Romans
5
New
International Version - UK (NIVUK)
Peace
and hope
5 Therefore,
since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith
into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] boast in the hope of the glory
of God. 3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know
that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character,
hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured
out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
6
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for
the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a
good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own
love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved
from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were
reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been
reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we
also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now
received reconciliation.
Death
through Adam, life through Christ
12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through
sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned –
13
To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not
charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death
reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not
sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
15
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of
the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace
of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God
be compared with the result of one man’s sin: the judgment followed one sin and
brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought
justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through
that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of
grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus
Christ!
18
Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so
also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners,
so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin
increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in
death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Footnotes:
Romans
5:1 Many manuscripts let us
Romans
5:2 Or let us
Romans
5:3 Or let us
NIV
Application Commentary
We
Hope Because God Loves Us in Christ (5:5–8)
Our
claim that Christ will rescue us from God’s wrath will some day be vindicated.
God will do what he promised.
How
can we be sure? In Romans 5:5b–10, Paul gives two basic reasons: God’s love for
us in Christ (vv. 5b–8) and God’s work for us in Christ (vv. 9–10). God does
not mete out his love for us in tiny measures; he “has poured” (ekcheo) it into
our hearts. This verb is used to describe the “pouring out” of the Spirit on
the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17–18). Paul therefore cleverly alludes to the Spirit
here. It is the Spirit, dwelling in the heart of believers, who communicates
God’s love to us (cf. Rom. 5:5). Paul says much more about this ministry of the
Holy Spirit and about God’s love for us in chapter 8.
Alongside
this subjective evidence of God’s love, we also have objective proof of that
love in the cross of Christ. At the time God determined, at just the right
point in salvation history, “Christ died for the ungodly” (v. 6; cf. also, for
this sense of time, 3:26; 8:18; 13:11). Sending his Son to die for people who
refused to worship him (the basic connotation of “ungodly”) reveals the
magnitude of God’s love for us.
To
make sure we do not miss this point, Paul reinforces it in verse 7 with an
analogy: “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good
man someone might possibly dare to die.” Though the issue is disputed, a
difference between “a good man” and “a righteous man” seems to be the key to
the interpretation. A “righteous” person is one we might respect, but a “good”
person is one we might love. Rarely will a person give his or her life for
someone they merely respect; but occasionally a person dies for the sake of
someone they love—a soldier for his buddies, a parent for her children. The
awesome quality of God’s love for us is seen in that Christ died for us while
we were “still sinners”—hating God, in rebellion against him (v. 8).
From
NIVAC: Romans by Douglas J. Moo. Published by Zondervan Academic.
2.
Justification according to the Apostle Paul.
When the Apostle Paul preached the doctrine of
justification in the ancient Rom. world it would seem that the term was readily
understood by both Jew and Greek (Rom 1:14). The apostle does not take great
pains to define the term, although the word usually may be understood from the
context in which it is used. To the Corinthians he simply wrote, “But you were
washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11) and let it go at that. Even
in the Epistle to the Romans, the longest and most detailed presentation of justification
in the Bible, the apostle does not pause to explain these terms but assumes
that his readers understand them. Although in his inspired written record of
God’s revelation of salvation to sinful man, the apostle uses other picture
words to describe God’s action (apolytrosis), “redemption” (Rom 3:24) and
katallage, “reconciliation” (5:11), his favorite term, esp. in his Epistle to
the Romans, is (dikaiosis) “justification” (4:25, 5:16) and words closely
related such as (dikaios) “just” or “righteous” (dikaiosyne), “righteousness”
(dikaiō), “to
justify” (dikaioma), “judgment”
or “decree” (dikaiōs), “righteously.”
Whether Paul speaks of “justification by faith”
and/or of the negative opposite impossibility, justification by works, the
meaning of the word “justify” by itself is basically declarative or forensic
(the word “forensic” always is used in connection with law, courtroom
procedure, judgment, or public discussion and deba te).
A man justified by
works would be pronounced righteous because he did the works and a judge says
so; God pronounces sinners righteous because of Christ’s work for him. In both
cases the act of judging or justifying is forensic. A study of Paul’s Epistle
to the Romans reveals that the idea of judgment or rendering a decision is the
leitmotif of his entire presentation on justification. When he says that “God
gave them up” (1:24-28) in speaking of the sins of natural man, this act
involved a judgment on the part of God. The section in his treatise (2:6-11)
esp. exemplifies this meaning of justification. Since God’s justice is
righteous and perfect, He will pronounce judgment upon every man according to
his works. Paul says a judgment, a “justification,” will be rendered for all
men, eternal life to those who have done well, wrath and damnation to those who
have disobeyed. The verdict will be as it should be, for there is no partiality
with God. The forensic situation is the same as that of which Moses writes: “If
there is a dispute between men, and they come into court, and the judges decide
between them, acquitting (LXX: δικαιόω, G1467) the innocent and condemning the guilty,
then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie
down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his
offense” (Deut 25:1, 2). The apostle states that the “doers of the law will be
justified” (Rom 2:13). Using the term in a context of law and judgment, the
apostle does not say the doers of law become righteous, or make themselves
righteous, but that they are pronounced or judged righteous before God. Paul is
not teaching salvation or justification by works but maintains the basic
meaning of the term “justify.”
No man can fulfill the law of God perfectly and
cannot receive a judgment or justification by work s. Nevertheless, even if he
could fulfill its demands, man would not thereby make himself righteous, but
would have to be pronounced righteous or innocent by the judge. In the phrase
“justified by faith” (Rom 3:28), the term means to judge a sinner not guilty,
that is, to acquit a guilty man rather than an innocent man. Justification is a
reversal of God’s attitude toward the sinner because of his justification by
faith in Christ. The sinner is declared free from guilt and the punishment of
sin (cf. 2 Cor 5:19-21; Acts 13:38, 39). This is Paul’s unique use of the term
justification, God’s acquittal of the sinner. A just man is not pronounced just
because he is just, but a sinful man is pronounced just because his sins have
been atoned for by the righteousness of Christ. In another illustration on this
point, in Romans 2:26, Paul says that a man’s uncircumcision is regarded or
counted as circumcision. In other words, one thing is simply counted for
another, or a person is regarded as something he really is not. This is the
basic, Scriptural concept of the idea of “to justify” or “justification.”
Accordingly,
the old Lutheran theologian, Martin Chemnitz (Loc. II 250), writes of Paul’s
teaching on justification; “Paul everywhere describes justification as a judicial
process, because the conscience of the sinner accused by the divine Law before
the tribunal of God, convicted and lying under the sentence of eternal
condemnation, but fleeing to the throne of grace, is restored, acquitted,
delivered from the sentence of condemnation, is received into eternal life, on
account of obedience and intercession of the Son of God, the Mediator, which is
apprehended and applied by faith.” According to this, justification signifies
“to be pronounced righteous,” or “to be acquitted.”
5.
Justification and the atonement of Christ. If God’s righteousness is the saving
act of God in Christ for man’s salvation, then justification is closely related
to our Lord’s atonement. In fact, Christ’s atonement is the grounds for
justification. Christ’s person and activity is the justification or
reconciliation with God and the basis of all individual justification. It is
the only basis upon which God can and does justify the sinner (Rom 3:24; 8:1; 2
Cor 5:18-21). The atonement of Christ answers the question: “How can a just God
acquit a sinner; yes, one who remains sinful even after he is justified?”
Justification does not mean God “overlooks sin” or acts as if man were not a
sinner. The sentimental view which conceives of God as a gracious old
“grandfather” who winks at the sins of His “children,” denies the integrity of
the true God and destroys any concept of justification. God’s justice and
holiness demand payment for sin, and this penalty Christ paid in the atonement
on the cross. Thus in justification God devised a plan whereby both His
attributes of justice and His love manifested in grace for salvation of sinners
are given full meaning.
By
making Christ a substitute for man, God preserves His own justice and the same
time achieves salvation for the sinner (Rom 3:26). It is un-Biblical,
therefore, to speculate whether God could or does forgive without Christ.
Sinful men “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which
is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as an expiation by His blood.”
God
is involved in the justification-atonement syndrome in three ways: (1) He is
the Initiator, who first loved man. (2) He is the Instrument or Means, who gave
Himself in the incarnate Christ as the once-for-all sacrifice for man’s sin.
(3) He is also the Object of His saving work, who satisfied His wrath and
justice over sin through Christ’s all-atoning sacrifice. At one and the same time
God satisfies Himself and forgives the sinner. Therefore, only in Christ does
God justify the sinner by imputing Christ’s perfect righteousness to the sinner
who has none of his own (2 Cor 5:21). The Scriptures teach plainly that the
wrath of God is visited upon by sinful man or else the Son of God must die for
them. Either man dies or Christ dies. But God “shows his love for us in that
while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).
Encyclopedia of The Bible.
Yours by His Grace
Blair Humphreys
Southport, Merseyside
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