Blessings of Faith

Therefore, since we have been made right (justified, acquitted, declared not guilty) in God’s sight by faith, we have peace (reconciliation, unity, fellowship) with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege (grace) where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice (filled with joy), too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance (perseverance, patience, fortitude). And endurance (perseverance, patience, fortitude) develops strength of character (approved faith, tried integrity), and character (approved faith, tried integrity) strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright (righteous) person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right (justified. Acquitted, declared not guilty) in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God’s condemnation (wrath). For since our friendship (reconciliation, unity, fellowship) with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. . . . Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come. . . . For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness to many through this other Man, Jesus Christ. . . . Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other Person (Jesus Christ) obeyed God, many will be made righteous. Romans 5:1-12, 14-15, 18-19 (NLT)

The next significant section of Romans is chapter 5. Up to this point, the Apostle Paul has proved that the whole world is guilty sinners before a holy and righteous God and that no one can be saved by religious deeds, such as keeping the Jewish Law (see Romans 1:18-3:23). The Apostle Paul has explained that God's way of salvation has always been “by grace, through faith” (Ephesians 2:8-9; see also Psalms 1:3; Psalms 40:4; Jeremiah 17:5-10; Habakkuk 2:2-4) and he has used Abraham as illustration (Romans 4:1-25). Since the Old Testament, God has always wanted to be the first place in our daily lives and our wholehearted trust, love, and obedience for Him first and foremost (e.g., see Deuteronomy 6:4-6; Joshua 24:14-15; Matthew 22:37). God wants people to walk faithfully and humbly with Him as we wholeheartedly trust in Him for all our needs and desires (see Micah 6:6-8; Habakkuk 2:2-4).

Romans 5 divides naturally into two parts:  Romans 5:1-11 and Romans 5:12-21. In Romans 5, the Apostle Paul is describing the results or blessings from our justification (righteousness) that comes through genuine faith in Jesus Christ, particularly in describing Jesus as the new Adam. Our righteousness as genuine believers in Jesus Christ is not simply our guarantee of heaven, but our righteous is also the source of tremendous present (current) blessings.

The first blessing of faith is “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Peace with God is equivalent to “shalom” which means we have wholeness, completeness, and a restored relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, peace with God is not a peaceful feeling such as calmness, warmness or tranquility. Instead, sincere believers in Jesus Christ have a full, rich and new relationship with God because we have been declared righteous (justified, acquitted or not guilty) by God through wholehearted faith in Jesus Christ (see also Romans 5:10-11; 2 Corinthians 5:18). Before our faith in Jesus Christ, we were God’s enemies and hostile with God but now we are God’s friends and have been reconciled to a holy God (John 15:15; see also Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:11-21; Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:21-22). In fact, the Apostle Paul calls genuine believers in Jesus Christ God’s own children (Galatians 4:5). There is no more hostility between genuine believers and God because Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross brings our unity and fellowship with God.

With this peace with God, we also gain access by faith into God’s grace (Romans 5:2). The Apostle Paul states genuine believers in Jesus Christ stand in a place of highest privilege. Our Lord Jesus Christ now ushers genuine believer into the presence of God. In other words, genuine believers can come directly into the presence of the true and living God (1 John 2:1-2). This access is described as continual and ending access to God’s goodness and power through faith in Jesus Christ. The heavy curtain (veil) in the Temple that separated people from God has been removed by Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the Cross (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45; Hebrews 9:1-14; Hebrews 10:19-22). In Jesus Christ, believing Jews and Gentiles have full access to God (Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 10:19-25) and can draw on God’s inexhaustible riches of the grace (Ephesians 3:20-21). Now, the purpose for which God created humans can be realized as we can now reflect God’s glory through our wholehearted faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:23; see also Genesis 1:26-28).

With our new peace and access to God, genuine believers in Jesus Christ can “rejoice in suffering” (Romans 5:3; see also James 1:2-3; 1 Peter 1:6-7). This is the Apostle Paul’s version of “no pain and no gain.” Sadly, suffering is a natural part of life for all humans and no one can escape trials and hardships (John 16:33). But for genuine believers in Jesus Christ, our suffering has a purpose or meaning (Romans 5:4) because our trials work for us and not against us. Our trials bring us closer to God and make us more like Him (Romans 8:35-39). Also, our suffering produces endurance (perseverance or patience), this endurance produces tested, tried and proven character, and character produces hope! Hope is one word that dominates the book of Romans. Even with the bad times and uncertainty there is still hope and our hope in God separates the believer and the non-believer. The believer knows what God has done in this world will be completed in another world.

Our hope is God’s blessed assurance of our future destiny into His present and eternal glory. This hope does not disappoint or leave us empty “because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5, see also Romans 8). Genuine believers in Jesus Christ gets this hope through the presence and gift of the Holy Spirit that God freely gives to all wholehearted believers in Jesus Christ. In other words, the believer has the abiding and continual presence of the Holy Spirit. When a person first believes in Jesus Christ, God pours out His love and Holy Spirit into a believer’s heart (Romans 8:9).

From Romans 5:1-5, the Apostle Paul has moved from faith (Romans 5:1) to hope (Romans 5:2-4) to love (see also 1 Corinthians 13:13). Note also how the first three of the “fruit of the Spirit” are experienced: love (Romans 5:5), joy (Romans 5:2), and peace (Romans 5:1). Faith (Romans 5:1), hope (Romans 5:2), and love (Romans 5:5) all combine to give the believer patience in the trials of life and this patience helps true believer to grow in character and become a mature child of God (James 1:1-4).

Next, the Apostle Paul teaches that while we were sinners God sent His Son (Jesus Christ) to die for humans (Romans 5:6-8). Romans 5:6-8 refers back to Romans chapters 1 through 3. Occasionally, one may die for a good person but Jesus Christ died for us humans when we were in the depths of our utter sins and wickedness. In other words, Jesus Christ did not require us to go through cleansing and wait for us to improve ourselves. Instead, Jesus Christ graciously died for us humans while we were at our worse.

In Romans 5:9-11, the Apostle Paul teaches “we have been saved from God’s wrath” through wholehearted faith in Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ graciously giving His life for sinners, God’s wrath (judgment) has been turn from us humans through our genuine faith in Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death (see Romans 3:25). In these verses, there is a future dimension because these verses discuss God’s wrath and wrath refers to the end time. Yet, we are saved from God’s wrath (judgment) through our wholehearted faith in Jesus Christ. Also in these verses, the Apostle Paul describes salvation (Good News) by using the images of present reconciliation. For the Apostle Paul, reconciliation has two dimensions:  reconciliation with a holy God to a sinful people and reconciliation between humans to humans (see also Jesus’ teaching at Matthew 22:34-40). Our reconciliation with God through faith in Jesus Christ removes our hostility with God and we become God’s friends, like Moses and Abraham (Exodus 33:11; 2 Chronicles 20:7; John 15:15; see also Jeremiah 9:24; Colossians 1:21-22; James 2:23).

Starting at Romans 5:12, the Apostle Paul explains human death; this view is also accepted in the pagan (non-Christian) world. All people agree that physical death came about because of the consequence of human sin and this is everyone’s connection with Adam and Eve. The entrance of sin and death into the world is traced Adam and Eve from which all humankind came. Physical death is the penalty for sin and ultimately the symbol of spiritual death – separation for the true and living God (see Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:8).

Even more, the Apostle Paul clearly states that the principle or law of sin was at work in the world even before the Law of Moses (Jewish Law). However, the Law of Moses exposed the sins of all humankind (Romans 5:13) because the Law acts like a mirror to expose sin. Thus, when the Law of Moses came along, the Law made our sin even worse. The Law makes us aware how much we have sinned against God because we now have God’s righteous commandments.

People did not start sinning with the Law of Moses because the condition of human sinfulness goes back to Adam and Eve when they broke (rebelled against) God’s single commandment (Genesis 2:15-17; see also Genesis 3:1-6). In fact, selfishness was the essence of Adam and Eve’s sin because they wanted to be their own god. The essence of all sin is selfish. Sinners live their lives oriented for self (self-centered or “me-first”) and not God-centered and they want to become their own god. Therefore, the problem of human sin described in living color in Romans 1 through 3 is a problem that begins with Adam and Eve and continues to rule today (Romans 5:14). The Apostle Paul does not clearly say we humans inherited our sinful nature from Adam and Eve but leaves this ambiguous. Nevertheless, the Apostle Paul just says we humans sin because of Adam’s sin (Romans 5:16).

Yet, the Apostle Paul stresses that Adam was a type of One to come (Romans 5:14). In Romans 5:12-21, the Apostle Paul contrasts Adam with Jesus Christ. As already mentioned, the human race began with Adam and Eve, the originator or the first human. Adam and Eve introduced sin and death into the world and that death now affected all people – Jew and Gentile (see Romans 1:18-3:20). Yet, Jesus Christ came as the second Adam and brought righteousness and life (Romans 5:18-19). Jesus Christ not only did not sin, but He graciously and sacrificially died for human sins (Romans 3:25). Therefore, Jesus Christ delivers (redeems, saves) and produces not death but life and righteousness (see Romans 3:21-5:11). In summary, Adam brought judgment and condemnation into, while Jesus Christ brings righteousness and life.

Some people take the Apostle Paul’s reasoning in Romans 5 as universalism in a sense that Jesus Christ’s death and sacrifice for sins will save all people in the end because all people were affected by Jesus’ redemptive work on the Cross. Yet, the Apostle Paul is not adopting universalism. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul clearly states that God’s free gift of redemption through Jesus Christ’s death is only received through our genuine FAITH in Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection (see Romans 3:21-4:25). The Apostle Paul clearly preached that some people could be lost if they reject God’s gift of grace (redemption, salvation, and deliverance) from eternal death through faith in Jesus Christ (see also Ephesians 2:8-9). Thus, Jesus Christ’s redemptive work affected all people (1 John 2:2) but to be effective, God’s gracious gift of righteousness and life must be received by genuine faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17; see also John 3:16). 

References

King James Version Study Bible. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1988.

Life Application Study Bible. Carol Streams, IL: Tyndale House Pub., 2005.

The Amplified Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1987.

Zondervan NIV Study Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008.

Loyd, Melton, Ph.D., Professor of New Testament. Columbia Campus: Erskine Theological Seminary, 2014.

Wiersbe, Warren W. Bible Exposition Commentary. Victor Books, 1989.