THE DIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF OUR BEING ACCOUNTED AS RIGHTEOUS THROUGH FAITH (5:1-11). Paul now outlines some of the consequences of our being ‘accounted as righteous' through faith. These he represents as follows: 1) We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). 2) We have acces... [ Continue Reading ]
WE ARE ASSURED OF REIGNING IN LIFE AND ENJOYING FUTURE GLORY AND THE BASIS OF THIS IS WHAT CHRIST HAS ACCOMPLISHED FOR US (5:1-21). Having been reckoned as righteous through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and are called on to ‘rejoice in hope of the glory of God' (Romans... [ Continue Reading ]
SALVATION TO THE UTTERMOST (5:1-8:39). The depths of our sin having been revealed in Romans 1:17 to Romans 3:23, and Jesus Christ's activity, (His activity in bringing about our salvation through the cross by means of the reckoning to us of His righteousness by faith), having been made known in Roma... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Having therefore been accounted as in the right by faith, we have peace with God (or ‘let us continue to have peace with God') through our Lord Jesus Christ,' Paul now explains that because we have been accounted as righteous once for all (made acceptable in God's eyes through the gift of His righ... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Through whom also we have had our introduction (access) by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.' And through Him we not only have peace with God, but we also have introduction/access by faith into the powerful activity of the grace of God, that is, in... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And not only so, but we also rejoice in our tribulations,' But what is the road that leads to the glory of God? It is the road of tribulations. It is because of the joy that is set before us that we endure what comes before it. Just as, for Christ, prior to the resurrection there came the cross, so... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul now continues to describe the process by which God shapes our lives. For ‘tribulation works steadfastness, and steadfastness brings us to a place of refined purity (approval after testing), and that refined purity (approval after testing) strengthens our hope', both hope for the future which wi... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And hope does not put to shame, because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given to us.' And our hope of being transformed daily into His image, and of one day being made holy, unblameable and unreproveable before Him is one which will not ‘put us t... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly.' Having briefly demonstrated the fruits of justification, Paul now comes back to its grounds. Romans 5:2 have illustrated the believers' strength through the Holy Spirit, now we are reminded of the state that they were in before... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. For peradventure for the good man some one would even dare to die.' And lest it be thought that he is overstressing this description of men as ‘ungodly' Paul now underlines the fact for us. It was for men who were neither righteous nor good that Chris... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But God commends his own love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, for us Christ died.' ‘Being accounted as righteous' has resulted from the grace and love of God (Romans 3:24), and we now learn that that love was ‘commended' towards us by God (drawn vividly to our attention) in that whi... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Much more then, being now accounted as in the right by his blood, will we be saved from the wrath (of God) through him.' And as a consequence of being accounted as righteous by His sacrificial death for us, we will ‘much more' be saved from ‘the wrath' (God's wrath) through Him. Romans 1:18 to Roma... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, will we be saved by his life,' Paul's language now moves from the law court to the question of our personal relationship to God. In Paul's day the King/Emperor was both the supreme co... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.' Paul now exults in the glory of reconciliation with and from God. We (Paul and the Roman Christians, but of course including all Christians) ‘rejoice in God through our... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed to all men, for that all sinned:,' The opening statement is a simple one based on the fall of man in Genesis 3. By this sin entered into the world, with its subsequent penalty of death. In the begi... [ Continue Reading ]
PAUL NOW DESCRIBES MAN'S ONENESS WITH ADAM IN JUDGMENT AND COMPARES IT WITH THE BELIEVER'S ONENESS WITH CHRIST IN DELIVERANCE (5:12-21). This passage can be seen as summarising all that has gone before, whilst also introducing new concepts that lie ahead. It is transitional. Here Paul enters into th... [ Continue Reading ]
ADAM BROUGHT SIN AND DEATH FOR ALL INTO THE WORLD, BECAUSE ALL HAVE SINNED (5:12-14). Having previously proved that all men have sinned (Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20), Paul now introduces the clinching argument in terms of our descent from Adam. The effect of Adam's sin is to be seen in that all men... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.' Sin was in the world from the moment of Adam's fall. This happened before the Law came into the world, the Law which made sin apparent for what it was. As a consequence men sinned, but as there was no God-given L... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him who was to come.' Nevertheless, in spite of men being unable to impute sin before the giving of the Law, the fact that all men had sinned was demo... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many.' Paul begins by emphasising that God's gift was not like the trespass. For while the ori... [ Continue Reading ]
IN DIRECT CONTRAST TO ADAM WHO INTRODUCED SIN AND DEATH JESUS CHRIST HAS BROUGHT INTO THE WORLD THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LIFE IN ABUNDANT MEASURE (5:15-19). Paul now provides us succinctly with a number of contrasts between Adam, the first man, and Jesus Christ, ‘the coming One'. Elsewhere he c... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And not as through one who sinned, so is the gift, for the judgment came of one unto punishment after sentence, but the free gift came of many trespasses unto justification.' Again Paul's ‘not as' emphasises the superiority of the gift, this time the contrast being between Adam's one act of sinning... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one, much more will they who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ.' Having established that through the free gift of righteousness we can experience ‘justificati... [ Continue Reading ]
‘So then as through one trespass (the judgment came) unto all men to punishment following sentence; even so through one act of righteousness (the free gift came) unto all men to justification of life.' The words in brackets are not in the Greek, but the sense is clear. The one trespass began the pr... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For as through the one man's disobedience the many were constituted sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be constituted righteous.' It will be noted all through that Paul never states quite how the one man's trespass/disobedience constituted many as sinners, only that it... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And the law came in besides, that the trespass might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly,' The emphasis here is on the fact that the Law could not save, it could only condemn, and indeed on the fact that it ‘multiplied sin', partly because its detailed requirements, b... [ Continue Reading ]
THE EFFECT OF THE LAW AND THE CONSEQUENCE OF CHRIST'S OBEDIENCE (5:20-21). In case anyone may question how the giving of the Law came into the equation Paul now explains. All that the Law accomplished was to make the trespass abound. By laying down God's requirements in great detail it increased th... [ Continue Reading ]
‘That, as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.' For God came to a world where sin reigned in death, where all men were subject to death because of sin, and He acted in totally unmerited favour. He provided a means of... [ Continue Reading ]