Romans5
New International Version
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
3Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
4perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5And 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.
6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
10For 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!
11Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
12Therefore, 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—
13To 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.
14Nevertheless, 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.
15But 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!
16Nor 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.
17For 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!
18Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.
19For 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.
20The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Romans 5.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The happy effects of justification through faith in the righteousness of Christ. (1–5). That we are reconciled by his blood. (6–11). The fall of Adam brought all mankind into sin and death. (12–14). The grace of God, through the righteousness of Christ, has more power to bring salvation, than Adam's sin had to bring misery, (15–19). as grace did superabound. (20, 21).
vv1-5
A blessed change takes place in the sinner's state, when he becomes a true believer, whatever he has been. Being justified by faith he has peace with God. The holy, righteous God, cannot be at peace with a sinner, while under the guilt of sin. Justification takes away the guilt, and so makes way for peace. This is through our Lord Jesus Christ; through him as the great Peace-maker, the Mediator between God and man. The saints' happy state is a state of grace. Into this grace we are brought, which teaches that we were not born in this state. We could not have got into it of ourselves, but we are led into it, as pardoned offenders. Therein we stand, a posture that denotes perseverance; we stand firm and safe, upheld by the power of the enemy. And those who have hope for the glory of God hereafter, have enough to rejoice in now. Tribulation worketh patience, not in and of itself, but the powerful grace of God working in and with the tribulation. Patient sufferers have most of the Divine consolations, which abound as afflictions abound. It works needful experience of ourselves. This hope will not disappoint, because it is sealed with the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of love. It is the gracious work of the blessed Spirit to shed abroad the love of God in the hearts of all the saints. A right sense of God's love to us, will make us not ashamed, either of our hope, or of our sufferings for him.
vv6-11
Christ died for sinners; not only such as were useless, but such as were guilty and hateful; such that their everlasting destruction would be to the glory of God's justice. Christ died to save us, not in our sins, but from our sins; and we were yet sinners when he died for us. Nay, the carnal mind is not only an enemy to God, but enmity itself, chap. 8:7; Col 1:21. But God designed to deliver from sin, and to work a great change. While the sinful state continues, God loathes the sinner, and the sinner loathes God, Zec 11:8. And that for such as these Christ should die, is a mystery; no other such an instance of love is known, so that it may well be the employment of eternity to adore and wonder at it. Again; what idea had the apostle when he supposed the case of some one dying for a righteous man? And yet he only put it as a thing that might be. Was it not the undergoing this suffering, that the person intended to be benefitted might be released therefrom? But from what are believers in Christ released by his death? Not from bodily death; for that they all do and must endure. The evil, from which the deliverance could be effected only in this astonishing manner, must be more dreadful than natural death. There is no evil, to which the argument can be applied, except that which the apostle actually affirms, sin, and wrath, the punishment of sin, determined by the unerring justice of God. And if, by Divine grace, they were thus brought to repent, and to believe in Christ, and thus were justified by the price of his bloodshedding, and by faith in that atonement, much more through Him who died for them and rose again, would they be kept from falling under the power of sin and Satan, or departing finally from him. The living Lord of all, will complete the purpose of his dying love, by saving all true believers to the uttermost. Having such a pledge of salvation in the love of God through Christ, the apostle declared that believers not only rejoiced in the hope of heaven, and even in their tribulations for Christ's sake, but they gloried in God also, as their unchangeable Friend and all-sufficient Portion, through Christ only.
vv12-14
The design of what follows is plain. It is to exalt our views respecting the blessings Christ has procured for us, by comparing them with the evil which followed upon the fall of our first father; and by showing that these blessings not only extend to the removal of these evils, but far beyond. Adam sinning, his nature became guilty and corrupted, and so came to his children. Thus in him all have sinned. And death is by sin; for death is the wages of sin. Then entered all that misery which is the due desert of sin; temporal, spiritual, eternal death. If Adam had not sinned, he had not died; but a sentence of death was passed, as upon a criminal; it passed through all men, as an infectious disease that none escape. In proof of our union with Adam, and our part in his first transgression, observe, that sin prevailed in the world, for many ages before the giving of the law by Moses. And death reigned in that long time, not only over adults who wilfully sinned, but also over multitudes of infants, which shows that they had fallen in Adam under condemnation, and that the sin of Adam extended to all his posterity. He was a figure or type of Him that was to come as Surety of a new covenant, for all who are related to Him.
Key Words
οὖν (oûn): (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordingly
δικαιόω (dikaióō): to render (i.e. show or regard as) just or innocent
ἐκ (ek): literal or figurative; direct or remote)
πίστις (pístis): persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such profession; by extension, the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself
ἔχω (échō): to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remote; such as possession; ability, contiuity, relation, or condition)
εἰρήνη (eirḗnē): peace (literally or figuratively); by implication, prosperity
πρός (prós): a preposition of direction; forward to, i.e. toward (with the genitive case, the side of, i.e. pertaining to; with the dative case, by the side of, i.e. near to; usually with the accusative case, the place, time, occasion, or respect, which is the destination of the relation, i.e. whither or for which it is predicated)
θεός (theós): figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very
διά (diá): through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)
ἡμῶν (hēmōn): of (or from) us
Cross References
Romans 5Deals with the objective reality of reconciliation with God through Christ, mirroring Romans 5:1.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Confirms the state of alienation and active enmity toward God prior to Christ's reconciling death.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Expounds on Christ Himself being our peace, breaking down barriers and preaching peace.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Parallel description of believers having access through Christ by one Spirit to the Father.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The Old Testament basis for the promise that those who trust in God will not be ashamed.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Explains 'in due time' as the divinely appointed fullness of time for Christ's redemption.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Elaborates on what it means to be 'enemies' of God by defining the carnal mind as enmity.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Classic federal headship parallel: by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Contrasts Adam, the first living soul, with Christ, the Last Adam, a quickening spirit.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
The ultimate consequence of being justified: there is now no condemnation for those in Christ.
Supported by JFB
Illustrates how believers can glory in tribulation, knowing nothing separates them from Christ's love.
Supported by John Calvin
Highlights the uniqueness of Christ's love in laying down His life for His friends/enemies.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The original penalty of death decreed for disobedience, demonstrating how death entered the world.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The historical account of the first man's transgression by which sin entered the world.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Reinforces that where no law is, there is no transgression or imputation of sin.
Supported by John Calvin