Romans 5:10

‘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 court and the ‘father' of his people. Thus transgressing the law was in itself an act of rebellion, both against the law, and against the King's ‘fatherhood'. So sin, Paul brings out, is nothing less than rebellion against God. It is not just a breaking of the Law but a personal affront to God. It thus reveals us as being at enmity with God. As we were sinners, so were we enemies. But it goes further, for it also results in His enmity towards us, it results in His wrath revealed against us because of sin (Romans 1:18; Romans 2:5). That is why propitiation is needed (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:1). That is why He ‘gave us up' to the consequences of sin (Romans 1:24; Romans 1:28). It was because He was ‘angry' (filled with aversion to our sin). There is no avoiding the thought of a broken relationship on both sides, something which on God's side could only be remedied by the death of His Son. For in Scripture reconciliation always comes from God's side. Being accounted as righteous through His blood (affecting God's attitude towards us - Romans 5:9), we are reconciled though His death (affecting God's attitude towards us). And this is made possible by the shedding of Jesus' blood as a ‘propitiation', for averting of wrath is one of the purposes of sacrifice. Thus, as a consequence of coming to Christ and believing ‘into Him' and in His death for us (committing our lives to His saving activity), we have now been reconciled to God. His wrath is no longer directed at us. ‘In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself not imputing their trespasses towards them' (2 Corinthians 5:19). It was God Who reconciled us to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:18), not we who reconciled ourselves towards God, and it is as a consequence that we become reconciled towards Him. Thus there is now total reconciliation.

However, there is not only reconciliation but much more. ‘Much more, being reconciled, will we be saved by his life.' Reconciliation through His death brings us into powerful contact with the power of His risen life (Romans 1:4). The contrasting of His death with His life prevents us from seeing ‘His life' here as simply indicating His life given up in death. It is clearly a further step forward. But how then are we to be ‘saved by His life'? The initial answer to that lies in Romans 1:4. It is because He was ‘declared to be the Son of God with power' by His resurrection from the dead, that He is able to save. It is thus this power revealed by His resurrection, ‘the power of God unto salvation' (Romans 1:16), that undergirds the whole letter. His death was certainly essential but it is the risen Christ, in all His risen power (Matthew 28:19; Ephesians 1:19), Who finally brings about our total salvation.

It is the risen Christ Who, acting as our High Priest, has reconciled us to God, for He is ‘a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people' (Hebrews 2:17), and it is He Who continually makes intercession for us as a result of His resurrection (Romans 8:34). And it is the risen Christ Who will now save us by His life. This will indeed be the theme of coming Chapter s (e.g. Romans 5:17; Romans 6:1; Romans 8:9; Romans 8:34). It is by being made one with Him and being united with Him that we will be saved as a consequence of participating in His life. ‘Because I live, you will live as well' (John 14:19). For when God comes to us bringing us His righteousness, and we are ‘made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ' in the same way as He ‘was made sin for us' by divine transference (2 Corinthians 5:21), it not only results in our being ‘accounted as righteous', but has a consequence of giving us ‘a hunger and thirst after righteousness' that we might be filled (Matthew 5:6). It is not possible to experience the righteousness of God coming upon us without it affecting our whole lives. It is not a legal fiction. And such a hunger and thirst can only be met by Christ's life being fulfilled through us as we ‘walk in newness of life' (Romans 6:3). ‘Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave His life for me (and now lives in me) (Galatians 2:20). ‘For we (the Father and the Son) will come to him and will make our dwelling with him' (John 14:23).