1. THE BLESSED INWARD CONDITION OF THE JUSTIFIED. Justification has as its proper result peace with God (Romans 5:1), which becomes hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2), is actually increased by tribulation (Romans 5:3-4), because of God's love (Romans 5:5). This love is assured by the vicarious de... [ Continue Reading ]
3. THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION. In this _third division_ of the doctrinal part of the Epistle, the Apostle presents the gospel as ‘the power of God unto salvation,' setting forth how God's power becomes efficient in men, as the _result_ of gratuitous justification. Death is shown to... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:1. THEREFORE BEING JUSTIFIED. The connection is with chap. Romans 4:25, but through this with the whole argument in the second division (chaps. Romans 3:21 to Romans 4:25). The single act of justification is indicated in the original. The sense ‘make righteous,' is altogether inappropriate... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:2. THROUGH WHOM. The Personal Redeemer is kept in the foreground. WE HAVE ALSO HAD; have obtained as our own. ‘Also' is misplaced in the E. V., since it should be joined with the verb. ACCESS; ‘the access,' something well-known. (Some prefer to render it ‘introduction.') This access is... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:3. AND NOT ONLY SO; not only let us rejoice (or, do we rejoice) in the hope of glory; but LET US ALSO REJOICE IN OUR TRIBULATIONS. The construction is the same as in Romans 5:2. ‘In' is not the same word used in Romans 5:2; there the ‘hope' was the direct ground of the glorying, here the ‘t... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:4. APPROVAL. ‘ Experience' is too wide, since it may include the whole Christian life. The term here used refers to the state of one who has successfully stood a test. In itself it might refer to the act of testing (2 Corinthians 8:2), but here the result is evidently meant. HOPE. As in R... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:5. PUTTETH NOT TO SHAME. It will not disappoint or mock us; it even now gives triumphant certainty. BECAUSE GOD'S LOVE. ‘ The love of God,' while more literal, is ambiguous; the Apostle means the love God has toward us. We are assured that hope shall not put us to shame, not by anything i... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:6. FOR. This introduces the outward proof, or manifestation, of the love of God, the same love which hath been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:5). But the internal experience would be a delusion, were it not based on this historical fact, in which God's love was sp... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:7. FOR. This death of Christ for the ungodly shows the greatness of God's love (comp. Romans 5:8), since among men it is true that SCARCELY FOR A RIGHTEOUS MAN, still less for the ‘ungodly,' WILL ONE DIE. For peradventure; not, ‘yet.' The Apostle adds another confirmatory clause, which admi... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:8. BUT GOD COMMENDETH, or, ‘doth establish' (comp. chap. Romans 3:5). Probably both meanings are included; the proof is of such a character as to render the love conspicuous, and thus to ‘commend' it. The word has an emphatic position in the original. The present tense is used, because the... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:9. MUCH MORE THEREFORE. The inference from God's love as displayed in the death of Christ (Romans 5:6-8), is the assurance of full salvation. An argument from the greater to the less. ‘If Christ died for His enemies, He will surely save His friends' (Hodge). BEING NOW JUSTIFIED, or, ‘havi... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:10. FOR. A further setting forth of the thought of Romans 5:9. BEING ENEMIES; _i.e._, being, as we were, the objects of God's holy wrath. That this was while we, on our part, were opposed to God is certainly true; but the best commentators agree in declaring that the other sense is the log... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:11. AND NOT ONLY SO. Not only have we been reconciled. Some explain: not only shall we be saved; but this is not so grammatical, since the participle ‘rejoicing' (glorying) is the correct reading in the next clause. This verse then introduces the side of human feeling. The reconciliation is... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:12. ON THIS ACCOUNT, or, ‘therefore,' First of all on account of the statement of Romans 5:11, but virtually on account of all that precedes, since Romans 5:11 sums up the whole doctrine of righteousness and salvation. Since ‘reconciliation' is received through our Lord Jesus Christ in the... [ Continue Reading ]
DIFFERENT THEORIES OF ORIGINAL SIN AND IMPUTATION. _Excursus on Romans 5:12._ (Comp. Lange, _Romans,_ pp. 191-195; where will be found the fuller statements of Dr. Schaff, here presented in an abridged form.) The universal dominion of sin and death over the human race is a fact, clearly taught by... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:13. FOR UNTIL THE LAW. ROMANS 5:13-14 present a historical confirmation of the statement that ‘all sinned.' All sinned when Adam sinned, _far_ the penalty of sin came from the very first, and that, too, when there was no such transgression of positive precept as in the case of Adam. Hence t... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:14. NEVERTHELESS. Although sin is not fully reckoned when the law is absent. DEATH REIGNED. ‘Lorded it.' The consequence of sin (‘death through sin,' Romans 5:12) was universal, even before the law: FROM ADAM UNTIL MOSES. The word ‘until' represents here a different word from that used in... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:15. BUT NOT AS THE FALL, or, ‘trespass.' The word here used refers to an act of sin, and is almost the same as ‘transgression' (Romans 5:14), and ‘disobedience' (Romans 5:19). Perhaps this suggests, more than the other terms, the idea of weakness, hence ‘fall' expresses one phase of the mea... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:15-17. The parallel has been suggested, but the points of difference are brought out before the correspondence is fully stated (Romans 5:18-19). The symmetry of the clauses will appear from the following arrangement of the passage: Romans 5:15 But not as the fall (trespass) So also is the... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:16. AND NOT AS THROUGH ONE THAT SINNED. There is some (but insufficient) authority for another reading: ‘through one sin,' A single act of sin is referred to in either case. SO IS THE GIFT. It is only necessary to supply ‘is;' though some suggest fuller explanations: ‘judgment came,' etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:17. FOR IF. A confirmation of Romans 5:16, yet an advance of thought BY THE FALL (or, ‘trespass') OF THE ONE. A briefer reading: ‘in one trespass,' is found in good authorities, but the longer reading is now clearly established. DEATH REIGNED THROUGH THE ONE, _i.e._ , Adam. The repetiti... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:18. SO THEN (not, ‘therefore'). With this phrase, which means ‘in consequence of all this, it follows that,' Paul resumes the parallel, summing up all the previously stated points of resemblance and difference; the design being to show how the inheritance and imputation of sin confirms, ren... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:19. FOR. This word shows that we have here the explanation of Romans 5:18, and thus of the whole passage. The sense is: As a consequence of the disobedience of the one man (Adam) the many (including all his posterity) were constituted sinners (put in the category of sinners, subject to cond... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 5:20. BUT THE LAW. The Mosaic law is meant, although the article is wanting in the original. ‘What of the law then?' was the question the Jew, and, indeed, any early Christian would ask. ‘But' is therefore preferable to ‘and.' CAME IN BESIDES. The same phrase is used in a bad sense, Galatia... [ Continue Reading ]