_BEING JUSTIFIED BY FAITH, WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD, AND JOY IN OUR HOPE; THAT SINCE WE WERE RECONCILED BY HIS BLOOD, WHEN WE WERE ENEMIES, WE SHALL MUCH MORE BE SAVED BEING RECONCILED. AS SIN AND DEATH CAME BY ADAM, SO MUCH MORE RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LIFE BY JESUS CHRIST. WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE DID SU... [ Continue Reading ]
_ROMANS 5:1_. The Apostle, having proved in the former chapter, that the believing Gentiles are justified in the same way with Abraham, and in fact are his seed, included with him in the promise or covenant, he judged this a proper place (as the Jews built all their glorying upon the Abrahamic coven... [ Continue Reading ]
BY WHOM ALSO WE HAVE ACCESS, &C.— _By whom we have been introduced, by means of faith, into that grace,_ &c. The Greek word προσαγωγη, is often used as a sacerdotal phrase, andsignifies being with great solemnity introduced, as into the more immediate presence of the Deity in his temple; so as by a... [ Continue Reading ]
EXPERIENCE— _Full proof._ The Greek word δοκιμη, has this signification, and is a metaphor taken from gold proved by purifying fire. See 1 Peter 1:7. Sir 2:5 and Saurin's Serm.... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE THE LOVE OF GOD IS SHED ABROAD IN OUR HEARTS— _Is poured out into our hearts._ The original word εκκεχυται, is commonly used, as Whitby remarks, when the effusion of the Holy Ghost is spoken of. Wherefore, as the Apostle, in this passage, had in his eye the gifts of the Spirit bestowed on th... [ Continue Reading ]
IN DUE TIME CHRIST DIED, &C.— _Christ seasonably died in the stead of the ungodly._ See Albert. Observ. Sacr. p. 304 and Raphel. Annot. ex Xenoph. in Romans 5:8 where he has abundantly demonstrated that the phrase υπερ ημων απεθανε, signifies, _he died in our room and stead._ Nor does it appear, tha... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR SCARCELY FOR A RIGHTEOUS MAN, &C.— _Now scarcely,_ &c. for γαρ cannot have the forceof an illative particle here. He may in common speech be called _a just_ or _righteous man,_ who gives to every man what is by law his due; and he a _good_ or _benevolent man,_ who voluntarily abounds in kind and... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT GOD COMMENDETH HIS LOVE, &C.— St. Paul gives them here another evidence of the love of God towards them.—The ground they had to glory in the hopes of eternal salvation is the death of Christ for them while they were yet in their unconverted Gentile state, which he describes by calling them, Roma... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM WRATH— See on chap. Romans 1:18 and 1 Thessalonians 1:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND NOT ONLY SO— These words join this verse to the third. The Apostle in the second verse says, "We, the Gentiles who believe, glory in thehopes of an eternal, splendid state of bliss." In Romans 5:3 he adds, _"And not only so,_ but our afflictions are to us matter of glorying:" which he proves in... [ Continue Reading ]
_ROMANS 5:12_.— Here the Apostle advances his _third_ and last argument, to prove the extensiveness of the divine grace, or that it reaches to all mankind as well as to the Jews. His argument stands thus: "The consequences of Christ's obedience extend as far as the consequences of Adam's disobedienc... [ Continue Reading ]
_Romans 5:13. For until the law, sin was_ [_counted_] _in the world_] The Apostle's doctrine, that all have received the reconciliation through Christ, being founded on the fact, _that all have been subjected to sin and death through Adam,_ he immediately enters on the proof of that fact, by appeali... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS THE FIGURE OF HIM THAT WAS TO COME— Adam is said to be _the figure_ of _him who was to come,_ that is, of Christ the Messiah; for this is one of the _marks_ or _names_ by which the Jews signified the expected Messiah. See Luke 24:21. John 6:14; John 11:27. Hebrews 10:37. In the Greek it is τυ... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT NOT AS THE OFFENCE— This evidently shews that the Apostle in this paragraph is running a parallel, or making a comparison between the _offence_ of Adam and its consequence, and the opposite _free gift_ of God and its consequences; and in these three verses he shews, that the comparison will not... [ Continue Reading ]
AND NOT AS IT WAS BY ONE THAT SINNED, &C.— The Apostle here manifestly enters upon another respect, in which the _gift_ reaches beyond the offence: και, _and,_ has nearly the same force as _also._ See on chap. Romans 1:17 and the introduction to the present chapter.... [ Continue Reading ]
MUCH MORE THEY WHICH RECEIVE, &C.— _The abounding of grace here,_ is without all doubt the same as _the grace of God which hath abounded to many,_ Romans 5:15 and the _gift of righteousness_ or _justification,_ is the same as _the gift by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ,_ Romans 5:15. There, the... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE, AS BY THE OFFENCE OF ONE— _Therefore as through one offence all men fell under condemnation; even so through one righteousness all men are restored unto justification of life._ Αρα ουν, _therefore,_ always denotes the grand point the Apostle is aiming at, and which, after having given rea... [ Continue Reading ]
MOREOVER, THE LAW, &C.— _But the law,_ &c. There can be nothing plainer than that St. Paul, in this and the next verse, makes a comparison between the state of the Jews, and that of the Gentiles, as it stands described in the eight preceding verses; to shew wherein they differed or agreed, so far as... [ Continue Reading ]