Chapter 5
5:1-5- As Paul so painstakingly makes clear in these chapters, we are not justified before God by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross apart from our faith. “It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” -Rom. 3:26 (ESV)
“And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,” -Heb. 5:9 (ESV)
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” -John 6:40 (ESV)
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” -John 3:36 (ESV)
One could quote a dozen or more verses that testify to this gospel truth. We are justified by our faith in Jesus Christ. It is through this faith that we have peace with God as Paul says in verse 1. This “peace” isn’t some inner emotional state of man, but our status before God in regards to our relationship with Him. We are no longer enemies under God’s wrath (as referred to in verses 9 and 10 in this chapter), but “peace” means we are no longer in enmity with God, but in harmony with God. In verse 2 Paul notes that through faith in Jesus we have obtained an “introduction” into this glorious grace we now experience. In contrast to what Paul states in Rom. 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” we now rejoice in hope that we will partake in the glory of God (both now by becoming more like Him by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the eternal future to come). It is for God’s glory that He made man, but as we fall short of this in our sin, He has made a way for us to obtain this glory again. This speaks to not just the justification, but transformation within us by the power of the Holy Spirit (as Paul will address more directly in future chapters).
Not only do we exult or rejoice in this fact (verses 3-4), but we also rejoice in our sufferings here in the flesh (James 1:2-4). Because we will go through trials and tribulations in this world, the believer can rejoice knowing that these things bring about perseverance and a growth in character (ultimately making us more like Christ). Paul states in verse 5 that the love of God is intimately personal as His love has been poured out within our hearts by way of His own Spirit. If God’s way of showing His love was through sending Christ to die for us (verse 8), then the way we experience this love is through His Spirit. Thus Grant Osborne concludes: “The Holy Spirit is the supreme gift that makes it possible for us to know the gift of God’s love.” This is right in line with Jesus’ words in Luke 11:13, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
Excursus: (Suffering Trials)
In our culture, much is made about ensuring our comfort, pleasure and happiness. In fact, whether people (to include Christians) realize it, there is an underlying belief that all pain, suffering and hard times are bad and to be avoided. Our idea of a “good and loving God” is that He would only want to bring about things that serve to comfort us or make us happy or “feel” good. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of God’s goodness and what ultimately benefits us, His children. So many today have an epicurean mindset. This is a pagan school of thought that we even see prevalent in Scripture in first century Athens (Acts 17:18). The basic tenant emphasizes living a life of pleasure and avoiding suffering. Having this warped perception of reality and the nature of life leads to confusion of God’s character and what is best for humanity (and especially those who are His children). If this is our foundation of what our experiences in life should be as Christians, or what we should be expecting from our God, then we will be greatly confused and maybe even disillusioned when it comes to our idea of God’s “goodness” and “love” when we, as believers in Christ suffer trials, hard times, persecution or even a lack of material prosperity. When Jesus says in John 16:33 that in this world we will have tribulation, He meant it. He also meant it when we said to take heart because He has overcome the world. Meaning, when we suffer, it’s not in vain. We see in Acts 14 that the apostles were “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” -Acts 14:22 (ESV).
F.F. Bruce writes: “If this seems strange to us, let us remind ourselves that in the New Testament affliction is viewed as the normal experience of a Christian. The apostles warned their converts that ‘we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God’ (Acts 14:22); and when tribulation came their way, as it regularly did, they could not complain that they had not been prepared for it. But affliction and tribulation were not only regarded as an inevitable feature of the Christian lot, they were looked upon as a token of true Christianity: they were a sign that God counted those who endured them worthy of His kingdom (2 Thes. 1:5). Besides, they had a salutary moral effect on those who suffered them, for they helped them to cultivate endurance and steadfastness of character, and when such endurance and steadfastness were linked to Christian faith, Christian hope was more stimulated.”
Peter, who was writing to a church very much under persecution and going through hard times, notes that we should not be surprised at the ”fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” -1 Peter 4:12 (ESV). Peter emphasizes that when suffering comes, it’s not because God doesn’t love them, but because He is refining them. Job certainly understood this concept, “When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” -Job 23:10, as well as the Psalmist. “It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.” -Psalm 119:71. As in 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter 4, James 1 and here in Rom. 5, trials and tribulations ultimately result in benefit to the believer and thus move us closer to God’s glory. As Everett Harrison states: “They help to produce character, and approved Christian character finds its ultimate resting place in the presence of God, not in a grave. By the tutelage of suffering the Lord is fitting us for His eternal fellowship.”
Yet, the American Church seems to neglect these verses, or ones like 2 Cor. 4:8-11, Phil. 1:29, 3:10, Rom. 8:18, etc., thinking that comfort, health, wealth and pleasure are the ideals of human existence rather than the goal of training, educating and making holy the souls that are slowly turning back to their Creator through His redemptive plan. This is why God did not take Paul's thorn from his side as we read in 2 Cor. 12. His growth in character and relying on God's grace was ultimately a more noble and truly godly goal than God bestowing comfort or pleasure. Knowing that Christ came not to be served, but to serve others, not to fulfill His carnal desires when tempted, but rather to take “the hard road” in obedience to the Father (and ultimately suffer to the point of death) should lead us to rejoice when we suffer trials in this life.
5:6-8- If one is to affirm that Christ died for them (as all Christians should), that is also to affirm that Christ did so due to us being both “helpless” and “ungodly.” We are helpless in the sense that we are incapable of breaking the bondage of sin on our own. This necessarily means we are destined for an eternity apart from God’s righteous holiness (Psalm 5:4, Psalm 1:5-6, Isa. 59:1-2), and as Paul has pointed out in this letter already, we are unable to meet God’s holy standard of righteousness. Thus “helpless” and “ungodly” are two sides of the same coin. We are inherently ungodly compared to God’s standard and not only that, we are helpless to change this state on our own. The Greek preposition “hyper” is translated “for” in 6b, “Christ died for (hyper) the ungodly.” This is a different word than what is used in the beginning of verse 6, “For (gar) while we are still helpless.” Gar is used as a conjunction, whereas hyper means “for the sake of, on behalf of, instead of.” You can find similar usage in John 11:50 and Gal. 3:13. In referring to John and Galatians, H. E. Dana and Julius Mantey write, “In both of these passages the context clearly indicates that substitution is meant.”
The main point Paul is illustrating in verses 7 and 8 is that God’s love for us is so great that even while we were in a state of rebellion and sin against Him, He died for us. This is one of those “gospel truths” that oftentimes gets acknowledged, but the meaning of such a fact should pierce our hearts to the core. This should go beyond some sort of theological fact we affirm intellectually and should compel us to an attitude of extreme gratitude and humbleness. It’s one thing to be willing to die for someone who loves you and is even a “noble” person by the world’s standards. It’s another thing entirely to die for someone who not only is a wicked, godless person, but that actively slanders, hates and exhibits extreme contempt for you. This is what Christ did for us. Christ didn’t die for us to be saved because “deep down we are all good.” No! He died for the ungodly! That’s all of us! This is a love I can’t fully comprehend.
5:9-11-Christ’s death on the cross, the shedding of His blood (the blood of the new covenant, Matt. 26:28) is what justifies us and saves us from God’s righteous wrath upon sin for the ones who believe. Paul, writing to believers in Thessalonica, says in 1 Thess. 1:10 that Jesus “rescues us from the wrath to come.” and in 1 Thess. 5:9, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul also reiterates verse 10 in Col. 1:21-22 when he says: “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him” (ESV).
Paul states that while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through Jesus’ death. Not only are we “justified” (which is a term that reflects legal standing), but we are “reconciled.” This is a relational term that doesn’t describe our legal status before a court of law, but our personal status as it relates to our relationship to God. Both justification and reconciliation are only made possible by God’s grace and redemptive plan. However, as reconciliation is a relational concept, it requires action by both parties. We are reconciled by our response of faith in Christ (as is stated over and over in Scripture). Man’s responsibility in God’s redemptive plan is repentance and faith as we see constantly throughout the New Testament. If Jesus came only to be an archetype for moral living by way of His example while on earth, no one is saved and we are still under God’s wrath. For no one can keep the law perfectly as He did (Rom. 3:20, Acts 15:10).
Jesus’ moral example is not what saves us. His shed blood on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins and our faith in Him is what saves us from the justice we deserve (Rom. 3:21-28, Heb. 9:11-28, 10:10-14). The Apostle John states in 1 John 4:10 that the Father sent the Son “to be the propitiation for our sins.” Reducing the understanding of Christianity and the gospel down to a sentiment such as: “Jesus came to be the example of how we are to live, i.e. just ‘love’ one another” completely misses the point of the incarnation. Christ came to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45) so that by faith in Him we would be spared of the wrath to come and instead have eternal life (Rom. 1:16, John 3:36, 1 Thess. 1:10, 1 Thess. 5:9). This is why Paul knew nothing among the Corinthians “except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” -1 Cor. 2:2. We therefore have life through the resurrection of Christ (Rom. 8:11, 1 Cor. 15:22-23). His resurrection is the assurance we have that not only did his sacrificial death atone for our sins, but rising from the grave means we too will live and not die eternally. Paul states later in chapter 8, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” -Romans 8:11 (ESV).
Verse 11 can be easy to gloss over (for me, at least). However, this seemingly simple statement further highlights the significance of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the one who makes our redemption with The Father possible. Christ and Christ alone is our hope and the means by which we receive reconciliation with our Creator and this fact is what should drive us to “exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
As the Psalmist says in Psalm 107:1, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,”
And similarly in Psalm 40:16, "Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let those who love Your salvation say continually, “The Lord be magnified!””
5:12-14- The rest of the chapter entails a lot of “in the weeds” theology and concepts that can be challenging to grasp in a sense. The main point Paul is making in verses 12-21 is to show the contrast between the two representatives of the human race. Adam, being the first by whom sin and death entered and was spread to all, and Christ being the second (and last) representative by whom the human race is restored from sin and death. As Warren Wiersbe sums up: “The key thought here is that when God looks upon the human race, He sees but two men-Adam and Christ. Every human being is either ‘in Adam’ and lost, or ‘in Christ’ and saved; there is no middle ground. Verse 14 states that Adam is a type (figure) of Christ; he is the ‘First Adam,’ and Christ is the ‘Last Adam’ (1 Cor. 15:45).” Through Adam (the ‘head’ of the human race) sin and death entered the world. Both a physical and spiritual death as we glean from Romans as well as the rest of Scripture (cf. Eph. 2:1). Paul is saying in verses 13-14 that even before the Law of Moses was given, sin still existed and people were still condemned for their sin; “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses.” This was despite the fact that God had not yet established His Law to humans. Paul has already noted in Rom. 2:12, “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law.”
Thomas Schreiner writes: “Since people still died, this shows that they were guilty–as a consequence of Adam’s sin but possibly also as a consequence of having transgressed the universal moral law in their consciences before the Mosaic law was given.” However, as verse 12 states, “and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” The guilt all of humanity has before God is not only as a result of Adam’s sin, but because all have sinned against God. One’s guilty sentence is a result of one’s own sin against a holy God (if one is not in Christ). The ancient church father Oecumenius states, “So that no one can accuse God of injustice, in that we all die because of the fall of Adam, Paul adds: “and so all have sinned.” Adam is the origin and the cause of the fact that we have all sinned in imitation of him.” There has been a lot of debate throughout history on exactly how Adams’s sin effects and relates to us. For further study, I recommend Grant Osborne’s treatment of the different views in his commentary on these verses (see bibliography). I tend to agree with his conclusion as he states, “All people have inherited corruption from Adam (the first part of v. 12) and then have participated in that sin. Therefore, they are guilty from two directions—the sinful nature inherited from Adam (passive sin) and their personal participation in that via their own sins (active sin). In fact, this is the basic difference of Christianity from all other religions, the nature of total depravity and the universal guilt of all people under sin. It is this that necessitated the cross, for this guilt is so severe that no human effort could assuage it.”
The objective reality of verse 13 is that mankind was still sinning against God by their actions, they just didn’t fully understand as God hadn’t detailed the standard in His Law yet. However, as Rom. 1-2 mentions, all of man still had a moral conscience. Man still instinctively knew there was a “right” and a “wrong.” We know they did things worthy of death (Gen. 6:11-13, Gen. 18:20-21). Having said that, even though they had still sinned, they had “not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam,” meaning that Adam had disobeyed a direct commandment God gave him (“but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” -Gen 2:17). I find Jesus’ teaching in Luke 12 to be useful in understanding the principle of moral culpability despite lack of knowledge. “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” -Luke 12:47-48 (NIV).
The judgment that results will be according to the knowledge man has. As in Luke 12, whether one has knowledge or not, they are still held accountable. The difference is the level of judgement and we know that God “rules the world in righteousness and judges the peoples with equity.”-Psalm 9:8 (NIV). As we will see further in the following verses, Adam is a “type” or a shadow of “Him who was to come.” What Adam did to condemn humanity as our representative, Christ will overcome as the God-man (the last Adam).
5:15-17- The main thrust of these verses highlights the difference in what results from Adam's sin and the victory Christ won on behalf of those who put their faith in Him. Namely, an argument from the “lesser” to the “greater.” If one man’s sin brought death and destruction to all, how much more will God’s grace abound to those who receive it? In other words, what God has done to redeem man from Adam’s sin is much more powerful than anything man was capable of doing (sinning). It’s almost like Paul is saying to us, “Do you honestly think God can’t overcome what man has messed up?” To think He can’t, or that His solution wouldn’t be able to fully reconcile the situation mankind finds themselves in would be to give man too much credit and power. God’s grace is so much greater for the good than Adam’s sin is for evil.
A condition that must not be glossed over is in verse 17. Unlike the universal condemnation of everyone who descends from Adam, this reconciliation found in Christ by grace is only for those who receive it. This is the plea of the gospel as we’ve discussed so many times in Romans up to this point. We are only justified before God by our Faith in Christ! This is the heart of the Apostle’s proclamation in Acts. “Repent and believe in Christ!” This is “receiving” the grace God provides. As our Savior declares in John 3:3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Being born of the flesh (in Adam) means death. Only those “born again” by the Holy Spirit by faith in Christ will see life (in Christ). “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” -John 3:36
5:18-21- Just as Adam’s one sin resulted in condemnation to everyone, Jesus’ one “act of righteousness” resulted in justification and life to everyone. Although Paul is showing a parallel between Jesus and Adam, the parallel is not a direct comparison in terms of the universal nature of the results. Meaning, as Adam’s sin universally condemned all, Jesus' death on the cross does not universally save all. Paul has already laid out the condition required to appropriate this justification in verse 17. The overwhelming testimony in Scripture speaks to this fact and Paul makes this clear in Romans (Rom. 1:16-17, Rom. 3:26, Rom. 4:23-24, Rom. 5:1-2, Rom. 10:4, Rom. 10:9-17. See also: Heb. 5:9, John 1:12-13, John 3:36, John 8:24, 1 John 5:11-12 and many others). In fact, the inference we should draw from what Paul is saying is that Jesus’ act of righteousness results in justification for all men who believe (who are in Christ). A passage that can help interpret this one can be found in 1 Cor. 15:22-23. There, Paul is referring to the resurrection and says: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (ESV). Notice the qualifier given: “those who belong to Christ.” Also, as Paul makes clear in his epistles, salvation is available not just to Jews, but “all mankind” (Jew, Gentile, slave, free, man, woman, etc). I’ll provide several quotes from various scholars on this subject.
Osborne articulates: “In verses 15 and 19 Paul uses ‘the many’ to show that salvation is given only to those who ‘receive God’s abundant provision of grace’ (v. 17) by faith (3:21-4:25). So when he used ‘all men’ here, he does not mean every human being but rather is saying ‘that Christ effects those who are his just as certainly as Adam does those who are his.’ While all are in Adam, it is clear in Romans that only those who believe are in Christ.”
Douglas Moo’s comments on this verse should also be noted: “We must understand the universalism of v. 18 in terms of the representative significance of each individual: the effects of Christ’s action extend to all who belong to Him, just as the effects of Adam’s action extend to all who belong to him. All people, without exception, belong to Adam (12); but only those who come to faith, who ‘receive the gift,’ belong to Christ.”
Ben Witherington III simply states that “Paul did not believe that Christ’s death automatically gave all humans right standing with God apart from a faith response.”
Albert Barnes provides some good analogies by writing, “A certain kind of medicine may have an original applicability to heal all persons under the same disease; and may be abundant and certain, and yet in fact be applied to few. The sun is suited to give light to all, yet many may be blind, or may voluntarily close their eyes. Water is adapted to the needs of all people, and the supply may be ample for the human family, yet in fact, from various causes, many may be deprived of it. So of the provisions of the plan of redemption.”
And finally, to paraphrase John Calvin, grace is common to all because it is offered to all, not because it is applied to all. Though Christ dies for the sins of the world and this sacrifice is offered to all, not all embrace it.
Paul’s comment in verse 20 about the Law is to point out that it only served to make mankind more culpable (despite what Jews of the day thought of the Law. i.e. something to boast in–Rom. 2:23). Even though the Law is good as it is a reflection of God’s righteous standard, it ultimately serves to further condemn us as we have no hope of meeting the standard. Knowledge of the Law serves as a means for man to willfully and knowingly transgress God’s standard as Adam did. This makes sin increase even more! But as we’ve established previously, if sin brings about death and condemnation for those who are “in Adam,” how much more will grace and life abound to those who are “in Christ?” The bigger the “evil monster” is, how much stronger is the one who slays the monster? As Matthew Henry writes of verses 20-21: “The greater the strength of the enemy, the greater the honor of the conqueror.” In verse 21, Paul states that as sin brings death (being in Adam), the reign of grace brings righteousness and eternal life for those in Christ! Jesus came for this very purpose. So that in and through Him, we will have life and life more abundantly (John 10:10)! We see the theology that Paul is explaining here in this chapter summed up in Jesus’ own words… “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” -John 6:40. This is being “in Christ” summed up in one sentence. Contrast that with Jesus’ words in John 8:24, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” To remain “in Adam” will mean to die in sin.
Bibliography (Works Cited):
-Grant R. Osborne: Romans, IVPNTC, 2004
-F.F. Bruce: The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, TNTC, 1983
-Everett F. Harrison: The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 10, Romans, 1976
-H. E. Dana and Julius Mantey: A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament
-Warren Wiersbe: Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on The New Testament, Romans
-Thomas Schreiner: ESV Study Bible, Romans
-Oecumenius: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament Vol. 6 (Romans)
-Douglas J. Moo: New Bible Commentary, Romans
-Ben Witherington III: Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary
-Albert Barnes: Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible (Romans)
-John Calvin: Calvin's Commentary on the Bible (Romans)
-Matthew Henry: Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible