Romans 5

Romans 5:1-5

The apoplia having made out his point, and fully proved justification by faith, dealt in this chapter proceed in the application, illustration, and application of that truth. (1.) He shows the fruits of justification, ver. 1—11. (2.) He shows the functions and foundations of justification in the death and righteousness of Jesus Christ, which he disavoweth of at large to the rest of the chapter.

1. Therefore ( ^(a) ) being justified by faith, ( ^(b) ) we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, ( ^(c) ) and rejoice in hope of the

glory of God. 3. And not only fo, but ‘we glory in tribulations also,’ knowing that tribulation wracketh patience: 4. And patience, experience: and experience, hope: 5. And hope maketh not afflamed, be- raide the love of God is thed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghoft which is given unto us.

The sinner’s justification before God through faith being fit forth, the blessed effects of it are here described. Not that faith is the meritorious cause of our justification, as any act of our own, or any work of grace wrought in us, but we are justified by faith, as the means whereby we receive the righteousness of Jesus as our own, and thereby appear complete in him. And being now justified,

1. We have peace with God. The dreadful breach which sin had made is repaired, the enmity between God and us is removed, and being refused to a state of favour and reconciliation with him, we have that peace of God in our souls which passeth all understanding, and which none can know or take till they have, through Jesus Christ our Lord, received the atonement, and seen the arms of everlasting love stretched out to receive their sinful souls.

2. We have, by him, mostly into this grace wherein we stand; have freedom and liberty to approach a throne of grace, as abiding in a state of constant acceptance before God; and are assured that all our requests shall, through our great high priest, be always heard and answered.

3. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, that glory which shall be revealed in us, at the day of the appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, which being secured to us by the promises of the unchangeable God, and our title clear through the divine righteousness of the Redeemer, we can even now interdate by faith our blessedness, and rejoice in the purchased possession prepared for us in heaven.

4. Even our fevered trials now have in them matter of abundant joy. And we can not only rejoice in the prospect before us, but our glory in tribulations also, in all our afflictions, perfections, sufferings, and reproaches for Christ, knowing that, however grievous to faith and blood these things at present may be, in the issue they shall prove blessings in disguise, whilst tribulation wracketh patience, and gives us an opportunity to scarcely submission to God’s holy will; and, without repusing, cheerfully to resign ourselves into his hands, neither angry at the instruments of our troubles, nor retenting their indignities. And patience brings experience of God’s power, grace and faithfulness, supporting us under our trials, and extricating us out of them; and of our own frailty and fidelity, whilst we feel how weak we are in ourselves, yet that we can do all things through Christ strengthening us. And experience begets hope; every support he ministers, every deliverance which he gives, confirms and encourages our hope in God, and hope maketh not assumed, will never disappoint nor deceive us, because the love of God is thed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghoft which is given unto us; and our hope rests nor on any goodness, or strength in ourselves, but on the sovereign, free, and boundless love, which, in the most copious dreams, is poured forth by the Holy Ghoft into our hearts, in the richest manifestations, and produces these blessed and happy effects.

5. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8. But God commended his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. 9. Much more then being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son: much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11. And not only for but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Romans 5:6

—11. The apoplia having mentioned that delightful theme, the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, cannot but expatiate thereon. It is amazing love, if we consider the persons to whom it is shewn the manner in which it is expressed, and the blessings thence derived. (1.) The persons were ungodly wretches, apostates from God, desperately wicked, sunk in the lowest abys of misery, givory in nature, in practice, and exposed to all the terrible wrath of an offended God, without strength to afford ourselves the fault relief, or to take a single step, in order to escape the just and inevitable destruction which was before us; yet, raiment, determinately fit on evil, and rebels open and avowed against God’s crown and dignity. (2.) In this state of deadly guilt and hopeless misery, in due time, according to the divine appointment, Christ died for the ungodly; an instance of such transcendent grace and love, as never had appeared on earth before. Were we to search the world through out,

out, scarce could we find a man who, for the most righteous, excellent, and amiable person, would lay down his own life to ransom him: though peradventure for a good man, who’s public usefulness was eminent, or to whom he owed the deepest obligations, one might be found so generous and grateful, as even to dare to die in his stead. And with what astonishment would such an heroic action be heard, and preferred in the records of fame, for the admiration of all succeeding ages? But so I with intimately transcending glory doth God commend the furnishing excellence of his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, took our nature, stood in our place, endured the cause which we had deferred, and by the ransom of his own blood redeemed us from our state of guilt, misery, and despair. Hear it, ye angels, with admiration and astonishment! Hear it, ye sinful sons of men, with wonder and love, and henceforth let heaven echo and earth rebound with the parishes of redeeming love! (3.) Ineffimable are the blessings derived to us through this love of God in Jesus Christ.

2. We are now justified through his blind, and reconciled to God by his death. All the enmity between us is done away, his favour is refoved, and we are accepted in the beloved.

3. Much more then may be depended upon it, as a most absurd truth, that if we are now justified before God, we shall be joined from wrath through him; shall never enter again into condemnation, but shall hold fast the most afflicted hope of eternal life. For if when enemies, or were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being now in a state of reconciliation, and having an everlasting advocate in our ascended Jesus, to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth, shall we be joined by his life: because he lives, we shall live also, and reign with him in glory everlasting.

4. Such a prospect ministers the most enlivened delight to the soul: Not only are we reconciled, and raised superior to all tribulations, but having through Jesus Christ now received the abatement, and being actually made partakers of the justification, acceptance, and title to glory, which, by his obedience to death, he purchased for us, we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, as our God for ever and ever, our portion and exceeding great reward, in whole pretext and eternal favour we have a firm and indefensible interest. Blessed and happy the people that are in such a case!

5. Wherefore, ‘as by one man sin entered into the world, and ‘death by sin: and so death passed upon all men, + for that all have sinned. 13. For until the law sin was in the world; but ‘sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, ‘who is the figure of him that was to come: 15. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one, many be dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded ‘unto many. 16. And not as it may by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation; but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17. For if by one man’s offence, death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, ‘shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. 18. Therefore as by + the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so + by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners: so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous, 20. Moreover: the law entered, that the offence might abound: but where sin abounded, ‘grace did much more abound: 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.

6. 12—21. In these verses the apostle draws a parallel between the two covenantsheads, Adam and Chill; between the guilt and misery derived from the one, and the blessedness obtained by the other for his people: where it appears how more came into the wretched state of sin in which at present they appear, and how rich was that love of God which drew them out of it.

By one man sin entered into the world; one sin opened the floodgates of ungodliness, and deluged the world, overwhelming it with miseries unutterable; and death by sin, in every tremendous form, seized on the human nature; and so death, the wages of sin, death temporal, spiritual, and eternal, passed upon all men, for that, or in whom (in) all have sinned. Adam was the common parent and covenant dead of mankind, and at that time possessed the whole human nature; so that all his posterity,

being in his loins, (Heb. vii. 9, 10.) fell with him: his offence became theirs, is imputed to them, and renders them obnoxious to the same punishment with himself. So that it appears hereby that Jews as well as Gentiles are in the same state of condemnation. For until the law, before the revelation of God’s will on mount Sinai was made, for was in the world, with death and all its attendant miseries; but this supposes some law in force, before that which was given by Moses; for sin is not imputed where there is no law, nor would any punishment have been inflicted where there was no offence committed. But though the law of Moses was not in being, now duly death reigned from Adam to Moses, not only over actual transgression, grown up to the knowledge of good and evil, but even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, multitudes of infants suffering in the deluge and desitations of Sodom and Gomorrah; and daily their dying groans and agonies testify that sin is in them, because the wages of it is exacted from them, and evidently prove that they are involved in the guilt of that one man’s disobedience by which sin and death entered into the world, and who is the figure of him that was to come, the type of our second covenant-head and repelthusiary, Jesus Christ, who in the fulness of time should become incarnate; that as sin and death are communicated to us by the one, so should righteousness and life be obtained for us by the other. But, though the parallel between them is striking, yet in comparing them the latter far excelsely: for not as the offence, so also is the free gift; the benefit accruing from the divine righteousness, doth not barely answer the dire effects of the first man’s sin, it doth much more. For if through the offence of one, many be dead, the dreadful sentence being passed upon them, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, who hath wrought out that righteousness, by which the most unstanchable riches of divine grace are procured for his people, hath abounded unto mercy, securing to them not merely such a life as Adam had in innocence, but one far surpassing in glory, and eternal in its endurance. And not as it may by one that sinned, so is the gift; the dissimilitude is considerable with regard to the effusion influence of the transactions of the two great covenant-heads: for the judgment, the guilt and sentence in consequence thereof, was by one sin, of one man, to the condemnation of all his posterity whom he represented; but the free gift of God through the Redeemer’s obedience to death, reaches not to the pardon of one sin, but of many offences unto justification: all the sins of his elect, actual as well as original, being laid on their libellation, and they through faith in him are freely and fully delivered from all condemnation, and accepted as righteous before God. For if by one man’s offence, or by one offence, death reigned by one, and set up the pillars of his throne, bringing the whole human race under his mortal power, much more they which receive abundance of grace, even all that fulness which is laid up for them in Jesus Christ, and of the gift of righteousness, that everlastingly glorious, and infinitely meritorious righteousness of their Lord, shall reign in life by one, Christ Jesus, triumphant over sin, its guilt and power, quickened to spiritual life here, and looking for that life of glory hereafter, when they shall reign with Jesus in heaven, and for sin and death and hell for ever put under their feet. Therefore as by the offence of one, or by one offence, judgment came, (or, sin entered, as it may be supplied) upon all men to condemnation, and they were exposed to death eternal thereby, even so by the righteousness of one, the second man, the Lord from heaven, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life, their Redeemer having provided the complete righteousness which contains their title to life and glory, and which God accepts and graciously makes over to all the heirs of promise; so that in both cases God appears as a righteous judge, placing the acts of the representatives to those, whose persons and characters they bore, and who were, in the eye of the law, one with them. For as by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners, (value-forever) and in virtue of the imputation of his sin, regarded in the eye of the law as guilty, and condemned as one, in crime and punishment, with their covenant-head; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous, his righteousness being imputed to them, and they thereby being, in the eye even of the holy law, regarded as righteous, and declared to be so, as complete in him. Moreover, let it be observed, that long after sin and death were in the world, the law entered, which was given on mount Sinai, not that the Jews might be justified thereby, but that the offence might abound, and sin be more clearly discovered to the conscience, and appear exceeding sinful: but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, God taking occasion, even from the creature’s vileness, to magnify the more transcendently the riches of his own free mercy, in pardoning, justifying, and saving lost souls, and raising them to higher glory than that which they had lost by the first man’s disobedience. So that as sin hath reigned unto death, and, usurping the throne, spreads its due dominion over the fallen sons of men, even so might redevious grace itself but throne on the status of these vanquished foes, and reign through that righteousness which is brought in, by Jesus Christ our Lord, over all his redeemed people unto eternal life, rescuing them from the power of sin

and death, bringing them into a state of favour with God, which is better than life itself, quickening them to spiritual life here, and securing to them eternal life hereafter. Thou God of all grace, set up this blessed kingdom in my heart, and reign for ever there!