chosen in Christ. It is a gift that Christ obtains for us by his atonement and is the first sign of life, which is inevitably followed by the obedience that demonstrates that it is a living faith, as James so strongly insists. Thus faith is instrumental in our justification but it is being in Christ that is foundational.
Cheers,
Terry